Hey guys,

I've looked all over the web, and I can't find any advice. Do any of you guys listen to bachata music? I need help getting the crisp, hi-hatty sound of the guira. If anyone has any advice, I would appreciate it.

Thanks!

I never heard of that kind of music. i would love it, if you posted or gave a link so i can check it out. I would love to hear it. the name sounds cool.. (bachata) It even sounds cool when you whisper it (Bachata)..
Cj

From Wikipedia

Bachata, a form of music and dance that originated in the countryside and rural marginal neighborhoods of Dominican Republic. Its subjects are often romantic; especially prevalent are tales of heartbreak and sadness. In fact, the original term used to name the genre was "amargue" ("bitterness," or "bitter music"), until the rather ambiguous (and mood-neutral) term bachata became popular.

Full Article Here

Cjay: it is really nice music. You can listen to samples here:

http://www.amazon.com/Hasta-el-Fin-Monchy-Alexandra/dp/B00064AE2O/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/104-5410314-5916760?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1181334146&sr=1-2

Picker: Thanks for the research!

Cool, i will definitly check it out. I thought you were never going to respond back....
Cj

Are you recording audio or MIDI? If it's audio, try using a condenser mic if you have one.....About 1-2 feet away from the guiro. That should pick up the sibilants pretty well. You could also search for hi-hat micing techniques....If, on the other hand, you're recording MIDI, it's probably much simpler to get the desired sound, But I don't know enough about it to help. There are A LOT of MIDI masters around here that can hook you up with that stuff....

Bueno Suerte-
Rob

What Rob said should work, if not try a SM57 / 58 on a stand in front of the performer pointed toward the guira, just a little compression might help, roll off the lows and boost somewhere in the 8K to 10K range, that's what i would suggest, hope it helps!

thanks for the advice guys.

Cjay: Sorry about the delay. I don't check in every day. Did you get a chance to listen to the samples?

Rob: I am recording audio over a midi track. Eventually I am replacing all the parts with real instruments.

If you have never heard of bachata, or don't know much about latin music, you wouldn't really get this, but what I did when experimenting this weekend is instead of using the regular guira scraper, I used a drum jazz brush. Gave a really nice smooth sound. I used an AT2020 (decent low-end LDC) and did a heck of a lot of EQ to find the right frequency. Bachata guira has a "tick" sound instead of the normal "scraping" sound.

I'm always and advocate on learning more about different kinds of music, so if you are interested, check out my link on my post above. That is not my cd, it is just an example of popular bachata. It is very nice sounding music. As far as the content, it is like the country and blues music of Dominican Republic.

i really have nothing to add about better recording methods, but cjay is right...its a DAMN catchy word no matter how you say it. BAchata...baCHAta...bachaTA...

Hi there Conguero

An old trick that myself and many other 'old school' recording engineers use is to wear a pair of good quality headphones such as Beyer DT100 or DT150 and ask someone to play the instrument whilst you 'walk' different microphones around it until you find the right distance and angle to achieve the sound you want

Try this with as many different mics as you can 'beg, steal or borrow' again until you find the closest sound to what you wnat and then trim it with the EQ on your mixer/DAW

Cheers
ping