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h_double posted:White noise contains all frequencies in equal amounts, so this is a quick illustrative way to effectively look at a pure colored swatch of "orange", rather than just learning "orange is the color that tigers are", which seems to be the usual approach to learning to EQ specific instruments. Use pink noise for this, not white noise. Pink noise contains equal energy in every octave band, which relates much better to how the human ear interprets things and how we mix things, while white noise has equal energy at every frequency. There are 10x more frequencies between 1KHz and 2KHz than 100Hz and 200Hz even though our ear hears the difference in pitch as 1 octave in either case, so white noise is way more high-end than something our ear would call "flat." It's usually used as an electronic test signal more than an acoustic one.
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Apr 3, 2013 03:52
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Hey gentlemen of the recording thread - I'm looking to upgrade my whole home recording operation and I was hoping you could help me out. Currently I'm using Logic Pro on a 2008 Mac Bok Pro that finally crapped out on me. I also record guitar directly into logic using amp designer through a Maudio Fast track pro. I do not have monitors (yet!). For midi controlling I have a decent behringer as well as an XLM condenser mic and behringer pre amp to power it. Here's where I need advice: I'm looking to upgrade to an iMac, but I want to make sure I get one with the proper specs. My Mac book pro used to overload often making it impossible to record. I also am looking at the rokit 6s for my first set of monitors. I record mostly power pop and the occasional post-rock (I'm a one man band so I usually am only recording one track at a time). Can anyone give me some thoughts about potential set up and making the most out of what I already have? Will I be able to use the rokits with my Maudio fast track?
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Apr 7, 2013 16:24
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Mr. Talent posted:Hey gentlemen of the recording thread - I'm looking to upgrade my whole home recording operation and I was hoping you could help me out. Currently I'm using Logic Pro on a 2008 Mac Bok Pro that finally crapped out on me. I also record guitar directly into logic using amp designer through a Maudio Fast track pro. I do not have monitors (yet!). For midi controlling I have a decent behringer as well as an XLM condenser mic and behringer pre amp to power it. Sounds like you're in the same boat as me. Have you considered the Mac Mini instead of the iMac? I'm running a 2011 Core i5 Mini with 8GB RAM (expandable to 16GB). I've also changed system drive to an 80GB Intel SSD and moved the stock 500GB HDD to the secondary position. I suggest this simply because I think it will suit your needs, and allow you to put that extra money you'd be spending on the iMac perhaps towards better monitors.
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Apr 7, 2013 16:33
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Even the most basic Mac Mini config is a 2.5gHz i5, which is plenty of CPU for a typical DAW setup. My recommendation is to get a basic 4GB Mac Mini, order 16GB of Apple-compatible RAM from a third party vendor (you can easily upgrade the RAM in 2 minutes with nothing other than a screwdriver, and it is literally less than half the cost of buying the RAM from Apple), maybe swap the stock hard drive for a 3 TB 7200RPM disk (7200RPM = better multitrack performance). iMacs are nice too, but you are a really paying a premium for the Apple display and form-factor; again, you can get a good 21.5" monitor for under $150 and save a few hundred bucks which you can put towards something which will help you sound better. Mr. Talent posted:For midi controlling I have a decent behringer as well as an XLM condenser mic and behringer pre amp to power it. Does your Fast Track interface have balanced TRS outputs? If not, you will probably want to get an interface that does (using balanced outputs to connect to the monitors provides noise reduction and is pretty important). If you DO have balanced outputs on the interface, you should be okay, just make sure to use 1/4" TRS cables (they have a ring on the shaft, unlike a standard 1/4" guitar cable -- the ring provides an extra conductor which makes the balanced signal possible). Also, whatever interface you're using, if it has a built-in XLR (not XLM) connector, SHOULD provide phantom power for your condenser, and that Behringer mic preamp is probably unnecessary.
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Apr 7, 2013 19:44
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I can confirm that the Fast Track Pro has balanced TRS outputs and phantom power, because I've got one and am kind of in a similar position as well. I'm looking to upgrade the Fast Track Pro, though. I'm just sick to death of the driver issues and being told that my sample rate is incorrect and doesn't match my DAW, even though I never change it. So I have to disable the card, jump through a million hoops (which change each time) and try one of 7 or 8 things which may or may not work, before finally it randomly accepts something and I can start recording. By which time I've lost any inspiration or desire to. I guess I'm probably better off asking in the interface thread, but if anyone is answering Mr Talent's question and wants to throw in a recommendation for an upgrade to his interface while they're doing it, then I'd like to hear some thoughts. I'm running a PC is the only real difference.
