Rob Schnapf

[imacgreg]

Originally Posted by rob S

hey ian

been on quite a roll with the level-ors of late.
particularily in distrotion mode.
they sound great on bass and synths.
and parallel with toms.
and direct gtrs
and........

Sweeeeeeeet... Got some new stuff cookin that has some potential to be very cool.

[bellchilton]

Rob, what are some of your favourite plugins??

[rob S]

nothing fancy really.
melodyne editor
analogue channel
altiverb
line 6 echo
sansamp
req eq

and of course the ever important cosmonaut

[Steve Anderson]

I seem t remember you using Crane Song Phoenix, too, no?

[rob S]

yeah

[rob S]

API bundle

[virtualsamana]

Rob,

Just wanted to drop by and say that I love your work. I thought that "From a Basement..." was some of the most innovative engineering/mixing to date. I thought it was a beautiful evolution of Elliott's "sound" which paid homage to the early minimalist production values with the very polished sound of "Figure 8".

Also was curious what your opinion would be on Elliott Smith's music being used in RockBand or Guitar Hero.

Best,
Drew

[bendik]

Hi Rob.

I know you've already been asked hundreds of times but I'm such a big fan of your work with Elliott Smith and I have to ask you a couple of questions.
1. mic placement on vocals. Are they close miking? Multiple microphones? And what kind of mics?

2. Compressor on the vocals. I read you were using distressor and 1176's. Is it hard compressing to pull up his whispers? What were the settings(difficult q, I know)? Great work has been done anyway, can hear the voice kind of distorting in a warm way on the higher frequencies, very cool.

3. What kind of eq has been done to the vox? All harmonies and double-tracked voices are very well seperated. How? Compliments.

4. Overheads. What kind of compressors have you used? Long attack and release times, revolver style?

Once again, big fan. Keep up the good work

[jeremyglover]

can we ask about the MCI now Rob?

[Flymax]

rob,, i just wanted to drop by to say how cool i think it is that you have your own thread on GS

[rob S]

I know you've already been asked hundreds of times but I'm such a big fan of your work with Elliott Smith and I have to ask you a couple of questions.
1. mic placement on vocals. Are they close miking? Multiple microphones? And what kind of mics?


they?
close micing the vocal is that the question?
if i'm understanding you correctly, yes.
probably a fist away from a popper stopper which is a fist or so away from the diaphragm of the mic.

Either/Or microphone would have been steven paul modded 87 with innertube electronics or elliotts 87 looking langevin mic(cant remember the model).
XO was pretty a 47 or a 67 from sunset sound collection.
figure eight was a soundelux U95S.

2. Compressor on the vocals. I read you were using distressor and 1176's. Is it hard compressing to pull up his whispers?

well he sang pretty much in the same dynamic so that made it easier.
if Elliott had been going loud soft that would have made it much more complicated.

we also used a tubetech CL1B sometimes.

What were the settings(difficult q, I know)?

slower attack faster release


3. What kind of eq has been done to the vox?

taking out some bottom around 200hz
opening up the vocal a bit on the top.

All harmonies and double-tracked voices are very well seperated. How?

ahhh, multitracking......

4. Overheads. What kind of compressors have you used? Long attack and release times, revolver style?

cant remember

hope that helps

[rob S]

Originally Posted by passivepeter

can we ask about the MCI now Rob?

arrrgggghhh

there are about 15 modules in there now.
just discovered all the meter buffer cards need re capping.
this thing is gonna be brand new when(if) it gets done.
i'm hoping it is finished before the music business goes away.
this has been worse than building an addition on to the house.

[bendik]

Originally Posted by rob S

I know you've already been asked hundreds of


they?
close micing the vocal is that the question?
if i'm understanding you correctly, yes.
probably a fist away from a popper stopper which is a fist or so away from the diaphragm of the mic.

Either/Or microphone would have been steven paul modded 87 with innertube electronics or elliotts 87 looking langevin mic(cant remember the model).
XO was pretty a 47 or a 67 from sunset sound collection.
figure eight was a soundelux U95S.

Hehe, they as in the vocals. Sorry about that, not being a native english speaker certainly has it's down sides. I'm writing a thesis on XO, this is why I was asking.

47 or 67, those being neumann u-47 ang TLM67 I take it? Same proceedure for the background vocals?

And how about the miking of drums? Any strange experiments? Ambient mics?

And do you by any chance remember how the console was like panning-wise? Was it standard Hard Left 0dB, Center -3dB, Hard Right 0dB? Just thinking if the nice stereo sound on the album could be in any way influenced by the console's panning laws.

Thanks a lot for responding

[rob S]

Originally Posted by bendik

Hehe, they as in the vocals. Sorry about that, not being a native english speaker certainly has it's down sides. I'm writing a thesis on XO, this is why I was asking.

47 or 67, those being neumann u-47 ang TLM67 I take it? Same proceedure for the background vocals?

And how about the miking of drums? Any strange experiments? Ambient mics?

