I would do a recording first and get everything into your daw...then mix all the mics together to get the rough sound you want...before anything else...
***The Official Home Recording Studio Thread***
- Thread starter easyrider
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I would do a recording first and get everything into your daw...then mix all the mics together to get the rough sound you want...before anything else...
Yeah mate.
Thanks guys. Great explanation Lowe, I think I understand most of that.
How have you been getting on mate?
I've been dying to get stuck in but been ill with a terrible cough (probable chest infection) and achiness since Tuesday so I'm intending to plug everything in on Sunday and start getting levels and recording from Monday. I've just received five more 4m XLR cables, 3 red to match my kit and 2 blue for the overheads.I've also got my other 3 black cables. The new ones were only £4 each and the cable is thinner but hopefully won't break on me. Just three things to buy now. I'm popping down to studiospares to pick up two more mic boom stands and a metal snare mic clamp for my SM57 as I probably won't use the Samson snare mic. But I'll plug both in and do a side by side test.
So I've not turned on the 1818 yet and I've only been messing around with Studio One. I understand how to arm and record, and I've tested some of the Presonus effects like binaural pan, reverb. At this stage, I don't have much of a clue how I would set the various parameters in the compressor like attack and release and I don't really understand much about adding buses or if I'll need to.
I've been recording drums tonight. And messing with mic placements and stuff.
Straight into MIXBUS, as MIXBUS has its own EQ, Compressor, Leveller and limiter on each channel (just like a hardware console) its really easy to get a decent sound...next time its on offer get it...Its was $29 last week for MIXBUS 4.2
I just got a sound a liked clean. Then mixed the Overheads with the close mics...and applied a bit of EQ, some compression to the Bass drum and some compression to the snare...
Didn't use one plugin
Its not an exact science mate. I just mess about until I get something I start to like the sound of...I've finally got that nice tight tom sound...
https://soundcloud.com/easy-rider-91223276
Checkout these tracks...The top one is my kit all miked up. Recorded into MIXBUS tonight. (Ignore the crap playing, i'm randomly hitting things to gauge sounds etc...)
I'm slowly moving towards the sound in my head...
2 x Oktava Mk 012-01 as OH
1 x SM 57 snare
1 x SM 57 tom
1 X SM 57 floor tom
1 x Shure Beta 52A
The other two recordings were crudely done ages ago before I got all my drum mics...
https://soundcloud.com/easy-rider-91223276
Checkout these tracks...The top one is my kit all miked up. Recorded into MIXBUS tonight. (Ignore the crap playing, i'm randomly hitting things to gauge sounds etc...)
I'm slowly moving towards the sound in my head...
2 x Oktava Mk 012-01 as OH
1 x SM 57 snare
1 x SM 57 tom
1 X SM 57 floor tom
1 x Shure Beta 52A
The other two recordings were crudely done ages ago before I got all my drum mics...
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Nice. Your Mixbus recording is well balanced mate, nice and fat and punchy, especially the bass drum! I'd prefer more top end, the snare and toms sounds a bit veiled/woolly to my ears. But I guess you're going to be tweaking anyway. Is that you in the photo on the bike?
Yeah you're right it was just the initial gut sound I liked. I'm going to be adding another mic a Rode NT1a and EQ some more and get a bit more crisp in it.
My goal first of was to avoid that tom tom boom and I wanted a nice punchy kick.
I'll be looking forward to moving towards a template I like so I can just fire up quickly. It will give me a good foundation for quicker workflow.
Me on the Bike? I wish I was a s cool
P.S Have watched any produce like a pro videos on recording drums? Check warren out on youtube.
Actually yes, I have watched some of Warren Huart's videos, they're really interesting and I'll need to rewatch some.
He also did one where he interviewed one of my favourite drummers, Simon Phillips, about his studio.
https://youtu.be/eUnelkU8VLk
Everything you see in that video? Gone.
Tragically his LA house and studio just got burnt to the ground in the recent fires. He's fine though thank goodness.
Feels a bit wrong tbh...there are families with nothing devasted in that fire...he would have been insured.
His net worth is 10 million.
https://www.gofundme.com/jwequ-life-rebuilding-fund
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Thanks for that, looks useful, will look into it.
