How To Record Acoustic Guitar: Mic Placement, EQ and Compression 

It's pretty obvious to me that Rick has 47 hours in his day while the rest of us mortals have only 24. That is the only way to explain how he can master so many aspects of music and still have time to record a thousand videos every month. Absolutely insane!!

For those that can't afford a condensor mic, here is an SM57. Run through thousands of dollars worth of compressors/EQ

So plug my acoustic guitar's output straight into the $20 Audio Interface I bought from some Chinese company on eBay and hope for the best? Got it.

I too, need to cut down on air blasts coming out of my hole......

I have 3 acoustic guitar / vocalists coming to my venue this Friday, and I don't get a chance to mix acoustic guitars very often. This video will help me pull the best out of their performance. Thanks for doing this series Rick, it really helps me out as someone who is relatively new to sound engineering.

Great video Rick! I don't have any of those high end mics or no actual compressors/EQ , but you totally changed the way i record my guitars (and every other part of my songs) with the mics and plugins I have. Thats why you have been my go to youtube channel for anything to do with music. Keep 'em comming.

It's nice watching someone that really knows their gear and can effortlessly get great results. This is a great channel

everything you say i nod my head to☺The single transformerless 57 and the KM? small diap stereo mic tech were the best sounding setup for my ears....its really great hearing a great professional talk about all the aspects of Music Writing/Engineering/Business ect because im the same in that from the start i had to learn to do EVERYTHING or it didnt happen at all....thanks Rick

Rick, I have that same guitar. Mine's a 1956. What you just showed me is the best recording I have ever heard of it. Wow.

I'm about to record my Furch baritone acoustic for a project I'm working on, and this video is extremely helpful. Thank You Rick!

Next video, how to record acoustic guitar using scarlett 2i2 and entry level condenser mic.

RIck I admit i'm a total beginner but I never imagined there was so much tweaking involved in a single mic. I have a lot to learn!

'Release times in compressors are very tempo dependent.' I can not believe that I just learnt this gem, for free. Thank you @Rick Beato, for taking the effort and time to share your knowledge (and fantastic studio) with others.

Just what I needed. I applied this tutorial to my FPGA versions of the 1081 & "Impressor" from my Zen Tour..voila! Just saved half a day of tinkering. Recorded my Taylor 214dlx using TLM103 & Avantone CR-14 via Cloudlifter in the spaced pair config. Thanks Rick!

Always something amazing to teach...!!! This guy is incredible. Thanks for everything. I watch you religiously.

A great video Rick. Very helpful as I'm currently tracking acoustic guitar parts for a few projects. Really helped me to see where you were pointing the mics, distance, and also EQ & comp being written. Especially good to see the EQ settings you were boosting and cutting, and the compressor release and attack settings you were using for different styles Rhett was playing. I use an Apollo X6 interface and various Unison enabled pre's and comp/eq plugins. I like to print those but use them sparingly as you said. I then add more as required at mix stage. Great instructional video. Really helpful. Thanks guys.

I’m gonna do this today with an Sm57, a rode Nt1a, a sennheiser e604 and a cardioid style mix. Straight into a focusrite scarlet. I don’t have the budget for the amazing mics on show here, but the eq and compression tips are gold dust. Thanks for the inspiration.

Thanks Rick, once again. This is one of my favorites vids you've ever done and I will watch it multiple times I'm sure. Think the stereo KM-184's sound best to my ears, but they all sound great.

I know this equipment is pricey, but I think the general principals are great, I like that it shows various mic positions for the different types of mics you can use. I would be doing all my compressiona and EQ in Logic Pro X, and I'm very new to mixing/producing so its neat seeing everything I've learned from digital/within a program on an actual preamp with physical dials but I am starting to understand the premise of compression and EQ

I believe I've sang on that exact Dragonfly a whole bunch. Love that mic.

"release time with compressors is very tempo dependent." Just learned something new. Thanks!

Very interesting Rick. I use a completely different technique to you as I'm a minimalist. My key focus is determining where the resonant frequencies occur and treat those points. Firstly I will sing into the sound hole of the guitar and feel for resonances with my hands. These frequencies are the critical frequencies and you will commonly fine multiples of harmonics, so find the lowest frequency and treat that. By treating I mean adding a notch filter to the frequencies I have found and apply about -10db or so, whatever it takes to level out the sound. At this point the guitar will be very well behaved and will hardly require any further treatment. Regarding brightness, etc, this needs to be applied in the mix of the song. Just listening to the guitar is misleading. As Walter/Wendy Carlos described: It doesn't matter what the sound sounds like in isolation it's how it sits in the mix. Keep up the great work.

Thanks for showcasing the Blue Dragonfly!!! My favorite mic!!

