Be careful of what you wish for....

[KenW]

As I said earlier, I got the room that I wanted. And all that comes with it.....a century old church that will creek whenever it feels like it, who knows when the last re-wiring was done....on a busy street corner. Thank God for cut and paste, because I had to pause A LOT for traffic. Even in the dead of night.

It was still a very rewarding process, and I found myself often feeding off the room when playing. Here's a track:

https://soundcloud.com/ken-whisler/adoration

No eq or effects, just the room and where my son thought the mics sounded the best.

[GregEL]

Purdy!

Tell me about your mic placement. How many? What kind? How close? What did you record with (iPad, laptop, etc.)

Thanks!

[runamuck]

Beautiful.

What kind of guitar are you playing there?

Jim McCarthy

[KenW]

Greg: my son placed the mics entirely by ear while I played. They ended up being AB fairly wide spaced, about shoulder height and @4 feet back, and angled in a pretty good amount. Almost like an exaggerated XY, if there is such a thing. They are KM184's

Jim: I build classical guitars. This one I call my "broken cookie". During layoffs, every guitar off of my bench would get sold to keep things together, and I went for long periods with no guitar of my own. There was a commercial some years back, where a fat lady was baking cookies for a bake sale, and she eyeballed one, snapped it in half, and said, "I can't sell that one!" and she then popped it in her mouth. So this guitar has some less than perfect glue joints, a bit of rippling in the top, less than perfect fit and finish, so I just cannot let something with that substandard quality go out. I guess I will just have to keep it and play it myself.

[ChuckS]

That was lovely. The playing, the song, the arrangement, the recording, the guitar; all just wonderful.

I've played during church services a few times. Each time there was something very rewarding that I felt. Even the practice times in the church provided this feeling. I've never gotten a recording; wish I could have been able to hear it from that side instead of the side of the nervous player sitting behind the guitar.

[KenW]

Forgot....the interface is an RME Fireface UC straight into my laptop running Reaper

[mtdmind]

That is very nice. Enjoyed it very much.

[el_kabong]

Very nice Ken. I like your style.

A buddy and I are in the middle of something similar....turning an old 1930's movie theater into a live/recording venue. It sits right on an admittedly somewhat remote stretch of Hwy 101 in our small town, but it still get's traffic...part of the "charm" shall we say of being able to use a space that, for what ever reason, sounds fabulous.

Hope you make lots of good music there. Can we get a little back-story on the place and how you came to be there?

Cheers.

[runamuck]

Originally Posted by KenW

Jim: I build classical guitars. This one I call my "broken cookie.

I love the sound of that guitar. I've never heard a classical that sounds quite like that before.

Can you post photos and provide some info?

Jim McCarthy

[anton]

wow, sounds amazing. Thanks for posting this.

[KenW]

Originally Posted by runamuck

I love the sound of that guitar. I've never heard a classical that sounds quite like that before.

Can you post photos and provide some info?

Jim McCarthy

Pretty big body. It's kind of boomy, and that was problematic when trying to record in my living room. EI rosewood back and sides, for the past several years I have bought my western red cedar from an awesome lady in Vancouver Island, it's lighter and stiffer than the cedars that come from Oregon and Washington. I can thin it like spruce. It's only drawback is that it is naturally colored like cardboard, so I use a tinted shellac to warm up the color. I brace lightly with 5 fans. I typically offer an open pattern or a closed pattern, but on this one guitar I did use the treble bar but omitted the V at the brace ends. I elevate my fingerboards @ 11mm at the 12th fret, I do that to fool the guitar into thinking it has a high action when it does not. I fret with Evo bass wire, and I have not hammered in a fret for 4 years. I epoxy them into oversized slots, and they are pretty much dead level with very little dressing needed when I am done.

[KevWind]

Hey very nice Ken

Near me there is an old brick water works building that is now a historical sight that I have wondered about recording in.

[runamuck]

Thanks Ken.

I've never tried gluing in the frets to prevent backbow. Will have to
experient with that someday.

Jim McCarthy

[KenW]

Originally Posted by el_kabong

Can we get a little back-story on the place and how you came to be there?

Back in the 80's, when I was a student at the UMKC Conservatory of Music, a friend that was the organist in this church recommended that I check it out. I was gigging regularly with a flautist at the time, so I thought it may be a good place to record a demo. When we got into the room, she (the flautist) did nothing but complain, and she would fire off staccato triads and listen to the chord ring for 3-4 seconds to illustrate her point. She hated it. I loved it. *Insert side note: I went to the 10am mass there a couple of weeks ago; there was a flautist that played the melodies to each hymn before the piano or organ would chime in, and this particular flautist knew exactly how to work the room.*
A year later, a classmate of mine happened to be the choir director at this same parish, and she asked me to help with the Christmas Eve midnight mass, which I did that year and the following year.

So when I was done with my arrangements last January, this was one of the churches that I reached out to, and like the others, got silence or a flat "no". Several weeks ago, I was reading of the new assignments, and saw that a priest that I knew was named pastoral administrator of this parish, so I asked him, he said yes and he handed me a set of keys. As much as I LOVE the sound of this church, I will probably not go back there for for subsequent projects due to the constant traffic and the old wiring. I've already resolved to find a more rural parish and use some sort of power conditioner or even a power cell in the future. As to recording in ambient rooms, let's just say that I am hooked............

[email4eric]

Originally Posted by KenW

As I said earlier, I got the room that I wanted. And all that comes with it.....a century old church that will creek whenever it feels like it, who knows when the last re-wiring was done....on a busy street corner. Thank God for cut and paste, because I had to pause A LOT for traffic. Even in the dead of night.

It was still a very rewarding process, and I found myself often feeding off the room when playing. Here's a track:

https://soundcloud.com/ken-whisler/adoration

No eq or effects, just the room and where my son thought the mics sounded the best.

Ken,

That's an astounding piece. Very nice. Is it your composition?