(ACOUSTIC) Road Regrets - Guild + Blue Snowball + shaker egg + tambourine + bass

[ImmortalSix]

Link to Song


So, for Christmas, my wife asked me to make her an album of acoustic songs. To achieve that, I picked up a "Snowball" condenser, by Blue Microphones.

This is the first draft of the first song on the album, a cover of "Road Regrets" by Dan Mangan, a very engaging and artful songwriter.

Enjoy!

Guild D30 to Blue Snowball (12" from guitar, positioned on axis at the neck joint)

Bass is a 1970-somethin' Harmony P-Bass knockoff direct to Line6 GearBox, modeling an old Ampeg, of course.

The shaker egg and tambourine aren't perfectly time aligned and will be retracked (GIGO

)

The song is 4 and a half minutes long - the silent spots are where all the instruments fall away for a simple vocal part, it's not the end of the song!

-Hunter

 

[tone4days]

Re: (ACOUSTIC) Road Regrets - Guild + Blue Snowball + shaker egg + tambourine + bass

nice sound, hunter - very open and present ... a whole album by christmas? you taking a few weeks off from work to get it done

 

[ImmortalSix]

Re: (ACOUSTIC) Road Regrets - Guild + Blue Snowball + shaker egg + tambourine + bass

Thanks Bill!

I will be spending a lot of time in the basement for sure! I think it's only going to end up being 5 songs or so

 

[ImmortalSix]

Re: (ACOUSTIC) Road Regrets - Guild + Blue Snowball + shaker egg + tambourine + bass

Any feedback for your boy Hunter?

 

[innerdreamrecords.co]

Re: (ACOUSTIC) Road Regrets - Guild + Blue Snowball + shaker egg + tambourine + bass

Any feedback for your boy Hunter?

I would like to hear more body to the acoustic sound and move the mic a little closer. It sounds very distant at the moment and depending on the arrangement I think it needs to carry the track more if it's going to be this stripped down. You could double track it and pan them right and left or use two mics and get a fuller sound.

Keep up the good work, I like it so far.

 

[ImmortalSix]

Re: (ACOUSTIC) Road Regrets - Guild + Blue Snowball + shaker egg + tambourine + bass

I would like to hear more body to the acoustic sound and move the mic a little closer. It sounds very distant at the moment and depending on the arrangement I think it needs to carry the track more if it's going to be this stripped down. You could double track it and pan them right and left or use two mics and get a fuller sound.

Keep up the good work, I like it so far.

Thanks.

The way it is right now, it's

the lower guitar part mostly left
the higher guitar part mostly right

Where is your favorite spot to mic an acoustic to get a full sound, when you're only using one condenser?

There's going to be an ethereal, reverby ES-335 accent part over all of it, like in the real song that will both fill the silences and some "space" in the track.

Listen to that original track I just linked, and you'll hear the sound I am after. With a better acoustic guitar low-end sound, filling in the mandolin part with 7th-fret-capo'd-guitar.

That electric accent part is really important, you'll hear it.

Thanks!

-Hunter

 

[innerdreamrecords.co]

Re: (ACOUSTIC) Road Regrets - Guild + Blue Snowball + shaker egg + tambourine + bass

I'm not knocked out by the original songs acoustic sound. To get more body closer to the sound hole is what I would do. Without being there and hearing the acoustic and room together I couldn't give you a mic placement position. It sounds like the original track has compression on the acoustic too. Did you compress yours yet? You'll need to play clean or squeaks will be noticeable.

 

[ImmortalSix]

Re: (ACOUSTIC) Road Regrets - Guild + Blue Snowball + shaker egg + tambourine + bass

I'm not knocked out by the original songs acoustic sound. To get more body closer to the sound hole is what I would do. Without being there and hearing the acoustic and room together I couldn't give you a mic placement position. It sounds like the original track has compression on the acoustic too. Did you compress yours yet? You'll need to play clean or squeaks will be noticeable.

Thanks for the tip --- no compression, no EQ, what you're hearing on my track is simply panned, that's all.

I don't like the tone on the original either.

I will try out some compression in Reaper

 

[everdrone]

Re: (ACOUSTIC) Road Regrets - Guild + Blue Snowball + shaker egg + tambourine + bass

in my band our guitarist records us just with one compressor mic. the bassdrum, cymbols, everything including the mix sound spectacular! and he does nothing to edit. compressor mics are def cool itemz; FOR RECORDING SONGS - HOME RECORDINGS add compression and record close to the mic with no forms of echo - ie like a closet - and then compress and recompress, then add effects on top

 

[ImmortalSix]

Re: (ACOUSTIC) Road Regrets - Guild + Blue Snowball + shaker egg + tambourine + bass

in my band our guitarist records us just with one compressor mic. the bassdrum, cymbols, everything including the mix sound spectacular! and he does nothing to edit. compressor mics are def cool itemz; FOR RECORDING SONGS - HOME RECORDINGS add compression and record close to the mic with no forms of echo - ie like a closet - and then compress and recompress, then add effects on top

Thanks for the feedback, there, everdrone.

I played around with mic placement a lot yesterday and got a fuller sound by moving the mic to about halfway between the soundhole and the 12th fret --- more towards the soundhole than the neck joint.

Sound deadening is a non-option in my room, it's a concrete basement. I know how to create an optimal recording environment, and I'm just not going to do it. I am trying to go with the flow and try to like the spaciousness in the recordings resultant from the big, live room.

I laid down some new tracks last night, more to come...

-Hunter