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Killsion posted:Kind of a random question, but using modern recording procedures, how does one obtain a more murky cavernous production quality, while still retaining a good sound? I point towards a variety of recent blackened death metal and similar releases as a point of reference. I haven't done this before but my first idea would be to send the whole clean mix through a nice big reverb, then compress/saturate/distort that send so it's a big wide fuzzy mess, then layer that in with the original mix so you still have the clarity and punch of the original recording but now it's swimming in huge dirty reverberation. Parallell distortion could do a similar thing on a per-track basis, again send the vocal/guitar out and murk up the signal as best as possible with fuzz boxes, shave off the highs with eq, and maybe add some light reverb, then mix the distorted track with the original to get the ratio of clean/dirt you feel is necessary, then run all those tracks through a big master reverb send to tie them all into the same space. I kind of want to try doing this now.
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Aug 13, 2016 02:33
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Killsion posted:Kind of a random question, but using modern recording procedures, how does one obtain a more murky cavernous production quality, while still retaining a good sound? I point towards a variety of recent blackened death metal and similar releases as a point of reference. If you're working in the box I find using dirtyish console channel emulation/saturation (Code Red and Ferox work for me) and reverbs (convolution of real space rather than algorithmic) works well but the best thing is just recording real amps in a nice room into analog stuff. Super modern clean stuff is because its all line/digital amps etc and there's never any real air moving in the mix (maybe the drum overheads?). Sometimes all it takes is NOT using triggered drums and it can make you rethink the vibe/quality of a whole recording. Not listening on my monitors so take this all with a grain of salt: That nightside track to me sounds like it was probably recorded reasonably clean then stuck through a reverb plugin - the vocal reverb sounds particularly fake and different to the 'space' the rest of the band is in. This track is a great example I think of how NOT to try and fake the bm sound. The grave uprising song literally just sounds like it was recorded normally (idk whats going on with the vocals though lol) then mixed with a track of distorted white noise - like there's just a static drone taking up most of the headroom in the track. The malthusian track is my fave out of these (gonna check out some of their other stuff) and sounds really good - i'd say just loud tube amps and louder real drums (the hats are nice especially imo), not as much reverb here except on the vocals. I wouldn't really call this mix cavernous though, the massive vocal reverb plays some tricks on your ears, the guitar sound is pretty present. Listening to these has made me think about the production style, and my take away is probably don't drench the whole thing in reverb, but find the elements you can really go to town on. I'm going to add a recommendation for using the 'abbey road reverb trick', bandpassing the wet reverb at 600hz to 10k hz, which can really stop your reverb from muddying up important frequencies. I had my own question - I've been recording using the emulated out on my blackstar amp and it sounds great but I'd like to start using some amp modelling software for leads. If all I need to do is get the level up from my guitar, and don't need and xlr out, am I losing anything by just getting a clean boost pedal (probably a micro amp) instead of a dedicated DI box? I'd like to be able to use it with my rig when not recording, where as a DI is pretty useless to me otherwise. e: Kind of figured out that i can just use the emulated line out from my amp on a relatively clean setting and it works with amp sims fine. It's probably loving up some frequencies a bit but it seems to work well enough to not bother with a DI? field balm fucked around with this message at 09:15 on Aug 17, 2016 |
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Aug 17, 2016 01:15
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In my experience with Guitar Rig and Amplitube, you don't even need a DI box. But maybe I was doing it wrong. You got me researching Clean boost pedals though, and now I want one! And I bet it would act as a decent DI box. Best to just test it out?
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Aug 17, 2016 23:14
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Most interfaces support a direct guitar input, but I usually use my Zoom G3 as a sort of DI box just for that little bit of extra control over levels and so forth.
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Aug 18, 2016 05:35
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Ugh, I don't have GAS for guitars right now but now I'm coveting mics and interfaces. I'm using a decent interface (Akai EIE) and the mics I have (MXL 550/551 pair) are great but I can't help but wonder if a better mic will give me better recording results. The shittiest part is with guitars you can play them and get a feel. With amps and pedals you can bring your gear and test them out in person. With mics all I really have to go off of is the frequency response chart and specs, and whatever demos I can find on YouTube that will ultimately be useless because they're being used in completely different applications to what I'll likely use them in. I'm just venting, I know I'm better off trying to make the best of the gear I have rather than buy more poo poo I don't really need, especially when I'm not even doing more than just demos. It's just trying to capture that sound I get live into the DAW is frustrating.
