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Signal Chain

This ah khun b typical chain for me not necessarily always but you know say um yeah well especially like anna in medal I mean like not always but sometimes the larger signal chain works it's it's really there's no rules and you really have to use your years it's whatever works and what generally is going to work for me you know you have a pre empt whether we arctic you sometimes I'll make you a little bit after I'm moving the mikes won some position right and then say I'm going I'm using them to mikes and then those two preempts mikes are going to go to another mixer that sums them this is what I'm saying about committing we're going to one track so we need something that's going to some them together to one output so there then we get the blend between the two mikes once we get the mikes there good and we get the right sound we're going to then find the relationship between the two mikes and how much of a say I have on the mixer and have the four fourteen appear and that sounds great ...

and I'm blending in the fifty seven and I'm kind of like going up and down just finding where it feels right so something mixer and then a lot of times I mean heavy music it depends but sometimes I'm going I'm going to a compressor like this ah your e eleven seventy six sometimes I'm not compressing it's like compressor or not it really depends it all depends on what I'm feeling what whatthe sounds doing and if I need more, you know, pump or bounce out of the sound maybe I will compress but a little bit not too crazy but unless there's a clean sound that I want really like that like jangly like a weird compressed like what? A lot of the beale stuff and like there's there those guitar sounds a lot are so compressed, so it's like you want to get that kind of what weird I bring like, you know like a like, you know, some of those yeah like the the spaghetti western mucosal bring little rake things and like that's a really compressed thing, so to a compressor and maybe after the compressor because the compressor sometimes will tend to suck out a little bit of the top or bottom in the sound. So maybe I want to maybe go to another e q just a little bit on a little bit of makeup like it bring back a little bit of top end and bring back a little bit about him and then we're going in tow the computer or tape perfectly tape, but in this day and age, you know you can't I can't expect that so um so and what we have today is the same kind of thing we've got multiple mike's which will go over in a minute um we've got I've got a summit uh mike preempt no weak you just but it does have phase reversal like we were talking about there's also a pad in case it's too loud we compared it down um just didn't put it up again and you can you know, drive that preempt a little harder to get a different sound and then just get get a nominal output the right you know and then where we're going to go through that from that we're going to go into what I said like a summing mixer in this case just for basics demonstration we're going into a mackey sixteen forty uh from from the my parents were going into just the line input on the on the mixer so then we'll be able to get what we have on the pre empts coming upon to fade er's which we can then blend to an output we would use the bus on the mixer and say a sign it's a bus one and then that means so when we signed the bus one we pan to the left it's only going to one not to and then the buses right here and this is the output of this which is in the back of plus one that's going to either straight to them to the pro tools or two a compressor and then to pro tools I don't have a secondary analog cue to do that to show you how to do that maybe I could just demonstrate with a plug in after that pre empt mackey sixty forty two right apogee quartet which is the interface to get into the computer so that's our modified signals set up our modified signal trains compared to what I usually use then what about you? You have a preference? Do you have? Um I have a similar I have something someone to this home only I don't. I don't use a mixer. I don't have, like a mack. You mix whatever I'm going right into my my interface night and then, you know, mixing within my dog, so but you don't have a way to get multiple mike's something and stuff like that now. No, not home. Well, I have I have a a isolation cabinet. You do? Yeah, nice and also a universal audio unit as well. So but, you know, and I can show people that if you don't have to say, you know, this is my best case scenario for the analog role of making the commitment here, but I will also show you how to at least if you have the least you just if you have just say two inputs say want to mike's you don't have a something mixer I'll show you how to do that in pro tools so you can put each mike to a separate input but then we're going to sum it inside the computer and then bust that and print that too one track you'll commit done that right yeah I'll show you how to do that as well um you know and there's no rules sometimes a larger signal chain works and you know this is a bit the most basic flow chart you could ever want to hope for but it's very simple and to me it's always this is what I always go by and this is just because this lies you just to use your instinct and just trust your gut you start is it good yes all right awesome let's start tracking no try something