Hmm. I did bring up the drums a good bit. I never wanted drums to be a huge part of the sound of this, even when I wrote it years ago. The first time I recorded it when I was 19, with my 4-track cassette recorder (I feel old saying that), my drummer had these sticks that were like bundles of little wood sticks bound together. They sounded like a cross between brushes and regular sticks. For this I used a brush kit from Abbey Road Vintage Drummer. I want them to be fairly soft, but of course not too low because the groove is important. I brought everything up on that last mix, probably as high as I'll want it. But I'm about to listen to what I did last night on the way to work (for some reason my stock Ranger stereo system is a good benchmark for recordings), so I'll give that more consideration. I'll also pay attention to the reverb. I'm normally very conservative with reverb, but I wanted it a little more prevalent on this. I thought it was still fairly light, but I'll look at it again. If what I did last night sounds as good as I think it does, then I'm done. I'll post it later tonight if it's good. I brightened up the vocal some, and I made the guitar warmer and fuzzier. I'm about to find out, after a good sleep, if it was in good taste.
The Studer is designed for use on each track, as if you were tracking to tape. The Ampex is for the mix bus, as if you were mastering to tape. The danger is in getting too creative with the settings when I track, as there are many options. I mostly just use the vintage preset, with the tape noise turned off. I read that for Siamese Dream, they used that exact setup, but of course with the real tape machines. I was sold when I found that out, as to me that is one of the best sounding rock albums ever.
I've been drowning in minutia for a long time now. I'm really hoping I post the final mix later tonight. Thanks guys, this has been a huge help.
