My Attempt at Townes Van Zandt's Nothin'

[heyheymymy]

Hi folks,

I'm trying to decide whether or not to upgrade my pre-amp, so I thought I would see what people thought about the quality of this recording. I recorded it live last night in my bedroom with my RE20 on voice and a Naiant 1Os on guitar. Both were run through my DMP3 into the Firepod and then into Sonar.

My setup is quite low-budget, but I just graduated from university and will have student loans to pay soon, so I don't know that I should upgrade anything unless it's absolutely necessary. I've been considering getting a Grace 101, a UA SOLO 610, or something along those lines. My main question is: do you think it's worth it, or is the sound quality of this recording (albeit in MP3 form) decent enough for now? I'm sure the Grace or the UA will make it sound better, but considering my funds are very limited, is the sound quality I'm getting out of my setup OK?

Here's the song: http://www.trentsevern.com/paul/paul_artson_nothin.mp3

Thanks very much.

[MeSoHornplayer]

I heard some phasey stuff on the vocals near the end, but for the most part it's an in-the-face, aggressive sound you're getting there. I say if you plan to keep it simple, just vocal and guitar, stick with what you have. If you start stacking tracks, however, you'll likely find out that you need a new preamp rather than just want one.

[heyheymymy]

Originally Posted by MeSoHornplayer

I heard some phasey stuff on the vocals near the end, but for the most part it's an in-the-face, aggressive sound you're getting there. I say if you plan to keep it simple, just vocal and guitar, stick with what you have. If you start stacking tracks, however, you'll likely find out that you need a new preamp rather than just want one.

Sounds like good advice. Thanks very much!

[fatzjenkins]

I think that the recording sounded great. Most of the phasing as described above might have been due to the 128kbps bitrate of the mp3 rather than anything native to the recording.

I gave a slight boost on the EQ, which really filled out the bottom end and gave it a slight more boost to sound like some of the old Townes recordings. On my particular system, this really sounded good:

64Hz = +2dB
125Hz = +5dB
250Hz = +3dB

Great recording, it really does justice to the sound of some of those old Tomato records!

[heyheymymy]

Originally Posted by fatzjenkins

I think that the recording sounded great. Most of the phasing as described above might have been due to the 128kbps bitrate of the mp3 rather than anything native to the recording.

I gave a slight boost on the EQ, which really filled out the bottom end and gave it a slight more boost to sound like some of the old Townes recordings. On my particular system, this really sounded good:

64Hz = +2dB
125Hz = +5dB
250Hz = +3dB

Great recording, it really does justice to the sound of some of those old Tomato records!

Interesting. I'll give those EQ bumps a try here and see what it sounds like. Thanks very much for taking a listen.