Hobbies

[rome8180]

I prefer the studio. Love crafting songs and adding layers of stuff I couldn't possibly do live. Hate having to deal with not being able to hear my vocals live. Happens a good 50% of the time. Lugging gear also sucks. I do get a nice endorphin rush if the show went well though. Going around and talking to people in the crowd is fun. Last show I played was basically everyone I ever was friends with growing up. Probably a good 150 people. The perfect size crowd, imo.

 

[rome8180]

Nerdy post perhaps not even @TS9 will care about. But I've had some mixing revelations. I've always resisted heavy compression, because I thought I didn't like the sound. However, I've discovered that you can get quite heavy with your compression if you do it gently with multiple stages of compression. So, for example, I will put a compressor on the snare drum, but then also one on my drum bus, and then an additional one on my stereo out. They're each only doing 1-3 db of compression.

Also, I think I was just using compressors I didn't like. Lately, I've been obsessed with this for everything but my master bus. It somehow makes every instrument sound thicker and more powerful. Yes, Logic has a built in 1176 in their stock compressor, but it doesn't sound the same.

CLA-76 Compressor Limiter Plugin - Waves Audio

Inspired by the famed mid-‘60s Class A line level limiting amplifier, Waves CLA-76 compressor plugin offers the superfast attack that made the original studio legends.

www.waves.com

 

[rome8180]

For the master bus, I use either Brainworx Townhouse Bus Compressor or Tokyo Dawn Labs Kotelnikov. The latter is completely free. It's amazingly transparent, which makes it perfect for slapping on your entire mix.

 

[TS9]

@rome8180 Compression, especially on full mixes or mastering, is a topic that tends to overwhelm me, because the pros and experts often talk like it’s the one thing that can make or break a recording project, yet they all seem to have wildly different philosophies about it. So I find myself struggling to know what I’m supposed to be doing or hearing. Usually I just give up and settle on something that sounds OK to my ears.

On instruments like bass and drums, I’ve had a little bit of what I’d consider success doing what you described. I’ve found that on bass, running two compressors consecutively with, say, 3db of reduction sounds much different (and often better) than one compressor with 6db. And I’ve also done a version of what you did with your snare, but on a full kit - I’ve taken one totally uncompressed drum channel and blended it with a bus that’s been compressed to hell. I think that’s called New York compression or something. Really fattens up the sound without losing the dynamics.

 

[rome8180]

Yeah, New York or parallel compression. It gives the illusion of consistency without losing the dynamics. Works great on drums. Some people do it on everything, but I'm not there yet.

 

[rome8180]

'90s music is my background. And they didn't tend to use as much compression as modern mixes. So I've always been very light with it, but I'm discovering the merits now.

 

[TS9]

'90s music is my background. And they didn't tend to use as much compression as modern mixes. So I've always been very light with it, but I'm discovering the merits now.

I think I remember reading that Chris Lord-Alge once ran all his final mixes through a particular rack compressor with all the parameters at zero, because he thought the circuitry alone did something special to the mix. Maybe he’s right. But sometimes it seems like folks really overanalyze this stuff. Maybe that’s how they justify their hefty fees, I dunno.

 

[rome8180]

Compressor circuits are supposed to add color. But when you're A/B-ing super minor changes, it's tough to know how much of it is actually making your music better and how much is just a subtle volume boost. Or maybe a slight EQ shift.

 

[TS9]

@rome8180 I have come into possession of an old Keeley 2-knob compressor pedal through a trade. Never messed with comp pedals before, and I went into the deal knowing the effect would be subtle. But it’s *really* subtle.

You have any experience with compressor pedals? Not really sure what I’m listening for here.

 

[rome8180]

It's a lot more evident on bass than guitar, in my experience (because you're much more likely to have huge changes in volume as you move across a bass neck). Also, are you playing clean or distorted? Distortion already compresses your signal, so you won't hear much if you're playing with heavy gain.

Lastly, does it have some kind of LED display that shows you how much it's compressing? It may be that you're just not hitting it very hard. I'm not familiar with that particular model. I would say just play as hard as you can and toggle it off and on. That's going to make the change most obvious. Then, once you've got an ear for the sound, you may be able to hear the subtler versions of it.

 

[TS9]

I’ve used it so far pretty clean, with maybe just a little OD. Of course I can crank it and really hear that it’s compressing (the LED does not react to the signal), but at normal settings it seems more like an EQ or boost. Which I guess could be why people like this particular pedal - it’s a nice sound, it’s just not immediately apparent what the pedal is exactly doing.

 

[rome8180]

Yeah, I notice that compressors at low settings seem to have more effect on your EQ than anything. I assume that's because when squashing the loudest parts of your signal and raising the quietest part, it ends up shifting the tonal balance. Certain frequencies will naturally be louder on a given instrument, so it's acting most on those.

There's a certain sound my compression pedal makes when "grabbing" the note. It's tough to explain. People will often use the word "squishy." However, what I notice more is an overall brightening/tightening of my sound.

 

[rome8180]

In general, I've worked with compressors more while mixing than playing live. The effect can be a lot more obvious there, because you're listening into headphones and can hear subtle differences. Also, when you apply a compressor to your master bus or drum bus, the effect is happening across a bunch of tracks at once rather than a single source.

And even if you do apply it to a single track, you're doing it in the context of a mix. So you can toggle the compressor on and off and really hear what it's doing to how your track sits. If you're just jamming on your own, a 2db volume difference on certain notes won't be perceptible.

 

[TS9]

Can one of you guitar dorks talk me out of buying an electric baritone? I have no pressing need for one, but they seem ultra-fun for some of the ambient soundscape-type stuff I do. The one I'm jonesing for the most is almost certainly too expensive for something that I'll probably only play occasionally, but I can't stop staring at it online.

 

[rhfarmer]

Dude! Get one. I want one too. Open tunings are the answer to my inability to play chords!

 

[rome8180]

I'm not your guy. I just bought another bass yesterday. It's not my usual style. But I fell in love with it in the store, and it had been marked down from $900 to $480. Too good a deal to resist. I can't believe how well made it is.

I guess I have to play progressive metal now? (Yes, my floor is dirty.)

 

[rome8180]

I'd like to state for the record that I "only" have three basses and two guitars at this point. I realize that with the number of things I've posted about buying here, it might seem like I have a warehouse full of instruments. But I tend to get things, play them for six months and flip them if they're not working for me. That's part of why I always buy used.

 

[TS9]

@rome8180 That thing looks great. Schecter's one of the most underrated mass-market brands, as far as I'm concerned. Looks like active pickups? Active basses sound awesome to me.

 

[rome8180]

Yep, active EMGs. I've come to believe I prefer active basses. It's weird because 100% of bass snobs prefer passive basses.

The neck is unbelievable. It's even skinnier at the nut than a jazz bass neck. It's got 24 frets but is a regular scale length. The highest fret is easily reachable. It's thin front to back. It's not a bolt-on neck but rather goes all the way through the body. The fret work is perfect and the action is incredibly low.

 

[rome8180]

The active sound is closer to what I hear in my head as "perfect bass tone." Besides, I've got my Fender strung with flats if I really want a more vintage sound.

I think I'm going to become a Schecter fanboy. All their basses sit in the $400-1000 range, which is perfect for me. And they all have great reviews. This is the next one I'm interested in, though I wish it was active and not passive. If I see one used I'm all over it.