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Joined:
September 2004
Posts: 777
Location: East Wenatchee, WA | After a multi-year hiatus from doing any recording, I finally have a place and some time during the winter to start again. Nothing fancy, a Tascam 2488 with AT2020 condenser mic's.
My question is how to get a bit "smoother" sound out of my Adams 2008 Collector when going direct in. It is a very detailed and crisp sound, but is a bit harsh. I have tried a pot load of different EQ scenario's, but it always has the same sound.
My 1537 and 2080 were the same way, so it may just be the way it is with the Ovation style of pickups. I was trying to get a bit more of an acoustic tone without mic'ing the guitar, but maybe that is not possible.
Any help would be appreciated. |
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Joined:
August 2002
Posts: 8307
Location: Tennessee | Congrats on getting another project started. I'm in the same phase of the cosmos. I ended up getting a hybrid tube preamp to put in front of the guitar for recording the direct channel. It was a couple of hundred bucks well spent to warm up the tone. I always found direct to the board very harsh and hard to tame, too But still I also simultaneously mic the guitar almost every time too and blend the channels to get the optimum sound I'm looking for. It's even more flexible when I output my stereo output into separate channels and can use panning to widen the soundstage.
In the end, mic'ing in a proper studio gets the best results but most of us have to live with compromises. I'm just an amateur low-budget solo act and my method works best for my situation and the sound I end up trying to produce. |
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Joined:
January 2009
Posts: 4535
Location: Flahdaw | My limited experience tells me that, if you want your acoustic guitar to really sound like an acoustic guitar when recording, you need to mic it. Otherwise you have to compromise somewhat, and be satisfied with what you end up with. Playing live on stage limits you, but in a studio, why not mic? |
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Joined:
April 2004
Posts: 13303
Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | hard to say without hearing the clip.
You say you tried a pot load of different EQ scenarios but I did not see where you slapped a compressor on it. You might give that a try. |
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Joined:
September 2004
Posts: 777
Location: East Wenatchee, WA | Thanks guys...I have a couple of more tools I can try (including mic'ing it).
I have a Yamaha acoustic peddle that has a pretty nice compressor section as well as a dedicated Boss compressor that I have not tried yet.
It is solely for family use, so not a big deal, but as long as I was playing around, thought I would try something different. |
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Joined:
January 2006
Posts: 2120
Location: Chicago | I must second what Dark Bar sez. I absolutely love the acoustic sound of my Adamas, but the "direct" sound it produced left me unsatisfied. Finally I went for the microphone. You might start with a Zoom H4 or something like it. If you go to my OFC page below you'll hear what an Adamas (1581) sounds like with a Zoom on the tune "Carbon 14." We got some good studio Adamas on tunes posted below on "band" page. Again... pure microphone. |
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Recording an Adamas
