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Post by schmalzy on Dec 6, 2021 16:50:31 GMT -6
Sooooo...I stopped at a pawn shop today. I just picked up one of these (in a fairly "used" condition): www.coutant.org/shursm59/No picture yet I'll get to that when I get a chance! The lore out there is that it's a little flatter and less sensitive than a 57. I'm excited to try it on a guitar amp, an alternate vocal sound, or as a stunt mic/room mic for drums.
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Post by schmalzy on Dec 5, 2021 3:55:20 GMT -6
My M88 is apparently a vintage one. The guy I bought it from said he got it in the 70s. It - like my SM7B - sounds awesome anywhere I put it. I'm a little spooked about putting a vintage mic inside a kick drum like I would an SM7B but the M88 has been awesome on snare, kick out, overkick, room, guitar amp, bass amp, washboard...it's a good one! It makes me want to pick up a few more.
I haven't used a 201 but it's also on the list of mics to eventually grab. I just need a rich benefactor to refresh my dynamic mic collection with 201s and M88s!
I do some live sound for guys who use Heil PR20/PR22 and Sennheiser 835/935 mics for their vocals. It definitely makes me want to get a few of those. To my ears they sound way more usable than a 57 in the places I'd want a 57. I'm also super curious about swapping the transformers on 57s but that's a different rabbit hole to go down!
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Post by schmalzy on Dec 5, 2021 3:31:36 GMT -6
SUPER glad you figured it out!
It definitely feels like the DAW -> software -> connection -> Interface is a fragile area with the Apollo and UAD system and digging around in UAD Console is likely to yield results. It makes sense, there's a lot of talking back-and-forth and something being slightly unhappy for a second can send a wrench into the works.
I've also had a long-term problem with my Softube Console1 plugins and certain UAD plugins. Loading certain UAD plugin into my system when I have Console1 plugins loaded breaks the Console1 system a little. After that point the Console1 controller doesn't work and the Console1 plugins stop behaving and displaying properly.
I'm not getting rid of my Apollo any time soon - I tend to stick with gear a long time - but it definitely makes me consider my options. I'm looking at going to 24 channels of ins/outs soon and I'm expecting a few thousand of my dollars to be wrapped up in it. It would definitely make me more likely to stay with UA if they could get their shit figured out. I have interfaces that "haven't been supported" in years that work great on my system and a current-ish (was current when I bought it, anyway) UA product running with officially supported software that is constantly teetering on a knife-edge.
The least UA could do for your weeks of involuntary, unpaid beta testing and self-tech-support is to offer you discounts on plugins or hardware. Someone with one of their products is going to benefit from this and it's going to retain customers for them.
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Post by schmalzy on Dec 3, 2021 5:42:00 GMT -6
Well schmalzy , it happened again and none of the solutions worked. Not force quitting Sonarworks or the Console input delay trick. Rebooted with Apollos powered on. Rebooted with Apollos powered off. This is getting extremely frustrating. It's like one out of every four times I sit down to work on a mix I have to spend the first hour re-installing software. What is this 1999 again? Sorry, man. I wish I had a different solution for ya'. I don't know exactly how Sonarworks interacts with your audio chain. Is it a plugin inside your session or is it an intermediary program that sits between the DAW and your interface? When this glitch/garbled audio problem happens can you get any other audio working? For example, leave your DAW and your project up and go to System Preferences -> Sound -> Output and switch it to internal speakers. Does the sound play back ungarbled then? You should be getting your DAW audio just from the computer itself and not through your monitoring chain. You might need to plug headphones into the computer if it doesn't have internal speakers. Try Youtube or Apple Music. What happens then? Just like mixing, with computer systems the thing that seems like the problem isn't always where the problem actually is. If I were in your shoes, I'd start eliminating potential problems to figure out exactly where the problem is. Uninstall Sonarworks. Reduce to a single Apollo. Then try a different interface altogether. Seems like a difficult path to go down but at least you'll know what the problem is and can work towards a real solution.
