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Post by jeremygillespie on Jun 6, 2019 5:26:14 GMT -6
Man, the V276 has a ton of gain. The unit is two gain blocks, the first a three transistor with stepped feedback combined with emitter resistor variation to give ~40 dB gain control. The output block has a variable feedback that gives ~10dB more control. I'm fiddling with the thing a little. I think I'm leaving out altogether the inductor HPF (it's a really odd / novel configuration) and the radio broadcast LPF. Nice and clean. But I'm left wondering - does anyone want 76 dB of gain (variable up to 86!) these days? I’ve got 6 of the Tele/Siemens V676a modules in a big old rack I put together. They’ve also got the odd 3 position hpf which can actually sometimes be useful. 10db stepper gain control is actually relay controlled on these which is some serious over engineering haha. They also have a line in position with 10db Of gain at hand. Badass preamps that are somewhat clean but still have some serious mojo!
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Post by jeremygillespie on Jun 3, 2019 22:22:16 GMT -6
I’ll eventually have one. I dig that they are going to have a rack version.
And no I don’t want a windows machine, and no I don’t want a hackintosh. I don’t want to deal with learning the crap that goes into dealing with them. I don’t want to switch to Cubase or to Reaper. I don’t want to have to try and make a phone call for help at 11pm when something craps out and the machine isn’t seeing my interfaces because of some stupid madi driver issue (I’ve seen this all go down on real money Sessions...)
I want to take a computer, throw an HDX card in it, my hard drive of choice, however much ram I need, and for it to work no questions asked for 10 years. And that is a Mac Pro.
$600 a year for a piece of gear that I make my living from really isn’t that big of a deal. Hell, I know dudes that own $6,000 les Paul’s and play them in their basements twice a week.
Really not that crazy a price for what you get. And the convenience is a GIANT factor for me.
Don’t think I’d pony up for that monitor though 😬
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Post by jeremygillespie on Jun 3, 2019 18:06:01 GMT -6
Clients often cite particular albums as production references which is fair enough until you point out that many of these albums took months to complete with budgets often well in excess of $100,000. Totally... I usually say we need a good 6 hours to load in and setup. This includes the drummer to show up with new heads that we pick depending on what sound they are going for, me putting the heads on and tuning the drums, placing the drums in the room where they sound best for what they want etc. I usually wind up having the guitarists putting new strings on of their choice, then giving them a setup and intonation job etc. It’s amazing how many times guitarists have come in with a guitar center job that is just plain awful and it pains me to hear they paid x amount of money for what they get... Making sure we get the amp and pedals situated so there are no noise/ground loop problems etc. If we budget a certain amount of days for tracking basics in the big room, the studio owner will usually let me have the night before to do all this which makes it much nicer to start day 1 of tracking ready to go and hit record.
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Post by jeremygillespie on Jun 3, 2019 6:39:46 GMT -6
Usa made J45 style for under a grand! Walnut back and sides, non-scalloped braces and I’m sure some other cost cutting measures but I think they might sell a few of these. Cheers, Geoff This one looks interesting, but gosh I wish he would just play some regularly voiced open chords and then some up the neck without all the wanking...
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Post by jeremygillespie on Jun 3, 2019 6:09:42 GMT -6
For me it depends entirely on the artist or band. If the songs are written and the artist is going to use my players, things move along much quicker. If I’m working with a band, it tends to happen a bit slower depending on how much recording experience the band has, and how many of the members want to have input into how things are recorded. Lots of times they think they are helping when in general the band member would be better suited to keep their gearslutz advice to themselves and concentrate on playing their instrument in time.
For that reason, I stay away from giving a time frame or a price per song. If I’m the producer and engineer, I charge a production fee per song, and then tracking is in a per hour basis. This covers my time and the studio time. I generally will work 10-12 hours on tracking days and sometimes more if there is a time crunch. That’s not to say I’m tracking the entire time, sometimes I show up before the band or stay longer in order to edit and tighten things up etc. This is all billable time.
Mixes are a set price per song. I set aside a day per mix, and a certain amount of days for recalls depending on mixing itb or on a console with lots of outboard.
When I started doing my own projects I did the “per song” rate, and I always wound up getting screwed by bands wanting to experiment, inability to play and spend 8 hours with the bass player on 1 song, the never ending part additions that would tag hours and hours into each day, etc. That’s just not worth it to me and I won’t ever go back to working that way.
Looking back in the past few projects, I’d say it’s about a month for a full length record including preproduction.
