Day 7? loosing count already

So I met with the youngest engineer Sammy this Sunday. We had a 3 hour session, where he was explaining me all of the buttons in the center section of the board. I recorded our entire conversation, and now slowly writing it down. Getting everything well organized would be too much work for this blog, so i am going to post the notes the way they are.

Ext a and ext b

If you look on a patch bay, they are patched into the console.

Ext b, they are labeled. You see cd player.

Different inputs into the console for external things.

If I press the button, I would hear the cd player.

When you press ext b, you will be monitoring whatever is set on ext b.

ProTools 1 is just an easy way to listen to outputs 1-2 in protools.

This way you don’t have to put the faders up and pan the channels 1 and 2 around.

Master level should be on.

Afl/Pfl – different types… of like… when  you press solo, it doesn’t just send it to the mix a, it goes to a separate solo bus. As soon as you press solo, it sends it somewhere else to send it out this solo bus.

If I have a master compression going on, and then solo the channel, I won’t be able to hear any compression. If I put the mix a settings on afl, then everything would still work.

Pfl and afl is prefader listen and after fader listen.

Pre-fader means that it is going to a solo buss at whatever level it was coming in the channel strip regardless. Its not following your volume on the meter. Pfl only means that your solo if prefade. SO, whenever you press solo, the faders would be back up at unity.

Afl will follow the fader.

This option right here means something along the lines “solo individual channels” or something like that.

Normally, when I am at afl, when I press solo, everything I press just adds up. Alt makes it so that you can only solo one channel at a time.

In any mode, whether u are at afl or pfl, you can use alt in order to go to a singular solo mode.

Meters. You see protools levels. It is better to look at meters in protools rather than the board cause those are exact.

Analogue meters, are the ones that show an actual audio that you are hearing.

If all the tracks in pro tools go out 1 and 2, and redlining in protools 1 and 2 meters on the board, it is because they are summing up, n you should bring the faders down.

If you are mixing, and you want to go real style, then you highlight all the channels in protools (except for master channel), you can use option shift command, grab the first channel you want, and say out 1, and then it all just cascade it from there.

There too labels on the screen right above the faders. Usually faders are board faders, and knobs belong to prottols. But if you press the knob, then the order switches.

SO if you really wanted to, you could use faders on the board to mix the protools and write your automation.

The protools control surface with faders on our board can only do 32 channels.

For the most part, as far as good technique, the console does have an automation, but it only the console. So if you take it to another studio, it won’t have any automation. I usually write my automation in protools. SO that’s where I use the protools faders. But also lets say, there are 2 guitar tracks, and one of them is too loud and is coming into the board in read. Sometimes its easy to just bring down one of the protools faders, and then you have a nice volume level without having to screw with it. But with that in mind, its good technique to not let it be like that at first place. You should turn it down when you are recording it, or you can go in and put a plug on it. 

______________________

Just in case if wonder what i did today, my answer would be nothing related to music. As you know, or might not know, i am graduating from uc berkeley, economics. So today i was desperately trying to finish my finance hw. 

Day 6

Well, today I was composing demo for a new Bravo tv show. It is surprising, but the reference music is spooky.
Nothing new on the recording front.

Be back soon.

Day 5

Today i worked on a mix of one of my songs. Had to get everything ready for a guitarist to come and play his part. That is in fact exactly why I even got into engineering. I have been doing electronic music for a while and finally grew over it. Styles, synths, musical instruments.. They all will be changing. Bt people will always appreciate live music and live sound. 

Anyway, i had a little theory lesson with Dave today.

Pre fade button in the center section makes recording be unaffected by the fader.

Input button in the center section leaves recording unaffected by the fader, eq, inserts, dynamics, and compression.

An easier way to set buses comes with not being able to have the short faders (stereo cue knob) working. One should have the efx button on in the center section, and then to turn on busses 1-2 for exemple.

Split mode and why we would need it. Normally, we have recording channels on the right, and playback on the left. So if we need more recording channels, we use split. In this case, the fader becomes just the monitor and not the output fader.

To do split:

channel in section: mic button needs to be on.

processing input: pre fade or input need to be on.

processing output: monitor needs to be on.

This way, eq, dyn, or anything else would be heard in the headphones, but not on the monitor speakers.

You can’t ride the pre amp because it makes noise during recording.

