Pre Amps. I agree. Years ago I recorded a track with a £10 headset mic which went straight into the green jack in the back of the computer. I sent the track to Radio 1 and they played it on air. To this day, I've never bought a pre amp, though I have upgraded my mic and bought an audio interface.
Great advice, all 3 tips! Though what makes certain preamps special, like 1073's, is how they react when pushed beyond nominal conditions. You could push those preamps for some really beautiful saturation, which works incredible on live drums! But yes, getting a great snare drum sound 1st has to start with the source. A great sounding snare drum 🥁.
This video should be shown automatically, unskippably (I'm certain that's a real word), with the first launch of every daw. I definitely went down rabbit hole #2 fifteen years ago starting out, and am still now finding cruft in Mr plugin folder. "oh wow! A *nother* model of a neve eq... They love it on gearslutz, and it's only $49! I definitely need that." --me, at rock bottom
Pro engineer / youtube addict here from Berlin germany. This is the best audio comparison and advice channel i've coma across... and I know most of them... This should take over everything else if the choice of shirt color doesn't have to be purple stripes. Seriously though, great job!
@@PresentDayProduction Mic pre thing is interesting, I got one even though I'm never plugging a mic into it because of the sound of the DI input and the EQ section. Most bass preamps just aren't as good it seems. Tried a few plugins and had limited success as I'm trying to really crank the input of this, boost 60hz while high-passing at 50hz. Closest one I found was the UA plugin but you're locked to their hardware.
in my 30 years experience you just need to avoid cheap mic pre's, they do sound worse. Also, once you start EQing and compressing the good/bad preamp you used will be more apparent. But yeah, don't over spend.
I spent a bit on a mic that everyone says you need... Turns out, I get just as good tone and expression with a really cheap(comparatively) mic... I laughed a lot through this...my first recording, sounded like I was in a Lesley,....underwater... But I used all my plugins!!!...🤦♂️
I bought a cheap boom mike stand and it came with a "free" dynamic mike which actually works incredibly well. I've bought other mikes since then, but I still swear by the freebie! My recordings of music plus voice overs for radio amps were used, unaltered, by a national radio station.
Just discovered you guys, and I’m very happy I did! Love the channel! I agree with everything said in this video with one exception: rectangular rooms are our friends IF their ratios and volume fall under acceptable parameters. In fact, a rectangular room (particularly for stereo) could very well be the best shape one could hope for, particularly when considering build costs. Anywho, keep up the great work, chaps!!😃
9 times out of 10 I think youre right - tho I'm curious about the difference that impedance makes to dynamic mics (your fancy condensers have FETs or Valves in as a first buffer, so relatively unaffected) All right, I'd better declare an interest - I design the things - but I AM finally working on some deadening curtains and bass traps ;)
Monitors with Soft Dome Tweeters....!!!!!!! Soooooooo much less fatiguing than Titanium or Birillium etc..... and So much more natural sounding too...!!!! But makes Listening without fatigue So much more enjoyable an experience.... And mixing for hours on end without fatigue much, much, much more Enjoyable and much more possible too....!!!!! :) :) :) :) :) :) :) And it also seems So so much nicer and more helpful when especially acoustic instruments sound like the actual instruments do, instead of a super bright fatiguing version of them.... Purely in the name of hearing as much 'detail' as possible.... At the expense of crafting a really natural sound on transducers that are actually capable of reproducing a faithful natural reproduction of the source material....!!!!! Similarly if You enjoy mixing more and can stave off fatigue for longer... then you will def make better mixes and be able to work effectively for at least twice as long before your ears fatigue...!!!!! :) :) :) :) :)
Questionable point on preamp, preamps start to make difference when you turn up the gain knob. If you push a really loud signal through the preamp and leave the gain at 0db. I doubt you will hear any difference, even though the signal is passing through the gear. Well, this sounds obvious, right? In the sound on sound test, they recorded a grand piano with condenser omni mic at a very close distance. They didn't say how much gain they pushed on each preamp, but I doubt they needed a lot of gain. We usually need a good preamp to record vocal. Keep in mind not everyone will sing as loud as a grand piano. And sometimes, some people use dynamic mic. This is why we need a good preamp. No one said we need high end preamps to record a super loud drum set, unless you have lots of high end preamps sitting around for whatever reasons. In the end, I do agree preamp usually only makes subtle difference, you could definitely live without a decent preamp. As long as you are happy with the result. You can upgrade gears when the cheap one drive you crazy.
Great advice. One thing about plugins is quite a few very useful ones are available free and come in really handy when using low end DAWs such as GarageBand. A very good example is given that GB has basically no usable metering mvMeter2 is great for that functionality.
I took an audio engineering course back in 1988 but could never get into the field due to a car accident that left me disabled. But I agree completely. I remember that CD players came out back then and the "audio press" would rave about this player's sound because it had a superior digital to analog converter. But I would listen to a variety of them with my own ears and the differences were literally indiscernible! You might be able to differentiate them with signal generators and the like played back on a video monitor, but in the real world of audible frequencies they didn't sound any different. Like every "profession" in the working world, there seem to be no end of snake oil salesmen out there eager to part you from your money for no good reason. It takes a bit of experience to sort these sorts of matters out and get your work into a professional and profitable position. But the latest whiz-bang gizmo is highly unlikely to do it for you! Ha-ha! 😉
I would argue the 4th important factor in mixing is levels. An interesting video i watches said that sometimes, levels are more important than EQ. I would also argue, if your in a bad room, headphones are more important than monitors and room. You can fix a small bad room really other than rebuilding it. Monitors for reference.
Id' like to add : Seating position in the room and hence monitor-placement. Some rules of thumb : In a rectangular room, set up "long", place monitors somewhere between 10-12% of the room-length away from the wall, and place your seat between 36-38% away from the same wall. That's a good place to start.
A small addition; good quality monitors (and mic's) are a sensible long-term investment. My Genelecs are close to 30y/o now and still top notch. I've used mic's that were over 50y/o and absolutly a bliss to work with.
