Quality of this recording?

O

oz_fenda

New member
Hi Guys,
I've just started recording an album and although I have dabbled in the home recording thing for a while, I still don't trust my ears as being as sharp as they could be. I was wondering what you think of these tracks, sonically? I am hoping to record the sessions myself and then send them away for professional mixing/mastering so if i'm recording rubbish that doesn't give an engineer much hope with I guess i'm wasting my time.

Gear wise i'm using an apogee duet/Macbook Pro/PT10 and this acoustic guitar track was recorded in a shed (dry wall on 3 walls) with some blankets hung around the mic area. I recorded with a Rode NT1A near the 12th fret and a 57 on the bridge. (I have a cheap Samson condenser, maybe it would give me better results than the 57?).

I'd love to know if you think the tracks sound 'professional' enough, or if you can audibly hear the room wreaking havok with the sounds etc (I think this is my main concern)... I had to chop up a couple of different parts of the track so it could be uploaded...

Many thanks in advance for any feedback :)

Cheers,
Matt
 

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  • Acoustic Guitar Test Tracks.mp3
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Your best bet for feedback is to post in the MP3 Clinic section of this forum. I don't particularly here the 'room' in the recording. Judging sound by one track is useless. Provide a mixed song.
 
Hey mjb, in the OP's post, he says he's not planning on mixing it. Just recording it and sending it away. I disagree that this is completely useless, but that's just me. It at least gives an idea of whether or not it is usable, and I think to a good mix engineer with a good monitoring environment and skill, this should do ok. Nothing's perfect, especially at home in a shed, but surely if this track sounded like he was using a terribly out of tune guitar, in a 5x5 untreated shed, with a tape recorder and dogs barking in the background, one could safely say it is not up to snuff, even for the utmost professional mix engineer.

Oz, the only thing that jumped out slightly to me was a twanginess or just rather "metallic" sound of the string attack. Perhaps this is the way your guitar actually sounds though. As far as the clarity, quality, sound of the room, I think you're doing ok. It's not overly treated and muffled sounding and it's also not overly bass-resonant or boomy/open sounding like you'd get in a completely untreated room. So you're in good shape imo. Surely, it could sound better (what can't?), but you're only limited with the gear, mics, and room you have to work with.

Good luck on the album!
 
Recording Master - I understand he is not planning on doing the mixing himself, but you can't tell everything about the tracking room from 1 track, 1 instrument.
 
Thanks for the replies guys. I'll record a few more tracks and different instruments and post them in the mixing clinic when I get them done, thanks again!
 
If I was sent that track to be mixed with others I'd be fine with it--there's nothing there that would prevent good results.

I have a personal preference for stereo miking on an acoustic guitar but that's a matter of taste.
 
Thanks guys,
I ended up posting in the mixing forum aswell, but for those that didn't see it, I tracked a ton more guitar tracks using those setups, and got down to doing some editing and mixing and there was phasing problems everywhere when its in mono, so I've got a matched pair of rode nt-5's on the way and will xy it. I record myself 'hit record, walk into the next room, sit down infront of the mic's and play, rinse and repeat' style so its impossible to set the mics and my playing position to avoid phasing all day long. thanks again for all your input, much appreciated!
 
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