How to Record Classical Guitar At Home

One of the most challenging instruments to accurately record, aside from acoustic drums has to be the classical guitar.

This may surprise you, given the simplicity of the instrument itself. But considering the wide dynamic range of the classical guitar and the emphasis on dynamics in classical music, coupled with the fact that recording classical guitar is often done without accompaniment. It’s fair to say the classical guitar endures greater scrutiny from the listener.

This article is written specifically for classical guitarists who don’t have a whole lot of experience with the recording process but still want to produce a quality recording from home e.g. a home demo or simply a recording that demonstrates their playing ability without being hindered by poor sound quality. Below is a quick summary.

Improve the quality of classical guitar recordings by focusing on:

• The tone being produced by the guitar e.g. address unwanted rattles and vibrations.
• Test different microphone placements, trying first to point the microphone at the 12th fret of the guitar.
• Consider moving the microphone further back from the guitar to allow the natural acoustics of the room to influence the sound.
• Don’t overdo the mixing process. Ensure the recording sounds natural to avoid effects and excessive use of EQ.

Recording Classical Guitar

There’s a lot more to recording classical guitar than simply pointing a microphone at the guitar body, hitting the record button, and hoping for the best. If this is what you have done in the past, this is also where the opportunity lies to improve the quality of your recordings.

For the majority of us, without untapped access to an engineer and recording studio, we must work with what we have to produce a quality recording. With this in mind, we are going to focus on the typical basic home studio setup.

I’ve already written extensively on equipment, so won’t go into great detail here, but be sure to check out some of the links below before continuing if you are unfamiliar with the kind of equipment required for a basic home studio.

How Digital Recording Works
Learn how an audio interface converts analog to digital allowing you to manipulate the signal recorded using a DAW (digital audio workstation) on your computer.
Home Recording Studio Equipment List – The Bare Essentials
A complete run-down of software options (DAWs), computers, audio interfaces, microphones, monitors, and headphones catering to all budgets.
Computer Specs for Music Production
Is your current computer up to the job? Don’t know the difference between CPU, memory, and disc storage? Learn more about the minimum computer specs required for digital recording here. 
What to Look For In An Audio Interface
Your choice of audio interface is important, learn how to make the right choice here.
How to Choose the Best Microphone for Acoustic Guitar Recording
Learn the difference between a dynamic microphone and a condenser microphone, along with microphone polar patterns including the use of cardioid microphones, and how these choices impact the quality of your recordings.

The Sound of the Guitar

The first step toward improving your recordings is to run a critical eye, or ear over the input source e.g. the classical guitar.

Start by asking yourself the following:

• How does the guitar sound? Does it sound dull or vibrant and rich?
• Is the guitar noisy e.g. produces a lot of unintentional and unwanted noises e.g. rattling?
• Is the intonation correct?

Any problems you are detecting by ear e.g. unwanted noises or tuning issues will be emphasized on your recording.

Sound engineers often say ‘garbage in, garbage out’. This means, that no amount of studio magic will make a poor-sounding instrument sound great. With this in mind, it is always best practice to improve the sound of the guitar first, rather than trying to “fix it in the mix”.

Should you change your strings?

Deciding to change your strings before recording might seem like a no-brainer but it’s not always the best idea when recording classical guitar.

While new strings are often the remedy for a dull-sounding guitar and may also contribute to fixing other issues such as fret buzz and tuning and intonation problems they also tend to be noisier.

One of the many challenges of recording classical guitar is reducing fret hand noise e.g. the squeaking that occurs as your fingers move around the fretboard. This tends to happen mostly as you begin to transition from one shape to another and your fingers slide along the strings before the fingers lift from the fretboard into their new position.

That fret hand ‘squeak’ is to some extent part and parcel of the classical guitar and is mostly addressed by working on technique e.g. lifting the fingers more directly rather than dragging them but it’s also a fact that new strings squeak more than older strings, a problem even Segovia had to endure.

With this in mind, it can be a good idea to change your strings approximately a week before you record and give them time to play in a little. Other tricks include moistening your fingers to reduce friction, thus reducing noise, or using a fretboard conditioner.

What strings are best for recording classical guitar?

Polished Strings?
Polished strings tend to produce less ‘squeak’ than standard nylon strings but alternatively won’t last quite as long as unpolished.

Brands such as D’addario, La Bella, and Savarez all produce sets with polished bass strings. To some, they sound less vibrant and feel a little different from unpolished strings, but this tends to vary from brand to brand, so you will need to judge this with your own ears.

