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  #76  
Old 10-26-2014, 01:22 PM
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Originally Posted by rick-slo View Post
The Peluso mike recording sounds good - cleaner, more detail - same guitar, same recording space? They are fairly quiet mikes - maybe there was other room noise or there was a bad mike.
Yea, same room, same guitar. I thought it might be the mics too, but read other folks commenting on their self noise. Even though they are rated at 15db or something I think the noise is concentrated in the higher frequencies, so its more noticeable. Moot point, i guess, since I sold em.

Maybe Ill see if i can go over to Eric's house and check out his AKG 214's. And also take Ricks advice and see if I can change what is being presented to the mics. See if its either me or my guitar.

Anton
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Old 10-26-2014, 01:24 PM
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  #78  
Old 10-26-2014, 01:29 PM
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Originally Posted by anton View Post
Yea, same room, same guitar. I thought it might be the mics too, but read other folks commenting on their self noise. Even though they are rated at 15db or something I think the noise is concentrated in the higher frequencies, so its more noticeable. Moot point, i guess, since I sold em.

Maybe Ill see if i can go over to Eric's house and check out his AKG 214's. And also take Ricks advice and see if I can change what is being presented to the mics. See if its either me or my guitar.

Anton
Have you checked the humidity level yet? If it is high it would help to dry the air. The effect on the guitar would take a while though.
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  #79  
Old 10-26-2014, 02:16 PM
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.........................
Maybe Ill see if i can go over to Eric's house and check out his AKG 214's. And also take Ricks advice and see if I can change what is being presented to the mics. See if its either me or my guitar.

Anton
FWIW, I'm convinced it's you.
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  #80  
Old 10-26-2014, 03:03 PM
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No need to completely remake the sound - just fine tuning, a little bit of this and that, both pre and post recording.

So Anton, questions? - are you happy with the sound on your CD, an example of which you posted: http://www.celticfingerstyleguitar.c...ts/receipt.mp3

and is there some "ideal" sounding celtic guitar recording you can post a link to?

Also the song you have been playing is in low C tuning I believe. What happens if you capo on the second fret? - it might clean up the bass notes and be a little brighter sounding - just a thought.
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  #81  
Old 10-26-2014, 08:56 PM
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I tried acrylics for a few months. Liked em fine, especially for regular fingerpicking. Gave me something alot more solid to dig in with. But I couldnt play clawhammer banjo with them. The additional thickness of the nail kept causing me to hit the adjacent string on the downstroke. Martin Simpson sure sounds good on banjo with em, but not for me i guess. So i took them off. Plus I think my tone was even darker than without, here is a sample.

https://soundcloud.com/antonemery/re...-acrylic-nails

Rick, I have not had the humidity level checked yet. Need to do that.

Regarding ideal tone, I like Doug Young's and Steve Baughmans tone. Steve's latest, Farewell to Orkney sounds particularly good. Its on Spotify. Nice and clear, with plenty of highs. Doug's sound is very smooth and clear. I generally feel, like Chris said, that my tone sounds dampened somehow.

I liked the sound on my cd when I recorded it a few years ago. Now I think it sounds to muddy, especially when comparing to Doug and Steve.

Im happy to experiment with other mics and things, but like Rick said I think its just me. Maybe some alaska picks would be worth a try. I recorded this tune earlier today, played clawhammer style. So all downstrokes with the back of my index finger nail. I think it sounds much clearer than the other standard fingerpicked stuff. So maybe the way I approach standard fingerpicking, essentially classical technique with flesh and nail, gives me that darker tone.
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  #82  
Old 10-26-2014, 09:12 PM
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I tried acrylics for a few months. Liked em fine, especially for regular fingerpicking. Gave me something alot more solid to dig in with. But I couldnt play clawhammer banjo with them. The additional thickness of the nail kept causing me to hit the adjacent string on the downstroke. Martin Simpson sure sounds good on banjo with em, but not for me i guess. So i took them off. Plus I think my tone was even darker than without, here is a sample.

https://soundcloud.com/antonemery/re...-acrylic-nails

Rick, I have not had the humidity level checked yet. Need to do that.

Regarding ideal tone, I like Doug Young's and Steve Baughmans tone. Steve's latest, Farewell to Orkney sounds particularly good. Its on Spotify. Nice and clear, with plenty of highs. Doug's sound is very smooth and clear. I generally feel, like Chris said, that my tone sounds dampened somehow.

I liked the sound on my cd when I recorded it a few years ago. Now I think it sounds to muddy, especially when comparing to Doug and Steve.

Im happy to experiment with other mics and things, but like Rick said I think its just me. Maybe some alaska picks would be worth a try. I recorded this tune earlier today, played clawhammer style. So all downstrokes with the back of my index finger nail. I think it sounds much clearer than the other standard fingerpicked stuff. So maybe the way I approach standard fingerpicking, essentially classical technique with flesh and nail, gives me that darker tone.

If this thread continues, you need to define which "Rick" you are referring to.