I've spent time setting up my gear and trying my hand at Studio One. Almost gave up today as I just wasn't getting it, too many things I didn't understand. However,
after playing around things started to make sense. I've uploaded a test recording of solo drums with no processing and a few seconds (with processing) testing with a song.
I don't think it's too bad but I've a long way to go. With the various effects plugins I found it easier to drag the lines around then using the knobs.
https://soundcloud.com/user-689462784/no-eq
https://soundcloud.com/user-689462784/test-with-mixing
Recording drums is hard mate sounds good
https://m.soundcloud.com/easy-rider-91223276/drum-strip-mixbus
Revisit my link to soundcloud where I’ve got the same drum track but I’ve processed it with The SSL drumstrip.
I got more top end and pump for you
Nice, you did get loads more top end! Very crisp. Will definitely look into that strip. Yeah, recording is difficult. I don't think trevor horn has anything to worry about yet, I've a long road ahead, lol.
It's good fun though. Hopefully will make a proper recording this week with video. I ended up not using buses and just added plugins like Fat Channel and mixverb to each drum track, and soloed each track to make adjustments.
If you use a reverb bus then you can get more of a natural sound as the reverb will be the same for all drum mics .
You can also if you like control the amount via the aux sends
But do what you think is right for you . There are infinite ways to do things.
I tweaked individual drum tracks in mix bus with Mixbus built in channel strip compression etc then sent them all to one bus where I applied Abby Road plate reverb to bus, some bus eq,
Just one way of doing things
I’ll record some more tonight and post up I’ll be adding a Rode NT1 A room mic
If you can,send the mixer back,
Waste of money
Buy this instead
Audient ID4 Audio USB Interface.
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Merry Xmas home studio people!
I posted on gearslutz recently saying how I felt that my overhead mic recordings sounded a bit distant and not very present and focused. At first we thought it was bad room acoustics. I'm such a dumbass, turns out that I had the mics upside down, lol.
They're the Samson C01 large diaphragm condensers. I thought that the pick up would be equal from either side of the flat metal grill but clearly that's not the case. The little blue led on each mics indicates the front of the mic, the capsule only faces that way. Nothing in the manual that says that. I'm pleased it's an easy fix though. I recorded hi-hats today with just overheads. Both 30" height and equidistant from the hi-hat. First the wrong way and then at 0:37 the correct way to hear the difference. Massive improvement!
Can't wait to get back to recording the whole kit properly. https://m.soundcloud.com/user-689462784/overheads-test
DOH !
I've got some Ribbon mics I'm going to try as OH in the next day or so
So far they sound excellent on acoustic and vocals....Really smooth and thick but still with a nice top end.
Lol yeah, doh indeed! : D
Hey easyrider, that must be the T-Bone RB500 you mentioned. Looks really nice and I see the price is good at £87. It looks more expensive. Thomann seem to have quality good gear with their own T Bone line. I had considered buying T Bone drum mics a while ago. Have you tried them as overheads yet and how do they sound? Looking forward to hearing your tests.
I've got some questions for you since you know more about this stuff. I did another quick recording yesterday with just my overheads, snare and hi-hat.No kick or close mics. First dry unprocessed and then same again with some EQ, bit of compression and tiny bit of reverb. With your experienced ears, what do you think I should add or remove? Like more or less reverb or compression? I don't really know what I'm doing with frequencies and dB, I'm just pulling lines around and twiddling knobs until it sounds ok to me and I try to remove any boxiness from the snare. I'm not even sure if people generally compress or add reverb to overheads or just to close mics.
I learnt how to add a bus for selected channels and like you suggested, I created one for the overheads so I could add effects simultaneously. I've also learnt about adding a VCA for selected channels. I understand that a VCA fader keeps all my selected faders in relationship to each other by moving them simultaneously. But with a VCA channel, I can't add inserts. So it would mean having both a bus and VCA channel to have the best of both worlds. I was wondering if you tend to bother with VCAs on Mixbus or when you used other DAWs? I must say though, I'm quite happy using Studio One as my default DAW. I know you recommend Mixbus but I'm starting to get familiar with Studio One and how it all works. I understand a bit about automation as well but don't think it's something I'll need to use, seems a bit complicated as well.
