Guitar Track

At my work I'm one of the student engineers in one of the school's recording studio. This week I helped start a project for a friend in one of my classes. We laid down the click, the scratch and then the guitar track. We wanted to try out some different techniques and see what we liked. We also wanted options when it came to the mix down.

Basically we took a AKG C414, stuck it aprox. in front of the sound hole (but without getting that low woof typical of directly in front of the hole), put it in omni-directional mode without any roll-off or pad. Then we took a pair of SE3s (pencil condensor), put one pointed at the fretboard, and the other pointed at the back of the guitar's body on the right side of the player. We then panned the SE3s hard left and right. The result was spectacular. Phase wasn't a huge issue in this set up for us, and if we deside that the mix gets a bit too busy for this sound we can take out the SE3s and work just with the 414.

I always find it hard to describe sounds in words (besides actually immitating the sounds) such as "rich," "full," "present," "warm," "squishy," "biting," or "velvety." If you have the opportunity to try this set up and hear it for yourself I really encourage you to do it. It's appropriate for this project, but not be appropriate for other projects. I've taken the same SE3s and X and Y'ed them infront of guitars and gotten great results which work better with other projects. This is one of my favorite parts of working in recording sound: There's not really any wrong answers, there are just better answers depending on the situation.

I Still Can't Believe it . . .

I've got some very exciting news to share. After a long and sometimes painful audition process I was accepted to sing with the Brigham Young University Singers. I still can't believe it. I've sung the last two years with the BYU Concert Choir and absolutely loved it. It's very hard to leave Concert Choir, but I feel that this is something I need to do right now. I'm excited to see the possibilities of singing with this group and the rewards of singing with them. We've already gotten most of the music for this year and it's pretty exciting. For those in the Utah Valley area, you've got to hear some of this stuff.

We're planning a tour to Ireland this April for nearly a solid month. I'm especially excited for this because I lived there for two years. I love the island and have many great friends there. I'm very excited to go back and meet up with friends again. Also, someone's got to be a translator for Dr. Staheli. Ha Ha! One of the things that drew me to audition was because Singers performs a lot, and records a lot. I'm really looking forward to it!

I have to admit, at the first rehearsal I felt like an imposter. Not because of this "I'm not worthy" fake humilty garbage, but simply because I've always been on the spectator's side. I've always watched and admired as a member of the audience. Now that I'm standing there singing with them, it just feels weird. Also, I found out how fast the choir moves in learning music. I sat there thinking, "Whoa. This is hard. This is gonna take a lot of work." You barely have time to breathe let alone think. I'm loving it already.

I'll update more about upcoming concerts later. This is going to be a good year. By the way, if any of you in the Utah Valley want to come to the christmas concert buy your tickets now. They sell out beginning of October.