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Question for Stickboy


Lee Knight

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You have a very developed sound. A very cool sound that manages to come off hip and classic at the same time. That, obviously is due to you and your sensibilities.

 

I know I'm not alone around here in admiring your work. My question...

 

What 's your setup. What instruments do you use? What software? What keyboards? What's that great sounding bass you use? The guitar. Any amps...

 

How do you do drums? Live? Software. You program? Sounds you use?

 

Like I mentioned, you would sound like you with a 4 track cassette recorder and a pointy headstock 80's guitar if you had to, I'm sure. But still...

 

I'd love to know what gear you're using to get these great sounds. :idea:

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Hey... didn't ya read the rules?
No fan threads!


:D
:D
:D


OK... this time it's OK, since it's in-house...
;)

 

 

Yeah.. I know! But I'd be lying if I said I haven't been wondering what instruments these are. This is intended to share knowledge of the songwriting craft and delivery! No fanboy stuff...

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Sure. You bet.

 

I've got no problem talking about gear and the like as long as the focus is on songwriting. I just don't want Mark or Phil (from the recording and studio forums respectively) doing a drive-by on us for poaching from their turf! :D

 

As I think you know, Phil's such a bad dude they had to give him his own emoticon and photoshop a smile onto it and turn his Caesar-like thumbs down into a happy thumbs up just to keep from scaring the kiddies away...

 

:phil:

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Since I posted this I'll start.

 

The things you've heard of mine for the quick songwriting demos have been

 

And EV RE-20 mic or sometimes a borrowed U87.

An API pre and their conversion

Into the S/PDIF of a Digi 003 running Pro Tools 7.4

 

The bass is a cheap Fender Jazz about 20 years old with flats. I plug it directly into the API and usually overdrive the pre a bit.

 

The electric guitar is a late 60's Gibson ES-330 with P-90s.

The amp is a 5 watt class A Blackheart into a Avatar 112 closed back with a Celestion V30.

Amp mic'ed with a Fathead ribbon.

Typically a Fulltone OCD overdrive pedal and an old (1980?) Boss compressor pedal

The Drums have been a demo of Addictive Drummer

 

Most software compression has been a Massey CT-4 plugin. The Limiter is a Massey also.

 

Verb is Waves IR.

 

I've got a Young Chang upright. A little Martin. An old 80's Sigma Martin that rocks. A Yamaha semi hollow with P-90's. Lot's a shakey things. A cheap drumkit that sounds great.

 

I monitor on old Events and the little Avatones. But honestly, I usually use my old Sony standby phones. Not supposed to but hey... I do. 7506's.

 

I will frequently program a guide track in ACID and import them to Pro Tools to play to something interesting. Sometimes those make the cut. Nothing you're heard has that MO as of yet though.

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  • 7 months later...
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Hello! Just seen this!?

 

Right what do i use.... now its not a big expensive set up thats for sure

 

My DAW of choice would be pro tools, however a lot of my sound comes from an old yamaha soundcard i have in my PC and LOVE the sound of... i cant even update to windows 7 as its not supported... so i record into adobe audition.... its got really bad midi facilities so if i do want to do anything midi related i will import the tracks into protools and carry on but stuff with the mic i like in adobe... that said "some" of my stuff has been done through the MBOX.

 

My mic of choice is my Rode NTK.... mid priced valve mic but warms everything up a bit... also have a Blue baby bottle i sometimes use...but rarely

 

Acoustic guitar Gibson workhorse... L45? i think

Electric: my trusted fender ultra flame (robben ford model)... sometimes use my tele but rarely.

 

Drums.... if they sound pretty real and have velocities and stuff then it will be addictive drums in protools.... usually i like to use my zoom drum machine... i dont program this i just play it by hand.... the fake drums have become part of my sound and i LOVE battling to play it in live

 

I have an old proteus sound module that i use loads for piano, strings, sfx allsorts its a really dated unit with pretty bad sounds but they really suit me... once again no midi with this i just keyboard>midi lead>proteus>audio line outs and play it in live

 

other stuff.... shakers, tambourine, banjos, chimes, glock, harmonicas, ukes, all sorts... whatever i can get my hands on and whatever works

 

Im a fan of messing in the box.... record something in then play with extreme eqs.... sweeping moving eqs etc

 

oh and bass.... its an old aria pro...my old boss gave it me as it had been sitting in his loft uloved for 20 years..... its actually not a great sounding bass on its own.... takes a bit of work.... i run that through bass pod (line 6) straight to desk

 

electric guitars i generally use guitar pod too straight to desk.... very rarely i will plug my guitar into an amp and mic it but only for nice full clean sounds.

 

Hope this helps.... will help more if you have any more questions.... i think you get an amazing sound just as you are Lee!

 

x

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Hello! Just seen this!?


Right what do i use.... now its not a big expensive set up thats for sure


My DAW of choice would be pro tools, however a lot of my sound comes from an old yamaha soundcard i have in my PC and LOVE the sound of... i cant even update to windows 7 as its not supported... so i record into adobe audition.... its got really bad midi facilities so if i do want to do anything midi related i will import the tracks into protools and carry on but stuff with the mic i like in adobe... that said "some" of my stuff has been done through the MBOX.


My mic of choice is my Rode NTK.... mid priced valve mic but warms everything up a bit... also have a Blue baby bottle i sometimes use...but rarely


Acoustic guitar Gibson workhorse... L45? i think

Electric: my trusted fender ultra flame (robben ford model)... sometimes use my tele but rarely.


Drums.... if they sound pretty real and have velocities and stuff then it will be addictive drums in protools.... usually i like to use my zoom drum machine... i dont program this i just play it by hand.... the fake drums have become part of my sound and i LOVE battling to play it in live


I have an old proteus sound module that i use loads for piano, strings, sfx allsorts its a really dated unit with pretty bad sounds but they really suit me... once again no midi with this i just keyboard>midi lead>proteus>audio line outs and play it in live


other stuff.... shakers, tambourine, banjos, chimes, glock, harmonicas, ukes, all sorts... whatever i can get my hands on and whatever works


Im a fan of messing in the box.... record something in then play with extreme eqs.... sweeping moving eqs etc


oh and bass.... its an old aria pro...my old boss gave it me as it had been sitting in his loft uloved for 20 years..... its actually not a great sounding bass on its own.... takes a bit of work.... i run that through bass pod (line 6) straight to desk


electric guitars i generally use guitar pod too straight to desk.... very rarely i will plug my guitar into an amp and mic it but only for nice full clean sounds.


Hope this helps.... will help more if you have any more questions.... i think you get an amazing sound just as you are Lee!


x

 

 

It's your ears and your good taste then. I thought you might give me a list of esoteric instruments. But really, you're just playing what you want to hear. It's what I suspected.

 

Nice. You even make drum software sound a little dusty (that's a good thing). Everything you do has this nice patina.

 

:thu:

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yes i did.... to be honest i banged that out in ten mins and expected nothing from it!


really was "basic" addicive drums..... kick, toms, tambourine


double tracked acoustic guitar panned L and R


Bass


Mini grand (free protools 8 piano plug)


Vox



done

That's stinkin' brilliant! :D

 

I love stuff like that.

 

I was just having a sidebar discussion with a friend from another forum about the very topic of how "gear limitations" simply aren't the kind of factor they were back when I started out in the 80s. He's a quite successful mix engineer and we were talking about the tendency for some folks to look outside themselves, buying one new piece of gear after another looking for magic fairy dust, when the real answer more often lies within the recordist/artist.

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