Excellent. I’ve been a pro engineer since 1985, I was chief engineer at a major London studio complex in the 1990s, and I totally endorse the advice in this video. Especially the bit about mic preamps. Unless you’re using a particularly tricky, low output level mic (eg a vintage ribbon) that needs tons of gain, use the desk pres. They are perfectly adequate. And sort out your room acoustics. Spot on.
With an SM7B you need something like a Cloudlifter, an an-line preamp, to bring the level up, as well as a regular preamp - The signal out of those mics is much lower than most other mics
@@PresentDayProduction Julian Krause’s TH-cam videos are very good on measuring built-in mic pres on various (generally consumer/ prosumer grade) audio interfaces to see what is the effect on frequency response of running them at maximum gain. Many can amplify the (admittedly weak) signal from an SM7 to acceptable levels without the extra 25db of gain from a cloudlifter. It is true that some cannot.
@@nocastus running maximum gain is not a good idea, most of the time you maximum want to set gain at around 9 o clock. Anything higher and it will be noisy
@@dusteye1616 That is simply not true. If you have a quiet source and there’s a relatively large amount of inherent mic noise, of course turning up the gain will make the noise louder, along with the signal you’re trying to record. But the SNR will not get worse. Increasing the gain in a mic pre circuit does not make the SNR of the mic preamp itself get worse, it just mean you hear the noise coming from the mic (and whatever it’s picking up) better. In fact the SNR of just the preamp in isolation is usually a bit better at max gain than it is when running with less gain. The only rule is that you need the output of the pre to be at the best compromise between high gain and enough headroom to avoid clipping in the subsequent parts of the signal chain, and if that means running the mic pre at max, that is absolutely fine. The only problem occurs when there’s not enough gain in the pre, even at maximum, to get a reasonably strong signal out of it, and in that case you’re probably trying to record a very quiet source with an insufficiently sensitive microphone (with too much equivalent input noise in its internal circuitry if it’s a powered mic).
Great video but I have to disagree about the Mic preamp bit - although I don't think it should be the first thing you buy when you're just starting out, I shot out a vocal comparison between a UAD unison 1073 plugin which is a pretty decent quality in the box set up and an external BAE 1073 clone pre and the difference was night and day. More depth and 3d ness to the sound field with the external preamp. I played them both back to back to my girlfriend who's just a casual listener and she noticed the difference right away.
You’re very welcome to disagree - our video is simply a suggestion and of course there is room for different opinions! If you find different preamps work better for you, then at least you’re experimenting and finding your best workflow, which is a good thing to do! Thanks for your comment!
Not that my opinion particularly matters, but the most helpful "preamps" I've invested in is a home engineer is the pair of FetHead in-line preamps I use on my dynamic mics. I used to think that I needed expensive preamps for more color or whatever, but what I needed was a little bit more clean gain from my mics to open them up a little bit. $100 on a FetHead versus god knows how much for whatever Instagram is trying to get me to buy.
In mixing, there are no rules. You can make a hit with a Alesis 3036 compressor and a tascam 4 track cassette recorder if you know what your doing.....
Nice, I’m glad I found this channel. It changed my life. Now I know I did the right thing by buying a decent mic, a good pair of audio monitors, and treating my room properly. Also, I bought a nice preamp but it's okay hehehehe
Gents, as most of us are listening via TH-cam compression and on crappy iPad speakers can we EQ the young lads vocal to take the harshness out? love the channel, no idea why it has never popped up before but glad it has (got a feeling it was the SSL2 review)
Hi Simon! Thanks for your comment! This was one of our very early videos and so our TH-cam-Fu wasn’t quite up to scratch in terms of what audio settings worked best… Since then we use new lav mics and have a much better idea about our production needs. I hope you find our newer content less harsh on the ear!
In an ideal world, yes, you’d always want a lot of acoustic treatment - but in reality that’s not always possible! Apply as much as is possible for your own space to get it sounding as good as possible
Well said. I seen a couple similar videos like this. One from Glenn Fricker of Spectre Media Group and Jordan of Hardcore Studio. Glenn addressing about how you don’t need converters since they also only make up a sliver of your sound. There’s plenty of USB interfaces that are affordable and do such wonders. Want an affordable DAW? Get a copy of Reaper for $60. Also being addressed is mics. Both mentioned above address how you don’t need a $3000 mic to track or $1000/piece condensers to track drums. I track my own drums with SM57s and Shure KSM137s. A great vocal mic would be an SM7B. Also watch out for elitist studio owners/engineers who with bluff, bullshit and blow smoke up your ass about how you need gear and equipment of an LA/Hollywood studio to make usable tracks and excellent recordings.
This was a good wake up call. I spent plenty of money on preamps, bought a few bits of outboard gear, and have only gone moderately nuts with plugins, all while my studio monitors and room were neglected. While I can say that I am absolutely in love with my preamps and outboard gear (don't tell my wife) and get the occasional blood rush from some of my plugins, I'm finally biting the bullet and spending a chunk of cash to upgrade my monitors and fix my room, and it's partly your faults. So, thanks, I guess :D
It’s great to hear we’ve had an influence on bringing you to upgrade your monitoring and acoustics. Trust us, it’s definitely worth it and you’ll never look back. Once you experience the better monitoring systems, you really just can’t use anything else because your whole quality level just skyrockets. Let us know what you get!
@@PresentDayProduction I ended up with the Neumann KH120 speakers. They sound amazing. Super clear, I'm hearing so much more detail now in my mixes. I have acoustic foam sitting next to me ready to go on the walls, and will be ordering some bass traps in the next week, so all is coming together nicely :)
They speak truth. Just good common sense. One thing I would add though is that if you must buy something, do your homework first. Read specifications and employ some critical thinking regarding marketing hype. Make sure the equipment does what you need it to do.
Great video, and I totally agree. Can't stress the monitors enough! I've been mixing on good headphones (Beyer Dynamic) thinking my mix sounded good. Bought some monitors last week and listened again, wow my mix sounds shit!! SO MUCH BOOMY LOW END! Nice video and well presented! Nice to have a bit of fun while watching. You got a new subscriber!
