Recording Trends/Techniques that drive you nuts

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digitaldrummer
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Re: Recording Trends/Techniques that drive you nuts

Post by digitaldrummer » Thu Apr 22, 2021 5:29 pm

I have an old handset where I wired the speaker (which was easier than wiring the carbon mic) as a microphone and it goes to a 1/4" jack. Connect that to a guitar amp and it gets the telephone voice and more...
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Re: Recording Trends/Techniques that drive you nuts

Post by drumsound » Thu Apr 22, 2021 7:33 pm

analogika wrote:
Thu Apr 22, 2021 2:52 pm
T-rex wrote:
Thu Apr 22, 2021 10:20 am
So many things in this thread. One of my old bands that was together in the early 2000's randomly got back together over the winter and recorded an entire album remotely. Most of the guys were new to recording at home and EVERY TRACK CAME TO ME IN STEREO, but they were all mono of course. So that was funny to see this in this thread.

Secondly, the telephone voice thing is very early 2000, but I actually did that on this record because I thought it was funny. The last time this band played together was when that was popular so I thought it was actually fitting to be a bit dated.
We recorded the telephone voice in 1996 - using an actual rotary-dial telephone, placed in a large tub to amplify it a bit, with some large-diaphragm condensor set up in directly at the speaker. I called from the internal house line (no cellphones back then) and we recorded that.
I actually taped a cell phone to a stand in front of a U87 that was called by the studio phone (or maybe another cell, or the other way around) for a record I was mixing, but the artist wanted to redo the lead vocal, and we did that in the same sessoin.

digitaldrummer wrote:
Thu Apr 22, 2021 5:29 pm
I have an old handset where I wired the speaker (which was easier than wiring the carbon mic) as a microphone and it goes to a 1/4" jack. Connect that to a guitar amp and it gets the telephone voice and more...
Oooo that sounds like fun.

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Re: Recording Trends/Techniques that drive you nuts

Post by T-rex » Thu Apr 22, 2021 7:56 pm

drumsound wrote:
Thu Apr 22, 2021 7:33 pm
analogika wrote:
Thu Apr 22, 2021 2:52 pm
T-rex wrote:
Thu Apr 22, 2021 10:20 am

Secondly, the telephone voice thing is very early 2000, but I actually did that on this record because I thought it was funny. The last time this band played together was when that was popular so I thought it was actually fitting to be a bit dated.
We recorded the telephone voice in 1996 - using an actual rotary-dial telephone, placed in a large tub to amplify it a bit, with some large-diaphragm condensor set up in directly at the speaker. I called from the internal house line (no cellphones back then) and we recorded that.
I actually taped a cell phone to a stand in front of a U87 that was called by the studio phone (or maybe another cell, or the other way around) for a record I was mixing, but the artist wanted to redo the lead vocal, and we did that in the same sessoin.

digitaldrummer wrote:
Thu Apr 22, 2021 5:29 pm
I have an old handset where I wired the speaker (which was easier than wiring the carbon mic) as a microphone and it goes to a 1/4" jack. Connect that to a guitar amp and it gets the telephone voice and more...
Oooo that sounds like fun.
My very first band recorded an album at echo park back in the day with Paul Mahern in like 95 or 96 maybe? On one song he called on the studio’s phone some random number and recorded the weird operator message we got. It worked surprisingly perfectly with the track. But He was big into serendipity and we did a bunch of random things that just fell into place.
[Asked whether his shades are prescription or just to look cool]
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Re: Recording Trends/Techniques that drive you nuts

Post by drumsound » Thu Apr 22, 2021 8:43 pm

T-rex wrote:
Thu Apr 22, 2021 7:56 pm
drumsound wrote:
Thu Apr 22, 2021 7:33 pm
analogika wrote:
Thu Apr 22, 2021 2:52 pm


We recorded the telephone voice in 1996 - using an actual rotary-dial telephone, placed in a large tub to amplify it a bit, with some large-diaphragm condensor set up in directly at the speaker. I called from the internal house line (no cellphones back then) and we recorded that.
I actually taped a cell phone to a stand in front of a U87 that was called by the studio phone (or maybe another cell, or the other way around) for a record I was mixing, but the artist wanted to redo the lead vocal, and we did that in the same sessoin.

digitaldrummer wrote:
Thu Apr 22, 2021 5:29 pm
I have an old handset where I wired the speaker (which was easier than wiring the carbon mic) as a microphone and it goes to a 1/4" jack. Connect that to a guitar amp and it gets the telephone voice and more...
Oooo that sounds like fun.
My very first band recorded an album at echo park back in the day with Paul Mahern in like 95 or 96 maybe? On one song he called on the studio’s phone some random number and recorded the weird operator message we got. It worked surprisingly perfectly with the track. But He was big into serendipity and we did a bunch of random things that just fell into place.
That sounds fun.

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Re: Recording Trends/Techniques that drive you nuts

Post by digitaldrummer » Fri Apr 23, 2021 12:58 pm

that reminds me of a session where a guitar player brought in some kind of vintage echo/reverb unit (can't remember exactly what). at the end of a song we noticed it was picking up a local (Spanish language) radio station, coming through the guitar amp. so yeah, we kept that!
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Re: Recording Trends/Techniques that drive you nuts

Post by losthighway » Fri Apr 23, 2021 1:55 pm

digitaldrummer wrote:
Fri Apr 23, 2021 12:58 pm
that reminds me of a session where a guitar player brought in some kind of vintage echo/reverb unit (can't remember exactly what). at the end of a song we noticed it was picking up a local (Spanish language) radio station, coming through the guitar amp. so yeah, we kept that!
Why is it that when an audio device picks up a radio station, at least 70% of the time it's Spanish language?