Here's my test recording and here's a screenshot of the EQ I used.
https://m.soundcloud.com/user-689462784/unmixed-mixed
Not tried the Ribbons yet on OH but I will be soon I've been working on an project with the Ribnons , I recorded an acoustic guitar version of I am the walrus and it's project creeped into something else lol...
As for compression and EQ you could download the CLA drum plugin demo from waves and play with that. Watch some videos on it. It will give you a simple to use interface that allows you to get a brilliant drum sound quickly. You can then achieve similar results with your own stock plugins.
https://www.waves.com/plugins/cla-drums
Tbh I'm thinking of buying the whole CLA series as it's on sale for $69 p,us a 10% discount for all his plugins which is an absolute steal
https://www.waves.com/plugins/cla-drums
Anyway...play with the demo and post back you results, gives you a base when you are new to it all very easily.He explains everything in his video on that link using a green day track he mixed as examples. He talks about OH too.
As for VCA they are handy for automation when mixing as you can move the tracks all together with one fader. Depends on the size of the mix.
Studio one is great. So go with it. I love Mixbus as it's just simple and sounds Ace with EQ and compression on every track without the need to lead and faff with plugins all the time. But I'm recording alsorts not just drums.
Defo checkout the CLA drum plugin demo though It has EQ, compression ,reverb and gate all built into the one plugin
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Indeed, Do what pleases your ears. And you won't go far wrong.
@Merlin5 I treated my studio and it made a worlds of difference recording drums and even just sat there playing them.
I added Bass traps on each corner and a Acoustic Cloud to avoid reflections from the ceiling and the OH mics. And some acoustic foam on the walls....
Out of interest which ones do you use the most?
I have limited myself on purpose
Mixbus Daw- Console EQ and Compression $79
Abby Road PLate Reverb $24
Abby Road ADT $24
Soundtoys complete suite $199
CLA-2A, CLA-3A, CLA-76 Blacky & CLA-76 Bluey Compressors $72
CLA Signature Series
Waves H-EQ $42
SSL Drumstrip £12
I have limited myself on purpose
Mixbus Daw- Console EQ and Compression $79
Abby Road PLate Reverb $24
Abby Road ADT $24
Soundtoys complete suite $199
CLA-2A, CLA-3A, CLA-76 Blacky & CLA-76 Bluey Compressors $72
CLA Signature Series
Waves H-EQ $42
SSL Drumstrip £12
CLA has already set the EQ curve he wants with plugin in zero.There is already some serious stuff going on under the hood in the chain...at default settings.
With it it just in the channel it sounds amazing...
http://audiogeekzine.com/2010/11/waves-cla-signature-collection-signal-chain-diagrams/
I recorded an acoustic guitar, had a plate reverb, compressor, EQ plugin on the channel and was really pleased with the sound I was getting...
Put the CLA guitar plugin on it , disabled the plugins I put on it and the sound blew my attempt away...it sounded like a record!
The challenge for me is to insert the CLA plugins and recreate the sound with my own overtime to improve my sound engineer and mixing skills.
The bass one was amazing aswell..I like to work fast if I'm writing etc...and to be able to record an acoustic track , a vocal and bass...bang CLA plugin on quick tweak to taste and getting something that's good as a Record very quickly is a revelation!
"Having spent quite a while crafting what I thought was a pretty good stereo acoustic guitar sound using other plug‑ins, I thought I'd test CLA Unplugged by seeing if it could match my own efforts. I killed the other plug‑ins, inserted CLA Unplugged, chose the first preset with 'acoustic' in the title... and wept bitter tears, because not only did it match the plug‑in chain I had laboriously assembled myself, it sounded miles better. I suppose that's why people pay Chris Lord‑Alge a lot of money to mix their records."
"In practice, I found myself really liking this plug‑in on overheads — I've never usually had good results from using lots of reverb and compression in this context, but a couple of fader moves in CLA Drums produced a really punchy, hard‑hitting sound that barely needed the addition of close mics."
https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/waves-cla-artist-signature-collection
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