sweetbeats
Reel deep thoughts...
You can talk gear all day long...all year long.
You can debate gear hierarchy...
You can suppose what you need.
You can refurbishtweaktinker
But there is nothing like tracking something to bring you back to reality; to tell you what is actually useful; to take your little comfort zone of confidence in your suppositions and put it to trial; to present to you, leaving no room for debate, what really counts in your studio.
Tracking session tonight...
I am exhausted.
We were just grabbing vocal/piano scratch tracks tonight for the rest of the ensemble.
The female vocalist has a great voice but something about where the vocal cut sits in her voice totally put my system/limited knowledge to the test.
No analog recorders ready yet so this was to hard disk, but this is the analog-only forum so to keep it real I will have you know I depended on my vintage Tascam gear.
The signal path started out as a Studio Projects C1 > Presonus Digimax FS preamp with ART TCS compressor inserted. Sounded terrible...harsh and grainy. Tried it without the compressor...same thing. I've been really happy with the Digimax in the past.
So we tried a Studio Projects B3 in polar pattern. Same problem...this buzzy harsh quality at around 4kHz...same thing I have so much trouble with a lot of contemporary music...can't hear past it...maybe its a problem with my ears but the vocalist heard it too.
So then we tried B3 > Stewart Audio phantom supply > Tascam MX-80 > Digimax FS line in...no better...switch back to C1. No better, and to make matters worse the trim pots on the MX-80 were unacceptably scratchy.
So I power up the Tascam M-520 and run the C1 direct to that with the compressor. Its better, but we're not happy yet. I try the B3 again, and I try pulling the compressor out of the chain. I start experimenting with the eq on the M-520. Some help, but I'm needing a more surgical solution.
Realizing that the C1 and B3 use the same element I try a 57...not it. Then I pull out the Audix D-6...a kick drum mic. Sounds best yet and I'm running out of options so we go with it. So now the signal path is Audix D-6 > Tascam M-520 with compressor and Tascam PE-40 eq inserted > Yamaha i88x line in. M-520 eq is out, compressor is dialed in to an optical vocal preset, and I've set it to about 2:1 and the attack and release are set so the gain reduction VU dances with her voice. Max gain reduction at about -5, and there is a de-essing filter and tube filter in the compressor circuit. The PE-40 is set to a medium band conservative cut at about 400Hz, relatively narrow deep cut at 4kHz, and a wide-band minor boost centered around 12kHz...the 60Hz HPF is also switched in. I don't like that much eq'ing, but it was pretty much necessary to my (and her) ears.
The mp3 has only been normalized and, other than a dithering plugin, no other processing was applied.
So anyway, all comments welcome. We're still not totally happy yet, and it wouldn't be a big deal (since these are just scratch tracks for drums, bass and guitar), but we're kind of taking this opportunity to learn ahead of time how we'll want to approach the signal path for final tracking.
What counts...not a bunch options, but something that works...not something with super bright blue LED's, but analog VU's...not the LDC vocal mic that you were sure was the mic, but a kick drum mic...
Good news is the vocalist is drawn to the idea of using the reel-to-reel for final tracking.
You can debate gear hierarchy...
You can suppose what you need.
You can refurbishtweaktinker
But there is nothing like tracking something to bring you back to reality; to tell you what is actually useful; to take your little comfort zone of confidence in your suppositions and put it to trial; to present to you, leaving no room for debate, what really counts in your studio.
Tracking session tonight...
I am exhausted.
We were just grabbing vocal/piano scratch tracks tonight for the rest of the ensemble.
The female vocalist has a great voice but something about where the vocal cut sits in her voice totally put my system/limited knowledge to the test.
No analog recorders ready yet so this was to hard disk, but this is the analog-only forum so to keep it real I will have you know I depended on my vintage Tascam gear.
The signal path started out as a Studio Projects C1 > Presonus Digimax FS preamp with ART TCS compressor inserted. Sounded terrible...harsh and grainy. Tried it without the compressor...same thing. I've been really happy with the Digimax in the past.
So we tried a Studio Projects B3 in polar pattern. Same problem...this buzzy harsh quality at around 4kHz...same thing I have so much trouble with a lot of contemporary music...can't hear past it...maybe its a problem with my ears but the vocalist heard it too.
So then we tried B3 > Stewart Audio phantom supply > Tascam MX-80 > Digimax FS line in...no better...switch back to C1. No better, and to make matters worse the trim pots on the MX-80 were unacceptably scratchy.
So I power up the Tascam M-520 and run the C1 direct to that with the compressor. Its better, but we're not happy yet. I try the B3 again, and I try pulling the compressor out of the chain. I start experimenting with the eq on the M-520. Some help, but I'm needing a more surgical solution.
Realizing that the C1 and B3 use the same element I try a 57...not it. Then I pull out the Audix D-6...a kick drum mic. Sounds best yet and I'm running out of options so we go with it. So now the signal path is Audix D-6 > Tascam M-520 with compressor and Tascam PE-40 eq inserted > Yamaha i88x line in. M-520 eq is out, compressor is dialed in to an optical vocal preset, and I've set it to about 2:1 and the attack and release are set so the gain reduction VU dances with her voice. Max gain reduction at about -5, and there is a de-essing filter and tube filter in the compressor circuit. The PE-40 is set to a medium band conservative cut at about 400Hz, relatively narrow deep cut at 4kHz, and a wide-band minor boost centered around 12kHz...the 60Hz HPF is also switched in. I don't like that much eq'ing, but it was pretty much necessary to my (and her) ears.
The mp3 has only been normalized and, other than a dithering plugin, no other processing was applied.
So anyway, all comments welcome. We're still not totally happy yet, and it wouldn't be a big deal (since these are just scratch tracks for drums, bass and guitar), but we're kind of taking this opportunity to learn ahead of time how we'll want to approach the signal path for final tracking.
What counts...not a bunch options, but something that works...not something with super bright blue LED's, but analog VU's...not the LDC vocal mic that you were sure was the mic, but a kick drum mic...
Good news is the vocalist is drawn to the idea of using the reel-to-reel for final tracking.