Great touch with rolling the notes. Which mic did you use?

So I got two little blondies was interested in using them as sdc's for acoustic guitar

first impression I do like the tone but not certain how sensitive they are

I tracked vox through my la610mk11 and AT4033 centre and the 2 lil blondes through the apollo pres used hi pass, hard left and right

problem the AT picks up the acoustic too but I 'll keep playing around with them and see.

enjoy !

Scarborough Fair Little Blondie by Kcatthedog on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

Hey nice job on the song, are you a natural tenor/alto ?

very nice natural tone to your voice and your vibrato !!

kcat

i'm diggin' it all here. Cowboy, next time you're in a New York State of mind, maybe you should come for a visit.

Kcat, that really sounds good. Hey, was that done with a capo? What fret? The Blondies have a sound of their own, always good, but perhaps not good at everything. So far I'm liking them for acoustic instruments and guitar amps, but I've only used them once, so it'll be some time before I have a real idea what they can do.

Still lurking over this thread - Apollo still appealing to me.
You have a beautiful voice and your performance is very good.
I must also point out that IMHO the vocals are slightly breathing - perhaps you should check you compressor settings.

Hey MJR

Good guitar ears Martin yes scarborough fair played properly is capoed at 7th fret !

In yesterday's recording i was curious about the different levels of the LB and AT and the noise in the apollo pre when I had it set at about half way to get medium input levels(green/yellow) in PTX.

So today did second test only apollo pres linked in console so exactly same setting, had the two mikes aligned side by side facing into neck/body a few inches off 12th fret, into two seperate mono channel strips both set 0 db panned hard left and hard right , no fx and only these 2 tracks and Master live.

Then i hit record and was pleasantly surprised although the ldc(AT4033) had about 13 db more signal. So I played for a bit, explained in track and then hot swamped in the other LB x/y stereo turned channel volume back to 0 db kept playing.

I like the stereo image, tight and clear. The pre is at 38 I think so definitedly room to bring up the signal. The apollo pres certainly do a good job.

So the soundcloud clip is 44.1 @ 32 bit and you can hear the lil blondie on the left and AT ldc on right after the silence its two LB's in stereo x/y all same settings.

The LB's are 120 US new with 3 year warrenty. I have no affiliation with the company. I think they do a very good job.

I wll also do a recording with LB into my UA LA610 mkii on a clean and a tube setting so we can compare that too.

The new clip is here:SoundCloud Mobile

Enjoy !

Kcat

I like the AT/Blondie combo best.

What's a blondie?

Here you go DR:

Little Blondie Mics

I had just posted some clips above using the little blondies:
1) LB on neck Audio Technica on body
2) 2 LB's xy
3) 2 AT

Like mjr i like number 1 best but thought 2 would be good if you want a more tight lighter acoustic sound in you mix

I will post a single LB going through my LA610mkii to hear how they sound with a tube pre also.

Kcat

Hey guys thanks for the suggestions about recording with Leo, hopefully I'll run into him again soon.
Also thanks for the nice comments about my singing. And yeah the compressor settings weren't ideal, I wasn't expecting to record right then and there so the mic placement wasn't very good at all.
Am I a natural tenor alto? Well I used to be professional opera singer, but ten years go I was violently injured and unable to sing or speak for longer than a few seconds without complete voice loss for about 2 years.
My voice is pretty damaged and aloof but I'm back to about nearly 4 octaves. On a good day I can go almost 2 octaves below and above middle c.
This of course is spanning several different kinds of singing. Really I'm a very mediocre pop rock country blues singer... But I hope to re-develop my ability to have the control over my now permanently different voice.
Hopefully the Apollo will help me capture some of that.

Hey Besottedly,

awfully sorry about your accident, sounds very traumatic. I was struck by how easily your voice moved between tenor and alto range at least in this song I thought. anyway meant it as a compliment !

Look forward to more posts !

gee , I wish I could be more mediocre like you

kcat

Man, that sounds really nasty Orrin, I hope there's a silver lining in there somewhere for you.

@kcat
I'm bad at receiving compliments, sorry about that. I appreciate your kind words

@MJB + everyone
the silver lining was getting into capturing moments of music and discovering places like this!
that's where tools like the apollo and community like this thread come in!

ou! that sounds exciting!

As I have been hearing how good other people's recordings sound using the apollo i have been curious about mike and room positioning and acoustics.

Thread readers may recal Cowboy's good advice about setting up in the centre of the room.

I was researching bass traps and acoustics analysis and here is an interesting article that shows that your major null point is in the centre of your room.

RealTraps - Rear Wall Treatment Strategies

Kcat

@kcat and cowboy
My guess on setting up tracking in the middle of the room is to avoid being near to many walls and reflections....
And that with reletivly close micing meaning not several fee away for this instance would negate some of the null in the tracking...
Just a simple guess.
@Anyone
Let me know what you think.

