A recording for my Uni application. Advice needed

[Antidote]

Hey guys im 17 years old and am hoping to study Music Technology next year at a highly acclaimed institution in Australia and need to provide a portfolio of my work to date. Here is a song that I recorded of my friend a few days ago and I was hoping that a few of you might have some constructive criticism for me I have never tried to record/mix this kind of music before so it may be a bit rough Here is the song.

The Same by AntidoteProduction on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

Guitar was recorded with a Rode NT-5 and Vox with an Akg Perception on Bi-Directional setting.

 

[aaronmcoleman]

The vocals sound cool. The guitar needs some EQ and maybe a LITTLE reverb to smooth it out. With NT5 I always boost 2-3 db around 250 and cut 2-3 db around 5-7K. I know a lot of people here won't like the idea, but I compress solo acoustics to smooth them out a bit, but not too much because I like the attack and kinda unfinished sound.

It sounds like you close miced it. Maybe a little bit of distance, or even stereo might give the guitar some more finished sound to it..basically some distance or reverb could help a lot. It's not boomy, or harsh, so I think it sounds cool. I like rough guitars for solo stuff.

Mixing something like this is purely preference when there are just two parts to worry about. Balance sounds good to me.

 

[Antidote]

Thanks for the info, I placed the mic about 50cm away from the guitar to try to give the sound wave time to develop, do you think that further than this is necessary? I did the same 5-7k cut as you however i slightly boosted around the 350 to try to bring out the A string. I suppose that may have subtracted from the shimmer of the picking.

There is already some reverb on the guitar however I was being careful not to destroy the simplicity of the acoustic guitar but I will definitely have a fiddle with the reverb to see if I can make it sound a little more polished. I come from a small country town so it is very difficult to get help around here on specialist industries such as this and I really need to nail my portfolio thanks for your help.

 

[PDP]

Overall sounds quite good.

Just curious, why did you use bi-directional setting on the vox?

Not much to critique, sounds good, if I noticed anything it would be that the playing and singing is kinda quiet, so I would suggest to play and sing closer to the mic(s) for a more present sound, but only if you plan on adding a (very good quality) reverb.

Also I thought I heard one or two pops/clicks in the beginning, since its a recording audition demo you should clear that up.

Nice work.

 

[Antidote]

Thanks for the help I used bi-directional because I wasn't happy with the results I was getting from the Omidirectional, It sounded thin and the singer was unable to utilise the proximity effect that he could when using the bi-directional settings.

Upon closer inspection the pops and clicks at the start were the result of cutting the track and I neglected to make sure it started on a Zero Crossing so thanks for picking up on that. The reverb that I was using was the Air Reverb on PT9 as I cant afford any expensive outboard gear Unfortunately the singer didnt understand what "Make sure you're singing into the mic" meant which is why the vocals are a bit quiet and airy. Thanks for the input anyway