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Post by jeremygillespie on May 31, 2019 5:25:23 GMT -6
I was a tester on their first version and didn’t see any practical use for working on audio. I’m sure it would be cool if you are into video games though, or for watching tv late at night with headphones on. No value at all for referencing? I have a tendency to mix bottom-heavy and was hoping this might better clue me in on when the subs are too aggressive At least on the first version, the documentation didn’t state where the crossover freq was for when the pack would start vibrating, and it only had a volume knob on it that was continuously variable with no markings on it. So, no matter what you had no clue what was going on or why. Also, the amount of vibration changed depending on the chair you were using as well. They may have change some of that for the second version, but I still wouldn’t think it to be useful for making mix decisions.
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Post by jeremygillespie on May 30, 2019 20:30:50 GMT -6
I was a tester on their first version and didn’t see any practical use for working on audio. I’m sure it would be cool if you are into video games though, or for watching tv late at night with headphones on.
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Post by jeremygillespie on May 29, 2019 7:43:57 GMT -6
Thanks gentlemen! I'll probably break down and get an SM7, but I will test the SM58, just in case it's good enough. I'll try a few variations of Dr. Bill's suggestions too. I do have one room that's quiet and more isolated, but around every 15-20 minutes or so, a fairly deep and loud water pump engine turns on and runs for 10 minutes in the basement below and could ruin a good take if it turned on at a sensitive moment. Any chance you have any of izotope’s noise reduction plugs? They have one called dialogue de-noise that works extremely well without getting into their crazy expensive plugins. I’d set up a pretty hot mic, and record nothing but the room noise for a half hour and see what you can get rid of with the plugin. It’s always a game of chasing your tail between getting rid of noise and not losing the top end of the audio, but most of the time it’s worth it.
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Post by jeremygillespie on May 23, 2019 19:54:35 GMT -6
The UAD A800 sounds great with the 250, 30ips, but you need to gainstage it correctly.
If you pull the input down a bit, and boost the output, it sounds REALLY good.
The 7.5 abs 15 don’t do it for me. They honestly just sound like they put a filter on the top.
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Post by jeremygillespie on May 21, 2019 9:00:49 GMT -6
The old ones. I’d be interested in your shootout with the 573s, because I’d maybe add a pair if I ever expand my number of preamps. That said, I think there are probably a number of Neve clones that get that sound, including Stam, maybe (with his emphasis on exact recreation) even more than most. But is it worth the wait/time/frustration/money out/communication/effort/etc? Can you put a price on that? Maybe, it’s $400. 😊 Isn't the vintech 1890 USD with the EQ? People who pre-ordered mine got it for 790 USD, now 990 USD So that is 1.100 USD difference. I should price mine at 3.000 if I were a bit smarter. It is a real Neve 1073 sound wise and at 790 USD we made no money at all. The perks of having patience, getting something for peanuts that replicates a vintage unit 100% You set the price. If you need more money, simply charge more. If the gear is that good people will buy it. With the amount of gear you sell you could make a boatload more if you charged $150 more per piece.
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Post by jeremygillespie on May 16, 2019 17:47:32 GMT -6
Yup. And nothing is automatic, and if it is - you’re doing it wrong. Nothing will get you 100% of the way there and do it correctly. I don’t care what medium I’m working in - I’m going to make it right and listenable. That’s my job. Obviously if a drummer like Bonham is in then you’ve got to leave it alone, and you’ve got to realize that you need to leave it alone. If some crap players with a boatload of money come through I’m going to give them a product that is in time and sounds good. At some point you’ve got to cut your losses and get to editing - be it in the computer or on tape. I’ve got mouths to feed and don’t have the luxury of turning away work or handing in out of time product and putting my name on it. Sure. Usually.
Recently my band has been working up a couple of Waylon Jennings tunes and one of them obviously rushes the beat and speeds up at several points in the song, ending noticably faster than it started.
It didn't in any way stop the song from being a hit. However if it had fallen into the hands of many "modern" computerized engineers I would bet you a hundred bucks that they would have quantized the f*ck out of it - and the song would have been "more perfect" but would have seriously suffered for it.
You might say " Well, sure, but that's Waylon" but is it really the engineer's place to make that call?
(In case you're wondering, no, when we play it we don't copy the rushing - not consciously. We just play the damn song.)
We happily have people like Dave Cobb leaving those types of songs to the players.
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Post by jeremygillespie on May 16, 2019 17:10:35 GMT -6
The OGs have a level drop when you engage the EQ? That's interesting, I've used many OGs and I never noticed What's the headroom on these by the way? Not in my experience.
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Post by jeremygillespie on May 16, 2019 15:40:46 GMT -6
Are you an Engineer making your money from your gear or an Artist making your money from the music creation directly? That should answer the question. (not saying engineering isn't an art) I don’t know If that’s the right way to look at it. I make money both ways, but when I’m working with artists, they will 85% of the time use my instruments. That definitely makes my life easier as they are setup properly and all play in tune, I’ve always got fresh heads on my drums, etc. 🤷🏻♂️
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Post by jeremygillespie on May 16, 2019 15:15:00 GMT -6
John what are you rocking now? Isn’t it an D-28?
