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Cmdr. Shepard posted:Do go on, please. http://lepouplugins.blogspot.com http://www.redwirez.com
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Feb 23, 2012 16:04
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Totally new at this recording/mixer stuff, and this looks like the place to ask this: (Note that this is actually for live podcast stuff, not music) I have acquired a Xenyx 802 mixer and need to use a HEADSET mic, and I know my PC headset mic ain't gonna cut it. It's got 2 XLR & 1/4" Line In mono inputs with phantom power. Would this condenser headset mic work? And would I have to use a 1/4" to XLR adapter like this one? Or am I way off?
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Feb 25, 2012 04:14
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I just finished engineering a session for my friend's band. I was running Pro Tools and I tracked the band a tad bit hot. Nothing that didn't clip any individual tracks, but there were more than a few times I saw the master bus clip. I just dropped the bus down a dB ( ) but both me and the band couldn't find anything that was audible to our amateur ears. I fear this might be the by product of growing up in the middle of the loudness wars, using only cheap ear buds for the first years of my developing musical interest. We're meeting tomorrow to finish up overdubs and start vocals. Do I have a chance to rescue this thing and just track everything not as hot, or should I just go hog wild and keep tracking everything really hot?
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Feb 25, 2012 09:23
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If no individual tracks clip you are fine and for most purposes whether or not you track hot or not makes no difference at all except in terms of preamp "sweetness", and given that you have amateur gear, your preamps probably suck so even then don't worry about it too much. Using "all the bits" for each track just means you're probably going to trim each individual track -12 to -18 dB later on. Use trim to "turn down" individual tracks until the master bus no longer clips, turn up quiet tracks until they sit in the mix properly. There's a pretty big fudge factor in amateur gear so even when stuff says it is clipping, there's usually a bit before it actually hits dbFS and clips digitally. You'll know when something clips digitally, as there is nothing sonically useful to it happening and it sounds like poo poo is breaking when it occurs. This having been written, if this were a live performance through a mixing board to a PA and monitors, without gear like compressors or limiters in the signal chain, you would run the risk of stuff sounding really bad. It's probably better to get in the habit of making sure the master bus does not clip during recording. It's digital, so you can always turn it up later, and you won't be adding any more line noise by doing so, than if you had recorded hot.
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Feb 25, 2012 11:25
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Roman posted:Totally new at this recording/mixer stuff, and this looks like the place to ask this: (Note that this is actually for live podcast stuff, not music) Think you could handle a table stand and a good dynamic mic instead? Cheap headset mics give you what you pay for, I understand what it's like to try to find things on a budget tighter than you may want but you need to be soft spoken at all times basically as to not bust listeners ears open. A lav mic is another alternative, if you have no room for any kind of mic stand. Big fat condenser mics I cannot always recommend because they pick up all the audio and not just a specific direction, and they'll f'up with airflow on them from a fan, they'll pick up vibrations from AC, etc. Dynamic with table stand is my personal solution.
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Feb 25, 2012 12:24
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MrLonghair posted:A lav mic is another alternative, if you have no room for any kind of mic stand. Roman fucked around with this message at 17:18 on Feb 25, 2012 |
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Feb 25, 2012 17:12
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Roman posted:I have acquired a Xenyx 802 mixer and need to use a HEADSET mic, and I know my PC headset mic ain't gonna cut it. I know a lot about the kinds of fancy "real" condenser headsets they use on TV or in theater and you certainly don't want to deal with them for a podcast even if you can afford them. Lavs will pick up absolutely everything in the room, no matter how directional they're supposed to be, and they'll sound bad at the same time and clip your entire broadcast if your shirt wrinkles the wrong way. What you probably want is something like this Shure WH20 or the WH30, which is the condenser equivalent. I know Shure makes tons of different headsets for all kinds of applications, maybe RivensBitch or someone else knows of a particular model ideal for podcasting, but I think you'd be in pretty good shape with the dynamic WH20 (with an XLR end) and that mixer. edit: Seeing your last post, you can almost certainly find a Shure model designed for communications (they do most/all? of the military's headsets for instance) that will be rugged, pretty cheap and outputs XLR. I'm just not familiar with the stuff. Schlieren posted:Use trim to "turn down" individual tracks until the master bus no longer clips, turn up quiet tracks until they sit in the mix properly. ChristsDickWorship fucked around with this message at 17:52 on Feb 25, 2012 |
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Feb 25, 2012 17:46
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wixard posted:That headset basically is your PC mic, it's the same kind of mic that's in telephones and there isn't a whole lot of variation.