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Aug 23, 2016 10:00
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syntaxfunction posted:Ugh, I don't have GAS for guitars right now but now I'm coveting mics and interfaces. I'm using a decent interface (Akai EIE) and the mics I have (MXL 550/551 pair) are great but I can't help but wonder if a better mic will give me better recording results. Those MXLs are OK but fairly low end, I don't know how much colour they will add to the recording but they alone aren't likely to be the thing stopping you from getting the sound you want. Shure SM57 is the defacto instrument recording mic, if you buy anything else then make it one of those (watch out for fakes, most on ebay are), but you can probably still get usable tones out of what you have. Capturing That Sound can be harder than just finding the right mic; the room you're recording in can make a big difference, as well as exactly where on the amp the mic is pointing and how far away it is from the cone. When I was tone hunting I would mic up my amp and route it through my soundcard so I could hear the live recording, then I'd put in earphones and a set of drum cans over the top so all I could hear was the guitar coming through the earphones and not the amp itself, then I'd move the mic position around until I found the spot that sounded right to me, and then I would start recording. These days I just use amp modellers, so much easier to get great results without loving around dealing with room reflections and mic placement. It might give you better results to rebuild your setup in Guitar Rig or something to get it as close to your live sound as possible and then just use that for recording demos.
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Aug 23, 2016 12:37
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Oh for sure. Thanks for the reply to my venting  I think my biggest problem is that when recording I'm typically playing as well, which makes it super hard to be objective about the sound in the phones because I'm half concentrating on the live sound.So I say it sounds good, layer stuff and get a sound I like. For a while. Then I'm just not satisfied with it especially after comparing it to goal tracks (even just isolated guitar). So I start eqing and get to the point where I realise the amount of correction I'm doing means the original sound is naff. And sure enough I'll go back and listen to the raw tracks and hear the problem. Right now it's that "boxy" sound. I'm pretty sure the MXLs are fine because the overall sound they give me I actually like. But I'm recording an amp in my room, wedged between my bed and a closet door. Not a great treatment. If anyone is willing to listen to the raw guitar tracks and give some tips I'd be super grateful. Come Friday I'm gonna record some stuff at my bassists place which has generally yielded better results.
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Aug 24, 2016 04:00
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Hi, I'm getting into home recording and found a bundle that's on offer at a local music shop, but I thought i'd check here to see if it's good value before buying it. It's £145 and consists of: 1x sE Electronics Magneto Condenser Microphone 1x Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 Audio Interface 1x 3m XLR Microphone cable 1x Microphone Stand 1x Pop Shield Also, i have a lack of friends who are drummers, are there any easy to use drum track creation tools around? I played around with FruityLoops but couldn't work out the interface.
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Aug 29, 2016 18:33
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That seems like a pretty good deal to me. Probably saving you $50-75, and its a good choice for interface. Not experienced with that mic, but reputable sites say its pretty good for its price range.
the Gaffe fucked around with this message at 19:53 on Aug 29, 2016 |
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Aug 29, 2016 19:51
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Nova88 posted:Hi, I'm getting into home recording and found a bundle that's on offer at a local music shop, but I thought i'd check here to see if it's good value before buying it. If you happen to use Logic Pro X, then the Drummer plugin that's built in there is literally the most simple thing there is. Otherwise I have read / heard many good things about EZDrummer 2: https://www.toontrack.com/product/ezdrummer-2/ There are videos of people doing tracks with it and it seems to be a really nice balance of straightforward and powerful.
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Aug 29, 2016 20:24
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Nova88 posted:Also, i have a lack of friends who are drummers, are there any easy to use drum track creation tools around? I played around with FruityLoops but couldn't work out the interface. I have to put a plug in for XLN's Addictive Drums (now Addictive Drums 2), and getting yourself a Kork Padkontrol. Fuuuuuck, I love it so much. It's just so much fun to use. Barring that, you could just get AD and use a midi-keyboard, or painstakingly draw all the notes in via piano roll.
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Aug 29, 2016 20:52
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Are any of those little portable vocal booths any good, or should I start buying lengths of foam and carpeting my walls?
