Re: Mainstream Recording?
Great stuff. Let's do some colabo sometime. You guys rock. Kevin
Re: Mainstream Recording?
Scot, fantastic production, and while we're swopping heres my band, an album tracked in about 5 days in a ttics spare bedrooms and a very bad attempt at a drum isolation booth a friend constructed, but that's another days discussion. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFl7vPZTjo8 Not as slick as your production but it was my first major mix, and its hit national radio quite a bit, so its probably close to an acceptable professional standard. My major point here though is, I mixed this in an attic in my house, but have since moved into a purpose built studio, with piles of money gone into acoustically treating the rooms, and using the same speakers and same computer/interface I could definitely say that mixing the album would have been so much easier in this better room. Also, the drums for this were recorded in a muddy sounding room where someone thought acoustically treating it meant sucking out all the life out of the room and not treating the bass/low mid frequencies at all, which seriously restricted mixing options. Having said all this, even if I didn't have the new studio for my next project, it would be much better than this work I've l inked to here, simply because I've learned quickly from getting deep into one album production, and have done much more work since. I would say good acoustics/listening environment and the right pair of ears are all that's needed beyond a basic computer and DAW setup these days for good results. By using D I and triggars, you bypassed that acoustic elements some what, though you obviously didn't have the ideal mixing environment, but what you did have was the good or great pair of ears and artistic vision. Which brings me to my final point, and this is an important one, your setup got a high budget sound for your band in my opinion at l east and I think most would agree with that, however, bring in the Dixy Chicks and they ain't going to sound so good with triggars and D I, well you might get some part of the way, but commercial recording studios are meant to be able to take anything thrown at them to a certain extent. But again I say, the right pair of ears for the project is at least half the battle, and the acoustics is the other half, so that great pair of ears can better t ell what they're actually listening to. Great stuff again Scot, killer guitar tones and great writing. Brian. -- From: Scott Chesworth scottcheswo...@gmail.com Sent: Friday, June 22, 2012 2:18 AM To: ptaccess@googlegroups.com Subject: Re: Mainstream Recording? This is a really interesting thread! For anyone that might care to listen, my band tracked this tune entirely in a spare bedroom. Thanks to the modern miracles of DI and MIDI triggering, the most noisy member was our vocalist. So far, we're two albums down the line and haven't touched what most people would consider to be a proper studio yet during tracking and production stages. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NI8Xrup5akw Cheers Scott On 6/21/12, Chris Norman chris.norm...@googlemail.com wrote: Please, when you read this, note, I'm not saying anyone who's responded to these messages is wrong, there's some great people who know infinitely more about what they're talking about than I, but I'd like to give the view of a hobbiest. I have a studio in my spare bedroom, it's not professional in any way, shape or form. I'm sure if anyone who turned up and knew their stuff, they'd probably leave on a stretcher from laughing so hard, but, the point is, it works for me. I have spent a fair amount of money over the last couple of years getting the stuff I wanted. I do not know what's good or bad, but I followed the suggestions of people on this list, and others, and got stuff which was affordable, and good. With this stuff, I can get the sounds I want and rely upon. They might not be radio quality, or up to the standard of Lianne Rhymes, or anyone like that, but they work for me. Judging by the stuff you've written Christopher, you're in a similar situation to myself, you're just recording for fun, and you probably don't want to do it seriously. Even if you do, I see no reason this stuff, with some modifications, could get you a fairly decent recorded sound, which you could sell to people. Below is my gear list, as far as I know it. I'm actually not sure what my monitors are, but they're MAudio somethings, and they were were some £300 for the pair. I'm using Pro Tools 10, running on a MacBook Pro. It's not the latest one, but the one before that I think. I (stupidly), brought it about a week before the new MacBook Pro with the Thunderbalt ports came out. Off course I use a full sized apple keyboard, and, when I've saved up all the money for my iMac, I'll be using the Magic Trackpad too, so I can sit of my sofa to record, instead of cluttering up space I don't have, with another chair. I'm using a Euphonix Artist Mix control surface, and an MBox
Re: Mainstream Recording?
Hey Brian, Very cool! Good to know there are brethrin of melodic dark and heavy stuff on the same side of the pond here. Curious to hear more man, I'm heading over to bandcamp to pick up the record when I've finished writing this. Yeah, point taken about DI not working for everyone, we're lucky in that it caters well to what we do. At the time, it was more of a productivity-based choice than anything else based on the spaces available to write and record in. Album number 3 will likely stay that way for bass and guitars, but suggesting another triggered album to the drummer could well be the last suggestion I'd ever make. If you're interested in the difference the DI approach made, this was from the first record with live drums and more variation in how guitars were tracked. All in makeshift recording locations again, and it still took some drum reinforcement at mix stage. Who knows, perhaps album 3 might be the one where we actually end up with a decent kit sound to start with LOL! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mo9_NYB4AR8 Cheers Scott On 6/22/12, Brian Casey brian_w_ca...@hotmail.com wrote: Scot, fantastic production, and while we're swopping heres my band, an album tracked in about 5 days in a ttics spare bedrooms and a very bad attempt at a drum isolation booth a friend constructed, but that's another days discussion. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFl7vPZTjo8 Not as slick as your production but it was my first major mix, and its hit national radio quite a bit, so its probably close to an acceptable professional standard. My major point here though is, I mixed this in an attic in my house, but have since moved into a purpose built studio, with piles of money gone into acoustically treating the rooms, and using the same speakers and same computer/interface I could definitely say that mixing the album would have been so much easier in this better room. Also, the drums for this were recorded in a muddy sounding room where someone thought acoustically treating it meant sucking out all the life out of the room and not treating the bass/low mid frequencies at all, which seriously restricted mixing options. Having said all this, even if I didn't have the new studio for my next project, it would be much better than this work I've l inked to here, simply because I've learned quickly from getting deep into one album production, and have done much more work since. I would say good acoustics/listening environment and the right pair of ears are all that's needed beyond a basic computer and DAW setup these days for good results. By using D I and triggars, you bypassed that acoustic elements some what, though you obviously didn't have the ideal mixing environment, but what you did have was the good or great pair of ears and artistic vision. Which brings me to my final point, and this is an important one, your setup got a high budget sound for your band in my opinion at l east and I think most would agree with that, however, bring in the Dixy Chicks and they ain't going to sound so good with triggars and D I, well you might get some part of the way, but commercial recording studios are meant to be able to take anything thrown at them to a certain extent. But again I say, the right pair of ears for the project is at least half the battle, and the acoustics is the other half, so that great pair of ears can better t ell what they're actually listening to. Great stuff again Scot, killer guitar tones and great writing. Brian. -- From: Scott Chesworth scottcheswo...@gmail.com Sent: Friday, June 22, 2012 2:18 AM To: ptaccess@googlegroups.com Subject: Re: Mainstream Recording? This is a really interesting thread! For anyone that might care to listen, my band tracked this tune entirely in a spare bedroom. Thanks to the modern miracles of DI and MIDI triggering, the most noisy member was our vocalist. So far, we're two albums down the line and haven't touched what most people would consider to be a proper studio yet during tracking and production stages. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NI8Xrup5akw Cheers Scott On 6/21/12, Chris Norman chris.norm...@googlemail.com wrote: Please, when you read this, note, I'm not saying anyone who's responded to these messages is wrong, there's some great people who know infinitely more about what they're talking about than I, but I'd like to give the view of a hobbiest. I have a studio in my spare bedroom, it's not professional in any way, shape or form. I'm sure if anyone who turned up and knew their stuff, they'd probably leave on a stretcher from laughing so hard, but, the point is, it works for me. I have spent a fair amount of money over the last couple of years getting the stuff I wanted. I do not know what's good or bad, but I followed the suggestions of people on this list, and others, and got stuff which was affordable, and good
Re: Mainstream Recording?
