Schatten HFN Review

[hyenik]

i am fan of Schatten pickups.
Maybe not so impressive alone, but perfect in mix with another pickup.
It add some kind of "microphone smell" to sound.

[hyenik]

short examples of parlor stage sound
Schatten HFN + Seymour Duncan Mag Mic

[guitaniac]

Originally Posted by hyenik

i am fan of Schatten pickups.
Maybe not so impressive alone, but perfect in mix with another pickup.
It add some kind of "microphone smell" to sound.

I thought the mic in the mag/mic was supposed to add the “microphone smell”. Are you using the mag/mic’s mic in conjunction with the HFN or are you just blending the HFN with the mag?

In any event, I suspect your demoed sound would work well in a noisy bar setting, and the little parlor adds a pleasing visual effect.

[SpruceTop]

Originally Posted by hyenik

short examples of parlor stage sound
Schatten HFN + Seymour Duncan Mag Mic

Nice sound! Are you using a microphone to record the amplified tone as it comes out of a loudspeaker?

[hyenik]

Originally Posted by guitaniac

I thought the mic in the mag/mic was supposed to add the “microphone smell”. Are you using the mag/mic’s mic in conjunction with the HFN or are you just blending the HFN with the mag?

In any event, I suspect your demoed sound would work well in a noisy bar setting, and the little parlor adds a pleasing visual effect.

Thanks, Mag Mic yes, of course, but could add feedback on stage too
It is personal guitar of luthier from ReBell guitars, he mostly plays fingerstyle.
He mixing HFN with Mag (and Mic if circumstances allowed), two lines goes to LR Baggs DI´s and Schertler combo

[hyenik]

Originally Posted by SpruceTop

Nice sound! Are you using a microphone to record the amplified tone as it comes out of a loudspeaker?

No, Mr.ReBell goes simply line out usually.
This is only "iPhone demo". Better sound quality will come soon...

[guitaniac]

Originally Posted by hyenik

Thanks, Mag Mic yes, of course, but could add feedback on stage too
It is personal guitar of luthier from ReBell guitars, he mostly plays fingerstyle.
He mixing HFN with Mag (and Mic if circumstances allowed), two lines goes to LR Baggs DI´s and Schertler combo

It’s good to learn that the HFN is less feedback prone that the mic. Definitely a plus for the HFN. Thanks.

[dilver]

Originally Posted by SpruceTop

I'm glad you're finding this pickup system sounding good for you. Please, if possible, can you post a direct-to-computer recording made with No Effects, Flat EQ, and No Microphones anywhere in or near your signal chain? I have sound demos of this system here on AGF with just the HFN pickup and another demo with a dual-pickup HFN system. It would be nice to compare what you've gotten with what I have. Thanks.

Let's see if this works - very basic demonstration of the Schatten HFN Active. Recorded straight into my DAW, no effects, flat eq, volume and tone controls on pickup full up. I would mic it if I was recording something, but this will give others a sense of what it sounds like.

https://soundcloud.com/user-34662153...social_sharing

[SpruceTop]

Originally Posted by dilver

Let's see if this works - very basic demonstration of the Schatten HFN Active. Recorded straight into my DAW, no effects, flat eq, volume and tone controls on pickup full up. I would mic it if I was recording something, but this will give others a sense of what it sounds like.

https://soundcloud.com/user-34662153...social_sharing

Thanks For Taking The Time To Do This & That's Mighty Nice & You've Grandly Succeeded! Congratulations as this is the best Schatten HFN installation I've ever heard! The only thing I would suggest is a 3 dB cut somewhere in the midrange to lessen a bit of midrange forwardness I'm hearing (most flat EQ'ed, direct-to-computer recordings of most pickups need a bit of this).

[guitaniac]

Originally Posted by dilver

Let's see if this works - very basic demonstration of the Schatten HFN Active. Recorded straight into my DAW, no effects, flat eq, volume and tone controls on pickup full up. I would mic it if I was recording something, but this will give others a sense of what it sounds like.

https://soundcloud.com/user-34662153...social_sharing

That’s truly excellent for an unprocessed sound.

Am I correct that you are hosting that recording on Soundcloud Pro? If so, do they compress the heck out of your recordings also, or do they give you more leeway to process (or not) your own recordings the way you prefer them?

[dilver]

Originally Posted by SpruceTop

Thanks For Taking The Time To Do This & That's Mighty Nice & You've Grandly Succeeded! Congratulations as this is the best Schatten HFN installation I've ever heard! The only thing I would suggest is a 3 dB cut somewhere in the midrange to lessen a bit of midrange forwardness I'm hearing (most flat EQ'ed, direct-to-computer recordings of most pickups need a bit of this).

Thanks Sprucetop. Yeah, I guess I got lucky with the installation. Having the two pin holes in the saddle slot helped me to line up the pickup. I’ll see how it it
does in live situations. But I have to believe it will be decent and at least better than the stock Baggs Element. I’m MUCH happier with the unamplified tone of my guitar without the UST.

[SpruceTop]

Originally Posted by dilver

Thanks Sprucetop. Yeah, I guess I got lucky with the installation. Having the two pin holes in the saddle slot helped me to line up the pickup. I’ll see how it it
does in live situations. But I have to believe it will be decent and at least better than the stock Baggs Element. I’m MUCH happier with the unamplified tone of my guitar without the UST.

You're Welcome! I've found that if a pickup sounds good when direct-to-computer recorded it'll sound better through a PA speaker or acoustic amp. Of course, you have to be ready with some EQ if a pickup/guitar combo gets some feedback in a live venue but I think you'll do OK!

[dilver]

Originally Posted by guitaniac

That’s truly excellent for an unprocessed sound.

Am I correct that you are hosting that recording on Soundcloud Pro? If so, do they compress the heck out of your recordings also, or do they give you more leeway to process (or not) your own recordings the way you prefer them?

Hey Guitaniac. You know, I have no idea what SoundCloud does, as I’m new to using it. But I have to believe they at least use some sort of limiter to get the levels of tracks people upload relatively even. The track I uploaded wasn’t mastered in any way, so it was like -18-14db max. And yet it still sounds pretty loud on SoundCloud.

[SpruceTop]

Originally Posted by dilver

Hey Guitaniac. You know, I have no idea what SoundCloud does, as I’m new to using it. But I have to believe they at least use some sort of limiter to get the levels of tracks people upload relatively even. The track I uploaded wasn’t mastered in any way, so it was like -18-14db max. And yet it still sounds pretty loud on SoundCloud.

SoundCloud does render an uploaded and posted sound file to their audio specs. I'm not sure but perhaps the "Pro" fee-based SoundCloud service's audio rendering offers higher fidelity than the "free" service most folks including me use.

[guitaniac]

Originally Posted by dilver

Hey Guitaniac. You know, I have no idea what SoundCloud does, as I’m new to using it. But I have to believe they at least use some sort of limiter to get the levels of tracks people upload relatively even. The track I uploaded wasn’t mastered in any way, so it was like -18-14db max. And yet it still sounds pretty loud on SoundCloud.

I uploaded one just now that I normalized to -2db. LOL, I’m gonna go right back and normalize it to -10db to see if the results are any different. Thanks for the info.