I just bought a mono headstack.
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- steve albini likes it
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I just bought a mono headstack.
Man, am I excited! I've been meeting a fair amount of bluegrass/punk guys at shows lately and they all seem really into the idea of minimalist recording scenarios. Live to two track, OR super ballsy one track. I've talked to a few artists, and they seem game, so now the time has come! Wooooo....here it is:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 2759.l1259
My question is- do any of you really mix to mono and/or release mono albums in this day and age? I met a guy named Charlie Parr from MN and almost all of his stuff is mono, last being done on a Nagra in someone's garage. And they sound awesome, especially with the type of music going down to tape. So do any of you record stuff that could be well served by the limitations of a mono delivery format? If so, do tell. Thanks!
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 2759.l1259
My question is- do any of you really mix to mono and/or release mono albums in this day and age? I met a guy named Charlie Parr from MN and almost all of his stuff is mono, last being done on a Nagra in someone's garage. And they sound awesome, especially with the type of music going down to tape. So do any of you record stuff that could be well served by the limitations of a mono delivery format? If so, do tell. Thanks!
- calaverasgrandes
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- steve albini likes it
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I'm doing a lot in mono. My 3 piece band now just records live to two track 1/4" @ 15ips. Usually there are about eight mikes open at once but can be more, mixed on the go with a simple stereo pan mix. Then I master down with those two tracks, centre panned to a 1/4" full track mono Nagra, also running at 15ips.
I've just this minute finished another mono master of a friends 5 piece band that I also recording live to two track 1/4" this time with 12 open mikes and mixed on the go. It sounds pretty damn good. In many ways I prefer it to the stereo master, which I've also just done.
For some reason I've always had to flip the phase on one of the two track channels coming in to the Nagra otherwise things disappear when you combine the the two centre panned tracks from the tracking tape into one mono output.
Taking that Nagra mono track into a digital medium and outputting it as two mono tracks so it can be played on a pod or put on a cd doesn't seem to cause too many problems. Doing the same on cassette is causing all manner of phase and artifact issues when the two signals, tape head alignment and tape medium vary slightly as the cassette tape gets pulled along.
I'm just about to run an experiment with a two channel 31 band equalizer in between the mono splitter on the Nagra's line out and the cassette recorder line inputs to vary the frequencies in say a 0db to -3db sawtooth on one channel and a mirror -3db to 0db sawtooth on the other to see if I can stop it phasing around without destroying the mono feel of the thing.
Our ultimate goal is to feed a vinyl cutter off the mono Nagra so it'll be A-A-A all the way and a better sonic quality than using cassettes as the final result. But I figure if I can solve the cassette phasing issues I'll be okay to feed a cutter with the Nagra in mono.
Jed
I've just this minute finished another mono master of a friends 5 piece band that I also recording live to two track 1/4" this time with 12 open mikes and mixed on the go. It sounds pretty damn good. In many ways I prefer it to the stereo master, which I've also just done.
For some reason I've always had to flip the phase on one of the two track channels coming in to the Nagra otherwise things disappear when you combine the the two centre panned tracks from the tracking tape into one mono output.
Taking that Nagra mono track into a digital medium and outputting it as two mono tracks so it can be played on a pod or put on a cd doesn't seem to cause too many problems. Doing the same on cassette is causing all manner of phase and artifact issues when the two signals, tape head alignment and tape medium vary slightly as the cassette tape gets pulled along.
I'm just about to run an experiment with a two channel 31 band equalizer in between the mono splitter on the Nagra's line out and the cassette recorder line inputs to vary the frequencies in say a 0db to -3db sawtooth on one channel and a mirror -3db to 0db sawtooth on the other to see if I can stop it phasing around without destroying the mono feel of the thing.
Our ultimate goal is to feed a vinyl cutter off the mono Nagra so it'll be A-A-A all the way and a better sonic quality than using cassettes as the final result. But I figure if I can solve the cassette phasing issues I'll be okay to feed a cutter with the Nagra in mono.
Jed
I used to be a digit, now I'm just-a-log.
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- steve albini likes it
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- calaverasgrandes
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Why pan anything in the mix if it's gonna end up mono?Jazz Jed wrote: My 3 piece band now just records live to two track 1/4" @ 15ips. Usually there are about eight mikes open at once but can be more, mixed on the go with a simple stereo pan mix. Then I master down with those two tracks, centre panned to a 1/4" full track mono Nagra, also running at 15ips.
Jed
Mmm, lung butter.
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'Cause I might want to go back to it and master it up in stereo. Keeps all the options open.firesine wrote:Why pan anything in the mix if it's gonna end up mono?Jazz Jed wrote: My 3 piece band now just records live to two track 1/4" @ 15ips. Usually there are about eight mikes open at once but can be more, mixed on the go with a simple stereo pan mix. Then I master down with those two tracks, centre panned to a 1/4" full track mono Nagra, also running at 15ips.
Jed
I used to be a digit, now I'm just-a-log.
- kingmetal
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The artists I'm working with have this tendancy to do some of their best work when we're drinking in their apartment late at night, far away from my gear. My Zoom H4 has been on loan to a super flakey guitar player friend of mine, so on an impulse I bought a shitty little Radioshack microcassette recorder on my way to their place last weekend. I got some killer material that night and I'm experimenting with bouncing to it. I've got this take of a whole mess of people trying to cover You've Really Got a Hold on Me that just sounds ancient, awesome and deep. Makes you forget it's mono.
I'd love to do more mono stuff, thanks for reminding me.
I'd love to do more mono stuff, thanks for reminding me.
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- steve albini likes it
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Awesome. I'm certainly not abandoning stereo mixing by any means, but I do enjoy the challenge of making things deep without the 'crutch' that pan knobs can sometimes give us. I realize I can do this without some crazy headstack, just to be clear. I'm just nuts and like torturing myself with technology older than myself
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