Enjoying the Spire Studio

[JakeStone]

Cool Ray.. Yeah, for electric guitar, I also take the rec out of my amp (Boss Katana) and get great results. I have NOT tried plugging my electric direct (without amp) ... But would like to try it and see how the Spire's effects do. I have heard good things about the effects ... So when i do get time it may be worth a try.

Also I was watching a 2019 NAMM video with iZotope booth. The Izotope rep mentioning some updates to the software coming and more effects. Plus he said some other surprises down the road. Glad to hear they are working on the Spire to make it "better"!



As for the mix.. I am still learning multi tracking. So take what I said with grain of salt. But I assume when having multiple lead instruments it get's a little more congested for a lack of better word.

Originally Posted by raysachs

No effects - just my pedals and amp. I use the Spire's effects mostly to slightly enhance the sound of my acoustic through it's internal mic - not sure if I will if I ever buy a dedicate mic for it. And to do ANYTHING to treat my vocals and make them sound like someone else!

I mixed that with the rhythm track in the center and a lead track to each side, so one lead was basically more to the left and one more to the right. Not sure if that was the best way to do it but I figured I'd separate them for clarity. Perhaps not so clear?

I've tried playing plugging my acoustic in directly, but it sounds better mic'd, even with the basic built in condenser. But the electric just sounds incredibly good. I'm not sure how much of that is due to the quality of the speaker emulated output of the amp, but whatever it is, it works...

-Ray

[raysachs]

Originally Posted by JakeStone

As for the mix.. I am still learning multi tracking. So take what I said with grain of salt. But I assume when having multiple lead instruments it get's a little more congested for a lack of better word.

Right, that's why I figured moving the lead channels to opposite sides of the mix would reduce the congestion. But it may just create confusion instead...

-Ray

[JakeStone]

Originally Posted by raysachs

Right, that's why I figured moving the lead channels to opposite sides of the mix would reduce the congestion. But it may just create confusion instead...

-Ray

If it sounds good to you that's all that matters!

[raysachs]

Originally Posted by JakeStone

If it sounds good to you that's all that matters!

It arguably would be better, or more coherent anyway, with just one lead guitar, rather than two. I kind of liked the accidental interaction (since I recorded them totally independently of one another) so I kept them both in the final mix. But tried to separate them spatially so it was clear there were two of them.

[Captain Jim]

Originally Posted by raysachs

Been really enjoying the Spire. I'm finding it's REALLY good for electric guitar, recording directly into it from an amp. My little Blackstar HT1R has an emulated out, which I can plug directly into the Spire. All I do is a soundcheck and otherwise the sound is the result of my pedals and amp.

Here's a little sample. Just a rhythm played on my looper and recorded into one track. And then two separate lead tracks recorded totally separately, but played back together. Since I tend to approach things similarly to myself, the two leads actually seem to accidentally weave together pretty nicely most of the time.

I guess this was about a 20 minute project. I'm not sure how many folks around here are electric players, but I'm better on electric than acoustic. And NO VOCALS!!! Which are my overwhelming weak point.

Sounds good! We are out in our motorhome these days, so haven't had a quiet place to record. I appreciate hearing what you are doing.

[benjamin1884]

So had several friends from out of town and I literally put the Spire on a chair in the middle of the room. Here’s a cover of a Tom Paxton classic. Taylor Mckinnon lead vocal, Mike Mckinnon, guitar, Margaret Prunty and Bob McFadden on guitars, and yours truly on vocals and banjo
Turned out pretty good
Rick

https://soundcloud.com/rickrn/last-thing-5

[benjamin1884]

Ok and here’s the other tune we did. You can here our wives in the background and they were pretty animated talking crafting. Same thing just stuck the Spire on a chair in the room
Rick

https://soundcloud.com/rickrn/ghost-in-the-fog-4

[JakeStone]

Sounds like fun times with friends . . Both tunes sounded great!

