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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
Different hearing when I’m player or listener.
Different hearing when I’m player or listener.
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boris_plotnikov
9 posts
Feb 08, 2010
3:26 AM
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As many of us I’m looking for My Tone. I’m pedal freak, I hate when I sounds muddy. I’ve noted the strange thing. When I play I try to add enough highs to let harmonica cut through the mix, sounds both fat and bright and to clearly hear myself. If I have to play too loud (if drummer or guitar player want to enhance their ego) I have to roll off highs to avoid feedback and I dislike my tone.
Sometimes I record such gigs and I noticed that if I feel that there are enough high frequencies and my tone is good when I play recorded sound of harmonica is too bright and harsh. Otherwise if I feel uncomfortable when play and it seems for me that harmonica sounds dull and muddy, I’ll often (not always) hear good round tone on recording.
Am I alone for such feelings?
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http://myspace.com/harmonicaboris
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Kingley
807 posts
Feb 08, 2010
3:48 AM
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This true for most people. When you listen to yourself play live, you hear a lot through bone conduction and also other instruments sound frequencies affect what you hear. Another factor is that when you stand very close to your amp the sound is very different to what it sounds like 20 or 50 feet away.
When you listen back to a recording you hear it almost as the audience hears it. This is really what you could call your true tone.
A lot of players tend for example to heavily overdrive their amp as they feel it's not distorted enough for their liking or they put more effects in because it doesn't sound enough to them. Yet when that sound gets to the audience it can often be sound overdriven or too heavily effects laden.
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boris_plotnikov
11 posts
Feb 08, 2010
3:55 AM
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Otherwise if you have really big amplifer it seems that it sounds fat (as it's loud!) but when you listen back to recording it's often seems to sound weak muddy and "underdriven" instead of overdriven.
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http://myspace.com/harmonicaboris
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Jim Rumbaugh
148 posts
Feb 08, 2010
4:58 AM
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When you play, where are you in relation to the speakers?
When I play guitar I can not hear the high tones because the amp is at my feet. The highs go straight to the dance floor , not up to my head. The low tones will go up to the head I also understand that that if the speaker is pointed at your head, feedback may be an issue.
At our club meetings, we encourage the guitar players to put their amps behind them and pointed at their head, if possible. It does a lot to change how loud they play.
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boris_plotnikov
12 posts
Feb 08, 2010
8:50 AM
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I usually put amp to the floor and tilt it back a little (to the wall or anything else).
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http://myspace.com/harmonicaboris
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barbequebob
444 posts
Feb 08, 2010
9:41 AM
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Any place you play, the acoustics of a room will always have an effect on what's going on and this is also true from different recording studios as well. In the studio, the exact placement of the amp, how it is miked, what type/brand of mike also makes a big difference as well, and that's for starters, and that's from my own personal experience.
Whenever possible, in a studio, for the big, fat amplified sound, I prefer the old "caveman" technique, which is really old school, where you use 3 mics, one directly on the amp, one on a boom stand in the middle of the room, and another on a boom stand way in the back, and this way, it's more like the way people actually hear the music.
Many classic recordings were done this way.
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Sincerely,
Barbeque Bob Maglinte
Boston, MA
http://www.barbequebob.com
CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
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boris_plotnikov
14 posts
Feb 08, 2010
12:03 PM
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Last times I recorded at studio I've recorded 3 signals too. SM57 is in my hands, than splitter (Boss PS3 or LS-2 Line selector), one output to amp, second stright to board or through tube pre (Harpattack or mine previous), than I stand close to clean large diaphragm condenser mic. I have dirty signal from amp with gritty bass, clean highs from condenser and fat midrange from sm57 line.
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http://myspace.com/harmonicaboris
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barbequebob
446 posts
Feb 08, 2010
12:36 PM
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BTW, the method I was describing is usually known as the ambient miking technique.
Sometimes the way the cabinet is designed will have something to do in how the sounds are dispersed in a room.
Trust me, if you think guitar players are bad, electric bass players can often be much worse because unless you stand about 20 feet away from the bass amp, you can't hear the bass amp very well and a lot of electric bass players tend to play even louder than guitar players (and I know this for a fact, especially having the bass at my left on the bandstand, and more than a few playing so loud that I do have a bit of hearing loss out of my left ear, and when these kids these days crank the bass on their car stereos where it's so loud that the car is shaking, especially its suspension, I'm literaly writhing in pain from it).
If you're near a B-3 player, they are notorious for being a problem with their volume.
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Sincerely,
Barbeque Bob Maglinte
Boston, MA
http://www.barbequebob.com
CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
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phogi
238 posts
Feb 08, 2010
6:03 PM
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In addition to the things mentioned - there may be another factor at play: it is very difficult to hear the same way when your mind is engaged in listening to a specific thing. I come across this in myself on occasion, and I will have the group play without me conducting. Suddenly I can hear things the I could not when I was waving my arms around.
This was primarily a problem when I first started, and less so now. Still, I find it useful to occasionally have them rehearse with no conducting to see if my ear is being blinded by other things.
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