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Post by donr on Oct 12, 2017 10:25:03 GMT -6
Someone said the JCF AD was Class A....The most popular JCF Audio AD unit is the AD8 and it uses no amplifiers at all. I compared this unit to my Symphony and it made me want to break the symphony with a hammer. INSTANT RECORD Making sound. Do you set line levels into the AD8 by looking in the DAW, at the digital end? Anybody here using this?
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Post by donr on Oct 9, 2017 21:41:16 GMT -6
One of my closest buddies, a terroriffic guitaris, just dumped his Kemper and is buying a 1973 Super Lead 100watt with an 80s 1960a cabinet. Stating he had to go back to a real amp cos the Kemoer sounded too much like a modeler,. Ask him to profile the new rig before he sells the Kemper.
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Post by donr on Oct 9, 2017 18:45:43 GMT -6
The first guy I saw ever eat a mic was a traveling summer carnival barker, he ran a gambling game with packs of cigarettes as the prize, and the chips, after you buy in with cash. This was in the late '50's, and a pack of cigarettes cost a quarter. There was a wheel with colored dots, and dots all around the counter where you'd put down a bet on which color would come up.
Over a rock soundtrack, he'd cup that mic and eat it like his mouth was a bluesman's harmonica and the PA was one of those triangular enclosed 12" corner speakers hung from a tent pole. About 20% harmonic distortion. I can still remember the sound.
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Post by donr on Oct 9, 2017 12:41:24 GMT -6
My M.O. is first fix any glaring vocal level problems caused by comping or punching in by segmenting and setting soundbite levels. Then applying the EQ and compression for the vocal sound. Then looping phrases and sections and doing mouse click fader automation points to get the exact vibe out of the performance.
I don't look at the waveform, I look at the fader automation relative to 0. I don't find the visual distracting, I'm still listening to the vocal to get the desired result. Then I put a trim plugin at the end of the chain to do any further tweaking of vocal level in the mix, leaving the fader alone. Sometimes I may have to bus the tweaked vocal to another fader, but rarely.
I could do the riding automation before compression, but I already like the sound of the vocal by that point. The riding is just to place the performance where it needs to be. It does take time however.
I have never gotten the hang of using DP's fader automation. The mouse is the easiest way to do it.
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Post by donr on Oct 8, 2017 21:34:36 GMT -6
Are those sE baffles on the mics on Tom's amps? Wouldn't think isolation would be a problem.
RIP, dftr, Tom.
Geez, I'm older than he was.
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Post by donr on Oct 8, 2017 21:17:57 GMT -6
I've opined more than once, the decline in average emotional power in today's popular music could well be blamed on quantized rhythm, and equal temperament instruments, as in electronic keyboards and 'tuned vocals. It's like half the artist's available tool palate to distinquish a musical performance is removed.
Looped drums and sequences were novel when they first appeared, but now everybody has metronomic time. The unique tuning of a particular acoustic or tine piano or clavinet at a particular instance in time is gone. The rub of small tuning shifts between ensemble instruments is largely absent. Jangly electric guitars and acoustic instruments remain the only pop instrument immune to the syndrome. Tuning and timing was a big part in differentiating and distinquishing the classic pop recordings and performances of my time.
All the innovations of modern electronics and computer science were novel when they appeared. Equal temperament keyboards and sequences were fresh in the 80's, even as the recordings made were already inferior in depth and nuance to great artists and performances previous. Same with Autotune when it came out.
My ear WANTS some rub. I also glory in just intonation, or intonation that harmonically works for a key, or even a chorus phrase or moment. People hearing and singing/playing in that moment the record light is on.
It's plainly obvious the rigidity of time/tuning in pop music is fashionable. But it doesn't make the music better, does it?
(Getting off my own lawn,) I see today's music creatives working within the conventions of today's pop. I see by the viral (if that's at all real) popularity choices, it's something you want to watch on your phone for a couple minutes. To paraphrase Mark Knopfler in "Money For Nothing," that's how you do it.
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Post by donr on Oct 3, 2017 10:26:21 GMT -6
Petty was great all along the timeline. A great writer and performer.
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Post by donr on Oct 2, 2017 22:33:58 GMT -6
ericn, you're talkin' to a guy who in the mid 80's traded a '57 strat (which I thought sounded duff and didn't use,) for a new Roland GR-700 synth guitar (the one that looked like a bow.) Doesn't matter if that strat sucked or not, today it'd be worth a new car. So my tech fascination has come at a cost, historically. I have zero aptitude as a collector.
JohnKenn, I can sympathize with your premise, but what the kids make popular today is 'viral' as they say, and not pimped or filtered by radio or distributors or influences other than similarly viral social media. Again, if there's anyone here who understands the current audio media market and how it works and who would contribute, that'd be great. Because I don't.
Vincent R., curious if you ever recorded with a Shure SM7. I recorded one vocal on it, and couldn't discern sonically which one it was out of all my recorded performances. The rest were various U87's, U89's.
