UstadKhanAli

Why don't you find someone to do this stuff for you and then buy the components at New Egg? Or check out Sweetwater or Wave Digital (see an earlier link I provided), which may be several hundred more but provide technical support, warranties, and all the tweaking that you mention. There's other options out there. Personally, if I can find someone that actually provides decent tech support, I'm willing to pay for it. That's worth a lot right there. Otherwise, just suck it up, buy the components, put it together, and don't worry about it if you want cheap.

Originally posted by scapier Or you could buy a Mac. Uh oh, there goes this thread!!!

Originally posted by Kiwiburger Well it depends on the particular compressor. With software compressors, it's possible to be extremely accurate. Older analog stuff wasn't this accurate - you can imagine glowing lightbulbs and tubes and transformers and stuff. The parameters where more of a rough statement of intention. Well, you and I know that, but since The Smurf seems to be mostly using software compressors (plugins) and most likely isn't alternating between adjusting his Fairchild and posting on this forum, I figured I'd answer more from the perspective that he's coming from. And we know that there's other variables, too, even in a software compressor, but if you're just talking about a straight compressor, sure, the ratio's fixed, even though there's plenty of ways to change that up. Also, with older analog compressors, the compression ratio is "fixed" in the sense that you have a setting that is, say, 1:4. Now, that may drift a bit, do funny things within the compressor, but it's still, at the very least, an attempt to be "fixed"! Sorta like pitch drift on an old analog synthesizer!! :D Or hmmmm, that sound was a little different half an hour ago.....

Originally posted by Satanic Smurf If the singal goes past the threshold (on it's way up) the imaginary slider goes down after the attack time has expired. For a given raito is the amount that the slider goes down fixed? OR if the volume were to increase further would our imaginary slider be moved down further? If I understand this correctly....the "imaginary slider" is your way of saying "as if someone is pulling down the fader", right? If you're talking about how much the compressor compresses the audio, then given only the ratio (and not talking about other settings that can create variability with the volume - don't be smartasses here, guys ), yes, it is fixed past the threshold that you specified on the compressor.

Multiband compression and limiting can get your audio a lot louder, but I think a lot of mastering guys (certainly the ones I know) are using gain optimization programs such as the Waves L1, L2, DUY Maxx, and things like that. Waves comes as either a plugin or a hardware unit. And I'll pass this off to someone else because, quite frankly, I'm not entirely sure what the gain optimization is doing to achieve that and how it differs from multiband compression and limiting.

I rarely use a compressor for tracking. Just another thing to diddle with. I like to keep my signal path clean. *IF* I had a compressor that "colors" the audio in a way that I wanted for a particular track, I'd have no problem committing to it by tracking with it, but I don't have that option. A compressor can catch initial transients if it's fast enough and set for it (super fast attack). That's one way. Saturation is another. Hitting tape hard is another (dying) method . Changing the sound at the source or moving mics around can also help change the peaks a bit.

Hey, that looks like a cool environment to work in. I like the ergonomics, how you can spin around and basically access everything easily. And it looks vibey, a place I'd want to hang out in. Excellent. My room has too much stuff crammed in it to be truly comfortable (although it's getting a lot better), but that's one of my projects for the year - sell everything I don't need, get some cabinets to store some of the other stuff, and be vigilant about keeping the clutter to a minimum.

M-Audio is probably a good bet. For US$600, the PreSonus Firepod has eight mic preamps, eight A/D converters, and Cubase LE. Never heard it, but it's supposed to sound quite good for the $$.

This is kinda like the giant lobby with the chandelier and the two sweeping staircases, with Phil standing by the elegant crystal doors welcoming visitors in, huh?

Originally posted by menJop Ken, Undone -- I just gave it a quick two listens. My monitor chain was Cool Edit for playback, through a Pulsar 1 sound card, into a Samson Servo 120 driving Samson Resolv 65s. The system seems to translate reasonably well to the other systems I test mixes on, but is a little lacking in the bass department. I'm an amateur whose experience is mostly limited to solo projects in my home studio. Random comments: Cool track -- are you guys from Ireland? Nice kick, but the snare sounds a little loose Guitar sound is very cool -- especially those layered guitars towards the end Toms could use tightening up (compression/less room mikes?) Middle bit (lead) just clipping (also at about 4:10), basically the two places where it gets really loud. Overall, I think it may be a bit too dynamic, but that may be from listening to too many overly-hot radio masters. Great guitars -- or did I mention that? Bass is nice, right where it needs to be. Lead vox sit very nicely in the mix. I agree with Lee that the vox could use a touch of air, but it sounds darned good as is. That's about it. Great track -- I enjoyed listening to it. -John Thanks for the comments, John! Snare is probably a little loose. I dunno....we love the snare sound. I don't like tight, snappy snares in general, and we got those last time and didn't want them this time. I like big fat toms. I dunno, I just let 'em fly. There's some compression on there. I know, they have a lot of ring and stuff to them, but I just love it that way because that's the way they sound in the room. They're not too flabby and lack punch, though, I hope? It is very dynamic. I absolutely love it that way. I'm sure that in mastering the guy will tighten it all up a little. None of those songs have mastering or anything at all. I have the ability to just utterly squash a song and make it sinfully loud, but I just really detest that sort of sound. I'm going to tell the mastering engineer to make it as loud as it will go without sacrificing the sound quality. If it's a little quieter than other CDs, then so be it. Thanks for the compliments on the guitars. We are very happy with how the guitars came out!!! I'm playing the more effected clean guitars, while the bass player is playing the clean chords. I play the lead guitars with distortion, while the bass player is playing the chunky, scrappy rhythms behind it. The bass player is also playing a lot of the spacey parts in the middle, and then at the end, I'm playing the leads and all the wah-wah parts at the end. We had so much FUN playing this song and recording it... The vox....hmmm, I guess it's aesthetic. I seriously jacked the top end for some air, but I didn't want it as open and airy as some of the other vocals that I've done because I wanted a sort of '60s psychedelic vibe....so after thinking about it, I decided to just keep the vocals as is. I mean, they sit so well in the mix and everything as it is, I hate to mucky around with it too much and destroy the beautiful balance. We're thrilled with this song, and figure we'll just keep it the way it is. The clipping....I'll have to check that out. Thanks again!! I really appreciate your comments and the time you took to make them! We just had so much fun recording this song, so I'm really glad that you enjoyed listening to it!!