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Post by schmalzy on Dec 2, 2021 16:45:47 GMT -6
I get stuff kind of like this every now and then. I'll be mid-mix. I'll hit play and the playhead will move but there's no audio. Reaper is showing playback and levels on the output VU meter but the output VU on the Apollo hardware shows no signal. That told me the problem was after Reaper's mixer and before the DAC on the Apollo. My found-it-by-chance solution after UAD support blamed Reaper and left me hung out to dry (while Reaper has had no problem with any of my other interfaces): Go to the Apollo Console and change the input delay compensation in the Console settings menu. It literally doesn't matter what you change it to or where it's set, just change it to something else. It's almost like sometimes Apollo forgets it's supposed to be working and me changing the IDC reminds it there's a job to do. Good luck! Hopefully this helps you! This is great! No idea if it will work but at least it's a new thing to try that nobody else has suggested. And you described the experience I'm having very well. Any updates? Did it work for ya'?
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Post by schmalzy on Dec 1, 2021 22:56:34 GMT -6
Kush Omega Preamp N, A, or 458A if I need to make a tonal shift in the sound. The Kush Omega TWK is a little more linear in tone but does great to round the pokey stuff.
The drive control on my Softube Console 1 channel strips are pretty good. You can really push hard into the Summit Grand Channel drive and get some usable saturation. Feels gentle, helpful, and good until you decide you want it to be something else.
The Softube Saturation Knob with the gain matching feature is good, too.
I don't use it often (I don't think I've used the plugin enough to feel good about the amount of time it takes to get results...and I'm in a bit of a rush on some projects right now) but FabFilter's Saturn is good and in everyone's recommendations.
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Post by schmalzy on Nov 29, 2021 12:57:18 GMT -6
I get stuff kind of like this every now and then.
I'll be mid-mix. I'll hit play and the playhead will move but there's no audio. Reaper is showing playback and levels on the output VU meter but the output VU on the Apollo hardware shows no signal. That told me the problem was after Reaper's mixer and before the DAC on the Apollo.
My found-it-by-chance solution after UAD support blamed Reaper and left me hung out to dry (while Reaper has had no problem with any of my other interfaces): Go to the Apollo Console and change the input delay compensation in the Console settings menu. It literally doesn't matter what you change it to or where it's set, just change it to something else. It's almost like sometimes Apollo forgets it's supposed to be working and me changing the IDC reminds it there's a job to do.
Good luck! Hopefully this helps you!
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Post by schmalzy on Nov 29, 2021 12:49:56 GMT -6
I'm using channel strips on almost everything.
Building familiarity with tools is great. It REALLY gets you moving more quickly making better decisions faster. Also, making fewer unnecessary decisions (which plugin should I use for EQ...for compression...if I'm going to filter the lows I should use a different EQ or add one, etc.) has been helpful for me.
I use the Console 1 system for mixing - it's basically a set of software channel strips you can manipulate with a hardware controller - but I do the same with rough mixes where I only grab one type of EQ, one type of compressor, and one type of saturation to get the rough mix to where it needs to be. I like the hardware controller but it's just because I worked live a fair bit and I get better results faster when I turn a knob and close my eyes than I do by clicking and dragging.
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Post by schmalzy on Nov 26, 2021 10:56:36 GMT -6
I use both.
Stereo when I need to keep a shape: drum bus, vocal bus, instrumental bus. Typically the loudest things.
Dual mono when I don't mind the "centered-ness" shifting, the shifting is negligible, or the shifting could be even helpful. Stereo instruments, rhythm guitar bus, stereo vocal doubles, ambience effects, horns bus, aux percussion, parallel drums,
Mix bus? Depends on if I'm compressing the instrumental bus. If so, then the mix bus will be dual mono because I'm only compressing the slightest bit anyway. The potential stereo shift is so small because the amount of compression is so small and the loudest things are all in the center...but that little difference does give me a wider feel. If I'm not compressing the instrumental bus then the mix bus compressor is linked stereo to keep a moment or a creative choice from pushing something else around in the stereo field.
