How can I get 'Jack Johnson' guitar?

to get the same sound as jack johnson, you need:

1. the same quality mic setup (probably 2 mics, could be one).
2. the same guitar.
3. a similiar room to record in, as the room sound probably makes up 50% of the sound.
4. a similar quality mic preamp, for the most pristine and three dimensional quality recording.
5. a similar effects chain, similar compressors and eq's.
6. the same level of convertors used at the studio he recorded in.


i mean, seriously, what kind of answer are you looking for?
what studio did he record in?
do you have the gear to get close to that sound, i don't know, probably not.


every piece of the chain, adds up to the most professional slick tones.


if all you got, is what you described, i'd say, just start experimenting.

there is no shortcut, to learning how to place mics, and set levels, and quality preamps, convertors and compressors is just the start.

I think Mr. Johnson uses his own facility... there was an interview in Tape Op last year that featured an engineer he works with frequently... maybe take a look at that.

jesus christ.....

THERE'S your answer right there!  You can't get a great acoustic sound with anything but the things listed above.

In fact, I'm surprised anyone even tries without that list.

I wonder what people did BEFORE Jack Johnson came along.

heheh


ok, now that we've got THAT settled...........!!!

LOL



ok, using what you've got....

everything everyone else has said still applies..

you can get a decent acoustic sound out of the NT1, but not the 58.
i'd lose that in the equation all together.
see if you can beg/borrow another MDC or LDC to use with the rodent.

or, just use the rodent. i've done a lot of single mic acoustic tracks, that come out great, ONCE you find that sweet spot.

you'll want to take your mics, and spend a lot of time finding the sweet spot for each one.

if you're working alone:
it will help, if you have booms, to place them in such a way that you can easily spin and aim the mic, while you use the headphones, to try to 'hear' what the microphone is hearing.

you've got to find the sweet spot, where you don't get the boom of the soundhole, but also don't get the RAKE of the pick or fingernails straight into the mic.

then, you've got to find the best spot for the other mic, then, when you blend them have them not cancel each other out.
this takes quite a bit of time, and then the room comes into play.

try to take as much of the room out of the equation, in any way you can.

you can setup a little area that has you surrounded by thick sound blankets over the backs of chairs.
get nestled deep into it, with the booms and mic all coming in tight to the guitar, and get the mics as close as you can.

the problem with all this, is that you want to have as much gain on the mic preamp as possible, WITHOUT distorting it..

and at the same time, you can't have it so hot, that if you happen to hit a string to hard, you'll blow the preamp up!!

LOL


so much of this requires you to have a professional touch, to know how to mix yourself into a microphone, to edit your own playing, to suit the mic.

when i track, i try to get the mics as close as possible, if i want that really close sound.

here's an example of what i'm talking about:

"Pura Vida"
http://www.lightningmp3.com/live/84300-puravida.mp3







i cannot recommend highly enough, getting as high a quality external compressor as you can afford, to run in between your mic preamp, and your input.


i am assuming you have an external mic preamp.

if i'm wrong, go back to square one.

Oops - correction www.soundonsound.com

  
  What he was asking was how he can approximate a crisp, in your face, upfront acoustic guitar sound, and used Jack Johnson to give an example of what he was looking to achieve. Ok, maybe it is a hard question to answer, but at least a couple of you gave it a try instead of being smug and unhelpful.
 
I wish I had more to contribute, but acoustic guitars are a **** to record, especially with limited resouces at your disposal. I have a high end acoustic guitar and I can attest that having a professional level guitar means nothing if there are other weak links in your chain.

Another suggestion is to play very lightly.  I remember reading an interview with T Bone Burnett and he mentioned that everyone playing on the CD (I think it was Raising Sand) played very lightly which really allowed the instruments to resonate.  By playing too hard, the sound can become "choked" so to speak.

I have heard that using a mid-side mic'ing technique on acoustic guitar works wonders, but I have never tried it myself.  You would also need a mic with a figure-8 pattern, although there may be some trickery to get around it.

thanks guys,

in the end, i used both mics with the sm58 close up and the rt1A further away - it seemed to give a nice soft sound that wasn't too crisp, free of ugly buzzing and squeaks.

I used a very light pick and played lightly.

I'm happy with the sound, though its more bob sinclair 'love generation', than jack johnson. I'm not sure how well this setup would work if i was recording  a two track, voice/ guitar song. It might prove to be a touch woolly.

heavy pick = overcompensating :)

Get a hobby pops and stop stalking me? Anyone with half a brain knows that 99% of what I say is in jest. Grow a sense of humor.  Why would you use someone else's thread to attack me 'personally?' I've reported this to the moderator. Your behavior is unacceptable.

Something else that might help is the fact that he also lightly palm mutes his stuff.  kinda takes the edge off of the attack.  I don't know if any of this matters anymore since you already have it recorded.

quentin

I personally find light picks to sound much better when recorded. They give it this nice crisp sound that makes the guitar sound like it is being played with so much power and strength, even though during tracking it sounds so soft. It's because the attack is much brighter and pronounced. They also tend to perform natural compression without the artefacts (that's what I believe anyway) because when you hit a string softly, it plays softly, hit the string medium, it plays medium, hit it hard, and it still plays medium, thrash the hell out of it, and it plays medium - but sounds powerful (in the recording). This is mainly for strumming though - I use something below 0.50mm, sometimes even 0.33mm! VERY thin.

This actually works really well for me when playing bass. Funny, I actually record bass with some of the thinnest picks you can find. It works fine for my style of music (as I don't use any twangy bass sounds) because I just want a nice consistent bass sound, naturally compressed. I find I can get this with a thin pick - just always play hard and every note plays at the same level. If I want some dynamics in a softer section, it's easy enough to play it extra soft. This also saves any potential buzzing from the strings being plucked too hard.

Someone mentioned mid side micing on acoustic - it is amazing! I tried it out recently when I got my new Rode K2's and it was fantastic. You need that figure 8 though. You could certainly try with an omni and process it as you would the figure 8, but it probably won't work too well, but worth a try. And the great thing about it is when you sum to mono, the sides cancel out and you get no phase issues!

Oh that's very interesting! Does it work by having a thick tip and then it has a thin section near the middle,so if you hold it close to the tip it's heavy, and if you hold it right at the back end, the middle bends because it's very thin and that gives it a light pick sound??

Very nice, I have already contacted some Australian distributors to see if I can get my hands on some. Thanks!