jimmarchi1's forum posts 8022

hi! share on the boards

who is paying? has the usician taken elave of his enses? its too complicated and you are getting reductionist and political.. I know why, but seriously, work with quality people with talent and experience and avoid these issues

'lost n the mix' is generally musician-ee for turn me p and is only worth addressing 50% of the time... I am going to be blunt and say a lot fo people can't ehar the forus for the trees especially if one of them falls when no one is there to ehr it so it might not make a sound... i was more addressing Boom. but if its someone else's project or soemtone else's dime (or both) thne eat it or go home... here are graradations of this with labels, if you can convince themthen sure but if people aren't eharing it your way it may be you... I hate to say this bu t the label goons aren't ALWAYS wrong. i wouldn't duke it out with Jimmy Iovine erpsonally though I think eh would trust me tog et it right

if money is not changing hands and you are offended then as I told you about this recent incident? walk off... hell even if money is changing hands you can walk off whenever its not a fulfilling enterprise as long as you can deal with the repercussions, man

its ok

there's a massive issue with the ready availability of tules and a dearth of understnding of what those tools are designed to accomplish and how they accomplish it not to mention alternative applications that can solve problems.... there's a denial of bandwidth and headroom issues too since digital replaced tape as if the rules changed when we could no longer saturate musically. This thread is just a 'musicians don't get it' thing. There are a dozen ways to skin a cat and fucking ith the levels is last priority. Get everything working together and THEN address elvel. This is subtractve Eq, dynamics control adn, well Zach, you know!

oh wow, never noticed they ripped off an obscure Damned tune and I fcking LOVE the Damned

level is such an inconseqential mix parameter... I seldom move the faders far past my intial balance but I will frequently create bandwidth for a particular isntrument by removing parts of the frequency spectrum from other isntruments thata re critical to the track that's getting lsot at times but thata re not important components of the timbres in teh other tracks. Where there's overlap in tracks and its causing masking I will make decisions, for isntance lows centered at 80hz on abss guitar and 100 hz on kick with a sub freqnecy between 40 and 60 ghosting on the kick for a milisecond to give weight to the attack... I will also do thigns with dynamics control. If an isntrument decay is masking soemthing I will use an expander to duck it down subtley or maybe even gate. Sometiems a track is being amsked by ROOM MICS ebcause the reverb is too swampy. Its oudsn good and all bt its gotta get hut down so the music can brathe. Gate.... Copressing tracks indivdually a little and ing roups helps them to work together and duck eachother as needed. sidechain compression can improve the eprformance dynamics already implied by the musicians. Levels are emaningless because musical program material has an enormous dynamic range and wide bandwidth. Getting control of thsoe factors is most important and will generally cause other musicians to smile rather than say "I think the guitar needs to be louder." Even if people want themselves louder, often 3 or 4dB will do it for them and still work within context when you have the nuts and bolts management of the dynamic range and bandwidth in hand.

Xaq?!! help me out here

I forgot to leave a link but a quick google search for "pink noise" should give you a host of options to download a file.

my SE1's noise gen does pink as well as the common white... I actually mix a little into a lot of patches come to think of it. So if this guy's got the right analog synth...

