Archive for October, 2009
Thursday, October 29th, 2009
Plugins are great, they’re very close to the real hardware counterparts, sometimes better. I don’t want to debate that. This article is all about options for getting electrons flowing through gear to get better mixes. There are very few (if any) professional mixing engineers that work 100% ITB (in the box), at some point you’ll need to get outside.
Latency
One of the problems inherent with digital recording is latency. Today’s modern audio interfaces are way better than just a few years ago and we can get it to the point that it’s barely noticeable, but you can do better than that. Most USB interfaces have a direct monitoring option or simply a mix knob to get around the problem of input latency.
mix knob
By turning the mix knob to the left you are listening to just the inputs of the interface, latency free, and by turning it to the right, you hear the output of the software, with the latency. Most of the time you are probably just listening from the software outputs, which is fine, if you can deal with the latency. If you use the direct monitoring function and put the mix knob in the middle you can get benefit of zero latency and still be able to hear the output of the software for the tracks you are playing along to. The trick here is to mute the track you are recording to. For punching in on takes, you’ll have to record to a new track and comp the parts, it’s worth the extra effort.
Many firewire interfaces have a software mixer to route signals around before the DAW and you can use this for your direct monitoring.
Another way around the input latency problem is by using a small mixer and before the interface and monitor directly from that along with a stereo return from the DAW.
Unfortunately this only works when you are recording with mics, when recording direct guitars into Guitar Rig or Amplitube, you won’t be able to monitor the effect, so you have to reduce the buffer size to an acceptable latency.
Guitar Pedal Effects
Software effects are great, but there is something really cool about effects pedals, something that plugins can’t capture. Hopefully you didn’t sell all your guitar gear to pay for your home studio, you can use those stomp box effects for mixing too.
If you have a re-amp kit or a couple of passive DI boxes you can integrate your pedalboard into your software. Go out from your interface into the re-amp box, or passive DI box, going Low impedance to high impedance, then go into your effects. The output of the effects goes into any DI box, or an instrument input of your interface.
Again latency can be a problem, so I would record the return of the pedals to a new track and then snap it into time to match the original track.
Master Bus Effects
We’re starting to get into a hybrid approach to mixing, combining hardware and software.
The next step would be to get a good master bus compressor to get some analog mojo back into your mix. Most console and compressor manufacturers make stereo compressors with some nice color and character. The SSL G-Series Compressor is a standard for rock mixers.
Summing Mixer
The next step would be to get an analog summing mixer. Essentially you take 8 stereo stems out of your interface, put them into this box, it combines the signals in the analog domain into a single stereo mix, which you’d then send to the bus compressor and back into the DAW. Google: “Summing Mixer shootout” to get an idea of what a summing mixer can do for your mixes. The Dangerous Music D-Box is one of many worth checking out.
Analog Console
If you don’t want to go the Summing mixer route, you can get a real mixer. There are a few great smaller format consoles like the Toft ATB that are great for a hybrid approach in the home studio. Use the automation in your DAW and use the mixer for it’s eq, integrate hardware insert effects easily, get the benefits of analog summing and when you’re tracking, latency free monitoring. Plus they take up a bunch of room on your desk and impress people when they walk in. ;)
Do you use a ‘hybrid’ DAW system? Tell me how you do it and what you like about it.
Thanks for reading.
Posted in Gear, tutorial | 5 Comments »
Wednesday, October 28th, 2009
It’s been a while since my last gear lust post, probably a good thing because I ended up buying that one and am still slowly paying for it (well worth it though!). Ever since these were announced in September I’ve been drooling at the Novation Nocturn Keyboards. IMHO these keys are damn sexy and I already know how nice one will look along side my Mac Book Pro.
Novation Nocturn 49
Nocturn Keyboard is an intelligent plug-in/sequencer controller. It has a high quality ‘Fatar’ keyboard, with 8 drum pads and a total of 33 assignable controls, which allow you to get hands-on control of your plug-in instruments, effects and sequencer.
Most keyboard controllers have two big problems: The idea of being able to control software parameters with knobs and buttons sounds great. However, the hassle of assigning them, and remembering what they are assigned to becomes so tedious that you always end up turning back to your mouse.