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Apr 7, 2013 22:39
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If I wanted to record some ambient noises (like trains running or other weird sounds I run across on the street), is the iPhone recorder a decent way to capture that sound at a decent enough quality level to stand up to further processing/effects?
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Apr 17, 2013 23:06
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TyChan posted:If I wanted to record some ambient noises (like trains running or other weird sounds I run across on the street), is the iPhone recorder a decent way to capture that sound at a decent enough quality level to stand up to further processing/effects? You may be interested by this thing: Rode iXY. I have no idea what the default sample rate and bit depth are for the iPhone standard recorder, but if you use 24 bit/48k you will almost certainly have no issues with quality when exporting and processing. strangemusic fucked around with this message at 16:07 on Apr 23, 2013 |
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Apr 23, 2013 16:05
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I'm looking for a fairly basic recommendation here. I'm trying to start recording on a tascam tape four track and I have an SM57 to go with it. I'm looking for a recommendation for a fairly cheap preamp to go between the two. It's fairly lofi sort of must I plan on making so it doesn't have to be hugely expensive. I'm UK based as well if that makes a difference in terms of products.
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Apr 24, 2013 13:05
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I've got a Presonus BlueTube(just the little one channel half rack one) and love the poo poo out of it. Good tones, you can mix tubey and clean sound, all your necessary controls with no fluff.
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Apr 24, 2013 16:42
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What would be the collective vote for which audio interface manufacturer has the best, longest driver support for their hardware? I got an M-Audio C600, because I wanted an Apogee Quartet but didn't have the money for it or the need to spend that much, and I made a mistake. Everything actually works and sounds great but I need to restart my Macbook Air every time I plug it back in, and since M-Audio was sold by Avid I don't think a new driver is coming any time soon. I'm tempted to just get another Apogee Duet - they released multiple driver updates for the Firewire Duet 1 after it was discontinued, even updating it to the latest mixer software.
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Apr 25, 2013 05:12
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I just wanted to say that using the knowledge of phase relationships I learned mostly from this thread I was able to fix my own gently caress up. Thanks, recording thread! As to the actual story, some friends of mine were playing on the air for a radio station that also streamed online. They didn't have any way to record it so I volunteered. To record the stream I just plugged the outputs from my interface's headphone jack into a 1/4" Y cable and routed it into the first 2 ins on my preamp. Everything seemed good, but when I finally went to record I left the monitor function selected on the recording track so it recorded the original recording and the monitor stream onto the same waveform, leaving me with a garbled phased out mess. I figured it was screwed, but then I remembered phase cancelling and thought I might be able to use that to undo my gently caress up. I copied the wave, reversed the phase and nudged it forward until the phase interference mostly cancelled each other out and salvaged the recording! I went from   to   pretty quick, though when I tried to excitedly explain it to anyone their eyes would just glaze over 
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Apr 25, 2013 23:35
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I'm looking to pick up some monitors but I don't really have a lot of money to spend. I'll just be using them to play my guitar through and use them as PC speakers. I'm not planning on doing any kind of serious studio quality recording or anything, just something I can run my pod through and fiddle around with.
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Apr 27, 2013 20:15
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You didn't post what your budget is, but for not-so-expensive stuff, I like the Fostex models quite a bit.
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Apr 27, 2013 20:19
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I'd prefer to stay under $100/monitor or $200/pair. If I go any higher I might as well pick up another set of KRK 5's since they run about $300.
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Apr 28, 2013 07:18
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Anyone got a recommendation for a semi decent/good bang for buck condenser mic for doing vocals at home in the $200-300 range? Or even a suggestion of something to save up for if there's something way better another couple of hundred above that range.
