If you are interested in mic preamps...

[3D Audio]

Check out www.3daudioinc.com for the latest news on the 3D Audio Preamp Listening Party. There's a scrapbook of pictures from the party and if you've never seen $75,000 worth of preamps all in one room, you need to take a look.

 

 

 

You can also order a copy of the 3D Pre CD online. The initial responses are coming in, like from Doug Fearn (DW Fearn preamps), who wrote:

 

********

 

I received the 3D Pre CD yesterday and gave it a quick listen last

 

evening. You are to be congratulated on an excellent job!

 

 

 

The performers are excellent, with amazingly consistent performances

 

from cut to cut. And the calibration and recording of the preamps is

 

truly the best I have heard on a project like this.

 

 

 

There were a few surprises, both good and bad, but in general, I think

 

engineers will have a great tool for objectively evaluating preamps.

 

Plus I think it will dispel a few cherished notions held by many.

 

********

 

And Eddie Ciletti wrote:

 

********

 

Congrats on getting the levels so close. You succeeded in making

 

evaluation more difficult!! And congrats on choosing a vocalist

 

capable of being so consistent. With just a few exceptions where the

 

pitch was different the performances made a difficult evaluation easier.

 

 

 

Overall, you are to be commended for every facet, especially patience if

 

not tenacity. I can just imagine how much work went into this -- and

 

you're still married?

 

***********

 

 

 

So if you are in the market for preamps, or if you just want to know whether you can hear the difference between a Mackie 1604 and a $2000 Manley preamp in your own studio on your own monitors, you should check it out at www.3daudioinc.com.

 

 

 

Lynn Fuston

 

3D Audio Inc

 

Music Mixing and Mastering

 

On a scenic hilltop outside of historic

 

Franklin, Tennessee

http://www.3daudioinc.com

 

email:go3daudio@aol.com

[lwilliam]

So, commercial advertising is allowed here?

 

If so, then customer service should also be allowed. You should know then that I'm STILL waiting for my CD which I ordered from 3D on May 19th.

 

My AMEX shows the charge...but UPS stops by every day empty-handed.

 

 

 

------------------

Larry W.

[lwilliam]

OK, it came today, the 27th. You're off the hook for that.

 

I still object to an add such as yours in a discussion group. Maybe Fletcher can advertise his wares here, too?

 

Shall we have someone from zzounds, SamAsh, and music123 give us their weekly specials? Where do you draw the line?

 

I come to these boards because usenet is so full of spam like your ad.

 

I would respectfully request that Craig delete this entire thread and any other blatant commercial advertising.

 

I'd like to see this board free from spammers.

 

 

 

------------------

Larry W.

[Guest]

On the other side of the coin, I'm just a hobbyist working out of my dining room. This is seems pretty interesting to me, and I might not have found out about it otherwise. I'm certainly no fan of spam, but this seems germane.

 

So... wanna give an independent review?

 

Phil

 

 

[This message has been edited by pglewis@one.net (edited 05-28-2000).]

[alphajerk]

i certainly dont see this as spam. spam is junk that nobody can use. i have ordered my copy that i wouldnt have known about otherwise. i cant wait to get mine.

[3D Audio]

I have written Craig, to ask that the thread be deleted if he deems it inappropriate. If you re-read the original post, you'll notice that I just mention that you can order online.

 

 

 

I posted that message after reading some questions people asked here about preamps. It is exactly for people like the ones that frequent this board that I did this project. But it won't do them any good if they don't find out about it. So far, I've heard from three people who couldn't tell any difference at all (buy more accurate loudspeakers first before preamps), all the way to Doug Fearn who picked his design out on the first listen through.

 

 

 

Was my post leading? Yes.

 

Was it informative? Yes.

 

Was it a blatant sales ad? I don't think so, but obviously I stepped on your toes.

 

 

 

I know this preamp listening evaluation is something that a lot of people are interested in. I'm just trying to get the word out.

 

 

 

Sorry if you feel this forum is the wrong place. I will defer to Craig's judgment.

 

 

 

By the way, I'm glad you got the CD. All packages are being sent Priority mail, and they usually arrive within 2-3 days after they are sent. Orders placed late on Friday afternoons go out on Monday, as yours did.

 

------------------

Lynn Fuston

3D Audio Inc

Music Mixing and Mastering

on a scenic hilltop overlooking historic

Franklin, TN

http://www.3daudioinc.com

email: go3daudio@aol.com

[lwilliam]

DEFINITION OF SPAMMING: Electronic junk mail, bulk email or junk newsgroup postings; any unsolicited email and is generally email advertising for some product or service sent to a mailing list or newsgroup.

