Analog Rules!!!

[Blue Bear Sound]

The fanaticism of digital vs. analog arguments is completely stupid.......

...use whatever the fuck gives you the sound you're looking for!!

Analog or digital (and especially high-end digital), if you can't get the sound you're after - then 99% of the time it has more to do with the engineering skills and technique than the recording media itself.......

...period!

 

[frederic]

Thats the biggest understatment on this BBS.

What do you mean? By buying everything at once the local music store monkeys will give me a fantastic discount, and deliver for free since they are about 10 miles away. Thats been worked out already. What to buy has not.

Yeah right...and thats the biggest load of wishful thinking Ive ever heard.

Yeah, well, I meant for big stuff. I don't mind having to buy a new microphone or some additional cables. I'm just tired of changing my mind and coming home with giant boxes that I have to explain to my wife, while packing up the old stuff in the same boxes and shipping to e-bay winners. its a pain in the ass i'm quick sick of actually

Anyway, I snipped out all your digital/analog comments, but you're right. Digital is not for everyone. Even though i started out with analog (obviously), I can't imagine not having the random access and instant location and full automation this new fangled digital stuff has. While I love my pair of otari's and will never sell them, I am hooked on digital from a process standpoint.

Hey, to each their own

And what Bluebear said is very true - its the engineer's skills that make the world of difference. back to my "pro" on a tascam 244 versus a chimp on an SSL analogy earlier.

 

[RICK FITZPATRICK]

Hello frederic, this is the first chance I'v gotten since my last reply to apologize to you if I annoyed or pissed you off for saying some of the things that you have shared in other threads. I was only trying to say just like you did, digital is not for everybody.
Please ignor my comments. Everybit of info I've heard from you is right on and is appreciated.
As of today, I am reorienting my view of my "studio" from a building perspective to a music creation perspectivel. I have gone back to the reason I started this in the first place. So I will use my computer, but not for recording per se. I started tonight with the first pre production chores, and immedietly ran into a brick wall. Now its time to get this midiizer thing going. But I ran into things I've never had to do yet. Like set up all the tempo maps and programming bars into it. And start learning how to run this damn thing Geeeeeeeezus!(But its fun ) Anyone got any midiizer experience? I got questions. In fact, I am kind of dumfounded at this production stuff. Not as easy as it sounds in the manuals. Ha!
fitz

 

[Sennheiser]

Sorry Fitz, I'm still living and operating in the '80's. All I do is hit the record button and the tape rolls.

 

[RICK FITZPATRICK]

Hey, senn, your up late.!

 

[RICK FITZPATRICK]

Easier is more fun!

Me too Senn, I recorded some of my guitar solos today at a friends, with just 1 mic on a portastudio. had a ball. But when it comes to real studio production shit, I KNOW NOTHING! I just figure I might as well get busy trying to use this stuff, or put it on ebay! My wife is tired of seeing my collection of recording stuff grow, just to sit and tie up money she could spend on "shabby chic" crap. Ha' talk about a collection. Hey, what do you play senn? Do you have some originals? Or a band? I went over to Recording Engineers studio the other night and listened to them rehearse. Nice band. Studio was all digital, but real nice. I come back to mine, and decided that I've got to get on with what I have or forget it. Times awaistin! Music is what got me into this, so I've got to get back to that now. But I need to learn how to use the tools I have to do it. That'll keep me busy for the rest of my life probably.
fitz

 

[RICK FITZPATRICK]

Senn, what do you use for drum tracks? A real drummer?
fitz

 

[frederic]

Hello frederic, this is the first chance I'v gotten since my last reply to apologize to you if I annoyed or pissed you off for saying some of the things that you have shared in other threads. I was only trying to say just like you did, digital is not for everybody.

I'm not pissed, I just write harshly. I apologize, didn't mean to give the impression that I'm upset, pissed, disappointed, etc. Whatever people use in their studio is fine with me, didn't mean to imply anything else. I have strong opinions about gear and technology simply because I've been there, done that, and learned numerous expensive lessons along the way. I try to share. But, I do know that I write harshly unintentional. Must be my corporate training

Regarding my TMD4k experience, well, I am a little pissed still because I wasted money - it kinda was an experiment anyway. my problem has always been quantity of input channels. If I could overcome my intolerance for patch bays, this wouldn't be a problem. After all, who needs 40 midi modules patched in at all times?

