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Pop-punkolicious 
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Post Pop-punkolicious
So I recorded the pop-punk band's practice last night, using a Samson MDR1688 mixer into a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2. The Main outs from the board absolutely slammed the mic pres on the 2i2 (any idea why? Never ran a mixer into an interface before so I am wondering if the stereo outs are generally just hot or I have some wonky setting on that I can't figure out), but after a lot of trial and error I have to say, I got an OK mix.

This is everything mic'd in the room, but the room is a garage and everything is pointed to the center. Soon the garage is getting cleared out (and by garage, I mean like auto-garage, two door big ass standalone building that we have half of) and I am going to make some basic iso walls, rearrange the room and mic everything up a little nicer than now (just kinda threw mics on shit.)

https://soundcloud.com/devin-currie/oh-whales-33

Jon our singer done fucked up the piano part on this one:

https://soundcloud.com/devin-currie/oh-whales-32

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Fri Apr 25, 2014 10:30 am
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Winston Wolf
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Post Re: Pop-punkolicious
Ayup, that is pretty pop punky.

What is the geetar/map situation?

As for the slamming of interfaces, make sure you are using the line outs on the mixer and not monitor outs, yeah?

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Fri Apr 25, 2014 6:39 pm
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Post Re: Pop-punkolicious
chris_d wrote:
Ayup, that is pretty pop punky.

What is the geetar/map situation?

As for the slamming of interfaces, make sure you are using the line outs on the mixer and not monitor outs, yeah?


Yar its tha main outs, balanced outputs.

Anywho my guitar (lead) is the Gibson LP 60's Tribute straight into my Tron Amp, which is super fucking bright and the 57 on the cab may not be helping in that department.

Singer's guitar is a Fender Blacktop HH Strat into an Orange Rocker 30 or TH-30. The cab is some old fender 2x12 with some decent speakers I can't recall.

Bass is a Fender Jazz into an Eden Nemesis 650 IIRC into an Ampeg 1x15. I have a mic on the bass cab and it is running DI.



So hey, if you had 3 mic pres available to mic a drum kit, specifically one with a lot of birch, how would you guys do it? The mics available are an eclectic mixture of various dynamics (couple of 57s, couple of EV Cobalts, and then a few random ones) with a single LDC.

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Fri Apr 25, 2014 7:20 pm
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Winston Wolf
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Post Re: Pop-punkolicious
Lately, my drum mic mindset has me putting mics on the things i want to hear most(the kick and the snare) and not worrying too much about anything else because the room i record in is so small and those two mics pick up an awful lot(even worse when recording with a band live in my tiny room). With a third mic, i would go room(will mostly sound like: cymbals with maybe some snare and some other high end attacky sorts of elements that wopuld be less sharp in the close kick+snare mics), or maybe if the toms situation was simple enough, i might try to pick up a few toms in one(i.e. the mic out a bit).

But yeah, especially for a pop punk sort of band, i would focus on the snare and the kick, and the third mic would just be a sort of catch-all/room/toms/overhead. IMO, you do not at all need to specifically mic the cymbals ala a traditional overhead. You will probably get too much cymbal no matter what you do.

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Fri Apr 25, 2014 8:14 pm
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Simethicone
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Post Re: Pop-punkolicious
Re: the mixer-into-interface, it's just a gain staging issue. If I'm remembering right Focusrite interface pres have something like 10-15dB of gain even with the gain knob at 0. Your main outs on that board look like they're gonna be controlled by your L/R faders. Just keep the levels low and you should be good. Generally speaking the line amps coming out of the board are gonna have a lot of gain available on those faders. If you're also using the board in the room, it looks like the single "Phones" fader also sends to the control room outs, so you can have one set of outs feeding the PA and the other feeding your recording unit. Either way, just keep the levels on the master fader(s) of choice and the inputs on the interface conservative and you should be cool.

Re: micing up the kit, for that sort of rawkmusics, I would probably go with kick/snare/mono OH. Other people would disagree, but I'd want the close mic on the snare for this sort of thing. Anyhoo, I'd put the LDC over the kit, or maybe in front of it. Hell, even behind it if it wouldn't get in the way. Wherever sounds best with just that one mic on the kit. Reinforce kick and snare with something- either the 57 or the EV, whatever sounds better. Inside mic for impact on the kick, unless there isn't a hole in the front head. Move snare mic to taste to avoid Too Many Hats™. Side of the shell can be cool, especially on its own. Top head might be more useful in a mix though. tl/dr: basically, what Chris said.

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Fri Apr 25, 2014 8:16 pm
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Winston Wolf
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Post Re: Pop-punkolicious
Oh, and with those mics, i would probably go 57s on the kick+snare, and LDC on the room/whatever.

Or, i might go LDC on the kick for it hopefully picking up a little extra low end.

