In God’s Country from the album The Joshua Tree is one of the best U2 songs, from one of their best albums ever. Since I’ve been a staunch U2 fan, ever since I heard them on the radio when I was around 12 years old, I love to play their songs. I hardly ever record them. This is an exception on this ‘rule’. It’s a perfect song for an acoustic version.

I shot the video during the recording. After I shot the video I noticed it could have been a little better but it’s the recording that matters the most of course.

RECORDING ACOUSTIC SONGS

Now many ‘singer songwriters’ whome record at home, record in one take. This is of course possible. The video suggests I did the same. And yes — I recorded vocals and guitar at the same time; the guitar trough a DI (Direct Input) and guitar and vocals on separate tracks. After that, I re-recorded the vocals on an additional track (as you can see in the video). The reason for this is simple: if you record vocals and guitars at the same time, the guitar sound will ‘bleed’ into the vocal track. It makes mixing it very difficult. So if you ever record acoustic guitar and vocals for a simple demo or album: make sure you can split them.

If you record an acoustic guitar that isn’t an electro-acoustic, don’t sing along! Your vocal will ‘bleed’ into the guitar track and if that happens, you can’t do overdubs on your vocal unless you re-record the guitar as well.

ABOUT THE RECORDING

About this recording:

– DAW Software: Mixbus5
– Guitar: Samick Greg Bennett GD-101
– Vocal Mic: MXL770
– DI (Guitar): Behringer
– Audio Interface: Behringer UMC404

Video:

– recorded with Sony Cybershot DSC-HX350
– Edited with OpenShot

The audio might (ormight not) become available in the future, for now I’m only publishing the acoustic series on Youtube.