For recording acoustic guitar, there's a couple of questions to consider before looking at your microphone options:

What other instruments are to be in the recording? What recording technique do you prefer?

• guitar on it's own, or guitar & vocals, or mellow guitar sound as in jazz?
  • you're probably looking for a warm, full, natural sound
• guitar in band - for example, with drum'n'bass and keyboards?
  • here the guitar needs to cut through the sounds that overlap its frequency and tonal space

Depends on the room of course, but assuming a reasonably lively acoustic space, you'll get warmer, fuller sounds from a larger diaphragmed condenser mic with cardioid pattern.

Models to consider, depending on your budget*:… Read more

Recording acoustic guitar, with vocals, in probably the most common home recording experience for the singer-song writer.

This tutorial discusses how to record the acoustic guitar. Getting this one right is about as difficult as it gets for any instrument.

We happen to use Pro Tools as the recording software. But you'll be able to do everything we cover in your chosen recording software at home. It's a matter of applying the same principles, whether in Pro Tools or other recording software.

Choosing Your Microphones
Before starting to record you must choose the mic you want to use. But you might use one of two different techniques for acoustic guitar. Which you decide to use will affect your choice of microphone… Read more

"How can I record my old LPs" is a question I get asked from time to time.

It's actually pretty simple, provided you have the right connectors and some recording software. No need for any sophisticated recording studio equipment or software in this case. Keep reading to find out how I set this up… Read more

Audio compressors limit a signal's dynamic range to within settings chosen by the sound engineer.

Why would you want to do that?

Does that not take a way from producing a faithful recording of the original sound?

Consider some of the challenges you face as a recording engineer:

• When signal levels get too high for your recording equipment to handle, you'll hear distortion on the output. Worse, they can even damage your equipment (or your ears!)
• If one instrument, (for example, an amplified acoustic guitar) has a naturally wider volume range than the other instruments in the band, it'll risk not be heard above the drums during quiet passages, but can be overpowering when played at full strength.

Audio compressors and limiters help by reducing the maximum levels of sudden transient sounds that could distort your recording.

They are also used for cutting tracks and adjusting the mix. By smoothing out sudden or large volume changes, and automatically adjusting the dynamic range and balance of a track.

So how does that work?…
Read more

So you decided to set up a music recording studio at home? Cool, isn't it!

But if your like 99% of us out here, you'll just about have blown your whole budget, before you even start to learn how to record music. Trouble is, when you get started on your first couple of recording sessions, you'll realize you've either missed something critical, or, just as likely, overspent on non-essentials.

One very-well funded home recording studio project I heard of recently did a great job of selecting top of the range gear and software (Pro-tools, with Neve pre-amp etc) then put it all in a cramped hut in the back yard! They also completely forgot about headphones…

So here are 5 key items you must include in your budget before you consider your initial set up plan "complete". (Of course, it'll never be complete - you'll always want to add this, change that, etc…)… Read more