GarretGraves

ok. so you're saying cut any frequencies that spike? like with the multiband comp?

Thanks for the info! While I'm on the subject, can anyone recommend a good compressor plugin? or do they all just come with whatever DAW? (forget about price range for now.)

I'm working on a metal track at the moment and (as per FUCKING always) I'm having difficulty in the loudness department. I've been fooling around with volume levels left and right and I get the volume at a decent level with only a clip here and there. Of course the goal is ZERO clipping. So messing around with things, I tried adding both a limiter AND a compressor on the master track. I never thought to do this before because I always thought that these two tools did the same thing. Even though I got better results than before, I still feel like what I'm doing is redundant. I know full well about limiters now. Simple plugin. Gain, Ceiling Threshold. But compressors have so many more nooks and crannies in them that I tend to get lost. So in lamen's terms, what's the difference between these two plugins?

A combo I went with was the Petrucci setup. DiMarzio Crunch Lab the bridge and Liquifier at the neck. Petrucci's style is inspired by the likes of Satrianni I think. They have similarities except Petrucci is much heavier than Joe.

upgrading OS's isnt worth it, really. I upgraded to windows 7 64bit only to find that all the software i bought wasnt compatible with it because of i dont know why. dont make my mistake. read carefully at what's compatible with anything you buy. should go without saying but for me...well i was a jackass.

I don't think tin foiling my wiring is a bright idea. Cause if I have to take it in to get rewired, the guys at the shop are gonna open it up and be like, "the fuck's goin on in here?!" but seriously, rigging it with tin foil doesnt seem appealing to me. When I get the money Im gona get the ns2. simpler for me and more useful i think.

This track here has ZERO EQ other than what's going through the mixer and what's on the amp itself. I did that purposely to see what it sounded like to you people here and then go from there. I typically add a Parametric EQ which I love using on top of reverb for leads and solos. I havent had the chance to listen to it anywhere else yet. i plan on experimenting next chance I get. I hadnt bothered either since if it sounds like shit on my new speakers why bother trying it on anything else? I got pissed at first too cause I hated the sound these things give out! But as it turns out I just needed to get use to them. I didnt have any EQ or EAX running on my comp speakers before. I do now to try and better match what my BX5's sound like or if not make them sound better by adding a bit more highs and dipping a TAD bit of mid. It sounds better now. As for panning, I didnt this time but I normally record the rhythm twice, as you said, AMT. But normally I pan 100% for each. I never really tried moderating with that at all . Like at 75% for each. I never thought of doing that. Maybe that might help me. Thanks.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=AALBF5D4 there. I got it a little better. But what I mix in my BX5a's is not what im hearing in my Logitech THX 5.1 speakers. I know it's suppose to sound different. but the difference is a bit drastic IMO. Come to think of it, this seems like kind of a newb deal, but this is the first time i've had a chance to mix with different speakers. And i dont know which ones to trust.

Im playing through a Mackie 820i mixer with a couple of m-audio studiophile BX5a speakers. Recording metal distorted guitar. Im miked up to my amp with an SM57. It sounds fine when I'm playing live and recording. But when I playback the recording it sounds like absolute SHIT! CRUMPLED...SHIT! I tried adding a parametric EQ and multiband compression but i jsut cannot get it to sound the way I want. And if I do and I play the track on my computer speakers, it sounds like shit again! I know tracks are gonna sound different on different systems, but this is frustrating me. Is there a general rule of thumb i should follow here?

Wait. I'm a little confused. What's your definition of artifacts. I may be wrong in this area.

Way off Fishy. I got a DiMarzio Crunch Lab at the bridge and Liquifire at the neck. Humbuckers. John Petrucci has the same setup. It's not the pickups I promise you. Im playing a Dean McPhantom too. SO no Im not using some shitty single coils. My next guess is that the wiring in my Dean may be a bit dirty. Im thinking of taking it down to the shop by me to have it looked at. But they just installed those pickups. You'd figure they'd let me know if something like that was up. I'll go down and talk with them tomorrow. I should also mention that Im using some massive distortion and gain. I've had this problem a long time with amps. EDIT: Also if you think noise reduction produces bad artifacts, tell me this is no better. I dunno man. I think it's worth it.

I posted asking a similar question not too long ago. Zircon referred me to Synth1. Google it. Here's the thing. If you want to really play with synths, you should play with oscillators and learn that way. It might seem tedious at first but you'd be surprised how many cool sounds you can pull out with just this free one. I've been playing with it for the last week and a half or so and I'm loving it. Synth1 should be easy to find on Google. After you get the idea of how they work you can go shopping for ones requiring purchase. I'm looking at FM8 as my next one, personally. (But I'm holding off until I actually feel limited by Synth1).

I found my BOSS NS-2 Noise Suppressor and it reminded me that I need a new one. With this one I've always had a problem with losing gain on my guitar and the noise would still find it's way in somehow. An I've tried a couple of tricks like the "scotch taping of the old guitar string onto your arm and the other end on the bridge" thing. Doesn't quite get the job done completely and I'm having a hard time playing with something taped to my arm. I've done my best to reduce the noise as much as possible with shutting off all unneeded electronics and anything with a magnetic field. I even went as far going into my backyard and shutting off all the power in my house through the circuit breaker except the power in my room. Still I get the 60 cycle hum. So I've tried a number of options. So I did some shopping and I was looking at this one: http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/product/ISP-Technologies-Decimator-G-String-Noise-Reduction-Guitar-Effects-Pedal?sku=150586 The reviews are phenomenal across the board on the website. But I was wondering if any of the other guitar players here had any insight. Thoughts? EDIT: I should also mention I'm playing through my new Line 6 Spider IV 120 watt amp.

