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Post by nnajar on Sept 19, 2020 18:25:43 GMT -6
I got a good deal on some used audio accessories DB25 patch bays and they're terrific. I don't think I'd want to use anything else.
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Post by nnajar on Sept 11, 2020 21:38:19 GMT -6
The cameras all have an in camera time recording limit of around 30 min. The only one I know of that don’t are the new A6600 for APS-C and the new but not yet available A7s iii for full frame. I have 2 A7s ii's and one original A7s and a little rx100vii. We use blackmagic video assist recorders and only use the cameras for the sensor. The little rx100 goes on the gimbal and it has excellent continuous auto focus. But sort of crappy low light performance because of the baby sensor and slow glass. But for moving shots it is less noticeable and the great AF is nice for the gimbal.
For the A7’s, I use old Canon FD s.s.c. lenses. They’re a fabulous value. I like shooting manually and it isn’t a problem for a fixed camera location to have manual focus. Just setup everyone and everything and focus so it looks good where and how it’s pointed and move on with your life.... focus peaking in camera and on the BM monitors is super convenient and quick when you get used to it. Since there’s no electrical connection, adapting FD lenses is easy and cheap because it’s just a mechanical connection. Did I mention it’s really nice looking, fast glass and it’s cheap? I’ve got a whole kit of various focal lengths.
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Post by nnajar on Sept 11, 2020 10:12:32 GMT -6
If you don’t have a bricasti, get one. If you do have one, get another!
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Post by nnajar on Aug 25, 2020 9:23:56 GMT -6
I rarely record steel string acoustic (I'm a mostly nylon string guy unless someone's job calls for it) but the last time I recorded one for someone's record it was a Martin 000 and I used a U67. And it was perfect and really nice. I've used 87s often, schoeps very often all with good results. And recently I recorded a Del Vecchio - a Brazilian resonator with silk and steel strings - being played finger style arpeggios and I used a TLM107 and it was fantastic.
I usually use KM-A/KK184 on the nylon string. I always used schoeps and always found myself adding 5k pretty wide so I just got a slightly brighter mic. And this mic sounds really nice. It is Neumann's modular system and I don't know how it compares to a regular 184 - I believe they're supposed to sound the same - but if so I don't know why the 184 gets such a bad rep. That said, I haven't used it on a typical strummed steel string or on drum OH etc...
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Post by nnajar on Aug 22, 2020 7:36:36 GMT -6
Not a plugin, but the little Palmer “pocket amp mkii” is awesome for all kinds of very clean up to very dirty tones. They did a great job with that little box.
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Post by nnajar on Aug 21, 2020 12:32:44 GMT -6
MANY excellent sounding jazz records were made on an MCI 528 at Nola "the penthouse" recording studio on W57th street. I made a few of them! I always thought the preamps sounded pretty good. warm and fat. we used lots of 87s, a few 47s, lots of rca 44 and 77s and some 452's, 57s and 421s with that board very regularly. They weren't pristine like a millennia but never once did we push up a fader and wish it sounded "better."
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Post by nnajar on Aug 21, 2020 12:25:15 GMT -6
4060’s taped to the lid gets my vote. I’ve recorded many pianos that way. I've used a 4060 stuck to the bottom of the soundboard as a spot, but have generally had a tree for main pickup. It's encouraging to hear of other success with it. I'm going to have to talk to the pianist about it. Ideally I want a setup he can manage on his own, once we figure out placement. I think my selling point is going to be that he can do this at home without worrying about having the piano moved or limited hours in the hall. I'd then be just the advisor/editor. His comfort level with the tech is going to be key. But what I'm not hearing (yet, anyway) is love for contact solutions. In my mind it must be awful, but I've never tried. I think the DPA Lav (or any good lav) taped to the underside of the lid as a BLM in this scenario gives every advantage of a contact mic but with a sound more like a real piano. I've had times where, because of sound reinforcement, the lavs inside still weren't good enough and the little AKG contact mic - C411 I think - can provide a "usable" result. My opinion is that the barcus berry piano contact mic is DREADFUL but can be useful on a loud stage.... still if your needs are that severe I think it's better to stick a midi controller inside a piano housing and go digital. I digress.... But your friend isn't dealing with extra sound on stage to compete with or sound reinforcement or anything like that, so I think the lavs inside the piano is still the most appropriate solution for the stated scenario.
