Caution: long winded post of performance, workflow and technical notes so if thats not your thing, dont read this lol.
I just wanted to post my workflow and technical notes partially because this is the stuff I like to read, too. As far as the gear goes, I have a DifferentPC which is a custom build tweaked for audio. nothing outrageous, just an i9. 64GB of ram and a few drives running Windows 10. Yes, I have a mac, a few actually but when it came time to upgrade, a comparable Mac Pro to replace my (still in use) cheese grater was literally 4 times the money. Soooooo, thats the computer.
Interface is all UAD. I have 3-X8 interfaces and 2 octo cards. I own every UAD plugin that isnt an amp sim because…..this recording was an AxeFXIII. Sometimes I reamp via a Two Notes Reload, but not on this one. This was the Larry Mitchell Gift of Tone preset FAS posted last month. Larry is a kind soul and I’m proud to call him my friend. One thing we have in common is Knaggs guitars. This was recorded with the Kenai Jr (think Les Paul Jr) with a single P90. Volume and tone knob. I didnt tweak the preset except to get a little more grit at the end.
Drums on this was Superior. I’ve recently acquired an SSL Bus + compressor that to me is magic on drums. On anything, really but I only have one and pressed for time here, thats what they’re going through. I like to process with UAD channel strips, particularly the SSL and API ones. The Neve 1073 is GOLD on dirty guitars. I’ve also recently bought the Plugin Alliance Everything bundle (10 pay x79 bucks). Wow. What a great collection of plugins. Glitch track was spectrasonics. I own Reason and really need to dive deeper into it. Who has the time.
Bass on this track is an Ibanez Affirma reissue. It’s the only bass I own. Sometimes I’ll use plugin bass for things that are beyond my ability. It’s harder to program and takes more time but the results are usually what I want to hear. Bass went direct and I LOVE the Ampeg bass plugin (PA and UAD are the same). That thing just sounds so meaty and I dunno….amplike.
DAW is Studio One. I adore Presonus and think S1 is the perfect combination of usability, customization and simplicity. Tape stop effect was Softube Tape on MixFX in Studio One.
Some of the guitar effects were UAD plugins (Korg SSD I think its called) and some were from the Eventide H9000. I tend to automate my FX as I want to hear them. I also own Eventide Anthology and those are my go to micro pitch and general pitch shifting stuff. Coming up when I came up, these guys were the kings. I cant get away from them.
NONE of this track would have been possible without the single best studio purchase I’ve made: Slate VSX headphones. 500 bucks took my mixes from awful to their current state of mediocre and sometimes even decent. I cant rave about these things enough. I was an early adopter and man, I hate to use buzz words but game changer fits.
So these kinds of contests are challenging to say the least. I got this done working my 60 hour work week (+8 because I worked a day off too), and a 2-3 hour round trip commute. I sat down and had NO IDEA what I was going to come up with a week ago. no song idea, key, melody, nothing. All I had in my corner was my workflow which thankfully I’ve tweaked to exactly where and how I want it. If I can impart any wisdom at all from 20+ years now of recording myself, get your workflow so it’s as out of your way as possible. Nothing kills creativity more than having to route channels, search for FX, develop new recording techniques or any of this stuff faster than a workflow that gets in your way. Make a session template in your DAW that brings up channels routed how you need them, whatever VIs you may be using etc. A big workflow game changer with these drums for me was a 160 dollar or so AKAI MPD226. 16 pads, 4 banks. I have it mapped to Superior, I have my Superior kit preset routed and ready to go so when I sit down, I’m ready to start tapping out a part. If this weren’t the case, its a good 10 minutes to find notes on a midi keyboard, route multitrack channels etc etc. Another nod to Presonus is their toolbar customization. I made buttons that populate the toolbar for common functions including launching Kontakt, Superior (if I’m not in a template already) audio tracks, mixdown etc etc. HUGE time savers.
Lastly, for anyone just getting started. KEEP AT IT. It really takes a long time to develop recording and production chops. When you do it all yourself your recording will only be as good as what you are WORST at. It’s a harsh reality so like a bodybuilder, you keep building your weak points into strong points. I spent years of shooting around demos to friends who would then ask “hey, is that a drum”? You have to go through it and there are no free lunches here. What is on your side today is you dont have to be up until the ass crack of dawn every night poking through a method book like I (we) did back then. YouTube is a fantastic resource and so are these forums. Plenty of folks willing to help including me so dont ever be scared to ask “why dont I hear my guitar”?
Thank you all for the listen. I’m going to poke back a few pages and have an hour or so tonite during my commute and give a few listens and comments.
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