***The Official Home Recording Studio Thread***

[Lowe]

Sure have.

https://soundcloud.com/projectmay/we-fought-broken-words

That's the newest thing.

Have something else in the works that we'll be working on this weekend. I WILL remember to take pictures for this pictures thread.

Will you be posting up any samples?

Possibly - I'm not sure if I'll be mixing it due to time constraints, so it's a bit unfair to post anything that's pretty 'raw' from the tracking alone. I've promised to do one of the tracks though, so might be able to put a bit of that up.

 

[easyrider]

Anyone got a Reason 1-8 so I can upgrade to Reason 9 on the cheap?

I'm using protools but Reason 9 looks like it come come in useful for a sketchpad for me to quickly realise song ideas....

 

[Lt_Red]

Anyone got a Reason 1-8 so I can upgrade to Reason 9 on the cheap?

I'm using protools but Reason 9 looks like it come come in useful for a sketchpad for me to quickly realise song ideas....

The props are pretty stringent on previous licences. I cannot for example sell you my previous licence now I have upgraded to 9 because my serial for the reason upgrade is tied to my previous licence. Therefore I will loose access to my upgraded software.

I do however have an NFR licence for Reason 6 which is separate, however I cannot transfer my NFR licence to you because that would be against the point of an NFR and EULA of the said NFR and anyway you would not be able to use it to upgrade.

So asking for someone to give you a previous version is really not going to happen unless they want to sell up their licence entirely. You may be able to find this on the cheap on the bay or if you scour here: http://www.reasontalk.com/

The Props position on licence transfers is laid out here: https://www.propellerheads.se/suppo...ts/buyingselling-used-propellerhead-products/

At the end of the day its a 300 quid bit of software. Its also a pretty incredible bit of software. Careful, you may find you prefer using Reason to Pro-Tools/Cubase/Whatever. I certainly did and now its my primary DAW. I occasionally receive mockery for this and frankly I don't care

I worked for a well known music magazine and had access to literally everything for literally nothing (hence the historical NFR licence for Reason). At the end of the day (at least for my modest ongoing needs) I chose Reason. Its awesome.

 

[easyrider]

The props are pretty stringent on previous licences. I cannot for example sell you my previous licence now I have upgraded to 9 because my serial for the reason upgrade is tied to my previous licence. Therefore I will loose access to my upgraded software.

I do however have an NFR licence for Reason 6 which is separate, however I cannot transfer my NFR licence to you because it is tied to my account and anyway you would not be able to use it to upgrade.

So asking for someone to give you a previous version is really not going to happen unless they want to sell up their licence entirely.

Read here: https://www.propellerheads.se/suppo...ts/buyingselling-used-propellerhead-products/

At the end of the day its a 300 quid bit of software. Its also a pretty incredible bit of software. Careful, you may find you prefer using Reason to Pro-Tools/Cubase/Whatever. I certainly did and now its my primary DAW. I occasionally receive mockery for this and frankly I don't care

I worked for a well known music magazine and had access to literally everything for literally nothing (hence the historical NFR licence for Reason). At the end of the day (at least for my modest ongoing needs) I chose Reason. Its awesome.

They should offer a Subcription

I get Protools for 6 quid per month with everything

 

[Lt_Red]

They should offer a Subcription

I get Protools for 6 quid per month with everything

Perhaps you are right. The licence situation with Props is pretty stinging to be honest. I have spent a fortune on Rack extensions (most of them brilliant to be fair - some unique that you wont find in the VST world such as Selig Leveller) and I cannot sell them even if I sell my licence! Its dead money unless you use Reason in that regard, so don't buy any unless you want to commit.

 

[easyrider]

Perhaps you are right. The licence situation with Props is pretty stinging to be honest. I have spent a fortune on Rack extensions (most of them brilliant to be fair - some unique that you wont find in the VST world such as Selig Leveller) and I cannot sell them even if I sell my licence! Its dead money unless you use Reason in that regard, so don't buy any unless you want to commit.

It would be nice to have 3 DAWS and just pay a sub

Most people who use Reason...actually mix in protools using rewire anyway...

Reason would be good for quickly getting ideas down and using it like a sketchbook.

 

[Lt_Red]

Most people who use Reason...actually mix in protools using rewire anyway....

There really is no need in the latest versions - at least for me - the SSL mixer emulation in reason is really flexible, highly featured and the built in channel strip effects and master compressor are really sweet sounding. Add Rack Extension Ozone Maximiser or Kuassa Maximiser and strap a M-Class Stereo expander and Selig's leveler over the output to minotor the final level and its all there. I find Rewire can also be a pain in the..... and is only one-way

That's just me though I guess. I have fully committed to Reason and only use any other daw to pipe audio out for S-Gear or MIDI out for Kontakt and then straight back into Reason. I use EnergyXT in Modular mode for this because I can pipe audio around as I see fit and it has an extremely low CPU footprint.

