Cool, thanks guys. I am feeling it more with the uncompressed version too. I think I may do one more mix with the BGVs up about .5 dB and then call it done.
Hey Chris, thanks for the kind words. Not sure how much detail you want, but you asked, so here goes...
I use
a Line6 Toneport UX8 as the main interface to my DAW, which is Logic on a Mac. I run my guitars, bass, and mics into the Toneport and then process them with Pod Farm. It's been a learning process, and still is, to figure out how to get halfway decent guitar tones. Generally what I do now is use the neck pup on my strat and put that through a Soldano SLO 100 model in Pod Farm with the gain/drive way down and the treble and presence backed off too. I also usually turn the volume knob on my guitar down to about 6 for rhythms and about 8 or 9 for leads. I'm liking the tones I'm getting this way, even though they're still not anything to write home about, but they are not fizzy and hard on the ears like the tones I used to get with everything cranked up. Bass is straight into the UX8 with a Silverface Bass Model (not sure what this is modeled on...?), and real drums are a relatively recent addition to my studio. I mic the drums with a Glenn Johns/Recorderman hybrid type setup, and I try to pay attention to the overheads especially to make sure they are in phase. Overhead mics are Avantone CK-1s, I have a Shure Beta 58 (ugh) in the kick and an SM57 on the snare. I generally blend the recorded kick and snare with some Steven Slate samples that are triggered, because my lame kick and snare mics, lousy room, ok preamps, and complete lack of any outboard compressors, etc, make it pretty difficult to get the type of tones I'm looking for without cheating. I also use parallel compression on my kick and snare in general when I mix drums. My vocal chain is a Mojave
MA201 fet LDC into the Line6 UX8. I usually compress my vocals in Pod Farm and put them through a console preamp model (not sure what console it's modeled on...). Acoustic guitar, when I rarely record it, is mic'd with the Mojave and then double tracked. The ukelele was a cheap one I actually bought last year for my wife (at HER request, I promise), but she never plays it, so I decided to give it a whirl. I recorded that the same way I do my acoustic, just standing right in front of the Mojave with the mic pointed at the sound hole.
So, as you can see, I rely on a lot of modeling "stuff" for what I'm doing, and in general I think it's pretty cool. However, if I had the money I'd certainly opt for a more "real" approach with everything. I'd love to have a real Soldano SLO 100 for instance and mic that bad boy up with a nice ribbon into a great preamp. Not happening anytime soon though, so I'm making the best of what I have. Ditto with drums, vocals, etc. I'm sure we're all in the same boat though, so I'll stop the pity party now
Anyway, I hope I didn't make you sorry for asking...lol.
Thanks again guys!
Best,
Dave