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Post by donr on Oct 2, 2017 21:31:05 GMT -6
ericn, all pop music has a beat, so why do contemporary carelessly recorded crappy sounding cuts or such cuts from any era get hugely popular? Must be the content. I take the points by NoFilterChuck and ChaseUTB. What my brain searches for in a lot of today's joints is the content. What is it about Cardi B, for instance, that her fans dig? Maybe a young person here can 'splain it to me.
I apologize for helping derail this thread. I have a Townsend mic, and so far I'm impressed with it. I've been too busy on the road this summer to yet explore it's capability or its shortcomings. I haven't even listened to all the models offered, but so far, so good. I'll never own all or probably most of the mics modeled by the Townsend software. The hook for me going for it, was the two capsule design and the full field modeling of the target mics, with the stereo recording option as a bonus.
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Post by donr on Oct 2, 2017 20:38:12 GMT -6
Points taken. I can't fathom why many of these titles get hundreds of millions of streams.
From this Grandpa's historic POV, I liked lo-fi tunes like Kingsmen's "Louie Louie," Five DuTone's "Shake A Tailfeather," Standell's "Dirty Water," and many more, as much as I liked the better recorded stuff like Jackie Wilson's hits, and many if not most of the major label efforts. To this day, The Champs' "Tequila" is to my ear among the best recorded 45's of its time, or any time, in sonics and loudness. It just blazed out of any speaker you heard it on.
So maybe it's the sentiment and content, not sonics that makes Cardi B all that.. (!)
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Post by donr on Oct 2, 2017 20:16:10 GMT -6
I'm tickled Warren is an adroit player. Who knew? The pre sounds great.
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Post by donr on Sept 30, 2017 17:19:32 GMT -6
Ragan, I think when you saw us, Richie was using the HD500 Pod floorboard, the Helix is another step up from that sonically.
I've always wanted the cutting edge of tech to work, I used Tom Scholz' Rockman amps live for a while, and ART's Powerplant pre and a stereo Carver amp also. But tubes are still tubes. I am down with the load box and cab and mic IR's, they work and are more practical than miking cabs or iso-cabs.
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Post by donr on Sept 30, 2017 13:38:03 GMT -6
Check out more of Richie's youtube stuff and his podcast, Bandgeek. The man is a treasure.
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Post by donr on Sept 30, 2017 13:35:34 GMT -6
I've considered going Kemper live with BOC but I haven't committed to it yet. I almost like the variation of the tube JCM900 heads I use every night into the Two-Notes Torpedo.
Richie wanted consistency with his sound to the FOH on the fly dates we do, and he's tight with Line6. It's working for him. Bonus, he uses a Variax with a Taylor Acoustic IR in the Helix on "The Vigil," and it sounds awesome. Couldn't do better carrying an acoustic and mic'ing it.
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Post by donr on Sept 27, 2017 22:10:40 GMT -6
None of the plugs nor the devices or techniques modeled for the plugs, really 'double.' If you want it thick and adjustable like a double, sing it twice. Everything else sounds like one performance with some sauce on it. One performance with some sauce on it is exactly what I'm looking for. . .as long as that sauce is really good. For aesthetic (and practical) reasons there are times when singing it twice doesn't work. I dig that, Tbone. As listener, I never cared for "doublers" in that context. Dunno about Abbey Road and Lennon or whoever they used it on, but just fudging a single vocal performance as two never sounds better to my ear than presenting the lead vocal with every AE vocal trick that doesn't try to disguise it as two. Now, ACTUAL doubling is wonderful, going in and out of style, but it's guaranteed to raise a smile.
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Post by donr on Sept 27, 2017 21:43:47 GMT -6
Eric, I've now got the software Eventide H3000. What presets could you point me to for vocal treatment? I was absent the big recording studios in the '90's, and resisted the humungous guitar rack systems of the day.
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Post by donr on Sept 27, 2017 21:22:25 GMT -6
None of the plugs nor the devices or techniques modeled for the plugs, really 'double.'
If you want it thick and adjustable like a double, sing it twice. Everything else sounds like one performance with some sauce on it.
For widening, the Eventide H910 'flickering digit" stereo micro detune trick from the 80's is wonderfully done by Soundtoy's Little Microshift. I still use this regularly. It works and it sounds great.
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Post by donr on Sept 26, 2017 21:14:28 GMT -6
My go-to Karaoke is "Jack And Diane" Do you do "If You Don't Know Me By Now?"
