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Post by svart on Sept 8, 2021 15:05:42 GMT -6
For things that you just have to facepalm over..
I'll start.
I just rediscovered mic positioning as the primary way to make a guitar sound good. Like WTF. At some point we stray away from the basics and get enticed towards the fun things.
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kcatthedog
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Post by kcatthedog on Sept 8, 2021 15:10:24 GMT -6
It’s funny how hard good stereo capture is when your pre is patched in in mono, ya know ?  |
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Post by Chad on Sept 8, 2021 15:20:45 GMT -6
In 2003, I was at Dark Horse Studio in Nashville. I was in one of their smaller studios that's very "cabin-like", if anyone's been there. It was a fairly small room, and in between takes, I was chit-chatting with this older gentleman who, to me, seemed to be acting as a guitar tech for a band that was laying down tracks. After half an hour or so of that going on, I said goodbye and snuck out to go talk to some friends that were there with me. On the way home, I learned that the really friendly "guitar tech" I was standing next to was... Larry Carlton. (I had no clue.)
A couple of years later, I shared this story with one of my guitarist friends who rolled his eyes and said, "It WOULD happen to you. I would have DIED to get to stand there and chat with Carlton!"
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Post by gravesnumber9 on Sept 8, 2021 17:00:04 GMT -6
For things that you just have to facepalm over.. I'll start. I just rediscovered mic positioning as the primary way to make a guitar sound good. Like WTF. At some point we stray away from the basics and get enticed towards the fun things. Wait you mean mic “positioning” is more important than mic “purchasing”  ? Heresy! |
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Post by thecolourfulway on Sept 8, 2021 17:08:26 GMT -6
Shoulda never sold my Altec 1567
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Post by Blackdawg on Sept 8, 2021 17:30:32 GMT -6
every time I have a "high impedance air gap"...feel pretty stupid haha
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Post by seawell on Sept 8, 2021 17:43:58 GMT -6
Every time you’re just tweaking away on some hardware or a plug in only to realize it’s bypassed & it was all in your head 🤣
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Post by gwlee7 on Sept 8, 2021 18:03:05 GMT -6
I feel stupid driving myself crazy thinking that I should just automatically be able to mix songs as well as I can track them. There is a huge difference between engineering and mixing for commercial release.
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Post by srb on Sept 8, 2021 18:32:01 GMT -6
I feel stupid driving myself crazy thinking that I should just automatically be able to mix songs as well as I can track them. There is a huge difference between engineering and mixing for commercial release. Good tracking sure makes it easier to mix. You get to work nuance more and solve problems less. |
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Post by gwlee7 on Sept 8, 2021 18:42:10 GMT -6
I feel stupid driving myself crazy thinking that I should just automatically be able to mix songs as well as I can track them. There is a huge difference between engineering and mixing for commercial release. Good tracking sure makes it easier to mix. You get to work nuance more and solve problems less. Oh I could not agree more but, I have a long way to go on the mixing end of things. |
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Post by mcirish on Sept 8, 2021 20:48:20 GMT -6
Believing misinformation...
I feel most stupid for believing everyone with an audio engineering YouTube channel knew what the hell they were talking about. I'm not new to recording or mixing but some years back I decided to try to learn more by watching YouTube videos. I felt I was in a slump so maybe someone else could show me how to do it right. There are a lot of guys out there who simply can't mix, yet they have a popular YouTube channel and make pronouncements about how audio should be recorded and mixed. Don't get me wrong, there are some really great mixers who share their knowledge, but there are far more guys giving out bad advice.
I guess that applies a lot to the purple site as well. 100's of guys/gals telling you what mic X sounds like, when they have never even touched one.
Oh one more thing. Believing microphone frequency charts are somehow accurate or indicative of what they really sound like. Huge waste of time. Five minutes with mic X will tell you more than 1000 posts on any forum.
Rant over
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Post by Johnkenn on Sept 8, 2021 21:50:29 GMT -6
In 2003, I was at Dark Horse Studio in Nashville. I was in one of their smaller studios that's very "cabin-like", if anyone's been there. It was a fairly small room, and in between takes, I was chit-chatting with this older gentleman who, to me, seemed to be acting as a guitar tech for a band that was laying down tracks. After half an hour or so of that going on, I said goodbye and snuck out to go talk to some friends that were there with me. On the way home, I learned that the really friendly "guitar tech" I was standing next to was... Larry Carlton. (I had no clue.) A couple of years later, I shared this story with one of my guitarist friends who rolled his eyes and said, "It WOULD happen to you. I would have DIED to get to stand there and chat with Carlton!" I’ve had that happen to me twice…long story short - I was selling (or buying can’t remember) an LA2A…went to the guy’s house. Older guy with a ponytail. He asked if I was a writer and I had something on the charts at the time so I was probably a little proud of myself. We talk about it for a while and he mentions he was a writer but really only had a couple songs…I asked him what and he tells me “Seven Bridges Road.” It was Steve Young and that song had probably been on 50 million records (Eagles Greatest Hits Vol. 2). I felt kind’ve stupid. |
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Post by vintagetubelug on Sept 8, 2021 22:33:38 GMT -6
A while back I never realized that the Console app is always on and engaged when using the UA Apollo. I thought that if I didn't turn on Console I was bypassing it. So I sent umpteen sessions with some plug-ins I wasn't even aware were engaged. Doh
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Post by drumsound on Sept 9, 2021 0:14:09 GMT -6
I can't count how many times I've patched something one patch point off from where it was supposed to go...