else it's I mean it's literally it's if if life just boil down to this it would be really simple because it's yes or now is a good good awesome know all right well how do we make a good you know all these things that supposedly proven techniques are all just a bunch of mistakes that sounded good right it's one hundred percent they were like ok no no no yes all right now we're teaching that no no no yes ok that's the next thing we'll teach so truth that revolution changing but I'm kind of on that signal flo concept on twitter and chamblee too is asking could you talk about the difference of monitors that you use listening and how they color the sound being recorded yeah well that's a whole other issue is that simply why you like the in like the live sound so that you can use your years before the monitor section or I mean I don't know can you explain your loss so maybe I'm not following the questions basically question is like how did the monitors color the sound serious? You're ok well that's a very good point honestly they all d'oh and that's another variable and it's again it's like so many variables in the recording thing in the recording chain monitors are a definite thing but you know you're I have two separate I have three different pairs well for actually but two that I keep up basically at all times and one's basically for tracking and one's basically for mixing but they're not exclusive to each other have old school yama and tense and then I have a pair of general x which are expensive and not everybody can afford general x but honestly the monitoring thing unless you have really terrible monitors the monitoring thing isn't as much of an issue because if you're used to it if you know what they sound like and you know what sounds good on those monitors again it's going back to put on you know when you work in from unfamiliar students and I hear people I've had engineers like talk about this where they're like on I would have got these times but I was in this control room and you know I wasn't familiar with the monitors and just you know, everything sounded weird when I left there that's like well why you should have gotten used to those monitors like very simple if you go if I go to another place another studio that has unfamiliar monitors to me I mean I have the luxury of bringing them a lot of times with me to another place but even if you don't have cds that you know or cds how about cds that you've worked on put it on put it to play the cd, put it through the speakers and listen to what the speaker did you learn that can't really quickly it's like wow well, I know what this record sounds like normally on my speakers on no I'm so used to it but wow it's really bright in here okay so you just know okay the monitors a little bright so take that into consideration when you're dialing in your tones that's a fabulous suggestion that maybe because every set of speaking building room is different a being is so key for anything everyone's gonna bring their rights into their car they're gonna put it on their ipod, listen to it in there your boats they're gonna you know so I mean that's really at the end of the day with yeah I mean you shouldn't you know really rely on making excuses for poor monitoring I mean sometimes really I've had places where it's really really terrible it's really hard to get anything but you're still you get used to it you know and you know if you're really unsure especially in the control room it's like okay, why don't you record five seconds of the sound quickly make an mp three of that put it in your ipod and listen you know are put on your iphone or whatever you know take it out of there thinking like a cloud and stuff are great now because you can they really like I'll bounce for my dog and I use q base but I'll bounce from two base right into my dropbox shared folder and immediately it's on my it's on your phone for even get to my car it's ready to be listen tio like I could listen to it in all kinds of different computers and different played rooms of my house in my car right? I do want all the time with mixes like checking mixes like I go to my drop box and I put a pull out my phone and send a link to a friend listen to it when you get to their house and their thing but I use my parents, old stereo speakers and I haven't been able to throw him out because I'm so yes, those things have been to the ringer you about them out? I probably went out from jersey, we're working on it, I'm used to, you know, and if you know, like, every time you know when I see them, they sound good on these things in my home studio it's always to basing the car, you're going to know that you're going to start to write, be aware that be familiar with your you're listening environment, so that becomes a control and that becomes a constant the same thing is the same concept of the control like be make that your control so you learn these know what it is, and then then you can make your decisions based on that there's also a lot of technology now where you can that will seek you your monitors to syria even if your room is an ideal like you could get a flat microphone. Yep, that will then record the nuances of the environment and we'll kill your speakers to sound level in flat within any environment you're in and so there's all kinds of ways you can adjust for those there are, you know, deficit? What does it doesn't it's not as much of a liability is in houston, who used to be a