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Dorkfest. Recording junk. May include lengthy details of electronic circuitry or the innane. (Just like every other blog) Mostly the whatsit and whosit of whatever audio and recording related things I'm working on but I want you to participate. |
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wFriday, September 24, 2004 |
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oh shit am i lazy at updating this.
last tuesday i went to drew balyntine's loft where they have a pretty decent studio with the intent of getting tones for recording them (mandroid). when i got there the tape machine (MS16) still had a reel on it in mid reel, the console appeared to be in mid-mix, there were insert/patch cables everywhere - i was pretty much thrown in a shitstorm. it took like 15 minutes just to get the cd player to come over the speakers. anyway, it's a mackie 8 buss mixer. 24 ch. mackie monitors. the monitors are actually pretty good. the mic selection there wasn't so spectacular so i brought a bunch of my stuff.
anyway. eventually find some isopropyl alcohol to clean the heads. no qtips to be found. bother roommate (who i believe is the drummer for the phenoms) who pulls them from the bathroom. i take a shitload of stuff off the heads and tape path. it was really, really dirty. no method for generating tones, so we'll have to skip tones. i hope the machine is relatively calibrated since the reel on there is 499, and i have emtec 900 with me. (both +9 tapes)
i put on my reel. spool it off to the takeup reel. this machine spools much slower than my mx70. test getting audio from mic to tape. talk into mic "test test test blah blah blah" sounds fine. rewind tape. listen to playback. totally muffled and loss of high end from about 8k up. WTF.
patch in cd. record cd audio to tape. play back. full spectrum isnt there also. furthermore, i can hear the tape creeping vvRROOM vvRROOM as the speed slows down and speeds up in a "boat at sea" kind of manner. not good. not good at all.
go on internet. download tone generator software. install it. jerry rig hooking computer to console. send tone to tape machine. put in 1k tone @ 0vu across all channels. on repro 1-10 are at +3 with a huge waving instability. 11 is about -3 with waving. 12 is -10 with waving. 13 is about -15 waving. 14 and 15 are about -20 waving. if you're reading this and you don't know what that means, basically it's just really, really fucked.
i start to try and go calibrate the machine but the audio cards are housed behind the console and the meters are separated on the other side of the room. (not how the machine ships) further the audio cards have been screwed in place. with almost no room to move i manage to free the audio card cage. i take the meter bridge out of the rack and move it near the audio cards. at this point it's midnight and i've already been there 5 hrs troubleshooting thier studio and there looks to be no hope. even if i get the levels - there's still the tape path issues with speed. also, on punch in the bias takes like .5 sec to ramp in - so there's not a clean punch but a short fade in whenever you start recording. all in all - MS16=fucked.
i go home pissed off and frustrated. i didnt even set up 1 mic the entire night.
toy with idea of bringing my machine in and using that instead. then yesterday think about interfaceing. the MS16 snakes use rca i/o. i need xlr. my snakes are xlr to 1/4" (thier mackie needs unbalanced 1/4") but my console is wired 1/4" tip -10, sleeve +4 - so basically that means my snakes wont work with thier console. motherfucker. i could bring in my console and outboard and tape machine, and well - my entire studio to his place, but that really seems like a huge pain in the ass. especially since electrical is renting my machine in a couple weeks for a transfer session. it seems to be turning into a huge nightmare. i'm crabby having gotten no sleep since we were up with call me lightning the night before, they stayed with us after thier show at the bottom lounge* and i only got 3 hrs of sleep. and the electrician just told me how fucked the entire electrical is in my house. this is also after me stepping through the ceiling of the attic putting a 6 ft by 2 ft hole in our kitchen ceiling. not looking good.
(* the show was AWESOME. i had SO much fun playing percussion with them on stage. i have huge bruises on my hand from the tamborine and a big ugly blister. the other thing that totaly made my day is as we were unloading off stage the music that comes over the PA i recognize - but im not sure what it is exactly, then it hits me - it's may or may not, something i recorded a handful of months ago - it makes my day - the low end sounds huge through the club PA. i laugh to myself, holy shit, that was all done in our practice space. we pulled the wool over someones eyes...)
i have an idea. his name is jef lear and his alesis hd24 - 24 track hard disk recorder. if everyones game, we can be back on schedule and be working. jef's game and i go pick up the machine and get a 10 minute tutorial on how the thing works. basically like a tape machine. it's great. only 3u high. all i need to do is go buy a hard drive for it. i go from jefs house to micro center and buy a hard drive. conveniently - hard drives cost about as much as a reel of 1" - except you get about 4 hrs of record time instead of 32 min.
head over to drew's. patch everything up with renewed spirit, hope and attitude. i have a few mishaps trying to get the machine to recognize the new drive, but on the 3rd try i get it right. test recording audio (haymarket riot - sleep). it works exactly as it should. really easy to use too.
only disadvantage is we're limited by the number of 1/4" cables we have to patch the recorder to console. i have enough to record 13track of basics. then i can start moving shit aroiund for overdubs for more. i go into the live room FINALLY and start putting up mics. the entire band is set up just like at practice in a triangle, amps facing the drums and everything. i decide i want to just try it as is w/o any baffling or isolation since they just want this to be quick and to get down a few songs, then come back later and do it more detailed.
here's what i set up:
1. bd - atm25
2. sn - ksm141
3. rt - senn421
4. ft - senn421
5. ohl - at4041
6. ohr - at4041
7. room - nevaton mk52
8. bass - at4047
9. bass - d112
10. gtr - m500
11. gtr - 201
it sounds pretty ok. bass drum is kinda crappy. no low end. i move the mic in the drum a bit more and add a cad 150 (i foget the model) for an outside mic and it sucks. i move it around. it still sucks. i swap it out for an oktava mc012 w/hypercardiod head on it, it's nice an bassy. i'm much more happy. so, now...
1. bd/in - atm25
12. bd/out - mc012
they only have an alesis 3630 and a 4 ch behringer compressor there. so at this point everything is mackie pre to tape. no eq or compression anywhere yet. tyrying to do it all w/mic selection/placement. i want to bring in some compressors and insert them on the bd and bass. both of them would benefit from some evening of levels. i'm still sorting out mix ideas as things are smearing a bit, i think i'll need to do some subtractive eq as it sorts out.
the band seems to love it so far which is great. they seem really enthusiatic about it and happy with where it is and where it's going. always a good sign. next session rescheduled for tues.
posted by
two tickets to paradise at 8:07 AM
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