My first recording - be gentle with me

[half diminished]

OK, this was harder than I though! Timing not brilliant and I payed one section incorrectly Too much concentration!!

Anyways, at least I managed to get something recorded.

Sorry, it's a 6.4mb file. Dunno how to compress this.

Click here to listen.

 

[Chris98]

OK, this was harder than I though! Timing not brilliant and I payed one section incorrectly Too much concentration!!

Anyways, at least I managed to get something recorded.

Sorry, it's a 6.4mb file. Dunno how to compress this.

Click here to listen.

Hi Ian,

Great to have people posting sound clips again, I hope Pete re-opens that part of the forum again.

Can I just ask, is the recording done with your new Samson C01U, and am I right in guessing you recorded it into Audacity?

I wish my first recording exploits were as successful as yours. You have no discernible background noise, and a very quiet sax by that I mean there is very little noise of the pads opening and closing, I'd almost suspect that you'd used a gate of some sort to keep it so clean. Anyway that's all by the by...

I like your tone, it sounds like you have a nice tenor and you play with confidence. If you want you could always try 'sweetening' it with a hint of reverb which would make it less dry.

Really great, well done, :welldone

Chris

 

[half diminished]

Chris

Thanks for you comment. I had a couple of better recordings but went way wrong with the tune. I was suprised how much pressure I put myself under the minute I started recording.

It's a totally straight recording with the Samson using Audacity. I have the recording level set to around 50% and the sax was about 9 to 12 inches from the mic.

I was amazed at how much better I sound on the recording than to my own ears when playing - especially D2. I also recorded Your Latest Trick which is almost all in the upper register and that sounded better on recording too. Karen my teacher has been telling me my sound was pretty good considering my 'novice' status but it was good to hear it for myself.

I dunno how to add anything like reverb so maybe your guide to Garage will help me. Thanks again.

 

[Taz]

Very nicely done Ian. You've got a really pleasing tone going on there. I think that being "Nosaxyet" has paid off. You obviously picked a good one.
I think you have done a nice job of recording yourself, capturing a true image of your sound is never easy. I think Chris is right, you could do with playing around with your reverb settings, just to warm up the sound and give it some depth.
On the whole, a job well done!:welldone

 

[half diminished]

So guys - how do I add reverb?

I must say that all the extra practice and really working on things like tone is beginning to pay off. I have a three hour lesson/session with Karen in a weeks time and she is pushing me hard in prep for that.

Thanks both for your comments.

 

[Chris98]

So guys - how do I add reverb?

I must say that all the extra practice and really working on things like tone is beginning to pay off. I have a three hour lesson/session with Karen in a weeks time and she is pushing me hard in prep for that.

Thanks both for your comments.

Hi Ian,

I don't know Audacity so I can't help you out on that but as you have GarageBand, open it up and click on 'Create a New Project' as shown in my guide, create a new 'Real Instrument Track' and then drag your audio clip from finder into that new track. Having done that skip onto Page 6 of the guide 'Sweetening Your Recording', which will guide you though adding reverb and compression and then exporting as a compressed audio file.

Let me know if you get stuck.

All the best,

Chris

 

[Taz]

I record in Cubase and add reverb post recording. I'm afraid I don't know about Audacity. Hopefully someone who's more familiar with it can help you out.

 

[chris_curtis]

In Audacity:
1. Highlight the track or part of it you want to add reverb to
2. in the menu choose "effect" then search around in the effect menu for something with "verb" in it - there are usually various reverb effects available
3. Experiment until it sounds right to you - tiny changes to controls can create a big change to the sound. Most reverb effects have controls for "room size", "dampening" (how "bright" the room sounds) etc. Use preview for an initial idea then hit OK. You can always undo.
4. When you are happy, hit effect then amplify then normalise (this sets the volume control to max but without overloading)
5. To produce a wav or mp3 do file, export. If you cannot see a choice for mp3 you need to install lame. Details are on the audacity web site.

 

[half diminished]

Thanks.

Here is another attempt.

Again it's straight from the mic with no effects. Can't find reverb in Audacity and couldn't get GarageBand to work either!

 

[c9off]

audacity reverb etc

at the risk of sounding like an Audacity geek, you will possibly find "Gverb" under the effects menu, if not just google to download the plugin; once installed try these settings initially (as default are rubbish!!):

40 - 4 - .9 - .75 - 0 - -22 - -28

Saving the file as an mp3 will reduce file size, needs the lame software as mentioned in previous posts.

cheers
Geoff

 

[jonf]

:welldone:welldone:welldone

Good stuff, and I'm very pleased the mic is working well.

 

[half diminished]

Thanks everyone. This is a lot easier than I ever imagined now I have expert tuition!

Here are the tracks with reverb.

My little suede shoes

Your Latest Trick

Hopefully this is better. I have also compressed the files.

 

[Mamos]

Fantastic dude

You have a good tone there and nice gliss on your latest trick

I wanna have a go now

mamos

 

[half diminished]

:welldone:welldone:welldone

Good stuff, and I'm very pleased the mic is working well.

Jon

It's brilliant and I can't imagine I will need anything better for what I want to do.

Thanks

Fantastic dude

You have a good tone there and nice gliss on your latest trick

I wanna have a go now

mamos

Thanks, there are several grace notes that I missed out - concentrating too hard on quality of sound and timing. Maybe I'll get around to including those some time!