Nocturn Keyboard’s Automap control software solves both these problems. To assign controllers, simply click on the parameter, touch a knob or button, and it is assigned! It also enables you to keep track of what is assigned to what – instead of using a small monochrome LCD screen, Nocturn Keyboard displays control information where you really need it: on your computer monitor. The Automap software graphically displays Nocturn’s control surface. The controllers themselves also tell you what is going on: LED rings around the 8 encoders show their current settings, and LED’s behind the buttons tell you if they are on or off.
It looks to be a fantastic controller with everything right where you’d want it, and not a lot of extra junk, if Automap works like they claim and the keys feel good, it looks like a killer package.
What I like:
Buttons with lights underneath
Rotary encoders with value indicators rather than a potentiometer that most likely won’t show the correct value.
Not unnecessarily large (like the M-Audio Axiom series or many others)
Drum pads in the middle
No faders or keypads I would never actually use
The one thing I don’t like is the pink buttons, but I think I could like with it.
I’ve got to get my hands on one of these and see how it really is. If anyone has used one of these, I’ve asked a bunch of times on Twitter with no response, please let me know what you think of them.
Full Details here: Nocturn Keyboard
Posted in Gear, Gear Lust, MIDI | 6 Comments »
Tuesday, October 27th, 2009
I’m starting a new weekly series here on AGZ, once a week I’m going to share a couple sound samples I’ve recorded or created and manipulated.
This one is something I created for a breakdown section on a metal song. They needed a little build up before the breakdown to really “bring teh brootz” and this is what I came up with using an 808 kick sample, a cymbal sample and some processing.
There’s a couple variations of the 808 kick for subdrops and a heavily processed reversed cymbal. I think the 808 kick was recorded out of BOOM but possible came from my extremely unorganized sample library.
Processing done with Reverse, Vari-Fi, Time Compression/Expansion, AIR Frequency Shifter (automated).
Download MP3 and 24 bit – 44.1kHz Wav files here:
808 kick 1
[mp3] – [wav]
808 kick 2
[mp3] – [wav]
808 kick 3
[mp3] – [wav]
Cymbal
[mp3] – [wav]
Cymbal Reversed
[mp3] – [wav]
Cymbal Reversed + Vari-Fi Speed Up
[mp3] – [wav]
Cymbal Reversed + Vari-Fi Speed Up + Time Compression/Expansion
[mp3] – [wav]
Glitch
[mp3] – [wav]
Reverse cymbal Processed
[mp3] – [wav]
Here’s what it sounds like in the song:
Breakdown clip
Hope you like these and find them useful. More samples next week!
Posted in Free Sound Of The Week, samples | 1 Comment »
Sunday, October 25th, 2009
It’s time for another recap of @theaudiogeek on twitter. This is dump # 2. tee hee
theaudiogeek
Bonus! Some things that were credited to me that I didn’t post!
Do you like these posts? If they suck I want to hear about it.
Posted in Site news, Tweetdump | 1 Comment »
Saturday, October 24th, 2009
Here’s a roundup of the good recording and music production podcasts that I listen to regularly.
The Home Recording Show – A great weekly podcast. OK so I’m a bit biased on this one, I co-host the show, but it really is good. Hosted by 3 independent recording engineers covering wide range of topics for home and professional recordists.
Sessions With Slau - I love this one. “Slau takes you behind the scenes at BeSharp, a recording studio in New York City. Listen to excerpts from sessions, gear reviews and equipment shootouts.”
Ronan’s Recording Show – A video podcast with Ronan Chris Murphy. “Recording and Pro Audio: Behind the Scenes Interviews, Recording Studio Tours and Music Production Tips. Hosted by Producer Ronan Chris Murphy”
Inside Home Recording – Podcasting since 2005, IHR is the longest running series on home and project studio recording. Hosted by Dave Chick and Derek K. Miller.
Project Studio Network – PSN was one of my favorites monthly podcast, they post very infrequently these days but when they do it’s one of the best there is. Sessions With Slau started off as an occasional feature on PSN.
EM Cast – This podcast is produced by Electronic Musician magazine and features interviews with some big names in the recording industry.
Shure Cast – Produced to promote Shure Microphones but there is also a lot of great info in each episode.
I subscribe to all of these via RSS feeds but you should be able to find them all on iTunes too.
I hope I didn’t leave anyone out!
Got a music production/recording/home studio podcast? I wanna hear it! Leave a message.
Posted in podcast | 9 Comments »