I thought you needed some kind of certificate for an internship.

Oh man. I mean no offense, but that track is intolerable to me. I know I know. As sound engineers, producers and mixers, we're suppose to leave our ego at the door. But man... I think there's a limit to even that for me. I have q-tips in my ears as I type this. As for the question. Louder is better depending on the genre. Rock, metal and rap generally use all the headroom you have on top of using compressors and limiters and what not. But stuff like jazz and folk and world music I think tends to get just loud enough. But this is still a matter of perspective. The Guide to Mixing (i lost the link.) has a "Pepsi Challenge" analogy that fits pretty well with this subject.

Something like this takes money, time and above all else, effort. When we say making time, we mean a part of your life if you want to be really good at it. You can get away with being moderate by making it a hobby. A hobby that could run you about two grand or so and 4 hours a day to accomplish at high quality. Well, I may be exagerating the cost a bit since I myself have spent at least 2300 american dollars this last month alone trying to build up my studio. But that's because I'm buying hardware like amps and a controller and modifying guitars and stuff. Not to mention super expensive software like Symphonic Choirs (which also recommends you to have at least 8 gb of RAM! I wish I read that first!) and Cubase 5 and EWQLSO Gold and the list goes on. (And I'm still shopping for speakers for my Mackie 820i!) But don't let all that scare you. You can get away with a great deal at a low budget. And as for time you'd be surprised how much time you can fit into a recording session in spite of jobs and family. I know a guy with a wife and 2 kids in elementary school and has a 9 to 5 job and on the weekends all his play money a free time goes into equipment and recording sessions. It's like he literally has two lives! Like Dexter... only he don't kill people. He might make your ears bleed though.

I always thought it was the string section. to me it definately sounds like a string instrument.

.The assignment at the time was to make something with nothing but the ocillators. And the guy was sitting right next to me and I didn't see him load anything beyond the dongle. (We use Logic which actually has great synths with it.) Nevertheless, all this week I'll make the effort to pull what I can out of Synth1 or whatever other free or cheap synths there are. This also gives me a chance to set up the mod wheel and toy with it. But even that requires a vid tutorial to setup since FL Studio doesn't have it set up already. But I got all that covered.

yup! Im already saving all the cool sounds i make!

Zircon, you nailed it for me. Synth1 is fucken awesome! Im actually pulling out some awesome sounds with it! It may not get as fat as actually priced synths but it most definately gets the job done. I think I got discouraged when using the XILS 3. I cannot control that thing for the life of me. But this is even simpler than the synths at school. Again, thank you!

Understood. Ok. I'll tell you what. Before I buy anything else(and i've spent like $2000 already :0) I'll grab synth1 and go to town on it. I agree I should put my education to use. I learn about synths in class and yet not bother to try them out for myself? You're absolutely right. Thanks for putting that into perspective for me. EDIT: One more thing. I'm sorry if I post a lot of threads about advice and gear. I understand it seems like I need someone to hold my hand through everything. From here on out i'll try harder to learn on my own. But just so you know, when I discovered that this site had a workshop forum, I felt I hit a gold mine! You see, at school everyone is hyper-competitive. And what secrets or knowledge they hold they keep only for themselves. One time I heard this guy playing a sound he made from scratch and I asked him, "Wow! What's making you sound like that?" And I shit you not, his answer was, "Magic!" And he refused to say anything else beyond that. Everyone in class is like that! No one is helping anyone. And on top of all that, my teacher is far to busy to answer any questions. He's never in his office during his office hours and he never answers e-mails! It's irritating when you have all kinds of questions and no one to answer them. So if I seem like I ask a lot about everything, it's because I have no one else to turn to. I greatly appreciate everyone's posts! I promise I'll be better about learning things on my own. Thank you.

awwww. but you're doing two voices on just 2 gigs of ram? im getting my ass kicked with just one.

wow this shit is pricey. I may need to wait till after my birthday when all the bday money comes in. My relatives love giving me money. Although I think it's making me more lazy just being handed things. I still gotta buy a bass amp first but I'll look into these. Thanks for the ideas! I took classes for sound engineering and design and I know how ocilators work and all. But getting them to produce the sound that I want is super tedious! Messing with LFO's and envelopes. It all hurts my brain and I suffer a great deal from A.D.D. so everything I try to learn is a fierce battle. That's why I was asking more for like a sound pack that I could jack with a little cause making sounds from near scratch is too much work at the moment. I don't have the time for it right now. I do however have a little money left and more coming soon so I'll definately check out sounds online. Thanks again!

I toyed around with the XILS 3 and tried to learn with the manual but my brain started to hurt. I was hoping there would be a cool sound pack or something that i would have the mess around with only a little bit to get the sounds that i want. Hmm I guess Im just lazy.

wait a second. I just realized. I'm loading multis. Ones with 5 or 6 voices loaded. *slaps forehead* I thought only the multis worked with wordbuilder. I could just use 2 voices though! But which samples work with the wordbuilder? I had a hard time find that before.