Look what I found!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Sir Dingo
  • Start date Start date
That is someone who is truly using there head to come up with ways for his gear to pay for itself!! Good for him!!!
 
Give it up, boys. I'm sittin' here with my Avalon design T-shirt on here, and I doubt Avalon actually loves these people that much. Yeah, like most companies, they love exposure for their products, but they keep their prestige by being associated with high quality end products. I'm pretty sure those guys need Avalon more than Avalon needs them. LOL...Richie
 
Well... it doesn't seem to be a "fucking joke". They've obviously done their homework and found a niche market for themselves providing a service for people who are interested in making their productions the best they can be. And from the looks of their website, they've been doing it with reasonable success for about 3 years now. Obviously a lot of people are satisfied with their service or they wouldn't still be in business now, would they? I put the link up to be helpful, simply because I thought some people might actually really dig the thought of having their fav. tracks running through a hot shit pre-amp. I hardly think the guy is overchargiing LOL

I think ToyRoom said it best when he said someone's truly using his head to get his gear to pay for itself, good for him. What are the rest of you doing? Are you making a living running a successful studio, or are you sought after sound engineers? The negative comments seem to be coming from people who either:

a) have never used and/or don't own any hi-end pres
b) are insanely jealous, or
c) are simply a bit pissed off that they didn't think of the idea first

You sound like a bunch of whinging teenagers...:rolleyes:
 
i think what they meant was that running a mix already recorded and tracked through a high end preamp is only going to add a little more signal loss and some colouration. It won't make the mix any better.

Tracking a high end mic through an Avalon preamp will give you a great sound if you know how to position your mic, running a track recorded through an ART preamp and a radio shack mic through an Avalon preamp is not going to make it sound great.

They made those comments assuming others understood this. But they're making money and that's the point of business, so i supposed there is some truth to your points.

And it's not like mastering, in my opinion it's completely useless, but as you said they're still in business so i suppose some people are suckers.... er, find a use for their services...

We aren't hacking you down so don't get defensive, we appriciate your efforts to make this board a better place :)
 
I do get paid to record/mangle other folks music.LOL
a, Yes I have/used "some" high end crap
b,Im not insane..well not yet anyways
c,You are right! LOL


Really though,I think Ambi said it in his post..


Don
 
I say "why the hell not".

Its not a service I would use, but its a less costly alternative to renting the actual gear, and knowing how to use it properly.

Of course by paying per track and sending your music off to never never land, you have just lost control over the settings on the machine, but for beginners that might be okay actually.

I have often rented gear for customers or my own stuff when I really, really need a high end overpriced box i can't afford to own, so this may be a good solution for some.
 
Forgive me but I am still a newbie...

Don't you really get the advantage of a high end pre-amp by attaching it to a mic and tracking with it? I understand that running it through a preamp afterwards my still help out especially if you have nice converters.

I'm just wondering how much this would compare to a nice VST plug-in?

Are there remote mastering sites where you can send your mixes to? Of course they would have to be trust worthy/reputable places but I'm sure someone has that setup somewhere.

That would be pretty cool because I don't know where there are any locally that don't charge out the wazoo.
 
Oh yeah...
Speaking as a pretty good business man:

The point of business is to lawfully make money. Period.

A person like myself and most of the fine people on this board add the word "ethically" to the above statement but that depends on the person.

I think it is a clever and unique idea.
Almost zero overhead. Maybe a couple of website fees for the host. Some paypal or similar credit card fees (which he can latch onto another business).
Takes a very short period of time to do one of these.
No inventory needed accept his preamp.
Low labor cost.
No competitors.
Smart idea. If he delivers a good product and the customers are happy, then good for him. Who are we to judge? He must be doing something right to be doing it for 3 years.

And... damn I wish I had thought of that one... though I lack the expertise.
 
umair said:

No competitors.
Click to expand...

he does now! hey everyone, i'll charge you 6 dollars per mono track and 11 dollars per stereo track to run your tracks through my joe meek vc3. for an extra dollar i'll autotune them.
 
Sir Dingo said:
I put the link up to be helpful, simply because I thought some people might actually really dig the thought of having their fav. tracks running through a hot shit pre-amp.
Click to expand...


Look, Sir Dorko . . .


The benefit derived from using a good mic pre lies solely in the process of actually plugging your mic in to it before you track.

Now Dingle, I have a couple of pretty decent mics lying around. Why don't I try charging people to send me their tracks so that I can re-mic them with a Blue Dragonfly or an AKG C414? Or better yet, I could rent a U87 ?

Given what appears to be your rather intriguing line of thinking, I suppose you'd be all over that idea, so I'll tell you what . . . I'll give you a generous discount on your first project.


