Hey guys! Thanks for the feedback, comments and questions!
Well If that is the m520 and the Rs20 reverb...
Just a point of clarification, Herm, but its not the M-520...the M-520 has a new owner. It was the M-___ mixer (prototype M-50/M-500 mixer) and, again,
only used on the vocal track. I would have
loved to track everything through it but it is just not up to operational snuff yet...wanted to be able to handle all the cue mixing and monitoring through it too but one channel is still down on the master buss and I've only gone through one input module and after all the issues we dealt with during previous tracking sessions with the M-520 (i.e. before I had gone through it) I didn't want to repeat that experience so I kept it to using just the one channel that has been cleaned, recapped, etc. It worked flawlessly BTW and the eq was really helpful. As mentioned before, her voice has a lot of power and cut and (Otto) I was indeed using a Chinese mass-produced LDC (more on that later) so there was that issue with which to contend. The M-___ made it easy though: I was able to dial in conservative narrow-band cuts at 2k and 4k and applied the 50Hz HPF on the vocal and it worked out great. Anyway, not knocking the M-520. It was my favorite preamp in the studio before the M-___ came into the picture and the
guy I sold it to was impressed when he got it home as well as a friend of his who owns
Fairfax Recordings in California. They've both worked with one of the EMI consoles out of Abbey Road because it is now at Fairfax but they were both "blown away" by the quality and features of the M-520. Isn't that cool?
And the reverb is the 'B' version of the RS-20...I think both use the same coils but the non 'B' version is just basic in and out while the 'B' version has a switcheable 200Hz HPF and a fixed limiter as well as input and output level controls. I used it as a send effect on the drum overheads, vocal, and guitar tracks. Daniel, I think the "creaminess" comes in part to the keyboard pad but also from the RS-20B. I really like what it does and I really liked what my Boss
RX-100 did before I got the RS-20B. They don't all sound poinky like a cheap spring tank on a combo amp. The RS-20 and RS-20B have 4 springs each, two per channel to cover a wider range more effectively.
...the sound of the kit is wonderful. (Is that you playing?)
Yeah that's me. The kit is one that I made back in another season in life. Looks like this:
The shells are Keller maple shells I got back in the 90's. The toms are the DW-inspired 5+3 shells...5-ply with 3-ply reinforcing hoops 12" x 8" and 14" x 12". The kick is 10-ply with no reinforcing hoops 20" x 16". The snare pictured is not the one I recorded with (though the one pictured is also 10-ply with no reinforcing hoops and the size of that green one is 13" x 8" or 7.5")...I used a 12" x 5" 6-ply maple shell drum that also has no reinforcing hoops and only 6 lugs. I have a granite surface block and router jigs setup so I can do the whole precision bearing edge thing and I go a step further than a lot of people and make sure that not only are the edges true but I also make sure the top and bottom of the shell are perpendicular to the cylinder and hence also parallel to each other. A lot of companies do the 45-degree counter-cut with the round-over on the outer edge for the bearing edges but after refurbishing a lot of edges on vintage drums and questioning why people like them so much I realized it is the terrible edges on them. A number of manufacturers in the 60's and early 70's like Slingerland and Ludwig had 3-ply shells maple-poplar-maple; thin maple plies and a thick poplar ply. Poplar is a really great wood to have sandwiched in between the maple because it is has a lot of airspace and you get a resonant chamber...kind of along the lines of what Premier tried to do with their Resonator drums. Problem is that since the poplar is a soft wood and the majority of the bearing edge consisted of that poplar ply the bearing edges became just about flat over the years...but why are those older drums so sought after? Some of it is just a phantom because the drums don't sound today like they did then since the edges have deformed over time, but today's relatively sharp bearing edges do indeed allow for more resonance, but at all frequencies. A more rounded bearing edge will have a muting effect on some of the higher overtones so you get a sort of natural muffling and controlled ring that leaves room for the lower tones. Its subtle in some cases. Long story short I just do a round-over inside and out on mine so the bearing edge has a semi-circle profile. The shells are thinner than vintage shells, and the edges
