redstriper

You should try some other makes Dave - TIs and Chromes are too floppy.

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif] [/font][/color][color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Did a string trade with Paul - couldn't be happier [/font][/color]

Done it lots of times, why should it be a problem?

I think heavy gauge flats create more of a bow in the neck and that affects the intonation around the middle of the neck, where the action is too high. The answer is to tighten the truss rod a bit, to get the neck straighter. Or use lighter gauge flats.

Thanks for the link - this looks good.

Just a reminder, that I recently uploaded 2 extra stems of the snare and guide vocal tracks - not sure how useful they are. There are now 14 stems in total.

Thanks for that information Guybrush and Rick. I love this bass BTW and I need a holiday...

When did Fender introduce those paddle tuners and for how long were they used?

Setting the K-meter to not peak over 0db is possible since it has a read out of the peak dbs - shame it doesn't have a pre set for it (I love pre sets), but it produces a very quiet result. I usually set the output meter in Cubase as loud as possible without clipping.

[quote name='charic' timestamp='1353067833' post='1871154'] It can be People have dedicated their entire lives to mic placements and selection but a little knowledge and experience goes a long way [/quote] I wish one of those people would come round here and get stuck in

Thanks again - more great advice there. I learned about the dangers of noise gates some time ago and I don't use any processing while recording now. You are absolutely right about spending time with the drums and mic placement, it can't be that hard, especially with such a small kit - we don't use any toms, just kick, snare hi hat, ride and crash. I quite like the current set up which is close mic'd snare and kick, with one overhead. But I'm far from being an audiophile and the song is always the important thing for me, rather than the recording. We also have a new drummer, (since the one on this recording) so the kit sounds quite different again and he's had to learn our live set very quickly. We spend much more time writing and arranging the songs, so the recording is almost an after thought and we treat everything as a demo. I just hit record when it feels right and hope for the best. But quite a few of these 'demos' end up on the radio and the BBC DJ said he'd play more if the quality was better. I use Cubase 5 and I put the K-meter in the output and set it to K14, but the cubase master output over rides it and I don't know how to set it to 0db.

[quote name='51m0n' timestamp='1352973058' post='1869886'] Can I suggest we use something like a K-Meter across the stereo master out to get a maximum level of 0dB at K14? Just ensure that its the last VST on your master buss and mix to 0dB on the K14 stting and you'll be there. [/quote] I'm struggling with this - I got the K-meter and I read the user guide, but I can't work out how to use it. Can you give some very simple instructions please.

I appreciate your analysis Si and it may make me a bit more careful in future...... (or not) I can only apologise for the poor recording quality and I totally accept my laziness is to blame. In fact the more I listen, the more ashamed I am - why didn't I choose a better track? Oh yes, cos there aren't any! I've uploaded the other snare track and also the original vocal track complete with drum spill in case it helps: The drums are permanently set up and I don't change the mixer settings between sessions. I have changed the way I mic the drums recently, in that I got rid of the hi hat mic and just have kick, snare and overhead mics now. You can hear some of these recent mp3s here: [url="http://soundcloud.com/rutterio"]http://soundcloud.com/rutterio[/url] Guitars, bass and keys are DI'd and the vocals recorded with a £20 mic from Thomanns. I love Cubase, especially on my new fast PC and it's a great tool for song writing, but I'm not a recording geek and I don't know how 95% of it works. This topic is a bit of a wake up call for me and my recordings can only improve, as I'm sure you'll all agree

[quote name='51m0n' timestamp='1352999497' post='1870362'] Had a bit of a play with this RS. You really should be paying a lot more attention to the mic placement on the drums mate [/quote] You think The kick is inside on a cushion in front of the beater, snare is clipped underneath, hi-hat is about an inch over the top. I have a stem with the snare mic'd on top, but I never used it cos I didn't like the sound - I can upload it if you like? There was an overhead too, but I forgot to switch it on.... I'm really lazy when it comes to recording....... oh and everything else come to think of it......

OK I think I get that and it would also be very useful for me to have a simple way of making all my mixes come out at the same volume. I will try and get to grips with K14 asap. I found this particular track especially difficult volume wise, because it has distinct quiet and louder sections which are hard to balance.

Final mix levels are always a problem for me when mixing/mastering and I don't fully understand the concepts involved - hopefully this topic will help with that. The K-meter looks like a good way of levelling the playing field volume wise and I'll check it out asap. I wonder whether it might be a good idea to have no rules about volume levels and just let everyone do their best to get the best mix at the highest level they can. We might all learn more that way by comparing the results and if it is simply the loudest wins, that should teach us something too. That would involve an element of mastering as well as mixing, which may not be part of the plan but it is probably unavoidable since mastering tools are included with most DAWS now. I'm happy to go with the flow though and I don't really know what I'm talking about here

Blimey, I'm already on a steep learning curve with all this K-metering business! So much to get me old head round.......

My original mix is here: [url="http://soundcloud.com/tacsiband/no-2nd-chance"]http://soundcloud.com/tacsiband/no-2nd-chance[/url] Steve.

They made mine to order a couple of years ago and I've been very happy.

I feel honoured to be the guinea pig in this experiment and hope the song isn't too annoying. I'm not sure what genre it is, but it's very simple and under produced. It was recorded live in my front room with basic (cheap) gear and the vocals re-recorded later to prevent spill. I hope anyone who works on it will enjoy themselves and that the recording enthusiasts will find ways of making my band sound flippin' awesome

Yeh that hi hat sure is scary

All 12 tracks up now. [url="http://soundcloud.com/redstriper-mix-stems"]http://soundcloud.com/redstriper-mix-stems[/url] There are only 3 drum tracks - kick, snare and hi hats, I forgot how minimal and simple this was and the bass guitar only uses the same 3 notes. All tracks are mono except keys and shaker. Please feel free to alter the arrangement, replace or add tracks and generally do whatever you like with absolutely no limits. Apologies for any poor playing and dodgy recording quality. I understand if it's deemed not good enough for this challenge and there is no pressure on anyone from my end. Cheers, Steve.

This is going to take a while! First file is up: [url="http://soundcloud.com/redstriper-mix-stems/loop-shaker"]http://soundcloud.com/redstriper-mix-stems/loop-shaker[/url] It should be a stereo wav file, most of the others will be mono. Hope it works.