Has Santa Been?

[Bob Amser]

Go on then, who bought / got given some plugins for Christmas? If so, post it here and give a mark out of 10 for how much it / they have changed your recording life.

I got three and have already been playing with them.

Pro-Q - 10/10. This, coupled with the tutorial video on YouTube have helped me to start and understand EQ. I found it much easier and intuitive to have the visual representation of what's going on with the EQ (like looking at the old graphic EQs we used to have on hi-fi). Very powerful and made huge improvements to the transparency of my mix to go through the various steps he shows on the tutorial. Would've been nice to have some presets, but the video is in reality better than a preset 'cos it gives you some ideas, but makes you get to grips with what's going on yourself.

Old Timer - 8/10. I found this more a 'compression for dummies' plugin. I managed to massively over-compress bits of my first effort using the channel strip so thought I'd try this plugin out as an alternative. This is a very simple plugin to use and hard to make an awful sound, so ideal for me. I only gave it 8/10 because it's not massively controllable (the more controllable, the more complicated to use of course). For what I wanted, though, it was bang on and made a great improvement.

Micro Warmer - 9/10. Quite honestly, I don't even know what this is. I bought it on the basis of some reviews that said it sounded great and I would agree. I just whacked it on the master bus and went through a few of the presets. Instant improvement to the overall sound. It avoided the slight 'over-smooth' thing you get with computer recordings and just made the whole thing sound more expansive and, well, better. There are loads of knobs to twiddle but I don't understand what any of them do yet, so can't say how good they are! Looking forward to playing with this more to find out what it is capable, but just putting it on the overall mix made a great improvement.

So far, been delighted with my first three plugins. Seeing my folks tomorrow - hopefully they've listened to the "Honestly - iTunes vouchers would be lovely. I have enough jumpers / socks / chocolates" comments.

[richardyot]

I've had those 3 for a while, and they're all really good. I took advantage of the IAP sale to buy, erm, all of the others... So I have a lot of learning and playing ahead of me in the new year. I've read a couple of books on mixing and mastering, as well as watched a lot of videos, so the knowledge is slowly coming - although actual hands on experience is eventually far more valuable than books and videos.

[Bob Amser]

You're right, but a book helps pick you off the 'ignorant' floor!

Of the ones you have, what would be your top recommendation?

[mrufino1]

You should get the book "mixing secrets for the small project studio" by mike senior. Mixerman's "Zen and the art of mixing" is also great (and the daily adventures of Mixerman as well, which is a must read, but won't teach you about mixing!) That will help you a lot. There are also good tutorials at groove3.com and Mac Pro video. If you want to spend a lot, but "mixing with your mind" by mike stavrou. It is very different, and will open up a lot of new ideas, including a great lesson on compression. It is expensive though, or at least it was 10 years ago.

As for the plugins, those are great choices, all 3 will help you a lot. I recently got the dcam channel comp, which is awesome too, although not as straightforward as old timer. Learn to use the Channel strips though too, they're actually very powerful and understanding the concepts will make your work better.

I recently got Saturn during the sale, still getting to terms with it but it is really powerful (and wil bring your CPU to its knees!), and for Christmas I got myself drumagog.

[richardyot]

Of the ones you have, what would be your top recommendation?

One of the same ones that mrufino recommends: "mixing secrets for the small project studio" by mike senior.

It's a great read, and will allow you to make the most of those expensive monitors you recently acquired

[Bob Amser]

I've had a look at Saturn, but looks a bit technical for me.

Thanks for the book recommendation. Having come up with the first track 'in the can' that I am actually happy with today, I am HOOKED on Auria and getting to grips with proper recording.

I will try to understand the channel strip as you suggest, Mark. I tried using the expander bit but realised I didn't even know what it was, so should probably work that out before messing again!

If you had my three and were looking to buy another two/three plugins, what would you recommend for a rock / pop tracks?

And, yes, looking forward to some better monitoring than my £30 headphones!

I love the look of Drumagog (being a drummer!) and need to find a way of turning my TD3 midi drums output into a multi track drum recording. Until I can do that, I can't see me being able to use Drumagog.

[Kloon]

No plugins for xmas, as i treated myself generously on the recent sale.

Bought Alchemy pro & the all sounds pack to myself for xmas. Money well spent!

[richardyot]

I will try to understand the channel strip as you suggest, Mark. I tried using the expander bit but realised I didn't even know what it was, so should probably work that out before messing again!

If you read that book you should have no problem understanding the expander, or the rest of the channel strip. It's pretty easy once it's been explained.

Saturn isn't actually all that technical either, or at least it doesn't need to be, you can use it just to add distortion to colour a track, but you have options that offer fine control if you wish. And there's plenty of presets to use as a starting point.

And Drumagog is awesome, but you're right that multi-tracked drums would be a necessity, maybe you can figure something out with some of the kit you won in the competition - because the trigger sounds can be anything: clicks, bashing on saucepans, whatever. I use Impaktor to record myself drumming on a table for the trigger sounds, and then replace the drums in Drumagog.

