$100 per channel preamp used on 28 or the 32 tracks on this. Drum overheads, Leslie bottom mic, and Sax in the horn line (not the solo..that used the $100 per channel pre too....) used a $500 per channel preamp. Notice that $500 per channel unit wasn't used on the really upfront stuff?
You guys need to quit worrying so damn much. From what I have been hearing in the MP3 Mixing Clinic, you guys should be worrying far more on just recording MORE with what you have then the merits of preamps. That is discussion for the big boys to entertain themselves with. Of course, that above song sounds every bit as good as any average recording coming out of ANY studio that had the same kind of time/song/musicians/ and budget I had to work with.
That same $100 per channel preamp was in between the console and the mixdown deck.
I do agree though that monitors and mics make a MUCH bigger difference in your final outcome. BUT, in that above recording:
Kick/Sax: RE27 (most expensive mic used)
Snare/Toms/Guitars: SM57
Drum overheads/Trumpet/Trombone/Leslie Horn/Female vocal: AT 4033
Male Vocal: AKG 414
Not exactly what I would call and OUTSTANDING mic pack, but very professional and capable of great results when MIC PLACEMENT and SOURCE SOUNDS are done well! Event 20/20's were used the whole way in tracking/mixing.
Oh, this band enjoyed two experienced producers working on it, who also recorded and mixed it.....
They stopped at nothing to get sounds that worked for the song.
Moral? Start doing some actual recording instead of all this hen pecking over gear selection, and you will soon find out that all this nuance babbling surrounding preamps is a big crock of bullshit. I would never spend money of many of the units mentioned here because they are simply over priced, or impart phoney baloney high mid hash that is not suitable for digital recordings in general. Now there ARE a few preamps listed here that ARE worth some money, but it really doesn't matter what I think, they to me are only worth that kind of money because they do in fact have some uses on specific things that you cannot get with another preamp. But for everyday use, my little ol' $100 preamp seems to be working out okay. What do you think? Take a listen to that audio. It is worth the big download.
Some of you already know what preamp I used on that recording. For the rest of you, take a guess! Also, for the bonus question, take a stab at WHAT I recorded the tracks on, and what I mixed it to (the mixdown medium). I had professional engineers with major label release in their portfolio guessing dead wrong.
Sorry, I just had to step in here and make this point. If you feel I am being kind of harsh when I say that most of you are just posting nonesense, well, so be it, because it is. At some point, SOMEBODY needs to say that generally speaking, the priorities of what is important in the signal chain are pretty blurred around here. I see people nearly going into depression over buying a fucking preamp!!! Oh my god!!! A compressor? Oh shit!!! Better call the doc and get some more pills!!! Try to guess what compressors I had a rack full of when I mixed that song. I will admit the vocal has
a Cranesong STC-8 over it, but after that, you will be VERY surprised at what I used.
Take a guess at the effect processors too!!! I will check back and see what the guesses are. That should be entertaining.
Eddie
] The overall mix doesnt sound very compressed and that probably contributes to that. It has a really nice sense of openess and space, the detail is great but it sounds like some bottom was sacrificed in the interest of maintaining that openess.