Rick these videos are unbelievable, thank you!

wow ive never heard of you on youtube before but man i wish i did much earlier. All I needed to see was the introduction and I instantly thought this guy is all about music! instant subscriber and looking forward to watching what I missed!!!

I found the 45 degree angle placement works really well - thanks for the info. Tomorrow I plan on trying the stereo pair. I got good results with the Waves API compressor and RODE NT-1a mics :-)

Rick, thanks for making this very informative video. I love the point you made about investing time and money into the source. Can't tell you how many times I've seen/heard people spending thousands on a mic and pre to record a bad sounding and poor playing acoustic guitar with old strings and no setup. Start at the source and work back from there. Thanks again!

Man, you are gift from heaven! God bless you! :-)

Looking at this video twice, i reviewed my thoughts about this, great advice. start at the source. the gear comes second. Much respect for your knowledge of music in general.

Rick Thank You!!!! So much again for your videos. I’m away to try and record my acoustic now. Got the Beato book it’s awesome. You should make a recording book. Thanks again.

If all musicians had 10% as much passion as Rick, there would be too many great musicians writing and recording wonderful music..so keep staying lazy everyone else!! Good news for the rest of us. Thks Rick!!

I'd say that the acoustics of the place you record in have a major role on the final sound too

Hey Rick --- Love ALL your stuff -- The purest in me has to ask why the compression and EQ when printing why not just mic and play and then add all that after the fact because at that point you have unlimited possibilities. Once EQ'ed and Compressed you can't uncompress it or unEQ it. Also would love to see you mix this with both analog and digital models of the same components in and out of the box as it were ... Godspeed and God Bless

I love your videos. Very direct, well explained and informative. I learned a lot from your videos during my recording sessions. Bless you

I've had a lot of success Miking an acoustic 8 to 12 inches from the high e string , avoids low frequency buildup and also one a foot away pointed at the 12th fret. MS Works great too.

Thank you Rick! Good advice ages very well. A good instrument and a good song = enjoy!

Everyone complaining about the high end nature of this needs to relax. There’s tons of plug in and home recording tutorials. There is a need for this and it’s great

This is an awesome tutorial for someone working in a professional studio! For those who are doing it from home can pick up some tips on positioning mics, but won't be using any of the same equipment so it might be a little advanced for them.

What a helpful video! Loved all of these examples! I need more stuff like this. Maybe bass guitar next?

You are a wealth of knowledge for miking an acoustic guitar. Thanks!

That guitar sounds perfect and all of your videos are awesome.

thank you so much man! I really dig your video's:) I'm learning a lot!

Great video that shows you how to get a good sound with just about any mic.

Thanks for the tip, the first example was the ticket. Thank you Mr. Beato.

Outstanding demo. Great sounding 47.

Love the 2 mic sound best. Could you even use 3 mics and get more room ambiance? Thanks for making these vids Rick.

Thank you for this video, Rick. Very helpful.

Thanks for the videos Rick! They are awesome!

Great tips. This would be more useful to me if more common, economical mic choices were used. Standard 57, Warm audio, Lewit…

That would be great back when we were tracking to analog multitrack. Today my process is to record digitally with high-quality microphones and A/D converters, and do all the processing in post. The target audience for a tutorial like this are not very likely to have access to any of the expensive gear used here. There's a lot of DAW plugins available that model the behaviour of legacy analog gear. I'm not saying that the analog way can not produce very good results, but if necessary it is hard to undo mistakes made with filters, EQ and compression on a processed recording. With all processing in post, if I have a cold or otherwise a bad day as a recording engineer I can focus on good mic placement and correct gain-staging to get the recording-job done and wait to do the audio-processing some other day when I'm in a better shape.

Thank you Rick! Awesome vid

That stereo micing sounds phenomenal.

I bought a matched pair of Lauten LA-120 condensers and LOVE them for stereo pair micing. They retail for $350, but I got them on Reverb (like new) for $250. Keep your eyes peeled and you can find some good stuff out there.

Hey Rick - Great Tutorial, very helpful! cheers

How to record acoustic guitar: "Find a blue dragonfly. they only made about 250 of them so good luck" .

Wow, you're so good at this! It looks like you've got a black belt in music xD

These EQ moves were very emotional.

Thank you Very impressive but also important lesson 😀👏👏👏👏

I applaud standing. For saying what ending you said. The importance of investing or seeking the best investment in the source, in the instrument. Applause! Thanks!

Have been binge watching your whole channel and damn you are so helpful

the sm57 sounds awesome!

Mr Rick. Great video of course. Any chance for a video for people without fancy gear and using rather software to EQ and Compress? Thx Tomas

Good info but I would like to hear more about what you are looking for in general before making adjustments. What is a typical plan for recording acoustics? What are trying to avoid or enhance? Maybe tell why you think this or that needs to be changed before changing anything e.g. "Can you hear how the high strings are dominating the sound? You can level that by adjusting . Can you see where the meter is peaking when Rhett strums? You can smooth that out by..."

