Posts by Chris Duncan

Quote from wwittman

Record in analogue instead of via spdif.

Then Kemper clocking is a non-issue.

Record everything, not just guitars with ample headroom and at 32bit float if you can.

Use the highest sample rate practical.

I do almost everything at 96k.

Monitor with as good a rough balance as you can. Some people call this ‘always be mixing’; but it’s important to have perspective on context as you overdub; don’t just throw stuff on and hope to sort it later.

It’s far better to commit to a sound and make your subsequent choices BASED on those you’ve already made. Otherwise you can endlessly chase your tail.

“Perfection” is both unattainable by humans and highly overrated. Don’t “fix” everything. PERFORM.

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I also prefer the simplicity of recording in analogue and I'm very much a fan of always be mixing. When I'm tracking I don't want to have the green screen experience, where I have to imagine what it will be fitting into. That's why I use EZ Drummer for songwriting, because I simply can't find the groove with just a click track.

So, I like to get a solid mix going so that when I'm tracking, it feels like I'm playing the song rather than adding another widget. As you mentioned, it's all about the performance, so anything I can do to keep myself in the moment makes for a better end result.

Great stuff, AJ, as well as the additional clarifications from Nicky and others. I promise you I've made each and every one of those mistakes over the years, usually at the worst possible time.

As Nicky mentioned, having a mixer / desk is invaluable. The setup I currently have is more than most need (for that matter it's probably more than I need) but the upgrade I've enjoyed the most in recent years is the Yamaha TF5 32 channel mixer, which also comes in 24 and 16 channel flavors. Yamaha is among the big dogs for concert mixers and their preamps are always good quality. The TF5's pres are simply clean and don't have a particular personality, but that's what I use outboard pres for when I want that. But here's the thing I enjoy the most about it - it's a 32 channel USB audio interface as well as a mixer.

This means whether I'm tracking voice, electric guitar, acoustic, drums, etc. it all goes into the mixer. The mixer shows up as 32 ins and outs in my DAW. I point the USB out from my DAW main mix to two channels of the mixer. There are also ample aux busses, etc. so it's very easy to get a radio quality mix in your ears / headphones as you track, all with zero latency on your instrument. As AJ pointed out, this is really a very big deal because it absolutely makes a difference in feel. Frankly, I'm just not talented enough to ignore latency when I track without it screwing with me.

These days there's a wealth of digital mixers in all shapes and sizes that have this same architecture, coupling analog mixing with a USB audio interface, to fit many budgets. Even if you never track anything more than guitar and vocals, a small mixer, especially if it's also an audio interface, is a huge workflow enhancement in a wide variety of ways.

Quote from Michael_dk

I have NO problem with software protection AT ALL. It's their update plan I don't like. It's basically an up-front price, AND a subscription each year if you want to stay up-to-date (not talking about upGRADES, but simple upDATES. Such a strange way to do things.

Yeah, I know what you mean. I'm used to subscription models, like MSDN for devs, and I'm okay with it if I'm getting perpetual licenses. At least with Waves you can still use your stuff after the subscription expires, unlike the Adobe model that bricks everything you have until you start paying again.

Quote from Monkey_Man

Ahh... but this one's "special", Chris!

First tempting me to buy the Colonial Pack, and now this. You're the devil, right?

Oh, wait. This one's free.

Quote from Monkey_Man

Waves cops a lot of criticism, and I was one of the chorus playing nightly shows at MOTUNation for many years. I swore I'd never be sucked into patronising the company.

Here's the thing 'though:

1) There stuff just works. Any DAW, any platform. Guaranteed.

2) The above achievement is due to the WUP philosophy - guaranteed universal support for all plugins, regardless of age, funded via WUP when all other companies I can think of eventually drop support for plugins as popularity wanes and they figure it's not worth the development upkeep.

3) Whilst the vast majority of their earlier plugins could legitimately be described as run-of-the-mill (at least they all worked and were stable 'though), as you might've noticed in recent years, ever more excellent emulations and even instruments have begun to emerge from the company. Examples might be Scheps Omni Channel and the awesome TG Mastering Channel, both of which I'd consider no-brainers at their current price points and utility.

The trick I "preach" about WUP, and this maximises coverage time and minimises upgrade complications such as the ones Michael's wary of, is to:

1) Renew coverage for all plugins at once, choosing the "on one machine" option, which caps the fee at $225 (I think - something like that anyway).

