WILLIAM PITT Unplugged

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Dear friends, This time I’m sending a very basic recording for your professional observations - just acoustic guitar and voice. What I would like to know is HOW to make this sound “radio listenable”, like a simple yet professional production. Any and all ideas will be very much appreciated. Thank you! William
View attachment NAKED.mp3
 
The first thing I noticed it that it is very upfront and flat sounding. There's no space, especially around the voice. My first move would be to add a bit of compression, maybe 2.5/1 with a threshold of about -5dB. Then add a touch of reverb to give it more of a room sound. Here's a minute of my first tweak, just using headphones. No EQ changes were made.

If you're using Reaper, I can give you the settings I used here.
View attachment Only My Guitar.mp3
 
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You have a very nice voice and good playing skills. The mix really got a lot more depth and a lot wider when T enhanced it. Nice .. I think the guitars could be panned a little more away from the center carving a little bigger hole for the vocals. Enjoyed it . mark
 
OK, now I know that you can either attach a file, or embed a file. Good to know. I don't think it makes a difference in how the file is played, but embedding is a nicer cleaner look. I edited my posted to insert the MP3 into the message.
 
Thank you so much. I understand the difference. I'm always a bit shy about reverb settings and never even sure of what KIND of reverb I should add, i.e. plate, hall, etc.
I work exclusively with a TASCAM DP24SD, no DAW, so certain sound modifications are a bit less accessible. The compression that you're speaking of, is that an overall compression - let's say to be applied to the MASTER? ... In fact, the principal guitar (copied) is at the extreme pan on both sides. I'll put your ideas to good use and maybe get something "better" out of the deal. Once again, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!
 
Yeah, I like what you've done, Talisman. It is, in fact, the kind of warm and present sound I'm really looking for, for all of my acoustic song work. I hope I can find how to get there with the equipment I possess.
 
If you have a computer, then you have everything you need to do what I did. You just need to download the Reaper DAW. Its free to try, and not expensive to buy the license.

I've done something similar to what you do, doing some recordings on my Zoom R24. I then pull the SD card, and move the files to my computer, and pull them into my Reaper DAW. I can then make any modifications I want, assuming that the effects in the Zoom were insufficient, and mix down to the final track.

For reverb, my favorites are the Bricasti M7 impulse files that were widely posted a few years ago. The Bricasti is a hardware reverb unit. The impulse files are samples that can be loaded into the ReaVerb plugin. It doesn't take a lot of reverb to make things open up. I used one called Vocal Chamber, and it was at -39dB. I like plate reverbs as well. Hall reverbs are usually too long for intimate sounding files. If I was doing choral or orchestral work, they might be more appropriate.

Since all I had was the final stereo master, all that could be done was to apply the effects to the stereo track. For you, that would be to put the effects on the master track, not the individuals.
 
Thank you for your extreme generosity, sir. After all these years of saying *no" to DAW and hoping that I could obtain the desired results from my TASCAM, I hesitate now to start all over with computer technology tools. Especially seeing that I am from the old school of going into a studio and having everybody else do the production work for me :-)
Anyway, I will try to use the valuable information you have gifted me with to get a better sound for my work. Thanks once again.
 
I resisted for a long time.

There's really no reason not to have the best of both worlds. Self contained units are nice because you don't have to worry about issues like latency, everything is right there on the little table next to your chair, so recording can be a breeze. When it comes to mixing down, a DAW wins hands down. You have more control and more options. You don't HAVE to use them if you don't want to, but they are there.

Its nice to have as many tools in your box as possible.
 
Nice voice and recording. I think you just need to cut a little low end content from the vocal...probably around 250k.
There is just a little low end boominess on the vocal.
Great song
 
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