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When I first saw this video I thought for sure that it was faked- pre-recorded and then just videotaped as if it were live. But upon a closer look it seems to be real. What do you think:

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If it is real, how does he get such a good sounding kick sound? And the snare sound that he gets by slapping the strings. It sounds like these two sounds are isolated in the mix. In order to get that nice low end in the "kick" sound you would have to mix/edit it separately, no? At one point the camera pans out and you can see two more ambient mics in addition to the one that is in view through the whole video. There is obviously some heavy production going on here that I am fascinated by! Or maybe he overdubs the live recording with just the percussion sounds on a closeup mic. That seems like even more work to get it looking and sounding that tight though. Maybe he uses the guitar pickup channel with a gate on it to isolate the kick drum sound?

I don't know, but I would love to hear your guys' thoughts and try to get this sound myself!

Pax Caritas et lol,
-Clark

Comments

unit7 Mon, 08/11/2014 - 02:21

Hi Clark!
Perhaps I'm making a fool of myself but I'm quite certain (like 100%) that the kick and snare doesn't come from his tapping. I believe he doesn't even tap at the first kick. IME to get those kind of sounds from slapping a guitar body, you'd have to record the sounds one by one, choose mics and optimize everything for each sound and do some heavy processing. The guitar body is really good for that, creating sounds pretty similar to a cajon, but of course not as loud. The ghost notes/tapping in between seems to be performed live though. He is moving in time before the song starts and to me that indicates that he's playing along a track. Could have ear headphones hidden (wireless obviously..) underneath that cap or he's just so familiar with the track that he can do it without a metronome. I hear a synth pad too..and perhaps some strumming guitar overdub..

ClarkJaman Mon, 08/11/2014 - 10:18

Hey Unit7,

I think I'm the one making a fool of myself. I watched another video of his, and this one is even more clearly not live. And like you pointed out, he is moving in time before the song starts even more clearly in this video, which leads me to believe he has a d

A great musician, cool performance and good production, but he is definitely not making all of acoustic guitar sounds in one live take. Let alone the fretless bass and pad sounds. The more I watch this the more I wonder if the whole thing is completely faked. Maybe we're not hearing any of the audio from the performance in the video. There are multiple camera angles to cover for different takes when one doesn't seem convincing.

audiokid Mon, 08/11/2014 - 12:33

I was doing this kind of thing in the 80's. Make thousand of $ for over a decade. I also had lights and smoke and a really big PA system that would pound the top floor of the Edmonton Forum Hotel.. This was my trip.Loved it.
Played all sorts of places in Saskatoon too.
Get a few MIDI sequencers and find a gimmick. Crowds will come. :D

Hi Clark an Unit7

 I had to create account here, cause I studied him a lot and few things u r writing here are wrong. Guys....there are no extra records for track (I believe) No in-ear monitor...So...no click...He's doing it live. Pads is just good delay with some shimmer. Kick has special mic in guitar and lot of compression and EQ.

His gtr needs 5 pin cable - so...every mic has own link in mix. I can talk about his setup for hours - cause he has the greatest acoustic sound I've ever heard. Second guy for me is Mike Dawes and it's quite similar setup....

Sorry for my eng. Cheers