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I need a new recording interface to handle guitar, bass and maybe eventually drums, and I'm having a tough time figuring out what to get. I'm still pretty new with modern recording software (never used Pro Tools, thinking about Reaper, Audition was what I used back when I was dealing with classical music) and have very little experience with recording anything other than live classical music. Mic-wise I currently own an SM57 and a cheap condenser that I bought to use with an M-Audio Mobile Pre USB connected to an early 08 MBP, but the preamps in the M-Audio box seem busted. If I max out the gain, I can get a little bit of sound from either mic (using phantom with the condenser). If I turn phantom off and then back on, the condenser will have plenty of gain for approximately 15 seconds before it fades back into nothingness. At this point, I'm willing to say gently caress it and spend $500+ on a decent interface that I'll be satisfied with for a while. This has led me to thinking about the Mbox Pro, as four mic inputs would be nice (or really just more than two), FireWire, not bus-powered, and Pro Tools LE (which I might upgrade or might replace with something else, we'll see). But, I'm not married to this idea if there's something better, and I've had no luck finding meaningful reviews of anything. Anyone have any ideas (or experience with interfaces around this price range)?
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Mar 13, 2011 20:50
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I was hoping someone here could help me with a MIDI issue I'm having. I'm a new Pro Tools user, and I recorded some MIDI data with my Roland V-drums. I made some edits to my sloppy playing, but now I want turn that MIDI into audio by sending it back to my V-drum controller, and then taking the audio out from the V-drum into an audio input on my Mbox 2. I have my MIDI track outputting to channel 10 on my Mbox (I think this may be the issue). I have an Aux track with the input coming from the V-drums. I am busing the output on the Aux track to the input on my Audio track. I know I can get audio out from the V-drums because while I can record audio directly while I play them. But it just doesn't seem like I'm sending the MIDI data from Pro Tools back into the V-drum controller and I'm at a loss for how else to do this. I have "MIDI Thru" checked in Pro Tools. If anyone has any ideas I would really appreciate it.
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Mar 13, 2011 22:55
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Double check what MIDI channel your vdrum brain is listening to. And then double check that you are actually transmitting MIDI to the MIDI out. An easy way to do this would be to plug it back to the MIDI in and arm a track to see if you're getting anything back.
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Mar 15, 2011 10:54
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Yeah, it sounds like you're 90% of the way there. Double-check that you're actually transmitting the channel that your drum brain is receiving. There are many free "MIDI Monitor" type apps out there (and one built into OSX) that will show you what's making it out and what's making it in. It can be mindblowing sometimes how much just a few synths are sending and receiving if you're turning a few knobs and using pitch wheels and stuff.
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Mar 15, 2011 17:30
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Problem solved. I ran Pro Tools as an administrator and bang, fully functional. Anyone have any idea why the MIDI out ports are shutoff to anyone who is not an admin? I'm almost more frustrated now that I have the solution than when I didn't because it makes no sense to me. Did I unlock other features by running as an admin? EDIT: Apparently this is a Windows 7 issue. mr.sassypants fucked around with this message at 14:36 on Mar 17, 2011 |
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Mar 17, 2011 03:30
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Heyo, got a quick newbie question. Buying a condenser microphone for recording vocals, and occasionally acoustic guitars. AKG Perception 220 for $130. Really need to stay close to $100 with this purchase, but is there another mic around that price that you think would be better? Thank yoou.
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Mar 17, 2011 15:54
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Wulfolme posted:Heyo, got a quick newbie question. Buying a condenser microphone for recording vocals, and occasionally acoustic guitars. AKG Perception 220 for $130. Really need to stay close to $100 with this purchase, but is there another mic around that price that you think would be better? I probably sound like a broken record on this one, but MXL V67.
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Mar 17, 2011 16:01
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I'm finding like 4 different V67's and I'm hoping you mean this one: $120 Or at the very least this one: $180 Because if you mean this one: $500 it means you're a stupid and I don't want to believe you're a stupid. The AKG would've come with a shock mount; should I worry my little head over not having one if these don't?