I often record and fiddle about during the night, so i bought some good open-thingy phones. They're fine for recording, but not mixing, except for the frilly post bits. Taking a mix and playing it on, say, a loud pub's system makes you realize just how lifeless it sounds. Monitors are a must, but I don't think you really need very expensive ones. 3-4 hundred smackers'll get you some decent kit. And yes, I've recorded in studios with monitors like PA systems! They just make the musicians feel good, IMHO.
@@Ndlanding Mine weren't expensive, Alesis Elevate MKii, €119 and they're great! You're right, you don't "need" to spend a lot, but I've been in studios where they're mixing other people's music (Imagine mixing for Bono for example) you need the absolutel best sound you can get, and that ain't cheap! You only need €120 for your home studio though.....what do you mean by "open thingy phones"?
@@TheOnlineBusker I mean Akai K702 open-back phones, which leak sound out but feel more comfortable. If you wore them on a train, someone might bonk you with the fire extinguisher.
The logic compressor is great! also all of the Reaper plugins are fantastic. The ReaEQ is crazy cool because you can just keep adding bands. And the oversampling on the ReaComp is super useful if you want very fast attack and release sidechains.
Brilliant as always, love this channel, been saying the same for years and get treated like a heretical communist......mad, the marketing works, on me as well sometimes, think I use about 2-3% of the plugins I’ve bought, bundles being the worst case scenario.......
Thing is, acoustic treatment isn't possible in my home studio... err.. I mean pandemic derived home office. The missus would go mental, if I put in enough acoustic panels required to get a reasonably dead sound. So, for acoustic recordings I grab a bunch of spare duvets and pillows and spread them round the room. Not perfect, but it does produce a noticeable difference. For mixing unfortunately, I have to live with headphones.
OMG thank you! You just saved me from dropping money on Neve preamps. I am a songwriter/mixer doing demos and probably have everything I need anyway... The problem is I have an audiophile streak and it's fun to have it sound awesome. I have UAD stuff and it sounds great already especially when I focus on the sound going in and do minimal mixing. BUT I want to run the final mix through ANALOG gear so it sounds groovy and not so harsh (mostly for fun). Do you recommend a piece of gear that I can run vocals and bass through but also for printing some coloration, EQ and maybe compression? As you can tell, I am not cured yet hahaha
No, that’s the antithesis of the wisdom in this video. If you’re not happy with the results you’re getting, especially with UAD, it’s not your gear. It’s likely your skills, your room, and your sources.
It is the same with microphones and loudspeakers in a sense. Transducers are where I find the best bang for buck audible differences, and more expensive is no guarantee of enjoyable sound. I've always found the SM7b mic to be a curiosity. Why would any well engineered microphone require TWO PREAMPS to make it a workable solution? It sounds good but others sound just as good to my ears--and cost a whole lot less when all is said and done. Moreover, speakers have huge differences in sound quality but it is not always defined by price. Personal preferences make up the biggest differences and some not very expensive speakers sound a lot better than others that cost two or even three times the price.
Hi! My monitors are pretty good, but the room is not properly treated. I couldn't spend a few thousand of dollars on acoustic treatment and monitors, so I tried Waves Abbey Road Studio 3. This plugin is amazing, it supposed to replicate the mixing room at Abbey Road with great accuracy, and since I got it about a year ago, it saved me every time when I'm sending songs for mastering. I'm mixing half of the time on monitors, and do last tasks (check levels, bass, treble, space placement) on my headphones Beyerdinamic DT 990 Pro. Hope this helps :)
DO spend on... 4. a low-latency audio interface, like an Apollo 5. a powerful computer (I’m looking at you for future-proffing, Apple silicon ❤️) 6. A good pair of reference headphones. I disagree with the video on this. Most people are not in a situation where they can afford to acoustically treat a room properly and then spend another shit-ton of money on pricey studio monitors. Invest a good amount into a least one great pairs of reference monitor headphones. If you can, get two pairs, a pair of open or semi open and also a good par of closed back. You can’t make 100% on headphones so you will also have to buy a good pair of studio monitors however you do not need three-way speakers constant five figures. A pair of JBL or Yamaha monitors can do the trick. If you have a bit more money, get a pair of Adam, Focal or Dynaudio studio monitors, but spend money on basic acoustic room treatment like diffusers, bass traps, etc... Do NOT spend on... 4. Expensive mics. Ok, get one great large diaphragm condenser vocal mic if you can swing it but some of the greatest vocals were recorded through an SM7. You can get great lower-cost mics that sound great with a slightly different eq curve.
I agree in part and disagree in part. The Shure SM-7, for example, pretty much requires the Cloud Lifter mic preamp to be loud enough and solid enough at all. And honestly, some cheap mixer mic pres are not good, and yes, I can tell the difference. I would say beyond a certain point, the difference does become vanishingly small. So a moderately priced Allen & Heath mic pre will be just fine.
Plugins: Not true if you want to or make example experimental electronic music where effects shape the sounds. Simple DAW effects comes very short in this example.
Excellent! Yep. Crappy source (e.g. vocalist/instrument), crappy room (acoustic space/environment) and crappy speakers (transducers of electro-magnetic energy into acoustic energy in the air) tend to correlate with crappy sound. Regarding an acoustic source and things being as they are with the technology these days, the preamp, interface...and DAW are not as important as the mic (transducer of the compression and rarefaction of air molecules (created by the source) into electro-magnetic energy...) and its placement. You guys are amazing!
I'm glad when I started out that my budget prevented me from going hog wild with equipment. Over the years I've added a piece of equipment here and there, then stepped up the quality and thinned out my wallet. I still have almost all the equipment I bought back in the old days and still use it from time to time. I know my gear pretty well by now and have a decent home studio setup. Everything is patched into my patchbays and I enjoy my time in my studio.
Great video and advice! Too bad all the people who spend their money on fancy gear just to post their studios on Instagram for likes aren't gonna like this video haha!
Great video and subscribed to your awesome channel! Regarding plugins, I totally agree. Treat your plugins like hardwares. If you look at hardwares in studios, they have fixed hardwares that they have chosen because of their transparency/color, their sound etc. But they will not get new hardwares for each new song. Get to know your plugins, and you will achieve wonders with creativity.
