"Toby" wrote in message
om...

Well, for whatever reason, I can't listen to the piece, because my computer
gets the wim-wams from trying to play the stream. Ah, Windows...

But I'll comment below on what I haven't heard.

Thanks so much for listening and the comments.
There are two guitars, Seagull S6 steel string and Alvarez nylon. 4
individual parts. All guitar parts recorded stereo with Sennheisser
MD421 and EVPL80 approx 6" away from soundhole and 12th fret. No
compression into SONAR.
Light chorus and reverb using sends. Noise reduction (fan noise) with
Soundforge NR. Light compression and limiting on mix.
[snip]
Other folks have commented on the "string noise" I have a theory and
it's just my theory... Could it be we've gotten so used to sterile
samples that we are more concerned with perfect / clean that we loose
sight of the fact that guitars squeek, scratch, zing, etc...? If 4
guitarists were in a room recording this piece live, I'm thinking you
would hear those little noises. I'm not trying to be disrespectful
but as you can tell... I love the squeeks, I think it's part of what
gives an acoustic instrument it's quality and charm.
On the other side of the coin... I agree... bad technique, poor
performance, bad quality recording can over emphasize this.

Like I said, I haven't heard this piece. But I've had a good deal of
experience with recording acoustic guitars, and some thoughts on string
soise. First, were you using brand-new strings? They tend to over-emphasize
the various noises strings are heir to. Strings about 3 days old are still
sounding fresh and clean but don't have that over-squeaky sound.

Also, I work in a store that sells Seagull guitars, and they do seem to be
particularly prone to string noise, so you'll want to do what you can to
keep it under control. Yes, it's part of the sound, but there's part of the
sound and then there's exaggerated part of the sound.

Finally, both of the microphones you used in this recording are
bright-sounding -- if the MD421 is a Mark II, I'd say very bright, to the
point of wiry -- and both will exaggerate string noise. A flatter microphone
will do less of that. Lower-cost mike preamps (you didn't list a preamp in
your chain) also tend to exaggerate string noise.

Even more finally, see if you can find a way to record without picking up
the noise of your computer's fan. Noise reduction algorithms have come a
long way, but they still add artifacts to the sound, not usually attractive.
If you can get away from this, I think you'll be pleased.

Peace,
Paul