Good enough for an Open Mic?

[Deerica]

Looking for a little feedback - I've been to a few open mics as a listener (and some have been cringe-worthy), but I'm pretty terrible at objectively listening to my own voice.

 

Is this good enough for an open mic performance? Will probably go w/ one other guitar player and one of us will play lead.

[Deerica]

Thanks! It did feel a bit static after listening... Nice thing about working from home is I can grab the guitar and try again: https://soundcloud.com/user-694791658/aatw

 

Went with a DMB-esque transition

 

[kickingtone]

Yep, your sound is more dynamic compared with your last thread.

 

Is it good enough for Open Mike? Why don't you ask him?

 

(The recording sounds quite muddy, to me. You may want to play around with the set up to get a crisper sound.)

[Mr.Grumpy]

Muddy? It sounds fine to me. To my ears, it just sounds like he's not right up on the mic. He might be keeping some distance from the mic because he's playing guitar? Doesn't want to go over on his record level? The quality is certainly good enough to judge/critique his vocals, which is the point. You recognize that you've got some pitch issues, but I don't think you'd get booed off stage. Your voice is good, the pitch issue is minor. Keep at it.

 

Muddy was good old 4-track cassette recorders - nothing above 8,000 Hz except hisssssss. We're spoiled by digital.

 

Is it good enough for Open Mike? Why don't you ask him?

 

K.T. made a funny!

 

I have also recorded a Bob Dylan cover....more accurately, a cover of a Bob Dylan cover. The song is "It's all over now, Baby Blue", but I did a very loose copy ( "It's not copying, it's musical influences!") of the 13th Floor Elevators' version. Their version has only three verses instead of four, and some of the lyrics were re-arranged a bit. And there's a noodley appendage (guitar solo) at the end. It's over-produced, but oh I had fun making it and I love listening to it. Horrible musical narcissism I have going on. I'll stick that in another thread so as not to hijack Deerica's.

 

 

 

[kickingtone]

 

Please explain what you mean by muddy and what the OP can do to improve it?

 

Low pitch definition in the lower/mid frequencies. Sometimes it is not the singer, but the recording equipment or set-up.

 

He could run the whole recording through a high pass filter, and if the "minor pitch issues" seem to go away (which I suspect they will), then the problem is with the equipment/set-up.

[CosmicDolphin]

Please explain what you mean by muddy and what the OP can do to improve it?

 

Well for one thing [uSER=805956]Deerica[/uSER] please don't put a high pass filter across everything. [uSER=718131]kickingtone[/uSER] is either trolling you or has no clue what he is talking about. I suspect the latter. All you will do is remove the fundamental pitches and rob the sound of it's energy and power for no good reason.

 

Is it good enough for an open mic ? Yes I would say so - I've heard plenty worse..go for it.

 

Re: The recording - As [uSER=197343]Mr.Grumpy[/uSER] said it's not muddy, it's just the guitar is louder in the balance and masking your voice..often the way with a single mic in an untreated room.

 

If by any chance you have a mic with a figure of 8 polar pattern you may be able get enough off axis rejection to balance them out better. It depends how loud you play and how loud you sing but two mics is usually easier as you can re-balance them after the fact.

 

There is a good article from a few years back in SOS here that may help https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/recording-singing-guitarist

 

I think once you've cleared the room sound and got the guitar/vocal more balanced it would sound quite a lot better.