Sometimes you may record you guitar in stereo only to find a lack of low end content. Listening to it in context of everything else is the only way to make adjustments that enhance the overall mix.
This is because all of the other mix elements affect the sound of your acoustic guitar. However, once un-soloed you’ll be scratching your head as to why it doesn’t sound good anymore. You might make the guitar sound good on it’s own. You’ll end up listening to the acoustic guitar only and make uneducated decisions over what to change. Going back to thinking about the role of your acoustic guitar, this approach can hinder your mixing. If you don’t know how it’s supposed to serve the song, you’ll end up running in circles with nothing to show.Ī common mistake is to solo an instrument when you’re making changes to it’s sound. Is it the focal point of the arrangement or is it merely a small piece of a bigger production? Does it primarily add a rhythmic or harmonic aspect to the song? What’s wrong with the way it sounds now and how would you like that to change?Īsking yourself these questions when you’re mixing any instrument can give you a more calculated approach to your work. Before you even begin mixing your acoustic guitar, decide what purpose it is serving the song. If you’ve read any of my other articles, you know this is a rule that I live by with all instruments. Tracking a beautiful Martin acoustic guitar with a pair of Earthwork SR77 mics, Chandler pres, Harrison EQ and API compression.
When you record something that sounds great at the source it’s ten times easier to make it sound amazing down the road.Ĭheck out our article on miking acoustic guitar for more tips on how to get an awesome sound in the tracking stage. Play around until you actually get a sound that is worth capturing. If something seems off, move or change a microphone. Listen and be aware of how the guitar sounds during the tracking sessions. If the acoustic guitar sounds bad when recorded, no amount of mixing can change that. This may seem like an obvious point to some, but you’d be surprised at how little this is done. Having a great acoustic guitar and musician is more important than the mixing. After applying these techniques you’ll be well on your way to mixing acoustic guitar with ease, every time. Fast forward several years and I’ve uncovered a number of techniques that make the process easier.īy sharing them in the steps below you’ll avoid making the same mistakes I did when starting out. When speaking with many other beginner mixing engineers I found that I wasn’t alone in my troubles with the acoustic guitar.
All my attempts never sounded how I pictured and the more I worked at it the worse things got. I would spend hours trying to dial in the perfect sound with little progress. When I was first getting started mixing home recordings the acoustic guitar had me stumped. Despite its prominence mixing acoustic guitar can be a difficult task for the beginning engineer. It’s found its way onto countless records and continues to be a weapon of choice for all songwriters. The acoustic guitar is one of the most widely used instruments in the music industry.