Massey. Pro Tools 8 le. Six Novice Questions

[jonnydcas]

Hello. Hope I put this message together allright. I don't want to waste anyones time.

I use the MboxMini 2 and Pro Tools 8 le 8.0.5 and enjoying recording songs immensely. Just wondering if I might get a response to a couple of things. This is cool to have a forum. I have been trying to retain all this stuff I learn through the internet youtube and all the google results and pages to go through and try to find some kind of help to be better at recording. The songs are good.

I am in the trial and error process of recording and progressing daily. I guess I only had six questions, the main one being concerned about Massey.

1. I compared compressors A and B with the Massey CT5 I think it is with the digidesign compressor. The Massey sounds more natural and the signal stays clearer not dipping or fading at all. I suppose any information about how the different aspects of the compressor knee, threshold, attack, and release, etc. work. Thats why I like the Massey. Not only did it sound better, it was easy. I am considering buying the plugin, but my main question I wanted to ask is how people like the tapehead plugin. It completely made my bass sound better but I am not knowledgable on how good it works on other instruments and if it is worth all purchasing so I can keep my settings after closing and opening sessions. Can someone vouch for the digidesign compressor, it is pretty good and makes signals sound better but I found the Massey to sound better and be easier.

2. I am just a little confused about setting my record input levels. I am trying to let the signal only barely peak into the yellow from the green but maybe I need to bump the signals up a little. It seems like I tried recording with the signals higher approaching the top of the yellow and I had to back off the faders at mixdown. I also think (but do not know for sure) that it is better (in the digital world) to record a little less than more but it is surely easy to boost the signal with plugins without any repucussions than reduce the signal. I know it is all personal taste and equipment and how you use it. I am striving for a great demo, not the radio or commercial CD's. I would go to the studio for that, so the quest of conquering the challenge of "Studio Quality" recordings is not a goal I will likely ever accompish. I just want to be proud of my songs and play back with people saying it sounds nice. The music is more important than the recordings.

3. Is there a benefit for using groups. I know that I run the soundboard at church and it is nice to have the subgroups on the Presonus board that we have. I am not sure whether it is a much needed thing for me in Pro Tools though.

4. I am planning on layering guitars. I am confused on how to approach this. Right now on my preplanned and saved template I have four tracks for distortion guitar and four tracks for clean/crunch guitar parts. They are panned 50 Left and 50 Right and 50 Left and 50 Right. I plan on recording the rythym parts 4 times with all different sound patches from two different effect processor chain sources. IS THIS OVERKILL. Maybe just playing the part twice instead of four times is sufficient. Idk. It would save me from having the grueling work of all the takes but I am willing to put the time and energy into it. I can't just record the dry guitar and then add plugins. I am recording with the outboard gear dialed in.

5. I read that it is proper to put the dither plugin on the master track. Is this true? I really don't want to degrade my signal if not needed. Right now I have the dither plugin inserted and put on 16bit. I am not real smart. I am wondering if this is needed or if when I bounce to disk it will automatically dither the signal from 24 bits to 16 bits and adding the plugin is unnecssary.

6. Sorry. Final question. Anyone know any links to any pages that deal with EQ settings. I am just wondering what frequencies or bumped or reduced for which instruments in order to achieve a good mix. I know that some of it is a matter of taste but it would be nice to have some guidelines that the recording engineers have learned and shared. Like what frequencies are good to boost and reduce for what instrument. Any good websites for Equalization tips and tricks.

WELL. Thats my 6 questions. I hope that my message isn't too all over the place. Any help with any of these pretty basic issues would be most appreciatlively received. I guess I'm doing pretty good because my mixes sound decent and I can't think of anything else I need to know at the moment as I try my hardest to dial everything in.

Thank you and I hope that you are having as much fun as I am at recording and music. It is a Godsend to have music in our lives. Keep jammin and making music that make people feel good or feel something.

Thanks much,
Lundberg (Aspiring songwriter) Really digging Pro Tools

[albee1952]

1-welcome to the world of audio. Choosing a compressor because it sounds good makes sense, as does choosing a compressor because its simple Your best bet is to compare and work them(and remember that youtube is a great source of tutorial videos for near anything).

2-Just into the yellow is a good place to be, but you should create your sessions at 24 bit. That gives more headroom than 16 bit. Also, always stick a master track in your session so you can see if it clips(meaning the mix buss is being over-driven). If you are clipping the master, bring it down a few db. If it still clips at -3, then I usually go and drop all the audio/instrument tracks by 5-6db and push the master back up.

3-depends on how you like to work and how big your session is. I like to use sends to feed all my drums to a stereo AUX track with heavy compression. Generally, if I have a lot of tracks doing one thing(like BGV's, Drums, Percussion), I might group them via buses and AUX tracks(I use VCA's on 10HD but you don't have that option)

4-My 2 cents, but I call that overkill. You may end up with a wall of guitars so thick that nothing else(vocals??) can be heard properly. I would do 2 tracks of crunch and 1 or 2 clean. The crunch tracks would get panned hard out and the clean track(s) might be panned 10 and 2, but your music may call for a different approach

5-Dither is only used when going from a higher bit rate(like 24 bit) to a lower rate(like 16). If your mixes will be mastered, use no dither and leave it to the mastering engineer(ME). If you are looking to make audio CD's, then you need to end up at 16 bit, so dither would be the VERY LAST process. I prefer to bounce with nothing on the master and do my "mastering" separately(using quotes because I am not an ME). I use Wavelab to do the final treatment(EQ, compression, brickwall limiting and dither), but you COULD do the same in a PT session(that's another page of advice)

6-Sounds like coloring by numbers Seriously, every mix is its own "beast". The best learning tool I can offer is to work the EQ until you become familiar enough that you don't have to think so hard about it. Lesson #1-insert EQ III 7 band on some audio track, grab a mid band and set it fairly narrow, push it to +9 and sweep the frequency over its range while you play the track. When you hear "UGLY" jump out at you, put a cut at that frequency. Grab another band an repeat. This is called "subtractive EQ"(because you are "subtracting" what sounds bad). Get rid of the bad stuff before you boost anything(then you may not NEED to boost anything).