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Post by donr on Sept 24, 2017 21:17:32 GMT -6
I thought it was cool that Bruce Springsteen recorded "Fox Went Out On A Chilly Night" a few years ago. Both that and "Go Tell Aunt Grody" were songs I learned in the first grade ages ago. Don't know if they still do that. Probably not. I almost fell out of my chair when I read "Aunt Grody". "Grody", in California Valley-Speak, carries a connotation of something extremely disgusting,, as in "grody to the max!". Think Zappa, Haha. I believe the correct title is "Go Tell Aunt Rhody". I only know this because I just finished mastering a lovely new Shawn Colvin album which includes that song. On an aside, my nephews were thrilled when they got picks from band members at your show at the Couch House this week. They tell me BOC rocks!! Absolutely. Scott, I stand corrected. Through the cobweb of memory, Rhody became Grody. Ha. Shawn Colvin must have heard that song too as a younster.
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Post by donr on Sept 23, 2017 11:09:04 GMT -6
Simply put, Don is one of the greatest players I ever had the pleasure to work with. And for about 20 years, guitar slinger was all I did. Not only technically, but he has a melodic sense in the notes he chooses to play that is almost spiritual. Very, gifted, and sadly underrated for some reason? Oh, and the bass player on that show, was Danny Miranda, he is one of my best friends, and is probably my favorite bassist of all time. Another hidden gem! No doubt abut that Paul (nob). I agree completely about the transcendent vibe of melody. Very cool. Sadly underrated? I would say most definitely! And tell your buddy Danny that I appreciated him playing his @$$ off. He laid down a smoking foundation for the rest of the guys to play off of. And fun to watch as well. Everyone played stellar. Good times!! I want to mention Danny Miranda, BOC's bassist, was in the band in the late 90's and into the 2000's and then went on to join Queen for their worldwide tour with Paul Rogers, and then play with Meatloaf for many years before rejoining Blue Oyster Cult.
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Post by donr on Sept 20, 2017 10:27:58 GMT -6
I habitually tuck some non-linear 'verb into the snare track not to make it sound '80's but to give the snare gravitas in the groove and to ensure the duration of the snare 2-and-4 fits and compliments the song tempo.
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Post by donr on Sept 20, 2017 9:37:09 GMT -6
I haven't mixed a record with (significant) reverb on the drums in many years. I usually send a little of the overheads to my "Studio A" type reverb that most everything gets as a binder....but, the days of specific reverbs to shape a snare or toms are over--I just add the Air Studios room mics and manipulate them like I would....it's quicker AND better sounding--how often does THAT happen? Jamie, do you mean it's out of fashion to use 'verb as part of the snare sound?
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Post by donr on Sept 19, 2017 22:19:25 GMT -6
Sometimes you can't beat the rough. Think about it, in the 'old days,' it was ALWAYS the "rough." The tape you left with after the day's session was the record. I listen to the old recordings that created my love of recorded music, and I never think that they should be remixed, or remastered for that matter.
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Post by donr on Sept 19, 2017 21:27:30 GMT -6
Wow, drbill, thanks for the glowing review. It’s this kind of report I’d love to see published in a music mag! I’m glad you could attend and we got to meet. I’ve been wanting to meet drbill since he became a participant at RGO. I remember him from GS, with the cartoon stubble avatar. I always thought he was an interesting guy from his posts, and I suspect his talent and achievement is underappreciated by forum readers if not the world at large. I’m tickled that seeing BOC play has psyched you in a personal, musical way Bill. Dang! I live for stuff like this. We only had some short minutes to hang, and I look foward to another occasion. I have enjoyed meeting and getting to know people on this board. ericn, stratboy, and ragan from shows in their respective locals, and the RGO Nashville hang of two years ago, where I met our host John Kennedy, cowboycoalminer, SVART, monkeyxx, popmann, wiz, randge, Shannon, Joel, and Bob Olhsson. Forgive me if I forgot anyone from that night. I know John Eppstein from the Hyde St (old Wally Heider) studios in SF from the ’80’s. And Paul Orofino, (nobtwiddler,) who recorded BOC’s last two studio records. A hat tip to JK now. I wouldn’t stick my neck out posting like I do here on a bigger internet forum, I just woudn’t. We all know what internet boards are like. Maintaining civility and good will takes effort, and a sense of shared community, and John has done it by example and the good will of the participants. As for the cowbell, a friend of mine who collects things BOC found this on ebay a while ago. I don't know how many of these are out there, but I want a t-shirt. More cobwell!
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Post by donr on Sept 17, 2017 22:18:22 GMT -6
That guy would get his clock cleaned in any country music bar he sang that song in. But he barely gets the shrink wrap off the box of Bro Country cliches. Sounds like he's making fun more of the fans than the artists. Says he likes the old stuff, but even the old stuff was shamelessly sentimental. He's just setting up his bit. No ID on this guy. I was curious about when that vid was done. I was surfing youtube a couple weeks ago and watched some clips of Marty Stuart's show, and Porter Wagoner's. Some barn siding, hay bales and stars and stripes, but I like sentimental music, and the musicians ripped. I gotta thank "Hee Haw" for getting me to listen to Country at all, outside the odd 45 hit that made it to NY radio back then.
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