Who can Quantize my upcoming album? (Paid, or free :P)

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TheComposer

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Hey, i'm calling to the mixing engineers of this forum, just wanted to know prices for quantizing my tracks (Being my main concern Drum+Bass since probably guitars, keys and vocals can be quantized by me).

I have 8 tracks, Prog Metal Style (Dream Theater influence, not that technical), which need to be mixed, my drummer is messing the drums just a lil bit (You'll notice some bass drum notes specially), and me recording the bass, well it's not that bad, but still need to be corrected (At minimum i think). So who would do it, how much would take you and for how much? If you can give me a price for Drum+Bass and for Every instrument it's appreciated too.

If you have time or can do it for free/very cheap price, can you send me a PM asking for a small mp3 sample please? It would help too if you had a website offering your services.

So that's it, thanks in advance. NOTE: I don't want these services yet since i still need the drummer to record 4 more songs but i want to consider people for the job, thanks!

Alberto

Home - Rock Producer (Rock Production!!)
 
TheComposer said:
Hey, i'm calling to the mixing engineers of this forum, just wanted to know prices for quantizing my tracks (Being my main concern Drum+Bass since probably guitars, keys and vocals can be quantized by me).

I have 8 tracks, Prog Metal Style (Dream Theater influence, not that technical), which need to be mixed, my drummer is messing the drums just a lil bit (You'll notice some bass drum notes specially), and me recording the bass, well it's not that bad, but still need to be corrected (At minimum i think). So who would do it, how much would take you and for how much? If you can give me a price for Drum+Bass and for Every instrument it's appreciated too.

If you have time or can do it for free/very cheap price, can you send me a PM asking for a small mp3 sample please? It would help too if you had a website offering your services.

So that's it, thanks in advance. NOTE: I don't want these services yet since i still need the drummer to record 4 more songs but i want to consider people for the job, thanks!

Alberto

Home - Rock Producer (Rock Production!!)
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I think you might be getting the meaning of the word 'quantise' mixed up. Quantising just means snapping everything to the grid (timing usually, sometimes pitch) so it's 100% perfect, I think your just talking about a more general fixing of tracks, 'cause if you really mean 'quantise' your post dosen't make alot of sense.
 
Guitargodgt said:
No it makes sense...

But it's a lot of work.
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I'm not sure if your joking ( there was no smiley!)

But if you weren't, you probably wouldn't quantise vocals or guitars, and if he can do that like he says why can't he quantise his bass/drums?
 
benage said:
I'm not sure if your joking ( there was no smiley!)

But if you weren't, you probably wouldn't quantise vocals or guitars, and if he can do that like he says why can't he quantise his bass/drums?
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I quantize guitars all the time. Vocals a lot less often, but it does happen.
 
NL5 said:
I quantize guitars all the time. Vocals a lot less often, but it does happen.
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Ok fine, but the point I was trying to make was, to start with his post title was asking for people to 'quantise his upcoming album' which is quite an unusual request in the first place, mix my album - sure, master my album - no problem but 'quantise my album' - as if everything else was fine but every single instrument just needed quantising and nothing else, and the fact that he said he can quantise his vocals, guitars and keys but not bass and drums dosent really add up, I just kind of got the impression he was using the word 'quantise' to mean a general fix in various ways, not just snapping everything to the grid, so I just thought I'd let him know to avoid further confusion. If I'm wrong fine.
 
I agree with benage. Are you talking about quanitizing or actual mixing?
 
Well, you have to believe me, i asked for Quantising, trying to get Drum+Bass in perfect timing for the song, i can mess with the other instruments (Probably an experience issue by the way).

Benage, come on...
 
benage said:
Ok fine, but the point I was trying to make was, to start with his post title was asking for people to 'quantise his upcoming album' which is quite an unusual request in the first place, mix my album - sure, master my album - no problem but 'quantise my album' - as if everything else was fine but every single instrument just needed quantising and nothing else, and the fact that he said he can quantise his vocals, guitars and keys but not bass and drums dosent really add up, I just kind of got the impression he was using the word 'quantise' to mean a general fix in various ways, not just snapping everything to the grid, so I just thought I'd let him know to avoid further confusion. If I'm wrong fine.
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I've quantized albums for people, and every big studio I've ever been in has Pro Tools "monkeys" that do the quantizing. Not hard, but tedious sometimes. Also, quantizing a single track is pretty easy, but it does get a bit more complicated when dealing with 8-20 tracks of drums.

