warmth please, give me some warmth!

[songman]

I went from Mix to HD and had kind of hoped that that alone would solve the problem of the lacking warmth in my recordings. No matter what I do, I find that everything sounds hard. I'm not looking to start a debate on digital versus analog, since I have no options in that respect. I would just like your advice on what to do, starting from the setup I have (PT 7.1 HD3 PCIe, Mac G5 quad OSX10.4.3, Apogee Rosetta800 + Digital192's clocked to a Big Ben, Genelec monitors). I have most of the usual suspects as far as plugins are concerned. What would you add, e.g to the mixbus, to get more warmth, dare I say analog sound, in the end product?

[crizdee]

I went from Mix to HD and had kind of hoped that that alone would solve the problem of the lacking warmth in my recordings. No matter what I do, I find that everything sounds hard. I'm not looking to start a debate on digital versus analog, since I have no options in that respect. I would just like your advice on what to do, starting from the setup I have (PT 7.1 HD3 PCIe, Mac G5 quad OSX10.4.3, Apogee Rosetta800 + Digital192's clocked to a Big Ben, Genelec monitors). I have most of the usual suspects as far as plugins are concerned. What would you add, e.g to the mixbus, to get more warmth, dare I say analog sound, in the end product?

Hi,

What products are you mixing? are you recording them yourself!? what mic's and pre amp's do you use? what room are you recoding in? are the recording cold when you record them? are they cold when you receive them??

All the usuall suspects!! Analogue channel 2 on the mix bus maybe! Duy Tape and valve are wonder plugs for me!! also Cranesong phoenix and occasionally Sony inflator.


Chris

[Lee Blaske]

I think you need to define what you mean by "warmth." It's a pretty vague term.

The PT rig you have will pretty much give you back exactly what you put it. That's what it's supposed to do. I think you need to experiment with analog front end equipment, ribbon mics, etc. Perhaps you're miking everything too closely. Try moving mics out (unfortunately, this won't work well in small rooms with boinky acoustics). There are a lot of plug-ins that can help (Phoenix, Analog Channel, Antares mic modeller, distortion plug-ins, etc., etc., etc.).

Do you find yourself doing a lot of compression, limiting and high end EQ boosting? That can certainly make things sound hard.

Genelec monitors also have somewhat of a clinical sound. That could be part of your perceived problem, too.

Lee Blaske

[Jeff Ulmer]

I agree with crizdee and Lee, you need to look at what goes into ProTools first. What are you recording and how?

[PMoshay]

You are listening through the converters, so if you are not happy with what you are hearing ....... don't press record yet.
Sounds like the source is what you should be looking at.

[PTUser NYC]

What are your levels generally when recording? Are you a "record as hot as possible before clipping" kinda guy? That will ruin the sound of a DAW.

Too many plug ins will also make things sound plastic. If you've got 4 or 5 plug ins on every channel, you need to rethink stuff.

[RobMacki]

Not to go too far off topic, I know this is not a mic pre thread but...
Two weekends ago I was working a 3 day festival.
We recorded 12 shows. We were using a Yamaha PM5D and an array of mic pres which included:
10 vintage API 512
16 ch of Millennia HV 3D
2) Grace 101
1) Grace 201
8 ch of Neumann True
Focusrite ISA 428

The API was far and away the warmest and most natural sounding of them all.
If the stage had poor mic placement then we had serious issues in the truck.
Listen to great recordings before DAWs ex. Dark Side of the Moon.
It's not tape (IMHO) so much as the mentality of get the sound acoustically and the way you want it before it goes to tape rather than a 'fix it in the mix (DAW)' mentality.
When I listen to great recordings I don't hear a lot of processing. I do hear great talent, great instruments, great songs, great mics, great mic placement, great pres and great mixing.

[jre3132]

What are your levels generally when recording? Are you a "record as hot as possible before clipping" kinda guy? That will ruin the sound of a DAW.

What is a good level? I've been told by many people to do just that..."the hotter the better on digital." I don't guess I really know what is best.

[Drew Mazurek]

depends how your system is calibrated. i believe PT is -18 = 0db VU out of the box. please correct me if i'm wrong. So when you're driving your pres to get it "hot" in PT you're actually overdriving them. Just make it go about half way up (maybe a touch more) the meter and you'll be fine.

[jre3132]

Makes sense. I believe -18 is right, at least for 192's. So the calibration level is really the level to shoot for. Makes sense.

Anyone one else want to back that up?

Thanks,