What would be a good idea -- and a few of us have mentioned this before -- would be to send your tracks off and have someone run them through, say, a distressor, a fatso, an LA2A or perhaps a fancy EQ or reverb unit.

That would be very utilitarian, but a very important factor in all of this would be the skill of the person applying the effect. If I felt comfortable that the person knew what he/she was doing, then I might be open to the idea.
 
Useless.

What good is this? A further degradation of the signal chain? Anyone paying for THAT is crazy.

Downright stupid.
 
chesscock said:
Look, Sir Dorko . . .
Click to expand...

Look, Chesscock. . .

If we're at all capable, it would be great if we could all give our differing opinions without the crude and insulting name calling...

It's obviously ideal to track from mic, to pre-amp, direct to tape. I think we all agree on that fact. However, let's look at another situation...let's say someone had a great pre-amp like an Avalon 737, a TM-D8000 digital console, and is tracking to DA-88s. Would it be better to go directly from the pre-amp's XLR output into the DA-88's analog RCA input? Or would most people go form pre-amp, to console, to DA-88 digitally via T/DIF? Or should you track via the console's pre-amp and then use the 737 on the insert during mixdown? There are differeing opinions and preferences here...

The point being, if you have no great outboard pre, and you track say, vocals via your digital console's pre-amps digitally to tape, then send that dry track to someone to run through an Avalon or Manley, etc., you will certainly benefit from a improvement in quality, albeit not the improvement you would get if you tracked direct via the pre. And if you sent every important dry track of your song to this guy, you'll have a hard time convincing me, when all is said and done, that it'll sound worse...

I personally prefer tracking direct to tape via my outboard pres (Manley, Avalon, CIB, etc) depending on the sound source. But there are times where I'll choose to go through the desk first and add the pre-amp later or via the inserts during mixdown. I think any pro engineer will tell you it’s quite common. Or have you never tracked this way at your studio??? Gimme a break...

Like I said before, the guy obviously has return business, which tells me that his customers are satisfied with the improvement in quality that his service gives to their tracks. It's as simple as that.

There's no law saying you have to do it too, so don't. I just don't understand the narrowmindedness of not being able to see how other people in a different tracking situation from yourself can benefit from such a service. Why so aggressive, dude?!?

Sir Dorko ;)
 
Sir Dingo,

I am curious how the copyright notice (2000-2003) tells you that they have been running a successful business with repeat customers for 3 years?
 
Sir Dingo said:
The point being, if you have no great outboard pre, and you track say, vocals via your digital console's pre-amps digitally to tape, then send that dry track to someone to run through an Avalon or Manley, etc., you will certainly benefit from a improvement in quality
Click to expand...

Dicko,

Re-read my post.

The benefit derived from using a good mic pre lies solely in the process of actually plugging your mic in to it before you track. The reasons are many, and they have to do with impedence matching between the mic and the pre . . . gainstaging, slew rate, frequency response, transient response, and the list goes on. What makes a good-sounding mic pre sound good are the physics of the interaction between the mic and the pre as the mic is plugged in to it.

You can't change that by sending it through a mic pre again. You can, however, degrade the signal quite a bit by going through an extra D/A conversion, then taking the signal back down to mic level (effectively reducing it's resolution down to about less than 8 bits I imagine), then adding more noise and more distortion on it's way to yet another A/D conversion.

Think about it, Sir Dildo. You do know there's a difference between a line-level signal and a mic-level, don't you? And you do know which of those a mic pre was designed for, right? But I'm assuming you don't know what's happening to the signal when you take it back down to mic level and then back up to line level. Especially a digital signal. If you did, then you wouldn't be spewing all of this uninformed crap.


If you take something that's already been tracked through a shitty mic pre . . . running it through a good one is [size=large] NOT[/size] going to improve the sound, and should, in fact make it worse. Possibly much worse.

If I have to explain the scientifics of all of this to you, then it's obvious that you are not technically qualified to make a judgement call on this.


What you are saying is misleading and false.

And I apologize for being so harsh with you on this, but in truth, I am trying to help you . . . and I am trying to prevent others from making bad decisions. Kind of a tough love approach, I admit, but it is for your own good, and I mean it with the best of intentions. It's hurting me more than it's hurting you, and you'll thank me for this later. :D
 
I'm smart, and I say chessrock is right! The damage is already done when you record thru the budget micpre, and sending it thru another micpre will not save it. The only thing it can do is add coloration and degrade your soundquality. I don't care about coloration on a track that sounds bad anyhow. :rolleyes:
 
Exactly.
I've got the idea that some of the people just don't seem to grasp how recording actually works.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top