Testing out my new mic

[deleted]

So I enterend the modern age and bought a mic. It's a SE 1A which I figure is the most elementary one. I had loads of fun trying it out. I get so nervous when I'm my own critic, so it's been a learning experience. I hope to develop the right frame of mind for recording (and no doubt I'll practice more in the process). I think the sound is okay, a bit more tinny than real life, but not many people would notice, and it works for me right now.

So here's two peices, the Preludio is slightly shorter than the Theme and Variations is.

http://www.box.net/shared/dm32irmt2t

http://www.box.net/shared/nuqkgztr9b

Please forgive any heavy breathing, I'm recovering from a cold.

Bob-Dubery

Very nice.

I heard what sounded like either a bad connection on my headphones or the volume fading in & out. I think the difficult part of playing with a mic is maintaining a constant distance between instrument and microphone.

[deleted]

Thanks, ya, the softer songs I'll have to make a note to raise the sensitivity of the mic. I actually posted a bad example, I got it right with another song. At least it's a lot better than I had expected and the problem can be solved.

singemonkey

Bravo!

Mic distance aside, the sound quality was pretty good.

You really seem to have developed your own style. Quite distinctive, I think.

[deleted]

Thanks, I'm glad something has developed. I think playing to a bunch of kids every day has definately changed my approach. Still need to do tons of practicing to get it to the point where it all makes sense. I'm quite happy with the mic, it makes it more rewarding once you've played to know it's recorded almost life-like.

Bob-Dubery

Viccy wrote: Thanks, ya, the softer songs I'll have to make a note to raise the sensitivity of the mic. I actually posted a bad example, I got it right with another song. At least it's a lot better than I had expected and the problem can be solved.

I should have mentioned that the SOUND is really very good - and I liked the playing. It just sounds like you moved off mic a couple of times.

AlanRatcliffe

Vast improvement over the video mic under the table. ? A bit quiet, but you could also raise the volume or normalise once it's recorded - rather that than run the risk of getting distortion from recording too loud. The room sounds pretty good too, although a bit small.

Recorder, mic and musician - it's the purest form of recording and your results improve as you get experience. You'll learn more about mic positioning, find the sweet spots in the room as you go.

[deleted]

This was one of my main problems with the (very) basic pick up I was using before. The sound was inconsistent because below a certain volume it just gave up. I can see that the same happens with the mic, if not taken care of. I'm probably the one guitarist on this forum that likes to play softer than the mic can pick up. I'm glad you like the quality of the mic (and the playing).

The luxury of being able to sit on a chair and play is fantastic, I palyed around with hanging things over the door and moved things around a bit, but still need to explore that more. The room has quite a high ceiling which I was concerned about, but that didn't seem to cause a problem. It's not the smallest of rooms, but it is pretty full as it doubles as an art studio. I thought I needed to get s many surfaces around the mic, but maybe I'll try putting it in a more open space.

AlanRatcliffe

The mic itself sounds pretty good though. The "tinniness" (more of an upper mid resonance to me) sounds like it's just a narrow band of frequencies being boosted a little (maybe by the room) and just a touch of EQ or maybe a slightly different seating position might work wonders.

Tall ceilings are a good thing and the clutter will be helping to diffuse (scatter) the sound around, so you get more of an ambient feel than a reverb or echo, which is good. The mic itself is a cardiod, which means it's not very sensitive to sounds coming from behind it, but you still have to watch out for reflections from the walls to the side and most importantly, the one behind you (a cheap blanket hung up behind you can sometimes work wonders).

The mic tends to pick up on things you don't hear while you are playing, but you'll become more aware of those things now.

Conrad

Viccy wrote: So I enterend the modern age and bought a mic. It's a SE 1A which I figure is the most elementary one. I had loads of fun trying it out. I get so nervous when I'm my own critic, so it's been a learning experience. I hope to develop the right frame of mind for recording (and no doubt I'll practice more in the process). I think the sound is okay, a bit more tinny than real life, but not many people would notice, and it works for me right now.

So here's two peices, the Preludio is slightly shorter than the Theme and Variations is.

http://www.box.net/shared/dm32irmt2t

http://www.box.net/shared/nuqkgztr9b

Please forgive any heavy breathing, I'm recovering from a cold.

Wow...Very, very well done. Are those graded pieces? Which grade if so? It's really beautiful.

[deleted]

Thanks, the Theme and Variations I did for the Trinity Associate degree in performance, so that would be after grade 8 and the other one I just found when I was looking around, so don't really know. If I were to put it at a grade I'd say perhaps grd.6 or maybe even 5. Hard to tell, but it's quite easy to interperate, but perhaps a bit more tecnically challenging.

Conrad

Viccy wrote: Thanks, the Theme and Variations I did for the Trinity Associate degree in performance, so that would be after grade 8 and the other one I just found when I was looking around, so don't really know. If I were to put it at a grade I'd say perhaps grd.6 or maybe even 5. Hard to tell, but it's quite easy to interperate, but perhaps a bit more tecnically challenging.

Are you doing this degree correspondence though trinity?

PeteM

I really enjoyed that Viccy. Very nice playing and your sound is good. As usual, Alan has given very good pointers on recording techniques and I agree that the more you experiment with your position in the room as well as the mic-to-guitar distances you'll experience different ambient influences and consequently find the ideal sound you are looking for. (This of course can take you a lifetime ?)

[deleted]

Are you doing this degree correspondence though trinity?

I did it about 5 years ago. Not quite sure what the question is, but yes it is a correspondence through Trinity.

[deleted]

Thanks Pete, I'm glad the experimenting involves purely moving around, I think I can manage that. Just don't ask me to open up the mic and tweak it or something.