Thanks, @Mouse - A few things were stacked against having a good sound. The A and D strings are just a few days old, the bow was re-haired recently and is still playing-in, the microphone is the internal unit on a ten-year-old laptop, the recording software is a bit 'cheap' (i.e. free with Ubuntu) and I cannot relax when recording myself (yet).

I shall experiment with my telephone as a better recording device, with my son driving it to avoid the mirror-image effect of the screen-side camera. I guess the relaxation will come in time, and the bow and middle two strings will mature in a week or so.

As you can hear, I still have many issues. I must learn to take more notes from each bow; I watched a video last night of Nicola Benedetti, and she was drawing 64 notes from a single bow, so I guess we all can, ultimately. For now, I'll just try to use more of the hair and get at least eight notes out of it.

Lots of work to do!

Mimi Aysha said
Sounded very nice to me...I can hear a touch of nerves in there  (I'm the same when a video camera goes on)...I like how you are playing with the middle of the bow, very cool bow....easier to go bigger both ways than just playing with the top...lovely job

  

"...a touch of nerves..." - An understatement! As soon as I click the record button, I feel a sense of dread and I can't relax into the playing. I should record myself more often, to get the idea normalised and get rid of the anxiety. 

The bow is a cheap oriental device which I re-built and re-haired recently; it still hasn't played-in fully yet. The manufacturer had glued the hair-wedges in! Bowing needs a lot more work; it's one of the faults I've found from this recording exercise. I know I must use more of the bow's length, and draw more notes with each stroke.

Thank you all for your critique.

Please keep the comments and observations coming.

Mimi Aysha said
 

I recorded myself last night, when I played it back my husband walked in and said "who's that!" - I pointed at my computer screen, he just laughed and asked "what happened to all the notes you know?"....crushed!

  

I haven't played to my wife yet, much to her disgust. I'm saving it for when I can do a worthy job of it; perhaps I'm being a bit harsh there. I played a little to our daughter back before Christmas; she seemed more impressed that I'd built an electric fiddle than with the squeaking I was making.

Thank you Pierre.

Valuable advice; I'll enjoy my music more once the nerves have eased off. It's somewhat like "white coat syndrome", as I'm OK when non-fiddle people around me hear me play; I've started practicing early in the mornings at work before my duties begin and passers-by don't faze me, they seem to enjoy listening, too.

For what it's worth, I have my first lesson with a tutor this coming Saturday, and so I'm expecting a proper beating-up. I'm hoping she'll start from the very beginning, and re-build me.

Thanks @Irv - I have a tuner (a multi-instrument one) on my telephone.

For on-the-fly tuning checks, I just pick the pairs of strings, and listen for the P5s.

The Solid only drifts if I bang a peg while transporting, but the Antique needs checking with the tuner each day because it's a thin wooden box and we have volatile humidity and temperature (British Isles). It behaves fairly well, though; the drift is always even across the strings, and just a few cents.