If looking for a set of strings to start with that have a good reputation for cutting down on fret noise try: D’Addario EJ51 Pro-Arte Classical Guitar Strings with Polished Basses, Hard Tension.

High Tension or Low Tension Strings?

High tension strings tend to sound brighter and produce more volume, however, there is a tradeoff in terms of playability as higher tension strings can be more difficult to fret.

The additional tension may also contribute to neck bow, which in turn affects the guitar’s action and intonation. Unless you have been playing with high tension strings up to this point I wouldn’t recommend changing prior to recording.

Fixing Buzzes, Vibrations, and Unwanted Noises

If you are hearing additional noises from your guitar e.g. rattles or unwanted vibrations, these should also be addressed, or they will be present on your recordings.

I’ve written a guide on why acoustic guitars sound bad here. While this is mostly written from a steel-string acoustic guitar perspective, much of the information also applies to the classical guitar.

The acoustic properties of the room

Choosing the best room to record in

The acoustic properties of the room you are recording in are more critical for the classical guitar than the steel-string guitar as we most often associate classical guitar with spacious rooms such as churches, auditoriums, and concert halls with plenty of natural reverb.

When recording at home, we are trying to recreate the same spacious feel of a large room, so one of your first considerations should be to record in a large-sounding room also e.g. an open space with high ceilings.

If you don’t have this option try taking the influence of the room out of the equation by recording a dry guitar track and adding ambiance and reverb when mixing.

Acoustic treatment

Acoustic treatment refers to the acoustic quality of the room you are recording in with regard to sound reflection and absorption.

When recording classical guitar a microphone is the most common way to capture the sound of the instrument. Unlike when recording an electric guitar (e.g. the microphone sits hard up against the speaker mesh) there is more distance between the input source (the classical guitar) and the microphone. This means the room will influence the sound being recorded more than we might normally hear when recording electric guitars for example.

I’ve written a complete article on acoustic treatment that describes how to treat your room acoustically and improve recording quality.

Microphones

If there’s one area where you should focus much of your energy it is the microphone or microphones you use to record, along with mic placement.

That’s not to say you need to own expensive microphones.

A microphone that is twice the price of a decent mid-range mic will typically not be twice as good and would be considered overkill in a home recording environment. However, avoid cheap. Cheap microphones, tend to make recordings sound ‘cheap’.

Which microphone to use?

Many mid-range microphones will do a fine job of recording guitar.

It’s definitely the case that the more you spend, the better the quality of the microphone but in a practical sense there are some very good options for around the $200.00 mark including a matched pair of Rode M5’s, ideal for recording guitar.

Dynamic or Condenser Microphones?

When buying a new microphone, you typically have four options.

• Dynamic Microphones.
• Large Diaphram Condensor Microphones.
• Small Diaphram Condensor Microphones.
• Ribbon Microphones.

I won’t get into explaining the different types of microphones in great detail here, you can read my article here for more information on recording microphones suffice to say dynamic microphones more or less operate in the same way as a speaker, only in reverse. They are more durable, making them ideal for live performance and recording loud instruments such as acoustic drums.

Condenser microphones convert vibrations into electricity, which is why they require phantom power to operate. When recording classical guitar a condenser mic will better detect the subtleties of the instrument e.g. detect a wider dynamic range compared to dynamic mics as they are more sensitive.

Ribbon microphones are another good option for recording acoustic instruments such as classical guitar. They were one of the first types of microphones invented and tend to sound warmer and fuller than dynamic microphones for example. The limiting factor with regard to ribbon mics will most likely be the price (most are upward of $1000), especially considering we are discussing home recording.

Large or Small Diaphragm Condenser Microphone?
If you have the budget for just one microphone and record more than classical guitar choose a large-diaphragm condenser mic as this will be a good compromise between recording vocals and other instruments. If you are buying a microphone specifically for recording a classical guitar at home, choose the small diaphragm condenser microphone as it is an affordable option, well suited to picking up the subtleties of the classical guitar.

Microphone Placement?

Microphone placement is another vitally important aspect of recording and is another area that can greatly improve the quality of your recordings without a lot of additional costs or energy required.

I’ve written extensively on microphone placement for both 1 and 2 microphone recording processes. So instead of repeating that information here, I’d suggest reading my guide to recording acoustic guitar which includes this information.

Recording Classical Guitar – The Performance

An often overlooked aspect of recording from home is the performance itself. It’s not uncommon to place such a focus on the technical aspects of recording that the performance itself becomes a secondary consideration.

Whenever possible, the best way to avoid falling into this trap is to have someone to assist with the recording or manage the entire process and allow you to focus on being the artist. If you are the person hitting record on each take you attempt it becomes very difficult to relax and perform at your best.

