Recording Quiet Acoustics

[JD01]

Struggling with this a bit. Seem to end up with lots of noise which I can't really shake.

Might be slight noise of the central heating, wind against the windows, maybe radio in the other room, breath on the mic, fretboard noise, arm rubbing along the guitar.

Only started really recording acoustics in the last couple of weeks so haven't really considered what little techniques and tricks there may be for minimising this other than practice more and record in a completely silent space.

[ocnor]

It doesn't sound that noisy to me. You may have been moving around a bit too much causing variations in what the mic was picking up.

[Armistice]

I had to learn a while new bunch of skills around stillness and breathing and playing clean without squeaks, minimising pick noise etc. when I started seriously recording acoustics. And I'd wedge the damn thing into a corner of a couch so i could play without moving the guitar much.

Welcome to your next journey.

[JD01]

Right - so there's no magic technique that I don't know about then. Just practice and quiet. Great...

[Bubba]

Right - so there's no magic technique that I don't know about then. Just practice and quiet. Great...

Avoid squeaky chairs, tapping your foot on the laminate floor (which otherwise is a great surface for recording an acoustic) and be aware of where and how you are breathing. It's easy to get air rumble on a condenser. my mate couldn't record an acoustic to save his life, the air coming out of his nose sounded like a bobsleigh run. You'd have to wrap his entire head in towels.

[JD01]

It's easy to get air rumble on a condenser. my mate couldn't record an acoustic to save his life, the air coming out of his nose sounded like a bobsleigh run. You'd have to wrap his entire head in towels.

[rammer24]

It is frustrating.....

[BBvideo=560,315]https://youtu.be/9DbUPjEbIvA[/BBvideo]

[JD01]

It is frustrating.....

[BBvideo=560,315]https://youtu.be/9DbUPjEbIvA[/BBvideo]

LOL - I've seen that before - its awesome. Looks like it might actually be real and not just staged either.

[JD01]

I'm trying to watch this again in the office now and I just can't stop myself laughing out loud.

[rammer24]

I'm pretty sure it's real. There's a follow-up, "The return of....".

He has tried to turn it into a way to get plays, telling people to visit his FB page, etc....But at the time, I think this was totally real. We've all known guys like this. Hell, we've all been this guy to some extent.

[JD01]

I'm pretty sure it's real. There's a follow-up, "The return of....".

He has tried to turn it into a way to get plays, telling people to visit his FB page, etc....But at the time, I think this was totally real. We've all known guys like this. Hell, we've all been this guy to some extent.

Yeah - Red Button Syndrome - as soon as you press record, your fingers turn into alien sausages with a mind of their own.

[ocnor]

He's probably so angry because he lost his guitar tuner.

[rammer24]

He's probably so angry because he lost his guitar tuner.

Yeah, he can start with that for sure.

[Armistice]

Right - so there's no magic technique that I don't know about then. Just practice and quiet. Great...

Avoid squeaky chairs, tapping your foot on the laminate floor (which otherwise is a great surface for recording an acoustic) and be aware of where and how you are breathing. It's easy to get air rumble on a condenser. my mate couldn't record an acoustic to save his life, the air coming out of his nose sounded like a bobsleigh run. You'd have to wrap his entire head in towels.

LOL - it's true. I got really good at recording acoustics - in terms of the incidental noises, anyway - because that's what my first 3 albums were mainly about. When I was recording The Jongles, I had to work with Richard on noise reduction - tapping the floor, squeaky hands, and in particular breathing out via the nose and getting wind noise in the take. You have to learn to be very relaxed, calm and be a mouth breather, alas.

I have clicky thumbs - jeez I've lost some takes when a thumb went off accidentally during a quiet passage.

I also attempted to train various people to push the start and stop buttons at various times - one in particular lasted about half an hour when they cut off a perfect take as the last chord was ringing gently to a conclusion because they'd figured I'd stopped seeing my hands were no longer moving. I could have retrained them but I realised then that it'd be something else...

[WhiskeyJack]

Struggling with this a bit. Seem to end up with lots of noise which I can't really shake.

Might be slight noise of the central heating, wind against the windows, maybe radio in the other room, breath on the mic, fretboard noise, arm rubbing along the guitar.

