Ha! Haven't posted an mp3 for awhile!

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sonusman

sonusman

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So, I will link you all to some "work in progress" sort of.

Okay, the preface.

I have 16 tracks of ADAT installed at the club I am mixing at. I run all the snake channels to a Mackie 32/8 and use the Direct Outputs from the Mackie into the inputs of the ADAT's via Elco cables.

The output of the ADAT's run into my Soundcraft Ghost console via Elco cables for the actual live mixing.

This setup allows me to set preamp levels going to tape that have no eq applied and I can then record with no fader moves from the live mixing. Cool eh? :)

So, a couple weeks ago, this band comes strolling in to play (1 of 5 I mixed that night, which is pretty standard on most nights at this club. I mix at about 15 bands a week!). They looked like a bunch of nerds, but hey, they had instruments!

The typical set change here is 15 minutes. That is, 15 minutes after the band before get's done, the next band starts playing. This set change includes all equipment setup, etc.....Usually, there is no time for even a line check on the instruments before they start playing. I have to usually set their monitor mix based upon intuition and waiting for feedback from the band AFTER their first song.

So anyways, this band starts playing. I realize about half way through the first song that they are pretty decent, so at the end of the song, I start recording their show. Remember, I only had one song to set levels to the ADAT's, and NO chance to move mics around to optimize the placement in any way.

So, this is the 8th song in their set.

About two weeks after tracking it, I got into work an hour early and ran some quick mixes of the songs. Literally, I spent about 10 minutes on this mix. I ran the song through about halfway to set some levels and make a few crude eq adjustments, then let er' rip to CDR. I used my Marantz CDR burner, so the mix was at 16 bit 44.1kHz sampling rate.

I then took the CDR burner home and hooked it up to my soundcard and copied the mix to the hard drive and did a bit of eq and limiting in Wavelab. This "mastering" was literally one time through the song to set eq and limiting, then applied the processing.

Here is the result.


Okay, now I didn't mention a few things about the actual mixing here....:)

I used the clubs PA system as my reference monitors! That's right, a club PA system to listen and make subjective mixing decision in 10 minutes on! :) Nice eh?

Tracks and the processing involved:

Kick - Used an old Biamp Noise gate that ran into a Alesis 3630 comp.

Snare - Same processing as the Kick

Racks 1, 2, and Floor Tom - Used my Behringer Multigate

Bass - Used a Behringer Composer

Guitar - There were two guitar tracks, but only one guitar. Not sure why he had two amps, but I mic'ed them both. I track delayed the right side amp about 20ms to add a bit of depth.

Vocal - Used a Behringer Composer

Only used 1 reverb patch over the instruments, and that reverb was from a Alesis Quadraverb 2, on the Plate 2 setting.

Anyway. This is not a "finished" product. Rather, it is a mix that was done with very cheap gear (except my Ghost console to mix on....:)) and using PA speakers for monitors. I plan to actually spend a bit of time on the mix in another week or so, but I don't have my monitors installed at the club yet, nor a 24 bit mixdown medium to mix to, so when I get it all in there, I will have a "real" mix of this stuff.

Enjoy!

Ed
 
As I guessed you're probably some type of witch doctor or a shamen.

Or just full of shit.

But if you aren't, it sounds like a pretty amazing mix, though.

Too bad the band wasn't any better, it might actually be worth something.
 
Good good sound. I liked the band, and the song. What'd the band say when they heard this one? Or shouldn't we ask that question? :D
 
Very nice in every way Ed..

You'd better keep your mouth shut about that so other bands playing at the club get to hear about it... They'll be all over you to get their gigs recorded... But you probably knew that allready.. :-P

Anyway.. nice mix, nice song. GJ
 
Very interesting. The bass and drums is the best part of that band, and the mix of it was amazing given the situation. I suppose the guitar was mixed well too, but the guitarist was masturbating so much it kind of distracted me. Why did you leave the vocal so far back?

About limiting -- I've never used Wavelab; does it have its own limiter or are you using some plug-in?

I noticed that you converted it at 192 kbps. As you know, all the mp3 sites require 128. Is there a significant difference in quality?
 
Hey Ed -
I think I have your scheme figured out. You record all these "no names" in hopes that some day they will be "somebodies" (sort of like buying a no names rookie baseball card), then, if they ever make it big, you have the "Beatles Live at the Cavern" mix of them when no one knew who they were. Pretty shrewd!!!

1. I did like the drums and bass. Snare had a nice pop to it and the bass was really clean.

2. I liked the "space" you put on the guitar in the middle.

3. Vocals - hmmmmmmm - was that guy singing in English? Did you do something to make his voice sound like a cassette tape that you left on the dash of your car, or did he just keep backing off of the mic and put a lot of vibrato in his voice? I can't figure out what exactly I'm hearing there with the vox.

4. What was the name of the group? (That way, I can use the mp3 I downloaded to possibly blackmail them if they make it big)

:D :D



mutt
 
I really liked that tune. It goes perfectly with a rave gig. These are simply the next generation of Dead-heads... :)
They've just traded in the speed and the acid for some X, which is a cross between the two anyway.

