Wow! Lots of great info and thanx for the feedback!
Brad, your point about the DAT A/D... When I go to DAT, I use the converters in my CDRW-5000 first. Obviously not the best converters, but definitely better than the DA-20's.
The compression notes (#1 in particular) were tough to word. Again...
If I'm doing a classic rock genre song, you better believe I'm squashin' the bejezus out of the kik, snare and bass. If I'm mixing a bluegrass combo, I'm gonna need to be really judicious with compression on anything other than the upright bass and banjo. The thought though is to be careful and not to just set the attack/release at either limit INDISCRIMINATELY, or without some reason to do so... there ain't no concrete rules, but there are some common sense reasons to do some things.
As an AE, I need to be aware that leaving no attack on an instrument CAN kill exactly what you ME's need... some signal to work with. That, and a 2 second release time CAN do the same thing... depending upon the instrument of course.
I guess the word/phrase I should have used (and debated on using) was... as short of attack times as PRACTICAL and as long of release times as PRACTICAL. Keeping these times all relative to the instrumentation of the individual track.
The wording of possible v. practical was really bugging me, as neither one accurately describes the "concept" that I've discussed with a couple of local ME's in the past. Not only that, but if someone ever does a search, I think that they could easily get confused... as the "possible" wording works the way an AE is going to tweak a compressor, versus the "practical" wording. .. which indicates the action of compression settings... eg. just the opposite wording with the same meaning. (did that make sense?)
I've always been warned about using too much compression on the 2-buss. The numbers I've seen generally tossed around are on the order of 1.5:1 - 2:1 at a relative threashold of 0db. (or higher) depending on the compressor. And the -3db reference was indeed -3dbFS.
Now, I don't have the worlds best comp/limiter collection at all, so I'm a bit nervous about my 2-buss inadvertantly getting the life squashed out of it... as most AE's should be, IMHO. I generally use either my RNC's or the Langevin DVC (Limiter section ONLY) on the final 2-buss... when I am mixing stuff that I need to worry about compressing the 2-buss.
(So anyone wanna suggest a dedicated 2-buss comp?) I've been thinking about an LA2A, Pendulum ES-8, or the SSL X-Logic. I'm wanting a tool that can be transparent or at most minimally aggressive. Price is a concern... under $4k would be ideal.
Sorry for being kinda' long winded here folks... but the day gig has been suking all of my time and there are lots of great points that were posted...
I generally try to actually do a mix with my sound level meter/spectrum analyzer reading no more than 86db. Should I consider going lower? How low?
When I mix, I mix the mix... or more accurately, the mix "tells" me what I need to do. If I need to clip something to get the distortion of the channel strip, by God, that's what I'm gonna do. (Actually did that once w/ an electric guitar... sounded pretty righteous too.) The knobs on the gear go from one extreme to another for a reason. It's all about knowing what to turn, how much and when.
I don't send too much stuff to mastering. Most of the time, my clients take home "finished" one-off CD's from me. They take em' home and burn their own dupe's. But, If I don't take into consideration the fact that a project is going to go to mastering, I can easily do some really stupid things that will degrade your ability to give the client less than your best efforts, right?
Thanx again for the pointers,
Max
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Topic: Old Topic-What do I need to do for YOU?!? (Read 7340 times)