much more consistent so I feel like I got the best of both worlds; the decay and consistent tone of a precision edge with some of the HF control of a more dull edge profile. More than you wanted to know but I think it does play into how they record. The lugs I designed and built in the machine shop. I took some of the concept from the GMS lug with the barrel nut, but applied a solution to a problem with the design (and with all lugs in general) discussed by my main drum mentor in life, George Tuthill. George is gone now but I gained so much from him both from a technique and musicality standpoint but also from his years in R&D at Slingerland and Yamaha. There are a number of his ideas that made it to production in particular with drum corp drums. The issue with drum lugs, and you really see it with cast high-tension lug casings on non-free-floating corp snares, is that because the lug attaches to the shell
inboard (i.e. further away from the bearing edge) of the actual lug nut the casing starts to bow away from the shell in the middle...that's why they started putting a screw in the middle of the corp snare lug casings...but they still distort and the chrome cracks...any of you that have played marching snare have probably seen it. George always said that the lug-mount screw should be
outboard of the lug nut (i.e. attachment screws for the lug casing are closer to the edge of the shell than the lug nut). So that's what I did, and using tubular steel I got strength with less weight. I was on a high-tension lug kick when I designed it but the reality is (that I've learned) high-tension lugs are silly for drumset drums, with the exception of some snares and tuning preferences, and I think they actually kill the resonance of the shell and I'm not talking about because of contact, but because they create (particularly with my design) a secondary resonance loop which is going to naturally open the door to clashes in resonance...the shell isn't free. Its being restricted by the rigid members spanning the length of the cylinder. But they work good nonetheless.
Okay. Sorry. 'Nuff about the drums.
I would like to hear more of how everything was recorded and what mics and stuff like that.
Sure...here goes...
Okay, vocal was tracked using a Studio Projects B3 set to cardioid, no pad or lo-cut. As was recommended earlier in this thread I used a little half-booth for the vocalist out of acoustic panels and there was a heavy foam mattress on the wall behind her. Otto, She was indeed probably about 18" ~ 24" away from the mic. I would have
loved to use an Oktava MK-219 that cjacek gifted to me.
It is finicky and needs some fixing up (works sometimes, and then randomly cuts out). We were able to get through another song using it and it sounds
awesome, but we couldn't get it to keep working for us by the time we got to "Crimson Road". But I will get it working consistently because it is worth it and confirms for me that I'm going to get rid of my Studio Projects C1...can't
stand that thing. The B3 worked pretty good...doesn't have the same hi-register presence as the C1 so it was tame enough but doesn't have the smooth and full character of the Oktava. Okay and then I described already the preamp and eq setup for the vocal track.
Bass was tracked through the hi-z input on my
Presonus Digimax FS. Its my favorite except for the hi-z input I had on the M-520...that was such an alive sounding instrument preamp...an
ART TCS compressor was inserted on the bass channel...I set it to an optical compressor preset for bass, set the attack and release to keep the bite and so the reduction meter danced cooperatively with the 8th note pulse...threshhold was set to get about -3 ~ -4dB of reduction and there is a tube filter on that TCS too and I had that inserted...ratio was 3:1. The TCS is far from boutique AFAIK...I don't even know what boutique is but the TCS works good for me...I have 3 of them. It's versatile without being one of those Swiss-Army-does-everything-but-nothing-well boxes. The bass instrument was
my Ibanez Roadstar II. 80's 24-fret passive bass with two switcheable single/humbucking soapbar pickups on pushpots...one volume, one tone and a fader knob. I can get a good range of sounds out of it. Electronics are stock. Would like to know more about mods but can't seem to find any info.
There are two keyboard tracks: a pad and an arpeggio that comes in and out...both are stereo patches but the arpeggio is panned left. Both are triggered inside the DAW using a virtual instrument that came with my DAW software which is Cubase Studio 4. The vocalist did the main keyboard track that is triggering the pad and I added the arpeggio later.
Guitar tracks...there are 4 of them. One was provided by me which doubles the keyboard arpeggio in several spots. I also added a distorted pickup to the last chorus. My guitar is an Agile 2000 LP archtop knock-off. Set neck, stock P90-style pickups, mahogany body and maple neck...weighs a ton but it is really well-made. Korean...$250. You can kind of see it in this picture:
My guitar tracks were tracked through a Digitech GNX2 using stock patches. A/D conversion was handled by my Yamaha
i88x.