The mix sounded crisp even forgetting about the limitations you mentioned.

Your quickie mastering methodology sounds a lot like what I've been doing with the live recordings I get.
Except for the results..... someday, though. Someday.
 
Hey doc, I haven't heard anything from you for a while. Oh, send me an email so I can add you again to my address book. I just did a massive upgrade to the puter and had to reinstall the OS and didn't have the time to back things up (long story, but a fun one....:))

Get me linked to some of your live mixes so I can take a listen.

mutt - You got me all figured out! ;)

LI Slim - I am thinking the guitar player is good on some days, and not so good on others. This was the first time I heard them, and he puts on a great show while playing.

Anyway, Wavelab has something called Puncher, and another called....oh crap, don't remember....Anyway, they both work reasonably well. I use the Waves L1 Ultramaximizer and in rare cases, the Steinberg Loudness Maximizer for mastering stuff. I just like how they sound much better then any other "limiter" plugs I have tried.

About mp3 encoding. 192 is the minimum cut off for "archival" quality in mp3's. 192 is about as low as you can get and have great sounding audio without a bunch of artifacts. I use a Fraunhofer codec, and it does do a really nice job at 128, but you can still hear a pretty significant quality difference between 128 and 192 on ANY encoder. I like to do 192 because then I know you guys downloading this stuff will be hearing it at the closest to .wav quality without having a huge download on your hand.

Meshuggah - Believe it or not, not too many bands have taken advantage of this service with me. I am not charging very much at all to throw in the ADAT tapes and track their show, and the tracks are more then clean enough to take to a studio and mix them out for a great sounding live CD.

The thing is, most of the bands that play at this place are very very young. No, I don't mean 22 or 23, I mean like 13 or 14. The "old timers" are 17 or 18! Really. So, they are all mostly broke. This particular band are "dinosaurs" who are in their mid 20's! LOL.....This place makes me feel very very old! :(

Ed
 
errmmm?

"The mix sounded crisp even forgetting about the limitations you mentioned. " - drstawl

I dont know what world you come from, but when you are uing a mackie 32*8 AND a Ghost AND 16 tracks of ADAT you most likely arent that limited, atleast in a sense. Of course you could always just pulla winnabago full of equipment up to the back of the venue and do the sound in there. somehow i dont think im the first to come up with that idea.
 
Wut? That amazes me to no end...

When I do live-jobs. The kids ALWAYS bug me about recording their shit... They even bring along their own portable MD-players...
 
Great sound Ed. But that's just about what I'd expect out of you.
 
The sound from the mix was great.....clean clean clean which doesn't often happen with live stuff.....I listened twice, and the tune grew on me, but I don't know if that was because of the mix or the band.....that drum and guitar sound was particularly nice...after hearing the vocals, though, I'd have to say it was because of the good mix...:D....gibs
 
wow ... that's amazing ...
I should just give up now because I'll never be able to run with it like you do ... talk about great instincts!
It's inspiring, Ed .. it really is.
I hope they're paying you well at this club!!

So ... if you don't mind me asking ... umm ...
Did you pull your Ghost and ADATs out of the truck? ... just wondering what's up because I see that you're not at the same web host anymore either. Have you moved on from Echostar ... or is this phase II?
This probably isn't the place to ask such things, and maybe it's been covered before, but I guess I must have missed it.
 
I do like the band, the guitarist has a nice sense of movement. left me hanging though... donn't these kids know that songs are supposed to be a least six minutes long? :D

the singer has a clue, just can't quite enunciate it. I like the arrangement...

enough about the band...

defintly a live beast you got there ed. I don't necessarily like that 'verb (at least not so heavy on it), but it does add to the live feel. I like the bass sound. I'm listening on some headphones, I'm noticing that in the beginning there isn't enough "oomph" then you seem to dail in in there, but it gets a bit muddy, then you nail it somewhere along the line. could be the player though... ??

Tell me one thing. What is the guitarist's rig? I love his sound!

-jhe
 
Damn,

Ed, that is a smooth mix. I like the band and the song too. The last really good live sound I've heard was Ben Folds Five, and this is easily as good if not better.

BTW, is that you screaming at the end? Nice touch!
 
Hey, Ed...

I really enjoy this song. I like the feel, the sound, the arrangement... This is the type of recorded sound I like to listen to, and my lazy ears didn't *zing* to anything wrong with the sound (i'm writing this two days later, btw, with few listens in between).

What I remember from the song, even having not listened to it for at least 12 hours, is that there was no room mic to pic up the audience. It sounded as if 1) you turned up the vocal mic to pic up the audience at the end, or 2) don't care for the crowd too much and kept whatever room signal you DID record at a low level (in the mix). May I suggest adding two XY mics on the roof facing outward to pick up the crowd for these recordings? A hyper-cardioid might allow you to artificially add "hype" and "activity" to the club inbetween songs, and allow for audience response in these "bootlegs." If it's done live, there will be mistakes, and the crowd response "validates" those mistakes with energy.

That was one of the few songs I've heard that didn't make a delay pedal into an annoyance.


Oh, yeah. I'd delay the drums a bit, seems like they're ahead of the beat.
 
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