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Mar 17, 2011 16:21
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Oops, yeah - I meant the V67G. I didn't realize they had released a stereo (wtf who uses those, seriously) mic or a tube version. By the way, if you really want to go nuts, there's a guy out there that does a mod on the V67G - http://www.oktavamodshop.com/product_info.php?products_id=127 - that apparently turns it into a significantly better mic. I've been meaning to grab one and have it modded, but I'm so happy with the stock version that I'm not sweating it.
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Mar 17, 2011 16:29
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As for shockmounts, it comes with a really simple one that you can see here - http://cgi.ebay.com/MXL-V67G-GOLD-EDITION-STUDIO-CONDENSER-MIC-3637-/130469757476?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e609a8224 - but it wouldn't hurt to buy a nicer suspension-style one. Some of the ebay deals will throw one in, but I think any standard one out there should cover it. If you've never worked with a condenser before, you're going to be surprised at how much "rumble" you get from the stand (esp. on hardwood floors, much less if you're using it on a carpet) and also how bad your room sounds. 
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Mar 17, 2011 16:33
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I'm trying to help my brother find something in between the Apogee Duet and Apogee Ensemble. He wants something with at least four preamps and some expandability, with the same preamp and converter quality as the Apogee stuff, but the Ensemble is too expensive for him. (Price limit around $900.) I've heard good things about the Mbox 3 Pros converter quality, and it seems to fit feature and price wise between the Duet and the Ensemble. Would that be the best bet?
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Mar 17, 2011 17:47
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RME makes some great interfaces for cheaper than the Ensemble that he might want to consider if he can save a bit more ($1300 for the 400). There's nothing very special about the preamps that come with audio interfaces, even the more expensive ones. If he cares about preamp quality, he might want to consider spending a bit less on the interface and adding a separate preamp module. The FMR RNP is a great 2 channel preamp for $475 new, and ~$400 (+/- $25ish) used. Pair that with something like a MOTU Ultralite ($550) and you have 4 pres, two of which are Really Nice, 4 more line input channels for future expansion, 10 output channels, and onboard DSP for not much more than his budget. The MOTU pres are clean and have plenty of gain as well. If you want to go with a 4 pre interface, the MOTU Traveler is another option to consider with the Mbox Pro. There's also the TC Electronic Studio Konnekt 48, but I don't know anything about the quality of the TC Electronic gear. However, if he's serious about recording, I think an RNP + 2 pre interface would be a better use of money than a 4 pre interface. As far as converters go, I don't think you're going to find much difference between the quality of the converters used in the Apogee, Digi, MOTU, RME, and most other interfaces in this price range. Cirrus Logic and Asahi Kasei make the converters used in most of these interfaces, and a lot of them are using the same chips. While the sound quality of each unit depends on more than just the converters, I wouldn't expect a dramatic difference in quality between any of these units. Splinter fucked around with this message at 00:02 on Mar 18, 2011 |
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Mar 17, 2011 23:03
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MOTU also just debuted their cute little "Audio Express" - http://www.sweetwater.com/store/det...ap=AudioExpress So you could easily get nice or reasonably nice pres going to the second 2 inputs for not a lot of $$ spent on the interface. I'm a big fan of MOTU stuff - I use an 828mk3 and an 8pre ganged together via ADAT lightpipe - but I hear they're a nightmare if you're using them on PC's. They're very mac-centric.
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Mar 17, 2011 23:54
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I've had a MOTU Ultralite for 3 or 4 years now and I think its pretty great. It only takes up half a 1U rack space and apparently you can daisy chain two next to each other for 4 preamps, 12 line ins, and 16 or so line outs if you want to expand later on (if you're on a Mac at least, not sure about Windows).
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Mar 18, 2011 19:54
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The better interfaces (RME, Apogee, TCElectronic) all have nice preamps and converters. But the pres aren't nice in the conventional sense. What they do extremely well is having a lot of gain while remaining very clean and uncolored with a very low noise floor. These pres pair really well with all of these flavor of the week distressor plugins i.e. URS Saturation, SoundToys Decapitator, etc. In other words they don't have a lot of vibe to them. But on the other side, because of the ADC quality they also pair very well with external pres like the aforementioned RNP, API, or Neve pre.