Anyone got any midiizer experience? I got questions. In fact, I am kind of dumfounded at this production stuff. Not as easy as it sounds in the manuals. Ha!
fitz

Midi in general, or a the midiizer product specifically?

 

[frederic]

Sorry Fitz, I'm still living and operating in the '80's. All I do is hit the record button and the tape rolls.

nothing wrong with that. Does it work for you? Seemingly yes. Then its good stuff

 

[Sennheiser]

Go over to NWR.com and search for Michael Carter. I have some stuff uploaded over there.

Try not to let the ground loop buzz annoy you too much. I didn't get it fixed until a couple of the more recent uploads. My computer was causing it when it was hooked up to the master out's on my console. I had to lift all the grounds on my computer system to eliminate it.

I use the crappy drum sounds on a Casio CTX1000 keyboard. I have a bid on a Roland TR-707 at e-bay right now to try and do better on the drum tracks. I couldn't get a drummer in my room if all he was playing was a conga drum. Well, that's a bit of a exageration, I could get a kit in the next room, but I don't know any drummers.

I used to use a TR-505 in 1985-86, and they weren't bad for their time, but they weren't great either. The TR-707 is supposedly a big improvement with separate out's for each sound and individual volume controls. It also has most of the sounds of the TR-909 at a fraction of the going rate. The down side is that the drums are not tunable.

 

[frederic]

Go over to NWR.com and search for Michael Carter. I have some stuff uploaded over there.

I went to nwr.com and got a domain registry page of some sort. I did it a few times... thats not right, is it?

out's on my console. I had to lift all the grounds on my computer system to eliminate it.

Sounds like fun ! How many .01uf capacitors did you use?

I use the crappy drum sounds on a Casio CTX1000 keyboard. I have a bid on a Roland TR-707 at e-bay right now to try and do better on the drum tracks. I couldn't get a drummer in my room if all he was playing was a conga drum. Well, that's a bit of a exageration, I could get a kit in the next room, but I don't know any drummers.

If you have a lot of tracks available or have the hardware capability for bouncing tracks, you could do it yourself one drum at a time. Its a real pain in the arse but its easily doable.

I used to use a TR-505 in 1985-86, and they weren't bad for their time, but they weren't great either. The TR-707 is supposedly a big improvement with separate out's for each sound and individual volume controls. It also has most of the sounds of the TR-909 at a fraction of the going rate. The down side is that the drums are not tunable.

I remember the 505 well... I modified mine to have individual outs. All it took was 8 RCA jacks, some case drilling, and 8 100 ohm resistors in series with the jacks. When the 707 came out I was about to upgrade to that, then I heard the Kawai R-100 drum machine which had bigger fingerpads and the like, but the feature I liked best was the replacable ROM chips. I still have the R-100, though I don't use it very much anymore sad to say. Between my DM4 and my Triton Rack, I have more drum sounds than I could shake a stick at.

Aaah, the 505, those were the days....

 

[Son of Mixerman]

What do you mean?

Heh heh, the smart mouth Iam sometimes doesn't come across. Based upon the size of the layout for your studio in the studio building forum, I'd say "huge" is an understatement. Id would say a purchase that rivals most countries defense budget would be closer to the truth. And the comment about never going to the music store again is just plain crazy, no gear slut would ever suggest such a thing.

I do have to disagree with Bruce based upon the fact that I use the Yamaha MD8. Everyone makes mistake though.

I do think that being able to operate both platforms is invaluable as an engineer that plans on venturing into the open market. A studio I worked in once refused to work on rap, and I believe that was missing out on expanding our skill set. Im still a midiot because of it, that and because of Cakewalk. Im happy to be recording though, even though its not very good. There is no such thing as bad chocolate


SoMm

 

[frederic]

Heh heh, the smart mouth Iam sometimes doesn't come across. Based upon the size of the layout for your studio in the studio building forum, I'd say "huge" is an understatement. Id would say a purchase that rivals most countries defense budget would be closer to the truth. And the comment about never going to the music store again is just plain crazy, no gear slut would ever suggest such a thing.