New subscriber here - currently binge-watching your back catalogue - love it! I have decades of experience playing with and mixing live bands, but only started seriously recording at the beginning of lockdown, so I've made a lot of mistakes in a very short amount of time - but fortunately none that involved spending money that I regret. I started with a cheap live mixer for preamps, and A/D converter from an old guitar fx unit, stock plugins from a free DAW, towels, curtains and pillows to tame the room, and good old SM57s an 58s for mics. I was fortunate enough to already have some decent monitors. I've completed quite a few projects now, some for other people, and am now getting good results. Apart from some better LDC mics ("source") and some better room treatment, the only money I spent was on a plugin to improve bass response on small speakers - I don't think I could have done that any other way - about £30 if I remember right. I can occasionally be heard ranting at all the adverts for expensive plugins that claim to pour lush analogue loveliness all over your mixes, because I worry that young upcoming talented producers are being parted from the money they should be spending on all the things you mention. So thank you for this!
Thanks for your comment! Great to hear you’ve jumped into the world of recording, best of luck with it! We’d love to hear some end results when you get them!
I don't like Bisto. Can you suggest an alternative? Besides that, the rest of the video was spot-on, although you didn't mention the relative merits of DAWs, microphones, or interfaces. [Just SUBSCRIBED]
Best advice on youtube for music production/mixing starters, would definetly saved me some money if I saw this video before spending for...great job guys👍👍👍
Things You Should Buy #2: Decent Monitors But isn't this one same as Things You Shouldn't Buy #1,2,3? I mean yes there is audible difference between different brands of studio monitors, but is ATC SCM20ASL ($6490) necessarily "more correct" than JBL 305p ($300), or they're just different and go down to personal preference?
You guys are becoming the Consumer Reports of the recording community. The gear pushers must be beside themselves with angst. The myth that you can buy mixing chops at Sweetwater NEEDS to be debunked. Upcoming recordists, musicians, songwriters; are being fleeced and held back by a slick narrative literally banging at the door. A brand new elixir is aggressively marketed to the least knowledgeable approximately 10 times per day. Interest free! They at least get that part right, you should not be interested. Rant over. The ONE thing I’ve gone into debt buying that made an ACTUAL difference to my work, increasing both my income and inspiration is - monitors. Costly speakers and phones will make everything you do - better. Better in ways that pay back your investment, and make your work more attractive to the clients you have and the ones you seek.
Thank you Peter! Yep, if I inherited a studio with a ton of gear in it but crap monitors and had no money to spend on them, I’d sell the lot and spend it all getting the room and the monitors the best they can be, then get a decent interface to replace everything else and work entirely in the box, with stock plugins. Thanks for your comment!
moog 25(700),oxygen pro 49(240),mother32(600),apollo6x2200(25 purchased plugins 1000),ax7(1200),lsr305+lsr310sub(600),50 panels,8 bass traps and sonarworks(500) with my athmx50s(150). spent about 7 grand but traded some stuff in and only spent out of pocket like 4 grand so really not bad.
I'm on a very low budget...so I would say that a 7 band EQ pedal is a must for any guitarist. The very cheap Behringer EQ700 is good enough to just tame harsh sounding single coil guitars. I go from a Yamaha Pacifica through the EQ pedal, then to my ancient and trusty Line 6 Pod and then into a Zoom R-24. The built in condencer mics on the R-24 unit are fine for vocals or acoustic guitar. But this is the real low end of home recording. The same rules apply even so...decent monitors or at least some very good headphones. Oh,and a decent chair Great video and great advice guys...
One side note I would make about outboard mic preamps is that if you want to use outboard gear (which is a choice of personal taste), it may be necessary to use an external preamp to get a level high enough to work with. Although even then, I agree with you that it's not necessary to spend a huge amount on the preamps to get an awesome sound.
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A chair. Spend money on a decent chair. You will spend a ton of time in it, so spend some cash first.
This comment is underated.
Indeed, a decent chair is one of the best investments you can make. And if you can’t afford one.... adopt a standing position!
I bought a 20 dollar cushion to use...makes most any chair bearable...lol
Don't even mention how swivel chairs get all squeaky!
Also... make sure it's not a nylon cloth chair as the static is unbearable... go for leather if you can afford it, PU simulated leather if you can't.
Pre Amps. I agree. Years ago I recorded a track with a £10 headset mic which went straight into the green jack in the back of the computer. I sent the track to Radio 1 and they played it on air. To this day, I've never bought a pre amp, though I have upgraded my mic and bought an audio interface.
Great advice, all 3 tips! Though what makes certain preamps special, like 1073's, is how they react when pushed beyond nominal conditions. You could push those preamps for some really beautiful saturation, which works incredible on live drums! But yes, getting a great snare drum sound 1st has to start with the source. A great sounding snare drum 🥁.
This video should be shown automatically, unskippably (I'm certain that's a real word), with the first launch of every daw.
I definitely went down rabbit hole #2 fifteen years ago starting out, and am still now finding cruft in Mr plugin folder.
"oh wow! A *nother* model of a neve eq... They love it on gearslutz, and it's only $49! I definitely need that." --me, at rock bottom
Excellent video! The problem: treating rooms is difficult, buying a preamp is easy … 😁
The best Mix sound I have ever had was a Behringer mic into a Peavey PV6 mixer. Nothing has come close.
That earned a subscribe.... should be pinned to EVERY audio production board and FB group ever
Pro engineer / youtube addict here from Berlin germany. This is the best audio comparison and advice channel i've coma across... and I know most of them...
This should take over everything else if the choice of shirt color doesn't have to be purple stripes.
Seriously though, great job!
Thank you for your kInd words! Glad you’re enjoying the channel 👍
You've coma across? Not quite the recommendation I'd be after but I guess I know what you mean... ;O)
@@PresentDayProduction Mic pre thing is interesting, I got one even though I'm never plugging a mic into it because of the sound of the DI input and the EQ section. Most bass preamps just aren't as good it seems. Tried a few plugins and had limited success as I'm trying to really crank the input of this, boost 60hz while high-passing at 50hz. Closest one I found was the UA plugin but you're locked to their hardware.
in my 30 years experience you just need to avoid cheap mic pre's, they do sound worse. Also, once you start EQing and compressing the good/bad preamp you used will be more apparent. But yeah, don't over spend.
