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Post by porkyman on Dec 8, 2016 20:54:46 GMT -6
this thread brings thoughts of the rascal audio two-v with its added gain stage.
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Post by porkyman on Dec 6, 2016 17:49:00 GMT -6
So how long until Warm announces theirs? Lol.
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Post by porkyman on Dec 5, 2016 19:05:31 GMT -6
anyone wanna save time, ive got two for sale. pm me.
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Post by porkyman on May 5, 2016 19:17:00 GMT -6
I just think the idea of over driving the transformer to introduce distortion (yes, distortion) in the final mix is just kinda odd. We're really talking about harmonics...which can be cool. I actually think the reason why they didn't put the input level before transformer is that the point isn't really to drive anything, more to kiss them and impart the punch and sheen. BTW - like I said above, these files got smushed in the process...so ignore them being too hot. i think the point is to be able to hit them hard like tape without clipping the converters. the goal being compression really via "distortion." thats where the "magic" happens. i dont believe the converter stage is even that great. i think they use the same chip as the old digi boxes. you should try printing one slammed and see if you can pick it out of the line up. p.s. lets talk about that tom. i want it. what? Where? How?
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Post by porkyman on May 3, 2016 19:01:21 GMT -6
well porkyman, 5 months later.. what'd you go with? i started with an old studiomaster 16 x 4. i liked it but it wasnt modular and was really hard to work on so i moved on to a soundcraft delta. modular. definitely easier to work on but i found all i ever did was work on it and had stopped making music. plus it took up a lot of room and had 48 inputs and i only had 16 dac. from there i decided i didnt want a console. too big. too much work so i got the burl summing mixer. i didnt think it did enough for the price. i actually didnt like what it did at all even if it was cheap so i went on to the spl mixdream xp. i liked it. had no reason to change except i came across a really good deal on a phoenix audio nicerizer mk2. i frickn love this thing. it was not even one i considered because it came out so long ago i was under the illusion that everything that came after it was an upgrade. could not have been more wrong. a couple things ive learned along my journey. 1. first and foremost. definitely worth it. between this and finally finding a room verb i can use (t-verb) i think i might actually see a light at the end of the tunnel. 2. the more you saturate things the narrower they become. i think its probably because most of the energy is in the middle so its really only the middle thats getting "excited," increasing rms and inversely lowering the sides. if that makes sense. thats why the nicerizer has the stereo spreader. its vitally important imo. 3. i dont have a real grasp on gain staging. i never learned it. you really dont find it anywhere on youtube tutorials. along the way i also picked up a burl b2 adc. it wasnt until i got the nicerizer that i started to understand both how/why to use analog gear and why burl gets so much praise... in a nutshell, if youre not hitting your gear hard, youre not using your gear right. the input level on the burl is key. without it you cant really get all the beef out of your gear. you need some kind of attenuation before the converters. thats why so many top guys i read say they werent really able to print their music until they got the burl. imo its because they were so used to hitting everything as hard as they wanted and letting the tape smooth it out. they werent able to capture that because of digital clipping. now with the burl im able to push the nicerizer as hard as i can and let the burls trafos do the work of tape. its such a big difference, i cant even over exaggerate it. the amount of low end coming out of that thing is just insane. i have to filter everything now where i was boosting before. 4. there is no way in the world you can slap one of these summers on the end of a mix and expect to learn anything at all. these shootouts you see are worse than useless. worse because they might steer you in the wrong direction. you have to mix into them and get a feel for them before you can know anything at all. i am in love with the nicerizer. i just keep loving it more and more as i get to know it better. the best thing is, ive finally run out of excuses. i cant blame the gear anymore. its all on me and the song and i got a little passion back i had been missing. id be 100% content EXCEPT!!! there is this thing in the back of my head called the Heritage Audio MCM32. its really four 8 channel active summing mixers passively summed down into one. $3500ish. its the exact box i have designed in my head except mine has different flavors for each. api, neve, neuman, and clean. Michael Brauer style summing in one box. i honestly dont understand why no one has ever done it... anyways. hope this helps somebody. good luck..
