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Oh dang that is really nice lookin, my current computer desk is a decent corner unit so I have one half open for gear but I wasnt expecting the Wavestate to be so honkin big. Gonna have to get some kind of rack situation sorted eventually.
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Nov 25, 2021 10:55
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ProperCoochie posted:Probably not. Doesn't seem necessary and would be another expense. I can raise/lower my chair you say that, but Home Despot sells Husky workbenches (desks) in multiple sizes and colors for $200-$400 that have a hand crank-operated lift mech and the Goon Desktop Thread loving loves them. Put your displays on an arm, or don’t. Put your monitors on yoga blocks to get them tweeters up to the appropriate height. They’re $4-8 a block and they come in a gorillion colors. I have one under each of my 305s, works great. You’re right that “production”-specific desks have a price premium. If you want some desktop rack space, a second shelf, and so on, it’s relatively easy to build a two-level desk/rack desktop with some butcher block and some simple rectangular cuts. Then slap that on a desk frame/base of your choice (or modify one of the aforementioned Huskys). trilobite terror fucked around with this message at 11:31 on Nov 25, 2021 |
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Nov 25, 2021 11:24
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odd and annoying FL Studio thing happening: the song is playing in FL Studio and at a certain point it gets too much for my CPU - the sound starts stuttering and the bar at the top goes red and to 100 i.e maxed out. But then when a new thing comes in, the stuttering stops and the number goes down to 70 ish. All of the things that were already playing are still playing, and there's even more stuff happening on top of it. I don't have any VSTS set to be disabled automatically at any point. This happens in at least two songs I'm working on at the moment  It's not just a one off thing, I can recreate it every time I go back between these sections and it happens every time I work on the songany ideas as to why?
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Nov 25, 2021 20:12
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Paperhouse posted:odd and annoying FL Studio thing happening: Make sure there aren't overlapping start/stops if it's a certain plugin that's doing it. Also make sure that the plugin and your sound output are the same frequency. I sometimes get really weird stuttering from other devices not using ASIO when I forget to rendering something at the same kHz as my desktop sounds are set to. So like if I'm working on something at 48 khz I need my windows audio to be set the same or it'll do weird things when NOT using ASIO. It would act like the ASIO was jammed up or something and the next sound would trigger a huge rush of samples playing all at once, which sounds like what you're describing. Also if you're using ASIO and and it's too much, set the buffer for it to be larger. It'll add a bit of delay but that only matters if you're doing things live and need immediate feedback. In other news, I finally figured out how to map MIDI note velocity to a CC in Reaper and it's so much better to use now. I can use the velocity to control both the loudness and dynamic setting in my plug-ins (dynamics effects string and bow noise etc for instruments). Now I am working on learning mixing and mastering. Holy poo poo the people that do this are wizards. I never realized how difficult it is to get drums to sound loud and clear with a lot of other instruments in play. I probably should have started with something that doesn't have 17 tracks...
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Nov 28, 2021 15:33
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I use Klanghelm DC8C3 as a ducker. Just put groups I want out of the drums' way into a DC8C3 bus with the drums side chained in. Very straightforward then to get the side chain adjusted to the frequency range I want to trigger the ducking; adjust attack, release, ratio and threshold to taste, it gives great visual feedback and your ears will hear the drums come forward as the tracks duck. I duck background elements and manually mix foreground elements and bass and the rest into compression. I put a vari-mu compressor doing 2-3db of gain reduction tops and another comp, often opto style, doing 2db or so before going into my main verb to give a sense of togetherness in a consistent space. Paying attention to the balance of frequencies and energy there is important throughout my mixing process to get a good gel - some duck the bass, might be a genre thing, I want it present frequencywise though. Agreed fucked around with this message at 20:46 on Nov 28, 2021 |
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Nov 28, 2021 15:39
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Agreed posted:I use Klanghelm DC8C3 as a ducker. Just put groups I want out of the drums' way into a bus with the drums side chained in with the side chain adjusted to the frequency range I want to trigger the ducking. Adjust attack, release, ratio and threshold to taste, it gives great visual feedback and your ears will hear the drums come forward as the tracks duck. I duck background elements and manually mix foreground elements and bass and the rest into compression throughout my mixing process to get a good gel there - some duck the bass, I want it present frequencywise though. Cool, I'll check that out! It really becomes a problem when the entire orchestra is doing an fp crescendo. I rendered all the tracks and normalized them to -24 db so I don't have to worry about clipping at least. A lot of the dynamics are done by the aforementioned note velocity but things like crescendos still need to (mostly) be done manually by adjusting the dynamic over the range of the note based on expression as well. I think I can mostly automate it by reading back the expression envelope to adjust the dynamic envelope so I'm only adjusting one thing.
