I'm recording a guy who plays acoustic guitar and sings along. He's using an Ibanez PF5ecent acoustic electric that is plugged straight into my E-MU 1820m. Open chords sound fine and extremely round and perfect. When he plays power chords all I can hear is the god awful fret buzz. How should I tackle this problem, we can rerecord if need be. Micing isn't an option because the room sounds bad and the equipment isn't available. I have a parametric EQ on my computer that I can use if you can tell me where to boost and where to take out. Here's two clips, one of open chords, and one where the power chords sound bad. Thanks.
Good open chords (Misfits cover song "Skulls")
http://www.smilingfoe.com/Zeke_Berkley_-_Skulls.mp3
Bad Power Chord buzz
http://www.smilingfoe.com/guitar_test.mp3
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This one is one of my pet peaves as an engineer and musician. P
This one is one of my pet peaves as an engineer and musician. Pickups and internal electronics have a tendency to accentuate "the negative".
I agree with the other's. The guitar obviously needs a professional setup done. Also, the musician needs to focus on the guitar part on it's own and seperately; meaning, track the vocals seperate from tracking the guitar part. This is where you need to take control as the engineer. He may say that it just doesn't work for him if he doesn't do the vocals and guitar at the same time but that's just because he doesn't have an experience of doing it differently. It also forces the musician to realize there's a new skill level he/she needs to attain. It sounds like this guy has never truly focused on being just a guitarist and so his intonation is a problem. The only way to make this kind of recording sound better is for him to become a better guitarist. Plain and simple. He's gotta fret those chords more nearly perfect.
The guitar needs a proper setup. Loosen the truss rod 1/8" turn,
The guitar needs a proper setup.
Loosen the truss rod 1/8" turn, or go with a heavier gauge of strings.
The guitar player needs to smooth out his fingering technique. Is there a nicer way for me to say this? :shock:
Piezo quack probably makes that guitar sound worse than it is. Cut frequencies at 1Khz and above, boost 500hz and below to taste.
No post production magic can fix a bad source.