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Feb 25, 2012 18:31
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Roman posted:Actually THAT headset is not a 1/8", it's a 1/4" jack with a 10' cord "for Karaoke and public speaking." Frequency Response: 50~12500Hz, Signal-to-noise ratio: 60dB, Carrier frequency range: 180~280MHz. I see it looks like a typical 1/8" PC mic in the photo, I should have described it. So I really don't know if it's worth giving a shot. Whether you want the XLR adapter will depend on whether it's mic level or line level output, which the description doesn't indicate.
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Feb 25, 2012 18:48
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wixard posted:You should always keep your master fader at 0 for this reason: there's no other way to get an exact measurement of what's happening in your master bus. What exactly is the point of having a master fader anyway, since the best practice is always to leave it exactly where it is?
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Feb 26, 2012 00:06
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Technically, it's the output trim for the master stereo output. In a recording environment, yea you can basically remove it aside from doing fade-outs by hand at the end of a song. Live or broadcast, where the goal isn't necessarily to be as loud as possible without clipping, it's used a lot to make output adjustments out of convenience once the input faders are mixed the way you want them. In a DAW it's possible that what I said about clipping the bus isn't true. They could program it so that the master fader doesn't trim the output, it actually trims all the inputs and you would never have to worry about hitting the bus harder than the meter would indicate. Some dedicated recording consoles are like that but there's no way to know without testing things, it's not likely to be discussed at length in a manual. ChristsDickWorship fucked around with this message at 03:54 on Feb 26, 2012 |
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Feb 26, 2012 03:37
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I ended up using the FreeG plugin on my master bus, and took the trim down 3 dB and just turning up the volume on the Big Knob the studio had. Again, to my amateur ears it sounded fine and wasn't as fatiguing on the ears. I'd like some opinion on the rough mixes, but I will say I had worked an 8 hour day with really no breaks, so I had to go from a headphone mix, to a rough mix within 10 minutes at the end of the day, so there's some of it that I want to go back and change ASAP, but I'm happy with the sounds and timbres we captured over all. http://www.sendspace.com/file/hluepb
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Feb 26, 2012 20:22
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Thinking about getting the Studiologic Numa Nano but concerned about future-proofing. It uses a USB interface and I'm worried that in 10 years time USB could be gone in favor of Thunderbolt or something else entirely. (My platform is a Mac). Is my fear unfounded or is this something I need to think about?
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Feb 26, 2012 20:50
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Mandals posted:Thinking about getting the Studiologic Numa Nano but concerned about future-proofing. It uses a USB interface and I'm worried that in 10 years time USB could be gone in favor of Thunderbolt or something else entirely. (My platform is a Mac). I wouldn't worry about it. For one thing, your only current alternative for a synth controller is 5-pin DIN MIDI, which is a much older standard than USB, and one that's slower and clunkier. Also I can't imagine USB going anywhere in the forseeable future -- it's used in everything from (QWERTY) keyboards and mice to cameras, game controllers, printers, laptop network adapters, etc. Thunderbolt is expensive enough that I don't see it taking over as a universal USB replacement, especially on inexpensive/portable gear. I figure worst case scenario is that someday you might eventually have to pick up a Thunderbolt-to-USB adapter.
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Feb 26, 2012 22:04
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Hogscraper posted:Check out something like this http://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-audio/golden-age-project-pre-73-preamp-mkii/h74865000000000 I ended up picking this up so far I love it. Is there anyway to rack mount this thing without using that $50 accessory that has terrible reviews? I'm also considering just velcroing it in on the top slot of my rack.
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Feb 26, 2012 22:31
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Cmdr. Shepard posted:I ended up picking this up so far I love it. Give us a review in the review thread! Also is it just me who can hear that little "neep mewwwweeeep weeeeep ooooeeeeeeep" feedback-y thing on the Oscars broadcast? I kept trying to point it out to my co-viewers and nobody could hear it but me aaaaaaaAAAaaaa
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Feb 27, 2012 05:14
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I'm recording a demo on my own since I can't really find any musicians locally who're interested in what I want to play, so now I'm looking to get my "babby's first midi-keyboard" and I'm kind of torn between an Akai and an M-Audio. Any recommendations? I'm by no means a keys player, but I'm wanting to add some organ parts to some songs I've been recording. I know the more keys the better, but can I get by just fine with 25? Also, drum pads are a must, and I know the M-Audio (both the 25 and 49 key) have only 8 compared to the 12 of the Akai MPKs. Has anyone found the 8 to be limiting? Lastly, there's the price... The M-Audio seems to be about $50 cheaper than the equivalent Akai for a 25 key, and $100 cheaper for a 49'er.
