I lost my virginity

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John Sayers

John Sayers

Solar Power!!
Yup - I've finally got to record a live band direct to HD in a totally digital domain.

Last week we had a jazz trio into the studio and tried out the rooms etc. We had the piano in the piano room, drums in the larger booth and acc bass in the smaller booth.

Recorded through the DA7 via a nuendo hammerfall card into our PIII 866 with Nuendo. Great stuff, Nuendo worked like a dream , not one crash all day!!

Mikes used were:

Drums:
16" kick - Beyer M88
Snare - 57
HiHat - 57 (all I had )
Toms - 2 x Senn 421
O/Heads - 2x AT4050

Acc Bass - Beyer M88 and 10% pickup

Piano - 2 x Rodent Classics. Borrowed (our AKG 414's haven't arrived yet)

All mikes are flat except for a 3db high shelf on the piano and O/Heads.

Check it out



cheers
john
 
ewwwwww!

No, it sounds good, got some good rooms John!
 
Hi John... I had posted this question in Joe Egans thread, but moved it here when I saw this one. I'l be listening to the mp3 in a second.

>
John:
How are you connecting your Nuendo Card (96/52?) to your DA7? Light-pipe? Do you run the automation for the DA7 through Nuendo or do you do that through the software mixer? Please forgive me if those are basic questions.
Very interesting, I'm thinking of upgrading from the LX20's I have and this seems like a good possibility. Especially now that it seems as though the HD24 actually may not ship at all. :(
Although I'm still NOT sold on PC recording (not multitracking anyway) ... your endorsement helps.
Thanks
 
wow ... outstanding sound John! ... I'm blown away. Although I shouldn't be, great sound should be expected from you ... ;)

oh, another question ... what O/S are you running on your PC?

I feel that twinge again ... what's it called? ... oh yeah, inspiration.

Thanks much for sharing this.
BTW, these musicians are awesome!
 
Thanks for the kind words BigKahuna...OK ... we are connected to the DA7 via lightpipe as you mentioned.2 slots in the DA7. At the moment we don't have the DA7 software to run it off the PC but I'm assured it is coming but the guy who has been supplying has fucked up so many times it's getting to the point of screaming. It's all very well to undercut your prices but it's pain when you don't deliver.
The PC is running on Windows 98 second edition with 256 RAM.

I wasn't sure about multitracking on a PC either, but we were recording only 12 tracks and it cruised through the sessions. It will do 16+ easily.

I mixed using the nuendo mixer with a Waves L1 Maximizer across the output to control any peaks and give it a bit of compression/loudness or whatever that damn plugin does :) Whilst playing around I put compressors, reverbs (Oh there's a nuendo verb on the drums) It didn't flinch or dropout at anytime. The silence of HD Digital is amazing and the rewind time...well what can I say :)

We went DA7 because when we investigated AD/DA converters it looked like around AUD$6,000 for 2 x 8 units. For AUD$10,000 we got 16 AD/DAs plus a mixer. The only limitation is it's only 48Khz and I can see 96Khz looming on the horizon very fast these days.

I mixed down from Nuendo all 24bit/48 directly to 16/44.1 using nuendo mixdown option which is what you got after Wavelab took it down to an MP3.

Hope that helps mate. I'm totally sold on HD recording after this. Love it!!


cheers
John
 
I'd kill to have come up with that building progression that ends at 0:26... wow.

Well, thanks, John. Thanks for showing us how FRIGGIN' HORRIBLE we really are.

Perfect piece, nummy. Way to go.

:D
 
There's this thing going on here, aside from pianos being tough to mic but Sayers pulls it off (how come you didn't use a shure or the AT? :)), and the good good sound on the drums (the bass is there and respectable and sounds good, but I still want more of it :)). And that thing is this - these guys are a pretty good bunch of jazzers. How much jazz gets recorded and uploaded at this site? Jazzers are discriminating. John's drawing guys like these to his studio, and that's telling.

Yeah, I think this studio's moving along propitious lines. :D
 
dobro said:
Yeah, I think this studio's moving along propitious lines.

I don't know what that means, but I'd have to agree.

That was some nice stuff there John. I agree with Kelly, I suck. If only I had the money, I could suck and it would be better recorded.

H2H
 
John????

Did you track with all the mics flat?..... I use pretty good mics, SM57's and audix D series.. and have a MACKIE 32/8 console.... If I track drums flat, the cymbals, sound like garbage can lids (not really, but you know what i mean)... (and I am miking properly)... Good drum kit, + cymbals also..... it seems I have to really eq the cymbals and high hat.... to get them thin and crisp....(that commercial sound)........ how did you acheive, such a good recording with flat eq'ing?.. Joe
 
Thanks for the info John.
I guess I assumed that the new mkII mixer would have 24/96 capability ... especially since they just came out w new stand alone converters. But it doesn't. I don't see it as that limiting since the rest of this mixer is awesome (IMHO).
Good info about Nuendo ... thanks. Definitely a possibility I'll look info further. If you were automating mixes on the DA7 through it, I think it would have been a no-brainer. ;)
Do you have plans to increase to 24 tracks at some point? Do you think your PC would handle it well?
Well since you're now in the middle of the Outback, I doubt I'll get an answer in the next few months ;)... but thanks alot for opening my eyes more to HD recording.
 
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