Hello - Fingerstyle Guitar player without any recording skills here :-)

[Guitarquango]

Hi folks,

first i have to say sorry for my bad english - i'm from germany and i learned it at school more than 30 years ago...
My name is Jimmy and i just recorded some fingerstyle guitar tunes at my kitchentable.
The problem is - i have NO skills with recording songs. I use a Zoom Q4 camera and after recording i create my clips with Magix Video Software. Think i have to learn so much about a good recording of an acoustic guitar. That's why i'm here.
So if you can give me some tips - i will be glad

My private recordings of some fingersytle tunes on my YT-channel "Guitarquango": YouTube
Greetings & have a nice week,

Jimmy Quango

 

[keith.rogers]

I haven't looked for your clip, but will later.

The best advice I can give with that equipment, assuming you're primary intent is good audio *and* video is to find a good space where you and the guitar sound good. This is rarely a kitchen because of all the hard surfaces. A larger room, like a living room, with soft furniture and bookcases (filled with books) is almost always going to sound better. Then, search YouTube about lighting for video because you'll probably need supplementary lighting to make it look decent, unless you've got a lot of good, natural light in the room.

Then, consider the audio and video recording as separate tasks, because optimal microphone placement is almost never the same as optimal camera placement. There are many, many ways to solve that problem, but, of course, it's possible to improve the audio you record with the Q4 by paying attention to the space and camera placement. You will still need to learn how to separate the camera recorded audio and process it separately (IMO), or, better replace it with audio that has been recorded separately and post-processed.

There's a long thread on recording acoustic guitar that's worth reading, and numerous videos on YouTube.

 

[ecc83]

I hope you don't mind Jimmy but I have grabbed a section of your playing and attached it. (I am sure the mods can delete it if you object)

The level is spot on, around -20dBfs and the playing seems excellent to me (bass players long ago). The recording has a lot of background noise, some of which is a periodic "drone" which you can hear at the very end. I am deaf but the guitar sounds "spikey" to me? I would aver that is the acoustics of the kitchen!

You will learn a lot about recording acoustic guitar at HR and one common technique is a mic pointed at the neck/body join and one down at the lower bout. The Rode M5 mics were a great bargain on Amazon a few days ago. Good start I would say.

BTW. Your English is WAAAAY better than my German! I have a tiny bit of schoolboy French (60yrs ago!) but virtually no German.

Dave.

 

[Guitarquango]

I haven't looked for your clip, but will later.

The best advice I can give with that equipment, assuming you're primary intent is good audio *and* video is to find a good space where you and the guitar sound good. This is rarely a kitchen because of all the hard surfaces. A larger room, like a living room, with soft furniture and bookcases (filled with books) is almost always going to sound better. Then, search YouTube about lighting for video because you'll probably need supplementary lighting to make it look decent, unless you've got a lot of good, natural light in the room.

Then, consider the audio and video recording as separate tasks, because optimal microphone placement is almost never the same as optimal camera placement. There are many, many ways to solve that problem, but, of course, it's possible to improve the audio you record with the Q4 by paying attention to the space and camera placement. You will still need to learn how to separate the camera recorded audio and process it separately (IMO), or, better replace it with audio that has been recorded separately and post-processed.

There's a long thread on recording acoustic guitar that's worth reading, and numerous videos on YouTube.

Thank you for your detailed and helpful feedback Keith! I probably have to start recording the tracks separately. Best regards, Jimmy

 

[Guitarquango]

I hope you don't mind Jimmy but I have grabbed a section of your playing and attached it. (I am sure the mods can delete it if you object)

The level is spot on, around -20dBfs and the playing seems excellent to me (bass players long ago). The recording has a lot of background noise, some of which is a periodic "drone" which you can hear at the very end. I am deaf but the guitar sounds "spikey" to me? I would aver that is the acoustics of the kitchen!

You will learn a lot about recording acoustic guitar at HR and one common technique is a mic pointed at the neck/body join and one down at the lower bout. The Rode M5 mics were a great bargain on Amazon a few days ago. Good start I would say.

BTW. Your English is WAAAAY better than my German! I have a tiny bit of schoolboy French (60yrs ago!) but virtually no German.

Dave.

Thanks a lot for your nice feedback Dave. Have also heard that the Rode is a great solution. Think about it...
Best regards from Hamburg, Jimmy

 

[keith.rogers]

Thank you for your detailed and helpful feedback Keith! I probably have to start recording the tracks separately. Best regards, Jimmy

Ok, the old guy forgot all about this. i went searching, and, honestly, your playing and recordings are quite good!

I think given the recording circumstances, you're doing very well. Heck, I'd be happy with recordings like that. But, a better recording space would allow you to back things (i.e., camera/mics) up a bit, which will give you a little more of the full guitar sound. The close micing with finger-style is going to accentuate the technical/physical noises a bit more, if that's anything that you want to change.

P.S. You probably have enough posts to put up links now. But, here's [MENTION=201648]Guitarquango[/MENTION]'s channel:
Jimmy Quango's YouTube Channel

 

[Guitarquango]

Ok, the old guy forgot all about this. i went searching, and, honestly, your playing and recordings are quite good!

I think given the recording circumstances, you're doing very well. Heck, I'd be happy with recordings like that. But, a better recording space would allow you to back things (i.e., camera/mics) up a bit, which will give you a little more of the full guitar sound. The close micing with finger-style is going to accentuate the technical/physical noises a bit more, if that's anything that you want to change.

P.S. You probably have enough posts to put up links now. But, here's [MENTION=201648]Guitarquango[/MENTION]'s channel:
Jimmy Quango's YouTube Channel

Thank you so much for your help and for posting my channel link Keith!

All the best & greetings from Hamburg, Jimmy