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Feb 29, 2012 16:39
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Scarf posted:I'm recording a demo on my own since I can't really find any musicians locally who're interested in what I want to play, so now I'm looking to get my "babby's first midi-keyboard" and I'm kind of torn between an Akai and an M-Audio. Any recommendations? Are you me? I was literally flipping tabs back and forth between the M-Audio Axiom 25 and Akai MPK25 on musiciansfriend for the exact same reasons when I came across your post. I would also like answers to these questions.
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Mar 1, 2012 22:32
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The Icon Neuron 6 is pretty rad but have fun dealing with them on the phone to get ahold of one. I ended up getting mine from a distributer in Canada. http://www.icon-global.com/ShowPro.aspx?ID=5
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Mar 1, 2012 22:35
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Two questions after some people started asking me questions I didn't know the answer to: 1. What seperates "good amateur gear" from "good pro gear"? I know enough to know that behringer sucks, but what is it about Presonus or Mackie interfaces that wouldn't be useful in a "professional" setting. Edit: My dad has a M-Audio Delta1010 card that from what I've read, is ok. What should I look for? I want something I can "grow" into but not have to upgrade immediately. 2. Would buying one of those 24 packs of Auralex 1' squares be a good idea? I know I'll be moving a lot in the next few years, going from one practice space to the next and while I'm sure I won't be engineering a classic album I'll probably be doing a lot of demos for people. Are these removable or do they fall apart after a few years? Noise Machine fucked around with this message at 21:14 on Mar 2, 2012 |
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Mar 2, 2012 20:19
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Noise Machine posted:Two questions after some people started asking me questions I didn't know the answer to: I'd say separating amateur from pro gear is all related to signal path and the components found therein. Pro designs are usually designed, built, tested, redesigned, rebuilt, and retested several times before they ship. A lot but not all amateur gear is designed, built, and shipped. Pro gear designs tend to be a little more rugged and as a whole use better components and side with whatever sounds the best rather than what specs out the best on paper. A lot of what's pleasing to the ear is a lot different than what is pleasing to the eye and only using a piece of equipment and listening to it is the only way to be certain. Some designs are just time tested to have a pleasing musical character like mic preamps from Neve, API, and the like. If you're talking just I/O interfaces it really comes down to the analog to digital converters inside the box. I'd advise against buying a new firewire interface as it seems to be phasing out. Stick with USB 2.0. No all in one interface is going to have the best of everything but you can get something that's usable enough to track a hit record with. RME, TC Electronic, and Apogee all make some great all in ones with super clean preamps and good ADCs. A good ADC is paramount if you end up getting a high end external mic preamp and want to capture the sound accurately. But, like I said above... what's pleasing to the ear and pleasing to the eye are sometime very different so a super clean preamp may not be what you're after. The distortion characteristics of good analog gear is something a lot of people dig. 2. How big is your room? If it's a small one I'd say high frequencies are the least of your worries. Worry about the low end before you tackle the high end. Low end tightness is what separates the men from the boys. Hogscraper fucked around with this message at 04:27 on Mar 3, 2012 |
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Mar 3, 2012 04:18
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I just bought a RME Babyface and I am in love with this loving thing. Best Audio Interface I have used bar none.
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Mar 3, 2012 05:19
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Hogscraper posted:http://lepouplugins.blogspot.com Sweet! Free, quality plug-ins are much appreciated. Somebody send me like 20 grand and I will open a studio full time and maybe I'll pay you back, maybe not. To actually contribute something, I give you: How to Tame Massive, part 1; band-pass, my rear end  
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Mar 3, 2012 08:42
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I'm giving Reaper a shot but I'm finding the learning curve really tough. How do I change the grid settings so that when I move wav files around they snap to something smaller than every .5 seconds?
