I don’t got much to add and I’m by no means a pro at recording.
What I’ve found is that 1st, I’ve got two ways I can get my acoustic guitar onto my computer.
I’ve got a acoustic/elec. guitar, so I can plug my acoustic in. If I’m using the guitar plugged in I can use the pre amp eq on my guitar to adj. tone that I record. The tone controls on the guitar effect how the recording comes out. ie lots of treble, or lots of bass, or eq flat. This method to me has the most amount of me being able to control my tone.
Second way is to live mic my guitar. With this method I can’t control the guitar. But I can control how close to the mic my guitar is changing it’s tone via mic placement. Close to mic, or further away from mic.
Then, once my guitar is onto the daw. Then I have control over tone there also. I can add a 3 band eq to the track I’m working with on the daw I use. This 3 band eq will let me adj. bass, mid, treble and a few other things that I don’t even know what they do, so I just adj. treble up, if I want brighter tone, or treble down, bass up, if I want a darker tone. However I want to hear what I’ve recorded.
If ya want some effects on your guitar, ya can add them via the daw with either method of recording.
For the few recordings I’ve done of my acoustic, I’m liking live mic best for having my guitar sound like my guitar, but on a recording. I suppose ymmv on that though.
Like I said, I ain’t got much to add.
And I thought your recording sounded just fine for balance of tone of the guitar it self.
It was easier to hear the guitar by it’s lonesome.
When I record something, I too listen back w/headphones and w/speakers. The sound changes a bit from one playback method to the other, I think.
Sounds to me like your well on your way to recording a acoustic guitar to me. Yer tone sounds real good to me!
Sounded fine to me Rachel, you will only really tell when you’re accompanying yourself and maybe some extra backing. It’s all individual taste anyway but testing it out by posting it for critique is a sure fire way of getting an unbiased opinion.
As others have said, it sounds fine, Rachel, more than good enough to support you in your learning and to produce AVOYPs.
If you are recording into a DAW it may be worth adding an EQ plugin. The pros make EQing a track look easy, which of course it is not when getting started. You could try using an acoustic guitar preset and perhaps tweaking.
It would probably include a high pass filter. That is a filter that let’s sound above a certain frequency through (pass) and as such removes frequencies below. That can help remove some boomy low end, that sometimes may even be inaudible but still has an impact.
Another to try is a high shelf, which can boost the highest frequencies a little that adds a little air to the sound.
In between one can add boosts and cuts at various frequencies. I’m no expert hence starting with a preset on a decent EQ plugin.
Beyond that perhaps a hint of reverb in the DAW helps to give a more natural, in-the-room, sound rather than the direct sound from the electronics. We are used to hearing our acoustics in a room and I think we do notice something different, not so appealing when listening to a recording made with built-in electronics. You may have expressed that in asking if the recording was too bright.
Recording with a mic is almost certainly going to sound better once you have figured out how to position the mic. For learning purposes is the extra effort to set up a mic worth it. That I’m sure we can debate.
But as I say, quite fine as you have it until you get further down the road and begin to fuss about tone in recordings.
