waltertore
1026 posts
Feb 05, 2011
7:12 AM
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I got inspired last night after reading some posts on the forum that encouraged me to play more amplified harp. I have been getting more interested to do it lately and that kicked it in gear (thanks!).
I had to figure how to get a shure 57 rigged up to the harp while in the rack. What I did was lay one harp rack over another(I use the cheapo $8 bob dylan type ones). I duct taped the mic in the one furthest from my mouth and then snugged it up to the other rack that held the harp and tightened up the wing nuts. I used more duct tape to hold the 2 racks together so the mic would not move around and wrapped the harp in a cloth to try and get some semblence of being hand held. I only have one amp, a princeton reverb reissue, and ran the harp through that. I had to run the guitar direct into a preamp which kept it too sterile sounding for my taste but what can you do.
I hooked up my cymbal mic channel wrong on the recording interface so it is barely audable via bleeding through the snare drum mic. The problem I anticipated happened. The harp was picked up on the vocal recording mic and the voice came through the 57 which was bassed up and trebled down. So I had an interesing mixing situation to keep the harp tones and voice tones as I like with 2 opposite sounds. Anyway, I have concluded this setup needs a lot more thinking and tinkering. For instrumentals it would be fine I could mute the vocal mic and keep the acoustic harp tone from bleeding into the mix. But for both it is not going to work very well due to acoustic harp tone coming through the vocal mic and bassy to max vocals coming through the harp mic. The 2 harp racks tied together with the mic on it made it pretty heavy on the neck and the harp mic cable kept wanting to rest on the bass strings of the guitar and mute them. All in all, this first attempt is ok but has got my mind to thinking on this problem. I am a duct tape kind of engineer so any simple ideas would be welcomed! Walter
amplified harp experiment with the 1 man band setup
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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
2,600+ of my songs
continuous streaming - 200 most current songs
my videos
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harpwrench
443 posts
Feb 05, 2011
8:19 AM
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Sounds great to my ear. I don't know anything about mixing, just know what I like when I hear it. Some artists have intentionally mixed amped/accoustic harp on recordings, and I like that too. I think I read somewhere that Kim Wilson did this on "Tigerman", one of my favorite amped sounds. The only drawback I see is the clumsiness of the setup and the extra weight on your neck......which probably will discourage you from messing with it for very long. Thanks for sharing!
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Joe
www.spiersharmonicas.com
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Arnoud73
73 posts
Feb 05, 2011
8:20 AM
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sounds very good !!
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www.sweetportblues.com
http://www.myspace.com/arnoudbluesharp
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Oisin
742 posts
Feb 05, 2011
8:29 AM
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The only thing I could suggest Walter is to use a small tie clip type mic like this.
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2102927
I would imagine it would be quite easy to fix to either the rack or even the harp itself.
Great song and tone BTW
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Oisin
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waltertore
1027 posts
Feb 05, 2011
10:04 AM
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thanks guys for the feedback!
harpwrench: I did kind of like the blend of the 2 tones in some ways. the vocal part is the one that is bugging me. It is too bassy.
Oisin: I use to have a small mic that this ex CIA bug maker use to make. It was used by people who would sneak in concerts and put one over each ear clipped to hat and ran to a mini disc. I sold it after I got out of mini discing my recordings. I wonder if it too would pick up the vocals too much? Those little mics are unbelievably sensitive. The radio shack one is omnidirectional which tends to make me predict it will pick up the voice and drums. I am thninking one of those glove devices that Dana Hubbard use to sell that fit on a mic stand. I remember he used one to get amplified harp sound as he played guitar. Walter
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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
2,600+ of my songs
continuous streaming - 200 most current songs
my videos
|
walterharp
533 posts
Feb 05, 2011
11:02 AM
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i have a little one i made that i could send you if you are interested in trying it walter
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waltertore
1029 posts
Feb 05, 2011
11:08 AM
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walterharp: that sure is kind of you! My email is
waltertore@sbcglobal.net
walter
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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
2,600+ of my songs
continuous streaming - 200 most current songs
my videos
|
sydeman
29 posts
Feb 05, 2011
11:59 AM
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Not sure if this is what you looking for...I Use one of these on the odd occasion
Strnd mic fits a rack
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