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Posts: 14799
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC
RE: **Advanced Challenge Entries** (in reply to Florian)
Great job Todd and Henrik! And everyone did awesome work. The judges too, especially Jason had great insights, I know it can be hard to judge your friends!!! I felt Jason's comments, though pretty tough were dead on, great ear. I felt Doit's version derserved more points in general, but that is just me!
So some guys are saying they expected better from me. I guess it is easy to see how i played in the video. So for sure I think I could do better, but let me make some excuses now it is over! The rushed recording was because of my procrastination...I did not plan well for this! I thought i was just squeezing in deadline, so just my 3rd take this was, and I had not really practiced this music since I had lots of gigs that week, and 5 minutes later I was off to the bus station to drop a friend and go to another gig.
I thought I would have time to record in my friends studio that weekend, but he left town suddenly! So just my camera. My cd player and Ipod broke too so I had to use the crappy computer speakers on the floor to play against. When you hear me play louder than the loop it was because I really was, I couldn't hear it either! And that middle falseta Jason pointed out was not really my cup of tea, but the real problem was I busted my thumbnail so I could not play hard like I like to or it sounded only fleshy. It really affected parts of this tune in terms of tone and timing...bummer...but I did not want to get a fake one just for this challenge. So all in all, it was the best I could do under the conditions.
It is easy to find but here it is just in case you did not find it. I think if you hit the HQ the quality of sound and vid is way better.
Posts: 4495
Joined: Aug. 9 2006
From: Iran (living in Germany)
RE: **Advanced Challenge Entries** (in reply to Ricardo)
Ricardo, you were awesome Man. The little "jokes" were because we all (and you) know that you are a top notch guitarist and that you can handle them with humor (between friends).
You know, It is hard to be one of the bests, because you always have to fulfill much higher "expectations". But i honestly think that there was no such expectation. The result just showed that you are a human beeing just like everybody else and not a flamenco machine like always
RE: **Advanced Challenge Entries** (in reply to Ricardo)
Ha-ha I thought Grapes was Ricardo and Starfruit was Todd :)) Anyways, Todd congrats! Doit - i like video version much better, you are so relaxed when playing such a complex piece!
RE: **Advanced Challenge Entries** (in reply to Ricardo)
quote:
The judges too, especially Jason had great insights, I know it can be hard to judge your friends!!! I
It can indeed be difficult. I didn't think too much about who might be playing although, I was pretty sure about Grapes being ToddK. That was based mostly on the engineering... Sometimes an "old SM57" is still a great choice for recording. If an engineer can't make an SM57 work they should hang up their hat. Thanks for sharing your mic choice Todd. SM57's get a bad wrap too often. My recognition of it being you was choice of reverb and the limiting on the 2-bus. While listening and realizing who was playing and that this man had just begun to use his thumb instead of a pick put a huge smile on my face. I still approached all my comments as though they were for paying students looking for guidence.
RE: **Advanced Challenge Entries** (in reply to JasonMcGuire)
quote:
Thanks for sharing your mic choice Todd. SM57's get a bad wrap too often.
My pleasure, i thought some may be interested. Regarding the 57, yeah, they do have a bad wrap with alot of people, but its a classic workhorse mic, and can deliver the goods, as long as the source sound is happenin'..
If you cant play well, and your guitar sound isnt that good, the 57 will not help you out . So i thought it was a good, humble choice. I think my recording sounds rather dry compared to the roomy sound on most of the other entries.
Posts: 2277
Joined: Apr. 17 2007
From: South East England
RE: **Advanced Challenge Entries** (in reply to ToddK)
quote:
Regarding the 57, yeah, they do have a bad wrap with alot of people, but its a classic workhorse mic, and can deliver the goods, as long as the source sound is happenin'..
Glad to hear that Todd - I've just bought one (my first mic) because it was recommended by Harold, Kate's husband for exactly those reasons. Great sound engineers think alike!!