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Post by schmalzy on Nov 9, 2021 14:25:41 GMT -6
I didn't want to like it but my SM7b gets used a lot.
It's my favorite kick mic.
It's great on guitar amps; especially for guitar amps that are really hard sounding in the midrange.
Really good on bass amps.
Killer on medium-loud to loud sources where you don't want a ton of top end detail.
Also a good vocal mic if you don't need the sound to be beautiful. Midrange-y and direct.
If I had 5 of them they'd be kick in, snare top, and toms. They're 57s with better low end and a more palatable midrange.
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Post by schmalzy on Sept 30, 2021 11:35:20 GMT -6
True! They're sorta "Cult" Channel Strips now. Chris I have two of 'em that I like a whole lot!
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Post by schmalzy on Sept 28, 2021 21:43:17 GMT -6
Softube's Console 1 SSL 4K EQ - Classic SSL-style EQ. Super helpful. Softube's Summit EQF - 100 - Just sounds great as a large-move EQ. I also like how the two middle bands do the jobs I need them to. I always like the result. Kush Hammer - love it for master bus EQ. Slowly maybe getting replaced by the Blyss EQ on the right songs. Boz Digital +10db - LOVE it on guitars and drums. The low band is awesome for providing a little thud on shells and the top two bands are great for pushing a distorted guitar through a mix.
Other than that it's mostly ReaEQ or Kush Electra.
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Post by schmalzy on Sept 26, 2021 14:40:09 GMT -6
I'll add to that - calling any signal exiting your DAW as "stems". LOL. Crazy!!! I just had a full body shake as I read that. Guys. Chill. I'm going to go reamp a set of vocal stems through an EQ plugin. When I come back you'd all better be cool, ok?
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Post by schmalzy on Sept 24, 2021 23:04:23 GMT -6
I'm not shy about using any of my mixing tools to fix problems. Sometimes that problem is something that's sounding off in pitch. People hire me to make them sound as good as they can and I do whatever I can to help them reach their goals. When that includes vocal tuning I always discuss what their tolerance is for being off and I try to honor that. I don't go looking for something to be off but if I hear it I'll deal with it.
I tune the lead vocal as a last resort. If a vocal sounds out but there are other vocals at the same time, I'll tune everything besides the lead first to see if that helps. Sometimes making everything else stiff gives a little more freedom to the lead vocal. Sometimes it makes the out-of-tune-ness stand out even more.
If everything else is close/tight to pitch and it still doesn't feel great I'll start with AutoTune on the specific lead vocal clips that feel outside my tolerance. I'll use a slow retune speed and higher amounts of "flextune" and "humanize." Basically, I'm trying to get that clip to feel closer to on rather than dead on. If I have to significantly move notes I'll use a different tuner - I like Reaper's ReaTune - and draw the pitch in manually (but using a slow speed) so it'll start out closer and again use AutoTune to nudge it a little closer still. Then it becomes a dance between the retune speed, the flextune, and the humanize parameters if I need to tune harder.
I try to leave as much sauce on the lead vocal even if that means tuning the background a little tighter than I'd like. Most of the emotion comes from that lead vocal so I'm going for the minimum effective dose at all times when it comes to things that could mess up that emotional communcation. Sometimes the minimum effective dose is a sledgehammer.
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Post by schmalzy on Sept 2, 2021 23:46:08 GMT -6
I never realized there were moon gel alternatives though. I love the application/use of the product, but much like a lot of you, always hated their imperfections.
I noticed a few mentions of floor tom use; anyone using something like these weights or alternative gels for rack toms? Always felt like moon gels killed too much of the tail (unless you're going for that sort of sound, of course!), and sometimes we just don't have the time for me to poorly tune them when the drummer is worse at it than me.
