Jonathan!

I'll give this one a go. As a heads up, the deadline in the original post is wrong (Tuesday 5th July doesn't exist)

I am not too bothered about style - something classical would be great. I am particularly interested in the closer mics if possible?

This sounds great. Do you have any samples of it being played in mono?

I am not hugely into shred guitar but I do rather like Paul Gilbert: (he also has the best guitar playing face on the planet: )

From my perspective, I was an idiot about it. When I signed up, I never considered if I was even available when I signed up (e.g. I had a 5 day vacation planned and then I had to practice for and play at all of the Easter services...). I would like to apologise to Mark Sparling for taking the place and not using it and to Timaeus for wasting his time. I would say that you are fully justified in taking it, your entry was great and fitted the theme really well. I liked how it was put together (including the text!).

I don't personally know about anything that is super cheap but the focusrite scarlett solo is a solid interface, $99 and is available for express delivery on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00MTXU2DG/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1428389368&sr=8-1&keywords=Focusrite+solo&dpPl=1&dpID=416Av%2BdRR8L&ref=plSrchπ=AC_SX200_QL40 It works on Mac (they even have a specific mac set up video on their website). Here is some peace of mind: http://uk.focusrite.com/answerbase/are-focusrite-products-compatible-with-osx-yosemite If you are wanting something that you can get quickly and is guaranteed to work then I would go with this. It may be worth holding out though to see of anyone has a cheaper solution. Edit: amazAmazon alsalso sell the focusrite itrack solo for 80 dollars. I am not 100% about the differences but it has a guitar input, is well reviewed and is compatible.

Thanks for clarifying I don't have any preference, I am happy to work with anyone.

How are the teams decided? Do we preferences or is it random?

Some really nice entries there. Congratulations to Yoshiblade on the win!

I would like to sign up again please - last round was great fun I am happy to work with anyone whether it be Cyril (who gave great advice) or someone completely different.

I would say that Cyril is underselling himself here. Although the guitar performances and processing are mine, Cyril was the one who pointed out techniques such as reverbing the guitars which I wouldn't have considered otherwise. As far as the timing goes, this is something that we were aware of but decided to ignore because of time constraints. I agree with the comment about 1:35 - it is something that was originally intended but again dropped because of time / recording practicalities. With regards to bleep expression, I tried to get it to work but to no avail With the ending, it was 100% my fault. It sounded good when I was tired and about to submit... Thanks a lot for leaving your feedback, I really appreciate it (I definitely feel much better about the guitars). I will try to leave my vote / feedback tomorrow.

Submitted! Thanks to Cyril for (amongst other things) teaching me that there is no such thing as too much delay

Thanks for you help. I do have an SM58 lying around so I might try sticking that on the bottom as per Darangen's suggestion. I think you are definitely right about close micing Yasae. From what I have read ambient micing a grand piano in a small room is a recipe for disaster (there isn't really enough room for ambient micing anyway). Do you have any suggestions on how to make it more classical sounding in post? (e.g. is there any particular type of reverb that you would recommend / any other processing? Or is it just a case of playing around and seeing what sounds best?) For anyone reading this in future, I found these 2 resources: - Very indepth, loads of examples of mic positions and a discussion of the benefits of each: http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jan08/articles/pianorecording_0108.htm - A simple video demonstration of 3 close mic techniques in video format:

I am planning on recording my piano teacher's acoustic grand piano on Saturday and was looking for some pointers. As a quick disclaimer, I have never miced anything before so please assume that I know nothing I have managed to borrow a matched pair of Rode NT5 cardiod condenser microphones from a friend and I will be using my Scarlett 6i6 interface. We will be recording an hour's worth of classical music in a small room (no space to move the piano, even if we could lift it). I have the the following questions: a) What mic techniques would you recommend? I have seen videos of X-Y, ORTF and A-B. Would any of these be suited to classical recording in a small room? From the demos that I have heard (e.g. this link) I rather like the sound of ORTF but I am unsure how difficult it is to pull off properly and how suited it is to classical music? Is there a good example that you can provide of your preferred micing technique? There seem to be many variations of individual techniques out there... Are there any rough rules about where to place the mics? The position where the treble and bass strings seems to be popular from what I have read. Is there a general rule for mic height or is this just something that you need to play with? c) Are there any pitfalls that you can warn of or any helpful tips? Thanks, Jonathan

I strongly agree with this. I think that this would make things run a lot smoother. (not that the compo is bad, I think that it's great!)