 

[easyrider]

I guess this not worth getting ?

http://www.dv247.com/computer-music...-essentials-music-production-software--229959

 

[Lt_Red]

I guess this not worth getting ?

http://www.dv247.com/computer-music...-essentials-music-production-software--229959

For the price essentials isn't that bad I guess. You get some of the SSL mixer minus the hi/low filter, gates and compressors and the spectrum analyser (which is a bit tight) and it has Rack extension support, unlimited tracks and stuff and it supports rewire - but a load of best native units have been stripped out including the ridiculous Thor Synth and Kong drum sampler and most of the decent distortions, reverbs and compressors are gone. You may end up replacing these with Rack extensions (£££), or you may find rewiring into your Pro-tools solves this for you anyway.

However it does not have much of the audio pitch manipulation and pitch editing functions and the instrument players that made the reason 9 upgrade great. If you are just after a sketch pad on the train or whatever it'll do the job. There's a full comparison a list bit down on this page:

https://www.propellerheads.se/reason

 

[MookJong]

Any ableton Live users in here?

Also, would be quite interested to get into a discussion on the following:

>Channel volume levels and headroom, any rules you stick to?
>EQ techniques you use
>Pre mastering chains, do you use them?
>How do you prepare your tracks for mastering
>Mastering, who do you get to do it?

 

[ShortWarning]

Any ableton Live users in here?

Also, would be quite interested to get into a discussion on the following:

>Channel volume levels and headroom, any rules you stick to?
>EQ techniques you use
>Pre mastering chains, do you use them?
>How do you prepare your tracks for mastering
>Mastering, who do you get to do it?

I'm only an amateur but this is what I follow:

1. When I'm mixing I try to keep the 2 bus from going above -6db - -8db for "mastering purposes" (see 5 for the reason for the "'s ). As far as each channel is concerned, as long as it's not clipping I'm not too worried, it is however loud or quiet it needs to be to sit in the mix properly.

2. I normally use a graphic eq to get find frequencies I don't like then cut them as well as any high pass/low pass filtering. I'll then use whatever eq I like to boost frequencies (if it's needed). I normally eq before the compressor but not always.

3. I normally put a very small amount of compression on on the stereo but that's it.

4. I've never sent a track for mastering but see above.

5. As above, I've never had a track professionally mastered but have spoken and sent mixes to a mastering engineer. Generally, leave headroom, try not to do too much to the stereo bus unless it's to give the mastering engineer an idea of what you want them to do. Send both versions, one with processing one without.

I normally mix my track, bounce it to a stereo track then re-import it to "master" it.

 

[easyrider]

Is Reaper any good...?

 

[ShortWarning]

I've read good things.

I think DAWs are much of a muchness really. Some are better at some things than others, some are worse but it seems to all even out in the end.

 

[Lowe]

The other key thing with mastering that many overlook, is that it's a final 'quality check'. It really is useful to have someone else who has no investment at all in the track do this for you, because they're likely to pick up on things which you overlook or choose to ignore. There's also the consideration of other tracks making up the EP/Album, ensuring tonal consistency etc.

Chucking a limiter on the 2bus and smashing the gain threshold isn't really mastering.

 

[Lt_Red]

Hey easy rider. .. reason 8 for 150 here

https://www.reasontalk.com/viewtopic.php

 

[easyrider]

Hey easy rider. .. reason 8 for 150 here

https://www.reasontalk.com/viewtopic.php

Think it's been deleted...

 

[Lt_Red]

Maybe posted the wrong link try this

www.reasontalk.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=7496914

It's us dollars as well so bargain there

 

[easyrider]

Cheers,

I'll have to have a think...I installed reaper tonight, Installed the commalla 5 skin and Adobe audition and, quite frankly its blown my socks off.

Finally a DAW I can use instinctively.

Reaper is so fast! and easy to use!

I was getting frustrated with Protools, It would crash quite a bit, and go weird on me.

Reaper has been solid all night, I love the fact you can tweak it so much aswell

Spoiler

 

[easyrider]

I want to try a hardware compressor like the Art VLA PRO II .

How do I wire it up ?

My main stereo out are going to my monitors...

How do you feed the compressor and record the result ?

I'm new to outboard gear other than mic pres...





Outputs main are going to my studio monitors

 

[Lowe]

Your system is primarily angled to working 'in the box'. Without introducing a mixer, you're limited to how you can work with outboard.

First up let me give you a bit of context...

Typically time based (think reverb, chorus etc) effects are patched on aux sends, to allow you to adjust how much signal is sent to be processed. This allows you to balance how much of dry and wet (i.e effected) signal there is.

Compression is a bit different. Processing that isn't time based is put on an 'insert'. The insert point is a literal break in the signal path of the mixer, somewhere in the chain that allows you to put something else in. I.e, if you drop an insert button in on a mixer and don't have anything plugged in, the channel stops working.

So, without a mixer you don't have an insert.

That said, you could try to fudge it:

• Record something into your DAW.
• Assign the output of that track to a spare output on the Octacapture, and ensure that it does NOT go to your main stereo out.
• Plug this spare output of the Octacapture into the input of the compressor.
• Plug the output of the compressor into a spare input on the Octacapture.
• Create a new track on the DAW, set the input of the track to be the same as the spare input you're using on the Octacapture, and the output to be your stereo output.
• Arm the track and press play. The recording will go to the compressor - adjust the suit.
• Once you're happy, press record instead and play the track through. This will record the compression to the new track.
• Mute off the source track and hide it in case you want to adjust it in the future. This way your compressor is now freed up to work on something else.