how to record.nylon string guitar

how do i it?
\M/(*-+)
gs2112

like a steel string acoustic guitar I would imagine..

microphone?

well i tried a microphone,but the volume of my playing is low.How do you record a steel.string?is there any suggestions on recording a low volume.instrument sound?

M/(*-+)
gs2112

turn up the gain on the mic or put a pick up in the sound hole. There are pickups that can be inserted into the sound hole as a temporary clip arrangement and there are pickups that can be mounted into the guitar as a more permanent solution.
this will give you an idea http://accessories.musiciansfriend.com/product/Fishman-ProNeoD01-Magnetic-Soundhole-Pickup?sku=303160
Phip

i cant afford a acoustic p-up,all i have is a condenser mic,can i put the mic inside the guitar?

a condenser can pick up anything, your either using it wrong or its broken. That being said classicals are not relatively loud enough when playing with other louder instruments and would need it's own mic, but by its self or with other relatively equal there should be no problem. Also a electromagnetic pickup wouldn't work it's nylon.

What is a good distance to keep the mic away from the soundhole to make up for the lack.of.volume of my classical?

NOOO no soundhole,you want 2 mics,condensers,or even 3

1 facing the 12 fret

another 1 in the edge of the soundhole

and maybe another one over your shoulder facing the guitar

hell yeah

well um,i have one condenser,where would be the best place for it,god,recording is my achilles heel >.

well regardless of sound recording techniques condenser mic are powerful mics. With a the right directional mic (talking shotgun here) you can here a conversation from across an auditorium so again classical are not too quite for the mic.

I don't mean to insult (I don't know what you know so I'm covering all grounds) but condenser mic need phantom power do you have that on. Also, condensers need better preamp than your dynamics so check to make sure you got a pre-amp that can actually handle it. Also, like phip said you have the gain up all the way and still nothing?

Basically,its a condenser mic,plugged straight into my laptop,into audacity software,it picks ups the sound,but when i listen back,it comes out like a very faint sound.I used some.volume increasing software(ie gain) and as i raise the volume of it with gain it becomes distorted,the mic picks up electric guitar,bass,keys,even vocals fine,but the nylon,nope nothing.I.got the mic.about 12-6 inches away from the 12 fret.could my mic placement be the problem?maybe the guitar is just too quiet?

btw,no offense takin,im here too learn,ill take all advice criticism in stride,after all it is you who is helping me,and being immune to my ignorance.
M/(*-+)
gs2112

Are you sure audacity is set to use the condenser mic not just the mic thats in the computer?

As RA said condenser mics need phantom power, basically condensers like EMGs are active meaning they need power going into the circuit.

What EMGs do is pick up the signal at a very low level and then use power going into the circuit from your 9v battery to amplify the signal, and I think it's the same with your mic. It needs phantom power to amplify the signal it outputs.

Now I have an alesis multimix 8 with phantom power and I plug things that require phantom power into it via an XLR lead turn phantom power on then record, I do think when recording DI you need something between the computer and the input to give phantom power to the input that being my mixer in the example here.

Hope this helps, any more questions just ask.

EDIT: also check input volume of the mic sometimes I find mines down at 0.3 if so turn it up to about 0.8 and adjust from there if need be. (Reason I do this is because my mic when turned up to 1 clips any louder sounds so I turn it down to a point were no clipping occurs).

@bb yes,it is.

@dm what could i plug my mic into for the suggested phantom power?

first can you post what mic it is?

Two, the one thing with condensers is their not good with pressure, so don't put them in right front of a amp as the pressure will break them (or anything with high air pressure). their much better catching ambiance with amps. Put the dynamic mic up against the amp and the condenser back. That being said if you did this the mic would have broke completely (no sound at all) if it broke at all, so I don't think that what would have happened, I just read condenser and amp and cringed and thought I should throw this out.




yeah this is correct some pc condenser come with a batteries others you need some preamp to get it working. I don't think a usb can supply the power. I could be wrong as I have only dealt with some short of interface never direct.


http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/product/M-Audio-Audio-Buddy-2-Channel-Preamp?sku=701104

I just type in phantom power and this came up. I don't know if this is good or not you have to do the searching. I don't even think is has usb so it wouldn't work for you. This is just to show you what we are talking about.

no it's the mic and the mics set up with your DAW. Condenser's are powerful like I said I could be whispering and if you set it up right it would sound like I'm yelling.

well,i got some good advice here,thanks guys,maybe ill go tinker and see what happens.

\M/(*-+)
GS2112

@GS You can't get phantom power from a usb I don't think you need something between it.

Also if you can't don't use gain to amplify the signal, boost the channel volume or check the options for editing sound to find an amplify. My guitar teacher records his guitar stuff fairly quietly so as to avoid clipping etc and then uses his software to boost it a decibel or two.

Its not a usb xp,its a plugin that sort of resembles a headphone jack,my comp accepts it so idk.

Ah well I'm 99.9% sure no plugs you can put a mic into on a pc have phantom power.

If I were you I'd try my suggestion of amplifying the sound via the channel volume or built in editing of sound clips and avoid gain. Think about it like a guitar the volume knob will get you louder than the gain knob while preserving the quality of the sound to a greater degree.

hmm good point ill tinker
XD

Ive recorded 2 albums using only my nylon string guitar. Its a yamaha CGX 171 SCF which has a very powerfull pickup system build in.

You must look into investing in a mbox mini which is not so expensive. It has guitar jack input and phantom power mic inputs. I have the bigger version for studio recording purposes and i got protools with it.

I use the guitar jack for my pickup and cond mic for sound hole and i record them both in multi stereo tracks to get a nice full sound.

You cant get Phantom power just by plugging your mic into your computer it makes no sense. . .