Ok so Ive rearranged some of the instruments and re-mixed this to try and make it sound less crowded than the original.  Just finishing off the lyrics at the minute, so if anyone is interested in recording them let me know, as I cannot sing for the life of me.

Nice ,man what a beautiful piece.Sounds like a very moving song,I could also hear it as a full version band song with incredible potential.Excellent chord progression.
I relate to the singing 125% is a miracle that I actually play because if you heard me singing you would run away!!
Anyway what are you recording with I hear some hiss cuts ins and outs!!?
Good job!

Marino

Thanks for the comments marino!  I have played around with turning this into a rock-song (think bryan adams) but never really taken it that far just because I cant seem to record distorted guitar for the life of me.
At the min I'm recording using a Samson mic into a Behringer Eurorack UB1202, then from there into my PC using Kristal Audio recording software to mix it. 
I found that I can get rid of a few of the hiss's by using an insanely high gain early on, on the way to my computer but other than that can't seem to get a clean enough sound.  I think it might be the cables Im using...

I had lots of problems with hiss with a similar set up to yours.

I think you are almost there, increase the gain on you mixer to get the maximum output before it clips without hiss, hence if you turn the gain full on you will get some hiss from the preamp of the mixer. With my set up the gain hisses after about 85%., simply increase the gain until you hear the hiss, and work back from there. Quality cables will also help.

If all else fails you could purchase a pre-amp. for you mic, they can turn out quite expensive though. or you can do what I did, I use my old multitrack cassette recorder as a pre-amp, it works.

I will listen to your song later.

Cheers

Denis

I find the single biggest source of hiss is the soundcard in the PC.  Particularly if you have an on-board soundcard - these generally have crappy DACs.  But all internal soundcards suffer from line noise, because the system bus is a noisy supply.

Have you tried an external soundcard?  I use the Alesis io2, and apparently the M-Audio MobilePre is pretty good, although I haven't tried it myself.

I would skip the mixing board altogether, unless it has some really nice analogue effects that you like.  Generally digital reverb etc. on the PC side works better for me.

Nice features of the Alesis io2: MIDI in- and out-ports, phantom power, on-board preamp, guitar input.

http://www.alesis.com/product.php?id=8

I think it may well be the soundcard, because even with everything muted I still get the hiss sound.  My onboard soundcard is a Realtek AC97 (came with the laptop).  Just had a look at the Alesis io2 and I think it may well be the way to go...not tooooo pricey either. 

Denis: now I look my pre-amp is set to about 85% as well!  Gonna have a play around with it again next chance I get to record some stuff!

Thanks for the help all around!

I now listening to the music, I dint hear much hiss although Marino is probably right, his ears are so sensitive, he has picked up on things on my music which I was not even aware of.

This is a moving peace of music nice feel. Nice arrangement. you could leave it as it is or add vox percussion etc. The melody lead does get a little caught up is that makes sence. I think your simply trying to put too many notes into same bars. It's only some phrases.

Going back to the production believe it or not I have the same sound card as you and I use Kristal, how freeky is that. I still think before you go splashing money out on sound cards etc you should buy a decent cable for your mike. Secondly if when you are mastering on kristal go into your sounds options you can increase the recording levels, The important thing is when you are setting up the recording level at source, it may be that when your mixer is at 85% it's hissing. So if you increase the recording level on your PC, you can lower the gain on your mixer. I also noticed that the meter recording levels are not conventional. Normally a you would get clipping at the 0 level, but with Kristal it only clips at + 6. I've been playing around with these levels for over a month, I think I've got it right now.

I purchased an audiophile sound card recently for midi which is supposed to one of the best. It did nothing but pop and click, so I went back to Realtek AC97. My computer is an emachine desk top.

Finally I'm going to rate this song.

Cheers

Denis

This is beautiful, Kobeshi!  You are multi talented!  I can ONLY do Fl!  Wow, man.  Despite the minor issues, I love this.  Very moving!

Thanks MaP!  Im actually reworking this song at the minute after having put it down for nearly 2 months now.  Expect VIII soon!

hey... this song is just what i needed.  i'm in a rather ruffled-up mood due to some unexpected news, and so far your song is the only thing that's making me feel better.

Thank you for uploading this, kobeshi   isn't Kobe a city in japan? especialy since you've got the -shi on the end, i imagine that's what you're referring to with the name, but i could be wrong entirely

mata ne
TLS

This is a lovely piece of music... nice bit of guitar playing, with (to my ears) a good quality recording.

I think it does need to have some form of bridge in there to take the listener in a slightly different direction... and then to bring them back too   I also hear what Denis says about their being too much conflict at times with the melody adding just too many notes - but all this is really a minor gripe it's all still very good.  The addition of vocals would work if they're not too over-stated.  But it works well as a guitar instrumental too.

Good stuff Kobeshi, good stuff.



[The soundcard thing (Realtek AC97) is the on-board card that comes with my motherboard - I've added an M-Audio soundcard, and record everything through that.  This works well for me; not so sure about external cards simply because of the potential for latency issues. ]

ohh wow...kobeshi,such feeling in this peice, i am humming to this beautiful tune.....you have a great ability and very talented..wow!..xxxxx ..love your work..x