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KenElevenShadows

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Posts posted by KenElevenShadows

    Does Anyone Have Apple's Vision Pro Yet?

    in Craig Anderton's Sound, Studio, and Stage

    Posted

    Perhaps Apple knows that the average bear is not going to purchase this, and that it's geared toward developers. They get developers on board, and are eventually able to release an even more completely refined version for considerably less coin. Who knows?

     

    The public has been very resistant to "wearables" so far. Will it change? I don't know. It will take a long time if it does.

     

    But regardless, I get the idea that Apple knows that this is not going to sell like iPhones.

     

    By the way, when iPads were first introduced, I was one of the few people on this forum that thought it would fly. Most people said that it was like a large phone or made from the name, comparing it to diapers. I feel like just because you and I won't buy it doesn't mean that there isn't a "long game" being played here. Will it ultimately succeed? I don't know. But my guess is that there's a better chance of it eventually taking root than many here think there is.

    Manfrotto Element MII Red: Your versatile travel photography BFF?

    in The Big Picture

    Posted

    Manfrotto Element MII Red: Your versatile travel photography BFF?

    The Manfrotto Element MII is a lightweight tripod aimed at hobbyists and entry-level photographers who need something sturdy yet easy on the pocketbook. But the tripod seems to check many boxes for such an affordable tripod. Let’s have a look.

    https://photofocus.com/reviews/manfrotto-element-mii-red-your-versatile-travel-photography-bff/

     

    Manfrotto-Element-MII-aluminum-tripod-re

    What are your favorite pop and rock groups of the past five or so years?

    in Craig Anderton's Sound, Studio, and Stage

    Posted

    Rather than discuss pop music that sucks and all, why don't we discuss some groups we love? Since we can get into the weeds a bit about groups putting out stuff now, let's say relatively new groups that are putting out the main part of their musical output now as opposed to 35-year old groups who are still releasing albums? Oh, and don't get too "strict" about the past five years. I just mean relatively recently.

     

     

    I don't even know how to describe Khruangbin, who have become rather popular. Check them out.

     

     

     

    I saw these guys live and thought they sounded so dreamlike and wonderful. Their album does not disappoint.

     

     

     

    Someone from SSS (sorry, can't remember who) posted this very video of Slift. They're pretty great, so I'm going to share it again.

    A.I. "Jazz"

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    I'm impressed at how far AI (really, more "machine learning" since "AI" is such a buzzword) has come, especially in the last couple of years. That it can even produce anything like this is technologically astounding.

     

    I don't particularly care for the music at 8:09 personally, but I'm impressed that it can create something that is reasonably cohesive and readily identifiable as something resembling jazz.

    • Like 2

    Rick Beato goes mainstream

    in Craig Anderton's Sound, Studio, and Stage

    Posted

    On 2/27/2024 at 2:09 AM, AROIOS said:

    While Beato's interviews are enjoyable, I never found him a great "educator". Scrolling 10 pages through his YT videos, I don't see a single title hinting at anything "educational" that interests me.

    I'm not being difficult, a short video from Matt Johnson often makes my day.
     

    And my reaction to vast majority of Beato's "What Makes This Song Great" series has been a consistent "Who T F Said It's Great?"

     

    He feels the songs are great, and he simply tells you why he feels that way. 

     

    He has an ear training course. And he discusses quite a bit of music theory in his videos within the context of his videos. 

    • Like 1

    Rick Beato goes mainstream

    in Craig Anderton's Sound, Studio, and Stage

    Posted

    On 2/26/2024 at 10:29 AM, Adan said:

    Another annoying thing about social media is, for reasons I truly don't comprehend, it seems to force people into binary positions. So, either you think Beato is the greatest thing that ever happened to music, or you're a "hater." I mean, really? So all this time spent listening and reading just erases our brains ability to tolerate ambiguity and nuance?

     

    Jerry Seinfeld has a bit about this in his new Netflix special, where he talks about everything is either "great" or it "sucks." Seinfeld, by the way, is still great.

     

     

     

    I feel like people never needed social media to adopt extreme positions. Us/them. You/me. People regard almost anything as a sporting event. If you have a nuanced opinion, realizing the complexities of a situation, they tell you to "take a stand". I think a lot of people engage in "bumperstickerism", where complex issues (and most issues are complex) are reduced to buzzwords and caricatures. 

    Pushback About Master Bus Processing

    in Craig Anderton's Sound, Studio, and Stage

    Posted

    On 2/25/2024 at 12:15 PM, Anderton said:

     

     

    Mastering classical music is also tricky...but that's another story, for another time :) 

     

    Bah! Those are easy! Crank the brick-wall limiter and make that WAV file look like a 2x4!!! ;) 

     

    That Martha Davis thing sounds verrrry challenging. It would be fascinating to hear a before/after of that! The "after" sounds very good, and her voice does sound great.

