Mix advice/opinions please

[slash-ed]

Thanks guys! Really appreciate the kind words and comments/tips.

Ben, downloading DrumCore as we speak, cheers. I'll have to buy a MIDI interface. Seems reasonably straightforward - record MIDI track to Reaper, enable VST plugin. Presto hey magic.

Any comments on the weird whammy pedal section? At first I thought it was "jarring" and kinda cool, but now I'm not so sure, wondering if I should just ditch it in favour of ye old rock solo.

Jimmy, the vocals are all doubled but in a very subtle way (i.e. the double tracks are waaay down in the mix), mostly because my phrasing as a "singer" is very rough and I can't really double them precisely just yet. As you may have noticed I've experimented with little bits of EQing ("radio voice" etc) and a little delay so I'll see where that goes!

[slash-ed]

Quick question re: MIDI cables - is it worthwhile getting a "good" one? Just searching for them on Trademe, I've found ones around the $10 mark, whereas when I borrowed a MIDI cable from the RS to update my M13, the price on it was almost $100 or so?? Sorry if this is a dumb question.

[bender]

Thanks guys! Really appreciate the kind words and comments/tips.

Ben, downloading DrumCore as we speak, cheers. I'll have to buy a MIDI interface. Seems reasonably straightforward - record MIDI track to Reaper, enable VST plugin. Presto hey magic.

Any comments on the weird whammy pedal section? At first I thought it was "jarring" and kinda cool, but now I'm not so sure, wondering if I should just ditch it in favour of ye old rock solo.

Jimmy, the vocals are all doubled but in a very subtle way (i.e. the double tracks are waaay down in the mix), mostly because my phrasing as a "singer" is very rough and I can't really double them precisely just yet. As you may have noticed I've experimented with little bits of EQing ("radio voice" etc) and a little delay so I'll see where that goes!

I really like the double tracking- at first I thought it was a really short delay (which also works really well on vox) but then I clicked that it was double tracking. Works really well in the song. As far as recording MIDI drums goes- plug the drum kit in and see how it maps to the VST first. You may find it easier to track monitoring the VST, or it may be better monitoring the output of the kit itself.

Quick question re: MIDI cables - is it worthwhile getting a "good" one? Just searching for them on Trademe, I've found ones around the $10 mark, whereas when I borrowed a MIDI cable from the RS to update my M13, the price on it was almost $100 or so?? Sorry if this is a dumb question.

If you already have a MIDI interface, just get the cheapest cable that's long enough. If you're going to buy a MIDI interface, I'm pretty sure you can get one that's USB at one end and MIDI leads at the other so no cables required.

[slash-ed]

Wow, just had a mess around with the DrumCore plugin (just with the loops), sounds SO much better than the electronic kit

Thank you Ben!

Ah yes, what I meant (n00b, whoops) was MIDI interface, rather than cable. I take it it's worth it getting a quality interface?

Hmmm, new frontiers of knowledge, thank you NZG.

[bender]

Wow, just had a mess around with the DrumCore plugin (just with the loops), sounds SO much better than the electronic kit

Thank you Ben!

Ah yes, what I meant (n00b, whoops) was MIDI interface, rather than cable. I take it it's worth it getting a quality interface?

Hmmm, new frontiers of knowledge, thank you NZG.

If that's the only thing you're going to use it for I would worry too much. I'd get this:
http://www.rockshop.co.nz/04/shop/produ ... 9005071700

What are you using as your audio interface?

[slash-ed]

POD Studio UX1 for vocals and drums, HD500 for guitars. But with the MIDI-> USB interface I'd just go straight to the computer, right?

[bender]

POD Studio UX1 for vocals and drums, HD500 for guitars. But with the MIDI-> USB interface I'd just go straight to the computer, right?

You might be able to use the HD500 as a MIDI interface. I'll check it out when I've got time.

[bender]

Apparently not.

[slash-ed]

Haha, not a problem, I'll just go buy one. Luckily it's pay day today! Wheee!

[Scooter13]

Feel free to come over to mine and use my studio monitors if you want Ed. Might help in your mixing a bit to hear everything a bit more clearly. Then you can master it for whatever medium later.

I tried using my guitar hero 6 drums midi out to record a midi track to my DAW. Couldn't figure it out, but I figured it was the crappy drums fault and not the computer/audio interface haha. Got Ezy drummer lite to produce a great programmed drum track though, but then it made both my recorded guitars and modeled guitars sound like crap in comparison.

Does the midi recognise the difference between soft hits and hard hits etc on the drum pads? Not that I guess that would matter for a rock track via an electric drum kit.

[slash-ed]

Hmmm, once I build up a few more songs I may well take you up on the monitors thing, cheers.

We'll see what the story is with the MIDI/VST plugin once I get the interface, you can come along and laugh at us recording again if you like.

[Kris]

midi will pick up the difference in soft/hard hits-you can set that in the module.or just edit it in the DAW.

[Greg]

I have found that VST plugins have very different dynamic response to the modules on electronic kits - in other words if the electronic kit sounded correct in terms of dynamics, it'll likely be completely wrong when you put that midi performance through the plugin.

Best thing to do is use it as a very rough guide and edit velocities by percentage section to section, to keep some human randomness but make sure that the hits have the appropriate feel.

It takes quite a long time the first time you do an edit of a midi performance for a drum track, but after a couple it's pretty quick - once you learn how certain midi-velocity ranges sound with the samples you have.

[bender]

I have found that VST plugins have very different dynamic response to the modules on electronic kits - in other words if the electronic kit sounded correct in terms of dynamics, it'll likely be completely wrong when you put that midi performance through the plugin.

Best thing to do is use it as a very rough guide and edit velocities by percentage section to section, to keep some human randomness but make sure that the hits have the appropriate feel.

It takes quite a long time the first time you do an edit of a midi performance for a drum track, but after a couple it's pretty quick - once you learn how certain midi-velocity ranges sound with the samples you have.

That's true of every single MIDI controller, drums or not, that I've tried. They all have different velocity curves. Most controllers and sequencers have ways of compensating for it. You can select an entire performance and scale the velocity of every note either by % or to follow a curve. I usually have to do it on keyboard parts just to even out my ham-fisted playing.

[slash-ed]

Just re-did an old song I had lying around (which I can actually sing now!!) and would like to get some comments from you guys. I know the solo sucks but it's a scratch solo and I was only recording vocals and bass last night so couldn't be arsed...

Guitars: HD500 (no ZT though )
Bass: Straight in w/TSE B.O.D plugin (Sansamp BDDI emulator)
Vocals: UX1 on some random preset, some comp and touch of delay added in Reaper.
Drums: Originally I used/modified the loops from Drumkit from Hell, but I "reamped" the lot with the DrumCore Free plugin, which I thought sounded quite a bit better in this application.

Tell me what you think!