And do you by any chance remember how the console was like panning-wise? Was it standard Hard Left 0dB, Center -3dB, Hard Right 0dB? Just thinking if the nice stereo sound on the album could be in any way influenced by the console's panning laws.

Thanks a lot for responding

U67
(my favorite mic)
same procedure for the backing vocals
panning was to taste some stuff hard some stuff
in the middle and some in between.
thats all part of the picture.
there arent any laws.
just balances and what sounds good.

[amanitas]

Hey Rob,

Had the pleasure to work with you a few years back at Sunset Sound and wanted to tell you that I still look back on the sound in my headphones that day (and subsequently on that record, Joshua Radin's Simple Times) as one of the sonic highlights I've ever experienced in a recording session.

I think I might have been a little slow on the uptake that day because I wanted to keep hearing that sound - it looked like you were using an 87 maybe 5 feet in front of and 3 feet above where my bell was pointing, but it just sounded so clear and warm - do you remember anything about the mic/pre you used there? I think we did cornet, flugelhorn and euphonium.

Was an honor sir...

[lagavulin16]

How good of a piano player was Elliott? I saw a youtube clip of him playing some Rachmaninoff and was really impressed. What were his best instruments besides singing and guitar?

I'm still really sad that he died and listen to his music almost ever day. You really did a great job on those albums.

Might be obvious, but I loved the way you cut out all of the backing music in Son of Sam so it dropped to just the acoustic and Elliott, sounding like one of his earlier albums. Any real trick there? Or was it as simple as it sounded, where you had two tapes going in sync and just let one slowly stop while the one with his vocal and guitar kept going?

[rob S]

Originally Posted by amanitas

Hey Rob,

Had the pleasure to work with you a few years back at Sunset Sound and wanted to tell you that I still look back on the sound in my headphones that day (and subsequently on that record, Joshua Radin's Simple Times) as one of the sonic highlights I've ever experienced in a recording session.

I think I might have been a little slow on the uptake that day because I wanted to keep hearing that sound - it looked like you were using an 87 maybe 5 feet in front of and 3 feet above where my bell was pointing, but it just sounded so clear and warm - do you remember anything about the mic/pre you used there? I think we did cornet, flugelhorn and euphonium.

Was an honor sir...

hi danny

where you been?
havent seen you around in awhile.
or is that me that hasnt been around...
anyways, it was a U67
into the sunset micpre's into an LA3A.
no magic just good old reliable chain.

[rob S]

Originally Posted by lagavulin16

How good of a piano player was Elliott? I saw a youtube clip of him playing some Rachmaninoff and was really impressed. What were his best instruments besides singing and guitar?

Might be obvious, but I loved the way you cut out all of the backing music in Son of Sam so it dropped to just the acoustic and Elliott, sounding like one of his earlier albums. Any real trick there? Or was it as simple as it sounded, where you had two tapes going in sync and just let one slowly stop while the one with his vocal and guitar kept going?

Elliott was a really good musician.
liked his bass playing alot too.

no trick on son of sam.
very straight forward .
we just deconstructed it back down.
one 24 tr machine.

[amanitas]

Sunset micpres - I sense this is where the magic maybe was happening. Or maybe it was the room. Or the 67. Or all of the above. Can say with relative certainty it was not the horn player.

I been touring a bunch the last two years but home for a while now, probably til July or so. Got a session this Friday with Dave T. in Silverlake.

What kind of pres are those at Sunset? I remember reading on their website that they are custom built, but I'm wondering if there is anything out there that is similarly voiced on the market right now. I feel like it's a very flattering color for brass.

[rob S]

the sunset pre's are API ish.

i think it sounds good because you're in a good room
standing in front of a nice mic
and we're not ****ing it up.

[rob S]

Originally Posted by Flymax

rob,, i just wanted to drop by to say how cool i think it is that you have your own thread on GS

it wasnt my idea.

[Flymax]

HAHAH..I know..
Hopefully we'll see you around these parts again soon..

[Fleaman]

Originally Posted by rob S

it wasnt my idea.

Christianity wasn't Jesus's idea either.

[rob S]

what are you saying

[Fleaman]

1/2 the time I don't know....

[rob S]

by the way thanks for the use of the UBK fatso.
it was the parallel compression for the drums.


are you going to the easter picnic this year?

[RoundBadge]

Originally Posted by rob S

by the way thanks for the use of the UBK fatso.
it was the parallel compression for the drums.

I've been meaning to try one.
seems like you can get quite a few textures out of that box.

[Fleaman]

Originally Posted by rob S

by the way thanks for the use of the UBK fatso.
it was the parallel compression for the drums.


are you going to the easter picnic this year?

No problem.

I haven't missed the easter picnic yet (almost 10 years straight for me--I think?), so I don't plan on missing it this year. Just got the email invite yesterday...

[RoundBadge]

I just got some of these Pultec reissues,
they nailed it. 1/2 the $ of vintage
having had them for a week now i'm actually kinda liking them over my originals

[rob S]

the dave collins ones?