Good god. That sounds great as well. Man. You people are blowing me away left and right. I think we're gonna put a page on the site showcasing all yall's youtube vids. THis is great. Kevin On Jun 22, 2012, at 10:34 AM, Scott Chesworth wrote: Hey Brian, Very cool! Good to know there are brethrin of melodic dark and heavy stuff on the same side of the pond here. Curious to hear more man, I'm heading over to bandcamp to pick up the record when I've finished writing this. Yeah, point taken about DI not working for everyone, we're lucky in that it caters well to what we do. At the time, it was more of a productivity-based choice than anything else based on the spaces available to write and record in. Album number 3 will likely stay that way for bass and guitars, but suggesting another triggered album to the drummer could well be the last suggestion I'd ever make. If you're interested in the difference the DI approach made, this was from the first record with live drums and more variation in how guitars were tracked. All in makeshift recording locations again, and it still took some drum reinforcement at mix stage. Who knows, perhaps album 3 might be the one where we actually end up with a decent kit sound to start with LOL! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mo9_NYB4AR8 Cheers Scott On 6/22/12, Brian Casey brian_w_ca...@hotmail.com wrote: Scot, fantastic production, and while we're swopping heres my band, an album tracked in about 5 days in a ttics spare bedrooms and a very bad attempt at a drum isolation booth a friend constructed, but that's another days discussion. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFl7vPZTjo8 Not as slick as your production but it was my first major mix, and its hit national radio quite a bit, so its probably close to an acceptable professional standard. My major point here though is, I mixed this in an attic in my house, but have since moved into a purpose built studio, with piles of money gone into acoustically treating the rooms, and using the same speakers and same computer/interface I could definitely say that mixing the album would have been so much easier in this better room. Also, the drums for this were recorded in a muddy sounding room where someone thought acoustically treating it meant sucking out all the life out of the room and not treating the bass/low mid frequencies at all, which seriously restricted mixing options. Having said all this, even if I didn't have the new studio for my next project, it would be much better than this work I've l inked to here, simply because I've learned quickly from getting deep into one album production, and have done much more work since. I would say good acoustics/listening environment and the right pair of ears are all that's needed beyond a basic computer and DAW setup these days for good results. By using D I and triggars, you bypassed that acoustic elements some what, though you obviously didn't have the ideal mixing environment, but what you did have was the good or great pair of ears and artistic vision. Which brings me to my final point, and this is an important one, your setup got a high budget sound for your band in my opinion at l east and I think most would agree with that, however, bring in the Dixy Chicks and they ain't going to sound so good with triggars and D I, well you might get some part of the way, but commercial recording studios are meant to be able to take anything thrown at them to a certain extent. But again I say, the right pair of ears for the project is at least half the battle, and the acoustics is the other half, so that great pair of ears can better t ell what they're actually listening to. Great stuff again Scot, killer guitar tones and great writing. Brian. -- From: Scott Chesworth scottcheswo...@gmail.com Sent: Friday, June 22, 2012 2:18 AM To: ptaccess@googlegroups.com Subject: Re: Mainstream Recording? This is a really interesting thread! For anyone that might care to listen, my band tracked this tune entirely in a spare bedroom. Thanks to the modern miracles of DI and MIDI triggering, the most noisy member was our vocalist. So far, we're two albums down the line and haven't touched what most people would consider to be a proper studio yet during tracking and production stages. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NI8Xrup5akw Cheers Scott On 6/21/12, Chris Norman chris.norm...@googlemail.com wrote: Please, when you read this, note, I'm not saying anyone who's responded to these messages is wrong, there's some great people who know infinitely more about what they're talking about than I, but I'd like to give the view of a hobbiest. I have a studio in my spare bedroom, it's not professional in any way, shape or form. I'm sure if anyone who turned up and knew their stuff, they'd probably leave on a stretcher from laughing so
Re: Mainstream Recording?
Cool Scot, glad it grabs your curiosity! haha. The D I thing worked really well for you, and I have since got the Waves amp plugs which I quite like, so they'll definitely be in the tool kit for future recordings. There was a lot of feedback and stuff with amps on my album, so D I wasn't the easiest option, b ut I still didn't have the option of letting loose with amps at full volume or anything. The guitar tones are something I hope to improve on, but you can't beat a good drum kit and drummer. I didn't use any sample replacement or reinorcement, but sample reinforcement is definitely something I'll explore in future mixes. It was as much to challenge myself that I didn'tuse them, but I kinda regret it now. I can really hear the difference in that earlier track of yours allright on all fronts, and the drums of course. We're a much less developed band than yours at the moment though, and Ireland has a very limited market for what we're doing. so we'll actually be hoping to hit the UK after the summer when we have some funds together, but its hard to know where to startof course, if you feel like hitting me offlist with any tips they'd be more than welcome! Back to the subject of triggars, an often sighted tip is to record real high hats or ride cymbal etc to get a more human feel, or even just a more raw sound but the triggars sound awesome in your mix. I think I have the drums very present in my mixes, almost too much so compared to yours. One thing that hurt me a lot in themix was that the over heads were fine for cymbal information, but I got no room mojo from them because as I said it was a small badly treated booth, so I got over board with EQ getting the mud out...I also over did gating on the snare a bit too. In my new live room I love setting up a room mike back from the kit, crushing it with the Waves CLA 1176 and I'm much closer to the drum sound I want straight away usually! Comparing our two tracks and methods is an interesting example of stuff discussed on this thread, and my next recordings with this band whenever they come will be in what is essentially a high end project studio and a much more skilled me at the helm, so that will be interesting to hear the difference. I would say comparing our tracks presented on this list that my mixing skills are very much second best, but the only way is up! Brian. -- From: Scott Chesworth scottcheswo...@gmail.com Sent: Friday, June 22, 2012 3:34 PM To: ptaccess@googlegroups.com Subject: Re: Mainstream Recording? Hey Brian, Very cool! Good to know there are brethrin of melodic dark and heavy stuff on the same side of the pond here. Curious to hear more man, I'm heading over to bandcamp to pick up the record when I've finished writing this. Yeah, point taken about DI not working for everyone, we're lucky in that it caters well to what we do. At the time, it was more of a productivity-based choice than anything else based on the spaces available to write and record in. Album number 3 will likely stay that way for bass and guitars, but suggesting another triggered album to the drummer could well be the last suggestion I'd ever make. If you're interested in the difference the DI approach made, this was from the first record with live drums and more variation in how guitars were tracked. All in makeshift recording locations again, and it still took some drum reinforcement at mix stage. Who knows, perhaps album 3 might be the one where we actually end up with a decent kit sound to start with LOL! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mo9_NYB4AR8 Cheers Scott On 6/22/12, Brian Casey brian_w_ca...@hotmail.com wrote: Scot, fantastic production, and while we're swopping heres my band, an album tracked in about 5 days in a ttics spare bedrooms and a very bad attempt at a drum isolation booth a friend constructed, but that's another days discussion. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFl7vPZTjo8 Not as slick as your production but it was my first major mix, and its hit national radio quite a bit, so its probably close to an acceptable professional standard. My major point here though is, I mixed this in an attic in my house, but have since moved into a purpose built studio, with piles of money gone into acoustically treating the rooms, and using the same speakers and same computer/interface I could definitely say that mixing the album would have been so much easier in this better room. Also, the drums for this were recorded in a muddy sounding room where someone thought acoustically treating it meant sucking out all the life out of the room and not treating the bass/low mid frequencies at all, which seriously restricted mixing options. Having said all this, even if I didn't have the new studio for my next project, it would be much better than this work I've l inked to here, simply because I've learned quickly from getting deep into one album
Re: Mainstream Recording?
Oops, guys I have to clarify, I did my mix on Sonar but that wasn't the point of this thread in the first place was it? -- From: Kevin Reeves reeves...@gmail.com Sent: Friday, June 22, 2012 3:39 PM To: ptaccess@googlegroups.com Subject: Re: Mainstream Recording? Good god. That sounds great as well. Man. You people are blowing me away left and right. I think we're gonna put a page on the site showcasing all yall's youtube vids. THis is great. Kevin On Jun 22, 2012, at 10:34 AM, Scott Chesworth wrote: Hey Brian, Very cool! Good to know there are brethrin of melodic dark and heavy stuff on the same side of the pond here. Curious to hear more man, I'm heading over to bandcamp to pick up the record when I've finished writing this. Yeah, point taken about DI not working for everyone, we're lucky in that it caters well to what we do. At the time, it was more of a productivity-based choice than anything else based on the spaces available to write and record in. Album number 3 will likely stay that way for bass and guitars, but suggesting another triggered album to the drummer could well be the last suggestion I'd ever make. If you're interested in the difference the DI approach made, this was from the first record with live drums and more variation in how guitars were tracked. All in makeshift recording locations again, and it still took some drum reinforcement at mix stage. Who knows, perhaps album 3 might be the one where we actually end up with a decent kit sound to start with LOL! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mo9_NYB4AR8 Cheers Scott On 6/22/12, Brian Casey brian_w_ca...@hotmail.com wrote: Scot, fantastic production, and while we're swopping heres my band, an album tracked in about 5 days in a ttics spare bedrooms and a very bad attempt at a drum isolation booth a friend constructed, but that's another days discussion. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFl7vPZTjo8 Not as slick as your production but it was my first major mix, and its hit national radio quite a bit, so its probably close to an acceptable professional standard. My major point here though is, I mixed this in an attic in my house, but have since moved into a purpose built studio, with piles of money gone into acoustically treating the rooms, and using the same speakers and same computer/interface I could definitely say that mixing the album would have been so much easier in this better room. Also, the drums for this were recorded in a muddy sounding room where someone thought acoustically treating it meant sucking out all the life out of the room and not treating the bass/low mid frequencies at all, which seriously restricted mixing options. Having said all this, even if I didn't have the new studio for my next project, it would be much better than this work I've l inked to here, simply because I've learned quickly from getting deep into one album production, and have done much more work since. I would say good acoustics/listening environment and the right pair of ears are all that's needed beyond a basic computer and DAW setup these days for good results. By using D I and triggars, you bypassed that acoustic elements some what, though you obviously didn't have the ideal mixing environment, but what you did have was the good or great pair of ears and artistic vision. Which brings me to my final point, and this is an important one, your setup got a high budget sound for your band in my opinion at l east and I think most would agree with that, however, bring in the Dixy Chicks and they ain't going to sound so good with triggars and D I, well you might get some part of the way, but commercial recording studios are meant to be able to take anything thrown at them to a certain extent. But again I say, the right pair of ears for the project is at least half the battle, and the acoustics is the other half, so that great pair of ears can better t ell what they're actually listening to. Great stuff again Scot, killer guitar tones and great writing. Brian. -- From: Scott Chesworth scottcheswo...@gmail.com Sent: Friday, June 22, 2012 2:18 AM To: ptaccess@googlegroups.com Subject: Re: Mainstream Recording? This is a really interesting thread! For anyone that might care to listen, my band tracked this tune entirely in a spare bedroom. Thanks to the modern miracles of DI and MIDI triggering, the most noisy member was our vocalist. So far, we're two albums down the line and haven't touched what most people would consider to be a proper studio yet during tracking and production stages. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NI8Xrup5akw Cheers Scott On 6/21/12, Chris Norman chris.norm...@googlemail.com wrote: Please, when you read this, note, I'm not saying anyone who's responded to these messages is wrong, there's some great people who know infinitely more about what they're talking about than I
Re: Mainstream Recording?