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Post by porkyman on Apr 30, 2016 22:36:17 GMT -6
There's a 30 day demo...I'll decide whether I HAVE to have it after 30 days. I often find that when I use rooms, I use so little, that I can use VVV and be done with it. i was thinking the same thing but i dont wanna miss out on the intro price. this is the only verb ive fallen for. every other verb i spend most of my time trying to hide it. or get it to blend. this one i only turn down because i think im probably supposed to..... i almost didnt even try it either because theyre all the same to me. everyone should at least demo it.
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Post by porkyman on Mar 25, 2016 18:22:38 GMT -6
with a fixed budget i think i rather have one great pre and a bunch of lesser mics. that being said if i could find the perfect mic to match my voice id sell everything i had to buy it and go from there.
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Post by porkyman on Mar 19, 2016 23:36:32 GMT -6
has anyone even gotten theirs yet
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Post by porkyman on Mar 11, 2016 1:00:12 GMT -6
digging into to this more. im thinking the build is gonna be around 1500 - $2000 and a lot harder to source than i thought. is that right kevinnyc.... not even sure hell be doing another run on these.
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Post by porkyman on Mar 10, 2016 3:13:52 GMT -6
i like c. best. then a. both b and c hype the vocals a bit. thats why i think
a. is itb b. oracle c. ghost
i say b is oracle because the balance shifts were the most extreme between a and b, and i expect the oracle to have more of a sonic footprint than the ghost.... this is of coarse dependent on a. being the itb mix. if b is the the itb i would suspect a. is the oracle, if that makes any sense. listening to soundcloud through computer btw and on 2nd pass i cant really hear the differences anymore, so i could be way off. LOL.
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Post by porkyman on Mar 10, 2016 0:28:20 GMT -6
Damn.. 400$ for the kit, plus 450$ for 2520 opamps (if you build them yourself), plus 100 for transformers, and probably another 200 in finishing parts, meters, and passives.. So 1200-ish with shipping and such.. That's quite the cost and build! the new capi ic opa's are only $10 a piece. should get it in under a grand.... my sta level build is already up over that.
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Post by porkyman on Mar 9, 2016 19:36:41 GMT -6
bump
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Post by porkyman on Mar 4, 2016 20:54:58 GMT -6
C O W B E L L ! ! ! ! You Win.
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Post by porkyman on Mar 4, 2016 20:45:19 GMT -6
thats the one i would have picked.... i think its pretty good. congrats to the winner.
i do think if tony and others here would have made a $2400 effort (value of prize) they could have easily won.
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Post by porkyman on Feb 29, 2016 18:35:28 GMT -6
id get rid of the click in the kick. bring it down so you can just feel it accenting the bass but cant really hear it on its own. id also try to tame the hihat somehow. maybe a lpf or de-esser and/or move it out of the way... great song.
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Post by porkyman on Feb 26, 2016 19:18:02 GMT -6
im totally in on this. studio is out of commission right now while im modding my console. excited to run these tracks through my new set up... hopefully next week.
thanks for doing this wiz.
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Post by porkyman on Feb 19, 2016 22:13:35 GMT -6
just listened to the top ten ?? i didnt think they were any better than the ones posted here. none were out of the box creative. some were pretty bad actually. my opinion of course.... hats off to the judges though. 415 mixes!!! i could barely get through these ten. congrats to the winners and thanks again locomotive audio for doing this. it was fun.
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Post by porkyman on Feb 14, 2016 19:48:37 GMT -6
B. sounds closer. more intimate to me. A. sounds bigger, wider and more exciting in a pop kind of way. i voted for A but im rethinking it now on the second pass.
i think you need to mix in to it to really tell. the depth and the clarity of the stereo image is most beneficial for making mix time decisions imo. kinda like buying better monitors.
great song all around. guitar, vocal, production, everything. great work.
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Post by porkyman on Feb 10, 2016 20:46:29 GMT -6
ive got iso's. they make a big difference. the low end is tighter. the center sounds like its coming from behind the speakers. its a trip. without the iso's my monitors sounded like i was in a bathtub, it was so washy. i didnt realize it until i got the isos. i think some of it is just lifting it up away from the desk... im not 100% sure though how it affects translation. i dont think it affected my mixes at all. they're just as bad as they were before.
