The Steel Guitar Forum

I guess my Radio Shack cassette recorder, crystal microphone, and bushel basket full of batteries pales by comparison

Did you know that 1500 feet of 1/4" tape goes thru a reel to reel tape drive at 15 Inches per Second in less time than it takes to sneeze...

Awesome rig Darvin!<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Ray Minich on 26 October 2005 at 01:45 PM.]</p></FONT>

Going to Wal-Mart today,, 2 "Black" lava lamps on list!!!

That should clear up my recording problems!!! Cheaper than new gear. LOL

Larry

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Emmons S/D-10, 3/5, Sessions 400 Ltd. Home Grown E/F Rack
"ROCKIN COUNTRY"

In all seriousness, where might one get a couple of lava lamps ? Those things are too cool.
My current rig.



Good thing they still make tape



I've heard lotsa great recordings done on all kinda setups, We are about the last of the analog around here. Lotsa people still dig it and we stay pretty busy. Hopefully tape will be around for a long,long time. If not, I'll have some nice boat anchors to give away.



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Got Twang ?

Mark

I have been in studios since right after high school-before I started playing steel guitar. I owned several pro facilities from the late 70's, including my last one through the 90's that was a 3 room complex in 6000 square feet. I sold out of that one in '99 and have been freelance since then, working out of various studios in Denver and Nashville. I spend a lot of time in the studio that I designed and had built for the church I go to (and play steel in the band, also).

Like Mike Smith, Tommy Detamore and Bill Terry, I am a complete PARIS devotee, owning two systems (a 48 track overdub rig and a 64 track mix rig) along with a small ProTools system. Paris delivers the closest thing to analog out there by far (I do have some analog skeletons in my closet--a 16 track Ampex MM1100 and an Otari 24 track, though they seldom get turned on these days).

I can transport my entire studio these days in a minivan--the Paris rig, 3 18 space racks of preamps, compressors etc, and a great mic trunk including lots of vintage tube mics--to anywhere one might like to record. I did most of the last Nitty Gritty Dirt Band record in one of the guys houses in Aspen, and am tracking a record in November in a mountain lodge above Boulder.

It's a crazy ride, and with the current studio climate, I'm glad to not have that overhead that I carried for 20+ years. I stay booked several months out, and am very blessed to have been able to make a living and support my family doing the things I love the most...

<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by John Macy on 26 October 2005 at 08:13 PM.]</p></FONT>

John Macy

I have a PARIS setup also with 3 MEC modules. Great system and its too bad they stopped growing it. Any idea if there are any modules still on the market for it? A couple more output modules and a couple Lava Lamps and I'd be all set.

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Got Twang ?

Mark

<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Mark Fasbender on 26 October 2005 at 09:29 PM.]</p></FONT>

You can watch the Paris newsgroup at http://webnews.parisnewsgroup.com/
or Morgan at EastCoast Music usually has some in stock. The output cards are the rarest. I have several Mecs, EDS cards and modules (in's, out's and ADAT cards), and always keep my eye out for more...

It's a truly great sounding system ...<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by John Macy on 26 October 2005 at 09:33 PM.]</p></FONT>

John Macey

Yes it is good sounding. Great converters too considering the price. Ensoniq has been making converters about as long as anyone, lotsa black magic in the circuit design. I like to dump all 24 tracks of my 2 inch machine into paris,sounds pretty smooth. I still like my sony better but not as many tricks as paris. Post some pictures of your last place,I'd love to see it.
Thanks for the reply, I'll check em out.
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Got Twang ?

Mark

<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Mark Fasbender on 26 October 2005 at 10:18 PM.]</p></FONT>

ProTools running on a BIG MAC Computer with a digi 02 control surface . . . looking for a lava lamp.

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Darrell Owens
www.darrellowens.com

Darrell-Spencer's Gifts stores have them,I believe...I think that's where my engineer got ours...

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http://home.comcast.net/~steves_garage

Here's my little music laboratory.... (note the impressive drum set )



Running Nuendo on PC...

Instrument wall, plus therapist couch for neurotic singers.....



Steinar

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www.gregertsen.com

<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Steinar Gregertsen on 27 October 2005 at 04:50 AM.]</p></FONT>

one more Paris owner here... sadly it's very under-utilized, but I ain't gettin' rid of it yet!

Very nice, Steinar.
I believe plants are as important as lava lamps.

I knew John (Macy) could chime in sooner or later. And Mark, I xfer'd tons of 2" onto Paris prior to watching it drive away. I still miss the look and feel of a full-size console but I don't miss demaging (I used to have a bad habit of holding my breath)or storing so many 2" rolls.

Funny how things can change.

Mike

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<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Gene Jones on 27 October 2005 at 06:49 PM.]</p></FONT>

Pics of my studio are here:
http://www.recplayaudio.com

It's a commercial recording facility for advertizing, so the place is prettier than the gear is high-end... But it gets the job done.

I'm amazed at the diversity in studios, but particularly in what the different conceptions of home, project, and commercial facilities are for everybody. I would call my studio a large project studio facility if you compare it to regular music recording studios. But by post-production standards, it's pretty much as good as it gets, at least here in mexico.

BTW, what's the sense in measuring our studios in tracks if most everybody is using DAW's? I mean, in the real world, how often do you really need to use more than 16 tracks at the same time? just a retorical question...

I love the fact that we all share the studio lifestyle as well as the steel guitar.... pretty cool.

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The Steel guitar Podcast

This is what my studio looks like now that my wife kicked me out into the garage!

Main tracking done on 3 ADAT XT20's
Mackie 24-8 Mixing Console

http://www.briancurtis.com/Studio1.jpg

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<A HREF="http://www.briancurtis.com" TARGET=_blank>http://www.briancurtis.com
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Franklin D-10
<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Brian Curtis on 27 October 2005 at 11:58 AM.]</p></FONT>

"in the real world, how often do you really need to use more than 16 tracks at the same time?"

Especially if you aren't tracking drums. Good point. Since I'm doing "art music" and most of my sounds are complex, I rarely use more than 24 stereo tracks, which can be thought of as 12 individual tracks. I have used as many as 100, to get a texture, which is then sub-mixed down to a manageable few.

I'm using ProTools, which is very friendly and convenient for the way that I work. On the recording for my forthcoming album. After all of the tracks were layed in and set, I waited a week before going back and listening to the "denser" parts. Then I went through each track to see if I could really hear what was on it and if it was truly contributing to the overall sound. If not, then I deleted it. It takes me at least a week to get over the preciousness of what I recorded and to be more objective.

Glad that Kiyoshi brought up the question/issue of the number of tracks. Although I do personally use all of my available tracks often, the quality of any recording isn't necessarily measured in the quantity of tracks or even the expense of gear. Good quality gear with useable features are wonderful and important, but the best piece of gear in any setup is your ears.

Years ago there was an interview in Downbeat Magazine with a prominent jazz producer (sorry, I forgot who it was but I'll paraphrase). The discussion came up about all the wonderful technologies available in some studios and this producer asked this question to make a point..."OK, so you got a $400,000 console, a $5,000 microphone, a $100,000 recorder and a $60,000 Boesendorfer piano...why do you need to use EQ?" Now sure, he understood the need for EQ, but he made a great point.

I've heard poor sounding stuff on very expensive and massive amounts of gear and I've heard great sounding stuff on little inexpensive equipment (these are not rules just observations). Junk multiplied times a ton of tracks still equal junk, but if you are putting in really good stuff...well, you get the idea (and yes, "junk" is a subjective term).

Mike<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Miguel e Smith on 27 October 2005 at 01:32 PM.]</p></FONT>

"in the real world, how often do you really need to use more than 16 tracks at the same time?"

Heck, my bass and drum tracks use that many by themselves . Seriously, most everything I work on these days is 40 to 60 tracks, and I see pop productions using upwards of 100 on occasion. Counting stereo fx returns, I am way past 120 faders lots of times. Granted, most of this comes from spreading tracks out (lots of drum tracks, splitting things like lead vocals and guitars to seperate tracks for verses/chorus'/solos for more control. Is it better to work this way? Heck yeah, for me anyway

I engineered in a big studio for 12 years till last June. Does that count? Business went way down for us too. The big, fancy, high rent music studio is not a viable business plan anymore, in any city.

For studio gear,I presently have 2 Lava lamps and an answering machine with the phone built in. Songs must be under 30 seconds however.

And BTW, Lava lamps can be had at Walmart for about 10 bucks.

I'm trying to think of the engineer in Nashville that has an anvil case full of lava lamps and tapestries that he brings to sessions...

Great posts everyone.

I also think its great that we all share a love of recording,but what would you expect from a group of people like steel guitarists,The original do it yourselfers.

I use a ton of tracks on occasionbut but I find it freeing to be limited to 24 sometimes.
I like the musicians to be responsible for their sounds and limiting the tracks is a start. I will always maintain that a killer performance is key no matter what it's recorded on. Its all about the performance and a good song dont hurt none.

Keep em coming.



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Got Twang ?

Mark

<SMALL>Heck, my bass and drum tracks use that many by themselves . Seriously, most everything I work on these days is 40 to 60 tracks, and I see pop productions using upwards of 100 on occasion.</SMALL>

I know what your saying, but that's not precisely what I meant. I'm saying that, although I could put all my equipment together and have maybe 96 inputs at once, I've never needed to record 96 individual performances at the same time!

I mean, although I would love to record the (probably now defunct) soviet red army choir, I would be a fool if I tried to fit all those buzzcuts into my recording room!;-)

Multitracking (and now digital audio) have changed music is performed in the studio. That's why we can have 16 tracks of drums, and 20 tracks of vocal over dubs or whatever... It's precisely because we no longer need to record everything at once (Although sometimes it's more appropriate to record that way).

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The Steel guitar Podcast

Kiyoshi

I have noticed that when I record analog that I am able to use less tracks than a similar digital recording and it still sounds bigger,wider and fuller. Seems like much more depth and dimension to me. I tend to double much less to tape.
Go figure. I have done some tests to try and understand why this occurs and have come to some conclusions. Email me if anyone is interested.

Lets see some more recording setups.


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Got Twang ?

Mark

ProTools 6.7 and Digi Rack 002. Tanoy Active monitors. simple but potent equipment. accurate enough to make me wished I'd practiced alot more every time I record.