Russ Long DVD

C Heat · 29th December 2005

This was briefly touched on in the MiLaR thread.

Anyone have an experience they care to share regarding this tutorial?

I'm ordering one regardless. Still curious tho

Jules · 29th December 2005

Yes after all the chatter about MLAR I think it only fair this gets a mention.

AUDIOINSTRUCTION.COM presents Russ Long's Guide to Nashville Recording

http://www.audioinstruction.com/

Matt Grondin · 29th December 2005

I checked it out just because I like the way his recordings sound and I thought it would be interesting... there are some good pointers and I always learn thing from watching other people work, but I felt that it wasn't very thorough. It could have gone into much greater detail about certain things. Oh well. No biggie.

SoundEng1 · 29th December 2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by dobby12

I felt that it wasn't very thorough. It could have gone into much greater detail about certain things.

I Have to Agree, the dvd felt underproduced.

chrisgraff · 30th December 2005

I appreciate the constructive criticism. If I had to do it all over again, I probably would've focused on just the one song - more time for explaining.

We spent a long time editing the footage down

. Frankly it was too long winded and boring otherwise. Maybe we need to offer the "extended version"as well.

FWIW I felt we captured what it would be like to sit in on the session(s) - all the EQ's/compression settings/effects shot close up. If Russ did something to the audio - it's in there.

I do agree that the tracking chapters are more thorough than those on mixing. I would hope that the audio files makes up for it. I'm not aware of any other instruction DVD that includes something like 2 Gig of (24bit/44.1kHz) .WAV files.

All that to say...

Thanks for the feekback!

chrisgraff · 30th December 2005

By the way...we're talking about starting the next one.

What would you folks like to see?

All those who watched the first - how could we improve it?

dcrann11 · 30th December 2005

You could show the full Superman shirt on the next one.

Serious I thought the dvd started out with complete explanations of the compression and eq used but then he began to skip through them as the dvd progressed.

chrisgraff · 30th December 2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by dcrann11

You could show the full Superman shirt on the next one.

hindsight lesson #126....trademark violations....bad, very bad.

But I'll personally PayPal $20 to the first person who can find one on the DVD...betcha can't!

PS 2nd point taken to heart also.

Oldone · 30th December 2005

The mixing part was rather rushed. Few mental processes were covered as to why adjustments where being made there. If he could talk about using his reverbs and how he applied them, that would have been extremely useful.

The rest I liked except it would have helped if the same song had been used.

A few thought processes around his choice of gear and why he selected what he did for each source.

I pinged Russ separately on this but some discussion around his room treatment would have been interesting.

Overall, I found the first CD extremely useful and thorough on the tracking aspects of the process.

camitchell · 30th December 2005

I bought the DVD right after it came out and thought it was fairly well done. Like someone else said, I was expecting it to be more indepth on certain topics but overall a strong effort and a good value for the money.

The source mix tracks sound excellent and there is some solid info on the DVD. Russ did a good job explaining various elements of the mix and the reasoning behind compression, EQ, etc. The compression section was especially good.

It was a cool idea to do one song with high end gear and the other with low end gear but I think I would have prefered a more A/B approach to the same song.

I'd also like to say that before I ordered, I emailed Chris to ask if the files were on DVD or CD (as I did not have a DVD drive at the time) and he offered to copy them on to CD for me... very cool. Thanks! I like that it is not platform specific and you can load the tracks into most any system.

Things I'd like to see in a future version...

More detail on drum kit mic'ing. I was hoping to see various ideas on room mics, how to properly check for and deal with phase issues between mics and maybe some different recorded examples of various mics.

I imagine two or three different sets of drum source tracks for the same song would be more sonically educational than someone telling me the reason they used that particular mic. That way I could hear it for myself and decide which I like better.

IMHO, drum micing is quickly becoming the lost art with seemingly everyone replacing (or augmenting) with samples or playing with loops.

More variety in guitar mic'ing techniques. While I wholeheartedly agree that it is hard to beat a Royer 121 near the cone... I'd like to see (and hear) some ideas on room micing or more exotic mic techniques. Example - A more "Pink Floyd" approach as opposed to "pop rock" approach.

I'd like to see (and hear) the difference of going to tape vs digital on various sources, mixes, etc

Maybe watch how two different engineers mix approach the same song with detailed explainations and reasonings. Listening to the sonic differences would again be very educational.

In general, just more of chance to A/B things myself while listening to some detailed reasoning behind someone else's sonic choices.

anyway, the DVD is a good buy and I enjoyed it.

Craig

WeekendWanker · 30th December 2005

I have the Nashville Recording DVD and I have to say that I'm dissapointed with it. The basic concept of showing the recording process with high-end gear and then again with low-end stuff is great but was ruined when they used a bunch of high-end stuff on the low-end recording!! What's up with that? My other big problem was that there was almost no explaination of how a certain piece of gear was used and why. Typically, it was "So we're going to put some brand whatever Eq on the vocal to make it sound better," which really isn't much help. What I'd like to see is a clearer description of why a certain piece of gear was selected and the reasons for the chosen settings. Nobody's going to have the exact same gear lineup used in the video so you need to provide more general description of how and why a compressor or EQ might be used in certain situations. While there was some very useful information about mic placement, again, a more general description of the different types of mics would be more useful than "I'm putting an 421 on the kick drum."

