http://www.dpsinsider.com/forums/forum/avalon-recording-studio Bongiovi Acoustics DPS Community en-US Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:22:03 +0000 http://bbpress.org/?v=1.0.2 q http://www.dpsinsider.com/forums/search.php http://www.dpsinsider.com/forums/topic/avalon-session-log-032310#post-222 Mon, 29 Mar 2010 14:32:58 +0000 Rob Roy 222@http://www.dpsinsider.com/forums/ <p>Ya know, maybe a post about how the room your in "effects" (spelling intentional) your signal... You made the comment about "hiding" your room. Explain how mic-ing works in a room that may not be completely conducive to getting the best sound to tape. (Or for you younger recording guys, "to your computer..." Sorry, after working with analog tape, you call 'em both tape...) Check with XAQ (Joe) as I know he was putting some "home recording" topics here on the forum... Monkey-Boy strikes again!!!!!! </p> http://www.dpsinsider.com/forums/topic/avalon-session-log-032310#post-219 Fri, 26 Mar 2010 22:32:46 +0000 Paul Kronk 219@http://www.dpsinsider.com/forums/ <p>Yup, I remember those Jive Records sessions, good times, I learned alot during that production.</p> <p>And I thought about using the earthworks, but our main live room Avalon isn't all that big, certainly nowhere near the size of Power Station NYC Studio A or the like, I wanted to be careful about introducing too much "room" into the vocals so I could leave Ryan some space to manufacture something more fitting I'm the mix. Sometimes it's best to take full advantage of your room size, for instance I love how tight and punchy drums sound in our room, or how well horns seem to "sing" in it. But sometimes you wanna "hide" your room for the sake of manufacturing something with modern reberbs. It all depends on your vision, and the artist's vision, for the final product. </p> http://www.dpsinsider.com/forums/topic/avalon-session-log-032510#post-217 Thu, 25 Mar 2010 22:08:10 +0000 Joseph Beaty 217@http://www.dpsinsider.com/forums/ <p>Great post man! Cannot wait to see some pics and video on this. </p> http://www.dpsinsider.com/forums/topic/avalon-session-log-032510#post-216 Thu, 25 Mar 2010 19:46:13 +0000 Ryan Copt 216@http://www.dpsinsider.com/forums/ <p>So I showed up to the studio early on Tuesday to a monstrosity of a drumset. Two enourmous 24" x 36" kick drums with (sharp) spikes sticking out of them and a matching 14" x 8.5" snare with the same spikes! This is the signature set for Jason Mooney (Acrophet, Rob Anthony, Sacred Reich). It was made by Devil's Workshop drums: <a href="http://www.devilsworkshopdrums.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.devilsworkshopdrums.com</a>. Jason came in to record this kit and get some video of him playing it for Devil's Workshop to display in their booth at the upcoming NAMM show. Along with the custom pieces were four toms: 8 and 10 inch racks and 14 and 16 inch floors, 8 cymbals of various sizes and types, and hi-hats.</p> <p>Knowing that this session was all about showcasing not only Jason's talent, but also the custom kicks and snare, my workflow was a bit different from the norm. Usually I will mic up the entire kit then get sounds, swap mics, and play with placement with the drummer rocking out on the whole drumset. This day, I decided to focus on the kicks alone, the snare alone, then mic up the rest and tweak from there.</p> <p>First on the "to-do" list was getting sounds on the kick drums. I began with my typical, go-to microphone combination for heavy-metal kick drums. A Heil PR-40 inside of the drum about 6-7 inches from the beater head, and a BLUE Bluebird angled slightly off-axis about 7-8 inches from the resonant head. Upon listening to the inside mic, I quickly realized this was not going to work. The drums were so large inside, that the sound resonated like crazy. (Most metal drummers come in with a fairly dead kick drum to make for easy triggering and/or to provide a very short, articulated sound.... But, this was a stadium kit... big, huge, bombastic and loud... of course the inside mic wasn't going to work [cue me smacking myself in the head]) However, the Bluebird on the outside worked exactly as I always expect it to. A nice, fat, extended bottom end. Add a touch of EQ to remove some knock in the low mids and a little resonance in the high-mids... BEAUTIFUL! It sounded very tight and well defined.... threatening to turn my NS-10s (studio monitors) into confetti. Those drums have some SERIOUS power!!!! So, I had my low end "BOOM" taken care of, but this is metal music. High frequency articulation is a necessity, so I placed one of my trusty Rode NT-5s to look right at where the beater was striking the drum (about 5" inches away). I headed back into the control room to take a listen. Again, I used a hint of EQ to make the attack more aggressive on the beater mic and to remove a bit of mud from the low-mid frequencies. The combination was perfect. A massive sound to complement and capture a massive drum. I matched the mic choices, placement and general EQ for the second kick drum and put a nice big check mark next to task #1.</p> <p>Next was the snare. My first choice was a Heil PR-20 a couple inches above the rim looking at where the stick strikes the skin. It sounded nice, but Jason and I both felt that it was lacking a bit of power. Second choice was the trusty Shure SM7 positioned in the same way. It took a bit of fancy footwork to get it positioned (this is a rather large microphone). Back to the other side of the glass to take a listen. KAPOW! That did the trick. I patched the Motown EQ (you'll hear a lot about these guys from everyone posting in both of our studio forums, I'm certain) into the insert and cranked the 320hz and 5Khz to accent the nice solid thud and give a good snap. Normally, I would pair a bottom snare mic, but this proved to be completely unnecessary. The SM7 captured every bit of the drum with ease.