Back in 1985 I was given a guitar by a friend. I learned to play a few songs like ones from CCR, Neil Young, Beatles, etc but one day a friend introduced me to the Album ‘Pink Moon’ by Nick Drake and I was completely mesmerised. I spend days/weeks/years trying to figure out which chords he was playing but of course I knew nothing of open tunings and the internet didn’t exist to help.
Fast forward 40 years and thanks to You Tube I was able to discover the secret tuning-it’s in dropped open C if you’re interested; C-G-C-F-C-E
Anyway, suddenly it became relatively easy to play (for a Nick Drake song), so I thought why not post this as my first ever audio/video. Sorry about the crackly audio at times, I need to invest in a microphone. Any feedback gratefully received. I have never played in front of people and I actually hate my voice, but there’s only one way to get better, right?
Oh Jeremy, how great to hear a Nick Drake song on here. You’ve captured the vibe alright. Thanks for sharing.
I think most of us struggle listening to our own singing but I tell myself it sounds great inside my head!
Really nice performance, Jeremy. Clean, crisp strumming and tone, and you sang well in your own voice, not trying to be Drake. BTW, you might have to explain to the younger audience what is a cassette player.
Also excited to see a Nick Drake tune. Its another thing I’m liking about the covers in this community - there’s a lot of people with excellent taste in music!
I liked your version a lot. Completely agree with @mfeeney0110 that you sang very well. I understand the feeling of not liking your own recorded voice, but you’ve got nothing to “hate” there.
Not sure what your recording set up is, but the guitar volume was a little low relative to the voice. If you’re recording with a single mic, you might just play around with the placement a bit to see if you can get increase the guitar volume a little.
God to hear a Nick Drake song, good effort. The rhythm and feel were spot on.
I have always thought about learning this, though never got to it, after seeing yours I just might.
I enjoyed your version and thank you for sharing.
Thanks for your feedback. I only used my phone’s built in microphone, but I need to look into something better, for sure.
I made the decision that today was the day I would take the plunge and post a video of myself, and not excuses about not having the right gear!
Well, congrats on taking the plunge, and I look forward to seeing more!
Re the recording set up, that totally depends on what your objectives are. Cell phone videos are perfectly valid and there are plenty of people here getting good results with that method. You might just want to do some testing with different placements and maybe try out some kind of support/stand to see if you can get a good balance between guitar and voice.
If you do have interest in music production, by all means dive in! Personally, I like the production process almost as much as the playing part.
Thanks for the tips, I will try to get the levels right before posting the next song. I listened to your album on the bandcamp site, that’s really next level!
Thanks Craig, it’s a handy little guitar and sounds great plugged in, which I hope to get sorted soon before posting again. I’d let you have a go on it but it’s a long way to WA…
Didnt realise you were in Oz too. Yes, I bought a Cort Earth Mini, same size just to travel overseas with, not expensive so if the airlines break it its not the end of the world:roll_eyes:
So, I would love to discuss and share tips/opinions about recording and producing music, but you just happened to pick the topic that I know the least about!!!
A friend of mine recommended Audio Technica Pro-37 as a good all-purpose mic. It’s the only one I have and the only one I’ve every used, so I can’t really compare it to anything.
I originally used it just for recording instruments that don’t have pickups, but when I started trying to sing, I just kept on with that same mic.
To my ears, it sounds “fine”, but I also use a lot of processing on vocals, so I’m not sure the mic matters as much. Its very possible that others would be better for recording vocals and acoustic guitar without a lot of post-processing.
Sorry I can’t give more concrete suggestions, but I will add one more general consideration: if you’re looking for a “studio” microphone, you’ll probably need an audio interface as well. There are tons of those out there. Focusrite seems popular. I have one of their interfaces, and it seems like others on this forum do as well. I think there are some USB mic options that wouldn’t require the interface, but I’ve never looked into those.
So maybe I’m circling back to my original comment about “depends on your objectives”. If the objective is to record acoustic guitar and a single voice, you probably don’t need much. I suspect a decent USB mic would be plenty.
If you see yourself doing multi-tracks, adding vocal harmonies, etc, then it would probably make sense to start researching an interface and choosing a DAW (digital audio workstation).
Apologies for the lengthy non-answer, but I hope it helps point you in the right direction.
I feel your pain Jeremy, its a learning curve but fun 
