where02190

Depends on the song. We have a variety of 1x12, 2x12 and 4x12 cabs all mic'd in different fashions. For instance, the 4x12 has 2 sennheiser e609's and 2 sm57's on it, a marshall 1x12 has a 57, etc. We can pick and choose which works best for the song. Some songs are fine with a single track of one guitar for rhythm, while others work best with a couple different rhythm tracks each with a couple mics per track. There's no rules as to how it's done, each song is unique.

good point. one of the problems may be that i'm tracking my guitar parts in my apartment closet at low volumes. not exactly the best environment for that. guess i'll keep workin' until i get it right. thanks for the input. With a little treatment in the closet it actually can be very good. We have several guitar and bass cabs isolated in closets here that work great. Low volume doesn't mean small sound. It's not volume that creates a big sound, it's how you capture it.

Don't beat yourself up about it, good tracks going in takes time and patience to develop your instincts, but once achieved, you'll see your recordings shine like never before with minimal mix time. My tracking approach is to be able, with nothing more than volume and pan, get a good sounding rough mix. If I can't do that, somethings not being recorded right, and I correct it at the source.

NO mastering is NOT "where a lot of the "pro sound" is added to the songs", that happens right from the start in tracking. You can't shine {censored}, get it right going in. Mix it so it sounds killer, master to perfection. A good mix needs little more in the mastering stage than level adjustment between songs.

there's a big difference though between needing to fix something and using comp/eq for sweetening.` Say I got mix going and it sounds great...But it needs something... Do I want to mess with individual tracks? No the mix sounds great, but i strap the ltd2 across and wow it gives it a bit extra edge... Then the mix is sounding really good...But the ltd2 is set and chomping a hair of my lowend...So i pack on the germanium tc... Has the sweetest bottom ever... I give it a little low end boost... Then i give it a little shelving boost at 10k and the top really starts to sparkle... Now i have made my mix even sweeter and added the nice chandler sound to the mix. Doesn't work for every track, and you shouldn't do it if you dont hear the need. You're confusing mixing and mastering.

If you are scooping the mix bus, then you most likely need to cut some mids out of individual tracks. Ageed, if you have to do major eqing on the mix buss to get your mix to sound good, you need to go back to either the individual tracks or the source and find the problem.

is the mastering process really where the "sizzle" and the "pro-sound" comes in? No. It comes from recording good sounding tracks. While "fix it in the mix/mastering" has been practiced for decades, IMHO it's never been a successful way to create good sounding music.

Accordians can be a bitch. A clip on close to the open end of the bellows (where the bulk of the sound comes out) works best, and a pair won't be a bad thing. I find the countryman isomax works great, they are very small and can easily be placed close to the source without impeding the player, and they sound great with minimal eq.

For $200 you're going to get a couple mic pres tops. While it is quite possible to achieve killer drums with 2 mics, it takes a great room, kit, mics, pres, etc. I highly suggest you save your money if you require multiple inputs for something decent.

Originally posted by heisleyamor the Audio Technica AT3035 has some good reviews. Anyone have any opinions on that? or does the Rode NTK beat it? I wan't very impressed with this mic. IMHO the NTK will smoke it 3 ways to thursday.

The SM7 is a great mic, but not for every vocal appliction, and it requires a fairly high gain mic pre. It is however a good mic for the arsenal, and is under $400 new.

Keep your eyes open for a used Rode NTK, it'll smoke both the KSM27 and the B1.

Originally posted by heisleyamor I heard the B1 had harsh highs for vocals. That's basically all I need a condensor for. But you would say a B1 over a Shure KSM27? I dissagree about the B1 being harsh. AFA the B1 vs the KSM27, the SKM27 is 3x the price.

Originally posted by nobrainer440 I like 192 kbps for MP3's. At that rate, I can't really tell the difference between MP3 and CD. You either have very {censored}ty monitors or terrible hearing then. MP3 at any bitrate is very obviously inferior to CD audio to me.

For MP3 there is no standard. Higher bit rate means better quaility. For CD audio 16 bit. For recording, 24 bit.

+1 on the Studio Projects B1, a great mic for the price.

Originally posted by Antman261 Try EQing your vox with mic positioning, such as moving it up and down. Down will generally give you a crisper sound, as the sound bounces off the pallete in the top of their mouth, and up will give a deeper, rounder sound as it's got more of that resonate chest sound coming up. But this isn't golden rule, the architecture of someone's face can change how things work, just experiment! Wrong way feldman. Singing over the mic will result in a warmer tone, decreasing the sibilance from the mouth and capturing more chest resonance, while raising the mic will lessen the chest resonance, and, if the mic is above the singer so they tilt their head up to the mic, will thin their tone out, since this restricts airflow and robs them of power and range. A good low-mid priced LDC, such as the Studio Projects B1 ($100) or a Rode NTK($450) placed so it aims somewhere between the singers chin and top of breastbone typically yields an excellent vocal tonality. Of course, the room, and the singer are also major factors.

Nothing really. You might want to nose over to the Tracktion forum.

USB1.1=12MB/sec FW400-400MB/sec you do the math.

Originally posted by grahawk Surely that's just bandwith and not latency. It may have some affect on latency but I don't think that usb 1.1 interfaces are notorious for latency. That suggests it's almost impossible to get a usuable latency setting on USB 1.1 interfaces but most people get perfectly usable settings. If you are playing back only a few tracks then it's not an issue, but it's pretty common knowledge that USB1.1 has major latency issues when running a lot of tracks and plugins when overdubbing, and it becomes a very audible issue. Less bandwidth=less info flowing=latency.

USB1.1 is notorious for latency, as it's only capable of 12MB/sec, vs the USB2.0 and FW 400MB/sec plus capabilities. FW400 is the fastest of the 3 formats, as it is capable of sustaining it's 400MB/sec throughput better than USB2.0, and is the standard for most external ADDA's. However even FW will have latency, but, for overdubbing, if the plugins are kept to a reasonable amount it will be a non issue. Obviously when mixing this is not a problem.

I'd buy the one with the best converters I could afford, as it's all about converter quality. Suck converters probably ruin more music than anything else. You can't mix properly if you aren't hearing it properly.

Agreed, best is an opinion.

Originally posted by JohnnyX and every mic has a proximity effect. Inbcorrect, omnis do not.

In the $300 pricerange I'd definitely consider an SM7. Another option would be to rent a nice high end mic and pre for a few days and get some really killer vocal sounds. For $300 you can probably buy a used Rode NTK as well, hell they are only $500 brand new.