Mic pres: Spend $200 or $2,000 ? ? ?

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Harvey, Mark et. al-

Cool stories. Harvey - talking about your guitar recording made me think of one of my favorite guitarists, Harvey Reid.

He has won the steel string national championships before. His 1989 album "Solo Guitar Sketchbook" is a landmark recording to me. Amazing playing...and fidelity. Are you familiar with his work?

From the liner notes:

"Recording: April and May 1989 at The Cottage, near Bath, Maine, with a Panasonic SV-250 DAT recorder, Audio-Technica 4051 microphones and Lexicon digital reverb. This recording was done direct-to-master, with no splicing, editing, or overdubbing of any sort, and is all-digital "

I have read elsewhere that he used Apogee converters. Obviously, he was using nice gear and signal chain to make this recording...but, it all comes down to 2 microphones. His performance is what is really killer.

I have never heard a better sounding acoustic guitar than his Taylor 810 Brazillian Rosewood on the first 3 tracks of this album. Not to mention that the songs themsevles are beautiful. Some great Celtic influenced stuff...and a few traditional tunes.

If you arn't familiar with this album, it is definately worth checking out...both for the sonic quality, but..really just for the music. It claims on the back to be "An Audiophile Direct to Digital Recording".

he has lots of discs...to me this is his magnum opus though. i'd give up a lot of cd's before i'd let go of that one.

http://www.harveyreid.com/catalog/wp-catalog.html

it's towards the bottom.

"Made Guitar Player Magazine's Top 20 "desert island" list of acoustic guitar CD's" - huh, interesting. I'd like to see that list.
 
Wes,

Not at all. Your intelligent and well-written post was a good place to let it rest for awhile. I very much enjoyed the exchanges in this thread and appreciate your contribution.

With kind regards,

MarkH.
 
Yea, wes, you SAVED the thread. :)

Alright, I wouldn't go that far, but it was an interesting diversion.
 
wes480 said:
Harvey, Mark et. al-

Cool stories. Harvey - talking about your guitar recording made me think of one of my favorite guitarists, Harvey Reid.
Click to expand...

HA! Someone else who loves Harvey Reid. I've seen him live three times in small venues, and he's terriffic--even got my picture taken with him. I, also, love "Sketchbook." It is a masterpiece of acoustic guitar. His latest, "Guitar Voyages," will also earn him many accolades.

Harvey is much more than an artist, he really is a traveling minstral. His goal in life is to keep western traditional music alive and to adapt as many pieces as he can to the acoustic guitar (and the other stringed instruments he plays), as well as continue to write his own inspired material.

If you go to www.woodpecker.com (his label) you find all kinds of info (in addition to the obligatory bio) about Harvey: his gear, his favorite albums, liner notes on his various albums, and essays on everything from playing in bars to how to digitaly record an acoustic guitar (of which he is a master).

I could go on and on, but just let me say: if you are an acoustic guitar player you'd do yourself a big favor by not only listening to this man's music, but listening to him, period. He has a lot of heart-felt things to say about music. And by all means, go see him live if you get the chance, and watch him go into his musical trance.
 
BTW, Harvey arranges, plays, engineers, and masters all of his own recordings. And he records his solo guitar pieces in single takes, no overdubs, no multitracking.
 
yeah i noticed on his web site that he has several good articles on music, both recording and "the biz". neat guy. hopefully he will be touring before long, I have never seen him.
 
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