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Aug 29, 2016 21:26
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Hbomberguy posted:Are any of those little portable vocal booths any good, or should I start buying lengths of foam and carpeting my walls? The little portable ones are okay, fine for most hobbyists in my opinion. It really depends how reflective your room is to begin with, and how loud you'll be singing. Rappers for instance can get away with a lot less because the sound of their voice just isn't loud enough to hit the walls and reflect back into the mic. I usually clap my hands in a room and listen to the decay, and judge from there. It depends on your room but one way you can tell is if you sing into your closet (hopefully filled with clothes), it will do a similar job as those small vocal booth (knocking out the reflections directly in front of you). I'd recommend trying a recording like this if possible before purchasing one.
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Aug 29, 2016 21:48
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EZ Drummer would probably be ideal for you. Does a DAW come bundled with the interface?
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Aug 29, 2016 22:17
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Hbomberguy posted:Are any of those little portable vocal booths any good, or should I start buying lengths of foam and carpeting my walls? I think there are no shortcuts in acoustics.
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Aug 29, 2016 23:15
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NonzeroCircle posted:EZ Drummer would probably be ideal for you. Does a DAW come bundled with the interface? It comes with Ableton Live Lite.
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Aug 30, 2016 00:16
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I have a fun experimental result for those recording live things (Guitars, etc). Basically I took a basic song that I don't really care for but have down so it's a good one to experiment with. I recorded multiple layers (Four rhythm guitars for the heavy parts and two for the clean) and panned them hard left and right. The result was acceptable I think: https://soundcloud.com/syntaxfunction/forgetful-take-4-stereo HOWEVER, I think this exemplifies that your room really does matter, because while it sounds fine if not great (To me at least) with headphones once you put it in a situation where you don't have distinct separation, like with my friend's 5.1 speaker setup, it amplifies the qualities of the room. What I'm getting at is this: https://soundcloud.com/syntaxfunction/forgetful-take-4-mono It was recorded as a demo (And works like that) but the moment you hear the mono mix you can hear that I recorded it between two hard things (A wall and closet specifically) and man there are some reflections. I remember playing it for my friend for the first time and he commented about the reverb I had added to the clean bit. I didn't add reverb. I'm basically just trying to get at the fact that recording in a good room is pretty loving important. Also listen to your mixes in mono sometimes, because man, it went from "This sounds alright" to "Well, I'm going to have to rerecord the whole thing somewhere else" pretty drat quick.
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Sep 3, 2016 03:16
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Guitar center 15% coupon code ends tonight. What do I need to buy for my fledgling home studio? Got a focusrite 2i4 and some cheap sm57 and sm58 knockoffs already that could use upgrading.
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Sep 6, 2016 03:15
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Edit: NVM
well why not fucked around with this message at 12:44 on Sep 6, 2016 |
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Sep 6, 2016 10:27
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Could anyone recommend a good stand/desk arm for a AT2020+ ? I'm using it from my desk (~20" distance from myself?) with the little stand it comes with, but I live over an avenue so my room is very noisy and if I crank up the gain so my voice registers it picks up every bloody car coming passing by.
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Sep 7, 2016 15:33
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I've got my Focusrite 2i4 Interface and sE X1 mic now, and they're recording voals great. With recording my guitar/bass amps though, the sounds is crackling and lacks clarity/dynamics. I've tried playing around with the -10db padding and the gain controls because of the differnet input volume but it hasn't helped. I know the large diapragham condenser mic isn't reccomended for recording amps but the bundle came with this one and I didn't have the budget to buy a second one to use for my amps. Are there any tricks I can do to get them recording well or would it work better to record them via instrument cable and add colour to the sound via the DAW?
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Sep 7, 2016 21:10
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Nova88 posted:I've got my Focusrite 2i4 Interface and sE X1 mic now, and they're recording voals great. With recording my guitar/bass amps though, the sounds is crackling and lacks clarity/dynamics. I've tried playing around with the -10db padding and the gain controls because of the differnet input volume but it hasn't helped. When micing an amp literal inches make a huge difference. Play around with where the mic's diaphragm is in relation to the speaker cone. That said it sounds like you're just clipping the mic, but you haven't said whether you actually are or not. Just that you've tried different gain settings. What's it looking like when it hits the meter?
