how to make a lame guitar sound good....

[adamj]

.....use a decent mic!

first time using an SM57 for recording (usually use modelling hardware/software) and within 10 mins of starting, i set up, recorded and EQ'd/compressed/mastered this.

Lesson learnt: use decent gear from day one.

http://soundcloud.com/adamjowens/classical-gas-demo

 8)

[MDV]

Truth!

Reverb much though? ;)

And lots of low mid bloom and resonance...your room I believe, mainly. Possibly placement of the mic as well. Likely both. The line connecting 'thin', 'balanced' and 'bloaty' can be a very short one, especially when dealing with an actual physical space, with walls and stuff. Try keeping them under control with a multiband compressor when in the mix, and/or micing aiming more at the neck than the body. Pointed at 12th fret can be good if positions aimed at the body are proving boomy. Stay away from micing at the sound hole. Very bad. Also, if you can move around in the room or have someone hit 'record' and 'stop' for you then where in the room you place the source has a huge effect.

But, nit picking, if this be an early effort, its well done :) (I know the last thing that someone thats rightly happy with what they just did wants to hear is 'constructive criticism' but there it is; for your consideration :); it does sound nice, I just cant help it!)

Nice piece piece, well played too.

[adamj]

thanks very much, all things i had blatant disregard for in the excitement of trying out new gear, hehe. Ill defo take that info on board.

one quick question, i have just listened to this through ehadphones and noticed a lot of hiss throughout. What frequencies would i have to cut generally to combat this? i was expecting it to be hiss free to be honest. currently making a pop screen to have a stab at vocals  :lol:

[MDV]

Home made popscreens FTW!

I used one made from a used roll of selotape, a sock, and some random bits of plastic for YEARS. I only stopped because I got one with a mic when I didnt expect to. Its no better. I kind of miss the old one actually :lol:

Hiss is generally going to be between 6 and 12k. Often 10-ish. Depends on the hiss. I hear it in there; its quite broad, but you'll probably get the best effect on the hiss with the least effect on the music by hunting round 10k with a narrow Q EQ band.

Extra noise is often a consequence of using a dynamic mic on a relatively low volume source, then compressing it makes it worse.

[adamj]

thanks dude!

[MDV]

No bother.