EQ is far and away the most powerful tool at your disposal for achieving the perfect acoustic guitar sound. This is especially true if the recording you start with isn’t the best. This guide will cover how to EQ acoustic guitar with every boost or cut you should make on YOUR acoustic guitar track.
First, make sure you know how to record acoustic guitar because the better it sounds going in, the easier this process will be.
I’ll discuss each recommended move step by step, but here is an overview graphic to demonstrate my EQ acoustic guitar guide in a nutshell. This highlights the most important frequencies associated with acoustic guitar:
Creating A Helix Acoustic Guitar Patch
Acoustic guitar is one of those instruments which typically runs one of two extremes: it’s too boomy and muddy, or it’s too bright and lacks body.
For instance, if someone doesn’t know any better, their first instinct when recording acoustic guitar is to place a microphone primarily in front of the sound hole. This results in a booming, bass heavy sound lacking in clarity.
If this describes the tone you’re getting from your acoustic guitar, some EQ sculpting on the low end can go a long way.
Better Sound From Acoustic Guitar Piezo Pickups
As a quick aside, you can’t go wrong with placing the microphone a few inches in front of the 12th fret. This yields a nice blend of body and clarity.
Let’s drop an EQ on our acoustic guitar track. I like the Pro-Q from FabFilter because it has a simple, easy to read and work with user interface. It also allows me to make changes quickly to dial in any sound I want.
For our first step, create a high pass filter at 70Hz. If you’re not familiar with the different types of filters, check out my complete overview on the 6 EQ filters as this knowledge is helpful when working with an EQ.
Working A New Venue. This Vocal Eq???
The lowest E string in standard tuning resonates at 82Hz when played open, meaning E2. If you’re tuned a half step down, this turns into roughly 78Hz for the open D#2.
Below that you’re getting into room noise and other unwanted noise from the instrument itself. Setting a filter with a relatively sharp Q to cut out everything below 70Hz will clean up the track and carve out that frequency for your kick drum (if applicable).
Just use 70Hz as a starting point, then sweep higher with that high pass until you start to lose the fundamental low end of the track.
What Do You All Think About This Eq Chart
For mixes where the acoustic guitar plays a greater role, we want to keep more of that low end intact as this might represent the bass for the song.
A lot of singer songwriter and folk music is stripped down to primarily a vocal and the guitar. In this case I wouldn’t filter out much higher than 70Hz as that’s essentially our low end for that song.
Alternatively, if the acoustic guitar is more of garnish for the mix, one of many tracks, you might want to move that filter higher to remove even more low end.
Mixing Essentials: The Highs & Lows Of Eq
When I’ve got a busy mix where the acoustic plays more of a supporting role, I mostly want the sound of the strings which are much higher in the 2k and up range.
You can remove more of those low frequencies of the guitar when you’ve got something representing the bass in the mix, whether it be a bass guitar or synth.
Try moving the filter up to 200Hz and see how it sounds playing alongside the bass if this is more similar to your mix. Like with the kick, this provides a dedicated space for the bass and removes a lot of mud (see my 5 causes of a muddy mix) or simply competing frequencies from the mix.
Mixing Acoustic Guitar & Vocals
A general rule I follow is the more prominent the acoustic plays in the mix, the less of those lows and low mid frequencies I filter out with the high pass filter.
One last thing to mention when high pass filtering is to reference the section with the lowest played notes so you know the most relevant part which will be affected.
This is why rather than giving a definitive cut or boost recommendation here, I say try both in this important frequency range for an acoustic.
Recording Acoustic Guitars With Sphere
This is where the body of the acoustic guitar comes out, so if you find that your track is lacking in warmth, a little boost here can do wonders.
Alternatively, a small cut in this section can go a long way in cleaning up the sound of an acoustic lacking in clarity.
The clarity in the acoustic guitar can be brought out around 3.5k. I almost always do a small boost here to bring out more clarity from the tone and give it a bit more shine.
Mixing Guitar And Vocals
This brings out more of the clarity of the strings and top end in general. Unless your acoustic guitar is too bright or harsh, bringing out more of the strings here usually sounds good with this boost.
Another instance where this can help is if the acoustic guitar is just more of a featured player in a busy mix.
In a lot of rock and pop, the acoustic guitar is often buried in the mix and is almost utilized more as a percussive instrument with the crispness of the strumming. Here it’s not about the notes or chords being played but the sound of the steel.
Getting A Great Live Acoustic Guitar Tone
If you took the earlier tip to heart about high passing out more of the low end and you want the acoustic guitar to be more felt than heard, definitely experiment with a little boost here to bring out those strings a bit more.
This is just a little housekeeping. I recommend high passing around 20k on most tracks in order to create more headroom for the mastering engineer.
If you solo out everything above the low pass, meaning you’re playing everything above 20k then you’ll be hard pressed to hear anything without really cranking it up. Yes there are still (impractical) sounds there, but just like with high passing the lowest inaudible frequencies on most tracks, you’re clearing up space in the mix.
Your Ultimate Guide To Acoustic Guitar Eq
Add this up over dozens and dozens of tracks and you might hear a tiny difference. More importantly, this creates more headroom, which means your final master can be (competitively) louder without having to squash the mix with more compression to achieve it.
After you’ve EQ’d your acoustic guitar, you’re ready to use compression on acoustic guitar knowing that you’re just compressing the good stuff!
Check out my tutorial on how to use compression on acoustic guitar to get more cohesion, energy, and sustain out of your tone.The most important factor when it’s time to EQ acoustic guitar is context. You’ll have to determine its prominence against other instruments and make EQ moves based on that. Acoustic guitar can be the most important rhythm instrument, or it might just give a bit of fullness to an otherwise dense arrangement.
Electric Guitar Eq Guide
A well recorded acoustic guitar will make EQ’ing it much easier. The most important factors are player, performance, instrument, and mic choice/placement—in that order!
If you can, choose a chair where the arms can either go down or be removed so that you have full mobility with your guitar. A stool is another good choice.
This is especially important if you have an artist recording; you want to make them feel as comfortable as you can. The last thing you’d want is to have your guitarist fighting their chair.
How Do I Use An Eq?
Also, be mindful of any potential noise the seat itself might make. You really don’t want a creaky seat ruining a perfect take!
A “double boom” stand is a great option. This way you can keep the bulk of the weight on the back of the stand so when the mic is on the other side, it doesn’t droop. You might not think this is a big deal, but you’ll notice a sound difference if it moves. You want to keep the mic in the same plane when it’s this close. Any slight changes will change the way it’s recorded.
This might seem obvious, but buttons on your sleeve, a necklace, or anything else between you and the guitar can get picked up by a mic! Be mindful of anything that may hit the guitar and have the artist adjust accordingly.
Eq Cheat Sheet For Over 20+ Instruments
Small diaphragm condensers like the Neumann KM 184 or AKG 451 are great on acoustic instruments. They’re usually extremely detailed and crystal clear in the high end for a very ‘hi-fi’ or ‘3D’ sound which is phenomenal on acoustic guitar.
Likewise, you can get a great result from your favorite large diaphragm condenser as well. As we mentioned earlier, the dynamic SM57 with a budget interface can work wonders too!
Remember, it’s more about the performance than anything else. As long as your mic choice and placement is ‘in the ballpark, ’ you should be just fine.
Tc Helicon Play Acoustic 3 Button Vocal And Acoustic Guitar Effects
Hopefully you were able to engineer the recording process to make your life mixing easier, or were at least able to get well recorded acoustic guitars from somebody else!
Almost like a vocal, the frequencies around and below 100 Hz in an acoustic guitar aren’t
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