So thanks to everyone's wonderful advice a few months back on that thread I started, I promised I would eventually do my own recording and try a few things out.

well I've had some spare time and my brother and I sat down and did this, to stir up a few gigs.
http://soundcloud.com/rocksoc/james-joseph-garvey-banks-of


It was at home, with the X/Y Condenser pair on my H4, running into a Wav Editor, With us about a meter from the pair. It has had no processing except normalization (and hard limiting at a very high threshold which probably didn't even reach anything).

I'm beginning to think that really the more you hold your hands up and say "this is what we have, this is what we can do" the less weird your recordings sound, and the less issues show up.

yes it's slightly nosey, but it's not that nosey, yes it's bare, but it's not that bare. it just sounds, grand... and is perfect for a demo. if we started messing around as you fix one imagined problem and possibly over compensate while doing so, more issues would arrise.

the question I would have for you guys is, would you compress this? EQ it? do other things to it? etc. is it one "trick of the trade" or "a quick notch in the mid-high range" away from actually being a lovely listen?
I was happy with our performance mind, but I mean in terms of sound quality.

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I'm hope I'm alive to see the 70's

Edited by Aurongroove (23/11/12 04:43 AM)

I'd say accept it for what it is. If you want polish then there are different paths, but if you're happy with this (and it is performed very well indeed) then it represents the performance just fine. Sure, you could begin fiddling with the sound in a DAW, but I don't think you'd achieve much.

The only significant noise I'm hearing is hiss, and that doesn't bother me so much.

It's reminiscent of some of those honest old recordings of American blues guys recorded on their porch!

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An Eagle for an Emperor, A Kestrel for a Knave.

I love it! It's got that Louvin Brothers vibe to a tee. The noise doesn't bother me at all. The room sound is a bit boxy. Maybe a small EQ cut at 200Hz or so would improve that, but it doesn't detract from the performance at all.

cool stuff, Thanks for the responses.

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I'm hope I'm alive to see the 70's

This is a history recording.

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Madman_Greg

Was just listening to Ralph Stanley today!
I found that the higher pitched vocal was getting overpowered by the lower. That can be fixed by the mix, and they could be tighter. It sounds like you are both a bit nervous and aren't letting flow, but a good job. Just had a flashback of Ricky Nelson and Dean Martin in Rio Bravo

Was just listening to Ralph Stanley today!
I found that the higher pitched vocal was getting overpowered by the lower. That can be fixed by the mix, and the vocals could be tighter. It sounds like you are both a bit nervous and aren't letting flow, but a good job. Just had a flashback of Ricky Nelson and Dean Martin in Rio Bravo

Not a comment on this recording so much as a general comment. Don't be afraid to ditch the guitar on some songs. There's an awful lot you can do with two voices singing in close harmony, and not having a guitar to lean on will make you work on the vocal arrangement. You've got two voices there that work well together so make the most of them.

CC

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Put the fun back into dysfunctional.
Mr Punch's Studio

Quote Music Manic:

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Was just listening to Ralph Stanley today!
I found that the higher pitched vocal was getting overpowered by the lower. That can be fixed by the mix, and the vocals could be tighter. It sounds like you are both a bit nervous and aren't letting flow, but a good job. Just had a flashback of Ricky Nelson and Dean Martin in Rio Bravo

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there is no mix, it's a stereo pair, recording two voices and a guitar. The "mix" was who faces the mic directly and who aimed off to one side.

for the first few takes (as well as making mistakes) the upper voice was too strong, the blend we got now is a little bit heavy on the lower alright, but to our ears it sounded right at the time!

why is it one tends to over compensate when an issue is found?

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I'm hope I'm alive to see the 70's

Quote Aurongroove:

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why is it one tends to over compensate when an issue is found?

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Practice makes perfect.