Sibella

[raysachs]

I'm putting this up partly because I love this Richard Thompson song and partly because I'm trying to work out using an Audigo mic system. I've been playing around with the system for a few days and it's a cool system I'm just getting comfortable with. It lets you shoot video and audio with one, two, three, or four wireless mics and it syncs the audio and video. And the software also has a rudimentary multi-track recorder, so you can add any number of additional tracks to the original recording. I added a second vocal in places and a lead guitar break late in the song.

It's my first multi-track recording with video. I like the system and look forward to getting better working with it over time. I'm also looking forward to improvements in the system - they say they're working on a way to shoot multiple videos for the different tracks, but I'm not sure when that will be working. With just a couple of improvements to the multi-track setup, it could be all a lot of us would ever need. It probably already is for me.

-Ray

[reeve21]

That’s nice, Ray. Great timing and your leads really “serve the song.”

Have fun with the new gear

[Glennwillow]

Really well done, Ray! Everything looks and sounds good!

And that is a great looking and great sounding guitar. You have a very nice, easy, rolling kind of strumming approach. Sounds really good!

- Glenn

[raysachs]

Thanks Bob and Glenn for checking it out.

I really love Richard Thompson and I heard him perform solo acoustic in Harrisburg, PA very shortly after that song (on the Mock Tudor album) was released and he blew me away. I’d seen him several times before and after but that solo acoustic performance really stood out. He wasn’t doing as much of his fancy fingerpicking that night, but was singing and strumming incredibly powerfully and he had a fairly large crowd in the palm of his hand. I’ve been playing this song a lot recently and wanted to take a shot at recording it.

I’m enjoying this new gear - I think my guitar(s) sound better largely because it’s a better mic and I can add a bit of compression and other effects after the fact. I’m looking forward to getting to know it and get better with it in time.

-Ray

[started with 1]

Thompson is great. His son Teddy had a great record about 15 years ago. Great cover Ray and I hope I don't catch the recording upgrade bug!

[raysachs]

Originally Posted by started with 1

Thompson is great. His son Teddy had a great record about 15 years ago. Great cover Ray and I hope I don't catch the recording upgrade bug!

Thanks Joe. I've had a multi-track recorder for several years now that I've really enjoyed using, but it's audio only - no way to use it for video without a huge amount of work, which I'm allergic too. I'm amazed by the kinds of video productions that guys like Glenn have put together, but no desire to get that far into it. I mostly got into doing videos just by putting my iPhone in video mode and playing, using the internal mic. Which wasn't terrible by a long shot, and I thought it helped me gain a bit of confidence in my singing since it was totally unadorned. But I couldn't do any multi-tracking with that and I really love playing a bit of lead guitar (acoustic or electric) and sometimes I think my singing sounds better with a second vocal mixed pretty low which fills out some of the flaws in a single track vocal.

This system with two mics isn't terribly expensive (not totally cheap either, but you could spend a LOT more), would be fairly cheap with one mic and I could still do most of what I'm doing just about as well with one. And it kind of gives me the best of both worlds in one setup. The multi-tracking is pretty rudimentary and there are features I miss from my already very user-friendly (and thus, not terribly powerful) multi-track setup. But overall, it feels like a relatively affordable and easy way to do a little of everything I want to do with both video and audio. So, there you go - more than you wanted to know! All to say you could upgrade without going all the way down the rabbit hole or spending a lot of $$.

-Ray

[KevWind]

hey Ray great job. That system certainly has potential especially if they get multi video going
Seems to me if you had any interest in the interim you could shoot with that system and an iPhone But of course you would have to use some kind of video editing software to merge them ----- anyway well done

I am now using two iPhones for multi cam and it works fairly well (my old iPhone 10s had not trade in value so I kept it as a second video cam)

[raysachs]

Originally Posted by KevWind

hey Ray great job. That system certainly has potential especially if they get multi video going
Seems to me if you had any interest in the interim you could shoot with that system and an iPhone But of course you would have to use some kind of video editing software to merge them ----- anyway well done

I am now using two iPhones for multi cam and it works fairly well (my old iPhone 10s had not trade in value so I kept it as a second video cam)

Thanks Kev. The Audigo actually runs on an iPhone, using the phone’s camera and running the app on the phone, but recording the audio on the mic(s) and storing it there until you OK transferring it to the phone, at which point you can manipulate it, add more tracks, etc. I have zero desire to mess with video editing software, so if/when they add multi-video capability, I may play around with it, but seeing me play the lead section or sing a second vocal part probably won’t add much to it, so unless it’s totally easy and transparent, I probably won’t use it. Just running with one video and two mics, the system occasionally gets glitchy…

-Ray

[jricc]

For a first time with new gear, that really came out great Ray. You made that gear sound excellent, and your lead is tasteful and well played.

Your Martin is gorgeous, is it a CEO?

The Audigo recorder/video thing seems pretty cool, I looked it up, I hope someday they come up with an android version.

[raysachs]

Originally Posted by jricc

For a first time with new gear, that really came out great Ray. You made that gear sound excellent, and your lead is tasteful and well played.

Your Martin is gorgeous, is it a CEO?

The Audigo recorder/video thing seems pretty cool, I looked it up, I hope someday they come up with an android version.

Hey, thanks Joe. It wasn't my first time with it - I'd been playing with it for a couple of days before I recorded that. I'm finding a lot of little glitches when I'm using two mics, which I only generally do when I'm laying down the initial rhythm guitar and vocal. And I'm honestly getting at least as good results when I record that into one mic - I just have to be a little more careful about mic placement and I have to sing a little louder. So I'm getting really good results with one mic and no glitches, so I think I'm gonna return one of them, and just go with one. Which can still be used for recording additional tracks - I just did another recording with one mic and a lead guitar section that I like a lot.

That Martin is a CEO-7, which I love the playability and sound of. I don't like the sunburst much at all, but i play it a lot more than look at it, so I don't mind it. As for Android, I'm sure Augigo will try to make an Android version of the app pretty soon - probably working on it now. I don't know how much harder it is given the variety of Android hardware out there, which I'm sure creates some challenges since everyone does it a little differently.

Enjoy the coming Jersey Shore summer! That's one thing I know we're gonna miss now that we live on the West Coast most of the year. The Oregon coast is beautiful, but it's nothing like the east coast beaches for swimming and having fun little beach towns.

-Ray

[jricc]

Thanks a lot Ray. Yes the Jersey Shore is great. Wish you guys the best in Oregon (which I hear is pretty cool with great wineries)

[Jeremy]

Nice job, Ray. The CEO-7 is stellar, I love how big a sound it produces.

[raysachs]

Originally Posted by Jeremy

Nice job, Ray. The CEO-7 is stellar, I love how big a sound it produces.

Thanks so much Jeremy, for checking it out and the kind words...

-Ray

[SalFromChatham]

I don’t think i’ve ever heard a bad CEO-7. Such a great model.

Great cover and share, Ray.

[raysachs]

Originally Posted by SalFromChatham

I don’t think i’ve ever heard a bad CEO-7. Such a great model.

Great cover and share, Ray.

Thanks for checking it out Sal. Yeah, I have two CEO-7s (one at home in Oregon, one in North Carolina where we spend winters). They're wonderful guitars. They're the least expensive acoustics I own - I paid about $2000 for each of them, one new in 2020, one used early last year. And they're probably the last guitars I'd ever get rid of. There are times I love my 000-28s, but some days it's just too bright and overtoney for my taste. And I really love my McPherson Sables, but some days not so much. But I think I've loved the CEO-7s every time I've ever played them. The first one was my only acoustic for more than a year and it could be again someday.

-Ray