Challenge: Find a piece of gear in the studio and get to know it better. It could be an outboard effects unit. It could be a preamp. It could be anything in the rack in the machine room. Write a paragraph about the piece of gear. What is its purpose? What are the common reasons to use it? What are some techniques commonly used for it? Put your Name and paragraph in the comments section of this post. DUE: October 17, 2011
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Focusrite Liquid Channel
The Liquid Channel is a powerful mic pre and compressor combination. According to Focusrite’s website, it has the ability to emulate any classic mic pre and compressor with precision. You can also save up to 99 presets on the device, and if you use the USB connection on the back, you can store even more on your computer. The USB connection also allows you to download different emulations from their website on top of the forty mic pre’s and compressors already saved on the device as well as control the device remotely. There is also a dial dedicated to controlling the amount of second order harmonic distortion, or warmth, to account for a variances that may require adjustment. The Liquid Channel would be very good for getting the sound of that classic preamp and compressor you desire while tracking vocals, guitar, drums, or what have you. The possibilities are endless!
Yamaha player piano & Disklavier Control Wagon
This is a pretty awesome system. First, I hooked the control wagon up to the piano and got it to play the midi songs that had been saved on a floppy disk-which was really neat to watch, but ultimately a bit creepy. Then I hooked the control wagon up to a computer (using a Kontrol49 as an interface). The control wagon has MIDI in and out. so first, I set it up to be controlled by the Kontrol49 or DP. I suppose this setup would be useful if you had a virtual piano track that you wanted to record with a real piano, but didn’t have a pianist. I also was able to use the control wagon’s midi out to send midi messages from the piano to DP and record a track. This would be handy if you wanted to keep midi data of a live performance.
Tyler Hoover
Did you notice the timing delay for the MIDI input?
Pitch ‘n Time Pro is a time-stretching and pitch-shifting AudioSuite software plug-in for Pro Tools. It works with all versions of Pro Tools including Pro Tools HD, LE, and M-Powered. It offers time compression and expansion from a ratio of 1/8 speed through to 8 x speed independent of pitch, and pitch shifting up to 36 semi-tones. The time-stretching and pitch-shifting functions each have three interchangeable panels, ranging from simple fixed ratios to complex tempo and pitch alterations that vary over time. Warping the time one the samples is also pretty cool too just by placing markers at the point in which you want them!
Grag Wake
Alex Moon
DBX 376
The DBX 376 is a channel strip that has many functions. It has a preamp, EQ, compressor and de-essor. It also does A/D conversion over AES/EBU and S/PDIF. It is mainly used as a preamp into protools. The common reasons to use it are that it has a different character than another preamp, and it also gives a tube warmth that a solid state preamp may not have. It is commonly used as a vocal preamp because it has many of the effects that one would want on a vocal track built in.
UA 610
The UA 610 is a Dual channel tub mic pre amp that is very versatile. I used the UA 610 on Vocals, acoustic guitar, mandolin, harmonica, tambourine, and shaker. With all this variation in sound sources it proved to be very versatile. The sound was so clear and clean even when cranked to its highest gain settings. Yet, it had a subtle warmth that gave each sound source a new flavor when compared to the non-tube, less colored M-1. It is a solid unit that you have to work hard to make sound bad. The EQ is a great way to just swing the color of your sound source where you want it to sit in a mix. The EQ is subtle and smooth like the color that the pre amp adds naturally and for this reason you would have to cut one deep and boost the other all the way to make the sound unnatural and out of place. Its an incredible unit that I will utilize whenever possible.
Plus, it has a rediculously cool light on the front panel.
Focusrite Pre Pack ISA428
The Focusrite Pre Pack ISA428 is a 4-channel Mic Preamp. It has 4 rupert Neve- designed transformer-based preamps with switchable impedance and direct instrument inputs. I have used the focusrites in every session I have had in studio 1 so far and they sound great on everything that I have thrown at them. betweeen the impedance and soft limiter circut I feel like I have a lot of control over being able to get the best sound possible with any set up I use.
Did you discover why they call it 428?