ash.k
09-19-2003, 12:38 AM
Hi, my name's Ash, and I've just worked my way through the Sweetwater catalogue and forums in search of some clarity on the most efficient studio setup. I was hoping you might be able to help me, or point me in the right direction.
I'm a singer, songwriter, percussionist, and engineer, mostly self-taught on a low budget with a few short courses along the way. I'm part of a duo with a keyboard player and there's a fair overlap in duties with regards to songwriting and style decisions but it's mostly a mixture of filmscore, jazz beats, rock-fusion bass, classical piano and percussion and some ethnic elements thrown in - King Crimson meets Jean Michael Jarre and Martin Denny at John Zorn's place.
Here's my setup: we do everything in MIDI, we have an Edirol UM-1 connecting a Technics workstation synth to a 500mhz G3 imac with 256mb RAM and we record the MIDI and audio onto a partition of the system drive. We use ProTools Free (did I say 'low-budget'?, I meant 'No Budget') for all sequencing and recording with the audio out from the back of the Technics synth going into the little mic input on the side of the imac.
Through experimentation I've found that to get the most accurate audio reproduction of the original sound I must record each instrument (channel) individually and then duplicate it into 3 stereo pairs and then adjust the pan controls of each channel till my ears tell me it sounds like the real thing, then mix it down to a single stereo pair. This goes for all the instruments and then I do submixes of each section, ie: all percussion, all backing orchestration and choirs, etc... then mix it all to a final mix. I've already run a noise gate on each before mixdown and eq'd each instrument onboard the synth to perfection before recording.
The drums are done by recording me playing acoustic drums on a small tape recorder, which I then painstakingly transcribe into MIDI and then add additional layers of ethnic and orchestra percussion where applicable and then adjust the velocities and feel by randomising to give a more natural but humanly tight sound.
I make the sounds onboard the synth by toying with filters and fx with an ear to getting the most natural and warm sounds possible - I think a piano or string section is good when I feel it embracing me through the headphones. It takes months to get a sound right.
We monitor the MIDI compositions and makes changes along the way using the Sherwood hi-fi my parents gave me, which works quite well, but I've found the imac speakers are excellent for monitoring mids, especially for eq.
You'll have to excuse my verbosity, but the punchline is coming.
As you can see we do everything the wrong way.
But since we plan to make a little cash from our upcoming album release I was hoping you might be able to tell me how the average serious DIY professional produces their work.
If I get a good quality audio interface, do I still need to record each instrument separately and then duplicate and stereo pan them? Cos it's really time-consuming.
Here's what I envisage as my ideal setup: MIDI drum kit triggering my custom made kits that consist of multiple layers of sounds while I jam live with the keyboard player who is playing real sampled orchestra strings and the whole thing is being recorded to MIDI in a sequencer made especially for MIDI ready for us to tweak and add bass and other parts and live vocal/s that all playback in sync and we can monitor the whole thing with headphones. And, a plugin that converts pitch to MIDI so I can 'sing' in the violin solos and melodies and harmonies (does such a thing exist?)
My main desire is to be able to make my own, or buy excellent sounds and have them all eq'd and layered, so they sound great live and we can do jams like I mentioned above and be able to expertly and easily tweak sounds on the computer screen instead of having to slouch over a hot and badly designed keyboard interface for hours.
So can I use, like 30 sampled (and created) instruments in MIDI playback with a software sampler using my Technics keyboard and (future) MIDI drums as controllers, or do I have to have outboard sound modules?
So, in conclusion: I want to make diverse music using any instrument or sound I feel like putting in, I want to be able to play them live with the drums and keyboard simultaneously and write MIDI notes with my voice and I want complete control over the envelopes and fx of each instrument, then be able to record at higher quality than I can now and be able to do it all with intuitive software, easily and without heaps of overdubs - like it'd be nice to have the drums all recorded to separate audio tracks at once.
