The Home Recordist

Gold Watch and Chain

2008-09-22T07:28:00.000-07:00

Here's another sample I am working on in my home studio. This was recorded with a Samson CO1U USB microphone and mixed in Audacity. The guitar sound is completely synthesized in MIDI.

Gold Watch and Chain MP3

Avoiding that Amateur Sound

2008-09-22T07:23:00.001-07:00

This is a good article about how to improve your recording skills and add a more professional sound to your recordings. I am trying to use some of these techniques myself over time.

10 Hallmarks of Amateur Recordings

A Sample Recording

2007-09-22T14:10:00.001-07:00

Here's a small sample of the sound I am getting out of my home studio lately. This is a traditional folksong, "Honey In the Rock". It uses a 12-string MIDI guitar, and 2-part harmony vocals with a chorus effect added by Audacity.

Widening Vocals

2007-09-22T13:48:00.000-07:00

I generally use Audacity to record vocals. The best technique I know of to widen the sound and make it seem much more expansive and full is to first record a mono track, then duplicate it, assign each track to a different channel, then add a delay and some small pitch changes to widen out the sound.

Step by step, here's what I do:

- Record a mono vocal track
- Duplicate it into a separate track
- Assign the first track to the left channel, and the second track to the right
- Add a small delay to the second channel by cutting a small 20-25ms slice out of the first channel at the very beginning
- Using the Audacity "Change Pitch" feature, select the entire left channel, change it 12/100 (0.12) semitones down (lower).
- Use the same effect on the right channel, but change its pitch 12/100 (0.12) semitones up (higher).

This really had a profound effect on the sound and I use it as the foundation of almost every vocal track.

Here's a discussion of the same idea at The Recording Project:
http://www.recordingproject.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?t=19733

Folk Guitar MIDI: Final Version

2007-09-22T13:43:00.002-07:00

So here's our final version of both guitar voices with strumming, multiple endings, capo on the first fret, some small melody changes, and MIDI settings tweaked:

V:1 octave=-1
%%MIDI program 121
%%MIDI control 10 90
%%MIDI control 91 40
%%MIDI control 93 40
%%MIDI beatstring pp
z3 | E/E/ E/B,/2|F/E/ D/2D/2|E/E/4E/4 G/B/|\
B3/2 B/|d3/4d/4 B/B/|A/(F/4E/4)D|\
E/F/2 A/F/|E2||E/E/E|\
F/E/2D/2D/2|E3/4E/4 G/B/|B2|d3/4d/4B|\
A/F/4E/4D|E/F/2 A/F/|E2-|E2
V:2 octave=-1
%%MIDI program 121
%%MIDI control 7 80
%%MIDI control 10 20
%%MIDI control 91 40
%%MIDI control 93 40
%%MID beatstring pp
[ME,]/32-[ME,MB,]/32-[ME,MB,MG]/32-[ME,MB,MGE]/32-[ME,MB,MGE]92/32  |
|: [ME,]/2-[ME,MB,]/2-[ME,MB,MG]/2-[ME,MB,MGE]/2 |
[ME,]/2-[ME,MB,]/2-[ME,MB,MG]/2-[ME,MB,MGE]/2 |
[ME,]/2-[ME,MB,]/2-[ME,MB,MG]/2-[ME,MB,MGE]/2 |
[ME,]/32-[ME,MB,]/32-[ME,MB,MG]/32-[ME,MB,MGE]/32-[ME,MB,MGE]28/32
[ME,]/32-[ME,MB,]/32-[ME,MB,MG]/32-[ME,MB,MGE]/32-[ME,MB,MGE]28/32 |
[ME,]/2-[ME,MB,]/2-[ME,MB,MG]/2-[ME,MB,MGE]/2 |
|1
[MD,]/2-[MD,MB,]/2-[MD,MB,M^F]/2-[MD,MB,M^FMB]/2 |
[MD,]/2-[MD,MB,]/2-[MD,MB,M^F]/2-[MD,MB,M^FMB]/2 |
[ME,]/16-[ME,MB,]/16-[ME,MB,MG]/16-[ME,MB,MGME]/16-[ME,MB,MGME]12/16 G,/2B,/2  |
:|2
[MD,]/16-[MD,MB,]/16-[MD,MB,M^F]/16-[MD,MB,M^FMB]/16-[MD,MB,M^FMB]28/16 |
[MD,]/16-[MD,MB,]/16-[MD,MB,M^F]/16-[MD,MB,M^FMB]/16-[MD,MB,M^FMB]28/16 |
%[ME,]/16-[ME,MB,]/16-[ME,MB,MG]/16-[ME,MB,MGME]/16-[ME,MB,MGME]60/16 ||
[E,B,]4

