Re: [Logic_Cafe] RE: Supersize Me : priorities and great rooms
2007-02-20 by GAmoore@aol.com
Back to the original request for a control surface, I don't find them as great as I thought because the controls seem fidgety or jerky. Its not really that bad to use a mouse on a fader the correct in the hyper editor. I would list these things in importance : 1. decent headphones and/or monitors - but not expensive though 2. having a decent mic (e.g. Neuman 103) 3. an outboard compressor to tame sounds before the a/d converter 4. an inexpensive mixer to listen source to and from computer 5. some decent virtual instruments - depending on your style of music (e.g. Blue, FM8, Massive, etc.) If you want to buy some plugs - maybe some channel strips like Nomad Factory's SC226, a decent delay like Timeless from Fabfilter or some of the PSP stuff, maybe some better EQ's. I like Elemental's Equium a lot. Oh, and Camelphat and CamelSpace are incredible bargains and very versatile. If you want IDM and creative sounds, then Reaktor is a must. Then my best recommendation would be to worry less about buying equipment and more about making music. I have to remind myself of this all the time - use what you already have to its fullest extent before wasting more money. Logic actually comes with a lot of plug-ins which are almost as good as the one costing much more. Regarding the suggestions for a great room, first of all that depends on if you are recording a lot of live stuff, or working digitially. But what is a great room? The nice studios in the magazines seem to be large and have hard wood floors and non rectangular walls and ceilings. That kind of deal is virtually impossible for anyone without serious money. So the next best thing is a bedroom or garage. There are going to be compromises in sound, and construction perhaps, etc, and the end result won't be great. So I think most of us without a pro studio, have to make do in some way. In my case, I have a room thats about 11 x 11 feet. I bought some 4 x 8 foot soundboard panels and cut them in half to be 4x4, the stapled on some outdoor carpet on one side, and some auralex triangle baffles on the other. Then I set these up around the room to deaded reverb. Then I close mic guitar and voice. And add some altiverb later, and it sounds fine to me. I have a hardwood floor and high ceilings in the living room and I have been thinking about running a long mic cable and long guitar cable to record some "live" room kind of sound, but the room is not all that big - maybe 12 x 16 with 16 foot ceilings, so the natural reverb is going to be short. I did upgrade my monitors from some Tannoy's I bought used for $50 10 years ago, to some m-audio BX5's which sound nicer and clearer, but ... when i mixed something down to mp3 and played it on my computer, it of course didn't sound anywhere near as nice, ... in fact the mix seemed different - with some things more or less prominent than how I heard them in the studio. so not sure if the enjoyable studio experience is translating into a good final product. > I would just have to say that Steve is on the right track. Having a > great room to record and mix in will do way more for your sound than > any nice piece of gear. Start with that and everything is improved. > Then get the Apogee Symphony system and Mac Pro and, In my opinion, > you have a better system than protools. > ************************************** Check out free AOL at http://free.aol.com/thenewaol/index.adp. Most comprehensive set of free safety and security tools, millions of free high-quality videos from across the web, free AOL Mail and much more. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]