Thanks Trond. I was running the guitar through a multi fx that included reverb, delay, and chorus. Plus another fx from a TC Electronics pedal called Bodyrez which works to improve the tone of an acoutstic guitar being picked up by a built-in piezo pickup, which tends to have a characteristic sound that most find less pleasing than the guitar heard acoustically.
For my taste I think adding a little of these fx helps improve the tone when using the built-in electronics.
It may have less benefit if you were recording/streaming the guitar using a mic and in a room with good acoustics. But I’ve found when recording my acoustic at home with a mic, it still makes it sound a little fuller to add reverb and delay.
In all cases I try to keep the degree of the fx to be enough that it sounds better if you turn the fx off but not so much that people will hear the fx in an obvious way. In recording speak, people refer to wet and dry where dry is the sound with no fx or processing and wet a processed sound. So what I want to avoid is feedback from @Richard_close2u that I have ‘drenched’ my guitar with fx
Of course it is all a matter of personal taste. So keep on with your experiments, learning what sounds good to your hears, exploring the capabilities of the amp.
You are probably right David you had an amazing sound on the OM, both vocal and guitar.
On my behalf. Were it all becomes a bit itchy. Is that, there is no way that amp is able to reproduce or make my guitar sound «better» than when its all accoustic. There is something that dissapears, the warm sound is gone. The cool boomy sound dissapears. its a pretty avarage pick up in my Martin. Fishman sonitone. Might have something to do with it.
That said. The phone is not able to pick up all the nuances in the sound from the guitar either when its accoustic.
But i have to mess around with it. Maybe i find the perfect setting and i think it sounds better than the guitar itself… doubt it though
You’re hitting the nail on the head, Trond. The built-in pickups are likely to be challenged to sound as good as the guitar acoustically (at least until you get to a certain quality level which often includes addition of a condensor mic inside the guitar body that is blended with the piezo).
Similarly the phone mic will probably also not do justice to your guitar as you hear it in the room.
You’ll get the best results using a condensor mic through an interface and into a DAW. For a good example of that you can listen to recordings made by @J.W.C. He records the guitar with a mic (sometimes 2), paying careful attention to mic placement, and the vocal with a mic, does some mixing in the DAW and produces wonderful sounding recordings.
Indeed, Trond, it can become quite an absorbing aspect. Microphones, interfaces, DAWs the art of music recording and production can be lots of fun but becomes as much to learn as playing and singing. I enjoy but it is not a necessity. And as it stands there’s nothing wrong with the recordings you’ve been making and sharing here.
@tRONd Personally, I much prefer the sound of a mic’d acoustic over the sound of the average internal pickup. However, with that said, some internal pickups produce better results than others. Out of my guitars, the best internal pickup I have is the one in my Martin OM-35E, which is a Fishman Aura VT Enhance. (I think it’s the “Enhance” part of that one that makes the difference.) Even with that one, I rarely use only the pickup sound; I often mix the sound of the internal pickup and a mic (or two).
You can also get a dedicated acoustic amp, which can make a big difference to the sound of an internal acoustic pickup. I have a Boss Acoustic Singer Live which is pretty good, but I think the best acoustic amps I’ve heard are from AER. (Just my opinion, of course.)
If you want to compare the sound from some of my recordings here are some representative samples:
The Ride (Internal pickup only for the guitar, but also picking up some guitar in the vocal condenser mic.)
Nobody Home (Two condenser mics on the guitar and also the internal pickup. Another condenser mic for the vocal.)
The Times They Are A’Changing (Two condenser mics on the guitar and also the internal pickup. Two vocal mics: a dynamic mic and a condenser mic.)
Is There Anybody Out There (Two condenser mics and the internal pickup. Notable because there’s no vocal so you can really hear the guitar.)
Motherland. (Two acoustic guitars. The “strumming” guitar is recorded with just the internal pickup. The “fingerstyle” guitar is recorded with two condenser mics.)
Nothing Compares 2U (When I originally posted this I said it the guitar was mic’d, but looking at the setup for the song in my DAW I think that’s mistaken. This looks like I recorded a “scratch guitar” track with the OM-35E’s internal pickup only, then doubled it in the DAW and ended up using the “scratch” guitar in the final mix. There’s also an electric guitar for the solo.)
Thinking about it, I usually prefer mic’ing the guitar, especially if it is front and center. But if there are more instruments in the mix I’m more willing to accept “just the internal pickup” for that song.
Yes, i would think that an amp for accoustic would allready help out on the sound.
The way i look at it for now is that amping up is nice if youre in a noisy enviroment and need some more volume.
I will check out the links you sent me. Thanks a lot.
You’re welcome. (And my apologies for dumping a bunch of my recording links in your thread. I didn’t think about that when I made the post. If you’d rather not have them here I can remove them and send them in a private message.)
For me the mix level for the guitar is better and can hear it more clearly on this recording compared to dancing in the dark which is good. I’ll leave any more complicated technical and fx comments to others but it sounded good to me!
Hej Trond,
I’m going to go a bit against the grain here
Do I think the THR was a good buy for your acoustic?
Nah- not really.
You have a couple of beautiful guitars that I’m sure sound just gorgeous when you play them just by yourself. Can I hear a difference in your recordings with the amp and with increased fx? If I pay attention, yes. Does it sound ‘better’? Not really.
So far you have expressed little interest in sound (or image) manipulation to enhance the quality of performance, and I think you’re on the right track. Your posts are compelling because of the performance and connection.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m really glad you bought the THR and I have no doubt you will grow to love it and use it a lot. (In fact I wish I had bought your model).
It will come into its own when you start messing around with your first electric. Yes, when, not if. (Borrow one from a friend, just to have a test drive if you don’t believe me). You may well remain an acoustic dude for the rest of your days, but I’m pretty sure most of your heroes play electric and some day you’re just going to get too curious.
In the meanwhile, do play around with all the amp settings and try to get as much understanding of what does what. It’s fun and will make life easier down the road.
I would be surprised if you ever really plug your acoustic in just for the sound though.
Oh yes, nearly forgot. Two fab performances. I’m not a fan of the Boss’ dark dancing, but you put enough of a twist on it to make it quite tasty
I think you sums up everything i actually feel for this Brian
It is spot on on how i feel about the whole amp on acoustic thing. But yeah… i will probably go down the electric road, and then this amp is going to make sense…
That amp should be fine for an acoustic/electric. What am I missing? I use my Mustang I all the time with my acoustic guitars even though it doesn’t have an acoustic setting. I just bypass the pre-amp and use the power section of the amp – clean as a whistle. If I want to add FX, I use my pedal board.
It just sounds to me like the amp needs to be turned up a lot louder to accommodate the PC mic.
I have so many videos on my channel that I have done this with – that it would be a very long list.
I’m with @Bytron08 , never heard the original. But sounded great . I really liked the effects you added and how you played. Those hammer-on add a nice touch to the tune.
Hi Trond to me it sounded good with the FX applied, sort of created another dimension to your performance so I think keep at it and try to nail down your own tone that you dig all the best.
Brian has dept out what I was trying to say above, I was a bit careful because I forgot that you also go on the electric guitar tour,yes yes … amplified without effects you could also try ,just because it’s possible…but I do like the way you play and sing along without the effects so far…The songs you bring…we have a saying…a good wine does not need a wreath…
you had an amazing sound on the OM, both vocal and guitar.
Appreciate it!
. I really liked the effects you added and how you played. Those hammer-on add a nice touch to the tune.
all the best.
… amplified without effects you could also try ,just because it’s possible…but I do like the way you play and sing along without the effects so far…The songs you bring…we have a saying…a good wine does not need a wreath…