Tips, Techniques, Examples about my favorite musical instrument, the Twelve-String Guitar.

If you play guitar check out Playing Technique, or Strings / Setup. There are also some interesting posts about guitars at, you guessed it, Guitars.

If you want to spread your musical talents around, you will find some good info at Recording.

Marketing - meh - I'm probably the world's best bad example. Although you could find funny stuff there.

I've made some music videos through the years, and you can find them and other interesting music at Music I Like, Music I Play.

Friday, April 13, 2007

Plus Ça Change

After days and days of too much fun with Acousoft, I found the best position in the room to record, and it's...about where I was recording months ago. At least my ears agreed with the science.

There is a definite 58 hertz major resonance in the room, and a smaller one at 71 hertz and another at about 91 hertz; despite many broad band traps in the corners they are still there. I think that removing these completely will require many more panels of mineral wool and 703. But for now the best I can do for recording is to find a spot where they aren't prominent, and this I did.

Above, you can see the 58 hertz resonance, and the echos at 10, 20, 30, and 40 milliseconds that reinforce it. However, in this recording position, the peak is low and the other resonances at 71 and 91 hertz, which are more in the 12-string guitar's range, are very subdued.

I'm still working on the tremolo piece - it's finished, but I'm having to work to get the tremolo smooth - it's almost like a magician's illusion. While getting the illusion perfected I've been playing around with Freight Train Blues by Elizabeth Cotten. I think the acoustics make the guitar sound better both while I'm playing, and after on the recording. Here are the SoundClick links to 'Freight Train - 12-string instrumental'
lo-fi URL hi-fi URL

Update: Freight Train was recorded with a Taylor LKSM-12 tuned down one note with medium weight Elixir strings. It was recorded into a Jecklin Array comprised of 2-Oktava MC-012 microphones with matched omni capsules.