I hope not, because the stuff I've posted to it wasn't 100% recorded, mixed and mastered in PT. Think it's more like a show and tell of what's possible and what we've learned in less than ideal spaces working on less than ideal gear, right? Scott On 6/22/12, Brian Casey brian_w_ca...@hotmail.com wrote: Oops, guys I have to clarify, I did my mix on Sonar but that wasn't the point of this thread in the first place was it? -- From: Kevin Reeves reeves...@gmail.com Sent: Friday, June 22, 2012 3:39 PM To: ptaccess@googlegroups.com Subject: Re: Mainstream Recording? Good god. That sounds great as well. Man. You people are blowing me away left and right. I think we're gonna put a page on the site showcasing all yall's youtube vids. THis is great. Kevin On Jun 22, 2012, at 10:34 AM, Scott Chesworth wrote: Hey Brian, Very cool! Good to know there are brethrin of melodic dark and heavy stuff on the same side of the pond here. Curious to hear more man, I'm heading over to bandcamp to pick up the record when I've finished writing this. Yeah, point taken about DI not working for everyone, we're lucky in that it caters well to what we do. At the time, it was more of a productivity-based choice than anything else based on the spaces available to write and record in. Album number 3 will likely stay that way for bass and guitars, but suggesting another triggered album to the drummer could well be the last suggestion I'd ever make. If you're interested in the difference the DI approach made, this was from the first record with live drums and more variation in how guitars were tracked. All in makeshift recording locations again, and it still took some drum reinforcement at mix stage. Who knows, perhaps album 3 might be the one where we actually end up with a decent kit sound to start with LOL! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mo9_NYB4AR8 Cheers Scott On 6/22/12, Brian Casey brian_w_ca...@hotmail.com wrote: Scot, fantastic production, and while we're swopping heres my band, an album tracked in about 5 days in a ttics spare bedrooms and a very bad attempt at a drum isolation booth a friend constructed, but that's another days discussion. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFl7vPZTjo8 Not as slick as your production but it was my first major mix, and its hit national radio quite a bit, so its probably close to an acceptable professional standard. My major point here though is, I mixed this in an attic in my house, but have since moved into a purpose built studio, with piles of money gone into acoustically treating the rooms, and using the same speakers and same computer/interface I could definitely say that mixing the album would have been so much easier in this better room. Also, the drums for this were recorded in a muddy sounding room where someone thought acoustically treating it meant sucking out all the life out of the room and not treating the bass/low mid frequencies at all, which seriously restricted mixing options. Having said all this, even if I didn't have the new studio for my next project, it would be much better than this work I've l inked to here, simply because I've learned quickly from getting deep into one album production, and have done much more work since. I would say good acoustics/listening environment and the right pair of ears are all that's needed beyond a basic computer and DAW setup these days for good results. By using D I and triggars, you bypassed that acoustic elements some what, though you obviously didn't have the ideal mixing environment, but what you did have was the good or great pair of ears and artistic vision. Which brings me to my final point, and this is an important one, your setup got a high budget sound for your band in my opinion at l east and I think most would agree with that, however, bring in the Dixy Chicks and they ain't going to sound so good with triggars and D I, well you might get some part of the way, but commercial recording studios are meant to be able to take anything thrown at them to a certain extent. But again I say, the right pair of ears for the project is at least half the battle, and the acoustics is the other half, so that great pair of ears can better t ell what they're actually listening to. Great stuff again Scot, killer guitar tones and great writing. Brian. -- From: Scott Chesworth scottcheswo...@gmail.com Sent: Friday, June 22, 2012 2:18 AM To: ptaccess@googlegroups.com Subject: Re: Mainstream Recording? This is a really interesting thread! For anyone that might care to listen, my band tracked this tune entirely in a spare bedroom. Thanks to the modern miracles of DI and MIDI triggering, the most noisy member was our vocalist. So far, we're two albums down the line and haven't touched what most people would consider
Re: Mainstream Recording?
What he said! -- From: Scott Chesworth scottcheswo...@gmail.com Sent: Friday, June 22, 2012 4:19 PM To: ptaccess@googlegroups.com Subject: Re: Mainstream Recording? I hope not, because the stuff I've posted to it wasn't 100% recorded, mixed and mastered in PT. Think it's more like a show and tell of what's possible and what we've learned in less than ideal spaces working on less than ideal gear, right? Scott On 6/22/12, Brian Casey brian_w_ca...@hotmail.com wrote: Oops, guys I have to clarify, I did my mix on Sonar but that wasn't the point of this thread in the first place was it? -- From: Kevin Reeves reeves...@gmail.com Sent: Friday, June 22, 2012 3:39 PM To: ptaccess@googlegroups.com Subject: Re: Mainstream Recording? Good god. That sounds great as well. Man. You people are blowing me away left and right. I think we're gonna put a page on the site showcasing all yall's youtube vids. THis is great. Kevin On Jun 22, 2012, at 10:34 AM, Scott Chesworth wrote: Hey Brian, Very cool! Good to know there are brethrin of melodic dark and heavy stuff on the same side of the pond here. Curious to hear more man, I'm heading over to bandcamp to pick up the record when I've finished writing this. Yeah, point taken about DI not working for everyone, we're lucky in that it caters well to what we do. At the time, it was more of a productivity-based choice than anything else based on the spaces available to write and record in. Album number 3 will likely stay that way for bass and guitars, but suggesting another triggered album to the drummer could well be the last suggestion I'd ever make. If you're interested in the difference the DI approach made, this was from the first record with live drums and more variation in how guitars were tracked. All in makeshift recording locations again, and it still took some drum reinforcement at mix stage. Who knows, perhaps album 3 might be the one where we actually end up with a decent kit sound to start with LOL! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mo9_NYB4AR8 Cheers Scott On 6/22/12, Brian Casey brian_w_ca...@hotmail.com wrote: Scot, fantastic production, and while we're swopping heres my band, an album tracked in about 5 days in a ttics spare bedrooms and a very bad attempt at a drum isolation booth a friend constructed, but that's another days discussion. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFl7vPZTjo8 Not as slick as your production but it was my first major mix, and its hit national radio quite a bit, so its probably close to an acceptable professional standard. My major point here though is, I mixed this in an attic in my house, but have since moved into a purpose built studio, with piles of money gone into acoustically treating the rooms, and using the same speakers and same computer/interface I could definitely say that mixing the album would have been so much easier in this better room. Also, the drums for this were recorded in a muddy sounding room where someone thought acoustically treating it meant sucking out all the life out of the room and not treating the bass/low mid frequencies at all, which seriously restricted mixing options. Having said all this, even if I didn't have the new studio for my next project, it would be much better than this work I've l inked to here, simply because I've learned quickly from getting deep into one album production, and have done much more work since. I would say good acoustics/listening environment and the right pair of ears are all that's needed beyond a basic computer and DAW setup these days for good results. By using D I and triggars, you bypassed that acoustic elements some what, though you obviously didn't have the ideal mixing environment, but what you did have was the good or great pair of ears and artistic vision. Which brings me to my final point, and this is an important one, your setup got a high budget sound for your band in my opinion at l east and I think most would agree with that, however, bring in the Dixy Chicks and they ain't going to sound so good with triggars and D I, well you might get some part of the way, but commercial recording studios are meant to be able to take anything thrown at them to a certain extent. But again I say, the right pair of ears for the project is at least half the battle, and the acoustics is the other half, so that great pair of ears can better t ell what they're actually listening to. Great stuff again Scot, killer guitar tones and great writing. Brian. -- From: Scott Chesworth scottcheswo...@gmail.com Sent: Friday, June 22, 2012 2:18 AM To: ptaccess@googlegroups.com Subject: Re: Mainstream Recording? This is a really interesting thread! For anyone that might care to listen, my band tracked this tune entirely in a spare bedroom. Thanks to the modern miracles of DI and MIDI triggering
Re: Mainstream Recording?
