Blues in The Back Room

[William Cingolani]

sxpoet: I too have limited experience in recording so I consulted the powers that be to get their advice and recommendations. After following all the advice like having the microphone off to the side, or having the mic above me, behind me, parallel to the horn, a sax length from the horn, the recorded sound was not to my liking so I ignored all the advice from the internet and from the youtube folks and put the horn about 8 inches from the mike blowing right into the mike like a vocalist singing into the mike and having a pop screen between the horn and the mike. At the same time monitoring the recording track and adjusting the gain on the interface so as to not keep so large a cloud on the recording track in garage band. The cloud is my horn sounding on the recording track. If the cloud fills the track the sound will be harsh and unappealing. The pop screen eliminated any breath wind the horn and I might be making. And the mouthpiece that sounded best was the MBll. The MBll mouthpiece sounded fuller and more robust and edgier than any of my other mouthpieces. I also turned my mike around so I would be blowing out into the room, small room but not against the wall. I also used one of those Reflexion Filters. http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/ReflexionX

The mouthpiece, the MBll, made the big difference.

[Anonymous]

Thanks William – next time i set up my mic positions, i will talk into to the mic and listen via headphones to the range and pick up positions of each mic which hopefully will give me a better idea of how each mic is working in relation to the posution of my sax. i noticed you use a reflection filter, my teacher uses one as well in that very tiny room he uses to record students playing, however he has lots of boards on the ceiling and walls to stop sound waves bouncing off – unfortunately i can’t do that in my living room – wife might nail my head to the wall with a frying pan if i did.

I’ve got to wait another 2 weeks before i can get my recording gear out again as its school holidays over here. I can’t record anything just yet as i haven’t practiced anything to record.

Instad i have been practicing working on timing with various sight reading exercises and the metronme, and it’s very frustrating, progress is very slow and somewhat nonexistent – bit like sitting in a aeroplane going through some turbulence and waiting patiently to flynout of it. But i know if i persevere it will pay off in the end, otherwise somethings going to blow. lol

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