51m0n

[quote name='coasterbass' timestamp='1331036081' post='1566571'] 24 tracks. A 2.5hr long gig. 6 vocal mics 2 ambient tracks. Never mixed anything before Should have it done by tomorrow.... [/quote] Not if you're doing it right

Thats superb, exceptional recording too, who did the audio, what was used etc etc - dons lab coat for in depth and nerdy reply (hopefully)....

Save me a space on the sofa skipper!

Have a couple of £6k mics to play with as well....

You definitely SHOULD set the system to run at the same rate and bit depth as the original files. You do not want to load the system any more than necessary and its having to downgrade the sample rate and bit depth to output for no good reason (assuming your soundcard can handle that bit depth). 24 bit is absolutely required for getting the best out of a digital system when recording (esp drums etc), since it gives you massive headroom, so you can give far more room for peaks at the top end of the volume range. Downgrading to 16bit on the fly is definitely not lowering system load. Just lowering the quality you are hearing.

Yup, lovely mic mate, enjoy it!

A Neumann M147 is a long long long way away from cheap in anyones book.... The reason I keep banging on about Heil is that they are not old school dymaincs, they use very high powered low weight neodymium magnets, and have an extrememly extended freq response as a result. They are designed primarily as broadcast mics (so very very good on voice), yet are extremely robust (so good on kick drums, guitar cabs etc). They are the best all rounders I've found yet. Honestly....

Rhode NT5 on hats on the cheap.... For a real all rounder that is like an SM57/58 but better (ie wioder frequency range) a Heil PR 22, if you can stretch to it a PR30. Both will give you a better general purpose mic than a 57, the PR30 will give a lot of large diaphragm condensors a good run for their money. If you want one mic to do pretty much anything well then the PR40 is a sublime mic in front of a lot of different sources. Not cheap, but a lot cheaper than a great dynamic and a decent LDC togethor...

[quote name='Al Heeley' timestamp='1330990176' post='1566094'] first decent volume practice tonight and i left the pedal on the whole time, I'm quite impressed for the money it really does a decent job at tightening up the sound and the dynamics. I'm really not very experienced at the whole comp/limiter thing but you really can't knock this little pedal for the money. If anyone wants to dip an inexpensive toe into the water of compression then i heartily recommend the £27.50 to Dangleberry on ebay for this. At higher volume settings I found the unit more comp-like since it prolongs the decay of the note whereas a pure limiter, i believe, maintains the decay but just knocks off the peaks. [/quote] LImiter/Comp both will act as a sustain enhancer with a low enough threshold. If that devices threshold is not variable, then the input volume effectively becomes the threshold....

Pleasure mate!

Bizarre, I really thought someone might find this useful....

New Bootsy Variety of Sound free VST compressor with IM saturation:- [url="http://varietyofsound.wordpress.com/2012/03/02/thrillseekerla-released-today/"]ThrillseekerLA[/url] Try running bass through it and playing with the odd/even saturation alone. Then play with the compression, its a bonza bit of kit chaps!

Anyone saying Reaper is clunky needs to give it a bit more time IMO. Its lightening fast in the right hands, and seeing as it is about the most configurable DAW out there(there are even downloadable sets of ProTools key mappings and look and feel layouts apparently) pretty much how you need to work can be covered. There are a few areas where its no all the way there I know (midi editing isnt it's strongest point for sure), but a little more time with it will reap huge rewards.

Not hanging about are they!

Studio 5, [b]studio 5[/b]! As in 5 whole seperate studio bits to play with - by god man! When this is finished we'll never hear anothing thing from you, you'll be so busy enjoying the palace of recording you have made. I am a little jealous (a lot actually). Keep it up, and keep on with the updates too!

Sound proofing requires mass and isolation. Concrete will provide mass, in abundance, but if its touching the walls it will still transmit vibration. Seperate concrete floor, room within a room, all standard fair for control room /live room type of thing. Checkout the Gearslutz [url="http://www.gearslutz.com/board/studio-building-acoustics/"]forum on studio builds for more info[/url]

You set 'em up....

Said the Actress to the Bishop....

Thing is you cant cut through a hole that isnt there. If there is no hole you wont cut through it, you will compete in that area and thats when things become messy, which defeats the object....

If you get the foundation right then it becomes easier to lay the textures on top. Guitar can lose a lot of low end assumingthe rest of the band are supllying it (ie bass, keys) and in the context of the mix not sound remotely weak. At the end of the day though the vocal is (9 times out of 10) the one thing that gets the least cut from it. It carries the song to the punters, it is the single most important part of the band, it is the mix equivalent of the King and Queen together in chess, the most powerful piece of the show from an emotional point and the most defenseless, without which you have nothing. Simply because the punters are hanging off the melody and lyrics, their entire conscious perception of most songs starts with the melody. If you ask a punter to sing (insert well known song here) they will start with the melody line of the chorus and work out from there, they wont sing any other parts except the hooks that happen inbetween vocal parts. Subconsciously most people actually recognise an awful lot more than the vocal, but consciously its a different story.

[quote name='thisnameistaken' timestamp='1330437663' post='1557437'] Every sound guy I've ever worked with has spent an age EQing the bass drum and then simply checked that the bass guitar signal exists and been happy with that. Although to be fair I suppose there's not a lot to do with a bass signal until everything else is firing. [/quote] Which is of course utter nonsense.

[quote name='WalMan' timestamp='1330433031' post='1557316'] Just back from the lunchtime wander and had to chuckle when I picked up Bass Player mag and was flicking through while waiting for a till to be free, to seethe final article in the mag was The Grooveyard reprinting an article from 1993 called .........."[b]Defend Your Sonic Space[/b]" That was actually more bemoaning live sound engineers for goiung for a monster kick sound at the expense of bass. [/quote] Yeah, I hate that so much - you get a kick threatening the foundations but the bass is just inaudible sub rumblings, wtf? Some venues make controlling bass incredibly difficult simply as a result of the design and structure, but as a very very general rule (and therefore often as not wrong) the larger the space the less this is an issue, and yet the bigger the venue the more this seems beyond the FOH engineer to sort out. Makes my blood boil!

[quote name='Beedster' timestamp='1330433644' post='1557327'] Good stuff, hope I haven't blown my chances of getting you to mix our next album! C [/quote] Not at all mate, not at all!

[quote name='51m0n' timestamp='1330429856' post='1557236'] As a further point wrt to mixing, the result is only ever as good as the song and the arrangement. [/quote] [quote name='thisnameistaken' timestamp='1330432327' post='1557297'] It's interesting that whenever this topic comes up, it's always discussion of frequency ranges and mixing and never anything about how the songs are arranged. If everybody's playing the same note or the same rhythm then nobody is going to 'cut through' - try thinking about harmony and syncopation a bit more. Or *horror* space! [/quote] Could not agree with you more! But great mixing is as much about getting the best oput of the arrangement as fiddling with eqs.

I agree that the idea of 'cutting through' suggests a certain tone and a certain approach that may not really work very well in a lot of circumstances. It does however suggest some concept of finding a space that may not really be the bass region in order to be heard. Where that space is depends on the rest of the band, the style, the arragement and to some extent the room too.