Album made using only Mbox 2, FMR RNP Preamp, mics under $500

[romromulus]

My band just finished this album, which we produced ourselves using only an Mbox 2, Protools plugins, an FMR really nice preamp, and a handful of mics, the most expensive mic being a Shure SM7b, all recorded in bedrooms

have a listen here and tell me what you think:

http://fallfaircar.bandcamp.com

Also, Im looking to expand my setup, what in your opinion could help the sound of my recordings? im thinking of getting an outboard compressor of some kind, and maybe a digi 002 to expand my i/o

[G-Spot]

Originally Posted by romromulus

Also, Im looking to expand my setup, what in your opinion could help the sound of my recordings? im thinking of getting an outboard compressor of some kind, and maybe a digi 002 to expand my i/o

If you want to expand, go Pro Tools M-Powered (or any other DAW) and get the M-Audio 2626. Better pre's, conversion and i/o. Actually for the price of the 002/003 you could get 2 M-Audio 2626 (the second one working as a stand alone converter connected via ADAT to the first one) this way you get 16 tracks!!!
Get a second hand Command 8 which is also a better controller than the 002.

[k1ngdv]

I'm new to recording and I listened to the songs on your page and am thoroughly impressed. If you don't mind I have some questions for you:

1. What type of experience do you have/need in mixing? I want to get my hands dirty in Pro Tools but don't know where to start.

2. Doesn't the Mbox have it's own pre-amp? If so, doesn't it cancel out the FMR RNP?

3. What mic would you recommend for use with vocals?

THANKS. Any help would be much appreciative.

[Liquid Caravan]

Tracks sound great man. Something tells me that this post may make some high-rollers steam a bit - your $1500 rig producing stuff approaching their $10k rigs:-)

Can you describe your mics and how you used them?

Also, I'm kinda in the same boat as you. I've purchased some cheaper, robust gear and am trying to produce my band's stuff. Will not settle for anything less than Steely Dan quality. My gear so far:

SM57
M-audio Profire 2626
Pro Tools M-Powered

Gonna buy a preamp, buncha mics for drums and vocals.

[healthiejunkie]

hi, what guitar amp plugins did you use? are the drums real or plugin? did you have it mastered?

[tampa]

This backs up what many of us around here have been saying, gear is a tool how you use it is another story. Very nice.

[DONNX]

Sounds like Mick Jagger is on the microphone. Tune "Come around". Well thats it! I am selling my entire studio. And getting me an mbox and ditching the rest.

[Piper1021]

Very nice! "I fell off a boat" was great. Not my style at all but I was smiling through the whole song.

[descry]

this was amazing.

[7khat]

Originally Posted by k1ngdv

2. Doesn't the Mbox have it's own pre-amp? If so, doesn't it cancel out the FMR RNP?


THANKS. Any help would be much appreciative.

i wonder about this too & also , did the FMR make that much of a diference in quality?

[dpalasini]

Wow. That is a really good sounding album. Way to rely on your ears and work with what you have. Bravo.

[snyder17315]

Sounds good... though the style of music heavily lends itself to that type of production.

[RTR]

2. Doesn't the Mbox have it's own pre-amp? If so, doesn't it cancel out the FMR RNP?

Because the pre's in the Mbox2 and most of all DIGI's hardware that runs Pro tools LE are not all that great!! A nice preamp can make a big difference!

[Runnytofu]

Highly enjoyable stuff! Very catchy, and put a smile on my face. Thanks for putting this out!

[dlor]

Thanks for sharing these tracks. Man, I know A LOT of people are really liking this. Loving the agressive guitar tones - especially the tele on "Bounty Hunter". How can I donate some money?? I just downloaded all your tracks and love them.

On the engineer side of things, is your vocal chain a SM7b into FMR rnp into line in on mbox2 (using the mbox's convertors)? Would appreciate your response!

-a new fan

[romromulus]

wow thanks everyone! i dont go on here that much but i noticed thru bandcamp that we were getting a ton of plays and downloads from here

ill try to answer everyones questions:

hi, what guitar amp plugins did you use? are the drums real or plugin? did you have it mastered?

the drums are real son, theres a video of us tracking it on our myspace if youd like to see. guitars are real aswell, although i think i may have put a few tracks through eleven free to give them a bit more bite. we didnt get it mastered professionally but i did do a bit of 'mastering' in protools

On the engineer side of things, is your vocal chain a SM7b into FMR rnp into line in on mbox2 (using the mbox's convertors)?

yes, but the thing is, even though it inevitably will go through mbox preamps, the RNP is doing like 90 percent of the amplification, and the signal is hitting the RNP before the mbox. in other words, the mbox pres dont really have to amplify at all, but yeah, it goes through them anyways. I just turn the gain on the mbox all the way down.

i wonder about this too & also , did the FMR make that much of a diference in quality?

it helps alot. its like going from a solid state crate guitar amp to a tube fender deluxe reverb, if that makes sense. just way less digital sounding. Actually, i got the RNP after we already recorded most of the record, so its only really used on vocals and some bass/guitar overdubs.

