TBush

Thanks Phil- that was a good article. I just had a bunch of looong sessions with a band full of 'Anything Goes'. Ouch- just tiring. But 2 weeks ago it was the opposite- all 'Rock Steady', seasoned pros who never churn out bad takes- just pick the good one and keep the session moving along! That's so much fun.

24/44.1kHz. Me too- started at 44.1 on DA-88's and ADATs, and just kept it at 44.1 when I switched to HD recording lo these many 9 years ago...

Signed. I appreciate the ability to have such a killer studio using XP (esp. cf. with the old 4/8-track or ADAT/DA88 systems from bygone eras) but I'll tell you- if this forced Vista roundup keeps going like I think it is, then Apple's gonna get another customer.

You could do an early VanHalen thing and pan some wet small room (it is blues music) on the opposite side of the dry track- not extremely panned, but maybe 9:00-3:00... Their early stuff was pretty radical, with Echoplex and big plate reverbs on the other side, but I've done stuff like this with some judicious smaller room sounds with maybe 20 ms of predelay.

good lord, you have a 20' telephone pole up your *%#. thats your weakest thing? blaming OTHER PEOPLE for being late? thats lame. not weak.... seriously, you sound like a d*^!#% no one would want to record with in the first place with that post. Like Grandma Pyle used to say: "When you're late you make others wait" So let them know beforehand that you (the engineer) are gonna clock in on time... They'll be there right on the money (pun intended).

That's more along the lines of the approach I try to take. If I am going to err insofar as time vs money, it's going to be to the client's benefit and not mine. I don't give the farm away, but if it's a question of a half an hour here or there, I don't lose sleep over it. I certainly don't want the band to leave, and then tell their friends that "he charged us for seven and a half hours, but we took a 45 minute lunch so it should have only been seven and a quarter..." or whatever. Just did that very thing last night- 1/2 hour off the total (for reasons non-technical) and they paid in cash. Even those 1/4 hours add up in the collective mind of the band (if it's a 4-pc band then that equals about 2 and 1/2 minds total:p ) and I agree- you don't have to be quibbly about the small amounts, yet you can be firm where it matters. I took a couple baths (re: got hosed) early on, and of course "fool me once, shame on you- fool me twice, shame on me", so nothing leaves here without everything being paid in full. The Voxengo free "beeper" is real handy for insuring payment- as soon as I get paid, the beeper is taken out of the chain...

Originally posted by Phil O'Keefe Uh, not on my forum... Thanks Phil... And cool article- it's nice when studio clients get some recognition.

George Martin. Sure, he's a good producer and knows his way around a console- but mainly 'cause he's a knight!

"...and if you're summing too hot, bring the levels down at the mixer stage, right?" I meant to say "bring the levels down on the individual channels." That's all...

Originally posted by where02190 NO, that's not correct. Again, slamming into the converters as close to 0dbfs is NOT the way to record into digital. Target your nominal, that means average input level at your converters 0dbu reference. that will leave more than sufficient headroom, typically around -6dbfs. Think about it, 24+ tracks, all peaking at -1dbfs, slamming into the summing buss....+18dbu x 24+ tracks....can you say distortion? There is absolutely no need to be peaking at or even near 0dbfs. all you're doing is eating up your headroom, meaning your faders actual or virtual) will be at the bottom of their throw to prevent summing smashing, leaving you little range of movement. Uh, maybe when I'm looking at the little meter in Logic and it doesn't go into the red then I figure "great- I'm just under 0db and I have headroom." Besides, those busses at the master section all have meters too, and if you're summing too hot, bring the levels down at the mixer stage, right? I mix through a digi board anyway, so I can see what's going on at every stage. Of course if one is smacking the "0" a lot, that weird digi distortion is audible. So don't do it!

Originally posted by MASSIVE Master You realize that "just under 0 (dBFS)" is around 18dB into the headroom of your front end, right? If you're trying to treat it like analog (which you should) the "meat" of your levels should be around 0dBVU -- Somewhere in the realm of -18dBFS. Yeah- what I meant was that the peaks would be "just under 0 (dBFS)"- digital has great headroom and no need to blow it there...

Hmmm- what fun! I just wanted to say that I'm still treating my DAW (Logic/Windows) like a big complicated DA-88: recording fairly hot, using outboard stuff a lot on the recording stage, and trying to keep thi9ngs under 0 db. Seems to be working OK- and yes, I'm usually at 24/44.1. Sometimes 16-bit for goofing around, but not much. I think that some of this comes from tracking analog in the old days and then being thrilled that we could actually record 8 tracks of digital audio on an ADAT! Wow- and an ADAT was only 3k!!! Cool! Technology rules...

Originally posted by Warhead I've had the same 2.4ghz P4 recording PC running for about 2.5 years now without a single crash. I could upgrade, but why? It's solid and never gets ill on me...and with 1GB of ram (didn't really notice a big jump over 512mb at all) it's about all I could ask for. Pick a good pc and just start recording! They don't get old "that" quick. War Me too- kind of. I run Logic 5 on an Athlon 2800 with 1 gig RAM and the only problem I have is sometimes a Sony software product will bog, but that's it. Built it 2 1/2 years ago and it's cool. I'll upgrade only when necessary. Maybe move to Nuendo or Sonar with a 64 bit machine, but for know it does it's job fine.

*pant*wheeze*cough*- finally made it here... Nice digs!