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Post by Martin John Butler on Sept 16, 2023 14:08:06 GMT -6
Are people still buying gear?? Nope, I'm selling gear. $21,000 recent medical bill.. ugh...
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Post by Martin John Butler on Sept 15, 2023 16:05:30 GMT -6
Compared to the 24 tk 2" Studer tape recorder for example. There was just something about it that your body felt, words don't do it justice. Can't say I'm an expert on analyzing bass done with modern music tools for processing bass though.
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Post by Martin John Butler on Sept 14, 2023 20:45:22 GMT -6
2" 16 track, best bass ever.
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Post by Martin John Butler on Sept 12, 2023 20:31:16 GMT -6
Yeah, I did forget to mention all those recordings were done using tape recorders. Personally, I can't go back to tape machines at home, but I'd give it a go if I was in a great studio with a good engineer, some great mics and a smokin' band.
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Post by Martin John Butler on Sept 12, 2023 0:06:09 GMT -6
I'd record 90% like this if I could afford it.
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Post by Martin John Butler on Sept 11, 2023 23:46:22 GMT -6
It didn't sound like bullshit when I was in some of the finest studios in the world when I was younger. I've heard productions by the same engineer, one with dozens and dozens of different preamps, and the other on a Helios console. One sounded perfect and natural, the other over-processed. Of course the artist was different, but my ears noticed a significant difference.
I'll take one console any day, but I can't afford that anymore. Besides, I use different mics regardless of whether it's a console or separate preamps, so I don't understand your last statement.
I've been in the studio when Steve Winwood recorded Back in the Highlife with Nile Rogers, recorded on the same console that Jimi Hendrix recorded on at Electric Lady through his Marshall 100, sat in for mixes of Brad Paisley, Neo, James Blunt, done through a giant Neve. I've recorded at Bell Sound, Plaza Sound, Unique Recording, and a dozen other great studios. Listened to early mixes of Blondie, Talking Heads "Once in a Lifetime", and the Rolling Stones all with one console EQ, Neve, API, Trident and others.
I'm not saying you can't sound great and have a very interesting color palette using different preamps, just that there was something about the cohesion of those classic records like Pink Floyd's great albums that has never been surpassed IMO.
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Post by Martin John Butler on Sept 11, 2023 14:14:54 GMT -6
My friend Mitchell Stuart created a show called Striped-Raw and Real. It was done through Clear Channel around 20 years ago. He recorded and filmed dozens of A list stars live in the studio. Everyone from Taylor Swift to Kanye West, Brad Paisley, Big and Rich, Velvet Revolver, Sarah McLachlan, Neo and dozens more. No one complained about using "just" the giant Neve console.
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Post by Martin John Butler on Sept 11, 2023 14:07:15 GMT -6
I don't remember any recording I did back in the day using outboard preamps. They simply used the pres in the API, Trident, or Neve console. Nothing ever sounded better in my experience. Do you mean that no outboard preamp ever matched those? Exactly. Like Ward said, the cohesion that recording everything through a great console provided to me is unmatched.
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Post by Martin John Butler on Sept 11, 2023 10:55:44 GMT -6
I don't remember any recording I did back in the day using outboard preamps. They simply used the pres in the API, Trident, or Neve console. Nothing ever sounded better in my experience.
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Post by Martin John Butler on Sept 10, 2023 12:03:55 GMT -6
Makes me want to take a look at my plug-in list when I have some extra time.
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Post by Martin John Butler on Sept 9, 2023 13:02:43 GMT -6
I really like the Neve 1073 sound, but only on bass. At home, I preferred different preamps. In studios, the Neve's sound amazing, so perhaps it was the console EQ's that added some special sauce. I use the Dizengoff D4, ( Abbey Road clone) as my main preamp. It adds a slight glassy tone, but there's a lovely smooth energy to the high end that cumulatively adds a sparkle and pro finish to my tracks I like a lot. I'm sure the Chandler version sounds great too, but it's way too pricey for me.
Kcat's Daking pre sounds really good.
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Post by Martin John Butler on Sept 8, 2023 16:10:40 GMT -6
I listened to what you posted, but I was also referring to a bunch of tracks I''ve heard over the last few years with the modeling mics and I could pick the "fake" mic every time.
If I ever wanted to switch mic sounds, I'd probably try using one of the mics available in the UAD Ocean Way plug-in.
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Post by Martin John Butler on Sept 8, 2023 10:43:31 GMT -6
To many, this new setup might be great and the work flow excellent. But... the vocal sounds flat and two dimensional, with a little sharp edge at the midrange. It's almost like the dreaded Chinese capsule thing, but not quite that bad.
I really want it to be better, but every time I've heard Slate's and UAD's modeling mics, I felt the same way. It was much like a plug-in versus hardware. Keep the U87, or if you need some quick cash to spread around and create a new setup, try one of the Stam clones. My SA47 is seriously good. It has a vibe, and a lot of other mics I tried that were in the $1,500 - $2,500 range sounded good, but had no magic.
That would free up some real cash for you and you'd still have a Neumanesque high end sound.
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Post by Martin John Butler on Sept 7, 2023 16:42:02 GMT -6
The Fender Bassbreaker 15 W. is really good, (it's a poor choice of a name though).
The first setting does the usual Fender thing nicely, but it has two other settings using different tubes. Setting 2 sounds quite Vox-ish, and is better than my hand built 15 W. Vox AC15 was. The 3rd setting is a joke. People who want a heavy metal sound are unlikely to like a Fender high gain setting.
