"A Day Out" - New Acoustic Piece

[heinsite]

YAYYY!after being turned down by the thread 20 times, i went on your page directly from the orange thing down there and found it--very nice, pleasant, very straight forward "playful" if you will tune. sounds quite good to my ears, but i don't have any fancy new toys (i think it's fear and money, and fear my wife won't let me spend and early share of my last will and testament...LOL...)yeah, the ending kinda stopped, but that can be fixed if you wish to exxxttteeeennndddd the last notes/chord, but still found it a nice effort!! oh, yeah, as kitz said,,,sustain...keep up the good work mate!the best,warren

[wta]

Jan 18, 2009, 8:38am, davekershaw wrote:Thanks for all the feedback fellas.I'll be playing around with it Monday.That ending, yeah, wasn't sure what to do there.Maybe should let it fade out naturally.Bill: it's not for any particular listing, but I'll take a look through themfor "simple acoustic pieces" once I'm happy with it.And Willie, can you elaborate on that "headroom".I really need help on that area of recording; normalising, compression, limiting etc. Any specific suggestion? Headroom is the amount of db you have between your highest peaks and "0" or clip. I use Sony Soundforge 8's Wave Hammer which it a compressor and limiter. I'd suggest using a limiter and setting the threshold to about -1 db and see how that gives your track a bigger sound. If not enough try -1.5 db and so on. It IS an acoustic track so you don't want it to sound to big or "full" but if you experiment with it you'll get a feel for what might make the guitar sound a bit "punchier" or with more "attack". Big rule is "less is more" and I use that rule with all aspects of mastering, mixing, guitar tones, vocal effects and the like but compression/limiting is the very most important "effect" if you will that you can use to take a good track and make it sound great... Hope something from all that helps... wta

[davekershaw]

Thanks Kitz, Warren and Will.Yeah, I noticed on the waveform there was lots of headroom.I'll work on the track today, and see about some limiting.And Warren, I gave up telling my wife when I plan to buy something.She always said: "you don't need one!"Now I just go out and buy it without telling her.She still says: "you didn't need one!" but it's too late, and it saves a lot of hassle! Did the same with the guitar! She just doesn't get why I would need more than one!

[silvercord]

Cool Dave~i am with the rest of the cats about having some more sustain..one useful thing i have learned in post-recording is mycountless hours working in the wave editor i use,of course the better the actual recording..the less one needsto edit..but as i am better at being a jack of all trades and notreally an awesome guitar player, i have learned how to usethe wave editor to my advantage...some times i would record a guitar track to have just the verysituation you may have on your hands...i couldn't re-record a guitar part as i may have forgotten howthe chords went, or i have a new mic..and the old one is nowa make shift hammer....have a new guitar..and the eq is so muchdifferent from that recording to make it sound the same...etcif you are ever in a bind..sometimes you can get away with cheating and use a glorified technique of copy-pasting~may i ask, did you mike these up close and dry and add room reverb or did you record them with that room space sound i hear?in any case..its cool and i hope you have a great time with yournew baby!!peacegeoff

[davekershaw]

Quote:may i ask, did you mike these up close and dry and add room reverb or did you record them with that room space sound i hear?geoffHey Geoff,It's always good to hear from you!Yeah, I used the AT2020 and 012a, both onto two tracks; one track direct and the other mic.I found the AT2020 actually gave a better result with the Ovation, but was boomy with my Fender.The mics about a foot away from the 12th fret.It was done in a large room, with natural reverb.I've redone the guitar and laid it over the old one, so the sustain is subtle, but better than before - I hope.Also added a fade to the end.That was a devil to do. Like you say, it's hard to get the same sound second time round. The original notes had been damped out, so I had to add new ones.Just mixing and hope to get it up later today.Thanks for listening.

[silvercord]

Dave..cool..we have the same micsare you willing to try something out for me? : )when you have the chance..this is what i would like you to experiment, mic setting-wisefirst off...set up one 012a about 3 inches away from the 12thfret...angle it to where the mic doesn't catch the boom of thethings...(so its a bit angled more to the headstock than to the sound hole...)second..just go 'line in' from your ovationmix and pan them on the mixer till you find a sweet spot..wherethings sound even and full...this is a more 'dry' set up...but thats just the point...extra room verb can be added post recording...and if youare not happy with the reverb that is meant to 'glue' the postmix together..than you can always change it;)i would love to know what you think about it if you give her a try!peacegeoff

[devin]

Just a quick note on the fade Dave, some libraries don't like them. Like, NOT AT ALL. I found that out last week.When recording now, I set the drum (or click) to go an extra 32 measures or something silly like that. Then I'll actually record 3-4 different button endings in a row at the end of the take. I do ending #1, let the silence come in, then start strumming the last chord(s) to get in the grove, then try another button ending, etc and so on.That way I have 3-4 endings on the track to pick and choose from...all with the same guitar/tuning/mic/pick/aggression/moon phase as the body of the song.I'm trying to get my on-line collaborators to do the same, so I have the most options at mixdown.

[devin]

@Geoff:Brother!I have an 012 as well, but with the Dorsey mod done. Maybe I should try this trick and send you a sample, just to peep the tweak?

[davekershaw]

Hi Fellas.I just put the new version up.Please see what you think:http://www.taximusic.com/song.php?song_ ... m=trueI'll try that Geoff and get back to you.Devin, yeah, I hear they like button ending, which is why the first one ended abruptly. Obviously too abruptly though!This new version just ends with the last note fading out.

[heinsite]

hi dave, still can't listen, even uninstall q-time, and still don't work, BUT found it on www.taxi site--sounds splendid to me, the end is just right IMHO. only thing for "someday" might be to add in the second "verse" a bit of a perc beat--not sure what--the spoons? just 1/2 kidding, but something like that, to give it a bit of a horse romp feel to it...but it sounds fine to me as is..all the best,warren