Help with recording volume of an acoustic guitar

McClaneonfire · 2022-03-11T20:56:03+00:00

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Hello to the community,

When I record an acoustic guitar the volume is quite low.

I use a Yamaha USB Mixer / Interface (MG10XU) with a Mic suitable for acoustic recordings.

The thing is, the Yamaha Level knob is at 3/4 plus the Gain knob, too. I hear the guitar well volume-wise via headphones but the recorded result/volume in Maschine is reeeeally low.

Anyone who has experience with using external recorded audio-material?

Good dive into the weekend 🤘

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Maschine Mikro MK3

Accepted answers

McClaneonfire

Ouké this seems the way:

leveling down the volume of the Drums and Synth etc. works - until their level is lining up with the recorded acoustic guitar 😬

#Mixer #Audiointerface #Volume #Recording

three_eyed_otter

Start with mic placement...If the gain is already dimed (3/4 is pretty close) then there is not much more gain to be had no matter what instrument you're recording. I'll assume your mic is a mic that requires phantom power & you have that "on" in the mixer. Hopefully, you're not using a dynamic mic, as they are not good for recording low volume acoustic instruments, e.g., acoustic guitar. Ignore the headphone volume, you need to pay attention to the meters when setting the recording volume; the headphones have their own amp unrelated to the recorded signal. You're looking for a recording volume in the range of -12 to -18 dB at 24 bit sample rate.

Recording acoustic guitar can be really fun because you can get creative with mic(s) placement...It also a very challenging instrument to record because so many factors (ex. picking styles, string guage, chords vs. arpeggios, mic placement, etc.) have an impact on the volume of the original signal. I'm not sure if your mixer has it, but some lite compression on the recording signal might help. Ultimately, you want the best recorded signal before having to make adjustments in Maschine; the rule is "garbage in, garbage out," (GIGO) vs. "golden in, golden out," GIGO.

Have a good one,

3EO

All comments

ShelLuser

What do you consider "really low", could you give us some numbers?

Usually this doesn't have to be too big of a problem as long as the audio is still audible. In the end you can always use some mixing & mastering techniques to get your levels back on track. Of course it does depend on the kind of ranges we're talking about.

McClaneonfire

Well low as in "not saturated and leveled with a drumkit or synth from maschine". When playing along to a drumkit + synth with the acoustic guitar it records way to low. I have to normalize the sample, then put 3 plugins over it to highten the volume - is that the usual way to go?

Or do I need something like a Mic-Pre-Amp to solve this?

McClaneonfire

Uuuuh I just found out that this put the volume behaviour a good step up:

Bildschirmfoto 2022-03-11 um 22.31.34.jpg

McClaneonfire

Ah no, that just reversed / influenced the way pressing the Mikro MK3 Pads:

when pressing soft it now plays loud (standard is soft=quite / the harder the louder).

As you see I'm new to all of this and find out things every moment 😬

McClaneonfire

Ok I found out there are several ways with plugins like EQ or just in the Sound / Group to raise the Gain / Volume.

Bildschirmfoto 2022-03-13 um 10.45.58.jpg

Maybe this is helpful for others Newbees getting started when recording an acoustic instrument like a guitar.

I still wonder why the sound via Direct Monitoring from the Yamaha Mixer over Headphones is way "thicker" and saturated than afterwards when playing the recorded sound. The guitar sounds like recorded with my Smartphone 🤔

Is this a result of my Yamaha Mixer, as it is not that expensive (Preamps quality)? The Mic itself should not be the issue, it is very expensive and - yes I know not a good combo...

Would sound results be better with an external Preamp?

McClaneonfire

Ouké this seems the way:

leveling down the volume of the Drums and Synth etc. works - until their level is lining up with the recorded acoustic guitar 😬

#Mixer #Audiointerface #Volume #Recording

three_eyed_otter

Have a good one,

3EO

McClaneonfire

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/9202#Comment_9202

Thanx for the input!

Phantom power is on and it's a condensor mic :)

After turning all levels down (drum synths etc.) and leaving the guitar sound untouched levelwise the Master Meter is at -1,5 (~10 to -1,5 dB):

Bildschirmfoto 2022-03-13 um 15.53.11.jpg

I'll try out more with mic-placement and the compressor-knob I never used so far

AlexBuga

What I noticed with Maschine MK3 and + (they use the same internal audio interface as far as I can hear), is that the recorded volume needs normalizing almost every time.

It does this even when I record synths via USB like the Dirtywave M8 and OPZ.

It probably leaves headroom and thus you need a really hot signal.

I recently bought an AKG C1000S phantom powered (with batteries) condenser mic. Hoping it will have a strong enough signal for Maschine+ input, but it's super weak. If I don't slap a compressor on the channel I can barely hear it while monitoring.

McClaneonfire

In my case while monitoring the sound is really good but the recorded sound is low low low. This is the case when recording an acoustic guitar and also when recording internal Maschine sounds. It always needs normalizing and putting plugins over it etc.

Maybe I'll have to use a real DAW for it... don't have one yet. For now I use Maschine standalone.

McClaneonfire

@AlexBuga maybe you can raise the Sound or Group Level:

I lowered every Group Level like Drums and Synths and then leveled the weak-leveled recorded acoustic guitar accordingly. That works. Still it is not the nice saturated monitoring sound in my case but well it seems to be the only way.

AlexBuga

The thing in my case is that if I raise the level, I get noise.

Tried today to use the OPZ MIC via USB. It's a better solution for me for recording shakers and stuff. The OPZ has a decent mic

FreddyMatthewsArtist

I am following this and will provide an answer if I find one! (besides the answers mentioned above - the reason those are not satisfactory is because normalizing is an additional step that tends to bring up the noise floor with it and unwanted noise; also, lowering everything down does not make a whole lot of sense because I am trying to get everything recorded around -20 db to -12db max and that is already kind of 'low' in volume. I should be able to get everything balanced and have the resultant output be similar to my monitoring / input amplitude.)

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