4 Laws of Acoustic Guitar Recording - RecordingRevolution.com 

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5th Law: before you hit record, make sure you have practiced the song like you're gonna play it live... You have it down so well you can play it blind folded. When you know the song that well, you're relaxed & smooth & that feeling is communicated in the performance.

My 5th law: Be fearless in experimentation and be careful of limiting your approach to a single way of doing things. You both learn from mistakes and from accidents that work great.

5th law: Always tune your guitar when using a capo 🙂

This is awesome advice, I love it. As someone who has done a lot of recording of acoustic guitar, and learned through trial and error :-) the only other rule I was add to your list is: Don't play with a heavy touch (hard strumming/picking). You're going to get a better tone, and stay in the groove better, by playing with a lighter touch. Let the acoustic guitar body produce the tone, don't try to bang it out of the guitar by playing harder. Adjust your headphone mix so that you can hear yourself comfortably in the mix, while playing with a light touch and you will get a better tone and intonation as you play through the track. Also, be aware of dynamics in your song and use your acoustic guitar to accent those dynamics and pauses. This will help your track to add to the dynamics of the track overall. As you layer different acoustic guitar tracks, they will all add to the song dynamics and "organic" sound if they're all working together to accent the song dynamics. In addition, have a few different types of picks try on your track to get the tone you want. A heavier pick is going to give you a fuller/rounder sound and a thiner pick is going to give you a thiner tone. Depending on the role of your track, you may decide to use one type of pick or the other.

Law Nr. 5, invest in a great tuner and tune your acoustic really rigorously, this can make or break your recording!

1.) Determine the roll of the acoustic guitar before planning recording set up. 2.) Don't record through a DI box. 3.) Back the mic away from the guitar (unless it's an SM57, let's be real here). 4.) Don't record in stereo using two mics. I just saved you 11:32, *YOU'RE WELCOME!*

Mid side works like a charm for me when I want to record a solo acoustic guitar performance. I love the wideness you get with 2 mics. For the rest of the situations I stick with mono recording.

I feel so lucky to have found your channel. I've avoided looking up videos like these (especially on mixing!) because it seemed both overwhelming, and there's so many different opinions from different people on the internet. Your approach to teaching is so easy to understand, you explain so well and so simply. I liked the flashlight metaphor in particular, that really helped me understand and visualize WHY we need that distance from the mic (that's totally been my problem)! I appreciate your channel and your videos so much, thank you thank you!

Thanks Graham! The recording revolution has helped me tremendously in my music productions. God bless you!

Awesome video Graham, you've helped me so much with my acoustic music!!

Perfect, and very timely! I was just getting ready to record some guitar. Thanks!!

Thank you so much Graham. This was very helpful. You are so right about not recording acoustic guitar directly because I find that when I use a mic, I like my guitar recordings better.

Great tips. I do alot of solo singer songwriter stuff, so stereo setup works best for me in those situations. But with full instrumentation, one Mic is always the way to go.

These laws are well crafted and so useful! I agree with all of them. For those of us who don't record every day this video should be in our favorites list.

Awesome video as always, I was struggling getting a great acoustic sound, switched to mono and it was perfect and double tracked

Makes sense, you just saved my next recording Graham! lmao this is so true about plugging in the guitar, I've recorded guitar parts over and over on songs and just couldn't figure out how to make it sound natural in the mix, Now after watching this, I'm never plugging in my guitar, plus fewer cables to deal with. I just started your Jumpstart Series. A lot of good knowledge, the whole series is a Goldmine! Thank you for making it for us and sharing your knowledge and experience

I agree, Graham. Over the course of 50 years I have recorded acoustic guitars in every conceivable way. After the smoke clears, it comes down to where I realize how easy it is to complicate a simple thing, and that making it more complex doesnt make it better. One good mic positioned well is the best bet, and it becomes more a question of what mic to use for the specific application.

Great video as usual Graham!