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Post by jeremygillespie on May 16, 2019 15:05:39 GMT -6
I’ve edited tape to a grid before. It was done quite a bit actually. It’s not the computer. This stuff was done before computers. It’s the person that makes the decision to change what was played by the musician, either because they sucked, or because the type of music called for the performance to be rigid. Gratuitous quantizing was done before computers?
Interesting. I was under the impression that the closest that anybody could come to that was hours of tedious razor blade editing - which was still under the control and judgement of a human being, not an automatic process.
Yup. And nothing is automatic, and if it is - you’re doing it wrong. Nothing will get you 100% of the way there and do it correctly. I don’t care what medium I’m working in - I’m going to make it right and listenable. That’s my job. Obviously if a drummer like Bonham is in then you’ve got to leave it alone, and you’ve got to realize that you need to leave it alone. If some crap players with a boatload of money come through I’m going to give them a product that is in time and sounds good. At some point you’ve got to cut your losses and get to editing - be it in the computer or on tape. I’ve got mouths to feed and don’t have the luxury of turning away work or handing in out of time product and putting my name on it.
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Post by jeremygillespie on May 15, 2019 13:55:47 GMT -6
I’ve edited tape to a grid before. It was done quite a bit actually.
It’s not the computer. This stuff was done before computers. It’s the person that makes the decision to change what was played by the musician, either because they sucked, or because the type of music called for the performance to be rigid.
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Post by jeremygillespie on May 13, 2019 18:28:17 GMT -6
2x Louder than Liftoff Mr. Focus Stage II (Royal Blue) 1x Hamptone MP500A JFET mic pre 2x Hairball Lola's (one is currently not functioning because I f'd up one of the op amps). I’ve got a pair of Lola’s and man I love those things... I got 200ft of Starquad and a ton of neutrik xlr’s today to make up some much needed custom sized cables.
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Post by jeremygillespie on May 13, 2019 13:38:38 GMT -6
What happened with Mic Rehab having your microphone for so long? Other than disassembly and losing track of the box and some screws (one that needs to be custom made), nothing happened. Which was the problem. So... in that case you wouldn’t recommend me sending any mics that way? Wonder what’s going on
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Post by jeremygillespie on May 11, 2019 19:56:43 GMT -6
I’ve had mine for about 8 months. I really quite enjoy them but it’s taken a bit of time to understand them. They sound amazing in the real studio sitting on the ssl meter bridge. I had to do quite a bit of messing around to get them to work in my personal room at home but I’ve finally figured them out. They go pretty crazy low for a pair of nearfields - I don’t generally like to mess with subs, especially in home rooms as I feel like you can just Complicate an already compromised room node situation unless you’ve really got that taken care of already. Can you bring some mixes and listen at the Nashville VK? I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on them vs the Amphion. I haven’t had the Amphions for a while. I have the ATC 12s...but I’m kind of hankering for active monitors. Oh wow I must have missed that you switched or forgot. Okay, so In that case, I dig the barefoot mids better than the ATC mids. The ATC is very pretty sounding where the barefoot is more In your face and revealing. Easier to eq on for me. I think of the footprint as having a very revealing top, and in your face mid not so unlike an NS-10, and a punchy and full bottom without the flabby thing you’d get from a ported monitor. They work great for the music I mostly work on (Americana and acoustic). I have a few friends that do lots of hard rock and they are WAY too harsh with heavy guitars to listen on all day.
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Post by jeremygillespie on May 11, 2019 18:48:04 GMT -6
I’ve had mine for about 8 months. I really quite enjoy them but it’s taken a bit of time to understand them.
They sound amazing in the real studio sitting on the ssl meter bridge.
I had to do quite a bit of messing around to get them to work in my personal room at home but I’ve finally figured them out.
They go pretty crazy low for a pair of nearfields - I don’t generally like to mess with subs, especially in home rooms as I feel like you can just Complicate an already compromised room node situation unless you’ve really got that taken care of already.
Can you bring some mixes and listen at the Nashville VK? I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on them vs the Amphion.
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Post by jeremygillespie on May 10, 2019 5:45:37 GMT -6
So the UREI rev A is defective and it’s published specs have always been wrong? Now that’s funny. The original manual is still available online, search for it. The people who invented it really knew what they were doing. It was designed with incredibly short attack times for a reason. When did I ever say that? I don't need to search for anything, I have the schematic and a real unit in-front of me. Again, for the fifth time, it has nothing to do with the attack time. Could you explain what the resistor change is actually achieving if it’s not doing anything to the attack time? Thanks!
