A Pirate Looks at 40 - First Recording Attempt

[thegreatgumbino]

Been using the time at home to finally figure out how to record.  This is my first take at Jack Johnson's version of the Jimmy Buffet tune.   I used a Rode NT1 for vocals and SJ200 w/ LR Baggs Anthem run through a Bose T1 to a MacBook Pro / Garageband.  

Took some research and playing around with to figure out how to separate the tracks once in Garageband since the Bose T1 > USB records vocals on one channel and the guitar on the other.  I added a little reverb, which appears to be on both guitar and vocals when it's all said and done (was trying to add only to vocals).  I successfully recorded a later version with video on my iPhone, the Rode NT1 on J45 Vintage and Sennheiser 935 for vocals, but I like the warmth the NT1 gives the vocals on this recording.  Trying to figure out how to incorporate video into the mix was tricky, but surprisingly easy once I figured it out.  Who knows if I'm doing any of this correctly, but it's a step in the right direction.  

Edit: I can't figure out how to make the embedded Soundcloud box show the whole waveform.  Seems like it's much larger than most folks?

 

Edited April 7, 2020 by thegreatgumbino

[MissouriPicker]

Yeah, I really like your recording too.  Nice and warm mellow tone.  Vocal and guitar blend together very nicely.   I like this kind of stuff.  Easy-on-the-ears.

[thegreatgumbino]

Thanks for listening and for the kind words, 62Burst.  Did you ever sell your 200TV?   I love this guitar, but  I would love to be able to pick up a burst in the future.  

I’ve been putting off trying to figure out this recording business for too long.  Feels good to make progress.   A buddy said the same thing about the levels being low.  I need to better understand  the range on the T1 and GarageBand.   My past recording experience was with mic preamps with very clear and detailed level meters that make it almost foolproof.  

The SoundCloud box size was confusing because I’m used to seeing it on my phone browser.  Glad it worked for you none the less. 

I have a version with video using the J45 Vintage.  I’ll put it up tomorrow.  

Edited April 7, 2020 by thegreatgumbino

[thegreatgumbino]

5 minutes ago, MissouriPicker said:

Yeah, I really like your recording too.  Nice and warm mellow tone.  Vocal and guitar blend together very nicely.   I like this kind of stuff.  Easy-on-the-ears.

I appreciate it, MP.  Took me a long time to work up the nerve to share something.  

[uncle fester]

Very nice.  Good recording, good song - nice playing.  Thanks for posting!

[Lars68]

That was your first shot at recording??? I think it sounds great. I have bought professional recordings not sounding that good. It sounds very warm and natural in the best of ways. The playing and singing are great too.

Lars

[Murph]

Well done, old buddy...

[kidblast]

Nicely done.

[Seventies-Fan]

Great old song, and nicely done!  I was singing along 🙂 

[62burst]

A really nice recording. First take, eh? ;  ) . The Røde definitely gave it some warmth, but sometimes it comes down to good vocals going into it (in your case), and sometimes mic placement, and sometimes, it's just a matter of luck.

'Just checked out some demos of the Bose T1- it looks to give more ability to dial in your inputs before sending to GarageBand, which is good, since as you've seen with the global reverb thing, GBand sometimes seems to have a mind of it's own. Thankfully, your reverb was barely noticeable- some get a little carried away.  So- what was the fix in separating the tracks in GB once you brought them over from the Bose?

It will be interesting to see how the Sennheiser does on the vocals if we get to hear and/or see the J-45 Vintage recording.

Again- well done. . . sometimes such a big part of a well-received song is song selection, and all things lined up here. 

[thegreatgumbino]

7 hours ago, uncle fester said:

Very nice.  Good recording, good song - nice playing.  Thanks for posting!

 

Thanks, Uncle Fester.

 

5 hours ago, Lars68 said:

That was your first shot at recording??? I think it sounds great. I have bought professional recordings not sounding that good. It sounds very warm and natural in the best of ways. The playing and singing are great too.

Lars

 

Thanks, Lars.  First day I've actually setup my gear and tried to figure out how to do it, yes.  It was actually my 4th take of the song.  I think I got lucky with this one.  The subsequent video I'll post doesn't sound as good to my ears.  

In full disclosure, in my younger years (15-20 years ago) my hobby was live concert taping.  I had a mobile recording rig that fit in a backpack with a set of mics, mic preamp, and recorder, so I learned quite a bit about transferring and processing audio files at that point.  That being said, I'm a bedroom strummer/singer who couldn't play an entire song from start till finish 4-5 years ago and didn't start trying to sing until the last couple years.  I don't think my wife heard me sing until last summer.  I've played with a buddy a handful of times in the last 9 months and feel like it's helped me grow tremendously.

5 hours ago, Murph said:

Well done, old buddy...

 

Gracias, Murph.  

4 hours ago, kidblast said:

Nicely done.

