Troubleshooting Acoustic Guitar Recordings: Techniques and Solutions

Mike Senior's Expert Tracking & Mixing Tips

Mike Senior delves into some of the most common troubleshooting tasks when dealing with acoustic guitar recordings at mixdown, and shares his own favourite processing fixes.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction

01:13 - Unwanted subsonics

04:16 - Undesirable resonances

08:20 - Pick noise

10:34 - Fret noise

12:35 - Overbearing percussive components

14:32 - Conclusion

Credits
This month's episode features audio examples from the following productions:

* Ben Carrigan: 'We'll Talk About It All Tonight'

http://www.bencarrigan.com/

Download the full raw multitracks from https://cambridge-mt.com/ms/mtk/#BenCarrigan

* The Wrong'uns: 'Rothko'

https://myspace.com/wronguns

Download the full raw multitracks from https://cambridge-mt.com/ms/mtk/#WrongUns

Read about my mix of this project in Sound On Sound's March 2013 'Mix Rescue' column at https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/mix-rescue-wronguns

* Tom McKenzie: 'Directions'

https://tommckenzie.bandcamp.com/

Download the full raw multitracks from https://cambridge-mt.com/ms/mtk/#TomMcKenzie

Read about my mix of this project in Sound On Sound's April 2013 'Mix Rescue' column at https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/mix-rescue-tom-mckenzie

* Fergessen: 'Nos Palpitants'

http://www.fergessen.fr/

Download the full raw multitracks from https://cambridge-mt.com/ms/mtk/#Fergessen

* Qupe: 'Ayni Nehirde'

Download the full raw multitracks from https://cambridge-mt.com/ms/mtk/#Qupe

* The Long Wait: 'Dark Horses'

http://thelongwait.com/

Download the full raw multitracks from https://cambridge-mt.com/ms/mtk/#LongWait

* Bolz & Knecht: 'Summertime' & 'Matteo'

http://www.bolzundknecht.de/

Download the full raw multitracks for 'Summertime' from https://cambridge-mt.com/ms/mtk/#BolzKnecht

Read about the recording sessions for 'Summertime' in Sound On Sound's August 2018 'Session Notes' column at https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/session-notes-recording-acoustic-guitar-duo

Mike Senior Biog

Mike Senior is a professional audio engineer, regular SOS contributor, and author of the best-selling books Mixing Secrets For The Small Studio & Recording Secrets For The Small Studio. He runs the Cambridge-MT educational resources site (including the web's largest free multitrack download library) and hosts two monthly independent podcasts, Project Studio Tea Break and the Cambridge-MT Patrons Podcast.

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts