This week Jon and Ryan answer a ton of questions and comments from the past week and recap what went on in the recording world this year.
Merry Christmas, Happy New year, Thank you for all your support this year!
The Home Recording Show
The Internet's Best Home Recording Podcast
48 shows? Slackers.
Yea, Valhalla is a good one. Best reverb I have been pointed to so far. Admittedly the Lexicon and some of the Waves stuff have been a little more than I want to spend on reverb right now, but I am not sure I am in a hurry to try it now.
Ryan – for pickups, I highly recommend trying out Bareknuckle Humbuckers. I got a pair of BKP Mules and it really gave my PRS Cu24 some amazing tone to match the great playability. The PRS pickups just sounded like pooh compared to the clarity and depth of the BKPs. I want another Strat or Tele first, but soon after, a hollowbody of some sort (335, PRS, or maybe Rickenbach.) is going to be mated with some coil-tapping BKP Abraxas. Check out their stuff here: http://www.bareknucklepickups.co.uk/main/
As far as my favorite HRS episodes for the year, I think my top 5 in no specific order:
1.Kim Lejoise Interview – his perspective is inspiring. He reminds me that ultimately, it’s about the music, not the crap we all get lost in.
2.All the shootouts/reviews. I love this shit.
3.The shows involving DIY/teching. So much money to be saved (if you have the time) by learning how to dig into the electronics and make some of your own gear: from kits or otherwise. Some of the kits are on par with the best analog gear on the market. Learn to solder
4.You’re Doing it Wrong
5. The guitar geeking, guitar electronics, bass recording (they all fit in a theme in my mind).
Looking forward to the next year!
PS – Justin Beiber’s album rocked 2011.
PSS – j/k, that guy can’t follow Lindsey Lohan into drug induced obscurity fast enough. But as far as pop artists go – that Adele chick has some talent and seems to ‘keep it real’. Of the top selling albums, she is the least hateful.
Well, there have always been popstars like these in every generation and they’re not going away anytime soon. I don’t listen to radio or watch TV, so that helps. But if you look at modern rock – when you dumb down the melody and 8th note everything in the rhythm section (i.e., rhythm) with the same chord progression, it gets pretty lame. Then there are R’n’B/top40/hiphop stuff that are so bad now that they have ‘songs’ that use 3-note melodies through out the entire songs. And rap – I remembered that used to be more aggressive, dark and badass. What the hell happened to that genre?!
Yeah I’m getting old.
wohhhhooo…quite 100MB of delicious podcast…I like! Will there be a “The Audio Recording Podcaster Roundtable” in January 2012 again? I listened to this show quite more often then I´d like to admit. And I found the HRS this year, which is awesome, because I love to listen even to those topics, that usually are not the center of my attention. But enough adulation for now 🙂 Thank you for great shows, keep going in 2012 and a Happy New Year!
One of the key symptoms of becoming an old is not getting the new trends. I had a sneaky suspicion that i had crossed over when i thought ‘I just don’t get emo’ … It is truly a sad state of affairs when your comical youthful indiscretions turn into obnoxious character flaws.
If yall run out of show ideas, you should do one on soldering properly. In keeping with the theme of ‘the sum of all things’ I’ve seen a lot of terrible DIY solder jobs that fizzled mid performance. Also on that note mammoth electronics has some pretty good stuff (http://www.mammothelectronics.com/) for the DIY’ers. I built a multiple amp switch pedal so i could change the channels on two different amps with one switch. It was cheap and easy. I realize there are pedals on the market that can do this already but i have a tremendous need for self loathing that is only fulfilled by tackling off the wall needless projects like that.
keep it up, looking forward to 2012
Hey guys, thanks a ton for answering my question and pointing me at episode 17. I just went back and listened again. Between the two there’s more info there than any podcasting noob can handle, and handing them those 2 episodes will make my podcast evangelism easier. So yeah, thanks.
@regniG – I was 19 when the whole emo thing got big and even then I looked at it and said “I don’t get it”. So either I was a very young old man or emo is just weird.
@sven – there goes my theory on the correlation between cognative dissonance caused by emo and the rate at which my hair line is receding..