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Post by nnajar on Aug 20, 2020 23:07:15 GMT -6
4060’s taped to the lid gets my vote. I’ve recorded many pianos that way.
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Post by nnajar on Aug 12, 2020 7:29:17 GMT -6
Atlas pro audio leviathan
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Post by nnajar on Aug 9, 2020 9:55:48 GMT -6
Pair of U89 or, for a slightly more modern version of neutral the TLM107. We have both here and happily use them the way you describe.
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Post by nnajar on Jul 31, 2020 9:24:29 GMT -6
You must not be on PT. The PT control app is brilliant.
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Post by nnajar on Jun 13, 2020 19:41:30 GMT -6
magic death eye.
I have a hardware unit and track vocal with it, so often mixing vocals doesn't require additional compression. But I do get mix jobs that I didn't track, or were tracked off site without compression, and the MDE plugin is fantastic.
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Post by nnajar on Jun 7, 2020 23:14:47 GMT -6
I never used spaced pair. I would use a spaced pair if I needed coverage and was working in mono. But for stereo drums it will be usually XY. Schoeps CMC641 here. If I'm working with upright bass in the same room (about 75% of the time), the bass mic becomes a mono room mic and then, depending on the rest of the ensemble or arrangement the drums might collapse too much. If that happens I might switch to ORTF to get more width.
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Post by nnajar on May 18, 2020 9:02:24 GMT -6
If I left PT I would go to reaper. I keep reaper on my laptop for remotes and I’ve in the past done full production albums on reaper before I got HDX. When I was still on vanilla PT I was toying with the idea of jumping to reaper for stability reasons. But then I decided to build a real studio out of the house so we went HDX. And I really like PT. But reaper is awesome and very powerful.
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Post by nnajar on May 8, 2020 16:19:52 GMT -6
How do you decide in removing resonances wolf tones by instruments?
Resonances are so obvious with one of my acoustics it made me revisiting files/mixes which were taken in pro places, with some of my more expensive guitars as well as some which my guitar store gave me for tracking.
I can't find a single acoustic guitar without resonances.
On the more expensive ones they may sound nicer that's it. Seems to be pretty much the same case as with room acoustics - you can't have it perfect.
Removing resonances often removes the character of the instrument as well.
Very often I remove them switch on and of the EQ and I decide to go with the resonances.
Before tracking, move the microphone or change the microphone. Pulling it back further can really help with this. dealing with resonances after you've already tracked, try the TDR slick eq GE and the "deresonate" function. you have to be gentle with it, don't be heavy handed, and it can do wonders VERY naturally.
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Post by nnajar on May 8, 2020 16:14:28 GMT -6
I am about to get the stereo. My mastering guy has the hardware stereo unit and it is incredible. I have the hardware mono MDE and it's unbelievable. I use the mono plugin all the time on the stereo bus (the "mono plugin" still processes a stereo signal) and individual sources. I can't believe what a good job they did with the plugin, it sounds just as good as the hardware.
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Post by nnajar on Jan 8, 2020 17:32:25 GMT -6
for DI guitar, bass, rhodes/wurli etc... I like the fire eye red eye dee eye. Into the GML. like I said before, I'd prefer a death eye for every source but without I'm very happy with the millennia TCL2.
For acoustic guitar I really prefer the schoeps mk22. sometimes I'll use the 67 or the Lucas CS1 or the Klaus 87, sometimes the schoeps mk41 if I need to tighten up the capture, but the mk22 basically lives there.
For upright bass it used to be the 47fet or the mkh80, but the Lucas cs1 is the best. It's a little noisier than the others so if there are no drums on the date I might use something else, but if there are drums, I'll usually use the Lucas. It is amazing.
