Solving Acoustic Guitar Recording Challenges

Overcome common problems when recording and get cleaner, more professional sounding tracks

Playing the acoustic guitar can be a lot of fun, but in some ways it can be more challenging than playing electric guitar, and some of these unique challenges really rear their heads when you sit down to record an acoustic. But fear not - there are ways of handling those challenges that will result in much cleaner and more professional sounding acoustic tracks.

Headphone bleed - I've run into this more than a few times; especially with players who like to have the click screamingly loud in their headphones, or who just love loud monitoring levels in general. The key tool that will help you out here is going to be a pair of sealed-back headphones with excellent isolation. The Direct Sound Extreme Isolation EX-29, Sennheiser HD280 and KRK KNS 8400 headphones all perform admirably in this department. It will also help if you can avoid turning them up any louder than absolutely necessary. Still having issues with bleed? Try using a pair of in-ear headphones (earphones) - the kind you insert into and that seal around the ear canal - and then wearing a pair of unplugged isolating headphones or even shooter's ear muffs over those. This can reduce the amount of bleed the microphones will pick up while still giving you very loud monitoring levels if needed.

External noise interference - Unless you're lucky enough to live in a very quiet location, or have a well soundproofed room, sounds emanating from outside of your studio can often cause problems and interfere with what you're trying to record inside of it. You may not notice the sound of traffic outside when recording a loud electric guitar amp, but with the mic preamp gain cranked up to record your fingerstyle acoustic guitar part, you'll be surprised by just how much it can bleed through your walls and invade your tracks. You can modify your room, but reducing outside sounds that enter your space usually involves making the room airtight and increasing the mass of the room's surfaces, and that can be very costly, not to mention entirely out of the question in most cases for renters. Instead you might want to consider moving to a different room in the house that's further away from the noise source, reschedule your tracking session to a time when those interfering outside sounds aren't happening, or even relocating to a different place for tracking.

Finger squeaks - Nothing is quite as distracting as a gratingly loud finger squeak right in the middle of your delicately fingerpicked breakdown section. While nothing will eliminate squeaks entirely (and leaving some of the less obtrusive squeaks in the final mix may even add to the naturalness of the recording) Finger-ease, coated strings and talcum powder are the three biggest tools available to help combat them. You can also work on your playing technique to help minimize them, but that's a more long-term proposition. Using coated strings can help reduce squeaks, and so can applying a bit of Finger-Ease or Fast Fret to the strings. Talcum power is another commonly used substance that, when applied to the players hands, can help minimize squeaks. I don't recommend using talcum powder and a product like Finger-Ease simultaneously though, as it can make a mess.

Phil O'Keefe is a multi-instrumentalist, recording engineer / producer and the Senior Editor of Harmony Central. He has engineered, produced and performed on countless recording sessions in a diverse range of styles, with artists such as Alien Ant Farm, Jules Day, Voodoo Glow Skulls, John McGill, Michael Knott and Alexa's Wish. He is a former featured monthly columnist for EQ magazine, and his articles and product reviews have also appeared in Keyboard, Electronic Musician and Guitar Player magazines.