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McKenzie River Run by river records on SoundCloud - http://soundcloud.c…

Bells and French Horns! Break out the Egg Nog!

Little One by river records on SoundCloud http://soundcloud.c…

3 versions of the same song. which do you like best?

  1. In My Dreams 1 by river records on SoundCloud http://soundcloud.c…
  2. In My Dreams 2 by river records on SoundCloud http://soundcloud.c…
  3. In My Dreams 3 by river records on SoundCloud http://soundcloud.c…

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Comments

KurtFoster Tue, 11/13/2012 - 11:32

thanks audiokid.

that's very interesting! the fist version is two tones lower, in E instead of G. also was tracked on the MCI and adat. simplest arraignment. 1 el guit, 2 ac guits, kick drum and bari guitar.

it's long been my favorite too. you have confirmed my feelings. i'm fond of the "Jordanaires" style b/g vocals. thanks for listening Chris.

audiokid Tue, 11/13/2012 - 11:49

If you don't mind, keep http://soundcloud.c… In My Dreams 1 by river records on online until I have a chance to load it into my rig. It sounds like it would be fun to try a few experiments on.

The other two ( sorry away from listing again for a bit ), one track had pronounced bass and the other, although it sounded clearer ( more mastered) has an unnatural presence like it was normalized a bit too much or something ( ITB sounding).

What are all the more specific processes, background of each track?

KurtFoster Tue, 11/13/2012 - 12:30

i'll keep them all up for at least awhile. i'd love to hear what you do with them.

the other versions were done at cedar flat. it's been a while so it's hard to remember. i am sure the bass is direct and there probably is a lot of master bus compression. those 2 were itb with cubase VST 5.1, 24 bit/44.1 through adat AI3 converters. mic pres would be JLM TMP8's and the Millennia SST-1 ORiGIN for the bass. vocals were the u87 and acoustic guitars were most likely one of my akg 451's. probably tracked through the LA3's or maybe the EL -OP.

audiokid Sat, 11/24/2012 - 17:42

Okay, been playing with this and did a A/B using a Bricasti that is inline on the 2-bus of my MixDream.

Keep in mind, this is an example of a recording of a recording.

Method:

  • Tracked your soundcloud into Sequoia at 88.2
  • DA > MixDream>Bricasti (set at -20 wet gain)) on 2-bus>AD to second capture DAW at same SR (88.2).
  • Saved a clip of that as a wave file and imported it back into the original session as second track. No SRC.
  • Normalized both
  • Set a loop between the two tracks and did an AB.

class="xf-ul">

Indaba Music

I can upload more bars but if you are like me, one bar or less for A/B tests is easy to stay focused.

audiokid Sat, 11/24/2012 - 23:23

Your track already had a nice space to it so it wasn't necessary to increase the verb. I could have but didn't. The differences are subtle but there. Depending on monitoring, it may or may not be audible.

For added fun if you are interested, some subtle tweaking beyond this would be nice but I wanted to do one step at a time.

audiokid Sun, 11/25/2012 - 13:00

Thanks Kurt,

What I hear as well, more center focus and lower freq's. The track, being downloaded was at 44.1/16 and obviously not full bandwidth on soundcloud. But it sure sounds great. A recording of an already compromised track. What a glorious sound I hear when tracks are in their original state through this rig!

Man.... but the nightmare is learning how to upload it and keep it that way. What a challenge. And thats what everyone is talking about with transients. I get it now! You can't hear it ITB like you can OTB and mixed at lower volume. And once its uploaded, so much information isn't audible or visible.

If I didn't go OTB to do this, I don't believe this would ever be possible to make better. OTB is awesome. No 2 ways about it. The more I do this, the easier it is getting. I feel like I have been trying to work with parts of a puzzle missing. Its like having your ears unblocked and common scene right again. I have been mixing ITB for 13 years. Looking back now, its been horrible time wasted compared to now.

Remember how easy and great songs sounded as we tracked and mixes as we went. Final mixing wasn't a pain staking nightmare of compromising like it is ITB. The wall of sound ITB. yuck.

Nice you are allowing me to play with this and I'm really glad you are here. I'll do a bit more for fun later tonight.

audiokid Sun, 11/25/2012 - 19:20

FWIW,

Here is what I did.

Soundcloud via USB Lavry DA 11 > AD RME ADI-8 QS > Sequoia 12 >

Other than what I previously mentioned earlier ( DA>MixDream > http://www.bricasti… Bricasti and what my original interest in this was all about (what a Bricasti can offer).
There were some hot spots ( a db here or there) around 80hz, 190, 220, 440, 4k, 10k) I ran it through a Dangerous Master, BAX EQ, Crane Song http://www.craneson… STC-8 for a mild squeeze and AD via a Prism http://www.prismsou… Orpheus into a capture DAW loaded with Sequoia 12 as well. I put a plug-in limiter on it just to snip off some spikes and exported it as a 44.1/ 16 wave file.

