The Tiler

[davajonah]

Man - this is beautiful. One for the pod for sure - blot out mobile phone morons when I commute to work - thank you! Listening again. The Tiler can sure play - great acoustic guitar work, lovely.
Skip To My Lou Variations

[Boris]

i can only agree wholeheartedly. The Tiler has earned my respect, time and time over. great stuff!

[rcandrews]

the tiler, is the tailor of the acoustic g'tar. reminds me of so many of the greats i can't list them all

he is indeed one bad dude, a tune i hope he posts soon

peace

[aclarke]

Speaking of "One Bad Dude"- it's posted! The Tiler has guitar skills I can only dream about.

http://www.macidol.com/song.php?band_id=1505&song_id=8194

[Joanna]

I wrote a voice-over for One Bad Dude a few days ago, but promised not to post it until his version had had a chance to be heard. It's such a cool song.

-- Joanna

[davajonah]

I wrote a voice-over for One Bad Dude a few days ago, but promised not to post it until his version had had a chance to be heard. It's such a cool song.

-- Joanna

Look forward to hearing that one Joanna!

[Joanna]

I wrote a voice-over for One Bad Dude a few days ago, but promised not to post it until his version had had a chance to be heard. It's such a cool song.

-- Joanna

Look forward to hearing that one Joanna!

Okay, it's posted!

Tyler O'Toole

[davajonah]

I can see why you do what you do!
Terrific stuff - had a listen last night before bed. On the pod this morning for my travel to the city centre.

Are you still using the pinhole mic? How do you get it so clear? Just excellent.

DJ

[Joanna]

I can see why you do what you do!
Terrific stuff - had a listen last night before bed. On the pod this morning for my travel to the city centre.

Are you still using the pinhole mic? How do you get it so clear? Just excellent.

DJ

Thank you! It was such a wonderful piece of music, with fantastic pacing and built-in drama, that to my mind it was a perfect bed for a bit of storytelling.

As for the pinhole, no, I gave that up months ago when I figured out how to hook up my Shure SM58 (that I'd purchased in my voice-over days). I got an iMic and that took care of the problem I'd been having.

-- Joanna

[eddobeas]

I'm so glad this "Tunes" post helped me discover this artist -- I've downloaded all his tracks. So beautiful. I'm curious how he records his acoustic guitar. It's so completely professional sounding, and on headphones, the bass strings sound more left, and the higher string sound more to the right, as if he's managed to get true stereo separation on the six strings.

These pieces are inspiring both musically and technically!

EddieD

[kilroydegeek]

I can't say how The Tiler got his stereo separation on his guitar, but here's a few tips for acoustic players on methods to try. Each has its merits.

New Guitar
Some top level acoustics have split pickups under the bridge. Often piezo, in-bridge, with much in-built equalisation to optimise the sound to the best acoustic qualities of the guitar itself. Expect little change out of US$3k for a good stereo acoustic, but this will enable you to mix bass strings to one side, treble to the other.

Old Guitar Retrofit
Pretty much the sam approach as the above, but with an aftermarket split pickup fitted to an existing favourite guitar. This is NOT for the faint-hearted. The installation alone, can damage the guitar, the tweaking and equalistation can be frustrating and time consuming. If you know a good luthier who can do "mates' rates" try this, but expect little change out of a grand.

Pick One, Pick Two
Separate your parts and play them as two distinct takes. Play the finger melody, then record the thumb bass. You'd better rehearse this well before you even fire up your Mac, then rehearse a few more times, playing along with the first part, before you record the second part. Expect lots of takes till you get it right, and a lack of naturalism.

Guitars Have Lapels?
A pair of cheap lapel mics (like these) and a piece of icecream bucket plastic gaffa'd onto the guitar body near the bridge can come close to the first or second method. By creating plastic bridge over the guitar's bridge, clipping the lapel mics to the plastic bridge so that one points to the bass strings, the other to the treble, and feeding one mic to the left, the other to the right, you'll get about 15 to 20 dB channel separation, natural soundhole projection, string and picking sound, and even with the AU$20 mic I've linked to as an example, a pretty damned good frequency response. Sit with your back to your Mac, and you won't even get the fan noise (unless you've got a mirrored drive door G4 - sorry Paul) No change out of AU$50 (US$36) for the two mics and a "Y" cable to feed one to left, the other to the right.

Copy & EQ
The linearphase EQ Audio Unit (comes with Soundtrack), which allows you to draw really nice EQ sweeps with your mouse can be used to put a gentle slope across the band, gently swinging bass to one channel, and treble to the other. Simply duplicat the track your performance is recorded in, pan one copy to left, the other right, put a 6dB/octave slope from about 300Hz sloping down from left right on the side you want the bass to come from, do the opposite (ie a 6dB/octave slope down from 300Hz, right to left) to the treble channel, et voila! The standard Garage Band graphic will do this, too, but not quite as well. No change out of $0 if you already have the required plugin.

A bit of a thread hijack, but probably useful to help people achieve similar production quality to The Tiler's.

[finer]

Speaking of "One Bad Dude"- it's posted! The Tiler has guitar skills I can only dream about.

http://www.macidol.com/song.php?band_id=1505&song_id=8194

Simply marvellous.

[Joanna]

I've asked Tiler to come over here explain his mic techniques.

[eddobeas]

Kilroy -- that is an amazing breakdown of useful advice. Thanks so much. The song I've been stuck on for months features a similar (though not quite identical guitar part panned hard left and right so it kind of interweaves in the headphones -- I will apply the equalization advice to see how that affects it. Cool stuff!

EddieD

[The Tiler]

Thanks for all the compliments!

As for as mic techniques, all I do is have two condenser mics. One on each side of the guitar. A boom for a mic is on the right side of the hole of the guitar and a mic on a pole type holder is on the left side, each about a ft to a ft and half away.

I try not to point them right at the guitar hole.

About 10 or 15 or so songs - instrumentals back I used only one mic and I was constantly getting posts about how my recording lacked a rich sound.
I have a little 8 track Behringer mx 1602 mixer and a US 122 interface that I plug the mixer into.
I just went to a music store where for about 500 dollars you can get a little firewire mixer (8 track) looks really nice. Firewire is the way to go I think if you have the bucks. I might get one. I would like to get another acoustic guitar, though the one I have is livable. It is an acoustic Takamine guitar. I have played some Taylors, Martins that seem mighty nice. I think Taylor for the money is a pretty good way to go.

So having two mics was really a godsend.