29 Jul
2014
29 Jul
'14
4:58 p.m.
2014-07-22 8:36 GMT+02:00 Carlo Ascani <carlo.ratm(a)gmail.com>om>:
I've used Raspberry PI for jamming live and recording, a P4 with 512MB
for rec/mix/master/..., and other PC/laptops with more power, and it
all went OK, just with Ardour2/QTractor for many years now, using
Raspbian and Musix distros mainly. Haven't yet tried Ardour3 until we
compile it for Musix or have some repos for it.
I mean, you can record a decent drumkit sound with a pair of mics, In
your case you used 8 (which is not easy at all, considering leaks and
phase issues) and a P4 and you achieved a great raw sounding that you
can later sculpt to your taste.
Thank you for the tips guys!
A bit OT:
I would like to emphasize how good is the Revox M3500, the mic I used
on the snare.
I find it far better than the SM57, which is a mic you can compare it to.
I try to put in practice that of "less is more" (you'll find that most
of the publicity of most products tell you almost the opposite). A
good source is the key, and I think that with some knowledge, good
taste and a relative good pair of ears, you can achieve at least
acceptable results with any equipment.
You did it, so congrats. And would be great to hear this in context:
song, album...
---
C. sanchiavedraZ:
* NEW / NUEVO: www.sanchiavedraZ.com
* Musix GNU+Linux: www.musix.es
2014-07-21 21:52 GMT+02:00 Robin Gareus
<robin(a)gareus.org>rg>:
Carlo, from here also thanks for sharing your experience.
Thanks for sharing. That's good info.
I think that the most interesting part here is the computer.
It is a P4 with 512MB of RAM and it does a great job as a digital recorder.
And it is extremely silent.
What software and plugins did you use to record and mix?
I recorded using Ardour 3.
I mixed on my laptop, sharing the whole session using git.
The plugins I used are eq and compressors from calf and gverb.
In details:
the kick has eq and comp
the snare has comp
the toms have eq
the overheads have nothing
the whole kit has gverb
Under Ardour 3, there is a plain archlinux installation.
Stock kernel, and a very inexpensive window manager.
On the mixing machine, which is a Thinkpad X201,
I have exactly the same setup.
I am not a big fan of "multimedia distros", just because
I am using the same software setup for recording, mixing and do my daily job
for almost 10 years now, (just changing the hardware).
So guys, what do you think?
Sounds very good to me. I've heard pro studios do worse with much more
expensive equipment. I prefer the dry raw sound [2] here for the demo.
Though things will be different in mix with other instruments.
If I would improve the quality of my recordings,
where should I spend
more money?
I don't think you have to. Tweaking mic positions and adjusting the mix
will have greater impact in this stage.
If you really really want to waste some cash: one can never have good
enough Mics and analog preamps :) but you'll have to go up an order of
magnitude on the price-list for it to make a significant difference - if
any.
You're fine on the digital side. the Echo Layla has only 20 bits but
that's plenty here. Don't worry about this.
The weakest part of your setup are probably the KRK Rokit 5 monitors.
I've heard those in comparison and was not convinced for
mixing/mastering in general, but I cannot judge them for drum mixing on
a budget.
Note however, that this directly affects the processing
(compression/eq/etc) that you'll be doing and it may or may not be
possible to 'get used' to these monitors and learn how to properly tweak
details of the mix with them.