In today's modern music production workflows, where many rely heavily on plug-ins to do the brunt work of creating quality recordings, it's all too easy to forget or ignore the most basic of music production rules... In order to make just one track in a production sound good we have to make a million decisions BEFORE and DURING recording processes. I know I'm over exaggerating a bit but I'm not far off.

Let's say I want to record an acoustic guitar in a production - after I've turned on all the studio gear I need to record with I run through the following list of creative and technical decisions just to get a single acoustic guitar part sounding good in a production.

1. Does this song need an acoustic guitar?
   1. Yes
   2. No - Find a different instrument
2. What acoustic guitar will I use?
   1. Large body
   2. Medium body
   3. slim body
3. Is that guitar you're holding the right choice for this production?
   1. Yes
   2. No  - (Back to step 2)
4. Are the strings in good order for recording?
   1. Yes
   2. No - (Restring guitar or go back to step 2)
5. Is the guitar in tune?
   1. Yes
   2. No - Use quality tuner
6. Do the acoustic guitar parts I've written compliment the songs...
   1. dynamics?
   2. arrangement?
   3. Supporting instrumentation?
   4. Journey?
   5. None  - (Back to step 1)
7. Do I need to perform the guitar with...
   1. A plectrum?
   2. Fingers?
   3. Don't know - (Back to stage 6)
8. What microphone will I use?
   1. AKG C414
   2. Shure SM7b
9. What microphone technique will I use to mic up the guitar?
   1. Mono
   2. Spaced stereo pair
   3. M/S
   4. Other
10. Have I setup the correct number of blank audio tracks in Pro Tools, set the pre amp inputs and named the tracks?
    1. Yes
    2. No
11. How will I track the guitar?
    1. In one long full-length pass
    2. Section by section
    3. I'll find out when I hit record
12. Am I getting a good level from my microphone(s) to mic pre?
    1. Adjust gain(s) up
    2. Adjust gain(s) down
13. Have I record-enabled my tracks in Pro Tools?
    1. Yes
    2. No
14. Does the microphone placement setup I chose for the guitar sound good...
    1. On its own through my monitors?
    2. In the context of the production?
    3. Neither  - (Back to step 8)
15. Can I hear the foldback of the acoustic guitar at a good comfortable level in relation to the rest of the instrumentation through my headphones?
    1. Yes
    2. No - adjust mixer faders and headphone pre level
16. Ready to record - Am I....
    1. Confident in my arrangement?
       1. Yes
       2. No - (Back to step 6)
    2. Is the guitar still in tune?
       1. Yes
       2. No
    3. Are my main monitors turned off?
       1. Yes
       2. No
    4. Am I sitting comfortably?
       1. Yes
       2. No - (Get comfortable and recheck step 14)
17. I completed recording my first acoustic guitar pass - Did it feel good?
    1. Yes - (steps 1 to 9 confirmed)
    2. No - (Identify the previous steps that are not working and re-record)
18. I completed recording the entire acoustic guitar pass - Does it sound good?
    1. Yes one take works well in the production
    2. There are parts from different takes I like so I will edit them together
    3. No - (Identify the previous steps that are not working and re-record)
19. Track comping completed - Can I hear my edits?
    1. Yes - (Revisit step 18-2 and see if edits can be adjusted)
    2. No

The Decisions Go On And On

That is the list of the decisions I make when I track acoustic guitars. I'm not even going attempt to list the decisions I make for mixing acoustic guitars as there are two million of those alone - again I'm over exaggerating but the point I'm trying to make in this article remains... Music production, it's decision after decision after decision - taking shortcuts or missing steps out of the decision-making process only result in below average recordings.

Decisions such as the ones listed in this article are part of my music production intuition that I've developed over the years. I don't necessarily ask myself each and every point each time I record an acoustic guitar as I've honed my workflow to identify the points that crop up from time to time that get in the way of me achieving good recordings.

I've worked with many artists over the years that completely ignore steps 1 - 15 as they just want to go straight in at step 16 and record... These are the types of artists that wonder why their acoustic guitars sound bad in their productions. Developing your own full proof decision-making process for tracking any instrument is the key to getting consistant great sounding recordings.

Tutorial - Acoustic Guitar Microphone Placement Techniques

In this premium tutorial, I talk about a lot of the decisions listed in this article between steps 1 to 9. Watch the video to hear a back to back example demonstrating the differences between each acoustic guitar microphone placement technique and to learn how to setup each microphone placement technique for recording great sounding acoustic guitar every time.