And here's the result: shady.abc shady.mp3

To play a MIDI file and create an MP3 I first use Midig to create a WAV file as output:

Midig.exe /gshady.wav shady.mid

Then I encode it using LAME:

lame -h shady.wav shady.mp3

Folk Guitar MIDI: Some Strumming

2007-09-22T13:43:00.001-07:00

The overall sound is still somewhat mechanical. Let's add some guitar strums to liven this up. To make a decent MIDI guitar strum, here's a very good tutorial (this covers alot of nice MIDI ideas, but go to the end to see the chord strum discussion):

http://www.classicalguitarmidi.com/sequenceangl.html

We'll use the basic arpeggio notation as above, but here each note will be 1/32, tied to a final strum of the remaining time for the measure (here the time is 2 beats so that is 64/32 minus the time for the first 4 strums, so 64/32 - 4/32 = 60/32):

[ME,]/32-[ME,MB,]/32-[ME,MB,MG]/32-[ME,MB,MGE]/32-[ME,MB,MGE]60/32 | 32nd note strum

For a more pronounced strum, we can use 16th notes instead of 32nd as we did before, as follows:

[ME,]/16-[ME,MB,]/16-[ME,MB,MG]/16-[ME,MB,MGME]/16-[ME,MB,MGME]28/16  | 16th note strum

Using this, let's make an intro strum for 3 beats:

[ME,]/32-[ME,MB,]/32-[ME,MB,MG]/32-[ME,MB,MGE]/32-[ME,MB,MGE]92/32  |

Also let's substitute a couple 1-beat strums for one of the arpeggio measures. So:

[ME,]/2-[ME,MB,]/2-[ME,MB,MG]/2-[ME,MB,MGE]/2 |

Changes into:

[ME,]/32-[ME,MB,]/32-[ME,MB,MG]/32-[ME,MB,MGE]/32-[ME,MB,MGE]28/32
[ME,]/32-[ME,MB,]/32-[ME,MB,MG]/32-[ME,MB,MGE]/32-[ME,MB,MGE]28/32 |

Alternate Endings

We can also make 2 different endings of our repeat, one for halfway thru the song, and the other at the very end. We can use the |1 and :|2 convention in ABC2MIDI for this. We'll make the shared part of the melody five measures long and use the little strum change above in it on the 4th measure:

|: [ME,]/2-[ME,MB,]/2-[ME,MB,MG]/2-[ME,MB,MGE]/2 |
[ME,]/2-[ME,MB,]/2-[ME,MB,MG]/2-[ME,MB,MGE]/2 |
[ME,]/2-[ME,MB,]/2-[ME,MB,MG]/2-[ME,MB,MGE]/2 |
[ME,]/32-[ME,MB,]/32-[ME,MB,MG]/32-[ME,MB,MGE]/32-[ME,MB,MGE]28/32
[ME,]/32-[ME,MB,]/32-[ME,MB,MG]/32-[ME,MB,MGE]/32-[ME,MB,MGE]28/32 |
[ME,]/2-[ME,MB,]/2-[ME,MB,MG]/2-[ME,MB,MGE]/2 |

