1. {
How to:
Recording an acoustic instrument
Practically with my gears!
Jong Azores
Week 1 Peer Assessment Project
Introduction to Music Production
Under by Loudon Stearns
Of the Berklee College of Music
An Online offering of coursera.org

2. I am Jong Azores from Olongapo City,
Philippines, an indie acoustic alternative artist,
who also teach Music Business Management.
Introduction

3. I have no access to a recording studio but I
believe I can record decently with the humble
tools I have at the moment and show how to
practically use the basic principles in recording a
good acoustic guitar signal.
Maximizing
with
available
technology

4.  Acoustic / electric guitar
 TS cord with adaptor to smaller jack
 Creative USB Sound Blaster
 USB cable
 Samsung notebook
 Creative monitor speakers
Tools:

5. When starting to connect the guitar into an interface, be sure to
reduce the input gain of the interface all the way down to avoid the
possibly of damaging the equipment.
Whenever the speakers are on, attenuate the input levels of the
interface to zero before connecting the microphone, to get rid of any
loud pop or click that would run through the computer to the
speakers.
A Safety
Standard
Practice before
this guitar
session:

6. Connect the electric/ acoustic
guitar to interface using a
quarter inch TS cable. Its
signal coming in is a line level
which is otherwise known as
an instrument input, a direct
input or a HI-Z, high
impedance input.
Here starts the guitar’s
connection to the interface

7. The TS cord needs
an adapter to be
plugged on
interface’s Line In.
The guitar is
connected to the
interface

8. The guitar is plugged into Mic In.
The guitar’s output becomes the set
input gain level that would go to
the analog digital converter
wherein the analog signal is
converted digitally in a language
read with 1’s & 0’s by the computer.
LineIn

9. Dynamic range is the distance from the quietest
things we can hear called the noise floor to the peak
or point of distortion.
The signal level of the guitar is set on the interface
where it “should be” in the final recording. A good
signal never goes over distortion level. It is easy to
bring the level up a bit in the computer if needed.

10. USB cable connects the
interface & computer

11. My USB interface doesn’t have meters so the signal
can only be monitored and adjusted on the computer.
Now, we are ready to record!
Practical
level
monitoring

12. The delay or latency of the guitar sound is not
really a big issue. In this set up we hear the
acoustic guitar as it is played along and recorded
with those other sounds recorded earlier.
Latency free

13. Good housekeeping:
Turn off the monitors
or turn down your
output volume before
disconnecting
anything. The turn
down the gain knob
on the interface before
disconnecting the
guitar.
As the guitar
session is closed:

14. Creativity
calls for the kind of
achievable output.
I believe, in spite of
these limitations…
We can give birth
to a
HIT!