Kevin, that's an excellent idea! Could there be a place too for featured mp3's? I say this as I have no idea how to do Youtube vids, nor have the camera setup to do it. Also again I ask any of you guys, what is the u r l for the p t access site. It's obviously not ptaccess.com Chris. - Original Message - From: Kevin Reeves reeves...@gmail.com To: ptaccess@googlegroups.com Sent: Friday, June 22, 2012 10:39 AM Subject: Re: Mainstream Recording? Good god. That sounds great as well. Man. You people are blowing me away left and right. I think we're gonna put a page on the site showcasing all yall's youtube vids. THis is great. Kevin On Jun 22, 2012, at 10:34 AM, Scott Chesworth wrote: Hey Brian, Very cool! Good to know there are brethrin of melodic dark and heavy stuff on the same side of the pond here. Curious to hear more man, I'm heading over to bandcamp to pick up the record when I've finished writing this. Yeah, point taken about DI not working for everyone, we're lucky in that it caters well to what we do. At the time, it was more of a productivity-based choice than anything else based on the spaces available to write and record in. Album number 3 will likely stay that way for bass and guitars, but suggesting another triggered album to the drummer could well be the last suggestion I'd ever make. If you're interested in the difference the DI approach made, this was from the first record with live drums and more variation in how guitars were tracked. All in makeshift recording locations again, and it still took some drum reinforcement at mix stage. Who knows, perhaps album 3 might be the one where we actually end up with a decent kit sound to start with LOL! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mo9_NYB4AR8 Cheers Scott On 6/22/12, Brian Casey brian_w_ca...@hotmail.com wrote: Scot, fantastic production, and while we're swopping heres my band, an album tracked in about 5 days in a ttics spare bedrooms and a very bad attempt at a drum isolation booth a friend constructed, but that's another days discussion. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFl7vPZTjo8 Not as slick as your production but it was my first major mix, and its hit national radio quite a bit, so its probably close to an acceptable professional standard. My major point here though is, I mixed this in an attic in my house, but have since moved into a purpose built studio, with piles of money gone into acoustically treating the rooms, and using the same speakers and same computer/interface I could definitely say that mixing the album would have been so much easier in this better room. Also, the drums for this were recorded in a muddy sounding room where someone thought acoustically treating it meant sucking out all the life out of the room and not treating the bass/low mid frequencies at all, which seriously restricted mixing options. Having said all this, even if I didn't have the new studio for my next project, it would be much better than this work I've l inked to here, simply because I've learned quickly from getting deep into one album production, and have done much more work since. I would say good acoustics/listening environment and the right pair of ears are all that's needed beyond a basic computer and DAW setup these days for good results. By using D I and triggars, you bypassed that acoustic elements some what, though you obviously didn't have the ideal mixing environment, but what you did have was the good or great pair of ears and artistic vision. Which brings me to my final point, and this is an important one, your setup got a high budget sound for your band in my opinion at l east and I think most would agree with that, however, bring in the Dixy Chicks and they ain't going to sound so good with triggars and D I, well you might get some part of the way, but commercial recording studios are meant to be able to take anything thrown at them to a certain extent. But again I say, the right pair of ears for the project is at least half the battle, and the acoustics is the other half, so that great pair of ears can better t ell what they're actually listening to. Great stuff again Scot, killer guitar tones and great writing. Brian. -- From: Scott Chesworth scottcheswo...@gmail.com Sent: Friday, June 22, 2012 2:18 AM To: ptaccess@googlegroups.com Subject: Re: Mainstream Recording? This is a really interesting thread! For anyone that might care to listen, my band tracked this tune entirely in a spare bedroom. Thanks to the modern miracles of DI and MIDI triggering, the most noisy member was our vocalist. So far, we're two albums down the line and haven't touched what most people would consider to be a proper studio yet during tracking and production stages. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NI8Xrup5akw Cheers Scott On 6/21/12, Chris Norman chris.norm...@googlemail.com wrote: Please, when you read this, note, I'm
Re: Mainstream Recording?
, which are by no means anything special. The only thing which I've done which I do think is quite clever, and I would recommend for anyone, is I've partitioned my mac 3 ways. Partition 1 has the main Studio stuff. Alls that's on there is Pro Tools it's self, the plugins I use, and the drivers for my desc and audio interface. Partition 2 has the main machine, with user accounts for me and my girlfriend, my emails, all my apps, etc. I also have Pro Tools on this partition, and at the minute, it's almost exactly like the setup on the Studio volume, but I use it to test stuff, before I put it on the main studio partition, because I've found that Pro Tools becomes very slow to load etc, if you leave crap lying around on the machine, not sure if that's fact, but it's definitely what I've discovered. Partition 3 has Windows on it, mainly because I use Vipmud far too often, but as far as recording goes, I use QWS to fix all my MIDI tracks. I record them in Pro Tools, then export them (right click the midi track from the tracks list), and then re-import it (command control shift I I think), and send it to the correct place. As far as fx go, I tend to use presets a lot of the time, because I don't really know much about affects and all that, so I only tweek something if I'm really not happy with the sound. There's a couple of semi clever things I do, like before I bounce, I make sure the master's not clipping once I've given it it's fx, this prevents Winamp's eq from compressing the hell out of it. I don't drink anymore, so it's probably worth noting that any spare money I have goes into buying more music gear. I wouldn't say I have no life, but music is definitely one of the things I love most, and now I've got my friend playing keyboards, maybe we'll even have a band on the go. And that's about it. I like things simple,,I'm not pro, I don't want to be pro, I just want to enjoy myself, and it is my firm belief, that if you don't care that your sound isn't perfect, you can get one which you equally love with a budget. If you do want that super clean sound, as Nick said, go to school, as everyone else says... Well, do whatever they said really, spend money, etc. Sorry for the rambling, but I didn't really plan this message, it's just kind of happened LOL. On 20/06/2012, Nick Gawronski n...@nickgawronski.com wrote: Hi, One point I should also make is if at all possible anyone should go to school to learn audio engineering as learning it from a professional in my view is the best method and you can also meet other people who have interests like yourself. As one of my instructors said in order to know what sounds good and what does not sound good you have to hear what sounds good as if you have never heard what good sounding music sounds like then how can you create this stuff? Once you hear what good sounding stuff is there are good methods for producing these same types of good sounding audios but you have to listen to the music or audio in an uncompressed format not an mp3 downloaded a raw wav or aif file. I have done just this listened to two songs the same song one in mp3 and the other off of the original CD and if you are listening to it yes you can totally tell the difference. I think that learning at home is also great but for those of us like me who want to do this for a living I knew I had to go to school where this stuff is being tought. Nick Gawronski On 6/20/2012 6:24 AM, Christopher-Mark Gilland wrote: I was about to say. Chris. - Original Message - From: Poppa Bear heavens4r...@gmail.com To: ptaccess@googlegroups.com Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2012 2:36 AM Subject: Re: Mainstream Recording? Chris, the tools are so numerous and vast depending on the recording house. First off, no, most grammy recording houses do not just have a good Mac with PT, an good control surfase and mic, most big houses have decades worth of outboard equipment that goes back to the days of the beetles. Compressers, lunch boxes, equalizers, limmetters, exciters and on and on. On top of that, some recording booths run in the 6 to 7 figurs just to construct. Then, you have ingeneers and mastering houses that have over 100 combined years of experience in some cases. I am hardly scraching the surfase either. Keep in mind, todays average home recording artust does have much more ability to get a better sound then more than a few studios did just 20 years ago with a fraction of the investment. Adieu - Original Message - From: Christopher-Mark Gilland clgillan...@gmail.com To: ptaccess@googlegroups.com Sent: Tuesday, June 19, 2012 5:48 PM Subject: Mainstream Recording? OK guys, I know this may sound like a dumb question, especially coming from a almost considered newby, but I can't help but ask. So many professionals I've talked to have told me that the industry standard is definitely ProTools. I always hear people saying if i turn the radio on to any Country
Re: Mainstream Recording?
