I'm finally doing it. I'm getting rid of my computer.

[PlayRadioPlay]

Originally Posted by greatgreatriver

I also want those 163's - awesome on e-guitar... I need two to feel complete.

Hey, that song is me. I call myself Country Pollution (myspace.com/countrypollution).

Thx!

Nice! I like the vibe.

[PlayRadioPlay]

Just fired up the 163s for the first time.

When I first plugged them in, one of them said it was doing 4 db of compression with no input... I hooked them up and it had a slight noise hum. I literally left the room to contact the eBay seller on my laptop in the living room, and when I came back, it was acting normal. Really weird. I can't imagine that these things would need to 'warm up' would they?



Anyway, now that they're working, I tried them on some Motown-ish drums in one of my sessions and I like them. They might be a little too punchy for some lo-fi sounds, but I'm sure I'll like them for most of my material. They sound good on kick and snare for a punchy, up front tone, and if I don't like them there, they add a little body to the room or ambience mics. They're so cheap that I might pick up two more so I can use them on kick,snare, and rooms/ambience all simultaneously.

Thanks for the suggestion from all 12 people that suggested these thumbsup

[greatgreatriver]

Man you got to try it on electric guitar! Just slide the slider until it sound awesome good! The 163 is love machines for electric guitar. Give back some of your love to the guitars. Let them feel the honey and glory from the past. The analog warmth of goddess love tantra sex hyper space of the old anal and og tape! Give it back!!!

[PlayRadioPlay]

Originally Posted by greatgreatriver

Man you got to try it on electric guitar! Just slide the slider until it sound awesome good! The 163 is love machines for electric guitar. Give back some of your love to the guitars. Let them feel the honey and glory from the past. The analog warmth of goddess love tantra sex hyper space of the old anal and og tape! Give it back!!!

Hahaha. I'll try that. Not sure about the anal, but I'll see how it goes.

[Karloff70]

Originally Posted by PlayRadioPlay

Hahaha. I'll try that. Not sure about the anal, but I'll see how it goes.

lol....just the shit to make me laugh coming in late from a night out......

[steelyfan]

Whew.....drank my body weight in beer and wine since wed.
Yesterday recorded some weird keyboard stuff and talked my wife into playing drums to it. Fun stuff!......been in bed all day. rest is good.

Let's hear this gear, I wanna hear those drums to the tape machine.

[andrewenson]

Originally Posted by PlayRadioPlay

Ok, so I'm exaggerating slightly, I'll still own a computer, but I'm pursuing my dream of having a completely computer-less recording set up in 1 room of my house.

I'm a 20 year old, digital-age musician/producer, and never in my life have I made music without a little or a lot of help from the digital realm. As an experiment and experience to grow and have a little bit of fun, I'm building a budget, 100% analog recording rig. There won't be a computer in the room whatsoever. (Although, down the hall, I'll still have this little setup. However, I intend on making many recordings on this old school setup completely without the computer involved.)

At the center of the rig will be a TASCAM 38 8 tape machine and a TASCAM Series 5 mixer. I need help deciding on what other gear to get. This project studio isn't supposed to sound good, just old. What are some cheap old mic pres and compressors that were common around the time of these two units? The mixer has built in mic pres, so I could use those, the main thing I need is some compression. Not expensive, just old and crappy. Any suggestions? Is the Standard Audio Level-Or an accurate tribute piece? Lo-fi is good. The most expensive piece I'll probably add to this setup is an 1176, since I've been intending to get one for my main rig anyway.

At the end of the day, I'm hoping to have a fully functional, completely independent vintage, analog setup for under 1k, although I'll probably go over just to add some other fun stuff.

HOLY SHT DAN YOU'RE ON GEARSLUTZ?!
PUT DECIPHER ON THE NEW RECORD PLOX

that song saved my friend from a deep depression from her mother passing and her boyfriend being the biggest cheater on earth.
i've never gotten to thank you :D

[PlayRadioPlay]

Originally Posted by steelyfan

Whew.....drank my body weight in beer and wine since wed.
Yesterday recorded some weird keyboard stuff and talked my wife into playing drums to it. Fun stuff!......been in bed all day. rest is good.

Let's hear this gear, I wanna hear those drums to the tape machine.

