Live Bluegrass

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Treeline

Treeline

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Here's something I'm working on from a live concert this summer - friends of mine who've been playing in the same band for thirty years or so. It's a draft cut, so it's on the hot side. Lemme know yer thoughts... Thanks!

PAUL & SILAS
 
As far as the technical aspects of the recording go, it's pretty good. I like how you captured the big room feel. Because it's a live performance, there's not much more that you can do with this than you already have. Maybe eq some of that falsetto tenor vocal out of there. At least, try to tone that down a bit. Especially near the end of the song. I can hear all of the instrument parts. I can hear all of the vocal parts. Amazing, considering that everything is all together in the center of the stereo field. But again, it's live, so not much can be done.
 
Really cool!
What are you working with, just a 2-track mix? Or, do you have separate tracks for some of the elements? Just wondering how much control, if any, you have over this mix.
If it were me, I would cut back on the echo. To me, it makes the vocals nearly unintelligible, and give the track an over-all sort of "home-spun" sound. I certainly understand the effect you are gong for, that "in-concert" sort of feel.

Good show!

~Shawn
 
Can you get the bass to bump just a little more? Part of my live bluegrass experiences have been nice boomy bass in the PA. But don't do it if it covers up any of the other great stuff that's going on. Definitely a fun recording. :cool:
 
I'm really hearing too much high end on the mix, maybe some compression and high cuts would give it some more body. A touch of mid cuts would help-but the highs are really thinning the sound.
 
Thanks, guys!

I'll do some more with it. I find it so easy to overcompress this stuff. The dynamic range is pretty large.

The band clusters around a single AT 4040 through a sound system. I used three mics - one SP C3, omni in the center beside the PA mic, and a couple of SP B1s right and left sides, running to the tracker. I recorded each direct to its own track. Because the band clusters around the mic in the old style, bleed is pretty much universal. The omni picked up a good audience sound, but credit should also be given to a pretty hot crowd.

Panning was done using shadow tracks eq'd to maximize a particular set of frequencies, so I can place the bass somewhat to the left and the fiddle somewhat to the right. The best sound so far seems to be a strong center with bits panned L and R.

Back to the alchemy lab...:D
 
Musically its very good and lots of fun! I agree with Obi about the bass, it needs to be more prominent, the whole track is too trebly. The fiddle player is smokin!:cool: He/she is obviously very into it and doing a great job.
 
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