How Great Thou Art (Acoustic Gtrs/Vocal)

[Philotomy]

How Great Thou Art [SoundCloud]

When I was a boy this was my favorite hymn. I loved the power of it when played on a pipe organ with an entire congregation singing. It would make the hairs on your arms stand up.

I wanted to see if any of that might translate to a version for acoustic guitars and solo voice. So here's my attempt. Two acoustic guitars (a strummed Martin OM-35 and a fingerpicked Alvarez-Yairi DY-67), bass (MIDI in the DAW), and my vocal (captured with a Shure PGA27). Obviously some processing in the DAW (EQ, compression, and reverb).

While it lacks the power and majesty of a pipe organ and full congregation singing, I'm still pretty happy with it.

[Rainmak3r]

As a staunch atheist, I can't say hymns do much for me (even though there's some amazing religious music in the classical world). I did enjoy your interpretation of this song, though: I'm not familiar with the original, so I just enjoyed it as what felt like a cool folk/country song! Sounds great too: I don't think it needed the majesty at all

[Michael Willis]

This is a lovely expression of your faith. While it's not a traditional Christmas hymn, it still a good reminder about my own belief about what this season means to me.

You have a good voice, and the instrumental tracks are impeccable. How long have you been practicing guitar? Did you use the same Shure mic to capture the guitars?

[Philotomy]

I'm not familiar with the original, so I just enjoyed it as what felt like a cool folk/country song! Sounds great too: I don't think it needed the majesty at all

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it.

You have a good voice, and the instrumental tracks are impeccable.

Thank you.

How long have you been practicing guitar? Did you use the same Shure mic to capture the guitars?

I've been playing guitar for about 37 years, although there are huge gaps in there where I didn't play. However, I've been fairly active with guitar for the last ten years. Guitar was my third instrument (piano was first, violin second), but it pretty quickly became my main instrument.

Some details on the recording:

Guitar #1 (the strummed Martin OM-35) was recorded using the guitar's internal pickup. It was the first thing recorded; I intended to just lay down a scratch/reference track with the guitar's pickup and then record a replacement track with microphones. However, as it turned out I ended up keeping the original recording with the pickup (call it laziness/impatience). I doubled the track in the DAW, sending one hard left and one hard right, and giving each different EQ.

Guitar #2 (the fingerpicked Alvarez-Yairi DY-67) was recorded using the same Shure PGA27 microphone that I used on the vocal. It was positioned near the guitar's neck/body joint to emphasize more low-mids and bass. This track is panned slightly left. EQ and compression were applied in the DAW.

The bass is a multisampled instrument that came with the DAW. It's "Volker's Fingered Bass". It's a very simple bass line captured with a MIDI keyboard and panned slightly right.

The vocal is me singing into the Shure PGA27 mic. I applied a de-esser, EQ, and compression in the DAW.

A hall reverb is applied to the master track in the DAW.