Acoustic guitar song (no title)

[Philip G Hunt]

This is an as yet un-titled guitar piece I've been working on. I love using alt tunings, and this 'flowery' tuning produced this track.

In terms of the mix - the main acoustic guitar is played directly into the soundcard via a pickup jack (not the best of sounds, but I've tried to keep the worst of the squeaks and rubs out),- I'm aiming for the kind of sound Thurston Moore has on his acoustic albums. I'd be interested to know if I'm getting there or not.

Any feedback welcomed

 

 

Edited October 6, 2022 by Philip G Hunt

[Wookiee]

Squeaks make thing a little more real  .  Like the tune but there is something amiss with the drums, I like brushes but something is little off, they sound liek they have been recorded in a different space to the guitar and the bass.

[Philip G Hunt]

35 minutes ago, Wookiee said:

Squeaks make thing a little more real  .  Like the tune but there is something amiss with the drums, I like brushes but something is little off, they sound liek they have been recorded in a different space to the guitar and the bass.

Good to know. I'll see what I can do. Thanks 

[Dream Art Scientists]

Interesting sounding mix.  I don't know Thurston Moor's stuff, so can't comment on that. If it were me, I would probably down the string squeaks some more, as it is quite prominent when listening on my desktop monitors. Nice guitar playing and cool laid back ambient sounding mix! 

[Guest]

Hmm DI isn't the best option for recording acoustic guitar - I've been getting better results lately using a pair of SD condenser mics in a X-Y config. Worth a try if you have the option - even a single condenser mic beats a DI hands down imho.

Mike Enjo over @Creative Sauce did a great YouTube tutorial on recording acoustic guitar recently.

I'm with Wookiee on the drums - and they're too busy for my taste. The guitar picking is busy as it is, so maybe you could let the percussion take more of a back seat?

Did you HP the guitar - always worth doing to take out that low-end boom - especially if adding reverb.

I like the guitar track - good chops btw - what was the tuning you used for this out of interest?

Overall well done, but I think a different recording choice may yield better results.

Andy

[Bajan Blue]

Hi Philip

I agree with most of the comments above.

One of the things is the guitar. I always use this

https://gearspace.com/board/reviews/694315-se-electronics-gm10.html

if which is rare, i don't get the sound i want, i go back to standard mics

Apart from those little comments, enjoyed it

Nigel

 

[Guest]

Nifty looking gadget that Nigel, I hadn't seen that before.

I can't afford those rather nice (but expensive) Austrian Audio mics that Mike featured on the video I mentioned above. However I bagged a pair of Behringer C2 mics (including XY mount) for around £40 off Amazon.

Unbeatable value, remarkably good quality and impressive results, provided you don't push the gain too hard. At least I thought so anyway, audiophiles with younger ears may disagree. ?

Andy

[Larry T.]

Hi Philip....good tune for sure, nice melodies, tempo and playing....the guitar recording,  to my ears, is too muddy....i had the same problem on a song i did a few months ago and i had to redo it....as was said before Direct Injection of an acoustic guitar doesn't produce a generally accepted level of clarity or quality....i would remove or lessen the reverb and record the guitar on a mic and do an A/B comparison to see which one you prefer....heck, maybe a mix of the two of them might be the best!! regarding the drums i would mix them a bit lower and reduce the reverb on them as well....again, nice tune ????

[Philip G Hunt]

Thanks everyone.

In response to the comments about Di recording. I usually mic the guitar using shotgun micd, but thought I'd try using the built in guitar mic on my acoustic as an experiment. I tried sweetening it using a 3Sigma Impulsive, but as you can hear, there is only so much you can do to get that acoustic sound. 

When I get another free morning, I'll try redoing the guitar parts.

And @AndyB01 I like to keep my tunings secret ? I could tell you....but then I'd have to make you sign a NDA. ?

[RikF]

Hi Andy, nice one, like it, guitar could me a bit louder. What' s the tuning ?

Rik