51m0n

That was a ridiculous amount of time to estimate. A [i]serious[/i] mix takes at least 15 hours for a single track. If you have a truly complex track (the single off a Pink album had over 120 tracks on it!) then you could well double that especially if you include the pre-mix tidying up. So one of two things was wrong, eiither you guys intended to essentially do a live recording with a pretty straight mix down of the songs, nothing more than a rough balancing, no automation, basic effects and eq, no overdubs, no extra bv's or widdles. A demo in other words. Or you woefully understimated the time this all takes to get something a bit more shiny than a rough demo.. Most likely once you'd got the basic rhythm tracks down the guitarist and vocalist realised that a rough demo wasnt going to cut it and started adding the necessary 'shiny sh*t' to make it sound a bit more pro. This doubled the time without taking into account the extra mixing required I would think. Any which way I hope you're after a 'live' and 'representative' sound, because the mix down is going to have to be pretty straightforward given the time frames. Consider this a lesson well learnt, if you need to save studio time work every single thing out in advance, and no you cant do that in a rehearsal room, but you [i]can[/i] record every rehearsal and get people to work out every single bit of 'shiny sh*t' they intend to put down in the studio. This is called [i]pre-production[/i] and is absolutely [i]vital[/i] if you want to get a great result in the studio without going more than 50% over budget!

[quote name='uncle psychosis' timestamp='1385543742' post='2289399'] I think I've only ever met one superb funk-disco guitarist. Having said that, he's not too shabby at all. Goes by the name of Nile Rodgers. ....sorry, I just had to do that. I still break into a huge grin when I remember that I have shaken his hand [/quote] Interestesingly my current guitarist's long time guitar hero is Nile, and he does [i]that[/i] feel particularly well. He's never been too bothered by playing lead, and has spent years really getting into rhythm guitar. It certainly shows!

Post the recording, we'll tell you gently if its the bass or guitaror drums not getting the groove on right. My bet is its the rhythm guitar, why? Because in twenty years I've only met two really superb funk/disco rhythm guitarists, and about a hundred who think they can do either but cant. Met a lot of bassists who do a better job of grooving than guitarists.... No amount of reverb on bass will make it work better, like no amount of reverb on a crap vocal makes it less apalling to anyone who can listen, yet crap vocalists do tend to like a lot of reverb to try and hide their inadequacies. She may not be aware of the correct technical solution, but she seems fairly aware that there is a problem to address...

Bizare, the JM compressors I've used you can really push and get some noticeablye compression on, I've definitely used a JM half rack jobbie and got drums pumping off it (as a parallel comp effect). Sounded great. May not have been this exact one, there have been several revisions....

Dont know how servicable the tube is, how hard can it be really though? Apparently its an ECC81 which is equivalent to a 12AT7 (IIRC). I doubt very much you'd ever need to change it, depends on how high the plate voltage i to a certain extent I guess...

Result! Love to hear your thoughts on it once its sorted. I love JM compressors on bass (some are better than others) if you dial them in they are awfully squidgy and yummmmmmm....

Pffft.... What reasons did they give for 3/5 exactly? Its definitely one of the better compressor pedals out there, true vari-mu tube compressor for a start, very unusual in a pedal. Probably the 'best' compressor pedal money can buy is the [url="http://www.origineffects.com/Cali76transformer.php"]Cali76 [/url]with output transformer. Its very expensive, closely matches a rack 1176 in action and circuit by all acounts and has excelletn metering. FEA do some great pedal compressors too, the OptiFET being the opposite of the Cali in that its all warm/dark and fat... The MXR M87 is OK, has reasonable metering, but unfortunately the lowest available ratio is 4:1, which is virtually a limiting action to me, for bass playing, far too obvious for a gentle leveller/'warmer-up-er-er' which is what I'm after. The Aguilar may sound great, but frankly it has no useful metering and so unless you really know what compression sounds like its pretty much a useless device IMO (same for absolutely any compressor with no metering at all on it, or a single LED, you cant tell what its doing properly because you cant hear subtle compression unless you have spent years playing with compressors) Go read all the [url="http://www.ovnilab.com/"]ovnilab compressor reviews[/url] fo rthe real info on the se devices. The[url="http://www.ovnilab.com/reviews/markbass.shtml"] Markbass Compressorrrerererere[/url] does very well - I think he refers to it as 'pure gold'!

Cant imagine why it woudl behave like that if it was working correctly. The 1/4" input is line/instrument unbalanced (according to the manual) so it should be easy to drive it, cant say I remember having issues with getting some comp action out of one of these (way back when, I may have but it doesnt ring a bell). Optical compression has a different (slower, non-linear) attack/release action to a VCA compressor, it can sound musical but definitely should be a noticable thing if its working 'right'. Doesnt sound right to me.....

