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The benefit an audio interface with a low latency driver can give you (on top of having an input jack with the right impedance and voltage expectations) is that you can monitor yourself live while playing through amp/cab simulator plugins. Hearing the sound as you intend it to sound as you are playing, may heavily affect how and what you are playing versus recording clean-ish and then messing with it after the fact. The reason you haven't had any latency problems with your onboard sound is likely because you haven't used it in a situation where any would show.
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Nov 19, 2016 22:58
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Its time to get me some real monitors for my bedroom studio, my budget is just over 200 quid. Is there any appreciable difference between the KRK Rokit G5s and the Presonus Eris e5s? The cost of the KRK+isolator bundle on Thomann is pretty much identical to the e5s plus buying the pads. Both seem to review really well, the e5s have a bit more adjustability which may be handy as my room is a hosed up shape. RCAs are a must due to my interface (Scarlett Solo gen 1).
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Nov 23, 2016 10:47
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NonzeroCircle posted:Its time to get me some real monitors for my bedroom studio, my budget is just over 200 quid. Is there any appreciable difference between the KRK Rokit G5s and the Presonus Eris e5s? The cost of the KRK+isolator bundle on Thomann is pretty much identical to the e5s plus buying the pads. Get the cheaper one and spend the rest on acoustic treatment your bedroom. When I first upgraded to studio monitors it sounded much worse than the logitech set I had been using previously, but after putting some acoustic foam on the side and rear reflection points as well as behind the monitors on the wall it really made a huge difference to the sound and made the upgrade worthwhile. Find the reflection points by sitting in your chair and having someone else walk a mirror around the edge of the room, when you can see a reflection of your monitors make a mark on the wall and then put a big square of foam there. The hosed up room shape will always work against you but there's still a lot to gain by doing some basic treatment.
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Nov 23, 2016 11:25
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After investigating further, the Eris' are apparently more "truthful" so I'm going to plump for them- whilst hype and sizzle is all well and good I'd rather have an accurate representation of my sound, especially as I tend to do mostly downtuned guitar-based music the midrange is really important to me. Thanks for the advice on reflections man, thats really handy too.
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Nov 23, 2016 13:08
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Gym Leader Barack posted:Mirrors on the ceiling Awesome tip.
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Nov 23, 2016 18:09
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So thinking of extricating myself from PC audio production and moving to hardware/analogue - I've got a nice amp, a mic and I could sell my USB audio interface for a small 8-track (like the Tascam DP-008EX ) but I see the big blockers in things like EQ, compression, etc. on tracks, and a real difficulty in percussion. I have tried a DR Rhythm in the past and it was passable, but really not great. I'd rather not get a drum kit - but I'm happy to be limited in my options somewhat. What kind of solutions are out there which can hope to match EZ Drummer / Superior Drummer / etc.?
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Nov 24, 2016 14:55
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Southern Heel posted:So thinking of extricating myself from PC audio production and moving to hardware/analogue - I've got a nice amp, a mic and I could sell my USB audio interface for a small 8-track (like the Tascam DP-008EX ) but I see the big blockers in things like EQ, compression, etc. on tracks, and a real difficulty in percussion. I have tried a DR Rhythm in the past and it was passable, but really not great. I'd rather not get a drum kit - but I'm happy to be limited in my options somewhat. What kind of solutions are out there which can hope to match EZ Drummer / Superior Drummer / etc.? I'm not sure what you're asking, exactly. Do you want a digital kit/pad drums? Supposedly the Nord Drum 3 is awesome, but the SPD-SX is the standard bearer as far as I know. Or if you're talking about a drum machine synth... Volca Beats? Rhythm Wolf? Arturia DrumBrute? strangemusic fucked around with this message at 17:33 on Nov 24, 2016 |
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Nov 24, 2016 17:28
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Well yes, really I'm asking a couple of questions in one: - How much trouble am I making for myself by using something like an 8-track instead of a DAW for recording in terms of workflow and ease - it seems the benefits of the DAW in this space is nudging recordings, chopping and slicing guitar/bass/vocal parts and rearranging them -but that seems a bit of a false friend as I have found myself needing to re-record whole sections at a time anyway and if I MUST copy/paste sections it's not a particularly nice feeling. - How much trouble am I making for myself by not having things like VSTs for EQ, compression, etc. after recording - with a guitar pedalboard I get the impression that I can run anything that's got a 1/4" jack through it for delay, compression and reverb. I mean, how important IS THIS? It's just taken for granted on every bedroom producer YT video. Those product demos did look interesting, but I don't know how I can map drum machines like that into anything other than EDM-style music - I'm more into classic rock (which I guess is a no-go for machines) and aspiring to more out-there stuff like jazz, calypso, classical timpani. For the former (rock, that is) I imagine I could 'air drum' drumtracks (as someone kindly replied earlier) and replay these on a record session on something like the Arturia drumbrute? I guess it just feels like percussion is the one thing that things like EZ Drummer seem to vastly outpace hardware on. I'd happily be convinced otherwise!!!
