Acoustic Guitars - compression, IR's, parallel path, etc

    I'm running a Taylor ES-equipped guitar into a clean studio preamp profile, but am curious how I can improve the tone with any of the following. Please note: the ES System is magnetic, so piezo tips aren't helpful. Also, I'm not looking for an acoustic sim.

    • Multiband compression
    • Acoustic guitar IRs (Cab slot)
    • utilizing the parallel path feature

    I'm looking for a basic starting point for these things, especially the MB compression.

    And if you have any specific EQ tips for the Taylor ES system, that'd be great too. So far, I'm not finding much on this.

    Edited once, last by jbp (March 25, 2015 at 6:50 PM).

    I use an LR Baggs M1 (non active mag pup) on an Epi J200 ...I tried the acoustic prea-amp stuff and the Avalon but I got the pest results from a Soundsude profile of a Marshall Acoustic amp ...I use a bit of Compression on the stack and a couple of Eq's to take out the mud (200-600hz) and the harsh upper mids (2.5 khz) and add a little zing at around 10k ...(I think ) sounds very natural through the EV pa that we use ...

    Hey! Brand new kemper owner here.

    I have an idea that I plan to implement with my new kemper that is specific to acoustic guitars. This is something i've done in the past, though it wasn't without annoyances because it required the use of a computer daw while playing live. The kemper will remove that variable for me.

    So what i've done in the past with my acoustics is to record two signals from it; a DI signal from the pickup and then a mic'd signal. Then you can use something that many of us are very familiar with, a match eq such as the stock one in Logic or iZotope Ozone for example. One you have a new matched eq curve you can then create an impulse response from that.

    From this point on I haven't yet used the Kemper though I would assume it'll be pretty easy as IR loading is now a feature through their "Cab Maker". Simply load up your IR or whatever the Cab Maker spits out, into the cab block of the kemper. Turn off any amp effects. This should give you a very interesting tone for your acoustic. Hopefully one that is a little more natural and true.

    I am not at all certain, but I think fishman's aura technology is essentially an eq match between their pickups in a variety of standard acoustic guitars and their mic'd results. The only problem with that is the generalization that they start with and the fact that it's not your exact guitar with your exact feel. At one point fishman had a service where you could send your guitar in so they could do the eq analyzing and matching to give you a custom image.

    I'll wrap this up by saying that obviously this will not give you the sound of your guitar being mic'd. For starters there's no air movement between the guitar and "virtual mic". Secondly, you are vastly limited by the dynamic response of your pickup. However it's still a great way to shape your tone and could help to calm some of the less appealing qualities of a pickup. I use an LR Baggs Lyric pickup which is a pretty cool product. It's a microphone that sticks onto your guitar's bridge plate. It is relatively resistant to feedback and it absolutely sounds like a natural guitar. However, it's natural eq curve is sort of wonky and so it requires a lot of eq, pulling out some mids. Many people want a plug and play option with less work. For tweakers, this pickup is wonderful because with just a little work and some creativity such as eq matching, you can get an incredibly "acoustic" sounding acoustic guitar plugged in!

    - Ted