I think it's a bit of a hidden gem. I like it WAY better than the Blues Junior I had. To me that amp was an audio ice pick.
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Post by Martin John Butler on Sept 1, 2023 23:21:15 GMT -6
Good news, welcome to the forum knucklehead89.
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Post by Martin John Butler on Aug 30, 2023 11:39:18 GMT -6
Since receiving my $102,000 medical bill, and having to pay for 20% of that, I've been using the UA 176 plug-in. Damn, it's REALLY good. The Retro 176 is becoming my GAS compressor lately.
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Post by Martin John Butler on Aug 29, 2023 18:45:43 GMT -6
_Rode this for twelve years and then a taxi ran right into me going the wrong way up a street when I was doing around 45-50mph. After those injuries, I sadly had to let riding go.
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Post by Martin John Butler on Aug 28, 2023 15:47:24 GMT -6
Elixer nanoweb strings. They reduce string squeak by around 80% in my estimation. I use them exclusively on my Taylor. On my Martin I use D'Addario and live with the squeaks. There are some guitar techniques to reduce squeaks as well, but they're tricky.
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Post by Martin John Butler on Aug 28, 2023 15:44:36 GMT -6
I use Safari and everything is fine here. Good luck.
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Post by Martin John Butler on Aug 24, 2023 16:21:09 GMT -6
For me, the Stam gear doesn't feel like a clone, it feels like the real thing. It's a great feeling, really. I feel like I have a 47, not a clone. Of course I rationally know there might be some differences when compared to the real thing, but I'd take my Stam SA47 over the last vintage U47 I used any day. Put a half dozen Neumann's in front of me, I might find one that's even better, but to have that kind of quality be affordable is actually amazing.
There are a few other "clone" manufacturers doing some great things too, I salute them all.
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Post by Martin John Butler on Aug 23, 2023 19:31:42 GMT -6
Funny you should say that Shadow. Twelve years back when I was just starting to work in a DAW, a friend who is a major league engineer/producer with dozens of Grammy's and other awards came by to help me get started. First thing he did was remove 95% of my plug-ins, ha!
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Post by Martin John Butler on Aug 23, 2023 17:41:56 GMT -6
I read a long time ago that some plug-ins work better at 96k. So, all my personal work is at 96k, but my professional work is at 48k, just for compatibility with friends whose gear is long in the tooth.
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Post by Martin John Butler on Aug 23, 2023 13:27:49 GMT -6
It's a world class mic. People selling is often just to raise money, I wouldn't read much into that. It's way better than an 87 on vocals, and is equal to the Chandler Redd and the Neumann 67 reissues. Of course, it's a matter of taste.
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Post by Martin John Butler on Aug 23, 2023 0:58:32 GMT -6
Interesting bossanova. I missed the part where they complained about the sound. Strange that McCartney still did so much work there later on. I guess they eventually improved things.
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Post by Martin John Butler on Aug 22, 2023 12:11:35 GMT -6
It's interesting how I expected Abbey Road to be top of the line when it came to maintenance and atmosphere, and these quotes give a completely different picture. I really aspire to be in spaces that inspire me, but it seems The Beatles had to bring their own inspiration to what was basically a crappy old factory atmosphere.
“It was all done very clinically, that’s the joke. We were in this big white room that was very dirty and hadn’t been painted for years [Studio Two], and it had all these old sound baffles hanging down that were all dirty and broken. There was this huge big hanging light, there was no window, no daylight. It was a very clinical, not a very nice atmosphere. When you think of the songs that were made in that studio it’s amazing, because there was no atmosphere in there, we had to make the atmosphere. After a number of years we asked them could we have some coloured lights or a dimmer or something like that; after asking them for about three years, they finally brought in this big steel stand with a couple of red and blue neon lamps on it. That was the magic lighting they gave us.
“The refrigerator had a padlock on it, so if we wanted a cup of tea we’d have to break open the padlock on the fridge to get the milk out. We had to do that every night for five years, it wasn’t like they realized, Oh, well, they drink tea after six o’clock, so we’ll leave the fridge open, oh no, they padlocked it, all the time. It was weird.”
George, (With a Little Help from My Friends: The Making of Sgt. Pepper, George Martin)
At around this time [when “Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite” was being recorded] the sessions began getting quite trippy and psychedelic. Studio Two had these awful, filthy white walls that nobody wanted to look at during the best of times, especially not when they were being harshly lit by the large industrial fixtures hanging from the ceiling. So most of the studio lights were turned off whenever the Beatles were down there rehearsing and recording the late-stage Pepper songs, with the only source of illumination coming from candles, joss sticks, and a single ordinary desk lamp tilted upward so that it lit up one wall. Up in the control room, I made my own personal contribution to the atmosphere: a lava lamp and the red darkroom lamp from my childhood. Anything to counteract the dreariness! Late at night, those lamps, sitting on top of the Altec speakers, would often be the only lights on in the control room, adding to the general spaciness and weirdness of those long evenings. Sometimes we’d even turn those off and operate solely by the glow of the tubes in the tape machines.
Late-night sessions were still an unusual thing at Abbey Road; it was rare when sessions for any artist other than the Beatles were allowed to run on for so long. The bean counters at EMI had still not cottoned to the fact that it was in their interest to pamper their most important signing, so there was no milk left out for tea after the canteen staff left at 10
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