I'm mixin an EP of a friend of mine and there was this song which hosted a very nice acoustic guitar theme. music is overally a nice blend of 70% of electronics + a 30% of pure acoustic instruments
but this theme wasn't sounding like a full - warm acoustic guitar like he wanted to
it was stuck pretty much in the mid-high mid range (the bulk of the business was around 1500/2000..very few natural body...very few natural sizzlings)
I thought he made some creepy cut/boost during recording so I suggested to re-record it here in my studio...it definitely needed a grand pure sound..tweaking the EQ for a drastic recovery it's my fav sport
so he came in - I placed the mics - he sat and started recording
that damn mid range was still there.
bare in mind
- he was playing a martin which tends a bit too much towards the mids
- the theme itself has no bass line since there's a synth bass. so it tends to "start" from the low mids upwards..
but there was a total LACK sizzling higs you expect from acoustic guitar strings..
so I gave him my guitar. it surely sounds warmer I said.
hit rec..
again that mid range. creepy.
so I went into the booth and asked him to play the beginning looped while I radically moved the mics around the body looking for the body-sizzling thing
no trace. it was midrange ev-where. I mean sound was changing- but the mids were the kings.
I was impressed. very first time.
we tried two different guitars (one's another martin that sounds extremely good)..
nope..mids still ruling the class
couldn't get why.
then I thought about a friend of mine who owns pretty soft nails and he told me that yep his nails were much harder than his ones
then I had a glimpse
so I asked him: "let me play that first part myself"
the mics were in same exact position of course and guitar was the same
I recorded that and bum!
it was sounding like a "regular" woody warm sizzling guitar
so I asked him to re-record and payed extra care to his position from the mics to match with mine
and bum!
mid range again.
so I came to the conclusion that
nails hardness can let a guitar sound TERRIBLY different.
I thought there were differences among nails of course. but I never expected to be this evident.
how evident?
come here and listen
http://www.divshare.com/download/10762510-bcf
there's a little player to listen the sample on the spot
guitar: the same
position: the same ( I paid extra care to match the exact position but there might be some veeeery minor differences .. but I don't think they can justify such a timbre change...I've been recording since 10 years but never exeperienced such thing so far)
order of appeareance
1st that's me
2nd that's him
I also think that what makes this so evident here it's a combination of both nails and the range where the theme actually takes place..
so to speak his nails kind of make this theme more "resonant"...
but take this like you would take somebody else's "feel" or perception
I wanted share and discuss this interesting discovery with you boyz