Or i might go LDC on the snare(what i actually do on my own set up) because really, when it comes down to it, all i really care about are snare drums. :red:

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Fri Apr 25, 2014 8:19 pm
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Post Re: Pop-punkolicious
chris_d wrote:
Or i might go LDC on the snare


For whatever it's worth, I can't recall ever being disappointed in this when I've done it. It's basically always cool.

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Fri Apr 25, 2014 8:28 pm
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Post Re: Pop-punkolicious
I have the monitors running out of the control room outs, so I can control the volume of those with the control fader and use the main L/Rs as the levels out to the Focusrite. Basically just have to set everything low, and it is really easy to clip the Scarlett. Should I shoot to have the gain higher on each channel and the volume out set lower, or just cut the gain on each channel (we ARE playing loudly in a medium-sized room) and push the volume faders?

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Fri Apr 25, 2014 8:54 pm
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Simethicone
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Post Re: Pop-punkolicious
Well, running the input gain on the Focusrite higher will increase the noise floor. And in any event, even on 0 it should be adding a reasonable dose of gain to whatever you're running into it. I'd set the input gain to basically 0 on the Focusrite and use the faders on the board to control the level. I doubt you'll have to set them that high.

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Fri Apr 25, 2014 9:07 pm
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Post Re: Pop-punkolicious
Snaxocaster wrote:
Well, running the input gain on the Focusrite higher will increase the noise floor. And in any event, even on 0 it should be adding a reasonable dose of gain to whatever you're running into it. I'd set the input gain to basically 0 on the Focusrite and use the faders on the board to control the level. I doubt you'll have to set them that high.


Word. I already have the gain on the focus pres set to about 9'o'clock but I'll dial them down. I was actually talking about the gain on the mixer mic pres.

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Fri Apr 25, 2014 9:38 pm
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Simethicone
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Post Re: Pop-punkolicious
Depends on the volume of the source and the mic. Your LDC will have hotter output than your 57s, for example. It's possible it might sound cool overloaded, but probably not; that sort of thing tends to involve tubes or transformers. Set it to where it doesn't sound shitty/doesn't clip. Use the faders to control the level feeding the master buss. Note an analog fader does pass signal, so it's possible to overload that as well driving it too hard. :shock: Balance the sources with the channel faders, use the master fader to send a reasonable level into the interface without blowing it up.

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Fri Apr 25, 2014 10:09 pm
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Post Re: Pop-punkolicious
Snaxocaster wrote:
Depends on the volume of the source and the mic. Your LDC will have hotter output than your 57s, for example. It's possible it might sound cool overloaded, but probably not; that sort of thing tends to involve tubes or transformers. Set it to where it doesn't sound shitty/doesn't clip. Use the faders to control the level feeding the master buss. Note an analog fader does pass signal, so it's possible to overload that as well driving it too hard. :shock: Balance the sources with the channel faders, use the master fader to send a reasonable level into the interface without blowing it up.



Huh, well I was on the right track, but I already see a few problems in a how I set it up.

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Fri Apr 25, 2014 11:11 pm
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Simethicone
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Post Re: Pop-punkolicious
Each stage is an amplifier which has X amount of gain available, and Y amount of headroom, depending on the level of what's feeding it. Your channel faders are the output control for the channels feeding the master buss, and that will have less and less headroom with more and hotter signals feeding it. All your channels are being summed at the master buss, which will probably get very upset with you if all the levels feeding it are slamming. The more that's feeding it, the more conservative your levels at the channel faders should be. This is your output level control to the interface. 'S part of why I suggest keeping the levels on the interface as low as possible- it just simplifies things having only one control to worry about- why have two doing essentially the same thing, amplifying the signal into the computer, and combining their self-noise to boot? If for some reason you're not getting adequate levels into the 'puter without the master buss on the mixer peaking, then I'd back it down a bit and turn up the inputs on the interface... But first I'd look elsewhere to make sure something's not padded down or f'd up somewhere else in the chain. Hopefully this helps somewhat. :nods:

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Fri Apr 25, 2014 11:32 pm
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Post Re: Pop-punkolicious
So my engineer buddy came over to do some rough tracks for the pop punk band, The Oh Whales. It's coming together nicely, at least the drums and my guitars are. The poor bassist was trying to record at like 2am so unsurprisingly the tracks were rough. Also I am probably going to have to lay down a track of the singer's guitar parts. He's a great singer and a hell of an entertainer, and honestly not a bad guitarist at all, but he is way to sloppy for the studio. I don't want to do all the guitars, but I can lay down a tight track on top of his to clean/beef them up.

Vocals will be tracked sometime soon.

Then you can get a proper idea of what I am doing with my time.

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Wed May 21, 2014 4:00 pm
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