[starfugger]

I bought auria to record my kid on the ipad and to encourage him to make music. He has perfect pitch, but is too focused on video games to practice on his guitar playing. When i first tried the channel strip, i thought the eq was very usable. The comp, however, sounded weird to me. So i purchased the pro-c. It sounds the way i expect a compressor to sound i particularly like the opto setting. I give it an 8/10, In comparison to other plug in comps i've tried on my desktop. Having been delighted by this comp, i decided to just say what the hell and got the eq too. It really IS a joy to use, and somewahat similar to Pro Tools' built in eq. The micro warmer does a wonderful job at putting some aural exciter'ish sound to the vocals and just overall makes the track sit well in the mix. This is definitely a power house trio of a plug.

I also got the Hybrid IR pack, not really caring for the 'verbs, but hoping to use the tape and bus mixer ir's but was disappointed to find that those arent included in pack 1. (correct me if im wrong)

[mrufino1]

Bob, I'd wait on any other plugins, buy the book, read the auria manual, and then when you need another plugin, get it. I'm glad I spent time with auria just using the stock channel strip, because it let me know it's strengths and weaknesses. I have used daws for a long time, but each program has it's own workflow and strengths, so once I knew those it made it obvious why I'd need something else (or not in some cases). The strength of auria for me right now is the limits it imposes, as it has forced me to focus instead of trying out a million plugins.

I love old timer, it is pretty hard to make that sound bad. It definitely is a different compressor than the channel strip compressors. But those are very good and do a ton of different options. I also recently got the channel comp, which does it's own thing and definitely changes the sound if you want it to, which the channel strip compressors do not do. And Saturn is wicked, although I'm still figuring it out.

An for multi tracked drums, with your e kit, you may want to try recording your drums as midi in no mother program and using something like drums xd for the sounds. Beatmaker 2, as much as I dislike other things about it, would work for this. Once auria gets midi it will be easier, but for now that would be a good option. Or, you could record midi to your computer and then import the tracks to your ipad, using something like superior drummer, ez drummer, or the like on the computer. Then again, with the sounds in those programs, you may just keep those sounds as they are fantastic. I did the drums on have silly song in my video with superior drummer, using midi loops then exported the drums as individual tracks from reaper and dumped them into auria (very easy, and on our shutterwax YouTube page I have two videos explaining this process). If I ever polish up that song I'd revise the drum parts, but the process would stay the same.

Hope that was somewhat helpful! Audiodeluxe.com has ez drummer and superior drummer on sale at the moment. There's also other drum programs for the computer like that.

[Bob Amser]

Wow, thanks chaps. I honestly didn't just mean this to be a 'help Bob Amser' forum, but it's much appreciated.

I keep hearing about the EZ Drummer program. It's real money, though. That said, I can't see that any of the apps will quite do it. I've been using SampleTank to access some decent samples for the drum kits (better than the basic kits in GarageBand and the ones on my bottom-end Roland kit) but I have no way of adjusting the balance of the different parts, and I love the idea of playing with the sounds within Auria, so Drumagog is my aim...

Now I don't need to find a budget for some headphones, I think EZ drummer is the way.

Before all of this, though, I will buy a book. Starting to understand one aspect of the production side of things (EQ) has made such a difference, I think understanding probably is the way to improvement!

[richardyot]

Now I don't need to find a budget for some headphones, I think EZ drummer is the way.

Since you're a drummer, I personally don't think this is the best way to go - what you should consider is finding a way to record a performance and then use Drumagog to replace the sounds, while still keeping the intricacies and dynamics of your playing. Just my opinion though

[Bob Amser]

Sadly, I'm a drummer with no spare cash and young kids, so swapped my acoustic kit for a midi one a while back. I do need to get a real kit back soon - I only get to hit real drums in practice studios and when I borrow a kit for gigs.

Waiting for that Sony recording deal then I'll sort out a home studio with the 7 figure advance!

In the meantime, can anyone at least confirm that EZ drummer will take my midi drumming and turn it into a multitrack drum recording? Might be a good step forward whilst I wait on that cheque...

[mrufino1]

Yes, you can trigger ez drummer from your midi kit as well, so you're just using it for the sounds. You won't need drumagog with the sounds you'll get. If you can spring for superior drummer is much better, but ez drummer does sound good. Sign up for audiodeluxe's email list, toontrack constantly runs specials. Ez drummer was $30 last month.

I record it into reaper, which makes it very easy to bounce to stems, it takes two clicks. It will even name them based on the track names if you want.

Another option is bfd Eco, which i also have, it is $29 right now.
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/ ... 7Aod8X4ARg

It also sounds good. Since I am not a drummer the included midi loops with ez and superior worked better for me than bfd, but I mainly use those for demos, I work with a real drummer if at all possible. Eco will do nicely triggered by your e kit though, and you can dump those tracks into auria. Reaper is free to try for 30 days but will still work, it will just remind you that you should buy it. The license is super affordable and worth getting. I use reaper to track a band usually and now mix in auria.

So, bfd Eco sounds like it would do you well, it comes with about 5gb of multi sampled kits, including room mics etc. I'd give you mine since I no longer use it but fxpansion will charge $50 for the license transfer! I'm sure a retailer on your side of the pond has bfd Eco as well, the price was the same in every store on a google search.

Edit: directly from fxpansion,
http://www.fxpansion.com/index.php?page ... fsdf346bng
I don't know exchange rates, so I have no idea if that's the same deal as in a shop, but it's worth checking out.

My friend Steve just bought addictive drums to use with his e kit and he likes that one a lot as well, it goes for $100 here, and I believe it's a download.

[mrufino1]

Oh, and if you get a seven figure advance, most of the figures will be after the decimal! Not many record deals these days...