51m0n

[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!

A jazz bass with both pickups on full will have a mid cut....

Hey welcome! It sure pays to encourage your kids to play, you get to have them join your old band on your 40th birthday to fill in for a missing ex-member

The Zoom R24 can go up to 48KHz according to the Zoom page on it... I've heard similar woes regarding the clock in the H4n and all the other Zoom handy recorders. IME my one doesn't appear to drift out as far as I can tell (when put up against 4+ minute tracks in Logic on a Mac Book Pro)

'Modern' music, so that woudl include Drum and Bass, Grime, Hip Hop, Electronica, Dance (all 43000 sub-genres), dub, reggae and a million other genres? Modern pop doesnt just have the bass buried, it has everything buried behind the vocal. So does vintage pop as often as not. The old adage is mix the vocals as loud as you dare, then turn them up 3dB. Because thats all the punters care about anyway.

Yes, well there is the diplomacy thing isnt there, did you post openly in a very public facing way, or did you gove them a private PM? If the former then they are really smarting to have the world told that the realisty is they arent nearly as good as they thought, and that the money they've spent has bought them a bit of a lemon, and they dont wont the truth 'out there'.. If the latter, then they are smarting at getting something honest that disagrees with their world view, its childish, it wont help them improve, but its their reaction. Whenever I offer a critique of a mix to someone (and who am I to critique anyone's effort really) I always remember to load it with caveats about how harsh it may seem. Mainly because I really don't want to upset people. I thne try to give as much positive feedback as possible whilst pointing out things I think could be changed for the better, and things that maybe need to be changed to make the result of a more prfessional quality. Its sometimes very hard to come across as someone trying to help rather than someone just letting off a broadside of 'that in fact sucks'.... Sounds like from their perspective, rightly or wrongly, you let off a broadside of criticism that they dont think is justified. That is probably their loss in this case, since I think that the mix is very poor too. You may just have hit a very raw nerve internally regarding the possibility of the singer being tuned, very difficult to broach that one!

Forget 96KHz, you dont need it, it wont help, 48KHz is plenty but 24bit is an absolute requirement. I would suggest a [url="http://www.zoom.co.jp/english/products/r16/"]Zoom R16[/url], giving you 16 tracks and 8 XLR inputs (and two condensor mics built in for very quickly getting stuff down) and a super fast transfer to PC come mix time via a Memory card->USB converter. If you are clever you can transfer to the PC, bounce 16 tracks to 1 or 2 and put the bounced tracks back in the R16 and track more stuff, allowing effectively unlimited tracks. Come mixdown you mix with the raw tracks (ie none of the bounced for tracking tracks). This is effectively rather like Bruce Swediens technique to get unlimited tracks when tracking Michael Jackson, but digital, and lots cheaper Great sounding units, perfectly good for what you need and about £280 these days (which is less than my Zoom H4n was!) The Zoom R24 will give you more tracks on the device, and costs more as a result, it is another fine bit of kit, but if you are planning to mix on PC the limiting factor with both machines is that they can only track 8 inputs at a time, so why get the R24 (other than like me you want to have the top of the range one )

[quote name='Looper' timestamp='1346110262' post='1785525'] I find the bass is often lost in a lot of "modern" music. Hard to know if it's poor arrangement, poor production or poor playing, but I rarely hear tunes with the clarity of instrumentation you hear on older recordings. [/quote] Oh the irony, and you with Hendrix as an avatar......

[quote name='EdwardHimself' timestamp='1346155545' post='1785853'] Hopefully I am not breaching the forum's "libel" policy but really, this guy has produced the work for public release and the link is there for you to make up your own mind as to whether you think he is a good producer or not so I don't think it should be an issue. The producers name is [url="http://www.facebook.com/davidelf"]Dave Williamson[/url] and he is from Hull (not to be confused with producers with the same or similar names in other parts of the country.) This was really what led to the falling out, they really took against me criticising him and the sound of the recordings, not just the auto-tune. I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels that way. I guess if you're in a band that is new to recording, it's probably pretty "cool" to hear yourselves recorded "properly" for the first time but yeah, the production is terrible. Oh well, too late now. They're not going to listen to me (and why should they?) But I kind of feel sorry for them if they actually paid for it. [/quote] Probalby wasnt worth falling out over, yes they are loving hearing a 'proper' job done on their music now. Just wait until they've played it right next to a bunch of their favourite commercial releases, the doubt will start to creep in, and no doubt this fella will say they need to get it mastered by himself or his mate Trev GoldenEars with the 20k monitors.... The mix is poor, the playing (esp the drums) is ropey, no amount of mastering is going to fix these issues!