s anyway, some more thoughts on frequency ranges in common instruments... with bass sounds I tend to really separate my kick and actual abss and I mainly have the abss with its deth low, low, low around 80hz or so whereas kick will have its bottom around 100hz depending on how tits. I will roll off a bunch of kick around 40 or 50 and notch out soe 80 too, notch out soe 100ish on bass and roll off the lwos at 20ish. But then kick I will do some sub synth or soemthing to get some sub thumping weight back but I'll dial that in against bass so it thumps below 80hz for the most part or below and above and I'll make sure the 2 soudns are not fighting but working together. so that slamming club music thump is like 100 hz and below in abss instruments... I find beater click to be specific to each kick but its broadly throughout the 800 to 5k range, true mids LOL. I find 250 cycles yo about 600 to be the bouncing ball range. That round, bouncy 70s kick sound lives there and cutting there will give you an open, slappier kick with the right boosts above and below. If you are recording live drums you can do a lot of this with mic placement assuming you pay attention to phase... for dum machines and samples its CRITICAL to be able to ehar this stuff and work with it because not every track ahs room for a bouncing ball kick, for isntance. And we all have our kick preferences and that preverence is rarely going to be flat coming off the machine unless its some pretty minimal music! I don't wanna get into abss ebcause bas guitar, double abss and various bass synth patches will be different as night and day and otehr than treating the bottom with similar respect I would say to play it by ear (pun intended). Hihats? Stick whack around 250ish, mush 300 to 500, ringing 600 to 1k, 1k to 5k is hissiness usually or more ringing... stick CLICK is 5k to about 10k andthat's where you hear sizzle... there's a nice sparkle to them in the 12k area and that's also the detail of the sound to me u to about 14k and from there its distance like I discussed in snares. You can do a lot with a 15k shelf at 3 to 6dB with a fairly sharp slope to pull the hihats back but maintain a reasonable amount of modern brightness. Note, working with fully synthesized hihats like from an 808 or dr55 is another story. There's soem overlap but they don't pitch out the same way as real hihats or even the gritty samples from the 909.

POW!

I swear the tutorials I'm working on are gonna be way more fun to watch!

after I watched it Iw as pretty impressed but when you said it was dry remember my suggestion? just end it by saying 'and now for soemthing compeltely different" and then paste the credits to Mony Python and the Holy Grail on the end. Whimsey added...

that's a really cool chart, Xaq because it combines the arangers' chart with the frequency spectrum in HZ (although only for the fundamental, it doesn't take intoa ccount the ahrmonics produced by each isntrument that will be higher and give the sound its timbre)

some thoughts on frequencies to listen to while recording and mixing: snares whether live, sampled, drum machine? basically a burst of noise, right? yes and no, 12k sizzle, 6k snap, there's ringing harmonics of some sort somewhere in the upper mids below 6k but generally above 800 cycles in a real drum but just the hissiness of the noise in an analog drum machine snare, you'll hear perceived 'woodiness below that until below 400 cycles when you find the weight of the sound and eprcieved stick thud and then there's rumble too far below 200 cycles, depending on the sound. And wa up top is detail that will give your ears a sense of distance because the highest frequencies get absorbed by air friction msot readily being the shortest wave cycles so clsoe soudns ahve more of them and ebcause we think of snares and drums in general as acoustic isntruments with real physical volume limits the top end tells your ears so much about the location of that sound in relation to your lsitening position and relative to the rest of the mix.

More anon. Getting tired...

1st tip? listen very carefully to the music and make it sound good. Pay attention to the details early on so you can have fun and dance around as the mix comes together. Make the music sound as good as you can as a whole piece.

2nd tip? monitor through speakers QUIETLY. If you can't talk voer the track you are wearing your ears out.

3rd tip? take frequent breaks. Walk away, do soemthing else. You don't want to get fagiued and you don't want to get used to the sound of the track and start taking any of it for granted. GO sltien to the wolrd....

4th tip? half breaks. Tun the mix up a little bit and leave the control room and listen from anotehr room. You wills till hear it pretty well but almost every good record has a certain projection into another room and if way that's a good sign for the overall balance. If it soudns weird in another room I'll ebt some of the issues will jump out at you with the air space diffusing the sound out. its weird, this helps and its easy on your ears.

and tip 5? don't work on any mediocre music. A good song with a thought out arrangmeent starts mixing itself assuming it was recorded competently, but badly thought out music is notoriously difficult to balance. There is no 'fix it in the mix.' you're thinking "hey, I was looking for specifics, I coudla thought of thsoe myself!" but you need to remind yourself to make it sound good every 2 minutes, for real.

