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Post by Deleted on Apr 4, 2020 14:58:15 GMT -6
3 newbie questions for the experts here.
1) Do you guys hi pass on mics or the preamps?? Do the preamps ones perform better or built better then the mic ones? Or it doesn't matter? They both the same? I even heard not to use high pass at all for better end result (not sure if it's true)
2) do you guys track with eq? If ur "Not" mixing the record. I read that leaving eq to be used later is better and using eq while tracking causes phase shift? And can be problematic in mix? I don't mix anything, I usually hire someone to do it for me. Do synth tracking and occasional vocals
3) Is treating a room for tracking a waste of money ? Cause it sure gets expensive. Would u guys say, it's more important for a mixing room? I can always do some pre productions on headphones or play music at a very low level in the room so there isn't too much echo. What u guys think?
So my townhouse is right next to the street. I can't stop environmental noise. Cars, trucks and motorcycle passing by. Worst thrrr is crickets by door, you can imagine lol, I just bought Aston halo, not sure if it will work but it's worth a shot. feel free to give some ideas
Do u guys recommend using the high pass whether on Mic or pre to remove the low freq rumble (traffic, frig etc etc) What are the pros and cons later? Any ideas to remedy these issues would be great.
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Post by tkaitkai on Apr 4, 2020 16:12:58 GMT -6
- High-pass: I prefer to high-pass as early in the chain as possible. My mic has a 7-position HPF, so I start there — usually 80Hz for vocals and 40Hz for everything else. My mic pre has a 90Hz HPF, which I will sometimes use in addition to the mic's filter. It's good to experiment, as they definitely don't sound the same. Different HPFs will have different filter slopes, as well as different behavior around the corner frequency. For example, the 90Hz rolloff on my preamp is quite pronounced, whereas my mic's HPF is very gentle and almost invisible.
If you're using vibey character preamps or outboard compression, I think a HPF is a must. Same goes if there's rumble from appliances or outside noises. You may not ALWAYS need it, but it's very useful to have on hand.
- Tracking with EQ: This is a matter of preference. Some like it, some don't. I'm not a fan of EQing vocals on the way in, but sometimes I like it for instruments.
- Room treatment: Treatment is important no matter what you're doing, but I actually find it to be slightly more important for tracking than mixing. Provided you at least have a somewhat decent monitoring environment, you can eventually "learn" the sound of your room. As long as you know what a pro mix should sound like in your room, you can probably make decent mixes. Recording, on the other hand, is a different story — the sound of your room is your sound. Once that sound is baked into your recording, there's no amount of processing after the fact that can take the room out of the equation.
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Post by oliviadolphinjohn on Apr 4, 2020 16:34:41 GMT -6
For what you're doing I wouldn't filter anywhere or eq or treat your room. It probably won't make as much difference as the mixing engineer. Do listen in mono on different speakers, headphones etc.
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Post by EmRR on Apr 4, 2020 16:48:41 GMT -6
Many (most?) mic hpf are 6dB/oct, most pre hpf are 12/dB oct or higher order.
Forget phase shift, it comes with EQ. And hpf/ and lpf. Do what you want there. If it sounds bad, you should hear it. If you have analog EQ's and know what you want, why not use them on the way in?
Treatment will help your recorded sound. Doesn't have to be expensive or anything more than basic.
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Post by christopher on Apr 4, 2020 18:21:41 GMT -6
I’ve been recording in sub-par spaces for a while. Recently did some acoustic in a small cabin, hardwood floors and reflective surfaces everywhere, waaaay too much room sound. However he had a floor to ceiling canvas curtain that he used to divide the room into sleeping area/kitchen.. just a thin light colored tarp type thing on rope. We closed that “curtain” and amazingly it killed a ton of the sound. It still had a room sound, but much more workable. I sat him aimed at the center of the curtain and he played and sang straight into it, sounded pretty dry like a studio. I talked into the curtain and it reminded me of a vocal booth. So weird and cheap! Really any blanket should be able to do a similar thing. I think the floor to ceiling/wall to wall really helped here. Toss clothes piles and blankets in the corners, it all helps a little.
Filtering.. if it’s the neve EQ and filters, those sound cool. I don’t usually like filters on mics, but that kind of sometimes make the mic feel new and different, good for when you want something new. Play around have fun, explore those filters and EQs
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Post by johneppstein on Apr 5, 2020 0:40:09 GMT -6
3 newbie questions for the experts here. 1) Do you guys hi pass on mics or the preamps?? Do the preamps ones perform better or built better then the mic ones? Or it doesn't matter? They both the same? I even heard not to use high pass at all for better end result (not sure if it's true)
1) Why are you hi passing in the first place? There seems to be a fad these days for habitually hi passing everything, which is not necessarily a good idea. I generally don't hi pass at all if I can avoid it. If I KNEW during tracking that I had a serious problem with subsonics or very LF environmental noise I'd probably hipass on the mic.
I often will EQ cerain things, like kick and snare, on the way in. Most other things I try to deal with via mic selection and placement.
EQ while tracking causes phase shift? Don't worry about it, somebody's trying to get you to not trust your own work. The truth is that EQing ANYTIME, ANYWHERE causes phase shift because that's how EQs work, unless they're linear phase digital EQs and those usually sound funny.
Why don't you mix anything? It's time to start. I totally don't understand people who don't mix their own tracking work. Mixing is like swimming - you won't get anywhere sitting on the beach, you gotta jump right in!
Is treatment a waste of money?
Yes, No.....
Lots of people overtreat their rooms and end up with more problems than they started with. It all depends on the room.
I personally intensely dislike dead rooms - they're oppressive to work in and never sound good.. I also dislike flutter echoes and nasty resonances. I'd ratyher start with a room that has a good sound by itself and add small amounbts of absorption anf diffusion as needed. I'm a big fan of diffusion - I'd rather break up and scatter a reflection than try to absorb it, especially since many or most problems in smaller rooms would actually require thicker layers of absorbtion that might bedesirable, space wise, and too thin absorption will just take the air out of the room and not touch the real problem frequencies.
One thing to be aware of is that using cheap microphones with poor off axis frequency response can often fool you into thinking your room is worse than it is.
I feel for you. When I was still in SF my place was on a busy streetcorner over a deli. An old Victorian with 8 foot tall windows and 12 foot ceilings.
Double pane windows can help a bit. As to the LF noise, the best thing is to schedule your loud tracking during the day and do the delicate overdubs during off-hours. The problem with trying to use a lo cut on traffic is that most of the noise isn't that low and if you uses one set high enough it's screw up your sound and once something's gone it's gone.
Use shock mounts on your mics to eliminate transmission noise.
Call an exterminator for the crickets.
Turn the fridge off while tracking. You'll save on electricity, too. Don't forget to turn it back on.
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