51m0n

Better than through anything else

Its Berg, baby, do you really need to ask if its going to sound incredible???

Whenever I need to play along with stuff its laptop running Reaper with rips loaded into it (that way I can set up sections, loop whatever I need to, slow playback down at the same pitch, tune the pitch of the recording to A440 without changing the speed, etc etc etc) into aux in of Digitech BP8 (which I have to borrow off Plux, note to self invest in my own dedicated headphone amp!), Roscoe in BP8, BP8 to Sennheiser HD595 cans (which are rapidly wearing out). If I dont need to play along to stuff I practice acoustically, always. If I need to work on sounds from the pedal board then its full rig; fx like touch wahs (envelope filters) and distortions sound and behave differently when I'm playing through the big rig to when they are just coming out of speakers, because my touch is definitely different, whether I like it or not. Either way I get better (though not perfect) translation to playing with a band if I use the full rig than if I use anything else. Conversely when recording with a touch wah I like to hear the sound from the control room monitors, weird!

Do not have all the dimensions of the room equal! That way a truly awful acoustic lies with terribly strong peaks and nulls in standing waves at various frequencies (dependant on the actual dimensions)... This getting a decent sounding room is a tad tricky, but not by any means impossible. Aim for something vaguely like this:-

One point that no one has raised yet, that totally change the way you can rehearse is the room acoustic. If you want to be known as a truly great place to rehearse, rather than a room with a kit and a couple of amps (however nicely turned out) you can relatively easily score a huge win over all the other rehearsal studios by building your rehearsal spaces with the acoustic in mind, and the adding some suitable acoustic material (ie some DIY basstraps and absorbers/diffusers and a cloud) to make the room easier for the musicians to hear themselves in. Remember the better the acoustic the quietter the bands will tend to rehearse since they wont start a war to be able to hear themselves, the volume arms race just wont be as much of an issue. The smaller the room (and the lower the ceiling) the harder it is to get the acoustic to work well (especially the bass end). You dont need to go mental but non-parallel walls, decent bass traps a couple of broadband absorbers per wall and a couple of clouds off the ceiling will make a huge difference to the acoustic (honestly, completely immense difference), and also make your rehearsal space look like a full on studio ( = worth more in the eyes of the customer). It will also mean that any two track recording taken in there will sound immensely better! (cheaper recording facilities required then) Should have added that to the things I dont like about Monster, the rooms are a tad small and they arent acoustically sorted. Still the nicest place to rehearse in Brighton, but could be amazing with those changes IMO... As for how to get the best sound insulation you can out of partition walls, the BBC have done the research for you:- http://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/publications/rdreport_1995_06.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/publications/rdreport_1995_07.shtml Not to be confused with sorting out the acoustic in the space, this is about seperation between rooms, and short of seperate concrete slabs (see Trevor's Circle Studios build topic) walls built like this, on simple floating floors (hint - tennis balls are great at seperation) with a high mass ceiling will give you the best possible seperation for your money. You need seperate rooms within rooms and high mass for acoustic seperation.

[quote name='urb' timestamp='1347184676' post='1797682'] All workshops sound great - I'd quite like to bring my laptop/Ableton set up but it does involve quite a bit of gubbins (leads/boxes etc) and I won't be able to bring an amp - but if I could borrow an amp would I be able to use the house PA in the theatre bit? I'm not sure exactly how instructive I can be but Ableton is such a great tool for composing, jamming and performing I'd be quite up for plugging in and showing what it can do - not sure how much people already know or if they're interested but I've only taken this stuff out a couple of times so far so it'd be fun to get all set up - others could plug in too... let me know what you think Otherwise I'll just loiter about Cheers Mike [/quote] MIke, you're welcome to use my rig again if you'd like mate. I like hearing you play through it a lot, so it really wont be an issue for me

Oh, and if anyone is interested, those three tracks [i]are[/i] [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/182273-whats-the-sound-of-a-musicman/page__fromsearch__1"]the sound of a Musicman[/url]

Right, anyone interested in hearing the final mixes (as yet unmastered) can feel free to go and have a listen here:- [url="http://soundcloud.com/51m0n-1/sets/slow-motion-sickness-e-p-1/s-u42Wa"]Slow Motion Sickness E.P[/url] Hope you enjoy it. A brief word of warning, these young scallywags do like the use of lyrical profanity so the lyrics are possibly NSFW, and almost certainly not safe for little ones....

[quote name='Mikey R' timestamp='1347299842' post='1799053'] Last year we covered recording drums, maybe this year we could do something on recording a room full of acoustic instruments, such as a bunch of acoustic guitarists, with close and ambient mic'ing? [/quote] OK, not a problem, I will get some thoughts in order for that area. Excellent!