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Nov 24, 2016 20:41
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Southern Heel posted:Well yes, really I'm asking a couple of questions in one: You sound like you're asking permission to ditch the computers. It will sound different, and you'll lose a huge amount of control, but constraint can be really good for art. The benefits in 'workflow and ease' with digital tech are gigantic, but ultimately you're making a soundwave that people put in their ears, and that's what matters.
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Nov 24, 2016 21:22
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sebmojo posted:You sound like you're asking permission to ditch the computers. It will sound different, and you'll lose a huge amount of control, but constraint can be really good for art. The benefits in 'workflow and ease' with digital tech are gigantic, but ultimately you're making a soundwave that people put in their ears, and that's what matters. I'd really like to examine what those benefits are in 'workflow and ease' from someone who has tried both ways - because I can certainly set up sidechain compression and add Vocal samples in a DAW and see that as a big differentiator, but I'm more concerned (?) with those things which are less obvious. I agree with your point that constraints are good for art, but I'm not sure I want to try to make a round peg fit into a square hole. i.e. The beatBuddy appears to be a good sample-based songwriting tool, but not great to sit down and work with as a piece of equipment - on the other hand the DrumBrute looks like I imagine a tool like that should, but is more suited to EDM than classic rock or jazz. Is there as middle ground?
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Nov 24, 2016 22:47
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There's no non-computer device that is going to give you satisfactory acoustic drums compared to what those vst plugins do. If recording stuff away from the computer makes sense to you at all, for whatever reason, then I'd still recommend the hybrid approach. You can record your other stuff to your portastudio against a click track or a basic drum computer sound for spontaneity and replace that with plugin drums later on.
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Nov 25, 2016 00:44
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Flipperwaldt posted:There's no non-computer device that is going to give you satisfactory acoustic drums compared to what those vst plugins do. Elektron Octatrack + acoustic samples at your discretion. Bam. Also, the controllerist genius musician Daedelus said this: "the computer is the death of creativity." Constraint can indeed be an amazing thing for your work. Yes, record to 8-track and force yourself to commit to your ideas or to remaking them from scratch if you don't like them. See what it makes you do differently.
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Nov 25, 2016 20:16
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strangemusic posted:Elektron Octatrack + acoustic samples at your discretion. Bam.
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Nov 25, 2016 20:43
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Octatrack looks like a sampler in the format of a drum machine? What's different between that and others? I'm looking at the cuckoo music review of one and so may be missing something important.Flipperwaldt posted:Nah, the near infinite velocity levels and automatic round robin stuff backed by multi gig sample libraries isn't so easily swiped away. So I don't wish to listen only to what I want to hear, but 'infinite velocity levels' is the kind of thing that I really do NOT gel with - with my guitar I want to plug a LP Jr into a cranked marshall and play power chords, or fingerpick double harmonic minor byzantine noodlings - I don't get any joy at all out of whether my fuzz is germanium or silicon or how many kick samples I have overlaid.