I spent a bit on a mic that everyone says you need...
Turns out, I get just as good tone and expression with a really cheap(comparatively) mic...
I laughed a lot through this...my first recording, sounded like I was in a Lesley,....underwater...
But I used all my plugins!!!...🤦♂️
I bought a cheap boom mike stand and it came with a "free" dynamic mike which actually works incredibly well. I've bought other mikes since then, but I still swear by the freebie! My recordings of music plus voice overs for radio amps were used, unaltered, by a national radio station.
Just discovered you guys, and I’m very happy I did! Love the channel! I agree with everything said in this video with one exception: rectangular rooms are our friends IF their ratios and volume fall under acceptable parameters. In fact, a rectangular room (particularly for stereo) could very well be the best shape one could hope for, particularly when considering build costs. Anywho, keep up the great work, chaps!!😃
9 times out of 10 I think youre right - tho I'm curious about the difference that impedance makes to dynamic mics (your fancy condensers have FETs or Valves in as a first buffer, so relatively unaffected)
All right, I'd better declare an interest - I design the things - but I AM finally working on some deadening curtains and bass traps ;)
Monitors with Soft Dome Tweeters....!!!!!!! Soooooooo much less fatiguing than Titanium or Birillium etc..... and So much more natural sounding too...!!!! But makes Listening without fatigue So much more enjoyable an experience.... And mixing for hours on end without fatigue much, much, much more Enjoyable and much more possible too....!!!!! :) :) :) :) :) :) :)
And it also seems So so much nicer and more helpful when especially acoustic instruments sound like the actual instruments do, instead of a super bright fatiguing version of them.... Purely in the name of hearing as much 'detail' as possible.... At the expense of crafting a really natural sound on transducers that are actually capable of reproducing a faithful natural reproduction of the source material....!!!!! Similarly if You enjoy mixing more and can stave off fatigue for longer... then you will def make better mixes and be able to work effectively for at least twice as long before your ears fatigue...!!!!! :) :) :) :) :)
Amazing channel! thanks
the best youtube show wow i love this
Thanks for watching! Glad you enjoy our videos!
Questionable point on preamp, preamps start to make difference when you turn up the gain knob.
If you push a really loud signal through the preamp and leave the gain at 0db. I doubt you will hear any difference, even though the signal is passing through the gear. Well, this sounds obvious, right? In the sound on sound test, they recorded a grand piano with condenser omni mic at a very close distance. They didn't say how much gain they pushed on each preamp, but I doubt they needed a lot of gain.
We usually need a good preamp to record vocal. Keep in mind not everyone will sing as loud as a grand piano. And sometimes, some people use dynamic mic. This is why we need a good preamp. No one said we need high end preamps to record a super loud drum set, unless you have lots of high end preamps sitting around for whatever reasons.
In the end, I do agree preamp usually only makes subtle difference, you could definitely live without a decent preamp. As long as you are happy with the result. You can upgrade gears when the cheap one drive you crazy.
1. Source 2. Speakers 3. Room treatment cannot fix a bad speaker. I loved that monitor joke.
THANX!! Lot of priceless, good advice here! 😎
Thanks for this. Mic Pre-amp mumbo jumbo is just depressing. So much waffle, so little content. The artist is the main source of the sound.
I own a vintage v76 and 1073 pre amps and I love them 👌✅✅✅
haha i loved the sense of humor of this video... but your right in every way. i did subscribe :)
Great advice. One thing about plugins is quite a few very useful ones are available free and come in really handy when using low end DAWs such as GarageBand. A very good example is given that GB has basically no usable metering mvMeter2 is great for that functionality.
I took an audio engineering course back in 1988 but could never get into the field due to a car accident that left me disabled. But I agree completely. I remember that CD players came out back then and the "audio press" would rave about this player's sound because it had a superior digital to analog converter. But I would listen to a variety of them with my own ears and the differences were literally indiscernible! You might be able to differentiate them with signal generators and the like played back on a video monitor, but in the real world of audible frequencies they didn't sound any different. Like every "profession" in the working world, there seem to be no end of snake oil salesmen out there eager to part you from your money for no good reason. It takes a bit of experience to sort these sorts of matters out and get your work into a professional and profitable position. But the latest whiz-bang gizmo is highly unlikely to do it for you! Ha-ha! 😉
Exactly! But don't worry, as you shouldn't be recording in a field, unless it's Glastonbury.
I would argue the 4th important factor in mixing is levels. An interesting video i watches said that sometimes, levels are more important than EQ. I would also argue, if your in a bad room, headphones are more important than monitors and room. You can fix a small bad room really other than rebuilding it. Monitors for reference.
LOL :53 seconds in - Cue the Benny Hill face. Love it!
Thanks a lot for this, best advices for noobs ever!
Id' like to add : Seating position in the room and hence monitor-placement. Some rules of thumb : In a rectangular room, set up "long", place monitors somewhere between 10-12% of the room-length away from the wall, and place your seat between 36-38% away from the same wall. That's a good place to start.
A small addition; good quality monitors (and mic's) are a sensible long-term investment.
My Genelecs are close to 30y/o now and still top notch. I've used mic's that were over 50y/o and absolutly a bliss to work with.
Excellent. I’ve been a pro engineer since 1985, I was chief engineer at a major London studio complex in the 1990s, and I totally endorse the advice in this video. Especially the bit about mic preamps. Unless you’re using a particularly tricky, low output level mic (eg a vintage ribbon) that needs tons of gain, use the desk pres. They are perfectly adequate. And sort out your room acoustics. Spot on.
I had to get a pre amp for my sm7b, the signal was just to low or I had to put the gains on max and it would sound horrible.
With an SM7B you need something like a Cloudlifter, an an-line preamp, to bring the level up, as well as a regular preamp - The signal out of those mics is much lower than most other mics
@@PresentDayProduction Julian Krause’s TH-cam videos are very good on measuring built-in mic pres on various (generally consumer/ prosumer grade) audio interfaces to see what is the effect on frequency response of running them at maximum gain. Many can amplify the (admittedly weak) signal from an SM7 to acceptable levels without the extra 25db of gain from a cloudlifter. It is true that some cannot.
