Record Mix Repeat is a channel devoted to the art of recording and producing music. Rusty Smith, an award winning Los Angeles based recording engineer with 30 plus years of professional recording experience is the host of RMR. The first round of videos is the Home Studio Basics series, a complete guide to the ins and outs of home recording for those just starting out. What follows will be videos of various studio projects. Rusty and his friends in the studio, reviews of new gear, shootouts, advanced tutorials and whatever ideas Rusty comes up with.
I'm using the UAD Native Distressor with the SSL SubGen and Studio One. The plug-ins are in their own bus channel. I'm running Distressor in Opto 10:1, attack and release set to opto 10/0, distort 3 active. I don't have the hardware to compare, but what I get with this combo was what I wanted. SubGen to enhance the low end of this mix, Distressor adding some distortion and compression. I didn't want to just add a low EQ shelf boost. However with SSL X-DynEQ, I do use a single low pass to filter off everything over about 100 hZ.
Good video! However, when you say ‘same amount of gain reduction’, you must be talking about meters, as opposed to the actual audible amount of gain reduction. The hardware is being hit harder in the a/b right before that comment, compressing more and distorting more. That isn’t to say the plug-in will ever be quite the same as the hw, (it won’t) but it can get closer when matched by ear, since (like most plugins) it’s calibration isn’t 1:1 with the hardware. Plus, as you say, each hardware unit varies, especially with age.
Hey Rusty, very interesting how you figured this out. Also enjoyed the real to real. It's been many years since I recorded with one and the forward and backward sounds came back like it was yesterday. those machines were fun to play with and the sound was much better than any digital. Do you find the analog as still better today than digital?
@ejnmusic I have looked into comparisons of digital and analog. Spent many hours on You Tube looking at whether digital fails to deliver an accurate analog output. Simply put, I believe that with todays converters, when recording digital, a sample rate of 24k and a bit depth of 24bits will have enough resolution to accurately playback up to 24kHz. Since this is beyond the range of human hearing the listener will hear an accurate reproduction of the original analog input to the digital recording system. While aliasing at lower frequencies can occur in the audible range when using certain DSP processors, enabling oversampling in those DSP processors can usually filter out the aliasing, thus eliminating it. So fo me, I think digital has taken analog's place in the world of recording for justifiable reasons. Cheers. Rusty
I have always wondered how in the world they did this intro.. what you did totally makes sense. Thank you very much. BTW very few drummers can play this intro in time with the guitar since there is no count . I'm not a drummer but i have had to teach every drummer i've played with how to come in on time.
I get where you are coming from. $18 is checken feed. I just thought whoever set the price knew the part was unique and they took advantage of the situation.
Great in depth walkthrough, RU-vid needs more of you and your amazing tutorials, thanks so much for helping a newbie to this kind of thing out a real lot... Really appreciate what you do!
I don’t love bad cat amps. But if you dial the treble down a bunch and use the presence as your “high” control, and roll bass back quite a bit, you can get a tighter but still open sound 🤷♂️
Hardware is not better or worse.Hardware is the hardware !The differences starts going away as the Distortions kicks in.This particular hardware unit is a bit louder (although well adjusted) that's why you get a bit fuller sound.Great job overall
Well presented! Involved but clear and thorough. Learned some alternatives to my normal process. Very Helpful! Thank you! Look forward to hearing more.
The best way to manually tempo map in studio one: - "Broad" First pass: Create tempo change in the tempo track for every 4 bars of your songs, aligned to your drums (Kick & Snare) or the main instrument when there are no drums. - Second pass: create in between Bar tempo changes. Always do them linear. No curves or tempo jumps. - Third pass: Review and fine-tune Beat tempo changes, and start using curves if needed. Never make sudden step tempo changes. Always straight lines from point to point. Bonus: There's a way to trigger midi notes using an audio track as the "triggerer". Presonus' own Gate plugin has it. I hope it helps!
Well I haven’t finished installing the equipment and rugs and window treatments yet so I really don’t know. I can say that I do think it will work out. But until I am up and running I really won’t know. I will keep posting more videos on the progress of the new room as I get things done. Thanks for watching! Rusty.
Can't do this. I bought Melodyne Assistant and it doesn't include the tempo mapping. It has no "Tempo track" to use. The $699US Melodyne Studio has this feature.
