It was like an Escher Sketch.

mike_mccue


It was like an Escher Sketch.

Only not as brilliant.

On my gig last week I rode the levels on the vocalists as they sang... it reminded me how much good can be done when you focus on tracking at levels that simply sound good... ok... really good.

IMO riding the levels when tracking is a recipe for re-takes.

Maybe good for gunning on the run but in a studio setting?

What would you gain? (pun in ten did)  If the singer is moving relative to the mic position riding the gain isn't going to change anything that can't be changed after the take.

I'd hate to be responsible for messing up a great performance by not being pre-emptive enough when somebody suddenly decides to raise the roof.  I've seen too many engineers mess up somebody else's art for me to go there.

mike_mccue


Is it ok to set the levels where it sounds good?

I can't remember when I started trying this, but it seems to work ok. What happens if it it sounds real good but the levels aren't in the right place?

Do I get points taken off or something like that?





best,
mike

Is this a question or a clue?

Do you want an answer or are you imparting your veiled wisdom upon us for the benefit of everyone here?

You say it's a serious post, maybe you can appreciate why some would find that difficult to ascertain.

Jonbouy

mike_mccue


Is it ok to set the levels where it sounds good?

I can't remember when I started trying this, but it seems to work ok. What happens if it it sounds real good but the levels aren't in the right place?

Do I get points taken off or something like that?





best,
mike

Is this a question or a clue?

Do you want an answer or are you imparting your wisdom for the benefit of everyone here.

You say it's a serious post, maybe you can appreciate why some would find that difficult to ascertain.

I can't even ascertain the meaning of the post, let alone it's seriousness or lack thereof.

I suspect someone is attempting to flick metaphorical inky blots at the popular boy.

Jonbouy

On my gig last week I rode the levels on the vocalists as they sang... it reminded me how much good can be done when you focus on tracking at levels that simply sound good... ok... really good.

IMO riding the levels when tracking is a recipe for re-takes.

Maybe good for gunning on the run but in a studio setting?

What would you gain? (pun in ten did)  If the singer is moving relative to the mic position riding the gain isn't going to change anything that can't be changed after the take.

I'd hate to be responsible for messing up a great performance by not being pre-emptive enough when somebody suddenly decides to raise the roof.  I've seen too many engineers mess up somebody else's art for me to go there.

Thanks for sharing your opinion.

For my part, I was quite happy to get to ride the levels, which the artist heard in the monitor, and have her respond positively.

In this instance riding the levels was effecting the character of the compression stage that was in between the preamp and the MOTU A>D.

I was primarily interested in keeping the gain reduction on the peak of each passage relatively similar... so the GR on peaks in a quieter passage was perhaps 2-3dB and then in the loud passages the GR was also only about 2-3dB because I rode the preamp level as the singing got louder.

We worked together to get a sound, and a performance, that seemed, to me, to be much more compelling than the earlier passes where I ran it at some general safe level.



I enjoyed the practice of riding the level to make it sound good... it was fun and it seemed to make the singer smile a bunch.

The process seemed so much more useful than conforming to some particular rule, goal, or guideline for some abstract reason.

I just think I should check and make sure it's ok to do it that way before I tell anyone else how I got that sound. :-)

best regards,
mike

mike_mccue

Jonbouy

On my gig last week I rode the levels on the vocalists as they sang... it reminded me how much good can be done when you focus on tracking at levels that simply sound good... ok... really good.

IMO riding the levels when tracking is a recipe for re-takes.

Maybe good for gunning on the run but in a studio setting?

What would you gain? (pun in ten did)  If the singer is moving relative to the mic position riding the gain isn't going to change anything that can't be changed after the take.

I'd hate to be responsible for messing up a great performance by not being pre-emptive enough when somebody suddenly decides to raise the roof.  I've seen too many engineers mess up somebody else's art for me to go there.

Thanks for sharing your opinion.

For my part, I was quite happy to get to ride the levels, which the artist heard in the monitor, and have her respond positively.

In this instance riding the levels was effecting the character of the compression stage that was in between the preamp and the MOTU A>D.

I was primarily interested in keeping the gain reduction on the peak of each passage relatively similar... so the GR on peaks in a quieter passage was perhaps 2-3dB and then in the loud passages the GR was also only about 2-3dB because I rode the preamp level as the singing got louder.

We worked together to get a sound, and a performance, that seemed, to me, to be much more compelling than the earlier passes where I ran it at some general safe level.



I enjoyed the practice of riding the level to make it sound good... it was fun and it seemed to make the singer smile a bunch.

The process seemed so much more useful than conforming to some particular rule, goal, or guideline for some abstract reason.

I just think I should check and make sure it's ok to do it that way before I tell anyone else how I got that sound. :-)

best regards,
mike

Of course if you are using some outboard processing on the way in it is going to affect that.  I'm not against it either but I'd want to at least be sure the singer wasn't going to black my eye if I messed up.

Rather than an abstract reason I'd say that was a pretty concrete idea to have in mind when dealing with someone elses work unless you've established a good relationship AND there is a valid purpose (i.e. using it to drive the compression on the input chain.)  You only just mentioned that bit though.

I just think I should check and make sure it's ok to do it that way before I tell anyone else how I got that sound. :-)

= a Daryl word.

Jonbouy
= a Daryl word. 

Monkeys?
Arse?

Jonbouy

mike_mccue


Is it ok to set the levels where it sounds good?

I can't remember when I started trying this, but it seems to work ok. What happens if it it sounds real good but the levels aren't in the right place?

Do I get points taken off or something like that?





best,
mike

Is this a question or a clue?

Do you want an answer or are you imparting your veiled wisdom upon us for the benefit of everyone here?

You say it's a serious post, maybe you can appreciate why some would find that difficult to ascertain.

You didn't answer this bit though.

So I don't know whether you just need a Snark meter or blocking.