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Mar 3, 2012 17:19
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Cmdr. Shepard posted:I'm giving Reaper a shot but I'm finding the learning curve really tough. You can remove the grid by clicking the bar icon, or if you want to see the grid but don't want it to move for each bar you can click the magnet icon. 
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Mar 3, 2012 17:33
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Greggster posted:You can remove the grid by clicking the bar icon, or if you want to see the grid but don't want it to move for each bar you can click the magnet icon. Thanks. I also found the snap/grid settings menu. Man, coming from Audacity this is really pretty great. Just the ability to do real-time effects processing is blowing my mind.
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Mar 3, 2012 17:57
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Can someone recommend a software drum machine? Preferably a free one that is either native or AU. I'm just using samples from old roland and korg machines. Is there an old vintage drum machine sample kit that you love? The ones I have are pretty weak and it's pretty annoying to manually sequence them AND have to apply plugins to make them sound good.
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Mar 3, 2012 22:34
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Here's a quandary: I'm taking a laptop and Mbox rig out to a location recording next week, doing vocals and upright piano, the latter being something I've never recorded. There seem to be as many opinions on this as there are posters on Gearslutz, but I will likely be going with rented C414s, a pair of SDCs or even stereo SM7s (the SM7 is my "try it on everything" mic.) I'm curious to see if any goon engineers have anything to share about this situation! strangemusic fucked around with this message at 06:01 on Mar 4, 2012 |
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Mar 4, 2012 05:56
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The pair of SDCs are probably your best bet for the piano, but I've recorded upright with a pair of dynamic mics and have gotten pretty decent results. The AKG 414 is a good mic for a vocalist. The piano in our studio has the front-board removed, which will open up the sound more and you'll get a less dampened sound entering the microphone. If this is possible, I would recommend it.
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Mar 4, 2012 08:24
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bam thwok posted:Are you me? I was literally flipping tabs back and forth between the M-Audio Axiom 25 and Akai MPK25 on musiciansfriend for the exact same reasons when I came across your post. I would also like answers to these questions. I've got the Akai MPK25, and just to warn everybody the pads themselves are total poo poo due to a very stupid manufacturing process. If you do get one, you seriously need to open up the case and add some electrical tape between the sensors themselves and the pads to fill the air gap - they're still not great afterwards, but at least they're usable.
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Mar 4, 2012 10:09
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I have the axiom 25 and it is absolutely great.
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Mar 4, 2012 12:16
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Franz Liszt 96 posted:The pair of SDCs are probably your best bet for the piano, but I've recorded upright with a pair of dynamic mics and have gotten pretty decent results. The AKG 414 is a good mic for a vocalist. Definitely possible! I also have the option of miking the back (soundboard) of the piano, which I've heard is a good call.
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Mar 4, 2012 19:02
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Hogscraper posted:lmao, I just recommended a Behringer RTA microphone. Not something I do often but occasionally something sneaks out from them that's totally usable. I gigged with one of their keyboard amps for years and it survived many a fall off a truck, being kicked, and having beer spilled on it a lot. quote:If you're talking just I/O interfaces it really comes down to the analog to digital converters inside the box. I would also recommend buying something with an external power adapter as a general rule. Technically it's not necessary, but you probably have lots of other things powered from your USB bus too. I've seen interfaces clean up or become noisy when a laptop is plugged into a wall, or when another peripheral is plugged and unplugged. Your audio will only ever be as clean as your power and USB's power potential isn't all that impressive to me. keyframe posted:I just bought a RME Babyface and I am in love with this loving thing. Best Audio Interface I have used bar none. I'm pretty sure later this year I'm going to drop ~$5k on an RME setup that will hopefully be the beginning of the last "audio interface" I ever buy. Basically a MADIFace (with Thunderbolt Express adapter) gives me a 64x64 (or 32x32 at 96K) interface to my laptop. The catch is it only has a MADI format input. So I'm going to start with an RME ADI-8 QS as an I/O unit and that will give me 8 ins and outs over analog, ADAT, or AES. In the future I'll buy more gear that converts other audio to MADI depending on what I need until I buy enough to run out of the 64 ins and outs (never). Ever since I realized I could build a setup like that, I've been totally infatuated with the idea: buy an interface with no converters, no preamps, the best drivers you can find and then basically buy audio gear afterwards that converts whatever kind of audio you need to MADI to get in and out of it. Adapting it to Thunderbolt hopefully futureproofs it, but if in 10 years I have 4 of those ADI-8s doing 32ch of I/O at 96KHz and Thunderbolt disappears, it'll cost me probably $1000 or less to get the latest and greatest MADI interface (not many features you could pay for even if you wanted to) and everything else I own just plugs in and off we go, the same bits and bytes of audio in exactly the same quality pumping in and out of my laptop. If you invest in a Pro Tools HD rig, or even an Apogee Symphony rig, you have to hope they have a good trade-in program when PCIe goes obsolete. Even if RME is out of business, someone will be making another laptop MADI interface.
