A fun little waste of time....

  • Thread starter Thread starter WATYF
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WATYF

WATYF

...happier than you.
OK, well... somebody, who will remain nameless.. (*cough*erichenryus*cough*) asked if I could sing something into one of my brother's "better" mics to see how it compares to my current chinese mic... which will also remain nameless... (*cough*C-1*cough*) :p

And I thought to myself... "Well gee... I suppose that I can use that as a meaningless excuse to borrow my brother's gear." :D


Anywhoo... I went over to his house and retracked Tell Her This. (my Del Amitri cover) Since my original cover of the tune was done in my old recording format (n-Track), I had to start completely over (seeing how I don't have it anymore).

Anywhey... eric was curious aboot a comparison of vocal sounds between the two mics, and frankly, so was I... so here's the deal....

All gits were tracked by stereo micing the guitar using a U87 (on the left) and a TLM103 (on the right).

The vocal was done with a U87.

All mics were run directly into the stock pres on my brother's digi 001.

For this exercise, the only "accurate" (and I use the term loosely) comparison would be either my Christmas tune (Oh Holy Night), or Roll. Those song were recorded using the same exact methods, but with different mics. (stereo micing with MC012 (left) and C-1 (right) for gits, C-1 for vocals, run directly into the stock pres on my digi 001). So basically.... as far as I can tell, the only difference between those two recordings and this one is the mics that were used. They all went into the same pres and were recorded in the same format using the same convertors (etc.) The vox on Oh Holy Night was pretty heavily reverb'ed so it's not exactly a 1-1 sound comparison, so Roll might give you a bit better idea. I would re-post the original Tell Her, but that was done using my old crappy behringer pres and I don't think that's such a fair comparison. :p


Anywhile... this was just something stupid I did for fun, so check it oat if you want. Draw your own conclusions about the difference in "quality" between the two recordings. (I sure have. :p)

anybody wanna take a guess what my conclusions were? ;) :cool: :D


by the by,... I'm hosting this tune on my own server because of Waldo's recent conversations regarding posting covers, and I didn't want to put him in a bad position. So it may take a little longer than usual to download it. (sorry :p) If you want to check oat the comparison tunes, they're still up on my NWR site

The new tune can be found right here.



WATYF


(P.S. If you want to debunk the "scientific validity" of this comparison... don't waste your breathe. :p It's just for fun... so get over it. ;) )
 
hehheh.... talk about pages of excuses... lol... next song by you... we'll get the declaration of independence, magna carta & some Olde Englishe dictionary before we get the actual link to your song :p

Hey, this sounds wonderful... like the type of song you give to that special chick. Your voice sounds great... the clearest I've heard. Taylor sounds better than ever... very clear/open/warm.

Could hear the pick hitting the guitar body a few times... nice detail...

Wait a minute... were there shakers in the first version? :confused:

And were we dl'ing this direct from your computer? Great job.


C
 
A little slow?

10K per sec. Jeez! Thought I was back on dail-up!:p

:D

OK, seriously. If I had to pick one of those mics for acoustic it would be the TLM. It has a nice warm midrange.

The U87 is flatter with more top extension. Sounds really good on your voice, but a bit clicky and lifeless on the guit.

It was fun to put it in mono and blend the channels. Sounded pretty good with just a hint of U87 added to that TLM.
 
hey now... those weren't excuses... :p I was explaining the comparison... :p If you want excuses... I can give you those. :D


Actually... I noticed those pick hits... and they annoyed me. :p But this was just a silly little project so I didn't bother trying to fix it. (well... I didn't bother trying to fix them for very long :p ) And no, there wasn't a shaker in the first one... but my bro has a shaker, and I don't... so there ya go. :p