My moongels are all cut into quarters or eighths. Smaller and in more places seems to leave more bright attack while giving me the varying level of control I want.
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Post by schmalzy on Aug 26, 2021 4:37:52 GMT -6
SSLver Gullet?
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Post by schmalzy on Aug 18, 2021 23:16:30 GMT -6
A lot of cool info here. I agree with a lot of stuff.
Important things I wanted to mention for my process/sound:
Overhead stereo image (really, any mics that give you detail) needs to be appropriate with the arrangement of the rest of the track. Nothing sounds 3D if everything is in everything else's way.
i love having a mono room mic plus a pair for stereo room. Reverb as insert? Only sometimes on my mono room when I want to make it feel a little more blurry but want to maintain what's good about it.
Find a door far from the drums, close it most of the way, put a mic on the other side. That pretty late drum thing is really cool. Use a delay plugin to help place it in a time relationship to the other mics that feels good.
Keep as much ring in your drums as the arrangement/density of the track will tolerate. Let the snare be a little long. Let the toms be a little long. Don't over-mute the kick. That stuff will disappear especially if you rely on the overheads and rooms for the majority of the kit sound. So much of the personality is in the ring. Check if the ring is too long by listening in context. The more complete a scratch track/rough demo/prepro session you have the better.
Keep as much 500hz-1kHz as you can. That's where all the flavor is. It's easy to cut it all out. Leave as much as possible to get the throaty/knocky/grunty stuff. I'm still cutting it on many sources (either in tracking or in mixing) but I'm not cutting as much as I used to. Cut more early in the mix and remember to come back and try to push some up every now and then. I'll often use a close kit/room mic as my main source for that stuff. I constantly try to push it up more.
My mixes got better when I started implementing a snare room sample in addition to the room mics and the reverbs. Blend a couple reverbs to give you a layered ambience.
I hear a lot of distortion when soloed but not as much in context. If I'm working in a rock track then a lot of saturation/clipping/limiting is happening. I also like JST Clip (like svart mentioned) but I also like Reaper's Event Horizon, the Kush Omega saturations, and the saturations in my Console 1 channel strips. Boz's +10db for compression if I need more poke/teeth.
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Post by schmalzy on Aug 17, 2021 22:28:17 GMT -6
Thanks, just used that in a tune I was working on, smart idea! I used to think that it was unnecessary and that folks were just finding ways to build monuments to themselves by doing all these tiny little things that I didn't think anyone could hear Then I started doing it and was like "oh, ok". Lol This was exactly my thought, too. ...and then I forced myself to take a couple mixes AS FAR AS I COULD on the automation front. The artist noticed how much more alive that mix was than the previous even though I didn't say anything about it. So now I can't go back. I thought I was being self-important and conflating my significance in the process and then hearing my own confirmation bias. But those guys - a band of folks who aren't exactly eagle-eared - noticed how everything was much more exciting and everything sounded more present (probably because there were things constantly stepping forward into focus and then stepping backward to make room for something else). So now the idea of those drum balance changes happen all over most tracks in a song. It adds a literal two hours to each my mixes but it adds a pile of high fives and smiles to the artists and (presumably) the listeners.
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Post by schmalzy on Aug 16, 2021 21:12:20 GMT -6
I do a lot of automation:
Kick or snare up/down for different sections depending on the rhythmic content of the other instruments - most of the time one shell moves one way and the other shell the other way. Sometimes it feels better to lean into a rhythm and "agree" with it and sometimes if feels better to "disagree" with it. Oftentimes this sort of disagreement is in the verse when it's a little imbalanced or intentionally unsettled anyway.
I'll automate kick low end down on double-kick sections - it helps keep the double-kick from sounding like the most intense section of a song (if it isn't supposed to be - it's often being used for tension or momentum). It also leaves a little low end in reserve to bang on a important downbeat. I'll push kicks up on important hits.
