Let’s Set Some Limits!

I hear you John, and there’s lots of us doing a similar thing, where plug-ins makes sense and get the job done.

But I can’t help but feel as more and more people go fully digital and the next generation see fully digital as the norm that it’s been a race to the bottom.

I listen to some of my favourite albums made with hardware and desks and all the instruments are real etc and then listen to some modern popular albums mixed ITB with a whole slew of plug-ins and VI’s and I know which I prefer and which sound like beautiful art capture in the moment and framed in the most appealing musical way.

I realise this might not be a popular view, an old man looking in the rear view mirror - a Luddite even!

But at my age I find myself with a greater gear list than ever and a desire to get more and more hardware and jettison as many plug-ins and VI’s as I can afford.

I don’t need more budget conscious customers, I need a lotto win

Just a couple thoughts as I read…not disagreeing - just thinking as i read. I think the defining characteristics of those records - 90% of them - were done in tracking and performances. Also - no matter how many pieces of hardware I have, it’s still not going to import the impact of the initial tracking through a console. I wonder if in these high quality recordings if we’re hearing the phase (polarity) relationship of these console channels being a little out of spec giving a sense of width…stuff like that. So - yeah, to me we are missing it more in the tracking stage than even the mixing stage.

Love tracking on 1608s and the big Trident formerly at Sharkbite in Oakland too (they just got a Daking!)

I do think there's something cool about using mostly the same amp topology across a recording, but I get the same cohesion out of a rack of 33114s as I do out of the consoles I've personally tracked on.

It's a good point you make, tracking and performance is probably were the magic was captured.

When you've got amazing sounding tracks to mix the mixing method is probably going to be less critical.

I was mainly referring to influencers who are making money off this stuff. Youtubers, plugin companies making inaccurate claims, etc. People vastly underestimate how difficult it is for these computers to run plugins in real time. You would think it'd be a lot less resource intensive than rendering HD video, but plugins can eat up a ton of cpu cycles all depending. I'd love to use Azure 2, but even as a lone plugin, that thing can cripple my CPU. Over the years I've noticed Graham Cochrane pointing to the same example over and over about the guy who mixed something on cheap stuff and got a record deal with Warner Hungary I think it was. If I recall, Graham had claimed to be pulling in 75k a month some years back. There is a ton of money in telling people they only need cheap stuff and one mic.

In my own experience as someone who is self-taught, I can tell you I would have been way better off starting with a better computer, an Aurora N or Hilo, and a few pieces of hardware. 

Sure, maybe if you're just really, really good you can pull off a lot with stock plugins, cheap headphones, and a cheap interface. But it's hardly the best method. Some people also may just get lucky with great sounding tracks to mix and just not know enough to mess them up with amateur mixing mishaps. 

I know one guy who made what I think is a phenomenal Metal album all on his own. Blood By Design-The Ancient One. Just some album I randomly decided to listen to when hunting for new stuff. This guy is just really gifted. Already up there with some of the best writers in Metal history. He got great sounds for vocals, guitar, and drums. The guitars were all done with plugin reamping and the drums were all virtual too. No human drummer played, but the drumming on there is so well-crafted that the performance is up there with the best Metal drummers I've heard on record. 

Jake told me he used Perception 220 condenser mic with a classic Scarlett 2i2 and a kaotica eyeball. Valhalla Room was what he used for Reverb. Bunch of Waves. I was just blown away by what he came up with. I think it sounds a lot better than what big name producers have done in recent years. 

I went back and forth with Paul Third about the Aurora N vs ID14 original. I have both and I can tell you there is a massive difference. When he tested them, he was using the Access Analog plugin. There is something different with their setup than mine. I ran a file through their Fusion and Aurora N and saved it. I've run the same file through my Fusion and Aurora N and it sounded much clearer. I don't know if it's the cables or something getting lost in the streaming process, but the result was definitely different. Paul hasn't responded to me since I brought this up. At this point I haven't been able to run Fusion through the ID14 because it won't even route it correctly. The method for hardware inserts that Audient wrote on GS years ago didn't bring up the options they said to use. 

Just the way he presents the video gives the viewer the impression that Lynx are basically con artists and selling an unnecessary product. He doesn't go into the big picture of it all. The whole theme of the video is that high-end conversion is BS. In comparing the headphone monitoring, the Lynx is 100x better. I think it's as good or better than $10,000 Stax rigs I've heard at conventions. 

Again, think about the branding here. Eventually it's "Oh great, another guy with an Audient interface who uses plugins and Access Analog". A client probably won't know this stuff, but if they do a little bit of research on forums or read the sites of local studios, and run into information from people who actually understand why experience and gear matter, they may start asking questions. It's something of an information war really. If we can effectively communicate why skills, experience, and certain gear and plugins can make a difference in various types of ways, that can offset some of the damage caused by all this propaganda out there. 

I just did a session yesterday. I brought in some basic tracks I did quickly of a song of mine to use as a demo. In the session, the engineer took my tracks and ran everything through his outstanding analogue gear and then printed the results for me to finish mixing. This was not a difference where you could say that both versions were good, just different. The analogue sounds were so much better, it's sad to think people actually argue this point.

He did have some really tasty high end gear, so if you can afford it, there is a lot to be said for the high end, even if you get good results from well designed less expensive gear or have great ears and can get a lot out of an ITB mix.

Ha Ha


Okay,.. here is my one mic challenge...from a couple of years ago..


One mic, one guitar, one guy, once preamp, one compressor...one take

8)

Haven't finished all the tracking and mixing yet. Will do when it's ready..

Yeah. Good god. Rare to get anyone to show up and work more than 1 day / 6 hrs anymore. Piecemeal inefficiency dragged out till no one knows why they’re doing a thing anymore and maybe they want to do something else now. The records i got started and out the last few years all started and finished in solid fast blocks. The rest may never get finished, some have dragged out 4-5 years now with zero sense of purpose. Quality or lack thereof in the potential material has nothing to do with the aforementioned.

Increasingly bizarre the number of times people make a recording, then decide they don't like something about their arrangement or delivery, etc.  They've not even come prepared, they haven't reflected at all on what the thing is sounding like before they show up.  It's one thing if it's meant to be a demo/conversation session, but usually it's not.  

There definitely seems to have been a cultural shift towards not doing anything that is difficult or uncomfortable like long tracking days. Having said that, I think we also have to keep in mind how much of a role budget plays into not working the same schedules. I deal with a lot of artists that have put in long days in the past with me that just can't afford it anymore. It's all pretty depressing honestly.

Ok... you want depressing? This is depressing. 

Dave's reaction is priceless. Says everything. 

And your proud of this Billie? Really? If someone needs this for their album? I get it but please don't call me. 

In their defense, they have said that they do not use any tuning on her vocals so if that's what it takes to get there I guess I'll take it over autotune.  I'm with you though, I wouldn't want to be the one doing the comp!