In this episode Jon demonstrates the use of guitar pedal distortion, delay, reverb and tape echo with clips from his recent mixes.
In the comments section we talk about MIDI in Reaper, phase issues when timestretching, aligning multi-miked sources in the DAW with delays, and loud guitar recording.
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It’s been a while since the last time I posted a comment, and I Recently decided I will only post questions after anytime I forward a generous donation To the show…. What’s that? Why post a comment after sending a nice donation?… Simple…. Because you will then feel obligated to read my question on air (Insert soundbite from cartoon Regular show) “WOOOOOOH” … HA!!
What if I gave you guys $100,000 but then demanded you all have to do a roundtable show strictly on the topic of the D112… And a little special gift for Jon…. A shopping spree on all of the gear you have dreamed of having but the catch is You have to find a way to say something super positive about Behringer gear on every show until dec 31st 2013.. And no sarcasm allowed. If This was my first day learning the trade, Come December 31st, I want somebody convinced that Behringer is the big golden goose and Neve is the dirty turd sandwich…
All jokes aside, I cannot thank you guys enough for keeping this podcast alive and well. So I’m making a donation for all of the times (I’m sure there are probably many) When you guys really were not feeling up to finishing the show or making yourself find time to do another episode. One of the best features of our beloved hobby Is the passion that I see and feel from others. This isn’t like basketball or soccer Where someone could kind of be into it.. You either love this shit or you absolutely despise it…
I’d like to say in closing to anyone who is Reading this…. Your mom is fat And I’m going to write a hit song about her. I will graciously name it’s “your chin is pregnant”
Hey guys,
GSAA. I have a quick one this week. I just upgraded a ton of my equipment and couldn’t be more excited. I just got two 4u cases: one for mobile recording and one for live shows. In the mobile recording box I have a Monster Power Conditioner 2500, an Art Headamp 6 Pro, a Focusrite Pro 40 and an Focusrite Octopre Dynamic. This setup will allow 16 analog ins and 18 analog outs which I figure will be enough for a while. With the Focusrite MixControl software and the Headamp, I can send 6 unique mixes to everyone recording while still having a headphone mix, and a monitor mix for myself. Awesome. Also, the Pro 40 works in standalone mode which brings me to the live box.
In the box, there is a 3u Crown CE 1000 power amp. When I connect the two boxes together, and the amp to my PA speakers, voila! Sound. Here’s the problem: the 1u rack space in the live box is mocking me. Day in and day out, it stares. Even when I turn out the lights at night, it lurks in silence. If I have a fan running in the room, the gap in the box creates a tone reminiscent of a empty jug being blown by a bearded bloke standing next to a washtub bassist who both have degenerative kyphosis and fight for the only rocking chair on the porch.
Ok, enough jibba jabba. What 19 incher will satisfy my box gap? Keep in mind that it can only be 1.75 inches in girth. I’ve been looking at everything from basic signal processors to stereo mastering chains. If you two had $500, what would you get to fill the gap? $1k, same question.
1 chickenator, double deep-fried, hot sauce, bacon, hold the lettuce and tomato = Recording Show Fried Chicken
– TheEJM3
GSAA,
This show caught my interest in particular because I’ve recently been considering how my pedals are currently hooked up to my setup. I run several synths, drum machines, Guitar amp (mic’d) and a vocal mic into a MackieProfx12. The mackie is simply to allow the inputs without having to switch out cables on my interface (NI Komplete Audio 6). I then have my pedals connected via the Aux send on the mixer. I also run 2 channels out of my interface and into the mixer so I can send recorded tracks out of the interface, through the pedals via the aux loop and back into the interface.
My question is I believe I’m using both the Mackie and my interface pre’s when I record. Is this correct? Also, should I be using some sort of reamp box? Would I be better off using a patchbay for direct recording? or possibly an interface with more inputs? Sorry my one question turned into several. Any help is greatly appreciated.
#I Ate The Bones (of the chicken)
Hi Jon and Ryan,
I just wanted to say thanks again to Jon for mixing my song “Truly”. The bass and vocals sound so much better. They were pretty boring parts to begin with, and Jon brought out so much depth and unique character in both parts. Now they act to identify the song. Now I just want to finish more songs so I can get them to Jon as quickly as possible.