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Mar 18, 2011 21:47
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Alright, so I am hoping one of you guys can help me out here. I am new to the production world, but I am learning pretty quickly. I may be looking for something that is so specific to my wants that the equipment might not exist, or maybe I just don't know the terminology for it, but perhaps someone here knows of such a thing. tl;dr quote:What I want is a controller that can ideally handle 20+ channels, NOT a full-fledged mixing board. I just want it to interface with Logic to control the levels. I don't need a $3000+ 30 channel board full of preamps when all I need is two inputs. I am currently producing an album for my band using Logic. We're doing it in my apartment and we have a small setup, but it is as big as we need it for what we're doing. Here it is Mackie 402-VL23 2-channel mixer \/ Tascam US-800 USB interface \/ Logic Studio 9 We're getting a great sound with this setup. We don't need any more than two inputs because we're recording single instruments at a time and we recorded drums using an electronic kit sending MIDI to Superior Drummer 2. So here is the problem, now that we're getting closer and closer to finishing the album I am beginning to realize what a pain it is to use Logic's on-screen mixer. After recording just the rhythm guitars, sending each drum in Superior Drummer to its own aux channel, and adding buses for effects I am already looking at about 20 different tracks that need mixing. And we still have leads, bass, keyboards and vocals left to record! Its just too many channels to fit on the screen - plus Logic's method of customizing the mixing interface sucks. Buying a second monitor and giving the mixer window its own screen is a solution to this, but not the most ideal. What I want is a controller that can ideally handle 20+ channels, NOTa full-fledged mixing board. I just want it to interface with Logic to control the levels. I don't need a $3000+ 30 channel board full of preamps when all I need is two inputs. Huge Lady Pleaser fucked around with this message at 20:34 on Mar 19, 2011 |
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Mar 19, 2011 20:31
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I don't think there are any MIDI controllers with 20+ channels, at least not on the cheap. The most economical way to do it would be to get 2 or 3 cheap MIDI controllers with 8 faders each. The Evolution UC-33 would be a good choice, but they might be hard to find now. 8 faders with 3 rotary knobs per fader that you could assign to Pan, EQ or whatever, plus a 9th fader with no rotaries. Also some buttons. Behringer also makes something similar called the BCF2000. It has 8 faders, more buttons than the UC-33, but less rotaries.
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Mar 19, 2011 21:52
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Splinter posted:I don't think there are any MIDI controllers with 20+ channels, at least not on the cheap. The most economical way to do it would be to get 2 or 3 cheap MIDI controllers with 8 faders each. The Evolution UC-33 would be a good choice, but they might be hard to find now. 8 faders with 3 rotary knobs per fader that you could assign to Pan, EQ or whatever, plus a 9th fader with no rotaries. Also some buttons. Behringer also makes something similar called the BCF2000. It has 8 faders, more buttons than the UC-33, but less rotaries. Thanks for the suggestions. I was hoping there would be cheaper options which would be MIDI-only but it appears no one really makes that kind of thing, at least on the scale I'm looking for. I guess I'll just be saving my money. I went ahead and bought a second monitor though 
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Mar 19, 2011 23:58
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I'm wondering what my options are for recording drums. My interface is the M-Audio Fast Track Ultra. That page says that it allows for 8 inputs, but the interface itself only has 4 microphone input jacks. So anyways, most of the microphone packs I've looked at have 7 pieces, which I guess allows one to have a mic on kick, snare, hi-hat, toms and maybe an ambience mic. There's one with 4 pieces, but it looks like it's meant more for live sound. So can I just get the 7 mics and use maybe an inexpensive mixing board to shimmy everything down to 4 channels or less? Any thoughts?
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Mar 21, 2011 12:39
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BBW FEVER posted:What I want is a controller that can ideally handle 20+ channels, NOTa full-fledged mixing board. You need motorized faders to do that and LCD displays help a whole lot to remind you what channels you're looking at at any given time. Funny you should mention $3000 because that's what a 24 channel, motorized fader, HUI compatible control surface costs, here. I have basically zero experience setting up DAWs with control surfaces so I can't help with recommendations or specifics, but that's how digital mixing tends to work. Even half the digital live mixing consoles designed to mix 48-96 inputs at a time don't have 20+ input faders, they have 16 in 3-6 layers.
