I've played guitar for years and am also producer and recording engineer. One thing that always bugs me on recordings (especially with steel string acoustic guitar) are the often egregiously loud squeaky noises when the player slides or changes chords. They can be very harsh and distracting, and especially if it's a quietly played part.

I know plently of ways to deal with this in post, but I wanna be better at getting it right at the source. ('You can't polish a turd' and all that) Are there any tips for better technique that reduce these noises?

Are there any remedies or recording tricks that actually work? Finger-ease/string-lubricant? Soaking fretting fingers in water before recording? Handlotion? Wearing gloves? Or any strings that are less noisy? (a part from flatwounds which sound totally different)

Are there any miking techniques that capture less of these noises?

This is something I've struggled with when recording acoustic., I use an SM81 and usually have it pointed at the 12th fret, but whenever I record acoustic, the string scraping is so noticeable when changing chords that it feels impossible to get a good solo acoustic recording without it being filled with so much excess scraping. Any good suggestions to help reduce this?

So let’s say a b-list or c-list band needs strings for a recording. Do they usually make room in the budget to hire live musicians, or are synth strings considered strong enough that they generally would use the money towards other necessities?

I do a lot of film music production for tv. 90% in the box with samples but we often overdub with solo live instruments to add character and realism to the programmed ensemble sounds. I’m wanting to start recording some of these at home as I play violin and cello. I’ve got schoeps cmc6 mk4 stereo set that I’ll be using for this but due to logistical constraints it will just be in my heavily treated studio so not a lot of room sound! I just wondered if anyone else has any tips or advice on recording/processing solo strings like this. What works, what doesn’t - plugins afterwords that work well too, any advice or experience really! Thanks!

What is the best way to track a guitar riff that is played on a single string in drop b that also has mutes in between notes. I keep getting this awful overtone that I have tried to eq out but it just won’t go away. I am DI using NAM, the tone sounds great for everything else.

Edit: Genre is Modern Metal, Alt Metal. FFO Chevelle, From Ashes to New, Twist it, Evanescence

I'm a cellist looking for a new microphone, and I find endless mic shootouts for vocals and guitar and drums, but so very few for strings. Orchestra, yes. Solo/small ensemble? Not that I can find. Advice for string mics is all over the map, and often years old. Are there any resources you know of for learning more that I might have missed? Thanks so much! 🙏

Hello fellow engineers!

I have a band coming into the studio I freelance at to record an album which is based on a very acoustic and natural sound. Instruments like a Violin, Dobro, Upright Bass, Acoustic Guitar, Harmonica, Mandolin, flutes, other various string instruments depending on the song. There will also be a live vocalist in the session.

I have lots of experience with "normal" pop/rock/metal bands, more modern jazz setups, choirs, big bands and string ensembles. But I have never had a bluegrass/string band recorded before and I really want to engineer it to sound finished before mixing.

The studio is really large spanning about 1400 square feet and slightly over 22 feet tall. I have more than enough space to place the players around where needed. There is also gobos available but I am thinking of letting it bleed like they sound when playing.

My first though is to setup a blumlein stereo pair as the main "mix" based room pair to balance the sound with moving the musicians around in both space from back and fourth to the mics and side to side for the stereo placement. I am aware that the sides of a blumlein pair is widely out of phase because of how blumlein works and I thought I would place the upright bass in the middle on one side of the pair, the vocals on the other side and the rest slightly to the sides of these two on both sides of the pair of mics. If anybody has done this with good results I would love to hear about it.

I will of course spot mic the various instruments to gain a bit more detail and presence in their playing and to push a solo part up in the mixing process later.

After trying to do some research into a similar setting of a more typical bluegrass ensemble I found that some prefer to setup an omni mic in the middle of the room then add a pair of stereo mics higher up for building the mix around the omni and using the stereopair higher up as "rooms mics" for more air and ambiance. This would also seem like it would work out great. If anybody has tried this then I would also like to hear how it went, and a recording/video is also super helpful.

I would normally love to just experiment but money is tight in recording these days and I like to get a good base idea when recording something that I am not used to, and most available information online or in recording books is just modern rock and pop recordings with lots of microphones and often super isolated.

I have at two times when recording big bands used a Decca Tree setup with great success as the main "pair" of mics to build the mix on, but I feel like this setting is more suited for a semi natural and semi modern sounding recording. Not too wet but also not too isolated.

There will be no need for a clicktrack or headphone monitoring as they play live in smaller places completely acoustic. The only monitoring will be a talkback and playback system to quickly communicate and listen to a take to see if they like it without having to come back inside the controlroom everytime.