Then each ending is three measures long. For the first ending ending (halfway thru the song), we'll use two D-chord arpeggios and one Em 16th note strum for 1 beat, and a simple 2-note bass run into the second part of the song (bass G, bass B, 1/2 beat each) for a nice transition. We'll use the "|1" convention in ABC2MIDI:

|1
[MD,]/2-[MD,MB,]/2-[MD,MB,M^F]/2-[MD,MB,M^FMB]/2 |
[MD,]/2-[MD,MB,]/2-[MD,MB,M^F]/2-[MD,MB,M^FMB]/2 |
[ME,]/16-[ME,MB,]/16-[ME,MB,MG]/16-[ME,MB,MGME]/16-[ME,MB,MGME]12/16 G,/2B,/2  |

The :|2 is for the second and final ending (of the entire song), containing 2 D-chord 16th note strums, and a final ending on just the 2 bass roots of the Em chord for effect. Here we add a final measure just to let these 2 notes ring a while:

:|2
[MD,]/16-[MD,MB,]/16-[MD,MB,M^F]/16-[MD,MB,M^FMB]/16-[MD,MB,M^FMB]28/16 |
[MD,]/16-[MD,MB,]/16-[MD,MB,M^F]/16-[MD,MB,M^FMB]/16-[MD,MB,M^FMB]28/16 |
[E,B,]4

Also at this point I prefer the sound of this played as if using a capo on the first fret. We can change this in the ABC key signature:

K:Em transpose=1

And we'll fidget with the melody a little by bringing up the F/A into G/B, and slowing a few of the 1/4 notes in the intro sections, so E/E/4E/4 goes to E/E/B,2.

Separation and other MIDI Parameters

We can also refine the sound somewhat by twiddling the stereo separation, reverb, chorus, and velocity. To do this, in ABC2MIDI, use the following commands:

MIDI controller 10 for stereo separation, with the value of 64 being split evenly between sides. For a 2-part arrangement, we can use 20 for the left channel and 90 for the right;
MIDI controller 91 for reverb (40);
MIDI controller 93 for chorus (40);
MIDI controller 7 to reduce the volume of the accompanying arpeggio slightly (to 80 from 100); and
the "beatstring" command for a lighter velocity.

Here's an example:

V:2 octave=-1
%%MIDI program 121
%%MIDI control 10 20
%%MIDI control 91 40
%%MIDI control 93 40
%%MIDI beatstring pp
...

Folk Guitar MIDI: A Second Guitar Part

2007-09-22T13:41:00.000-07:00

At this point we have a very solid instrument at our disposal: a good MIDI Softsynth, customized with a polished acoustic guitar soundfont, all for free! Let's now focus on the music. To fill out the sound of the simple melody line, let's add a second guitar part. We can add another voice to our ABC file as:

V:2 octave=-1
%%MIDI program 121

Let's use a simple chord arpeggio as a background. To express an Em chord in ABC we can simply use:

[E,B,GEB]

However I prefer to write out the chord using notes with ties as we can then modify this for a strumming sound later. Since the time is 2/4, we want two beats per measure, so each note of the arpeggio needs 1/2 beat.:

[E,]/2-[E,B,]/2-[E,B,G]/2-[E,B,GE]/2

Here's what this chord arpeggio sounds like: Simple Em Arpeggio

Let's extend this to the whole song. We need to add a D chord -- the melody line is is 5 measures Em, 2 measures D, and one measure Em, then all repeated again. We can use the |: and :| repeat notation in ABC to good effect here:

V:2
%%MIDI program 121
|: [ME,]/2-[ME,MB,]/2-[ME,MB,MG]/2-[ME,MB,MGE]/2 |
[ME,]/2-[ME,MB,]/2-[ME,MB,MG]/2-[ME,MB,MGE]/2 |
[ME,]/2-[ME,MB,]/2-[ME,MB,MG]/2-[ME,MB,MGE]/2 |
[ME,]/2-[ME,MB,]/2-[ME,MB,MG]/2-[ME,MB,MGE]/2 |
[ME,]/2-[ME,MB,]/2-[ME,MB,MG]/2-[ME,MB,MGE]/2 |
[MD,]/2-[MD,MB,]/2-[MD,MB,M^F]/2-[MD,MB,M^FMB]/2 |
[MD,]/2-[MD,MB,]/2-[MD,MB,M^F]/2-[MD,MB,M^FMB]/2 |
[ME,]/2-[ME,MB,]/2-[ME,MB,MG]/2-[ME,MB,MGE]/2 :|