I tried it with melodyne and gave up. It wasn’t intuitive at all. I know cakewalk is good at this. I don’t use it but I saw a video that showed it being done. Really smart.
The Hot Cat, to my ears sounds better. More full range, much less narrow/boxy. I have that UAD plug and it is quite good for what it is but in this scenario the Hot Cat wins.
Listening on AirPods (as millions of the end users do). I hear a boost in the lows, and a tad more distortion on the hardware. Worth the price difference? Nah. A few subtle moves gets you closer than Joe Blow can hear. Good job.
The hardware has more bottom end/punchier and more crisp/more open high frequencies/more preserved instrument artifacts like the strings to my ears. Also more distortion with the hardware. Feels like a bit of the register gets lost through the software.
Leaning towards hardware on this one, but man -that bass tone sounds so good! Who knew a simple signal chain would make a huge difference! I bet most people would find it hard to discern what’s hardware and what’s not in a final mix. Btw, what strings do you use on your bass?
Most of the time D'Addario 105 However I also like Fender Brites. I don't recall what was on the P Bass when I made the video as it was a while back. Thanks for watching the channel and adding your comment. Cheers, Rusty.
I also reamp with the OX I find the tone changes compared to playing straight into the amp. When reamping, How do you manage to hit the front end of the amp at the same level as if you were playing guitar straight into the amp?
That’s a very good question. I figured out that if I grab the guitar that I am reamping and plug it into the amp and get a sound I like then record a bit that sound, I have a reference I can compare to the signal level coming from the track I want to reamp. It works well. If I hit the amp with a signal that’s wrong level I am wasting my time. So yeah that’s a very good question.
Great comparison. From the few interviews that are out, I believe the Hot Cat isn’t really supposed to be a Marshall. It is a bit silly to say considering every boutique amp company will say “this amp is its OWN thing”, but I think the Hot Cat is trying to be the middle ground from the Black Cat and the Lynx while still retaining those vintage tones.
@@recordmixrepeat4327 potentially. I think it’s a great amp for those who don’t want a super clean amp or something like the Lynx. It does seem like the middle child of the new revamp, but still a solid amp that can sound great in the right context. I’ll be getting mine in a few days. Looking forward to hearing how it suits my playing style.
I have a vintage 1964 Deluxe Reverb and will never get rid of it. But I am considering retiring it from gig duty. Hard not to get a ‘65 DRRI but the TM has got me thinking that it might be the better option for gigging especially in small venues.
@stratplayr6997 I depends on the style of music you play I think. The one thing the vintage and DRRI will do is amplify the transients properly. If you are a player that digs in to you strings, chicken pickin' is what some people call it, then the TM will not reproduce the transients as well as the tube versions. Also, if your vintage is in good shape as far as caps go, you are smart for having it that way. You might want to look at Psionic Audio's video. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-pkIEfH0ZC7w.htmlsi=jlmgdK5I7GcSj1Ku This guy is a real genious about Deluxe Reverbs and tube amps in general. He has some smart suggestions about mods for DRRIs. I do play out with my TM. I play in a band that covers Creedence and classic rock. I get many compliments about my tone. And I love the light weight of the TM. I do wish it popped more on the transients. I have considered getting a DRRI and a quality load box. But it is expensive. Please share my channel with your pals. Cheeers, Rusty Smith
Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience with us! This man really knows what he's talking about when it comes to Studio One tempo mapping and more! The unfollow, follow, time stretch method works!! Quantizing and beat analyzing can only go so far but you end up spending more time trying to correct the detection. The methods and steps explained in this two part video is the only way to preserve the band's natural playing style instead of destroying it with quantizing. Instead, your hand-quantizing which will always yield more natural results and the more accurate you are, the better you be able to smooth out any variations later on. Once you have a variable tempo mapped song, you can adjust the timing to what sounds good rather than a strict, constant tempo. You can also copy that variable tempo to another song if you like the feel. Also, what @PelicanMultimedia said for Melodyne is true in Studio One: "If the software detects a single hit inaccurately by even a 1/32 note, you have to manually edit the bars and beats from that point through to the end..." I attempted to detect and correct timing for click track which resulted in that exact problem. A combination of first variable tempo mapping the grid might allow the quantizing to find the beat more accurately but I'd rather just use Rusty's method which gives you an accurate tempo mapping of what the band played that you can then manipulate to your heart's content. 😉