I think what the word needs is an updated video version of the old Tascam "Multi-track Primer" handbook.

mr335 · 30th December 2005

I'd like to hear a "with and without" of the individual tracks with effects and/or comps, eq or whatever has been applied. I was able to view the whole DVD unlike the "Mix It Like A Record" DVD which was a little too psychedelic for me.

I think there could be a big instructional market if the script and content were done high end. Instead of trying to cram a whole bunch of technique into one DVD, do a series. Kinda like the "Total Training" video's available for computer software. Those are produced very well.

I'd buy another of Russ's DVD's.

chrisgraff · 30th December 2005

Weekend,

Thanks for your honesty. To clarify about the gear used on the second song:

• we used an SM57 + Focusrite ISA 220 on the kick drum. Russ gave the 57/Mackie the " old college try" but couldn't get that combo to sound right on that particular day. We might've shown this on the DVD, but didn't want to give any manufacturer the impression that we were dissing their gear.

• Bass was recorded direct to a Pendulum Quartet. Same reason stated above

• Vocals, snare, hat, toms, overheads, electric guitars, acoustic guitars - all recorded with Mackie 1604 & Shure SM57

• Monitors were PMC TB2

• Radar converters (into a PT mix+ system)

We cheated on a couple pres: Guilty as charged

Your feedback is taken to heart!

vudoo · 30th December 2005

I kind of enjoyed the Russ Long DVD. It's cool that you guys are doing a second one. It would be nice if you can cover a wider variety of musical style for the next one. As for the production, i think it's fine....Please don't turn it into a cheesy, wedding like production like MILAR.

WeekendWanker · 1st January 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrisgraff

Weekend,

Thanks for your honesty. To clarify about the gear used on the second song:

• we used an SM57 + Focusrite ISA 220 on the kick drum. Russ gave the 57/Mackie the " old college try" but couldn't get that combo to sound right on that particular day. We might've shown this on the DVD, but didn't want to give any manufacturer the impression that we were dissing their gear.

• Bass was recorded direct to a Pendulum Quartet. Same reason stated above

• Vocals, snare, hat, toms, overheads, electric guitars, acoustic guitars - all recorded with Mackie 1604 & Shure SM57

• Monitors were PMC TB2

• Radar converters (into a PT mix+ system)

We cheated on a couple pres: Guilty as charged

Your feedback is taken to heart!

Hey Chris--

Sorry if I sounded a bit harsh. Perhaps becuase I was feeling guilty I watched the video again yesterday and actually got a lot more out of it this time. There was more detail about the settings used than I remembered from the first time--although I still think it would be cool to have some more disscussion of why a certain processor is used for a purpose. The other comment I'd make about the "budget" version was that the mix portion was a full blown PT mix with plugs for days. Again, I think it would have been interesting to see how it would have come out on a native system (maybe a 002) mixing in the box with minimal plugs. This would have been much more relevant for a guy like me. You might consider a "how to make great recordings wtih a $5k rig" video.

Also, what's with all the blurry logos? If it's a legal thing, I think those sharp lawyers over at DC comics might be able to figure out (like my nine-year old did) that the keyboard player was wearing a Superman t-shirt

chrisgraff · 1st January 2006

Thanks for the recap. Everything you said will be taken in consideration for DVD #2.

Ah yeah....the blurry logos. I learned alot about trademark infringement when I met my (then future) wife, who happens to work for MTV networks.

Trust me, I'm coming armed with a dozen rolls of black tape for the next one.

tobymusic · 2nd January 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by camitchell

I bought the DVD right after it came out and thought it was fairly well done. Like someone else said, I was expecting it to be more indepth on certain topics but overall a strong effort and a good value for the money.

The source mix tracks sound excellent and there is some solid info on the DVD. Russ did a good job explaining various elements of the mix and the reasoning behind compression, EQ, etc. The compression section was especially good.

It was a cool idea to do one song with high end gear and the other with low end gear but I think I would have prefered a more A/B approach to the same song.

...

anyway, the DVD is a good buy and I enjoyed it.

Craig

I promised some sort of feedback and haven´t written any, yet. Craig put it well IMO, the DVD is a good buy and provides a lot of valuable information about recording setup, especially for newbies. I think the idea of recording a song using only SM57 is a brilliant idea as well. The fact that the multitrack audio files are included makes the DVD even more useful, very good!

The things that I miss are these:
* Talkback, headphone monitoring and communication between musicians and control room are not touched at all. I think communication is very important and should be adressed, because usually this requires quite some additional thinking as well.

* For the lo-fi setup I would have prefered to NOT see any additional outboard used. Instead a slightly more useful desk may work, like a Mackie 8-bus or a Yamaha 01/V, where the EQ might get used as well. If kick or bass don´t sound great with this, it´s they way it is. People will notice.

* I don´t know how to fit all that information onto a DVD, but more info on microphone technique would be great. To move the mic and make us listen to it´s signal until Russ finds the sweet spot he likes would be interesting.

* I wouldn´t bother too much with Keyboard recording, unless the keys are part of the basic rhythm track recording session. Then communication would be important again.

* For the mixing part, a little more general information about Russ´ approach would be interesting. What does he listen to when EQing signals, how does he approach finding basic levels, how does he approach automation and so on.

So far for now,
let me know when you make another DVD!

Toby

chrisgraff · 2nd January 2006