[sdiy] Advice

[Pete Niedermayr]

Since you are mobile (ie laptop based) Take it out into the real world and
record some additional tracks. Play your guitar part thru a (fill in the
blank) ie. Marshall stack,crappy stereo speaker, in a (fill in the blank)
ie. gym,cardboard box, add a stomp box or 12.

Try additional tracks played thru and miked by various speaker-room-mike
combinations.You have alot of resources to exploit- do so. I assume you have
the ability to record and play back many audio tracks-do so and pick the
ones you like.

Do it on the cheap. Cheaper is better. It's been that way since the
beginning of time and I dunno.

You can break in and out of the digital domain as you wish. You have our
permission here. (other places you might have to pay a user's fee and fill
out  space-time continuum impact statement). Tell you neighbor her cats are
hungry again.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Cornutt, David K" <david.k.cornutt at boeing.com>
To: <synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl>
Sent: Monday, February 02, 2004 1:33 PM
Subject: RE: [sdiy] Advice


> > From: b 111 [mailto:popsicko at hotmail.com]
>
> > Hey gang,
> > I'm needing some advice. I do everything in my computer.
> > Synths, samplers,
> > guitar amps. I'm a laptop kinda guys. The only problem is
> > that I find the
> > sound to be a little "unhh" stale?
>
> Part of the problem is defining what we mean by "stale".
> With stuff that is recorded in a home studio, and particularly
> with electronic (and guitars/bassed which are recorded direct),
> there's often what is called a "dry" sound where the music
> sounds harsh and choppy because it lacks any room tone or anything
> to give it any sense of having been in a physical place.
> The first and best cure for that is always a little reverb.
> Some people run the whole mix through a reverb, but I personally
> don't because I find that it muddies certain things (particulary
> bass tracks) and because it can "overcook" tracks that have
> already have some other spatial enhancement, such as chorusing,
> applied to them.  I use a Lexicon MPX500 for reverb, but you
> might want to check out some plug-ins.  I hear good things about
> Altiverb, but it's pricey.
>
> The other problem often seen in home recording is that the
> playback level is low, the mix is noisy, and the sound is
> indistinct and lacks dynamics ("punch").  First tip: when
> you record, get your levels up as high as you can without
> clipping on the peaks.  (Or maybe even tolerate a bit of
> clipping, as long as it isn't too obvious.  Some people will
> tell you horror stories about digital recording and how you
> can't get anywhere close to 0dB.  Don't believe them.)
> Second tip: do try a compressor, particulary on guitars,
> drums, and vocals.  Used judiciously, it helps you get
> the peaks and excursions under control so you can record
> at a higher average level without clipping.
>
> > I was wondering if you
> > might have advice
> > on something a newbie could build that I could run tracks
> > thru to fatten
> > them up a bit?
>
> Good reverb is really difficult to DIY.  You might want to
> try building a spring reverb; there are lots of sources including
> the Anderton books and (I think) PAiA.  But it's not exactly
> the last word in reverb.  For fun, you might want to try putting
> a speaker and a mic in your bathroom, run the playback through
> the speaker, record it, and mix some of that back in with your mix.
> It will probably sound "boingy" but if you play with putting some
> EQ on it, you might get it to sound interesting.  Some people used
> to really get  into building reverb chambers in their basements and
> such back in the '50s, but no one does it any more that I know of.
>
>