Wow, I'm really surprised

[Jason P]

I've been reading up on recording the past few days and decided to see just how poor my setup would sound. I have a Pentium 4 3.2 Ghz computer with 512 mb of RAM, a Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS sound card, a Schriber Acoustic SA-568 microphone (it came with my Dad's video camera), an obscure acoustic guitar I've never heard of (it's my friend's guitar that he let me borrow till I get an acoustic. It's made by Music Drive), Audacity, and some very amateur guitar skills. So what I did is plugged the microphone directly into the soundcard and layed it on my keyboard pull out on my desk. I then grabbed the acoustic, placed the soundhole near the microphone and began playing. When I finished, I used the preset acoustic equalizer in Audacity and then used the "amplify" effect (I amplified it by about 15 dB). I can hear all this thanks to my Creative 5.1 speakers.

Now lets take a look at this. My computer is fine, plenty of power to do the job. Great! The soundcard... well it isn't made for recording, but I would think it should be able to handle the signal coming from one microphone. Alright. Next victim. The microphone? Well, it seems like it isn't all too popular, but it came in a nice metallic case, so it must be good! However, it just laying on my desk can't be very condusive for a great recording. The guitar sounds pretty good actually, just it is quite difficult to play (strings are very high off of the fret board). As for the software, others seem to get by with it, so why not me? And then for the guitar skills... well that shouldn't effect the quality of the recording.

So with these ingredients for a <sarcasm>GREAT</sarcasm> recording, I played about 15 seconds of "Christmas Present" by The Rocket Summer. When I played it back, I was utterly amazed! It sounds pretty good. There isn't too much hiss in the background from amplifying it so much and there isn't too much resonance from the mic laying on my desk.
In short, I am pleased. Maybe I'm just not "dialed" into what a recording should sound like, but for my set up, I'm really surprised. Maybe I'm ignorant and it should sound this "good," but I guess ignorance is bliss, right?

Tell me what you think:

(Please comment on the sound, not how bad the "artist" is )

 

[maestro_dmc]

Sounds like what it is, a crappy guitar recorded with a crappy mic, into a crappy soundcard.

If it's better than you expected, great, you'll be utterly thrilled with what you can do with decent pro-sumer gear.

 

[Richard Monroe]

What Maestro said. Just one point where I really, really disagree. The idea that weak playing skills shouldn't affect the quality of the recording. They are the most important single thing in getting good sound.The second most important thing is the room you are in.-Richie

 

[Nakatira]

Not the best sounding clip I`ve heard, but hey its a start you`re recording right .
Now try and get your hands on a cheap sound card like M-audio or something like that make sure you have a a mic pre xlr entry point, and then get your self SP-B1, practice way more on playing and bam you will get some nice recordings.
Hopefully

 

[Dani Pace]

OK, you are off to a start. Now upgrade your gear a bit and hone your musical skills and you will see improvements. You don't have to go all out and spend a fortune on gear but a better soundcard, mic and of course instrument will make dramatic differences. Most of us forget that at some point we started out with little more than you have now so if we seem harsh, just grit your teeth and keep improving. BTW how good a player is, is the most crucial part of recording. If it sounds bad to start with it will sound bad in the final mix.

 

[XLR]

Hey Jason, congrats. I remember the excitement I felt the first time I recorded my guitar, kind of like that quote from I don't remember who that goes something like... "It's a miracle that music can go through a wire at all."

I second what everybody's saying about performance and room acoustics mattering more than gear. I'll also add that generally newbies get the gentlest treatment here if their posts are concise and avoid things like, "hey this sounds really good!" though I know you didn't mean it in an arrogant way... it's just the particular style or tone of the board here. That might be why you got a little negativity thrown your way.

Tim