Seeing Jon’s technique also inspires me to try out my own tricks with my guitar pedals. A re-amp box and DI have suddenly jumped to the top of the list. But…do I really need both a DI and a Re-amp? I dont’ like the idea of spending $400+ just to send a signal out and in.
Thanks again Jon, and thank you both very much for a great podcast.
-Josh (Crash Cadet)
Hi
I built the Line2Amp (which I also used in my segment) from http://www.diyrecordingequipment.com/projects/line2amp-reamping-box/ as a re-amp box. Very easy.
I’m looking to build this one next – an active, phantom powered DI for guitars:
http://www.diyrecordingequipment.com/projects/bo-hansen-di/
PCB kits including components can be bought here:
https://pcbgrinder.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=60&product_id=73
In addition to this you need to get a transformer, an enclosure and some plugs I think. The price for just the PCB and components is about 25 $ plus shipping etc, and the transformer will probably add maybe 50 $ to that, if you don’t go for the top of the line transformer (the OEP A262A3E should be an reasonable and affordable alternative to the lundahls etc.).
All of this will set you back maybe 100 $.
For me, it’s definitely worth the money, no question. I don’t have the ears yet to make qualified decisions about guitar tone etc. that will not get me in trouble later, during mixing – so at that time, I can just reamp until I find a sound that will work for the mix instead of doing alot of more complex repair work with limited results…
A passive DI is another option. There is a show a while back about the Ferrite DI (kit available from diyrecordingequipment.com), but my understanding is that this is best for active pickup stuff, and/or bass. But maybe the sound will work better for some stuff than an active. Hmmm… Maybe another future build for me… 🙂
My main goal is to achieve drum recording Nirvana… So I have around $1500 to spend on gear to help me see this happen. My question to you both is, Would you spend it either towards a kick ass microphone? Or would you spend it on a Ass Kicking Pre-Amp… See how I did that? Kick Ass, Ass Kick… Im so clever…Im also open to any other ideas if you have some. Thanks guys… Your Pal… Nathan…
Great show, probably the best comment section yet…bold statement I know! The pedal examples were cool too Jon.
@Josh, I don’t have a re-amp box and a di, though I do have plenty instrument inputs on pre-amps, which I’d imagine you would also have if you have any of the more common interfaces. But anyway, often out of lazyness/a sense of adventure depending on how the studio is set up I just reamp to a pedal and, shock, send the signal to an actual amp after the pedals and get that bad boy with the microphone. There are up sides and down sides to this, the main down side being it adds a whole extra layer of tweaking that you can do with the amp and mike/mike placement, so it may become even easier to get bogged down, but it does save you buying a di if you don’t need it otherwise. They’re are affordable di boxes out there too, the Bheringer ones are probably crap but hey, so are the pedals your sending signal out to more than likely, high fi isn’t usually the primary concern for this kind of stuff.
Brian.
Good point Brian. I’ll at least experiment with amps before buying a DI and Reamp. Thanks.
Hi Jon and Ryan,
GSAA. I recently found your podcast on iTunes and have been eagerly catching up with the archives. I am also a first time commenter! Im not sure if this has been covered in a previous episode but I was wondering if you guys could share any knowledge on whether I can take a line out from my amplifiers FX loop send and go straight into my desk (Mackie Onyx 1620i into a channel with hi-z) and track guitar that way? Or would I need something like a hotplate or DI?
Thanks again guys.
P.s Can some one explain the origin of this damn Chicken?!
Hi Chrizzly
I think you can take the signal from your fx loop of your amp and into your board. The question is whether that fx loop is line-level or instrument level. I think they usually are line-level. Mine is, anyway, which can be annoying, since not all pedals deal well with line-level.
Anyway, if that is the case, then you probably won’t want to use the hi-Z input, but just a regular line-in. If the fx loop is instrument level, then I would suspect the Hi-Z input would be the way to go. But I that may depend on the impedance of the fx loop also.
Anyway, this way of doing the stuff bypasses your power amp section, so you only get the preamp tone, not the power amp tone. For that, the hotplate may be the way to go.
What is the purpose – be able to record silently?
