Cell phone?

[hubcapsc]

Gibson Southern Jumbo!

I went looking for a Southern Jumbo, but finally came home
with that 57 Gibson Country Western...

-Mike "same thing, really, I think..."

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by Brent Hahn

What do you mean by "publishing?" Release by a legit record label? Inclusion in your YouTube channel?

Yes like Youtube, SoundCloud ect. The broader definition, of simply release for public consumption

[Brent Hahn]

Originally Posted by KevWind

Yes like Youtube, SoundCloud ect. The broader definition, of simply release for public consumption

I guess my feeling is that you can "publish" music recorded on anything, as long as the musicality isn't lost.

[Howard Emerson]

Originally Posted by Brent Hahn

I guess my feeling is that you can "publish" music recorded on anything, as long as the musicality isn't lost.

Hi Brent,
You proved the point perfectly!

Great arrangement of Chuck Berry's 'Never Can Tell'.

Your original content is very, very entertaining, well played, and nicely recorded

Your lyrical sense of humor & irony is wonderful!

How much of your Soundcloud content was done on a phone?

No matter, or course.

Best,
Howard Emerson

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by Brent Hahn

I guess my feeling is that you can "publish" music recorded on anything, as long as the musicality isn't lost.

Excellent job Brent. You make a good point of what is "possible" and of course one "can" publish anything and I suppose "adequate" is after all subjective.

But the average AGF amateur with only a cell phone to record on , in the bedroom or office/den, is probably not going to sound like someone with years of professional experience.
To put that into perspective for example, (with my 40 years in residential and custom home construction) I could build you an adequate recoding studio or home, with only a hand held electric circular saw and a hammer . BUT :

Yes those videos are indeed "adequate" with IMO "Never Can Tell" being the more enjoyable and fuller sounding .

And to clarify for example the guitar and vocal in "Georgia" is recoded directly into the phone mic only ? (if so, that is impressive, it is very clean if a bit dynamically limited, but very impressive none the less) And is the pickup on the guitar, there only because it happens to be already attached to the guitar, and not used in the guitar sound ?

And out of curiosity , what exactly is the total recording chain and mixing process ? Starting lets say with the type of room . I think that would be very educational info .

[Brent Hahn]

I appreciate your interest, Kev.

And my point, really was that the musical performance and the space you're recording it in matter way, way more than the gear. Especially at the beginner level. So nobody should ever think they can't record and "publish" because they haven't spent enough on their gear.

There's a bit of backstory. Early-lockdown, a few friends started doing these file passarounds, and the rule was that you could ONLY record on your phone. Both of these started out being intended for that.

Georgia:

• iPhone 5 capturing lead vocal and guitar and simultaneous video, one take.
• Baggs magnetic pickup into a small practice amp (barely visible, lower right)
• Untreated but very dead room, my wife's storage space for her business, jampacked with stuff on shelves. There's a tall shelving unit behind me with a tablecloth draped over it, and the light is a halogen desk lamp.
• Audio imported into ProTools and given some heavy-handed Les Paul slapback and some bus compression. Merged with the video in iMovie.
• The "fingaz" cutaways were shot to playback, but the actual playing was live.

Never Can Tell:

• Sandpaper, glass and cup recorded as single hits on the iPhone in our very live kitchen. Loaded into a sampler.
• Click printed in ProTools. You hear it at the top of the video.
• Loop constructed in PT with the three samples.
• Rough guitar/vocal "roadmap" tracked in my treated studio, SM58. Deleted later.
• Jug overdubbed (played, not sampled) in my studio, SM58.
• Lead vocal & rhythm guitar recorded & shot in the storage space, iPhone. Playing to the loop, hence the headphones.
• Single-note guitar, uke, harmony vocal (SM58) and bass (DI) overdubbed in the studio.
• Mixed in PT, merged in iMovie.
• All other video was shot to playback. The electric guitar in the video is actually an acoustic in the recording. While I was overdubbing that part my son yelled through the door, "Tele sounds cool, Dad!" So I grabbed his Fender for the video.

[Brent Hahn]

Originally Posted by Howard Emerson

How much of your Soundcloud content was done on a phone?

Howard, thanks for the kind words.

