Jump to content

Performance recording - Hold Me Down


Kevin Walsh

Recommended Posts

I know I posted this before, but this is a bit of a different take.

A few folks and I talked about recording and posting some original songs that we've never really performed before and I picked this one.  Truth is, I've never recorded an actual performance of any song I've written. I always recorded one track at a time in pieces and parts and once they're done, it's damned rare that they ever see the light of day again.

So I took a deep breath and after a couple of run-throughs as rehearsal, I fired up my Logitech HD Pro WebCam C910 and let her rip.  As you can see in the video (sort of) I used a  Microphone-Parts T12 mic into an Audient ID22 interface and right on in to Cakewalk. I did two tracks, one with me on vocals and guitar (a Martin D-16GT) and one with me doing a harmony part. I did have an audio output from the web cam but I did not use it. It was a bit of a pain getting the audio and video lined up, but mixing is much easier with only one or two tracks. :)

A compressor, a little reverb, some EQ and Izotope's Ozone 9 Maximizer and this is what came out.

It's a pretty rough but it was a lot of fun doing it. I'd appreciate any feedback on mic placement, eq and any other recording technique that comes to mind.

 

 

Edited by Kevin Walsh
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's a good performance for sure! The woodiness of the guitar comes through wonderfully. You might consider a slight volume boost of the vocals, and if you haven't yet done so, dip the volume just a smidge on the guitar when a vocal line is happening? Your guitar has a wonderful percussive strum transient, but that also helps wipe out the vocal just a little.

 

My .02 Kroners on your lovely effort!

cheers,

-Tom

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm grateful you guys are chiming in!

Thanks DeeringAmps-tom for your kind words, it was a bit of a scary deal for me to make that video since I've not been a solo performer before, and getting a start with music pretty late in life hasn't done much for my confidence in what I'm writing or how well I can perform it.

emeraldsould-Tom, you're raising exactly the kinds of issues that I struggled with on this mix. The lead vocal and guitar were done with the same mic and are the same track, so it's unclear how I can follow  your advice with ducking the guitar while singing. (Duh, unless I just play quieter, lol).  Perhaps having two mics, one predominantly guitar and one mostly vocals? Again, you input is very much appreciated!

Edited by Kevin Walsh
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...