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Nov 28, 2021 15:52
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Woolwich Bagnet posted:Now I am working on learning mixing and mastering. Holy poo poo the people that do this are wizards. I never realized how difficult it is to get drums to sound loud and clear with a lot of other instruments in play. I probably should have started with something that doesn't have 17 tracks... First full length I mixed had an average of 140ish tracks. It took me a year to finish it lol.
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Nov 29, 2021 06:10
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I learned mixing while I did production for my Universitys radio station and while on the job, so lemmie tell ya how much I love badly mixed podcasts.
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Nov 29, 2021 06:44
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So the thing I was really looking for was a multi-band compressor. That really let me pull out what I wanted when I wanted to. Basically auditory magic. I used the one built in to Adobe Audition.
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Dec 6, 2021 15:18
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Multi-band comps are amazing. I recently picked up one from Audiority that I like a lot called Polycomp, emulating the IGS Multicore. It saved my rear end on a recent mix where I had failed to make sure that a particular section didn't have severe pumping from over-ducking relative to the low frequencies. Split the audio before that segment and after, ran it in parallel with Polycomp on it, and suddenly it was easy as can be to process the lows and mids/highs separately and get the levels matched to the rest of the track's energy without having to go back and re-record that part.
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Dec 6, 2021 16:11
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I’m at the point where I’ve amassed a bunch of synths, samplers, and gear with 1/4 outs and I just got a patchbay to avoid having to crawl behind my desk to swap cables when I want to change what’s plugged into my (now full) mixer. To date I’ve basically given zero thought to my cabling setup. Everything is connected either with old 1.5/3ft guitar patch cables from when I was building my pedalboard and you could only buy them from Amazon in packs of 5, or (and hell, I ain’t proud of this but..) two old RCA cables with 1/4 to RCA adapters. If you put a gun to my head I couldn’t have told you anything about TS/TRS balanced/unbalanced/etc, until I read a little in the OP today. So anyway, it’s time to invest in some cables and since I have some Amazon credit I’m obviously asking Uncle Jeff to provide. If I count all my ins/outs, I have 16 cables to go from patch to mixer, 24 outputs from my devices, assuming I want to patch every output, so if I wanted to completely re-do all my cables I’d need to grab 56 (?) cables. I can probably re-use a dozen or so from what I already have, maybe less if I make some creative use of normaling/half normaling if I understand that correctly (but I’m just using thru for now) I guess I’m a little overwhelmed in selecting where to go from here: - Most of my gear is mono/single voice/short distance run (<5ft) - Nothing I’ve ever heard coming out of my mixer has given me any kind of pause or reason to be annoyed with the audio transmission quality I don’t know if there’s a material difference between the thicc chonky guitar patch cabling I’ve been using because it’s underhand and something like a hossa patch cable I see on Amazon, other than one is thinner and one is thick, presumably because it has to stand up different levels of abuse. So I guess I don’t actually know if I have a question, but I’m a little overwhelmed in trying to decide if I need to buy a certain KIND of cable (1/4 instrument, or interconnect specifically, or what)… and then whether I need to worry about if something is actually good quality or not (outside of “will it fall apart in 2 days when someone breathes on it”). As with everything, I can spend $500 cabling this or I can probably do it for less, just trying to find the sweet spot. And I mean if all else fails I can fish out more RCA cable out of the dumpster behind bestbuy. some kinda jackal fucked around with this message at 01:59 on Dec 8, 2021 |
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Dec 8, 2021 01:56
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Martytoof posted:So anyway, it’s time to invest in some cables and since I have some Amazon credit I’m obviously asking Uncle Jeff to provide. I'm not sure how much amazon credit you have, but if you chose to go in a different direction I've been happy with my monoprice pro audio cables, though I don't have terribly exactly requirements (work, don't sound obviously bad). I'm too cheap to pay more than they charge for wires.
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Dec 8, 2021 03:01
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Buy the cheapest one you'd feel okay with, buy an 'average' one. See if you can tell the difference, preferably with someone else connecting between them to eliminate bias.
