"Aranjuez" adaptation of Rodrigo's concierto d'Aranjuez for solo guitar

Hi all, did this recording from memory so it's more of a pastiche than a faithful reproduction of the original. The huffing and puffing you can hear is me having a bad cold, so please ignore it . I'm mostly interested in hearing what you think about the actual sound of the guitar as I mixed(?) this with headphones and am not sure about eq etc. Also exported this as a flac file to Soundcloud , to me it sounds better than a mp3 on Soundclick.

http://soundcloud.com/rik-frieling/aranjuez




Greetings, Rik

I have listened the track also on headphones so I'm not so sure what's the feeling when played on actual monitors, but i have some observations that might help your mix.

Try to bring down the bass frequencies of the reverb, since you've chosen to represent the melodic line on the bass strings you don't need the reverb on those frequencies. this way the melody will shine more. Or try to slightly eq-decrease the bass and bring a little bit more of high. Other than that I think that the whole thing is absolutely amazing. Please let me know the guitar brand. I just dig the sound of this guitar and your playing is great. If you are into solo guitar kind of recordings I have another advice for you. Invest in a set of pencil paired mics. They don't have to be expensive. Behringer or samson will do the job just fine. Then place one mic about 20-30cm in front of you (assuming you are sitting when recording) pointing your 14th fret and place the second mic 20-30 cm above your head and 10 cm to the right of your head, pointing vertically down your right shoulder. This is a combination stereo recording which captures the sound as a listener listens to the sound, plus as the performer himself listens to it. Now when mixing pan your "in front" guitar track 100% left and move it 10 ms to the left. Then pan your "shoulder" guitar track 100% right and move it 10 ms to the right. You won't believe what just happened!!!

I actually like the breathing noise very much. It makes it very real. the problem with the "boomy" sound in my opinion starts because of the room he recorded the guitar. it looks like the reflection from the walls enhanced the bass frequencies too much. try to cover the walls around with blankets or something which will absorb as much as possible of the reflection sound.

Hi Gary, it's a combination of di and mic. There's just to much noise were I live to record only with a nice mic. To avoid traffic noise and noisy neighbors and such, I use the pickup for the low frequencies, no rumble, and the mic for middle and higher frequencies. Thanks for listening.

Greetings, Rik

Very nice emotional playing.  Listening on ear buds...sounds good through these!

Hi Pat , thanks. Funny thing is on my Senheisser earbuds it sounded way to thin and I almost wanted to raise the bass frequencies.  Glad I didn't. it's already to boomy it seems.

Greetings, Rik

Hi Beagle, it's a nylon string guitar so the pickup is a piezo under the bridge saddle, it doesn't sound boomy actually, just the opposite. You really have to mess it up to get it to sound boomy so by itself it's quite an achievement .


Greetings, Rik