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Post by sirthought on Sept 9, 2021 0:29:55 GMT -6
A while back I never realized that the Console app is always on and engaged when using the UA Apollo. I thought that if I didn't turn on Console I was bypassing it. So I sent umpteen sessions with some plug-ins I wasn't even aware were engaged. Doh FYI it is possible to bypass the console app if you want to. It's talked about in the manual. I can't see why anyone would track without it, but some folks just don't want to bother to learn how it's really designed to work. |
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Post by allbuttonmode on Sept 9, 2021 2:20:02 GMT -6
Years ago, I accidentally disengaged the left channel on my Avocet at the very start of a session. I, rather stressed and embarrassed, ran the rest of the session (three days) in mono, before handing it over to my tech friend next door. He spent WAY too many hours going through everything, getting more and more frustrated. He obviously couldn't find anything wrong with it, and gave me a very telling look, when we finally discovered the reason.
He still brings it up. Whenever he can.
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Post by mrholmes on Sept 9, 2021 3:18:07 GMT -6
Yeah my stupid folder is big.
I feel stupid for hyperfocusing on little things like the wrong room sound on my acoustics …. in the Mix it all sounds fine because all comes together and I feel stupid for not making a decision earlier …
I feel stupid for procrastinating my own talent.
Someone should think I practice singing that I write songs like crazy now. But I don’t and I don’t know why…. even though my vocal chords resonate better and better and I like …
Later more stupid stories need to work.…
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Post by jampa on Sept 9, 2021 4:03:43 GMT -6
One that gets me
When a musician says "we can fix that in the mix"
Sometimes I give in and then we're stuck with it
On the other hand, if I try too hard to get a "better take" from them, it can kill the vibe (or never eventuate)
Feels like walking a tightrope. So is this why the old term was "balance engineer" ? 😆
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Post by tasteliketape on Sept 9, 2021 6:17:24 GMT -6
Spending an hour on a vocalist switching mics and pre ‘s
because there saying they don’t like the sound .
Reach over after a while turn there headphones up and ,
Hey man that’s it you got it ! Doh 🤦♂️
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Post by enlav on Sept 9, 2021 8:36:03 GMT -6
That time you don't notice the label on the TT patch bay, which is a slip of paper that slides in/out... is slightly off and you see everything has somehow migrated one track over (luckily on the patch into the the PT|HD converters, so nothing like phantom going to the wrong mic).
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Post by Guitar on Sept 9, 2021 9:10:31 GMT -6
I was getting some bad buzz on a digital piano. The drummer walks over and pushes the ground lift button, and the noise stops. That was the day I learned about ground lift on DI boxes.
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Post by Omicron9 on Sept 9, 2021 11:26:38 GMT -6
I was getting some bad buzz on a digital piano. The drummer walks over and pushes the ground lift button, and the noise stops. That was the day I learned about ground lift on DI boxes. Oh yes. A massive plus 1 on this. I have lived your pain, monkeyxx. I want to keep clicking the "like" button on your post over and over because now I know I'm not alone. <sigh> Hold me. -09 |
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Post by ab101 on Sept 9, 2021 12:58:01 GMT -6
1. Once I had a whole CD on a hard drive, the hard drive stopped working and I had no backup! Now I save to several hard drives.
2. In the days of tape (90s) - sometimes I would have a singer or other performer do an incredible performance that would unlikely never be repeated, and then find that I was not recording, but in pause.
3. When I first started recording other people, many would tell me - OH - this will just be an hour or some other short time period. And then it would really take many hours, if not another day! Fortunately, I no longer believe people when they say it will be a short time period. I do not argue with them, but in my mind, I plan for a whole lot more time!
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Post by svart on Sept 9, 2021 13:05:25 GMT -6
What brought my post about was a typical rabbit-hole of working on guitar tones.. Years ago I stopped buying amps, mics, guitars and just sat down in front of an amp with a 57 and some IEMs and some isolation phones and I just played back some guitar tracks through an amp and moved the mic around for hours to get a feel for the best spots. My guitar tones got a whole lot better at that point.
Years later, I'm just putting mics up and thinking things are fine.. And yet I'm still doing tons of "work" on the guitars to get them to sound even close to what compares to pro stuff.
Turns out all I needed to do was move the mic about 1.5" and got the tone I was busting my ass with EQ and trickery to try to get..
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Post by svart on Sept 9, 2021 13:13:39 GMT -6
1. Once I had a whole CD on a hard drive, the hard drive stopped working and I had no backup! Now I save to several hard drives. 2. In the days of tape (90s) - sometimes I would have a singer or other performer do an incredible performance that would unlikely never be repeated, and then find that I was not recording, but in pause. 3. When I first started recording other people, many would tell me - OH - this will just be an hour or some other short time period. And then it would really take many hours, if not another day! Fortunately, I no longer believe people when they say it will be a short time period. I do not argue with them, but in my mind, I plan for a whole lot more time! Oh yeah, #3.. I had a recent band tell me that they could get 3-4 songs done in half a day.. I told them one, maybe 2 songs in 12 hours if they were practiced. They scoffed and laughed at me. We averaged about 1 song a day, mostly the singer causing the delays. |
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