 

I think the key here is "unsolicited" and "advertising".

 

I also found out about the the CD via one of the forums here. The difference is that it came up in a DISCUSSION of preamps. I have no objection to that. We all have mentioned products and gear that we like and use to others in the forum.

 

This goes way over the line, IMHO, it is an advertisement, plain and simple. The product is of interest to many of us, but if 3D can advertise here, then so can anyone else offering a product of some interest to any of us - and we'd be back to the signal-to-noise ratio of usenet.

 

I think we should hold the line on NO advertising in this manner. Do you really want to then filter through zzounds, music123, samash, bayview and potentially hundreds of other "music-related" ads in a forum like this?

 

Maybe a separate forum for people advertising commercial products would solve the problem? Then musicplayer could either offer advertising space for free as a service, or charge for it as so many other sites do.

 

------------------

Larry W.

 

[This message has been edited by lwilliam (edited 05-28-2000).]

[Doug Robinson]

YOu've gone too far--you obviously don't recognize that Lynn Fuston is a long-standing member of this community. I met Lynn when Craig had Sound, Studio and Stage on AOL,. years ago now. He gives of his knowledge and experience selflessly--in fact, when AOL closed SSS down, Lynn started a temporary community site were we could all congregate and contemplate the next step. Think he's gonna get rich selling a few dozen CDs to nuts like us who want to hear the difference between a Mackie and a Manley? I do understand your concern about advertising, but take it from me--this guy is family, and the fact that he put the whole pre amp shootout together in the first place, did all that work, certainly gives him the right to talk about it here---or anywhere he wants to.

 

Lynn, I hope you're not too bent out of shape by this--knowing you, you're not. You can see where he was coming from, but I say that it was fine to do exactly what you did.

 

Doug

[THE MIX FIX]

I have nothing to sell, but could everybody STILL send me $30.00?

 

Hell, it's worth a try.

 

I'll give you my address if you want to send me money;

 

http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

 

------------------

Bob.

[alphajerk]

i wouldnt consider this junk mail and obviously neither do you since you ordered it. and it happens to be something highly different than sweetwater to sam ash posting ads here.

 

i would hope that if i came up with a product as helpful and nice as this one, then people would appreciate me advertising it. its not like they are trying to sell some crapstreet boys cd, its preamp demos, something we all need.

 

the only thing however, while the guitar and vocals stay generally the same, i have no idea what they sound like in reality. when will i be able to see comments of each made by those who were there who are aware of this missing factor? does it come with the cd??? i hope so. or will it be available later. and are all the details listed on the cd so i can read while i listen?

 

i would really like a thread here for discussion of this cd, i will start it once i get mine if no one has. i would be eager to hear everyones opinions of what pres sound best to them. i have sifted through some @ the 3D site. i wonder if GM can pick out his pre???

 

i hope you plan on doing some more of these tests, there were many pre's i would like to hear not listed.

[3D Audio]

<

 

i would like to hear not listed.>>

 

 

 

I hope people will discuss it. The listeners at the original party agreed amongst ourselves that posting our impressions before anyone had heard the CD would be counterproductive, since the purpose was to encourage people to decide with their ears only, NOT by reading a magazine review or taking some hot shot engineer's opinion. I also wanted people to listen and not use their eyes, ie. not look at the name on the front panel to help them decide whether it sounded warm or big or thin or cheap. The most interesting thing about this "exercise" (and that's really what it is. It's not a sales tool, but a listening exercise to see if you "really" hear what you think you're hearing or what the advertisers have pre-disposed you to hear. Does a Mackie sound cheap? Can you tell it apart from a $3000 stereo GML? Close your eyes and YOU TELL ME!!) is that people don't always hear what they think they are hearing. Several of us "knew" (rather thought we knew) what preamps were which by a characteristic "sound." Were we right?

 

 

 

Not once.

 

 

 

But you'll have to listen for yourself and decide. There is some discussion at my webboard, but I don't want to pull anyone from Craig's site and hope that people will discuss their impressions right here.

 

 

 

So how about it Larry? You got your CD. What did YOU think?