Chris. Get with me off list. clgillan...@gmail.com I'd like to talk to you about Harmoney Engine, if that's ok. I stink at doing harmoney, but I can't figure out the plugin with Voiceover. If you could write me out some steps to at least use the trial version, and see if I like it, and if it does what I want... Basically, I just need to take a vocal track, and I want basically to have it make it into 3 part harmoney. I can get the trial and put the asset on my ilok. That is absolutely no problem. That'll be a sinch. I just need some direction on once done, from the point I put it on an insert on the audio track, then how do I make it work, in general. I don't expect you to teach me the in and out of the entire plugin. That's what the documentation is for, but if you off list, as this is off topic for the p t list, could at least tell me the basics of how at least to get some result with it, and hear it on my own vocals to see what it can do, that would be great! Again, my address is: clgillan...@gmail.com Also, yeah, why don't you attach an mp3 to an e-mail for me to hear of something you've done with your setup? I'd love to hear what you got. Chris. - Original Message - From: Chris Norman chris.norm...@googlemail.com To: ptaccess@googlegroups.com Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2012 9:24 AM Subject: Re: Mainstream Recording? Please, when you read this, note, I'm not saying anyone who's responded to these messages is wrong, there's some great people who know infinitely more about what they're talking about than I, but I'd like to give the view of a hobbiest. I have a studio in my spare bedroom, it's not professional in any way, shape or form. I'm sure if anyone who turned up and knew their stuff, they'd probably leave on a stretcher from laughing so hard, but, the point is, it works for me. I have spent a fair amount of money over the last couple of years getting the stuff I wanted. I do not know what's good or bad, but I followed the suggestions of people on this list, and others, and got stuff which was affordable, and good. With this stuff, I can get the sounds I want and rely upon. They might not be radio quality, or up to the standard of Lianne Rhymes, or anyone like that, but they work for me. Judging by the stuff you've written Christopher, you're in a similar situation to myself, you're just recording for fun, and you probably don't want to do it seriously. Even if you do, I see no reason this stuff, with some modifications, could get you a fairly decent recorded sound, which you could sell to people. Below is my gear list, as far as I know it. I'm actually not sure what my monitors are, but they're MAudio somethings, and they were were some £300 for the pair. I'm using Pro Tools 10, running on a MacBook Pro. It's not the latest one, but the one before that I think. I (stupidly), brought it about a week before the new MacBook Pro with the Thunderbalt ports came out. Off course I use a full sized apple keyboard, and, when I've saved up all the money for my iMac, I'll be using the Magic Trackpad too, so I can sit of my sofa to record, instead of cluttering up space I don't have, with another chair. I'm using a Euphonix Artist Mix control surface, and an MBox Pro (which I find quite unstable with Pro Tools and Mac OS X 10.7.whatever it is). The monitors, as I said, are MAudio something or others, not really a clue. I have 2 Rode NT-1A's, which I use for tracking both acoustic guitar, and vocals. For the rare times when I record amped electric guitars, I borrow a pair of SM57's, which I went halves on with a friend of mine. For the times I'm feeling lazy, and actually, I still love the sound, I use a Vox something or other preamp, which my girlfriend and another friend of mine brought me for my birthday. My main guitar is a Faith acoustic, again, not sure of the model, but it was supposed to sell for £512 or so, but I got it for about £400, because the shop I got it from (Noise Works in Coventry, England), had an offer on. My electric guitar is a Fender Blacktop, and I have a Crafter (I think), fretted acoustic bass, and a Spector Electric bass, which I've had for years, and never changed the strings on, so it's got a lovely basy sound. I am using an Axium 49 as my MIDI controler, but for one song, for which I tracked the MIDI while on the road somewhere, I used an Akai LPK24 or something, basically, a keyboard with 2 octave, bus powered. I have no soundproofing of any kind, apart from a bed setty in my studio (if that counts), and the house is fairly old, so it's got nice thick walls. I've also used an MAudio Mobile Pre, which I use to record my band mate, who plays a Clavia NordStage 88, to save us the ball ache of carrying the damn thing up the stairs. I have absolutely no idea what my headphones are, but I brought them from a PX in Germany, when I was visiting my uncle for like 130 EUR. I could probably never achieve a totally dry sound
Re: Mainstream Recording?
at it, but my aim isn't to become the next big star, my aim is to make and play music until the day I die, and love every minute of it. If I make money off it in return, more the better. As far as setra software goes, I use AutoTune EFX from Antares to pitch correct my vocals, as I'm not really a singer, and on the rare occasions when I want digital harmonies, I use Harmony Engine EVo, also from Antares EFX. I can use the latter to sort of simulate the sound of the TC Helicon Voice Live 2 which I use live. None of the leads are anything special, I'm using the leads which came with the monitors, and the XLR's which came with the Rode. The rest of the cables are bits I've cobbled together as I've gone along, there's a Parana guitar cable which I use some times, and a bunch of standard guitar leads, which are by no means anything special. The only thing which I've done which I do think is quite clever, and I would recommend for anyone, is I've partitioned my mac 3 ways. Partition 1 has the main Studio stuff. Alls that's on there is Pro Tools it's self, the plugins I use, and the drivers for my desc and audio interface. Partition 2 has the main machine, with user accounts for me and my girlfriend, my emails, all my apps, etc. I also have Pro Tools on this partition, and at the minute, it's almost exactly like the setup on the Studio volume, but I use it to test stuff, before I put it on the main studio partition, because I've found that Pro Tools becomes very slow to load etc, if you leave crap lying around on the machine, not sure if that's fact, but it's definitely what I've discovered. Partition 3 has Windows on it, mainly because I use Vipmud far too often, but as far as recording goes, I use QWS to fix all my MIDI tracks. I record them in Pro Tools, then export them (right click the midi track from the tracks list), and then re-import it (command control shift I I think), and send it to the correct place. As far as fx go, I tend to use presets a lot of the time, because I don't really know much about affects and all that, so I only tweek something if I'm really not happy with the sound. There's a couple of semi clever things I do, like before I bounce, I make sure the master's not clipping once I've given it it's fx, this prevents Winamp's eq from compressing the hell out of it. I don't drink anymore, so it's probably worth noting that any spare money I have goes into buying more music gear. I wouldn't say I have no life, but music is definitely one of the things I love most, and now I've got my friend playing keyboards, maybe we'll even have a band on the go. And that's about it. I like things simple,,I'm not pro, I don't want to be pro, I just want to enjoy myself, and it is my firm belief, that if you don't care that your sound isn't perfect, you can get one which you equally love with a budget. If you do want that super clean sound, as Nick said, go to school, as everyone else says... Well, do whatever they said really, spend money, etc. Sorry for the rambling, but I didn't really plan this message, it's just kind of happened LOL. On 20/06/2012, Nick Gawronski n...@nickgawronski.com wrote: Hi, One point I should also make is if at all possible anyone should go to school to learn audio engineering as learning it from a professional in my view is the best method and you can also meet other people who have interests like yourself. As one of my instructors said in order to know what sounds good and what does not sound good you have to hear what sounds good as if you have never heard what good sounding music sounds like then how can you create this stuff? Once you hear what good sounding stuff is there are good methods for producing these same types of good sounding audios but you have to listen to the music or audio in an uncompressed format not an mp3 downloaded a raw wav or aif file. I have done just this listened to two songs the same song one in mp3 and the other off of the original CD and if you are listening to it yes you can totally tell the difference. I think that learning at home is also great but for those of us like me who want to do this for a living I knew I had to go to school where this stuff is being tought. Nick Gawronski On 6/20/2012 6:24 AM, Christopher-Mark Gilland wrote: I was about to say. Chris. - Original Message - From: Poppa Bear heavens4r...@gmail.com To: ptaccess@googlegroups.com Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2012 2:36 AM Subject: Re: Mainstream Recording? Chris, the tools are so numerous and vast depending on the recording house. First off, no, most grammy recording houses do not just have a good Mac with PT, an good control surfase and mic, most big houses have decades worth of outboard equipment that goes back to the days of the beetles. Compressers, lunch boxes, equalizers, limmetters, exciters and on and on. On top of that, some recording booths run in the 6 to 7 figurs just to construct. Then, you have ingeneers and mastering houses that have over 100
Re: Mainstream Recording?
out of it. I don't drink anymore, so it's probably worth noting that any spare money I have goes into buying more music gear. I wouldn't say I have no life, but music is definitely one of the things I love most, and now I've got my friend playing keyboards, maybe we'll even have a band on the go. And that's about it. I like things simple,,I'm not pro, I don't want to be pro, I just want to enjoy myself, and it is my firm belief, that if you don't care that your sound isn't perfect, you can get one which you equally love with a budget. If you do want that super clean sound, as Nick said, go to school, as everyone else says... Well, do whatever they said really, spend money, etc. Sorry for the rambling, but I didn't really plan this message, it's just kind of happened LOL. On 20/06/2012, Nick Gawronski n...@nickgawronski.com wrote: Hi, One point I should also make is if at all possible anyone should go to school to learn audio engineering as learning it from a professional in my view is the best method and you can also meet other people who have interests like yourself. As one of my instructors said in order to know what sounds good and what does not sound good you have to hear what sounds good as if you have never heard what good sounding music sounds like then how can you create this stuff? Once you hear what good sounding stuff is there are good methods for producing these same types of good sounding audios but you have to listen to the music or audio in an uncompressed format not an mp3 downloaded a raw wav or aif file. I have done just this listened to two songs the same song one in mp3 and the other off of the original CD and if you are listening to it yes you can totally tell the difference. I think that learning at home is also great but for those of us like me who want to do this for a living I knew I had to go to school where this stuff is being tought. Nick Gawronski On 6/20/2012 6:24 AM, Christopher-Mark Gilland wrote: I was about to say. Chris. - Original Message - From: Poppa Bear heavens4r...@gmail.com To: ptaccess@googlegroups.com Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2012 2:36 AM Subject: Re: Mainstream Recording? Chris, the tools are so numerous and vast depending on the recording house. First off, no, most grammy recording houses do not just have a good Mac with PT, an good control surfase and mic, most big houses have decades worth of outboard equipment that goes back to the days of the beetles. Compressers, lunch boxes, equalizers, limmetters, exciters and on and on. On top of that, some recording booths run in the 6 to 7 figurs just to construct. Then, you have ingeneers and mastering houses that have over 100 combined years of experience in some cases. I am hardly scraching the surfase either. Keep in mind, todays average home recording artust does have much more ability to get a better sound then more than a few studios did just 20 years ago with a fraction of the investment. Adieu - Original Message - From: Christopher-Mark Gilland clgillan...@gmail.com To: ptaccess@googlegroups.com Sent: Tuesday, June 19, 2012 5:48 PM Subject: Mainstream Recording? OK guys, I know this may sound like a dumb question, especially coming from a almost considered newby, but I can't help but ask. So many professionals I've talked to have told me that the industry standard is definitely ProTools. I always hear people saying if i turn the radio on to any Country music FM radio station now a days, or say, top 40 station, etc. Everything that I pretty much here will have been done strictly in ProTools. nOw, there may be paid plugins that were used, not just the stocked ones, but then again, some times it may! just be stocked stuff. I posed the argument question of, ok, now hold on. Who's to say they're not using something like QBase, or say Logic, or what not? I was given the answer of, it's possible, but highly unlikely. MOst likely, you can bet money on 99% chance, everything would be done in ProTools from the actual recording to the final master/mixing. So for instance, let's just take Leann Rimes for instance, with her You Light up my Life Inspirational songs disc, as that's absolutely by way! far and away one a my favorite discs of all times, that I practicly ware out darn near. LOL! Something like that, you all really mean to tell me a recording that sounds that good literally can be totally done in nothing more than just P T
Re: Mainstream Recording?
