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Post by gwlee7 on Feb 21, 2024 15:42:43 GMT -6
I have noticed that the quality of John’s mixing of my songs is in direct proportion to the quality of the tracks I send him. Also, a good drummer who knows what he is doing (Tony) tracks the drums in his own studio. This last song needed no revisions at all. It sounded like it was tracked but with a nicer finish to it than what I have skills to do. I haven’t sent him a turd to polish here lately.
I owe being able to do this to all of you here. You have patiently told me what I need to do to make good “records”. So, I have a few really decent pieces of hardware, some decent mics to choose from, a good monitoring system, and track in a nicely treated room. I can rough mix stuff good enough to know if I have the instrumentation and vocal parts I want the way I want and then I send it on. I have learned a bunch of stuff from ya’ll.
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ericn
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Balance Engineer
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Post by ericn on Feb 21, 2024 15:52:40 GMT -6
Vocals, only thing that lets home recording be viable are the de-reverb plugs and very specific mics, most of which are not the vintage mics people talk about on the internet or the clones of them that are usually awful. Bad guitar tracks are workable if you can hear the playing. EQ it. I'm seriously just going to suggest SM7's from now on. Hard to screw up and not a top end nightmare. BTW - out of all the de-reverb plugs I tried, I really thought the SPL was the best. It's $9.99 right now. Basically just part of the Transient designer. Now you are beginning to understand why SM7 as pushed so hard, it Shure wasn’t the profit margin. It really is hard to completely suck on an SM7, yes there will probably always be a mic that works better with just about anyone, but chances are that mic has a higher potential of sucking if care and time isn’t taken. So SM7 it is. Not because it’s great but because it’s really, really hard to suck with one. Now I did say hard not impossible. |
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Post by Dan on Feb 21, 2024 16:29:39 GMT -6
Vocals, only thing that lets home recording be viable are the de-reverb plugs and very specific mics, most of which are not the vintage mics people talk about on the internet or the clones of them that are usually awful. Bad guitar tracks are workable if you can hear the playing. EQ it. I'm seriously just going to suggest SM7's from now on. Hard to screw up and not a top end nightmare. BTW - out of all the de-reverb plugs I tried, I really thought the SPL was the best. It's $9.99 right now. Basically just part of the Transient designer. Audix OM11 is a better SM7b. OM7 is an even tighter version of that if they have good mic technique, need even more rejection, and want to hold it directly up to their mouth.
Try Acon DeVerberate. Waves Clarity VX Pro is almost as good too.
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ericn
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Post by ericn on Feb 21, 2024 16:46:40 GMT -6
I'm seriously just going to suggest SM7's from now on. Hard to screw up and not a top end nightmare. BTW - out of all the de-reverb plugs I tried, I really thought the SPL was the best. It's $9.99 right now. Basically just part of the Transient designer. Audix OM11 is a better SM7b. OM7 is an even tighter version of that if they have good mic technique, need even more rejection, and want to hold it directly up to their mouth.
Try Acon DeVerberate. Waves Clarity VX Pro is almost as good too.
The only knock on the Audix OM series is how often people just crank the gain to get decent output level . I actually prefer the Audix OM handhelds on wireless because the level works well with every other head because non of them have a Transformer. You can also tweak the level at the transmitter and the receiver. Great mics just everything that makes them great is also there biggest weakness. |
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Post by svart on Feb 21, 2024 16:52:57 GMT -6
I've gotten messages like: "How much for an hour?" and I'm like "I'm 60$ an hour, 4 hours minimum" and they'll be like "DAAAMN, I just need an hour to get these 3 songs down, you're too expensive".. I had a band want to track to the 2" tape and I quoted them the studio time AND the tape costs.. They were confused why I would want to charge them 600$ for 2 tapes.. They literally said they wanted to keep the tapes afterwards, so I quoted them two new reels of tape (at my cost) and they were still confused. One of them went on ebay and found a reel of "NOS" 2" tape for 10$ and then accused me of trying to overcharge them. I had to explain "sticky-shed" to them and they thought I was just making it up. I also had another band want to record to tape but then they asked why they'd be limited to 24 tracks.. "Because there's only 24 tracks on the tape" as I explained to them.. They were confused as to why I couldn't just add more tracks like in a DAW. Turns out they had never even seen a tape machine before and didn't even know how they worked. They thought it was like a DAW somehow. Ignorant wannabes. These are exactly the kind of clients that get a polite hangup. If they even question my hourly, I ask how much the dealership charges for a tire rotation, oil change or brake service ($200hr). Then I tell them I am CERTAINLY too expensive for them. If they show obvious signs of zero knowledge of recording? I am obviously NOT the person they want. If you (and I'm speak rhetorically - not directly to YOU svart)  take on these type clients, you are asking for all these headaches you abhor. I've learned it's not worth it. I used to want to try.. and a lot of that was ambition on my part overriding my common sense. |
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take on these type clients, you are asking for all these headaches you abhor.