These were great tips. The biggest insight I got was thinking about how we normally don't hear the acoustic guitar right next to the sound hole, so we should back up the mic. Thanks, Graham!

this is super helpful! Thanks for that! Your tips always helps us to do better sounding music! Cheers from Mexico

Agree with #2 with one caveat: some interesting effects can be had by combining a DI from an acoustic along with a mic on the same guitar, or just taking the DI signal and running it through some modulation effects for a "acoustic + electric" vibe. This would be where it would be somewhat in the background of the mix and just adds a touch of something unique to the song.

Great Suggestions Graham! (especially the D.I. bit) Thank you!

Your "how-to's" are good. But, this is some of the best advice I've heard.

Agree and the 5 law for me is the room sound , something to care , grat video grham 🤘

Speechless. Lovely video. Spoken from the heart. Thanks

Hey Graham, thanks for the tips. The DI one explains a lot and the distance from the mic comes with time and experience I guess. I always think new strings before the recording session brings out a crisper and clearer sound too. Cheers!

Thank you so much for these excellent tips my friend 👊👍😎

my 2 cents..I have been following you for years and in fact it was you who taught me to record using pro tools; but I strongly disagree with your saying using 2 mics is difficult and unnecessary...engineers having been using 2 mics on acoustic for years because it imparts a wonderful sonic quality and quite frankly it's not that difficult to fix phasing issues by hitting the phase button on the channel strip or eq etc or blowing up the wav files and matching them up ...the same thing happens when you use a top and bottom snare mic, or 2 room mics for drums, yet they are used constantly and issues are dealt with...that being said, everything else you said was spot on...and yes it is easier as far as mixing goes to use one mic. Then you could use a tool like microshift to thicken or even double it. I really appreciate your continued support and education of us out here in mixing land...Doc

Makes sense, and I''m now inspired to record some acoustic guitar tomorrow. thanks

Thanks for the video - especially the phase cancelling part - new info to me!

Hey folks, this is one of the coolest cats on the entire platform. All of the expertise, without any of the arrogance. Hats off!

That was great advice and I have violated it many times and tried to EQ my way out. Thank you. I am going to follow this!

great video full of excellent tips. thanks mate!

Great video! This will help a lot of people I think, myself included. I personally record DI alongside a mic'd acoustic and leave it muted unless there's a specific problem I'm trying to solve in the mix that a DI blend can fix. Problems may include not enough low end or if the player moves around a lot creating an inconsistent sound. Honestly most of the time the DI stays muted in my mixes and eventually gets deleted, and most of the time when it does get used, it's heavily filtered to remove most frequencies.

Excellent vid! Thankyou!

Great info. Thanks for sharing. I'm gonna try all of this this week.

Fresh strings and try out different guitar picks. It's where the rubber meets the road. These have a huge impact on the sound.

I usually use a mic to capture the low end and DI to capture the air. Blending both gives me best of both worlds. The natural lows and low mids from the mic and the air from the DI. Matching the phase is crucial for this though.

Yeah, the points you make are right on. Thanks.

Good advice. I do enjoy running my acoustic through my line6 dl4 delay pedal as a DI, strumming is a fail but single note leads through an amp plug-in can yield interesting results.

Totally agree. People who record acoustic guitar in stereo almost always do it out of habit and because of some long forgotten dictum they were told was the "proper way to do it," without realizing how much mono guitar works as well or better, and usually better.

I agree 100% To me it just makes sense I will definitely add this to my what to do list. Thanks Graham!!

Thank you so much... you've saved me hours and a ton of frustration!

I particularly love law N*2😍 100% with a mic👌

Great Advice! The role of the guitar is so important because it can change how you record it. DI makes sense with electric, but acoustic is not meant as much for that.

I've always used mics and a DI and got a nice blend between them

Beautiful video brother...

Great vid. Would love an “addendum” vid with actual sound examples.

