Nordic Folk Music Instruments

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Recording

Home Studio Recording
This page will soon be updated with my recent computer related stuff...

Sound Recording Technical Notes

Throughout the years I have developed my own working model for working with a mix of acoustic and electronic sounds. When working on a tight budget together with requirements for the best possible sound quality, it is very important to choose the right equipment and to find working methods that don´t degrade the sound too much. It is not essential to have all the latest equipment.

A mix of both new and vintage sound modules could do a very good job with high quality. I also love the combination of digital and analogue.All-digital doesn´t always sound good for my musical ideas, and there are already so many digital-perfect recordings out there, so I´m looking for some more integrated sound, where both digital and analogue plays their different parts.

My own sound ideals

I want to make the best out of cheap but goodsounding equipment. Today my studio setup is expanded with more synthesizers, soundmodules and sound processors. I´m also working with PC harddrive recording and DSP. But for the acoustic intruments I don´t like too clean digital sound. Sound quality is important for me, and the best in my point of view is a good mix of analogue and digital.

When recording fiddles and other strings I usually use a Ramsa WMS-1 very close. The Ramsa is one of very few affordable microphones that are doing the best for fiddles (if you can´t afford any Neumann´s). When recording digital to DAT or harddrive, I always do some analogue sound processing on acoustic sounds. An ART valve preamp/compressor is one of the best things I know.

Even if I´m doing recordings with programming and overdubs, I want to hear some live feeling in the resulting mix. For a good "folk feeling" in the acoustic sounds, it is allowed to record the fiddlers beatmarking with feet on the floor. I don´t want that perfect studio digital clean sound that appears on many CDs today (but of course good for many artists). 

I also prefer to record my synth lines and phrases from the keyboard rather than step entering. In most cases I retain the live played velocity values but do some quantization of the time values depending on how it sounds. For a real folk feeling it is allowed to quantize from the melody rhythm. But for dance remixes I keep the kick drum and bass line more beat quantized.
   

CD Underliga Vindar - recording technical info

My first CD was recorded on a very minimal budget and with no computer. However, I´m still really satisfied with the result.

The acoustics were recorded on analogue tape and mixed on a small Mackie MS1202. The electronics were virtual sequenced and mixed with MIDI automation. Mastering to DAT was done via dynamic noise limiting and parametric EQ plus a Behringer Composer and a Behringer Ultrafex in the end of the chain.

for artist info and mp3 downloads please see
the CD Underliga Vindar page

CD-R demo Nodus II - recording technical info

This remix demo was mainly done on the computer. The previously recorded tracks were transfered to the harddrive for editing. New MIDI tracks were layed down on the sequencer software (Voyetra DOP). After cutting & pasting and soundprocessing all tracks were digitally mixed together in the PC and then recorded to DAT. The mastering was done in the same way as for the CD Underliga Vindar.

for artist info and mp3 downloads please see
the NordicEtnoDance page

CD Dansa med oss - recording technical info

When recording Nybrobygdens Spelemän I had a vision of a "nordic folk wall of sound". The original tracks were recorded live to DAT using a Sony stereomic and two Milabs. Then I have worked a lot with ambiophonic stereo images and DSP. On some tracks additional instruments were recorded in the studio. To get a compact sound where the general impression of the musicians was most important, I used a fairly high amount of compression. Mastering was done to CD-R direct from the PC harddrive.

for artist info and mp3 downloads please see
the Nybrobygdens Spelemän page