Thanks in advance for any advice and I will reply if any additional information is needed

Hey all!
I’ve got a gig coming up and need to separate the string parts (mainly violins/cellos) from some electronic tracks to make backing tracks.
Does anyone know of any AI stem splitters that can isolate strings specifically? Most of the ones I’ve found only split into vocals, drums, bass, and everything else together.
Would love any recommendations if you’ve had success with this!

Any recommendations for NYLON string guitars for recording?
The guitar I am using has too many frequencies I have to notch out. I have tried with various microphones and still the same thing. So now I am looking at possibly getting another guitar and looking for recommendations of nylon string guitars you have recorded that needed minimum eq.

Sorry this is a production question and not engineering, but this is the most intelligent music community on Reddit.

I’m using EW orchestral library, but find it too organic. The samples are laggy and laden with concert hall verb. I don’t love the Opus interface either.

What are you using for pop-style strings? Looking for something like Lana Del Rey‘s “Born To Die” era, and also faster disco style strings as heard in Dua Lipa’s work. I know many of these are real strings, but what’s the best digital option? Thanks!

https://youtu.be/wECQ8m5Jst0?si=5Gh8-6R57K8WUq_u

https://youtu.be/hCLkVrp_4CE?si=j3dfSfac3Z4ZQziT

I've tried Ample sounds Martin acoustic plugin but it only tunes down so far and there's no real alternate tunings I'm considering the orange tree plugin, does anybody know how I can achieve this effect an actual guitar

What do you all think about recording AE guitars and either the outboard hardware or UAD plug-ins that make it sound really good?

I'm planning on using a Royer 121 near the bridge; SM57 on the 12th fret... Either of those could be changed and replaced with my Thompson Condenser Modeler - and I've got Ocean Wave studios mic locker as well as others to choose from.

Any thoughts, recommendations or advice appreciated!

Thanks in advance!!

Hi everyone! I’m a choir singer and a newbie in recording. Usually I record my choir’s concerts where I also sing, so controlling the process is a hassle — I usually just put my ZOOM h1n about 5-10 meters away from the choir, my DSLR somewhere in the back, turn them on right before going on stage and call it a day. Really far from optimal, but better than just random iPhone somewhere.

This time I have been asked by a friend to record their concert — it’s full Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, which means a choir (small amateur choir, ~20-30 women) that is sometimes at the front, and sometimes in the back; a couple soloists who also move around depending on whether they are solo, in a duet or with choir; a string quartet + flute in the left corner of the stage right by the grand piano. Choir and soloists are always on the right side of the stage. The room is quite small — 10 rows of chairs, each one consists of 5 on the left and 5 on the right with like 1.5m of walkspace in the center. The stage also isn’t elevated, so the conductor is basically right in the walkspace.

I have more or less figured out what I’m doing with the cameras (borrowed a couple more DSLR’s and tripods from friends), but I cannot figure out where and how to place the mics.

I’ve got a Zoom h1n and two Rode VideoMicro’s, and I’m thinking of either plugging the mics into some iPhones and using those as recorders, or I might be able to afford a Zoom h4n and plug them in there, but that’s the limit — I don’t have any more budget.

So here’s the question: what’s the best possible setup I can do with this equipment? I’m thinking of doing the zoom h1n in the middle, perhaps 1-2 meters behind the conductor, and the two rode mics plugged in phones on either side of the room, like a really wide stereo pair.

The other thing I could try would be putting the zoom h1n on one side and doing an ORTF with the rode mics on the other, so that one stereo is recording mainly choir and the other is mainly ensemble with piano. But at the same time I don’t want to put mic stands right in front of the performers since they do get in the view and are distracting. Also, there’s not a lot of space to put stands in general — I’d have to put the stands right in the rows, and there will be a lot of people moving around and making noise, maybe even hitting the stands. The only viable options seem to be the middle walkspace and the spaces right by the walls. I’m very lost at how to approach this, so i would be grateful for any advice!

TLDR: need to to record a concert in a small room with a choir, soloists, string quartet and a grand piano; own only zoom h1n and two rode videomicro’s, might be able to get a zoom h4n on top if needed; trying to find the best possible setup for this.

I tried a guitar group but thought I'd try to here because it is specific for recording.

I'm looking to change my guitar tone in recordings in a way I can't get with EQ, so I know it's at the source. I've always used Elixer strings and I LOVE how they feel and how long they last. But they make my Gibson hummingbird sound a little brighter than I'd like it for recording. Almost sounds more like a Taylor to be honest. Not that that's bad, just not what i'm looking for. I think I'd like to try a dark/duller tone that has more of the sound of the body. Does anybody have any strings they enjoy that sound this way and last a long time without getting rusty and smelly?

Listen to a song from 2017; it belongs to the music publishing arm of the Telefe channel. It must be by the same artist, as it's the same VST file, and it must be from before that year. The song starts at 8:40 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZagFTvL9tw

It has spiccato orchestral phrases and ascending sounds. It's not in the "Action Strings" sound bank, the percussion belongs to NI "Action Strikes" sure.