    Pushback About Master Bus Processing

    in Craig Anderton's Sound, Studio, and Stage

    Posted

    All that sounds good, Craig.

     

    As an aside, I know we've had jokes for years about mastering your own material. After all, most of us are probably mixing and mastering using the same setup! 

     

    But for some reason, at least with our own material, we've gotten pretty good at it, good enough that we began doing it ourselves because what we were getting was just about the same as a really great mastering engineer.

     

    Again, for our own stuff.

     

    I'm not going to sit here and tell you that I can master as great as a great mastering engineer overall. Maybe I'm like that person you know down the block that has a really decrepit 1973 Impala...and the owner knows that if you hit the door a certain way, the window rolls down, and if you crank the knob all the way to the right and click it three times, the A/C kicks on and it still gets him where he needs to go. :D 

    Pushback About Master Bus Processing

    in Craig Anderton's Sound, Studio, and Stage

    Posted

    Your description of "console emulation" is also intriguing. I hadn't thought about it that way, probably because I was thinking "tape saturation" due to the name of the plug-in (Tape Head by Massey). But in essence, it's the same concept.

     

    full.TapeHead.jpg

     

    I also use this Tape Head on other things as well, such as bass or synthesizers sometimes. Then again, I sometimes use a mastering limiter, the Massey L2007, on vocals. Whatever works, I guess.

     

    Also, I woudn't be surprised if you're correct and many people master through the Master Bus now. I will do that to be really quick with something, i.e., getting something out quick to the client without having to explain why their mix sounds so much quieter than everyone else's and that kind of thing. But otherwise, I like to separate mixing and mastering. I still try to master with the intent of creating an album even if people don't often listen to music that way. At least if they stream several of my songs in a row, they general feel and volume and vibe are consistent (unless I don't want them to be, haha!). 

    Pushback About Master Bus Processing

    in Craig Anderton's Sound, Studio, and Stage

    Posted

    11 hours ago, Anderton said:

     

    Interesting...so you're basically using it like a console emulation plugin, where you decide "this is the sound of the console" and mix through it. That makes sense. If you try to insert a console emuator in the middle of doing a mix, it will change the sound around. This is particularly true with the Studio One console emulator, because it has a crosstalk option. You need to mix through that from the gitgo.

     

    Yes, that's what I've found. If I put it on in the middle, well, I might like it, sure, but it changes the sound regardless, so it's better just to mix "into" it instead. It works for me. I don't know if this is considered unorthodox or what. There's probably plenty of other people doing it, and maybe they'll pipe up. 

     

    Regardless, I generally agree with your approach.

    • Like 1

    Pushback About Master Bus Processing

    in Craig Anderton's Sound, Studio, and Stage

    Posted

    10 hours ago, Anderton said:

     

    Do you apply the glue as you go along, or after finishing the mix and then apply the glue? To be clear, when I refer to inserting processors in the master bus, I mean while you're doing the process of mixing. I don't mean finishing the mix, then adding the processing and rendering from the DAW. If I didn't have a separate mastering program I'd render from the DAW, too. I'd just wait until the mix was done.

    Lately, I've been mixing with tape saturation in the Master Buss, and not even bothering to take it off.

     

    I initially did it because I forgot to take it off, and found it pleasing, so kept going.

     

    I used to NEVER have anything on the Master Buss, and I've slowly over time switched to where I just go ahead and mix with tape saturation on. I do toggle it on and off to hear what it's doing, of course.

    • Like 1

    Pushback About Master Bus Processing

    in Craig Anderton's Sound, Studio, and Stage

    Posted

    I generally agree with the premise. But I'm going to tell you that, more recently, I contradict it.

     

    For most of the time that I've been mixing, I've mixed without anything on the Master Bus.

     

    However, since it seems like, at least for our musical project, we are no longer using a mastering engineer and are doing everything ourselves, I have begun using things on the Master Bus. However, I don't use them to "fix" EQ or solve problems. I use it to generally shape or glue. For instance, I use tape saturation or compression, not to fix anything, but to just affect the overall mix. Then I add a limiter at the end. That has worked for us really well. Our mastering process is pretty streamlined because I am rather consistent with doing this.

     

    When I mix other bands or musical projects, I have carried over some of these practices such as the tape saturation or very light compression, just acting like a glue. No limiter, though, and if I add EQ, it's to shape the overall mix slightly, not to "fix" anything. 

     

    Greatest Rock Keyboardist of our generation?

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    The Cars are rock, right? If we're talking about the best being the most complementary, the keyboards that Greg Hawkes plays are beautifully so, alongside the aforementioned Brian Eno and Paul Raymond (UFO). I should mention Jon Lord, Ray Manzarek and Billy Powell as well.

     

    Here's a link to the Top 100 Greatest Rock Keyboardists and Pianists. It's just one link, you know, but interestingly, they put Brian Eno at #19, so maybe my mentioning him is not as weird as it seems! :D

     

    https://digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/best_keyboard.html

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