My first Critique

Posted: Fri Mar 14, 2008 1:28 am

I've been putting my .02 in on peoples' songs all day after discovering this forum just this morning. I decided it's my turn to get under the microscope.

This is a very simple recording of a Classical guitarist named Marco Sartor performing at the Texas Guitar Competition at the University of Texas at Dallas. He was one of the judges and a "featured performer."

Being that this is a simple little bit of music, I'll tell you why I'm looking for opinions. I did some post work on it and sent it to my professor. He basically said that he liked the result but not the way I got to it. Picky, I know. I just want to see what you think of these two different versions and which you generally prefer, if any. A Studio Projects C1 was all that was used for this performance, tracked by a Tascam HD-P2.

Version 1: http://www.box.net/shared/0fvfgascg0

Version 2:http://www.box.net/shared/uu6joxsgso

Thanks so much for your valuable time and input.

Posted: Fri Mar 14, 2008 3:14 am

hey discrete i would love to give you my opinion but i cant get your links to work, it may be just me

Posted: Fri Mar 14, 2008 4:46 am

Contrary to popular belief, recording classical music is not easy!
I found it more difficult to get a good sound recording a single violin than working with a full band.
that said, I think you did a good job with a modest setup.
It was hard to compare the 2 takes because when I tried to go back and re-listen to them, I couldn't get them to play again. But I think it sounded like you used compression on the 2nd version because it seemed to lack some dynamics. The first version seemed a little cleaner. (Disclaimer: I listened to them on laptop speakers, sorry).
If I had it to do over again, I would try a version with the mic a little farther away to get some of the room sound. I'll have to dig out some of my old classical guitar CD's as a reference point to see how one is supposed to sound!

MarkG

Posted: Fri Mar 14, 2008 3:25 pm

Sorry about the links being flaky. I guess I need to get a sounclick account like most people seem to have on this forum.

Thanks Mark. The 1st version has a moderate amount of compression applied, which really wasn't necessary. I guess my ear is just so used to compressed music that I couldn't resist. I also tried to created a fake stereo image by putting the right channel 180* out of phase.

The 2nd version has no compression, a little less eq on the highs (around 10k), a bit more reverb, and straight mono signals to both left and right. I tried to create a "wider" image with reverb on this version.

About the mic setup. This concert was held at a make-up time after being canceled for weather. I wasn't actually there except for before and after the recording. But, there wasn't time to set up a second mic to get the room, but we did use this technique on the other players.

Thanks for listening.

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