Snares get automated up on fills a lot of times. Same with toms. Similarly I'll automate toms fill-to-fill in order to make sure they do/don't stand out in the way that make the most emotional sense. Also, I'll automate low end down in a tom ride section so I can get more apparent rhythm and less rumble out of it...then bring to boom boom back for the transition.
Overheads get pushed up on big crash moments. I find I bring them down if the drummer is playing an energy that is out-of-balance with the other stuff in a section of a song. Sometimes that's good. Sometimes that's bad. I have to deal with it either way. Sometimes I'll automate a little width a little wider into bigger sections where more things are competing for the middle and the soft-pan positions.
I like to have two or three different "sets" of room mics. If I'm tracking it's often a stereo medium room, a mono close room, and a mono far room. Sometimes people hand me two pairs of stereo rooms. I can live with whatever as long as it's cool. I like to work the balance of those vs the close mics to change the size/intensity of the section. To me, the drums always feel like they're being hit harder if the ambience becomes more apparent. Taking the ambience away feels like it gets smaller. Favoring mono or stereo rooms depends on the rest of the arrangement. I often like to push more stereo sources when a song gets bigger. Sometimes the right decision isn't to push a close mic up during a fill but instead to push a room mic up to give the impression of more intensity out of the drummer.
All of my drum mics go through a drum buss. That gets an automation pass in which I ride the drum bus volume up and down during the song in real time. I play it top to bottom and try to perform the drum volume mix the same way I'd vary the intensity of the drum performance if I were playing the drums.
These are not always every time sorts of things, either. Just as the spirit moves me and if the drums (or certain parts) are really pushing the energy of the track or if they're supposed to be serving other pieces of the song.
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Post by schmalzy on Aug 9, 2021 15:34:33 GMT -6
It's one of the reasons I love having my console.
I'll route a track into the console, push some extra level on the fader, push some extra level on the group, then out of the group to the A/D.
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Post by schmalzy on Jul 26, 2021 10:33:27 GMT -6
I understood the Silika workflow pretty quickly. Possibly because I use all the other Kush plugins as well (so my brain speaks the signal flow/workflow language Greg wants his plugins to use). What did you find ridiculous about it? Did you get to try it enough and see how it sounds? Truthfully, I don't use Silika much. I really like Novatron, Deflector, and AR-1. I've used it in my parallel buses, on some drums, and on bass. It didn't completely revolutionize my workflow but I definitely know when I want to reach for it. The Silika input saturation sounds great. Closest thing I’ve found in the box to a blue strip 1176 rev a type of nasty fet comp vibe. The problem is it’s just not a great compressor. It was like a better sounding but less useful Arousor to me in that it sounded like a clipper. It was pretty good on a drum bus but it’s more clipped and pokey sounding than competitors there, eg PSP Fetpressor, Fuse VCL-373, Klanghelm DC8C3, Goodhertz Vulf. I found the GUI confusing and the whole “nailed the analog” marketing off putting when it was really easy to make totally crap out. I demoed it and never used it over Molot GE, which is more flexible and better behaved while still can get down and dirty. Completely understandable, for sure! I mostly use it for the distortion characteristics. I can definitely get hard transients to pop out of it (when I want 'em) but I agree it's not super useful. I haven't gotten the GE Molot. I have the old one and I don't use it because - in the past at least - I couldn't get it to give me something I want. I'll have to re-evaluate! Thanks for the reply!
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Post by schmalzy on Jul 25, 2021 14:01:41 GMT -6
What’s the work flow and signal path of the GUI? Silika’s was ridiculous. I understood the Silika workflow pretty quickly. Possibly because I use all the other Kush plugins as well (so my brain speaks the signal flow/workflow language Greg wants his plugins to use). What did you find ridiculous about it? Did you get to try it enough and see how it sounds? Truthfully, I don't use Silika much. I really like Novatron, Deflector, and AR-1. I've used it in my parallel buses, on some drums, and on bass. It didn't completely revolutionize my workflow but I definitely know when I want to reach for it.