None of that SC/YT stuff besides these two was done with a phone, except for maybe a cover of "Stop the World and Let Me Off," which may or may not be on YT.

Most of it was done in a real studio in fits and starts over several years, on days when I'd be waiting around for ad agency clients to ask for revisions in radio commercials I was producing. Kind of my version of Andy Dufresne sitting in a prison cell and whittling a chess set out of rocks.

If you want to hear "bare-bones Brent," click on the Couch Standards link in my sig. Just me and my guitar and a mic (not a phone).

[FrankHudson]

Originally Posted by Brent Hahn

I guess my feeling is that you can "publish" music recorded on anything, as long as the musicality isn't lost.

To this viewer, your videos prove your point very well. I admire fine works of recording. I know something of what equipment as well as skills and practice go into achieving that. I do pay attention to recording details sometimes, and probably should do so even more to improve my own recordings--but still and all, most of the time when I'm listening, I'm listening to music not the recording.

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by Brent Hahn

I appreciate your interest, Kev.

And my point, really was that the musical performance and the space you're recording it in matter way, way more than the gear. Especially at the beginner level. So nobody should ever think they can't record and "publish" because they haven't spent enough on their gear.

There's a bit of backstory. Early-lockdown, a few friends started doing these file passarounds, and the rule was that you could ONLY record on your phone. Both of these started out being intended for that.

Georgia:

• iPhone 5 capturing lead vocal and guitar and simultaneous video, one take.
• Baggs magnetic pickup into a small practice amp (barely visible, lower right)
• Untreated but very dead room, my wife's storage space for her business, jampacked with stuff on shelves. There's a tall shelving unit behind me with a tablecloth draped over it, and the light is a halogen desk lamp.
• Audio imported into ProTools and given some heavy-handed Les Paul slapback and some bus compression. Merged with the video in iMovie.
• The "fingaz" cutaways were shot to playback, but the actual playing was live.

Never Can Tell:

• Sandpaper, glass and cup recorded as single hits on the iPhone in our very live kitchen. Loaded into a sampler.
• Click printed in ProTools. You hear it at the top of the video.
• Loop constructed in PT with the three samples.
• Rough guitar/vocal "roadmap" tracked in my treated studio, SM58. Deleted later.
• Jug overdubbed (played, not sampled) in my studio, SM58.
• Lead vocal & rhythm guitar recorded & shot in the storage space, iPhone. Playing to the loop, hence the headphones.
• Single-note guitar, uke, harmony vocal (SM58) and bass (DI) overdubbed in the studio.
• Mixed in PT, merged in iMovie.
• All other video was shot to playback. The electric guitar in the video is actually an acoustic in the recording. While I was overdubbing that part my son yelled through the door, "Tele sounds cool, Dad!" So I grabbed his Fender for the video.

Hey thanks for the info very interesting
And I agree the room and performance are paramount. I think my point was that all else being equal , more expertise is probably going to get better results with vey limited gear, than limited expertise with limited gear .

As for "what is fit to print" as they used to say in the news business, it's all subjective ..

And I would never discourage someone form just going for it , even with only a phone, rather that they be aware of the possible limitations and issues. Like for example that the phone is going to further away in room possibly making the room more important than say with close mic situation etc.

[Brent Hahn]

Originally Posted by KevWind

... I would assume since the phone has to be at sufficient distance to capture the player for video also, the room is going to play a more important role then it might with gear that would allow close mic'ing

Absolutely. One benefit, actually, of having the phone that far off is that there are way more subtle "early reflections" in the recording than you normally get right up close. This can make your reverb sound more real. Next time you do a close-miked vocal, try recording a second mic two or three feet away on a separate track, set that track's reverb send to pre-fader and leave the fader all the way down, and feed some of that into your reverb along with the up-close track. See what you think.

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by Brent Hahn

Absolutely. One benefit, actually, of having the phone that far off is that there are way more subtle "early reflections" in the recording than you normally get right up close. This can make your reverb sound more real. Next time you do a close-miked vocal, try recording a second mic two or three feet away on a separate track, set that track's reverb send to pre-fader and leave the fader all the way down, and feed some of that into your reverb along with the up-close track. See what you think.

thanks I'll give a whirl