2) Do this immediately after you've bought a plugin that you feel will be the last you'll be adding for a while. If not, wait 'til you've had your fill and then do this, but be sure to renew immediately-following the purchase. This way, all your plugins' coverage will extend to the same date as the freshly-purchased one, which is obviously the maximum-possible time from the date you buy it.

3) Do all this only after Waves moves to a newer integer software version, such as from V9 to V10. You'll lose free 'phone-support coverage after a year, but all your plugins will still work flawlessly 'til the next integer update, the gap between which is usually many years.

This Monkey Method™ ensures maximum coverage, minimal cost and avoids side-by-side complications such as the V9-next-to-V10 ones many have experienced. IOW, as of now, you'd be moving everything to V10 in one hit. No muss, no fuss, as they say in the classics.

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Lot of good tips there.

While I don't like hassles any more than the next guy, I pay the bills writing software, fortunately for a corporation that pays me a salary rather than trying to sell it on the street. Not only do people steal software, these days there's this almost holy feeling of entitlement that people shouldn't have to pay for intellectual property at all. I write music. I write software. I write books. I make videos. But all of that should be free for the taking, because "Information wants to be free!" At least that's what people tell themselves to justify the equivalent of walking into a store, grabbing something off the shelf, and just walking out. Apparently it's not stealing if it's IP.

My little tirade speaks to the point of software copy protection schemes. We all hate them, even me. But I also hate working for free, which is what these guys would be doing if they didn't protect themselves. I've had a couple of hassles with Waves stuff over the years, as with most other such companies. For what it's worth, in the U.S. at least, their phone support is outstanding. I also once had a drive fry with my authorizations on the local machine, i.e. moved from the cloud. The rep advised me that once a year at most was the limit, but he turned them all back on and was a good guy about it.

People steal your music all the time, and there's really nothing you can do about it. The software business found ways to protect their livelihood, and I have no philosophical objection to that at all. While I don't like the fact that it's often the good guys who actually pay for stuff who have to deal with the hassles, it's in imperfect world and no one has come up with another model that makes sure people get paid for their work.

Quote from Gary_W

totally agree, Chris - I’ve had EZDrummer 2 for a year or two and it’s used on everything for me. I like the interface and the ease of making subtle changes throughout the song to build tension without having to go crazy with midi programming.

Everyone keeps saying how good an upgrade SD3 is so therefore I’d love it. I just can’t justify over £220 for a crossgrade but, if the right bargain came up, I’d be on it pretty quickly

The big thing is that they revamped the SD UI to be more like EZD, tap to find, etc. Getting converted to SD is on my list of holiday time wasters.

Quote from Monkey_Man

Ahh... but this one's "special", Chris!

I'm stoked that Waves offered this for free as I'd certainly have paid good money for it; it's not the usual throw-'em-a-bone offering most companies use as freebies to lure in customers.

At least, that's what I've determined from reading about it. It looks fantastic on paper, and just what the doctor ordered for lil' ol' me.

I've generally had good luck with all of the Wave stuff, so I'm always up for another tool in the bag!

Quote from Monkey_Man

Did you grab the Colonial Pack, Chris?

I've had "special" feelings for it since it dropped a long while back. So much mojo and woody, organic tone... and balls. Can't recommend it highly-enough.

You know, I don't believe I did. I suspect there will be another round, so I'll give it a look when I go back. And I do apologize for the way my credit card is glaring at you right now.

I threw together a quick mix on a classic rock type thing I'm working on last night to hear the new guitar tones (dual amp with Feidman / 5150 panned L / R), and played it in the car on my way to forage for provisions. It was no surprise that the guitars sounded good. The bass, however, really stood out.

Like most cars these days, mine has a decent stereo that's not shy about the low end, so I've struggled trying to get this sequenced Fender bass plugin to sound good. The Black Jack profile I mentioned above came out very focused without losing any of the bottom. It sat perfectly in the mix with the kick, and I didn't touch a thing.

How these bass profiles fare with real bass players is something I have no insight on but I'm nonetheless very impressed with the results.

Quote from mollydyer

lol. no kidding. But- with all of the patches automated, a click in my ears, lights triggered and on full wireless, I can play guitar, sing, and connect with the "crowd" (thanks for coming out- both of you!) and I love it.

[Applause]

Thanks, Mom!

I think I played that room.

I'm currently shopping for a basic bar band while simultaneously working on something a bit more ambitious. You just described my setup almost completely, except the drummer will be on the click. Like you I'm the singer / front man, which means if we suck I'm the best target for tequila bottles if it's that kind of a bar. I love what the tech does for me, allowing me to concentrate on playing guitar and singing instead of tap dancing and wondering if the lighting guy is too busy hitting on my girlfriend to hit his cues.

