I liked the song. Nicely played acoustic shuffle
Good strong bluesy singing. The vocal sounds a bit distant to me. Maybe you could bring it up in the mix and try a smidge less reverb?
The guitar sounds very twangy. Did you record from an acoustic pickup rather than miking it up? Personally I vastly prefer the sound of an
acoustic guitar miked up with a condensor, but if you're set on the tracking you've got you could EQ a cut in the mids to see if you can get it a bit more natural sounding and probably stick a bit more 'verb on there.
I also felt that the song could have 'built' more. Maybe some extra instrumentation kicking in after the first chorus? It wouldn't have to be anything too dramatic, even some shaker or similar. Alternatively a bridge might give the feel of the main theme coming back in a bit more drama?
Just my tuppence worth, so don't take anything I say as gospel of course...
Thanks for the input, Goldilox.
Guitar was recorded with a direct signal > Fishman pre amp > ART Tube MP > computer interface
-AND-
MXL 990 > ART Tube MP > mixer > computer interface
I was trying to see what (if anything) the pre amps might add. Sure, I could read about what that might do all day, but I wouldn't KNOW until I tried. I'm not thrilled with the results. Seems like there was some upper-mids on the direct signal that I couldn't get rid of in the direct signal. Also, I had the mixer routing the mic'ed signal through an Alesis 3630 compressor and a Peavey Q215 EQ and back. The settings were set to help my sister-in-law's voice and I didn't want to toy with them as it had taken some tweaking to get her voice sounding full with those components. I did adjust the three band EQ on the mixer and followed with some plug-in manipulation. I could only do so much, though. I'll be giving that song another shot now that I'm done with her project and getting ready for mine. I even went and nabbed Mom's old Gibson J-50 and her Takamine 12 string to see if they'll yield a fuller sound than my anemic Martin 000-M.
I didn't give extra instrumentation any thought, as I was just emulating the original as done by Stevie Ray Vaughan. The original was Stevie and the guitar, nothing else. Adding instrumentation could happen, and would offer some better dynamics, I'm sure...but that wasn't my intention this time.
The performance sounds pretty good.
I feel like I want to reverse the mix of vocal and guitar. The guitar too close (and a bit boomy) and the vocal is too distant.
My instinct is to shelve (EQ) the entire bottom end of the guitar away and see if a thinner/crisper sound lets the vocal through. Otherwise give the vocal a closer mic proximity.
After listening to the mp3 a few times, I felt exactly the same about the mix, Tobe. And your call on the vocal...100% dead-on.
I wanted to finish this track before some friends arrived for poker night Saturday. I never used the condenser for vocals before because didn't like the harshness it offered. Kind of ignorant of me not to think about running it into the board before now, so I did and tweaked the EQ on that channel. I was SO taken with how the vocal sounded. It wasn't the best, mind you...but it was completely new for me. I don't think I'll run the Tube MP in line, as it was there from having recorded the guitar track (had to experiment, y'know)...but I look forward to running it to the board, through the compressor and EQ again, then tweaking it for MY voice. Can't wait, can't wait, can't wait!
Anyway, I didn't really move the mic to a position in front of my face. I left it where I had been using it and just leaned over. I wasn't close enough, and the settings really weren't working in my favor.
The performance is spot on. Good vocal perfomance. I think the vocals are way too boxy, though, like too much room. If it's an effect, you should try something different. If it's the room, you need to get closer to the mic or pick a better recording location.
I think you've got a nice full guitar sound. It sounds like it comes off the p/u, but still sounds good.
Good cover of a good song.
peace,
Chili, thanks for the kind words.
That vocal DOES sound boxy. The description above may explain to you why it's that way. I look forward to setting the gear up for my voice and trying again. The guitar sound was full, but there's some weird shrill upper-mid range thing happening that creative EQ'ing (with my beginning level skills) could not eliminate or even mask. Setting this gear up for MY performance may help. Also, I'll limit my use of the ART Tube MP. I ran the Fishman pre amp into the Tube MP in hopes of smoothing things out a little more, but I believe that's where the weird frequency came from.
I really appreciate the input from you guys. I really don't have access to anyone locally that records themselves as a hobby -OR- records others as either a hobby or vocation. This helps more than you know.
Thanks
