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Updated 6 days ago Β· 2 views
If you point a studio microphone directly at an acoustic guitar's sound hole, your recording will instantly turn into an unusable, boomy mess.
The sound hole acts as a Helmholtz resonatorβan acoustic cavity where air rapidly bounces inside the body, blasting out overwhelming low frequencies around 80 Hz to 120 Hz.
πInteractive diagram
How do professional engineers capture rich low-end warmth and crisp fingerstyle detail without catching that muddy cavity boom?
The Dual-Target Strategy
Instead of miking the center, we split the instrument into two complementary sonic zones: the 12th fret and the lower bridge bout.
The 12th fret mic captures string attack and transients, while the bridge mic captures the warm wood resonance of the soundboardβboth angled slightly outward away from the sound hole.
Small Diaphragm Condensers (SDCs) are ideal for the 12th fret due to their low moving mass, fast transient response, and extended high-frequency clarity.
For the bridge position, Large Diaphragm Condensers (LDCs) or matched SDCs excel at capturing lower midrange resonance and full body timbre.
Small Diaphragm Condensers (SDCs) are ideal for the 12th fret because their low moving mass provides a fast transient response and extended high-frequency clarity.
At the bridge, Large Diaphragm Condensers (LDCs) or matched SDCs are preferred to accurately reproduce warm lower midrange resonance and body timbre.
πInteractive diagram
Now that we know where to point our microphones, what stereo array geometry should we use to avoid hollow phase cancellation?