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Nov 25, 2016 22:11
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You don't need to find joy in the number of samples. You'll find joy in that all this poo poo happens in the background without any required user interaction, whereas in a hardware sampler you'll have to program in everything -velocity response reflected in volume, filter, envelope, sample switching- yourself to arrive at a halfassed approximation to faking it.
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Nov 25, 2016 23:04
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Yeah it's not a dick-swinging thing like stone volume dials or audio cables interweaved with the golden hair of Swedish virgins, drum boxes are primarily designed for electronic music where there's a lot less need for variation in dynamics/timing/sample choice etc so there will be a lot less granular control, and even with complete mastery of the unit it still won't really sound like a drummer but it will be a decent enough beat to play to. Your LP Jr has near infinite velocity levels but it's never something you have to think of because it's inherent to the pairing of hands and a guitar, and the same applies to a drum set and drummer, but small boxes of electronics don't have the variance necessary to successfully emulate the playing of an actual human. If you were dead set on a hardware unit you could buy a cheap laptop, load it up with EZ drummer or something and pipe the audio out to your mixer, you'll end up with far more realism for probably less outlay than an octatrack.
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Nov 26, 2016 04:04
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I posted this in the audio interface thread, but maybe someone here could help me out, too...Rupert Buttermilk posted:Welp, this is the week where I take my 'Games' partition, and just say 'gently caress it', and update it to the latest OSX version, despite my Firestudio 26/26 not being supported after OS X 10.8 (or is it 10.7?). If everything breaks, the interface will be going up on eBay. If it still handles audio just fine, then I might take the plunge on my audio partition as well (I don't use it for my regular living, so if it's out of commission for a while, it's not THAT big of a deal). So, if I'm hosed for using my Firestudio, any recommendations on a ~$250-300 Firewire interface? I'll do USB if I have to, but I prefer FW.
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Nov 30, 2016 18:18
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If it has enough IO for you, the Apogee Duet Firewire is in/below that range used, and sounds great. A-like so.
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Nov 30, 2016 19:21
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aunt jemima posted:If it has enough IO for you, the Apogee Duet Firewire is in/below that range used, and sounds great. A-like so. I've been eyeing the Duet, because Apogee is known for not just their quality but how well they work with OS X. Thanks!
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Nov 30, 2016 19:35
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I've been looking to upgrade my mic and I have about $1,000 to spend. Was thinking about the akg c414 but I was wondering if anyone had some recommendations for me to check out? I'm using it for mostly vocals, both spoken and sung.
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Dec 5, 2016 05:27
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d0grent posted:I've been looking to upgrade my mic and I have about $1,000 to spend. Was thinking about the akg c414 but I was wondering if anyone had some recommendations for me to check out? I'm using it for mostly vocals, both spoken and sung. 414 is a stellar suggestion. However in that price bracket I would look purely for curiosity into an AEA of various models (N22, R84,) any of the Gefell condensers, Lauten Clarion, Royer R101, or AT4050. strangemusic fucked around with this message at 04:03 on Dec 9, 2016 |
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Dec 9, 2016 03:54
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d0grent posted:I've been looking to upgrade my mic and I have about $1,000 to spend. Was thinking about the akg c414 but I was wondering if anyone had some recommendations for me to check out? I'm using it for mostly vocals, both spoken and sung. The 414 is my 'It will be mine... oh yes... it will be mine' mic 
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Dec 9, 2016 04:59
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Not sure if this is the right thread, but any suggestions on places to upload stuff to? I'm just recording short clips of stuff I'm playing at home so reverbnation seems a bit over the top, I thought SoundCloud would be best but if I send a link to my friends on Facebook they get a prompt to install the mobile app instead of being able to play the track (and they're not going to install the app to listen to 45 seconds of me jamming at home). And MixCloud seems to be more aimed at DJs and radio. Is YouTube my best bet?
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Dec 10, 2016 13:03
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Scikar posted:Not sure if this is the right thread, but any suggestions on places to upload stuff to? I'm just recording short clips of stuff I'm playing at home so reverbnation seems a bit over the top, I thought SoundCloud would be best but if I send a link to my friends on Facebook they get a prompt to install the mobile app instead of being able to play the track (and they're not going to install the app to listen to 45 seconds of me jamming at home). And MixCloud seems to be more aimed at DJs and radio. Is YouTube my best bet?