In pretty much all the metal genres, everything is quantized any more. Sad, but true.
 
Ok sorry my bad, to be honest I still don't quite get it though, I'm not sure if your guitars are midi tracks so quantising them is the touch of a button, but if there not and the're audio like the bass guitar, I don't really see the difference, you need some kind of audio quantising plug in for both.

I suppose drums are a bit of a different thing although same basic principle.
Are you really quantising your vocal so it's not how you sang it but every word snapped to the grid?
 
NL5 said:
I've quantized albums for people, and every big studio I've ever been in has Pro Tools "monkeys" that do the quantizing. Not hard, but tedious sometimes. Also, quantizing a single track is pretty easy, but it does get a bit more complicated when dealing with 8-20 tracks of drums.

In pretty much all the metal genres, everything is quantized any more. Sad, but true.
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Interesting, so is everything quantised 100% or is it just tightened to leave some human feel?
 
benage said:
I don't really see the difference, you need some kind of audio quantising plug in for both.
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Plug in?


benage said:
Interesting, so is everything quantised 100% or is it just tightened to leave some human feel?
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For me, it depends. Drums are generally 100% quantized. Every single hit. If the guitars and bass need it, I will quantize them as well. Working on a song right now. One guitar is 100% quantized, the other is just a few minor tweaks.

If you listen to any modern metal, put it too a click and see how close it lines up. It will be spot on. I can't think of any album I've heard in the last ten years that wasn't quantized. Again, sad, but true.
 
I'll tighten up tracks as I go...it's nothing that unusual, and no matter how accurate a drummer is and even if he is playing to a click...some hits will be off enough to need it.
Mind you...this is mainly something for people who have to overdub many individual tracks. If you have a whole band playing together and your laying down the rhythm tracks at the same time...then I would leave those small differences alone as long as the whole band was tight relative to each other.

There are auto-quantize apps/plugs that work on audio same as with MIDI sequencers. One thing to be aware of whether you quantize by hand or with some auto-plug....DO NOT make EVERY note/beat on ever track line up perfectly "on the mark".
When they are *perfectly* lined up like a razor...the sum of their individual peaks on those marks can cause really large spikes that you then have to work harder to lower with compressions or by hand.
Even if you "slur" the various notes/beats by just a few samples it will not be noticeable at all timing-wise...but you spread some of that energy out which still sounds good but you don't get the crazy spikes, rather you get softer/wider peaks.
We're talking about small offsets that will not be noticed in the timing.

Also...as you moved notes/beats...there are spots where the combined tracks sound really good...but a few samples this way/that way...and the combined sound looses something.
You just have to work each move to find what's best...which is why I would never use some auto-plug to quantize, or at the least, I would still go back and adjust by hand after auto-quantizing....though at this point I don't have any auto-quantize.
 
NL5 said:
Plug in?
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I wasn't sure exactly what's available, I know logic 9's flex-time quantises audio, although that's not really a plug in, granted, I thought that's what Pro tools beat detective does although haven't used it.
 
Quantising = can't play. Solution = Go away and practice.

Technology has made it too simple to have no talent and not learn and instrument. People would rather spend days quantising then spend days practicing, I know what would be more fun.

Alan.
 
witzendoz said:
Quantising = can't play. Solution = Go away and practice.

Technology has made it too simple to have no talent and not learn and instrument. People would rather spend days quantising then spend days practicing, I know what would be more fun.

Alan.
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I'm glad you said that... was thinking along those lines myself...
 
witzendoz said:
Quantising = can't play. Solution = Go away and practice.

Technology has made it too simple to have no talent and not learn and instrument. People would rather spend days quantising then spend days practicing, I know what would be more fun.

Alan.
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The real issue is that enough perfectionists have been quantizing everything to the point that even great drummers need to be quantized because everything else out there is perfect.
 
witzendoz said:
Quantising = can't play.
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I disagree 100%. For quantizing to work effectively, you have to be able to play pretty tightly to a click. At the speeds drummers are playing, it really does make the playing sound noticeably better. If you are trying to cover up for poor performance, quantizing will be a real PITA, and it still won't sound that great.

Again, find me one modern metal album that isn't quantized. There probably is one, but I Haven't heard/seen one.

Most people that poo-poo quantizing can't play to a click in the first place.....
 
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