Can you describe your mics and how you used them?

from what i remember, it was something like this:

drums: AKG D112 on the kick, SM57 on snare, 2 overheads: an Audio Technica AT2020 and an Apex condenser (i dont remember which kind, it was my friends. its big and blue). no tom mics.

for some of the songs, i mic'd the bottom of the snare instead of the top. this really helped give the snare more 'crack', and the top of the snare was being picked up from the overheads (one overhead was placed directly above the snare drum)

bass: straight into the mbox. I used the free sans amp plugin on protools to give it some more beef.

guitars: we experimented alot, lots of different amps were used (mostly a fender hot rod deville and a marshall jcm800, sometimes a fender champ) usually we used an sm57 or sm7b. the cab for the marshall is open backed so sometimes we would mic both sides and phase invert the back mic.

Wow. That is a really good sounding album. Way to rely on your ears and work with what you have. Bravo / This backs up what many of us around here have been saying, gear is a tool how you use it is another story. Very nice.

thank you so much, honestly. coming back to this thread and seeing so much great feedback is making me pretty gitty.

How can I donate money?

woah really? i better make a paypal button on our myspace. Ill get back to you on that!

one more note: i recently got the waves murcury suite and plan to remix the whole album from scratch. stay tuned for that, it would be a good way of showing the comparison between protools stock plugins and waves plugins.

THANKS AGAIN!

[Cloop]

hey man, i love the recordings and the songs, its pretty inspiring how you did this with just the mbox 2, mics, and FMR... I've been looking into purchasing the MBox 2, and i was wondering how you managed to track the individual drum/cymbals at the same time? The Mbox 2 only has the 2 channels, so i'd be limited to only recording 2 mics live into the computer? any ideas on how to defeat this?

[Neily]

Dude. This sounds great!

[ScumBum]

Whatever you do don't buy a Digi 002 , they suck ass .

Get the Behringer ADA8000 or Echo AudioFire stuff .

[eazeyo]

how did you track drums with 4 mics where there are only 2 inputs on the mbox?

did you use a mixer and combine tracks before recording? Or did you use a click and do multiple takes?

Sounds good, nice work. The fullness of it all is impressive.

[Cody]

Originally Posted by romromulus

one more note: i recently got the waves murcury suite and plan to remix the whole album from scratch. stay tuned for that, it would be a good way of showing the comparison between protools stock plugins and waves plugins.

NO NO NO NO NO.

Get your boys together and write another record and use your new plugins on that record. This one sounds good enough!!!!! For real, don't fvck around with these songs, they're done! Make new ones!

I'm not hijacking your thread... but I wanted to add...

This band that I did a record for came back to me earlier this year to do another album. I told them I didn't have time (didn't do a lot of recording this year) but that I could do drums for them.

So, I give them the drums and scratch guitar as stems and off they go with a handful of dynamic mics and an Apogee One. I think this was early June. A couple weeks ago they call me up and tell me their record is ready to be mixed. I hop over to their jam space, and give the songs a listen.

They sound amazing!! Like, finished... done... great.

And the crazy thing... no eq or compression in Logic. Nothing. Before they started tracking, I showed them some basic mic'ing technique, and told them to never "hit red" (clip) and to refrain from recording until they have the exact sound they're looking for.

So there you go. It's been a blast mixing the songs, but I feel like my contribution is the last 2%.

Again, sorry for the hijack, but the good news is that I was listening to your songs the whole time and they sound great! (Listening to Ontario Angel, love the gritty guitar). Have a great new year!!!

[romromulus]

Wow, I was just on our bandcamp page looking at our stats and realized we've gotten 1,300 hits from gearslutz alone somehow... you guys really like us! This is great!

we just released 2 brand new ones on our bandcamp called "100% Natural" and "Gettin' Lost", please check them out and tell me what you think!

fallfaircar.bandcamp.com

Ive upgraded a few pieces of gear for these: I now use a 003 rack, an iMac, and a bunch of new plugins (i only used stock protools ones for eclipse shades)

to answer the drum question: looking back, i stretched the truth about the using only an mbox. The drums for most of the songs were tracked using my bandmates firebox, which has 4 inputs.

thanks again for the interest everyone let me know you think of the new songs

[Dr.Frank]

I dig the Neil Young/Modest Mouse sounding vocals.

[200hz]

The new songs sound really nice. Still using the same overheads to track the drums on those two?

[oranzil]

Sounds rough in the best way there is, both the album on Bandcamp

Cheers