New Recording Posted

I finally bought the 8-track recorder I was looking to buy, the Tascam DP-01FX. Good little unit, has a 40GB hard drive and a USB port so song transport is easy. Over this past weekend I toyed with it and came up with my first home-recording, "Hawks and Doves". You can listen to it here.

I ended up getting a Baggs Element acoustic pickup installed in my Gibson Hummingbird. While I still feel it will be a somewhat useful tool (especially for live performances) I am a bit disappointed in it for recording. The tone was not quite what I was looking for, it almost was electric sounding. If I want to use it as a primary tone for recording, I think I will need some kind of EQ box for it.

I tracked four guitar tracks onto the recording. Three of the tracks were recording direct from the 'Bird using the Baggs. The fourth track I mic'd the 'Bird with my Shure SM-57 mic, and that was the sound I was looking for. The mic'd track is the primary guitar track, and the other three tracks are mixed low - they provide some good backing tracks and give the song some "beef".

Listening to "Hawks and Doves" in my car, the guitar sounds really, really sweet in tone. There's a residual tone that almost sounds like an accordian behind the strumming. I love that Hummingbird, definitely the best instrument I own.

I will post more here as I record new songs. I am hoping my skill improve in recording as I move forward. But for now, I'm doing what I hoped I would do, record my original tunes. Hopefully I can mix in some live dates too.