Suggestions on this raw track

This is one of my first attempts at really trying to record a singer/songwriter type of acoustic artist. I mostly just do metal bands, so this is quite different for me.
 
Please listen to the 1 minute sample of this rough recording. I say rough because I have not done anything to it, no EQ, no compression, nothing. These tracks are untouched from how they were recorded.
 
To me, it sounds dull, like a blanket is covering the speakers. Please give me honest observations about what you think.
 
Here is how it was done...
 
1 spot mic (Behringer B5) at about 3 or 4 inches from the 12th fret. This mic ran into a Presonus Eureka Preamp and into a Fireface 800 input.
 
2 room mics (Behringer B5's). These mics were a spaced stero pair about 6ft back from the player/guitar. These ran straight into the built in mic pres on the Fireface 800. These were paned hard left and right (that was the only thing I did to the raw tracks).
 
1 DI track taken from the acoustic guitar output from the pick-ups. This singal was sent to a Radial J48 active DI box and then into an input on the Fireface 800. This DI track was mixed lower in level than the mics were, but it is in there.
 
The vocals were tracked with a Shure KSM44 with the cardiod pattern selected along with the first roll-off option. This signal ran into the Presonus Eureka with about 3db of gain reduction performed bu the built in channel compressor. The singer stood about 4 inches back behind a pop filter.
 
The sample is here.
 
Thank you for your input.
 
-Charles

Sylvan


This is one of my first attempts at really trying to record a singer/songwriter type of acoustic artist. I mostly just do metal bands, so this is quite different for me.
 
Please listen to the 1 minute sample of this rough recording. I say rough because I have not done anything to it, no EQ, no compression, nothing. These tracks are untouched from how they were recorded.
 
To me, it sounds dull, like a blanket is covering the speakers. Please give me honest observations about what you think.
 
Here is how it was done...
 
1 spot mic (Behringer B5) at about 3 or 4 inches from the 12th fret. This mic ran into a Presonus Eureka Preamp and into a Fireface 800 input.
 
2 room mics (Behringer B5's). These mics were a spaced stero pair about 6ft back from the player/guitar. These ran straight into the built in mic pres on the Fireface 800. These were paned hard left and right (that was the only thing I did to the raw tracks).
 
1 DI track taken from the acoustic guitar output from the pick-ups. This singal was sent to a Radial J48 active DI box and then into an input on the Fireface 800. This DI track was mixed lower in level than the mics were, but it is in there.
 
The vocals were tracked with a Shure KSM44 with the cardiod pattern selected along with the first roll-off option. This signal ran into the Presonus Eureka with about 3db of gain reduction performed bu the built in channel compressor. The singer stood about 4 inches back behind a pop filter.
 
The sample is here.
 
Thank you for your input.
 
-Charles

I would start the song just as it is and have some reverb start to ramp up slowly after the first verse. The idea is to have the song build.  What I would do is get the verb set perfect and bounce just that verb (effect only) to a stereo track. Then use the track volume envelope to blend it in as the song goes on.  Then bring it back down to no effect at the very end. 

The illusion here is a serenade. The songs starts out close to you and then moves out a bit into the room and then comes back up close at the end.

Sylvan


Thanks for th input. To answer your question Craig, yes, this clip is completely dry, no fx of any kind, not even compression. I ran a little compression on the vocals on the way in, while recording, but this current mix is utterly dry and devoid of effects.

Frank, that is a great idea. I think I will indeed try that out when I go to mix this later.

But what I really want to know is: Did I screw anything up during the tracking? Did I make any glaring mistakes that will curse the final mix?

None.

This is a classic case of me not giving a damn about the recording whatsoever.

LOVE the song....LOVE the voice....

I like the quality of the song. There's always room for improvement with everything tough...
I would try perfect space on a bus with it 100% wet with one of the acoustic guitar presets and then adjust it to taste.
I think the up close preset in perfect space will help the guitar.
The voice was awesome to me..

Thanks everyone, your comments and suggestions are most welcome.

I do notice that you can hear my computer fan in the background...uggh. I will have to get some quieter fans and maybe even find another room for the computer.

Also, I forgot to mention that all my tracking is done with SONAR 8.3 Producer. Of course all my mixing is done with SONAR as well, but I think we will be recording serveral more songs before we start any actual mixing.

This project is a compilation of close to 20 different artists so we will see how it all ends up.

-Charles