Microphone/audacity Settings For Acoustic Guitar |
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Microphone/audacity Settings For Acoustic Guitar |
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Mar 26 2020, 10:37 AM
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Hello team!
I've purchased an AKG P120 microphone just yesterday and I have absolutely no experience regarding audio settings for a bright acoustic tone! The reviews were really awesome and the audio quality is great for it's low price, I was really hyped about this delivery. I'm using an audio interface Line6 POD UX1 which comes with POD Farm audio software where I've selected a Noise Gate, a preamp and a compressor as I saw in a Youtube video. Noise Gate Preamp Compressor What's your take about what settings and equipment should I use from the software? I've tried recording a simple sample with it and something like the below file came out, which I modified using Audacity! I used Hard Limit to clip the trebled sound that came with the snares (I play fingerstyle), Bass and Treble to increase each accordingly and then amplified the whole soundtrack! I think it lacks many components, not really any brightness or color in it (still better than using my phone though) ParanoidBefore.wav ( 11.33MB ) Number of downloads: 266 (Before Audacity) ParanoidAfter.mp3 ( 407.53K ) Number of downloads: 227 (After Audacity) I might be noticing a little hissing, maybe from the gain? The volume of the original file is pretty low. Does this have an impact if it's amplified too much? Should it be a little louder when it's recorded in the first place? Also, is it optimal to use reverb from the software or add it though Audacity? I know I've just bought it yesterday and the whole thing needs lots LOTS of experimentation, but a little guidance alonside would be helpful, I have to learn some things before blindly tweaking everything in the way! This post has been edited by SubbedChris: Mar 26 2020, 11:17 AM |
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Mar 27 2020, 10:03 PM
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Thank you guys for your suggestions!
Another thing I did, was to record completely dry without even using the software and then mixing! No Preamp, no Compressor beforehand. Something like this came out! Royals (Unprocessed) : ROYALS.wav ( 7.88MB ) Number of downloads: 106 Royals (Processed) : RoyalsFIN2.wav ( 7.02MB ) Number of downloads: 90 What are your thoughts? Well, I play some D2 notes, kick and snares on the guitar that are supposed to pull the soul out of the listener's body but not even close. I'm kinda in a dilemma, because I've seen some unprocessed recordings of fingerstyle players and they sound very solid before mixing, there's bass, unity everywhere! They're not really dry, there's something going there beforehand. Then mixing gives the final touch! I overestimated mixing, thought it can make magic happen but an initial recording has to sound good in the first place! Guess I'll start over with the software and add some things to record first hand and then mix! It all comes to experimentation as we preached before! I have 2 questions regarding the software above. 1) What is really a preamp and how does is it different from an amp? Does it work like an EQ, bottom knobs are frequencies and upper are for boosting these frequencies? Does drive give me gain and do I really need it for this kind of music? 2) How about compression? I know it's job is to make everything appear louder and even out louder and quiter parts of the track. But how is that translated to the knobs "Threshold" and "Gain" above? This post has been edited by SubbedChris: Mar 27 2020, 10:06 PM |
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Mar 28 2020, 12:18 PM
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You're on the right track... Wow, that a job, no kidding! Thanks for your advice! About the recording, you're totally right, sometimes you need to hear it after your mixing and give an objective feedback like you're the audience. Will give more care next time, when I heard it again I noticed everything you said. So, about the preamp, should I diss out the software's and have just a Noise Gate and a Compressor? Maybe it's too much having two preamps (soundcard and software). So, since amp is a tone shaping tool and preamp giving volume and keeping the same quality or enhancing it, I guess it's a good choice having a preamp instead of an amp for playing acoustic guitar? To give perspective of what I want, here is my favorite fingerstyle player and just give a listen how awesome his kicks (hitting body with palm) and bass notes sound GTA Fingerstyle About compression now, if I got it right. Here is a how a dry waveform typically is of such a track These peaks are usually from the kicks and snares (thumb hitting strings) and I always use a limiter to cut them up to a certain point. So I guess upping the Threshold knob will trim these peaks and I should put the Threshold to a certain point where I won't notice any possible loss or clipping of valuable information? You say it's not a volume amplifying tool, but if I put the Gain knob on the high ends, won't the ending result have a higher volume than before using a Compressor? Or you're just saying it's not optimal and I should increase the Gain and have the output as it was before it was trimmed? The original dry soundtrack doesn't have lots of volume, how should I increase it? The increase happened with the compressor when I mixed it in the tracks above. This post has been edited by SubbedChris: Mar 28 2020, 12:22 PM |
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