Key Of Grey

Photo courtesy of Shure

June 16th, 2008 – In our first readers’ questions post, ALF asked the following: “I’ve been experimenting with recording acoustic guitar very recently (aka yesterday) but my recordings are barely audible, even when I stick the mic (an SM57) really close to the soundhole. I have to turn the gain/volume on my (crappy) interface all the way up to get anything above a whisper but that results in excess static and noise. I’ve also tried messing with the Cubase mixing board but it wasn’t sufficient. What’s the most effective way to record using this simple setup? Do I need some sort of signal boost? Or am I doomed to using the on board preamp?”

The Shure SM57 is a dynamic microphone. Standard traits of a dynamic microphone are its ability to handle high volume (SPL’s), it doesn’t require phantom power, and dynamics are typically more sturdy than condensor, tube or ribbon microphones. Because of this, they are the industry standard for live shows (they can take punishment from the singer), and for recording loud instruments in the studio, including acoustic ones such as a trumpet and amplified ones such as electric guitars.

Keeping all that in mind, my first choice for recording an acoustic guitar would be a condensor microphone because of its higher sensitivity; I have seen SM57′s used to mic acoustic guitars but it would not be my first choice. To get the response out of an SM57 that comes close to a condensor, you can do one of two things: play the guitar louder, or turn up the pre-amp. Unfortunately, it sounds like your pre-amp may have a quite a bit of noise so perhaps the second option is not the best.

Here are a couple suggestions for your setup: (1.) Try different microphone placement; sometimes right in front of the sound hole is not the best place to mic. Depending on where you put the microphone, due to the uniqueness of every instrument, your guitar may have soundwaves that cancel each other out coincidentally where you placed the microphone. (2.) If you are going to record, I would suggest using a noise gate during mixing (Adjust the threshold to just above the hiss level) to at least get rid of the noise when the guitar is not playing.

That’s all I can think of now. Let us know how it goes; good luck!