If I Were A Carpenter (cover) Gary Hall LIVE @ the Beck Cafe

This performance was recorded (by a friend with a Canon video camera) on 3/26/2010 at the Beck Cafe in Lakewood, OH. I was using a Fishman SoloAmp (on my far side, to the rear) for amplification and getting the harmony voices (2nd chorus and ending) from a TC Helicon Harmony-G pedal. While I'd normally record the video sound directly off a mixer, I thought he got surprisingly decent results (albeit, with plenty of room ambience) with the video camera mic.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Gary
• Hall
• Ohio
• singer-songwriter
• acoustic
• song
• Fishman
• SoloAmp
• TC
• Helicon
• Harmony-G
• Beck
• Cafe

[trevorm1]

I have the same pedal and haven't been able to get anything nice out of it at all. Everything I get is squeaky and feedbacky. I thought it was a waste of 300 bucks. How did you do your's? Do you have any tips or tricks?

[guitaniac]

@trevorm1 I believe my Audix OM7 mic is especially well-suited for use with the harmonizer. It has a very tight hyper-cardioid pattern which accepts an on-axis, closely miked vocal while rejecting ambient sounds from the back and sides(guitar sounds and speaker sounds) which invite feedback and which you DON'T want to harmonize along with the vocal. The OM7 also has minimal "proximity effect". This enables me to mic closely without getting an overly bassy and "muddy" result. 1 sec ago

[trevorm1]

@guitaniac wow, I checked those mics out. There crazy expensive. Not something that ya want to just get to experiment with.

[guitaniac]

@trevorm1 Whatever mic you have, mic closely when using the harmonizer. You need to isolate the vocal (which you want to harmonize) from ambient sounds (guitar, speakers, crowd, band) that you don't want to harmonize. If your particular mic is prone to excessive muddiness with close miking, the "tone" button (on default setting) can help. Rolling off bass at the mixer can also help.

[trevorm1]

@guitaniac I'll keep that in mind, and give it a try, but to be honest I'm not all that happy with the pedal in the first place. Perhaps I got a bad one, but it sounds very digital to me not very natural at all. But I will give what you say a shot. I've been wrong before and I'll be wrong again. LOL

[guitaniac]

@trevorm1 Unfortunately, miking technique is just one of the possible stumbling blocks with the Harmony-G. Another issue is that the pedal puts out a pretty hot signal when the gain level is set properly (as indicated by the level light). You'll want to be careful not to overdrive the mixer channel which you're running the signal to. (If the channel has a trim/gain control, set it sufficiently low.)

[guitaniac]

@tchelicon Hi Joey. Thanks for the nice comments. I really enjoy using the Harmony-G on this one, especially at the end. Its a very nice effect, I think, when the voicing shifts as I walk down the bass line on the guitar.

[tchelicon]

Really loved that this video was in a livce gig setting... can really get a sense of the vibe there. Wow, tricky tune to do... very rangey! Thought you used the harmonies really tastefully. Great stuff!

Best wishes,

Joey @ TC-Helicon