Those are my notes. I haven't tried them all out in practice. But i'll do it tomorrow or on sunday. 

good night, y'all. 

Day 4

Today i did few things.

1. experimented with the Mult function, that splits signal into 2.

Ex: out 42 -> vintech mic in -> vintech mic out -> mult 1 in, -> out mult 2 and 3 -> protools analogue inputs 26 and 27.

I realized that i need to assign the channel to mix A in order to be able to hear it playback in the headphones. it won’t playback. Also we need to make sure that the ProTools volume is close to 0.

Cue b is 2d aux send that can be used for cue/aux send. We never really use it

The right way to send signal to headphones is:

First, select all the channels you want to be sent to headphones (ex. press ch1 "to" 24). Then press EFX to Trk in the center section. Then press set aux. Then, on one of the channels, in the aux/cue section, hold down the set efx/cue b button and press the cue stereo (first aux at the top) until the light goes to efx. Then press cues stereo again so that “on” lightens up. Turn up the the CUE ST level pot as a ‘short fader’ that controls the level of the ALT source. Now you can adjust the faders in the control room without making changes to the mix heard in the headphones. 

Day 3

6-7 hours at the studio. Today was a good day. Definitely good.

I started with the same set up as yesterday. 2 akg 451s. One was facing the sound hole. Another one was pointed at strings at the rear of the piano. It was comforting and unusually easy. The same things all over again: put the stands where they supposed to be, get the mics set up, rap cables around the stands, patch things up. Here an engineer gets pleasure from the mere fact that sound is transformed into a clean signal. On the other hand, composing comes with a feeling of insecurity. Even if you feel yourself a newborn Picasso and really like what you created, there might be a billion of people that don’t. In this case, you, as a composer, are bound to fail.

I had a question about phase meter. Well, apparently the arrow is supposed to show around 0. And the less phasing there is, the better the mix would sound in mono. The arrow was showing around +.5 in my case, so I thought it wasn’t too bad. I moved mics around but couldn’t get it to be closer to 0, so I decided to leave it as it is.

I used 2 vintech preamps and the phoenix valve compressor. By the end of the day, our head engineer Dave explained me that a compressor's output doesn’t actually boost the signal. It just lets it go through. Therefore, when setting the right levels before recording, it's best to start of with an output all the way to the left. He also explained how to add distortion to an audio. For that to happen, one needs to crank a compressor’s input up, while decreasing its output.

Also, the fact that VU meter on the board is redlining turns out to be not a big deal as long as it is not consistently reaching its limit. That is because VU meter doesn’t actually show peaks.

After some time I finally figured out the needed thought process.

When a vu meter is redlining, one should bring up the output trim and lower the threshold. Now that the volume is kinda low, one can bring up the gain.

On the other hand, when recording piano, it is important to keep in mind that pianist is playing softly because the music probably requires to be quite and soft. So one should not use a lot of compression when mixing/recording classical piano. A lot of compression, however, could make sense in a different genre.

I figured out that while mixing or recording, I should also be in a board mode (input flip switch is blue). Then if I assign a track’s output to 1, the 1^st console strip controls that track. To be able to use ProTools section in this board mode, I should turn the “channel” switch on.

Finally, I decided to set up a room mic. I used 2 AKG 414: a cardioid and a figure 8 pattern. The cardioid was facing the piano, while the figure 8 was set up right above it, upside down, and catching acoustic waves from the sides.

http://danieljames126.wordpress.com/2010/10/14/ms-nos-stereo-mic-setup/

• by the way, Dave advised to use compressor later on during the mix and record the signal only through the preamp.

    This way, one would patch the cardioid mic into analogue input 25 and assign the track to output 14. At the same time, an engineer would patch the figure 8 mic into input 26 and assign the track to outputs 15-16. Turn on the phase switch on either 15 or 16 channel. Pan the cardioid mic to the middle and the figure 8 to the far right and left. Slowly turn up the volume of the figure 8 mic, looking at the phasing meter. When it is very loud, phasing might occur.  

An engineer could also split an audio of the figure 8 mic into 2 signals using mult function.

He showed me how to do that, as well as set up the headphones. However, since I haven’t had time to practice, I’ll talk about it tomorrow. 

Day 2

Nobody was at the studio today. Although I could not annoy anybody with my questions, it felt nice to have the entire building to yourself. Like a boss.

