xaqary's forum posts 444

Doesn't Bitwig just look like fun? Reminds me of the Valhalla DSP mideset on GUI & I f'n love that approch. I'm absolutely gonna try it. How could I not?

I'll have to check that link in a bit. No idea why I'm awake it's like 6:30 here!?

Yes, you really are. Read my last post...the last paragraph in particular.

I understad it's tough to save up cash to get yourself a rig.

I also think that "fear of missing out" can make the choice feel really weighty. What's the best choice? The "well this option offers this, but the other offers that." arguement is a series of diminishing reterns (you get less and less for every effort). Particularly when 1st starting out.

I'm tellin' ya. Music has been epic long before any of this stuff existed. Every genre you can think of. The people killing it today? Check their influences. They're mostly people who worked with faaaar less options.

Hell, I toured the US multipule times on albums I recorded in Garage Band. Not 10 years ago, fairly recently.

With all these killer tools & options out there now it even feels paralyizing to me at times. Ask Jim. We private message all the time about the merits of this vs. that but...well until you've got some experience you've no real way to weigh the merits if this vs. that.

It really just comes down to you wanna make music. Everyday you wait to decide is a day kinda lost. A day you could have been recording.

The options, the bells & whistles? They fall into the background so fuckin' fast once you start creating. Those options can take tons of time to even know how to use effectivly anyway.

I'm tellin' ya. You're over thinkin' it. Standard DAW's these days come with more options than you could hope to learn as a beginner before you've long since saved up for an upgrade. You're focused on the product 1st & music second. There's just not as big of a differece as you think. Or at the very least you're over estimating them.

This a powerful platform man. I've stayed out of a lot if the "what should I do insert blank" threads because I see seasoned pros offering fantastic advice only to have it ignored & watch the origonal poster slip back into dithering & indecision...

Jim seems like he knows you better but I'll take a stab at it.

I was a raised on tape, then ProTools, then Garage Band/Logic, then finally Ableton.

My music was never fundementally changed by what I used to record with soon as I got to digital. It was changed much more by how MUCH time I spent recording. That's where the real pay off is.

I say that because it speaks to the point that's most important-

Your choice, if I was to offer any advice- Do whatever will get you able to record as soon as possible!

If that's Ableton, sweet. Don't waste another minute. Go out & grab yer copy of Ableton, a mic, & an interface. Do it now.

Learn your way around Ableton & your mic so well you know where to put your mic for best results on anything you wanna do in the dark.

You'll want all 3 no question (DAW, mic, interface) & if it helps I absolutely love Ableton.

That said? If Fruity Loops or any other DAW was the fastest way to get you into recording I'd say get that one.

I hope the next post we see from you is you super psyched cuz you just finished your 1st recording with your new gear.

Welcome to the rest of your life. I haven't looked back since i was recording into one portable stereo then playing it back while recording onto another so I could get 2 whole tracks!

Weird shit, right?

I'm a bit obsessed with anything to do with psychoacoustics or it's weird neighbors...but this one is just way wacky.

10% off Waves coupon if anyone wants to use it-

http://refer.waves.com/e0y0m

Jim-

Who talks smack on AT? The make a bunch of great stuff. That was my bread & butter in the early days but I still use them now.

AudioTechnica was what finally got me off of the 57's & 58's tit.

Couldn't agree more. Just about every DAW out there can get it done these days. Jim's in FL & I'm Ableton and it makes no difference. It's more about making the DAW you pick your bitch.

wait...

Isn't Bitwig crazy cheap?

Like cheaper than just about everyone? It's Ableton-esk" is you're wondering. At least thats what i gather. Looks interesting-trippy GUI.

https://youtu.be/G-lN8vWm3m0

Ever been mixing and let's say, dialing in an EQ, setting on a track. You tweak and tweak until your positive you've got it sounding just right only to realize you weren't EQing the track and you thought you were?

For me it happens more with "in the box" mixing but I've also been tricked working on a desk where the labeling has been removed or labeled incorrectly. Not often at all but still just weird...

The Waves plugin I'm referencing can be found here:

http://www.waves.com/plugins/brauer-motion#presenting-brauer-motion-spherical-auto-panner

(it's on sale for $29 if yer interested)

I haven't tried it yet but it doesn't seem to be a case of the McGurk effect, but it still brought this to mind.

Either way I just think it's really trippy we can absolutely know our eyes are playing tricks on us & still have the same reaction.

