NVSGJrD!

So, here's a soundclip, sort of. It's an original track quickly recorded in GarageBand. I found some lyrics I have written a long time ago. I can't for the life of me remember when, but I figured I could use them. The music is a simple idea I have had floating around for ages, so I put something together today.

The drums are the SoCal drums from GarageBand. I have very little experience with this stuff, so I have only made some simple variations between the verses/bridge/solo parts, so bear with me.

The bass part is recorded with my Epiphone EB-0 through the Gibson GA-20T amp at a low volume. I'm running it through one of the presets in GB, but I don't remember which at the moment. The bass is panned a bit to the right.

All the guitar parts are the SG Junior though the GA-20T. The rhythm guitar is panned left. The amp is playing at full blast, but the guitar volume is on 6. A little bit of reverb from a Catalinbread Talisman plate reverb, and some ambience added in GB. The microphone is placed about 6 feet away from the amp, simply because it distorts quickly (it's a Røde NT USB) at high volumes. You can actually hear the guitar acoustically as well. Not really intended, but I think it sounds ok, so I didn't bother changing it. I'm definitely going to buy a proper sound card and a Shure SM57 at some point...

The slide guitar "snippets" on the left side at the end of verses 2, 3 and 4 are played with the amp turned down to 1, close miked. The Talisman reverb is turned up a bit here.

The guitar solo is the amp at full blast and guitar volume on 9, I think. Again a bit of reverb from the Talisman, but it is left fairly dry in GB.

The vocals are run through one of the presets, "narrative vocals" or something, in GB.

I want to add backing vocals and at least one more rhythm guitar at some point, but this will have to do for now. I hoop you at least get a small idea of how the guitar and amp sound together.

So, here it is, rough at the edges, but at least I had fun doing it!

Still Trying
 
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WoW..That was Incredible Gahr..that sounded like something off an album..Your really good with recording and mixing..and to top it off, your playing and singing is top notch..and the SG sounds great, I love the bite that those pups have..Your a great Musician..cant wait to hear more..!!!..
 
Very well done, Gahr. This is some very nice music that you have created. Your Americanized english accent on your vocals still busts me up... :cheers:.
 
Damn fine work there Gahr. I would have pegged you as a southern boy with that voice.
 
That sounded really good. The lyrics were very nice, the guitar and amp and bass all sounded really good. Well written and brought together.

Very fuzzy sounding amp with the P90 junior, as expected when the amp at full pelt. It's not recording studio stuff, but the musical talent is very evident. &, the guitar is rather fantastic too.

Superb effort.
 
Mr Grumpy said:
That sounded really good. The lyrics were very nice, the guitar and amp and bass all sounded really good. Well written and brought together.

Very fuzzy sounding amp with the P90 junior, as expected when the amp at full pelt. It's not recording studio stuff, but the musical talent is very evident. &, the guitar is rather fantastic too.

Superb effort.
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Thanks a lot! The main problem recording right now is the microphone. It is a USB mike, and the preamp level is set, so I have little control over the distortion. That means I'll have to either use a very low level on the amp, or place the mike far away. It still distorts very quickly. I see a new sound card and SM57 coming up after Christmas...

Anyway, here's a link to a thread I just posted with the finished(?) version of the song. I've added another rhythm guitar part and some backing vocals.

"Still Trying", finished(?) version
 
syscokid said:
What is that microphone plugged into?
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it is plugged straight into the computer. It has an internal preamp with a set volume. I can turn the input signal down on the computer, but it still distorts quickly.
 
Gahr said:
it is plugged straight into the computer. It has an internal preamp with a set volume. I can turn the input signal down on the computer, but it still distorts quickly.
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So, no matter how low you can adjust the input signal at the computer - it will still distort?
 
syscokid said:
So, no matter how low you can adjust the input signal at the computer - it will still distort?
Click to expand...
Max SPL is 110db on the element of that mic. It looks to be geared toward voice and acoustic instrument use.
It’s easy to hit that ceiling up close to a guitar amp speaker...especially at volume levels that produce power tube distortion.
 
Thatbastarddon said:
Max SPL is 110db on the element of that mic. It looks to be geared toward voice and acoustic instrument use.
It’s easy to hit that ceiling up close to a guitar amp speaker...especially at volume levels that produce power tube distortion.
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Yes, I guess it's really designed to be used as a budget podcast microphone. Funny thing is I could probably get an SM57 and a Qbase sound card for about the same price...

I want to buy a sound card that will enable me to record more than one mike at the time, though. That way I could mike the map both close up and use a room mike as well. And it would make recording drums in stereo possible as well. With a couple of decent microphones you can get REALLY good drum sounds pretty easily.
 
Thatbastarddon said:
Max SPL is 110db on the element of that mic. It looks to be geared toward voice and acoustic instrument use.
It’s easy to hit that ceiling up close to a guitar amp speaker...especially at volume levels that produce power tube distortion.
Click to expand...
So, if the decibel levels that are reaching the mic exceed 110 dBs, then no amount of recording attenuation is going to eliminate clipping of the signal?
 
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syscokid said:
So, if the decibel levels that are reaching the mic exceed 110 dBs, then no amount of recording attenuation is going to eliminate clipping of the signal?
Click to expand...
Absolutely correct.
It is usually very crispy, ugly, distortion if you exceed the SPL level by more than a few dB.
I have a whole set of little condenser mic’s that have a similar spec, and probably a similar mic element.
I tried them as medium close mic’s on drums once...once.:(
 
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