The other guitar tracks (clean leads, chord comps and drive crunch at the end) were handled by my friend on his original Ibanez Iceman guitar through
a Digitech RP80, again, using stock patches and tracked through the i88x.
The drums were mic'ed using Studio Projects B3's in cardioid with the pad inserted for overheads, 57's for the toms, and an AKG D112 and an Audix D6 on the kick. No snare mic. I placed the B3's while listening to my 4 year old playing the kit. Just went for a good balanced sound that captured the kit well. If you picture a clock face over the kit and you're loooking down over the kit the left mic was at about 8 o'clock and the right mic at about 4 o'oclock. Both were maybe 6' up and angled toward the kit...I think one was lower than the other and again that was just based on listening...I had a set of those acoustic panels behind each mic creating a little trap. Tom mics were as standard, hanging over each tom and pointing to the center of the head...I wanted attack, but I've started placing them maybe as much as 6" above the head. I feel like I get a more full sound that way and can still get the attack pointing it to the center. The toms have Remo Emperors on top and clear Diplomats on the bottom...damping rings placed on the top like in the pics above...I wanted them pretty controlled for the session. Snare has an old Fiberskyn2 on the batter and a snare-side Diplomat on the bottom, no damping. The kick has a Clear Emperor on the batter with thick foam gasketing stuck around the perimeter on the inside...the first ply of the head is worn through so I glued a piece of an old head over it to hold it for the session. That glued piece was starting to come up which gave a nice attack definition in the end. Hard plastic beater. Resonant head is a Fiberskyn3 with just a small hole in it close to the edge big enough to get the XLR cable through to the D112 which is mounted inside about 2/3 back from the batter head pointing straight at the beater contact zone. There is an old feather pillow inside the drum as well as a folded towel laid against the front head. The kick is pretty dry. Works good for recording but for live acoustic or just recreational playing the pillow comes out and just the towel stays. Then I made a tunnel out in front of the kick out of poly-foam camping pads. The tunnel was about 3' deep and the D6 was mounted at the end of the tunnel. So the D112 picks up the attack and punch and the D6 gets the boom and those were on separate tracks so I could adjust the balance. Overheads were hooked up to the two pre's on the i88x, the rest went through the Digimax FS. No inserts, eq'ing or other processing up front. I did a little eq'ing in the DAW for one of the kick mics...the D6 I think just to control the boom because it got unruly when the two mics were summed...I think it was like -3dB's centered at around 100Hz. The overheads were given a +1 or +2 wide-band rise at around 1k and narrow-band cut of maybe 4dB's at around 2.5k...that helped the snare come out but controlled the cymbals that were clashing with the vocal especially during the last chorus. Toms were just given each 1 narrow-band cut of about 3dB's at each head's resonant frequency just to control the sympathetic ring in the mix.
I did use a mastering plugin that came with the i88x; a multi-band dynamics processor as well as an image widening plugin.
Let me know if there are any other questions.
To take it back to the OT for a moment, this experience, again, took me right back to what really counts: some decent gear that works for you and that is familiar to you, and AFAIC nothing beats a good analog mixer...anything from Tascam in the 300/500/1500/1600 series will do well...it is the hub of the studio. Others as well like the 200 series. I was using my
Yamaha 01X for cue mixing and DAW control and while I really like it (it is a fantastic tool especially in conjunction with Cubase and the i88x and Digimax FS), I
longed to have real controls for everything...I got so weary paging through stuff to make the adjustments needed in spite of being very familiar with navigating on the 01X...I wanted to hear the need and be able to go "okay, that is controlled
there" and make the adjustment. And my aspirations to get a full analog tracking facility up and running consistently was reaffirmed. I hit a wall with "Crimson Road" trying to get certain parts pleasing and prominent and get a good overall master level and you could hear things starting to push and break apart with very little threshhold...I wanted to be able to have a range of push and not have things get so harsh as you push...It was
really frustrating. I had to just stop at one point because I couldn't stand it any longer.