 

Thanks, kidblast.

4 hours ago, Seventies-Fan said:

Great old song, and nicely done!  I was singing along 🙂 

 

Thanks, Seventies-Fan.  I grew up on the coast in South Texas, so it really resonates with me.

1 hour ago, 62burst said:

A really nice recording. First take, eh? ;  ) . The Røde definitely gave it some warmth, but sometimes it comes down to good vocals going into it (in your case), and sometimes mic placement, and sometimes, it's just a matter of luck.

'Just checked out some demos of the Bose T1- it looks to give more ability to dial in your inputs before sending to GarageBand, which is good, since as you've seen with the global reverb thing, GBand sometimes seems to have a mind of it's own. Thankfully, your reverb was barely noticeable- some get a little carried away.  So- what was the fix in separating the tracks in GB once you brought them over from the Bose?

It will be interesting to see how the Sennheiser does on the vocals if we get to hear and/or see the J-45 Vintage recording.

Again- well done. . . sometimes such a big part of a well-received song is song selection, and all things lined up here. 

 

62burst - 

Not first take.  It was actually the 4th take.  First recording attempt is a more accurate description.  The Bose T1 has TONS of options.  I haven't even scratched the surface of it yet.  Picked it up to run into a Bose S1 so that my buddy and I can both have a mic/guitar input for 4 channels (haven't tried that yet, though).

To separate the tracks in GB, I had to pan the audio all the way to the left and export the music file to iTunes and then convert it to AIFF and then drag it back into GB.  Did the same with the audio panned all the way to the right.  This gave me an audio file for the guitar and one for the vocal.  

[thegreatgumbino]

Here's the video version recorded a couple days later using a Sennheiser e935 for vocal, Rode NT1 for the J45 Vintage, iPhone XS Max for video.  Sennheiser & Rode signals sent through Bose T1 to the MacBook Pro.  Processed using GarageBand & Quicktime (video trimming).  

The Sennheiser did a fantastic job of off axis rejection.  It didn't pick up much guitar at all.  However, I found it a little sterile compared to the audio recording using the Rode for vocals.  The Rode picked up considerable more vocals, which is to be expected.  

Processing includes some reverb and ambience added to the vocal and reverb added to the guitar.  I also boosted the mic and vocal levels in GB by 5 dB to address the low levels issue (found in the first recording as well).

Edit:  This was the 3rd take 😜

 

Edited April 7, 2020 by thegreatgumbino

[62burst]

What a difference. Of course, "if the recording in post 1 was also boosted 5dB, we could really hear the difference in the mic and maybe the guitar. . ." ; ) , but the Sennheiser 935 is thought to be a higher output mic, irregardless. It is a lot of work to go through all that, and then set up for video framing. Thanks for sharing. It underscores what Sal was saying recently about wishing he could just go back to the simplicity of pressing the red button and recording on his now-gone Apogee MiC.

[thegreatgumbino]

35 minutes ago, 62burst said:

What a difference. Of course, "if the recording in post 1 was also boosted 5dB, we could really hear the difference in the mic and maybe the guitar. . ." ; ) , but the Sennheiser 935 is thought to be a higher output mic, irregardless. It is a lot of work to go through all that, and then set up for video framing. Thanks for sharing. It underscores what Sal was saying recently about wishing he could just go back to the simplicity of pressing the red button and recording on his now-gone Apogee MiC.

 

I agree.  Huge difference in sound, IMO.  Makes me wish I had two Rode NT1 to play with (one guitar, one vocal).   I looked at the original SoundCloud file, and it didn't add reverb to both, only 3 to vocal.  I had to play with adding ambience & more reverb on the 935 to take away some of the sterility.  I might try re-recording it with the Rode NT1 on Vocals and a Shure SM57a or the Sen 935 on the J45 Vintage.  It's pretty warm already, so the sterile sound might not be a bad thing.  

FWIW, I forgot to mention both of my guitars are in D Standard tuning.

[ratherbwalkn]

Sweet!

[BoSoxBiker]

Very nice job with both efforts. I especially liked the first one, but my ears are tired from this morning's other music activities. That 935 mic's signal sounds very workable, too.

Did you notice a big tonal change from your DAW to the uploaded YouTube video sound?

[thegreatgumbino]

1 hour ago, PatriotsBiker said:

Very nice job with both efforts. I especially liked the first one, but my ears are tired from this morning's other music activities. That 935 mic's signal sounds very workable, too.

Did you notice a big tonal change from your DAW to the uploaded YouTube video sound?

 

Thanks!

I can't say I noticed a difference, but my headphone jack on the MacBook Pro is only outputting the right channel.  Not idea for sound mixing.  I had to upload to YouTube to get a better listen on my iPhone/headphones.

[BoSoxBiker]

Wow! Yeah, one side going on the mixing front cannot be fun at all.