I would never have described the Joe Meek units I've used as having a subtle compressor at all. I havent used that specific unit since the mid to late 90's for a single piece of music I was working on, so I cant remember the sound of it specifically, or if it has an LED that signifieds GR is being applied. But normally the JM compressors add gobs of lovely pumping loveliness as you set them higher. Point to note about the VC3 Q it has a fixed internal threshold on the compressor, if you want more 'action' turn up the input gain. So in order to hear it straight away put the attack as fast as possible, middling release, maximum 'Compression' (which is ratio by any other term) and then crank the input until you hear it compress, switch the compressor in and out you should really notice the dipping just after the transient of the input sound. Play with attack and release to get the action pleasing, then drop the compression to a sensible level. See if that helps....

Several times I've dabled in this. And every single time I've just had to cave in and go back to Windows/Mac based machines. Linux is a fantastic OS, but its really not geared up for, or ready to do, pro standard recording IME. Last time I tried was several years ago, I admit, but at that point I gave it up as a lost cause. When there is a DAW that truly rivals Reaper running on Linux with seamless integration of all VSTs and VSTis that are available out there, that hooks up to my RME interface perfectly, and can import Repaer projects perfectly out of the box, then I may just consider it, if I have a month to spare to configure the damn thing. IME Ubuntu Studio is no exception to this at all. I tried it and 4 or 5 other distros last time. To much faff for me by far. Good luck in your endeavour, though, and I am very interested to read how you get on with it!

Whilst nothing will 'go wrong' mic position on a bass cab is IME a bit more of a dark art than mic position on a guitar cab. Regardless of what guitarists may have you believe a guitar cab is a pretty stoneage thing, effectively there are a number of transducer ranging from 1 to 4 all of which do the same job, ie they are 'full range' for which read they all attempt to do the same thing and are in afact a complex mechanical bandpass filter knocking out the extreme low end (ie sub 70Hz) and 'extreme' top end (ie anything over 8KHz) whilst also dampening transients to a greater or lesser extent. In contrast a modern bass cab is ported, and has a tweeter, so getting the mic position bang on to deliver all that the cab produces is really difficult when close micing ( amust on stage due to the spill). Which is why a mic on a bass cab should concentrate on the cone for the mid range, and a DI should be used for the bottom end, because getting a mic to capture the port output at a decent level and the midrange at the same time is pretty tricky. That just leaves getting the DI and mic in phase, but any engineer worth his salt should know exactly how to do that.....

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1384761832' post='2280277'] PA engineers mic up guitar cabs all the time. How is a mic'd up bass cab more likely to go wrong? [/quote] + about a million! What the hell is so likely to go wrong micing a cab exactly? Cos we mic drum kits, guitar amps, horm sections, leslie speakers, vocalists all the time, what exactly is wrong with micing a bass cab, do we need extra insurance in case the mic gets miffed?

Thomann SC140:- [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/the_tbone_sc140.htm"]http://www.thomann.d...tbone_sc140.htm[/url] £39.99 Somewhat better physical design then the C1 since the diaphragm is closer to the end of the mic (less of a lip or recess for sound to reflect off). Gets a big thumbs up from Michael Joly of Oktavamod mic mods. For the money it sounds good. If you want a mic that sounds great for almost any money than a Line Audio CM3 is absolutely stellar, comparable with £700+ mics from Schoeps and DPA for about £120. I have a stereo pair and they are absolutely killer mics.

[quote name='lojo' timestamp='1384540749' post='2278012'] This may have been mentioned , but if you can get the core band up and running with structures, then attracting good brass players to join in on already established material might be easier ? [/quote] That's what we did...

[size=5][color=#008000]Oh Matron![/color][/size]

You cant have mine

[quote name='Myke' timestamp='1384442887' post='2276762'] How about a Electro voice RE-20. My favourite sounding mic [/quote] Yep, this is another classic mic for bass cabs (and vocal broadcast mic, like the Heil PR40, but older)

[quote name='pantherairsoft' timestamp='1384434096' post='2276609'] This! Amazing bass cab mic - Though only if you want hifi - VERY revealing and raw. If you want to capture real low end it's amazing. Also it's Amazing on.... Guitar Cabs Vocals Overheads Snares Stage Mic Kazoo Er... Everything. Basically it's the best mic on the planet in my humble and insignificant opinion. [/quote] LOL! Guess thats one steer that worked out ok then mate I reckon you're probably right in terms of bang for the buck. And I certainly wouldnt say raw, I would say accurate. If you dont want flattery, but would rather capture the sound as is, then the CM3 is just spine tingling for the cash, you really really need to be looking in the £700 to £800 plus area in small diaphragm condensors to get anything remotely better. And we are talking better due to really really subtle differences, and maybe slightly higher output... A lot of people who record classical are using these now, not in place of Schoeps and DPA which they all tend to have, but in addition to. I use my pair of CM3s every time I record, and they are just, brilliant..... They also do an OM1 now which is an omni condensor, by all accounts its even flatter than the CM3, another staggering mic!

