compression

[Gillihan]

what is everyone running their acoustic guitar compression at these days? Some really cool acoustic sounds I been hearing sound super compressed yet at the same time clean and punchy. very cool. looking for the huge sound I been hearing. I can get a pretty good sounding acoustic tone but their is something I been hearing out there can't put my finger on. I usually record them with my AKG P120 about 2 feet away pointing at the 12th fret . Between 12th fret and sound hole is a sweet spot also. but what I been hearing is clearly something done with compression not mic placement. a good example of what I mean is Morgan Wallen's "last night" intro.. that is an extreme example but the only one off the top of my head. any tips are appreciated .

[SubRivers]

Just listened to the ref track you gave Morgan Wallen's "last night" intro - I never heard it before - just on a bluetooth boom speaker so not forensic listening.

The opening acoustic guitar sounds direct from the piezo and amp distorted.
Either recorded direct or mic'ing a speaker.

There maybe some mic recording of the acoustic sound blended in, can't really tell.


Usual trick is to blend in a small amount of the direct piezo sound with the mic recording dominant but it seems like they are going for a more electric sound here (maybe because it is how the do it live with direct acoustic guitars )

[SMur]

Try a parallel compression trick: Send you signal to another free track and on that track put some saturation and compress the hell out of it. Then bring it up in the mix until you hear it, then back it off some.

[cosmicdolphin]

In addition to the above, sounds like it's double tracked and hard panned either side..sounds like a lot of the low end has been taken out too...possibly something like OTT ( free plugin ) has been used which is upward expansion as well as downward compression.

But like has been suggested it has more of a DI type sound , could be one of those Fishman type pickups where it sounds quite close to a mic'd up sound but isn't really. So it kinda sounds like a blend between mic & DI.

[Gillihan]

I always double track and pan. It just rules. Thanks a heap for all the info. I will check that out for sure. Very cool of y'all.

[gitanosoy]

That's a Taylor 324ce guitar around $3000. with 2 way expression pickups, pretty responsive to capturing the sound of the guitar and the tonal dynamics. It is played through a guitar effects processor, I personally don't think that the song you mentioned it was mic-ed, not that you shouldn't. Also the EQ also add to that sound as well as the compression, personally I think the compression is minimal.