Warming up samples

[muzik 2323]

I was wondering if you guys could recommend a box to warm up my samples going into into PT.

My main instrument is an Akai 6000 sampler. I've been going into PT optically via the lightbridge, but feel I could benefit by using something analog in the chain.

Would I be better off buying a compressor than a pre (since i'm not using a mic)? I do mainly hip hop and want that chunky analog sound! What piece is really going to give me a major, noticable improvement?

Budget is around $1000.

[Robotnik]

Record your samples to cassette deck. Then sample off of the cassette deck. It works for Daft Punk. It should work for you.

[muzik 2323]

what?? where did you read that about Daft Punk? I would like to read that article.

[Boogie]

Here is some info about Daft Punk...

http://mixonline.com/ar/audio_daft_punk/


Cheers,
Boogie [img]images/icons/cool.gif[/img]

[Sidhu]

talking of tape...im real curious to know how u guyz go about setting the Bias control.. what is it that u look for.. etc...

thank you.

[muzik 2323]

thanks for the Daft Punk article, although I really want to get a piece of new gear to get an analog sound.

Come on, all you gear heads!

A friend suggested I get an Apogee rosetta and record analog to warm things up. Someone else said an old Joe Meek would do the job.

Any other opinions?

[Felix]

Empirical Labs Fatso

[PTUser NYC]

Setting Bias on a cassette deck:

You must have a three head deck, otherwise its a lot trickier.

First record a 1khz tone, and set the record level so that playback level (monitoring off the repro head) shows @ 0dbVU. Then record a 10khz tone at the same level (from the tone generator) as you adjust the bias, the playback level of the 10khz tone will vary. increase the bias until the VU meter reads close to 0dbVU. Then continue to increase it until the playback level of the 10khz tone drops back to -3dbVU. That's it.

If you're working without a 3 head deack, I suppose you could record, rewind and playback, but I've never tried that, and I don't know if it works. Even if it does, its a major pain in the ass.

Also, if your intention here is to make things sound worse (as opposed to making good sounding cassettes) then setting the bias properly might not be what you want. In that case, just use your ears.

[muzik 2323]

I know about the Fatso, but at a list price of $2500, it's more than double my budget of $1000.

There has to be a piece of gear for $1000 that can help my sound.....right?


So will I really get a warmer sound by using an Apogee and going analog rather than going optical out of my sampler? Maybe I should just spend the grand on a Rosetta?

[muzik 2323]

Any other opinions about using an old Joe Meek box?

My friend says he uses a Meeks and a Transient Designer. Does the Transient Designer add any analog element to the sound?