Acoustic solo guitar instrumentals

[Jerun]

Hi,

I've been playing the guitar for 12 years now, and since about a month ago I started recording some of the songs I like to play. You can find some of these recordings here:

Jerun's Spotlight page on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

I would love some feedback and (preferably constructive) critisism on my work so I can improve my playing.

Thanks in advance, and hopefully you'll enjoy the music!

 

[cobaltaudio]

On a few of the tracks there's a low frequency tone in the background, should be very easy to eq out though. Are you a Stanley Jordan fan by any chance? You should hear him play Autumn Leaves and Over the Rainbow!

Aside from the low frequency thing, I really like the tone actually. The only thing I would say about the playing is that although it is very musical and technically good, I would like to hear a bit more consistent progression through the phrases. Again, go listen to Stanley play Over the Rainbow, it's constantly moving with actual relatively little change in tempo and is very smooth and consistent. You seem to take a few too many pauses and 'breaths' between lyrical lines, like a singer would do, but you don't have the rest of the band to keep the song moving along.

Great work, really nice musicality. A high pass filter and keeping your pace going should see you to some really nice recordings.

 

[ido1957]

You should contact the forumite XLR - he teaches classical and has played on a few albums. He would be able to give additional insight on your playing. I played classical for a couple years when I was 9 then gave it up for life in the the Navy (League Cadets). When I picked up the guitar again at 17 it was for KISS and KANSAS...

 

[Jerun]

On a few of the tracks there's a low frequency tone in the background, should be very easy to eq out though. Are you a Stanley Jordan fan by any chance? You should hear him play Autumn Leaves and Over the Rainbow!

Aside from the low frequency thing, I really like the tone actually. The only thing I would say about the playing is that although it is very musical and technically good, I would like to hear a bit more consistent progression through the phrases. Again, go listen to Stanley play Over the Rainbow, it's constantly moving with actual relatively little change in tempo and is very smooth and consistent. You seem to take a few too many pauses and 'breaths' between lyrical lines, like a singer would do, but you don't have the rest of the band to keep the song moving along.

Great work, really nice musicality. A high pass filter and keeping your pace going should see you to some really nice recordings.

Hey thanks very much for your insightful comment! This really helps!

How should I go about eliminating this low frequency 'buzz'? I heard it but I don't have the knowledge/skill to eliminate this. You mention a high pass filter, how does that work? I do my recording with garageband, don't know if that is sufficiently sophisticated software.

On the playing, I agree that it misses some flow, I should work on that! Now that you analysed the piece and gave me something to focus on, I should be able to do this pretty easily I think.

Thanks again!

 

[Jerun]

You should contact the forumite XLR - he teaches classical and has played on a few albums. He would be able to give additional insight on your playing. I played classical for a couple years when I was 9 then gave it up for life in the the Navy (League Cadets). When I picked up the guitar again at 17 it was for KISS and KANSAS...

Thanks, I'll try to find him! (sleep first, it's late here in Belgium )

 

[cobaltaudio]

Ok, a high-pass filter does what it says on the tin, it lets high frequencies through, i.e. it limits reduces or removes low frequencies. In this case however, the low frequency is literally just one frequency, so we can just filter it out.

What you need is an eq plugin on your guitar channel, and set one centre frequency to 50Hz. You want this to be really really narrow, so set the 'Q' as high as it will go, then set the gain for that band as low as it will go. Bingo, hum gone.

P.s. this was probably from the mains somewhere, not quite sure what your set up is so difficult to pinpoint it. If you've got a DI box in there, hit the earth lift switch. If not, check your cables aren't lying over any transformers etc.

 

[cobaltaudio]

(sleep... hmm yes, it's late here in the UK too. Good idea.)