When is it time to consider acoustic treatments

[Nairon]

Hi Everyone,

Recently, I've been trying to record a backing track with my steel string acoustic guitar for a song that I wrote (finally trying to get that dream of writing my very own song off the ground). Anyway, just a little background, I'm using a zoom H1N recorder which doubles as my audio interface. The built in XY condenser microphones pick up well especially when I am playing individual notes. but when I strum chords, it gets really muffled even though I am adjusting the levels so it doesn't seem to clip. When I playback the recording on a headphone or another speaker, it definitely sounds different from what I hear when playing it live. I've tried different mic placements but honestly, it still doesn't sound clean, especially the bass notes.

Of course, I'm still on my guitar learning journey so my technique is coming along but it's a work in progress so there's that.

But it got me thinking whether I should just invest in an audio interface and a condenser mic or whether I should try some acoustic treatments first. I usually record in my living room which is about 20' x 12' x 8' dimensions.

Would love some advice on this.

Nairon