 

 

 

 

 

------------------

Lynn Fuston

3D Audio Inc

Music Mixing and Mastering

on a scenic hilltop overlooking historic

Franklin, TN

http://www.3daudioinc.com

email: go3daudio@aol.com

[3D Audio]

Forgot to mention, I am already collecting the names of unit and manufacturers that want to be involved in the 2nd Annual Preamp Listening Party. So far I have been contacted by Drawmer and Peavey, and have requests to include units from Pendulum and Bellari. I also want to get one of the new Focusrite 110 re-issues and see how it compares to my vintage units. That will be interesting.

 

 

 

So if you have suggestions, either let me know or get in touch with the manufacturers and have them contact me at go3daudio@aol.com. On this first one, lots of engineers brought their own preamps, but on the next one I think I may restrict it to current production models directly from the mfgs. That way I can make sure that each unit is precisely representative of what is currently available.

 

 

 

Thanks for your interest.

 

 

 

 

 

------------------

Lynn Fuston

3D Audio Inc

Music Mixing and Mastering

on a scenic hilltop overlooking historic

Franklin, TN

http://www.3daudioinc.com

email: go3daudio@aol.com

[Anderton]

Okay, about this thread, spamming, etc.

 

I have already deleted one folder that was a definite advertisement. It was an interesting case, because it was for a music distribution company that's associated with a company that repairs and sells replacement parts for Macs. In fact, I have patronized this company in the past, and they've delivered excellent service at fair prices. They're also not a big company, and probably, some of you would like to know it exists (just to save you the trouble of asking, it's Shreve Systems).

 

I sent the person who posted the folder an explanation that commerical advertising is not allowed, but that mentions for educational purposes are okay. For example, if someone posts a question that asks "I can't find a logic board anywhere for a Mac II ci, can anyone help?", then I would welcome someone saying that yes, they have a company that sells logic boards. So it was a tough call, but I deleted the folder.

 

In Lynn's case, I believe that what he is doing is primarily educational in nature. He will be lucky if he can pay back the cost of his time and effort through sales of these CDs. Also, I met Lynn on a trip to Nashville, and he is definitely not a mercenary kind of guy. He is extremely dedicated to the audio arts, and has been willing to share copious amounts of knowledge over the years on my AOL site, his own site, and now, here. He of course never got any return for this.

 

So in my judgment, Lynn is for real, and he is making an honest educational effort. If his business was selling demo CDs, then I would have deleted the post. But this is a side venture that is really done more for our benefit than his - hey, he's already heard the results, and he could have kept them to himself.

 

Anyone who patronized my AOL site knows that I have a quick trigger finger for the DELETE button, and you can rest assured that "noise" will be dealt a swift dismissal. However, I feel that in this case, we're looking at something that is of interest to this forum's visitors, and is more like a public service than an intrusion. The level of interest in his project does, I believe, vindicate that belief.

 

However, this is not to minimize the importance of this type of issue, and I would like to thank all concerned for expressing their opinions. It is an important process, as it allows issues to be defined, and to help create a community that is self-policing.

[THE MIX FIX]

Craig:

 

I don't think that Lynn's thread was advertising or spamming.

 

I was just goofing on the guys who were complaining by making a JOKE!!

 

I said, I didn't have anything to sell, just send me $30.00.

 

I STILL will take it if anyone sends it to me!!

 

I could use the dough.

 

Sorry if you didn't get the joke. I used a lot of these things http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/smile.gifhttp://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/biggrin.gifhttp://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/wink.gifhttp://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/eek.gifhttp://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/cool.gif

http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/rolleyes.gif

 

 

 

------------------

Bob.

[Guest]

I just invented a home hair cutting appliance that you hook to your vacuum. Can I advertise it here? http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/smile.gif

 

Rich...

[THE MIX FIX]

Rich:

 

I GOT one already, but I hooked it up to the wrong end of the vacuum, and it blew my hair up, and it off near the roots.

 

Can I sue you? http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

 

------------------

Bob.

[Anderton]

Well, I got a copy of the CD, and you know what? You really CAN hear a difference among the various preamps. The differences are mostly subtle, but there's no question there are different sonic characteristics.

 

But as to whether one is better or not...well, the Manley sounded really accurate to me, but lacked some low end resonance I heard on some other pres. Now, which would sound better with a vocalist? Possibly the one with the low end bump.

 

Also, I had a harder time noticing differences with guitar than with the vocals. But I must say, listening to the CD (on headphones, BTW) was a really educational experience. Now I'm really curious to hear the drum CD when it comes out...

