Hopefully, the past four Frets Learn columns have helped you get your best acoustic guitar tones in the box. Now it’s time to maximize their effectiveness in the mix. One major factor involves the number and nature of all instruments in your arrangement. We consulted with Grammy-nominated producer/engineer Travis Kasperbauer, who teaches digital audio at the Academy of Art University, to compile some tips. All of these can be applied to the tools commonly found across popular digital audio workstations, and all are universal to mixing acoustics.
EQ ADVICE: START HERE
The multiband EQs found on DAWs have similar features. The buttons on the far left and right that look like arches engage the hi- and low-pass filters, which trim the frequencies above or below a given point. Set a high-pass filter on the left, with a cutoff at 80Hz, as there’s no useful acoustic guitar information below this frequency. (See Fig. 1 for this and the following information.) As the number of instruments competing for space in the bass frequencies increases, raise the cutoff point for the high-pass filter up to around 200Hz.
Moving inward, the two buttons that look like tuning forks engage shelving, which functions like old-fashioned bass and treble controls. Start by boosting 1kHz, and search for the appropriate amount of “air” from there. In the middle of the plug-in are a few parametric, or peaking, EQs. All hollowbody instruments have some inherent unpleasant frequencies in the low-mid range. Make a dip right around 450Hz, and solo the track. Find the worst sound by searching around