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Dec 10, 2016 13:09
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Flipperwaldt posted:Try Picosong. This looks perfect, thanks!
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Dec 10, 2016 14:58
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Where, if anywhere, do you guys go for mixing advice / feedback on a specific track? I have a mix that I think sounds good but turns to weak sludge when it comes time to master. I've got a nice -6db of headroom and I'm mastering with Izotope ozone but it sounds very limp. I'm thinking it's a problem in the mix somewhere but I'm all out of ideas.
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Dec 13, 2016 00:07
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Thank you all for advice on drums, I decided to grab Superior Drummer 2.0 on sale so I've at least got that. In terms of making my vocals as good as they can be - what's the general process? From what I can gather double-tracking and/or some delay and compression is fairly standard for weaker singers, but is there anything I should particularly bear in mind?
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Dec 13, 2016 11:32
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Southern Heel posted:Thank you all for advice on drums, I decided to grab Superior Drummer 2.0 on sale so I've at least got that. As a weak singer I feel qualified to answer this. My general process would be this: 1. Record vocals. 2. Listen back 2b. Wince and cringe (optional) 3. Comp (not compress, just means chop up the best bits) the tracks as much as possible to get the least-poo poo parts 4. Duplicate the vocal, heavily compress the duplicate (R-Vox always gave me decent results), maybe add a touch of distortion, then blend back in with the original vocal until it sounds thicker. Double tracking can work well for choruses etc but often not necessary for quieter verse passages unless you're really on top of your timing. 5. Send the vocal bus to a short plate reverb, a long room reverb, a short repeat delay and a long wide repeat delay; mix accordingly (quite low levels, bring them up until you can start to notice them and then roll back a touch). The short verb helps with immediate texture on the vocal, as does the short delay, the long delay adds continual movement and fills out the track and the long room verb ties everything together, I usually route all my tracks except the kick and bass through this last one but often I'll send a bit through the other sends as well. The delays can be sent through the room verb as well so they don't feel dry. 6. Bury the vocal in the mix as far as possible, then close the project and never open it again because no-one will ever like my poo poo music. The last step may or may not be necessary in your situation, but it's pretty hard to be completely subjective about your own vocals. I'd love to make my songs, hand the vocals to another producer and then never listen to the result.
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Dec 13, 2016 11:59
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Gym Leader Barack posted:As a weak singer I feel qualified to answer this. My general process would be this: that's awesome, thank you. do you have any links? I'd like to hear how that sounds.
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Dec 13, 2016 12:06
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I have one song that I am not-entirely ashamed of (everything prior to that I considered practice songs and the repeated performance and fine-tuning of them caused my head to implode and the destruction of my band quickly followed), and just to stop being so much of a dick about my music I'm willing to put it online for the perusal of internet strangers, but will probably get anxious over it all the same. Where's a good hosting place that I can hide behind and maybe delete it if it all gets too much? edit Haha the hosting thing was answered like 3 posts up, here you go http://picosong.com/UxWF I made this about 2.5 years ago and haven't listened to it at all in at least the last 2, there's definitely some mixing decisions I'd make differently today, and my singing voice while still not great is at least better than that now, but I'm happy enough with how I felt with hearing this song just then to be able to show anyone else. Gym Leader Barack fucked around with this message at 13:31 on Dec 13, 2016 |
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Dec 13, 2016 12:17
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Gym Leader Barack posted:edit Haha the hosting thing was answered like 3 posts up, here you go http://picosong.com/UxWF This honestly sounds professional to me, good job! I see what you mean about burying the vocals, I think I might have to do the same. I'm just concentrating on literally every other aspect of my music before coming back to trying the vocals again  Though I do like the fact that you just shouted bits of it, it gives it that extra bit of urgency. What I'm trying to say is that even if you don't have a classically "good" voice you can still find ways to make it work for you. Look at Bob Dylan, The Libertines, The Strokes etc.
