Member Dana Nielsen
MemberForum Replies Created
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Joe! This is so great! Technically, compositionally, musically, and microphonically (is that a word? haha). Bravo, man!
I love me some Blumlein stereo mic’ing! And you’ve captured a gorgeous, natural sound. Here are a couple things I noticed … super minor stuff!
- the stereo image feels ever-so-slightly left-heavy. Easy fix – just turn up the mic fader on the right (or if you’re using a stereo fader you could add a multi-mono trim plugin, unlink the left and right channels, and add a touch more gain to the right channel of the plugin)
- I’d love to hear more body in the low strings – more fundamental, more “note”. You could try adding EQ to boost the low end, but it’s easier to accomplish during recording by adjusting the mic(s) position. Often it’s a matter of vertical position of the diaphragm(s) — … though I’m realizing this is much easier to demonstrate visually than it is to describe in writing, haha. But basically, imagine if your blumlein setup was configured on one single mic stand, 6 inches from the strings, pointed at the neck of the guitar where the neck meets the guitar body. The sound is clear and well-balanced but the low strings sound a bit thin and under-represented. Solution: raise the mic stand an inch or two higher so that the mic diaphragms are more centered vertically on the low strings. And/or wear some loud, closed-back headphones and try moving your body up/down, left/right, fwd/back while you play, allowing you to *hear* the best mic position in realtime. When you’ve found the sound you like, hold that position and hit record!
I have lots of fav stereo acoustic guitar mic’ing techniques (I’ve always considered making a course or video series on that subject). I know @jlew has been experimenting a lot with that too these days, including some Mid-Side acoustic gtr recording.
All in all, I think your blumlein setup is sounding great!
Here’s an IG post I did a while back showing a stereo setup I devised for a solo slide acoustic guitar recording that worked well:
instagram.com
93 likes, 18 comments - danafrio on August 22, 2023: "Here’s the equipment and thought process i used to record acoustic slide guitar with Craig Jameson the other day 🎤 . . . #protoolshdx #atcloudspeakers #dcommand #producingmusic #recordingmusic #outboardgear #soundstudio … Continue reading
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Hey Bar! What a beautiful vibe this piece has. I’m listening on my AT headphones while resting in bed and couldn’t help but close my eyes and relax while the sounds washed over me. Very nice!
My main technical observation/suggestion has to do with the main guitar. There seems to be a low-frequency thumpy rumble that could easily be attenuated with a high-pass filter. At times it almost sounds like 50-60 Hz wind noise but, unless you recorded outside, I bet the mic just picked up some thumpy finger proximity or something. Anywho, should be an easy fix!
At times I wondered if the vocal and the bouzouki were a bit TOO hi-passed. They both sound great as-is, but if you’re interested you could experiment with adding a bit more body to the vocal and bouzouki (maybe 3db of 150-ish on the voice, and 5db of 250Hz-ish on the bouzouki? These frequencies and dBs are just guestimates).
As always, take it or leave it! haha. Really great work, both you and @sexton! 🙌
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PS – I love that Tedder course!
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Hey Nate! Huh… that seems super odd and no bueno. I haven’t done much bouncing out of Logic, so I can’t weigh in on that from my own experience; but perhaps @michael or other Logic geniuses here have some insights to share?
I’m “subscribed” to this thread and look fwd to hearing what others have experienced! Thanks for sharing and reaching out, man!
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Yes! I know a lot of long-time “Maschinists” on Reddit and YouTube are pissed that the v3 update doesn’t (yet) have many of the long-awaited, often-requested updates; but I for one am excited about what is included. I’ll take what I can get, right?! Haha. And at $29 it’s a no-brainer for me. … well … with one caveat: Maschine+ “standalone mode” isn’t yet supporting the v3 update.
I have a Maschine MK3 and also an M+. I’m gonna wait for M+ v3 compatibility cause I just KNOW that if I download v3 for my MK3 I’ll start creating projects and then will be super bummed when they don’t open on my M+ in standalone.
All that said, I can’t wait to implement the new v3 features into my workflow!
How bout you, @smoothygroove? Gonna take the plunge and update your Maschine?
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Stuart!!
Back from walkabout with another wonderful Roholt Reward! Love it, man, thank you for sharing this. You have a keen eye for sweet and fleeting freebies, and you are the BEST for hipping us all to them!
