Tracking Acoustic Guitar? Lot’s of ways to do it.
Start with mono. Use a large diaphragm condenser or ribbon mic 1 foot away from the guitar pointed at the 12th fret or below. Boom.
Next- Let’s go stereo with an XY technique. Put two identical large diaphragm condenser mics 90 degrees from each other pointed at the 12th fret or lower. How wide do you want the stereo image? The further away the mics are from the source, the wider the image. Careful.... don’t go too far- the image will wash together with the room reflections.
Let's go Einstein with the mid-side technique. Take 2 condenser mics that have pattern selectors. Put them in the exact same spot one on top of the other. Set the first to cardiod pointed right at the sound source. Set the second to a figure 8 pattern and turn it 90 degrees so it records the sound on both sides. Record both. Here’s the trick. Make a copy of the figure 8 mic track and invert the phase… so you wind up with 3 tracks to mix. Pan the original figure 8 mic hard left, and pan the phase-inverted track hard right. Salt all three tracks to taste when you mix. And like Dave Jerden says, “The result is just gigantic”.
Six skinny little strings against one good engineer is no contest. Now go punch in that guitar.
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