presets a lot of the time, because I don't really know much about affects and all that, so I only tweek something if I'm really not happy with the sound. There's a couple of semi clever things I do, like before I bounce, I make sure the master's not clipping once I've given it it's fx, this prevents Winamp's eq from compressing the hell out of it. I don't drink anymore, so it's probably worth noting that any spare money I have goes into buying more music gear. I wouldn't say I have no life, but music is definitely one of the things I love most, and now I've got my friend playing keyboards, maybe we'll even have a band on the go. And that's about it. I like things simple,,I'm not pro, I don't want to be pro, I just want to enjoy myself, and it is my firm belief, that if you don't care that your sound isn't perfect, you can get one which you equally love with a budget. If you do want that super clean sound, as Nick said, go to school, as everyone else says... Well, do whatever they said really, spend money, etc. Sorry for the rambling, but I didn't really plan this message, it's just kind of happened LOL. On 20/06/2012, Nick Gawronski n...@nickgawronski.com wrote: Hi, One point I should also make is if at all possible anyone should go to school to learn audio engineering as learning it from a professional in my view is the best method and you can also meet other people who have interests like yourself. As one of my instructors said in order to know what sounds good and what does not sound good you have to hear what sounds good as if you have never heard what good sounding music sounds like then how can you create this stuff? Once you hear what good sounding stuff is there are good methods for producing these same types of good sounding audios but you have to listen to the music or audio in an uncompressed format not an mp3 downloaded a raw wav or aif file. I have done just this listened to two songs the same song one in mp3 and the other off of the original CD and if you are listening to it yes you can totally tell the difference. I think that learning at home is also great but for those of us like me who want to do this for a living I knew I had to go to school where this stuff is being tought. Nick Gawronski On 6/20/2012 6:24 AM, Christopher-Mark Gilland wrote: I was about to say. Chris. - Original Message - From: Poppa Bear heavens4r...@gmail.com To: ptaccess@googlegroups.com Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2012 2:36 AM Subject: Re: Mainstream Recording? Chris, the tools are so numerous and vast depending on the recording house. First off, no, most grammy recording houses do not just have a good Mac with PT, an good control surfase and mic, most big houses have decades worth of outboard equipment that goes back to the days of the beetles. Compressers, lunch boxes, equalizers, limmetters, exciters and on and on. On top of that, some recording booths run in the 6 to 7 figurs just to construct. Then, you have ingeneers and mastering houses that have over 100 combined years of experience in some cases. I am hardly scraching the surfase either. Keep in mind, todays average home recording artust does have much more ability to get a better sound then more than a few studios did just 20 years ago with a fraction of the investment. Adieu - Original Message - From: Christopher-Mark Gilland clgillan...@gmail.com To: ptaccess@googlegroups.com Sent: Tuesday, June 19, 2012 5:48 PM Subject: Mainstream Recording? OK guys, I know this may sound like a dumb question, especially coming from a almost considered newby, but I can't help but ask. So many professionals I've talked to have told me that the industry standard is definitely ProTools. I always hear people saying if i turn the radio on to any Country music FM radio station now a days, or say, top 40 station, etc. Everything that I pretty much here will have been done strictly in ProTools. nOw, there may be paid plugins that were used, not just the stocked ones, but then again, some times it may! just be stocked stuff. I posed the argument question of, ok, now hold on. Who's to say they're not using something like QBase, or say Logic, or what not? I was given the answer of, it's possible, but highly unlikely. MOst likely, you can bet money on 99% chance, everything would be done in ProTools from the actual recording to the final master/mixing. So for instance, let's just take Leann Rimes for instance, with her You Light up my Life Inspirational songs disc, as that's absolutely by way! far and away one a my favorite discs of all times, that I practicly ware out darn near. LOL! Something like that, you all really mean to tell me a recording that sounds that good literally can be totally done in nothing more than just P T with a good interface, microphone, and maybe control surface, with exactly the same software that I am using? ProTools
Re: Mainstream Recording?
Nice stuff Scott. - Original Message - From: Scott Chesworth scottcheswo...@gmail.com To: ptaccess@googlegroups.com Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2012 5:18 PM Subject: Re: Mainstream Recording? This is a really interesting thread! For anyone that might care to listen, my band tracked this tune entirely in a spare bedroom. Thanks to the modern miracles of DI and MIDI triggering, the most noisy member was our vocalist. So far, we're two albums down the line and haven't touched what most people would consider to be a proper studio yet during tracking and production stages. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NI8Xrup5akw Cheers Scott On 6/21/12, Chris Norman chris.norm...@googlemail.com wrote: Please, when you read this, note, I'm not saying anyone who's responded to these messages is wrong, there's some great people who know infinitely more about what they're talking about than I, but I'd like to give the view of a hobbiest. I have a studio in my spare bedroom, it's not professional in any way, shape or form. I'm sure if anyone who turned up and knew their stuff, they'd probably leave on a stretcher from laughing so hard, but, the point is, it works for me. I have spent a fair amount of money over the last couple of years getting the stuff I wanted. I do not know what's good or bad, but I followed the suggestions of people on this list, and others, and got stuff which was affordable, and good. With this stuff, I can get the sounds I want and rely upon. They might not be radio quality, or up to the standard of Lianne Rhymes, or anyone like that, but they work for me. Judging by the stuff you've written Christopher, you're in a similar situation to myself, you're just recording for fun, and you probably don't want to do it seriously. Even if you do, I see no reason this stuff, with some modifications, could get you a fairly decent recorded sound, which you could sell to people. Below is my gear list, as far as I know it. I'm actually not sure what my monitors are, but they're MAudio somethings, and they were were some £300 for the pair. I'm using Pro Tools 10, running on a MacBook Pro. It's not the latest one, but the one before that I think. I (stupidly), brought it about a week before the new MacBook Pro with the Thunderbalt ports came out. Off course I use a full sized apple keyboard, and, when I've saved up all the money for my iMac, I'll be using the Magic Trackpad too, so I can sit of my sofa to record, instead of cluttering up space I don't have, with another chair. I'm using a Euphonix Artist Mix control surface, and an MBox Pro (which I find quite unstable with Pro Tools and Mac OS X 10.7.whatever it is). The monitors, as I said, are MAudio something or others, not really a clue. I have 2 Rode NT-1A's, which I use for tracking both acoustic guitar, and vocals. For the rare times when I record amped electric guitars, I borrow a pair of SM57's, which I went halves on with a friend of mine. For the times I'm feeling lazy, and actually, I still love the sound, I use a Vox something or other preamp, which my girlfriend and another friend of mine brought me for my birthday. My main guitar is a Faith acoustic, again, not sure of the model, but it was supposed to sell for £512 or so, but I got it for about £400, because the shop I got it from (Noise Works in Coventry, England), had an offer on. My electric guitar is a Fender Blacktop, and I have a Crafter (I think), fretted acoustic bass, and a Spector Electric bass, which I've had for years, and never changed the strings on, so it's got a lovely basy sound. I am using an Axium 49 as my MIDI controler, but for one song, for which I tracked the MIDI while on the road somewhere, I used an Akai LPK24 or something, basically, a keyboard with 2 octave, bus powered. I have no soundproofing of any kind, apart from a bed setty in my studio (if that counts), and the house is fairly old, so it's got nice thick walls. I've also used an MAudio Mobile Pre, which I use to record my band mate, who plays a Clavia NordStage 88, to save us the ball ache of carrying the damn thing up the stairs. I have absolutely no idea what my headphones are, but I brought them from a PX in Germany, when I was visiting my uncle for like 130 EUR. I could probably never achieve a totally dry sound in this room, but luckily, I've never felt the need too. If I did want too however, I could probably hang a quilt from the wall some how or something. It is a very basic setup, probably costing somewhere in the region of 5 or 6 grand in total, but, as I said, this stuff has been collected over a few years. The desc, the audio interface, my control surface and monitors were all brought fairly recently, but the guitars I've collected since I started playing when I was 6. If you like, I can send you some of the stuff I've done, so you guys who know you're doing can have a laugh at it, but my aim isn't to become the next big star, my aim is to make and play music until the day
Re: Mainstream Recording?
