Recording Advice
 

Hello all you recording experts out there. I could use a little advice on getting quality recordings from my home studio.

Here is the junk I am using: Firestudio Tube recording interface, Adobe Audition 3.0, 2 Carvin Condenser mics (and one other "better" one that doesn't sound as good), Lexicon MX 200 reverb and a TC Electronics Pro Finalizer. I also have a huge EQ and tube compressor, but I don't know what to do with them. I think the Finalizer covers the compressing well enough.

Here is what I want to know:
* How do I filter my breathing out so I don't capture it in the recording? I am playing fingerstyle solo pieces and the mic picks up my fat @ss breathing.
* Do I need anything else or is the stuff I have good enough?

I took my first stab at a demo last night and posted it to www.myspace.com/chrislilly2. It is called Punchline Blues. Any advice on improving the sound quality? The performance isn't good enough, but I am not worried about that right now. I am just trying to get a recording process down that I can just repeat as I go through all of my tunes.

Thanks for taking the time to help a guy out.

Chris

The breath sounds don't bother me all that much but if you want to rid yourself of them try wearing a face mask while recording. It will force you to slow your breathing down enough to be nearly inaudible.

Breathing needn't be a problem depending on mic placement. In fact Mic placement is often the answer to "how do I get my recordings to sound better?" too! Learn to take shallow breaths and exhale away from the mic, it takes practice, I nearly passed out holding my breath waiting for the final chord to die down but I was playing a Greenfield G4 at the time and that's to be expected!

If you are recording yourself then it's always difficult as you need to wear player/engineer hats simultaneously. It's a pain having to concentrate so intently on both things.

Good luck and remember, this is supposed to be fun!

(Kudos on the Manson btw, Andy's a great builder)

Mic placement is key. You'll probably get best results with a crossed pair of small condensers for stereo, but I've also got great sound from a single large diaphragm mic.

If you can, get someone else to play while you move the mic around, to get the sound and balance you want. Ideally monitor on good closed-back phones while you do this, so you're concentrating on the recorded sound.

Exact placement will depend on your taste and the sound you're after, but I like about 7" from the guitar pointing roughly at the area the fingerboard joins the soundhole. I've also mic'd 'over the shoulder' which gives a similar sound to what you hear yourself when playing.

And I wouldn't worry too much about a bit of breath noise. All to often these days producers and engineers strive for such a clinically clean sound, use of autotune on vocals etc. that many recordings lose all sense of life. Sometimes I think these auxiliary noises can really help to make a recording sound authentic.

Nice playing by the way. I would not change much in the recording as you have a nice realistic guitar sound. Maybe a bit more presence (immediacy) would be an improvement but you are close. Breathing noise? I did not hear any problem with breathing noise. What little there was makes the recording more real life.

I enjoyed "Punchline Blues". It's a very ambitious piece and you played it very well! Unfortunately I can't offer any suggestions on minimizing breathing sounds as I have the same issue.

Nice playing. That's what a guitar is supposed to sound like!

Thanks
 

Thanks to all for the advice and kind words. I appreciate it. I am actively working on the whole confidence thing.

Rick Ruskin - Been a fan for quite a while. Glad to see you on this board. Thanks for taking the time to respond. I will get a mask and give that a try.

Rick Slo - Is the presence something I learn to do or buy? Is that like an aural exciter type thing a skill that i should work on?

Again, I appreciate all of the feedback and advice.

Chris

I am talking about removing some of the distance between the listener and the guitar.
It is more a recording thing and post recording tweaking. It is something I have tried to work on and have not yet gotten there to my satisfaction. The best examples I can think of at the moment are Pete Huttlinger http://www.petehuttlinger.com/music/The_Small_Stuff.mp3
and Howard Emerson
http://www.howardemerson.com/music/c...al-lake/02.mp3
Some people like a more distance sound but on many songs I like this a lot.