Tombboy's Studio... first session.

[tombboy]

[url="http://www.myspace.com/jimsrecordingstudio"]Ariel's Arrow[/url]



I put poor old Martin under a bit of pressue here, bless him!

He only came round for a tester and I made him thrash out a brand new bugger which he was struggling to remember the words of!!! It was written staright after his Dad passed away from Cancer last year and is the story of how his Mum & Dad met, fell in love and started a family watched them grow up and the anguish of losing him. Vey upbeat!! LOL!!!!

Recorded with a Neumanns, lead vocal and acoustic six string.. touch of compression and boost on the mids for the vocal to carry. One backing vocal overdub with a smattering of delay.

All very raw and unrehearsed and not really sure about the levels (does it clip at all?).

Anyway, quite chuffed for a first attempt... spot Holty's Jamshes Bond impression halfway through!!!!!

Any comments welcome.



Ooh yes... please feel free to add on!

Edited March 30, 2009 by tombboy

[escholl]

not bad, it's got a very "live" feel to it, if that's what you were going for.

If you want me to be critical:

-the guitar is a bit thin, both at the bottom and the top. I would try to capture a bit more "body" of the guitar, to give the sound a bit fuller nature, and sparingly use a harmonic exciter as well in post processing if you've got one -- they really help to bring out acoustic guitars.

-if you can, record the guitar in stereo -- my choice would be an MS technique, but a coincident pair would also work. this will help take the "mono" feel out of the mix, and with the now wider guitar, the vocals will sit much better, instead of having to be placed spatially right on top of the guitar.

-the vocals sound ok, i would take the backing vox level down a bit so they don't stand out quite so much, and add some reverb to both, just a bit to get rid of that dryness.


other than that, sounding good! also, myspace destroys any fidelity you may have had in the mix anyways ^_^

i've been following your studio build for a while -- really hoping to be able to do something like that myself someday.

would love to hear some more stuff when you've got it.

[tombboy]

Thanks Escholl,

It was just a tester to get the levels, all recorded on the one mic so it will sound a bit flat. We only had an hour too so not a lot of time to set the room up. Next time I'll close set the guitar with coincidents and adjust the eq when mastering, maybe adding a little 'Aphex' to it all and record the vocals separately in the booth.
It was difficult to add the reverb to the lead vox as it would have 'mushed' the guitar up but give half a day to set things up and we'll go again.... watch this space!

[escholl]

[quote name='tombboy' post='450131' date='Mar 30 2009, 11:53 PM']all recorded on the one mic...We only had an hour too so not a lot of time to set the room up.[/quote]

haha i hadn't realized...in that case, pretty good!

[EdwardHimself]

It's difficult to tell whether you're hitting the rails or not on the recording because the myspace player does add a bit of distortion itself but yeah i think you let it get a bit distorted in places. When you actually record the channel onto the computer you don't need to make it so it maxes out on 0, try to make it max a little lower because usually you can just up the gain in the recording software. Then of course there's the software itself. Before mixing it's a good idea to turn all the tracks down by say 3db because this way you can mix stuff up without it exceeding the master gain. Then you can mix it up when you do the mastering.

I thought the recording was okay, obviously if you wanted a bit more control of the sound it would have been an idea to record them seperately but since it's just a test i'll let you off.

Edited March 31, 2009 by EdwardHimself

[slaphappygarry]

Hey man,

Sounds good. My only gripe with the recording is the guitar tuning.... The first dozen chords are a little brutal, could just be intonation but sadly it ruins it for me a little.

I also agree that a little reverb would go a long way to tame the room down but, I am sure you will get on top of this as you progress and get to know it better.

G

Edited March 31, 2009 by slaphappygarry

[The Funk]

[quote name='escholl' post='450121' date='Mar 30 2009, 11:40 PM']not bad, it's got a very "live" feel to it, if that's what you were going for.[/quote]

Yes. Sounds very "live from the radio station". The fact that you used one mic explains it!


[quote name='escholl' post='450121' date='Mar 30 2009, 11:40 PM']-the guitar is a bit thin, both at the bottom and the top. I would try to capture a bit more "body" of the guitar, to give the sound a bit fuller nature, and sparingly use a harmonic exciter as well in post processing if you've got one -- they really help to bring out acoustic guitars.

-if you can, record the guitar in stereo -- my choice would be an MS technique, but a coincident pair would also work. this will help take the "mono" feel out of the mix, and with the now wider guitar, the vocals will sit much better, instead of having to be placed spatially right on top of the guitar.[/quote]

Yes and yes! A condensor over the body and a dynamic over the fretboard works quite nicely too.

Overall, I think it was a decent performance considering you sprung it on him and you captured it well - which is what studio recording is all about IMO!

[tombboy]

All great advice which I will put into practice. Thanks very much guys.