[quote name='EdwardHimself' timestamp='1346152295' post='1785796'] I suppose yeah. I must say he has improved a hell of a lot over the years. A lot better than he was 5 or 6 years ago anyway. And yeah, the mix is terrible. I did offer to record them myself, but they wanted a "proper" producer to do it. Then again, what do I know? I can't even tell whether or not it has been pitch corrected, apparently [/quote] Dont worry about that! It still could have been. Modern pitch shifting algorithms are total black magic mate But they tend to fall flat on the breaths, they go very weird trying to autocorrect intakes of breath, leaving horrible artifcats, and the only way around that is to do all the shifting (ie when to start and stop) by hand. Now given the state of the rest of the mix I really dont believe that this chap has spent the time on a per syllable level sorting out the tuning. So I dont think this has been autocorrected (but still I'm listening on an old pair of cans at work and could easily be missing some artifacts). I still think the vocal is the least of their issues!

Its totally valid. I've seen Plux's band a few times live and the singer was pretty shocking at pitching. I tracked him a few weeks ago tihnkg "This is going to take all day" and he nailed it, repeatedly. I was super pleased! When singers aren't trying to belt it out, just to be able to hear themselves (very badly) with all the attendant mush of high volume noise at a gig - blowing their voice in the process by the second song - they can usually do a far better job with pitch. Saw him since at a venue with better monitors and stage volumes and he was bang on.., The fact it was recorded live is irrelevant, that mix sounds like a**e.

Hmmmm. I dont think he's been pitch shifted, he does have a tendency to slide into notes in a lot of phrases. Which is fine, seems like a perfectly good effort, if thats what you want to sound like. I'd be more concerned about the drum sound, which is rather errr lacking. And the almost total lack of bass (its in there as a bit of grind off the pick, but has no real oomph IMO and is completely drowned by the guitar - sounds a bit "And Justice" in terms of balance). The drum playing definitely seems a bit hit and miss too, which may explain the lacklustre sound, making the drums far more in your face would only make the issues with the playing way more obvious.

Herb is a lovely bloke, great raconteur, and a superbly generous educationalist. I've seen him play with Chris several times, and Plux has literally spent weeks with him over the years at his Brighton Rockshop events: he even lent Plux his infamous Jazz bass for just about the entire week and the final performance, just because Plux was so into it (and because he plays db and so can actually get one of those telegraph cables to touch the neck at all). An absolute gent.

Thoise photos aren't gettingt he scale of the place right in my head at all, I cant tell how big it is, I think its probably a lot bigger than the photos convey. Looks the absolute business though!

Fishbone, especially, sound like Thum basses, which is (to many people0 Warwick's defining instrument, a great big burpy sounding thing. I rather like that sound, but cannot get on with the instruments for a bunch of ergonomic reasons, they are ridiculously heavy, and the strings (particularly the G and D) are a short taxi ride off the body which means my index and middle fingers dig in too far for slapping/popping on them. Always disapointed me whenever I tried one as a result.

A PM is winging its way to you right now matey!

Now that I am very definitely intersted in! Do you happen to know exactly what model and make that device is?

No wonder drums sound so good in there.... You are very very lucky to have such a beautiful space to record in. It must be doing your head in not to have it all finished yet. Wont be long now!

Well we are starting to get there. Two out of three tracks are very very close - just a little tidying up to do, third track is proving (far) more elusive to nail, and there's a lot more to tidy up in it, but overall I'm pretty pleased with the results so far...

Dayum she soooo purdy.....

That ceiling really is the biggest diffuser I've ever seen compared to overall room size - equivalent to two or three of the walls being diffusers I'd have thought.. A quite brilliant idea, and in all probability entirely bonkers! Does that room 'feel' even bigger than it actually is?

Thats pretty darned cool. Especially like the way the b-line takes a back seat through the sax solo - busiest 'understated' bass part I think I've ever heard, ace !

That rig is going to knock down walls, and sound lovely doing it. Look forward to the slightly scared yet glowing review Enjoy it!

Lots then - tip top!

[quote name='dmz' timestamp='1345581663' post='1779180'] I saw him at the Blue Note in New York in 2010 - did two sets but only saw the first one, a set with him on double bass. Great gig, [b]made all the better by having Hiromi on piano[/b] ! I'd love to see him play one of his his Alembics mind .... [/quote] I can certainly see how that would brighten up your day.....