A Memory of Light

O

OldManRigney

New member
Original piano piece I wrote, played, and recorded. This is my first attempt recording anything, but I had a few music tech courses and winged it based on that. I had to kind of use what I had: the condenser mics from my Shure Drum Kit 7 pack (PGA 181s). I recorded straight into Ableton and used an M-Audio M-Track 8. I needed a fast recording for a grad application and my original plan fell through at the last minute. I've already sent it off, but was wondering for future reference how this went. It was a 9' grand and I used an XY set up right over my head, because I liked the stereo image of the piano there, and only had about 2 hours to do it in. Kind of just made a decision and went with it...threw a couple plugins on the master and sent it out.

https://soundcloud.com/jriggles/a-memory-of-light

Lemme know what you think!
 
The piano sounds very nice. The stereo image is pretty good IMO. Neat performance. Cool composition.

There is a lot of static noise. Is this a loud room? Outside noise? Air conditioning or heater on? If not, then your signal chain could be improved.

At 2:58 I can hear clicking. Not sure if that is you hitting the pedals.

At the end I can hear you sigh and walk away. Maybe an automated fade out there would be better.
 
It's a small concert hall. I think the static is because I should have put the mics closer and not jacked up the gain so much on the interface? At the time, I wasn't sure if that was just a quality of the mics or if I should have put a gate of some size shape or form on the recording or what. The stand didn't have a boom unfortunately. I was running the condensers straight to the mtrack 8 to the computer. Since I haven't done much (any really) recording, I haven't figure out if I like the preamps in the interface. I mainly got it because it had pretty good reviews and had enough inputs for easily recording a lot of drums while still not being ridiculously expensive. I can't figure out what the clicking is...I'm wondering if it was the key action on the piano which I know from experience can sometimes be audible from the audience.

And yeah I'll definitely throw a fade out before using this recording for anything else.

Thank you so much for your feedback!
 
One more thing that may be helpful - have you read about gain staging and optimal input levels? It may be that you were running your input preamps hotter than was necessary.
 
I haven't, ibleedburgundy. I'll check that out though! Thanks for the tip!

And yup, Gruff! I'm working on my fourth full reread right now, hahaha.
 
I listened to way too much Philip Glass back in 2013 when I wrote it. And I leave the shrooms to Cage. ;-)

I mainly used abrupt modulations through a few key centers. Used a few minor tonalities, but never really implied the harmonic specifically. The piece itself is nothing special. Mainly was wondering about the recording.

Can't afford autotune though, so I definitely screwed up with the vsts I did use if it sounds anything like autotune...unless that was another lowbrow crack at the Minimalist style rather than the timbre...in which case--fair.
 
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