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hapakid
Luna Ho`omalu
USA
1533 Posts |
 Posted - 08/19/2004 : 12:59:51 AM
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I've been trying to record using Garageband on my laptop and enjoying it, but I'm trying to improve the acoustic guitar sound.
Does anyone have favorite patches (effects) in Garageband for applying to dry acoustic recordings?
I've listened to many slack key artists and they each have their own studio sound. The sounds vary widely from recording to recording, even for the same artist. Keola Beamer has a very consistent, live sound to his recordings, plus plenty of ambience added later. But I think I need an isolation booth (I can hear crickets outside!) and Neumann microphones to even come close to that.
Comments appreciated.
Jesse Tinsley
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Fran Guidry
Ha`aha`a
USA
1579 Posts |
Posted - 08/20/2004 : 12:40:02 PM
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Jesse, I don't have a Mac so I don't have Garageband, but I have a few ideas. I've been having fun with two miniature mics taped to the guitar. I got some DPA 4050s used on Ebay, these are used by theatrical companies as body mics. I tape one to the top side of the guitar peeking over the top at the soundhole, and one to the bottom side peeking over the top at the bridge. The guitar is so close to the mics that it drowns out anything short of a Harley with straight pipes (and we have one living up the street). These mics require phantom power, though, so they need a mixer or preamp with that feature. I'm assuming you're plugging straight into your Mac?? Perhaps there's a small omnidirectional mic that will work with your computer? I think you need an omni rather than a directional mic for this kind of placement, because directional mics have a bass boost as they get closer to the source, and this is super close.
One of my favorite ways to do reverb is to copy the track and apply 100% reverb, 0% dry. Then I delay that track 10-15 milliseconds, and mix it with the main track. I'll also apply EQ to the reverb track as needed, and a couple of times I created two different reverb only tracks and mixed them dynamically to add life to the track. I don't know if Garageband allows this degree of control, but it might be worth trying.
Fran
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E ho`okani pila kakou ma Kaleponi
Slack Key Guitar in California - www.kaleponi.com
Slack Key on YouTube
Homebrewed Music Blog |
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hapakid
Luna Ho`omalu
USA
1533 Posts |
Posted - 08/20/2004 : 8:40:18 PM
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Thanks, Fran, for the tips. I have been using the built-in active electronics in my Takamine guitar to record, but no pickup system can really do justice to the sound of a guitar. I have a dynamic microphone and a condenser mic that I run through a small mixer, but the dynamic mic doesn't give me great sound and the condenser (phantom power) is so hot that it picks up everything: clothing rustle, my breathing, chair noises and skin rubbing on the guitar. Very frustrating for a beginner like me and makes it hard to get that classic acoustic guitar sound. It's hard to sit perfectly still through a four minute song.
Garageband has great EQ, reverb/delay and effects, but I'm just trying to find the right combination. I'll keep working on it and I'll try the track copy trick, too, if Garageband allows.
Jesse Tinsley |
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Fran Guidry
Ha`aha`a
USA
1579 Posts |
Posted - 08/21/2004 : 5:15:00 PM
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Hey again, the glaring aural spotlight of a microphone is a terrible place to be, isn't it? Two things about incidental noises - lots of great recordings have them, and you can (and should) spend hours and hours experimenting with mic placement. That's what real pro engineers do, in fact that's exactly how they became real pro engineers. You might find just the right spot that hears lots of guitar but less of the other stuff, with the right mix of bass emphasis and clear highs. Even more frustrating, the spot is just likely to change from day to day. Whatcha gonna do, yeah? The great thing about our modern computer recording systems, just like our digital cameras, we don't have to pay for tape (film), just hit delete and start over.
Fran
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E ho`okani pila kakou ma Kaleponi
Slack Key Guitar in California - www.kaleponi.com
Slack Key on YouTube
Homebrewed Music Blog |
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Reid
Ha`aha`a
Andorra
1526 Posts |
Posted - 08/22/2004 : 12:20:17 PM
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Oh, this topic...
Fran is so right about mic placement experiments. It is a daunting, but fascinating process. Sarah and I are right in the middle of doing this. The goal is to create a a portable, semistandard arrangemengt that can be moved, setup and broken down easily by one person (Sarah) and then burnt to CD with *minimal* processing via Audition.
We have 2 mics, one large condenser AKG3000 and one Audio Technica AE5100 medium capsule. We are having (and had) trouble with the AKG sensitivity and a peculiar boominess, that, thankfully, can be taken out by either its low roll off filter or its 10db pad. I know that you are supposed to have matched pairs, but the AKG 3000 does a superb job with Sarah's voice. Using the 10 db pad eliminates some of the extraneous noise problems, too. The AE5100 produces really realistic guitar and is really great for the money.
We have already eliminated close micing. The standard kind of guitar setup, pointed at 14th fret, etc. does NOT produce realistic sound with our great guitars. The proximity bass emphasis is impossible to deal with.
Yesterday we tried medium far (20 inches) with coincident pair (XY) setup, and got realistic guitar and voice, but balances between mics were screwy, and much too much signal (the latter can be relatively easily dealt with)
Today, we are going to move back to 3 feet and try both XY and ORTF(like your ears) to get more ambiance (our bedroom is the best sounding room in the house). Classical guitarists often mic from 5 or 6 feet away (of course, they don't sing. Do they Raymond? :-)
A real good intro to mic position *starting points* is at:
http://www.fullcompass.com/fyi/default.aspx?pgid=77
I figure it will take a few weekends to get it the way we want it and then I start making drop cloths with position markers and cardboard templates for mic and the equipment angles, and modifying the cart that everything gets wheeled around in.
...Reid |
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