Wow. I'm blown away by your help and tips. I mean, as in excited. I feel like I'm gonna learn some good stuff here. So, let's see ...
Ok... hold up a sec. Do you mean on a parallel bus? That was not how that plugin was designed to be used. I understand that there's no correct incorrect way to use that CLA waves, but you're probably doing some damage if you're running it in parallel using a bus. Lets do this. First read this article I wrote about that plugin
Y'know, my bad. I wasn't clear. It actually is NOT a parallel bus: it's actually in a folder. In REAPER you can create a track and define it as a folder, and then place other tracks beneath it. It functions basically as a submix buss. So, to clarify, the vocals folder has Britson Buss, CLA Vocals, MEqualizer and Scarlett Compressor as plug-ins, with sends to a PBuss (all tracks except drums go to PBuss, which has Saturation Knob and Scarlett Compressor on it), a slap delay buss, and the plate vocals buss (ReaDelay with a reverb impulse).
(Thanks for the article on CLA Vocals. Haven't had a chance to read yet, but I will)
So you have gain/filter -> Melda EQ -> Compression? No... that's not way too much. Its not enough! From there you went parallel to CLA, and parallel to saturation, and parallel to plate, and parallel to slap? Ok... we've gotta get rid of that CLA plugin, its a terrible fit for this particular job.
I have no problem getting rid of CLA Vox. Will do. So, yes, MEq on to compression on submix/folder, and then to PBuss and sends as described above.
Ok... rule of thumb... don't run your saturation in parallel. Run it right on the track, and you want it towards the beginning of the chain. Especially with a vocal. What are you using to saturate?
Interesting. I hadn't heard that. I got the PBuss/Saturation tip from Graham Cochran (Recording Revolution). He suggests running drums to their own GritBuss and all other instruments to a PBuss with saturation.
I'm using SoftTube's Saturation Knob for saturation on the PBuss. I often also use Shattered Glass's SGA1566, but it's such a memory hog I didn't use it in this project. I had it in but disable it: sounds great but keeps crashing REAPER. Ugh.
Do you have any other options for your plate reverb? And do you know how to time the decay of the plate to the tempo of the song?
I actually love the sound of Cockos' reverb plugins (without impulses). I also have Oril River by Denis Tihanov which is quite nice, and OldSkoolReverb (Voxengo), which would be my favs. Yup, I'm good with tempo matching these.
Graham Cochran and Joe Bilder rx not relying so much on reverb for vox, but favor a good slap delay instead. Do you agree?
You'll probably end up needing a de-esser somewhere in this chain too. When you start to layer your compressors, you start to needing to control sibilance in the 6-8k range.
Do you have an 1176 or LA2A emulator?
You are correct on the de-esser. I do not have that in the chain. No, I do not have an 1176 or LA2A emulator. For compression I've been using Scarlett Red, or ReaComp, both which sound quite decent IMHO, but are not 1176 or LA2A emulators. I also love TDR's Kotelnikov, but I usually use that on the master buss.
Ahh. The bass is an Epiphone recorded DI, with the signal chain: Britson Channel>Guitar Rig 4 (Bass Pro Amp)>MEq>Scarlett Compressor>bx sub filter (which I remixed last night for a tighter and brighter bass)
Addictive Drums "2"? Good. That's an insanely powerful and capable drum engine. I like to start in Addictive by disabling every single effect in the entire preset. Matter of fact, my presets all have the EQ/comp/noise/saturation modules turned off and the effects sends muted. I start from there. Even with those modules turned off, the drums samples are still heavily compressed. The drawback to processing inside Addictive is that you don't have a lot of options or control over the compressors. The EQ is somewhat adequate (though I hate the interface). I would start by setting up a multi-out signal path to your DAW. Take every single mic including your room mics and bring them into your mixer. That particular track is going to need some heavy automation because there's certain elements you'll want to push back and pull forward at different times during the mix. It is MUCH easier to automate drum kit pieces that are on a fader than to try and automate a parameter inside Addictive.
Yes, AD2. I actually did set up multi-out sends of each piece of the kit to its own track in REAPER. I was using the internal default routing of AD2 with all sound coming from the internal master buss. But I also did a lot of routing, saturation and eq (esp on the kick): so I routed each piece of the kit as well as overhead/room/etc. to its own track. The Kick track (NOT in AD2, but the track it's routed to in REAPER) is re-EQ'd (Melda) and has compression as direct fx, with sends going to a KickBuss in parallel, which has more dramatic EQ and compression. All elements of the kit -- each REAPER Track -- is then sent to a Grit Bus, which as EQ, then saturation, then compression, with a reverb send.
I remixed it last night to send the AD2 REAPER tracks not only to the grit buss, but also directly to the master out as well.
So, when you're talking automating the drums, it sounds like you automate using the DAW faders? Is there a way to automate using velocity envelopes? My understanding is that AD2 triggers different samples based on velocity (I'm not sure on that). The idea being changing not only the volume of each piece, but also the samples triggered. It sure would sound a lot easier to do using the DAW faders! So, you're not only automating the master drum buss that they're all routed to, you are independently routing the pieces separately, yes?
And would you be opposed to still using AD2's Master out, maybe at a lower volume, as a PBuss?
Lets start from the ground up and get your drums behaving the way we want them too, then I'll show you some tricks for thickening, fattening up that bass and getting it to cut though on small speakers if you have time.
"If you have time," he says! This is great. I'll MAKE time! Thank you.
So, tell me how you want me to start on the drums, and how to move forward. So, yes, the multi-outs are already in the project. I'll kill the master out inside AD2 for now. I'll save as a new project altogether. Should I remove all fx and sends and busses for the drums? I.e., straight drum tracks in the DAW, no internal routing from inside AD2, no master, etc.? Then what from there?
Tesgin