M-Tech
...........
matering in ozone note the stttings int the limmiter and m/s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgxAGwVaXO8&feature=relmfu
you must always adjuct the compressos threshold to suit the material you are
working on
use ears not eyes - down trust visual wavs
run several commercial mixesalong side your trakcs
how cloudciker sound
Ben used a Digitech Octaver for all of his rhythms.
I emailed Ben Sharp a.k.a Cloudkicker asking for his Tonelab settings. He
uses the blue Tonelab SE (without the foot pedal). Here's what he sent me:
On Beacons I used this high-gain setting:
UK Modern + UK T75
Treble 8.0
Middle 7.2
Bass 8.7
Presence 8.2
Gain 3.6
VR Gain 9.5
CH Volume 3.0
(No effects or reverb, those were added in Logic)
I used this for the clean tones:
Boutique CL + UK T75 (I don't know if that's a technically correct amp/cab
combination but it worked for me)
Treble 5.2
Middle 4.9
Bass 5.2
Presence 5.2
Gain 6.5
VR Gain 8.2
CH Volume 10.0
(Again, no effects or reverb)
Guitars:
Discovery & Map: Ibanez S1625TKS
Portmanteau & ]]][[[: LTD EC-401FM
Beacons: Gibson Les Paul Studio
Huge & Loop: Taylor 814CE
Electric tuned to B, F#, B, E, G#, C#
Acoustic tuned standard
Amp Modelers:
Discovery & Map: Behringer V-Amp 2
Portmanteau to present: VOX Tonelab
Effects:
I use an Ebow pretty extensively.
I mostly use the DL-4 and Loop Station for writing, although every once and
a while I’ll use the DL-4 to record as it can do some things that software
delays can’t.
Drum Software:
Discovery & Map: EZDrummer/Drumkit from Hell
Portmanteau to Beacons: Superior Drummer/NY Avatar SDX
Huge: Superior Drummer/Custom & Vintage SDX, EZDrummer/Electronic, Latin
Percussion
Mixing Software:
Discovery, Map, & Portmanteau: Cakewalk Sonar
]]][[[ & Beacons: Logic Express
Huge: Logic Pro
I used a PSP VintageWarmer in the master chain on ]]][[[, Beacons, and Let
Yourself Be Huge, but other than that I just use the stock effects that came
with Logic.
Hardware:
Discovery - Beacons: Presonus Firebox
Huge: Apogee Duet
Discovery - Beacons: Alesis M1 Active Mk2 Studio Monitors
Huge: JBL LSR2300 Series (8” Monitors + Subwoofer)
sked him a couple questions and here is what he told me for any of you that
are interested.
If you have not heard of his music, then do yourself a favor and go listen
NOW!
http://www.myspace.com/cloudkicker
1. What is your guitar chain?
*Guitar -> Vox Tonelab -> PreSonus Firebox -> Computer. *The Firebox has a
software-based mixer.
2. What do you use for your tone?*See above--and I don't have the
floor/pedal Tonelab, it's just a box <http://www.chrisguitars.com/vox-tonelab-071129.jpg>
*that sits on my desk. *Apparently they don't make it anymore but I'm sure
the newer ones are exactly the same. *I add a little bit of eq--just to
clean up the tone and get it to sit well in the mix (see attached
picture)--and a touch of reverb in Logic Express but I try to get the tone
as close as possible to what I want it to be before I record it.
3. *How do you process your instruments? For the lead bass it's only EQ--if
I'm using a clean bass tone I'll compress it for extra punch--and lead
guitars only EQ and reverb. *Ambient tracks are nothing too fancy, *a little
more high end gain on the EQ to help it stand out (depending on how many
layers I'm using I might cut a little bit of the low end--below about
250-500 hz--to not clutter the mix up) and a stereo delay with a reverb send
to give it that kind of wishy-washy "huge space" feeling. *Sometimes I'll
get fancy and experiment with other effects but 90% of the time it's pretty
straight-forward.
4. *What drums do you use in superior?
These pieces:
Snare - Slangerland 70s
Kick - 18x22 GMS
Clear Head toms
Some other stuff
Check out the third attached image for what the drum sends look like.
*Notice at the end of the chain I send the entire "Drums" track to a "Comp"
effects bus. *Check out this great article about parallel drum compression
<http://www.benvesco.com/blog/mixing/2007/phat-drums-new-york-style-parallel-compression-part-1/>
. *His website has great info about drum mixing, it really helped me
understand how to mix drums and how to really give them their own space in
the recording. *Here's one on snare eq and compression <http://www.benvesco.com/blog/mixing/2007/mix-recipes-snare-drum-eq-and-compression/#more-188>
,*kick eq and compression <http://www.benvesco.com/blog/mixing/2007/mix-recipes-kick-drum-eq-and-compression/>
, etc. *Definitely mess around with the stuff he talks about.
*Something new I'm doing this time is compressing the crap out of the room
mics (see pic). *This really helps bring out the decay of the cymbals in the
mix, which I think adds a lot more energy without sacrificing loudness by
compressing everything else too much.
There. *Hope I didn't overload you. *New release is almost done by the way!
-Ben
http://www.chrisguitars.com/vox-tonelab-071129.jpg
The basic setup is a lead guitar panned about 85% left and right with an
"ambient" track panned to the center, often with a stereo delay which delays
at different intervals to the left and right. I send all the tracks to
varying amounts of reverb, depending on the way I want them to sit in the
mix. The lead tracks have very little, but some of the ambient tracks have a
lot more and are sometimes almost all reverb. I don't use any synths, at
least not yet, so it's all guitar that you're hearing.
On some of the really thick parts there will be the lead (L&R) tracks, a
pair of harmonizing ambient tracks w/ delay panned about 50% L/R
respectively (sometimes two sets of those) and two or three center-panned
ambient tracks, adding up to 6-8 guitar tracks at once.