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Dec 8, 2021 03:36
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i have a focusrite scarlett 4i4 and i'd like nicer preamps. i also want to be able to record an acoustic drumkit, and the 4i4 i have doesn't have ADAT. if i were to bite the bullet and buy a UAD thing, are the internal preamps good, or are you still looking at using outboard ones
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Dec 8, 2021 03:40
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Once you get past AliExpress specials cables basically boil down to reliability and build quality. If they're built to the same physical specs then they are the same internally. But build quality,.connectors etc make a huge difference. For guitar I bought some Klotz 59er cables. Pricy but nice. Until all of them failed. Every single one. Cheaper cables have lasted far longer. Other Klotz cables lasted longer. I told the company, they said it was a bad batch and sent replacements. They all failed too. Klotz make good cables, but I won't touch those ones again.
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Dec 8, 2021 03:44
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Not sure why I never considered monoprice. I’m in Canada so shipping and such may be annoying, but looks like primecables.ca has monoprice and a few other options. E: something like this maybe? https://www.primecables.ca/p-367892-cab-pau-220-all-14-inch-trs-male-to-14-inch-trs-male-cable-black#sku379760 Or twice the price here: https://www.primecables.ca/p-312884...price#sku312886 Looks like wire gauge and brand name are the two differences. Not sure a fat 16ga cable is necessary but the connector on the cheaper one looks really chintzy. I might just grab a pair to see, at this price, and judge afterward. some kinda jackal fucked around with this message at 03:49 on Dec 8, 2021 |
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Dec 8, 2021 03:46
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landgrabber posted:i have a focusrite scarlett 4i4 and i'd like nicer preamps. i also want to be able to record an acoustic drumkit, and the 4i4 i have doesn't have ADAT. When you say nicer preamps what do you mean? Cleaner? More saturation? Lower noise levels? What's the goal? Scarletts have fantastic preamps, digital, clean, pristine, capable of high gain with low noise. The larger units have the Air function too, which is great on vocals. But if you're looking for personality or character or whatever you want to call it then it might fall short. It depends on what you want. I love outboard gear but it isn't inherently better. I have an old Behringer knockoff strip (VX2000, clone of the Focusrite something or other). It is objectively "worse" than my Scarlett. But running things through it can give me the exact sound I want. So what do you want in your preamps and sound?
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Dec 8, 2021 03:47
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FWIW I like the sound on the Soundcraft Signature boards Ghost(TM) Preamps or somesuch
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Dec 8, 2021 04:08
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syntaxfunction posted:When you say nicer preamps what do you mean? Cleaner? More saturation? Lower noise levels? What's the goal? i just want it to sound more… full? i also want it to have enough gain for me to use a SM7B
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Dec 8, 2021 04:33
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You should get a Cloudlifter for that SM7. https://www.cloudmicrophones.com/cloudlifter-cl-1
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Dec 9, 2021 00:04
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Definitely get a cloudlifter yeah, that will help a tonne. Full is a kind of nebulous term as well, but I'm gonna guess you're looking for more body, mid eq weight sort of thing. It's dumb but that answer is it depends on mic and source and environment. Having extra gain and saturation can absolutely help with that in cases but not necessarily to warrant an extra mic preamp over a saturation plugin. If your mic pre has inserts you could actually try adding a transparent boost pedal to it. Genuinely. Give it a try! You can get really creative when it comes to this stuff, and I can testify that a TC Spark mini at minimal boost does thicken up a mic recording without adding noticeable noise. Edit: I will also circle around to the original question, UAD is great, you'll be absolutely happy with them. Searching for onboard gear isn't useful until you know what you want and why you want it. Otherwise it's a goose chase.
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Dec 11, 2021 04:03
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Anyone have a recc for a decent ribbon mic for acoustic instruments like clarinet, flute and trumpet? I am recording in a 10'x10'ish room so it doesn't have to be super awesome. I can go as high as $500 but would prefer to spend around $200.
