RIALAS Bouzouki Lesson 006 Sentonaki

I have had a few enquiries asking me how I approach the recording of my bouzouki and the methods I use.
This is a brief rundown. You have to take into account that I have the video camera in front of me so I am in a little bit of a disadvantage as I have to bear in mind how its going to look visually, especially for the lessons.
Firstly I prepare a basic backing track with a guide bouzouki. Then I concentrate on polishing the backing track to make it sound as "finished" as I can. This enables me to give a better performance on the bouzouki when the video is running. You'll notice that mostly I do not wear the headphones as I have the speakers on at a low level so there is a bit of spillage if you isolate the bouzouki, but this is lost in the mix. If I did not have the video to worry about I would use headphones and record the bouzouki in sections and would be able to do a better job of the sound and the finished product, but there has to be a bit of a compromise for the you-tube recording in any case, once you have uploaded your video there seems to be a big loss of sound quality so there's not too much point in being too particular. I am not too fussed on the position of the mike.
It is about a foot away and you can see that it always varies a little. I can EQ just a little for a variation in the sound. I also add compression as this makes the bouzouki stand out a bit more in the mix. I use an AKG 414. They use this a lot in Greece and I find it to be a very nice microphone. I also use a space designer reverb built into Logic. My instruments also have a nice sound and I also try to play as cleanly as I can. Having said that, You can make an average instrument sound good but you can also make a good instrument sound terrible and there is too much emphasis on "expensive" instruments and not enough on solid clean playing. Not to say that I am ever completely happy with my playing but I am trying to polish up where I can.
On the subject of backing tracks. They are only available from me for the lessons I am doing here on You-tube. These are not midi files but backing tracks that have taken me some time to put together. You can appreciate that I cannot give away all my backing tracks. Due to work commitment, I shall be off for a while and wish everyone happy pennies.