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Post by jeremygillespie on May 9, 2019 13:28:55 GMT -6
There is a hybrid solution for unlimited recalls that I've tried and its way better than plugins alone. Its not at all as great as actually mixing down in analog, but the whole recall excuse is avoided and the sound is greatly improved. Something the radio guys should try. here it is: It takes approximately 1 hour to re-record every track through some gear one track at a time. 1 hour! just 1! I know I'm lazy too... I'd rather spend an hour typing this lol. 1 hour = unlimited recalls. It feels just like being at the tracking session, except its MUCH faster, no stress, actually its a lot of FUN because you know you can't ruin anything ...and there's no annoying somebody over your shoulder! Record the tracks through the summing bus back in stereo = the stereo summing bus is already part of the sound. I figured to try this because in a song when an instrument is solo, say a singer, they are the only thing going through the stereo summing buss... and it sounds great. So why not each instrument by itself in stereo? Tried it, it works. Sounds a little looser-wide than a normal sum as everything is on its own wide bus, but still sounds pretty neat. Can always ditch one leg of the stereo file and get mono if its too wide. I use this for the tone of the hardware. I'll also do an extra 'distortion' track on a few things, sounds so much better than the plugins emulating overdrive. So if I think I'll need it, its already there part of the project. Also some compression passes. Backing vocals, solo's, and toms take less than a minute. just scroll over to where they are at, hit record, done. This makes multiple experimental passes quick and easy as well. Then ITB its time to be surgical and print. I need to try this again and I'll share some before after. OK having talked to a number of guys who have been forced to go from working in some great rooms to ITB at home. At your main source of income how many free hours of labor do you give them ? Because that’s what that hour is, your not going to be paid more, it’s not going to get you more jobs, on a job that you probably dropped your pants to get. That’s the reality of a modern AE, your spending more time chasing work, trying to get paid for work done and changing the level or compressing the cowbell by a 1/4 dB to where it was in the first mix you sent. All this on a job that gives you no insurance or retirement plan. It’s no longer the glory days. This all reminds me of the first thing I tell the interns or kids that Walk into the studio wanting to be the next big engineer or producer. Go get a job in TV or post. Produce your friends bands on the weekends, but get into a “real” job ASAP. I had a great intern that became my assistant for about a year. She kind of saw how limited the work was, how much time it took and how much dedication it took to be good enough to get work. She applied for a job at one of the biggest news companies and got it. Makes more than I do, has incredible insurance, 401k, is still able to climb positions, most importantly - she knows how much she is making each year. I live pretty modestly, just because I have to put an incredible amount of money away each time I get paid to insure I don’t get into a bad spot, and I have no interest in being in any sort of debt whatsoever. I’m ALMOST to the point of jumping ship to that line of work, but I’ve got a few more years left in me. Plus, I just love the work so much. I can’t imagine having a big ass smile on my face at any other job pulling 14 hours days...
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Post by jeremygillespie on May 9, 2019 12:18:27 GMT -6
Only one? You need to step up man😎 Heh heh - well, I've got six guitars right now, but only one from jeremygillespie 's list: a 1956 Les Paul Special. (He said Jr., but mine's got both the bridge and the neck pickup.) TV Yellow???
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Post by jeremygillespie on May 9, 2019 12:18:07 GMT -6
I was surprised to see the number of folks who want a piano in their studios - what with the quality of the digital offerings out there. If I didn't have the ability to tune mine EVERY time I use it, I would be using pianos of the digital variety. Be careful what you wish for. I'd take a good digital piano over a slightly out of tune piano every day. If you’re doing overdubs or writing / doing demos, that’s all well and good. I just long to have a room where I can mic everybody up in the same room at the same time. There is nothing quite like all that beautiful bleed. I think we’ve had the discussion about playing inspiring instruments and getting inspiring takes, nothing really works as well as sitting down at a beautiful instrument imo
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Post by jeremygillespie on May 8, 2019 21:08:24 GMT -6
I’ve got too many guitars, [...] WHATTTTT??!!?!?!? Impossible! Are you bananas?? Too many guitars?!?! How could you, Jeremy, how could you? I trusted you, man. Alright, alright. I guess if I really pushed it I could responsibly use more guitars -50’s les Paul jr -Gibson Banner LG2 -Gibson LG00 -Jackson Pedal Steel -jazz bass with a P neck -12 fret Martin D-28 (good lord has anybody played one of these? I about died the last time I laid hands on one they are soooo good) -Gibson Roy Smeck radio garande conversion (same sentiment as above) -Gibson HG-OO conversion -Gibson Nick Lucas
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