Yes there’s some stereo reverb - hope I didn’t overdo it - I’ve just got back from a gig and my ears haven’t fully recovered yet (it was loud … and hot).
I used the “Calf reverb” (a LADSPA effect - I think it is currently only available for Linux, - the Calf effects are pretty nice and are in the Ubuntu repository).
I also tweaked the timing just a little in that tricky bit near the end.
That will make playing more enjoyable but will probably not have a huge effect on the recording as you are mic’ing quite close - I probably shouldn’t say this, but this is where a mixer or multi-channel recorder and another pair of microphones comes in useful - you can then record the guitar close up as you are now to get the character and detail of the instrument, and a pair of mics further away to pick up the ambiance from the room. Whatever you do with one microphone it will always be a mono recording. Now before I get you into trouble for encouraging you into financial ruin, it is much less expensive to fake the ambiance, and so long as you keep the reverb subtle it should be pretty convincing - the really critical bit is the close up recording which is what you are doing now.
Two top tips with reverb - 1) don’t over-do it (it’s very easy to over-do it). 2) If you need to clean up any noises from the raw recording, do that before applying reverb. 3) (OK, I know I said “2 tips”) Apply the reverb to a duplicate copy of the track rather than the track itself - you can then mix the amount of close mic and ambiance while you listen by using the “Mixer Board” (in “View” menu).
That would be great - perhaps post it as a new topic and add a link to this one for anyone that wants to spend a couple of days reading the full story.
I think the most valuable pathway to making recordings is to go up through the junk. Buy the $29 USD equipment and find out the shortcomings. Then resolve them. I don’t think you learn nearly as much plunking down in front of a perfect system and have it work first time out – not that anyone is going to buy something like that first time out.
I don’t buy that business of “I purchased the $29 unit and it was a complete waste of money.”
“The kid took his first steps today, and boy, they were really a waste of time. He fell right over.”
It may be a waste of time if the equipment failed right away, but not if it did what it was supposed to do and that wasn’t up to the task.
There is also the possibility that in non critical performances, the $29 might have been OK. Then you’d feel really silly blowing 250 clams on a sound system.
The MicPlug is considerably better than using the internal mic on my laptop, and a lot more convenient (and probably safer) than having a big chunky XLR plug with an XLR to mini-jack converter hanging out of the side of the laptop. For anyone that has a grown-up microphone (XLR) lying around and want to use it for non-critical sound input such as voice messages, it is probably a good and very inexpensive solution. Did you try the headphone socket on it bgravato ?
I tried the headphones socket very briefly, but honestly I don’t remember what was the result… only thing I remember about it is that when I had the micplug connected to the macbook, when I pressed the the volume buttons on the micplug it would change the volume level on the mac… But i didn’t dig much into it. I can give it a try tomorrow and I’ll let you know.
It was a very busy weekend so I didn’t have much time at home to do more thorough tests on the amp. Here is another sample (sorry koz not yet a 3 min length full piece but this one is a classic): 34-art-usb-sample2-stairway.flac
This is a follow up to this:
It was recorded at the top of a stairway. I placed the mic a bit “less-closer” to the guitar to try to catch a bit more of the fine reverb that was pleasing my ears while playing… Not sure if that’s much noticeable on the recording…
But there is no longer any technical reason not to. The last couple of clips have been Entertainment Corporation, Commercial CD ready.
Have you tried to Actually Edit yet? You know, crank your way through a long piece, fluffs and all, and then go back in post production and hide all the fluffs? I know people that, when they know they’re going to “tape,” replay over their mistakes and make a mental note where they are. That is, make a mistake, pause, and start playing again at the last even phrase – rewind your head. It’s a lot easier to keep your rhythm going if you do that than to record the whole thing over again six minutes later.
I’m not complaining and I don’t think any of the other elves are, either. It’s not often we get to take somebody from noisy, kitchen-table recording up to commercial grade captures. It helps that you’re a terrific player.
Thank you Koz and WC for your kind comments. I don’t believe I’m that good, but I guess a good mic/preamp, decent guitar and Audacity are all that it takes to fool your ears
Anyway I’ve finished writing my findings/conclusions and posted it in a new thread (and will now update the first post on this thread to point there too).
There’s definitely more “ambiance” there - very nice indeed. For the tonal quality, this last recording is my favourite - a real pleasure to listen to.
I knew that the SC1100 was a good microphone from personal experience, but only knew the ART by reputation. There is a tiny bit of noise, but it is low enough to only be noticeable in the “silent” bits which can easily be trimmed or gated. I’d now, having heard it, have no reservations about recommending the device, as I’m sure you would.
Certainly not complaining - there’s been a lot of good stuff in this thread and listening to the music samples has been a pleasure, particularly as the recording has got better and better, which was the object of the exercise.
One good way to record is to start by playing through the entire piece start to finish in one take - if you make a little “fluff” don’t worry about it, just keep going to the end. Once that first take is done, have a cup of tea and do a couple more full takes, then leave it for at least a couple of hours, or preferably 'till the next day. Then listen to each of the “takes” and pick your favourite - don’t be too concerned about the odd mistake, pick the one that is “musically” best.
Then comes the editing - go through the chosen track and re-record the bits that you’re not happy with. You can give yourself a “lead in” by duplicating the bit immediately before the bit to be replaced, mute the original track, then start recording and play along with the duplicate section - when the duplicate section runs out, keep playing - this is the bit that you will “drop in” to the original track.
I’ll go and have a look at that new thread now - look forward to hearing more recordings
I’ve installed calf-plugins (from debian reps) and I have it available on audacity… Now I just need to figure out what all those parameters are and what they mean/do
Ok first I duplicated the track, then added a bit of delay to one of the tracks… then I added reverb to one of them… and last I partially panned the tracks in opposite directions… am I doing this right?
You can’t read experience from books, but any tutorial on mono to (fake) stereo, summing all these techniques, could be helpful
Calf Reverb is a stereo effect, so if you apply it to a “2 channel mono” track, the result will be stereo.
Starting with a single mono recording:
Make a duplicate of the track (Ctrl+D)
Make a second duplicate of the original track. (you now have 3 tracks - if you have 4 tracks it’s because you duplicated tracks 1 and 2 and not just track 1)
Click on the “Name” of track 2 and from the drop down menu select “Make Stereo Track”.
You can now apply stereo effects such as Calf Reverb to the “stereo” track.
but this one is a classic): 
