Best/easiest way to record acoustic?

Stuckfast

I spent years being frustrated with the recorded sound of my acoustic guitar playing. I blamed the mic, I blamed the room, I blamed all sorts of things, but for some reason it took me ages to twig that the reason it didn't sound like I wanted it to was that I wasn't making the sound I thought I was making in the first place. Once you've figured out how to do that I actually don't think acoustic guitar is that hard to record (try getting a good piano sound in your living room!), and you can certainly get a decent enough sound with a 57 placed somewhere fairly close.

Modellista

^ I agree - I didn’t realise there were so many Abbey Road engineers on this forum.  

@octatonic ‘s first post knocks the nail on the head. 

Cirrus

LastMantra said:

An sm57 isn't ideal for recording acoustic I'm afraid to say. 

On the other hand, it won't stop a good song being good. Exhibit A;

zepp76

Thank you to you all for your help and advice. I may be cutting my nose off to spite my face but I really don't want to install a pick up system so mic'ing is the way to go for me.

zepp76

Tascam DP-03SD 8 track recorder ordered, I'm looking forward to getting a few ideas down. Can anyone recommend a decent set of budget speakers please?

Stuckfast

I was doing a recording session today and needed a mic for a guide vocal. I grabbed the SM57 that was top of the pile. The singer sounded WAY better on it than she does on any condenser mic I've tried.

wave100

Just use the 57 mate, when you've got a 100 squid or so to upgrade do it then.

zepp76

wave100 said:

Just use the 57 mate, when you've got a 100 squid or so to upgrade do it then.

Will do, no harm in experimenting until I can get a decent condenser microphone. Saying that, my new 8 track has built in condenser microphones, I wonder what they'll be like to record with? Obviously not as good as a decent stand alone microphone but worth a shot.

Cirrus

Be happy with the 57, it's a great utility mic. And I wasn't joking with my last post. The acoustic in Fake Plastic Trees is entirely SM57, confirmed by the guy who recorded it - there was also a condenser mic up, but it crapped out shortly after the start of the performance. The performance was great, the SM57 sounded just fine, so they moved on.

And personally, I wouldn't "upgrade" it for a £100 condenser. It will be brighter and seem more detailed, but cheap condensers aren't the thing. And £100 is cheap for a condenser. It's much more expensive to make a condenser mic full stop, let alone design and build one that doesn't have problems. A dynamic mic, by contrast, is much simpler.

To give an example, I have a couple of more expensive dynamics - SM7b & RE20 - and I prefer the sound of both to any condenser I've heard in the sub-£500 range on most things.

Hick81

The Shure sm57 will be fine. It’s a good all rounder and ideal for a bedroom studio set up. If you are just starting out, get a decent affordable set up as suggested by others and learn to use the gear. Over time you’ll get better and understand how to get a decent sound out of what you’ve got. 

octatonic

Steve Albini has this to say about them:

“Piece of shit dynamic mic some people are inexplicably crazy about, so we bought one. Sounds equivalently good on everything from snare drum to electric guitar. Unfortunately, not a very high standard of “Good.” If you need to record something and there’s no microphone available, this will do, I guess.”

Hick81

Plus Bruce Springsteen used a couple of SM57’s to record Nebraska. So there you go...

https://tascam.com/us/support/news/481