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Apr 28, 2013 18:13
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nrr posted:Anyone got a recommendation for a semi decent/good bang for buck condenser mic for doing vocals at home in the $200-300 range? Or even a suggestion of something to save up for if there's something way better another couple of hundred above that range. The market is peppered with good ideas in this general bracket. I often like Rode NT1A, depending on the timbre of the singer - its sound is clean and open, but voiced on the bright/sibilant side. Audio Technica has the 4040 which is fantastic all-around and would probably be the one I would look for. Shure's KSM32 is not bad, either, but I wouldn't say I like it as much overall. strangemusic fucked around with this message at 19:30 on Apr 28, 2013 |
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Apr 28, 2013 19:27
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nrr posted:Anyone got a recommendation for a semi decent/good bang for buck condenser mic for doing vocals at home in the $200-300 range? Or even a suggestion of something to save up for if there's something way better another couple of hundred above that range. I love my CAD Equitek e100s. It's not sibilant and is voiced a little on the darker side than most condensors. It sounds good on tons of stuff but really shines on vocals. Edit: I had an NT-1a and haaaaaaated the way it sounded on vocals. strangemusic posted:Shure's KSM32 is not bad, either, but I wouldn't say I like it as much overall. That's pretty much the way I feel about this mic too. It often sounds ok but will never pick it when I A/B it with a couple other choices. triple edit: one of the great things about the CAD is that it's extremely directional almost to the point of being hyper cardioid. Meaning it may not make a great rooms mic but it makes close mic'ed stuff sound good even in pretty bad sounding rooms. Hollis Brownsound fucked around with this message at 19:51 on Apr 28, 2013 |
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Apr 28, 2013 19:37
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Thanks guys, that's awesome. I only got a chance to hit up 1 store today and they didn't have any AT-4040 stock in but they had tons of NT1A packages with shock mount and pop filter and 10 year warranty for $240. I also got recommended the Bluebird which is $300 (same as their price on the AT4040) and is much warmer and doesn't focus on high range as much as the NT1A does. Anyone got any info or experience with those? No CAD Equitek e100s anywhere to be seen unfortunately.
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Apr 29, 2013 02:24
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HollisBrown posted:That's pretty much the way I feel about this mic too. It often sounds ok but will never pick it when I A/B it with a couple other choices. CAD mics in particular are completely hit or miss in my opinion, I don't doubt yours sound great but I've used some really terrible ones. Oktava and most budget companies that manufacture in China are the same way, I've used the same models made a couple years apart and they don't act like I remember them at all. If you demo one and it beats something more expensive in a shootout, make sure you buy THAT one.
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Apr 29, 2013 05:08
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wixard posted:They're a solid budget studio mic, but most of the reason they are so popular is live engineers because they are really consistent and have very reliable polar patterns. I'm never really wishing for a KSM32 sound, but if I were buying in that price range it's what I would buy and it's not that big of a deal to swap one in for an AKG414 in most situations. You'll have to work a little harder on the midrange later, but it does the job. I've never liked another CAD, but the E100s really is a great mic, as it should be since it's essentially their flagship mic. Also it's not made in China, it's actually USA made.
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Apr 29, 2013 12:59
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Alright, thanks again for the help guys, I'm probably going to pull the trigger on something today. I've also been recommended the senheiser MK4, and I'm tossing up between that and the AT-4040. Anyone got any final advice between those two?
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Apr 30, 2013 18:59
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This might sound idiotic, but does anyone know of drum samples that don't sound super perfect? I'm recording some pretty stripped-down, recorded-in-a-basement-on-few-mics sounding noisy guitar rock and stuff like EZ Drummer, etc. just sounds too "studio perfect" for the rest of the recording, and stands out. I know this is basically the opposite problem most people have, but I can't record a drummer right now so I was just going to program some stuff. E: Or maybe a way to make good samples sound less good? himajinga fucked around with this message at 22:21 on Apr 30, 2013 |
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Apr 30, 2013 21:59
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The only way I could ever get a decent natural (read: not perfect) sound from EZ Drummer and the like was to meticulously mess with the timings and velocities of hits. When you have two hits of the kick in rapid succession, dial back the velocity on the second hit. When doing any kind of roll, don't do a straight sweep upwards with the velocity - throw some random heavier hits in there. Throwing a bit of reverb and some slight distortion can help as well.
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Apr 30, 2013 22:34
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TylerK posted:The only way I could ever get a decent natural (read: not perfect) sound from EZ Drummer and the like was to meticulously mess with the timings and velocities of hits. When you have two hits of the kick in rapid succession, dial back the velocity on the second hit. When doing any kind of roll, don't do a straight sweep upwards with the velocity - throw some random heavier hits in there. Throwing a bit of reverb and some slight distortion can help as well. This is so true - if everything's within the same chunk of velocities, programmed drums tend to sound really lifeless. Parallel compression (send your drum bus to an Aux track, compress somewhere between "just enough to make them pop" and "absolutely walloped with gain reduction", then blend back into the mix to taste!) can also do wonders to liven up and "realize" the sound of programmed drums. strangemusic fucked around with this message at 22:41 on Apr 30, 2013 |
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Apr 30, 2013 22:38
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TylerK posted:The only way I could ever get a decent natural (read: not perfect) sound from EZ Drummer and the like was to meticulously mess with the timings and velocities of hits. When you have two hits of the kick in rapid succession, dial back the velocity on the second hit. When doing any kind of roll, don't do a straight sweep upwards with the velocity - throw some random heavier hits in there. Throwing a bit of reverb and some slight distortion can help as well. I'll try some of this when I get home, though a large part of my desire is not to "humanize" them, but to make the mic placement sound less optimal or the drums to not be tuned perfectly/have worn heads and recorded in a suboptimal room. Are there lovely room reverbs out there? I guess I'm just used to what drums recorded in my old practice space on 3 mics sounds like and even though it sounds like garbage, it sounds 'right' to me. Haha I realize this sounds insanely specific, I should just rent a practice space for a month and do it the old fashioned way when I get to that point probably... himajinga fucked around with this message at 22:54 on Apr 30, 2013 |
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Apr 30, 2013 22:51
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When I've been doing my best to "hide" easy drummer, I normally eq the drums, add a slight bit of overdrive, and then re-eq them for a second time. Or even run them through something like Amplitude just to get them to sound dirty. After that I'll add in reverb. By that stage they shouldn't sound so "perfect" any more.
