So I got all excited about participating in the Final Fantasy 30th anniversary tribute and put this arrangement together, and I used my new equipment (Steinberg recording pack) for integrating my violin into it. I didn't do much of anything to it. I had a mic stand and the mic positioned right at the f-holes, recorded into Audacity, which just put it into the left channel. So I just duplicated the track and swapped the channel so that the recording could be heard in both ears. Obviously it's going through convolution reverb. The recording quality leaves quite a bit to be desired, to me, but tell me what you think or suggestions on how this could improve (i.e. from a technical standpoint), or whatever other sort of feedback. It's obviously a budget setup, but I wonder how well this would be received in the industry. Thanks!

First off - some really nice playing! I think it would be fun to work with you on a project where I need live violin! So cheers on that front! 

Some technical things I've noticed: 

- The violin, as a solo instrument, feels pretty far back in the mix. There's not much mid to low end in the sound of the violin. I'd see if you could give the sound of the violin a bit more body and fullness to it. You could do this in a number of ways: 

- EQ bump in the middle of the violin's frequency range

- also EQ out some of the highs and lows of the reverb plugin so you're letting the mids have more resonance 

- Add some compression so your softer notes come through a bit more and you lessen the harder/louder notes some

All in all - however, I really enjoyed it!

On 10/29/2017 at 10:35 PM, nsmadsen said:

First off - some really nice playing! I think it would be fun to work with you on a project where I need live violin! So cheers on that front! 

Some technical things I've noticed: 

- The violin, as a solo instrument, feels pretty far back in the mix. There's not much mid to low end in the sound of the violin. I'd see if you could give the sound of the violin a bit more body and fullness to it. You could do this in a number of ways: 

- EQ bump in the middle of the violin's frequency range

- also EQ out some of the highs and lows of the reverb plugin so you're letting the mids have more resonance 

- Add some compression so your softer notes come through a bit more and you lessen the harder/louder notes some

All in all - however, I really enjoyed it!

Yes it does sound really shrill to me. I'm afraid I'll have to look into how to do the things you mentioned though (I'll have to get around to it - busy time with the day job at the moment). D: But thanks for giving me a lead on how to improve the sound!

Yeah imo virtual instruments are mostly pretty bad for anything solo  Yes I've contributed violin to other projects in the past and that can be a fun gig!

Thanks!