Exciters and cheap mastering machines

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ray J
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Ray J

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I've posed this question before and I've done searches but am still looking for 1st hand opinions. I have a yamaha md8. I like the unit but it seems no matter how I eq, compress, track, or whatever, my recordings seem to be a bit 'light'. I don't know if it's my inexperience on the recording end of things or the unit, or a lack of good equipment but my question is. Can an Aphex Aural Exciter or Behringer Ultramizer Pro improve this situation. ANyone have first hand info about these units. WHat about the, dare I say. Nady exciter? Anyone?

Ray J
 
In general, these types of units will hurt more than they will help... and the Behringer will only make things MUCH worst, period!

Processing can make a great recording greater, and a good recording better - but use an Exciter on a bad recording and you get a slightly more detailed, muddy, bad recording....

Much better to be getting the sound of the individual tracks right as they're being laid down than to try and "fit them in" at mix-down or mastering time.

Bruce
 
Thanks for the info. You're not the first person to badmouth the Behringer Ultramizer. The response on the aphex has been a little more lukewarm but the word gritty keeps coming up.
 
well...I have the md8 and the aphex...I find if you have a mix that you like it can make it a touch louder without peaking and slightly enhance the over all sound...it isnt a magic box and wont give you a pro sounding master (by far...you get what you pay for) it can add a little sparkle if used correctly (very very very sparingly)
Unfotunately the md8 while having some great features lacks alot more than it offers...I really doubt that the best proformace even if recorded by a top notch engineer would be able to produce a mastered or (pre-mastered for that matter) sounding recording regardless of the prossessor you run it through...however the md8 is a GREAT writing tool and is miles above cassette in the areas of hiss and random accsess(I still think my old tascam 4-track and a good mic/pre combo SOUNDS way better) Ill sum it up like this:
a recording done in a pro studio (assuming the proformance is good) and then mastered is like taking an old tarnished peny and making it brand new--a recording done on the md8 run throuh the aphex is like washing that old penny with dish soap and water!!
 
digidom,

You've confirmed another thing that I've been hearing, the exciters can be beneficial when used in very small doses and the level of effectiveness according to your analogy was about all that I expected of one of these units. If I find one cheap on ebay, I may get it.

Regarding the md8, there are a lot of things I love about it, but the sound hasn't been one of them but, I'm still reserving judgement on the sound of the md8 until I get a little better at tracking, mixing and add a few modest pieces of equipment. I live in a small town but there is one other guy in town with an md8 and he swears he's getting some great recordings out of it. He has a little better equipment on the periphery than I do and is much more technologically inclined than I. I'd heard his very first recording, and this was a while back, but it was certainly better than what I'm doing production wise.

One more question. What are you mixing down to?
 
I mix mainly to a modest phillips cd burner for pre-production only...I have mixed to my pc and a tape deck but the cds are more convenient...
 
mastering on md8

i posted a reply on mastering on md4s about burning a cd from an md4s & md8 it may be interesting to you it's the one Ed started, i also have the md8 and a Phillips burner,and while my recordings are far from pristine they do sound pretty good! because the md format is compressed digital the quality is not as good so you have to make every effort to load as much signal as you can without clipping on the actual recording tracks and also when you master to the burner. i have also noticed that ANY EQ used by the on board mixer of the md4s 0r md8 has a mild distortion. monty
 
you guys are making way too much out of the compression - you can really only tell with analyzation equipment - as far as the quality of the md8 - it is excellent - i think maybe just a lack of experience may have something to do with it - you can clearly get a master quality recording with the md8 and without a ton of external equipment - i've read some posts on other sites where some studios have switched to an md8 - of curse -when you've completed your project - i do think you need to go to a proper studio for final mastering - this is no different than any of the major artists do - as far as devices that would be usable - a decent compressor (joe meek) and a decent eq - (preferably parametric) - there is no magic wand - or electronic device (especially one that costs 149.99 or less) that is going to improve your playing or recording and make you sound like a 100k recording
 
Ray J;
I own an MD8. It is the only digital machine I have ever had, about 2 years and I like it a lot. It is a very basic machine without any effects but I had all that when I jumped from the TASCAM 238 to digital. I discovered after a few demos that the md8 pre-amps were not good. I could not get my vocals up over the rest of the music. For experiment, I started using my Mackie 1604 as the mixer, bypassing the md8 mixer. Suddenly, the vocals were up there again. That 1604 mixer is no toy. There are a lot of them around and I could still sell it for a good price. But, I am running analog into the md8. I am thinking of getting a Presonus or Joe Meek pre and selling the Mackie. I don't know how you record, but I now use a JS-5 for my bass and drum backing tracks. I am a one man band operation. I do not even go to disc with the JS5. I use the midi sync. That allows me more tracks without bouncing around and that seems to help my sound. I also run my final mixes into a BBE and that seems to get a hotter mix. It works for me. I send my demos out to Taxi and I have had some nice comments about their quality. I mix down to minidisk and I even put a minidisk player in my car and it really sounds great. I think though that before long I will look into a Roland 1880. I like minidisk format but with all the fast improvements these manufacturers make, it will be affordable to jump to 16 track hard disk in no time at all.
 
Just a thought - what are you monitoring through?
I'm using the old Md4 (original model) and my mixes greatly improved when I upgraded my monitor amp and speakers.
 
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