Haha. I just spent the last 6 hours with my friend trying to get sounds as close to possible to the drums from Peter Bjorn and John's "Young Folk". Jesus those drums sound awesome. I was doing this all digitally, of course, since the tape machine and mixer aren't here yet.

If any of you haven't heard the song, listen here:


It's an interesting experiment trying to crap up a digital signal to sound like cheap tape. Is anyone else familiar with the song? How the fritz do they get the snare to sound so dry? Even with just the kick and snare mics open, they still sounded too roomy. I tried some gating but the noise gate in Logic sucks. I used Izotope Vinyl on the 70s or 80s setting (depending on the drum), AirWindows tape sim, and a lot of subtractive EQing.

We got pretty close. I'll post our results tomorrow. I already shut down the studio computer.

Originally Posted by andrewenson

HOLY SHT DAN YOU'RE ON GEARSLUTZ?!
PUT DECIPHER ON THE NEW RECORD PLOX

that song saved my friend from a deep depression from her mother passing and her boyfriend being the biggest cheater on earth.
i've never gotten to thank you :D

Decipher is going on the new b-sides record with 39 other old songs! (more info here)

And I'm glad my music helped! Losing a parent at a young age is tough. I've been through it.

[andrewenson]

ya i know... i've been following your music for a long time now. i ran into decipher my sophomore or junior year?

btw have you ever tried the copperphone?
i knew a guy back home who had two of them.
they only pick up a narrow set of frequencies i think

he had his room mics set up m/s (414 and another mic, i dont really remember, he has a BIG BIG room to track drums so m/s worked well). after he had decoded it etc it sounded amazing. but he wanted the same effect that you did and apparently he retracked the drums using copperphones (minus the kick drum)
i dont know how he got the sound that he did get with copperphones (because the copperphones sound like turd crap, not crap) but he did somehow.
i do know he obviously didnt ONLY use the copperphones because ... well if you can find audio samples of them on drums you'll know why

btw i remember when you released texas to give a taste of your major label debut. i think you should collaborate with that lady again (sorry i dont know her name)

your voices go well together

[PlayRadioPlay]

Originally Posted by andrewenson

ya i know... i've been following your music for a long time now. i ran into decipher my sophomore or junior year?

btw have you ever tried the copperphone?
i knew a guy back home who had two of them.
they only pick up a narrow set of frequencies i think

he had his room mics set up m/s (414 and another mic, i dont really remember, he has a BIG BIG room to track drums so m/s worked well). after he had decoded it etc it sounded amazing. but he wanted the same effect that you did and apparently he retracked the drums using copperphones (minus the kick drum)
i dont know how he got the sound that he did get with copperphones (because the copperphones sound like turd crap, not crap) but he did somehow.
i do know he obviously didnt ONLY use the copperphones because ... well if you can find audio samples of them on drums you'll know why

btw i remember when you released texas to give a taste of your major label debut. i think you should collaborate with that lady again (sorry i dont know her name)

your voices go well together

I actually have a copperphone, but I didn't use it for that song (I didn't have it back then).

What effect are you talking about?

[PlayRadioPlay]

Because I was bored, I fired the computer back up to work on this little drum experiment my friend and I started. I quickly added some bass and whistling so that the drums sit in the context of the song.

The YouTube clip above is the sound we were going for. This is the sound we got:
Max Roach 11.29.09.1 (Young Folk).mp3

Here is the mic'ing scheme. It's pretty complicated. SM57 on Snare and SM57 on Kick. I also had my Cascade Gomez and SM7 thrown up as overheads, but as I anticipated, I didn't use them.

Late 60s Ludwig Standard kit. The Kick 57 went through a Shadow Hills Mono Gama on the Steel setting. The Snare 57 went through an Avedis MA5 with the 28k button engaged. Shaker was mic'd with the overheads I had previously set up.




Let me know what you think and if you have any ideas for how to get closer to that Young Folks sound. Obviously our track is much quieter, so compensate for that.

I wonder how much easier it will be to get these lo fi sounds with actual tape. It's so much work making stuff sound bad!

[andrewenson]

ah no i was wondering if it might be worth it trying the copperphone to get that crap sound for drums.
blending the sounds together maybe?
and notch out some frequencies?