@@nocastus running maximum gain is not a good idea, most of the time you maximum want to set gain at around 9 o clock. Anything higher and it will be noisy
@@dusteye1616 That is simply not true. If you have a quiet source and there’s a relatively large amount of inherent mic noise, of course turning up the gain will make the noise louder, along with the signal you’re trying to record. But the SNR will not get worse. Increasing the gain in a mic pre circuit does not make the SNR of the mic preamp itself get worse, it just mean you hear the noise coming from the mic (and whatever it’s picking up) better. In fact the SNR of just the preamp in isolation is usually a bit better at max gain than it is when running with less gain. The only rule is that you need the output of the pre to be at the best compromise between high gain and enough headroom to avoid clipping in the subsequent parts of the signal chain, and if that means running the mic pre at max, that is absolutely fine. The only problem occurs when there’s not enough gain in the pre, even at maximum, to get a reasonably strong signal out of it, and in that case you’re probably trying to record a very quiet source with an insufficiently sensitive microphone (with too much equivalent input noise in its internal circuitry if it’s a powered mic).
Great video but I have to disagree about the Mic preamp bit - although I don't think it should be the first thing you buy when you're just starting out, I shot out a vocal comparison between a UAD unison 1073 plugin which is a pretty decent quality in the box set up and an external BAE 1073 clone pre and the difference was night and day. More depth and 3d ness to the sound field with the external preamp. I played them both back to back to my girlfriend who's just a casual listener and she noticed the difference right away.
You’re very welcome to disagree - our video is simply a suggestion and of course there is room for different opinions!
If you find different preamps work better for you, then at least you’re experimenting and finding your best workflow, which is a good thing to do!
Thanks for your comment!
@@PresentDayProduction Cool - all the best guys
Not that my opinion particularly matters, but the most helpful "preamps" I've invested in is a home engineer is the pair of FetHead in-line preamps I use on my dynamic mics. I used to think that I needed expensive preamps for more color or whatever, but what I needed was a little bit more clean gain from my mics to open them up a little bit. $100 on a FetHead versus god knows how much for whatever Instagram is trying to get me to buy.
In mixing, there are no rules.
You can make a hit with a Alesis 3036 compressor and a tascam 4 track cassette recorder if you know what your doing.....
most excellent - in all regards
Nice, I’m glad I found this channel. It changed my life. Now I know I did the right thing by buying a decent mic, a good pair of audio monitors, and treating my room properly. Also, I bought a nice preamp but it's okay hehehehe
Thank you for watching us!
Makes a nice cup of tea
'Monitors should cost at least five figures'
Like, £100.99p ? ;-)
Subbed.
Gents, as most of us are listening via TH-cam compression and on crappy iPad speakers can we EQ the young lads vocal to take the harshness out? love the channel, no idea why it has never popped up before but glad it has (got a feeling it was the SSL2 review)
Hi Simon!
Thanks for your comment! This was one of our very early videos and so our TH-cam-Fu wasn’t quite up to scratch in terms of what audio settings worked best… Since then we use new lav mics and have a much better idea about our production needs. I hope you find our newer content less harsh on the ear!
What about the audio interface? To me the class of interface you purchase should determine the class of monitors you use.
a five figure sum on monitors ??? your'e already WAY WAY above what most of us are able to afford But great advice thanx
But for those that are doing it commercially - you’d spend that on a van if you were a plumber!
How do you get your haur so perfectly spiky?
What do I buy for this?
hehe
Great vid
You guys are amazing please don't stop ❤🙏🏼💫
Thank you Gabriel!
What if my studio is my bedroom? Do I need as much treatment as a proper studio? Because basically My bed took over 2 of my corners in my room. :D
In an ideal world, yes, you’d always want a lot of acoustic treatment - but in reality that’s not always possible! Apply as much as is possible for your own space to get it sounding as good as possible
Well said. I seen a couple similar videos like this. One from Glenn Fricker of Spectre Media Group and Jordan of Hardcore Studio. Glenn addressing about how you don’t need converters since they also only make up a sliver of your sound. There’s plenty of USB interfaces that are affordable and do such wonders. Want an affordable DAW? Get a copy of Reaper for $60. Also being addressed is mics. Both mentioned above address how you don’t need a $3000 mic to track or $1000/piece condensers to track drums. I track my own drums with SM57s and Shure KSM137s. A great vocal mic would be an SM7B. Also watch out for elitist studio owners/engineers who with bluff, bullshit and blow smoke up your ass about how you need gear and equipment of an LA/Hollywood studio to make usable tracks and excellent recordings.
This is great thx
This was a good wake up call. I spent plenty of money on preamps, bought a few bits of outboard gear, and have only gone moderately nuts with plugins, all while my studio monitors and room were neglected. While I can say that I am absolutely in love with my preamps and outboard gear (don't tell my wife) and get the occasional blood rush from some of my plugins, I'm finally biting the bullet and spending a chunk of cash to upgrade my monitors and fix my room, and it's partly your faults. So, thanks, I guess :D
It’s great to hear we’ve had an influence on bringing you to upgrade your monitoring and acoustics. Trust us, it’s definitely worth it and you’ll never look back. Once you experience the better monitoring systems, you really just can’t use anything else because your whole quality level just skyrockets. Let us know what you get!
@@PresentDayProduction I ended up with the Neumann KH120 speakers. They sound amazing. Super clear, I'm hearing so much more detail now in my mixes. I have acoustic foam sitting next to me ready to go on the walls, and will be ordering some bass traps in the next week, so all is coming together nicely :)
They speak truth. Just good common sense. One thing I would add though is that if you must buy something, do your homework first. Read specifications and employ some critical thinking regarding marketing hype. Make sure the equipment does what you need it to do.
Great video, and I totally agree. Can't stress the monitors enough! I've been mixing on good headphones (Beyer Dynamic) thinking my mix sounded good. Bought some monitors last week and listened again, wow my mix sounds shit!! SO MUCH BOOMY LOW END!
Nice video and well presented! Nice to have a bit of fun while watching. You got a new subscriber!
