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A DIY recording journal.
http://maplifiers.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=3049		 Page 7 of 13
Author:  Broseidon [ Sun Aug 14, 2016 2:16 am ]
Post subject:  Re: A DIY recording journal.
I actually totally fucking agree. :lol:

I think I am just getting WAY too caught up in comparing this to other shit/trying to make it something it necessarily is not. I need to just please the performances/tones as they are. I'm using a "Stressor" donationware plugin on the bass, drum buss and even fucking used in parallel on the master buss for this most recent mix. :red: I'd totally forgot I had it until yesterday and kinda went apeshit when I realized it's distortion function creates this blown out low end harmonic response.

When it comes down to it, I am unashamedly definitely trying to go hi-fi on this. Ideally, sort of a lo-fi/mid-fi compromise on something that is really, really discernable and satisfying to listen to. However, I think that maybe not having access to world class hardware and whatnot is a big problem. I've been A/B'ing it with Jack Shirley mixes and some other bands that have a similar aesthetic. I do not possess the gear involved in the processes that it took to get those records to sound the way they do. :red: Nor does this band even necessarily want that, anyhow.

I just need to pull my head out of my ass and throw away any predispositions I might have about the way this should sound. I just need to make it sound good. :red:
Author:  chris_d [ Sun Aug 14, 2016 8:44 am ]
Post subject:  Re: A DIY recording journal.
I would actually suggest that it is not even necessarily about gear.

Unless you are recording the exact same musicians in the exact same place as the reference recordings you are using, any direct comparison is kind of crazy and futile, IMO. Tiny differences in performances and recording spaces are actually big differences.

It is helpful to have reference albums to compare general sorts of ideas about tones and balance, but it is i feel unrealistic to try to actually copy full stop, the sound of a recording. That isn't a gear deficit thing, it is an apples to oranges thing.

:idk:
Author:  Broseidon [ Mon Sep 26, 2016 12:47 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: A DIY recording journal.
One of four jams Alex and I are working on: https://m.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A ... F7J6EZ&s=1
Author:  chris_d [ Tue Sep 27, 2016 6:12 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: A DIY recording journal.
Fucking rad as hell bros. :huzzah:

What's the endgame? Full band sound(i.e. with bass guitar)? Vocal, or instro?

I like that one part 'hella fast', too. Has a certain brawl to it.
Author:  Broseidon [ Tue Sep 27, 2016 8:45 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: A DIY recording journal.
Thanks, man! :huzzah: Actually, looks like there's just gonn be two songs. I was not pleased with my takes on the second two, and they are pretty groove reliant and my shit was just too wonky. :red:

Full band sound, indeed. Our brodawg, Colin, wrote some very gnar and expansive bass lines for them before he left for his very, very extended bike trip down the west coast. Also our other brodawg, Sam, who played with Alex and Colin in Shucks will be playing organ. And I will be laying down the ol' vox as well.
Author:  Broseidon [ Mon Dec 12, 2016 9:05 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: A DIY recording journal.
Ain't been posting so much in here as Eric and I are constantly kibitzing on facebook about these matters, but I am still overly busy dealing with this shit. :red:

A nearly-ish final mix of this band, Cujo, who I have recorded/posted here before:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/137 ... %201.3.wav

This one is infinitely better than the last, atleast on my end.
Author:  chris_d [ Tue Dec 13, 2016 7:24 am ]
Post subject:  Re: A DIY recording journal.
Broseidon wrote:
Ain't been posting so much in here as Eric and I are constantly kibitzing on facebook about these matters, but I am still overly busy dealing with this shit. :red:

A nearly-ish final mix of this band, Cujo, who I have recorded/posted here before:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/137 ... %201.3.wav

This one is infinitely better than the last, atleast on my end.