[greatgreatriver]

I think you got close with the drums. The Peter, Bjorn song have such a cool plate/spring reverb vibe going on... Sounds like they compressed the drums pretty hard to get it upfront. Love the bass sound they got. Listen to the hihat it's nice - trashy but soft and nice to the ear. I dig!

This song is awesome - love the bong, congas drumming.

Nice - thanks for posting this! I love this.

[steelyfan]

Sounds good, I like how the shaker sounds with the kick and snare.

Man, that's a gorgeous drumset! Love the color and woodgrain, nice set to use for what you are going for. You the drummer?

[memphisindie]

This is truly the best thread I've lurked.
You can get rack ears and you'll love the erector set to join two of them, not.
I looked inside mine and an ssl comp and they look surprisingly alike.

[PlayRadioPlay]

Originally Posted by andrewenson

ah no i was wondering if it might be worth it trying the copperphone to get that crap sound for drums.
blending the sounds together maybe?
and notch out some frequencies?

I can't remember the exact frequencies, but I low passed it and then boosted some mids. There's also a tiny bit of phaser and a wide, short delay. I think I also ran them through some distortion.

Originally Posted by greatgreatriver

I think you got close with the drums. The Peter, Bjorn song have such a cool plate/spring reverb vibe going on... Sounds like they compressed the drums pretty hard to get it upfront. Love the bass sound they got. Listen to the hihat it's nice - trashy but soft and nice to the ear. I dig!

This song is awesome - love the bong, congas drumming.

Nice - thanks for posting this! I love this.

Yeah it's a great song! Definitely doesn't sound like it was recorded in 2005.

Originally Posted by steelyfan

Sounds good, I like how the shaker sounds with the kick and snare.

Man, that's a gorgeous drumset! Love the color and woodgrain, nice set to use for what you are going for. You the drummer?

Thanks. Yes it's perfect for this kind of sound. I didn't play drums on this song, but I own the drum set. I'm a very mediocre drummer, and I suck at playing with a click. I try and leave it up to the specialists, even for easy beats like this. I'd rather be in the control room tweaking sounds than running back and forth just to get a crappy take.

Originally Posted by memphisindie

This is truly the best thread I've lurked.
You can get rack ears and you'll love the erector set to join two of them, not.
I looked inside mine and an ssl comp and they look surprisingly alike.

Haha yes I recall seeing a few people complain about how they connect. The pieces that connect them are plastic, no? I'll have to figure something out. I'm really thinking about picking up 2 more. They're cool little comps.

[8inthemorning]

Great!
And don't forget a 2-track machine.

[Batchainpuller78]

In the picture I posted on the 2nd Page you'll notice 4 163's in the bottom of the rack
One was with the rack ears and binding piece, the ones above were just taped together and resting on the others :p
They simple but cool especially for the price.

[PlayRadioPlay]

Originally Posted by 8inthemorning

Great!
And don't forget a 2-track machine.

Is there any advantage of going to 2 track before vinyl? Couldn't you just go from the 8 track straight to vinyl?

Originally Posted by Batchainpuller78

In the picture I posted on the 2nd Page you'll notice 4 163's in the bottom of the rack
One was with the rack ears and binding piece, the ones above were just taped together and resting on the others :p
They simple but cool especially for the price.

Nice nice. The two I picked up looked like they had some adhesive on them from being taped together. I guess that's the method of choice.

[memphisindie]

Originally Posted by PlayRadioPlay

Is there any advantage of going to 2 track before vinyl? Couldn't you just go from the 8 track straight to vinyl?

You could, but that just takes one layer of pre-emphasis/de-emphasis NR and compression off the vynil, which can add some really great color.

Nice nice. The two I picked up looked like they had some adhesive on them from being taped together. I guess that's the method of choice.

I have 1 rack ear on mine, seems to hold. I need to check out the local used stuff store and grab one more of each.

[PlayRadioPlay]

This little guy was on eBay in a no reserve auction at $50 with 2 hours left, so I put in a bid and got it for $120. Not bad.



TEAC A-4300SX

It can run at 3 3/4 ips Super lo fi.


I've been looking for something recorded at 3 3/4 ips to listen to out of curiosity, does anyone know any recordings done at that speed?

[peacenik]

cool.. now if only you could get rid of that ground hum!