If you want a hand in the future shoot me a note. She's the pro in Solidworks, I can get by tho. If one of has the time (usually not, but still worth asking) we'd be happy to help if we can.

What i think you might like even more is just to just grab a cheap/free copy of Solidworks & I bet you'll find it super intuitive and extremely useful. Crazy helpful for planning out any build.

Once you've got the dimensions entered you can just drag and drop, swap things around here, and there and tweak it until it's perfect really quickly so by the time you actually break out the tools you know exactly what you wanna do.

oh yeah-if you know anyone who is a student you can get an even cheaper price on Solidworks. I have heard "some people" even do that with plugins as well.

ATTEMPTING TO RESPOND TO ORIGINAL POST!!!!

Forgive the clumsy language in this... but saying shelf for keyboard, keyboard and keyboard and shelf for monitors and monitor and additional monitor sounds kinda dumb. Thanks English! Best.Language.Ever.

Haha! While designing my desk this shit came up contantly.

The wife is an engineer and was sweet enough to do a to 3D scale model of everything from the layout of the remodel to a painstakingly designed and mock up of my studio desk- like down to the exact dimentions of my mouse. All the while constantly qualifying what "keyboard" or "monitor".

Yikes, sorry bout that. Been working on the plumbing in my bathroom all day & drinkin'. On a second (less drunk) read it felt a bit too solipsistic. Post that sucker- I am genuinely interested, I just coulda used a bit more restraint or maybe just less booze.

Every good "con a bunch of strangers and steal their organs for sale on the black market and why not grab their live gear while we're at it" is gonna come with some drawbacks.

We can get take out at the hotel.

With a bit of targeted auditions we can even craft the "band" to fill respective needs. Now we're cookin'

I'm gonna go watch The Sting a few dozen times. Reseach. It's like they say: "preperation is just as important as followth..." I dunno, something like that.

No way this ends in tears...or prison...in Thailand? That's a shame. Always wanted to go to Thailand.

I'm guessing that there isn't enough demand for this kinda work around, I totally get that.

No big deal, I'm just gonna go ahead and start uploading my pieces as descriptive as I can.

If anyone posts something killer I'd love to see yer projects so drop a note/link here if ya feel like it.

Glaring oversight on my behalf. The cost out of pocket for a hotel room & a handful of Xanax is easily balanced in the end.

The real value here isn't hotel rooms, seditives, or organ tissue.

The real value is in the team.

Quality people who can think outta the old tired "let's see our organs to finance a pyrotechnicly expensive piece of gear" box. Hats off sir! One step closer to the dream!

Woah. Snot Pocket...didn't think Hatchet Wound would get upstaged.

Bring. It. On.

why not, hell there's fiber-optic cable under the atlantic, this should be easy to get off the ground for the 3 of us. Anyone who says we can't? Just more "fake news".

Figure if we all sell our kidneys & some liver tissue (the liver might be a harder sell, sure) on the black maket to bankroll the front end we should be cookin on our new system by the time the jaundce really starts to turn our skin a shade even a bit more creepy than "engineers tan".

Lets do this.

setting up tie lines...

Let's go in half and half. Gonna need some seriously long cable runs...

yeah I wasn't sure. It was...late.

If it's a actual physical desk? 100% recommend you build it yourself. You're guaranteed to get exactly what you want that way. Way cheaper too.

If you need any suggestions on materials mention them here.

So by desk do you mean a mixing console? Or an ideal peice of studio furnature with rack space?

If it's the former I have been brooding over that choice for about 8 months now. My holy grail? Does that include a full time tech to keep it tip top so I can focus on working?

love to hear ya playing w/ that sucker! I'm gonna go see what i can hear online until then.

Woah, crazy. We dont haveTV so i just catch a few clips online so I never noticed. That's fuckin awesome.

Have youb considered building one. i know there used to be a very authentic pultech kit.

I'd fuckin' love to try! I'll have to google around on those kits.

All in all thanks for sharing your experience with both units. I really appreciate it. I decided that I was going to head down this road because while I still do large sessions with lots of mics, they make up about 20- 30% of the work I do- the other 70% is one or two channels at a time tracking & a whole ton of mixing.

If anyone else has any thoughts or if anything else comes to your mind Jim I'd love to hear it. I am hoping to at least narrow it down to two options and then talk to Vintage King about trying out those 2 & go further if it feels nessesary.

I'll of course share my thoughts/post reviews of how all those models perform for me.

I'd also love to know of the kits that people have been happy with. If one comes to mind definitely drop a link I'd love to have a look at it!