here's my free mixing as science resource for you:

http://www.sengpielaudio.com/calculator-bpmtempotime.htm

you're thinking, dleay plugins sync? why do i need this? other thigns have time constants, dude....a ttack and decay on compressors? the release on an expander/gate, reverb tails (what about gated or expanded reverb, hmm?) helps topt it all in time with the music as precisely as posible and tweak from there. I could give you other science like tell you about the different types of dB or teach you how to calculate delay between a DI and a mic on the same instrument by getting the speed of sound using a thermometer and ... but for msot people this translation from BPM to MS for quarters, eights, tripelts and sixteenths will be the most sueful reference they have ever seen. For real. boundless apllications if you sit and think about it

that's actually a really cool article... my lust is still for an original mosrite. If you'd ever played an old mosrite you would get it. They are the nicest bolt-ons of their era and some of the nicer production bolts of any period... every single one I have ever laid hands on was amazing and the pickups are outstanding. Semi Moseley was the man. But wow, great article. I like reverb's hsitory articles (although they recently posted info on the fender pricneton line that ahd some real exagerations and inaccuracies, but you could be forgiven for them if you were going by the schematics and hadn't been inside hundred and thousands of old fender amps)....

so I've only seen the hi-flyer bass with humbuggies... unless there's some secret single-coil basses floating aorund that narrows Punk Zebra's down to the lastg eneration of them I think

not that I know a lot about Univoxes, but it might help out people seeing this post if you would link detailed pictures of your hi-flyer.... just sayin'. I can seldom date a guitar based on a 1 sentence verbal description.

I want to go ahead and make Kygo style music... Sort of chill

I had to look up Kygo and according to wikipedia this guy was barely out of diapers when I went to my first illegal warehouse party... wow.

anyway, say to yourself "I want to make the kind of chillin' house music that I like to lsiten to." Don't set out saying "I wanna be like Kygo." Even if you're Djing, which is mroe curatorial than truly creative? Be you, man. Or just be a fan if that's who you are. Its okay to just listen and dance.

I didn't know people sued any Marshall brand pedals apart from the original black bluesbreakers and gov'nors. In fact, I didn't know Marshall was still making pedals apart from its 3 main dirt boxes until you posted this... TC makes a great product and their algorithms really hang in with some of my old favorites from Lexicon etc... I have felt I got my money's worth outta everything I ever bought from TC and that's a lot of stuff at this point. marshallc an't even design a decent sounding, reliable amp anymore. Their heyday ended with the JCM900 series and the nails were put in teh coffin by those JCM2000s. Trust the effects company for your effects needs. TC's reputation is built on their analog flanger, great digital effects, crystal clear sonics, dry through, good buffers, excellent MIDI implementation and... well, you get the idea. Marshall's reputation is built on the plexis, JMPs and 800s. Amps. Old amps, classic amps, reissued amps that kep the company afloat.... I gotta say their couple popular dirtboxes are just okay stock. If you had told me the bluesbreaker would eb acollectible back when it came out I woudla laughed at you. But go figure, people are nutty.

I feel like there are 2 categories of reverb, especially when it coems to guitar. I will call them acoustic simualtions whichs trive for reality and then the other I'm calling effecty reverb. Tiled room, chamber, hall, cathedral, cavern? simulations thata re really meant for the mixing desk when you're dealing with really dry sources... spring, plate, blackhole, shimmer? special effects and their own thing. Most reverb pedals will be simualting real spaces and the tamer effecty reverbs (spring and plate).... but you don't hear a real space into an ampa dn through a 12" midrange driver, do you? There's already a space surrounding your amp (unless you're outside playing a festoval. So its starting to sound kinda weird to put a hall reverb simualtion into your amp when your amp is already in a hall.

consider this though, running reverb with a guitar amp is generally coolest when its an unnatural effect like spring reverb or soem of the more ethereal stuff you can do with eventide stuff... as a soundman I gotta say that guys who put a ton of hall reverb or small room stuff into the front end or FX loops of their amps can be annoying to deal with in the FOH mix in anything elss than HUGE venues. The space is reverberating or if tis packed with bodies and is absorbing sound I amy really wanna use whatever's on my aux sends for vocal treatment to get the whole thing sounding right, but here's this guy with a cathedral alroghrythm into an amp and its got a little overdrive on it (he thinks its clean but 20 feet back Ic an ehar the harmonics popping and the amp compressing the verb making the decay and stuff all weird because tobe amps do that once theya re loud enough to sound good) and its throwing everything off and wasting space ebcause he isn't set up to control the decay with a gate or expander like I am on ym aux bus! And as good as that hall of fame sounds, the reverb makes his sound allw ashy and the guy in teh band afterwards with a little delay into his marshall sounds way better and is still spacious as does the guy in teh third band rocking the fender super reverb has a ebtter sound too because the reverb is a part of teh whole design and really integrated not to mention being a classic sound reference for everyone who ahs ehard a surfe record or watched a sergio leone movie!