Let us know how the approach works out for you!

[quote name='barneyg42' timestamp='1347282255' post='1798766'] How about a lecture on one knob compressors! That should eat up about 30 seconds [/quote] IIRC my unprovoked rant lasted several minutes, not 30 seconds!

[quote name='charic' timestamp='1347289269' post='1798865'] Superglue melts polystyrene down to nothing [/quote] I would imagine it produces some very unpleasant gasses while that happens though!

[quote name='Hamster' timestamp='1347290965' post='1798896'] How about something about IEM's, the kit that's needed and practical considerations etc? [/quote] Not really a field of expertise of mine, since IEMs arent something normally associated with the whole recording process IME....

[url="http://www.monsterstudios.co.uk/"]This [/url]is the very best rehearsal studio I have ever used. They have very very clean and tidy air conditioned spaces to use. The guitar amps and drum kits are OK, the bass amps are a massive let down for me however (but I am a total snob) so I take my rig. They sell cold drinks, strings/sticks/fast fret whatever you damn well need to keep going. They are very friendly, but take the money up front (and why not, seems reasonable to me) with a very strict cancellation poilcy (again so they should!). They have a bright white light in each room which they turn on from the counter 10 minutes before the session ends to let you know its time to wind it up and get out for the next band, asystem that workds very very well indeed! If I could change anything it would be to improve the bass amps and cabs - but then I would say that!

I have no idea what to focus anything I do in yet another recording type workshop on. Does anyone have anything they would be interested in getting cleared up in that area?? Otherwise we will all end up just sitting around looking a bit embarrased

Love the polystyrene formwork idea, dont fancy being the poor chap picking it all back out though! Tremendous gear list that, much droolage!

Close up... Close up... Close up... Close up... Close up... For the gear whores on here Looks to be some very tasty compressor action going on in there (couple of La-2a's and a couple of 1176's, and an Empirical Labs Distressor for a start!) a Manley Massive Passive EQ (maybe? Hard to be sure), some API and or Focusrite Blue pieces in there perhaps (clutching at straws here now ) and at least 3 other two channel items that I vaguely recognise but cant real off the name and number for immediately, and will kick myself for not getting straight away I'm sure, plus a bunch of other interesting stuff too If you dont like that rack I'll take it off your hands for you anytime you like , it looks fantastic mate!

Mate thats a perfect 'how-to' for anyone looking to build doors to get at least some seperation, cheers on their behalf!

Cant get my head round where that skylight is going to be, but its making me dizzy

[quote name='Rimskidog' timestamp='1346353641' post='1788282'] how did I get dragged into this??? [/quote] haaahaaa! Priceless Trev, sorry mate

RME all the way, just for the quality of the drivers, and the clean pres. Although you will need to spend a wedge to get those 10 line ins to be driven off a set of decent pres, if you need to record more than 4 things at a time. If I were you, and I could solder (I can, but you might not be bale to), and I needed excellent mic pres I'd go to [url="http://www.seventhcircleaudio.com/"]Seventh Circle Audio[/url] - you are talking pretty serious money (a lot less than buying the name kit though ), but their pre's are absolutely top notch.

Damn fine playing Sparkl, love this track, and its been on mybucket list to learn for about ten years - I just haven't got [s]the courage to get on with it[/s] round to it yet.... I myself am I wearer of the shorts and vest combo on a hot day, to hell with what looks good (I most certainly look fabulous at all times as Silddx will atest). Keep it up!

Checking out the final mixes of the [url="http://www.facebook.com/SlowMotionSickness"]Slow Motion Sickness[/url] E.P I've been mixing.....

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1345986280' post='1783789'] Saturday night in Beeston for the "Not The Glastonbury Festival". The event was held on part of what used to be the old Bartons Bus depot and has been developed into an interesting venue. The event lasts the whole weekend starting on Friday and finishing Sunday evening. Last night was organised by the Nottingham Live web site showcasing what they consider to be some of the up-coming Nottingham bands. Red Bear (better known as Adam from Captain Dangerous) has to pull out at the last minute due to illness which was a disappointment as he usually performs an interesting set of quirky pop songs. However Practical Lovers were on fine form even if the mix was a little drum-light in places. Bartons is somewhat out of the way as a venue and I can't help but think the publicity had been a little light, consequently the audiences for the previous night and this night were a little on the sparse side - especially considering the size of the venue. However from the stage when we were playing it was gratifying to see all eyes on Mr Venom and the band as we blasted through another great Terrortone set and even got an encore! I used my big rig for the first time in about 4 years and it sounded great. If it wasn't so big and heavy I'd be using it at every gig. Here's a few photos of the gig: [/quote] F***in' Epic!