This is starting to sound a bit better: shady4.mp3

Folk Guitar MIDI: Soundfonts

2007-09-22T13:40:00.000-07:00

Midig itself comes with a fairly good acoustic guitar soundfont. However, an even better alternative is available. I use the SampleSmith free soundfont, which I think sounds more like a real guitar. This is available at:

SampleSmith Free Soundfont

The quality of this is excellent and I would recommend buying the full version (especially for just $9.95). However for now our demo can proceed by using the free version. First, we need to update Midig to use a patch that provides for better SF2 support. Make sure you first install the basic Midig 2.03 and the 2.04 update from the home page, then download and install this update over that:

Midig_SoftSynth_205a_update.zip

Next, we need to install this soundfont into Midig. It is possible to add a new instrument to by modifying the GM.DAT file that comes with Midig. First, copy the soundfont file (.SF2 extension) into the SF2 folder within your Midig installation. Then, open up the GM.DAT file, and assign an unused voice number (I used 121) to the soundfont file:

      121 = { "sf2/SampleSmith_Free_G1-v1.sf2", VOL_SF2, 0 }

As with other soundfonts, this contains more than one preset (in this case 2; one is muted, and the other is long rings). This presents a small problem with Midig, as its SF2 support doesn't currently allow for selecting these presets. If you select this instrument using the current version of Midig, you'll only hear the muted voice, not the "long rings" voice we want to play the song with. To solve this problem, it is possible to extract the soundfont into a folder with all of its individual samples extracted into indivdual WAV files, and more importantly, its control structure and WAV mappings into a text file. We can then hand-edit the control file to include just one of the presets, and re-construct it into a smaller soundfont usable by Midig. The program to do this is called SF2COMP and is available at:

SF2COMP Home Page

First, extract the soundfont from its ZIP file and place it into a folder that you've created for this purpose, say c:\sf2. Next, use the SF2COMP program to de-compile the soundfont into its WAV files and into a text file that describes the presents and WAV mappings (we'll call that ss.txt):

c:\sf2>sf2comp d SampleSmith_Free_G1-v1.sf2 ss.txt

Now, copy the mapping text file into a new one that we can hand-edit, we'll call it ss2.txt:

c:\sf2>copy ss.txt ss2.txt

Open this file and find the "presets" area:

[Presets]

   PresetName=Open Muted
       Bank=1
       Program=2

       Instrument=Open Muted
           L_LowKey=0
           L_HighKey=127
           L_LowVelocity=0
           L_HighVelocity=127


   PresetName=Open Long  Rings
       Bank=1
       Program=0

       Instrument=Open Long Rings
           L_LowKey=0
           L_HighKey=127
           L_LowVelocity=0
           L_HighVelocity=127

Delete the "open muted" preset and just leave the open long rings present:

[Presets]

   PresetName=Open Long  Rings
       Bank=1
       Program=0

       Instrument=Open Long Rings
           L_LowKey=0
           L_HighKey=127
           L_LowVelocity=0
           L_HighVelocity=127

Now re-compile this mapping file into a new soundfont, we'll call it ss2.sf2:

c:\sf2>sf2comp c ss2.txt ss2.sf2

Move this new soundfont file into the SF2 folder within your MIDI installation directory. Finally, modify GM.DAT in the MIDIG directory to point to our modified soundfont:

     121 = { "sf2/ss2.sf2", VOL_SF2, 0 }

That's it! You now have a nice new guitar soundfont to play with in Midig by simply selecting program 121:

V:1 octave=-1
%%MIDI program 121
E/E/ E/E/4E/4|F/E/ D|E/E/4E/4 F/A/|\
...