I've often captured the DI from an acoustic when I'm micing it up, because I always think "Well why not capture it anyway" - But I almost always end up muting the track when mixing. I will use multiple mics for acoustic when the acoustic is the main focal point, but if I'm using it as one of many layers, I'll switch to just one.

How timely. I just recorded a couple of guitar tracks today for my band. We're working up a version of the Beatles "If I Needed Someone" and I wanted to lay down the basic rhythm tracks - two acoustic parts; one open A and another capo 7 in the D position. I've slowly been moving the mics away from my guitar to minimize the proximity effect and with your advise, I moved a bit further - about 2 feet away, above the upper bout and visualized the cone of cardioid reception to encompass the whole guitar. Best acoustic capture I think I've ever had. Full disclosure I recently purchased a mic preamp which I'm sure helps. But I'm quite pleased. Thanks for your help!

Thanks man!!! Was planning to get another mic for guitar recording :)

this is the perfect description of how to lean to listen to what is to be recorded.

Thank you. Thank you for making it clear and easy to digest. I dig the way you teach. PS 18:30

Keep rocking🤘🏻

Thank you Graham! as far as my experience goes , I totally agree with the four Laws of Acoustic recording. Best of all, neve record through a DI: while it may be good in a live band situation, in a studio it never does. And most of the time, an acoustic is there just to add texture and connect other instruments, so...

As always, great tips..Thanks Graham.

All that being said, it's essentially free to go ahead and track your pickup through a DI (get the guitar's onboard tone controls right) in ADDITION to your main mic. You may not use the track, but it's there. I've used it many times to compress, distort, chorus, phaser or EQ the crap out of and set 15-25 DB (or more or less) down behind the main mic. It might sound like garbage by itself but you'll be amazed at the tones you can pull out that are not available using the main mic track itself.

#2 is a soothing balm on my damaged soul. I can't believe how many high end pros still believe there is a place for that horrendous piezo sound in recording. Thank you! As for #4, it hurts to follow that one, but I guess I'll try. My "excuses" for recording stereo have been the following: a) I love the combination of a LDC mic and a SDC mic on acoustic guitar. (LDC toward the bottom of the body, SDC at the 12th fret, angled away from the sound hole). If I already have two signals, why not pan them a little, if I can avoid phase problems? because b) I was always telling myself the most natural singer/songwriter setup would be to have the vocal in the center, and "bracket" the two guitar tracks left and right of it, creating more space for the voice to be clearly audible. Are those really just excuses? Am I deluding myself? (This is for a stripped down, acoustic guitar plus vocal setup, maybe with a bass added.)

Thank you for the great advice!

I was once at a session and the producer I was working with recorded an acoustic with 2 sm57s in xy. They were touching at the grill at a 90 degree angle 14 inches away parallel with the top of the guitar. This had one pointing at about the 12th fret and the other right behind the bridge and panned them 50 to each side. Having the mics so close kept and phase issues in check and he was able to control the natural eq with the level of neck or body mic. Have done this every time I’ve recorded an acoustic instrument since.

Thank God, somebody said this: “Do not record acoustic guitar D.I.” It just sounds awful. I guess if I had to add a 5th note, I’d probably be “make sure the performance is good. i.e, no watches or bracelets hitting the bridge of the guitar, no half played notes (fretbuzz), no fans or AC Units on in the background - stuff like that matters just as much as the rest of what he said.

Very useful, thanks a lot.

Agreed that two performances panned left and right sounds great. Even better if you change it up for the second performance with a capo or alternate tuning. Thanks!

Thanks it's help quite a bit just recording at mono and keeping the distance.

You’re about the only engineer I’ve heard advocating mono recording but make a great case, def gonna try that out! I’d love to hear advice on FRET SQUEAK though, it seems very few people address the issue. I hear pro recordings with little or zero fret squeak but it always causes me problems 😖

Great Content as always!

Thank you for this useful information 😍🤘🏻

I’ve started using two sp-1 microphones for stereo recordings and I’m pretty sold on doubling the performance. It feels better though I’ll still learn about sterio recording.