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Post by porkyman on Feb 9, 2016 0:13:30 GMT -6
Hello everyone I only found out about this forum just now! Some very interesting mixes on here, I especially liked tonycamp's vintage vibe! Anyway, I took a completely different approach and went for a wide and modern sound... It's obviously far from perfect (Rather mushy in the low mids and I could handle the vox volumes better), but hey, let me know what you think! (I haven't done much on the 2Buss, so you may need to turn your monitors up) https%3A//soundcloud.com/steliosmac/locomotive-audio-mixGood luck to everyone that took part, and many thanks to Locomotive! listening on headphones through computer there was a lot of pumping going on imo. the drums sounded "all buttons in" which was maybe too aggressive for the sound. (i really dont like that sound though so probably just bias). and some sidechain ducking or something like that seems to be sucking the focus out of the mix. overall though your vision and creativity stood out among the rest. you really made the song your own. nice work.
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Post by porkyman on Feb 5, 2016 20:34:14 GMT -6
dude, you're being way too harsh IMV, its real world, a good engineer can tighten this up a number of ways, and accentuate the good stuff, vibe the bland stuff, yes it's time consuming, especially for someone like me who is slow as all FUCK! haha, so I personally was not willing to spend the time, but if you are tasked with taking it on, it is what it is, you have to deal with what you get and make it sound great, i believe good AE's can make these tracks sound very good if need be, my guess is it would take my slow ass about 8-10 hours to do so, but no doubt I've dealt with far worse, so it can be done. Here's my incomplete mix, I allotted myself 2 hours of effort which goes crazy against my OC behavior, but I stuck to my guns, It's totally static, cept for the challenging intro guitar, I spent over an hour of time panning/leveling, editing, clip gaining, and filtering, then i unapologetically went as fast as I could throwing the same waves renaissance plugin comps, and verbs on things, i eq'd drums a little bit, everything else... Not! I also threw that free vinyl plug on the beginning.. yaay! and then shamefully...., I went against my own rule by dumping it into a waves L2 shavingloud 2-3db, but only because Jess's version is so friggin loud I felt tiny noodled and tried to compete! derp! derp! doy! 8/ haha. The funny thing is as i did this, I could still hear that vague ITB digititus effect that I so despise creeping up on me... even at this early stage, further verification that I'm doing the right thing moving OTB. Still, I believe if i spent another 6-8 hours on this ITB, this could be pretty slamming. Ok fella's, rip me to shreds!! https%3A//soundcloud.com/tonycamp/locoi like it. its got an edie brickell vibe.
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Post by porkyman on Feb 4, 2016 19:22:16 GMT -6
Hey guys, Eric Strouth here from Locomotive. I've been following the thread for quite some time, but wanted to wait to comment till all the submissions were in for a number of reasons. I like coming to this forum and respect many of your opinions. As you may imagine, being the creator of such a competition and hearing all kinds of feedback (good and bad), it brings on a lot of emotions that one must process before going and making any statements on the Internet, which as we all know can be bad news! First off, I'd like to say thank you to the folks who have submitted a mix to the competition. Yes, mixing this would be a lot of work, but nobody is forcing anybody to do anything. Whether you didn't like the song or thought that there were lots of issues that needed to be addressed, I hope it was still a fun exercise. It’s a way to get people talking about the real reason we are on these forums, instead of just badmouthing something that you were not a part of. I’m glad you are sharing your mixes with each other and giving good critiques. We all have different tastes, skill levels, etc., but to be able to have a common set of files to mix can really show and highlight those strengths each of us have. Regardless of the material, I’ve heard a lot of good and creative mixes so far. Plus, it's fun to have something new to talk about! The reason we did this little competition was to get the Locomotive name out there, as there are many people who had never heard of the brand prior and to offer up some sound files that were recorded with the 286A preamp. I've gotten lots of emails asking for sound samples and thought that this would be a fun way of making them available. Many manufacturers don't offer samples, probably because it pushes them into the corner and limits their reach to a customer who is looking for that "one" sound. So, in a way, it is a little uncomfortable exposing the brand like that, but what the hell, right?! My main goal is to build nice products and have fun with the branding, as well as do things a little different by offering such competitions. As far as the sound files and recordings go... Should we have done some things a little differently... Absolutely! It has become clear that some of you really hate it. :-) Its amusing. Over and over. Just as Jesse had stated in an earlier post, being such a small operation prohibits larger budget amenities such as studio