Recommend a Mic for acoustic guitar recording

Chewie5150

Chewie5150

Fractal Fanatic
As the title says...I'm considering buying a mic to record my acoustic guitar vs using the built in electronics in my Taylor. I'd like to capture the Taylor's natural sound vs going direct. Nothing for professional use. Just a decent mic to capture a good sound (XLR to my Apollo X6) without busting the bank. please and thanks!
 
I actually have a Shure MV7X which is more a podcasting type mic but i'm gonna try it out later for the hell of it. I'm not expecting magic
 
Patzag said:
Depending on what you mean by busting the bank. One of the best mics I’ve experienced is the AKG 414. They’re about 600 bucks used on Reverb or the Bay.
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There is a version of the 414 without polar patterns that's less than the C414's that I'm familiar with. Two are often used as a stereo pair for recording acoustic piano. The larger diaphragm helps bass response I suppose.

For acoustic I got a matched pair of Shure KSM141 pencil mics purchased as a set for under a grand.
 
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I have very little experience with this so probably not much use here, but just did some with a pair of Rode M5 which seemed to work pretty well.
 
Depending on your budget of course, but I’d be looking a two mics - a large diaphragm and a pencil condenser. AKG 214 is a single pattern large diaphragm mic and the AKG 451 a pencil - the combination of the two would not set you back more than $1000 (less if you buy second hand - there’s always a bargain somewhere) and give pretty professional quality.
 
Roadrunneroz said:
Depending on your budget of course, but I’d be looking a two mics - a large diaphragm and a pencil condenser. AKG 214 is a single pattern large diaphragm mic and the AKG 451 a pencil - the combination of the two would not set you back more than $1000 (less if you buy second hand - there’s always a bargain somewhere) and give pretty professional quality.
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I have a pair of the akg 451’s…perfect for acoustic guitars. As good as it gets.
I actually created 2 IRs with the 451s and the fishman piezo for my martin acoustic and mixed them into a preset of my fm9. It worked crazy good. :)
 
Pretty much any mic will sound more natural than most piezo based systems. At about $300, Audio Technica's AT4040 is a good bang for the buck large diaphragm condenser mic. Works well for lots of uses and has good build quality.

The Rode NT1 mentioned above is another good bang for the buck condenser mic and is a bit cheaper.
 
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200man said:
I have a pair of the akg 451’s…perfect for acoustic guitars. As good as it gets.
I actually created 2 IRs with the 451s and the fishman piezo for my martin acoustic and mixed them into a preset of my fm9. It worked crazy good. :)
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I second the two small diaphragm condenser approach one pointed at the bridge, one pointed at the neck joint. Both Exactly the same distance away from the guitar in a triangle to avoid phasing.

Even inexpensive condensers yield great results. SE makes some really good affordable stuff.
 
Chewie5150 said:
As the title says...I'm considering buying a mic to record my acoustic guitar vs using the built in electronics in my Taylor. I'd like to capture the Taylor's natural sound vs going direct. Nothing for professional use. Just a decent mic to capture a good sound (XLR to my Apollo X6) without busting the bank. please and thanks!
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I just bought Australian Audio OC16 for that same purposes. Check that.. it's really good microphone and picks up guitars natural sound very well.
Australian Audio OC16 microphone is condenser and need phantom power.
Even the mic is condenser it's very nice to recording acoustic instruments cause it's picks up guitar and no those extra
noises what you have in surroundings. There is that one button you can adjust switchable high pass filter 40 Hz (2nd order), 160 Hz (2nd order).

It's not cheapest but not even near more expensive microphones.
I already tested that just alone and also with Axe FX 3 presets, works very nicely.

https://austrian.audio/microphones/oc16/

My favorite way to record with external microphones is now that OC16 pointing to guitars neck and Sennheiser E614 pointing guitars body behind bridge (this way I just how I like it, cause it gives very balanced sound and takes very well both sides of guitar strings (bass and treble).
 
200man said:
I have a pair of the akg 451’s…perfect for acoustic guitars. As good as it gets.
I actually created 2 IRs with the 451s and the fishman piezo for my martin acoustic and mixed them into a preset of my fm9. It worked crazy good. :)
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Care to share those IRs maybe?
Sounds like a good thing.
No pressure of course.
 
I’ve always liked to 451’s the thing about them is they’re just really transparent and clear for guitar (and also for drums). The 214 is basically a single diaphragm version of the 414 ands gets you that bottom end from the guitar body having a larger diaphragm but a pair of 451’s would not set you astray.
 
Anthony76 said:
budget?
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I guess I could have mentioned that from the start! I was thinking around $300ish but I didn't have much experience with mics since I've always gone direct with electrics and rarely record acoustic. I'm going to experiment a bit this week running my Taylor direct into the AX3. Maybe track down a good IR see how that turns out..maybe do the job well enough for my needs and down the road i can do proper mic'ing setup , by the sounds of it, for less than $1000
 
Chewie5150 said:
Maybe track down a good IR see how that turns out..maybe do the job well enough for my needs and down the road i can do proper mic'ing setup , by the sounds of it, for less than $1000
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If you find an IR you like, please post which one. I'm also struggling with trying to get a sound I like using my Taylor's ES2 sytem into the FM3.
 
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