I experiment with mic positions. First tried mic put at the 12th fret, then over head and found the over head angled at 45°aiming at the bridge of the guitar gives a great sound. My room is too dry and I don't like the sound of it, so I put a nice room reverb just to emphasis on the tone and that's it. Mic into mixing console, with on eknob compressor at around 11 o'clock and 3 band eq set an noon and a HPF .

This is a great video, but most of the equipment you use is out of the reach of the typical amateur musician with a limited wallet. I'd love to see a video concentrating on getting the best out of an affordable, off-the-shelf standard SM-57 using equally affordable compressor and EQ options. Sure, the results won't be up to professional standard, but we still want to get the best sound we can within our limitations.

I love to hear Rhett play guitar. Sometimes I hear shades of Knopfler in his style. He's mondo talented. Then you couple him with Rick and a million dollars' worth of equipment and the whole thing is off the charts.

you are awesome, but I'm glad I have a music background and can understand most of this. If you are new to music don't be discouraged.

Thank you Rick. Great video.

Wow. Great video on how a Distressor works.

Hey Rick, your videos are awesome, keep them up! In this case, what kind of pick and stings did you use? Thanks!

Thanks for sharing Rick!

I think you should have shown how hard it is to double an acoustic track like we do with left and right electric guitar tracks due to the percussiveness of the acoustic. But that is a good remedy to make it sound stereo with the two mics separated like you did in the end. I will use that trick for sure.

Nick of time! Thanks, Rick.

Man, you have a nice studio.

the Soundelux is the easy winner if the acoustic guitar is prevalent in the track, very nice shimmer, always liked Bock's mic's

Thanks Rick. You have a different mic placement to my preference. With a single mic I prefer a wideish cardioid pattern microphone pointed at the bridge...at a similar distance but pointing 45 degrees into the body. The point at which the strings meet the sounding board is my acoustic sweet spot. For me, anything focussed near the tone hole develops too much *fat bottom. The player needs some latitude for movement too. I think your placement would be great if the talent was clamped into place. Your mic position is very sensitive to the bottom end coming from the hole with slight position changes altering the lows a great deal. Love your hardware choices: Neve Eq with Distressor.

Thank You Mr. Beato!

Personally I love a nice bit of low end on acoustic, Bruce Soord keeps alot of low end with his songs in Pineapple Thief (I know he often uses baritone but still) Its definitely a unique sound with a lot of low end, but Bruce Soord masters it. Pineapple Thief need more recognition :)

Rick you're a badass! Love your channel brother!

great video thank you rick for doing this

Excellent Rick! Thanks!

Thank you so much Rick. Great tutorial :)

I hate to be a damper, but it would have been nice to hear these mics straight through instead of running through the processors. I think most people are not going to have all the equipment you are using with this demo.

Thank you this helpful and great!

Great video. Maybe you’ve already done a video about it, but would you consider doing a video about studio monitor headphones for those of us who don’t have the space/dough for a monitoring speakers/room? Thanks.

How many more videos should this man make before he's officially declared a national treasure?

Thank you for being so awesome

Hi Rick, would love to see a similar video for how to record classical guitar. For instance, would you use any compression or EQ on a classical? Many don't (or use very minimal alteration and coloring of the original sound). I also know those Neumann 184's are a popular pick for classical recordings in stereo config., but would be interested in your take on a more "budget" alternative. Peace

good video, 2 weeks ago record a guitar taylor with 1 microphone akg AT2020 on the 12th fret and a microphone akg perception in the bottom, they are not the most expensive microphones of akg, but as you comment the difference of a good sound of a guitar first will be on the guitar, if it is good you will get a good sound, if it is bad for very good pre amp you have it will not sound too good

on point Rick! Thanks again

I love how Rick’s sensitive that we may not be able to afford expensive condenser mics while he does everything else on many thousands of dollars worth of gear.

Did you link the compressors for stereo tracking? Except in a case where a string or two may sound too prominent, I felt all the processing scenarios you demonstrated sounded good. Using one approach over another could be based on which tone better fits or complements the music arrangement. Thanks for your videos.

Yes!! Excited to watch this now. I needed this :)

Great Video, but also: The room is one of the most important factors when recording an acoustic guitar, or anything really. An O.K. mic is gonna give you a great recording if the room sounds good.

you sir you respect for what u are sharing💓

Why did i just watch an 18 minute video of a guy spinning knobs with funny symbols and not understanding one word he said ?

Totally digging the Vincent Price Lighting.

Thanks for this Rick.

you are very simpatic and kind person !!!

Oh the stereo sound is the way to go!!!!