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-   -   This guy says my tone sucks. (https://www.acousticguitarforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=212240)

slimey 03-30-2011 10:15 AM

SOunds like a carbon guitar to me.

knuckle 03-30-2011 10:35 AM

Well, he's an older guy who supposedly had a big hit in the 60's or 70's but will not reveal his identity. I've got use to the guys comments. I appreciate his honesty to tell you the truth even though he comes off as harsh. But the only thing that bothers me is "others are afraid to tell me the truth" which I question. I only have met under 5 guys from that forum personally, so I don't know why anybody else from cyberspace would be afraid of telling me the truth about something.

Once again, all I'm trying to figure out at this point is what works and what doesn't as far as what I'm writing. I fully realize an ipod is not an idea audio recording device.

vintageparlors 03-30-2011 10:42 AM

I like it, Knuck
You got that "Crash Test Dummies" vibe to your voice.
Forget about the sourpuss and keep on doing what you do. You do it for you, not him!

knuckle 03-30-2011 10:44 AM

Never heard crash test dummies before, but I guess they're more popular than I so thanks :D

enalnitram 03-30-2011 10:47 AM

Well, I'll be fully honest with you! this guy is a piece of work. he obviously needs to exaggerate stuff in order to puff up his deflated sense of self. the story about his past (I'd bet anything) is likewise an exaggeration. his low self esteem requires him to lash out at victims on the net, like he has done to you. i know quite a few currently and formerly successful people in the music industry, and none of them are out there talking about their accomplishments in a general way, but refusing to fully disclose their identity, while attacking others, online.

there might be a small bit of truth in what he's saying, but the greater share of it is loser trashtalk.

you're concerned about your tone, and that's great! but the quote you posted really has a lot more to do with dude's personality disorder, than anything that you played.

Tuffythepug 03-30-2011 10:49 AM

Well, I just listened to a couple of your reverbnation tunes and then compared the guitar tone with a couple of my own reverbnation songs.
The verdict..............If your tone sucks then so does mine. Mine might even be a little suckier. You definitely have a better voice.
I'm not ashamed of what I've got on there and you shouldn't be either. I'm hoping some people will like my songs; not that worried about the guitar tone as long as it's in tune and not too many mistakes.

Tuffythepug 03-30-2011 10:51 AM

I might add that on my reverbnation songs I used a Zoom H2 digital recorder which is a very nice, reasonably priced handheld recorder.

jeepnstein 03-30-2011 10:52 AM

Musicians can be harsh on each other. Some times it's meant as constructive criticism that is a wee bit too honest. Some times it's an attempt to tear a player down so one can feel good about one's own skills. I'll let you judge the messenger on that count.

If you're going to put your playing out on the internet you owe it to yourself to make it as good as possible. There are video recorders available that can handle this for you if you are trying to keep it simple. I'm really itching for the one from Alessi for just such work. Or if you don't want video just get a Zoom recorder and be done with it. A good mic and a laptop can also be a great thing. Just don't skimp on your recordings. It is a reflection of you and your art.

Tuffythepug 03-30-2011 10:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by knuckle (Post 2565502)
Never heard crash test dummies before, but I guess they're more popular than I so thanks :D


You might have heard the Mmmmmmm Mmmmmm song ?

ferg 03-30-2011 11:35 AM

Just echoing what others have said. This isn't about tone, it's about the audio quality of your videos. You have to make a choice - stick with the iPhone for both audio and video, or do something that's more complicated.

As you mentioned the simplest step forward is using a different mic or recording interface on your iphone, such as the Blue Mikey. This WILL help. I have one. It's much better than the built-in microphone. It won't completely solve the problem, though, for the following reasons:

1. The mic will still be with the camera, and, in turn, far enough away from you that it will be picking up all kinds of room noise, etc.