Here is the revised where I pulled 440 out of that passage.: ( you on the phone)

DA 11

Damn, I hear one more spot on (happy to know) so I tweaked that to finish it.

Done. Hope you like it.

One thing I would change that I couldn't is to soften the kick a few DB in the mix and pull out around 4k. Its a bit too loud, and a bit is too sharp for this song. A more relaxed kick would be more suitable to my taste. The 80's kick eh. I did that to everything back then.
When listening to this on smaller speakers, its really apparent. Which makes me want a tiny pair just for this sort of thing! I'm ordering some of these:
http://www.audixusa…

I don't much like the added reverb. The Bricasti added more space but it didn't need extra verb. But I couldn't show one without the other because it already had your room added. I like dryer vocals that don't sound like a room these days. Bricasti rocks for that.

Thanks for the opportunity Kurt, its been years since I heard such clean and natural music. What a wonderful tone this guy has and a great recording. So tight down low like that, not an easy task.

KurtFoster Mon, 11/26/2012 - 04:45

man Chris this sounds wonderful.

vocals were tracked in the cr of my old studio ... 30x40 with 16 foot ceiling so i don't think that's the room you hear. probably one of the lexi verbs a 60 or 70 most likely. i may be able to dig up the multi track of this one. like i said it's on adat. it was just 8 tracks. it's really just intended to be a song demo ... not a performance.

the kick (drums) were an alesis sr16 drum machine. "that guy" is me btw. almost everything i posted here was played or programed by me. i really appreciate the remark though. i'm very self conscious about both my playing and singing abilities. very confident about my recording and production chops. that's why i finally moved away from performing and went into production work. i'm much more comfortable in my own skin when i'm "behind the glass".

thanks again for the time you put into this.

KurtFoster Sun, 12/02/2012 - 00:59

mrPhaSe wrote:
your studio looks like its in a kitchen

Derik, why don't you let it go?

ok. let's take a pool and see who would rather own which?

that control room was previously a live room. i moved the cr in there when i expanded from 1200 sq feet to 3000 sq feet.

the 12" tiles are so the engineer can place mics accurately ... it's an old trick a hang over from Owen Bradleys Quonset Hut studio and Sun Records. probably something you wouldn't know about seeing as you only record loops and samples and keyboard generated stuff. .... lol

audiokid Sun, 12/02/2012 - 01:06

Damn tension when we should be having fun. As simple as many recording engineers here may think electronic programming is, it can take as much talent, if not more to do that well too. Its all relevant to the task at hand.

Any moron can grab some cable and hook up a sm58, plug it into some cheap interface and record. Everything takes knowledge and skill to do something better than the majority.

Cool trick on the tiles Kurt!

KurtFoster Sun, 12/02/2012 - 01:08

audiokid, post: 397211 wrote: Damn tension when we should be having fun. As simple as many recording engineers here may think electronic programming is, it can take as much talent, if not more to do that well too. Its all relevant to the task at hand.

Any moron can grab some cable and hook up a sm58, plug it into some cheap interface and record. Everything takes knowledge and skill to do something better than the majority.

i agree ....it takes talent to program well ... but???

i dropped this a week ago but this guy keeps whacking it to death.

hey your new posts sound good!

audiokid Sun, 12/02/2012 - 01:11

This chick has a great voice. I love it in pop, and beautiful too. She has a few tracks on the radio just kicking in now.

I hope she loves my mix. http://indaba.me/audiokid/listen/remixes
Any of this hiss or distortions heard are part of the stems I used. My system is dead quiet.

Here is her acoustic version:

I'll most likely pull this off later. Still mixing but wanted your opinion. Thanks!

MrPhaSe Sun, 12/02/2012 - 10:44

Kurt Foster, post: 397212 wrote: i agree ....it takes talent to program well ... but???

i dropped this a week ago but this guy keeps whacking it to death.

hey your new posts sound good!

The tile trick is definitely something I didn't know.. Thats a nice bit of info..
I'm just giving you a hard time, thats all. We're in 2 different genres.. 2 different age groups... eras...
I don't like country, you don't like rap. You're studio is nice though, Maybe we'll collaborate on a song in the future and i'll show you I play acoustic instruments better than I play the keyboardsmoke

audiokid Sun, 12/02/2012 - 11:02

What's hilarious around here to me? I started this recording Forum years ago and later thought, I'm in the wrong department YIKES!
I thought "recording" meant everything to do with making music and people were learning and sharing. Its all music right! WRONG! Its filled with narrow minded people stuck in a time warp. And the further we move in digital technology, the more resentment evolves. But these engineers are buying into all these fake plug-ins trying to get the sound they once knew. Its pretty ironic.

Are professionals all open minded and ALL excited to learn. Was I wrong. There is so much resentment in this business too. And this economy isn't helping either.

Majority of recordists don't know or care or understand anything significant about midi, programming and sampling and the history of the DAW and how it all ties together today (Business, Technology, Music) their survival.