Hey Cyril - would you be up for working together?

I would like to join as a novice please. This time I have actually checked my diary and made sure that I have enough time! Would I be correct in assuming that we can pick any source?

I would also like to thank Darren, this was an enjoyable and well run competition. I agree that a Sunday deadline would be helpful. Have you considered using ThaSauce for the voting? I like how it encourages people to leave feedback with their vote.

I can't speak for anyone else but for me it was just a time thing. I realised that I wasn't going to have enough time in the competition period to have much interaction with my star so when Esperado said that he wanted to join I thought it would give my spot away to someone who could make proper use of it. As such, I don't think that anything really needs to be changed. An extra week on the competition period would have worked wonders for me but I am unsure if 4 weeks would be good for the competition in general.

1. Brandon Strader 2. MushroomSword

You can have my place if you like. I ended up being much more busy than expected the last 2 weeks and will end up rushing at the deadline (completely defeating the point of working with a star).

Yup, at 1:22 it seems to be the same chords. The Cm chord is an A-shape barre chord (meaning that you hold your first finger across the entire fretboard to act as a nut). You could try sticking a capo on to get around playing it but I HIGHLY recommend learning how to play barre chords. Off the top of my head, I can't think of any guitar technique that is more useful to learn. I would actually recommend learning the entire song in barre chords. It will be easier than trying to learn the other chords that you have listed and will be good practice. The best thing about barre chords is that once you can play 1 of them, you can play any major or minor chord without any effort / having to look chords up. I recorded a quick video showing the song played with barre chords. It is in 2 sections: 1) 0:00 This uses both E and A shape barre chords and is the way that I would naturally play it 2) 0:30 This only uses E shape barre chords. If you are just learning about barre chords then this would be a good option and is what I would recommend. This way you have only 1 shape that you need to learn. 3) 0:58 This is a repeat of 1. I just included it since you were asking questions about this part Link here: Hope this helps - let me know if you have any questions (also, if you want to learn about guitar, justin sandercoe is the best person on the internet to learn from - here is his video on E shape barre chords: http://www.justinguitar.com/en/IM-131-AShapeMajorBarreChords.php )

I would be interested in helping out (for free). Transcribing is something that I need to work on and any motivation to practice it is good. Can you read music? Or do you need it tabbed? I am very tired tonight but a my very quick transcription of the intro chord sequence is: Cm Bb F Cm Gm Ab F Take it with a pinch of salt for just now - I will have a proper listen tomorrow. The piano type melody (which outlines the chords) where the vocals enter goes: low-Bb C G high-Bb D low-Bb low-A low-Bb C G high-Bb D low-Bb low-Bb C low-A (Yeah, I appreciate that this will probably make little sense but it might give you a start until I have the time to write it out properly) The vocal melody follows the Cm scale for the most part. I will write this out for you too if you need it. Hope this gives you some sort of start. Jonathan

An issue you might run into if you are keeping your guitar in standard tuning is having to play a low Eb. I am assuming that the reason you don't want to retune it is because of the time it would take at your event. There are a couple of quick solutions: a) Tune your guitar to drop D. This takes about 5 seconds and will give you your extra note should you need it. To quickly tune to drop D, pluck your low E and D at the same time and drop the tuning peg on your E string until it sounds "right"). You can then play all of your notes 1 step down except on your low string which is now 1 step up. Tuning back to E is equally quick. With a headstock tuner you can even do this silently. Tune your guitar to Eb but stick a capo on the first fret. This means that your guitar will be in E standard with the capo on and Eb with the capo off - super quick!. You may run into problems with tuning stability and the different feel of the strings if you do this, however. The biggest advantage of this method is that you can play it exactly as written (no transposing required) and you can also use your open strings as written in the music - this will make it much easier. c) Consider if you need to have your guitar in E standard at all. If you can just do everything in Eb then it will make your life 100x easier The reaper solution is good but the problem is that you can't use it live. It requires a certain number of samples (not sure how many) to work out the transposed sound. This means that if you are live monitoring it then it will come out as a garbled mess. (if anyone knows a solution to this, please let me know - it would make my life so much easier) Edit - Forgot to add: some software such as Guitar Pro will do all of the transposing for you (both in tab and music notation). The tab result won't be perfect but will do most of the heavy lifting for you.

I am sorry but I am going to pull out this round. I've reached the point where I am no longer having fun with my source and don't have the time to transcribe & remix another. Good luck to the remaining competitors in bracket C!