It's gonna be interesting looking back in say 3 months playing the same piece to compare how (if at all:shocked🙂 I've moved on.

 

[Chris98]

Here are the tracks with reverb.

My little suede shoes

Your Latest Trick

Hopefully this is better. I have also compressed the files.

Great stuff,

The touch of reverb works well, when I first started playing around with reverb I ended up making everything sound like 'All Things Must Pass' except the tunes weren't up to the same quality!

I'll have to start working on 'Your Latest Trick' again.

:welldone

All the best,

Chris

 

[half diminished]

Great stuff,

The touch of reverb works well, when I first started playing around with reverb I ended up making everything sound like 'All Things Must Pass' except the tunes weren't up to the same quality!

I'll have to start working on 'Your Latest Trick' again.

:welldone

All the best,

Chris

Chris

Not sure I'd have done it so quick and easy without your tutorial/advice. Next biggie is recording against a backing track. Tried it briefly earlier with Doxy but couldn't hear the backing track over my playing! At least the recording worked though!!

Hmm.... any suggestions?

As for Your Latest Trick - it's well slower than it should be but I've only been on that one a few days. Need to work in the extra grace notes too!

 

[Phil Edwards]

Chris
Next biggie is recording against a backing track. Tried it briefly earlier with Doxy but couldn't hear the backing track over my playing! Hmm.... any suggestions?

You could try playing the backing through headphones and record your sax with the mic. If necessary only have one ear covered so you hear the backing through one ear of the headphones, and hear your sax through the other (uncovered) ear.

Then load the backing track into Audacity (into the same file as your sax recording) and align them to each other so the start points match up.

Phil

 

[Chris98]

Chris

Not sure I'd have done it so quick and easy without your tutorial/advice. Next biggie is recording against a backing track. Tried it briefly earlier with Doxy but couldn't hear the backing track over my playing! At least the recording worked though!!

Hmm.... any suggestions?

Hi Ian,

It's not until you climb inside your headphones that you realise just how loud the saxophone is

Okay onto your problem:

In GarageBand, the individual track volumes on the left had side of the timeline enable you to create your desired monitoring mix by individually adjust the volume of the backing track and the track your recording into. You can readjust these after your recording when mixing down. So you might want to pull down the volume on the track your recording into to see if that helps.

However, I suspect that this might only get you part way there, as it could be the headphone amp in your mac or speakers just isn't powerful enough to bring the level up to match the acoustic level of your sax. There are several relatively cheap options that would give you a better headphone amp, I have one of these: Behringer Headphone Amp but even a basic little audio mixer or old HiFi amp with a headphone out socket would do the job.

The other thing to consider are the headphones, if we are talking about the big over your ear jobs then they come in either 'open' or 'closed' versions, open headphones in their very nature allow external sounds in, closed tend to block out external sounds and are the better choice for recording.

Let me know how you get on,

Chris

I've just looked on the web and that headphone amp is much more now than when I bought it, for a little less there is this little mixer: XENYX 502 but I'm sure there must be cheaper alternatives.

 

[thehunt]

Very nice, takes a lot of courage to post yourself playing, i hope to do it some day. Good luck Phil

 

[half diminished]

You could try playing the backing through headphones and record your sax with the mic. If necessary only have one ear covered so you hear the backing through one ear of the headphones, and hear your sax through the other (uncovered) ear.

Then load the backing track into Audacity (into the same file as your sax recording) and align them to each other so the start points match up.

Phil

I'm doing well with GarageBand now I have an expert tutor (thanks Chris98). I am doing what you suggest but I have ca@p headphones.

Hi Ian,

It's not until you climb inside your headphones that you realise just how loud the saxophone is

Okay onto your problem:

In GarageBand, the individual track volumes on the left had side of the timeline enable you to create your desired monitoring mix by individually adjust the volume of the backing track and the track your recording into. You can readjust these after your recording when mixing down. So you might want to pull down the volume on the track your recording into to see if that helps.

However, I suspect that this might only get you part way there, as it could be the headphone amp in your mac or speakers just isn't powerful enough to bring the level up to match the acoustic level of your sax. There are several relatively cheap options that would give you a better headphone amp, I have one of these: Behringer Headphone Amp but even a basic little audio mixer or old HiFi amp with a headphone out socket would do the job.

The other thing to consider are the headphones, if we are talking about the big over your ear jobs then they come in either 'open' or 'closed' versions, open headphones in their very nature allow external sounds in, closed tend to block out external sounds and are the better choice for recording.

Let me know how you get on,

Chris

I've just looked on the web and that headphone amp is much more now than when I bought it, for a little less there is this little mixer: XENYX 502 but I'm sure there must be cheaper alternatives.

Chris

Thanks again. I am about to buy a Graham Slee Novo (kit) headphone amp and some wicked cans for my HiFi. The wife hates Jazz and I never get much time to listen to the system - it's also where the TV resides! Bad move really. The Novo is awesome and great value.

I guess I could use that. This loud sax thing has been a problem and for Xmas the wife bought me some Soundsticks for my Mac as the BI speakers weren't loud enough. The Soundsticks are!

It seems as I solve one problem, another pops up! 🙂