M... The only time the U87 and the 103 are seperated (fully) is in the very beginning when there's just one guitar. After that, they get blended together on the left and the right (for each different guitar) and what not. Actually... I totally forgot. The mix was getting a bit cluttered (with certain frequencies) so I pulled oat the 103 on certain git tracks... so some of those gits are just a U87. But I dunno... the U87 sounded better while mixing, but if I just pan this mp3 file (left or right) and listen to the intro guitar, the one on the right sounds better... so maybe I picked the wrong mic to cut oat. :p

and yes,... you're downloading this right from my computer... and it would be faster, but my scumbag ISP just dropped my upload speed and gave me some excuse aboot how new lines have been installed near me and how that must be slowing down my connection... (yeah.. whatever... it just so happened to be a month after my contract expired, so now they can give me whatever lousy speed they want. :p)


WATYF
 
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i like the shaker :).

i'm listening on crappy headphones and i still have your first version, which by the way was the first time i heard that song, so i a/b'ed them on my crappy headphones, through my crappy sound card on my crappy laptop and.........

wow, what a difference a couple thousand dollars makes!

i noticed a big jump when you introduced the focusrite pre's (that's what's in the digi unit i believe) and this is another big jump as well. mainly the highs sound sooooo much smoother to me. all of the grit on the high end just vanished, and it's almost like the mic has a natural de'esser built into it....or maybe your technique is just getting better?

anyway, thanks for posting this WATYF. and thanks to your bro for letting you goof around with his gear, and convincing me of what i seem to want to learn again and again and again and again......you get what you pay for.

i'll listen again tonite on my monitors.
 
WATYF said:
The mix was getting a bit cluttered (with certain frequencies) so I pulled oat the 103 on certain git tracks... so some of those gits are just a U87. But I dunno... the U87 sounded better while mixing, but if I just pan this mp3 file (left or right) and listen to the intro guitar, the one on the right sounds better... so maybe I picked the wrong mic to cut oat.
Click to expand...

Actually that was probably a good call. The U87's flatness and top end sheen would make it sit better in a dense mix. Same kind of stiaution as chads pre test. For solo stuff though the mids rule!;)

my scumbag ISP just dropped my upload speed and gave me some excuse aboot how new lines have been installed near me and how that must be slowing down my connection... (yeah.. whatever... it just so happened to be a month after my contract expired, so now they can give me whatever lousy speed they want.
Click to expand...

Sounds like a bullshit story to me. Yeah, new lines are taking up more bandwidth.:rolleyes:

Tell 'em your gonna switch!
 
so that's what a good mic sounds like.. hmmm..




































Remind me to never get one! :eek:








































my voice should never be heard that clearly..
it sounds great..




















































but too clear! :eek:







































very clean.. :D
 
thanks again watyf. i can just see what kind of havoc this would start in the mic forum :).

just checked it at home on real speakers and yep, that's smooth!

that really clears up the whole C1/u87 debate for me. clever marketing, but they sound nothing alike. C1 is actually more present in your 'roll' mix but sounds thinner overall...and the highs are just not the same. i honestly can't see how anyone could a/b the two and think they sound the same.

i think the vocal here could stand for a little more compression btw.

oh, and another thing, i really like that song roll. just listened to it again and it's really nice.
 
erichenryus said:
that really clears up the whole C1/u87 debate for me. clever marketing, but they sound nothing alike. C1 is actually more present in your 'roll' mix but sounds thinner overall...and the highs are just not the same. i honestly can't see how anyone could a/b the two and think they sound the same.

oh, and another thing, i really like that song roll. just listened to it again and it's really nice.
Click to expand...
Yeah... I dig the vox on this a lot more. But I think I screwed up on recording the gits, 'cause they don't sound as clear as they could.

As for Roll.. well thanks.. but... I would think that someone would have noticed by now what a blatant rip off of "Tell Her" that it is... :D I mean... if you listen to them back and forth, sometimes you can forget which one you're listening to. ;) :cool:


WATYF
 
a really fine piece of work man. Lots o' heart in this. That mic deal is cool. Your voice sounded very natural and close. transparent electronics.
 