I often record and fiddle about during the night, so i bought some good open-thingy phones. They're fine for recording, but not mixing, except for the frilly post bits. Taking a mix and playing it on, say, a loud pub's system makes you realize just how lifeless it sounds. Monitors are a must, but I don't think you really need very expensive ones. 3-4 hundred smackers'll get you some decent kit. And yes, I've recorded in studios with monitors like PA systems! They just make the musicians feel good, IMHO.
@@Ndlanding Mine weren't expensive, Alesis Elevate MKii, €119 and they're great! You're right, you don't "need" to spend a lot, but I've been in studios where they're mixing other people's music (Imagine mixing for Bono for example) you need the absolutel best sound you can get, and that ain't cheap! You only need €120 for your home studio though.....what do you mean by "open thingy phones"?
@@TheOnlineBusker I mean Akai K702 open-back phones, which leak sound out but feel more comfortable. If you wore them on a train, someone might bonk you with the fire extinguisher.
@@Ndlanding Haha ok right!
Black hole of plugins. I only use about 10 if that. But the stock plugins now a days are pretty dame good .
Hey everyone, let’s share these videos.
Please do! We really appreciate the support!
33,824th
The logic compressor is great! also all of the Reaper plugins are fantastic. The ReaEQ is crazy cool because you can just keep adding bands. And the oversampling on the ReaComp is super useful if you want very fast attack and release sidechains.
Brilliant as always, love this channel, been saying the same for years and get treated like a heretical communist......mad, the marketing works, on me as well sometimes, think I use about 2-3% of the plugins I’ve bought, bundles being the worst case scenario.......
Yip, I've spent quite a few bob on Waves "offers", and I never touch the stuff!
Thing is, acoustic treatment isn't possible in my home studio... err.. I mean pandemic derived home office. The missus would go mental, if I put in enough acoustic panels required to get a reasonably dead sound. So, for acoustic recordings I grab a bunch of spare duvets and pillows and spread them round the room. Not perfect, but it does produce a noticeable difference. For mixing unfortunately, I have to live with headphones.
"Its All In The Marketing" - You Just Described 80% Of The Equipment Options Available. Its ALL Nonsense. ALL of it.
OMG thank you! You just saved me from dropping money on Neve preamps. I am a songwriter/mixer doing demos and probably have everything I need anyway... The problem is I have an audiophile streak and it's fun to have it sound awesome. I have UAD stuff and it sounds great already especially when I focus on the sound going in and do minimal mixing. BUT I want to run the final mix through ANALOG gear so it sounds groovy and not so harsh (mostly for fun). Do you recommend a piece of gear that I can run vocals and bass through but also for printing some coloration, EQ and maybe compression? As you can tell, I am not cured yet hahaha
No, that’s the antithesis of the wisdom in this video. If you’re not happy with the results you’re getting, especially with UAD, it’s not your gear. It’s likely your skills, your room, and your sources.
It is the same with microphones and loudspeakers in a sense. Transducers are where I find the best bang for buck audible differences, and more expensive is no guarantee of enjoyable sound. I've always found the SM7b mic to be a curiosity. Why would any well engineered microphone require TWO PREAMPS to make it a workable solution? It sounds good but others sound just as good to my ears--and cost a whole lot less when all is said and done. Moreover, speakers have huge differences in sound quality but it is not always defined by price. Personal preferences make up the biggest differences and some not very expensive speakers sound a lot better than others that cost two or even three times the price.
Hi! My monitors are pretty good, but the room is not properly treated. I couldn't spend a few thousand of dollars on acoustic treatment and monitors, so I tried Waves Abbey Road Studio 3. This plugin is amazing, it supposed to replicate the mixing room at Abbey Road with great accuracy, and since I got it about a year ago, it saved me every time when I'm sending songs for mastering. I'm mixing half of the time on monitors, and do last tasks (check levels, bass, treble, space placement) on my headphones Beyerdinamic DT 990 Pro.
Hope this helps :)
Definitely buying chocolate soft serve ice cream for my studio!!!!
DO spend on...
4. a low-latency audio interface, like an Apollo
5. a powerful computer (I’m looking at you for future-proffing, Apple silicon ❤️)
6. A good pair of reference headphones. I disagree with the video on this. Most people are not in a situation where they can afford to acoustically treat a room properly and then spend another shit-ton of money on pricey studio monitors. Invest a good amount into a least one great pairs of reference monitor headphones. If you can, get two pairs, a pair of open or semi open and also a good par of closed back. You can’t make 100% on headphones so you will also have to buy a good pair of studio monitors however you do not need three-way speakers constant five figures. A pair of JBL or Yamaha monitors can do the trick. If you have a bit more money, get a pair of Adam, Focal or Dynaudio studio monitors, but spend money on basic acoustic room treatment like diffusers, bass traps, etc...
Do NOT spend on...
4. Expensive mics. Ok, get one great large diaphragm condenser vocal mic if you can swing it but some of the greatest vocals were recorded through an SM7. You can get great lower-cost mics that sound great with a slightly different eq curve.
I agree in part and disagree in part. The Shure SM-7, for example, pretty much requires the Cloud Lifter mic preamp to be loud enough and solid enough at all. And honestly, some cheap mixer mic pres are not good, and yes, I can tell the difference. I would say beyond a certain point, the difference does become vanishingly small. So a moderately priced Allen & Heath mic pre will be just fine.
Plugins: Not true if you want to or make example experimental electronic music where effects shape the sounds. Simple DAW effects comes very short in this example.
Excellent! Yep. Crappy source (e.g. vocalist/instrument), crappy room (acoustic space/environment) and crappy speakers (transducers of electro-magnetic energy into acoustic energy in the air) tend to correlate with crappy sound. Regarding an acoustic source and things being as they are with the technology these days, the preamp, interface...and DAW are not as important as the mic (transducer of the compression and rarefaction of air molecules (created by the source) into electro-magnetic energy...) and its placement. You guys are amazing!
Acoustic treatment, monitors.... you're sooooo booooring.... I am going to plugings boutique!
Thank you very much! I totally agree with every point, because I made the same experience.