Ascii is a cruel, simple medium and no, your smart-ass nature didn't come through. Thats my loss, because in that context, what you said is hilarious

I am a gear slut, I always have been, and probably always will be. Unfortunately, my wife feels that my three hobbies are too expensive as compared to her's, and I have been unsuccessful in encouraging her to take up a more expensive hobby to create some balance. The cost of a rose bush is significantly less than a twin-turbo V6 producing 800HP, and the car I welded together to shove it in. See, music is not my only expensive hobby. *sigh*

What my comment about not going into music stores "ever" was an exhaggeration however, what I was trying to say is the last 15 years I've been spending slowly and buying my rig piecemeal, rather than making logical decisions up front, then buying everything at once. By doing so, I can engineer and assure myself of part compatibility (in theory) and get a better discount by purchasing the vast majority of items at once.

I do think that being able to operate both platforms is invaluable as an engineer that plans on venturing into the open market. A studio I worked in once refused to work on rap, and I believe that was missing out on expanding our skill set. Im still a midiot because of it, that and because of Cakewalk. Im happy to be recording though, even though its not very good. There is no such thing as bad chocolate

Well, to be completely honest with you, Rap is a style of music I could do without. However, I never turned away a rap-style client because as far as I'm concerned, if one could pay the studio rates I charged, they got the same quality service I'd give for a style of music that I preferred. There is a difference between running a studio as your personal living room, and trying to bill enough man-hours to remain in business.

A lot of studios have gone under because they were choosey. The problem is, choosey often results in bankrupcy. Been there done that.

 

[Sennheiser]

I went to nwr.com and got a domain registry page of some sort. I did it a few times... thats not right, is it?

Sorry about that. The actual URL is www.nowhereradio.com.

I shouldn't have assumed everyone here knew what those initials stood for.

That's a neat trick you did with the 505. I'm happy about getting the 707. I can use all of the outs to lay a stereo drum track by bussing on the console and adjust the volumes of the individual drums.

I might record separate tracks for the kick, snare and the rest of the kit too. I haven't worked out the arrangement for the next song I'm going to record, so I'll have to see how many tracks I'll be using.

 

[frederic]

Sorry about that. The actual URL is www.nowhereradio.com.

Aaaah, I took the link literally

That's a neat trick you did with the 505. I'm happy about getting the 707. I can use all of the outs to lay a stereo drum track by bussing on the console and adjust the volumes of the individual drums.

Thanks I really didn't need the indivual outs for every drum, even though I soldered it up. I did this primarily because I wanted a stereo mix, and the snare seperate, so I could add a little flange for a specific project. Originally, I panned all the drums left, and the snare right, and achieved the same thing, but the overall mix of drums wasn't stereo. Since that point, I've tried to purchase drum machines that had seperate outs. My Kawai R-100 has this, the Akai XE8 does, though my DM4 does not. So, I fire off a snare from one of the first listed units and use the stereo mix of the DM4

I might record separate tracks for the kick, snare and the rest of the kit too. I haven't worked out the arrangement for the next song I'm going to record, so I'll have to see how many tracks I'll be using.

For non-techno/non-dance music, I could easily spend hour after hour playing with pans trying to get the kit to sound the way I want.

Anyway, someone asked earlier what one uses for a drummer... since my home studio is tiny and requires humping drums up a flight of stairs (through the vocal booth floor) I simply set up a double set of old simmon's pads, connect them with patch cords to a Roland PM16 (I think) as well as a Roland Ocatpad's external 6-inputs, then merge the midi information together into one midi track. Then after the fact, I can edit, change patches, kits, etc. For more rigid timing I can quantitize it (for techno, dance, rap) and for rock I can usually leave it the way it is based on the guest drummer we often use, and for jazz I can do the reverse of quantization and shift things a hair forward and back for a little more "feel" than our rock drummer often gives us.

This allows me more flexibility, and the drummer only has to bring his favorite throne and sticks And the simmons pads were dirt cheap on e-bay too. A full double bass setup with about 15 tom/snare/cymbal pads cost us less than 200 dollars. Had to make my own stands however, which I used ordinary PVC for. Total bolt together. Takes 20 minutes to set it up, and about the same to tear it down. For wiring I patch it into a 32-channel snake I lay across the floor to the patch bay. Almost too easy.