Mixing.....the lightbulb moment

[Doug Young]

I think this is an improvement, and by the way, the thing that spawned 5 pages of this thread :-), your phase, is completely changed now, so you've done something different. Here's your phase display now, a perfect example of XY:



There is still a lot of low end mud, how does the sound of this recording compare to your acoustic sound? Maybe your guitar is just boomy? This could probably be EQ'd to sound pretty decent, with the phase issue fixed, tho getting some more presence in the raw recording would still be nice.

[Ty Ford]

another manifestation of "Good Audio Is Not Trivial."

Regards,

Ty Ford

[joehempel]

Holy holy cow that ring look sexy. Lol

I'm missing still with that original file in the above post. I will say that after that if you have given me I do like the uncompressed sound much better.

So I'm going to really work with that to get a good cd type level And try to do it with as minimal compression as possible very very little.

Oh that microphone shift was not a small shift it was about a 2 and a half foot shift to get that sound.

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by joehempel

Oh that microphone shift was not a small shift it was about a 2 and a half foot shift to get that sound.

I'd keep playing with that. 2 and a half feet can be nice in a room with great acoustics, but I assume you're recording at home, and usually you need to be closer than that to avoid the effects of less-than-ideal acoustics. 16 inches is about where proximity effect kicks in and adds boominess. A position that I often find works with XY is directly in front of the guitar, so that the X/Y is basically spanning the soundhole, but raise the recorder so the mics are even with, or slightly above the top of the guitar, to avoid actually being in front of the soundhole. About 8-12 inches out. Raise or lower the mics to change the sound. Usually works for me, but may or may not for you. Worth a try, tho.

[joehempel]

Well, I measured how far away the mic was....it wasn't 2.5 ft, it was 12 inches LOL (what can I say, I'm a guy ). I must have been only 4-5 inches during the earlier recordings, which could be where ALL the problems came in.

And to answer an earlier question, yes, my guitar is boomy, it's a decent size dreadnaught I believe.

[joehempel]

This is about the best EQ job I could do. I have an issue with the sounds on the 1/2 fret. I can't get that to be as separated as I wanted.

This is just an EQ job and a raised level, no reverb or anything like that....I think I did find a nice balance between the two all things considering.

Box.net does seem to bring up the bass, either that or it's different than the .wav file I generated.

http://www.box.net/shared/aolkctyak0

[D. Churchland]

Originally Posted by joehempel

This is about the best EQ job I could do. I have an issue with the sounds on the 1/2 fret. I can't get that to be as separated as I wanted.

This is just an EQ job and a raised level, no reverb or anything like that....I think I did find a nice balance between the two all things considering.

Box.net does seem to bring up the bass, either that or it's different than the .wav file I generated.

http://www.box.net/shared/aolkctyak0

Box Net doesn't mess with the file much, they will upload it almost exactly as you recorded it which is nice, The only thing I've heard to my ears is that they jack up the volume slightly.

Nice to see that you got the phase issues fixed, the recording to me now sounds MUCH cleaner and without that "washy" sound.

The recording is much better balanced, however to my ears there seems to be alot of emphasis on the fingernoise and the top two strings seem ring REALLY loud in comparison. I'm kind of intrigued why it's doing this since you said the guitar was a decent size dreadnought.

I think I missed where you said you were positioning your H2. Since it records in stereo you might could experiment by placing it in a position where it will capture both sides of the guitar. Basically the lower bout and upper bout. Maybe that will help remove some of the emphasis on the fingernoise?

This track here was recorded and is dry without any EQ or compression. I don't recall which mics were used, but I do recall that they were positioned farther away from the 12th fret and were closer in relation to the guitar's body. To my ears it's balanced (not perfectly) in terms of fingernoise and string "squeak"

http://www.box.net/shared/fxnlaid8oh

The guitar was also tuned WAY down to open Bb and yet the recording setup did not emphasize the fingernoise and therefore allowed for a cleaner recording. There is still some, it's impossible to get rid of all of it, but it's not as forward in the recording.

[joehempel]

The mic was placed back about 12 Inches, and placed at the 12th fret of the guitar.

I'm going to wager that the finger noise has more to do with technique rather than the mic position, there are a few places where when I just play I get it, especially when barring the 2nd fret and going to the 7th.

I don't know about the 2 high strings, it seems pretty balanced to me when listening in my car and in my headphones.

What I do need to figure out is a placement where I can get a good overall tone, the mids crush my ears, when I hammer on the open strings to the A and G strings on the first and second frets.
But I have to get a new SD card before I do that...the thing died today.

[joehempel]

So I messed around alot of mic positions and I think I have a decent one....it's the only position I've found that the bass doesn't sound boomy....I must have tried about 100 different positions.

This is just the raw audio with the levels raised, nothing else.

http://www.box.net/shared/qo5q0ooemi


I placed the mic about 12" from the sound hole, right in front, above the soundhole, and angles towards the fretboard so I didn't get all the boom, even above the guitar it was really bad. So now I'm wondering if it's out of phase again

[sdelsolray]

Originally Posted by joehempel

So I messed around alot of mic positions and I think I have a decent one....it's the only position I've found that the bass doesn't sound boomy....I must have tried about 100 different positions.

This is just the raw audio with the levels raised, nothing else.

http://www.box.net/shared/qo5q0ooemi


I placed the mic about 12" from the sound hole, right in front, above the soundhole, and angles towards the fretboard so I didn't get all the boom, even above the guitar it was really bad. So now I'm wondering if it's out of phase again

This recording has some promise. It's still a bit untamed in the bass and lower mids, but that can be cured with some plugins. If you post access to a dual mono 24 bit .wav file, I'll download it, process it, upload it and show you what I mean.

[Doug Young]

I think you got it!. phase is fine, sound is good and balanced. You're on your way!

[joehempel]

Originally Posted by sdelsolray

This recording has some promise. It's still a bit untamed in the bass and lower mids, but that can be cured with some plugins. If you post access to a dual mono 24 bit .wav file, I'll download it, process it, upload it and show you what I mean.

Thanks...yeah my guitar booms alot, it's kind of crazy...this is what I did to the file:

http://www.box.net/shared/sv5mul0hk0

I didn't even use compression (unless a little limiting is compression), and I've always used alot of compression to get the volume up!

I will try and upload the .wav version, but the uploads today are going really really slow for some reason, so it might be a couple days.


Doug.....thanks alot! I couldn't have done any of this without you! I think I'm getting a better grasp of everything.

[sdelsolray]

Originally Posted by joehempel

Thanks...yeah my guitar booms alot, it's kind of crazy...this is what I did to the file:

http://www.box.net/shared/sv5mul0hk0

I didn't even use compression (unless a little limiting is compression), and I've always used alot of compression to get the volume up!

I will try and upload the .wav version, but the uploads today are going really really slow for some reason, so it might be a couple days.
...

Cool. If you upload a dual mono .wav file, please upload one without any processing - just the raw two track recording. Thanks!

[joehempel]

Yeah will do...hopefully you can do something better than I can...I can listen fine in headphones but outside of that it's odd....not nearly as odd as before, but I still feel the mids.

[joehempel]

Okay, re-did the EQ:

http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=10439260


Also, just did things with the levels and put a very subtle reverb on it....NO COMPRESSION!! No limiting either!!