5:53 I like playing with my knobs lol I'm not even British and shit was funny lol
I like playing with my knobs, with my knobs, with my knobs..
I'm glad when I started out that my budget prevented me from going hog wild with equipment. Over the years I've added a piece of equipment here and there, then stepped up the quality and thinned out my wallet. I still have almost all the equipment I bought back in the old days and still use it from time to time. I know my gear pretty well by now and have a decent home studio setup. Everything is patched into my patchbays and I enjoy my time in my studio.
You can't go wrong with a good sounding source and some chocolate ice cream! 😆 Cheers!
Great video and advice! Too bad all the people who spend their money on fancy gear just to post their studios on Instagram for likes aren't gonna like this video haha!
This video is great, good job guys.
Great video and subscribed to your awesome channel!
Regarding plugins, I totally agree.
Treat your plugins like hardwares.
If you look at hardwares in studios, they have fixed hardwares that they have chosen because of their transparency/color, their sound etc.
But they will not get new hardwares for each new song.
Get to know your plugins, and you will achieve wonders with creativity.
Thanks for subscribing!
The second guy reminds me of Mark Radcliffe
Doesn’t #3 don’t buy include #1? Seems redundant.
New subscriber here - currently binge-watching your back catalogue - love it! I have decades of experience playing with and mixing live bands, but only started seriously recording at the beginning of lockdown, so I've made a lot of mistakes in a very short amount of time - but fortunately none that involved spending money that I regret. I started with a cheap live mixer for preamps, and A/D converter from an old guitar fx unit, stock plugins from a free DAW, towels, curtains and pillows to tame the room, and good old SM57s an 58s for mics. I was fortunate enough to already have some decent monitors. I've completed quite a few projects now, some for other people, and am now getting good results. Apart from some better LDC mics ("source") and some better room treatment, the only money I spent was on a plugin to improve bass response on small speakers - I don't think I could have done that any other way - about £30 if I remember right. I can occasionally be heard ranting at all the adverts for expensive plugins that claim to pour lush analogue loveliness all over your mixes, because I worry that young upcoming talented producers are being parted from the money they should be spending on all the things you mention. So thank you for this!
Thanks for your comment! Great to hear you’ve jumped into the world of recording, best of luck with it! We’d love to hear some end results when you get them!
I don't like Bisto. Can you suggest an alternative? Besides that, the rest of the video was spot-on, although you didn't mention the relative merits of DAWs, microphones, or interfaces. [Just SUBSCRIBED]
Wow, very good, completely unhyped, non-commercial advice that actually will work. Well done!
Thank you!
Your wrong!!!! choclate icream is all you need!
Best advice on youtube for music production/mixing starters, would definetly saved me some money if I saw this video before spending for...great job guys👍👍👍
Happy Birthday lads and well done on surviving the first and hardest year. Love the channel and always enjoy your posts.🍻
Thank you Nigel! :) thanks for your comments and support over the year!
Can start with a pair of BBC's LS3/5A ?
I keep coming back to this video. It is becoming a classic. Helpful and funny.
Yes, an excellent SOS article with samples. I shared it with people chasing the mighty preamps and some still believe the glossy magazines.
really love this channel, lovely looking control room too guys
There s pre amps in boss 6 track digital rec
Things You Should Buy #2: Decent Monitors
But isn't this one same as Things You Shouldn't Buy #1,2,3? I mean yes there is audible difference between different brands of studio monitors, but is ATC SCM20ASL ($6490) necessarily "more correct" than JBL 305p ($300), or they're just different and go down to personal preference?
Sorry, I went with the chocolate ice cream. 🤫
I did all these mistakes... and even a few more.
Or....improve your ears.......
Useful and engaging. Great work
Great video! Funny and informative!
I have the same desk as you and I just use those preamps...sound great to me!
Thanks for those words of wisdom
Thanks for the useful content!
You guys are becoming the Consumer Reports of the recording community. The gear pushers must be beside themselves with angst. The myth that you can buy mixing chops at Sweetwater NEEDS to be debunked. Upcoming recordists, musicians, songwriters; are being fleeced and held back by a slick narrative literally banging at the door. A brand new elixir is aggressively marketed to the least knowledgeable approximately 10 times per day. Interest free! They at least get that part right, you should not be interested. Rant over.
The ONE thing I’ve gone into debt buying that made an ACTUAL difference to my work, increasing both my income and inspiration is - monitors. Costly speakers and phones will make everything you do - better. Better in ways that pay back your investment, and make your work more attractive to the clients you have and the ones you seek.
Thank you Peter! Yep, if I inherited a studio with a ton of gear in it but crap monitors and had no money to spend on them, I’d sell the lot and spend it all getting the room and the monitors the best they can be, then get a decent interface to replace everything else and work entirely in the box, with stock plugins. Thanks for your comment!
Good advise for those just starting out.
Couldn't agree more with all of this
I bought a total max Studio 3 because of the variety of Authentic guitar amp Vst.
moog 25(700),oxygen pro 49(240),mother32(600),apollo6x2200(25 purchased plugins 1000),ax7(1200),lsr305+lsr310sub(600),50 panels,8 bass traps and sonarworks(500) with my athmx50s(150). spent about 7 grand but traded some stuff in and only spent out of pocket like 4 grand so really not bad.
I'm on a very low budget...so I would say that a 7 band EQ pedal is a must for any guitarist. The very cheap Behringer EQ700 is good enough to just tame harsh sounding single coil guitars. I go from a Yamaha Pacifica through the EQ pedal, then to my ancient and trusty Line 6 Pod and then into a Zoom R-24.
The built in condencer mics on the R-24 unit are fine for vocals or acoustic guitar. But this is the real low end of home recording. The same rules apply even so...decent monitors or at least some very good headphones.
Oh,and a decent chair
Great video and great advice guys...
One side note I would make about outboard mic preamps is that if you want to use outboard gear (which is a choice of personal taste), it may be necessary to use an external preamp to get a level high enough to work with. Although even then, I agree with you that it's not necessary to spend a huge amount on the preamps to get an awesome sound.
2 inch 24! ? ... luxury..... we had 1 inch 16 track ...