Originally Posted by benjamin1884

Ok and here’s the other tune we did. You can here our wives in the background and they were pretty animated talking crafting. Same thing just stuck the Spire on a chair in the room
Rick

https://soundcloud.com/rickrn/ghost-in-the-fog-4

[Captain Jim]

Thanks for sharing that, Rick - definitely capturing a moment with friends. I haven't tried my Spire for capturing a live group situation - I'll have to keep that in mind. I played a party with a keyboard player yesterday, our first time playing together; it would have been nice to have a record of it.

[Gitaman]

Thank you to whoever brought Inspire to this forum, Inspire is a great tool for practicing and sharing... Well, almost, I have a hard time downloading, for example, to Kakao app. Tries to download for a long time like 10, 20 minutes and fails. Any suggestions?

[JakeStone]

Originally Posted by Gitaman

Thank you to whoever brought Inspire to this forum, Inspire is a great tool for practicing and sharing... Well, almost, I have a hard time downloading, for example, to Kakao app. Tries to download for a long time like 10, 20 minutes and fails. Any suggestions?

Hey Gitaman.. Glad you are liking your Spire Studio.

I have never seen or used this Kakao app you mentioned... You may want to ping iZotope customer support by email. They can advise. I have contacting them several times and they responded within a couple hours.

The Spire App on iOs and Android is limited..

But what I do is record on Spire App on my iPad and then simply hit Export/Highest Quality.. Send the individual tracks to my iCloud.

I use iCloud since it's built-in and works on my Win 10 machine, So from there, I can do just about anything with the tracks.
The Spire does directly text or email too as well as direct upload to places like SoundCLoud, Youtube ..

Hope this helps.

[Gitaman]

Thanks, JakeStone!

I will take your advice and contact the Inspire.

[raysachs]

I just finished recording one of my favorite old Stones tunes from Exile, "Let it Loose". Ran into something I wasn't sure how to solve. Before I exported the final track, I tried out the Spire's relatively new "enhance" feature, which adds a bit of clarity and loudness to the final track. It's not a dramatic difference, but the result sounded better to me so I wanted to get that track out to my email or to Soundcloud. BUT, the feature only works when you're connected to the Spire - the app alone won't do the "enhance"ment. But then when you're connected to the Spire, the Spire IS your wi-fi network, so you're not connected to anything else. And if you don't have a good strong cell signal, there's no way to actually export the file to email, soundcloud, or any other sort of way of getting it off your phone/tablet. What I was able to get to work, though, with an iPhone, was to save the enhanced version to my "notes" app on the phone. And once it's there, I can then disconnect from the Spire (i.e., turn it off), and then my "notes" app shares it with the "notes" app on my other devices, including my laptop, though my iCloud account. At that point, I have it on my laptop and can upload it or email it or do what I want with it, including just emailing it straight from the notes app on the phone I guess.

Anyway, here's my latest. An acoustic guitar track with one vocal, which is the backbone of the tune, another vocal to take the worst of the edges off (think of us as the "slimmer twins"), an electric lead guitar track for fills and enhancements, and during a lead break mid-song, another electric track in the other ear just because I can never leave well enough alone... And all of it ever so slightly "enhanced" by the good folks at Spire Studio...

[Captain Jim]

Hi Ray - thanks for the update info on the Spire. I just downloaded that; it was a snap.

Nice playing on that recording!

We are still out in the motorhome, so there hasn't been the opportunity to use the Spire. Combined with the fact that I have a man-cold, the flu, or perhaps the plague... and no voice.

[raysachs]

Originally Posted by Captain Jim

Hi Ray - thanks for the update info on the Spire. I just downloaded that; it was a snap.

Nice playing on that recording!

We are still out in the motorhome, so there hasn't been the opportunity to use the Spire. Combined with the fact that I have a man-cold, the flu, or perhaps the plague... and no voice.

Well, you're lucky. I'm healthy as a horse and, still, no voice! But I figure the whole thing is for fun anyway and it's fun to "sing", no matter how badly. So I just do it and rarely share it... But putting the songs together is just fun, something I've missed since my old 4-track cassette recorder in the '80s, because up until now, most of the modern stuff has been more complex than fun. The Spire is simple enough to use that it's all fun...

-Ray