Hey there guys,
Great show! I have not been one of the hard core folks who have gone back and listened to every show but I may put that on my list of New Year’s resolutions. I really have enjoyed your show. I downloaded Reaper and it looks good, but I have way too many years involved in Cakewalk/Music Creator and now X1 to learn another DAW from scratch. I know you are not a fan, but at least you are not a hater. At some point I had to make the call and learn just one DAW well instead of having 6 that I could not manipulate thoroughly. This show was great and I downloaded the Amplitube stuff you recommended. I sometimes think your show gets above the reach of the little guy like me that has an Alesis 8 channel USB board a handful of guitars and basses and a few lower end mics…but I strive to be able to buy a 230 dollar reverb plug in someday. If you have other suggestions for quality free or low cost plug ins that you find useful, I think that would be helpful. We are in a recession man! By the way, I almost did not include the link to songs I have recorded over the years due to the flaws and poor recording techniques displayed, the drifting of the tracks away from one another and the horrible singing (so I am told) but even if you have an ugly baby, you still love it somehow.
I think I heard Jon say near the end of the show that Pro Tools 10 dropped the 002. Not a big deal but wanted to write in and let you know the 002 does work with PT 10. I’ve heard rumors that 11 wont support the 002; however, that begs the question, what was the point of opening up the platform in version 9? Its as if Avid is saying, you can use any interface you like as long as it isn’t one of our old ones.
???
Anyway guys – I LOVE the show. Thank you for a great year of audio sweetness.
-Texas Mike
Hi Mike
If I could clarify, (and if I recall correctly) AVID won’t be writing drivers or including drivers in the PT installers for 002 after PT9 and 003 after PT10. These may continue to work with older ASIO drivers but the DAE drivers won’t work. AVID may also stop supporting these products, if they haven’t already.
I haven’t owned a 002 for a long time and am no longer a PT user so I have not tested it myself. Just going off what I’ve read.
Hey sorry for a double comment, but I forgot a couple questions that I did have…what is a good method for recording yourself whistling? Also if you wanted to record a work song and wanted it to have a fat clapping rhythm? Thanks!!
Hi Guys,
I’d like to address a comment from Andy that sparked a really good conversation regarding reverb. I’m not sure if you have already pointed it out or have seen it but I’d recommend the “Recording and Mixing a Band with Fab Dupont” videos that can be found on the Sweetwater site and youtube.
Specifically during the mixing section when he was creating spaces and his treatment of the lead vocal. He set-up 3 reverbs – a room, plate, and a hall. He used all three on the vocal. The room was used just to basically move the singer away from the mic a bit (create some depth assuming it’s not there in the original recording). The plate was used sparingly just to add some tail (and who wouldn’t want that?). Then the hall brought it all together to create the space. I tried this on a recent vocal/acoustic demo and I was really happy with the result. I definitely think about reverb in a different way now after watching that and I think it would help others to check it out.
I always learn from you guys. Keep it up.
Dan
Longtime listener, first comment. Absolutely love the shows guys. I laughed out loud when you talked about how we become old as soon as we have kids. I have 3 little ones myself. Went out to a late live show last weekend with my wife. The show started at 10:30 and we were so dead tired. When did we get so old. I figure that it’s just this way for parent’s of young children. As soon as they get old enough to sleep in, or at least take care of themselves in the morning, we’ll get our coolness back. There’s just not a lot of free time for parents of young children.
I loved the Valhalla room review in the previous show. I’d been interested in it for a while but have been content with Aether and LX480. Those audio examples may have convinced me to part with another $50 though.
As for the comment that ripped on your voices, I couldn’t disagree more. I’ve never got the impression that Jon is reading a script. It’s funny that you (Ryan), said that you never read from a script, because that’s how it’s always sounded to me. It’s never bothered me though. It certainly never made me feel like falling asleep.
Really love the show guys! You guys Rock!
Another quick comment to say that I’m enjoying the DIY site you mentioned in the previous podcast, http://www.diyrecordingequipment.com/.
I love DIY electronics. I’ve made all the cables in my studio, over 400 cables. That’s saved me a lot of $. I also make and sell custom cables to local studios, venues, and musicians.