That is exactly the purpose 🙂
Thanks for your help! I guess ill just have to try and see.
Thanks
Chris
You’re very welcome 🙂
If you’re feeling particularly adventurous and handymannish (that just sounds wrong) and have plenty of space, you could also build an isolation box. Although it usually sounds boxy – the bigger the better. My impression is that some people get quite good results going this route, but requires some EQing to get rid of the boxy-ness. It pretty much requires the head and cab to be separate (i.e., not a combo amp). You can also buy an isolation cabinet with a built-speaker, but from what I can tell by looking at pictures, you could get better results building it yourself.
The hotplate would probably be cheaper, it is smaller and not as boxy sounding, but doesn’t get the speaker distortion. Many options 🙂 If you’re interested I can dig up some links for products and examples of DIY solutions.
Hi, Guys
Thank you for great podcast. Me and my wife we have our own a band and we are working on songwriting and producing in our home studio. I’m listening for a while to your show and I am loving it. So here are some questions piled up. And please forgive me if some of this is mentioned sometime before.
1) What do you guys think about IPad’s GarageBand + audio interface and mic, when something needs to be recorded outside of home studio. Any interface you would suggest?
2) Have any of you tried Focuswrite Saffire 56 with liquid preamps? Liquid preamps sounds very promising. Too good to be true?
3) And Ryan- There are multiple Epiphone’s Velve junior amp modifications. Is there any specific you would suggest?
Thank you for great work. 🙂
Greetings from Latvia.
Maris,
Forget Ryan’s comment about the Liquid Saffire 56. I just got one and it is a fantastic solution for a studio thats just starting out and can’t afford 10 of the worlds best preamps. The liquid emulations may not sound just like the originals, but having a variety of options for $1K is unbeatable.
Hey just found this stuff and wanted to share it with the community..
I stumbled across this site
http://www.alexanderpublishing.com
Check out the Spectrotone Chart. Basically, starting back in the 1800s, several DUDES went through all the instruments in an orchestra, charting their ranges, and how color changes through out the range of the instrument. These guys charted the color change in relation to frequency and break points on the instrument then applied colors to those changes. Anyway, this chart lays out all of the colors and applies them to a keyboard that goes from C0 to C8. This keyboard also has the frequency in HZ for every key as well as the midi note for that key (as applied to the instruments range above.
I just thought this was really cool and wanted to share it. WERD UP TO YO MOMMA
Boys, let me first say, all the other audio podcasters are lazy, or are too busy trying to sell their services – you know who you are….Can’t tell you how much i appreciate the effort you guys make to knock out a show every week. And i learn as much from the comments section as the regular segment sometimes.
So in that spirit, i have a specific question that may help others too. I have an ISA One preamp into a Saffire pro 40 , and record my vocals using the “zero latency tracking” option, which i guess is the same as direct monitoring. I want to hear a little reverb in my cans, but not print it. I bought an old Roland rack mount reverb unit to accomplish this, but can’t quite figure out how to hook it up and route it. Do i need to split my mic signal somehow, or is there something simple i’m missing.
Not that it matters probably, but i use Cubase.
thanks guys.
Regarding “record…vocals…not print…reverb”:
I’m able to monitor a reverb but not print it using some in-DAW routing trickery. My setup is similar to yours (I just have a Scarlett interface rather than a Saffire interface…they use similar “Mix Control” software) so it should work with your hardware and software monitoring setup.
I don’t know what DAW you’re using, but I’m sure it’s possible in most DAWs. Here’s what I’m doing in Reaper (maybe Jon, John, Jaaaahhhhhn, or Juan can chime in with a better way in a moment…or maybe you could now before I get into this whole thing. You can just skip the rest of my comment if you reply to JH’s comment with an answer.):
I’m record-enabling a track to record my vocal to. We’ll call it “VoxTrack” for reference. I turn “Record Monitoring” on then create a send to route VoxTrack’s signal pre-fader (pre-fader is important) to a reverb aux. On that reverb aux, I stick a low-cpu usage reverb plugin, mixed 100% wet and with no pre-delay (you’re already going to have a bit of in-DAW/processing delay). The last step is to mute the output of VoxTrack in the DAW.
