So I thought about getting some Microphone for recording acoustic stuff.
(just for home recording purpose, only directly recording acoustic guitars (no amp))

price range 100-150 €
I have no experience with mics at all and there are quite many around in that price segment.
All I found out till now is that small membrane condenser mics are the usual thing to record acoustic instruments.
and in another board someone suggested the Rode NT5 S

As my current Recording interface only has 1 Instrument input I also need another interface :-/
should have mic and instrument input, optimum would be sth with 2 combo inputs (Mic/instrument) so I can record Mic + guitar pickup and for later still have the option of a 2nd mic input for stereo microphone setups or stuff like that.
Interfaces I found so far suiting that are
M-Audio Mobile Pre-MKII http://www.thomann.de/gb/m_audio_mobilepre_mkii.htm
and
Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 http://www.thomann.de/gb/focusrite_scarlett_2i2.htm


what are your suggestions in that price range (Mic + Mic Stand + Cable + Interface shouldn't add up to much more than 300 €)

does anyone know some sort of collection of sound examples for different mics on the same guitar?

thx in advance

I am looking for the mic for vocal/acoustic guitar live performance as well. I have the AT3035 which is discontinued now. But I am eyeing on Rode NT2A now.. In any case, you should try to look into figure 8 polar pattern mics as well so you can do vocal/guitar stuff or any other 2 instruments in future. From what I have seen/known, acoustics sound best if you use 2 mics.. One of them being a directional mic. Just sharing what I m researching currently.

Believe it or not I used an MXL 991 to record acoustic on my band's EP and it sound phenomenal when paired with the DI signal. If you're recording an acoustic that has a 1/4'' output I would recommend recording a DI and a mic'd signal. If you need to hear a clip of what I'm doing then let me know, as the EP hasn't been released yet. I will say though it's exactly why I want for acoustic. I'm going to try my Rode NT1-A later on and maybe the 990, but the 991 gets the job done. I've got a picture of the mic angle too if you end up getting it. The 990 and 991 are dirt cheap, and Musician's Friend tossed them in with my monitors when I bought them, so check for package deals as they are often a free gift with other purchases.

@ maharzan:
so figure 8 polar pattern mics are better when recording 2 things with 1 mic cause they pick up stuff from the front and the rear, while cardioid ones only pick up from the front?
and sure if you can manage it you should have more possibilities using a stereo setup, but there again it's a price thing

@Connor Gilks:
DI signal means the signal directly from the guitar's pickup?

so I guess for now a single mic is enough to get into the whole recording thing and I could already mix it with the guitar's piezo pickup output which doesn't sound that bad but on it's own isn't as natural as a mic and isn't that good in picking up percussive stuff which is the reason to get a mic in the first place

Yes, exactly. We usually call it DI not just because it's straight from the pickup, but also because you should use a DI box to amplify the signal without coloring it, and also to decrease the amount of excess noise and such. You can record the DI without a DI box, but it won't sounds quite as good. You can record both at once using an audio interface with two inputs. Simply set up the microphone, use an XLR cable (three prong microphone cable) from the mic to your interface, then plug your acoustic into another input of your interface with a 1/4'' cable. Then set up the two tracks in your recording software and you can record the two tracks from the two different inputs.

A bit late to the party, but I almost exclusively use my shure sm81s for acoustic guitar.
I've used nt5s before too. No problem with them.

It depends what you want but I'd be inclined to shy away from DI.
Usually I'm trying to capture a believable stereo representation though, and DI has no place in that.

My two most recent live acoustic recordings used stereo sm81s for guitar and sm7b for vocal.
That's my 'never fails' setup.

Look for something with more mic inputs that you need, because you'll always need more than you have.
Tascam have some great interface with 8 mic pres and they're not too expensive at all.

The fig8 thing is true and it's all about preference I guess, but I'd rather invest in a mic per instrument.
The only reason I say that is that digital recording affords us the luxury of time and post editing.
Using a fig 8 mic for two sources puts a big restriction on what you can do after the fact.

This post has been edited by steenamaroo: Feb 19 2013, 04:39 PM