Sound Recordings
We have recorded the guitars we sell on two occasions so far
- December 2008, and
- June 2010
Credits
On both occasions the guitars were played by Stephen Yates - many thanks to him.
We had to edit the recordings to remove extraneous and unwanted noises (please tell us if you notice any remaining dog barks) but the aim was to produce as neutral, realistic and unaffected sound as we could. We were guided in this by Sam Beste - thanks to Sam.
Technicalities
The technically minded are not going to find much of interest in our uncomplicated methods. The recordings were made in a domestic living room using a Zoom H4 portable recorder. We used none of the in-built effects, and the only adjustment we made to the Zoom was to set the levels manually. Afterwards we edited them using Audacity . After each session, the whole batch of recordings went through the same process with identical parameters: High pass filter, Compressor, Gverb.
We hope the approach we used will allow like-for-like comparison.
The Music
For our classical guitars, we chose extracts from 2 contrasting but well-known pieces and played them on all the guitars. These were
- JS Bach Bouree from the Lute Suite #1 in Em
- Tárrega Lagrima
These 2 extracts were recorded "back to back" and were published this way in one mp3 file.
For selected classical guitars we also recorded an extract from Tárrega's Capricho Árabe. This can be found in its own mp3 file.
Our many electro-nylon string and cutaway-classical guitars were treated as all our normal-bodied classical guitars: the same pieces recorded acoustically using the mics of the H4. We did not attempt to record them using the pickups and/or microphons built-into the guitars.
For our flamenco guitars, the music was Panaderos Flamencos.
For our acoustic steel string guitars the piece is part of an original improvisation by Steve Yates himself. All the guitars were recorded acoustically using microphones, even if they had built-in pickups or microphones.
For our Macaferri style guitars the music was an improvisation by Steve Yates himself.
The Recordings
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