Danger! Ear noise!

Smile

http://ccgi.mcgruff.plus.com/~mcgruff/music/ogg/smile-0.6.ogg

Wasted

http://ccgi.mcgruff.plus.com/~mcgruff/music/ogg/wasted-0.1.ogg

20 thousand cousteaus under the sea

http://ccgi.mcgruff.plus.com/~mcgruff/music/older/20%20thousand%20cousteaus%20under%20the%20sea%20-%200.23.ogg

Hi,

Is it just me or does this ear noise sound like really good music?? Nice job!

It is a bit of a shock to hear this music, when your ears are prepared for some death metal/ trash punk or what ever.

But I agree - very good music, very good sound.

What hardware and what plug-ins were used?

Agreed. I initially didn’t check out this post because of its title, but the music is very good. This could easily be something worth licensing to TV/Movies/Radio, etc.

Thanks for the comments :slight_smile: That’s great to hear.

@mixit: it’s all done on budget gear - details (and a few more tracks) here:

http://ccgi.mcgruff.plus.com/~mcgruff/music/work-in-progress/

Mainly I’ve been using an old ART rack unit. There’s the odd plug-in as well but my old computer couldn’t handle too much going on at once - just got a more powerful, multi-core machine so the ART might get phased out.

Mostly it’s just delay and reverb: was there any particular sound you were wondering about?

mcgruff, thank you for your reply.

I was mostly interested in knowing how the guitar was recorded - I like the sound of it.
I am looking for a studio mic and not sure of how much I should spend.

In the Cousteau song there is a tambourine - did you record that with your Samson mic? I once had a condencer mic that freaked out when recording a tambourine - in your song it sounds OK to me.

What sample frequency did you use?

Best regards,

mixit

The lead guitar on wasted was recorded on a Samson C01 with an ART Tube MP pre-amp. The other guitar part, and everything on 20,000 cousteaus, was recorded on some old boundary mic - all I had at the time. It’s a lot rougher.

There are lots of variables for a good acoustic sound: the guitar, how you play it, the room, the mic type and position. It’s probably one of the hardest instruments to record.

I’m starting to believe that room treatment is important and not just for no-expense-spared pro studios. I recently noticed a spot in my room which amplifies low bass frequencies. Some kind of standing waves I guess. Slabs of acoustic mineral wool aren’t too expensive.

There are lots of acoustic mic techniques to read up on. Try http://www.acousticguitarforum.com/forums/index.php for help and advice. Ideally you’d use two mics - probably a matched stereo pair - but whatever you get, make sure you do lots of experiments. Even small changes in position can have a big effect.

What seems to work best for me with my room and my guitar is an over-the-shoulder mic position, ie somewhere near my head aimed down at the guitar. I suspect that a hypercardioid mic aimed vertically doesn’t hear so much of the sound bouncing around off the walls and so helps to take a bad room out of the equation. I don’t really know though.

Personally I don’t buy the idea that small diaphragm condensers - often recommended for acoustic guitar - have one kind of sound and large diaphragm another. Different mics will be subtly different but I wouldn’t worry about small/large.

Check out mic reviews to see what people like. Rode seem to be good value for money. The M3 would probably be a step up from the Samson, if that’s within budget:

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/nov07/articles/rodem3.htm

What sort of monitoring gear do you have? Even these low end condensers are good enough to need a decent sound system & headphones to get the best out of them.

The tambourine is from Hydrogen drum machine, the TD-7 kit, so no recording problems there :slight_smile: I’d guess that something was clipping somewhere in your set up, or maybe the tambourine was just too close to the mic. Better mics like the M3 often have a switch to turn down the gain so they can be used with loud sources.

I hope I haven’t sounded like I know what I’m talking about because I really don’t. I’m still learning and experimenting and trying to do the best I can on a small budget. If I could just win the lottery I’d buy two of everything, lock myself away in a studio, and never come out again.

PS: everything recorded at 48k for no particular reason other than it’s 3.9 more than 44.1. That must be better, right? :wink:

mcgruff, thanks a lot for your answer - a gold mine of usable tips and things to be aware of.

My monitoring gear is just standard consumer audio equipment - maybe I should get something better…

I guess the Røde M3 could be within budget, but if only say 5 % of listeners could tell the difference between the Samson C01 and the Røde M3, why should I spend the extra money? (I know that some will argue, that the 5% are more important than the 95 % … ;-)…).

Anyway, thanks once more - I have a lot of reading and researching to do.

mixit

A good mic is really important. I’d always get the best I can afford - but many budget mics do a decent job. It’s up to you really. Here’s another option (not me playing):

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=719313&content=songinfo&songID=8543680

I think that’s pretty good for the price. A pair of Behringer C2’s lets you try out two-mic techniques which can give a subtle sense of space to the recording. That’s probably more important if the guitar is the main feature but less so if the guitar is just one more element in a multi-track mix.

http://www.humbuckermusic.com/acguitrectec.html
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/aug01/articles/recacgtr0801.asp

“Standard consumer audio equipment” can work pretty well. Dedicated studio monitors are better because they’re designed to have a flat frequency response but if it’s a good hi-fi it’ll do a reasonable job of covering the full frequency spectrum and producing accurate textures and dynamics. As a rough benchmark, you probably wouldn’t want to stray too far south of these:

http://www.krksys.com/product_rokit.php

mcgruff, thanks for the links - very helpful.

I think I have to decide what quality level I’ll be aiming at - the whole signal from mic to speaker must be taken into account - as well as the recording room.

A good mic requires a good preamp, a good amplifier etc.

I’ll go on researching…

Cheers,

mixit

for monitoring i can really recommend a used pair of Klein&Hummel 098. they were standart in broadcast studios in the 80s/90s and they are not more expensive than a consumer hifi setup with amp and passive speakers… i would not recommend to buy new cheap monitors though… then you can stay with your hifi-system as well…

Well, Since you asked - in “Wasted” there’s two snare drums playing exactly the same rhythm, but quite clearly one is on the R and the other is on the L - is that two different sampled snare sounds on the same trigger, or the same sound fed though different processing?

I’ve no idea… File here (hydrogen) if you’re interested:

http://ccgi.mcgruff.plus.com/~mcgruff/music/hydrogen/wasted.h2song

It’s the Yamaha vintage kit with just one snare. I usually mix the drum sounds left and right a little to create a sense of space but not here. They’re all dead centre. No spatial FX like reverb or stereo delays.

Strange isn’t it?

@mixit

Here’s another mic that sounds interesting: http://www.recording-microphones.co.uk/Golden-Age-FC4-microphone.shtml

Hi! very nice and clean recorded sound! :slight_smile:

I’m also trying to set up an amateur home studio, and I also record at 48kHz!! :open_mouth:
You can see some thing I’ve done here:
http://soundcloud.com/sandin/sets/music-i/

I usually use UltraAcoustic drums set in Hydrogen, but I like very much what you have got out of other sets, sounds great!