First of all, love your videos. Second of all, bro you look like anakin skywalker and i cant stop seeing it

Graham, I understand your point about not recording acoustic guitar in stereo (mostly to avoid phase issues). I agree that double tracking is the better option, and it comes with the added benefit of extra texture, richness, and a bit of chorus... provided 1) the guitar player is competent enough to deliver a second performance that tracks closely to the first in terms of tempo, groove, and tone. This point isn't self-deprecation or a dig at guitar players, we are all limited by a technical threshold. 2) the song consists of more than guitar and vocals I think Vincent Black Lightning (live) by Richard Thompson is a good example. If anyone is unfamiliar with this song, it's easy to find on RU-vid. This specific interpretation of the song is my current Everest, and when I conquer it I fully intend to record it. A mono recording would sound extremely narrow and there would be very little opportunity to create movement in the mixing process. Assailing it with a bunch of plugins to artificially add width and depth would sound... well artificial. I imagine I will reach a point where I can consistently play the song well, but I question if I will be able to play it exactly the same twice for recording purposes. The alternative of recording a ridiculous number of takes followed by many hours of comping and massaging doesn't seem very efficient. This was a long way of saying I think most of us would agree that mono is the way to go for 90%+ of musical styles and recording applications. However, unlike your point of "never plug and record directly into a DI", I don't think an absolute law is fitting for the question of mono/stereo. I think stereo is the better approach for the fingerstyle singer-songwriter genre.

The type of pick you use makes a huge difference also. Their hardness and the type of material they are made of can change the tone totally.

Thank you so much!

Good stuff, good advice! I must say I have recorded DI acoustic, or i should say I’ve utilized the acoustic pickup system plugged into an electric amp and distorted the snot out of that sound. Then we blended that track under the dirty electric guitars. It created a nice little extra texture to the guitars. Recorded acoustic DI is an unusual sound! I doubt it would work on everything, but it did work on a hard rock song.

Thanks man.. I totally agree with you

Well I just purchased a NT1-A mic so next week I planed to try stereo acoustic with an extra SM57 mic. I will use your advices just to tell how muddy and hard is to get a proper stereo recording and I will stick with the single NT1-A track after that being tested for learning purposes. I will use a phase analyzer with diferent mic setups and try to guess how it will look before the analisys. Thanks for every tip!

I usually try for acoustic guitars like bad co. "Shooting star" left and right strumming .

You are the MAN!

Great great advices dude

I use a sm57 and mic it roughly within 6 inches of the sound hole (I play an ovation so the largest sound hole is actually pretty close to the neck so I can of kind of get that dual benefit that people stereo mic for) and then I send that signal to a separate track of dedicated reverb to give it a lot of atmosphere. I'm a noob, but I mostly write music for myself at the moment anyways and I enjoy the sound I get. I've been finding the imperfections of my production make it more intimate experience anyways. Eventually I'll get around to professional production.

Very useful 👌

Rule # 5 before you hit record if you have any other acoustic guitars hanging up take them down and lay them sound hole down on carpet, couch or get them out of the room all together, nothing will destroy a recording faster. Great tutorial and thank you for this. -Drew

I have used a second mic but in an analog situation. But it was in an extremely bright sounding room along with an omnidirectional pointed toward a glass reflection. However, this was when you were lucky to have 8 tracks to work with and much of the "mastering" had to be done in the tracking process. Now you can duplicate the track, add space and pan it where ever you want it to be along with nearly unlimited tracks. The only time I will plug one in is if I want a separate feed for effects and even then it never gets to the master until it has been effected.

