Hey everybody, I’ve been lurking these forums for about a year now, and learning how to use this wonderful tool. (Been recording quite a bit longer than that, starting with an old tape deck as a child, and just last year ditched my fancy-pants Apple/Logic setup for Linux/Ardour. Couldn’t be happier.)
Anyway, here’s a couple recordings done Ardour, my Focusrite Scarlett 2i2, and a couple basic LADSPA plugins on a Lenovo Thinkpad T510.
First up is my friends’ band, called Calicocat. I went and recorded them live in this little shitty dive bar here in Nashville. The mics are just two pencil condensers on either side of the room; making a basic stereo picture of what was happening. Not ideal like getting the outputs from the mixer, but it definitely captures the spirit of the band.
http://calicocat.bandcamp.com/album/live-at-springwater-supper-club
Next up is a really good friend who is a fantastic banjo player, guitarist, and general multi-instrumental virtuoso. I used a pencil condenser on his instruments and a large diaphragm dynamic condenser mic on his vocals.
http://www.facebook.com/banjobouge/app_178091127385
Anyway I hope you guys enjoy listening as much as I enjoyed recording!
No, there’s a small amount of compression added in after in audacity on his stuff. It isn’t mastered yet, so, I wouldn’t say that this is the final product, more or less a demo. Why on earth would I add reverb to somebody sitting in a room singing a song with an acoustic guitar? I could understand if we were adding more to the arrangement; but on it’s own that would sound absolutely ridiculous in my opinion.
I see what you mean about the right panning though, and I’m not sure why that is. There’s no panning whatsoever on the vocal track, it’s all dead center. I hadn’t really listened to this through normal laptop speakers; just headphones, monitors, and a car stereo. Sounded fine through all of those so kind of confusing as to why that would sound panned through my laptop.
Why would you add reverb to a guy sitting in a room playing a guitar? Seriously?
Ummmm… I work in these rooms called studios, and musicians sit and play guitar all of the time, and we add reverb all of the time. It’s called production.
Na, no worries. I’m a pretty rough guy myself, so I tend to go for the throat whenever somebody disagrees with me, and can be exceedingly sarcastic as well. It’s pretty hard to communicate online and hear certain inflections in people’s remarks (sarcasm, etc.)
Either way, I’m glad somebody noticed that hard panning on the vocal. Totally not intentional… had to go back in and see what had happened. (Still not sure, but I may have bounced only a stereo split track of guitar and voice rather than the guitar as input one, and the vocal as input two, which created that ugly panning)
Nice to meet ya!
Charmed. So I suppose these “rooms called studios” that do “production” that made classic Bob Dylan or Hank Williams records that didn’t add reverb onto those guys playing songs don’t know anything either? Maybe, just maybe, the artist (most importantly) and myself, did not want the recording to sound like anything more than that; an intimate recording in somebody’s home.
Searching your comments/posts doesn’t really show off any of your work bro, so who’s gonna judge your work then eh? As far as I’m concerned you’re just some forum dweller throwing his opinions around on the internet; and I’m a self-admitted AMATEUR recorder, who’s showing off what is possible with these wonderful free software tools.
If your vision is to leave it without any reverb, that’s fine. I only asked because the track sounds very stark to my ears and completely raw. I think the guitar is captured nicely and some additional production would really make it shine. We get all sorts of people putting stuff up here and I was just curious at what point in the production process this track was. After reading my last post it does come off a little rough. Sorry.
That said, I’m definitely a famous dweller who throws his opinions. That much is already known. Why just last night I was described as “exceedingly sarcastic on occasion.” 
Plenty of my production work is out there to hear if you like.
Wow. You panned his voice to the right channel.
Is that the final mix? I mean no processing of any kind? Reverb?