Ari Hest - A Fond Farewell

[Jenns4Ever9501]

Here we go, "A Fond Farewell" by Mr. Ari Hest, one of my favorite singer/songwriters . One of my favorite songs to play live as a solo, and it works much better that way, but hey, I love to record things.

http://s48.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1I5O ... GLBPGHZR2L

[eliot1171]

I liked it a lot. I've never heard this song but it sonds like a great song. I really like voice, good control. Good job of mixing, whats your setup?

[Jenns4Ever9501]

Thanks man, I always put a lot of "post-recording phase" work into my recordings, tweaking things and such . My humble setup is the following:

I use an M-Audio MobilePre USB with a Dell Latitude C600. For the guitar, both 1/4" direct into Ch.1, and cheap Samson R11 mic into Ch.2, then blend the left (direct) and the right (mic) channels together, with more emphasis on the mic channel for that natural sound. I then do some slight EQ, then a reverb, and that usually does it for the guitar. For vocals, I sing (obviously) into the R11, then really play with the EQs, like, a lot. Then some reverb, then I pan the guitar left 20%, and the vocals right 20%, and then balance, then mixdown. That's it.

[hcole]

Well done, I second the comment regarding the job you did mixing. How old are you? From your av I thought you were pretty young but your voice would lead me to believe otherwise.

[Jenns4Ever9501]

Well done, I second the comment regarding the job you did mixing. How old are you? From your av I thought you were pretty young but your voice would lead me to believe otherwise.

lol. I'm 23, I'll be 24 in May. And yeah, I spend forever mixing and tweaking and adjusting, it's gotta be perfect. Recording both tracks took about 5 minute apiece, but the song as a whole took a little under 2 hours.

*humbly* Anyone else wanna listen to my cover? I worked REALLY hard.

[fliggil]

sounds great, levels are very nice, very smooth playing and vox are solid too.

i'm using the same interface as you, with a mxl v63m condenser mic, just curious as to what software you use, i've been getting used to this Live Lite 4 but havent been too thrilled with it.

[martinstud17]

i like it a lot sounds good, nice voice too

[Jenns4Ever9501]

sounds great, levels are very nice, very smooth playing and vox are solid too.

i'm using the same interface as you, with a mxl v63m condenser mic, just curious as to what software you use, i've been getting used to this Live Lite 4 but havent been too thrilled with it.

Hey, thanks man. Yeah, I'm anal when it comes to mixing and leveling and sh*t, and I've been singing for about 6 years now as the co-coordinator/guitarist/singer of the music ministry for a teen program in my parish, we've got a full band, so I'm quite used to having a mic in my face. As to software, I use Cool Edit Pro 1.2, it's the one I've always used, I never even bothered to install that program they sent with the MobilePre, so I know absolutely nothing about it. I'm so used to Cool Edit, mixing and all that crap within the program comes naturally.

[mangold]

this is pretty awesome.
ive never heard of ari hest, but this makes me think i should be listening to him
what specifically do you do after recording, i mean 2 hrs? you said you tweak levels, but if you've only got the two tracks (guitar and vocals) how much tweaking can you really do? im just wondering because this is really well done and my buddy and i are gonna set up an in home studio in his basement for the bands at our school. any advice is appreciated

once again good work man, keep postin

[horsmar15]

Nice cover, guitar playing was great and the recording quality was good. You have a good sounding voice, my only constructive criticism is that every once and a while you go off pitch. The during the chorus you are consistently on pitch, but during the verse you go off pitch a couple of times.
I don't think this is something most people would notice, but there is room for improvement in everything. Nice job.

[Jenns4Ever9501]

To PraiseDave: I do a LOT of tweaking. I first record the guitar, left and right channels, left being mic, and right being 1/4" direct. I then normalize the two independently, then blend them together, making both channels about 100% mic and about 50% direct, if they were both normalized properly. Then comes the EQ, I play around with that for quite a while, getting a balanced sound in terms of tone. Then comes the reverb, again, I play around with that for quite some time to acheive a natural, but not booming, reverb. Once that's all done, I go ahead and record the vocals. Then again, I do the same thing, play with a lot of EQ, play with a lot of reverb. Then I balance the two tracks together, making sure they sound balanced and good, then I pan the guitar to the left about 20%, then the vocals to the right about 20%, and then I mix the two tracks together to get one stereo track. Then I take the final stereo track and play with a little more EQ, and a little more reverb, and anything else it might need, then I convert from .wav to .mp3, then listen to it through Winamp to see how it sounds, then if I need anymore work, usually in terms of EQ, I go back and tweak the final track, then check again, and then we're done. No sweat.

To horsmar, yeah, I go off-pitch sometimes, but thanks for the comment. I HATE my recording voice, I'd much more comfortable eating a mic going through a massive PA system and some powerful speakers, but hey, everyone's gotta record SOMETHING, right?

And yeah, Ari's pretty good, I've seen him live a few times, I actually first saw him play sidestage for Dave at a Meadows show in Hartford a couple summers ago, and been a fan ever since. Straightforward acoustic rock, very melodic, very lyric based. Good singer, great band, rock 'n roll. And here comes the plug: http://www.arihest.com . Check him out.

[Sciaracastro]

i'm downloading it
i'll listen to it tomorrow (in a few hours actually 4.46 AM here)

[Sciaracastro]

ok
i listened to it
by far one of the greatest cover i've ever seen here
great voice, great guitar, great settings and great quality

do u mind to post the tab ?

[Jenns4Ever9501]

ok
i listened to it
by far one of the greatest cover i've ever seen here
great voice, great guitar, great settings and great quality

do u mind to post the tab ?

Ya know, that like, made my entire day. Seriously. Thanks man.

As to the tab, http://www.geocities.com/arihest/fondfarewell.html is the one that I used, but I changed a few of the chords. Just listen to my version, and follow the tab, and you'll figure it out. Great song to do solo, I do it all the time.

Bring on the love fellas. Completely heterosexual, NON-GAY, love.

Edit: Not that there's anything WRONG with gay love, it's just not the kind I'm lookin' for in this particular thread.

[mattinbeloit]

Thanks for doing an Auri Hest cover, good to see more ppl. start to notice him, and this is one of his best songs. Man, the more i hear of your voice the more like it, you have a great voice, i hope you are doing some original stuff. Anway, i hope my voice matures more like yours, mine sounds too kiddy now but its getting better and lower. great job.