[3D Audio]

I'm editing Volume 2 this week. It is just as insightful and educational. In many ways, there was more consensus among the listeners on the snare drum and male vocal recordings. I'll have to wait and see what other listeners think.

 

 

 

Lynn Fuston

 

3D Audio Inc

 

Music Mixing and Mastering

 

On a scenic hilltop outside of historic

 

Franklin, Tennessee

http://www.3daudioinc.com

 

email:go3daudio@aol.com

[alphajerk]

this might be of use, you might laugh at the time i wasted here. from the 3daudio mic pre cd my list of favorites for acoustic guitar.

 

Most

Crane Song Flamingo (FAT MODE)

Audio Upgrades

Daking 52270

DW Fearn VT-2

Earthworks LAB-102

Grace Design 201

 

API 512(vintage)

Millenia M-2b

Focusrite 110A

Langevin Dual Mono

Great River MP-2MH Bal.

Crane Song Flamingo (normal mode)

Mackie 1604 VLZ PRO ???? its their new PRO preamp design but damn.

 

GML 8300

DBX 786

Hardy M-1

Aphex 1100

Buzz Audio

 

DBX 386

Presonus MP20

Sytek

Avalon VT-737sp

Focusrite Red 1

 

Millenia HV-3B

Vintech

Amek 9098

VacRac

Oram MWS

 

Neve 1801

Great River MP-2MH UnBal.

Manley Dual Mono ??? and the Langevin ranked so much higher... weird

least

 

needless to say that i would gladly use any of them if i had to. it basically comes down to how we each hear the pre's and what you do with them. also the individual performances might have subconsciencely impacted the ratings. oddly the great river pre is near the top and bottom bal. v. unbal. also i believe the crane song to add compression of sorts to the FAT MODE but it still did well in the normal mode. also the singular gain compared to the dual gain in others variable, duals have much more flexibility in the sound you get. and lastly, this is ONLY based on acoustic guitar, of which i rarely record. i could even go farther and rerate divided into fingerpicking/rythmic/strumming since they tended to differ drastically sometimes between the three (one sound good for fingerpicking but not for hard strumming)

 

so at a $1012.25 per channel for the crane song as my pick of the litter. BUT API wins in price/performance especially when you can load a rack with them lowering the price per channel. Langevin coming in stronger than manley for less bucks. great river is of nice value also.

 

but did anyone else notice the guitar stings colored the test??? they sounded like they died halfway through. also i know why dan kennedy knew which was his preamp because the guitarist had a slight modification on his playing on JUST that pre. i can pick it out everytime.

 

is there anyway to get a list of the pres in the order they were recorded?? also when are we going to see the results of the listeners at the party because they are the only one that truely knew what the original sound was like in the room.

[3D Audio]

Alphajerk wrote: this might be of use, you might laugh at the time i wasted here. from the 3daudio mic pre cd my list of favorites for acoustic guitar.

 

 

 

Lynn Fuston:

 

Not a waste at all. If you've been following the thread at r.a.p., lots of people have offered their opinions there as well. Someone even suggested tabulating the results and posting them--but it wasn't me.

 

 

 

Alphajerk: oddly the great river pre is near the top and

 

bottom bal. v. unbal.

 

 

 

Lynn Fuston:

 

I made the same observation and felt the same way sonically that you did. What has surprised me is that many people have ranked them exactly the opposite way. People with tastes that are the inverse of mine and yours.

 

 

 

Alphajerk: lastly, this is

 

ONLY based on acoustic guitar, of which i rarely record. i could even go

 

farther and rerate divided into fingerpicking/rythmic/strumming since

 

they tended to differ drastically sometimes between the three (one sound

 

good for fingerpicking but not for hard strumming)

 

 

 

Lynn Fuston:

 

You are exactly right. I had to divide my rating sheet into three colums because I never felt uniformly about any preamp, depending on the playing style. That was a big eye-opener to me. We even joked at the session that you could run the mic into three different preamps, record on three different tracks and then comp together according to the preamp that you liked on just the verses, another on just the choruses, and the third on just the bridge. Talk about minutia!! Are we making a Steely Dan record here?

 

 

 

Alphajerk: so at a $1012.25 per channel for the crane song as my pick of the

 

litter. BUT API wins in price/performance especially when you can load a

 

rack with them lowering the price per channel. Langevin coming in

 

stronger than manley for less bucks. great river is of nice value also.

 

but did anyone else notice the guitar stings colored the test??? they

 

sounded like they died halfway through. also i know why dan kennedy knew

 

which was his preamp because the guitarist had a slight modification on

 

his playing on JUST that pre. i can pick it out everytime.