Here's the result: shady3.mp3

Folk Guitar MIDI: MIDIG Synth

2007-09-22T13:39:00.000-07:00

At this point, you're thinking that this all sounds truly fake. You're right! Using your default MIDI playback program in your browser is a big reason why MIDI has a lousy reputation. However, better quality awaits. The Midig software synthesizer is a big improvement over the standard synth provided in Windows, and does a nice job on most instrument sounds, especially for being freeware. It is available at:

Midig software synthesizer home page

If we render our current version of Shady Grove using Midig, here's the result (in MP3): shady2.mp3

Folk Guitar MIDI: Introduction

2007-09-22T13:37:00.000-07:00

Basic MIDI usually sounds pretty awful. For those interested in trying to get the best folk guitar sound out of MIDI for the least amount of $$$, here's a small 2-part guitar arrangement of "Shady Grove" that we will use as an example of what can be done:

Shady Grove Arrangement for MIDI (MP3 Version)

Here I'll discuss in detail how this MP3 file was arranged and recorded. To start with, here's a list of the software components we'll be using:

ABCMIDI tools
Midig softsynth
LAME MP3 encoder
SampleSmith Free Soundfont
SF2COMP Soundfont complier/de-compiler

All of this software is either freeware or open source.

The first thing we need is a basic way to arrange tunes and sequence them for MIDI. The free ABC system provides a good place to start. ABC is a musical notation format that expresses notes, chords, and MIDI voicings. Here's alot of background information on ABC:

ABC musical notation language

The ABCMIDI utilities provides programs to mainpulate these files. In particular, for our purposes, ABC2MIDI is a freeware program that accepts ABC notation files, and generates a standard MIDI file that plays it. It is part of a broader set of tools that can also typeset the musical score.

ABC2MIDI Guide
ABCMIDI tools at SourceForge

ABC is geared towards folk music, and lots of ABC-format folk tunes are available on the web. For "Shady Grove", here's one that we can use as a start, based on an arrangement by Andrew Kuntz:

X:1
T:Shady Grove
S:Jean Ritchie's 'Singing Family of the Cumberlands'
Q:45
M:2/4
L:1/8
N:Very lively
K:Em
E/E/ E/E/4E/4|F/E/ D|E/E/4E/4 F/A/|\
B3/2 B/|d3/4d/4 B/B/|A/(F/4E/4)D|\
E/F/4F/4 A/F/|E2||E/E/E|\
F/E/4E/4D|E3/4E/4 F/A/|B2|d3/4d/4B|\
A/F/4E/4D|E/F/4F/4 A/F/|E2|]

(Kuntz, Fiddler’s Companion, http://ibiblio.org/fiddlers/FChomepage.htm ).(This is from http://www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/SG_SHA.htm, used with permission; search on "Shady Grove" for several arrangements)

This provides the basic outline of the melody of the tune. We can render this directly into MIDI to see what it sounds like using ABC2MIDI:

abc2midi shady1.abc

Here's the result: shady11.mid

We're after a much fuller and richer folk guitar sound for our arrangement. Let's see how we can improve this. First, the default instrument in ABC2MIDI is the piano. Let's switch it to guitar (instrument number 25) using the MIDI commands in ABC2MIDI. We'll add a "voice" command with an instrument right above the melody lines. We'll also instruct ABC to tune this guitar down 1 octave as that is appropriate for all guitar instruments in MIDI:

V:1 octave=-1
%%MIDI program 25
E/E/ E/E/4E/4|F/E/ D|E/E/4E/4 F/A/|\
...

Here's the result: shady21.mid

Welcome to The Home Recordist

2007-09-22T13:35:00.000-07:00

I'm a folk musician interested in home recording. I'll be posting articles and links about home recording, MIDI, and all things related.

I record with a 6-string Martin, a Samson CO1U condenser mic (no amp, this plugs straight into a USB port), an HP Pavilion laptop, Audacity open source recording software, and a 12-string MIDI guitar.

Leave a comment if you find something interesting here.