My Top 5 Purchases of 2013

So 2013 is ending this week and I want to share with everyone my top 5 purchases I made this year.


Starting off at #5 is the Miktek C7. Miktek has been my go to mics for recording vocals since I first used them. now that I own one it will be my go to for a while. 2014 may bring me a Miktek CV3

At #4 is the Waves H-comp and H-delay. These both are go to plugins for me. The H-comp for drum bus and the H-delay for the vocals. These orange beasts get put to work on every mix for me.

#3 is the Maag Eq2. I've only had it for a few weeks but I've been amazed at how useful the 20k and 40k frequencies have been. The Air band is not hype, its the real deal. 

#2 is the JDK V12. The V12 is an extremely easy to use and versatile compressor. LED metering and detented knobs makes me prefer it to its big brother the R22. If you want something clean, easy to use, versatile, and won't break the bank, the V12 is what you want. 

My #1 purchase of this year goes to the Rupert Neve 511 pre. When I purchased this I was expecting it to be just another pre for me. Instead it has become my go to pre for vocals. Pairing this pre with the Miktek C7 and my vocals have needed very little processing after recording. I'm loving this pre so much this will be the last pre I buy for a while. 

API the Box quick hands on and first impressions

I got to see the new console from API called The Box up close and in person this week at Vintage King Nashville. The Box is a recording console combined with a summing mixer. After seeing it in person I will say its smaller than I thought it would be, and looks much nicer in person. The slanted up design at first seemed weird but once I sat down in front it, the design lets you see everything straight on, which is nice. The bus compressor sounded amazing. The compressors are two 527's, and hearing the ones in the Box makes me want a pair now. By far my favorite feature is the 0db button on the summing mixer channels. This button removes the fader from the signal path and put the channel at unity gain. Now you don't have to worry about recalling faders levels. I would of liked to see 8 pres onboard but the console is expandable. Lastly, I realized as I felt the top and top back of the Box, the console doesn't get hot at all. If I had a to make a complaint it would be that the summing channels can't be grouped in stereo pairs. In analog summing you mostly work with stereo pairs so it would be nice to solo or mute or control fader level for a pair. However this is no deal breaker, and I left very impressed with that I saw and heard. As Jordan Shirks from API joked during his presentation, "Mixing in the Box now has a whole a new meaning". For more info visit www.APIaudio.com/thebox

Pensado's Place Nashville Event

Hung out with Dave Pensado and Herb Trawick after their Pensado's Place Nashville event at Belmont Curb Event Center. Great turnout and great experience. Keep up the good work Pensado's Place! If you have been living under a rock and have not heard of Pensado's Place be sure to check them out at http://www.pensadosplace.tv/

2013 vocal mic invitational

Yesterday I went to the vocal mic invitational at Ocean Way studios here in Nashville which showcased mics from Blue, Royer, Mojave, and Beyerdynamic. I will briefly go over what I took away from each company. 

• Blue microphones has a crazy lineup of mics they offer from affordable all the way to high end. I am familiar with some of the Blue mics but have never used them or heard them in person. Their Bottle mic and Kiwi really stood out to me. I would go as far to say they were among the best I heard all day. The Cactus I found too dark for my personal taste. The Bottle mic offers switchable capsules and I was surprised at the difference you could here. The default capsule had more presence while the one they switched to had noticeably more high end and less lows.
• Royer mics I would never have considered as a vocal mic but they sound very well to me, especially if you like that ribbon sound. Interestingly the back of the Royer mics are brighter than the front. A nice way to quickly change tones if you need it as ribbon mics are generally dark.
• Beyerdynamic showed off their TG series of mics which are their live sound mics.  I actually won a TG-V90r during a giveaway, which is there on stage vocal ribbon mic. All their mics sounded like live sound mics to me, but to me had more character than a typical 58 you would here in a live settings. Everything sounded full and rich, and on a few I will admit I forgot I was listening to a live sound mic, and some could be mistaken for a studio condenser mic. Speaking of studio condenser they showed off their MC 840 large diaphragm which was quite nice.  
• Mojave mics biggest impression it made on me was how well their tube mic handled sibilance vs their FET. S's stood out way more on the FET and weren't as present on the tube mic. I will admit this makes me now want a tube mic. 

API 560 examples

26 new features in Studio One 2.6

I won an API 560 and lunchbox!

Huge thanks to the audionowcast and API. I won their giveaway! This will be put to use immediately

Thickening Vocals in Studio One

My inital thoughts on Softube Console 1

After reading the press release there are some thing I like and don't like about console 1. First of all if the price is right this could be a good seller. There really aren't any good controllers out there except the euphonix series that avid purchased that handles plugins. I don't like that it can only be used with softube plugins because they don't have basic plugins to me, like a simple compressor or parametric EQ, but I guess this is what the channel strip that comes with it will take care of. The “4k” in the name UK 4k makes me think SSL 4k at first thought. I don’t like that the console channel strip will not be separate plugin release, and only comes bundled with the console 1. They said there will be other console emulations to follow, so that is good. I use more than softube plugins when I mix so I would be between the mouse and controller a lot. I'm also not crazy about putting an insert across every channel in my session when mixing. I am not a fan of those type of plugins at all. I'm also not crazy about the fact that if I purchase this it will be yet another piece of hardware occupying a USB port on my computer. Lets face it. Computers don't come with 8 usb ports. And USB hubs can be flaky. But I digress. I also don't see a display on the unit that shows the name of the track you're on, which would be helpful. But  what it comes down for me is what can I do with this that I can't do with a mouse? And would this be faster than using a mouse? With everyone so use to mixing with a mouse to turn plugin knobs, this would be new workflow to learn. I will admit that sometimes mixing with a mouse can be frustrating. Especially when you go to turn the gain up on a plugin 1db, and as you move your mouse away the knob gets cranked to the max. (This happens to me a few times during a mix because of the apple mouse I use and where the scroll position is.) When I think of it I would prefer to use a knob or fader over a mouse. Also if I'm looking at the controller turning knobs I am not focused on what's on the screen and would focus on the sound more. From that aspect I would love it! I would be open to giving this a try though and see if it speeds up my workflow. I like what where Softube is going with this though, and I look forward to see where it is headed.