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Sep 8, 2016 01:31
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the Gaffe posted:When micing an amp literal inches make a huge difference. Play around with where the mic's diaphragm is in relation to the speaker cone. I've got a -10db pad on the mic, and a seperate -10db pad on the interface. With both off, the meter clips like crazy, with one of the pads on, the meter is around 70% filled, with both pads probably more like 50%, idk if there's a setting to get dB values on the axis of the meter in Ableton. With the gain meter on the interface I've been adjusting it so that it doesn't ever go into the red when i start playing. The mic stand that came with the bundle is a somewhat entry level one I think, the boom be moved forward/backwards, only along it's hinge, and the inner part of the stand doesn't go down as far as expected. This means that I have to rest the amp up on the bed to get it to a similar height as the lowest height of the mic, and then because of the leg stands getting in the way and the aforementioned boom limitations, I can't push the mic forward closer to the actual amp speaker Also Guitar amp is 10w, bass amp is 20w (although I'm using the power squeezer toggle which pulls it down to 2w without losing the tone of the higher wattage), and been running both amps on about half gain and half volume, could the volume have damage the mic and that's what's causing the distorted sound, I'll have to give it another check with vocals to see if they still sounds as good as they did when i first got the mic. Nova69 fucked around with this message at 14:15 on Sep 8, 2016 |
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Sep 8, 2016 13:56
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The pad switch on the mic is to prevent overloading the circuitry in the mic after the capsule. It won't do gently caress-all to prevent distortion physically created by exposing the capsule to extremely high sound pressure levels, which is what you're having. For the love of god, don't even think about putting the mic closer to the speaker, you're potentially damaging it with what you're doing now. The suggestion is definitely to increase the distance. At the cost of having more of the room acoustics show up in your recording. Your own suggestion to DI and use software simulation is sensible. However, the convenience of all-in-one sofware suites costs money as well and the latency of your driver/interface combo becomes important. But there is free stuff out there. Cheap dynamic mics are plagued with low sensitivity though, and in rough correlation, can stand higher pressure levels. You can probably pick up a basic ok-ish one for $20-$40 that can stand being used in that role. Another way is to use a power soak, to decrease the SPL coming out of the speaker. But that'll be as expensive as getting a good-ish dynamic mic anyway.
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Sep 8, 2016 14:40
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Flipperwaldt posted:
If you're ok with a gear rec, I've had decent luck with GLS57s and 58s. They're SM57/8 clones made by a company in... Glendale I think? Only been to their physical site like once. You can get them direct for like $40, but they might be cheaper on amazon. Some reviewers online said they actually like the GLS57 over the SM57. In other news, AES is having a convention in LA in a couple weeks and I'm debating whether or not I want to go. Sweetwater is giving away a coupon code for free entry, but it isn't all-access so you only get to go to three workshops and check out the exhibitors. Never been to a convention like that before. Is it like NAMM where if you go on the last day you can pick up gear for cheap? One of my coworkers told me about NAMM a while back but I didn't get to go on the company dime because it was my first week on the job.
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Sep 8, 2016 19:55
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Crosspost from vst thread: I've had a Nocturn Keyboard for ages, but only been using it in generic mode since i changed to Cubase 8.5. I have just updated automap to the latest version (4.10), followed the setup instructions, enabled my plugins, all that jazz. Perfectly copied all the screenshots. The LEDs follow what i am doing on screen with the mouse, such as adjusting volume in mixer mode or a filter on Massive in instrument mode, and the transport buttons light accordingly. My issue? The controls themselves do jack poo poo, the leds will follow an encoder when I turn it but it doesn't actually control the parameter and have an effect on audio- it seems like it receives messages but wont send them? Despite this, the keys work. I've tried every combo of settings i can think of and have followed the 'official' setup 3 times through. I also tried calibrating the pitchwheel following the guide, it won't centre properly (in the digital realm- if a patch has +/-2 pb and i nudge it, when it physically centres it'll be at around -1.6 if that makes sense) but tbh i rarely use it so not super fussed on that. Edit: fixed it after 6 hours and numerous reinstalls. Turns out of cubase is running as admin, automap needs to be too… NonzeroCircle fucked around with this message at 15:23 on Sep 15, 2016 |
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Sep 15, 2016 00:53
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Got a pair of ATH-M50X's for studio use. They are my first pair of "real" over the ear phones I've ever head. Holy crap. Everything I've ever recorded is out of tune and terrible. Also, all my heroes are humans and I can hear them play notes I've never heard before in my life.