[PlayRadioPlay]

Originally Posted by peacenik

cool.. now if only you could get rid of that ground hum!

Is that a problem when recording at 3 3/4 ips? Or are you talking about the DBX 163 above that I said was a bit noisy?

[FeatheredSerpent]

That song you posted really reminded me of a st. etienne tune 'nothing can stop us now' (one of my favourite tracks ever actually!), there's a very lo-fi version of it playing on their website homepage with no vocals, which helps hear the drums better anyway:

Official Website of Saint Etienne

Now I have no idea how much if any of the drum track is recorded/processed or if it's all just sampled, there is definitely some loop action going on there, but it's the sound you're going for, and maybe there's some useful info on the production so you can dig up a bit more help.

Cool track in any case though.

[peacenik]

Originally Posted by PlayRadioPlay

Is that a problem when recording at 3 3/4 ips? Or are you talking about the DBX 163 above that I said was a bit noisy?

Nah... just being smarry about one of the big PITA problems with analog studios that a lot of us older gen audio pros dealt with a lot.. chasing ac grounding noise and noisy gear in the audio chain in general. Ya youngsters don't know how easy you've got it these digital days.

[PlayRadioPlay]

Originally Posted by peacenik

Nah... just being smarry about one of the big PITA problems with analog studios that a lot of us older gen audio pros dealt with a lot.. chasing ac grounding noise and noisy gear in the audio chain in general. Ya youngsters don't know how easy you've got it these digital days.

I'm not looking forward to that



Does anyone have suggestions for some cheap speakers similar to what would have been used in the Tascam's time period? I think I've decided to go the crappy route even with the monitors. It'll make things interesting. I have Adam A7s on my main rig.

[Karloff70]

Not exactly crap, but I reckon these would be fun:

You might end up with them in your main rig after.....lol

[u b k]

Oh my, this all sound so familiar...

Thinkin' about Ditching the Daw... talk to me

As someone who's done exactly what you're thinking about, and who posted about it beforehand on this forum, lemme just say one thing:

DO IT.

Night before last I finished up what is undoubtedly the fattest, sweetest, most analog, brown sounding mix of my life. No computer, no automation, no digital of any kind including fx. The heart of the setup is a Tascam tsr8 & a Tascam m30 mixer.

Here's what I recommend to turn your rig into something that can produce results others will never, ever get on a digital setup:

Have at least 1 world class comp to track thru for tone and density. I use an API 2500 and a UBK Fatso and tools like that are indispensible. I also have 4 other comps which fall into the 'funky junk' category, and those are equally indispensible but a high end tonemonster into tape is a spectacle to behold.

Have a great deck to mix into. I got a Studer a810 years back for $800, it runs like a tank. Setup is everything: I bias in a way that could only be considered 'highly unorthodox', and the result is that the Studer breaks up, darkens down, and distorts in a way that very few pieces of gear in the world can.

Be equally adventurous in setting up your 38. I don't know how much current those bias amps can generate but push 'em, bias is THE magic bullet for getting tape to go beyond, well, tape.

The model 5 sounds sweet, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. A little noisy, sure, but by the time your 3rd mix is done you wil understand that noise is an essential part of the old school analog magic; it's not an enemy to be vanquished, it's a wild force to be tamed and used for good.

SLAM the trafo's in that model 5, slam the 38, slam whatever mix deck you get.

It'll take a few dry runs to perfect your analog approach, it has almost nothing in common with the daw mentality and workflow, and you have issues that will push your ears and chops to new levels (mixing without automation is the best... you WILL learn to ride a vocal fader, and you WILL learn that pan knobs should always be moving).

Anyway, handily ignore everyone who naysays your vision, who predicts doom and gloom and your speedy return to the sane, safe, familiar world of the digital production beast. You're onto something big for yourself here, pursue it with the blind and relentless faith of a man on a mission.

I volunteer to be your sponsor. If you find yourself alone, late at night, looking at the plugins in the sweetwater catalog and thinking maybe that ssl vst compressor really *will* gives your mixes that 'sounds like a record' sheen... call me. We'll get you thru it.


Gregory Scott - ubk
.

[Karloff70]

lol....analog uncle Greg

Get in!

[greatgreatriver]

ubk you rock!