My Initial Thoughts On Pro Tools 11

So Pro Tools 11 was announced last week and learning more about what it has to offer, here are my thoughts. So far am I not impressed. I really expected Avid to blow our minds with 11, or come out swinging with aggressive pricing. Neither which happened. What we got was the same old Avid. Could Avid really have met expectations? Pro Tools 11 has to be the most highly anticipated DAW release of my generation. So why has Pro Tools 11 disappointed me so far? Lets look at the obvious.

• new features mostly include features other DAW’s had for years
• exclusive new features are nice but no wow factor, or only available with HD
• upgrade cost still way more than other daws.

So starting with my first bullet point, we got what we figured we would get. Mainly 64 bit and offline bouncing. So do this really surprise anyone? I think not. So since I’ve been using these features for years on other daws its not a big deal to me to finally see them come to Pro Tools. I was more so looking forward to new features. The ability to set separate input and output buffer sizes are nice, but not jaw dropping. The gain reduction in the meters are nice but I didn’t see a -db labeling for it and it is only available for HD. Lastly the price. I have never seen Avid run a sale for Pro Tools. And its no question this is a huge release for the them. Its no secret a lot of people will be hesitant to move to pro tools 11 in fear of losing plugin to the new AAX format and other incompatibility issues. (Great thing Avid announced Pro Tools 10 and 11 can live on the same computer.)  So I would think they would do what they can to get as many users possible over to 11. And what better way to attract customers than offering an attractive price? Now I know Avid’s financial situation has been in red for a while and they need all the money they can get, but they have to realize they aren’t the only DAW around anymore. Lets look a basic upgrade pricing from other competing DAWs.

• Cubase v.6 to v.7 ($199)
• Cubase v.6.5 to v.7 ($149)
• Studio One pro v.1 to v2.5 ($149) **which I got for $99 on sale**
• Sonar X2 producer v.1 to v.2 ($119)

To upgrade from Pro Tools 10 to 11 is $299. pretty much the same it has always been. More than the competition. The full price of Pro Tools 11 is $699, which if I’m not mistaken is a $100 more than Pro Tools 10 was. All of the DAWs listed above are cheaper than $699 at full price. Now some may argue that Pro Tools is for “Pro” users justifying the steep price. In my opinion all DAW’s basically do the same thing, and there are plenty pro engineers NOT using Pro Tools. I personally know two Grammy winning engineers not using Pro Tools. One uses Cubase, and the other uses Studio One (thanks to me introducing him to it). However I do feel that Pro Tools 11 gaining features like 64 bit and offline bouncing will help the DAW market because it greatly reduces the gap between other DAWs. This will force innovation as everyone will look to set their product apart from the rest. The next wave of DAW versions will be very interesting!

Though the acting is exaggerated to me, from a marketing and advertisement view I like it. Check out Avid's Introduction to Pro Tools 11 video.

Comment and let me know your thoughts on Pro Tools 11

Studio One 2.5 for 2.5 months: What I've Learned

Studio One 2.5 for 2.5 months update

Miktek C7 unboxing

reverb on hip hop vocals

Here is a video I did showing how I use reverb on hip hop vocals

4 things it takes to get a good vocal recording and 3 things that it doesn't take

Miktek C7

empirical labs mike-e

So people always ask what is the secret to getting studio quality vocals. First thing, there is no secret. To me a great vocal recording comes from the following 4 things, and I will share 3 things I think really doesn't matter when recording vocals.

1. a good mic for the vocal. Your signal chain starts here. Finding the best mic for a voice can be tricky sometimes because you can have a vocalist sound better on a $1,000 mic than a $3,000 mic. But most of the time if you have a really good mic designed for vocals it will handle the vocal your recording with great results.
2. A good mic preamp for the vocal. Just like you have to pick the right mic, you have to pick the right mic pre. Some pres are clean, some are colored. As a engineer its up to you to decide the tone best for vocal and the song. I remember a session a few years ago that +D. Lyles  assisted me on. We used the avalon 737 and U87 for every song that day. One song had an old school feel, so I switched to a darker more vintage pre, the vintech1272. The vocal tone this pre gave matched the song perfectly.
3. A good engineer. Takes more than pressing record and stop for a engineer to record a good vocal take. Everything from levels, to mic placement, to knowing when the vocal is ready sonically to be recorded falls on the engineer. All this comes with practice.
4. an acoustically treated room or booth. You can’t throw a mic up anywhere in a open room and expect great results.

Now that I’ve highlighted 4 things I think it takes to record a good vocal, here are 3 things I would say doesn't matter as much when recording vocals.

1. tracking with compression. If you have a dynamic vocalist then there is nothing wrong with tracking with a little bit of compression. But you don’t HAVE to have a compressor in your signal chain to record a good vocal.
2. A/D converters. A/D converters are important, but not as important as a good mic and pre. If you have those then don’t sweat over A/D conversion. These days even the cheapest of audio interfaces offer decent A/D conversion.
3. DAW. Trust me, your daw choice will NOT determine what your vocal will sound like.

Studio One Tricomp