Mixing
(oh, i changed the look of this thing. is it better?)
I went through the PXP-mastertape vault last night. I found all of the Jef and Morgan recordings we did, that happened after the Naked Robbers broke up. 13 songs in total. It was fun to go through all of this stuff and to remix it too.
The way im doin it is i run groups 1&2 into the compressor, and then into channels 1/2 of the mixer. Groups 3/4 are just run straight into the mixer. The mixer is one of those smallass Euroracks that beringher makes. I then run the mixer line to my stereo reciever(for monitoring.) which powers my cool thrift store speakers. Luckily they arent all that bad, and they are a nice size. Not to bassy, and not all that trebley either. Still they aren't studio monitors, so one day i'll have to upgrade to those.
I also run the tape out jacks of the mixer to the cd-burner. The cd-burners outs go back to the stereo line level inputs on the mixer. i turn it up to play back on the stereo, but turn it down while mixing, or else i get a strange phasy sounding mix(by adding in the same signal i guess).
The cd burner is a sony standalone stereo component dual deck cd-r/cd-rw burner. very cool. gets the job done. the only draw back is that it uses "AUDIO or MUSIC" cd-rs ONLY. it wont take DATA cd-rs, which are usualy cheaper. Plus i cant find any 3"cd-rs that will work in my machine. those are rad.
Mainly I mix using the speakers, but i'll occasionaly switch to a few different pairs of headphones. The ones i use the most are: Earhugger EH-610 's. Again, not a studio pair, but the ones that sound the best to me. Mixes seem to translate well, since im at work constantly listening to music through them anyways. Found em at the Beat one day for 10$. i bought two pair.
PETS day 2
Technicaly its day 3, as we had recorded a few weeks ago.
Anyways, whatever funk i was in yesterday has passed. Last night rocked. PETS sounded better than ever.
I actualy had time to plan it out since i sorta knew what to expect this time around. I used the same mics, but a little different amp placement. Ive learned, for bass, to shove the mic right in there. Put it in right at the speaker cone and get that amp nice n loud. Still using the D112, but this time i mic'd a different speaker in the cab, one that was higher up. Not sure if it made a difference, but i was happy with the tone.
The drum machine was run through the nanocompressor. One thing ive noticed with this compressor is that i almost always get some line noise in that thing. Not sure what to do about that, so i dont use it all to much. and its not while an instument is being used either, because naturaly the instument is nice n loud, but 'tween gutiar parts, or bass parts you can really hear it. On the first munia recordings you can hear radio stations! Yikes. I have a different compressor that i use, the berhinger autocom pro, which never gives me noise like that.
I built a little house around the guitar cab, and the bass cab too. Last time i housed up the drum machine amp, but then we had to put up headphones which was troublesome...So it was guitar cab covering this time.
So next monday i'll be recording vocals at my place(which im still deciding on a stupid name for. PXPstudios?) instead of dig-doug studios. I just want to get it done and have a new Audio Calendar entry. Thats right, ive decided to make PETS the February 2004 Audio Calendar band. Will February get done before January? .....
PETS
PETS is a two piece band with drum machine. But why couldnt i get a sound i was comfy with? The drum machine was distorting, the guitar was nothing but tv snow. Man, i was worn out or somthing.
We ran a D112 on the bass amp, and we also ran a direct line off of the balanced out line on the amp. I blended the two together for a neat sound. The guitar was a 57 all the way. For the drum machine, we took a line of the amp, and mic'd it with an Oktava mk-219.
At first we were distorting all over the place. but after playing it back and fixing a few things here and there, we were rolling again. We finished three songs i think, and have some songs left over from an older session. Pretty sure we will be doing vocals out at dig-doug studios at a later time. though i kinda want to do it here, just to get it done.
On a side note I have made up some
Drag the River posters for this coming Thursdays show at
Old Ironsides. They are bringin along the Chicken Demos cd with them. Cant wait.