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May 1, 2013 01:48
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himajinga posted:This might sound idiotic, but does anyone know of drum samples that don't sound super perfect? I'm recording some pretty stripped-down, recorded-in-a-basement-on-few-mics sounding noisy guitar rock and stuff like EZ Drummer, etc. just sounds too "studio perfect" for the rest of the recording, and stands out. I know this is basically the opposite problem most people have, but I can't record a drummer right now so I was just going to program some stuff. Some drum kit samples have recordings from multiple mics (I know a few of the kits that come with Battery do), so you could try muting everything except for the overhead/room mics to give it more of a lo-fi sound.
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May 1, 2013 04:52
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Hey there thread. Would anybody happen to know if it's possible to get an Apogee Jam set up on Windows 8 with Ableton? It was a great little toy for the Mac but I didn't realize until recently it was ostensibly Mac only.
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May 2, 2013 07:36
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Okay, I'm just getting into recording guitar and it's not going great. I bought a GLS Audio ES57 (off center) as a dirt cheap stand-in for an SM57, and I'm running through an Alesis iO4 interface. Recording fairly heavy metal type stuff. The issue is that the amp sounds relatively warm and smooth in the room, I like how it's dialed in to my ears. But what I'm getting through the mic is kinda gritty and harsh. It almost sounds like I've got a solid state amp instead of a high gain tube head. I don't like it and I don't know what to do about it. Is it the mic? Positioning? Amp/cab? Somebody tell me what I'm doing wrong here.
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May 4, 2013 21:31
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I, too, have questions about mics and guitar, since we're on the subject. I have this dumb idea that involves getting a stereo straight 4x12 cab, building an iso box around it, and putting 4 different microphones on each speaker, and panning them in various ways so I only have to record once to get a double tracked sound. Bad idea or awful idea?
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May 5, 2013 08:10
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Gorilla Salsa posted:I, too, have questions about mics and guitar, since we're on the subject. I've played acoustic in soundproof room with a Dimarzio pickup in the soundhole going to a small overdriven amp mic'd up outside of soundproof room. It worked for me v  v
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May 5, 2013 08:35
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Gorilla Salsa posted:I, too, have questions about mics and guitar, since we're on the subject. You might get some interesting tones, but I don't think it'd be any kind of substitute for double tracking. One thing you could try as an experiment, Amplitube has a cab modeler that lets you set up two independently pannable mics, you could mess with that and see if it gives you any ideas (there's a free version of Amplitube though I don't know how many mic models it comes with). h_double fucked around with this message at 09:16 on May 5, 2013 |
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May 5, 2013 08:50
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h_double posted:You might get some interesting tones, but I don't think it'd be any kind of substitute for double tracking. That's sort of the basis for my idea. Amplitube has loving ruined all amps to me because I'm so accustomed to the same amp set up with two different four different mics panned left/right. Honest to god, it sounds like a double tracked guitar to me. Regular mono amps just won't do anymore. 
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May 5, 2013 09:47
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So, I've made my mix, sounds amazing in headphones, slightly base heavy through cheap speakers. Do I just pull the bass back a bit to play it safe so that the average joe in his car isn't getting killed by the bass player or do I trust what my headphones tell me? I'm getting the feeling that I should just buy expensive monitors to be sure... edit: Also, what does Radio do to my mix? They re-compress the hell out of everything don't they? double edit: To be fair this'd be crappy local radio, and I figure whoever are listening to this band on crappy local radio wouldn't know the difference. 
algebra testes fucked around with this message at 14:59 on May 5, 2013 |
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May 5, 2013 14:55
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Gorilla Salsa posted:That's sort of the basis for my idea. Amplitube has loving ruined all amps to me because I'm so accustomed to the same amp set up with two different four different mics panned left/right. Honest to god, it sounds like a double tracked guitar to me. Regular mono amps just won't do anymore. Take the extra ten minutes and do a double with your standard guitar setup, then pan in the DAW. At best, you get your desired double: at worst, you get a B take of your guitar part.