RE: **Advanced Challenge Entries** (in reply to Ricardo)
The Shure SM57 is a great punk microphone as well. I´ve sung many hours live in a 57. You can actually put it all the way in your mouth while you sing. (take care not to swallow it. A drunk punk friend singer of mine, once on stage, started swinging a 57 around in the jack. It ended with a "boump" towars the stage. The microphone still worked out perfectly. These are many years ago. I´m not like that anymore. Now I´m a nice midaged man who does what he´s supposed to do and shut up.
I think I´ll buy a SM57 as well. I´m tired of cheap and mid priced condensators. They all have their own sound and change the sound of what you record.
Nice to see the videos. I still think the right guy won eventhough the top 4 players were VERY good and even.
RE: **Advanced Challenge Entries** (in reply to Ricardo)
Looks like Sure will be seeing a boost in sales this month. :)
Great all around microphone. A good choice for just about anything.
I like seeing this kind of momentum towards a great no-nonsense workhorse like the 57! I agree with Anders, condensors can really over hype things, and its nice to have that in your face, straight up, vibe of the Shure. Its got guts, and doesnt cloud or hype anything.
RE: **Advanced Challenge Entries** (in reply to ToddK)
Congratulations. Great entries and all to an exceptionally high standard. Todd, well done and I'm amazed by the way you have mastered your new right hand technique so quickly. Stunning performance.
It was great to watch the YouTube videos and see Tomatito's concert piece, rattled off in style by the guys from Foro. The flamenco world out there, tunning into YouTube, must be wondering, what's going on. LOL!
RE: **Advanced Challenge Entries** (in reply to ToddK)
Well, the only caveat I would add to the Shure SM-57 is that you should have a decent pre-amp for recording.
I tried to get it to work with my Edirol UA-25 and I had to crank it to max and it was therefore noisy with insufficient volume. So now both sit on the shelf and I don't use them - I fool around instead with the Zoom H4.
So does anyone know why the SM-57 would not work with this audio interface? It supposedly has decent pre-amps for the money?
RE: **Advanced Challenge Entries** (in reply to cathulu)
Sounds like the Edirol interface may be faulty. You need a preamp with plenty of gain for dynamic mics, But the Edirol should be fine. I have yet to find a premp in good working condition that didn't work with an Sm57.
The only issue I have is the price.....$599. I think its worth it considering the price of most other mics made by DPA. DPA used to be called Brüel & Kjær or B&K. I guess they got tired of people not being able to pronounce the company name. They produce microphones used in scientific experiments and measurements of sound related phneomenon. Audio engineers discovered that the mics were pretty much the very best recording condensers available today.
RE: **Advanced Challenge Entries** (in reply to JasonMcGuire)
Thanks Jason! I will try it again one day as it is well passed warranty, maybe it was a faulty cable or something. PS Glad to hear your challenge was such a success. I still have a guajira upload in me one day... holidays and summer activities are getting in my way. Hard to keep the momentum going.
Darnit Jason, I think I will have to get one of these. Does the installation/location of the mic bother you at all? I'm not too crazy about the look. Have you used it for live app?
RE: **Advanced Challenge Entries** (in reply to DonS)
Yes I have been using it live and it sounds great. Instead of placing it below the neck I place it above and aimed down. It really depends on where you have your monitors. It sounds the same in either position and it can be connected to wireless transmitters if you need that sort of thing. I think the key is to aim it at the 19th fret regardless of where you connect it to the guitar. It is very lightweight, stable and is coated with soft rubber so that it won't mar the finish of your guitar.
RE: **Advanced Challenge Entries** (in reply to Ricardo)
I just wanted to address the question, whether you guys think that appearance has any importance in playing guitar? With appearance i mean face mainly. TOmatitos face in that video is not Alegria at all and makes me SCARE to be honest (besides his playing that also scares me too of course, i like the tempo and delivery of this performance, although i cant leave it unmentioned that he missed ALOT OF notes...)
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I felt Jason's comments, though pretty tough were dead on, great ear. I felt Doit's version derserved more points in general, but that is just me! 
How would you rate this piece as far as difficulty ? On a scale of 1 to 10 . 
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