I tried a stereo position for the first time. Miking technique #1. .http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVZjRxCobV0

Again, 2 AKG 451. For a preamp, I used Chandler Limited TG2. I used Focusrite Red 3 Dual Channel Compressor. Apparently, although the compressor is turned on, unless the “in” switched is on, the compressor doesn’t do anything. Kinda weird.

 

Anyway, I was recording for a while, when I heard very loud pops happening. Turned out, the mic, which I was using, was touching the piano strings. I didn’t set it up correctly. Oh well, just practically destroyed something valuable.

Stereo image did indeed feel nice, but I ran into problems.

First, I wasn’t quite sure how to check for phase issues. I recorded with both phase reverse (chandler) on and off. In one case, the phase meter on the board was showing positive values. In other case, the values were negative. Which one is right?

Second, while the meter in ProTools was showing a normal level of loudness, monitor vu meter on the board was red lining. The sound indeed felt distorted. So, I decreased the preamp volume. The sound seemed better, but also wasn’t loud enough. Or was it? Anyway, 30 min later, I still didn’t understand what was going on. Should I look at the board VU meter when adjusting levels?

Finally, I didn’t know how to go about mixing two mics together. I am used to thinking of panning as left and right. But what is left and what is right when one is using this kind of a technique?

Day 1

    If it ends up being a story, it is going to be a great story as I have no intention to fail. Anyway, this is a blog for those, who can’t afford to go to music engineering school, but really want to learn. The good thing is that I have a great studio with 48 channel SSL, grand piano, vintage gear, and variety of instruments. I promised my manager Jim to practice engineering every day and write down all of the notes. So here they are. If whatever I say is questionable or wrong, please let me know.

• To set up MicroKORG Synthersizer/Vocoder ready to record.

1. Plug-in Korg to Vintech 1 and Vintech 2 preamp using 2 ¼ inch (instrument) cables.

     * There is an option of patching Korg straight to channel inputs. In this case, we shall not forget to turn on High-z and select channel and input. The 2 settings (channel and input) should light up on a channel strip.

2. a) Patch Vintech 1, out 1 (balanced) to Distressor compressor 1, in 1. Vintech 2, out 1 (balanced) to Distressor 2, in 1 =>  Distressor 1, out 1 to Channel Inputs (lets say 25). Distressor 2, out 1 to Channel Inputs 26. In ProTools session, create a stereo audio track with inputs 25-26 and outputs 1-2. Select channel and line.  

    b) Patch Vintech 1, out 1 (balanced) to Distressor compressor 1, in 1. Vintech 2, out 1 (balanced) to Distressor 2, in 1 =>  Distressor 1, out 1 to ProTools Analogue Inputs (lets say 25). Distressor 2, out 1 to ProTools Analogue Inputs 26.

    Under any circumstances, bring up the fader on 25-26.

• To set up the mic in isobooth to record.

1. Turn on the mic transformer power.

2. Mic goes to input 1 in the isobooth

3. Patch Iso mic line 1 to Vintech 1 mic in

4. Vintech 1 out 1 to LA 2a in

5. LA 2a out to channel input 25

6. Make sure that both Master fader and monitor level are up

* Since the signal goes into channel inputs, rather than ProTools analogue inputs, we can set audio tracks’ output in ProTools session to be 1 instead of 1-2. In this case, we need to pan the channel 1 on the board to the middle.

For Bridney’s voice, the settings could be:

Vintech preamp

--20, out, out, 0, off, 0, off, 0, off, middle, out, out, out

LA 2a compressor

Limit, 40, 70, middle, on

• Things I came up with while trying to mic the grand piano

I started of with SM-58 (according to Jim, the most horrible choice to make).

Switched to SM-57.

Switched to AKG 451 with AKG SA60 adapter. Definitely a rounder sound.

Tried several different positions:

1. Aiming the mic into a sound hole.

2. 6 inches over middle strings, 8 inches from hammers, with lid on short stick. (dull sound)

3. Underneath the piano, aiming up at the soundboard

List of all positions is found here: http://www.shure.com/idc/groups/public/documents/webcontent/us_pro_micsmusicstudio_ea.pdf

• Questions from today:

1. For some reason, when I plugged the mic into input 25, I heard the buzzing. I shall ask my manager Jim.

2. I got a lot of pedal noise. The chair was squeaking. How is it that Dave records without all that noise.

It is Saturday, so hopefully I’ll get a reply by Monday.