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May 5, 2013 21:55
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LordPants posted:So, I've made my mix, sounds amazing in headphones, slightly base heavy through cheap speakers. Do I just pull the bass back a bit to play it safe so that the average joe in his car isn't getting killed by the bass player or do I trust what my headphones tell me? Make two versions of the mixes. One with the bass cut and one without. Take a track you know well that has a bass sound or general "feel" that you're going for with this track. Play them in your car or a friend's car and make notes about what's acceptable and unacceptable going back and forth. Radio will usually put a limiter on everything (if we're talking about the more commercial stations, they slam the poo poo out of everything) just to get THAT sound like it's oozing out of your speakers. In my experience I've found actually adding a master compressor to the track using a VERY low ratio and VERY high threshold will keep your track from sounding different if it gets any radio airtime. Like, there should be no dB reduction that you can see. If you have a plugin with a virtual vU meter, you want to "tickle" the needle verrry lightly, were it's very slight movements.
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May 6, 2013 20:27
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Random Task posted:Okay, I'm just getting into recording guitar and it's not going great.  If you want a brighter sound move the mic closer to the center of the cone and if you want a darker sound move it closer out toward the edge. The position in the photo tends to be the most balanced sounding on most cabs. While tracking leave some headroom so you don't clip your analog to digital convertor. I'd shoot for peaks between -12 and -6 dB. [Edit: I just found a pretty great video illustrating this.] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyDnoHSFsnc Hogscraper fucked around with this message at 07:19 on May 9, 2013 |
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May 9, 2013 07:15
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Hello! I'm trying to record some acoustc guitar with my Samson C03U but I can't seem to get rid of this anoying background static/white noise. I have used this very mic before without this nois but it was almost a year ago and now i can't seem to get it working corectly. I can't trace the sound to any background noise and moving or completely covering the mic and isolating still generats the noise, and the noise sounds to "perfect" to come from background noise anyway. Any advice whould be greatly apreciated!
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May 12, 2013 18:45
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Hello everyone  I have questions about how digital sound is produced. I'm a pianist (and other acoustic instruments...) by trade and training and I know how those make sounds, but I want to get into digital composition and it's a bit of a mystery to me. My understanding is that the basic unit of a digital sound is the MIDI signal, which conveys what note was played (i.e what frequency), and has a bunch of other information about the note - the attack strength, sustain, etc. This signal is then consumed by a MIDI, uh, translator (I don't know the correct term for this) which converts it into a sound that can be played by a speaker. This translator attempts to emulate the overtone series, timbre, sustain quality, reverb, etc. and other qualities of a real instrument - so if I take the same MIDI signal and have it be consumed by the Vienna Symphony Library it could create the sound of a cello, violin, string section; or if I have a virtual piano library consume it then it will sound like a piano. Is this correct? Of course once the sound has been created in the computer then you can use all kinds of software programs to change the sound, right? Things like pitch bends, additional pedal effects, compression and equalization, etc. Is this true? When I look at the product page for high-quality keyboards, like from Kurzweil, they seem to be essentially a complete MIDI workstation with a ton of sound libraries already loaded. I don't think I want this - I'd rather use a computer interface to do sound design, creation and composition, and I'd like to pick and choose exactly which sound libraries I use, rather than have a huge selection built-in that I may not need or want. I also have no need to create sound outside of the context of digital composition with this device, since I have many acoustic instruments already. Does any company make a MIDI keyboard like this - very high quality construction, playability, weighting, etc. but without a ton of extra stuff? Or is that the right approach to take? Will I actually want to have a workstation system built-in to my keyboard? Thanks for reading
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May 14, 2013 18:00
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You're basically correct. MIDI is just a kind of information transmission, which a program (a sequencer or sampler) reads, and uses to play a sound bank and adjust its playing parameters. What it sounds like you want is generally termed a "controller keyboard" - no preset internal sounds, but functionality over MIDI and/or USB to provide a key-and -knob-based method of controlling virtual instruments, samplers and sequencers. There are a great many keyboards with MIDI I/O, from cheap to crazy! As for your "approach": if you play live a lot, it may be useful to have built in patches (sound types) so you don't risk things going awry with connecting to a computer onstage. If not: there are so many different sound libraries out there (Arturia, Komplete, etc etc etc.) that your only limit is the hard drive space and processing power of your computer. strangemusic fucked around with this message at 18:27 on May 14, 2013 |
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May 14, 2013 18:24
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