EQ Magazine - December 2008 - (Page 6)

SOUNDING BOARD THE EVERLASTING THANKS Thank you, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! I will never be able to thank you enough for the massive piece on the Smashing Pumpkins [“Signal to Noise” – 10/08]. I’ve been searching for details about how they made all of those great albums since I was a young, way-too-angsty 19-yearold blaring Gish in my college dorm. One question though: I’ve went to your website to sign up for the live chat with Billy, and I can’t find anything. Help! I need to know how I can be a part of this. I have more questions for him than you could believe. Aaron Renault (via email) Editor Matt Harper responds: Unfortunately we experienced some last minute scheduling difficulties due to Billy’s understandably hectic schedule (he has a lot of interesting things for you fans in the works that we aren’t at liberty to publicize right now). As of writing this response (10/20/08), the event is officially cancelled. Though we worked tirelessly to make this happen for you, ultimately it just wasn’t meant to be. Rest assured that we will announce the next installment in our Artist Master Class series shortly, and we’re sure you’ll be pleased with what we have in store for you. On a related note, now seems as good of a time as any to recommend that you sign up for our free Record Ready e-newsletter at www.eqmag.com. This is by far the best way to keep upto-date with all the going-ons over here at EQ, including announcements regarding our Artist Master Class series. As a subscriber you’ll also get special content, all the new gear news you can stomach, and the opportunity to win tons of free stuff. All of the cool kids are doing it, so what are you waiting for? LIFE IN THE FAST LANE I’m a musician/vocalist/engineer/producer and I’ve been running my Pro Tools studio as a business for three years. Over the years I’ve gained the respect of my clients due to my tracking style. You see, I tend to mix and add effects to the vocals during the vocal tracking, and usually need to spend no more than 20 minutes after the tracking is complete getting the levels right. With a lot of Hip-Hop and R&B artists, this means they can have a finished song laid down in about an hour. Recently, I started to work at a nice, new studio. They want me to bring them my customers, but they forbid me to add even so much as light compression until the tracking is complete. I feel as if these owners are taking an unnecessarily slow and entirely old school approach to a fast moving industry, and it is costing me my clientèle. Will you please do a story about integrating tracking/mixing with RTAS plug-ins on a DAW so I can show them and, hopefully, return to my normal workflow? These guys have a lot of money and great equipment, but unfortunately they are closed-minded and have little actual knowledge of tracking/mixing. David James (via email) Editor Matt Harper responds: We’ll do you a good one and start working on an article about processing vocals on the fly, and why that is a great way for some of us to work. Meanwhile, I urge you to push this issue in front of these owners you speak of and show them the cover story. In there you’ll see that Joe Chiccarelli has a lot of positive things to to say about the subject of committing to EQ, compression, and other effects during tracking. I mean, if such is good enough for artists like My Morning Jacket, Beck, U2, Elton John, The Shins, White Stripes, Morrissey, etc. then surely it’s good enough for your clients, right? DEAR CHRIS MARA… I just wanted to write because, as a fellow engineer, I really look up to you. I caught your video over at the EQ site [www.eqmag.tv], and was astounded to see you breaking down the calibration process for an analog reel-to-reel tape recorder. I recently acquired a Fostex open reel, 1/4-inch 8-track recorder. Are there any recommendations you can give me for the process of tracking in a DAW and then bouncing to 1/4-inch tape? Shawn Larson (via email) Contributor Chris Mara responds: Try this technique: 1. Create eight new tracks in your DAW. 2. Pick eight tracks that you want sent to tape and assign them to the DAW’s analog outs (1-8). 3. Take the new track’s inputs (analog 1-8) and group them. 4. Put the tape machine into reproduce mode. 5. Arm the analog machine and the new tracks in your DAW. 6. Play/record your DAW session as you record on your analog deck. This way you’re simultaneously recording onto tape and back into your DAW. Note that while being in reproduce mode assures that you’re actually hearing tape (versus the machine’s input), this results in a long delay. Therefore once you finish each pass, you’ll need to slide your group of new tracks to the left and line them up with the original tracks in your DAW. Check to see/hear how they line up further down the song too—they may drift, so you may need to line them up again at, say, the top of the second chorus or whatever. Got something to say? Questions, comments, concerns? Head on over to www.eqmag.com and drop us a line in our Letters to the Editor forum, send us an email at eqeditor@musicplayer.com or snail mail c/o EQ Magazine, 1111 Bayhill Dr., Suite 125, San Bruno, CA 94066 for possible inclusion in the Sounding Board. Note: Letters may be edited for length and/or clarity. Direct correspondence by EQ editorial is not guaranteed. All submissions become the property of EQ magazine and can be published in any medium. 6 EQ DECMEBER 2008 www.eqmag.com http://www.eqmag.com http://www.eqmag.com http://www.eqmag.tv http://www.eqmag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of EQ Magazine - December 2008

EQ Magazine - December 2008 Contents Talk Box Sounding Board Punch In My Morning Jacket Guitar Trax Bass Management Key Issues Drum Heads Vocal Cords Mix Bus Cheat Sheet Cakewalk Sonar 8 Propellerhead Reason 4 Indie 500: Lunchbox Pres and Compressors 500 Series Preamps 500 Series Compressors Gadgets and Goodies Sounds Room with a Vu

EQ Magazine - December 2008

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