This has a weird thing going on for me. It sounds really really good if i just listen with the two front speakers on, but if i have the rest of them on(5.1 setup) it gets real strange sounding, all guitar, drowned drums and vocal. Not many people listen on 5.1 setups so it doesn't matter, but it is pretty wacky. I wonder if it is a reverb thing, as i hear you have kind of a big one on the vox and the snare seems to have a fair bit of verb or room mic too. :idk:

On two speakers though, it is fucking hott as hell. :huzzah:
Author:  Snaxocaster [ Tue Dec 13, 2016 8:52 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: A DIY recording journal.
Cam, I suspect this not the mix I heard a few days back. Kick seems to have come down, and... Let me guess, Echoboy on the vocals now? (Best. Plugin. Ever.) Snare seems... Brighter, too? Question on the guitars: I forget what amp was used that wasn't the Yamaha T50. Was it your 800? HM-2 on the bass as well?

It's funny hearing this alongside the one I heard the other day you sang backups on with the Strat into the AC15. Behind all the distortion here, I can detect a similarity in the drums though, despite the supercleanliness of the drums on the other one. Funny how this stuff works. Typical Maps-since-forever-ago, though; we're all over the map even in what we work on on our own. :tu:

Chris: I don't think I've ever even put a normal record on a 5.1 setup. I'd have no clue how it would sound. :hypno: Do most things not specifically mixed for that format sound odd?
Author:  chris_d [ Tue Dec 13, 2016 9:20 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: A DIY recording journal.
Weirdly, most records sound totally normal; in absence of any digital instruction to do anything else(meaning actual 5.1 data like from a video game or a DVD), my setup mostly just puts the same thing, front and back, through the speakers, i.e. it kind of just acts like a quadrophonic system, no delay or time messery, just four speakers doing playing the same shit(well, two lefts and two rights). :idk:

This is, of course, with my sound card's built in environmental simulation shit all turned OFF, which is the only way i ever have it.

I also don't know where the fuck the center channel info comes from in this arrangement(meaning just being fed a normal stereo signal), but my center speaker is turned wayyyy down anyhow so i hardly hear it. :idk:

But yeah. Most(meaning all of the ones that i can think of) records sound totally normal this way.
Author:  Broseidon [ Thu Dec 15, 2016 2:22 am ]
Post subject:  Re: A DIY recording journal.
The 5.1 strangeness is very interesting. There's a fucking stupid huge stereo verb on the snare (they wanted it to be really dumb like an 80's NYHC thing) and the vocals indeed have some Echoboy that's creating that illusion, but no verb there though, IIRC. I think there's S1 Imager on the guitars as well for some fakespread, but I can't remember if I pulled it off or not. I believe that's the only verb.. There's a good chance it's the top snare mic though just fucking eating shit up. Actually! I think there's some glue verb on the guitar buss?

And Eric, this is indeed a different mix. Snare is getting more love/hate from the Decapitator and it's really bringing out that head ring that's giving it a little more brightness.

Guitars are:
JCM800 on the left channel; Telefunken M80 (Warm Audio Tonebeast) on the crease, a little more towards the cone I think, plus sE Electronics sEX1r ribbon (dbx 286A) on the crease.
T50 on the right channel, basically the same exact setup with a little variation.

M80 is pretty much all snarl, big HP built in at about 200hz (also this mic was designed to reduce proximity effect) and then the ribbon just sounds like it's fucking exploding with lowend. They were both jammed up on the grille and seem to have little to no phase coherence with each other and are extremely blendable.

Bass is (Fender Jazz):
Orange Terror Bass -> Acoustic 4x10 ran quite clean, mic'd up with a Heil PR40. Quite far out on the cone, IIRC. Basically there just to pick up all the subbylows.
And then just HM-2 as a direct. This actually sounded pretty cool besides the fact that it lacked dynamics and pick attack entirely. Where he a better player I would have regretted this more, because I think it's covering up some inconsistencies and whatnot.



It is funny. We are going to re-do the right channel guitar track. Homeboy is new to the band so he's uncomfortablish, also he's just not the best player. He's got much better, but I've recorded a band of his a couple years ago and it was mildly disastrous. I was expecting something entirely unusable, but this turned out okay... BUT. We want better. They/I am proud of the way it sounds so songwriter homeboy is going to track the other side.
Author:  Broseidon [ Thu Dec 15, 2016 2:26 am ]
Post subject:  Re: A DIY recording journal.
Snaxocaster wrote:
Cam, I suspect this not the mix I heard a few days back. Kick seems to have come down, and... Let me guess, Echoboy on the vocals now? (Best. Plugin. Ever.) Snare seems... Brighter, too? Question on the guitars: I forget what amp was used that wasn't the Yamaha T50. Was it your 800? HM-2 on the bass as well?

