budget (usb) mic for classical guitar recording needed

[waxcylinder]

Well that ART USB dual Pre thingy was certainly worth the money - and those years of practice have clearly paid off.

And yes Koz, I too was thinking this was getting to be "Guinness Book Of Records" time for the longest thread in the forum ... good thread though.

WC

[bgravato]

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).

[kozikowski]

<<<all that it takes to fool your ears>>>

You're preaching to the choir. Fooling people has bought me a lot of beer and biscuits.

Koz

[steve]

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...

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.

I'm not complaining and I don't think any of the other elves are, either.

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.

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.

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

[kozikowski]

<<<look forward to hearing more recordings >>>

+1.

Koz

[bgravato]

Thanks for the tips.

I finally put the equipment testing on the side today and started focusing on recording my playing. So I should soon be able to post something longer

I still have a lot to learn about audacity and all its features and capabilities, but I'm sure with time everything will unfold itself...

[bgravato]

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'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

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).

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

[steve]

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:

1) Make a duplicate of the track (Ctrl+D)
2) 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)
3) 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.

[bgravato]

Thanks Steve for the enlightening

[kozikowski]

<<<Calf Reverb is a stereo effect>>>

There is one more component to this skillset. Knowing when to quit.

"If we duplicate the track and then split it into L and R, we can apply one echo package to one side, and then invert the polarity with XML delay......."

Koz