Stereo Recording

[fgrittner]

Yesterday I decided to record a demo of a tune using the Blue Mikey stereo mic and Multitrack 1.1. I am very pleased with the results so far using my acoustic guitar. I have a very fine instrument with beautiful tone, so I was skeptical. The Mikey did not give me a large stereo spread but it sounded better than using it as a mono device. The results listening through earbuds were good but the revelation came when I exported and played them through my monitors. The Mikey captured the guitar, both fingepicked and ovedubbed melody tracks, beautifully. The tone is captured and there is definitely "air" in the recordings that was not there with mono tracks.

I will be replacing the melody track and adding a Nashville high-string guitar and possibly a mandolin. Once I finish the lyrics I will track a vocal and post it on my iPhone audio recording blog,iPhoniqFolk http://fredgrittner.com/Blog

One of my Xmas presents was a Alesis ProTrack. I have a stereo ribbon mic that I want to try with it, as ribbons need a preamp. I am uncertain if the ProTrack will have enough power for the ribbon. If it works, then I can capture a Blumlein pattern using MuliTrack.

Fred

[project52]

Hi Fred. Congrats on getting the ProTrack. Let me know when you get the ProTrack up and running and what the limitations are using it with MultiTrack/iPhone. It sounds like there are some issues, but it may be worth picking one up on ebay or amazon if the deal is good. Good luck with it!

[fgrittner]

I finally got a chance to record yesterday using the ProTrack. I recorded an acoustic guitar using a ribbon mic with no problem--more than enough gain to drive the ribbon. I used built-in stereo mics on the ProTrack to record a Nashville high string guitar (You use the octave strings from a 12-string set on the E,A,D and G strings). The mics were fine for an instrument with a limited frequency range. I used a Shure SM7B dynamic vocal mic for my vocal and a mandolin track. The SM7B requires a strong preamp to drive it and I was skeptical if the ProTrack could handle it. I had to turn the preamp almost all the way up but I was able to use the mic. The noise floor was okay for my purposes.

I mixed in Logic, adding some reverb and EQ, but that was about it. The session from start to finish took less than 4 hours. I now have a studio in a shoe box--cables, Protrack, Mikey, earphones, etc. I can see myself going to visit a musician and bringing this gear along for sessions. I would need to bring microphones and stands but that would be it.

The next experiment will be recording electric guitar using the ProTrack.

The recording can be heard at SoundCloud: http://soundcloud.com/iphoniqfolk/theres-a-river-1
and BandCamp: http://fredgrittner.bandcamp.com/

Fred

[project52]

That's awesome Fred! I can't wait to check it out. So, what is the problem with the ProTrack? I thought you couldn't monitor the sound or something like that. I'm gonna have to go shopping.

[fgrittner]

The problem is that if you plug your headphones into the ProTrack jack you don't hear anything. But if you plug them into the iPhone jack you can monitor. It was built for two-track iPod recording with no overdubbing, so I am assuming Apple changed some wiring scheme in the iPhone that messes up the ProTrack. The cool thing is that I used batteries yesterday but I have the option of plugging in the small wall wart adapter.

BTW, you continue to produce amazing sounds with your instruments and your imagination.

Fred