acoustic guitar sounds like an electric when recorded

goran1 · July 13, 2008, 9:33pm

hi there
I have a classical guitar with a pick up and Roland micro cube amp which is connected to my computer. when i record playing my classical guitar i can hear myself playing through my comp speakers and at that point everything seems to be fine. however, when I play the music I recorded, my guitar sounds like an electric, not acoustic guitar. It’s like playing classical music with a Gibson or Fender Strat, sounds strange. any idea how to fix that.
i also went to 'ACCESSORIES under windows programs, and then ENTERTAINMENT- and pulled up “sound recorder” which comes with the windows xp, and i recorded i few notes and I didn’t have that problem,
any suggestions greatly appreciated

thank you

steve · July 13, 2008, 9:38pm

Check the signal levels - all the way from the guitar to the computer, and from the computer to the speakers. It sounds like you have a level set too high somewhere which is causing distortion.

goran1 · July 13, 2008, 9:55pm

thanks for the reply. Are you talking about volume/gain levels on my guitar/amplifier? I lowered it and it didn’t help. While I am recording it it sounds fine, but when I play, it switches to an electric sound. it doesn’t sound distorted, the quality of the recording is very good, it 's just that it sounds like an electric guitar.
any other ides what it could be?
thank you very much

steve · July 13, 2008, 10:04pm

Can you upload a short sample to the internet and post a link. Only a couple of seconds are required, but if possible upload it as a wav file.

goran1 · July 13, 2008, 10:16pm

I am embaresed to say this, but I am not sure how to upload a sample. I do have a couple of wav files I recorded, any chance you could provide instractions how to upload it on the internet?
thank you very much

steve · July 13, 2008, 10:30pm

Register for an account here: http://mp3space.com/ (requires a valid e-mail address).
Confirm the account by e-mail.
Follow the instructions for uploading.
post the “direct link” address here.

This site is really for mp3’s, but it seems to work for wav files as well.

goran1 · July 13, 2008, 10:39pm

well, that was easy, thank you very much
here is the link

goran1 · July 13, 2008, 10:42pm

sorry, this is the link

http://mp3space.com/file/100851/wav-1

meaksy · July 14, 2008, 12:53am

Hi

Your guitar still sounds like a classical to me however i understand what you mean when you say it sounds like an electric. The equipment you play through will make a huge difference to how your guitar will sound. Playing through a small amp in my opinion never reproduces the sound as well as a larger amp, on top of this some guitar pickups in acoustics are pretty ordinary and are responsible for giving that mid frequency twang that turns the beautiful acoustic sound into a more electric sound. Remenber what you hear from your guitar has a natural resonance from the shape and texture of your guitar which is not translated through the pickup. The sound through the amp and pickup are essentially just electric signals hence the slighlty electric sound you hear.

As for your problem of it sounding fine when you record it and not when you play it, i beleive that is because you can still hear yourself playing it live. That is you are hearing a mix of what is coming out of the speakers and what is coming from your guitar. As you are probably more used to hearing your guitar without an amplifyer then your ears will autamatically select this “real” sound to listen to rather than what is comming through the speakers. So when you play it back through speakers or headphones you are only hearing what went through the amp into the computer not what you could hear from your guitar.

There are a couple of options to help with this.
Firstly you may need to play around with the eq to find the frequencies that are best suited to your instument and reduce the frequencies that are making your guitar “sound electric”. ie reducing some of the mid frequencies may help get rid of the hollow twang. You may wish to add some reverb also to help bring back a bit of the natural sound.

Secondly and a better option would be to record your guitar through a mic and get yourself a mixing desk. That way you will be recording what comes from your guitar and not your amp so technically the sound you hear recorded will be your guitar only and not influenced by the pickup or amp quality (however microphone quality will need to be taken into consideration.

Many recordings of acoustic guitars are recorded in stereo with one track coming from a mic and the other from direct input (ie through an amp or straight through a mixer) which are recorded simultaneously You can then mix the two tracks however you like to have 30%amp sound mixed with 70% mic sound for example. this would be my choice of recording if you dont have a fantastic mic.

Hope this helps,

Good luck

goran1 · July 14, 2008, 1:01am

meaksy:

Hi

goran1:

when i record playing my classical guitar i can hear myself playing through my comp speakers and at that point everything seems to be fine. however, when I play the music I recorded, my guitar sounds like an electric, not acoustic guitar

Your guitar still sounds like a classical to me however i understand what you mean when you say it sounds like an electric. The equipment you play through will make a huge difference to how your guitar will sound. Playing through a small amp in my opinion never reproduces the sound as well as a larger amp, on top of this some guitar pickups in acoustics are pretty ordinary and are responsible for giving that mid frequency twang that turns the beautiful acoustic sound into a more electric sound. Remenber what you hear from your guitar has a natural resonance from the shape and texture of your guitar which is not translated through the pickup. The sound through the amp and pickup are essentially just electric signals hence the slighlty electric sound you hear.

As for your problem of it sounding fine when you record it and not when you play it, i beleive that is because you can still hear yourself playing it live. That is you are hearing a mix of what is coming out of the speakers and what is coming from your guitar. As you are probably more used to hearing your guitar without an amplifyer then your ears will autamatically select this “real” sound to listen to rather than what is comming through the speakers. So when you play it back through speakers or headphones you are only hearing what went through the amp into the computer not what you could hear from your guitar.

There are a couple of options to help with this.
Firstly you may need to play around with the eq to find the frequencies that are best suited to your instument and reduce the frequencies that are making your guitar “sound electric”. ie reducing some of the mid frequencies may help get rid of the hollow twang. You may wish to add some reverb also to help bring back a bit of the natural sound.

Secondly and a better option would be to record your guitar through a mic and get yourself a mixing desk. That way you will be recording what comes from your guitar and not your amp so technically the sound you hear recorded will be your guitar only and not influenced by the pickup or amp quality (however microphone quality will need to be taken into consideration.

Many recordings of acoustic guitars are recorded in stereo with one track coming from a mic and the other from direct input (ie through an amp or straight through a mixer) which are recorded simultaneously You can then mix the two tracks however you like to have 30%amp sound mixed with 70% mic sound for example. this would be my choice of recording if you dont have a fantastic mic.

Hope this helps,

Good luck

thank you very much, this helps