Mic and mixer advice?

wrench
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Wed Oct 06, 2010 12:51 pm

Al,

Your playing was great, and your singing was spectacular! You have GOT to do a Neil Young tribute medley for us one day. My wife did in fact think that was Neil Young's voice.

Regarding the tech - Is your mic near a table or near a monitor? Is your mic stand on a hard surface? Does your recording hardware have the means to do some equalizing? If not, you may want to do some equalizing with Audacity since it is a separate sound file anyway. The audio sounded great, but needs some SERIOUS attenuation below 63Hz.


AcousticAl
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Wed Oct 06, 2010 10:21 pm

wrench wrote:
Al,

Your playing was great, and your singing was spectacular! You have GOT to do a Neil Young tribute medley for us one day. My wife did in fact think that was Neil Young's voice.

Regarding the tech - Is your mic near a table or near a monitor? Is your mic stand on a hard surface? Does your recording hardware have the means to do some equalizing? If not, you may want to do some equalizing with Audacity since it is a separate sound file anyway. The audio sounded great, but needs some SERIOUS attenuation below 63Hz.

Hi Dan,
Can you describe what you're hearing so I know what to listen for? The mic was on my desk on a table mic stand. The mixer has a simple 2 pod eq (hi and low). I don't know if I want to get yet another program in the mix though (audacity). I'm already jumping through more hoops than I want to getting it this far. Will try a different mic position/stand and mess with the eq to see if that helps next time.


Chasplaya
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Thu Oct 07, 2010 12:35 am

Very impressive , quality is a definite improvement, as Chris so rightly pointed out nothing wrong with past endeavours, but this was soo clear. I'm still green with envy about how you manage to nail that NY Canadian accent in the singing :silly:


wrench
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Thu Oct 07, 2010 2:41 pm

AcousticAl wrote:
wrench wrote:
Al,

Your playing was great, and your singing was spectacular! You have GOT to do a Neil Young tribute medley for us one day. My wife did in fact think that was Neil Young's voice.

Regarding the tech - Is your mic near a table or near a monitor? Is your mic stand on a hard surface? Does your recording hardware have the means to do some equalizing? If not, you may want to do some equalizing with Audacity since it is a separate sound file anyway. The audio sounded great, but needs some SERIOUS attenuation below 63Hz.

Hi Dan,
Can you describe what you're hearing so I know what to listen for? The mic was on my desk on a table mic stand. The mixer has a simple 2 pod eq (hi and low). I don't know if I want to get yet another program in the mix though (audacity). I'm already jumping through more hoops than I want to getting it this far. Will try a different mic position/stand and mess with the eq to see if that helps next time.
Hi Al,

Image

The mouse cursor is at the low E string on the graph. All that purple to the left is noise neither you or your guitar produced. I find it common to record some unwanted low frequencies, but this really caught my attention. This is the most low frequency interference I've seen in a sound file. It probably comes from a few different things, such as your monitor or a fluorescent lamp, but most of this comes from the circuitry in your system. I actually heard only a very small amount of it. That recording sounded just awesome! Most of this interference occurs below the threshold of hearing, but the reason it is a good idea to filter it out if possible is to protect your equipment.

Did I mention that recording sounded great? I know you are not interested in Audacity, but I equalized and amplified the sound track, and it sounded as good as to me as any CD I have. You have some fantastic tech there. You're going to make some great recordings with that setup.

By the way, just a general tip to folks are getting into better mics and other tech, keep the mics away from monitors and off of tables or desks. If your mic stand is sitting on a hard floor, sit it on a rubber mat. This will knock out most the low frequency interference I've seen (and heard).

10/10/10 - updated analysis from "Island in the Sun"

Image


AcousticAl
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Thu Oct 07, 2010 3:11 pm

Wow- you really know your stuff, wrench! Amazing what you can see with a little technology. There was a fluorescent desk lamp directly above the mic as well. If you're open to it- the next time I record, I'll p.m. you with a new sample in the future to see if I can correct the sound.

Also, it's not that I'm averse to using Audacity (or other software), but the less tweaking I do- the quicker I can upload.

Thanks again for your input. Stuff I'd never think of.


wrench
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Joined: Sat Mar 21, 2009 3:12 pm
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Thu Oct 07, 2010 3:29 pm

At your service, Al.

BobR just uploaded a vid where he has a floor-stand mic stand, and his guitar is plugged. The sound track is stereo with the guitar on one channel and his voice on the other. He has an insignificant amount of unwanted signal, so I'm guessing his mic stand is on a carpeted floor, or his mixer has equalization or high-pass filtering, or both. After we congratulate him on the great video, let's interrogate him on his tech.


willem
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Sat Oct 09, 2010 8:47 am

I do some research on this,,anybody out there that uses this?? Image


6stringbostic
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Joined: Wed Oct 28, 2009 6:01 pm
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Sat Oct 09, 2010 11:47 am

i just bought one of these samson's off craigslist from a guy with a pop filter and mike stand for $40. it's pretty decent and easy to use! i don't have lots of audio experience/knowledge but for something quick cheap and dirty it works for me


AcousticAl
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Joined: Wed Mar 25, 2009 3:10 pm
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Sun Oct 10, 2010 3:47 pm

wrench wrote:
AcousticAl wrote:
wrench wrote:
Al,

Your playing was great, and your singing was spectacular! You have GOT to do a Neil Young tribute medley for us one day. My wife did in fact think that was Neil Young's voice.

Regarding the tech - Is your mic near a table or near a monitor? Is your mic stand on a hard surface? Does your recording hardware have the means to do some equalizing? If not, you may want to do some equalizing with Audacity since it is a separate sound file anyway. The audio sounded great, but needs some SERIOUS attenuation below 63Hz.

Hi Dan,
Can you describe what you're hearing so I know what to listen for? The mic was on my desk on a table mic stand. The mixer has a simple 2 pod eq (hi and low). I don't know if I want to get yet another program in the mix though (audacity). I'm already jumping through more hoops than I want to getting it this far. Will try a different mic position/stand and mess with the eq to see if that helps next time.
Hi Al,

Image

The mouse cursor is at the low E string on the graph. All that purple to the left is noise neither you or your guitar produced. I find it common to record some unwanted low frequencies, but this really caught my attention. This is the most low frequency interference I've seen in a sound file. It probably comes from a few different things, such as your monitor or a fluorescent lamp, but most of this comes from the circuitry in your system. I actually heard only a very small amount of it. That recording sounded just awesome! Most of this interference occurs below the threshold of hearing, but the reason it is a good idea to filter it out if possible is to protect your equipment.

Did I mention that recording sounded great? I know you are not interested in Audacity, but I equalized and amplified the sound track, and it sounded as good as to me as any CD I have. You have some fantastic tech there. You're going to make some great recordings with that setup.

By the way, just a general tip to folks are getting into better mics and other tech, keep the mics away from monitors and off of tables or desks. If your mic stand is sitting on a hard floor, sit it on a rubber mat. This will knock out most the low frequency interference I've seen (and heard).

10/10/10 - updated analysis from "Island in the Sun"

Image

For those that are interested- I changed my mic placement for the recording of 'Island in the Sun' and asked Dan in a pm to see if the signal had improved. His results (above) show that me putting the mic on a stand on the floor helped a lot.

We didn't discuss this in the MattB dedication thread, as that should remain focused on his health and wellbeing.


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