Guitar Mic Comparisons

Finally, I have the audio files split and ready to go.

First of all I would like to thank my friend, Blair Turner, Canadian Board Chair of TLP Ministries for playing the guitar for me on these clips.

Here are 4 scenarios  I am demonstrating.

Your lead guitarist pick up is causing problems i.e. noisy, not working, poor sound quality.

You have run out of DI’s.

You only have a Dynamic mic.

You only have a Condenser mic.

 Obviously none are a major disaster – more of an annoyance.

In this first clip – the guitar is played with a pick and is using the pick up through a DI.

The next clip is the same piece with a SM 57 mic placed between the neck and the opening on the front of the guitar. It is placed half the diameter of the opening away from the strings. (This is  my preferred placement.)

There is very little  perceptible difference to hear.

Below is a screen shot of the two audio files from above.

The top file in the image is with the SM57 mic and the lower one is with the DI.  As you can see, there is a small difference between the two.

Next set up:

Comparing the difference between a Dynamic and a Condenser mic.

This clip is with a Dynamic mic using a SM57.

This clip is the same piece with a Condenser mic using a Rode NT3.

Here is the screen shot of the two files.

The top file is the Dynamic and the lower is the Condenser. As you can see the Condenser has more dynamic range.

The final comparison is to show you the difference between a Rode NT3 and a Behringer C-2 mic.

This is the C-2:

This is the NT3:

This is the screen shot

The upper file is the C-2.

The lower file is the NT3.

You can see and hear that there is little difference between the two.

To conclude: if you have to Mic an accoustic guitar I would use a Condenser if it is available but a Dynamic is still usable. Also, for a live application having a more expensive Condenser is not really necessary.