I’ve also built a tube DI/Preamp that runs on a 12AX7 running at over 400 volts. Stomp boxes are a lot of fun too. You can design and fabricate your own PCBs too using a laser jet, glossy photo paper, and a blank copper board. I design the PCB layout on the computer, print it onto the photo paper, then using an iron, I transfer the ink onto the blank copper PCB. Some ferric chloride removes the copper that isn’t covered with the ink, and a quick wash and scrub removes the ink afterwards, giving you a nice clean custom designed PCB.
Be careful! DIY is the most addictive form of gearlust. Not only will you want to buy all this nice stuff, you’ll want to figure out how to build it too!
Jon & Ryan,
Kids went back to school today, so that meant I finally had time to myself and listen to the backlog of podcasts. Thoroughly enjoyed the show – brought me back through memory lane.
Although, I’m still bitter about all the Logic-dissin’ going on. And, I totally missed the Mixerman kerfuffle – I’ve gotta dig into that and see what it was all about.
Anyway, Happy New Year to both of you. Looking forward to chatting with you in the coming months!
Cheers, Dave
Not sure if you guys have heard of Jack Conte. He serves as one of my inspirations for DIY anything.
Thought I’d share the joy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cto4fX-IVyA&feature=related
Exciting to hear about the upcoming live shows. Since you are considering doing some video casting you might want to contact Brian Alves over at http://www.theDVshow.com. He has been doing his video podcasts for over 6 years now.
Hey guys, Long time listener, first time caller, love the show, interesting topic. I’ve been listening to the show for about year and the advice you guys give is great. Love the guitar demos etc. Just got a new high end set of Sennheiser headphones for Christmas and your year end show was one of the first things I listened to with them. Special request. Can you not eat, munch, slurp, or gulp while you’re doing the show? I mean..dude…you’re munching in my ear. This has long been a pod cast pet peave of mine. People spend all kinds of time and money getting equipment and show together and then they publish stuff with lunch munching in it. It’s happened a couple times during the series that I’ve noticed and my new cans really picked it up well last episode. If you can’t won’t stop then please consider completing the food life cycle and do a broadcast where each panelist is sitting in the bathroom. Reverb test? Otherwise it’s a great show! Thanks again for all that you do!
Mars Hollow released their 2nd album in 2011. I thought that was pretty cool:
http://soundcloud.com/mars-hollow
Dan, thanks for pointing out those videos by Fab! That guy is hilarious, not to mention a great “tutorialist”. I spent a ton of time watching his demonstrations and really picked up some helpful tips.
I thought his use of ribbon mics on acoustic/vocal was brilliant. What a great way to get some nice separation while tracking simultaneously! One of my big takeaways from his sessions was the importance of tracking as much as possible live. I know we don’t all have access to a massive stage like that, but I think one of the issues with home recordings is that they feel lifeless, because every person/part has been put in isolation.
I’m getting ready to track a new album with a band and am going to try to do as much live as possible.
What is the link of the 6 minute video on that custom tele you built?
@Mike D – You can find Jeff’s site and Ryan’s guitar build here:
http://www.darkartfoundry.com/2011/12/18/video-number-1-ryan-canestros-frankentele/
GREAT podcast guys. Just stumbled upon the show, by far my favorite recording podcast.
I never thought I would find a podcast that regularly referenced DIY audio projects. I am thrilled!
The question I have is regarding Ryan’s DIY preamps. Did I hear correctly that you made 6 for a total of $100?? Do you have any information or schematics for these? I’m currently designing a set of 8 A/D converters that output to ADAT, and I’d like to tack on some affordable but quality mic pres, and house it in my old Behringer ADA8000 rack space. The Seventh Circle Audio pres seem great, but I just don’t have it in the cards to have 8 of them any time soon.
Hey guys, great show. I’m a total n00b and 80% of the tech stuff you discuss is way over my head but I strive to decrease this percentage to 50% in 2012! 🙂
On to my question: EQ vs treatment, what’s your take? There seems to be a quasi religious war between those 2 factions, but I would think that a bit of both can be useful? Thanks for giving me your feedback!