Me and my acoustic guitar try it again

[jamie_drum]

I am on a lifelong quest to be make a great recording of just acoustic guitar and voice.

Unfortunately this guitar recording turned out pretty noisy (guess the floorboards are getting old) but I liked the performance so here it is!

All advice welcome as always!

EDIT: this is now the updated mix (May 9) thanks for all the feedback!



If you want to hear the original mix for comparison it is here:



[ModNote: Done]

 

[Steenamaroo]

If you click advanced on your post it'll give you a soundcloud button.
I think it just wraps the link in [ S O U N D C L O UD ] and [ / S O U N D C L O U D ] without the spaces.


Have you done the same copy/paste/delay thing as the other lad on here? Your acoustic guitar sounds unnaturally wide to me.

I like the vocals! There's a real strong After the Goldrush feel going on there! Playing is solid too.
The vocal pitch waivers a little here and there, but I don't mind it in the context.

Good job and thanks for sharing.

 

[lancelot0888]

Hi! I'm no expert at this but I think this sounds awesome

 

[Mickster]

Hey...nice performance. I agree with Steen that the acoustic seems a bit too wide. The vocal feels like it sits in the middle..........sometimes muddled between two guitars........when in this case it might sound better if it sat more "on top"...........if that makes sense. Not sure if you widened using phase shifting.......sort of sounds that way.........or some other method. I'd try to bring in....just a little......the left and right guitar more towards center. A tad more volume on the voice. And......from time too time you seem to let the tail end of the vocals line trail off a bit too soon. I think that's an effect you were using as you sang.......to give the lyrics their character....and lend to the mood of the song. But for me it made it more difficult to sometimes hear the last word of a line. Ok........that's way too much said about an very nice performance and song!! Thanks for letting me hear it.

 

[Jessica_X]

I love the sound and feel of this overall.
To bring it up a notch in professionalism, have you considered using some pitch correction software? I just started using flex pitch that's in Logic X and I can imagine how it could fix a couple of pitch problems on a few notes here in there in your recording. I don't think it would take anything away, but in a couple of places a couple of notes are off in pitch and then it's distracting.
But really, this is great and emotionally affecting.

 

[jamie_drum]

Thanks for so much encouraging feedback.

Re the guitar, there are no special effects. Rather, this is a stereo recording with spaced mics about three feet from each other, one aimed more at the bridge area, one pointed at the fretboard as it joins the body.

The two channels are panned hard right and left, however, so maybe I should narrow them. I think the stereo issue is more noticeable on headphones. In my car I don't see it as an issue.

Jamie

I love the sound and feel of this overall.
To bring it up a notch in professionalism, have you considered using some pitch correction software? I just started using flex pitch that's in Logic X and I can imagine how it could fix a couple of pitch problems on a few notes here in there in your recording. I don't think it would take anything away, but in a couple of places a couple of notes are off in pitch and then it's distracting.
But really, this is great and emotionally affecting.

There is a hint of pitch correct on a few notes, but I used it really sparingly. Perhaps too sparingly! . Good advice

 

[Steenamaroo]

Re the guitar, there are no special effects. Rather, this is a stereo recording with spaced mics about three feet from each other, one aimed more at the bridge area, one pointed at the fretboard as it joins the body.
In my car I don't see it as an issue.

Strange. It's not that you've panned too wide...it's that there's an unnatural effect at work here.

Edit:
I just took a recording and checked it out. Seems there's a substantial delay between left and right.
Here's a clip to show you. I lined the tracks up in the second half of this clip.

Of course if you like it the way it is that's cool.

 

[jamie_drum]

Edit:
I just took a recording and checked it out. Seems there's a substantial delay between left and right.
Here's a clip to show you. I lined the tracks up in the second half of this clip.

Of course if you like it the way it is that's cool.

Wow thanks for taking the time to do that. I never had a chance to look at that yesterday. I'll try to have a look at the files later today.

I did use the Maserati Acoustic guitar plugin on the mix....maybe that is adding some kind of stereo widening I'm not aware of. Otherwise, I guess the delay is from recording technique.

 

[Steenamaroo]

That sounds pretty plausible, about the vst.
I didn't measure the delay but you were certainly getting into room mic territory with one of them. I doubt it's down to position.

 

[robgreen]

Enjoyable tune Jamie and I particularly like the main guitar line - it has a nice rolling feel to it. I agree with Mickster that your voice tails off in parts and maybe a little more compression could even out these parts a little.

I think it would sound cool played on a nylon strung acoustic too - that main guitar part would translate well with a real rhythmic clunk that you could get from that on it.

 

[jamie_drum]

Enjoyable tune Jamie and I particularly like the main guitar line - it has a nice rolling feel to it. I agree with Mickster that your voice tails off in parts and maybe a little more compression could even out these parts a little.

I think it would sound cool played on a nylon strung acoustic too - that main guitar part would translate well with a real rhythmic clunk that you could get from that on it.

Just got a nylon string recently...however when I recorded this one I didn't have it. Used my old acoustic I have had for >20 years!

 

[jamie_drum]

That sounds pretty plausible, about the vst.
I didn't measure the delay but you were certainly getting into room mic territory with one of them. I doubt it's down to position.

Hey Steen, I finally had a chance to try to fix this. New links to the tracks above.

Listening tests with the Maserati AG plugin off and on don't seem to have any effect on the delay you noticed. However, I do find a short delay between the two stereo channels. I can only attribute it to mic positioning. I lined it up using my eyes / ears and I think the stereo imaging is much better now and you don't get that phase sound. I'm curious to know if you think I got it right.

I tuned up a few errant notes for Jessica_X.

This was a good lesson in the art of stereo recording. I will be much more attentive to this in the future. Also you helped "train" my ears!

 

[Steenamaroo]

Ok cool. Maybe it's not as big a delay as I though then.
I listened to the new link and it's definitely much less distracting.

Thanks for posting back with it.