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Mar 21, 2011 16:24
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Seventh Arrow posted:I'm wondering what my options are for recording drums. My interface is the M-Audio Fast Track Ultra. That page says that it allows for 8 inputs, but the interface itself only has 4 microphone input jacks. It looks like you could track up to 6 mics simultaneously with your interface. To get 6 you could buy 2 external mic pres and run them into inputs 5 and 6 on the back of the interface.
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Mar 21, 2011 19:36
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Splinter posted:You can do drums pretty well with 4 mics. 2 overheads, 1 on the kick, 1 on the snare. I'm currently working with some tracks where the drums were recorded that way and I'm having a hell of a time getting them to sound good. Are there any general tips for this type of thing?
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Mar 21, 2011 20:32
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TylerK posted:I'm currently working with some tracks where the drums were recorded that way and I'm having a hell of a time getting them to sound good. Are there any general tips for this type of thing?
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Mar 21, 2011 20:42
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It seems like low microphone-count drum micing is all about placement of the mics, the room, and the mics. This has plenty of info on how to mic drums with different numbers of mics, but I don't know if it helps you after the fact. DEUCE SLUICE fucked around with this message at 20:54 on Mar 21, 2011 |
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Mar 21, 2011 20:50
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BBW FEVER posted:Alright, so I am hoping one of you guys can help me out here. I am new to the production world, but I am learning pretty quickly. I may be looking for something that is so specific to my wants that the equipment might not exist, or maybe I just don't know the terminology for it, but perhaps someone here knows of such a thing. I know it might sound crazy, but have you considered getting a couple of the Korg Nanocontrols and ganging them up side by side? They're ridiculously cheap and actually feel pretty great. I recently did a mix that required a ton of hand-fades (well, written to automation that way) over a 10-minute period and one of those little guys really saved my life.
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Mar 22, 2011 03:28
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TylerK posted:I'm currently working with some tracks where the drums were recorded that way and I'm having a hell of a time getting them to sound good. Are there any general tips for this type of thing? You can get some awesome drum sounds out of just a single mic or two. The drums on the new Black Keys record were all one mic mono drums. Sounds awesome. Granted, they ran nice mics into nice pres and really pushed said pres into distortion but it's a great sound. That record was tracked digital, mixed in the box, and mastered to digital from start to finish and never hit tape once. That record ends the digital vs. analog argument forever.
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Mar 22, 2011 07:49
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Hogscraper posted:That record ends the digital vs. analog argument forever. [citation needed]
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Mar 22, 2011 14:41
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Hogscraper posted:That record ends the digital vs. analog argument forever. Which digital vs. analog argument?
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Mar 22, 2011 18:19
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HotCanadianChick posted:[citation needed] http://www.gearslutz.com/board/so-much-gear-so-little-time/493405-new-black-keys-lp-brothers.html ?
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Mar 22, 2011 22:11
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Hogscraper posted:That record was tracked digital, mixed in the box, and mastered to digital from start to finish and never hit tape once. That record ends the digital vs. analog argument forever. edit: I think it and many albums before it have put the "digital always sounds digital" meme to bed, but I don't think there is digital processing that really acts like analog processing yet. ChristsDickWorship fucked around with this message at 00:24 on Mar 23, 2011 |
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Mar 23, 2011 00:21
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Hogscraper posted:The drums on the new Black Keys record were all one mic mono drums. ...Which were then beefed up with samples... (and other various post-processing VST-type stuff)
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Mar 23, 2011 04:17
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Yeah, the argument from a lot of the old school recording guys is that it's pretty much crap sonically unless it hits tape and gets mixed on an actual console with outboard gear. What wixard said, Brothers was a record where those guys definitely had a vision and committed to a lot of intensely distorted sounds during the tracking phase. Tchad Blake goes on and on about using SoundToys Decapitator on pretty much everything even if it did come in pretty distorted to begin with. I think that guy may be using it more as a simple EQ than anything. I bought a copy of Decapitator after reading through that thread just to play around and have been very impressed with it. SM57 into a clean pre > Decapitator in Ampex mode pushed just to distortion > LA2A Plugin > Decapitator in Neve mode for a little more color > Altiverb EMT plate verb = Amazing vocal. Pretty drat close to the Brothers record. I'll agree with wixard that digital processing isn't the same as analog. I'm not going to say it's not as good, I'm just going to say it's different. The gear these modeled plugs are supposed to mimic aren't 100% there yet but they're definitely close enough for rock and roll. @Schlieren the point is you can make a really awesome record with minimal drum mics. Yes, it was massaged into something a little different but 90% of that sound is the one or two mics they tracked with. I'll use another classic example of minimal drum micing that's awesome is the old Led Zeppelin recordings. 3 or 4 mics tops on Bonham's kit. Beautiful sound. Though, it's not a technique that works for everything. If the arrangement or mix is really dense you really need those spot mics on everything to get the kit to really pop out. If you're into quantized drums, quad tracked guitars, and 4 part vocal harmonies all over everything it's not going to turn out well.
