Forum - Banjo Ben Clark

Big Mon

#1

Still messing around with the recorder…

I’d appreciate and suggestions on the mix. I have three different machines, and it sounds different on all of them.
Wondering if I might have the leads too far out front?

I think I may experiment with mics on the fiddle…sounds a bit thin and tinny to me and I think it’s too distant from the current mic I’m using…or it may be the room is too lively…

Sounds like I’m cutting the notes short on guitar & mando…Hard to sustain well for me at this speed, but it will be quite a while before my flat picking gets comfortable again…Not sure if it ever will since I had the wrist/tendon problem…

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#2

I don’t know, man. The fiddle does sound a bit thin but at the same time I like the tone. I understand you chasing a different tone. Lots of good notes in this one. Guitar break is really slick!

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#3

Thanks Ben!

Yeah I’m stuck about where you are on the fiddle…It’s more the thinness that concerns me. I may just try getting a bit closer to the present mic too. I am at about 2.5 feet and playing “past” the mic to a large degree. I’m hoping a more direct approach to the mic and less gain needed might help fill it out a bit.

Appreciate the nod to the guitar…Just went with what I was hearing in my head & kept it simple enough to get through it…

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#4

Great playing! I like that dog photo :grin:
I guess the fiddle sound does lack a little of the richness that you get in real life. I have the same problem when I record my banjo.

Ok, maybe I play just a little loud.

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#5

Thatnks!

Haha…That’s Jake…street wandering Terrier we gave a home to for about 10 years…:rofl::grinning:

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#6

Sounds good to me!!

#7

I don’t know anything about recording technicalities, except that my phone has a red record button, so alas, no suggestions there… :upside_down_face:

But I did really enjoy all the great picking! And the pup photo as @Michael_Mark mentioned :slightly_smiling_face:!

Because you weren’t playing at some 900 mph speed, I might actually be able to follow this & learn the song, I’ve been wanting to learn this one! Wrist & tendon problem? I resemble that comment. One hand, or both? Me it’s the fret hand.

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#8

Love it!

I have only recorded fiddle a couple times and I had a hard time getting recorded tone I liked. I remember I ended up double micing, but I don’t remember the exact placement.

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#9

Mine is the right hand…it locked up on me while beating the heck out of my banjo one day…I lost all my fine coordination in that hands’ fingers for several months, couldn’t play even the simplest/slowest roll anymore. That is what prompted me to sell my banjos and concentrate on the fiddle.

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#10

Mike, do you remember if were you running them near & far, or just different positions at about the same distance?

#11

It’s been a while, but what I think/suspect is that there was one pretty direct that was as close as we could get without getting in his way. Imagine it sitting positioned about half of a foot over the neck joint and pointed toward the bridge. The second mic was behind and over him and was pretty far away (maybe 3 feet?). Adding the second mic let me pan them hard to get a wider and fuller sound. I also remember that I had some surprisingly deep cuts in the eqing. … I am guessing here but I think I probably had a low cut right below the low G on the violin, one or two sharp cuts to control the high frequency bow noise (wherever that was), and wide cut somewhere between 800 and 1.2k to tame the nasally tones get it to sit back into the mix. Again, I remember it was a surprisingly tough challenge. I love the way a fiddle sounds acoustically, so I was surprised how tough it was to capture that.

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#12

Very pleasant to listen to this one. Nice and easy tempo and relaxing. The tone does sound a bit thin though, as if you’re not capturing the full frequency-range? (or it could be my PC speakers; …(I’ll try piping it into my Fender Acoustic Amp and take a listen) …Otherwise, outstanding job!

My apologizes I can’t be of more help on the sound-recording end of it; but for myself, I’m discovering, that my own sound problems appear to be that I’m recording mics directly into a Laptop PC. If I understand it correctly, the PC sound devices are not really designed for high-quality audio. Therefore, my next stop might be purchasing a so-called “Audio Interface”. You’re probably way ahead of me on this, but the Audio Interface offers allows you to plug in microphones and instruments for recording as well as speakers and headphones for listening and converts the mic signals to a much higher resolution that a PC is capable of. If it looks like I’m going in the wrong direction, let me know! I’m new to the electronics side as I spend most of my time…Practicing! ;-}

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#13

Nice job on this…I enjoyed it too! Can’t speak for mic placement on violin, but can advise not to insert it into the bell should you ever take up the trombone. :upside_down_face:

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#14

haha, I did play trombone in school. (We only had so many instruments available and I lost the coin toss for the sax) Switched to french horn a couple years later.

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#15

I’m using a digital multi-track recorder. The signals are all processed by the time I export them to the computer.

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#16

Good stuff!

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#17

Thanks!

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