Message Board

I've been recording local punk/hardcore bands in my basement on the weekends for extra $. Today it was three really young kids who were a bit better than some of the older groups I've been getting. They actually use clean guitar about 30% of the time, have fairly unique phrasing, and sound kinda lik...

I don't think any legit designer would allow you to turn it up so high a component pops and therefore there shouldn't be any ill effects on the equipment from doing so. this is only partially true. as previously expressed, the testing of components is done with a dummy load that assumes a setup con...

Maybe I'm contributing, and maybe not: linear vs. non-linear has to do with distortion at different gain. Class A is technically the most linear (i.e. least distorted), Class AB can be more distorted outside of smaller window of "linearity". Finally, there's class C which features a smaller window ...

I like mic preamps that have an output trim as well as a gain knob so I can intentionally distort when I want to. I don't think the transistors/tubes mind operating in the non-linear region and neither do I. I don't think any legit designer would allow you to turn it up so high a component pops and ...

The cabinet dimensions and port(s) should be tailed to the response of the speaker. The port and cabinet space behind the speaker creates a helmholtz resonator that will ring at a certain freqency. You usually want the hemholtz bump to occur where the LF response of the driver starts tapering off to...

DONT GET ME WRONG! I'm not saying those recordings werent great for their time. Certainly not the best, but good and rockin', for sure. I'm saying that they really don't compare to what's possible these days - even when you're trying to emulate a vintage sound - and I stopped using them for sonic re...

what i find hilarious about mingus records is how good everything sounds except....the bass. it's always so low volume and gets lost so easily. isn't it ironic? don't ya think? I think he's just being humble. I tend to do the same thing when I play bass on a record, and bass is my first instrument.

Attention: Hillary or Larry. Someone please get rid of this annoyance. We don't deserve it.

KEEP THE AVATAR!

The drum sounds on Black Sabbath's "Master of Reality" are a joke. Same goes for tons of 70s records I guess. Usually when I enjoy the music so much it might take a long time to realize the sounds suck but this I spotted long ago.

You might want to say which Charles Mingus record it is you're referring to. I hear he's got quite a few.

Are we still talking about Zeppelin or am I too late? I'll just say this I used to think that my Led Zeppelin CDs (the remastered ones, 2, and 4, and grafitti primarily) were the best recordings I owned and used them as mix references. One day, while trying to analyze the production techniques of "H...

Lance Romance knows what I'm talking about. Les Paul is one of the founding fathers of our field. Everyone on your knees and pay homage! He deserves to be in Tape Op more than anyone I can think of who ever existed. Home studio in the 1930s (earlier even!) with techniques that were miles ahead of al...

If you're really that anal and need a condensor for your stage voice, Neumann and Rode makes handheld condensors. Save yourself the trouble and use a 57 (which I like better than 58s for small coffeehouse and theater gigs). I worked at a well kown club in NYC where we used SM58s/57s/Beta 57s on pra...

I was just at a broadcast museum that had a working example of one of the first tape machines made in germany. apparently bing crosby was into tape and had some connection to the deck.... anyway he recorded some stuff on one of the decks (late 1940s). The machine is still working and that old ass t...

Any calibration settings are going to drift - some very quickly depending on the machine and conditions. Also, even if you print your own reel of tones after calibration the head aligment may drift over time too, rendering that reel not as useful. The fact that MRL tapes are full track is a benefit ...