What’s happening is this: your voice is going in to the Mix Control software and being split to your monitoring playback and your DAW. Your DAW is recording your voice to VoxTrack then muting VoxTrack’s output. The signal going to VoxTrack is then passed un-altered, pre-fader, to a reverb aux (with reverb plugin mixed 100% wet to only output the reverb effect). That reverb aux’s output will join the rest of your DAW’s mix. That mix is sent to your monitoring playback via Mix Control.
I’m about 100% sure there’s an easier way to explain this but I can’t come up with it right now.
Thanks for all the great info, guys. HRS-hole approved!
I’m the worst,
Wutz
p.s. Hey, JH, yell at me on Twitter (or reply to this comment) if your question isn’t answered clearly enough by my reply or during show.
Hi Wutz,
thanks for taking the time to address my question. I’m sure your method works, but i think you are missing the fact that i want to record vocals using the “zero latency tracking” option in my pro 40. i think your method involves monitoring the signal after it’s passed thru the daw – thus introducing some latency – might not be much, i know, but still some.
i’m thinking i need to physically split my signal going to my pre and send it to my hardware reverb at the same time.
regards, and i think you are – the best.
jh
Again, Ryan and Jon, don’t read this if you’ve already answered his post.
I’m definitely getting zero-latency vocals with non-printed reverb in my monitors. I’m not sure I can explain it any better (because of my heavy-handed, over-use of the wrong words – not any sort of problem on your end) but, luckily, I found someone who can.
http://therecordingrevolution.com/2012/09/24/how-to-record-zero-latency-vocals-with-reverb/
Read that and see if it makes more sense.
Good luck, man!
Over,
Wutz
Hey guys!
ACRONYMTHATMEANSSOMETHINGFUNNY!
I’m writing this with a mixed sense of elation and sadness… elation because I’ve just finished listening to every episode of your show, and sadness because now I have to endure an interminable wait for each new episode to be uploaded.
Firstly, I must say that the information and advice you’ve been providing has become an invaluable tool to me (and I’m sure to many others) in my frustrating and seemingly endless quest to capture my band’s music for public release. Listening and learning has been made not only bearable, but genuinely entertaining by the easy, conversational style you present and the terrific guests you somehow convince to take part. Much thanks and appreciation for doing what you do and for continuing to do it for so long.
(Pause for “doing it” jokes.)
I discovered your show while doing some online research on recording and mastering when my band Rifle started doing some home recording in hopes of producing something we could release ourselves. While I have some small experience as a musician in pro studios I have never recorded and mastered a project of this scope. Because of our budget constraints we are quite limited in terms of high quality recording equipment and unable to afford having someone else do the mastering, so, we’re making due with what we have… which brings me to this:
I’ve heard you offer to listen to submissions and provide some constructive feedback, and I thought, well, might as well put this out for the entire audience to chime in on if they wish, so, with much trepidation, here is a link to two of the songs I feel may need the most criticism…
https://soundcloud.com/rifle-1/sets/test-tracks
If you guys, or anyone else reading, have a moment to listen, any feedback or constructive criticism regarding the sound quality would be much appreciated. This is my first attempt at mastering something for public consumption, something I have never done before, and something I fear I may have fumbled in a massive way!
Sorry to ramble so long! Many thanks for such a wonderful, informative show, and here’s to another 200 shows!
-Jet
P.S. As I wrote this massive missive I could hear Ryan’s voice reading it in my head… creepy!
Hi guys, GSAA!
This’ll be a loaded question. Here’s the deal: I just got a job, so I’ll finally be able to acquire decent gear and dive into the whole recording thing.
The thing is though, I’m really unsure what to get. I basically want to be able to track a whole band, not necessarily at the same time though. What mics and pres would you recommend getting? I was thinking a SM57 for the snare top, an Audix D6 for the kick and a Mojave MA-201 for vocals. As far as other mics go, I’m really clueless. How much would you spend for a decent pair of overhead mics for the beginning? Will the Rode NT5s suffice or should I save up and get something like the Neumann KM184s instead? What mic should i use for the snare bottom? Maybe a super- or hypercardioid one? What would you get for toms? SM57s? Those clip-on mics? Acoustic guitars, I guess I can take the Mojave or the overhead mics for that, right? I really don’t know what I should get, there are a lot of very conflicting opinions on this topic. I want a decent mic-set to get professional results, but I don’t need boutique gear with an extensive amount of color – versatility is key.