So to sum up a bit I recommend spring for certain 60s style sounds (and the hall of fame si good at this but so is the holy grail and a bunch of lesser known gadgets like the malekko spring chicken), subtle delay for most other ambiance duties and for the really crazy special effects go ewith stuff like the eventide space pedal, digitech hardwire or the new EQD Transmisser (which i have in for review sicne last week and tis pretty cool though its so extreme the applications can be limited, but damn, nothing like this thing). Reverb can be really hard to deal with unless its more a part of the guitar sound than the guitar in my experience. If comrpession is the elast udnerstood audio processing type then reverb is probably the msot misused effect out there and not just by guitarists. Don't be that guy. Dare to play without reverb or with just effecty reverbs. if you need a little space and the soundman can't give it and the room isn't enough? try a slap or some low timed delays (TC is good at this too but the market is filled with great oions these days both analog and digital).

smoke that over

Gotcha- but just for clarity-

You said you wanted to make music in the style of Kygo...

Yeah, I am totally conused... producing music cna eb achieved with a small investment in ableton or fruityloops if your computer is up to it, however, producing quality music is a lifelong investment of time and a sinkhole of money into gadgettry (and these days additional software... you kdis don't know how good you've got it versus when me and Xaq were trying to record our first songs).

I'm old so I will always lean towards a couple of technics or stantons and a good mixer.... but there's a million other ways to go about it if you don't have an extensive vinyl collection or the coin to build one up.

it doesn't hurt to be a rabid music fan with an encyclopedic knowledge of everything that's been recorded since the birth of the 7" either

this seems t be a recurring question lately... but a mpassable multi FX to find out whate verything is and what it does. Its the msot economical and effective way to do ti I think. A line6 M series, TC Nova system or soemthing like that. Don't go with something of-brand and cheap. The Nova system is ncie ebcause the overdrive and distortion are analog ad sound downright good being a basically a TS9 and a Rat, 2 of the msot ubiquitous dirt boxes of all time.

Maybe get a book? Books are filled with information...

the box of rock is 2 cascaded SHOs dude, just ahs a tone control and some shaping inbetween versus the double sho that ahs no tone control and is JUST 2 SHOs cascading. Take a box of rock or the cheper distortron apart and eat your hat, Terr. The double rock is 4 SHOS with 2 tonestackone for each pair

the blackstone has a unique sound even amongst simialr overdrives... like a lot of amp-in-a-box pedals its cascaded discrete fets... in tone its between a zvex box of rock (2 SHOs in a row with a tone control and some voicing inbetween) and a red llama (CMOS logic inverter chip with the mini mosfet stages cascaded as little gain stages)... I enver liked it enough to emet the buy in

but this is one of those "this goes to 11" only with exchange rates

as usual you're completely immune to sarcasm, either that or you replied to the wrong person

buy one, report back

I actually found the site in similar circumstances, looking for a pictorial listing site so i could remember what all I actually had... the 'pro pages' were just a bonus.

Welcome. I'll be that record's BROOOTAL!

you'll have to try the ac15, the stock ef86 channel is really thick and not what everyone is expecting, but its righteous when turned up

I usually do Vintage King and Atlas Pro for studio stuff... or I used to anyway, I don't really buy a lot of stuff anymore in that vein, but I am thinking of tooling up a little more and amybe going all ahrdware when ic an afford it so it will be those guys. Maybe sweetwater if they have a deal going.

musifican's friend is guitar center, they're like the outlet for the b-stock from GC actually... in guitars and basses anyway

or at elast it sued to belong to GC, there was a GC change of ownership 10 years ago(maybe more) and I don't know if musician's friend went with the brick and mortar part of the GC empire or sold to a separate group of ivnestors. The current guys really are running GC into teh dirt, they're the guys who got rid of all the professional isntruments and gear and focused ons tarter packs and korean student models.