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Dec 11, 2021 15:48
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NC Wyeth Death Cult posted:Anyone have a recc for a decent ribbon mic for acoustic instruments like clarinet, flute and trumpet? I am recording in a 10'x10'ish room so it doesn't have to be super awesome. I can go as high as $500 but would prefer to spend around $200. How handy are you with a soldering iron? DIYRE has a do it yourself kit within your budget - https://www.diyrecordingequipment.com/products/rm-6-premium-ribbon-microphone-kit I have the RM-5 and I like it. There's a LOT of low end it'll pick up, but it's easy to cut out with a simple hi-pass filter and getting some distance from the source to reign in the proximity effect. Full disclosure, the mic was made for me as a gift so I can't say how easy it was to put together, but they advertise that it's a good beginner project. One thing to keep in mind too is that with the figure-8 pattern you will get some room tone from the other end of the mic, but you can control this with some baffling behind it, or keep it in the mix if you like it. Noise Machine fucked around with this message at 17:35 on Dec 11, 2021 |
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Dec 11, 2021 17:30
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Noise Machine posted:How handy are you with a soldering iron? This is absolutely up my alley. Thank you!
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Dec 11, 2021 19:04
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I ran out of inputs on my interface recently. Got tired of swapping out different mics and remembering/adjusting gain settings all the time (I have a shotgun, a boom mic, and a desk mic for different purposes), so I decided to purchase a Behringer MX882 to sum and gain-level several input signals before passing it to the interface. Also allows me to quickly mute and switch between different mics. All in all, it does the job great, but I’m unsure about one aspect of my setup now, specifically gain staging. Historically, I’ve used a fethead to bring up the volume on my mics. The MX882 cannot pass or deliver phantom power, so I cannot put the fethead between the MX882 input and any one mic in the chain. However, I can put it in line between the MX882 output and the audio interface input for the standard +27db of ‘clean’ gain. But the MX882 itself can deliver a combined gain of +30db (+15 on input, another +15 on main output). Is there any reason I would want to keep the fethead inline if I could achieve the equivalent gain at the mixer? The difference in signal-to-noise levels isn’t immediately obvious in either test case I’ve tried, and I’m wondering if claims of ‘quiet gain’ are overstated: both the fethead and the MX882 claim to deliver quiet gain in any case. Does best practice Dictate better results with: A: Mic -> MX882 (27db gain) -> Interface B: Mic -> MX882 -> Fethead (27db gain) -> interface On the one hand, A is a simpler signal chain. On the other hand, B doesn’t involve nearly cranking the gain knobs on the MX882- which I believe can introduce some noise. Does it even matter? SEVERAL EDITS AND TESTS LATER: The short answer is: Don't do this. The MX882 V2 is expecting an line level input, and its noise floor is pretty high for a mic. Even if you try to pass a mic level signal through it transparently (0db on input and output) and boost it downstream with a Fethead it's going to be NOISY AS HECK. And also radio interference from the sounds of it. Disappointing- Really would like a rack mounted device that would let me switch between my stream mics on the fly without muting (and ideally allow them to share the Fethead). Thought this could do the trick but the noise is just bad. PoizenJam fucked around with this message at 20:18 on Dec 18, 2021 |
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Dec 17, 2021 22:52
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Question, I have an interface that I like to mess around for electric guitar stuff but was recently going to play around with some acoustic. I have a crappy shotgun mic I use for some video stuff and also a zoom h4n but thought it would be nice to simplify and plug something right into the interface. Is SM57 the best all around bet? Any cheap SM57 knockoffs that get recommended? I mean for 100 bucks it's not the end of the world to get the real deal, but this is just going to sit on my desk so durability is not a huge point of concern. Any other cool suggestions in terms of other versatile mics in that range?
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Dec 21, 2021 16:52
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Cru Jones posted:Question, I have an interface that I like to mess around for electric guitar stuff but was recently going to play around with some acoustic. I have a crappy shotgun mic I use for some video stuff and also a zoom h4n but thought it would be nice to simplify and plug something right into the interface. When I was looking for something similar about a year ago, I ended up getting an AT2035, which has been quite nice for recording acoustic guitar. I got one from Amazon Warehouse that was "like new" which seemed completely new except for the box being scuffed. I think the Warehouse AT2035 was a little over $100. They also had the AT2020 for comfortably under $100. I haven't tried the 2020 but definitely have been happy with the 2035.
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Dec 21, 2021 17:11
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Cru Jones posted:Question, I have an interface that I like to mess around for electric guitar stuff but was recently going to play around with some acoustic. I have a crappy shotgun mic I use for some video stuff and also a zoom h4n but thought it would be nice to simplify and plug something right into the interface. If I can be a dick for a split second, if you're really looking at knock-off 57s for the price point then prepare to be disappointed. You say durability isn't a concern but you could have solder joints or any of the components fail for a variety of reasons even if it's just sitting there or accidentally knocked off the desk from a no-name clone.