Now, pres or converters. What would you spend? What would you recommend? I have a Focusrite Saffire Pro 24, would the Focusrite Octopre be a good choice or should I get something completely different?
Thanks so much for taking the time and answering this question.
Rock on, greetings Boris.
PS: DIY is an option for me! I actually like building stuff on my own if I can save some money that way.
Hey guys,
I recently recorded and mixed my punk band’s new EP. All done in Reaper!
The vocals include our lead singer and two different backup vocalists, often all singing at the same time. I decided to pan the singer up the middle, one of the backup vocalists 100% left and the other backup vocalist 100% right. Everything sounded great…in stereo.
When I checked the mono mix, the backups all but disappeared. I’ve heard about the so-called Pan Law, but I’m not sure how to apply it. Any suggestions on how to have the backup vocalists panned hard left and right in stereo and maintain mono compatibility?
Thanks,
Keith
Did they get covered up by too much other stuff in that frequency range? or did they seriously disappear? If they just disappeared, i should ask how you “checked it in mono”. Did you pan your master track mono, or sum somehow? Or did you use some silly stereo field plugin set to the mono setting. There are a few plugins that make it mono by simply removing the stereo stuff and only keeping the information panned dead center. So the sides just disappear.
Not likely, but possible. I’ve been tricked by a plugin like this before.
Also, if you were summing it correctly, perhaps you could check the eq on a few things. When you check a mix in mono it’s easy to see when different tracks are competing for the same eq frequencies. It might not be easy to hear in stereo, especially with tracks panned hard left/right. This is one of the main reasons to check a mix in mono. Are your vocals getting overpowered by guitars or other instruments? You might have to do some subtractive EQing of the band to make room for the vocals to be heard. “Carve out space” for them. You don’t have to go crazy (or maybe you do). Some subtle changes could make it drastically better. Just play around with it and see if you can find the sweet spot where the vocals come through and the guitars (or whatever) doesn’t sound terrible because it’s over-EQed. Good luck
Howdy fellas,
Here’s a short one: how do you go about backing up finished projects? Do you like to keep everything? put it on the cloud or on discs?
Thanks a bunch!
Hey guys,
ADHS (Another Decent Homerecording Show) 🙂
When you were discussing the fact that amp modelling plugins are not quite there in comparison with their real counterparts, I was almost in agreement with you. Most amp modelling plugins don’t sound right to me. However I found a plugin suite, which sounds surprisingly authentic to my ears. The best about it: it’s free. The name is SimulAnalog and you can find a small number of effects pedals and amps at http://www.simulanalog.org. Under “Technology” you’ll find a short description and at http://www.simulanalog.org/guitarsuite.htm you’ll finally get the details along with the plugin downloads and MP3 samples. The plugins feel much more real when played in your DAW. Let me know, if you like them. I prefer them over all others out there. 😉
Thanx for all the shows and the long hours of editing. *g* I’ll be back for more… 😉
Frank
The simulanalog-suite is not bad, but I personally get the best results using TSE plugins with Redwirez IRs, God’s Cab is really good too. The IRs (Impulse Responses) are much more important for the guitar sound than the actual amp simulation I find. Redwirez offers their Marshall G12M Cab for free, which is a really awesome IR Library.
