Message Board

"What to charge" has always been the stickiest topic. I've struggled with it forever, and I don't think it'll ever be the ultimate situation. The studio that I primarily work out of (I'm the only engineer there, but it is actually owned by my partner, whose property it's built on) charges an hourly ...

The DS-1 is a tried and true distortion pedal. It may not be everyone's favorite, but I like it a lot for straight ahead rock distortion. There are a couple of simple mods you can do to make them even better, like swapping out the clipping diodes for LEDs. For the price, they're hard to beat, and ev...

apply this technicque to the kick too. Blending a mic inside the drum with a mic on the shell gives great results for me. It's also a great place to put the "mono" mic.

Roger

hey Rodgre, funny you should say that! The next thing I was gonna try was using one of my bass cabs as a room mic for my OTHER bass cab. Ah yes. This works well if you're trying to get that big wooly roomy bass tone for something like a Beatly track. I used a different trick, but similar idea on so...

If you want to save yourself the money, I just use a bass cab, plug it into a DI box, and voila. I haven't done it in a while, but I used to do this trick a lot years ago too. If you're looking for the low end boom that you get out in front of a kick drum a few feet, this is a great way to go, provi...

I have a magical Fender Pro Junior, which they still make. It's a small amp that sounds huge. Believe it or not, I've had great results with the newer Vox Pathfinder too. Solid State and often less than $100. Sounds great through Celestions too. They're a lot louder than you'd assume, but there are ...

I've been using XT's since '97. I had one bad experience with Blackface ADATs at another studio before that, but the difference with the XTs, mechanically, was night and day. Maligned is right, but I still believe that whatever you're medium you're using, it's a tool. So I'm running ADATs with PT LE...

I clean them myself every 250 hours, and then have them cleaned and all the rubber parts changed every 500 hours.. I do like above, except I was taught to clean the headstack by holding the swab (I use cleaning cloths, folded up with 99% alcohol) against the side of the headstack, and carefully spin...

I would Wait for Wouldn't It Be Nice. The Pet Sounds book was a little dissappointing to me. Like Keith said, it was short, and it didn't tell me much I didn't know already. There was some interesting info on the Tannerin (Theremin) but beyond that, it was really light.

Roger

Honestly, I think a lot of engineers who have been at it awhile dont' even want to bother learning how to use ProTools, so they hire someone to do all the edits for them and they do all the sound-getting stuff. I know that's not the real question here.... I think you're more complaining about the na...

We got a Finalizer when they first came out. Once you know what NOT to do with it (it's hard not to go crazy with it, like any other squishing "mastering" device/plug in) but if you're recording projects that aren't going to be mastered, it's a good way to do some pre-mastering. I know. I know. I wi...

Where can I host an MP3 of an example of this? I have my studio demo reel in my hands, and I could post a song recorded like this right now.....

Roger

A good rockabilly band should be tight enough to play live together, so room bleed helps. Close mic everything for clarity and punch, but let things bleed for that excitement. I've had great results by doing this, and putting one great mono mic in the middle of the room and putting the ubiquitous Su...

There are many sources on the net. Someone recently mentioned the Gyraf DIY site. Paia.com is a good place to start if you're looking for simple kits. I build a lot of my own pedals and I frequent a lot of the forums and sites for that on the net. Search "guitar effect schematics" and you'll find on...

Andy Summers is the god of chorus. So I have to ask what the hell is pop clean dream chorus? Hmmmm.... I always associate Andy Summers with an Electric Mistress flanger, and not so much a chorus. He probably used a CE-1 or CE-2, but that classic Andy Summers shimmer is from an Electric Mistress. Th...