[quote name='EBS_freak' timestamp='1384425822' post='2276489'] You could do a lot worse than a Heil PR40... [/quote] Stunning mic for bass and kick drum, and baritone vocal. Very expensive though!

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1384361502' post='2275708'] Bass drum mics are a terrible idea since they have an EQ curve designed to flatter the bass drum and therefore if you use one on the bass guitar cab as well all that happens is the two fight for the same EQ space. [/quote] +1 Here's a tip for a really cheap alternative to an sm57, Prodipe TT1 Pro, £39.99 I thankyewwverrymuch..... I would always suggest if you are micing a cab live to get the 'grit' of your rig across, and you have the time, then couple that with a DI for the low end and the very sparkly top end, its very very hard to mic a cab such that the driver (which provides the mids) is properly balanced with the port (which provides the lows) and the tweeter (if you have one). If you need to mic (ie you use distortion and need the cone to filter out the top end hash) then use a mic on the best sounding driver in your cab, blend with a DI, but cut anything over 100Hz out of the DI signal. Better yet send the two channels to a group and apply a bit of subtle compression to help glue it all together. Its a faff, but the result sounds a lot better. If you really cant send a DI as well spend a minute some time to work out a really nice mic placement that carries enough real low end (ie sub120Hz) wallop from the port as well as grit from the cone photograph the mic position with your phone and show the sound guy the picture saying you have spent time working this out. In this case an SM57 is probably not the best choice, but neither is a kick drum mic, you need a fairly flat mic to do it justice, and that gets expensive as hell. The Prodipe TT1 does go lower than a 57 though, in my experiments at least (I got them for tom mics, but they are surprisingly versatile, and can sound really nice on some vocals too), it has a pretty decent chance of doing your rig justice, as long as you get the position right.... Another (more expensive) excellent mic for this is the Line AUdio CM3. Awesome little mic, will handle pretty serious level, and about as flat as you could need, with great low end extension. Its a condensor and will require phantom power, but is tiny, very discreet and outperforms most other SDC mics up to the Schoeps/DPA level, yet only cost about £150 Shepo got one for micing his behemoth of a rig and really really digs it....

I love that mate, great bas sound, but what a fab groove!

Sorry chaps I am completely snowed what with work and recording stuff I need to take care of, I haven't had a minute to give it a thought if I'm honest. In fact I would be lying if I said I was going to have any time for the forseeable -[b] big [/b]recording personal project starting up - probably not till well into the new year the way its going. Sorry

Have a great gig Nige!

I'm effectively the leader in my band, I tell you what its a real juggling act. On the one hand I really really value the experience and expertise of all the current band members, not to mention their continued hard graft as we try and get a set of really interesting and engaging music together. I want to inspire them to bring their best to every rehearsal, encourage and never show any sign of frustration when things go wrong, especially when its out of our control etc etc At the same time I want to keep guiding the band toward a reasonably specific vision for the music we are making. Generally its apparent that the players are all excellent, the guitarist has a huge (really huge) stock of old ideas he can pull on at any given time, the drummer can play anything at all that I can imagine and the horn section are a brilliantly tight nit little team that work together in several bands (never had a major clash yet so thats not an issue). I am truly lucky to have found these people! Just recently we have started moving on from that first flush of joy that we are making music we like, and started to get a bit more serious about polishing the final result. I can't tell you how much trepidation I approached this with, they are all good players, they are doing it for fun and the joy that creating and playing gives, and I've never been the final say on QA in a band before. And I really cant afford to ruin anyone's day and have them get all upset! So stopping a track two or three times in a row on the second chorus section because we were driting off the feel (its a 'problem' track in that it can easily start to feel a bit ploddy if we arent all really on it) was a gamble. Not really knowing how they would react was nervewracking, and I'm not someone who hormally gives to figs about pushing people a bit. Interestingly it was nothing but positive, quite simply everyone (myself included) just upped their game a huge great chunk and rung the neck of not just this track, but everything we played afterwards. And then complimented each other on how well we'd collectively pulled our socks up. It seems, a bit of constructive criticism of the band (totally inclusive, I know I'm as guilty as any of them on this track, and terrible at getting structures right) just got the best out them, And everyone approved. I think I'm learning more about getting good results from people in a team situation running this band than I have from anything else I've ever done. But its still nervewracking and outside my comfort zone. Fortunately the band seem to be willing to put up with my fumbling efforts to get something excelletn created.... But being the band 'leader' is a hugely different thing than being in the band, I am only just begging to get a handle on it in truth...