Here’s a mix I did using only Redwirez IRs and TSE Amps for the guitars: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/7033787/fearedmehrbass2wenigerh%C3%B6hen.mp3
Boris
Hi Boris, that’s a nice track you posted. 🙂
The guitars sound quite good. I don’t use the SimulAnalog suite for recordings actually. It is just the most authentic sounding plugin suite from what I heard. None of them sound 100% authentic to my ears. I’m using an Engl preamp in combination with a Red Box Classic from Hughes & Kettner for recording. Although this is a speaker simulation it sounds far more lively than any impulse response I tried so far. Sure, there are some IRs, which sound very good, but I like the sound from my setup, because it sounds pretty close to what a mic’ed speaker cabinet with a real amp sounds like. I disagree with your assumption that the amp is not that important. I think the right amp still can’t be beaten by a plugin. The only promising solution in the direction of virtualization seems to be the Kemper Profiling Amp. I’ve watched an impressive interview/review with Andy Sneap (producer and guitarist) about it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb1zI6pEu0A
It’s not even that expensive compared to other amps. As long as I don’t have this one with appropriate profiles, I will probably stick with my hardware signal chain. 😉
I might check out the IRs you mentioned though. Staying up to date on the latest development in this area isn’t a bad idea. 😉
Cool show! I have the Line2Amp as well and I should probably start experimenting with out of the box mixing. The band I’m recording right now is indie enough for me to do crazy stuff too! Random question: I would really like to to a transformerless mod on one of my 57s, but I think it would be much cooler to have a switch to bypass it instead. I have no idea where I would put the switch, because I doubt I could dremel a hole into that tank of a microphone, but could this be done without ruining anything? I am not too Shure (pun intended) about a schematic, but I assume I would take the leads from the capsule and solder them to a switch with 2 ins and 4 outs so to speak. After that, I could wire directly to the output on 2 pins, and then to the transformer on another 2 pins. That way, 4 wires would be soldered to the XLR output. Am I crazy or should I give this a shot? I have several other 57s, so it’s not absolutely mandatory that I have the option of using a switch, but you can’t say that wouldn’t be totally bad ass. Also, if I cannot do this and wind up taking the transformer out, is there anything I could do with it? Maybe a signal splitter box?
Thanks dudes!
Hi
Depending on the actual circuit, maybe you could move the transformer out of the microphone and place it in a sort of “in line adapter cable”, which you would put between the now transformerless mic and your balanced cable running to your preamp. That would obviate the need for a switch altogether.
On the other hand, I imagine that maybe the transformer needs to be shielded.
Just forget everything after “good morning”…
Right chaps, thought i’d better get out of the dark corner of the podcast-verse and chirp in here with some questions.
I have around $550 (rough £ to $ conversion) to spend on a good 2-8 channel audio interface.
Here’s my criteria
2 outputs for my main monitors, if it had 4 outputs i could use my old set of hifi speakers for referencing, But not totality necessary.
2 inputs for recording guitar, bass and/or vocals. Probably used mainly for vocals so some good preamps would be amazeballs.
Firewire only, as USB sucks “Big lesbian mammoth bollocks”
(Yes, I had to get Ryan to say amazeballs as i’m going to use it as my text message tone) lol
So my audio bitches, give me a good reason to spend my cash on some amazeballs interface with preamps filled with awesome sauce.
Oh and can i request a HRS diploma for my rather badly decorated studio wall.
I’ve finished the whole HRS back catalogue and reclaimed my 120gb iPod classic for it’s original purpose. Sitting in my studio collecting dust as most sane people just use there phones these days.
Apologies to Ryan for making him read all this (Don’t cry my audio puppet)
Looking forward to reading or listening to your suggestions.
Yours sincerely,
Beano The Drummer.
GSAA. I appreciate the focus on electronic music in the comments section. I’ve been releasing electronic music for a few weeks now, and I’ve made my last few songs using only analog instruments (Rhodes piano, guitars, hand drums, etc.). With some creative layering and recording techniques, it sounds a lot like most electronic music. I’ve grown tired of hearing the exact same soft synths in electronic music, so I’m making dubstep-type music without the use of soft-synths (although I still use Ableton for arranging). Heres a link to one such song if anyone is interested. It features vocals from Icelandic singer Bijou: http://soundcloud.com/mvplanet/mvplanet-bijou-done-all-i-can-do
Now my question – I have a sitar, but I’m having some trouble recording it. The only decent microphone I have at the moment is a PPA LD-3 MKII (basically a slightly modded Apex 460), but it just ends up sounding too harsh on the sitar. It also sounds pretty harsh on acoustic guitar – honestly, I only really like this mic for recording Rhodes piano. I’m thinking of getting an SM57 or SM58 to record the sitar (my budget is pretty small). Any experience with recording sitars?
GSAA,
Congrats! yall are now a part of the mile high club… well at least the mile high club that is determined by me listening to podcasts while im flying.