Traditional recording engineers are a breed of their own. They don't discuss or process much outside microphones. If you aren't clear about what you say, you are greeted with unwelcoming opposition and confusion all the time. And this includes music processed by the tools used in samplers. No wonder most of these studios have folded.
Majority think sample based engineering is all BS and it takes no talent. And techno geeks are just the opposite. Its crazy narrow minded thinking all the time. Its shocking to me.

The joke of the decade. All DAW's are samplers. Everyone using a DAW to record is using a sampler to edit the tracks. Tracks are actual samples stored inside the DAW. They are digital images slotted into a timeline. But traditionalists somehow think those tracks are like tape running and their track is "organic", and editing these digital tracks is different from what a Midi program or sample editing engineering ( Mix Engineering ) is all about.

The news of the decade. DAW = Sampler
A track is simply a sample in a timeline. A DAW is a multitrack sampler and some do it better than others. And plug-ins added to this process, well don't get me started.
Why did Pro Tools become so popular. Its good enough for dummies. It samples and edits recording for anyone that gets the package.

Many AWESOME mixing engineers evolved from the early days of Midi and sampling geeks back in the 80's. This was almost 20 years before Pro Tools even hit the streets. 33 years has passed since the first Sampler I owned.
When Pro Tools 16 TDM came out in the late 90's, I sold my sampling rig and glorious analog gear and moved to Pro Tools. What a joke and a let down. I had no choice though, Midi was soon to be outdated and syncing to Pro Tools was near impossible. I switched mostly because of syncing issues. They made sure that didn't work well enough. The more I upgraded, the worse things sync'd and latency soon became the nightmare for the next 30 years.

In 1999 I posted a thread on the DUC stating most Big Studio will go out of business by 2005.

And that's how recording.org started.

KurtFoster Sun, 12/02/2012 - 12:44

MrPhaSe, post: 397234 wrote: The tile trick is definitely something I didn't know.. Thats a nice bit of info..
I'm just giving you a hard time, thats all. We're in 2 different genres.. 2 different age groups... eras...
I don't like country, you don't like rap. You're studio is nice though, Maybe we'll collaborate on a song in the future and i'll show you I play acoustic instruments better than I play the keyboardsmoke

finally peace. that would be nice Derik.

my advise (if you care) even the best artists face tons of rejection somewhere along the path to success. if you keep plugging away i am sure you will be rewarded. better develop a thicker skin though. you can't go making enemies of everyone who says things you don't want to hear. remember, i didn't elaborate until you asked.

FYI, i don't only do country. those songs were song writer demos, not masters, written for a specific market (the largest one in the US). I just need to sell one to buy a luxury coach and travel the nation 'till i kack. i have recorded and mixed a sh*t load of RAP/HIP HOP in my career ... i used to say i have recorded more RAP than a cop can shake a night stick at. i've done lots of Rock , Metal, Acoustic String Band music, just about any type of POP music and i like it all. you misunderstood my remarks ... i don't hate all RAP / HIP HOP ... there's some of it that's very good actually. BIG Will.i.am fan here. that guy is very cool. not big on the Gangsta thing ... do like Snoop though ... i am also a big fan of 60's Soul records.

i have retired from performing. i played in the Country Honky Tonk bars on the West Coast for years including a 5 year stint as one of the house bands at the http://www.thesaddl… Saddle Rack when they were still in San Jose CA. it was reported to be the largest night club west of the Mississippi River. 3000 seats but they would pack in 5000 sometimes. Two stages, two bands ... non stop music from 8 pm to 2 am, Headline Acts once a month, lots of local radio promo... but now i have retired from performing. no one wants to watch an old fat guy on stage ... at least i don't. :)

my favorite music is Blues. the real stuff ... Chicago, Memphis, Delta or Texas style. in the town i live in theres a lot of "Blues" musicians ... old tired burnt out white guys who want to play Blues badly ... and they do. i probably fall into the same category.

Brownie McGhee / Sonny Terry .... Howlin' Wolf ... Muddy Waters .... Albert King .... Freddy King ..... Gatemouth Brown .... Chess, STAX, Sun, FAME (many others) that's the stuff i like.

the best show i ever saw was at Winterland in SF where Booker T and The M.G.'s opened up then BB King closed the show out with Booker T & The M.G.'s backing him up .... half way through his set BB called Albert King up to sit in. a real magic moment for me.

 

Attached files

audiokid Thu, 01/03/2013 - 14:16

Original Version;:
[MEDIA=soundcloud]user418315800/in-my-dreams-1

MixDream Version:
[MEDIA=soundcloud]audiokid/imdreams1-master-3

Here's a version with the NEOS, how does it sound?

And for additional Loudness War discussion... :) Three levels of limiting.

[MEDIA=soundcloud]audiokid/kurtneos1
[MEDIA=soundcloud]audiokid/kurtneos2
[MEDIA=soundcloud]audiokid/kurtneos3

I used to play a song by Bobby Edwards (Peaceful Side of Life) I believe it was called that this reminds me so much of. Its was on instrumental. I loved it. Really relaxing.