</p> <p>Finally, I mic'd the rest of the kit up. I went with Sennheiser MD504s for the two rack toms. They sound very similar to an MD421 with a slightly tighter bottom and a more articulated attack. I tend to like them quite a bit on smaller toms. CAD M179s took care of floor tom duties. I like to set the continuously variable polar pattern on these to somewhere between Cardiod and Hyper-Cardiod. It gives a great punch, well defined attack, and does a great job of eliminating bleed from cymbals. Next I brought out my trusty AKG C414s (far and away the most used mics in my collection). One of them was positioned over each side of the set with a Cardiod pickup pattern to take care of added tone on the drums and to pick up all of the cymbals. Jason rocked out for a bit while I ran back and forth to make minor adjustments to my microphone placement, and before long everything was sounding great. I had planned to set up a pair of Earthworks TC30Ks as room mics and possibly an additional spot mic for the hi-hats. These proved unecessary after hearing everything else working together.</p> <p>Paul Kronk and Michael Hoffman, in the meantime, had gotten the lighting package and the camera set up for video. Jason played several times through some select Slayer songs allowing Paul to film him from several angles. He then did some freestyle jamming.</p> <p>This session was a ton of fun. Once everything is mixed and the video is edited, I'll make sure to get links to where it can be viewed/heard. These drums sound absolutely insane. The kick drums are the loudest, most aggressive things I've ever heard.</p> <p>P.S. - Rob Summers just came in and put 2 pennies on my desk to make sure that his 2¢ made it into this........ *shakes head* </p> http://www.dpsinsider.com/forums/topic/avalon-session-log-032310#post-209 Wed, 24 Mar 2010 00:23:53 +0000 Rob Roy 209@http://www.dpsinsider.com/forums/ <p>Hey Monkey, Great Post!!!! (For those of you who don't know, Paul's studio nickname is "Monkey Boy!" I'm not sure where is actually originated, but I think it had something to do with the 72 days straight he spent on a Jive Records production down at our Power Station Facility?????)<br /> Nevertheless, he mentions using the Shure SM 7 on his session. This is a really cool mic and an industry secret for all types of vocals. I'll write a blog referring to this mic and let you all in on a few secrets. Check in on Monday afternoon &amp; I'll post it for you!!!!<br /> Nevertheless, for the "gang vocal" those omni-directional "Earthworks" you guys have up there may have been an interesting choice. Although the AKG 414 is without a doubt a go-to workhorse.</p> <p>If you think about it, post "Fist Fight's" web site or Myspace - Facebook page when the track is done so our DPS community can check it out!!!! </p> http://www.dpsinsider.com/forums/topic/avalon-session-log-032310#post-207 Tue, 23 Mar 2010 15:51:57 +0000 Paul Kronk 207@http://www.dpsinsider.com/forums/ <p>Last night I had the opportunity to work with a very talented metal-inspired hardcore band from right here in south Florida named Fist Fight. Engineer Ryan did the original drum and guitar tracking last week and I was super impressed with the performances. These guys can play! </p> <p>So last night we got around to vocal tracking and it went really well, and of course it helps when the artists you're working with are easy going and have a sense of humor. With most of the vocals being screaming, as is mainly the case in the hardcore genre, I wanted to try a few different mics to see what would work best. Surprisingly to some, screams aren't as easy to track as classic singing vocals, as the SPL's (sound pressure levels) can get pretty high and it's important not to distort the microphone, but you still want to get plenty of growl and definition without it sounding "screechy" or "harsh". </p> <p>The first mic i tried was the AKG C414, a classic go-to of mine that works on pretty much everything. It comes with a variable pad, so I knew distortion wouldn't be an issue. But upon listening back, it gave a little too much of that "harsh" sound that I was trying to avoid. So on to the Shure SM7.</p> <p>Now this mic did the trick! Exactly what I was looking for: plenty of growl, no screech. So I pumped it into the Summit Audio DCL-200 compressor to tame the dynamic range and fatten it up a little bit, then on to the Motown for some final EQ tweaking, suck out a little 50hz, then a little 320 to "clean the mud", then bump a little 5k for some added definition, and it was golden. For those of you who don't know about our beloved Motown EQs, they were custom built by Motown's engineering department way back in the day when dinosaurs still roamed the earth and Tony was lucky enough to keep a couple beside him throughout his career, and now they rest quite happily between Avalon and Power Station Studios here in Florida. We send just about everything through these marvelous pieces of electrical engineering, and it always sounds better on the other side. Can't argue with results, right?</p> <p>Lead vocals went rather smoothly and it was time for the classic hardcore "gang-shout" vocals. I knew I was going to need a different recipe for this, so it was back to the AKG set in omni-directional mode for the band to crowd around and shout. With multiple vocalists going at once in a large room, the AKG provided the definition and sensitivity needed to make sure the lyrics themselves didn't get lost in the wall of voices, and I knew screech and harshness wouldn't be a problem as all the vocalists would be a couple feet back from the mic. Again through the magic Motown EQ and it worked like a charm.</p> <p>Overall the vocals came out solid and the guys were a lot of fun to work with. I'm excited to hear Ryan's mix on it next week. I'll post more info on the band as they kick into high gear, as they're planning a tour along with the album release this summer. Make sure to keep an eye out for them! </p> http://www.dpsinsider.com/forums/topic/incest-is-the-best-put-our-sister-studio-to-the-test#post-68 Wed, 13 Jan 2010 22:45:04 +0000 Paul Kronk 68@http://www.dpsinsider.com/forums/ <p>haha, nice one Rob =P </p> http://www.dpsinsider.com/forums/topic/incest-is-the-best-put-our-sister-studio-to-the-test#post-66 Wed, 13 Jan 2010 22:07:09 +0000 Rob Roy 66@http://www.dpsinsider.com/forums/ <p>HaHa.... Avalon Rawks!!!!! </p>