It's funny hearing this alongside the one I heard the other day you sang backups on with the Strat into the AC15. Behind all the distortion here, I can detect a similarity in the drums though, despite the supercleanliness of the drums on the other one. Funny how this stuff works. Typical Maps-since-forever-ago, though; we're all over the map even in what we work on on our own. :tu:

Chris: I don't think I've ever even put a normal record on a 5.1 setup. I'd have no clue how it would sound. :hypno: Do most things not specifically mixed for that format sound odd?


Also: Kick did come down a lot. And maybe.. I kinda messed it up a bit. I pulled out almost ALL the lowend on the Beta 91 kick in, and it helped get that CLICK! but it's maybe overboard. Lacking power/punch.
Author:  Broseidon [ Thu Dec 15, 2016 2:27 am ]
Post subject:  Re: A DIY recording journal.
Snaxocaster wrote:
Typical Maps-since-forever-ago, though; we're all over the map even in what we work on on our own. :tu:


Alsoalso; that is the beauty of this place and probably the key to it's longevity.
Author:  Broseidon [ Tue Jan 24, 2017 7:46 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: A DIY recording journal.
Finally got this bad boy up and out: https://cryingmanrecords.bandcamp.com/a ... ace-heater
Author:  chris_d [ Tue Jan 24, 2017 8:51 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: A DIY recording journal.
Yup, awesome. Very well doneup, Mr Heck. :huzzah:
Author:  Broseidon [ Tue Jan 24, 2017 9:55 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: A DIY recording journal.
Thanks, man. :huzzah: It really does not hurt that Colin wrote some fucking solidasfuck tunes. My favorite thing I've recorded to date, by a large margin.
Author:  Broseidon [ Sun Jan 29, 2017 12:26 am ]
Post subject:  Re: A DIY recording journal.
A followup on the songs Alex and I recorded, now with finished bass and vocals:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/137 ... 20BASS.wav

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/137 ... %20VOX.wav

Yet to be really mixed/mastered, but will done soon-ish.
Author:  Broseidon [ Wed Feb 08, 2017 7:43 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: A DIY recording journal.
The homeboy's powerviolence solo joint: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/137 ... %20MIX.wav

Some fun gear on this one. Strangely, this kick drum was used on Death Cab For Cutie's Transatlanticism.
Author:  chris_d [ Sun Feb 12, 2017 4:10 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: A DIY recording journal.
Broseidon wrote:
The homeboy's powerviolence solo joint: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/137 ... %20MIX.wav

Some fun gear on this one. Strangely, this kick drum was used on Death Cab For Cutie's Transatlanticism.


Aw yeah man. :huzzah:

What kind of vocals? High or low?

Drums sound swell as hell.

What was the geetar and bass gitup?
Author:  Broseidon [ Tue Feb 14, 2017 1:35 am ]
Post subject:  Re: A DIY recording journal.
They're kinda mid-lowish. Not absurd in their beefchode-ishness, which is a definite vibe. They're kinda in an Infest-ish vein, but a little more modern and plain. Good though. They're done, still working on the mix though, will post soon.

Left guitar is my Marshall with my handy Bristol Bomb distortion (Beta 57+X1r ribbon). Right guitar is JMP, with a Big Muff (Telefunken M80+X1r). Guild SG thinger for both.
Bass was Sovtek MIG 100, all amp distortion, on top of an Ashdown 4x10. J-Bass. PR40.


And thank you about the drum tones. They are super retarded limited here though, and I have pulled the L1 off the drum bus ( :red: ) and am trying to get them reigned in but sounding less like a drum machine.


Also, Soundtoys Decapitator on the master bus in a bandwidth limited parallel distortion is providing a lot of the supergrit.
Author:  Broseidon [ Wed Feb 15, 2017 10:51 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: A DIY recording journal.
A newer mix: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/137 ... %20MIX.wav
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