Villa Lobos Prelude 3 (guitar) - new tube preamp test

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XLR

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Villa Lobos Prelude

Prelude No. 3

This isn't me playing, it's a student of mine. I just recently got an Electro Harmonix 12AY7 pre to use as a contrasting sound to my usual pre's and this is one of my first uses of it. Minimal processing, a touch of verb and stereo-izing (was done mono).

Can you hear any of the edit points?

Tim
 
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It sounds pretty good. It's a beautiful piece. Giving it a VERY critcal listen, I hear something but I'm not sure what it is. I suspect mic position because it has a mid rangy "push" like when you get a mic too close to the sound hole of a Martin Dreadnaught. Like I said, I'm being very critical.
 
Sounds pretty smooth on my end Tim. No complaints about the sound here. So not only do your students get lessons but they get to record as well? Thats awesome
 
Tim, to me, sounds nice, and I didn't notice any editing.
 
I am impressed that the player was able to keep themselves restrained. I tend to generally play as fast as I'm comfortable. This means I can play at any speed but without a beat I will eventually speed up.

Very nice piece indeed. So you offer guitar lessons? Man, you must be really patient to teach in any capacity. LOL :).

Sounded a tad mechanical to me in places. But you can count me off as a newbie. :) Althought for the most part it is played with a human touch.


Question: what exactly does a pre do? I have read tons and tons of articles online on a lot of music topics but bring a line level to mic level or vice versa type answers don't help me. Where do you use it and why is what I'm looking for, I guess.
 
Sounds pretty good. Some hiss, especially at the beginning. A little pop at 0:38.
 
Timothy Lawler said:
Can you hear any of the edit points?
Click to expand...
There's a dramatic level change at 16 seconds into the piece. Is that an edit? If so, it's the only one I can detect. I dropped that section (from the beginning to 0:16) about 7.5 dB, and it seemed to fit much better.

I'm wondering whether all the hiss is from the preamp, or from the "stereroizing" effect. Any clue?

Don
 
Tim
Nice playing - pass my compliments to your student for me....
I think around :06 and :38 there were crackles.
Pre sounds really good too......
 
Oops, in my haste to get this thing posted before our Halloween events I think I did something crazy to the first section of the file! :o :o

In the morning I'll have to check the original, process it (correctly this time) and re-upload it. Uh-oh, more kids at the door...

Tim
 
I re-uploaded the file without the level error :D I could kick myself re the noise on the track. It turns out to be from two sources - a hissy old laptop I was using in the teaching studio, and the Shure BG 4.0 mic that I had up that's got some noise in the 3-7 kHz range to fill out any hiss spectrum the laptop missed. :D I'm going to have to do some recording with the EH pre with a quiet mic and room to give it a fair test.

Track Rat said:
a mid rangy "push"
Click to expand...
I hear that too. The room's small (10 x 14), kind of selectively boomy with a loud gtr. Mic was a couple feet out from the bridge. I appreciate the critical ear.

Wireneck, thanks. Yeah, I'm using recording more and more in lessons - it's great for getting students to hear the details in their playing and to appreciate how good they sound.

Dogman, thanks for the listen.

Bigbubba, the spots that hit you as mechanical might be where I edited heavily note by note. I don't do that as a rule - I usually edit by phrases, so my quickie job on it came out a little robotish, heh-heh. Re the question about preamps, they amplify the signal to a level that can be "heard" by other gear. Kind of the "other half of the mic" that's not attached permanently to it because it'd be too big and heavy to position. Thanks for the comments.

Scrubs, I appreciate it. I checked the passage mentioned for the edit glitch... that spot is actually his nails touching the guitar top, heh-heh. I certainly do though get my share of edit clicks and pops. The edit points I'm hearing in this one are more related to abrupt, unrealistic sound changes.

Don, thanks for the heads up about the level discrepancy... kind of woke me up. Noise issue described above.

ido1057, I'll pass the good words on to the player. Got to get him to watch out for those fingernail noises touching the top that sound like edit clicks! Thanks for the great comments. :)

Tim
 
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