Acoustic Guitar Micing, Pt. 2

There’s many different ways of micing an acoustic guitar, and we’re going through several different ones in this series. This is my setup of choice most often. It’s called the A/B setup, and it looks like this:

Here’s why this setup works so well.

Pros to the A/B recording setup

-Simple to set up.

-Easy to leave natural space in the middle of the stereo field, depending on how far apart you place the mics. This can be a nice touch when it comes time to mix.

-A mic setup that generally is flexible and easy to work with in the mix. It’s a setup that can work well when recorded close in, but also farther away.

-Because you don’t have to worry about lining up mic capsules quite as precisely, and placing mics very close together, it’s a bit more of a forgiving setup to work with.

-It’s easy to combine different types of mic designs together in complementary ways using this setup. A ribbon mic with a dynamic, a dynamic with a condenser, etc. If you want to learn more about different types of mic designs, we’ve got a whole series on this called Pro Mics for the DIYer.

Personally, I like to put a warmer sounding mic on the sound hole area, and a nice detailed mic pointing at the 12th fret to capture finger nuance.

You can reference the full series on acoustic guitar micing, for additional techniques that are useful for capturing this instrument.

I’ve got lots more tips like this, plus exclusive content not available publicly, over on my Patreon feed. THANK YOU PATRONS!