And yeah, I agree – All the Soundtoys stuff is excellent. Hope this freebie brightens someone’s day! 🌞
Great to have ya back, homey!
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Wow, dang… scenario B! That is a head-scratcher then! Keep us posted if you continue hearing this issue (um, without trying to psych yourself out too much lol)
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My pleasure, Nate! And way to persevere and work around those pesky troubleshooting issues! 💪🤓
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I hope your wife is recovering well, Paul! 😌
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Ah, yeah I get it! And true, none of these features are new to me either, as I’ve been making “digital stems” for years now using iZotope RX’s Music Rebalance. Ditto on the other “new” instruments added to Maschine V3.
I think what I’m realizing, however, is that unlike most users, I’ve always used Maschine outside of my main DAW (pro tools, Ableton) and so these V3 updates for me are like, “ok cool, thanks NI!”. In other words, even when I’m composing or beatmaking in Pro Tools, I prefer to run Maschine software as a standalone DAW rather than a plugin within Pro Tools. I just find it to be much more fun to use maschine when it’s untethered from my DAW. This is also why I’m loving Maschine+ lately, cause now I’m LITERALLY untethered from my whole computer! lol.
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YAAAY! Huge congrats on the release, @nategomoon, and great work, man! 🎉
1. For tuning, yeah, it’s hard to get the automatic pitch correction tools to do exactly what you want. Unless I’m looking for that T-Pain effect, I always do everything manually using Melodyne. You can watch my complete vocal Melodyne process in chapters 8 and 9 of the Natural Vocal Production course. Melodyne, to me, is the most flexible, most powerful pitch (and timing) correction software. It’s amazing.
2. Sound quality / Logic bounce: I saw your new thread in the MP Logic forum about this – thanks for posting that there! Curious to hear if other folks have had a similar experience. @michael and I have already weighed in there w some thoughts. 🤘
3. Plugin blips: not sure what’s going on with that and don’t know that particular plugin. But it could be worth making sure you have the most current version of the plugin (maybe a recent update addressed a “blip problem”). Also you could try raising your audio buffer size in Logic’s settings? Sometimes blips like that occur during playback when your CPU can’t keep up with demanding plugins on a low buffer setting.
Hopefully some of these suggestions will help! Keep us posted!
mixprotege.com
Grammy-nominated producer, mixer, engineer, Dana Nielsen teaches how to comp, tune, and mix natural-sounding vocals and acoustic guitar.
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Oh, that is an important follow-up question for Nate: @nategomoon, when you notice the difference in high end punch on your bounces, are you listening on the exact same system, using the exact same outputs and speakers?
Scenario A: If you’re bouncing mixes out of Logic, in your studio where you mixed it, and noticing a sonic difference while listening to the bounce in your car or on your home stereo, then room/speaker calibration might be the solve, as @michael suggested.
Scenario B: Let’s say you’re mixing in Logic, in your studio, using a UAD Twin, outputs 1-2. You do a bounce of your mix using UAD 1-2. Then you open your bounce in Quicktime with your computer output set to UAD Twin 1-2. If you play back that quicktime using the same exact interface outputs, listening on the same speakers, does it sound any different from when you click over to Logic and play the live mix session from there? …. if so, the culprit may be in the Logic bounce settings and/or the youtube/gearspace/tedder conspiracy is real 😲😂.
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Heck no, man! So glad you shared!
And gorgeous looking (and sounding) DISCO page. ⚡️ Beautiful arranging and composing on there, homey!
I was poking around and enjoying all the tracks and stumbled on “Happy” and was like, OMG I forgot about this one! So freaking cool, top to bottom.
@joerobinson, “Happy” is one of @nate‘s excellent shares here on MP Member Spotlight a while back – u can check it out here:https://mixprotege.com/forums/discussion/mix-feedback-on-original-piece/
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Re NY “On Broadway” scenario: 😂
Re binary November: 😩 -
Love this reimagined intro, Paul! Very compelling, anticipatory, and exciting! The loudness was thrilling too. Had me leaning in, ready to hear what comes next. 🙌
It may be more “production-y” than @shimmerisland hoped for from us, lol, but I thoroughly enjoyed your take on it! Great ideas as always, man!
@shimmerisland: I do also love the way you have your intro, as-is. Music is not binary; there are a million fantastic intro options, and you have already crafted a great one. Just thought I’d clarify that my excitement about Paul’s intro option does not mean that I am not excited about your current intro! ❤️🔥