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Hi guys,

We had this category a while back called showcase your work.
It's been a while since I presented a recording on my own and after a while commenting on others, I thought I was due to post something

This has been done with a friend last night. One take voc/guitar live recording with an added back vocal.
Very little mixing done.
I know it's not perfect but it's always fun to hear what you get from a recording setup and not from hours of mixing.
Comments are welcome ! ;)

Details :
All I have to do is dream - Everly Brothers
Cover Richard Turcotte

Audio and video recorded, mixed and mastered at Le studio Marco Primeau
www.mprimeau.com
https://www.faceboo…...

Equipement :
Guitar :
Shure SM81 + KSM 44
Focusrite ISA preamp

Vocal :
Microphone-parts.com T47 kit
Universal audio La-610 channel strip

Comments

bouldersound Thu, 02/09/2017 - 11:30

Not much to say. It sounds good, nice and simple. The second-guesser in me wonders if he could have played a little more open and not so percussive, but I know sometimes it's best to let the artist do their thing. Often close stereo micing of acoustics doesn't work out too well but this seems fine. There's a sense of space but the guitar doesn't feel lopsided.

pcrecord Thu, 02/09/2017 - 11:41

bouldersound, post: 447340, member: 38959 wrote: Not much to say. It sounds good, nice and simple. The second-guesser in me wonders if he could have played a little more open and not so percussive, but I know sometimes it's best to let the artist do their thing. Often close stereo micing of acoustics doesn't work out too well but this seems fine. There's a sense of space but the guitar doesn't feel lopsided.

Thank you bouldersound. I too would have liked a richer sound for the guitar but a classic guitar isn't the ideal choice for voc/guit live recording.
He was more confortable with his own classic guitar so I let him and it paid off ; one take for the guit/voc and 2 takes for the bac vocals and we were done ! :)

Mixing;
On the vocal I used EQ and comp. On the guitar tracks; nothing. Added a bit of reverb on the master buss and the mix was completed.
Talking about minimum mixing... I like it ! ;)

audiokid Thu, 02/09/2017 - 12:19

Thanks for sharing Marco. I always enjoy your work and respect your openness in sharing/ contributing.
So this is digging into the mix to be ridiculously picky.

... I only comment from a musical POV. I'm not a big fan of the entire vocal track having the same predicable harmony (start to finish) but the overall mix and performance is just fine. The harmony sounds like a harmonizer processor apposed to live and musical. I would break that up more.

The acoustic could use a bit less presence , thus, maybe a room mic would unify it all better to me..

Vocals and mix sound really good.

Nice work.

pcrecord Thu, 02/09/2017 - 12:59

audiokid, post: 447344, member: 1 wrote: The harmony sounds like a harmonizer processor apposed to live and musical.

It can only due to the performance because no pitch or timming manipulation was used.
I think he reproduced the vocals of the original (near enough) see video below

It was recorded in a not so well treated room, but it's Worth trying a room mic anyway : (good suggestion)

Thanks for the comments Chris

audiokid Thu, 02/09/2017 - 13:29

pcrecord, post: 447345, member: 46460 wrote: It can only due to the performance because no pitch or timming manipulation was used.

To be clearer. Yes, I know its not a harmonizer. The vocals sound overly perfected and too predictable is what I mean. I think a classic like this (so known for the harmony), would have more appeal if it wasn't so closely copied but tonally wrong. You can't sound like the Everly Bros unless you are them or at least get their tones and dynamics spot on. I think I would rather just hear the lead in this and forget the harmonies. Possibly use a few instruments to colour harmonies lines instead. Just a thought.

pcrecord, post: 447345, member: 46460 wrote: Thanks for the comments Chris

Always a pleasure.

pcrecord Thu, 02/09/2017 - 15:58

audiokid, post: 447347, member: 1 wrote: The vocals sound overly perfected and too predictable is what I mean.

I get it :)
You're right, it sounds improvised and could have been worked on a lot more. In fact I'm surprised it end up nice like that and this is why I posted it.
This was kind of the first time Richard (the artist) recorded a song like this. I didn't want to disturb him by challenging his playing or interpretation because he was nervous enough.
He later admited he didn't practice the song before arriving to the studio.

I think I'm gonna see more of him in the next weeks or month. I'll try to smoothly motivate him for more orchestration and hope he will try to appropriate a song and make it unique to him.

On my side I'm still getting the hang of doing audio and video work at the same time.
I think most people on social medias are more captivated by a video compared to plain audio. It's my goal to step up that side of my services.

dvdhawk Thu, 03/30/2017 - 20:38

pcrecord, post: 447355, member: 46460 wrote: I think most people on social medias are more captivated by a video compared to plain audio. It's my goal to step up that side of my services.

I'm often appalled by the audio on large-market broadcast television too. Sometimes it's no better than some crappy youtube video, and it's on a major network affiliate. Unbelievable.