Re: your tone - allow me to suggest changing the "attack" angle of your fingers. It sounds as if you are striking the strings on a bias rather than straight on. This not only lessens definition but adds a scraping sound to the front of every note picked.
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  #83  
Old 10-26-2014, 09:34 PM
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Steve Baughmans tone on Farewell to Orkney sounds a little dark to me on a number of pieces. The good thing is if that is the tone you are after it should be doable. Doug's recordings sound better to my ears.
However in listening to finished recordings ready for release you are hearing post recording processing (reverb, equalization, etc.). Raw recordings rarely sound that good.
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  #84  
Old 10-26-2014, 11:18 PM
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Whoops, yea I meant you Rick Ruskin in that comment about my tone being me.

I have been working on changing my nail angle relative to the strings. I am trying to get the tips of the nails parallel to the strings. I hear that scraping sound that you are talking about when they are more at an angle.
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  #85  
Old 10-27-2014, 02:13 AM
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Something similar sound wise can occur with an over humidified guitar. Please post some of your playing recorded with those mikes for some comparison.
Over the weekend I experimented with a bigger distance back from a spaced pair after reading about Doug's experiments. So, I just got home from work and tried this. A 12 fret 000 guitar. Mics are just over 400mm apart and the guitar is 450mm away.

Original peak volume in the DAW was about minus 11-12 db. No meddling except I've lifted the volume so it peaks about -3.

https://app.box.com/s/zm4y7ectjtq4055fg4fk

Kym
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  #86  
Old 10-27-2014, 08:44 AM
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Over the weekend I experimented with a bigger distance back from a spaced pair after reading about Doug's experiments. So, I just got home from work and tried this. A 12 fret 000 guitar. Mics are just over 400mm apart and the guitar is 450mm away.

Original peak volume in the DAW was about minus 11-12 db. No meddling except I've lifted the volume so it peaks about -3.

https://app.box.com/s/zm4y7ectjtq4055fg4fk

Kym
Clean and clear sound with just a wee bit of background noise. Sounds good.
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  #87  
Old 10-27-2014, 09:56 AM
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Nice clean clear sound. Kind of what I wish I sounded like. So I guess my recorded tone must be me, as you have the exact same mics.
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  #88  
Old 10-27-2014, 10:13 AM
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Nice clean clear sound. Kind of what I wish I sounded like. So I guess my recorded tone must be me, as you have the exact same mics.
Different guitar, different room, different song. Regarding different songs, your music is often in open and lowered tunings of one type or another, and there are more often ringing low notes that carry over the melody line. In such cases it can be harder to get a clean sounding recording where each note is clearly heard. Some tunes of mine I have yet to get a recording of I like due to a heavy blend of notes - sounds fine to me playing, but not when listening back to a recording. Some mike positions help, so keep experimenting. Also consider more note control with muting. Sometimes capoing up on certain tunes can help clean up the sound.
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  #89  
Old 10-27-2014, 10:17 AM
Trevor B. Trevor B. is offline
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What a fabulous thread!!! As a fellow traveller on the home recording learning curve the discussion here is providing me with an expanded range of ideas with which to experiment. Here's a big thanks from me to all the contributors and especially to Anton for initially getting the thread going.
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  #90  
Old 10-27-2014, 12:20 PM
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Originally Posted by rick-slo View Post
Different guitar, different room, different song. Regarding different songs, your music is often in open and lowered tunings of one type or another, and there are more often ringing low notes that carry over the melody line. In such cases it can be harder to get a clean sounding recording where each note is clearly heard. Some tunes of mine I have yet to get a recording of I like due to a heavy blend of notes - sounds fine to me playing, but not when listening back to a recording. Some mike positions help, so keep experimenting. Also consider more note control with muting. Sometimes capoing up on certain tunes can help clean up the sound.
To me, this is one of the reasons recording is so useful. You think what you're playing sounds good, and then you record it, and don't like what you hear on playback. So what do you do? You can take the gear approach: "I bet this tune will sound better with a different mic, a different preamp, a different guitar". Or you can take the recording technique approach: "I need to try a different mic placement, more reverb, learn the settings on my plugins". Or the room acoustics approach: "I need to add acoustic treatment" Or you can take the playing technique approach: "I need to work on my dynamics or attack, or finger squeeks", or you can take the rearrangement approach: "The arrangement is too cluttered, too many notes, not enough notes". I've even ended up with the "bad material" approach. You know, "this song just sucks, I need to drop it". It can be any or all of these. The hard part is identifying which it is. Sometimes it's easy - like if you have a noisy mic, or bad room acoustics, or your guitar has a buzz, etc. Other times it's much harder, and may be a combination of all these things. Perhaps it's partly because I have the gear situation pretty much under control after years of exploration (and buying, selling, buying....), but 9 times out of 10 these days, when I don't like what I hear on playing, it's me - something about the performance, arrangement, etc. But the exercise of examining the recording under a microscope is useful because it forces you to focus, instead of just sitting playing the tune for fun.
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