Oh yeah, if you have any notes on the Cartec I'd love to hear 'em. Better price point for sure-

Yup, we definitely have talked about the Massive Passive. I have been digging fairly hard into reviews on all of the different updated makes...and like most things on the Internet everything is super stratified. There is even a large & dedicated "Manley SUCKS" crowd. Like all of it. I've only used the Vari Mu & really liked it, tho I'd like to have had more time with it. So I figured I would try to solicit more opinions as it is super expensive and difficult to try out some / all of the options.

I still am really curious about the Massive Passive- how do you think it compares? I ask because it seems a bit more surgical then a Pultec in concept. Not saying that it's a problem but my experience using a Pultec was I could get great results & they could be reached quickly. Massive Passive appears more versatile but there is a certain elegant simplicity using a Pultec. Thoughts?

The Manley "improved" Pultec got panned hard as well. Hard to sort out the credible voices from the din of less measured opinions out there.

Only one make seemed to get wide praise-The Pulse & I have never used one and if anyone I know has I am unaware of it. If anyone knows anything about it I'd love to hear your thoughts.

**I should clarify that having used different Pultecs over the years and having just about every one sound a bit different I'm more looking for the "essence". If you've used one you know what im talkin' about.

Anyone with experience or A-B thoughts on the various models out there? Manley, Pulse, Cartecs, etc. any practical wisdom? **please no plugin reviews. I'm looking for hardware reviews if possible...

Not a bad idea, never thought of that. Just gotta catch 'em in town.

I feel ya, I'm friendly w/ lots of bands on here from playing with/ recording/ booking over the years (sure I'm far from alone) but i kinda second the solid proof idea. Even tho it's frustrating knowing exactly what a friend, etc. uses & not being able to find proof.

While there will always be people familiar with artists in lots of ways I think it's useful to see practical sourced examples because of the much higher ratio of people who just make bogus submissions.

what hiwatt did you have?! I've enver owned one and I want one desperately!

It was like 14 years ago but if memory serves it was a 50 w/o a volume pot. Just gain. I was playing a Ric & a Gibson at that time. Fucking loved it. Think it was a "Fuck! I'm broke!" situation that caused us to part ways.

thing with voxes is that they work best with minimal effects.... though the edge makes his work with the kitchen sink, most of us find we can't overdo it without compromising some of the sound.... the abriters are still adeal in vintage ac30s and ine is a beast. Loud, punchy and a bit amrshally. used it on some recordings you heard and you didn't say the riffs sounded bad ;-)

Yeah man-I was chasing Vox amps for about a year-Hitting shops locally & on tour trying out every one I could find. It's like a mission I never finished.

Oh for fucks sake. I just saw a plugin review in my YouTube feed that has handles. HANDLES??? So Mario or Pac Man can pick up my VST's? Who thinks up this shit?

Goddamn I wish I never sold my HI-WATT. That fucker was a BEAST.

You've actually got me thinking a lot about adding a little Vox to my palette. I had that AC30 we've talked about before but I never really gave it a chance because I wasn't really evaulating it on it's own merrits, just on if it would work with the band I was in at the time.

100% Best of all I've managed to have about 85% of what I've bought of the years has gone up in value.

Yep. Maybe because I'm a mostly a Fender amp guy (and a Jazz Chorus), but mostly cuz I've found other pedals that just work much better for me & are way more versitile.

I'm still happy to sell it to anyone who's game tho!

Goddamn, that was about the most comprehensive answer on the BM and it's virtues & limitations I've seen. I'd argue that if you still need further input you're just looking for more answers that confirm your desired outcome. Asking questions is great but so is a bit of intellectual honesty.

Seriously awesome post-

There kinda is a tell-have you seen our retarded boards? Only an insane person would have collected all that nonsense. We've clearly lost our marbles.

Jim needs to be reclassified as s public utility. I've been working professionally for most of my life & that jackass has the temarity to teach me new shit all the time. Fuckin' asshole.

Yer good Brandon, I can only speak for Jim & myself but we like a firey debate & just so happens on this site it tends to be on topics that have consumed our whole lives so we can get damn intense. So take it all with a grain of salt. Be a shame if you didn't feel chill posting questions here. Dunno where else you could get feedback as informed as you did that fast & easy...my wiseass comment aside.

Loads of rock solid info here. Great suggestions as well.

Same here, i haven't seen them in a shop to try out but a buddy in Deerhoff has gushed about them a ton.