Latest drum tracking
Douglas as Recording
Sep|28|2009
Seven songs on a Sunday. New gobos worked great. Dining room table as diffuser was pretty cool too.
Drum Samples
Douglas as Recording
May|12|2009
I spent some time last night going through various drum tracks I’ve recorded as well as some LP’s where I was pulling an individual hit. I loaded all these up into the EXS24 to compare them. Some observations:
- There are many different snare sounds out there.
- Your overall drum sound will only be as good as your raw tracks.
- Rimshots sound trashy in the studio.
- Sometimes trashy sounds good.
- Piccolo snares tend to sound thin. (I’ll probably use ONLY piccolo snares in ten years now that I’ve said this)
- It is cool to line up different sessions on the sampler and play the different kits.
- Be really careful not to overcompress going in. I found a track or two like that.
- At the end of the day. No one can tell a $100 dollar drum from a $1000 if it tuned right. Too many other factors at play.
- I’ve gotten better at recording drums.
Stereo tube goodness
Douglas as Electronics, Recording
Mar|15|2009
I have the stereo tube compressor working now. This was by far the hardest build I’ve tried but it is mastering studio worthy. Toroidal transformer, DC on the tube heaters, no hiss because of all the metal film resistors. Sowter iron. One channel has a kink in dual mode for now, but this thing is made for 2buss apps.
The best description I can come up with is subtle but dense. transparent and warm. You really have to sit down and try different things. I took me several hours to discover how the attack and release can have a big impact on the gain reduction. The VU meters don’t tell the full story though. My RNC’s LED meter runs circles around these meters but the VU meters are more instinctive for voice, guitar, and program material. Listen to the sample to form your own opinion, but a warning, the differences are subtle. You can’t slam something with this like a 1176 can.
The whole collection of compressors is in the first picture. varimu, VCA, and opto all represented.
piano with about 4db of compression
bass with fast attack and slow release, 5db compression
drums with highpass sidechain slow attack 2db of compression
Oboe Recital
Douglas as Recording
Mar|8|2009
Recorded an oboe recital today. Used a Decca tree config with three omni mics. I had an older gentleman ask, “Is the big one for picking up the low frequencies?” A sample will be added in time.
Water Closet
Douglas as Recording
Dec|7|2008
Isn’t tracking in a house great? The Leslie actually sounded really good here. Just a little room added to the sound give it a live quality. All my cable making this week paid off.
Makin’ Cables
Douglas as Recording
Mar|29|2008
I made some microphone cables today. I ordered some Canare quad star in blue and green, My high school colors. Sat down at the bench and began turning them out using Neutrik connectors. I made one heavy duty 4 foot speaker cable using some 16 gauge quad wire for the new amp. That stuff was really hard to work with and eventually got it done but it was way more trouble than it was worth. I made 4 10 foot XLR cables and 4 15 foot XLR’s. This will help with all those short runs where I don’t want to have to use 50 foot cables for an 8 foot run. It was also a good warm up for the soldering I will be doing on the amp project.
Wilhelm Part II
Douglas as Recording
Mar|16|2008
It seems like most audio folks are familiar with the Wilhelm scream, the most ubiquitous sound effect in movies of the last 30 years. If you need a refresher, read about it here.
I’ve been watching a show called Breaking Bad on AMC. It was shot in Albuquerque and is set there as well. It is fun seeing how familiar places transformed into meth labs and drug dens.
I noticed something very strange while watching the show today. During an explosion which showers glass down upon some drug dealers, I heard the unmistakable sound of the Howard Dean “I have a scream” speech. Could this be the next big “inside joke” for sound designers?
Just for kicks here is the original.
Creating the Diddys of Tomorrow
Douglas as Education, Music, Recording
Jan|30|2008
I started using Garageband with my students today. It is part of an ongoing project to incorporate more technology into my instruction. I started the year by using an LCD projector to display songs and listening maps, (a visual representation of a song) to improve my students literacy skills. They became more familiar with seeing music notation and following along with a recording. Later, I started recording Read the rest of this entry »