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Recently made quite an upgrade to my home studio. Opinions?


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Variations of this technique work on other instruments. I just did a mix where I did this with the bass (not the harmonizer part, but HP filtering it, EQing it, and heavily compressing it) to give it more definition.

 

 

When you say heavily compressed, you use a high ratio or a low ratio with the thrershold much lower to get more compression??

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It really depends, but usually I use about a 3:1 ratio, and then lower the threshold until it starts sounding kinda bad, and then I back it off until it sounds okay again. This is compressing just for the "extra" bass track that's already had all the bottom end rolled off. I don't do this huge squishing for the "regular" bass track.

Another thing that works is if you take a DI and an amped sound. Sometimes you can roll off the bottom end in the DI track, jack the mids (or whatever you need for definition), and compress it heavily enough that it doesn't poke out, and then blend it back in with the other track. It really depends on the song and how the bass player plays and the bass sound, so each thing might be different. I've had some mixes where I don't compress the DI bass all that much because it doesn't really need it.

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I guess I'm looking on opinions as to which I made a smart decision based on the budget and highest priorities. I have a {censored}ty original MBOX and use their plastic converters and pre's. Well today I received my new Dell that would outrun almost any computer. It was custom. As I've stated, vocals and guitars are most important to me. Bass I'll run direct, and drums I will pay that online site (Even though I'm a highly skilled drummer) that charges $99 a song with guaranteed refund if not satisfied with the take/sound of the drums.

On that note, how do I in a costly manner achieve the sound of an Eventide Processor and or TC Electronics unit? Do they have LE plugs that are near equal? All your time and advice is greatly appreciated. So we shall see if I made a key investment. Ustad seems to think so. I am pretty much obsessed with getting a great vocal sound. I can't afford a super expensive mic but I could sell my NTK and get the Oktava MK mod. If it would significantly improve my sound and make it sound larger- I'll make the purchase somehow. What would ya do fellow audio friends?

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Eventide doesn't make any LE compatible plug-ins. Doesn't do you any good, but I have to say I absolutely LOVE the Anthology II TDM stuff. :love: :phil:

 

Going new, the least expensive way into a TC is probably the M-350. The least expensive way into an Eventide is probably the new Timefactor and Modfactor stompboxes. They can run at instrument OR line level, so you could use them with a PT rig... but there would be latency issues on an LE system. Ideally you should look for something with S/PDIF digital I/O, which will reduce (but not eliminate) the latency.

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Eventide doesn't make any LE compatible plug-ins. Doesn't do you any good, but I have to say I absolutely LOVE the Anthology II TDM stuff.
:love:
:phil:


Going new, the least expensive way into a TC is probably the M-350. The least expensive way into an Eventide is probably the new Timefactor and Modfactor stompboxes. They can run at instrument OR line level, so you could use them with a PT rig... but there would be latency issues on an LE system. Ideally you should look for something with S/PDIF digital I/O, which will reduce (but not eliminate) the latency.




I'm so confused at this point. If there's latency issues, no thanks. I just got the Apogee Mini Me and I can't figure out how to run it in Protools. Not to mention now that I uprgraded my LE from 6.9 to 7.4- I lost a bunch of my Wave Platinum plugs cause it says "The following plugins were made inactive because they could not be found in the plug-ins folder. I got a new comp today (had the problem b4 the new comp). Anyone know how to arrange my plugins properly? I am lost on it. So what would you suggest in LE with no major latency Phil?

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I'm assuming that the TC M350 that Phil mentioned is an updated version of the TC M300 that I mentioned earlier in this thread (I think it was this thread...). If that's the case, it's a really good, solid reverb unit. And I think it has several advantages:

 

- it's cheap and it sounds good

- it's a hardware unit, so using reverb doesn't tax the CPU (reverb is one of the most CPU-intensive plug-ins)

- does a tiny bit of latency really matter on a reverb / delay unit? It really doesn't to me. One usually employs a bit of pre-delay anyway, and besides, how much latency are we talking about? It's really minimal, and with reverb and delay, if no one told you there was latency in the unit, I doubt you'd ever know it was there.

- since it's not a plug-in, you don't have to upgrade it every few years as you might have to with a plug-in...and it'll work with any DAW.

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Oh, one more thing, if this gives you any insight...or inspiration, especially...I appreciate you saying that my music sounds "amazing"...but y'know, I record all this stuff in a tiny house. Drums, vocals, guitars, everything...all done in the living room, and all the equipment is stuffed into my second bedroom.


Obviously, it's important to have good equipment and all that, but it really doesn't take a truckload of money to get a good sound. What it does take is this near-obsessive need to make stuff sound as good as possible. I used FMR RNPs and my Lawson L251 (the latter of which I won at the AES Convention in a drawing). That's a nice signal chain, but it's hardly super ultra expensive.

 

 

I ended up buying the T.C. Electronics 350. Costed me $200 new. I've yet to get it working but can't wait to hear it. Now I just gotta wait on getting Windows XP cause the Mini-Me isn't compatible with Windows Vista. I should have done more research. Oh well, I got the Mini-Me, The TC 350, a Rode NTK, and Ethan's Portable Vocal booth. I can't wait to figure out how this {censored} all works.

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