WATYF said:

As for Roll.. well thanks.. but... I would think that someone would have noticed by now what a blatant rip off of "Tell Her" that it is... :D I mean... if you listen to them back and forth, sometimes you can forget which one you're listening to. ;) :cool:
Click to expand...

the guitar playing and general rythm sounds 'heavily influenced' but the melody is certainly not the same :).
 
yeah... I'm not worried aboot plagiarism or anything... :p


but it was kinda funny... after I wrote it I had this "light-bulb" type revelation and I realized, "aw crap!! This sounds just like Tell Her!" I've done that a number of times... you know.. you write something and you're so caught up in it that it isn't until later that you realize that you just totally ripped off another song.. :p







yeah... I do that just a wee bit too much. :D :cool:


just thought I'd use a little "Erland speak" there...

I'm still working on trying to figure oat how to use "Weesht" in a sentence, though... I'm thinkin' that one's gonna take me a while... :p




WATYF
 
wtf watf? :D

great sounds. i'll give the mic comparisons a better run through when i get home, but my initial response is that I like the TLM103 a little better. And I mean a little... I'm off to download the NWR version!
 
did you use the same everything except the mics? Damn good stuff either way. chinese or german...the difference matters not because the song and performance kicked ass. so save those greenbacks!
 
Good mics do make a difference eh?LOL.I wish I had the bucks to purchase a few of them!

I can definetly tell a big difference between this version and the previous one.

The vocals and guitar have a crisper and more full bodied sound.

I wish I had a U87.:(
 
a bump with a purpose

more than just getting this back to pg 1...

I'm sure a search would turn it up, but I'm lazy :p

What model Taylor, again? I just went to "Banjo Center", and walked into their acoustic "inner sanctum"... you know, that little "room" they put the good stuff in, inside the acoustic guitar room... whoa... it had its own temperature control :p

Picked up both the 414 & 614... loved 'em both, tho the 414 had a little fuller bodied tone. The 614's cut-out was a plus for that one, tho.

I'm severely tempted to sell a kidney, and maybe some eyeball-futures (incase I die soon :p) and then indulge myself w/a Taylor...

So... which one?

Thanx :cool:
 
sounds amazing...........very pristine.........very professional

is the percussion real or samples?
 
maybe it's my ears or something today...but a lot of the stuff that I would have thought to sound just steller kinda threw me for a supprise. Yes, this sounds good, but to me (today?) it seems to lack a low end fullness to it on the guitar. It is nice and clear, but sounds like the mic is back a couple feet but there is no room sound to indicate the mic is further back. ..and no proximity effect, for sure.. I think my ears are on the blink...I don't know. I was expecting a huge gtr sound on the headphones too, but it wasn't there for me (today?). Music is great, as is the singing too. I feel like a duper going against the grain of what everyone is saying. :confused:
 
okay, I intentionally waited until this fell off of the front page to listen, b/c I knew it'd be great.

The download froze at 94%?:confused:

I wanna' hear this.
 
Thanks for all the comments... sorry I didn't reply earlier... I've been oat of town the whole weekend.

JR... yeah.. everything is the same as what I usually use except for the mics. (not counting a few plug-ins I used that I don't have at home)

Part... the git is a 414CE. And I kinda like it better than the 614 too. The african wood on the 414 just sounds "fuller" to me.

Kramer... yeah... the mics made a different, but I'm kinda starting to realize that better mics don't make some kind of "mind blowing" difference, like I once thought they would. I really just need to improve my technique. I think that will make more of a difference than getting better mics.

Powder... the perc is real... but looped. I was also planning on adding some organ, but I never got around to it. (oh well :p)

mix... actually.. I don't disagree with you at all. When all was said and done, and my ears had "recovered" from the mixing, I went back and listened and thought "those gits just sound empty". I mixed it at my bro's and he's got a butt-load of plug-ins that I don't have, so I was using all kinds of fancy EQ's and 'verbs that I'm not used to, and I'm pretty sure that I didn't do too good of a job of figuring them out. On top of that, I didn't really spend any time at all working on good mic positions. It was kind of a "rushed" effort, and the gits suffered for it. The vox came out well, but I shoulda spent more time on the gits. Just wanted to let you know that you're not hallucinating.. :p

chris... try it again... if you still have problems, let me know and I'll give you an alternative way of downloading it.


WATYF
 
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