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Mar 23, 2011 06:12
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Hogscraper posted:The point is you can make a really awesome record with minimal drum mics. I don't disagree at all: I stopped recording drums in my lovely duplex and moved my gear where I work, thirty foot ceilings, more significant not for vault-esque reverb, but merely because I loving finally can put my overheads eight or ten feet over my kit. The difference was like night and day and suddenly I didn't feel like I had to turd polish my drum tracks. Hell, my overheads are probably my shittiest microphones, but they make up a hell of a lot of the total drum sound on my tracks now. Once those sound good, the rest of the microphones are fairly redundant. I can only imagine how it'd be with decent pres and mics. Hogscraper posted:Though, it's not a technique that works for everything. If the arrangement or mix is really dense you really need those spot mics on everything to get the kit to really pop out. If you're into quantized drums, quad tracked guitars, and 4 part vocal harmonies all over everything it's not going to turn out well. Again, I think you're spot-on with this as well. Microphones picking up a lot of the different drums reverberating in space sound best when given room to breathe in the mix, and if there's a bunch of stuff going on, there isn't going to be that breathing room all the time. It helps in that denser situation to have the ability to pick and choose which elements of each drum to emphasize and which parts to peel away. If anything, when they recorded the drums they should've set up with the mics as they did, then close mic the sources. It doesn't hurt to have tracks you might never touch but which give you flexibility once you sit down to mix and the song concepts change, especially with something like drums. Schlieren fucked around with this message at 07:05 on Mar 23, 2011 |
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Mar 23, 2011 07:03
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Schlieren posted:If anything, when they recorded the drums they should've set up with the mics as they did, then close mic the sources. It doesn't hurt to have tracks you might never touch but which give you flexibility once you sit down to mix and the song concepts change, especially with something like drums. 
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Mar 23, 2011 13:36
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BBW FEVER posted:Thanks for the suggestions. I was hoping there would be cheaper options which would be MIDI-only but it appears no one really makes that kind of thing, at least on the scale I'm looking for. I guess I'll just be saving my money. Why not just get a behringer BCF2000? 8 Motorized faders for $150, and you can just bank over twice if you're mixing 24 channels.
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Mar 24, 2011 19:07
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RivensBitch posted:Why not just get a behringer BCF2000? 8 Motorized faders for $150, and you can just bank over twice if you're mixing 24 channels. Haha, well like I've said I'm relatively new at this. I didn't even know 'banking' was a thing. Makes sense tho
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Mar 25, 2011 01:17
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A few months ago I was in a commercial studio that had a Digidesign Icon, with like 48 motorized faders, hundreds of encoders, scribble strips on everything... it's a $100,000 control surface. The engineer working the session was a pro, and this was a facility he worked at a lot, and just looking at the wear and tear on the console I could tell that he never used more than the handful of faders at the center of the console next to the keyboard. He was much quicker at just banking through the channels and using the faders at his fingertips, rather than reaching over.
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Mar 26, 2011 00:07
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I'm really hoping this is the right place to ask this question. I do live sound and last night I had the promoter ask if I could record the show live off the floor. Instead of setting everything up through the board, all they gave me to work with was a single condenser mic set up a few feet in front of the stage. As a recording newbie, I'm wondering if there's any sort of treatment I can do to clean it up a bit. I can host the files if anybody needs/wants to hear it.
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Mar 27, 2011 22:16
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Tascam Pocketstudio DP-004 looks like lots of fun. Anyone here used one and have something to say about it? I might just buy one right now...
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Mar 28, 2011 03:49
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Mr. El Hefe posted:I'm really hoping this is the right place to ask this question.
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Mar 28, 2011 19:06
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