Our roundup of Thunderbolt audio interfaces could be helpful for someone wanting to upgrade to an interface faster than a USB connection.Įven with a preamp installed, recording an acoustic guitar, into GarageBand or any DAW, tends to lack a straightforward approach and best practice.Our most recent article on running an Electric guitar through GarageBand covers the details of getting a USB audio interface to communicate with your Mac.
Particularly with my Taylor, this was a surprisingly great sound to hear come off of the final recording, just because my Taylor typically doesn't sound that good when plugged in using its own preamp. It gave my acoustic a niche chime and edge to it that wasn't there with the Warm or Natural modes, though it did so without making it sound too thin or "biting." Out of all the modes I tried, I thought "Bright" sounded the best. From there, the signal can be sent either to your mixer, an amplifier, audio interface or an iOS device (iPad, Mac, etc.).
The small microphone easily clips onto the bottom of the soundhole of the guitar, which can then be connected to the preamp that can clip to your belt or guitar strap. Obviously it can be especially useful for acoustic guitars that have no preamp installed. In tandem, these pieces can either replace your acoustic's preamp or work in conjunction with it (more on this process later). The unit unboxes with two basic components: IK Multimedia recommends the Acoustic Stage MEMS microphone be placed at the bottom (pictured below).
It'll also capture the most complete sound from your acoustic guitar that is possible from a mic at a single location. This will create a similar resonance to what you're hearing from most acoustic guitar preamps, which are usually positioned near the left or right of the soundhole. In most cases, and in my own experience, the best place to put a microphone is right at the base of the soundhole, near the high E string. This is ambitious, to say the least, which is why I'm opting to use only the iRig Acoustic Stage's mic.
For a truly professional level of recording, you'd want at least three microphones positioned the following ways: And it's probably fair to say that the most optimal way to mic an acoustic guitar would be similar to how we mic a drum set.
However, if you have access to a Mac running GarageBand, I'll show you how to streamline this process using a the iRig Acoustic Stage from IK Multimedia that covers the following acoustic-related tasks.įor this tutorial I'll show you how to easily record your acoustic guitar into GarageBand, without the need for a complex software suite and without having to worry about most of the issues we previously mentioned.Īs you can see from the graphic, there a number of different ways to position a microphone for this process. These are all potential "pitfalls" and problems when you're trying to record an acoustic guitar, and this is all before you get to the variables and challenges that relate to high-level DAW and music production software. When recording an acoustic guitar, you typically need to deal with the following variables: The difficult thing about recording guitars at home, or even in a studio environment, is that there are a lot of different ways to do it, yet many of them are ambiguous, complicated and never seem to provide a straight path forward. What is the "best" way to record your acoustic guitar at home or in a small studio environment? Moreover, how do you get it to sound like it should? A recorded acoustic guitar should sound natural, warm and resonant.