small room blues

[12m]

I have excellent equipment(Audio Technics AT4047/SV,Mac Pro 8 core,Apogee Duet.I wish to
home record jazz after making my own backgrounds on GarageBand.I play tenor saxophone .The problem is my room.It is 8x10 and crammed with stuff including a Yamaha 88 key clavinova piano.My solos come out harsh.What can I do to improve the recording environment?I have no option to move to a larger room.Using my mike I have recorded in larger areas and the results
confirm that my room is the problem.

 

[Dogbreath]

Well, my first guess would be bass traps.
I know sax doesn't have much bass freq persay but bass traps in a super small room seem to be a must.

The other thing I thought about was the micing technique you used in micing up the sax. Where are you placing the mic? What's your chain?

 

[12m]

Chain?

I was going to say ,"on the dog"but I don't want to be a smart ass.I don't
know what that means.I usually play straight into the mike and the distance depends on the back-up music and if I am playing alto,tenor or baritone.
Out of frustration and because I really don"t want to start applying sound
absorbent material to all my hard surfaces I just today ordered an sE Electronics Reflection filter from Sweetwater.It encompasses the mike on
three sides and(according to reviews I read) helps solve my kind of problem.
If anyone has experience with this product please let me know.I will give my opinion in a couple of weeks.

 

[Dogbreath]

"on the dog"....

feel free to be a smart ass. I'm very comfortable widdit.

"The chain" is the signal chain. mic-preamp-mixer-soundcard. Whatever it is between your mic and what you're recording to.

When you track your sax, do you listen to it solo'd before you bring in the rest of the mix? Have you tried different mic placements? On the bell, to the side, middle??? (I dunno, never tracked a sax) I would suggest soloing it and different places to mic it tho.

I know what you mean about putting stuff on the walls but with an area that small, maybe even just some DIY basstraps that you can hang instead of a permament mount.

Other than that..."fix it in the mix"
no, I'm kidding.....keep experimenting with mic placement and maybe do some reading on GIK acoustics and Ethan Winers sites for treating rooms. Ya might get some do-able ideas. Other than that, I hope that dooly-hootcher from sweetwater helps things out.

 

[Dogbreath]

Just checked it out and I've heard some good feedback about that reflexion filter.
Luck man..........

 

[12m]

Dear Mr.Breath,thank you for your kind regards.I will not say how old I am
but God was best man at my wedding.I need all the help I can get with
base 2 gadgets.When I was born my father drove a REO and musical instruments were all acoustic.I have this old fart cravings for them thar days when fucking loops were part of crocheting.LOOPS!Except for drum loops
that can be used during chord changes in an arrangement leeches cobble
loops together to make a repetitious,unlistenable,Frankensteinian mish-mash
Of someone else's licks.But Oh My!How they mixed the shit out of it.
Well pardon me.I sometimes get resentful on my second bottle of Chardonnay.After all this is an electronic,home recording site and believe me my gratitude runneth over that for a relative pittance I am able to
pick up my horn and express myself AND at the same time record the results so I can bore the snot out of friend and relative alike.I live in one of the neighbor Hawaiian Islands where the chunka-chunka ukulele is ruler
and a jazzer let alone an ancient one is a true rarity.
So here I am ,in my bedroom ,playing with myself(MUSICAL MASTURBATION!).This is the real reason I joined this site.I want to arrange
and record something,if I may make so bold,beautiful before I croak.And I think,after I do my part,that I have found the expertise on the technical
side that will help me approach my goal.
So with some verses of ,"The One Eyed Riley"on my lips and my last bottle of Berringer Estate Chardonnay in my fist to all a good night.