07-05-2014, 09:20 PM
I wouldn't want to record an acoustic guitar with BRAND new strings... a few days old to let them stretch and breathe a little...
The key to avoiding this is to avoid close micing the acoustic, but you have to have a superbly treated studio to get away with it. You don't hear the odd harmonics so much in a real space because the room bolsters the principal frequencies wherever the body resonance is drowning them out... and you also don't have to worry about the sound being channeled through two speakers when you're right in front of the guitar
If you ever want to test your guitar to figure out where the odd harmonics are on the spectrum, mic it up and try gently touching the strings somewhere around the ninth fret without putting any pressure on them, and pluck around until you hear the sour sounding natural harmonic ringing. It'll sound kinda quiet in person, but on the mic it'll be ugly for sure. At any rate, the spectrogram will pretty much show you what's going on.... some of that harmonic will be present in every note played beneath the ninth fret, most especially on the open G, B, and E strings. That oughta help you get any issues with your own recordings sorted out, at least.
And the verdict is in.. I'm a nurdosaurus.
The key to avoiding this is to avoid close micing the acoustic, but you have to have a superbly treated studio to get away with it. You don't hear the odd harmonics so much in a real space because the room bolsters the principal frequencies wherever the body resonance is drowning them out... and you also don't have to worry about the sound being channeled through two speakers when you're right in front of the guitar
If you ever want to test your guitar to figure out where the odd harmonics are on the spectrum, mic it up and try gently touching the strings somewhere around the ninth fret without putting any pressure on them, and pluck around until you hear the sour sounding natural harmonic ringing. It'll sound kinda quiet in person, but on the mic it'll be ugly for sure. At any rate, the spectrogram will pretty much show you what's going on.... some of that harmonic will be present in every note played beneath the ninth fret, most especially on the open G, B, and E strings. That oughta help you get any issues with your own recordings sorted out, at least.
And the verdict is in.. I'm a nurdosaurus.
I'm grateful for comments and suggestions. Thank you for listening!