sgulley
Superstar
If you really like music and recording it then never stop trying to get better at it.
Posts: 2,994
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Post by sgulley on Sept 28, 2008 16:01:46 GMT
Thanks Tom for your comments (always appreciated)
I altered the L/R guitars' EQ a little to make the acoustic guitar's presence stand out a little more. I also changed the drum's spacial effect which brought up its volume. And as you noticed, brought up the lead's volume that Chris had suggested.
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Post by chrisr on Sept 28, 2008 20:49:46 GMT
A bit off topic, but well..
Just to say that the Korg D3200 is here now. It still has not found its place in my music room, and I only just had the time to connect a monitoring system to do a little testing and all.
Well, no surprises, of course : I know the machine, having worked a little bit with my friends Korg's.
Ah...when I say "I know the machine", it means that I already knew what it looks like, how it sounds, and what wonders my friends can do with it. Really knowing everything there is to know about how the machine works, is something that will take a few weeks (if not more). But no hurry, I'll take my time.
Still, in just over 15 minutes, I was able to record, overdub, playback, EQ, pan, and put some FX on the recorded tracks. So, that's a good sign.
From half October on, I'll have a little more time for it, and I'll keep you posted.
By the way, Tom (or the other guys and girls) : any questions you may have about the Korg D3200, ask away.... (if I don't yet know the precise answer, I'll find out).
And ah, yes Stan, one of my first tests was recording acoustic guitar, to see how it sounds. It sounds great.
Now honestly, I knew that beforehand, really. Any acoustic guitar I ever recorded with my Boss, or with the Akai, Roland's, Yamaha's, Korg's etc... of my friends, sounded as it should be. As I'm sure it would with a 2488.
It's only with the PS5 that I seem not to be able to make an acoustic guitar sound right. While GF and all of you can. So it's kind of an enigma to me. Not that it matters much : the PS5 is just my musical notebook, so how it sounds is not very important.
And my condenser microphone : well yes, I'm still pleased with it. For the money, it's the best one I know.
Give me three or four weeks, and I'll send you a few samples of the little test recordings I'll have done with the Korg by then.
And after that : the sky is the limit !
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sgulley
Superstar
If you really like music and recording it then never stop trying to get better at it.
Posts: 2,994
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Post by sgulley on Sept 29, 2008 14:27:46 GMT
Last I heard, I think GF said that she records her guitar with direct input and doesn't mic her guitar directly. It does sound really good! I'm going by memory which could be wrong.
Glad you like what you have Chris. It sounds like a fun Nov. coming up.
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Post by Tom on Sept 29, 2008 16:48:57 GMT
Last I heard, I think GF said that she records her guitar with direct input and doesn't mic her guitar directly. That's what I remember as well... By the way, Tom (or the other guys and girls) : any questions you may have about the Korg D3200, ask away....! You can be sure I will have a few, but I'll wait until you have some time to figure out the things you want to know about it. Tom
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Post by chrisr on Sept 29, 2008 21:18:46 GMT
Thanks, guys.
Yes, I also think that GF records her acoustic guitar direct in. As I do, most of the time. But even if I try and do that with different pickup-systems (Fishman Rare Earth, EMG CS, LR Baggs M1 active) and with different guitars, it doesn't sound as it should be with the PS5 (or maybe just with my PS5 ?).
I did some more "testing" on the Korg D3200 last night. Actually, it's more trying to find out how the thing works and all.
Thus far, I have not had too much trouble with the size of the LCD. I think I will easaly be able to live with that. In fact, it's not that the LCD is too small, but that there is sometimes a lot of info or data on it.
There is a certain "logic" in the workings of the machine, that I begin to understand. Some people may find this a rather complicated machine, but once you get the logic behind it, it's not too bad, really. If a guy like myself can record, overdub, mix, etc... with the machine after only half an hour or so, then anybody can.
Tom, you had a question about the automation, not having motorised faders and knobs, and how that works and all.
It's a long answer, but I'll keep it as short and simple as possible.
Since the machine has 32 tracks (in 16 bit), but only 16 channel faders (+ 1 master fader + 1 drums fader) and 16 knobs (on the "knob matrix"), you have to switch from the first 16 to the next 16 with one of two push buttons (1/16 and 17/32).
So, say you've set the faders for the first 16 channels and you switch to the next 16, the machine has to "remember" somehow the settings of the first 16. Same thing for the 16 matrix knobs (pan, EQ settings, FX, etc...).
Well, the machine does remember this indeed, and you can see all the settings (faders & pan, EQ, etc...) on the LCD.
So basically, after a bit of recording or mixing, the position of the physical faders and of the matrix knobs may very well not be the "real" settings, as you set them, and as the machine remembers them.
If you really want to see the physical faders and knobs "in the right position", you simply set them manually where you see them positioned on the screen. Actually, you don't even have to look at your LCD for that. Each time you touch a fader or a matrix knob, there is a red LED blinking slowly and then more rapidly until it stays lit when you've reached the right "remembered" position. Easy, really.
Then, if you want to change the setting, you simply change the physical fader or knob position, and the machine automatically overrides the previous setting, and remembers the new one. (you have to first push the fader or turn the knob through its full range to override, and go to the position you want).
This is true for the "match mode" setting. You can also choose the "jump" setting, meaning that the machine will automatically put the "real" setting wherever the physical faders are set, but OK, let's not get too much into detail here.
