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Author Topic: Creative non-linearity  (Read 3592 times)

Dinogi

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Creative non-linearity
« on: July 09, 2017, 08:43:19 AM »

When I last broached this subject, Fletcher gently patted me on the head and basically inferred that I was not in a position to take advantage of a product I was considering. It was good advice, brilliant in fact. When a guy who spent a whole careers worth of time as a recording engineer and then became a gear pimp who also happened to build the Mercenary Audio Methods and Applications Laboratory, offers you an opinion you sort of have to listen. That would have been the end of the story if I weren’t such a stubborn old twit. The original question is now irrelevant, but the spirit of the question still remains although it has now evolved into something more philosophical in nature. In my work in TV and film style sound there is little emphases on anything other than hot, clean audio getting to where it needs to be. I have used this same approach in my personal music recording by playing it safe, recording as pristine a signal as possible without regard to getting any specific tone or sound. Capturing the performance as it sounded to the best of my ability. This path has worked out swimmingly except for one little bitty thing.
I’m so damn bored of clean I’m ready to chuck it all and learn carpentry just to hear the unbridled anger in the sound of a band saw. I’m finding that my painstakingly methodical, photorealistic approach to recording is just not complementary to certain pieces of music, even the acoustic music I’m doing. I can hear the wonderfully f..’d up guitar sound in my head but have neither the experience nor apparently the specific tools needed to be dipping my toes into the mysterious pool of euphonic distortion. Terms like “colored” or “warmth” have been so overused that they have become meaningless to me. I would rather describe a vocal sound as angry or sad rather than warm.
In light of the fact that I have not actually asked a specific question, I don’t require a specific answer. I was just wondering about moderately affordable hardware alternatives to recording squeaky clean then trying to use plug-ins to f.. things up which aint working so far.
(Here comes another head pat)
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I'd trade everything I own now for a good sounding room and a bucket of 57's.

Fletcher

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Re: Creative non-linearity
« Reply #1 on: July 10, 2017, 01:48:16 PM »

Dave Hill's plug ins could very well be an excellent starting point... and after that, create a solid relationship with a quality vendor who actually has your best interest at heart [vs. their highest "commission" point at heart].  Believe it or not, its OK to ask a potential vendor if they're working on salary / hourly or commission.  If they're working on commission, then [in my not so humble opinion] they are working for a 'dual master'... you, and them.  If they're working on salary / hourly then they're working for you [yes, I know this is an over simplification].

Back in the day when the mighty analog dinosaurs ruled the earth, the goal was to get everything as clean as possible.  As track counts grew, the various distortions that were so lovely and musical on these original analog beasts began to become something of an impediment as stacking these same distortions upon each other began to create a "haze" to the overall presentation [what was fine for 8 tracks didn't really work at 46 tracks].  From my experience the little distortions caused by some of this hardware can very often assist putting a sound into a neat little hole where it can exist in happiness and be a major contributor to the overall sound of the music at hand... which leads directly to having a balanced and varied hardware pallet from which to paint the sonic picture of the music.

The only way to define that pallet of tools is to audition the hardware you choose, on your schedule, for a good month or so.  In my opinion, you need to find a vendor that is willing to work with you like this... letting you try for a good / serious period before you make your final commitment to the hardware acquisition.  This is where the solid relationship with an excellent vendor comes in... because as you try things, and return things, a good vendor will start to learn where your taste in sonic landscapes leads you, and will hopefully be able to suggest equipment for you to try that takes you in that direction.

I hope this is of some assistance.

Peace
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CN Fletcher

mwagener wrote on Sat, 11 September 2004 14:33
We are selling emotions, there are no emotions in a grid


"Recording engineers are an arrogant bunch
If you've spent most of your life with a few thousand dollars worth of musicians in the studio, making a decision every second and a half... and you and  they are going to have to live with it for the rest of your lives, you'll get pretty arrogant too.  It takes a certain amount of balls to do that... something around three"
Malcolm Chisholm

Dinogi

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Re: Creative non-linearity
« Reply #2 on: July 13, 2017, 05:46:54 AM »

Your insight is always of assistance. Even or especially if it's something I don't necessarily want to hear. I will attempt to open a discussion with the one gear-er-dashery in my area that carries the manufacturers I'm curious about as well as several on-line establishments I have a relationship with. In the mean time I'll just have to lash myself to the mast and resist the temptation to buy the Distressor I found on Craigslist! Thx,d

First you will come to the Sirens who enchant all who come near them. If any one unwarily draws in too close and hears the singing of the Sirens, his wife and children will never welcome him home again, for they sit in a green field and warble him to death with the sweetness of their song. There is a great heap of dead men's bones lying all around, with the flesh still rotting off them. Therefore pass these Sirens by, and stop your men's ears with wax that none of them may hear; but if you like you can listen yourself, for you may get the men to bind you as you stand upright on a cross-piece half way up the mast, and they must lash the rope's ends to the mast itself, that you may have the pleasure of listening. If you beg and pray the men to unloose you, then they must bind you faster.
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I'd trade everything I own now for a good sounding room and a bucket of 57's.
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