First recording here - trippin billies (no vocals)

ludes454 · Post by **ludes454** » Wed Jul 23, 2003 7:14 pm

Hey everyone, here's my first recording for yall to critique. A couple things, my transitions from part to part suck i realize and also i desperately need new strings on my guitar. Oh and it got cut off at some point and i can't figure out why - maybe i'll re record it after work. Other than that feel free to rip this baby apart.

http://www.angelfire.com/moon/wuster/trippingood.mp3

ludes454 · Post by **ludes454** » Wed Jul 23, 2003 7:17 pm

And i can't sing either so sorry about the missing vocals. I have this problem where i feel like i'm really belting it out but on the recording it sounds like i'm REALLY REALLY holding back and i'm usually flat too.

fatjack · Post by **fatjack** » Wed Jul 23, 2003 7:29 pm

the actually playing was good, but the sound quality was pretty bad... the only part i saw that was glaringly wrong was the last two chords of the verse... both those chords should be played on the upbeat; you played it on the downbeat...

and about the singing: there's nothing wrong with not being able to sing (i can't), but don't listen to these people who say you aren't singing well just because you are "holding back", letting it out is important too, but if you are off key and don't know it, singing louder will only make it worse. but luckily you said you were ablw to tell that you are a little flat when you sing... being able to tell what your own voice sounds like is more important than anything...

ludes454 · Post by **ludes454** » Wed Jul 23, 2003 7:52 pm

Hey thanks for the reply fatjack. Ya i guess the sound quality does suck. It was my first time trying to record something and i guess i don't really know how to make it better.

Thanks again

Granny33 · Post by **Granny33** » Tue Aug 05, 2003 4:39 pm

fatjack pretty much summed it up, the guitar was good but the quality SUCKED! lol sry but thats not your fault.

ludes454 · Post by **ludes454** » Tue Aug 05, 2003 6:50 pm

the guitar was good but the quality SUCKED!

Well since you put it nicely

lol, jk thanks for the reply

do you think it is my mic? i just use my computer mic along with cool edit

Granny33 · Post by **Granny33** » Tue Aug 05, 2003 7:49 pm

yea its probably the mike i'm don't know too much about this but from what i hear cool edit works well. Are u putting the mike right in front of the hole?

Roastbeef · Post by **Roastbeef** » Wed Aug 06, 2003 9:21 am

Granny33 wrote:yea its probably the mike i'm don't know too much about this but from what i hear cool edit works well. Are u putting the mike right in front of the hole?

Yup. Cool Edit Pro is great! Mic positioning is probably more important than anything. When I was using a PC mic, I found the best position was between the bridge and the soundhole, about where I was picking and about 6" to 8" away. Many say a mic at the 12th fret produces the best sound, but it came out with too much bass for me, and you lose all the treble nuances, like pick sounds. You may also want to bump up the mic volume a bit. In Windows 2000/XP, go to Start-->Settings-->Contol Panel. Click on Sound and Audio Devices. Click on Audio tab. Under Sound recording, click Volume... A Recording Control window should pop up. Try adjusting the Microphone volume. You can leave this window open while experimenting. Your recording volume was really low.

The above worked okay for me, but my mic was picking up a lot of ambient room noise and I wanted it to sound better. If you're willing to invest ~$100, get yourself a B-Band A1/AST preamp and pickup ($90). Installation is really easy. This along with a regular guitar cable ($7) and a 1/4" --> 1/8" mono to mono reducer (about $4 from Radio Shack) and you'll be able to make some pretty damn good recordings. Check out a few of mine in this forum. The Cry Freedom cover sounds particularly good as that was done with a fresh set of strings. There's also a great thread on the B-Band here. It gets a lot of praise and with a pretty small investment you can set your guitar up to record well and be used with an amp in the future if you want.

Hope this helps!

JaDaRu · Post by **JaDaRu** » Wed Aug 06, 2003 12:29 pm

I thought it was all pretty fluid, sounded good. But I know next to absolutely nothing....so take that comment as you will.

Jason

ludes454 · Post by **ludes454** » Thu Aug 07, 2003 3:31 pm

hey thanks, jadaru for the positive feedback. I've been working on getting my recordings to sound better but was looking for some critiques on my playing as well.

Roastbeef · Post by **Roastbeef** » Fri Aug 08, 2003 9:14 am

ludes454 wrote:hey thanks, jadaru for the positive feedback. I've been working on getting my recordings to sound better but was looking for some critiques on my playing as well.

First off, ditch that cheezy chorus/reverb effect. Nature intro sounds good. There are some timing issues between these two chords in the intro:

Code: Select all

Intro
E:----------------------------------------------------------
B:----------------------------------------------------------
G:-2---4----2---4---7---6---2---4----2---4---6---7---2---4--
D:-x---x----x---x---x---x---x---x----x---x---x---x---x---x--
A:-x---x----x---x---x---x---x---x----x---x---x---x---x---x--
E:-2---3----2---3---7---5---2---3----2---3---5---7---2---3--
       /\  /\
       |    |

You're lagging before hitting that G chord. Also on these two chords in the verse:

Code: Select all

E:--------
B:--------
G:-2---4--
D:-x---x--
A:-x---x--
E:-2---3--

It's missing something there too. Probably the mutes before and in between them. Play along with L@LC to get the timing of the changes. The hard part in the verse (read: the stretch) sounds good. Good job overall - just need to fine tune it a bit...

Coldchillin · Post by **Coldchillin** » Fri Aug 08, 2003 12:02 pm

http://www.angelfire.com/music5/coldchi ... _Intro.mp3

That's my version of Tripping Billies. Done quickly, but I want criticism because I am still fairly new at this

ludes454 · Post by **ludes454** » Fri Aug 08, 2003 12:28 pm

Thanks Roastbeef, that is exactly what i was looking for. I think i got a lot of dave's songs down pretty good its just they're some loose ends here and there, especially with transitions between parts and stuff like that.

But thanks for the thurogh critique!

Roastbeef · Post by **Roastbeef** » Fri Aug 08, 2003 12:31 pm

Coldchillin23222 wrote:http://www.angelfire.com/music5/coldchi ... _Intro.mp3

That's my version of Tripping Billies. Done quickly, but I want criticism because I am still fairly new at this

Thread Hijack Alert!

Ha!

Anyway, nice job Coldchillin23222. ludes454 - his should give you a good model to work from.

Coldchillin · Post by **Coldchillin** » Fri Aug 08, 2003 12:37 pm

thread hijack? What's that? I just figured it'd be easier than starting a new one with the same thing, you know?