| To get an "airy" sound, I would think you would want to cut the bass
and midrange and accentuate the high end. Another trick developed in
Nashville studios is "high-stringing", where you use the E, A and D
octave strings from a 12-string set on a 6-string.
The sound of Ovations direct to the board has always sounded pretty
synthetic to me. I'd think about miking it. I do sound in a
coffeehouse and I always prefer to have the performer use a mike
rather than a pickup for acoustic guitar.
Brian
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| ** Subjective opinion alert **
I have never heard an acoustic guitar with a pickup in it that
sounded any good off of the pickup (including the Martin thinline
pickups). They all have an artificial rubber-bandy sound to them
that drives me bats. The things people put up with for convenience
- I've put off getting a pickup in my guitars for this reason -
I'd rather be "stuck" to a microphone while playing (when I could
be wandering around) than suffer that sound.
I've never played a hybrid guitar ("acoustic" with controls on
it), so I don't know if those are any different, though my
recollection suggests those I've seen sound as bad as the normal
acoustics with pickups. I'd echo the suggestion to mike it and
alter the equalization as needed in mixdown.
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while conducting an experiment in just how "badly" i can sing
3-part harmonies, i recorded csy's Suite Judy Blue eyes. Miking
the guitar would not capture all the "essence(mistakes)" so i
initially recorded from my Ovation collector edition into a
stereo chorus with the hi-end reduced to about 5 on the guitar
setting. After i blended(ahem!) the vocals to 1 track, i then added
a miked acoustic with a flat-pick to add a more acoustic sound
to the whole shebang on the newly vacant track.
The chorused stuff sounds good when playing the guitar solo's and
not so good strumming chords. Altogether, the vocals are enough
of a distraction(put politely) to pay too much attention to the
guitar until the appropriate place!
I also have a cut on the widely rumored GuitarNotesIV where i
plugged it directly into the chorus-to-424, and it does not sound
too bad. You do have to diddle with whatever eq is available though.
And last but not least, you can record direct one 1 channel and
miked on the other and explore blending the 2 together, although
i'm not thrilled with the results i've had with this, so far.
this is discussed also in the home_studio conference....
bob(sludgethroat)
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| Thanks for the ideas. I tried using my parametric eq to take out the base/mid and
also added chorus. Definite improvement. It's still not quite what I wanted but
going in the right direction. Next step: I will try "high stringing" and buy a
mike. (I have a suspicion that somewhere along this route I am going to end up
buying a graphical equaliser as well, but I don't want to tell my wife yet!)
Thanks for the help,
Chris.
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| Hmmmm, O.k. here's a touch of religion, and I've sprinkled
in a generous amount of personal opinion...
Actually, I've had quite a bit of trials and tribulations
doing this..
There's several types of elec. acoustics.
There's-
. Thin Body's (Ovations, Guilds Epiphones, etc.)
. Ultra thins, like Krammer's Ibanez
. Drednaughts with factory installed pickups (Alvarez, Takameni)
What I've seen, almost exclusively, is the best sounding elec.
acoustics, (marked by 'the most natural sounding) are the drednaughts
with circuitry in them. The ambience of the large body adds much
of the dynamics the thin body's lack.
When dealing with ovations, there's another problem I've had
to struggle with, and that comes from the materials in the body,
to me, even 'unplugged' I do not like the sound. I had a nice
elec. balladier, and to be honest, I could never get used to it.
Where the bullet hits the bone is in recording. This is where you'll
clearly want the most natural acoustic sound. I don't want it
Choroused, nor drenched in reverb.
A good studio quality mike, about 6 inches infront of the sound hole
has given me the closest sound I'm looking for.
Playing out, it's not nearly as critical, and when you get down to it,
the mic isn't going to give you the response you're looking for in
this application.
Now my suggestion to the base noter, would be to try both line
input from the ovation, and another track miced. Take the two
tracks mix em down to one. See how that does.
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| I've got to agree with .6
The best sounding acoustics through a PA system are definately
Ovations (with OP-24 style electronics) and Takamines (with
the same basic system as the Ovation). It seems like everyone
uses the Ovations, but the takamine is gaining popularity as
well. I've heard that Ricky Scaggs gutted the electronics from
a Tak and had it installed in his Martin. I talked to an Ovations
dealer and found out that they sell the OP-24 pickup and FET
preamp as a separate item (without the guitar) for about $350.
When it comes to recording, condensor mics are probably the best
way to go, but you must be in a quiet studio when micing anything
because a high-quality condensor mic will pick up the slightest
sound. I've heard some recordings made directly off of an Ovations
pickup and to be honest, I thought they sounded fine. A lot of
people are also recommending a PZM microphone for recording
acoustics. PZM's (pressure zone mics) were invented by Crown,
but there is a cheaper version available from Radio Shack for $50
that works pretty darn good.
Mark
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