Wildwood Flower--first (mando) YouTube

**flatpickle** · Jul-04-2012, 10:22pm

Hi, all. I made my first YouTube video with mandolin today--typically I'm more of a guitar picker. It was fun, and I realized I have a LOT to learn about video editing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZHUiUgHh6U

I hope you enjoy it.

**JeffD** · Jul-04-2012, 10:48pm

Great job. Really good. You captured a lot of what I love about that tune. You may, as you say, have a lot to learn, but you got a lot right.

**shortymack** · Jul-05-2012, 12:10am

Sounded great Dave, and thanks for your flatpickerapprentice blog. I just discovered it a couple of weeks ago and really enjoy the resource. (Your Old Spinning Wheel video/version is great). Im just (again) getting the hankering to learn mando and hope to have one to start with soon.

Cheers!

**norm351** · Jul-05-2012, 1:54am

Great stuff man, you need to teach how to record like that.

**G7MOF** · Jul-05-2012, 2:42am

Very nice, Keep going at it.

**EarlG** · Jul-05-2012, 9:26am

Thanks for your website. Me and several of my friends use it for practice all the time. Great work.

**billhay4** · Jul-05-2012, 9:36am

Nice!
Bill

**Charley wild** · Jul-05-2012, 11:48am

Great job! It was the first song I learned on the guitar way back when. I'm afraid I never learned it as well as you have.

**OldSausage** · Jul-05-2012, 5:40pm

You get a great sound there - can you tell us what mics you're using? Thanks

**Marty Henrickson** · Jul-05-2012, 6:11pm

Very good!

**F-2 Dave** · Jul-06-2012, 5:24pm

Mucho good Dave. Really enjoyed that. Very tasteful and clean. Also appreciate your site and all of your hard work. Thanks.

**hank** · Jul-06-2012, 6:22pm

Flatpickle you got it going on, way more crisp and clear than most I hear on the tube. I'm with Old Sausage and norn351, "How you do that?"

**Santiago** · Jul-06-2012, 7:40pm

Thanks for posting it. Nice recording. Good playing. Tastefully done.

**flatpickle** · Jul-06-2012, 9:04pm

Thanks, you guys. I appreciate all the nice comments. Several folks asked about how I recorded, so I thought I'd give a quick overview. The really short version is that I record the audio separately (not just using the camera microphone), and then I sync the higher-quality audio with the video using a computer program.

There are many, many tricks to improving the audio quality that I could just barely begin to touch on. And, frankly, I'm not that good at it compared to someone who actually knows what they are doing. I just copy the techniques of people who get good results. A great introduction is a thread on the Reaper forum (Reaper is a brand of audio mixing software that I use) called "Why Do Your Recordings Sound Like A**?". If you want to learn some simple, practical things you can do to make your recordings better, that's a great place to start. I'll warn you, though, it's a long read.

For this video, here's how I did it...

The gear I used:
-Microphone is an AT-3035 (an inexpensive large diaphragm condenser mic).
-Multitrack recorder is a Zoom R16 (also pretty inexpensive). I use the built-in preamps & phantom power, and record in 24-bit, 44.1 KHz.
-Individual tracks are normalized using Audacity, a free PC program
-Audio is then mixed with the very inexpensive program Reaper on my PC
-The lead guitar is a fairly cheap Ibanez Artwood acoustic. The rhythm guitar is a totally sweeet 1958 Martin D28.
-The mandolin is an Eastman MD-515.
-The video is taken with an inexpensive Nikon point & shoot camera that records video in 720p.
-The video is processed and synchronized with the audio using Sony Vegas (which was somewhat expensive) video editing software.

Some tips I use to help improve the recording quality:
-Keep the room as quiet as possible. Turn off the AC, wait 'til the kids are in bed and dishwasher isn't running, etc.
-Put a little foam up on the walls to minimize flutter echoes (those weird echoes you hear when you snap your fingers in an empty drywalled room).
-Put some bass traps in the room. (Bass traps are a whole 'nother discussion, but in short--they work.)
-Use the best tuner you can get your hands on, and check the tuning frequently.
-Choose carefully how to mic the instrument. Play & record, then rewind and listen. Adjust the mic position, the pick material, the right hand technique, and repeat. Keep doing that 'til you get the sound you want.
-Imagine what you want the whole recording to sound like when you're done.
-Remember that the track you're working on at the moment is just a piece of the puzzle. Something that sounds awesome and full and fat by itself might sound tubby and overblown in the finished product.
-If you have the good luck to record in 24 bit, set your input gains low. Back in the old tape and/or 16 bit days, you would try to set your gain as high as possible without clipping. You don't have to do that anymore, and you *shouldn't* do that anymore.
-Don't try to follow a formula; experiment with where you put the mics, what mics you use, how you mix, etc.
-Don't be afraid to pan hard. Put that guitar almost all the way over in the left speaker, or whatever. Hard panning can provide wonderful clarity to a mix.
-Take good notes while you're recording. (What mic, what position, what gain setting, what strings, what pick, etc.) It'll pay off later.

I'm starting to feel like I'm going a little long in this explanation, so I'll stop here. I hope that something in there is useful to you.

**OldSausage** · Jul-06-2012, 11:47pm

Thanks. Shame they don't make that AT3035 any more, it sounds pretty good.

**hank** · Jul-07-2012, 7:56am

Wow all the effort you put into it in both equipment and knowledge really paid off. Absolutely the most professional sounding video I've heard on Utube. Excellent playing and style as well. Thanks again for sharing.