OK, Instead of putting instructions for Harmony engine private, I'll put a basic outline on a new thread. HTH. On 22/06/2012, Poppa Bear heavens4r...@gmail.com wrote: Nice stuff Scott. - Original Message - From: Scott Chesworth scottcheswo...@gmail.com To: ptaccess@googlegroups.com Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2012 5:18 PM Subject: Re: Mainstream Recording? This is a really interesting thread! For anyone that might care to listen, my band tracked this tune entirely in a spare bedroom. Thanks to the modern miracles of DI and MIDI triggering, the most noisy member was our vocalist. So far, we're two albums down the line and haven't touched what most people would consider to be a proper studio yet during tracking and production stages. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NI8Xrup5akw Cheers Scott On 6/21/12, Chris Norman chris.norm...@googlemail.com wrote: Please, when you read this, note, I'm not saying anyone who's responded to these messages is wrong, there's some great people who know infinitely more about what they're talking about than I, but I'd like to give the view of a hobbiest. I have a studio in my spare bedroom, it's not professional in any way, shape or form. I'm sure if anyone who turned up and knew their stuff, they'd probably leave on a stretcher from laughing so hard, but, the point is, it works for me. I have spent a fair amount of money over the last couple of years getting the stuff I wanted. I do not know what's good or bad, but I followed the suggestions of people on this list, and others, and got stuff which was affordable, and good. With this stuff, I can get the sounds I want and rely upon. They might not be radio quality, or up to the standard of Lianne Rhymes, or anyone like that, but they work for me. Judging by the stuff you've written Christopher, you're in a similar situation to myself, you're just recording for fun, and you probably don't want to do it seriously. Even if you do, I see no reason this stuff, with some modifications, could get you a fairly decent recorded sound, which you could sell to people. Below is my gear list, as far as I know it. I'm actually not sure what my monitors are, but they're MAudio somethings, and they were were some £300 for the pair. I'm using Pro Tools 10, running on a MacBook Pro. It's not the latest one, but the one before that I think. I (stupidly), brought it about a week before the new MacBook Pro with the Thunderbalt ports came out. Off course I use a full sized apple keyboard, and, when I've saved up all the money for my iMac, I'll be using the Magic Trackpad too, so I can sit of my sofa to record, instead of cluttering up space I don't have, with another chair. I'm using a Euphonix Artist Mix control surface, and an MBox Pro (which I find quite unstable with Pro Tools and Mac OS X 10.7.whatever it is). The monitors, as I said, are MAudio something or others, not really a clue. I have 2 Rode NT-1A's, which I use for tracking both acoustic guitar, and vocals. For the rare times when I record amped electric guitars, I borrow a pair of SM57's, which I went halves on with a friend of mine. For the times I'm feeling lazy, and actually, I still love the sound, I use a Vox something or other preamp, which my girlfriend and another friend of mine brought me for my birthday. My main guitar is a Faith acoustic, again, not sure of the model, but it was supposed to sell for £512 or so, but I got it for about £400, because the shop I got it from (Noise Works in Coventry, England), had an offer on. My electric guitar is a Fender Blacktop, and I have a Crafter (I think), fretted acoustic bass, and a Spector Electric bass, which I've had for years, and never changed the strings on, so it's got a lovely basy sound. I am using an Axium 49 as my MIDI controler, but for one song, for which I tracked the MIDI while on the road somewhere, I used an Akai LPK24 or something, basically, a keyboard with 2 octave, bus powered. I have no soundproofing of any kind, apart from a bed setty in my studio (if that counts), and the house is fairly old, so it's got nice thick walls. I've also used an MAudio Mobile Pre, which I use to record my band mate, who plays a Clavia NordStage 88, to save us the ball ache of carrying the damn thing up the stairs. I have absolutely no idea what my headphones are, but I brought them from a PX in Germany, when I was visiting my uncle for like 130 EUR. I could probably never achieve a totally dry sound in this room, but luckily, I've never felt the need too. If I did want too however, I could probably hang a quilt from the wall some how or something. It is a very basic setup, probably costing somewhere in the region of 5 or 6 grand in total, but, as I said, this stuff has been collected over a few years. The desc, the audio interface, my control surface and monitors were all brought fairly recently, but the guitars I've collected
Re: Mainstream Recording?
Even? better! Chris. - Original Message - From: Chris Norman chris.norm...@googlemail.com To: ptaccess@googlegroups.com Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2012 9:46 PM Subject: Re: Mainstream Recording? OK, Instead of putting instructions for Harmony engine private, I'll put a basic outline on a new thread. HTH. On 22/06/2012, Poppa Bear heavens4r...@gmail.com wrote: Nice stuff Scott. - Original Message - From: Scott Chesworth scottcheswo...@gmail.com To: ptaccess@googlegroups.com Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2012 5:18 PM Subject: Re: Mainstream Recording? This is a really interesting thread! For anyone that might care to listen, my band tracked this tune entirely in a spare bedroom. Thanks to the modern miracles of DI and MIDI triggering, the most noisy member was our vocalist. So far, we're two albums down the line and haven't touched what most people would consider to be a proper studio yet during tracking and production stages. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NI8Xrup5akw Cheers Scott On 6/21/12, Chris Norman chris.norm...@googlemail.com wrote: Please, when you read this, note, I'm not saying anyone who's responded to these messages is wrong, there's some great people who know infinitely more about what they're talking about than I, but I'd like to give the view of a hobbiest. I have a studio in my spare bedroom, it's not professional in any way, shape or form. I'm sure if anyone who turned up and knew their stuff, they'd probably leave on a stretcher from laughing so hard, but, the point is, it works for me. I have spent a fair amount of money over the last couple of years getting the stuff I wanted. I do not know what's good or bad, but I followed the suggestions of people on this list, and others, and got stuff which was affordable, and good. With this stuff, I can get the sounds I want and rely upon. They might not be radio quality, or up to the standard of Lianne Rhymes, or anyone like that, but they work for me. Judging by the stuff you've written Christopher, you're in a similar situation to myself, you're just recording for fun, and you probably don't want to do it seriously. Even if you do, I see no reason this stuff, with some modifications, could get you a fairly decent recorded sound, which you could sell to people. Below is my gear list, as far as I know it. I'm actually not sure what my monitors are, but they're MAudio somethings, and they were were some £300 for the pair. I'm using Pro Tools 10, running on a MacBook Pro. It's not the latest one, but the one before that I think. I (stupidly), brought it about a week before the new MacBook Pro with the Thunderbalt ports came out. Off course I use a full sized apple keyboard, and, when I've saved up all the money for my iMac, I'll be using the Magic Trackpad too, so I can sit of my sofa to record, instead of cluttering up space I don't have, with another chair. I'm using a Euphonix Artist Mix control surface, and an MBox Pro (which I find quite unstable with Pro Tools and Mac OS X 10.7.whatever it is). The monitors, as I said, are MAudio something or others, not really a clue. I have 2 Rode NT-1A's, which I use for tracking both acoustic guitar, and vocals. For the rare times when I record amped electric guitars, I borrow a pair of SM57's, which I went halves on with a friend of mine. For the times I'm feeling lazy, and actually, I still love the sound, I use a Vox something or other preamp, which my girlfriend and another friend of mine brought me for my birthday. My main guitar is a Faith acoustic, again, not sure of the model, but it was supposed to sell for £512 or so, but I got it for about £400, because the shop I got it from (Noise Works in Coventry, England), had an offer on. My electric guitar is a Fender Blacktop, and I have a Crafter (I think), fretted acoustic bass, and a Spector Electric bass, which I've had for years, and never changed the strings on, so it's got a lovely basy sound. I am using an Axium 49 as my MIDI controler, but for one song, for which I tracked the MIDI while on the road somewhere, I used an Akai LPK24 or something, basically, a keyboard with 2 octave, bus powered. I have no soundproofing of any kind, apart from a bed setty in my studio (if that counts), and the house is fairly old, so it's got nice thick walls. I've also used an MAudio Mobile Pre, which I use to record my band mate, who plays a Clavia NordStage 88, to save us the ball ache of carrying the damn thing up the stairs. I have absolutely no idea what my headphones are, but I brought them from a PX in Germany, when I was visiting my uncle for like 130 EUR. I could probably never achieve a totally dry sound in this room, but luckily, I've never felt the need too. If I did want too however, I could probably hang a quilt from the wall some how or something. It is a very basic setup, probably costing somewhere in the region of 5 or 6 grand in total, but, as I said, this stuff has been collected over a few years
Re: Mainstream Recording?
Chris, the tools are so numerous and vast depending on the recording house. First off, no, most grammy recording houses do not just have a good Mac with PT, an good control surfase and mic, most big houses have decades worth of outboard equipment that goes back to the days of the beetles. Compressers, lunch boxes, equalizers, limmetters, exciters and on and on. On top of that, some recording booths run in the 6 to 7 figurs just to construct. Then, you have ingeneers and mastering houses that have over 100 combined years of experience in some cases. I am hardly scraching the surfase either. Keep in mind, todays average home recording artust does have much more ability to get a better sound then more than a few studios did just 20 years ago with a fraction of the investment. Adieu - Original Message - From: Christopher-Mark Gilland clgillan...@gmail.com To: ptaccess@googlegroups.com Sent: Tuesday, June 19, 2012 5:48 PM Subject: Mainstream Recording? OK guys, I know this may sound like a dumb question, especially coming from a almost considered newby, but I can't help but ask. So many professionals I've talked to have told me that the industry standard is definitely ProTools. I always hear people saying if i turn the radio on to any Country music FM radio station now a days, or say, top 40 station, etc. Everything that I pretty much here will have been done strictly in ProTools. nOw, there may be paid plugins that were used, not just the stocked ones, but then again, some times it may! just be stocked stuff. I posed the argument question of, ok, now hold on. Who's to say they're not using something like QBase, or say Logic, or what not? I was given the answer of, it's possible, but highly unlikely. MOst likely, you can bet money on 99% chance, everything would be done in ProTools from the actual recording to the final master/mixing. So for instance, let's just take Leann Rimes for instance, with her You Light up my Life Inspirational songs disc, as that's absolutely by way! far and away one a my favorite discs of all times, that I practicly ware out darn near. LOL! Something like that, you all really mean to tell me a recording that sounds that good literally can be totally done in nothing more than just P T with a good interface, microphone, and maybe control surface, with exactly the same software that I am using? ProTools 10? That's unbelievable! So, granted I have a $300 or so mike, and maybe a $300 or so interface. NOthing fancy. What she would probably be using, oh God heavens alive! I'd think the surface alone! would probably be 10's of thousands of bucks, but generally, for a regular recording artist like her or Randy Travis, Amy Grant, or Steven Curtis Chapman, or Alan Jackson, etc. YOu know, basically, the big dogs, does anyone know exactly down the the make and model what basically a big time studio like that would consist of for really full grammy based artists like that using ProTools? Chris.
