Astrophysics - with video

  • Thread starter Thread starter famous beagle
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Wow, what a beautiful voice she has, had me mesmerized the whole song. I have to admit, when I saw the video start, I was a bit nervous thinking it was going to be a little guitar/mini xylophone bit -- then she started singing. Wow. I want to hear you two perform at the bar after a hard day while I throw a couple back.

Captured beautifully. I can hear the panning with voices, and the xylo, which gives it some nice space. Did you actually play and sing at the same time when you recorded? There seems to be some nice compression on the vocal that is not on the guitar, so sounds like separate tracks.
 
Thanks much! I agree that her voice is awesome.

That's a great ear you have! There was, in fact, some additional compression used on her vocal.

Yes, it was all performed and recorded (both video and audio) live with those two mics. There were one or two instances where she either missed a note with the glockenspiel or played it too quietly, and I replaced them with another note of the same pitch. You can kind of hear the stereo field go a little awry at those points for just a split second. But that was the only editing done.

She sang into a Studio Projects C1 (modified), into a SCA N72 mic pre (Neve clone), and then through a Summit Audio TLA-50 compressor into my interface.

I played/sang into an Apex 460 tube mic (again, highly modified) and into a (modified) Art TUBE MP and into the interface. I used a Waves CLA-2A compressor on my track and a bit of EQ.

I added a tiny bit of room verb to the track with a T-Racks plug, and that was it.

Thanks for the listen and comments!
 
Beautiful voice indeed. Wait, I seem to remember you posted something your wife did a few years ago. I can't remember what it was, but I remember being impressed.

Nice balance with her vocal, your vocal and guitar. Not so much with the xylophone, it was a little loud. Probably due to the compression.

I thought the song went a little long for what it is. There weren't a lot of changes to break up the pace. If this is for a contest where that might matter, you might consider some changes.

Thanks for sharing.
 
Chili said:
Beautiful voice indeed. Wait, I seem to remember you posted something your wife did a few years ago. I can't remember what it was, but I remember being impressed.

Nice balance with her vocal, your vocal and guitar. Not so much with the xylophone, it was a little loud. Probably due to the compression.

I thought the song went a little long for what it is. There weren't a lot of changes to break up the pace. If this is for a contest where that might matter, you might consider some changes.

Thanks for sharing.
Click to expand...

Thanks! Yes I've shared several things with my wife over the years. You may be thinking of our cover of "Hear of Gold" or maybe a Blue Foundation song called "Eyes on Fire." There have been several.

Yeah that glock is just a loud little bastard, so I knew it was going to be loud being that close to the mics. There was just no way around it, though, save her getting up from the chair and moving away from the mics. I couldn't really do anything on the mix because it was pretty loud on both tracks. Since it was recorded all live (not multi-tracked), my hands were a bit tied there. :)

Thanks for the comments!
 
I thought this was pretty nice. It seems like the vocals were panned opposite to the way you were sitting.

Generally things sounded nice. But things have a slight boxy sound, especially the female voice.

I think youtube compresses things. The xylophone is really compressed and loud.
 
Very pretty. Impressive balance

Tho, I had to turn my headphones backwards a minute in. The panning not matching the video was really getting to me! :D

Is the glock note at 3:14 one that you had to replace? It sticks out a lot.
 
TripleM said:
I thought this was pretty nice. It seems like the vocals were panned opposite to the way you were sitting.

Generally things sounded nice. But things have a slight boxy sound, especially the female voice.

I think youtube compresses things. The xylophone is really compressed and loud.
Click to expand...

Thanks. Yes the panning is opposite of what you see. I didn't mean to do that. It was simply an oversight. This was done as a submission to the NPR Tiny Desk contest, and I only had a few hours to get it edited and uploaded to meet the deadline. I could go back and fix that panning I suppose; I agree that it's a bit disconcerting.
 
Fabulous!- Really solid acoustic playing, is that a seagull? I love the bass response of the unfinished guitars, nice sound. Her singing is excellent, recorded well, nice melody. Hope the song gets you some attention!
 
didn't care for the R panned guitar throughout, but the performances kept me listening. As good as your wife's voice is, I thought yours was excellent. I don't remember hearing originals from you, beagle. great voice dude. and yes, the xylophone was rather loud and un-blending. great vocal melody and writing. particularly the response "what can ground me". really nice writing. :thumbs up:
 
Stratomaster said:
Fabulous!- Really solid acoustic playing, is that a seagull? I love the bass response of the unfinished guitars, nice sound. Her singing is excellent, recorded well, nice melody. Hope the song gets you some attention!
Click to expand...

Thanks much! Yes that's my old Seagull S6. I think it's a '91. I've had it for about 25 years; it's my workhorse.
 
andrushkiwt said:
didn't care for the R panned guitar throughout, but the performances kept me listening. As good as your wife's voice is, I thought yours was excellent. I don't remember hearing originals from you, beagle. great voice dude. and yes, the xylophone was rather loud and un-blending. great vocal melody and writing. particularly the response "what can ground me". really nice writing. :thumbs up:
Click to expand...

Thanks for the kind words. Yes, unfortunately I couldn't really do anything about the glockenspiel. It was just too damn loud and therefore overpowered everything else. She tried to play it as quietly as possible, but it's still just a loud bitch! :)
 
I'd like to learn a few of those chords, Chad. Pretty nice playing. Course with my hands, it just wouldn't make a difference...To quote our president, they're YUGE! I play an E chord with two fingers and an A with one. C and D are just REALLY hard. Barres are my normal and it makes acoustic playing all the more difficult.
Anyway, I loved this, but couldn't you just turn down the glock parts? She doesn't sing during any of them.
The left right thing got me too. When I first listened I switched my headphones around, but listening on the speakers I realize I was wearing them right.
Beautiful song.
 
BroKen_H said:
I'd like to learn a few of those chords, Chad. Pretty nice playing. Course with my hands, it just wouldn't make a difference...To quote our president, they're YUGE! I play an E chord with two fingers and an A with one. C and D are just REALLY hard. Barres are my normal and it makes acoustic playing all the more difficult.
Anyway, I loved this, but couldn't you just turn down the glock parts? She doesn't sing during any of them.
The left right thing got me too. When I first listened I switched my headphones around, but listening on the speakers I realize I was wearing them right.
Beautiful song.
Click to expand...

Thanks much for the kind words. My father-in-law has very big hands too, and I was always amazed watching him play that he was able to make all the notes of C and D sound clear. He did it somehow, though. :)

I had very little time to mix this song because I had to submit it for the NPR Tiny Desk concert within a few hours after we recorded it, which included editing the video, uploading it to YouTube, and then submitting it. So I didn't spend much time at all. That's why I panned the mics the wrong way (wasn't even thinking about it to be honest). Believe it or not, I did turn down her mic by about 6 dB when she was playing the glock! :) When I started going lower than that, it started to noticeably affect the guitar volume as well. It was just a bad idea to have that glock so close to the mic. :)
 
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