For drums, depending on the sound I'm looking for it's either re20 or 47fet on bass drum. if there's no head it's re20 and if there's a head it's the 47FET. I prefer the jospehson e22s for snare and toms- I don't own those but my buddy down the street has a bunch I borrow sometimes. I have the THE kr25 that I often use on snare and it's fantastic. I also use the THE omnis on the toms. Schoeps MK41 on overheads. if I want a little more crispness I'll use the TLM107's on OH but it's rare because I'm just so happy with the schoeps up top. If I had a few more Lucas CS1's I'd probably use them on OH. My buddy has one also (we bought the sequential serial #'s at the same time to have a pair between us) and sometimes I leave mine with him- he loves them on OH- and sometimes I borrow his for the same reason.
I never compress drums going in and I rarely compress them in the mix.
The upright bass mic or the acoustic guitar mic usually become a mono room mic and that works really well. For a small, dead room, the things we track here tend to sound huge.
I like RE15's on electric guitar amps whole lot. Sometimes U87.
I don't have a piano so we don't do that here. In other rooms I usually use whatever they have. The last piano I tracked was a great steinway in NJ and I just used his setup which was some hi voltage DPA cardioids and a pair of 87's into the preamps of a Neve bcm10. It sounded terrific.
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Post by nnajar on Jan 8, 2020 11:12:35 GMT -6
the main vocal tracking chain here is Klaus Heyne U67 -> GML -> Magic Death Eye -> prism titan -> HDX
I don't eq on the way in, as I am really happy with software eq, but I rarely need to eq much that I track myself. Pick the mic and the placement and you're in good shape. re vocals, the Klaus 87, Lucas CS1 and 47FET all get used a bit too, but the 67 is used by far the most often.
I'd like about 4 more magic death eyes for various sources (we do a fair amount of full ensemble tracking here, mostly acoustic stuff) but I doubt that will happen. I like this millennia tcl2 in SS mode a lot on bass and acoustic guitar. And vocal also, but the death eye is nicer.
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Post by nnajar on Jan 6, 2020 10:47:20 GMT -6
Asided from getting the player to avoid them, what are your strategies for mitigating squeaky strings on acoustic guitar? Are they the same as sibilance with vocalists? Right now, I'm using a combination of de-esser and automation. I just hate the way automation momentarily sucks the air out of the track, but I'm having trouble zeroing in on the frequency range with a de-esser. Not close micing the acoustic helps a LOT. Most people these days get the mic(s) way too close. You get exaggerated squeaks, picking and fingering noise, and an unnatural tonal balance.
A De-esser will probably mess with your tone in a failrly serious way.
Listen to uncle John.
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Post by nnajar on Jan 6, 2020 10:45:17 GMT -6
using a gold point here very happily. If I needed more features I would build the soundskulptor OR get an Eldred audio Grendel.
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Post by nnajar on Dec 30, 2019 22:37:41 GMT -6
Just arrived today. This thing sounds really good. I've only tested it with my classical guitar, miked with a Klaus U87, but it really is nice. The other preamps here are 8 channels of GML and 4 channels in the prism titan and I'd be happy to use any, including these 9000 clones pretty interchangeably. My intention is for these to live on drum mics, I'll have a chance to use them in a full ensemble tracking session next week. But nice job dude, thank you.
I *think* he has another 4 channel left. one of you guys should pick it up. Hell, I should pick it up but I don't need any more preamp channels now....
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Post by nnajar on Dec 28, 2019 10:10:45 GMT -6
you couldn't pay me to put a console in my room. I am perfectly happy with an HDX rig and a few Eucon surfaces. And I track full ensembles with multiple cues, etc....
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Post by nnajar on Sept 4, 2019 13:41:37 GMT -6
My mastering guy sometimes uses the stereo hardware, and the guy who designed the and builds the hardware recently cut some lacquers for me. The plugin is ridiculous. I am using it on a mix now not he stereo buss and it is both idiot proof and makes everything sound better and more beautiful.
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Post by nnajar on Jul 8, 2019 1:26:40 GMT -6
I'd get three Distressors! I’m surprised by your answer, Bob! I thought you were an LA3A kinda guy. Lucas Mr Dreamsambas, as I am reading this thread, I have that Jorge Ben album in your avatar playing on my stereo. scrolling the thread it was quite a shock to see the cover.
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Post by nnajar on Feb 15, 2019 4:27:26 GMT -6
My 2012 cheesegrater works like a brand new machine. It runs super stable and is running all day most days. I just can’t see any need to upgrade it any time soon.
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