Gentlemen: whenever you see a great big overgrown buck sitting at the mouth of some holler, or at the forks of some road, with a big slouch hat on, a blue celluloid collar, a celluloid, artificial red rose in his coat lapel, a banjo strung across his breast, and a-pickin' of Sourwood Mountain, fine that man, gentlemen, fine him! For if he hasn't already done something, he's a-going to - Josiah Combs, quoted in Old-Time Mountain Banjo
Okay I think I have alot of the kinks worked out on this recording thing. Try this one out and let me know if anyone sees any improvements that can be made as far as recording goes. Three tracks, guitar and vocals on track one, harp on track two, and knee slaps on track three (mixed down low). http://www.markmcdonaldblues.com/break.htm
real real nice! Aside from the great playing and especially nice harp, the recording didn't have any of the distortion or clipping or whatever on my playback. One minor thing I wonder - is there an electronic reverb or similar effect being added? It wasn't pervasively and obviously too much, but I think I might have preferred less of the "echoiness". I'm a fan of natural sound, even though I know effects use is obviously common to make things less "flat". If you aren't using an electronic effect, I am curious how you got the "hall" sound! I should add that I am a complete and total hacker, so take it for what its worth.
Tom, Lack of distortion is a result of finally gettting the levels right on recording and also converting to mp3 at a higher resolution. I am trying to get a really solid sounding mp3 for Taxi submissions. I may even go higher than 128, which is what Breakin' Down is.
Reverb: You are so observant. Reverb is an effect that came with the machine and the reverb unit that I did use was "Hall" with a 0.6 second delay.
I always like to use some reverb, at least on voice, because, frankly I can use all the help I can get for vocals. My dry vocals, at least to my ear, sounds like crap but with a little reverb it makes it somewhat tolerable.
Now you've got it. Not only is your playing and singing great, but the sound is too. Crystal clear guitar with great sound. You are so good with the harp. Personally I didn't mind the little reverb in your vocals at all, not that you need it, it's just a matter of personal taste. I like a little bit of reverb on just about anybody's vocals.