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Sep 16, 2016 22:12
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That first major upgrade is a moment to cherish.
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Sep 16, 2016 23:47
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the Gaffe posted:That first major upgrade is a moment to cherish. I also, ten years ago, got a pair of ath-somethings, and with an adapter, I used them with my DS, and holy poo poo, incredible.
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Sep 18, 2016 19:15
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i did a post rock, but it sounds kind of crappy - any suggestions to make it better? Working in reaper.
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Oct 2, 2016 02:58
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sebmojo posted:i did a post rock, but it sounds kind of crappy - any suggestions to make it better? Working in reaper. I think it's cool, but it could benefit from some leveling. There are a few approaches, but one old standby is to get the drums and bass sounding good together, and slowly turning the faders up on the other tracks. The acoustic guitar is very up front, which is a cool approach and I like it, but where it is gets in the way a bit and doesn't sit naturally in the mix so you might want to tinker with it. I think it would also benefit from some panning and giving more of an overall sense of space. A little bit of stereo reverb on the drums would probably go a very long way. Besides that, the sounds you got are good, if you worked with the eq a bit to bring more life out of the mix.
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Oct 6, 2016 17:26
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ricecult posted:I think it's cool, but it could benefit from some leveling. There are a few approaches, but one old standby is to get the drums and bass sounding good together, and slowly turning the faders up on the other tracks. The acoustic guitar is very up front, which is a cool approach and I like it, but where it is gets in the way a bit and doesn't sit naturally in the mix so you might want to tinker with it. I think it would also benefit from some panning and giving more of an overall sense of space. A little bit of stereo reverb on the drums would probably go a very long way. Besides that, the sounds you got are good, if you worked with the eq a bit to bring more life out of the mix. Thanks, that's super helpful. i'll have a tinker and post another version
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Oct 7, 2016 01:18
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I had another go, I like this version a lot better.
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Oct 9, 2016 04:57
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Just scored a Portastudio 464 on Craigslist. Fuuuuuck yes. All my home recording megathread dreams have come true. (One annoying thing though: you have to make your own TRS -> Dual TS send-return cables for channel inserts. Time to bust out the soldering equipment...) (Also the Effects send for each channel is post-fader, which is kind of stupid, BUT HEY! IT'S A GODDAMN HONEST TO GOODNESS TAPE MACHINE.)
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Oct 9, 2016 06:40
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How do I make multiple midi items in reaper into one big midi item? So how I program drums is that I make little midi item chunks (usually 2 to 4 measures long) that I program the piano roll for so I can easily copy/paste the filler parts and hot swap stuff around to tailor make the drum patterns in songs. However at the end of production when I want to go back and humanize everything it's annoying as gently caress to have to individually humanize about a hundred different midi items. My idea is to just group everything up as one big item then only have to worry about mashing the humanize button once then I can split it back up to individually normalize hits so I don't accidentally have some glaring drum sound in the middle of nowhere that ruins a part of the song. Any ideas, or should I instead start getting used to working with longer midi items?
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Oct 12, 2016 12:05
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Not too familiar with Reaper, but since it has extremely flexible routing, I'm assuming you can at least record the output of one (or more) midi track(s) onto another to bounce the stuff down to one part. Whether you're just concatenating or also merging.
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Oct 12, 2016 12:29
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You can also open a MIDI item, select all, copy and then paste into another one? I'm not great with MIDI but I know you can do that.
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Oct 12, 2016 12:32
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syntaxfunction posted:You can also open a MIDI item, select all, copy and then paste into another one? I'm not great with MIDI but I know you can do that. Looking into it a bit deeper, there's a "glue items" menu option that might work for midi too, but maybe not if you've got overlapping stuff. But there's an "export project midi" option in the file menu that seems fairly promising. I get the impression this is harder than it should be, though. I guess you tried selecting multiple parts and seeing whether the humanisation applies to all of them, right?
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Oct 12, 2016 13:12
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Flipperwaldt posted:That would seem like as much if not more work as humanizing a hundred midi items. I tried that and it opened every single midi item and nearly crashed the program.
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Oct 12, 2016 13:30
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I would like some critique on this. I played it live with some friends and re -recorded it in my studio .... Err.... Bedroom. The drums are addictive drummer 2. Everything else I recorded myself. Vocals, guitar, bass. here is the link
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Oct 13, 2016 23:27
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