PORTABLE GREEN SCREEN ACOUSTIC AUDIO/VIDEO STUDIO, MY DAUGHTER, AND MY 53 J-45

[tpbiii]

So....

I have been locked up for more than a year in my home near Atlanta.  Basically by myself.  There I have an acoustic recording environment I assembled more than a dozen years ago.  I spent my profession life as an acoustics signal processing researcher (at Georgia Tech).  The one in my basement -- which uses two 4033a large diaphragm mics about 5 feet  from the player and uses a signal processor to create a recording which -- if the listener has the right system -- is (by the numbers) indistinguishable from being there.  The system has no moving parts -- you just sit down and play.  It was designed to demo the sound of vintage guitars, at which it is extraordinary.

Because the mics are back a bit, it is not really sensitive to instrument placement.  It does pick up the room effects, which is no great issue for single instruments, but room effects can become overwhelming if for example you put a whole bluegrass band in the room.  

Since the system is always there and accessible, we used it for all kinds of stuff: lots of mixes of instruments, vocals, materials, and harmony stacks.   Some years ago, I started using a green screen and put in studio lights -- the whole system kind of became a big toy.   I used it a lot with ZOOM and JAMULUS during the pandemic.

So finally earlier this month I went to stay a few weeks with my daughter in Houston -- I live in the "guest house."  I keep instruments out there and my daughter plays in the Appalachian style duo -- DEAD GIRL SONGS. 

Music for me (and my late wife) was never something you perfected to be arranged and played one way.   Rather it a collection of melodies, lyrics, harmonies, instruments and styles that can be mixed and jammed with others.  Lots of stuff, seldom played the same way.  I keep instruments in Texas -- including some Gibsons: 1943 SJ, 1913 A-1, 1934 TB-00 Flathead converted banjo as well as some others.

This time a sent my 1953 J-45 to live there -- I intended for the SJ to come back to Georgia.  (I had it in Texas to play rhythm for Texas Fiddle music, but I never really did that.  IDA trapped it in Texas for awhile.)  My daughter wants to do some of her late mothers music in the keys her mother used -- not her normal range and parts in DEAD GIRL SONGS.

So I decided to put together a Texas version of my recording environment.  It uses the same geometry, microphones, and camera but no signal processor to guarantee faithful reproduction -- just a good flat system.  I also just uses available light, and that causes some artifacts -- I may set up better lighting when I get back to Texas.

My daughter's normal style is sort of raw and in your face, but pitched lower than her mom.  She often plays a rhythm mandolin.  It seemed that might be a good match to the sparse projective tone of the 53 J-45.

You can think of these as field recordings -- unrehearsed single take with flaws included.  That is actually what we love to do.

Here is an old version from a Dead Girl Song Atlanta recording.

Her how her mother did it. (That is a 43 RW SJ BTW)

Here are a couple more using the Texas setup

Let's pick,

-Tom

[Larsongs]

That’s cool! I want to get into the Green Screne thing.. Any advice & recommendations are appreciated.

[AnneS]

Fun, fun stuff—thanks for sharing these, Tom. I really enjoyed every single one of them!

[tpbiii]

Quote

That’s cool! I want to get into the Green Screne thing.. Any advice & recommendations are appreciated

 

Well getting a basic green screen for chromakey is pretty easy.  Amazon offers "screens" -- mostly green fabric -- in many sizes, many with stands of different sizes for different spaces.  Then any video recorded with that as a background can be used with chromakey apps.  An easy -- and fun -- thing if you can do if you use ZOOM, regardless of what kind camera you use, is have ZOOM itself do the chromakey.  Lighting is important -- you need to minimize shadows on the screen.

Once you have the ability to film in front of a green screen, the videos  can be saved and backgrounds can be inserted at any time. For sound quality, video quality, and post processing, there are many options -- modern technology does that better all the time.

Best,

-Tom

[MissouriPicker]

That is really cool, Bill!  Very interesting and fun to watch.  I enjoy watching talented people who are just regular folks.  Good stuff, buddy!

Edited September 19, 2021 by MissouriPicker