untitled1100 Posted September 23, 2009 Share Posted September 23, 2009 Hi, I have recorded, in mono, an acoustic guitar part, directly from the pickup in the guitar to my Edirol USB Audio interface, into Logic. While recording, the soundfile looks perfectly normal, however once I stop recording and want to play back my file, the waves look cut off at the bottom. I do exactly the same thing with another guitar and on that one the sound file is normal. What could be going wrong with my electro-acoustic? Please have a look at the picture I've added to visualise this problem. It shows the difference in sound file between the electric guitar part I've done in blue (which is normal) and the acoustic guitar part in white (which has been cut off at the bottom) http://www.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/e83ed0d4da.jpg The weird thing is, as I said, when I'm recording and I can "see" on screen the soundwaves get written/notated/recorded down, they all look normal, full size and not cut off at the bottom. It's just as I stop, that the bottom bits disappear... Cheers, Jamie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fader8 Posted September 23, 2009 Share Posted September 23, 2009 If you suspect an error in the Arrange waveform display, double-click the region to view it with more detail in the Sample editor. If it still looks the same, you may have a bum pickup on that guitar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
untitled1100 Posted September 23, 2009 Author Share Posted September 23, 2009 Ah yes that's what I was hoping not to be the case... In the sample window it is exactly the same. It's strange that as I'm recording it all looks like it's picking everything up alright though. That's what I don't understand.. Well it doesn't really affect the sound of the recording that much tbh, so I'll wait til I get some time.. and money to get it checked out. Thanks for helping Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Nahmani Posted September 23, 2009 Share Posted September 23, 2009 Well it doesn't really affect the sound of the recording that much tbh, so I'll wait til I get some time.. and money to get it checked out. While reading that thread I kept thinking I was gonna ask you "How does it sound?" - if it sounds good I wouldn't worry about it. Nobody ever said transients should be picked up in a symmetrical way, especially when the mic is THAT close to the source. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
untitled1100 Posted September 23, 2009 Author Share Posted September 23, 2009 Oh really? I always assumed that they should be symmetrical, or at least near symmetrical and not seemed chopped off! Yeah to be completely honest I don't think I would have realised a thing if it wasn't for seeing the waveform... Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Nahmani Posted September 23, 2009 Share Posted September 23, 2009 Oh and did you try zooming very close on the waveform at the transient position? As fader8 suggest, things may look quite different once you zoom in (horizontally) or look in the Sample Editor. But having said that I wouldn't worry about it unless it sounds bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fader8 Posted September 24, 2009 Share Posted September 24, 2009 Yeah, and maybe if you had a new pickup installed it might not sound as good! Oh, if you're in a studio and the engineer comments on it, just tell them you had it custom made to do that. Part of your "trademark" sound. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luny Tune Posted September 27, 2009 Share Posted September 27, 2009 In my experience this is typically due to an imbalance in the sound, in turn due to cancelling of certain frequencies. I'm not surprised to see it on the waveform from a recording of an acoustic guitar's pickup system. I've also experienced this phenomenon after compressing a signal with a compressor that was missing proper grounding. As the other guys say, if it sounds the way you want it to, don't sweat it. However, you should be aware that compressing and limiting will of course attack the louder side of the waveform more. That may not be a problem at all but I have experienced a track like that that needed a little extra gain in the mix. And in some cases the compressor won't sound exactly as you'd expect. Like you said, you wouldn't have noticed it if you hadn't seen the waveform, but that's why you should always trust your ears if they on the other hand tell you that the stereo image of a sound/mix is leaning to either side even though the meters say that the levels are ok. If you normalize the electric and the acoustic guitar here to 0 dB the electric guitar would still be way louder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Mayfield Posted September 27, 2009 Share Posted September 27, 2009 That looks almost like a DC (0 Hz) offset. You might try putting a highpass filter on it at around 20Hz. Make sure it still sounds OK if you do this, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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