A "Texas Country" track (acoustic and vox)

[amra]

In my search to expand my recording experience beyond the metal I am usually recording, I had a buddy of mine bring his acoustic guitar over, and I recorded a track for him. He plays in a country band that played rodeos, stock shows and all kinds of dusty little towns down here in south Texas. He wanted to do some solo stuff, in a style that is popular down here, called "Texas Country". I guess it is kind of a stripped down, back to your roots kind of country music, without all that nashville pop influence.

Anyway, it was just a learning process for me, not a paying recording gig, so we only did one take. There are a couple performance issues on the vox, but you know, with vox and an acoustic guitar so close it is pretty hard to do punch ins due to mic bleed, and hell it was just for practice. I wanted to concentrate on the recording aspects of it.

Constructive feedback welcome!
"Livin' for the show" - MP3 - 192Kbps

 

[XLR]

I like the vocal sound. The gtr sounds kind of harsh with lots of zinging in the left hand fretting. The tone of the gtr part would probably work if the playing had been very clean. I tried hitting the gtr (at the intro where it's alone) with an EQ doing several notches in the upper mids and highs, and a multiband on the highs at a very low ratio and it didn't sound too bad, so I'd say the gtr sound is rescueable.

 

[amra]

Thanks, I'll try that!
This track is really a mess.
I don't like the way the vocals sounded at all, and the guitar gave me fits. Way too much vocal in the guitar track and for that reason, too much bad sounding room in the vocals through the guitar mic, I feel.

Vocal bleed into the guitar mic can really be a thorn in your side, if you are not super careful about mic placement. I was just not careful enough this time, I guess.

 

[XLR]

Listened again, this time on speakers. Changing my approach. I'd just do a 3 dB cut at 3 kHz on the gtr, and some MB comp on its low A that booms. More processing on the gtr and I think it loses too much. But he should really retrack to get a cleaner guitar sound.

 

[amra]

Tim,
Thanks for giving it a listen!

Also, thanks for the comment on myspace. You are right, it is funny how you can find things in common with people across musical genres!

 

[Ko17]

cool theme to the song, I think you should try a lo-fi sound, maybe put the guitar through a telephone/answering machine filter to give it a vintage aged feel...I think that would fit the tone of the song...