I recently have been fooling around with amplifying my harp (played on a rack) with my real time one man band. I only have one guitar amp, a princeton reverb, and use it for my guitar in my 1 man band set up. I record everything live(drums and ride cymbal on my feet) so I was having to run the guitar direct into a solid state preamp that is crystal clean. Today I decided to run the harp into it and try out an amp simulator that is in my samplitude recording software. I set the amp to a vintage class A with a 4x 10" speaker cabinet, a shure 57 on the front and a large diaphram condensor on the back. I figured this thing would sound terrible. A virtual amp, mics, mic placements, are you kidding me?? I am from the days when amps were real.......... Anyway I have to eat my words. I dig the sound of this thing. My mic is a $5.00 homemade tie clip mic hooked up to a rubber beer can cooler that is attached to my harp rack. The vocal mic picks up a lot of the muffled acoustic sound of the harp and the tie clip mic picks up the vocals as well. Going through the amp simulator it gets real muddy and bassy. I try to mix a middle ground so the vocal and harp both sound pretty good. So what you are hearing is a mix of amplified and acoustic harp. Walter
---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
Damn! Difficult to believe you're really doing all of that on your own. I like it a lot! Harp sound is also very good. Nice compromise between acoustic and amplified harp.
thanks guys! I think this amp simulator is something to mess with some more. I mixed this one in a few minutes. The amp simulator has a ton of knobs to play with. It has delay, tremelo, on it too. There are a dozen or so british and amercian amps to chose from and lots of speaker size and configurations too. I was going to buy a vintage champ but am going to stick to this for now. Walter ---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
Really little-walteresque sound. I really liKe the tone (it sounds like a much more expensive mic) and the quality of the recording is great.
Congratulations.
By the way, amp simulations (software or hardware) are a great idea for low budget musicians that don't want to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars for achieving the sound they love.
Here I am using a Pocket pod straight to pc. Mic is a Turner 5000.
Even if it's not comparable to a true tube amp, at least to my hears sounds pretty well!
---------- With some latin flavour for you, chico!! :P
Last Edited by on Mar 03, 2011 9:17 PM
@Waltertore That sounds great Walter you really seem to have this recording stuff licked and that's a nice harp sound.
@Camilo Harper I enjoyed that and it just goes to show what very respectable results can be acheived without breaking the bank. Grey Owl YouTube Grey Owl Abstract Photos
Camiloharper: Thanks! This was my first attempt with an amp simulator. I am excited to get back on it tonight. I don't have any gigs on the calendar so am not going to buy a real amp for now. I will check your song when I get home(can't do it at work).
Greyowlphotoart: Thanks! I am about 70% satified with my sound. This makes it definetly listenable but that other 30% is where I am heading. Time, time, and more time. Just like playing an instrument...... I am quite satified with my overall concept of being a totally self contained product from inception to published product. I have learned the hard way over the years that unless one controls the entire process what comes out as a finished product is not going to sound right. Walter ---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
shadoe42: I use Samplitude 11 recording software. Vandal Guitar Amp Simulation is included in it. I imagine it is a samplitude creation that comes only with thier software. They have some pretty decent plugins. My friend was once the north american distributor for them and gave me a copy. I have been updating the newer versions ever since. It is comparable to pro tools on quality. Walter ---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
nice. I have dinked around with samplitude but decided yet another piece of recording software was not something I needed :) Between FL Studio, Sonar, and Mixcraft on PC and garageband on my MAC I am pretty much covered hahaha. Also have dinked with pro tools as occasionally I have gotten a cut down copy with a piece of gear.
It sounds like you have a lot of gear. I am ignorant to most all of the computer based stuff. I use what I use and that isn't much. I haven't tried any other recording programs becasuse samplitude works for me. I have always been a minimalist mostly from leaving home as a teen and spending the next 25 years doing nothing but music :-) Some habbits die hard they say. I am glad this one sticks with me. My recording studio is set up just for my needs. When I upgrade I sell off the stuff I don't use. I use the Universal audio plugins on all my recordings. They are worth getting. Walter ---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
Hi Walter, I like the sound you got there. I think the digital modelling amp stuff is underrated, frankly, and is especially useful for your type of application --- to make a small, light, mic sound good.
mr so&so: Thanks! I had no idea it would sound so good. I stumbled on the amp modeler by accident. It is in the plug in menu and I wanted my universal audio file but hit this one by mistake. That little mic gets overloaded real easy when compressed so I had to cut a decent size hole in the beer can cooler. I want to try some other tones with the modeler plug in this weekend. If someone told me 20 years ago such a think would come to pass I would say they were nuts. Walter ---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
I have far to much gear according to my girlfriend :)
I have the different recording software and such cause one of the 'styles' i delve into a lot is electronic stuff.. synth heavy type things. What I term as quasi or melodic ambient, cinematic style of writing. I can toss you some links if you're interested. totally no biggie if not :)
Its Not true ambient cause for me in order to be music it has to have some sort of shape and form. A personal opinion :)
So over the years I have collected a lot of hardware and software. Most of the hardware these days is just controllers as I use software synths 99% of the time.
So yea I end up with a lot of stuff cause I will buy it second hand when i can which often turns the software to Not For Resale. But that is okay as I rarely want to part with a piece of software. Long time computer geek :)
LittleJoe: You can have it. Let me know what you come up with. Walter ---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
I ran my beer can cooler on the harp rack through a amp simulator plugin that is on my recording software. I am wondering how the harp attack would work going direct into a recording preamp and then to the interface? The problem with the plug in amp simulator is what I hear when I am playing is a muffled acoustic harp. I am also still trying to isolate the harp rack mic from the vocals. The vocals are super muddy/distorted on it and it can really mess up the vocal sound. I want to be able record amplified harp without buying another amp. Currently my 1 man band set up consists of - harps, 2 guitars, guitar stands, PA, mic stands, bass drum, snare drum, ride cymbal, drum pedals/hardware, keyboard, keyboard stand, guitar amp, and cds. I was thinking if I could run my harp/guitar through some kind of box direct to the recording gear (PA for gigs) I could lighten my load some. If so, I could probably get 2 of them. I am getting too old to be lugging all this gear around! Thanks. Walter
---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
