Top Secret Weapons
I am currently ADDICTED to the show "Alias". Been buying the DVD box sets and I'm almost done with the 3rd season. Ya know, I was never really into James Bond, though i've seen several of the movies, but I really like the way they do Alias (though often, as with any TV show, you must suspend reality a little bit sometimes). I think its cool to see all the little top secret spy gadgets they come up with, all the different cities around the world they travel to so they can steal some top secret blueprints or thwart some impending terrorist attack with seconds to spare. You know what I'm talking about. Plus, the music they use for it is AWESOME. Great music supervision.
Anyway. On a much more boring note, I thought maybe I'd divulge some of my super secret weapons. I wont give you the encrypted codes to the alarm systems, but I will tell you about some of the pieces in the "vault".
Time and time again i have relied on the Zvex Fuzz Factory guitar pedal to give me that fuzzy distorted 70's guitar tone. I played thru it on "Throwback" by Usher, and I played thru it again tonight for a sample recreation of an old Motown song. The chain tonight was my 78 Fender Strat into the Zvex, into my Madison Guitar head, mic'd up to tape. I also love the Zvex Seek Wah pedal. You can hear it on my main page LISTEN examples if you check out "Small Town Sleeper". 4 bars into the song, it sounds like some crazy arpeggiated guitar in the right speaker. Thats the Zvex Seek Wah doing most of the work. Its a real pain to time it right though.
My SPL Mix Dream is my latest secret weapon for mixing. Its an analog summing box, kind of like mixing thru a console with no faders or eq's, only inserts and a mix buss. But i get to easily incorporate all my great vintage analog gear into my mixes, which i think adds a bit more depth to things.
For plugin EQ's, I literally use about ten different ones all the time. For real surgical strikes, where i'm doing more notching out or tight boosting, I'll usually grab the Oxford EQ or the Waves Q1. The Oxford Filters are really good too. I just got the Eventide EQ and Filter which i find amazing. It does things no other plugin will do, and does them well. a Very musical EQ. For smooth top end, usually the Bomb Factory Pultec is great for shaping. I often rely on the Joe Meek EQ for Midrange boosts around 800Hz to 2K. Its great on Fender Rhodes or a Side Stick. Its got a really pronounced sound, not subtle, but effective if thats what you want. The URS stuff is pretty darn good too, mostly for broad shaping, but you can get extreme with them. GRM Tools Band Filter is an awesomely dirty filter. complete with artifacts galore. If you want a little grit, thats the one. It kind of reminds me of an old analog pultec passive filter. I dont really like the Focusrite Forte Suite. Its ok, but there's not much that makes it stand out. The De-esser works sometimes when the Reinessance De-esser doesnt. Crane Song makes i think the best "tape compression" plugin with their "Pheonix". Its one of those things that either sounds great or terrible. Its subtle, but very audible and will change up EQ and compression in a unique way. The McDSP G Channel is a pretty awesome all around tool. The EQ is very good but lacks a defining character, same with the compressor. Sometimes no added character is a good thing. Oh, and "Vinyl" from izotope is really awesome for certain filtering. Doesnt really sound like vinyl, but the effect is very cool.
I could probably give the same breakdowns for compressors, but i gotta get back to this sample recreation. Its really kicing my ass. Imagine recreating a full on old Motown production, trying to capture every nuance of those amazing players, tones, instrumentation, its fun, challenging, and nightmarish all at the same time. This sample has drums, lots of percussion, bass, several guitars, rhodes, wurlitzer, string section, and horn section. Its FULL. And of course, it sounds like they are using those old Motown reverb chambers as well, and you know everything was going thru tubes and (what is now highly sought after) vintage gear. This one is a real challenge, but i'm getting very close. Back to work.
-Ken
check out indieTunes.com
Anyway. On a much more boring note, I thought maybe I'd divulge some of my super secret weapons. I wont give you the encrypted codes to the alarm systems, but I will tell you about some of the pieces in the "vault".
Time and time again i have relied on the Zvex Fuzz Factory guitar pedal to give me that fuzzy distorted 70's guitar tone. I played thru it on "Throwback" by Usher, and I played thru it again tonight for a sample recreation of an old Motown song. The chain tonight was my 78 Fender Strat into the Zvex, into my Madison Guitar head, mic'd up to tape. I also love the Zvex Seek Wah pedal. You can hear it on my main page LISTEN examples if you check out "Small Town Sleeper". 4 bars into the song, it sounds like some crazy arpeggiated guitar in the right speaker. Thats the Zvex Seek Wah doing most of the work. Its a real pain to time it right though.
My SPL Mix Dream is my latest secret weapon for mixing. Its an analog summing box, kind of like mixing thru a console with no faders or eq's, only inserts and a mix buss. But i get to easily incorporate all my great vintage analog gear into my mixes, which i think adds a bit more depth to things.
For plugin EQ's, I literally use about ten different ones all the time. For real surgical strikes, where i'm doing more notching out or tight boosting, I'll usually grab the Oxford EQ or the Waves Q1. The Oxford Filters are really good too. I just got the Eventide EQ and Filter which i find amazing. It does things no other plugin will do, and does them well. a Very musical EQ. For smooth top end, usually the Bomb Factory Pultec is great for shaping. I often rely on the Joe Meek EQ for Midrange boosts around 800Hz to 2K. Its great on Fender Rhodes or a Side Stick. Its got a really pronounced sound, not subtle, but effective if thats what you want. The URS stuff is pretty darn good too, mostly for broad shaping, but you can get extreme with them. GRM Tools Band Filter is an awesomely dirty filter. complete with artifacts galore. If you want a little grit, thats the one. It kind of reminds me of an old analog pultec passive filter. I dont really like the Focusrite Forte Suite. Its ok, but there's not much that makes it stand out. The De-esser works sometimes when the Reinessance De-esser doesnt. Crane Song makes i think the best "tape compression" plugin with their "Pheonix". Its one of those things that either sounds great or terrible. Its subtle, but very audible and will change up EQ and compression in a unique way. The McDSP G Channel is a pretty awesome all around tool. The EQ is very good but lacks a defining character, same with the compressor. Sometimes no added character is a good thing. Oh, and "Vinyl" from izotope is really awesome for certain filtering. Doesnt really sound like vinyl, but the effect is very cool.
I could probably give the same breakdowns for compressors, but i gotta get back to this sample recreation. Its really kicing my ass. Imagine recreating a full on old Motown production, trying to capture every nuance of those amazing players, tones, instrumentation, its fun, challenging, and nightmarish all at the same time. This sample has drums, lots of percussion, bass, several guitars, rhodes, wurlitzer, string section, and horn section. Its FULL. And of course, it sounds like they are using those old Motown reverb chambers as well, and you know everything was going thru tubes and (what is now highly sought after) vintage gear. This one is a real challenge, but i'm getting very close. Back to work.
-Ken
check out indieTunes.com
posted by Protools Mixing at 3:41 AM
2 Comments:
Thank you. That's a great help on which plugins to buy. I just got my protools setup last weekend. I've been working with Sonar for years, but now I'm increasingly having clients who brings me ProTools sessions. It's a learning curve, yet I'm excited. The rest of the guys that I work with work ProTools. So they're showing me the ropes. Keep up the good work.
I agree with boodah..
I may not have my foot in the door, but I sure do have my ear to it....
Thanks
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