I really need to get my reamp setup in order. One of my favorite subtle effects in my pedal setup is the digitech whammy. It adds a little distortion when in passive mode but its not like a regular distortion but a random octave shift thing. It might be an interesting thing to try in the hardware pedal mixer setup.
RTC
Re: hooking it up with more jams, I’ll run it by the fellas.we have all been so busy with being new fathers we have not been drinking as much.and by drinking I mean playing music, and by playing music I mean using music as an excuse to drink.
Hey John & Ryan.
New to the show & the forums.
GSAA.
Really have been enjoying the work you guys do.
Caught up on a few back programs, & noticed an Interview with Alex Wilkinson.
Met up with him & a few other engineers, good to shoot the sh!t with people who have done this sort of recording work before.
Me? Novice. Building a sound-booth down stairs in the basement to be able to play,sing & record after 7pm (2 kids under 5 asleep by 7pm).
Thanks for the tip on Reaper.
Tips are coming. Does it work with Amazon.ca?
Thanks again.
New name for the chicken, in Marvel universe he could be Thor’s best friend “Thunder-chook.”
Hey Guys,
Just posted a “short” video tour of my home studio…
Ok, it’s not “short” so fair warning, it might only be interesting for true Audio Geeks like myself… LoL… But hope you like!
Keep up the great work!
Love the show, as always…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnqCUzGABsI&sns=em
You have mentioned on the show that you prefer to use the pre73 with a dynamic mic and not a condenser mic. Why is this? I tracked two song comparing the two types of microphones and I still prefer the pre73 sound with my condenser mic. Perhaps, it’s because I track vocals in a very dead room and the recordings with the condenser mic seem to have more high end.
Also, the signal coming out of my pre73 into my mbox 2 is quite strong. I would really like to use the pad button on my mbox to compensate for this, but i have read that using the pad button will add some character from the mbox and is not recommended. What are your thoughts?
Just wanted to thank you for the show/site, and especially this episode.
I found HRS while googling DIY preamp kits that had lots of color. Show 150 was one of the results, so I started checking out the rest of the podcasts. When I got to #214, I got knocked upside the head twice:
1. As a guitar player for 40+ years, between amps, cabs and too many pedals, I already have more ways to distort a signal than a sane person has a right to.
2. I need to stop obsessing over gear (and reading Gearslutz), use the shit I have in creative ways, and make more music.
I tested my AT4050 direct into my RME Fireface 800, then reamped that (via a Radial JCR Direct box bought through your Amazon link) through my Maxon TS9 with the Analog Man “Silver” mod (the holy grail of TubeScreamers, IMHO – you should check it out) back into a 2nd channel. Mixing the two with the TS channel at about 10% was the money.
So, thank you for saving me $2k on a preamp just to get some “color”.
I have a couple of questions:
1. Why no love for RME on HRS? To me they make some pretty killer gear. You seem to go right for the Apogee (which is awesome stuff), or Focusrite (which I’ve had mixed results with, though haven’t used any of the new Scarlett stuff).
2. Why is it so hard to find Neve-esque DIY preamps in a single space rack configuration a la Focusrite ISA Two, or even a half rack format like the Pre-73? Everything I can find is 5xx format, and I don’t want to build 8 (or 11) channels just to not have blank spaces staring at me. A single/dual space 5xx format lunchbox would even be cool.
3. When the Pre-73 was first announced, it was touted as being the COME TO JESUS preamp and would change the world. Then after distribution issues in the US (and some apparent QC problems), I didn’t hear about them for years, until HRS, where everyone seems to have one and love it. Have they worked out their issues? If I got one, I think I would feel compelled to mod it (there’s that obsessing over gear thing again).
Great shows as always
I have 2 Pre73’s (series one, not the newer versions) and also a AMS Neve 1073LB
They are not identical, but soooo close its silly
Not that I don’t love my real deal Neve, but I’d likely buy 3 more pre73’s (maybe the 500 series) before I’d splurge for another 1073LB
Sure, there is a difference, component quality, blah blah blah, but at least a “portion” of that premium goes towards the “NAME” and bragging rights… And my philosophy is, as long as it sounds good, who the F–k cares about the name brand anymore….
Clones Rule!
Just my 2 cents worth..
Rob