31 year old newbie recorder, musician. First night with Fostex MR-8,Having a Blast :)

[adams]

After having toyed a little with guitar and piano around 10 years ago, I decided to pick up guitar again recently. Then I stumbled into the realm of home recording (Thanks guys and girls on this site!), and today I just got my fostex MR-8 in the mail.

I'm totally an amateur as far as recording and musicianship go, but I'm really enjoying myself. I just put together this song (smashing pumpkins cover), while learning how to use the MR-8. Please give it a listen and say whatever you like.

I want to thank the people in the MP3 mixing clinic especially, as its been inspiring to see what normal (well, sort of) people can do on their own. I look forward to posting originals (once I learn how to write them lol), and commenting on others works.

The song: http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/album.php?aid=2408&alid=-1

Thanks

Adam

 

[dres]

Hi Adam, welcome to the circus

Not bad for a first ever attempt. A couple of things I'd suggest ... the track is really quiet (all my early recording suffered from this !).. what you need to do to get the most out of your equipment, esp 16bit stuff, is maximise your signal as you record... you want to be as close to clipping as you can afford to, maximise the signal to noise ratio and resolution. Even a little clipping can be inaudible, depending on the source.

Sounds like your having fun anyway which is most important. Looking forward to a full song.

Cheers
dres

 

[adams]

the track is really quiet

Yeah... I was wondering about this. I thought it might be too quiet. I'm just learning it all at once, and I'm trying to figure out mic placement, and how to get the correct input levels, etc.

It's great fun though. I feel like a little kid again, and it seems like creativity is being reawakened. I hope to have a full song soon.

Thanks

Adam

 

[Toki987]

dang, you just opened the box and got a superb sound on the vocals and the guitar. It could be hotter though, it`ll sound bigger like the guys said. You`ll get used to that in time. I loved the spread in the stereo field on that guitar and the effects on the vocals.

 

[adams]

dang, you just opened the box and got a superb sound on the vocals and the guitar. It could be hotter though, it`ll sound bigger like the guys said. You`ll get used to that in time. I loved the spread in the stereo field on that guitar and the effects on the vocals.

I just played around with the reverb on the MR-8 mostly for the guitar (just an acoustic) and the vocals. And just for fun, I recorded two vocal tracks, essentially just singing the song twice. Left one a bit lower than the other, but I thought it gave it kind of a cool effect.

Too bad my MR-8 is already broken after less than 1 day

 

[Erland]

sort it mate

I am a fan of accoustic stuff and I can tell you are itching to do more. Liked the song of course but I hope you get your box fixxed.

 

[JR#97]

I love this song. I've covered it many times in my day. What's the rest of your chain?

Good balance and sonics. Maybe blend the doubled vocals a little more.

Sorry to hear abou the Mr8. At that price, I was really curious about the construction and quality. I use an FD8 myself and have never had a problem. Never cared for the Fostex multitracker cassettes. Anywho... welcome and nice job!

 

[adams]

I love this song. I've covered it many times in my day. What's the rest of your chain?

I love this song too, as well as many more SP songs. This was just a SM-57 plugged right into the MR-8. All the mixing done on the MR-8 and then just transferred via USB (very fast) to the computer as a WAV file. Just used computer to make it into a MP3

Sorry to hear abou the Mr8. At that price, I was really curious about the construction and quality. I use an FD8 myself and have never had a problem. Never cared for the Fostex multitracker cassettes.

I hope this is just a fluke case. I haven't heard of anyone else having this problem, so I hope I just get a replacement that works well, because I was really enjoying it.

Anywho... welcome and nice job!

Thanks

 

[TripleM]

Hi Adam. Glad to see you're enjoying the experience of recording.

A pretty nice effort.

I'll offer a couple of thoughts of things to work on... As others have said, the mix is pretty quiet. I love doubled vocals. However, I think with a real stripped down sound (such as vox and acoustic guit) they don't work quite so well. But when you do them, pay real close attention to syncing issues. There were a few spots where they weren't sync'd. I use punch-in's for that type of thing.

Keep at it. It's a great ride. Trip...

 

[participant]

A huge SP fan here, so forgive me if I'm too critical I actually uploaded a brief piece of "Mayonaise" (acoustic) a while back, but took it down in deference to Waldo's rules...

Interesting arrangement; very simple... guess I'm missing the 1/8th note strumming... I like what you've done w/the melody. Interesting differences.

As far as mix goes? Think I'd try less reverb. There is already a ton of room sound on the guitar, and the added reverb IMO isn't really helping the sound. I'm thinking a dryer, more intimate sound on both voice and guitar would help this track.

Also, the guitar sounds decent... but almost like you've mic'ed too much of the sound hole... that's why it tends to get loud in the 250Hz area...

Hey, man. Stick around. This is a very cool board -- I've learned a lot in the 8 or so months I've read it, and 7 or so months I've been posting. Nice first effort!


Chad

 

[adams]

Interesting arrangement; very simple... guess I'm missing the 1/8th note strumming... I like what you've done w/the melody. Interesting differences.

I just like playing it that way. Its one of their simplest songs, and I've made it even simpler lol. Its funny, because I actually hadn't heard it for a long time, and then just started playing it off of tab... which probably account for an melody differences- I didn't remember the real melody!



As far as mix goes? Think I'd try less reverb. There is already a ton of room sound on the guitar, and the added reverb IMO isn't really helping the sound. I'm thinking a dryer, more intimate sound on both voice and guitar would help this track.


Yeah, I kind of figured this. I was reading through the MR-8 manual as I made this, and as I was mixing it at the end, I read that you could just turn some knobs and add reverb! It was too much fun to pass up hehe



Also, the guitar sounds decent... but almost like you've mic'ed too much of the sound hole... that's why it tends to get loud in the 250Hz area...


I didn't know where to mic the guitar, so the sm-57 was pretty much pointing right in the sound hole. Where is a better place for the mic?


Hey, man. Stick around. This is a very cool board -- I've learned a lot in the 8 or so months I've read it, and 7 or so months I've been posting. Nice first effort!


Yeah, I've already learned so much before I've even really started recording. Gear choice, technique, etc. I now have enough information to turn out recordings by the bushel!! lol, watch out

Thanks,

Adam

 

[participant]

I didn't know where to mic the guitar, so the sm-57 was pretty much pointing right in the sound hole. Where is a better place for the mic?

Depends on the guitar -- guitars have different sound radiation patterns... but experiment. A good place to start would be pointing the mic at the 12th fret, about 12 inches away (to eliminate some room noise)... and as far away as 18 inches.

There is no "right" way... you'll just need to experiment... and pick up information from this board, and your own experience. You'll get better... everyone that sticks around this place does


c

 

[powderfinger]

great song choice.......sounds pretty good for a first try.........it is a little low on the volume side...........

very simple arrangement, but effective