I'm glad you're getting back in the game Makzimia ;)

pcrecord, post: 446072, member: 46460 wrote: I'm glad you're getting back in the game Makzimia ;)

Thank you Marco. Getting through the wiring, slowly.

pcrecord, post: 446072, member: 46460 wrote: I'm glad you're getting back in the game Makzimia ;)

me too.

Makzimia, post: 446071, member: 48344 wrote:
Hi All,

I'm finally getting the new space buttoned down. Gear choices and routing going on currently. Mostly ready for the Mac Pro to join the rest. Next is wiring and software installs. Somewhere amongst it all is some basic treatment too.

Basics, my new motto :).

Tony

I love that rack system!

Brother Junk, post: 446111, member: 49944 wrote: I love that rack system!

Thanks, it's handy, but a little limiting. It'll stop the hardware GAS :).

Did you sell your Opals?Monitor controller? I see most of your stuff is gone. I suspect you sold it to avoid shipping to Scotland?

Hi Chris,

audiokid, post: 446115, member: 1 wrote: Did you sell your Opals?Monitor controller? I see most of your stuff is gone. I suspect you sold it to avoid shipping to Scotland?

You may recall the Opals were not multi voltage. The Mackies aren't either, but, I did get most of my money back in the opals. Would never have come even close on the Mackies, and they are still very good.

I went on a huge selling spree to help fund the move, buy car and house over here too. That system isn't as flash as the RME/Orion etc. The JBL monitor control and all the patch stuff makes it all useable still though. Good thing is the MOTU still has solid drivers and low latency. For vocal preamp I'm using the TC Helicon Voicelive 2. Other mics will be on the MOTU preamps.

The image sounds nice and clear so far, to my ears, for what that's worth. I had a nice play around with the two keyboards last night. Before that I ran my iPhone through on some songs too. I'm agonizing over my over generosity too. I gave away too many of my short 1/4 to 1/4 mono cables. I'm going to make sure my system is simple to use and as best I can with what I have this time.

Makzimia, post: 446117, member: 48344 wrote: I'm going to make sure my system is simple to use and as best I can with what I have this time.

That's a sain thing to do.. After all doing music is what we like the most, right ? ;)

pcrecord, post: 446119, member: 46460 wrote: That's a sain thing to do.. After all doing music is what we like the most, right ? ;)

That's what I'm driving for. The more time spent wondering how something works, instead of actually making music, just kills it for me.

What monitors are those? I'd like to identify the design and drivers...

Makzimia, post: 446120, member: 48344 wrote: That's what I'm driving for. The more time spent wondering how something works, instead of actually making music, just kills it for me.

One of the best investments I ever made was a keyboard with all my shortcuts labeled on the keys. So for PT, every shortcut is labeled on the keyboard. Within 10 minutes I doubled my efficiency. And there is so much stuff I never even knew I could do. Could you imagine memorizing every shortcut if you are new to a daw?

I will never be without one of these...unless I eventually memorize all of them.

Brother Junk, post: 446121, member: 49944 wrote: What monitors are those? I'd like to identify the design and drivers...

One of the best investments I ever made was a keyboard with all my shortcuts labeled on the keys. So for PT, every shortcut is labeled on the keyboard. Within 10 minutes I doubled my efficiency. And there is so much stuff I never even knew I could do. Could you imagine memorizing every shortcut if you are new to a daw?

I will never be without one of these...unless I eventually memorize all of them.

The monitors are Mackie HR824 a matched pair, original release 2003. I have a latex overlay for my Mac keyboard made for Logic Pro X. Definitely will help again. I had Mackie MCUs in the US for a while, it's going to be funny going back to keyboard and mouse.

Just an update. I finally got around to booting boot camp off my Mac. If I need Sonar, I have a nice laptop and 3 more interfaces. This was today's project, install virtual sample beasts. Got all my Superior drummer stuff installed. Native Instruments 10 ultimate is taking a lot longer. No data limits and a 100mb/sec is very handy :).