The common advise I see given to amateur and hobbyists is to record at low levels getting very close to the mic to reduce less than ideal rooms. All fine and well if that's the only option you have but it also reduces your chances of getting your best recording because mic placement is probably one of the most important factors in crafting your sound, even above mic choice I'd say. When you move a mic, you effectivly change eq the natural way with zero artifacts. Say for vocals, my ideal sweet spot is about 12 inches off the mic and slightly off axis to help minimize plosives. This does away with any proximity effect allowing the mic to sound the way its supposed to. Same with guitar cabinets for condenser mics. They sound sweeter when you get a bit of the room or "air" as folks like to say. it is in my opinion absolutely critical to treat our recording rooms as well as our control rooms. it doesn't take a lot, just a few treatments in the right spots. Use the old hand clap test and tune it hillbilly style like I do.

@cowboy
Love it!
My dear friend John, (the man who introduced me to Leo) is super obsessed with never using eq's and selecting mic placement instead.
He promises to eventually find the old RCA mic placement handbook from the 1930's that he has an original copy of and legit to me.
I love to read it...
Btw John isn't an audio professor but a great band member and engineer from dangerous 60's rock bands!

You guys have been giving me a crash course in listening. Its like you said Cowboy if it sounds right it is right but if it sounds wrong its wrong. But how do you identify why it sounds wrong ?

Well we are covering all that: the performer , the room , the equipment , the dial turner !

If you got good ears trust em if your curious and like fancy charts with colours and groovy lines use EQ wizard or fuzzmaster to analyze your room: 20-20k graphs, reverb times 1/3 octaves, waterfall charts. , peaks and nulls all there in black and white. The Real Traps site has lots of great articles and tools.

So i'll be tuning my room over the next while and if you don't continued progress in my mixes call me on it.

When cowboy first talked about centre of the room is was in the context of stereo recording and getting less muddy room sound and the centre is the best place to start your close miking. As the graph shows.

Anyway trust your ears, look at the charts, put in all the bass traps you can , use the 38% rule, create a RFZ and if you can get some diffusers : your recordings will thank you later and that Apollo and those UA plugs will keep sounding better and better

Kcat

I keep hearing a noise, like when a disc drive is spinning, or fast static like morse code, only it's coming through my speakers. Could it be radio waves?

Here's a noodle of a warm up a buddy did last night. We were recording some piano parts at the big studio for a new tune I wrote. I think it sounds really good. Setup below.


2 Beyer M160's x/y middle position
2 U87's end positions
Vintech 473

Sounds great, Cowboy. I'm just about to pull the trigger on an Apollo myself. Have you(or anybody) used an Apollo with a Mac mini? Since the Apollo does its effects processing onboard, would a Mac mini be a powerful enough machine? I'm running 25 simultaneous tracks max in my mixes.

What chip/processer do you have and is your mini a duo or quad ?

I have an 09 imac duo with a 2.66 ghz chip and i can run a comparable session. The apollo runs its processing on its onboard chips so you should be fine.

But does your mini have TB if not you won't be able to maximize the apollo's performance.

Cowboy, lovely tone and space and very musical!

Kcat

Kcat,

I haven't purchased the Mac mini yet. There are rumors of a new model being announced soon. I'm contemplating buying one. Do you have effects on all tracks? Have you ever had a crash?

Oh ok honestedly i would strongly recommend only buying a quad core chip and I would buy the fastest you can afford: i7 ivy over a sandy beach.

You will run native plugs and UAD plugs so again I would recommend the quad over the duo as its cheaper to get the 4 chips now.

Also you will be able to take advantage of UA's new pricing and pick 3 plugs for only 4 hundred pick wisely !

Kcat

i went with a imac i5 1200 bucks and its awesome ...

I still use an old dinosaur and have no trouble unless I use PT, which I had a session come in this week on Junk Tools and . Crashed and I lost about 45 minutes worth of tracking. It didn't save the backup files although I had it set to every 5 minutes.

Hey guys i'm really getting into the apollo's UAD plugins...
I spent most of tonight banging around on the this mix.

I should mention it's from Graham Cochrane's recording revolution series Called REthinking Mixing.
I haven't taken the tutorial yet just played with the files...

@everyone please note.... Graham Cochrane's song is kinda religious, although i'm not! so, that being said please be respectful to Graham's song. the last thing i want is a for anyone to be a bully about the song itself.

i've included the original unmixed bounce, my mix, and a 3rd file that moves back and fourth between my mix and the unmixed.

please give me any tips or suggestions, remember i'm mixing using the apollos sound card, converters and plugins+ so any relevant help would be great.
BTW this isn't for anything other that us reaching out to help out untrained younger folk like me!
thanks everyone!

the only plugins i've used are:

--apple logic
built-in gain plugin and parametric eq.

--slate digital
VCC (just turned on no tweaking)

--TAL
tube

--Sony/Sonnox
reverb

--elysia
mix
master

--UAD
Harrison eq
1176 (A,AE, E)
Ampex
realverb pro
pultec pro
roland dimension D

--IK multimedia
ARC II

I think your mix sounds really good. I am a religious fellow and I like that song as well. Wouldnt mind doing a mix of that tune when I get time to compare.