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[j.hall]

Wow!!!  thanks for all that insight Keith.  really appreciate your input.

working on this 6000 has been very easy and enjoyable.  

[j.hall]

Wow!!!  thanks for all that insight Keith.  really appreciate your input.

working on this 6000 has been very easy and enjoyable.  

[ssltech]

No worries.

For anyone who cares to know more about the difference between Record and Replay, the differences which I can remember are:

'Record' is in sync, 'Replay' is in Repro.  Replay inhibits group switching, so that -even if you have things switched to 'ready group' (group-monitor) switching to 'replay' also automatically reverts these channels to 'ready tape' (tape monitor) so you can listen to a playback ('replay') without having to tediously deselect all of the group monitor buttons.  'Replay' also automatically disables the SLS (studio Loudspeakers), so you can leave the SLS switched on, and send the 2-track mix out there for them to listen to without having to come in to the control room. -We used to use Tannoy Lockwoods for SLS playback, and it was fantastic to be able to have them hear the control room monitor balance on speaker playback without having to trudge in and out. -Yet with a SINGLE button push, EVERYTHING was back in 'record' if the band wanted to rip down another take, without wasting any time. -Switching back to 'record' with a single finger stab used to put the multitrack back to sync, kill the SLS playback, switch all of the required tracks back to ready group, etc etc etc.

Then there was the other magic master status... "Record-in-Mix".

Here's a true story. -I'm in the SSL room, on a mix project. -We're three-quarters of the way through the mix when the singer decides that he wants to re-sing one of the lead vocal lines.

On the VR on which the project was recorded, that would have been a comparatively significant pain in the arse... but on the 4000E, it took me less than four seconds to:

Put the machine into sync, leave every channel in the console in record status apart from the vocal channel, give him a combined mix of his incoming vocal AND the return monitor (with instant changeover to machine-monitor ONLY immediately on punch-in, and then switch immediately back to 3dB-down combined blend on punch-out)... and allowed me to return to 'full-mix in repro' with a single button push. On the Neve, all of that was simply impossible.

It allowed me to concentrate ENTIRELY on matching the sound and getting in and out tidily, trusting in the producer to steer the performance. Switching in and out of record-in-mix mode allowed full-quality comparisons INSTANTLY.

I haven't thought about the session for simply ages, but this thread triggered the memory... Here's a low-grade mono version of the track which I just found on YouTube, in case anyone wants to try and pick out which bit of the vocal was replaced!

Keith

[abtech]

Your comments about the complexity of doing a "quick" vocal touch up while mixing on the VR being a PITA have me stumped.  I do this all the time by leaving the console in mix mode, pressing CO for the mic channel and since I usually leave the multitrack monitor in OD, all that is left to do is hit master sync on the Studer and arm the appropriate track.  Headphone mix is usually just the stereo mix with a bit more of the vocal track being overdubbed.  Once the track is "finished", the Studer goes back into safe (play) mode and I continue mixing.  Certainly painless to me . . .

[CWHumphrey]

So finally, I'm ready to do a session on the AWS 900.

This will be, among other things, a small ensemble consisting of French Horn, Oboe, Clarinet and Violin.  The ensemble will be stereo mic'ed as well as spot mics on each instrument.

While I'm most likely going to use my Langevin pres on the main mic array, the boards pres will be used for everything else.  To me, this will be the "acid test" for the console's channel path.  Back in my days of recording classical, I was very much a student of the "straight wire" sound for classical instruments.

We shall see (or rather, hear)!

Cheers,  

[rankus]

Thanks for the update Carter... Standing by...

[KB_S1]

Very interested to hear the report on the AWS900 too.

Has anyone else had experience of them?

[0dbfs]

abtech wrote on Wed, 30 September 2009 15:10

Your comments about the complexity of doing a "quick" vocal touch up while mixing on the VR being a PITA have me stumped.  I do this all the time by leaving the console in mix mode, pressing CO for the mic channel and since I usually leave the multitrack monitor in OD, all that is left to do is hit master sync on the Studer and arm the appropriate track.  Headphone mix is usually just the stereo mix with a bit more of the vocal track being overdubbed.  Once the track is "finished", the Studer goes back into safe (play) mode and I continue mixing.  Certainly painless to me . . .

We always kept the 4k's, VR's, and V3's in mix mode as well and would CO, or SWAP (or whatever the name of the button was) the individual channels if needed.. This was for tracking, overdubs, and mixes. There is only one session (which was a large orchestral tracking session) where I ever really needed to put the console in record mode and I don't remember the specific's of exactly why now (prolly lots of mic channels). The reasoning was that no matter what, you were pretty much always "Mixing"...

Keith, the way you are explaining it sounds to me like the console modes (at least on the various ssl series) are also designed to control whether the tape machine is in repro, sync, etc. The consoles I am talking about had either a CCU or KSU unit for control and were not integrated (or enabled) to switch tape machine heads.

Cheers,
jonathan

[abtech]

At least in my case, I let the console handle routing to the storage medium, but let the storage medium (Usually 24 track tape) handle the play/sync switching.  This seems intuitive to me, but I am guessing the SSL's can manage both (console routing and tape mode) and that may make it one step easier, but certainly not the nightmare Keith alluded to . . . .

[CWHumphrey]

Update:

I tracked the first classical ensemble today.  The 2nd ensemble will be tomorrow.

Naturally, I'd like to hear the tracks outside of the control room but here are my observations so far:

The pre's are very clean and seem pretty flat, response-wise.  That's the kicker about acoustic instruments mic'ed as an ensemble, if the pre's are even a little dirty and/or noisy, it will show through in the recording.

I would have liked a little more detail out of the english horn than I got, but I haven't checked the spot mics with any detail yet.

Here was the breakdown with the mics:

2 U67's set up in O.R.T.F. as the main stereo pair
414EB on English Horn
KM 54 on Violin
KM 54 on Viola
U47 FET on Cello

With the exception of the 414EB, the sound leans toward the darker side which was due to a certain approach I was going for.

The first piece was very dynamic (even for a ensemble of this configuration), so I feel this was a pretty good "litmus" test for the board.  The 2nd piece was a short one for string trio done in a "classical" period style (though written in the last couple of decades)  

The pre's and the board were quiet when I needed them to be, but supplied the "punch" (if one may use that word to describe classical) when needed.  This was my complaint about E and G series mic pre's, that extremes in dynamic range didn't quite come across.

also, the depth of sound was pretty good, though I couldn't hear the sound stage as clearly as I'd like to.  But again, I'm going to have to hear what we've got outside of the control room, without being concerned about tracking and watching over students at the same time.

I did have a VU meter stick on the MIX output of the console, so flicking it with my finger brought back memories of the E's and the G's.  I don't know if that's really a good thing.

Tomorrow it's winds mainly, so more details to follow.

Cheers,