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Mar 4, 2012 19:57
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I've been thinking about possibly getting a mic to record my music instead of going line-in to the soundcard, what are the pros to recording with a mic instead (and cons beyond not being able to record at good volume in the night at high volume)?
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Mar 4, 2012 20:07
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Greggster posted:I've been thinking about possibly getting a mic to record my music instead of going line-in to the soundcard, what are the pros to recording with a mic instead (and cons beyond not being able to record at good volume in the night at high volume)? Just stick your amp in the bathroom and drape a bunch of towels and blankets everywhere. Stick the mic close to the amp and you're good to go. Instant recording booth that, while won't sound great, will still be leaps and bounds ahead of line-in recording. I think cranking the amp to get any decent recording is a bit of a myth. I would love to crank my amp (I can't cause I live in a shared-wall townhome), but I get an OK sound with a low volume. You can pick up an Audio Technica AT2020 condensor mic for $68 on Amazon, this is a great deal: http://www.amazon.com/Technica-AT2020-Address-Cardiod-Condensor/dp/B0006H92QK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1330889647&sr=8-1 And get yourself a USB interface with phantom power and you're good to go. But I'm hardly an expert here, an AT2020 and a USB Fast Track Pro works great for me. The Shep fucked around with this message at 20:35 on Mar 4, 2012 |
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Mar 4, 2012 20:33
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wixard posted:The problem with recommending them is the one you buy a month later might be totally different parts, or a bad batch of parts.
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Mar 4, 2012 21:23
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Greggster posted:I've been thinking about possibly getting a mic to record my music instead of going line-in to the soundcard, what are the pros to recording with a mic instead (and cons beyond not being able to record at good volume in the night at high volume)? You don't need to crank it really. I have a orange crush 20w and a shure SM57 hooked up to the babyface and the recording quality is pristine. It will always be considerably better than doing line in recording which sounds like rear end unless you have something like the kemper: http://kemper-amps.com/page/render/lang/en/p/158/do/Kemper_Profiling_Amplifier___KPA___Guitar_Amplification_Redefined.html wixard posted:
You and me both. I was going "holy poo poo I spent $800 on a audio interface  " all the way from the music store to home but as soon as I hooked it up and recorded some stuff I am sold. It is worth it's weight in gold.-- On another note, Does anyone here have the Focal CSM 65's? Would love to hear some opinions on those since I am seriously considering them. keyframe fucked around with this message at 02:19 on Mar 5, 2012 |
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Mar 5, 2012 02:14
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My Audio Technica headphones are dying on me. What's the best option for studio headphones sub-$100? I know that's not a great price range to work with, but it's where I find myself at the moment.
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Mar 5, 2012 08:16
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I am not aware of a sub $100 studio headphone.
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Mar 5, 2012 08:25
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Cmdr. Shepard posted:Just stick your amp in the bathroom and drape a bunch of towels and blankets everywhere. Stick the mic close to the amp and you're good to go. Instant recording booth that, while won't sound great, will still be leaps and bounds ahead of line-in recording. keyframe posted:You don't need to crank it really. I have a orange crush 20w and a shure SM57 hooked up to the babyface and the recording quality is pristine. It will always be considerably better than doing line in recording which sounds like rear end unless you have something like the kemper: Oh I wasn't thinking about the supposed "it has to be loud to sound good"-myth, merely that I live in an apartment that is terribly sound-isolated so it is more that I can't play it after 10  Aye I got the usb-interface with phantom power (m-audio fast track) so that part is settled. Looks like now I just have to decide between the AT2020 and Shure SM57, the SM57 I've got some experience with, but not the other one. Is the At2020 in similar quality as the SM57?
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Mar 5, 2012 12:47
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