I know... I do it more with sam ash these days

I love the Pachabel's Cannon video, its een around forever and ti neever stops making me laugh ebcause people keep on writing I - V -mVI - IV type progressions and rebranding them

dude, i do that all the time, buy gear and return it after the project is done.

https://media.makeameme.org/created/Wow--I-fgvniz.jpg

http://s2.quickmeme.com/img/41/413a4b351e9260b0a6458a8ab142ea8dc49072c699e232734a332bee020a2a68.jpg

https://youtu.be/W6vDzf-wSbk

https://youtu.be/UQHpCBEIFMA

https://youtu.be/c7JOcHKMLKQ

I was watching the guitar center financial drama with itnerest for a few years.... they are in debt to fender pretty heavily but fender relies on GC for their powerful growth, GC is pre-ordering guitars years ahead, of they used to. Fender can't afford for them to go under.

get it together

BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITCH

shit, I encouraged you to collect your pay and told you howbto handle it... you owe me 15% motherfucker!

by the way Nikhil, being extra blunt now, stop playing the guitar, you suck at this particular instrument dude... just quit. I was playing sessions at your age. You suck ass. I had a stiff drink and lsitened t that track and you guys blow goats. If there was a god he would strike you down.. Stop. Stop making music. You are so bad at it. make websites. accept who you are and where your abiilties reside. I am being mean now to help the universe. God damn, I lsitened and everything is wrong with that recording, fuck the mix, I couldn't mix it because you guys just suck at singing ad playing. STOP IT

PLEASE

you have talent, its not audible.. get real! my 3 year old will schol you on piano, I am now fed up with you. Jesus loves you as web designer. Take a graphic design course though. your visual sense is shit too. his is from an MFA. I don'yt work design but I know it backwards andforwards, no shortage of education, kid.

Motherfucker, just give this shit up and be a coder, its whhat you are programmed to do. Seriously, you are one of the least musical and least artistic people I have ever spoken too. You need to find yourself and know yourself.

Don't bother to thank me when you realize who and what you are. Just leave me alone.

FUCK OFF YOU DELUDED LITTLE SHIT

his pro GMO shit was killer

I love Jesus. But he's always like, 'shitdog, I am not ready, I'm still a virgin and I'm not gay."

so i'm like, "who's ya daddy!"

we are talking about a questionable historical chracter here, its like asking if I love Solon, the law giver of athens.. I dunno? idealogically? sweet, good guys here, but in a historiographical context? come on guys? I don't do faith. I want it to be 2legit2quit, homey.

Understand I fully aprove of JC's politics. But I debate whether he is even a real dude due to a thorough lack of archaeological and even historical evidence in the serious sens eof those terms. I mean, I assume the guy was some galilean dude, which isn't even fully provable, but what does that mean? I love paul of tarsus, a great guy, a visionary and uber politico. If you subtract his certainty that the world would end imminently he was quite the thinker. Plato/Socrates next level shit.

I am not some uneducated yabo, dude. I am also ot an idiot, I have very high IQ if you believe in that bullshit. I am smart enough to disregard my own intellect. Otherwsie i ouldn;t put up with shit from nobody, beeeotch!

I am joking all the ime, you get that, right?

peole don't get , my continuous sarcasm...

to quote the vernacular, Bill Nye is DOPE. I still follow him on facebook.

Well now,

I got me some seagream's gin,

everybody got their cups but they ain't chipped in.

These types of things happen all the time,

ya gotta get yours before I gotta get mine,

but everything is fine when you're worshipping the big JC,

he multiplies them fishes while he's macin' on the bitches,

with that ho Mary Magdelene,

she fine,

when the party's bumpin' hard he turns your water into wine.

Yo Christ, DROP THE BEAT!

beeothch;

Rollin' down the street with my bible,

sippin' on gin and juice,

prayed back,

with my mind on the scripture and the scripture on my mind.