Need to record acoustic guitars... best methods and profiles???

  • Hello there, I need to record acoustic guitars in my studio... and do a super job

    I dunno if I should use an acoustic guitars with the Kemper or in front of a mic or both?

    Any suggestion for profiles? The best one you found at rig exchange or the best ones you bought?


    Thanks for your help it's very appreciated

  • I remember Pete Thorn using IRs of mic'd up acoustic guitars with great result. He wasn't using a Kemper, but the principle is the same. He ran his Takamine acoustic electric (w/ standard saddle pickup) into his Helix and applied an IR of a mic'd Taylor 312. Here's video link, it's the first question he answers: Pete Thorn's Wednesday Q&A


    He did this again in a newer video, I think. Can't find it. Actually, he might have been using the piezo pickup on an electric and running through the acoustic IR. Sounded good either way.


    So, if you have a standard acoustic electric, you could send that output to the Kemper, just use the Cab section (with an acoustic IR converted to a Cab), and add compression, EQ, or effects to taste.

  • if the OP wants to experiment, there are many approaches that can be taken.


    For simple, effective, quality results, one microphone is all that is needed.


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  • If you're gonna do a super job, use a mic. Just about any mic will do a better job than any pickup/simulation. Just experiment with placement. 25cm outside of 12th fret, pointing at the body, is an old standard.

  • I love recording other people playing acoustic.


    I hate recording me playing acoustic...placement...record...listen...move....record...listen....scream.


    But because a microphone is the best way to capture the most natural sound of an acoustic - it is annoyingly worth the pain.


    I am in a fortunate position to have some good gear - but like most, my first microphone was a 57 (going into a line 6 UX2 -remember those?) - so if you currently only have a 57 then go for it - lots of decent sounding recordings have been made with it!


    I would use a mic and pre of pretty much any quality over going direct for recording...though for convenience I continue to try every possible option/new tech development.


    I've tried the popular profiles mentioned here, and I think they are better suited to live - as the sound is that of an electro-acoustic. They do sound great live or in rehearsal, and there are profiles out there of an ACUS One amp that I think are the most natural sounding.


    I've tried the 3Sigma impulses in my DAW, (the martin and the taylor) and they sounded worse than going direct - and I was really disappointed - as I thought they might be brilliant and was looking forward to Kemperising them - like Pete Thorn did with the Helix.


    It would be worth saving up to buy a quality microphone, or stereo pair - and then a quality preamp. You're going to be playing guitar all of your life (I hope!) and being able to get your home recordings as close to professional is really, REALLY exciting, rewarding and bloody expensive. If you can't sacrifice, save and then spend on your most favourite thing to do, what can you? If it is regular trips to Amsterdam, then fair enough.


    I either use a large diagram condenser (U47 or Pearlman TM-1), or a pair of condensers (Little Blondies, MC930s or KM84s) in an XY or separated to body and neck if the player is percussive or wants more string articulation due to their style. They run into two Portico 2 channel strips and then out to stereo CL1Bs doing 0.5/1.0db compression on the loudest parts and then to a PCM92 for some beautification. It sounds lovely!


    For going direct for quick recordings/demos then straight into a channel - take out the mud between 200-400Hz, cut the lows out around 80Hz and add a little shimmer with a shelf at 10KHz...all that can be done with an EQ plugin if needed.


    You might be surprised at how good your guitar can sound going direct if you remove the frequencies you dont like - rather than trying to add something you think it needs.


    Good luck, make sure you value and get more excited about the quality of the performance over the quality of the gear; and I would be happy to help if/when you do record something to give you some friendly advice :) Greg

    PRS Custom 22's - Fender Strats - Diezel VH4 - Carol Ann OD2 - Toneking Imperial MK2 - Colin the Kemper - CLR Neo ii.

    Edited once, last by Greg ().

  • If you go the mic route you could also try two mics, one at the soundhole and the other at the headstock. I've had great results this way!Blend baby, blend! 8o

    Bert’s Acoustic Profile Pack is the best I have tried thus far. There’s a few excellent free ones I have found on Rig Excahnge as well (i.e. Acoustic Dream)


    Bert Meulendijk Acoustic Profile pack out now !!

    ^^This with JuLai suggestion would be great too I'm thinkin'! ^^

  • If you go the mic route you could also try two mics, one at the soundhole and the other at the headstock. I've had great results this way!Blend baby, blend! 8o

    ^^This with JuLai suggestion would be great too I'm thinkin'! ^^

    Blending experiments are fun!


    An additional mic, poking in from the back of the player, just next to their ear to pick up what the player is hearing is cool!

    PRS Custom 22's - Fender Strats - Diezel VH4 - Carol Ann OD2 - Toneking Imperial MK2 - Colin the Kemper - CLR Neo ii.

  • https://www.dropbox.com/sh/a7s…RWEw2on0cXs0ksEZ42na?dl=0 i eqed my bass and acoustic guitar with a 10 band parametric eq, so more bands than any live mixer has per channel ... it should give you a perfect starting point for live usage :)


    And i made profiles with the Tonedexter Pedal (

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    https://www.dropbox.com/sh/6tu…jX0p4rspZcDSaTl3b0Ka?dl=0



    are you interested in a workflow to get you the "perfect" acoustic guitar sound with you piezo? all you would need is a audio interface a daw and a eq match plugin ...


    the problem is, acoustic gutiars sound so drastically different that profiles are not perfectly fitting for other guitars, so the best way woul be either

    profiling a channelstrip with a great EQ or a tonematch of your miced acoustic guitar


    Check out the Shadow 4020 pickup system imo using this stereo is the best line in sound ever


    But overall, if the room is right my recommendation is x/y mics in front of your Acoustic guitar, i love the Blue hummingbird mics but any small diaphram condenser should do it.

  • i eqed my bass and acoustic guitar with a 10 band parametric eq

    Anything worth doing is worth doing to extremes! ^^


    The DBX DriveRack PA2 that I use to help tune the control room has 8 bands of parametric eq. You'd think that would be overkill but I could easily use twice that since there's always one more thing to tweak.

    Kemper remote -> Powered toaster -> Yamaha DXR-10