 

 

 

Lynn Fuston:

 

I have never noticed either of those observations, the playing or the strings.

 

 

 

Alphajerk: is there anyway to get a list of the pres in the order they were

 

recorded?? also when are we going to see the results of the listeners at

 

the party because they are the only one that truely knew what the

 

original sound was like in the room.

 

 

 

Lynn Fuston:

 

The order in which they were recorded? You're listening to it. The slates for each take are from the session and were recorded live, with each slate being recorded on the preamp that follows. I noticed lots of differences in the sound of the mic just on the slates. You could hear things that were different as soon as she opened her mouth. On the guitar as well, some picked up more room sound and others sounded more direct.

 

 

 

If you want to read some of the observations from the people that were there, they are posted at my webboard, Ask 3D Audio. The URL is http://www.3daudioinc.com/wwwboard/wwwboard.shtml.

 

 

 

I can list the attendees names and email addresses if you want to hunt down their posts specifically. I may end up writing another article like the EQ magazine article, that specifically delves into the opinions of the attendees. I still have copies of all their sheets. Anonymity was promised however.

 

 

 

Lynn Fuston

 

3D Audio Inc

 

Music Mixing and Mastering

 

On a scenic hilltop outside of historic

 

Franklin, Tennessee

http://www.3daudioinc.com

 

email:go3daudio@aol.com

[lwilliam]

OK, Lynn and I have shaken hands like gentlemen.... http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/smile.gif and I agree with Craig that this is, indeed, much more of an educational CD than a mass-marketing campaign. So apologies to all for shooting the man down - from the hip...

 

My faves were Crane Song and the Manley, with the GML right up there. I was hoping the Avalon would be one of my faves, but I actually gave it less than top honors.

 

I WAS able to pick out the under $1000 mic pres - not by identity, but by lack of depth and transparency.

 

The guitar was a lot harder to distinguish than the vocal for me, too - and guitar's my main axe. I used two different sets of phones, but haven't listened on my Tannoys yet.

 

I think the snare drum will separate the men from the boys. Does that seem likely, Lynn?

 

 

 

------------------

Larry W.

[alphajerk]

notice how it gets more mellow towards the end? first part the strings sound more lively, but then that daking comes blaring out in the end, still not as bright as the audio upgrades.

 

but it did save me quite a bit of money. and answered more questions than i could ever ask. yall did a great job.

 

also did some pres not make it to a track? i think the art is missing, single channel models maybe? and is there bleed on the two mics from LtoR? or one mic in L, one mic in R?

 

i liked the great river a lot, but in the balanced mode. sounded fatter to me, unbalanced had more detail i think but im a meat eater. but yea, there is a little skip in the pattern that is a easy marker on the second part balanced mode, third note i think. thats the biggest hurdle i had listening because ive been in producer mode hardcore lately and it took me a while to tune the performance out and just hear the sound.

[3D Audio]

L william wrote:

 

 

 

I think the snare drum will separate the men from the boys. Does that

 

seem likely, Lynn?

 

 

 

LF:

 

You are correct.

 

 

 

 

 

------------------

Lynn Fuston

3D Audio Inc

Music Mixing and Mastering

on a scenic hilltop overlooking historic

Franklin, TN

http://www.3daudioinc.com

email: go3daudio@aol.com

[3D Audio]

alphajerk wrote:

 

 

 

also did some pres not make it to a track? i think the art is missing, single channel models maybe? and is there bleed on the two mics from LtoR? or one mic in L, one mic in R?

 

 

 

LF:

 

 

 

We had technical problems with a few of the pres that were not obvious until we later noticed that they seemed to be doing poorly when, by reputation, they should've done much better. The API on the vocals was one such casualty. There was an opamp that was failing slowly on one of the vintage API modules that we had. When we got to the guitar, it was very obvious and we swapped modules and it went away. Too late though for re-doing the vocal recordings. Too bad. I chose to leave those off instead of including flawed samples.

 

 

 

Also, we only had stereo versions of a few of the non-stereo units. We had two Avalons, but not two ARTs.

 

 

 

Lynn Fuston

 

 

 

LF:

 

You are correct.

 

 

 

 

 

------------------

Lynn Fuston

3D Audio Inc

Music Mixing and Mastering

on a scenic hilltop overlooking historic

Franklin, TN

http://www.3daudioinc.com

email: go3daudio@aol.com

[alphajerk]

sadly however, my cd suffered a fatal scratch on the topside of the disc making half of the tracks now unlistenable... odd thing about it is i have no idea how it got there.

