Feeling Something

[JD01]

Short acoustic tune

Feeling Something.mp3

As most of you guys know I produce a Podcast.
Yesterday we spent the day with a proper legend of Welsh surfing. Multiple Welsh, British, European champion, competed internationally in the 19070s.
He's 70 now.

But, we didn't know he's got a nice collection of acoustic guitars (inc. a 12 string Martin which is his main guitar) so, when we stopped I recorded this with him. Obviously I have no way of re-tracking any of this.
It was captured in a conservatory with a bit of wind noise. Using a C1000S for both guitar (I like it on guitar) and the vocal (I don't normally like it), there's huge bleed of the vocal onto the guitar track and vice-versa.

This was a real one-and-done. Any tips to make this better? I actually think its pretty good already, captures the performance as it felt in the room.
I probably will go back there in a couple of months to do a proper session with him when we're not working on a podcast so that we can spend a few hours working on music.

[rayc]

You could, possibly work on his essed a little but you'd have to experiment with how it complicates the guitar. Nice guitar capture.

[JD01]

You could, possibly work on his essed a little but you'd have to experiment with how it complicates the guitar. Nice guitar capture.

Yeah - I figured he had a Mexican Martin and I have a Mexican Martin. I've always liked the way that mine sounds into a C1000S so I figured I'd do his pretty much the same way.
I'll have a look at de-essing. His essing probably isn't so apparent into the guitar mic

[paulman]

I love the sound of the acoustic. It sounds really full, beefy but bright enough. I don't think I've gotten an acoustic sound that good even without the mic bleed issue. I agree with trying to de-ess the vocal if possible. That's really the only issue I hear.

[vomitHatSteve]

The way he's singing, mic bleed sounds like it would be a real issue!

I don't know that I'm a fan of how the acoustic sounds. It's a little distant and kind of thin for my taste.

The voice sounds really clear tho. Surprising intensity and clarity to it.

[WhiskeyJack]

Another vote for trying to de-ess. I like his whispery delivery. That is very cool. But it does present the essing problems. Acoustics sounds pretty good. It could be more detailed and bit more sparkly but if you can't deess the vocals much then that could sound kind of gross.

I'd say you did pretty well for a one and done capture though JD. Good job man.

[Armistice]

Acoustic sounds really nice. And yes, some de-essing definitely. If you don't do it this way already, try volume automation to reduce just the syllable involved (which via using the peak / chroma thing is easy to spot) by about 5dB or so, then hit the particular whistle frequency via the EQ as well.

[TripleM]

That was a 70 year old singing? Wow. His voice sounds much younger.

Maybe try to EQ out the very low end from the guitar. Some of the bigger strums get a little boomy. And then maybe fader-ride the guitar in spots. In some spots it is kind of crowding out the vocal.

And yeah try some de-essing on the vocal.

[JD01]

Cheers Guys - I am going to try de-essing this. Gonna use the side-chain method 'cos I've been planning to learn how to do that anyway.
I can probably be pretty savage with it 'cos there is so much vocal on the guitar track I shouldn't lose too much of the quality of the performance.

[mention]vomitHatSteve[/mention] I'm pretty pleased the acoustic sound, but I will listen again thinking about what you said. 12 strings do tend to sound pretty bright and jangly, maybe I've treated it too much like my 6.

[mention]TripleM[/mention] yeah - he seems like a much younger man when you spend time with him. He's been a surfer for nearly 60 years so he's in great health.

[musicturtle]

Sounds good [mention]JD01[/mention], especially for a one and done.

I agree with the ess-ing in the vocals.

I also agree with VHS, the guitar is thin and a bit dull to me. It sounds like he is strumming without a pick, if that's the case there is probably not a whole lot that can be done. I would just like to hear it shine more, sounds very mid-rangy to me.

Either way, what a cool project recording a 70 year surfing legend singing with his acoustic. I know you said it was in a conservatory, but in my mind's eye I see him sitting on the sand in a beach hut strumming. So you definitely captured the feel of the live performance for me. Good work.

[JD01]

Oh, I should have reposted. I have deessed a bit.
Didn't have much effect though cos there's so much vocal on the guitar track and I didn't want to deess that!

Yeah, it's a 12 string without a pick.
Cheers Tony.

[rayc]

May be you could phase cancel him out of the guitar track and suss out how much damage that does.

[JD01]

I'll look into how that works and see if its worth the bother. I don't want to process this to death though - its a pretty nice performance.

[Alison]

Love the guitar! I think it is very full. . . 70's ish? My era! The vocals have too much high end for my taste. . . . too mucvh "sss" maybe some compression? Love the song though!