I ended up spending 2 solid days on downloading and installing software.. next is fix some noise circling from somewhere into my headphone amp.

On a side note, I'd forgotten how much I love BFD3. The drummer you have when you can't have a drummer.

Did you try addictive drums ?

pcrecord, post: 448840, member: 46460 wrote: Did you try addictive drums ?

I've got it, not really tried it. After using first Superior Drummer, then BFD3, I find the control and overall quality of BFD3 better. Addictive drums is with Sonar if I recall correctly. Logic Pro X has a drummer now too. I don't know, the BFD3 way of handling everything just feels really complete.

Makzimia, post: 446120, member: 48344 wrote: That's what I'm driving for. The more time spent wondering how something works, instead of actually making music, just kills it for me.

Yup... there it is... the "curse" of all engineers who also happen to be musicians and songwriters.
As engineers, ( and producers) we do need to know the technical side of things, but at the end of the day, the compressor, EQ or other processing we choose to use has nothing to do with how great a song is ( or isn't, LOL).
But even if we do know all these things, it's still hard to separate the technical from the artistic, because in our craft, the two sides can so often become intertwined.

There have been times when I've wished that I could just be a musician, writing, ( and re-writing, LOL), arranging and playing songs, and working strictly on that end of the craft, ( because we all know that the craft of songwriting isn't easy either), and staying on the performance side of the glass, not having to worry about things like gain structure, or EQ, or Mic placement, or gain reduction, or routing, or...

The problem is, that the engineering and production side of writing and recording has become so ingrained in me, over so many years now, that I sometimes have a difficult time relinquishing control over it - even when I've worked in other studios as a client or session player, there have been times when I've really had to restrain myself from pulling up a chair next to the engineer and saying "here, look.. let me show you something..." ...which is incredibly arrogant and unfair of me.
Normally, I do restrain myself, only sitting in if asked... but it's not always easy for me to step back and not be involved, and to accept that it's not my studio, not my room, and sometimes, not even my song - if I've been brought in simply as a session cat.
And what makes all this even more unfair of me, is that 98% of the time, the engineer who is there and is operating the gear is doing a perfectly fine job of it - and in many cases, better than I could. ;)

;)
-d.

Makzimia, post: 448841, member: 48344 wrote: Logic Pro X has a drummer now too.

Yep, I'm not a fan of most of the drummer. I know you can adjust everything etc, I've played with it a lot. But they often put the ride in weird places, or the phrasing is extreme, I dunno...

Maybe I'm just not used to it. I have whatever comes with Komplete 10, and way less time playing with that (Studio Drummer?), and it sounds a lot more...normal?Natural? I'm not quite sure of how to express it.

I think it's cool that Logic has it....it's neat to have a quick setup for drums that you can just go back and fine tune later. Maybe it works awesome for EDM or something. I find myself not using it.

@Brother Junk yes, I think, sadly, a lot of focus in the last few patches of Logic Pro X was put into EDM. Sad but true. Both Superior Drummer (toontrack) and BFD3 are true attempts at a drummer replacement. The drum stuff in native instruments is good too. As Marco pointed out, so is addictive drums. I'm still going with BFD3 as my personal favourite.

DonnyThompson it's the conundrum of modern recording. We have it all available to us. How far do we go?, in Texas when I finally built my dream studio, I felt less inclined to face it than I do now. That's just the way it is.

Makzimia, post: 448857, member: 48344 wrote: @Brother Junk yes, I think, sadly, a lot of focus in the last few patches of Logic Pro X was put into EDM. Sad but true. Both Superior Drummer (toontrack) and BFD3 are true attempts at a drummer replacement. The drum stuff in native instruments is good too. As Marco pointed out, so is addictive drums. I'm still going with BFD3 as my personal favourite.

DonnyThompson it's the conundrum of modern recording. We have it all available to us. How far do we go?, in Texas when I finally built my dream studio, I felt less inclined to face it than I do now. That's just the way it is.

Oddly I love EDM music, started with progressive house. And I have Logic, which a lot of people like for EDM. Yet, I have never composed any lol.