Hi SK. It's 1:29 AM where I am but I think your thread deserves an answer, at least a short one.

OK well from what I've seen you have a very cool Mackie mixer there, and a wild abundance of amps and gear good enough for recording very clear and accurate signals.
You can use this to your advantage! It lets you record clear, clean signals when you want to, and overdriven muddy signals will be recorded exactly as they sound as well.

So you have to find ways to make your signals (or acoustic sources) sound the way you want them to sound before they run through your gear. Otherwise it'll result in a heavy load of usually expensive plugins to simulate "analogity" (trust me - it's worth investing in some good ones in the future), and that will cause your PC to spasm and so on.

So let your mind wander (or wonder) and think of ways to make your signals sound analogue before they even hit your mixing desk.

Getting a "shoddy" preamp or tube-driven preamp section will help a lot. I know you are a nifty kid so you will think of ways to sort that out. Just be careful with these electronics should you hop off and invent something yourself - an undrained capacitor can cost your life, so stay clear of that sort of stuff for now.

If you desire an analogue, broken-up, overdriven sound, get your settings on your amps right, and make sure your microphones are just a weenie bit overdriven (though don't destroy them by too loud signals, eh? This applies to ribbon mics especially), and, to get the icing on the sonic cake, find an old tape machine (even a casette deck) to which you can bounce either seperate channels after recording or even a stereo mixdown - then back into the PC for further digital distribution and fame. Bouncing signals back and forth is a common technique in the industry.

The tape easily oversaturates at loud signals, which causes a nice warm sound. Of course a domestic cassette deck will not be the nonplusultra but it's a good start. I started that way and it's a nice tool to have in your tool set.

Ok that's all from me for now. Stay clear of electric shocks and shock us with some electrifying music! Rock on SK -

Nutter

I remember Lenny Kravitz was totally into all his material being recorded on old analog equipment for the warmth and great sound. He couldn't stand the hi-fi digital sound at the time.

_________________
Luck won't do it and ignorance can't

George Van Eps.

There you go!

a lot of what nutter says makes a hell of a lot of sense, good advice. I have found in recording that quite often, if you mix something down to reel to reel, or play a digital version, they sound pretty much identical. Its really not worth the effort, and loads of these rich rock stars chasing that vintage sound are really wasting their money. OK so recording on tape in the first place may get you a better sound, but its darn expensive and hard work.

An old analogue desk that actually puts some noise on the recordings can be great, theres a studio i use a lot in london that used to be called `sarm`, their desk is fantastic for this, its basically old, a bit knackered, and will put some of the noise you sound like you are after onto whatever you record through it.

But basically, i agree with the nutter himself in that its all about the actual sound you record. I think generally you may as well get crystal clear digital recordings, using top microphones, but experiment with very loud stuff and distant mic techniques, and work on getting the sound you want from the instrument first and foremost. If theres one thing ive become convinced of over the years its the truth in the old saying `you cant polish a turd`, they can invent all the plugins and effects they want, but if you ever find an engineer saying `dont worry, we`ll sort that out in mixing` if something doesnt sound right, just say no and keep working on getting it right at this crucial first stage. You can make an average sound a bit better using all this studio wizardry, but the magic comes in using it sparingly to make a great sound into total aural porn.

Incidentally, my bass player once came up with a gem of a quote when i mentionned the `you cant polish a turd` phrase, his reply was `no, but you can wrap it in silver foil`.

_________________
`I prefer not to listen to music that I can't rip off or improve on` - Ian Dury

I like!

And +1 to distant miking. Often overlooked technique.
Also try to use natural reverb or echo-ey rooms. It adds so much more.

But SK, you could always go to the reel-to-reel and put your signals through it, couldn't you? Perhaps using a minidisc-player as a portable device? hmmm.... You'll figure something out!

Cheers

Nutter

Here is an option that I use and it works great. Nutter mentioned mini-disc players....I have been getting right back into these in the last few months.
ANy of the Brits here remember the original Sony Mini-disc adverts? It had the band Reef playing in a room and recording with a mic straight into the mini-disc?

It works really well. Our band tend to stick a decent mic pointing upwards in the middle of the room plugged directly to the mD recorder(cost me £2.50 off e-bay)and just play using all our usual settings. No need to fart about with desk settings, just finding the 'sweet spot' in the room for the mic. Once it's recorded, use something like audacity/soundforge or something similar to make a digital copy of the recording and there you go!!!!

We are toying with the idea of setting up 4 MD recorders (each one cost less than a fiver) and bang we have four tracks we can put into cubase or the like............

So........£20 for MD recorders and a free version of music software against a couple of hundred quid for a desk.............................

_________________
speak slowly I'm a drummer too!!

And I proudly lack a stick or a kazoo up my arse...........