Hi all I’m new, sorry if this has been covered before.
I wish to play guitar over pop songs, for example a prince or marvin gaye song, with me adding in my licks+solos etc. I don’t want to mess around with overdubbing, just be able to do it all in one take.
Anyway I initially record the song itself on audacity - stick the recording option from ‘mic’ to ‘stereo mix’, and I can get a reasonable quality recording of the song.
But it’s the guitar playing over it - sounds awful, and I’m a decent guitarist. I’m not sure if the problem lies with audacity. It’s probably my complete lack of knowledge of EQ, sound engineering etc. But it just sounds awful. I want the sort of result you see on youtube where kids solo over a song, and it sounds decent enough…what are they doing that I’m not!
Basically the song has a certain ‘feel’ to it, and whenever my guitar chimes in, it totally rapes the song and makes my headphones/speakers crackle with distortion. Yet if I record with lower volume, it’s inaudible. The song, and guitar solo seem to be on completely different wavelengths. I want the guitar to blend in more. I also get the unwanted flange problem that many guitarists get on audacity. My PC has perfectly good specs and sound card.
this was the best of a bad bunch. sound recorded on audacity.
thanks for any advice
edit: I’ve tried everything, such as adding reverb to both song and solo, messing with the EQ options etc.
As for recording I just stick a decent mike about 1 foot from the amp. I’ve tried different distances too.
No, you don’t want the “Stereo Mix” option.
It depends what sort of microphone you are using, but if it’s just a microphone plugged into the microphone socket of the computer then you want it set to record from “Mic”.
Please understand that the two steps you need are very different and the first can screw up the second. Where did the original song come from? Did you buy a physical Music CD? Music download? iTunes? Forget the microphone for a minute.
I’m not sure that I would agree. YouTube doesn’t do any favours to audio, in fact it goes a long way toward wrecking sound, but the Marvin Gaye sounds really thin, like recording from a pocket radio from 20 paces, and too low in the mix. For the guitar to blend well with the backing you need to have good sound quality for the backing. Probably the best way would be to rip the backing from a CD.
As Trebor mentioned, the guitar really starts to break up around 1 min 40. Something is overloading and clipping.
Hi guys sorry for the delay.
I have since changed over from the crappy 70s pc to my decent laptop. The overall sound quality is much better, no amp/effects hiss.
To get the original song on audacity, I now use CD’s and the sound quality is chrystal clear. Forget that crap recording I showed you there.
So the pop song isn’t the issue any more.
Anyway It’s perhaps more of a general production question.
I want my added solos, to sound as if someone was actually playing those solos on the original record - really integrated as much as possible, into the song.
I know little about production, but I think that on the bits where my guitar can be heard (as opposed to just the song), the overall volume increases, which makes everything sound nasty. I don’t know if the audacity compressor could fix this? bearing in mind I need to blend my guitar into the song?
Do you think it is a case of the general EQ of the pop song being very different to my bedroom guitar, thus they don’t ‘fit’?
One change I have made, is not playing any low notes. the bassiness completely overrides the pop song, which ruins things.
I’ve also tried adding reverb to the song/just the guitar/both song and guitar etc
[quote=“Richardalexander”… no amp/effects hiss.
…the pop song isn’t the issue any more. …
Anyway It’s perhaps more of a general production question.
I want my added solos, to sound as if someone were actually playing those solos on the original record - really integrated as much as possible,… the overall volume increases, which makes everything sound nasty. I don’t know if the audacity compressor could fix this? … Do you think it is a case of the general EQ of the pop song being very different to my bedroom guitar, …
…[/quote]
when you add two things the volume increases – so
make sure that none of them were more than -6.01 db from max
else you could start to get clipping and the total soudn bad
if you amplify both to the same level they should fit together
(but amplify them to below -6 !!)
but if not yet a match then check the dynamic range —
you may need to compress one so those match also
then combine them
and yes, the eq of the original could make it sound different.
so could the room it was recorded in unless it was also in your bedroom. you could look at the freq spectrum of the original and your guitar then try to match the freqs your guitar covers to the same eq shape as the original
This is a low frequency rumble filter I designed. It helps get rid of metrobuses driving by. Each of those little dots on the line are adjustment points. The equalizer blue line is a rubber band and you can push it around. Up is louder. I placed each point there by hand, pushing the blue line around.
-3dB is barely audible, -18dB is about half volume, and -60 is about the limit of hearing.
20Hz is the sound of an earthquake, 440 is that oboe sound in the orchestra, most stuff above about 15000 either can’t be heard, of sounds like frying.
This is where connecting the spectrum analyzer and the equalizer comes in handy. The analyzer tells you about where the lumps and bumps in the show are and the equalizer can help to get rid of them – if you need to.
I did experiment and in a silent room, with earbud headphones, and the volume at 75%, I can just hear -90db. -70db is quite clear to me.
I too have an upper limit of about 15000Hz, but that’s not true for youngsters … http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mosquito
I didn’t catch how you were recording your guitar. Are you live miking an amp or are you going directly into Audacity? Also, are you properly setting the record input gain when laying the guitar track? To address the out of balance of the guitar from the recorded CD, when recording initial tracks the objective is to maximize signal to noise ratio without clipping. This means that some tracks may be recorded hotter than others in order to accomplish this. Balancing of the tracks comes during the mixdown. In your case you would have to make sure that the initial tracks are recorded at maximum signal to noise ratio and then mix the tracks down to a stereo mix. During the mixdown you can then further enhance your sound by adding effects (ever so slightly).
<<<I did experiment and in a silent room, with earbud headphones, and the volume at 75%, I can just hear -90db. -70db is quite clear to me.>>>
Turning the amplifier up doesn’t count. Do you have your iPod in Auto Level Set?
If you listen to a performance at comfortable volume but maximum undistorted level and then don’t change any of the settings (and come back later) you can still hear something going on at -70dB? That’s the level where you might be just able to make out something there or not. Not really “hear” it. -90dBSPL is the sound of your blood pumping. That’s where your body starts interfering with your ability to hear.
There are celebrities out there. One of the engineers at WAMU-FM could hear 19KHz. There’s nothing of any intelligence going on up there, but there was no questions he could tell when tones were on or off – and not very powerful ones, either.