They must have the best broadcasting power. Excellent.

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Re: Recording Trends/Techniques that drive you nuts

Post by A.David.MacKinnon » Fri Apr 23, 2021 2:27 pm

In Toronto it's usually Korean or Portuguese.

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Re: Recording Trends/Techniques that drive you nuts

Post by T-rex » Fri Apr 23, 2021 2:38 pm

digitaldrummer wrote:
Fri Apr 23, 2021 12:58 pm
that reminds me of a session where a guitar player brought in some kind of vintage echo/reverb unit (can't remember exactly what). at the end of a song we noticed it was picking up a local (Spanish language) radio station, coming through the guitar amp. so yeah, we kept that!
Same exact thing. We hooked up a pedal and suddenly this track comes though, we absolutely used it. I don’t think it was Spanish though.
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Re: Recording Trends/Techniques that drive you nuts

Post by Scodiddly » Fri Apr 23, 2021 7:47 pm

losthighway wrote:
Fri Apr 23, 2021 1:55 pm
Why is it that when an audio device picks up a radio station, at least 70% of the time it's Spanish language?
Because a lot the AM stations are non-English. It's a cheaper platform if you don't have a huge audience. It's also the kind of signal that can be accidentally decoded by audio gear.

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Re: Recording Trends/Techniques that drive you nuts

Post by losthighway » Fri Apr 23, 2021 8:21 pm

Scodiddly wrote:
Fri Apr 23, 2021 7:47 pm
losthighway wrote:
Fri Apr 23, 2021 1:55 pm
Why is it that when an audio device picks up a radio station, at least 70% of the time it's Spanish language?
Because a lot the AM stations are non-English. It's a cheaper platform if you don't have a huge audience. It's also the kind of signal that can be accidentally decoded by audio gear.
YES! I knew someone here would know this. This place rules. Well done.

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Re: Recording Trends/Techniques that drive you nuts

Post by drumsound » Sat Apr 24, 2021 12:06 pm

losthighway wrote:
Fri Apr 23, 2021 8:21 pm
Scodiddly wrote:
Fri Apr 23, 2021 7:47 pm
losthighway wrote:
Fri Apr 23, 2021 1:55 pm
Why is it that when an audio device picks up a radio station, at least 70% of the time it's Spanish language?
Because a lot the AM stations are non-English. It's a cheaper platform if you don't have a huge audience. It's also the kind of signal that can be accidentally decoded by audio gear.
YES! I knew someone here would know this. This place rules. Well done.
My thoughts exactly!

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Re: Recording Trends/Techniques that drive you nuts

Post by roscoenyc » Sat Apr 24, 2021 1:24 pm

T-rex wrote:
Thu Apr 22, 2021 7:56 pm
drumsound wrote:
Thu Apr 22, 2021 7:33 pm
analogika wrote:
Thu Apr 22, 2021 2:52 pm


We recorded the telephone voice in 1996 - using an actual rotary-dial telephone, placed in a large tub to amplify it a bit, with some large-diaphragm condensor set up in directly at the speaker. I called from the internal house line (no cellphones back then) and we recorded that.
I actually taped a cell phone to a stand in front of a U87 that was called by the studio phone (or maybe another cell, or the other way around) for a record I was mixing, but the artist wanted to redo the lead vocal, and we did that in the same sessoin.

digitaldrummer wrote:
Thu Apr 22, 2021 5:29 pm
I have an old handset where I wired the speaker (which was easier than wiring the carbon mic) as a microphone and it goes to a 1/4" jack. Connect that to a guitar amp and it gets the telephone voice and more...
Oooo that sounds like fun.
My very first band recorded an album at echo park back in the day with Paul Mahern in like 95 or 96 maybe? On one song he called on the studio’s phone some random number and recorded the weird operator message we got. It worked surprisingly perfectly with the track. But He was big into serendipity and we did a bunch of random things that just fell into place.
Echo Park was a really great studio.

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Re: Recording Trends/Techniques that drive you nuts

Post by T-rex » Sun Apr 25, 2021 8:36 am

It was such a great experience. We had recorded an album locally but we were still super green. Paul kicked our ass a bit in the beginning, which we needed. But by the end I was running the board when Paul was recording some parts and he mixed it in the A room on their big API.

Paul letting us (me) be so involved in the process, pretty much cemented my desire to engineer and mix.
[Asked whether his shades are prescription or just to look cool]
Guy: Well, I am the drummer.

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Re: Recording Trends/Techniques that drive you nuts

Post by analogika » Tue Apr 27, 2021 9:43 am

digitaldrummer wrote:
Fri Apr 23, 2021 12:58 pm
that reminds me of a session where a guitar player brought in some kind of vintage echo/reverb unit (can't remember exactly what). at the end of a song we noticed it was picking up a local (Spanish language) radio station, coming through the guitar amp. so yeah, we kept that!
Same session as the telephone-in-a-tub recording, same album, the wah-wah picked up local AM radio at the end of a take. It's on the album.

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