It's harder than I thought

JohnW63

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I'm going to take some pictures of my guitars and create some demo clips of each one for a friend of mine. He's battling stuff and with COVID concerns I can't just have him come over and try them out. So, I thought, "A few snap shots and some audio clips. How hard can that be? " Well, what to play to show how all the acoustics sound and then how the electrics sound has been rather hard to nail down. I give GAD some props for figuring out a demo set list. I believe I have something for the acoustics. The electrics has proven harder. I don't have a go to set of riffs I would play should I be in a music store to try out one. I would probably noodle around up and down the neck and see how it feels. Nobody, even me, wants to hear that multiple times with multiple guitars. Electrics have multiple pick-ups as well as clean and dirty tones. And on top of it all, I don't want to sound LAME!

I'll come up with something. It's just more like work, that something quick and easy.
 

GAD

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Thanks for the props! Yes, it is a pain, and honestly my stock recordings sort of grew organically and I wish I'd done things a bit differently at first, but I think it works.

For me the acoustic side is *much* more difficult. With an electric I can normalize everything thanks to the advanced equipment I have so things like room space and background noise have zero impact, but with an acoustic I have no choice but to mic, and let me tell you, that gets complicated quickly.

What mics?
What combination of mics?
What position for the mics? How do I replicate that?
What to record with? An Interface? A Field Recorder? An iPhone simply won't do!
Do I record lossless? Do I compress for the web?
How do I position every guitar the same? What if the room changes?
How do I pick the same way every time?
How do I ensure the mics are the same distance every time?
Am I REALLY sure you hold the guitar the same way every time? I discovered that I hold bigger guitars differently than small ones!

I have spent WAY too much time analyzing all this stuff, and had some long talks with @Nuuska about it (because he's awesome). He helped me abandon some original ideas that I'd formed from watching questionable YouTube vids. I actually have a fairly lengthy blog post primed about it because, as usual, I went off the deep end for the entire thing. Here's proof, and this is only one of the setups I considered!

GAD-Recording-Rig-XY-C414-Main.jpg


Here's what I started with:

Olympus-LS10.jpg


Honestly, the entire thing started because I wanted a newer version of that! Now I've made it so complicated that I needed to take a break. LOL

I'll get back to it soon, though. I have too many guitars and too many acoustics so I need to review them and get some out of here. The problem is that I keep buying nice ones and they all sound SO good. :)
 

Pike

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Thanks for the props! Yes, it is a pain, and honestly my stock recordings sort of grew organically and I wish I'd done things a bit differently at first, but I think it works.

For me the acoustic side is *much* more difficult. With an electric I can normalize everything thanks to the advanced equipment I have so things like room space and background noise have zero impact, but with an acoustic I have no choice but to mic, and let me tell you, that gets complicated quickly.

What mics?
What combination of mics?
What position for the mics? How do I replicate that?
What to record with? An Interface? A Field Recorder? An iPhone simply won't do!
Do I record lossless? Do I compress for the web?
How do I position every guitar the same? What if the room changes?
How do I pick the same way every time?
How do I ensure the mics are the same distance every time?
Am I REALLY sure you hold the guitar the same way every time? I discovered that I hold bigger guitars differently than small ones!

I have spent WAY too much time analyzing all this stuff, and had some long talks with @Nuuska about it (because he's awesome). He helped me abandon some original ideas that I'd formed from watching questionable YouTube vids. I actually have a fairly lengthy blog post primed about it because, as usual, I went off the deep end for the entire thing. Here's proof, and this is only one of the setups I considered!

GAD-Recording-Rig-XY-C414-Main.jpg


Here's what I started with:

Olympus-LS10.jpg


Honestly, the entire thing started because I wanted a newer version of that! Now I've made it so complicated that I needed to take a break. LOL

I'll get back to it soon, though. I have too many guitars and too many acoustics so I need to review them and get some out of here. The problem is that I keep buying nice ones and they all sound SO good. :)
Yes, I have that problem also. What a wonderful problem to have. New Haven D55 on the radar. Or an Orpheum...
 

JohnW63

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Gad,

My first thought was a Zoom H4N mic, a lot like the lower one you have, but, while it can have two other mics attached and even provide phantom power, it only records to a card. It does not have an output to some interface. My only other mic is a Sennheiser 835/ We;ll se how it goes. I'm not putting any of this on the web, so the risk of getting nasty comments is much lower.
 

GAD

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Gad,

My first thought was a Zoom H4N mic, a lot like the lower one you have, but, while it can have two other mics attached and even provide phantom power, it only records to a card. It does not have an output to some interface. My only other mic is a Sennheiser 835/ We;ll se how it goes. I'm not putting any of this on the web, so the risk of getting nasty comments is much lower.

Honestly that little Olympus LS10 was fabulous and it was my main portable recording device for a long time. It's still a lot more portable and a LOT less expensive than the other one pictured. Plenty of people use the Zooms and love them. I actually prefer saving locally over a direct connection to a PC, but then I'm already set up for that due to my photography.
 

JohnW63

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I took quick shots of all of the guitars. I'm not posting any here. They came out like GC shots. I remembers things while doing it.

1) If you're fighting reflections from the window, because you don't have real photography light boxes, change your angle! It took me a few guitars for that one to pop into my head.

2) Finger prints!! Why do finger prints show even when you not that close? Had to clean a few that I never noticed were needing cleaning

3) Black guitars!! Finger print and reflection monsters.

4) It's hard to get shots of labels through and "F-hole". I have a lens with a " macro " range at 70mm focal length, but when you stick the camera close enough, you get in your own light.

I think I'll use these shots more for insurance proof of ownership more than showing anything off. I'll take more and better shots of the one I still haven't sold but really need to.
 

GAD

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Now you know why my reviews take so damn long. Being a perfectionist is one thing, but being a perfectionist and doing the photography, the recording, the writing, the editing, the circuit layouts, and the research... Man, I've exhausted myself just writing about it! :cool:

I am SET when it comes to insurance photos, though! LOL
 
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