time and paid bands. Firebrand Recording was nice enough to help put this thing together and record the song in two short sessions with musicians from around town, one for instrumentation and one for vocals. Should we have had a rehearsed band with a real drummer? YES. Live and learn. It was my decision that we focus on sounds directly from mic to preamp to converters to allow users the opportunity to mold their own sounds and to keep any other external variable to a minimum. After all, we are promoting our own product and that was the point of this. Brian, the owner/engineer at Firebrand, who is indeed a talented and knowledgeable engineer agreed that although he doesn’t normally work like this, that we shouldn’t affect sounds on the way in with EQ and compression... Was this a bad choice? And not what you are used to getting?… Probably! But again, the intention of the recordings were not to write a hit song, but to offer up sound samples of the 286A in a fun way. Until the day we recorded, the drummer and guitarist/bassist had never met each other and were given a short amount of time to work things out, which some of you will say "never worked out." The drums and guitar were tracked together, and then the rest was layered on top. The process in which we chose to record is probably the culprit for most of the issues you hear, I would assume. Unless you just hate everything, which may be the case. No excuses though! I get it. There were mistakes. We'll likely do something similar in nature in the future and I hope that those who were not exactly wowed by what we did will at least give us another opportunity to change that perception. I wasn’t expecting such negativity, but after all, owning a small business and recognizing such successes and failures is a learning process. I imagine that if you either knew me personally or had I contributed on this forum besides being an advertiser, constructive criticism would be much more easy to come by. I’m easy to get along with and open to suggestions. Thank you. thanks for your efforts. i really enjoyed it. i actually like the song. loved the vocal. just couldnt get around the guitars. im not a pro though. did it for the experience. i wish there were more of these. i hope you do another one soon. maybe next time have a band come in. i dont think itd be hard to find one willing to get tracked and have it mixed by 400 different people for free. thanks again.
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Post by porkyman on Feb 4, 2016 18:55:24 GMT -6
i like saxmonsters. those guitars need to be up the middle because they cant hold their own isolated to the sides. i tried and i tried to hide those guitars but i couldnt crack the code. i think the key was tucking the lead back behind the rhythm. mine are slightly panned to no mans land. good job sax. https%3A//soundcloud.com/satans-vagina-1/loco-mix-compcool man, quite distorted indeed, clearly u used your new vinyl plug haha, the lead vox were lopsided to the left on my rig, was that intentional? nothing i do is intentional.
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Post by porkyman on Feb 3, 2016 20:03:12 GMT -6
i like saxmonsters. those guitars need to be up the middle because they cant hold their own isolated to the sides. i tried and i tried to hide those guitars but i couldnt crack the code. i think the key was tucking the lead back behind the rhythm. mine are slightly panned to no mans land. good job sax. https%3A//soundcloud.com/satans-vagina-1/loco-mix-compHey Man, is this "SNAKEBUTT" your track? Cool stuff. Reminds me of the "...And Justice for All" album...well, not the vocals, but you know what I mean. lol. yeah thats me. it was an attempt to show a friend of mine (snakebutt) how easy death metal was to make. no offense to anyone who likes that stuff. im a metal fan, just not a death metal fan. to me growling has no melody. if theres no melody, theres no song. "...And Justice for All" album... - yep. its a total rip off of "Orion" which is actually Master of Puppets, but you nailed it.
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Post by porkyman on Feb 3, 2016 19:54:57 GMT -6
i like saxmonsters. those guitars need to be up the middle because they cant hold their own isolated to the sides. i tried and i tried to hide those guitars but i couldnt crack the code. i think the key was tucking the lead back behind the rhythm. mine are slightly panned to no mans land. good job sax. https%3A//soundcloud.com/satans-vagina-1/loco-mix-compHey Pork, cool mix. For me, the bass was too hot, but I thought the same thing about Pop's mix, so maybe I have no idea what I'm talking about. The lead guitar treatment felt a bit heavy handed for the track too. I thought you nailed the drums though. Really dug the snare sound that you pulled together. agree. i hated everything except the snare... i dont know if they hi passed on the way in or what but there was no beef in the guitars at all. i normally like separation in mixes but this time i was going for a blended sound to try and mask the guitars because i really really hated them. i was trying to make the micd bass the low end of the guitar and it was a total fail... next time ill give myself some time to reassess the mix before submitting. i was way to rushed because i didnt know when the cutoff was. it just said by the 31st so i tried to get it in as early as i could.
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