Be well-rehearsed

This might seem obvious but the importance of being well-rehearsed cannot be overstated. Repetition is a guitarist’s best friend.

Focus on the difficult aspects of the performance, remember a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. If you play 99% of the piece effortlessly and stumble over the remaining sections your recording will suffer.

Tune, tune, and tune again

Ensure your guitar is in tune, then double and triple-check it. Make sure you check the tuning of the guitar regularly throughout the recording session.

Get comfortable

Make sure you are comfortable prior to recording. You may be required to be in the same position for quite some time. Use a stool with no armrests to avoid the sound of the guitar making contact with anything other than your fingers (a common home recording mistake) and ensure you are conscious of reducing tension in your body that will soon transfer over to the guitar.

Also, ensure you take regular breaks to avoid mental and physical fatigue.

Focus on Dynamics

Great performances rely heavily on dynamics. The louder you play one section will have an immediate dynamic impact on the listener when playing a softer, gentler section. Think about the performance aspect of your playing and emphasize where possible.

Focus on being musical

Remember, you are playing music not scales. You may hear music as a guitarist does, in fact, your peers may also but the general public won’t be impressed by technical proficiency as much as the music is memorable. Emphasize melody over technical aspects.

Mixing

Once you are satisfied with your captured performance you will need to mix the finished piece in your DAW and export the sound file.

Keep in mind, that the classical guitar is at its very best when it sounds natural. Just because you have a range of effects and tools at your disposal doesn’t mean you should use them. If you focus on capturing a great performance using the methods outlined above, very little in the way of mixing should be required.

This will mean different things for different circumstances e.g. if you were only able to record in a small room then you may want to add reverb to give the performance a more natural sound.

If the captured recording sounds spacious you may be better served focusing on eq and removing frequencies that you feel detract from the recording.

If there is an abundance of fret noise from the left hand (if you play right-handed guitar) then you may want to edit these areas out completely.

Did you record with two microphones? You will want to blend these appropriately and use panning to enhance things further.

Mixing guitars can get very complex.

For the sake of the home recording environment, I’m going to focus on removing fret noise, addressing imbalances using equalization, and adding subtle reverb as these are the three areas you are most likely to enhance a classical guitar recording the most in the shortest possible time.

Removing Fret hand Noise

If you have some experience mixing classical guitars you may assume the best way to reduce this aspect of the performance is to isolate the frequencies and use EQ to cancel them out. The problem with this is when you change one thing, the ripple effect created can have consequences on other aspects of the recording.

While EQ can be used to reduce fret noise, removing them by editing the sound wave of the track directly will tend to be more effective.

Keep in mind that fret hand noise occurs between notes, not during so these can be addressed provided you have the patience required to manually edit out or reduce the length of these unwanted noises.

Otherwise, you can simply accept fret hand noise as part and parcel of the classical guitar and leave well enough alone as many classical guitarists over the years have done, or try coated strings when you are next recording.

EQ

Many people treat equalization as something to add to a recording, whereas in many cases it is the frequencies that you remove that really make the difference. Therefore the most important tools you have at your disposal are your ears.

• Does the performance sound articulate?
  If not consider boosting the upper frequencies and listen again to see if this provides more clarity.
• Do the lower, mid, or upper ranges sound overly dominant?
  If so use EQ to address the imbalance.
• Does the guitar sound overly boomy?
  If so consider removing some of the mid-range.

If you are not hearing aspects of the recording that are bothering your ears, step away from the computer or mixing desk and leave well enough alone.

Reverb

If you are new to home recording, you wouldn’t be the first person to overdo the reverb when mixing. However, adding loads of reverb tends to do the opposite of what it is intended to do and will make a recording sound unnatural.

Most reverbs have built-in presets e.g. medium room, long hall, etc. I’d suggest testing some of these first and noting how natural each sounds. Remember when it comes to reverb and classical guitars, less is almost always more if the room you recorded in has sufficient natural reverb.

Summary

The information above is intended to help the classical guitarist who has little experience in home recording, improve the quality of their recordings with just a basic home studio setup.

Obviously if entering a commercial studio there is much more to consider. But when recording from the comfort of our own home, the basics outlined above can make a major difference to the quality of your recordings, especially when recording a solo instrument such as the classical guitar.

If you are looking to further improve your recordings, the best advice anyone can give you is to record more often and take note of how subtle changes can affect the quality of your recording, from microphone placement to your choice of strings and the amount of practice you have put into performing the piece.

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