The machine has two kinds of "automation" : scene automation (all the settings at a chosen point in time) and event automation (when you want the changing itself of a setting remembered, i.e. a fade in or out, etc...).
That's it, basically.
But believe me, explaining the whole thing is much more difficult than actually doing it : once you have the machine before you, you don't even have to look in the manual to understand all this automation stuff : it speaks for itself, really.
With all of these "all in one box" multitrackers, you have to look at your LCD anyway, if you want to see the settings. So once you're used to doing that, it's childs play.
In a real situation, once you've done your settings, and the machine has remembered those, you will mostly only need the physical faders and knobs to override the settings that you see on your LCD (if you want to actually change a setting). Other than that, their physical position doesn't matter much any more: it's what you see on the LCD that counts.
By the way, this would even be true if the faders were motorised. Even then, you would only "see" the physical position of the first 16 faders OR of the last 16. For an overview of all 32, you would have to look at your LCD, as you would for all the other settings anyway.
More generally, I was just thinking about them multi-multi trackers and the need for guys like us to work with them.
Honestly..., if you think about the 24, 32 or whatever number of possible tracks, and the hundreds of virtual tracks at hand, well...
For guys and girls mostly recording all on their own, and unless they want to beat Mike Oldfield at what he's best at, I cannot imagine ever using all those tracks without over-over complicating things to unreasonable proportions.
So in my opinion, the real problem with those machines is NOT automation or what have you, but KEEPING IT SIMPLE.
There is a poster in my music room, just saying that : Keep it simple, dude.
I will have to look at it even more than I already did...
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Post by mcarp555 on Sept 29, 2008 22:07:48 GMT
When the average (i.e., non-recording) layman looks at a typical console, he's usually overwhelmed by the sweeping rows of knobs, buttons and faders, making the machine look more complicated than anything you see at NASA.
But as we know, once you understand one strip, it's just 8 or 24 or 32 (or more) of the same. And they're all laid out in more or less the same: from the top to the bottom it's input/gain, EQ, FX patching, pan, track assignment, fader. Everything logical, laid out, and not any more complicated than a typical home stereo.
The output and monitor sections are only slightly more confusing, even tho they're smaller, because the interplay between them and the larger console strips can make anyone pause to remember where they are, and where they're going.
Every machine has its own particular quirks, just like any stereo, cash register or computer keyboard. But once you master one system, learning another is mostly a question of rerouting your knowledge to fit the new layout. The first step is not being overawed by all the knobs.
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Post by Tom on Sept 30, 2008 17:09:22 GMT
Each time you touch a fader or a matrix knob, there is a red LED blinking slowly and then more rapidly until it stays lit when you've reached the right "remembered" position. Easy, really. Then, if you want to change the setting, you simply change the physical fader or knob position, and the machine automatically overrides the previous setting Chris, Cool. Thanks for the detailed explanation. The brief description someone gave me on the other board neglected to mention the LED. My next question can wait until you spend some time with cutting and pasting -- can one copy and paste between tracks - not copy whole tracks but copy parts of one track to another? The PS5 won't allow this, and as a result I often end up with two vocal tracks and have to adjust faders on the fly to have a mix in which all the words are sung correctly. (Same question applies to the 2488 Stan, if you are listening.) Another question that occurs at the moment is whether you intend to use all those tracks to let us hear some drumming! Tom
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Post by chrisr on Sept 30, 2008 18:08:04 GMT
Each time you touch a fader or a matrix knob, there is a red LED blinking slowly and then more rapidly until it stays lit when you've reached the right "remembered" position. Easy, really. Then, if you want to change the setting, you simply change the physical fader or knob position, and the machine automatically overrides the previous setting Chris, Cool. Thanks for the detailed explanation. The brief description someone gave me on the other board neglected to mention the LED. My next question can wait until you spend some time with cutting and pasting -- can one copy and paste between tracks - not copy whole tracks but copy parts of one track to another? The PS5 won't allow this, and as a result I often end up with two vocal tracks and have to adjust faders on the fly to have a mix in which all the words are sung correctly. (Same question applies to the 2488 Stan, if you are listening.) Another question that occurs at the moment is whether you intend to use all those tracks to let us hear some drumming! Tom Hi Tom, On the copy/paste question (copy parts of a track and paste them onto another position in the track or into another track, or even into another song) : the short answer is YES. And the second question : yes, I'll do some drumming, of course (do not expect anything amazing or Gene Krupa quality ; just decent drumming). I'll have to first re-organise things in my music room, and give the Korg and my other recording gear some breathing space. As you see in this picture, the Korg and other stuff just sits on a desk in a dark corner of the room, at the moment : www.sendspace.com/file/norbx5 . Nothing to be proud of, I know, but I'll have more time in a week or two (I hope), and things will be organised pico bello then ( yeah sure, that's what you always say, says the dear wife Francisca). Promise !
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Post by Tom on Oct 2, 2008 16:24:42 GMT
Chris, Good news on the copy/paste capability. Other questions can wait until you get your stuff pico bello, whatever that means Hmmmm ... drummers I have worked with didn't think all that much of Krupa, who's stuff I loved because it was so much simpler than the stuff tapes of Buddy Rich and Billy Cobham that they bored me with. "Decent drumming" is after all the bedrock of the rock I like to play. Regards, Tom
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