Welcome to one of the most active flamenco sites on the Internet. Guests can read most posts but if you want to participate click here to register.
This site is dedicated to the memory of Paco de Lucía, Ron Mitchell, Guy Williams, Linda Elvira, Philip John Lee, Craig Eros, Ben Woods, David Serva and Tom Blackshear who went ahead of us.
We receive 12,200 visitors a month from 200 countries and 1.7 million page impressions a year. To advertise on this site please contact us.
Posts: 310
Joined: Jul. 16 2015
From: De camino a Sevilla
Mixing flamenco guitar
currently listening to Geraldo, i've been meaning to ask about this cuz i've been noticing it on some flamenco recordings but couldn't remember which
if you have Travesia (who doesn't?! puristas?) go to 1:39 of Ítaca and listen to the fade. it's so unmusical on such a beautiful piece that it always distracts me from the playing
i've heard it in other places and wondered if there was some noise issue in recording flamenco guitar that mix engineers try to mask
I believe that "noise" is an electric guitar with a volume swell.
edit: Sorry, wrong track.
Now the right track, "ítaca".
That sounds like an edit. He played the first part and the next part was from another take.
Without knowing the source material, I think it could've been done much better, unless the source material had some problems on that area... but even so.. yeah, crappy editing that's what it is.
if you have Travesia (who doesn't?! puristas?) go to 1:39 of Ítaca and listen to the fade. it's so unmusical on such a beautiful piece that it always distracts me from the playing
I double checked it and don't get what's the big deal...he is bridging the free intro to the a compas section... too much down time there wouldn't be good....the guitar naturally fades like that anyway, COMPRESSION gives the illusion of sustain on a lot of recordings...including this one....which I find a problem when ever he holds a chord an ANY of the free style pieces on here. I understand need for compression of course, but also I can see why they felt a need to force fade that last chord out...otherwise, with the amount of compressor used on this thing that chord would have held out for freakin ever.
Yeah, the super unnatural edit was one of the first things I noticed when I listened to Itaca. It made me sad because it makes it seem like minimal effort was put into this record, which Nunez alludes to in an interview I read about Travesia... basically that he made the record because he had to and that he really dislikes recording... his guitar is also really out of tune in the intro for Itaca. :( And, like Ricardo said, the album in general is super compressed; definitely more so than his past recordings.
Even if the compression was already printed into the recording, the editing could've made the transition flawless. Even a simple well adjusted crossfade would be enough to avoid the "Ok, it fades out and ends here... Hey, here's the rest of the song!" feeling that it gives to the listener.
Posts: 15856
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC
RE: Mixing flamenco guitar (in reply to Sr. Martins)
quote:
ORIGINAL: Sr. Martins
Even if the compression was already printed into the recording, the editing could've made the transition flawless. Even a simple well adjusted crossfade would be enough to avoid the "Ok, it fades out and ends here... Hey, here's the rest of the song!" feeling that it gives to the listener.
Transition is just fine and as intended...it's SUPPOSED to be two songs....don't get you guys.
Even if the compression was already printed into the recording, the editing could've made the transition flawless. Even a simple well adjusted crossfade would be enough to avoid the "Ok, it fades out and ends here... Hey, here's the rest of the song!" feeling that it gives to the listener.
Transition is just fine and as intended...it's SUPPOSED to be two songs....don't get you guys.
It's one track, though... whether they were recorded separately or not, a simple cross-fade could have masked that with about 10 seconds worth of effort by whoever did the mixing/mastering.
Posts: 15856
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC
RE: Mixing flamenco guitar (in reply to Bulerias2005)
jeeeezus guys..... it was a quick fade on purpose...the compas part comes in to surprise you coming out of total silence. otherwise the compressor would have sustained that thing ridiculous too long...not unlike the rest of the intro.
otherwise the compressor would have sustained that thing ridiculous too long
Sorry but that ain't a valid excuse. I don't believe that the compression is printed on so there's no reason for that messy editing. Even if it was so, still no reason for that display of poor editing... to me it sounds like someone said "uh, f%$k it.. it's good enough"
Even I do much better than that with freeware on demos.
Posts: 15856
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC
RE: Mixing flamenco guitar (in reply to Sr. Martins)
quote:
ORIGINAL: Sr. Martins
quote:
otherwise the compressor would have sustained that thing ridiculous too long
Sorry but that ain't a valid excuse. I don't believe that the compression is printed on so there's no reason for that messy editing. Even if it was so, still no reason for that display of poor editing... to me it sounds like someone said "uh, f%$k it.. it's good enough"
Even I do much better than that with freeware on demos.
it seems like lazy mixing to me. if it was a compressor thing, even if hardware compressor, they could have ridden the threshold manually. if the compression was printed a cleaner fade wouldn't be impossible
Ricardo, since you know Geraldo you can ask him and i bet he didn't like the results on this one
"I honestly hated the studios, that’s the honest-to-god truth. So if I took a long time to record, it’s because of that phobia. I never wear headphones big or small. To get into a recording booth with headphones on makes me physically ill, it affects me psychologically. I try to avoid it. "
Posts: 15856
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC
RE: Mixing flamenco guitar (in reply to Sr. Martins)
quote:
ORIGINAL: Sr. Martins
quote:
ok you win cross fade maestro.
No reason for that attitude.
I was just letting you know in case someone does that kind of half assed job in your recordings and tell you "it's the way it should be".
Sure thing man...I'll get a tatoo "remember to ask the maestro this MORONIC question", so I won't forget to waste his time next time I see him. Can't wait for this IDIOT topic to vaporize into the archives of foroflamenco dumb question oblivion.
"I honestly hated the studios, that’s the honest-to-god truth. So if I took a long time to record, it’s because of that phobia. I never wear headphones big or small. To get into a recording booth with headphones on makes me physically ill, it affects me psychologically. I try to avoid it. "
I was just letting you know in case someone does that kind of half assed job in your recordings and tell you "it's the way it should be".
Sure thing man...I'll get a tatoo "remember to ask the maestro this MORONIC question", so I won't forget to waste his time next time I see him. Can't wait for this IDIOT topic to vaporize into the archives of foroflamenco dumb question oblivion.