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Dec 13, 2016 14:56
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Burying the vocals is like closing your eyes and thinking that no one can see you. Just work on your confidence and on owning your performance. Near any number of mistakes can be overlooked if they are brought with enough joy and positive energy. If I can feel you shrink and cringe with every bum note, I'll cringe along with you.
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Dec 13, 2016 15:35
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Gym Leader Barack posted:As a weak singer I feel qualified to answer this. My general process would be this: Thankyou, this is excellent to get started.
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Dec 13, 2016 15:41
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Nigel Tufnel posted:Where, if anywhere, do you guys go for mixing advice / feedback on a specific track? I have a mix that I think sounds good but turns to weak sludge when it comes time to master. I've got a nice -6db of headroom and I'm mastering with Izotope ozone but it sounds very limp. I'm thinking it's a problem in the mix somewhere but I'm all out of ideas. I know we used to have a thread just for this specifically, but I'm not sure how active it is anymore. There was some good advice coming out of it. I don't have too many friends as into mixing as I am, but there's a couple people I've played shows with that are and sometimes we send each other stuff. Otherwise I just read a ton of Sound on Sound's mixing articles and look for their solutions to things I deal with.
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Dec 13, 2016 16:32
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Sound on Sound is an absolutely incredible resource and one of the few print magazines I ever buy anymore. That they make all articles free to view after 6ish months is really generous I feel The genre agnosticism of the recording features is very appealing for me, one month it'll be an acapella group, then Trevor Horn's work with ABC, then Deftones. The extreme metal series of articles/how-tos is a particular fave of mine, permanently bookmarked.
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Dec 14, 2016 00:28
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My go-to way of making vocals sound good is the following ; 1) Compression to get the peaks down, and well the lower pieces a bit higher. Compression-stuff. 2) Reverb (a smaller reverb to get the "room" for it, and later a bigger reverb to get some echo out of it 3) Delay, mostly 1000ms to the left and 1500ms to the right. This depends a bit on the track of course, I usually try to match it with the tempo of the track. 4) Distortion (a very subtle piece of distortion) Granted, I only dabble in mixing, but I feel that I can get vocals to sound as good as possible with the four above effects (and EQ of course, but I feel that is always a given, need it to fit into the track and all that) Here's a small piece that shows how it can sound  https://soundcloud.com/skriket/dittefnatt-ft-skriket
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Dec 14, 2016 00:37
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wizkid posted:This honestly sounds professional to me, good job! Thanks! I put way too much thought into how I think my vocals sound, but then come home and happily put on some Rancid or Nofx and completely ignore any deficiencies in the vocalists delivery. A big part of my anxiety came from doing all this stuff by myself, even my band was just me and a drummer so I felt awful standing up there alone and feeling like everyone was judging my lyrics/singing/guitar/arrangement/everything. If I'd had another dude beside me with a guitar and a mic things would have been a lot better.
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Dec 14, 2016 04:31
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NonzeroCircle posted:Sound on Sound is an absolutely incredible resource and one of the few print magazines I ever buy anymore. That they make all articles free to view after 6ish months is really generous I feel Yeah, Sound on Sound is like the be-all, end-all of print/online publications for recording. I absolutely love their monthly 'hey, here's a tip/workflow thing for <insert DAW here>"
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Dec 14, 2016 16:09
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Rupert Buttermilk posted:Yeah, Sound on Sound is like the be-all, end-all of print/online publications for recording. I absolutely love their monthly 'hey, here's a tip/workflow thing for <insert DAW here>" Tape Op Magazine as well!
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Dec 15, 2016 16:19
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I will check sound-on-sound. Right now my holy grail is trying to find videos on 'recording a song on X' where X is not a PC. I know we had this discussion a little earlier and I was convinced enough to buy the Superior Drummer software, but poo poo it's just driving me mad. Studio monitors crackling, driver issues, software bugs, licenses and yet more VSTs and all that poo poo. Frankly it's just driving me bonkers and is about as rewarding as refactoring PowerShell scripts.
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Dec 26, 2016 01:14
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