[Harp-L] behind the scene of amplifying a harp in a rack

[Joseph Blow <kindsniperer@xxxxxxx>]

Hi Walter,


A few thoughts...


I know that you record everything "live". When mixing your multi track master (to stereo or glorious mono) lower the fader or mute the unwanted track. eg: Turn the harp track down/off when there is a vocal and vice versa. Some recording setups will allow you to automate these moves. 


Better yet, erase the vocal bleed off of the harp track (and vice versa) before mixing. This could be done on a duplicate track, leaving the original track untouched.


Another possibility is to setup a gate on the harp that is keyed by the vocal. In other words, you can't hear the vocal when the harp is playing because the harp automatically "closes the door" to the vocal when the harp is playing (and opens the door when it is not playing). This is called "ducking" and can be done "live" or in the mix. Of course; vice versa for vocal.


Hopefully this advice is practical.


All that said, I think that your stereo master (third example, final mix) sounds fine. I don't hear that the vocal quality is greatly effected. The lack of isolation is inconsequential. But I *definitely* could be missing something and I'll take your word for it. Sometimes when we solo tracks we get caught up in minutia.


I love your harp tone!


JB


ps   could a piece of foam be put between the mics? 


pps  since this is harp-l i have tried to explain this from a harp point of view






Walter G. writes:


"I continue to be intriqued with how to get an amplified hand held compressed sound while using a harp rack. The amplified harp rack concept presents many obstacles and even more when recording. I do no overdubbing. Everything is done in live time so things are not isolated like most recordings done today. The vocal and harp rack mic are only about 5 inches apart from each other. The mic used for the amplifed harp picks up my voice and the disorted sound greatly affects the overall sound of the vocals. Conversely, the vocal mic picks up the muffled harp that is insulated to try and achieve the compressed sound and this adds acoustic sounds to the amplified harp sound. Here are some examples of it with the vocal track alone, the harp track alone, and finally the finished song. The isolated tracks are taken right from the mastering so they are at the same volume as in the finished song. Walter  (creator of Spotobeat- all words and music spontaneously
 created and recorded)

vocal mic with muffled acoustic harp bleed
http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=11449732

vocal bleed into amplified harp rack mic
http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=11449729

final mix of song
http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=11449726 "