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No perceived issues, and maybe that was part of the problem. This is one of the first cracks I've taken at recording myself, and the whole process made me so nerve-wracked that I was bed-ridden for the rest of the day. It's weird how much you can get inside your own head... I guess I just always assume that my ears aren't good enough, my gear isn't good enough, etc. Hence putting it out there to get some second opinions. Glad to hear it isn't worthy of being banished to some far-off star. You two have really helped. I'll keep going!

Hello friends, I took a stab at doing some recording the other day and am looking for some critiques. Please take a gentle listen to the link below and let me know what you think. https://soundcloud.com/user-906836198/guitar-testHere's what I'm doing:AT4033 behind bridgeAT4051 at neck panned, no eq or processing at all. This is running through Apogee Duet 2. The room is my untreated living room/kitchen space. Thoughts? Improvements? This is my first test, so looking for helpful feedback. Please ignore performance flubs.

jimmy two hands wrote:Yeah, I mostly play clawhammer rather than Scruggs style, there's a big difference in volume and sound though. The most annoying part with fingerpicking is trying to avoid picking up too much of the sound of the picks against the strings. I'm guessing should I maybe angle the mic up or down a bit so it's pointing toward the resonator?I generally don't like ribbons on banjo because of what they were lacking up top, and find myself reaching for very flat SDCs. DPA 4011s used to be my favorite when I had access to a pair. AT4051s are another surprising standout. Of course, the roll-off might actually benefit some banjos and players, but banjos are bright, loud, awful things, and if you mic them with a dark mic, it kinda loses its identity.The neck- pot joint is a great place to stick one mic for any style of banjo. If you want to blend in some extra low-mid tone, which I feel is sometimes lacking on an open back, mic the back of the thing (and check phase).I had occasion to ask some well-known three-finger banjo players what mics they really liked on their instruments, and what mic positions. Noam Pikelny said he loved a Telefunken ELA M 251 placed below the bridge and just a bit towards the outside of the pot, a foot or a bit more away from the instrument. I'll probably never get to record a banjo with a 251, but I tried that position and it did sound lovely. If you want to try a two-mic setup on a banjo picker, I'd suggest trying that and the neck-pot joint.

rampikesuperstar wrote:Hello friends, I took a stab at doing some recording the other day and am looking for some critiques. Please take a gentle listen to the link below and let me know what you think. https://soundcloud.com/user-906836198/guitar-testHere's what I'm doing:AT4033 behind bridgeAT4051 at neck panned, no eq or processing at all. This is running through Apogee Duet 2. The room is my untreated living room/kitchen space. Thoughts? Improvements? This is my first test, so looking for helpful feedback. Please ignore performance flubs.Well, we got off the Bush plane at 0600. And then there was a goddamn bear. Jesus. Look at that fucking bear. He's grabbing fish out of that river. Now he's eating it. The sick fuck. Now this tree, it's a big one. It's green all year round. Alaska!

Also, never be scared to put a high pass filter on a guitar. Depending on the steepness of the curve and what frequency you put it at it can remove almost subconscious rumble to help the track waste less energy and headroom without sounding too different, it can focus something more by cutting irrelevant lows (especially in a busy mix), or it can make your jumbo dreadnought come across as a little parlor guitar.Classic recording wisdom would suggest that eq can't save a poorly recorded sound, which is true, but it's amazing how much removing info you don't want can help bring things into a better focus.

Not sure if you're still looking for opinions on this, but I hear a couple things I would maybe change.It sounds a bit boomy to me, likely because of proximity effect from the mics. I can also hear the room, but it sounds like a flaw rather than a feature. If it were me, I would try backing the mics off a few inches to reduce the proximity, and then decide what to do about the room.Choice one would be to emphasize the room and embrace the lo-fi side of things. Find a spot in the room that makes the guitar sound cool to you and then try to capture as much of that as possible. You could pick one mic to be closer and use the second for more of a room thing. Experiment with panning and blend to get what you want. Think Nebraska.Choice two would be to do as much as possible to deaden the room so that the extra distance doesn't add more room. Strategic placement of anything soft will help. I'm mainly hearing the room in the upper-mids. Some couch cushions, sheets draped over mic stands, a mattress, a few items of clothing draped over chairs, whatever. You can then choose to leave the recording dry or add some extra ambience/verb.Which direction you move in depends on your aesthetic. If there will be a vocal, track the vocal in a similar fashion so it doesn't sound disconnected.