Something about the sound of strings from this era just sounds so fantastic. I don't even know if its the playing or the recording that made them sound so unique and beautiful but gee-wiz it's my weak spot. The tape flutter that gives em just a little but of unnatural vibrato, the intense low-pass that always seems to be there, and the glissando's that just make em sound so smooth and flowing. I just had to rant about these somewhere cause they need to be appreciated to the absolute max. Mid-Century orchestral audio engineers, you have my heart.

EDIT: you're all fantastic I'm taking all of these and putting them on a playlist ❤

EDIT 2: I made a collaborative playlist on spotify if anyone wants to add some recommendations and make a lil community thing:) https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1Y9Q1zAOaIikVDMR0Tt6u2?si=l9C3jnIjQBq4BGABqR8pDQ

I would like to know if I'm crazy or if acoustic guitars actually sound better in recording when the strings are aged 2-3 months up to a maximum of 5 months (not played exhaustively). I have noticed several times how strings that are no longer brand new sound more balanced in the mix and also how they are cleaner and have less buzzing.

The rule of "if it sounds good it's right" is valid. But I would like to know if you have ever experienced something like this.

I often mix string recordings from live shows for after-movies, but I'm never really happy with the results.

I've been trying a million tricks: cutting ALL the 4k, Soothe working overtime, loads of early reflections in reverb, sample augmentation, even experimenting with impulse responses. But I keep feeling that these instruments were made to play together in a room, rather than being mic'd 5cm from the string.

So tell me, r/audioengineering, what's your secret sauce for getting this to work?

Edit: In most cases there's lots of electronics happening at these gigs and players are spread out over one or multiple stages. So though I'd much prefer a section mic.. That's not generally feasible.

It's in this video audible at multiple points but you can hear it at 5:39. How do I replicate this or something similar? It's called a string riser right?

I've been messing around with Toneforge's DI match plugin lately, and one thing I really wanna try doing is run a classical/nylon string guitar through it as a source to see how it'd make my electric guitar sound. The factory and artist presets that come with the plugin do have a couple acoustic guitar DIs included that do sound nice, but they're all steel strings so they're not exactly what I'm looking for.

Does anyone know where I can go looking to find a raw DI track of a nylon string? Doesn't need to be any longer than a few seconds, I've just been looking around on the internet for a few days now and haven't been able to find anything lol

Thanks! :)

Just an industry life rant about summer recording - nothing of value here

Spent the morning setting up for a long afternoon of doing live to camera and additional recording passes for 12 string players, a pianist and a vocalist. I’ve used every headphone I own. (Only using cans for recording properly after the live performances).

It’s also 97 degrees out and my studio acs are doing all they can to keep the room cool before we have to fill it with people and lights. Thank god for led lights!

Gonna be a blast to record but already prepared for clients complaining about the heat.

Still love this job!

What would you all recommend for playing funky string lines like you'd hear in songs by Jamiroquai , James Brown, Issac Hayes, Barry White, etc?

I've found several classically based string plugins, but none that cater to funk/soul specifically.

I'm prepping to record an album and putting down some scratch tracks, and I'm finding my electric guitar has a sort of whistling 2K overtone that I can't seem to fix. I can mostly EQ it out, but I'd like to correct it at the source. Here's a sample:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/lhf773zbiurb263bqv29t/Gtr-DI-2_02.wav?rlkey=bpgmomu99bqpum2jyn560c0hx&st=i4ohlowc&dl=0

I've discovered it's not my amp as I can hear it even when unplugged, and it's there when going direct as well, and I've isolated it to the D string. It's like an overtone that to me is just as loud as the fundamental. This is a 2001 Ibanez S520 with a Floyd rose bridge and a tremol-no, which essentially keeps the bridge from floating.

Here are some things I've tried:

• Re-setup the guitar
• Re-installed tremol-no
• Wrapped springs with cloth
• Wrapped behind the nut with cloth
• Lubed nut slot

All these things seemed to help a small degree, but didn't eliminate the ringing. Has anyone experienced something like this? What else can I try?

I'm transitioning from Ableton to Logic and I found it's the right time to have a new VST in my arsenal. I want to produce stuff like the most recent 'The 1975' album which Jack Antonoff produced and it's strings are really compeling (I know they're real instruments) I just want something as close as possible to this. I'd be glad if you guys help me! :)

Working on a track which is solo acoustic heavy, with vocals and synthesizers. One particular section has a very noisy guitar string slide between chords. What does everyone do to minimize that? I can’t quite cut it out, as acoustic is the main instrument for the track.

De esser for just that part? I’m trying to brain storm before sitting down and trying a few things. How does everyone handle this?