Re: Mainstream Recording?
Yep. And in Nashville, where most of the artists you mentioned record, they're not only using Pro TOols, but they're using analog mixing consoles, which run up into the hundreds of thousands. Also, note that the session cats they bring in have years of experience with their instrument, not only playing it, but knowing how to dial in that right tone. A drummer may come in with 8 or 10 snares, so the engineer can hear them all. A guitarist may come in with several guitars and even a collection of amps. So like he said. The variables are so limitless, that we can't even scratch the surface of what these guys are doing. Kevin
Re: Mainstream Recording?
I was about to say. Chris. - Original Message - From: Poppa Bear heavens4r...@gmail.com To: ptaccess@googlegroups.com Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2012 2:36 AM Subject: Re: Mainstream Recording? Chris, the tools are so numerous and vast depending on the recording house. First off, no, most grammy recording houses do not just have a good Mac with PT, an good control surfase and mic, most big houses have decades worth of outboard equipment that goes back to the days of the beetles. Compressers, lunch boxes, equalizers, limmetters, exciters and on and on. On top of that, some recording booths run in the 6 to 7 figurs just to construct. Then, you have ingeneers and mastering houses that have over 100 combined years of experience in some cases. I am hardly scraching the surfase either. Keep in mind, todays average home recording artust does have much more ability to get a better sound then more than a few studios did just 20 years ago with a fraction of the investment. Adieu - Original Message - From: Christopher-Mark Gilland clgillan...@gmail.com To: ptaccess@googlegroups.com Sent: Tuesday, June 19, 2012 5:48 PM Subject: Mainstream Recording? OK guys, I know this may sound like a dumb question, especially coming from a almost considered newby, but I can't help but ask. So many professionals I've talked to have told me that the industry standard is definitely ProTools. I always hear people saying if i turn the radio on to any Country music FM radio station now a days, or say, top 40 station, etc. Everything that I pretty much here will have been done strictly in ProTools. nOw, there may be paid plugins that were used, not just the stocked ones, but then again, some times it may! just be stocked stuff. I posed the argument question of, ok, now hold on. Who's to say they're not using something like QBase, or say Logic, or what not? I was given the answer of, it's possible, but highly unlikely. MOst likely, you can bet money on 99% chance, everything would be done in ProTools from the actual recording to the final master/mixing. So for instance, let's just take Leann Rimes for instance, with her You Light up my Life Inspirational songs disc, as that's absolutely by way! far and away one a my favorite discs of all times, that I practicly ware out darn near. LOL! Something like that, you all really mean to tell me a recording that sounds that good literally can be totally done in nothing more than just P T with a good interface, microphone, and maybe control surface, with exactly the same software that I am using? ProTools 10? That's unbelievable! So, granted I have a $300 or so mike, and maybe a $300 or so interface. NOthing fancy. What she would probably be using, oh God heavens alive! I'd think the surface alone! would probably be 10's of thousands of bucks, but generally, for a regular recording artist like her or Randy Travis, Amy Grant, or Steven Curtis Chapman, or Alan Jackson, etc. YOu know, basically, the big dogs, does anyone know exactly down the the make and model what basically a big time studio like that would consist of for really full grammy based artists like that using ProTools? Chris.
Re: Mainstream Recording?
Couldn't agree more. Learn to listen, what your listening for and have a clear vision of what your trying to achieve when recording mixing etc. Another important factor in this ahead of any of the gear however are good speakers and good acoustics in the listening environment. I would say once those elements are in place the next thing are good quality microphones and beyond that, analogue gear or no analogue gear its all about the person listening and their taste. Brian. -- From: The Oreo Monster monkeypushe...@gmail.com Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2012 12:23 PM To: ptaccess@googlegroups.com Subject: Re: Mainstream Recording? Gear is all good and well, and i agree alot of these places have alot of analogue gear. But i have also heard awsome stuff done entirely in the box with garage band and pro tools. The most important factor in all this is the experience. An experienced engineer that knows their gear, has the experience with eq and compressors and the like that they know which one to reach for and how to dial it in, even with plug ins in the box, is what really counts here. Any of these guys armed with a $100 Shure SM57 and a decent quality interface can make a great sounding record. The analogue gear is just icing on the cake if you can afford it. So don't let any of that discourage you keep learning Pro TOols and understanding how things like eq and compressors and other plug ins work and you will be well on your way. The Oreo Monster monkeypushe...@gmail.com On Jun 20, 2012, at 2:59 AM, Kevin Reeves reeves...@gmail.com wrote: Yep. And in Nashville, where most of the artists you mentioned record, they're not only using Pro TOols, but they're using analog mixing consoles, which run up into the hundreds of thousands. Also, note that the session cats they bring in have years of experience with their instrument, not only playing it, but knowing how to dial in that right tone. A drummer may come in with 8 or 10 snares, so the engineer can hear them all. A guitarist may come in with several guitars and even a collection of amps. So like he said. The variables are so limitless, that we can't even scratch the surface of what these guys are doing. Kevin
Re: Mainstream Recording?
Hi, One point I should also make is if at all possible anyone should go to school to learn audio engineering as learning it from a professional in my view is the best method and you can also meet other people who have interests like yourself. As one of my instructors said in order to know what sounds good and what does not sound good you have to hear what sounds good as if you have never heard what good sounding music sounds like then how can you create this stuff? Once you hear what good sounding stuff is there are good methods for producing these same types of good sounding audios but you have to listen to the music or audio in an uncompressed format not an mp3 downloaded a raw wav or aif file. I have done just this listened to two songs the same song one in mp3 and the other off of the original CD and if you are listening to it yes you can totally tell the difference. I think that learning at home is also great but for those of us like me who want to do this for a living I knew I had to go to school where this stuff is being tought. Nick Gawronski On 6/20/2012 6:24 AM, Christopher-Mark Gilland wrote: I was about to say. Chris. - Original Message - From: Poppa Bear heavens4r...@gmail.com To: ptaccess@googlegroups.com Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2012 2:36 AM Subject: Re: Mainstream Recording? Chris, the tools are so numerous and vast depending on the recording house. First off, no, most grammy recording houses do not just have a good Mac with PT, an good control surfase and mic, most big houses have decades worth of outboard equipment that goes back to the days of the beetles. Compressers, lunch boxes, equalizers, limmetters, exciters and on and on. On top of that, some recording booths run in the 6 to 7 figurs just to construct. Then, you have ingeneers and mastering houses that have over 100 combined years of experience in some cases. I am hardly scraching the surfase either. Keep in mind, todays average home recording artust does have much more ability to get a better sound then more than a few studios did just 20 years ago with a fraction of the investment. Adieu - Original Message - From: Christopher-Mark Gilland clgillan...@gmail.com To: ptaccess@googlegroups.com Sent: Tuesday, June 19, 2012 5:48 PM Subject: Mainstream Recording? OK guys, I know this may sound like a dumb question, especially coming from a almost considered newby, but I can't help but ask. So many professionals I've talked to have told me that the industry standard is definitely ProTools. I always hear people saying if i turn the radio on to any Country music FM radio station now a days, or say, top 40 station, etc. Everything that I pretty much here will have been done strictly in ProTools. nOw, there may be paid plugins that were used, not just the stocked ones, but then again, some times it may! just be stocked stuff. I posed the argument question of, ok, now hold on. Who's to say they're not using something like QBase, or say Logic, or what not? I was given the answer of, it's possible, but highly unlikely. MOst likely, you can bet money on 99% chance, everything would be done in ProTools from the actual recording to the final master/mixing. So for instance, let's just take Leann Rimes for instance, with her You Light up my Life Inspirational songs disc, as that's absolutely by way! far and away one a my favorite discs of all times, that I practicly ware out darn near. LOL! Something like that, you all really mean to tell me a recording that sounds that good literally can be totally done in nothing more than just P T with a good interface, microphone, and maybe control surface, with exactly the same software that I am using? ProTools 10? That's unbelievable! So, granted I have a $300 or so mike, and maybe a $300 or so interface. NOthing fancy. What she would probably be using, oh God heavens alive! I'd think the surface alone! would probably be 10's of thousands of bucks, but generally, for a regular recording artist like her or Randy Travis, Amy Grant, or Steven Curtis Chapman, or Alan Jackson, etc. YOu know, basically, the big dogs, does anyone know exactly down the the make and model what basically a big time studio like that would consist of for really full grammy based artists like that using ProTools? Chris.