[3D Audio]

AJ,

 

I forgot to answer one of your questions. The guitar mics are discrete left and right. The signal path is mic 1 to preamp 1 to left channel, and mic 2 to preamp 2 to right channel. As you hear them on the CD, I am pretty sure they are listener's perspective (as opposed to player's perspective) with the KM-84 on the body side in the left channel only and the AT-4033 on the neck side in the right channel only.

 

 

 

------------------

Lynn Fuston

3D Audio Inc

Music Mixing and Mastering

on a scenic hilltop overlooking historic

Franklin, TN

http://www.3daudioinc.com

email: go3daudio@aol.com

[Uh Clem]

I just gave my first listen - I'll do a more formal ranking the next time thru. This is great, tho.

 

I found that I strongly liked a small handful for female vocal and for the guitar it was harder to tell, or they were more forgiving. Not many worked for both really well.

 

My overall favs so far are the GML, Cranesong, Eathworks, DBX786, and Aphex 1100

 

For both (in no order):

 

GML - super

DBX786 - very nice

Earthworks - fine

Crane song - extra nice either setting

Focusrite ISA110 - one of the best of the vintage gear I thought

Aphex 1100 - this one surprised me - they rose to the occasion - and the price

 

Vocal:

add to the above

 

Telefunken - super

Hardy - fine

Martech - very nice

Millennia M-2b

 

Guitar:

also

 

DW Fearn - very nice - what a surprise compared to the vocal track

Millennia HV-3B - another nice surprise over the vocal track

Mackie - how odd, it really sucked on vocals

API - solid

Presonus - strange pre, it actually sounded OK on vocals too until she kicked in the volume, then it got squirrely

Audio Upgrades - pretty strong.

Daking - another good one

Focusrite Red - ditto, but for vocal it sounded familiar but not to my taste

 

Not impressed:

Great River - expected more based on reviews, but I liked it better unbalanced

Avalon - expected more based on the hype, but I have never thought they looked that well made - especially for the $$$$!.

Manley and Langavin - maybe just not my taste

Neve 1081 - too much coloration or vintage for me

 

I'll be curious if I come up with the same results on another pass.

 

One thing I noticed on the guitar tracks is that I had a harder time ignoring the performance and focusing only on the sound texture. So I need to make sure it is the setup I like and not the particular playing. For some reason the HV3B guitar track sounded so much more compelling and I think it was due partly, if not mostly, to the playing. Perhaps the vocalist was more consistent.

 

Definitely worth the money and I look forward to the snare and male vocal.

 

 

[This message has been edited by stevepow (edited 07-06-2000).]

[alphajerk]

yea, i had a really hard time getting past the playing. not that i could of done any better but the human variable was just too coloring of the pres sound. i dont know how you could of done a better job since robotics is still a ways off.

[Guest]

I thought most of the pre's sounded good on the guitar with the differences being more subtle than the vocal section. I've recorded Dave before with that guitar and I can tell you it's not hard to get a good sound on him. It is a great sounding guitar and Dave is a killer player.

I used to wonder how certain engineers got that certain vocal sound, or that certain drum sound, I would use the same mics, same mic pre's, and same tape format. Then one day I did a session with a fairly famous artist, put up the same mic etc. as always and it sounded incredible!!! I thought, "Oh!! that's how they do it, it's not the engineer, it's the artist!" It just comes off their lips, fingers, hands, or whatever sounding great. That's why they get the big bucks.

 

One other thing, some mic pre's that I thought sounded great, I don't know if I would want an entire song made up of tracks all with that color. Maybe this is a stupid and obvious thing to say but the subtle differences in the pre's would add up across 20 tracks.

What about a whole rhythm section tracked with each pre, get 16 channels each of 30 different pre's and record a 60 second song 30 times, yea . . . then create seamless edits with CD index numbers and a key showing the different pre's.. . . yea. . . and everyone donate their time and give the CD's away for free . . . yea . . that's the ticket . . .

 

Anyway, thanks again to Lynn for his time and effort in putting this thing together. I can't wait for volume 2.

 

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Tiny G

[Guest]

One thing you might consider for the next go-round is using a Disklavier (MIDI-driven acoustic grand piano). This would eliminate the performance variable.

 

Yamaha might even loan you one...