Something Like A Star

[GoldFalcon]

Slowly trying to bring the production quality of my tunes up. Just got the Mbox in today and have come to the conclusion that I am just not cut out to multitrack, it's all stiff and wooden unless I just rip it out in one take.

I've tried a whole bunch of stuff to spruce up my recordings since joining here, but I gotta tell you, I can't get away from my "less is more" mindset. I can't even put light reverb on cause I think it sounds too "over the top".

Are my tracks sufferring from my lack of production philosophy?

Here's one I wrote yesterday and tracked today.
Something Like A Star

"They feed upon themselves, you know"
she said as she watched me watch the glow
of a long dead, distant, bright and shining star.

I'd come out in the winter air
to escape the chill that built in there
that slowly tried to still my beating heart

And I said "Well, that's something I could learn"
as we slowly watched each other burn
getting brighter just before the fade away
sending out our dying rays

Something brighter in the night that seems to fade with morning light
A fickle guide to show the way
It moves across the fabric wreaking orchestrated havoc
more destructive the closer that you are
When you take love, you take something like a star

something like a star
something like a star
something like a star

Fahrenheit and Centigrade can't measure all the heat we made
Frost can't touch the elements we blend
most of it is massless, just reactions out of habit
that make it seem much bigger than the core

But hey, that's something we always knew
there wasn't much for us to use
Said all there was to say
All that's left is the fade away

Something brighter in the night that seems to fade with morning light
A fickle guide to show the way
It moves across the fabric wreaking orchestrated havoc
more destructive the closer that you are
When you take love, you take something like a star

something like a star
something like a star
something like a star

Inspired by Robert Frost's [Take Something Like A Star]:

Oh Star, the fairest one in sight
We grant your loftiess the right
To some obscurity of cloud
It will not do to say of night
Since dark is what brings out your light,
Some mystery becomes the proud,
but to be wholly taciturn in your reserve is not allowed.
Say something to us we can learn by heart
And when alone repeat.
Say something, and it says I Burn
But say with what degree of heat.
Talk Farenheit, talk centigrade
Use language we can comprehend
Tell us what elements you blend
It gives us strangely little aid
But does tell something in the end.
And, steadfast as Keat's "Eremite"
Not ever stooping from its sphere
It asks a little of us here
It asks of us a certain height
So when at times the crowd is swayed
to carry praise or blame too far,
We may take something like a star,
to stay our minds on
And be staid.

 

[XLR]

Beautiful song, Brian.

I can't get away from my "less is more" mindset.

Well, you're not alone... you're pretty much describing the "minimalist recording" philosophy. It holds that the most expressive recordings of acoustic music are done using techniques that reproduce the actual live sound in the room as realistically as possible, often with just two mic's. I think the word "minimalist" though is misleading though because it implies "simple", which it definitely isn't. Classical music is usually recorded this way because performers react to each other in subtle ways during a performance that can only happen live, and the combined sound of the instruments in the room develops in a way that's more than the sum of the parts. A negative though is that the gear used for this kind of recording tends to be super expensive and tricky to use well. It also takes a very good room.

Regarding processing and reverb applied to acoustic music, I hear you. I've noticed that most plugins and hardware have negatives to the sound when I listen hard. I've only found three plugins, actually, that I can tolerate for serious recording - everything else I've tried seems to add a layer of artificiality or worse. And even the plugs that I like are only useable to me in certain limited ways before they get phony or twisted sounding. But used carefully they can make the music, to my ear, more realistic rather than the opposite. I figure that making the sound of a 200 year old piece of spruce go through a polypropylene speaker cone is already ridiculously artificial, so it makes sense in an ironic way that it can be made to sound more natural by using other artificial means.

With voice & guitar recorded together live there are techniques for getting good separation in separate tracks so each can be processed and mixed after the fact, by using mic's with tight patterns. What were your mic's and positioning for this?

Tim

 

[peopleperson]

Are my tracks sufferring from my lack of production philosophy?

Not by a long shot. This is not something that needs production interference ("production interference, half the distance to the goal line....third down").

At the very most, it might benefit from a very subtle reverb on the entire thing. Go listen to "It's alright, Ma" by Bob Dylan. That's what I'm talkin about.

 

[Dogman]

Nice tune. I'd say you have no production problems. It's very clean, and simple. Well played, well sung, and you captured that. You could add a small room reverb to give it a more "Live" feel, but dryer like this sounds very good. If you don't like how the reverb sounds, I wouldn't use it. This is very nice sounding.
Ed

 

[GoldFalcon]

Thanks for taking the time to listen and respond, and for the kind words and suggestions.

The guitar mic was an SM57 placed about 4" out from the 18th fret. The vox mic was an MXLV63M placed about 18" away. I used the 57 so close because I was hoping to achieve some level of separation, but there is still quite a bit of bleed through on both mics (no surprise on the MXL).

Other mic's I have available are an SM58 and the Peavey PVi.

 

[SnakeDog5050]

The less is more is great. This is very cool. Quality sounds great, I don't think you'd need any extra reverb on this.

You sound connected to the guitar when you sing, that's good. Some acoustic recordings it just sounds like the acoustic and vocals were recorded seperately, there's just too much gap between/less emotion. If that makes sense. Yours sounds like it captures the emotion though.

Nice job.

 

[XLR]

The guitar mic was an SM57 placed about 4" out from the 18th fret. The vox mic was an MXLV63M placed about 18" away.

Hey that's a surprisingly good gtr tone for a 57... it's not a very sensitive mic for quiet sources like acoustic gtr. Having a limited mic locker is one of the things that makes multitracking appealing, I think, as you can use your best mics on more things.

How does your voice sound through the 57 up close?... because I bet the gtr'd sound a lot better with the condenser on it.

For really good separation between the voice and gtr, I'd think you'd need either hypercardiods or figure 8 mics (if your room doesn't cause problems with the rear half of the pattern).

Tim