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Post by schmalzy on Jul 21, 2021 10:41:49 GMT -6
It depends what I'm trying to do, I guess. Am I trying to shorten a sound, am I trying to reduce run-of-the-mill background noise, or am I try to get cymbals out of a drum sound?
If I'm just trying to control length or get rid of regular noisey stuff I'll use the Console1 SSL 4000 gate. It's perfectly functional for that.
Stuff like toms I'll manually cut out the stuff I don't want. The more the toms need to be featured the more important cutting them out by hand becomes.
If I HAVE to use processing to remove unwanted stuff on kick/snare/toms I'll use a combination: Reaper's ReaGate followed by Boz Gatey Watey. Set Reaper's gate to grab what you need but let it stay open for "too long." Then grab Gatey Watey and set it to gate out the segment of the frequency range I want out and leave the other stuff as it was after it passed ReaGate.
What that most often looks like is using ReaGate to give me the drum length I want - just for the discussion we'll call it 500ms on a floor tom - and I'll use Gatey Watey to see that gated signal and only let the highs through for the first 80ms (or whatever sounds good). It leaves the length of the resonance but reduces the amount of time the top end speaks. A big component of making that all work, though, is not gating hard. I'm setting my ReaGate to 60% wet and only reducing in Gatey Watey by 6-9 db. I don't want to hear the gates working I just want a little less of the garbage.
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Post by schmalzy on Jul 5, 2021 22:05:44 GMT -6
PC for a long time.
Went to Mac for video in the cheese grater era. Those were super solid.
Then the whole shop upgraded to iMacs...somehow even more solid.
Now I run 2012 Macbook Pro and a late 2015 iMac for audio and still some video. Mostly solid. The Macbook is starting to choke but 9 years is pretty good for a guy who doesn't want to touch a computer other than to use it as a tool. My iMac is being updated by a pro in a few days so I can install Native Instruments Machine. If not for that I'd happily stay back at El Capitan (10.11). I only update machines and software when updating benefits me more than not updating. I only buy plugins from manufacturers who don't screw me in that regard. Softube, Kush, Boz, Valhalla. Good brands and good update policies.
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Post by schmalzy on Jul 2, 2021 9:26:12 GMT -6
I'm always taking a DI. I've never regretted the hard drive space it took up and it's bailed me out more times than I care to mention. It's an easy solution to an easy-to-miss-at-the-time problem.
Bass -> Countryman 85 -> Neve-style Preamp
Then splitting at the "thru" to probably one of these:
Thru -> Bass Preamp (Darkglass, Sans Amp) -> Console preamp
Thru -> Distortion/fuzz/disgusting-sound pedals -> Console preamp
Thru -> Ampeg V4b -> SVT 6x10 -> AT4040 + Heil PR40 -> Neve-style Preamps
Thru -> Presonus Eureka DI input (surprisingly useful) ->Amp Sim (like the UAD SVT Classic or a whole pile of other options)
If I'm working on guitar-heavy music then often I'll reamp the bass DI through a distortion device or bass preamp after tracking is done. Layering guitar lines can really crowd the midrange areas I like to have my bass instrument definition coming from and sometimes that extra scuzziness/clank-i-ness is required to get it to come out. It sometimes feels like it needs to be a little bit irritating (on its own) to cut through the white noise wall of guitars, and drums, and synths, and vocals, and and and and and...
Now if I could just get bass players to stop rolling their tone knob down while tracking. Yes I understand you never hear your upper mids while you're rehearsing so it's a little odd. It's very helpful during tracking and during the mix to hear the definition of the note. No my system is not out of sync only on the bass channel, you're just playing wildly out of time and hearing it for the first time because this is the first time you've ever clearly heard the definition of your playing. No it won't sound good for this modern rock record if your bass is only lows. Yes we'll have to retrack your bass if you keep turning your tone knob all the way down so it sounds like you're used to sounding at rehearsals. Yes I'll bill you for it.
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