I can't remember if I've said this on the list already, but my
professional sound engineer uncle had suggested to me that I apply an
"inverted smile" equalizer setting to the lute music I record with
smaller, inferior mics. Interestingly, I had the chance to have a
professional classical sound engineer record me playing my baroque lute
a few months ago, first with my mic, then with his $1000 mic and then
with his $10,000 mike. The results were stunningly different (now I
wish I had sold some stock and bought that mic!!!!). If however I use
that "inverted smile" it brings the inferior recording at least in the
general direction of the best mic. By inverted smile I mean dropping 31
Hz and 16 kHz down to about 10%, 63 Hz and 8 kHz by 50% and keeping the
others flat or slightly bumped. Since this seems to bring the recorded
sound closer to the 'real" sound, I haven't felt that it was unfairly
enhancing my performance, but rather compensating a bit for inferior
recording technology. I'll try applying to Rob's file and send him the
results.
Danny
On Thu, Nov 20, 2008 at 11:10 AM, Anthony Hind
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Rob
I have not managed to listen to your recording yet, so my reply
does not relate to it,
but to the questions that seem to be raised about reverb and MP3.
Couldn't the problem be that reverb is "blind", giving all your
notes a sort of equal sustain, while what
you really want, is a mike that allows you to record the smallest
whisper of the lute, so that
we hear the notes you played with sustain, slowly dying into the
background (while the others stop quickly), as you actually played
them.
I fear that even if you had the mike (and perhaps those in the H2
are good enough),
the MP3 format most probably squashes the subtle low level dynamic
differences, so that all notes seem to die fairly quickly.
Adding reverb to that would probably just give all notes more
sustain without distinction, and blur your performance.
Perhaps, it is better not to try to hide the MP3 problems, doing so
may further confuse the listener, even if the brut MP3
sounds rather dry. However, I have not experimented with MP3, while
both Davids have much experience is in this area,
and Martin also does quite a good job with his H2.
Anthony
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