An audio track - and question about pick scrapes

[A Very Special Piccolo]

 

Here's a track I recently made with a prominent bass line.

 

 

 

I'm interested to hear comments, regarding the presentation of the recording as a whole - passable for public show, likely to turn away casual listeners who visit my blog due to unpolished playing / recording, etc?

 

 

I'd also like to hear if there are some concrete ways that I can diminish and prevent bass pick scrapes. Once just finishing the recording, pick scrapes were all I could here - scrape, scrape, scrape... and it's taken a couple days before I even notice the note more than the scrap. But I hope that other listeners don't zone in on the scraping like I did when first listening to the track.

 

[DeepEnd]

I'm at work so I can't watch your vid but my first thought regarding pick scrape is flatwound strings (yes, I know it won't get rid of it completely but it should minimize it). Or a different pick, say a felt one. Or don't use a pick.

 

Patient: Doctor, it hurts when I do this.

Doctor: Well, then, don't do that.

 

Not trying to be a smart alec, just a thought.

[A Very Special Piccolo]

Thanks for those tips.

 

If you have chance, I'd appreciate if you'd listen to my youtube track and give comment on its presentation. I'm trying to link up some reactive stats to its posting.

[DeepEnd]

Honestly, I don't hear any bass pick scrapes. Yeah, there's some normal pick noise in the rhythm guitar part but nothing particularly audible (to me) on bass. If I put my head close to the speakers and listen just for "pick noise" I hear a tiny amount but nothing I'd worry about. We may not even be talking about the same thing for all I know. You're talking abut the minute "tick" when the pick strikes the string, right? That's all I can hear and it's not intrusive. FWIW, I have a decent pair of harman/kardon speakers so it's not a matter of crappy equipment. Maybe someone with a better ear can hear what you're talking about but I suspect you're just overly critical of your own work. Personally, I don't think you need to do anything except chill out.

[WRGKMC]

Other then the metallic tone dialed up for the bass I'm not hearing much pick noise.

Its sounds to me like it was mixed on headphones instead of studio monitors. The sound is very one dimensional and lacks depth. This is a common issue when using headphones because the center of the sound occurs between your ears inside the center of your head instead of in front of you like you'd get using monitors.

 

You may want to use a parametric EQ and notch the frequencies where you do hear the noise.

Frequency is one dimension, left and right is a second dimension. Depth, (how far a sound appears to be from the listener) is the third dimension. You may also want to run a little chorus or reverb on the guitar so it has some depth. Doesn't need much with a dry piece like this so you don't need to get wild with it. may even sound cool with a little chorus on the bass instead of the guitar so there's a little motion happening.

 

Give it a shot and see what you get.

 

You may also want to use a click track when you track then remove it later. Its allot easier to keep the parts synced when you have a beat going.

[A Very Special Piccolo]

Alright, thanks for the useful information guys.