#2 Yes! I was wondering about this

Good advice. I think a further consideration to attach to rule 1 is, think about how you're going to play the part that's needed for the song. Pick or fingers? Where you strike the strings - near the bridge or beyond the sound hole or somewhere in between? How many strings you want to use? Light strumming on top 4 strings beyond the sound hole can produce a shimmering, dulcimer like sound for instance. Strumming on only 2 or 3 of the low strings near the bridge can provide a clearer full sound than hitting all 6 strings. I like to get the mic at least 2 feet from the guitar, pointing at where the fretboard meets the body; off-axis always sounds sweeter to me. Top tip: 1 mic only!

I agree with the second law but recently I broke that law lol, I recorded my breed love Wich does have a wonderful warm tone to it and yes I recorded direct in BUT!! I used amplitude and some other plugins and then doubled the track and ran to a stereo bus and I must say it came out very nice and full and well rounded .

Thanks Graham! I realize there are always alternate ways and opinions, but this sounds like a simple safe method for a good sound, so...GOOD! :-)

Agree, specially law #2. An exception to law #4 would be if you're recording a solo performance for example.

I agree with nearly everything theoretically. If I were to make a 5th rule, it would be to "know when to ignore the first four".

There is one reason to use a DI on acoustics. If you are using them for effects. The Supersuckers did that on the intro and outros for Sleepy Vampire and Tom Waits did for I don't want to Grow Up. They were mic'ed and distorted to great effect.

great content!

"And that is because it sounds like poop." Epic. I hate the DI sound, though the k&k body pickups are actually pretty good when you are live and have no other choice to both perform and record. I don't record studio acoustic much, but I almost always wish it was better when I do. Thanks for sharing!

awesome as ever. I record in a small room with a dreadnought that I made, that has a lot of bass, so I will now be moving back 18 inches from my Rode NT1A, but it’s too boomy with the mic in front of the sound hole, so I have to position it in front of the neck join.

IMO, I agree with all points including point 4, IF the acoustic is not the spine. If the acoustic is the focus, absolutely rec on multiple mics. XY matched pair on the 12th, large condenser on the12th and a 57 at the body or, over the shoulder sounds good as an accompaniment part.

If you have a good acoustic, with a good pickup, going into a good preamp and then into a properly set-up DAW, DI can sound great, I've had excellent results and it sounds awesome combined with mic'd guitars as well

I heard in Nashville they have a method for getting better recordings from 12-string by splitting the 12-string set to 2 regular 6-string acoustic guitars. Then record two separate tracks.

I definitely agree with the first and second law. I feel those are good basics. The third law I'm not really sure about because we've recorded several times in a professional studio and they never make the acoustic guitar that far away it's always usually about eight inches away from the sound hole. I hadn't heard of the fourth law but that makes a lot of sense. I would appreciate it though if you would address the third law as to why you think professional studios do that, you would think out of all those pros, if moving the mic further away was best then they would be doing that?

Great laws.... I usually record my acoustic guitar with a mike and with a D.I. through an EQ and into my Solo. I find this works well and they are different enough that I can pan them L&R successfully and if the D.I. does suck....nuke it and nothing is lost. OH by the by... I am usually recording classical guitar and some rhythm on a steel string guitar.

I broke the law, and the law won. I have tried all of the things that you describe as don't do this. And your right they do not work. So thank you this video was great. Not saying this is a fith law for guitars without a traditional sound hole but here ya go. I have an Ovation (Applause Elite) acoustic / electric so no traditional sound hole. What I did on my last recording (the guitars role was both melody in the verse which moves into a three part harmony in the chorus, and the main rhythm part in a song with Piano, Synth pad, Bass, and drums) was to put an SM 57 two inches below the bridge and two inches off of the body while playing the strings just below the neck. This gave me the best tone I have recorded yet. It also gave me plenty of string scrapes to edit out. I have to try a single SM57 or a single SM58 three feet back. I have a cloud lifter for the mic through a steinberg UR-RT4. My main problem is this guitar just is not very loud. I am looking to get a good acoustic/electric, soon I hope. Thanks again, David

Thanks Graham !! and my law #5 is to repeat law #2 with some more Never, Never, Nevers :)