Another...What's Some of your Fav's...

Respected Past Moderator Joined: Mar 13, 2001 Posts: 1256

Everybody,

What are some of your favorite recording tricks/peices of gear. You know! those indespensible units or techniques that let you get sounds otherwise unobtainable.
Here's some of mine:

1. Royer 121 w/ pre-Amps modid to get lower impedence (a LOT cheaper to mod my existing pre's than to buy new ones with this feature).
2. Little Labs IBP phase alignment tool...I'm ALERGIC to phase....os this is just what the docter ordered.
3. SPL Transient Designer...been hip to these for about three years (sadly the secret is out).
4. Dolby Strech (for vocals)...STILL nothing like it.

What secrets have YOU found

Posted: Tue Jul 16, 2002 12:22 pm

Quote:

SPL Transient Designer...been hip to these for about three years (sadly the secret is out).

The secret but not the full story. I've heard these mentioned occaisionally, but not enough to give me a real idea on how cool they are. Care to let some cats out?

Bear

Posted: Tue Jul 16, 2002 2:45 pm

Hi recorder man,
I use your 2 & 3
Bear,SPL transient designer is a dynamic processor that has 2 controls only to shape the attack and the realease of a sound but it does things you cannot achieve with anything else.
I have a K&H UE 400 (mastering Eq from the 70's) that I love .You can put (almost) as much bass as you want without "rumble"(each band has access to all the freqs with a variable Q) So you could go +48 if you wanted to which is not very common amongst analog eq's..

Posted: Wed Jul 17, 2002 5:22 am

i get fantastic guitar sounds by running my guitar signal thru a joe meek vc6q (opti compresser cranked pretty high)....before it hits my guitar amp.

you just get a warmer sound with all the sustain you could ever hope for

a clean guitar sound that has power, sustain, and warmth can be hard to nail...the meek works wonders for guitar

Posted: Wed Jul 17, 2002 5:23 am

i always wanted to get an 1176 just to use as a guitar pedal

Respected Past Moderator Joined: Mar 13, 2001 Posts: 1256

Quote:

Originally posted by Bear's Gone Fission:

Quote:

SPL Transient Designer...been hip to these for about three years (sadly the secret is out).

The secret but not the full story. I've heard these mentioned occaisionally, but not enough to give me a real idea on how cool they are. Care to let some cats out?

Bear

Hey Bear!
I don't own one yet...but have been using them off and on for a few years...and I'm going to get one this year.
If you get drum tracks where all the life has been compressed out of it you can add new life with the Transient Designer. It allows you to expand the attack, and leave the tail alone. You can make toms sustain longer...and again get the attack to bite.

OH...I forgot.
5. ReAmp
6. Polarity Clicker
7. Cable tester (don't use it as much as I should....used to be whenever I would pull a bunch of cables for a large tracking session, I'd spend just a minute and run all the cables by this...eliminating a cable or two and saving invuable time later.
8. SMPTE calclator/stopwatch ( w/ the advent and use of Pro Tools, I really rarely use this...but a couple of times a year it pays for itself in time savings...before digital it was invaluable in sorting through the maze of offsets on huge projects-mostly, but not all, film).
9. How could I forget! My Yamaha Sub-woofer (for NS10's where-ever I go. Takes the most ubiquitous monitor sytem known [ns10's], and makes them a full range system that everybody in the room can relate too - read: no learning curve, because everybody knows (or should) gow ns10's sound-all for the cost of one ns10.
10. PACKING BLANKETS. You can get a dozen for a little over a hundred dollars. Hang them on mic stands, whatever...a dozen poor man's goboe's whever you are.
-whew :w:

Posted: Wed Jul 17, 2002 1:38 pm

is there anything like the spl transient designer in software land?

there must be, but i cannae think of it

Posted: Wed Jul 17, 2002 1:47 pm

Quote:

is there anything like the spl transient designer in software land?

It exist as a plug in on the scope system.On logic audio there's a plug in called enveloper I think that does about the same kind of treatment only not as good .I don't know if it exist as VST Plug in ,I know the SPL deesser (a great hardware deesser) exist as VST.

Posted: Thu Jul 18, 2002 1:26 am

SPL transient designer as vst-plugin?
yes - and it's free on top of that.

the plugin is called DOMINION and can be found here.

also check out their compressor ENDORPHIN...
really nice stuff, taking into account it's freeware.

other topic:

the very best EQ I ever came across is a piece of vintage german broadcast equipment: siemens W295b.
pretty easy layout - solid state class A.
<img src="http://www.purpleaudio.com/images/Telefunken/TeleW295b.jpg" alt=" - " />
the great thing about this unit is that you can for example dial in +12 dB trebles on vocals without getting any harshness at all - just silky smooth top end.

sometimes, these babies can be found at eBay. they usually go for 250.00 $ - which is nothing compared to their in-use value.

best of luck.

michael

Respected Past Moderator Joined: Mar 13, 2001 Posts: 1256

those eq's look s-w-e-e-t :tu:

Posted: Fri Jul 19, 2002 4:01 am

yep - they sure do.

BTW, lenny krawitz has a full rack of them in his studio. read that on marquette audio's homepage the other day.

Respected Past Moderator Joined: Mar 13, 2001 Posts: 1256

damn that lenny...hoggin all the toy's Mad

Posted: Sun Jul 21, 2002 7:17 pm

Sold all my outboard gear and go straight in now.
(love that 192 i/o )

Pitch Blender by Wave Mechanics is the coolest vocal/drum/guitar effect ever made. You will lose a lot of sleep just going throught the presets.

Respected Past Moderator Joined: Mar 13, 2001 Posts: 1256

[QUOTE]Originally posted by sdevino:
[QB]Sold all my outboard gear and go straight in now.
(love that 192 i/o )

I'm going back the other way. Spent most oif the last three years doing mostly (if not all) "in the box" productions. When I can it as right as I can analog style. The less I use digital processing the better it sounds.
I'n anotherb year, I'll probably be swingin' back toeards more all digital. It's not really there yet. It's really, really good...but I'd mix on an 8068 in a heartbeat. And that's the problem for me rightnow. The Mix. I actually Like digital as a recording medium for lots of things right now. But I do not enjoy mixing in a daw...it's like going to the dentist...not going to disneyland.

BUT. That attitude (at least as far as advice) can be taken as a little ellitist (spellcheck!!!).
I realize that probably more than a few of you only have daw's. So do not be disheartened by my remarks...take steve's advice more to heart in that case. I can and will only speak from personal experiance (no parrot here). And my experiance sends me to an analog mix situation when the budget allows. It's just easier...who likes to work hard?

Posted: Mon Jul 22, 2002 7:03 pm

I am all for mixing anyway that floats your boat. Do it which ever way is fun and productive for you. For me with the better converters coming out lately I find I can get the analog sound I want really close in rough mix with few if any plugins during tracking. The great quality of the 48 bit TDM mixer lets me hear what I am tracking.

As for mixing in digital a Pro Control or other large format control surface sure makes it a lot more fun.

I really like to get the sound I want from the source by working guitar and drum setups til I am happy. I always find it more fun and natural to drive the input gain of a mesa boogie head than to try to use a distortion box ... I mean tube comp to get the punch. But then again I am a guitar player and the amp head is where my greatest comfort zone is. To each his/her own.

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