2. The basement you're in with the concrete walls probably house sound bouncing everywhere, which just exacerbates #1.

I actually believe that the best recording you're going to get from the iPhone (other than actually recording in a properly treated room) would be to do it outside, and just go purely acoustic - no amplification.

Regardless of where you're recording, though, assuming you really want to stick with the iPhone and not mess with any syncing of audio and video after the fact, might I suggest the following:

1. Go ahead and get the Blue Mikey. It's cheap enough at $50 from Amazon. I'd get the newer version (2.0) as it's not much more expensive.

2. Get a doc extender cable for your iPhone. This will allow you to connect the Mikey to it, yet point the Mikey at your sound source, while pointing the camera wherever you want.

3. Get ONE OF THESE. You basically put this little self-adhesive metal ring around the camera on your phone, and you can easily attach/remove this magnetic wide angle lens. This will allow you to put the camera closer to you, while still getting the same field of view. Closer to the sound source = less room noise.

You're never going to get pro quality from an iPhone, but I do think you could improve things quite a bit by doing these at a fairly reasonable cost, and not much more hassle than you're dealing with now.

geokie8 03-30-2011 12:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by knuckle (Post 2565488)
I appreciate his honesty to tell you the truth even though he comes off as harsh.

Yeah, he's harsh, but he got your attention; and if it motivates you to improve -- even the technical side of recording -- then I can't say he's been "too harsh." Heck, even the best teacher that ever lived -- Mark Thackeray (Sidney Poitier) in To Sir With Love -- had to strap on boxing gloves and beat it into one "knuckle"-head.;)

geokie8

eschnack 03-30-2011 12:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HAMFIST (Post 2565280)
Another option is to capture audio separately via a mixing board directly onto a PC, and marry the audio and video in a tool like Sony VEGAS.

This is what always do, and I think is the best option...put a mic in front of the guitar and record it seperately into your computer/recorder. Then you can eq it to your liking and synch it with the video in a video editing program.

That being said, I've seen popular videos with worse quality. In the end, the song and the performance come first.

muscmp 03-30-2011 12:40 PM

i've seen responses like that previously. they may be correct, but i beg the use of the word, "truth." anyone who makes a response in regards to someone else's material should use the word, "opinion." that is all it is. ....an opinion.

knuckle 03-30-2011 01:17 PM

Yep, I agree about the truth comment. When I got off my couch, my goal was to play music in front of people. Recording was never even a question in my mind. In fact the software aspect of it scares me. I'm an Oracle DBA and all I do is hack stuff all day long.

I know that recording and the computer is going to be the same thing. Just push this button, pull that knob, find this menu, convert this, do that. Just the thought of it makes me sick to my stomach :(

If I only knew someone that knew what the hell they were doing that could just show me how to use all that stuff so I wouldn't have to sit there for months and months. Oh well, I'm going to have to learn it eventually.

ferg 03-30-2011 04:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by knuckle (Post 2565684)
I'm an Oracle DBA and all I do is hack stuff all day long.

I know that recording and the computer is going to be the same thing. Just push this button, pull that knob, find this menu, convert this, do that. Just the thought of it makes me sick to my stomach :(

I'm a software developer / SQL DBA (don't judge me, man), and I, too, generally try to avoid dealing with anything outside of work that reminds me of work. I've found that recording and editing audio and video on the computer is more like messing with music gear than the computer stuff I do for work. Sure, if you want to be a professional audio engineer, then that line probably gets blurred a little, but for doing decent demo recordings, marrying them to video, etc, etc - there's really not that much to it (particularly when compared to dealing with Oracle).

When it comes to recording separate audio and video here's how I do it (I'm doing this to show how simple it can be, not saying you should do exactly this):

Step 1: record (in 1 take) audio with a zoom portable recorder and video with a portable video camera.

Step 2: using Vegas, start a project and load the 2 files.

Step 3: Activate the pluraleyes plugin for Vegas. This is a plugin which will automatically sync the audio and video.

Step 4: export the video.


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