what to buy. . .
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Posted on Aug 12, 2002 10:40 am
zekthedeadcow
Eat Spam before it eats YOU!!!
Member Since: May 11, 2002
I have an extra $1300 coming up and I\'m trying to figure out what to do with it.
Right now I record to PC (1.3 ghz 512 MBRAM, 7200 RPM maxtor harddrive) useing Cakewalk SONAR 2.0 XL and I use an Aardvark Q10. I have 3 sm57\'s a beta 52, and an AKG D112.
I know I need to get my own condenser mics as I borrow a pair of MXL 1006\'s now. I was thinking a pair of Rode NT1\'s
I also feel I should get some mastering software like Ozone
. . . and an outboard multiband compressor
but I still want to atleast put $500 in stocks :)
what do you guys think? Any recommendations?
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Aug 12, 2002 01:19 pm Well, as far as stocks go, put it in Retek (RETK) we got hammered a couple weeks ago when our whole industry did...you can get it super cheap and it will reap you great rewards...
anyway, I doubt you were looking for stock tips :-) A compressor would rock, it's a must for every home studio! I use a simple, inexpensive dbx266XL and it has worked great for many years...
Mastering software, don't you DARE look at anything except WaveLab ( service.bfast.com/bfast/c...mp;bfmtype=gear ) or Noize and I will send an electronic charge through your keyboard and zap your fingers!
Seriously, though, WaveLab is the greatest...I don't think we will electronically assualt you, but it does rock...
Aug 12, 2002 09:26 pm Behringer makes a multiband for a budget, but they are getting hard to find. MF no longer sells them, but they are still available.
www.hollywooddj.com/ulprods.html
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Aug 12, 2002 10:00 pm Yep, we will zap you. :-) Sound Forge is another good app. but it does not even come close to the power of WaveLab.
Aug 13, 2002 12:13 pm Ouch $450.00 . Does wavelab have a multiband Compressor? What other goodies does it have? I have used Soundforge 4.0 for editing, but found it vertually useless for mastering.
Aug 13, 2002 01:25 pm All Sound Forge and Wavelab are made for is mastering, what do you do that you find it worthless, I am not a huge Sound Forge fan, but it does any mastering job I have needed to do, it's just not as fast as WaveLab?!?!
There is a compressor, I dunno if it is multiband. if it's not, then you just open multiple instantiations of it and make it multiband :-) Thats the beauty of software effects...
Aug 13, 2002 03:28 pm yea i completely support wavelab4. their other versions i thought were lacking a little. but 4 is real good.
another possibility, its not out just yet. but sound forge 6 is about to come out.. and its supposed to overhaul their app. about time. well see though.
zekthedeadcowEat Spam before it eats YOU!!!Member
Since: May 11, 2002
Aug 13, 2002 04:01 pm Thanks guys, I decided to streatch my money a bit and go with a Berhinger MDX 1400 compressor (mainly to tame vocals as I lay tracks and I want to get into live sound). . .which I got for $100 used . . .even though now I see it on musicians friend new for 79 I won't complain because I also got the Furman PL Plus power conditioner new($150 list) for $79 from guitar center.
I'm going to hold off on the NT1000's and "make do" with some Berhinger B1's until I can afford a pair of Rode NTK's . . . and I want to get a tube preamp. whats a decient tube pre to get started with? Right now I use the Pre's on my Aardvark Q10
WaveLab. . .gotchya on that one. thanks.
RETK . . .thanks but I want to get out of tech as I've only had bad experiences. I was hopeing to get into AEP but it's beyond my effective price ($10 an below) so I keep looking. . .healthcare is always good too. . .
Aug 13, 2002 04:26 pm Ya, a few of my stocks are in health care, it's a good field for steady growth. Tech is tough, when it wins, it wins big...when it looses....well, you know :-)
Aug 13, 2002 10:20 pm what sort of price range are you looking at for the tube preamp?
zekthedeadcowEat Spam before it eats YOU!!!Member
Since: May 11, 2002
Aug 14, 2002 07:20 am $300 and below
Aug 14, 2002 07:20 am A multiband compressor is one of the tools a Professional Mastering engineer uses. It it not simply multiple instances of a compressor of compressors daisy chained together. A multiband compressor splits the audio spectrum up into smaller bands or groups of frequencies like a crossover. Each band of frequencies is then run through a seperate compressor circut. With a normal compressor, there is only one band than spans the entire audio spectrum. So if you get say a kick drum that is above the set threshold, the compressor will reduce the volume of the entire signal. With a multiband compressor, the same senario would result in only the small band of frequencies that correspond to the kick drum being compressed and the rest of the signal would be unchanged. I'm not a mastering engineer so I don't know much more than that, but that is the basic concept. Now that I have learned a little more about compression, I decided to go back and explore soundforge again last night and found that it does have a multiband compressor. It is only four bands, but four is better than one. It is not listed as a compressor though. It is labeled as simply "Dynamics". Looks like I'll be doing more experimentation over the next few weeks. <br>
What all functions do you use when Mastering DB?
Aug 14, 2002 08:40 am Ah, I see what you are talking about...as far as what I use, I use a huge array of things depending on the job, compressors, limiters, maximizers, saturators, noize reduction, stereo imagers, and of course reverbs, delays, and whatever else seems necessary...
Aug 14, 2002 12:26 pm Do all those things come included in Wavelab?
Aug 14, 2002 01:45 pm eh, some of the them do i believe. if you are serious about mastering, the best set of software you can pick up is waves native power pack or their gold pack. those plugins are great when it comes to mastering.
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Aug 14, 2002 05:24 pm I will give a third yep, on the Native Power Pack issue. It is by far the best package of DSP out there.
Aug 15, 2002 10:01 am Yeh, all this stuff is expensive, but it cost me $1500.00 to get my last CD Professionally Mastered. And I practically had to beg to get that price. I know it will take more than a few programs to get the quality Mastering that I got, but if I can even come close it should be well worth the money.
Is the Waves Native Power Pack a plugin pack or a complete program?
Aug 15, 2002 11:35 am Waves is a plugin pack of several very high-quality clean DirectX plugins. EQ's, Parametric EQ's, maximizer (the L1 rocks!) reverb, and much more...
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Aug 15, 2002 10:41 pm Waves Native Power Pack is the Kats back side when it come's to DSP pluggin's. There is not much that will match it at that price. And it is not cheap, but it is well worth the money.
Aug 18, 2002 01:52 pm Ok, I'm completely new to recording so I bought small with Magix Studio Generator 6 (ouch I know). However, I just got Sonar and I get the same quality, I figure sure there are some things I can change in the recording to make it sound better but I'll try mastering for now which I have never done b4. So I have Sound Forge 6 and I like what it can do. However I'm hearing on this site about the Waves Plug-Ins. I'm so computer illiterate, which programs can I plug-in to?
Aug 18, 2002 02:50 pm any program that accepts DirectX plugins, Waves plugins are based on the DirectX programming standard, so any app that can use DirectX (both Sonar AND Sound Forge in your case) will have all of the Waves plugins avilable in them.