I've been working my way through all the studio environment setup / tests / etc. to get the Kemper integrated. Just got through testing tracking with IEMs, which is awesome on many fronts. The guitar sounds excellent in my ears and all I had to do was patch the mains into the pres. No more screwing around with mic placement, etc. Just press record and play. Plus, I no longer need to record anything but the DI. As long as I track with a profile that has the same basic gain / feel, I can reamp, play with profiles to my heart's content and then just print the one I like. Had a couple of ground loop issues which were simple to solve because they give you ground lifts on freakin' everything.

I've been waiting a long time for tech to get to this point. It's nice when it finally comes together.

Quote from mollydyer

I get 'teased' for the amount of automation in the full show

Luddites.

I've got things up and running, but after connecting and the progress bar working through the presets, I get the "dump length mismatch" error that was mentioned previously. In is case it went away by SFM but I've bounced the computer, the Kemper, burned incense and sacrificed chickens to no avail. The error is consistent.

The editor appears to work nonetheless, but if the checksum on the dump didn't match it doubtless means that there will be some data, somewhere, that's not happy. My MIDI communications with all other devices exhibit no signs of trouble so while it could always be cables / hardware, etc. there's no indication that anything's unhappy. Also, I have another Ctrlr based app for my JV-2080 and it also exhibits no signs of trouble.

The editor is just a nice to have thing in my case as I don't do much tone tweaking but thought it would be handy to keep me from walking into the other room, so the aforementioned bug is not a crisis.

Damian -

I pay the bills as a software developer (MS tech from the days of DOS / C to the current .NET stuff). Anything I can provide you with to aid in debugging I'm happy to do.

I was running 9.0 and noticed a couple of minor features in 9.5 that might be handy, so I upgraded. The very next day 10 came out. The eLicenser automatically bumped me from 9.5 to 10. It was $60 to go from 9.0 to 9.5. Would have been $200 to go from 9.0 to 10. Must be all that good, clean living. I'll take the win.

For some reason, there hasn't been time to install 10 yet. This little green guitar thing landed on my doorstep about the same time and upgrading my DAW seemed less exciting somehow.

Quote from Wheresthedug

The first gig I did I wanted to go direct. The sound guy was stressed and we got off on a bad foot so that didn't happen.

He must stress easily. It's less hassle to plug two XLR cables into the snake / board and set the level than it is to fool around with getting the right mic position, worry about bleed, etc.

I would think that the sound guys would buy you a beer for making their lives easier. But then again, I still believe in the Easter bunny, too.

Okay, just grabbed another handful. Over indulgent and more than I need, to be sure, but selling the little EVH alone will pay for all my profiles.

My tone tweaking has just changed from a frustrating process of twiddling knobs (with mediocre results) to simply browsing through the list to find the flavor I want.

Excellent, thanks for getting back to me so quickly.

And have a great Thanksgiving!

Michael,

I'm enjoying the packs I purchased yesterday and was considering looking at another collection or two while the sale is on.

That said, it's not clear to me if some of the collections are duplications of profiles contained in other more dedicated packs, like your comment about including a few high gain tones from the heavy pack in the box of chocolates one.

Could you offer any clarification? Love what I'm hearing but as Patton once observed, I like to avoid paying for the same real estate twice.

Thanks!

Quote from Gary_W

Toontrack now offering 40% off EZ Drummer 2.

Unfortunately, there’s not a discount on SD3 but a pack to ‘add value’. I’ll keep an eye open as they’re announcing deals each day but, if they’re announcing a freebie to sweeten SD3 then I have doubts they’d then offer a % discount later in the week.

I've had EZD 2 for quite some time and recently bought SD3. I haven't had the time yet to get comfortable with it and switch over, but I can say with enthusiasm that EZD 2 is an outstanding songwriting helper. If you don't need all the horsepower of SD, you can go a long way down the road with EZD.

I used to think, like a lot of guitarists, that bass was simple because it's the same four strings. I didn't realize you had to think differently. I learned this the hard way when I played bass in a 50s rock & roll show band (I really needed the money). When 2 beat and a simple 145 walking bass line stretches your creative abilities, it's time to leave it to the professionals.

I ended up using the ST - Black Jack 700 5 profile. It's a simple, low gain, straightforward fat bass sound. I write simple classic rock stuff, so it fit the bill for me. There's a lot of variety there, however. Maybe you'll find something you connect with.

Thanks, Nicky. I have a lot of Waves stuff already but since it's free...