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Dec 21, 2021 19:16
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Noise Machine posted:If I can be a dick for a split second, if you're really looking at knock-off 57s for the price point then prepare to be disappointed. You say durability isn't a concern but you could have solder joints or any of the components fail for a variety of reasons even if it's just sitting there or accidentally knocked off the desk from a no-name clone. Right, and a Squier is not as "good" as American-made Fender, but nowadays they basically give you everything you actually need. Like I said, I don't really mind paying for the real deal. But figured I'd at least check and see if people have had consistent luck with any cheaper clones. Who can resist a bargain if it's out there?
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Dec 21, 2021 19:48
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57 clone that I use. https://www.amazon.com/Professional-Handheld-Moving-Microphone-Built/dp/B005BSOVRY Go in, pop out the XLR, desolder the jumper between the cold and ground lines, throw out the cable and use a real one, and you have a balanced mic that's passed blind a/b's with a real 57. I think it's one of the best deals out there in microphone land.
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Dec 21, 2021 20:25
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Jonny 290 posted:57 clone that I use. Do you have a video or guide or something you can link to show this step by step? I'm realizing I have one of those Pyle mics here at home and haven't gotten around to using it yet, but what you're describing (if I'm understanding it right) sounds pretty easy.
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Dec 22, 2021 01:05
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I don't have any spares to mod but i can maybe remember to do a quick pop-open of it this week to show you which ones to desolder, sure
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Dec 22, 2021 02:54
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Jonny 290 posted:I don't have any spares to mod but i can maybe remember to do a quick pop-open of it this week to show you which ones to desolder, sure Is this the process? https://youtu.be/vYR4aHqzoRM
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Dec 22, 2021 03:05
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Oh yep, there it is! Good how-to.
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Dec 22, 2021 18:48
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Edit: I’m stupid and realized I was searching for the wrong thing.
stoopidmunkey fucked around with this message at 03:25 on Dec 24, 2021 |
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Dec 23, 2021 17:56
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looking for IEMs. i have $293. what should i get
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Dec 27, 2021 04:43
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Recently asked a mic question and had a recommendation for the At2025. Was about to pull the trigger when I saw GC has a daily deal for this. https://www.guitarcenter.com/MXL/3000-Mic-Bundle-1274115046153.gc Anyone have experience with that vs the AT?
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Dec 27, 2021 15:47
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I’ve got two questions I’m hoping the thread can help me with. First, I need a pair of actual studio headphones. I was browsing Sweetwater and saw many in the $150-$200 range and I’m ok with that but wanted this thread’s opinions and to see if there’s a specific model I should get. I need them for both mixing and mastering if I can. The $200 is pretty much the top of my budget but a few dollars more won’t break me. These will plug straight into my Scarlett if that matters. Second, I’m working on a “rock” album with the band and have been tracking my guitar from the compensated recording line out on my amp (jcm900) since I can crank everything to 10 and get natural overdrive and record with the amp in standby so I don’t blow my ear drums. I do have to run that signal through a cab sim to make it not harsh. I’m not clipping or anything and I’m happy with the sound but didn’t know if I would be better suited to record the guitar direct and apply amp sims to get the tone I want. I know I can do more going direct but love my amp. Right now for the project, I was thinking about doing several takes both from the amp and direct since I also want to switch guitars in some songs.
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Dec 31, 2021 17:26
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stoopidmunkey posted:
HD-280s, DT-770s, or MDR-7506s. Just about everyone I know uses one of those 3. I have owned and mixed on all of them. They're all imperfect (because they're headphones) but they're imperfect in different ways. Budget mixing/headphone mixing is about learning how your equipment compares to the world at large, not finding the perfect horns (because they don't exist, won't work with your space, and / or are too expensive anyway). I would also get a hifi/car stereo and a pair of earbuds and/or lap top speakers to round that out; test on all and figure out what each blind spot is.
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Dec 31, 2021 17:59
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JamesKPolk posted:I would also get a hifi/car stereo and a pair of earbuds and/or lap top speakers to round that out; test on all and figure out what each blind spot is. And a cheap Bluetooth speaker! (Like a $30 Anker) And if you have access to a basic SONOS/Alexa/HomePod I’d try it on those too since they’re all popular and standardized, but don’t go out and drop $500 on some common sound playback devices for that purpose. Do get a wide range of representative stuff to demo your music on tho
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Dec 31, 2021 18:17
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