Only started really recording acoustics in the last couple of weeks so haven't really considered what little techniques and tricks there may be for minimising this other than practice more and record in a completely silent space.

JD, this isn't bad. It's not all that noisy. I picked up a few fragments of maybe you moving in your chair? if by some chance you were going to put some other instrumentation accompanying it, whatever artifacts were hanging around could get swallowed up in the mix. As it is now it's not bad at all dude. much more clean than any quiet tracks i have done with my acoustic. But to echo Armi here, if you are finding things you yourself do not like, just practice a bit with the breathing and making cleaner transitions with your fingering.

This may only apply to me but when i record my acoustics i always turn my furnace /forced air off. even in the winter. Forces me to take breaks and turn it back on again. . time of day varies to where in the house i record. I love recording in my kitchen but i usually have to wait for the house to be empty and later at night when there is little to no traffic on the streets, kids playing next door, dogs barking at their tails outside etc.

Ultimately i feel your track is superior to any quiet acoustic track I've ever done in honesty JD. I'm a bit of weirdo in the way that i like to sort of hide artifacts of the human side of recording into my acoustic tracks, Chairs Creeking, the sound of picking up a guitar whatever, just little Easter eggs to remind the listener i am am human. Not so much my furnace or fridge or kicking in but little things that are of human origin. I'll stick them in applicable pauses or before the song starts, at the end etc. I don't know why i like it, i just like that. It really adds nothing to the mix of a song, but it adds something to the song itself in my opinion. So from my perspective i see nothing wrong with have a few well placed inadequacies in a song. We're not robots.

You'll hear an example of what i am talking about in a cover i am working on in the coming weeks (month{s} maybe at the rate work is going)

[WhiskeyJack]

It is frustrating.....

[BBvideo=560,315]https://youtu.be/9DbUPjEbIvA[/BBvideo]

So this is what my future looks like. Great.

[JD01]

Struggling with this a bit. Seem to end up with lots of noise which I can't really shake.

Might be slight noise of the central heating, wind against the windows, maybe radio in the other room, breath on the mic, fretboard noise, arm rubbing along the guitar.

Only started really recording acoustics in the last couple of weeks so haven't really considered what little techniques and tricks there may be for minimising this other than practice more and record in a completely silent space.

JD, this isn't bad. It's not all that noisy. I picked up a few fragments of maybe you moving in your chair? if by some chance you were going to put some other instrumentation accompanying it, whatever artifacts were hanging around could get swallowed up in the mix. As it is now it's not bad at all dude. much more clean than any quiet tracks i have done with my acoustic. But to echo Armi here, if you are finding things you yourself do not like, just practice a bit with the breathing and making cleaner transitions with your fingering.

This may only apply to me but when i record my acoustics i always turn my furnace /forced air off. even in the winter. Forces me to take breaks and turn it back on again. . time of day varies to where in the house i record. I love recording in my kitchen but i usually have to wait for the house to be empty and later at night when there is little to no traffic on the streets, kids playing next door, dogs barking at their tails outside etc.

Ultimately i feel your track is superior to any quiet acoustic track I've ever done in honesty JD. I'm a bit of weirdo in the way that i like to sort of hide artifacts of the human side of recording into my acoustic tracks, Chairs Creeking, the sound of picking up a guitar whatever, just little Easter eggs to remind the listener i am am human. Not so much my furnace or fridge or kicking in but little things that are of human origin. I'll stick them in applicable pauses or before the song starts, at the end etc. I don't know why i like it, i just like that. It really adds nothing to the mix of a song, but it adds something to the song itself in my opinion. So from my perspective i see nothing wrong with have a few well placed inadequacies in a song. We're not robots.

You'll hear an example of what i am talking about in a cover i am working on in the coming weeks (month{s} maybe at the rate work is going)

Cheers, mate. I guess I will just stick with it then and just try and get a bit better and more comfortable with the piece.

I just wrote it one morning 'cos I was up early and I was waiting for my mrs to wake up, then I didn't want to forget it.

[JD01]

So this is what my future looks like. Great.

We're all destined to end up as fatter, sadder, more angry and less optimistic versions of our current selves.