Gotcha, thanks! I guess we're probably gonna leave it as is since no one wants to really touch it. The snare is very dominating. The drummer was using a large Noble and Cooley snare, and then banging on the thing with the fat end of the stick to get a really huge sound (which I'd say he achieved ). But sure, maybe a little more presence with the vocals may have helped. You may have seen the post I left under the Neve Portico thread in this forum. I recorded vocals through the Neve Portico that I just got, and it is so unbelievably warm and gooey sounding when used in Silk Mode. It would have been interesting to see how the vocal would have sounded recorded through that preamp.

Thanks! I actually did jack the high end (I don't remember, probably around 13-6kHz) in the vocals by quite a lot. The snare should be darker? I can try that....they are really really loud in the overheads, so I don't think I can lower them in the mix very much.

Originally posted by C JoGo Perfect delay ! I use mainly TC > but you nailed the parameters on that one !! Thanks! It's kinda funny because that plug-in has very crude parameters to tweak. It's a bunch of knobs with no read-out and crude increments, not much to adjust. Just use your ear and "twist". Which is fine since after all it's emulating an old TelRay.

Originally posted by C JoGo Ken ::: what effects are you using for the vocals ?? The tune set me back to the venues of '68/70...remember those concerts well !! Thanks Thanks! "Undone" seems to be a new favorite when we play it at clubs. FX on the vox...reverb's the TC Electronics M300 (hardware), and the delay is a TelRay Delay plug-in...I don't know what kind, but I think it came with either Pro Tools itself or a Bomb Factory plug-in. In either case, I really like the TelRay plug-in a lot. Sometimes I sneak it in with a track so you can't hear it, but if I were to take it out, you'd notice something sounded different. On this song, however, I just let it fly, "gain-riding" it throughout the song. We really have a lot of fun playing this song, and had a lot of fun mixing and recording it. Hopefully you and others will like it. Undone MP3 (192 kbps)

Originally posted by C JoGo Ken ::: what effects are you using for the vocals ?? The tune set me back to the venues of '68/70...remember those concerts well !! Thanks Thanks! "Undone" seems to be a new favorite when we play it at clubs. FX on the vox...reverb's the TC Electronics M300 (hardware), and the delay is a TelRay Delay plug-in...I don't know what kind, but I think it came with either Pro Tools itself or a Bomb Factory plug-in. In either case, I really like the TelRay plug-in a lot. Sometimes I sneak it in with a track so you can't hear it, but if I were to take it out, you'd notice something sounded different. On this song, however, I just let it fly, "gain-riding" it throughout the song. We really have a lot of fun playing this song, and had a lot of fun mixing and recording it. Hopefully you and others will like it.

Trying to sell some things that I simply don't use anymore!! AKG D112 microphone - excellent condition FMR RNP Really Nice Preamp (brand new in original shipping box - never been used) Electro-Voice N/D 257A vocal stage/recording microphone 10 brand-new MK-20J Akai tapes for Akai MG1214 / 1212 / 14D analog multi-tracks http://www.elevenshadows.com/studio/forsale/index.htm http://www.elevenshadows.com/studio/forsale/index.htm [url TARGET='_blank'>http://www.elevenshadows.com/studio/forsale/index.htm]Click here][/url]

Here is a new song that I got through mixing recently. Those who enjoy a bit of psychedelia with their rock will especially enjoy "Undone". Lemme know what you think (post here). Thanks! Undone MP3 (192 kbps) Page with more songs if you want to hear more... These are all songs from my band. I play guitar and keyboards and did all the recording. The recording was done at my very own Blueberry Buddha Studios. These songs will sound a little different from each other in some respects...they were recorded at different times: -Some were tracked on analog and mixed down onto DAT. -Some were tracked on analog and then transferred to Pro Tools for further overdubs and mixing. -And some were tracked and mixed on Pro Tools only. I don't know if you'll be able to tell or not. I doubt I could if I didn't know already! ~~~~~~~~~~~ As always, thank you so much for listening and for your comments!!! If you want to know how they were recorded or any other technical information, ask away!!