I don't now about you, but I'm exhausted, I hope my overall idea is relatively clear. And I plan to set aside about 10,000 to 15,000 AUD, (about half that in USD).
Regards,
ash.:scared:
I'm a singer, songwriter, percussionist, and engineer, mostly self-taught on a low budget with a few short courses along the way. I'm part of a duo with a keyboard player and there's a fair overlap in duties with regards to songwriting and style decisions but it's mostly a mixture of filmscore, jazz beats, rock-fusion bass, classical piano and percussion and some ethnic elements thrown in - King Crimson meets Jean Michael Jarre and Martin Denny at John Zorn's place.
Here's my setup: we do everything in MIDI, we have an Edirol UM-1 connecting a Technics workstation synth to a 500mhz G3 imac with 256mb RAM and we record the MIDI and audio onto a partition of the system drive. We use ProTools Free (did I say 'low-budget'?, I meant 'No Budget') for all sequencing and recording with the audio out from the back of the Technics synth going into the little mic input on the side of the imac.
Through experimentation I've found that to get the most accurate audio reproduction of the original sound I must record each instrument (channel) individually and then duplicate it into 3 stereo pairs and then adjust the pan controls of each channel till my ears tell me it sounds like the real thing, then mix it down to a single stereo pair. This goes for all the instruments and then I do submixes of each section, ie: all percussion, all backing orchestration and choirs, etc... then mix it all to a final mix. I've already run a noise gate on each before mixdown and eq'd each instrument onboard the synth to perfection before recording.
The drums are done by recording me playing acoustic drums on a small tape recorder, which I then painstakingly transcribe into MIDI and then add additional layers of ethnic and orchestra percussion where applicable and then adjust the velocities and feel by randomising to give a more natural but humanly tight sound.
I make the sounds onboard the synth by toying with filters and fx with an ear to getting the most natural and warm sounds possible - I think a piano or string section is good when I feel it embracing me through the headphones. It takes months to get a sound right.
We monitor the MIDI compositions and makes changes along the way using the Sherwood hi-fi my parents gave me, which works quite well, but I've found the imac speakers are excellent for monitoring mids, especially for eq.
You'll have to excuse my verbosity, but the punchline is coming.
As you can see we do everything the wrong way.
But since we plan to make a little cash from our upcoming album release I was hoping you might be able to tell me how the average serious DIY professional produces their work.
If I get a good quality audio interface, do I still need to record each instrument separately and then duplicate and stereo pan them? Cos it's really time-consuming.
Here's what I envisage as my ideal setup: MIDI drum kit triggering my custom made kits that consist of multiple layers of sounds while I jam live with the keyboard player who is playing real sampled orchestra strings and the whole thing is being recorded to MIDI in a sequencer made especially for MIDI ready for us to tweak and add bass and other parts and live vocal/s that all playback in sync and we can monitor the whole thing with headphones. And, a plugin that converts pitch to MIDI so I can 'sing' in the violin solos and melodies and harmonies (does such a thing exist?)
My main desire is to be able to make my own, or buy excellent sounds and have them all eq'd and layered, so they sound great live and we can do jams like I mentioned above and be able to expertly and easily tweak sounds on the computer screen instead of having to slouch over a hot and badly designed keyboard interface for hours.
So can I use, like 30 sampled (and created) instruments in MIDI playback with a software sampler using my Technics keyboard and (future) MIDI drums as controllers, or do I have to have outboard sound modules?
So, in conclusion: I want to make diverse music using any instrument or sound I feel like putting in, I want to be able to play them live with the drums and keyboard simultaneously and write MIDI notes with my voice and I want complete control over the envelopes and fx of each instrument, then be able to record at higher quality than I can now and be able to do it all with intuitive software, easily and without heaps of overdubs - like it'd be nice to have the drums all recorded to separate audio tracks at once.
I don't now about you, but I'm exhausted, I hope my overall idea is relatively clear. And I plan to set aside about 10,000 to 15,000 AUD, (about half that in USD).
Regards,
ash.:scared: