The Steel Guitar Forum

Here's the latest from my upstairs bedroom that has been repurposed as a home studio. I'm using my usual assortment of production tools and instruments. Steel and Lead Guitar are direct in. Hope you traditional country fans enjoy my efforts. It's not perfect, but I managed to come in at way below budget.

https://youtu.be/2Z2124Kig7k

RC

Another nice one Rick. The band sure was thirsty during the making of the video.

Are the drums and bass Band-in-a-Box? If so do you remember what RealDrums and RealTracks bass you used? They blended well with your guitar, fiddles, steel and singing.

Jim Fogle wrote:Another nice one Rick. The band sure was thirsty during the making of the video.

Are the drums and bass Band-in-a-Box? If so do you remember what RealDrums and RealTracks bass you used? They blended well with your guitar, fiddles, steel and singing.

This was a combination of BIAB Nashville Shuffle drums and some MIDI drums. I like the RealDrums, but you are pretty much stuck with it as is. When I want to add some accent, I supplement with MIDI drums. I use EZ Drummer as the engine for the MIDI drums and that allows me to vary the volume, pan, etc... of each individual drum, just as if they were on individual tracks. With RealDrums, while you can't adjust the volume of individual drums, I copy the RealDrums tracks a couple of times, and then EQ to favor the kick drum, snare, rimshot, etc... It's not perfect, but it's better than nothing. I could do better, if I was a drummer and understood them better. I just use my ears and try to get something that works. Bass was MIDI with a lot of editing. Sometimes I play bass, it just depends on which works best for the song. It's just a hobby. By doing it myself, I can work at my own pace and don't have to be involved in other people's schedules, etc...

The drink cup content is a sugar free orange/tangerine mix that comes in the little squirt bottle. The guys in the band are crazy about it.

RC

Thanks for answering my questions Rick.

In 2022 some RealDrums are available as a stereo mix or as stems so you can mix the individual drum instruments as you desire. I've attached a screen shot of the Nashville drums available as stems.

Jim Fogle wrote:Thanks for answering my questions Rick.

In 2022 some RealDrums are available as a stereo mix or as stems so you can mix the individual drum instruments as you desire. I've attached a screen shot of the Nashville drums available as stems.

Thanks Jim. I'm going to have to check that out. I kind of knew about it, but I just hadn't got around to looking at it.

RC

I've read some people feel drums are pretty difficult to mix. Some of the RealDrums have 10 to 17 stems including top and bottom snare, front and rear bass drum and multiple room mics.

As a way to practice, I've tried using stems to recreate a RealDrums stereo mix. It's hard! I haven't come close.

Jim Fogle wrote:I've read some people feel drums are pretty difficult to mix. Some of the RealDrums have 10 to 17 stems including top and bottom snare, front and rear bass drum and multiple room mics.

As a way to practice, I've tried using stems to recreate a RealDrums stereo mix. It's hard! I haven't come close.

When I first saw how the pros mic up a set of drums for sessions, or live sound, I was amazed. More versatile software will help us home studio guys. I just need to learn more.

RC

The Beatle's Get Back documentary has a couple of shots in it of the three microphone setup that sound engineer Glyn Johns used on the studio drum set of Ringo Starr. There is one microphone for the bass drum, one for the snare drum and one overhead. Of course the drum mix was mono.

Rick, from the sound quality of the songs you post you've got real good mixing ears. Your audio and video productions are class acts. I'm more in love with learning about audio production than I am with producing music.