Dusty Ol' Bones
Full of green dust
Hello, I think I might know the answer to my own question but still wanted to run it by you all. The other day I was attempting to record into a 4 input audio interface and hit a minor snag. It went vocals, banjo line, banjo mic, guitar line. I thought by plugging in the guitar, it would be less headache than using a mic because I have trouble getting the guitar player to sit still while recording. Well, after recording a couple of takes, we reviewed them. During review I kept hearing a whoosh sound and I thought my pop filter was too close or my enunciations had too much wind. Nope. Then I thought the banjo mic was picking something up. Nope. I still couldn't isolate the whoosh until I soloed the last track. I'll be damned if it wasn't the guitar doing it. He normally plays with a pick but sometimes he was hiding his pick and brushing over the strings with his thumb. It was at the thumb brushes that the sound occurred.
The first thing I did was say I don't have time to troubleshoot the electronics on the guitar, so we unplugged and set up a mic. That solved the problem perfectly and after some chastising, my guitar player chilled a bit on the Pete Townsend too. Of course this left me asking myself what caused the problem. I determined it was at least one of four things: 1) his thumb brush technique somehow didn't work well with the the k&k pure mini, 2) the pickup itself was either faulty or installed incorrectly, 3) the cable was old and faulty, or 4) either the interface or that particular input was malfunctioning.
I think it was the cable. The instruments and all the recording equipment are mine but the guitar cable was the only thing that was his. I take care of my equipment but it's not as much of a priority for him. The cable did look old and worn out and he doesn't roll or wind it up for storage. He just tosses it on the floor and however it lands is where it will rest until he uses it again. And I hear people talk about checking the impedance of cables but I have not quite implemented that yet.
Without being there and inspecting my setup, what do y'all think it could possibly be?
The first thing I did was say I don't have time to troubleshoot the electronics on the guitar, so we unplugged and set up a mic. That solved the problem perfectly and after some chastising, my guitar player chilled a bit on the Pete Townsend too. Of course this left me asking myself what caused the problem. I determined it was at least one of four things: 1) his thumb brush technique somehow didn't work well with the the k&k pure mini, 2) the pickup itself was either faulty or installed incorrectly, 3) the cable was old and faulty, or 4) either the interface or that particular input was malfunctioning.
I think it was the cable. The instruments and all the recording equipment are mine but the guitar cable was the only thing that was his. I take care of my equipment but it's not as much of a priority for him. The cable did look old and worn out and he doesn't roll or wind it up for storage. He just tosses it on the floor and however it lands is where it will rest until he uses it again. And I hear people talk about checking the impedance of cables but I have not quite implemented that yet.
Without being there and inspecting my setup, what do y'all think it could possibly be?