FREE Bricasti M7 reverberator IRs (update)

Bricasti M7 + remote

so not only does Bricasti make the world’s best sounding room-simulating reverb on the planet but they also give away IRs of this lovely machine to ppl who can’t afford a $3,500 piece of hardware… how cool is that?

Guilt-free convolution reverb!

fully endorsed by Casey of Bricasti Design and acousticas.net

Note from Casey on true stereo sources

Like a sampled venue, the Bricasti M7 does require true stereo impulses.

If the input is stereo, it is required that four impulse files be used. I believe that Acousticas provides just two.

The Acouticas samples are mono to stereo impulses. These will work great with mono sources such as vocals and snares. They are not useful for stereo sources such as piano or orchestral recordings.

Bricasti M7 IRs

• http://www.acousticas.net/World/IRs/AcousticasM7.zip

Logic ‘Space Designer’ presets

• http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/544020/PS…er_Presets.zip

Related links and sources

• Bricasti Design home page
• acousticas.net home page
• gearslutz thread which brought this to my attention

Reznor NIN Inverview by Digg

Trent talks mostly about the state of the music biz, such that it is…

digital lookahead for analog gates

• run the sound out of 2 outputs from DAW.  one output is key, the other is audio.
• slip the key forward by 1-5ms for the desired look ahead.
• print track thru gate.
• slip audio track back in line with original (if necessary).

good combo of digital & analog outboard… look-ahead for Drawmer DS-201.

panning in thirds

2 gtrs: electric (dark,wide), acoustic (strums.. bright, small)

pan dry acoustic hard L

pan electric hard right and run thru stereo processor.. delay/trem/eventide pitch spread, whatever.. something wide stereo….

pan stereo return C and hard R instead of L/R. you can also use a big reverb on the wide side….. keep the acoustic dry

be sure electric is darker than acoustic…. emphasize strum in acoustic and width in electric… for the electric think wide like Bang Bang..

1. L normal, dry
2. R send, pre-fader, 100% wet
3. pre-fader because you want 0% dry on C/R
4. change the pan on the stereo fx return to C/R (instead of L/R)

useful alternative to panning L/R on GTR group with unbalanced or contrasting sounds

panning in 3rds… great way to stop an eventide patch from taking over a whole mix. confine your wide stereo fx patch to one side & center instead of full L/R. offset it with something dry and panned to the opposite side. wet/dry/wide/small all at once

controlled pumpy drums

a la Nigel Goderich/Radiohead or Portishead

1. stereo compressor on OHs
2. key OH compressor off kick drum
3. short attack, long release on OH compressor, try an opto
4. now kick punches holes thru OHs
5. pumping is more audible because OHs hold most harmonic content & cymbals
6. timing of kick drum essential to pulling this off

In the studio with Depeche Mode recording ‘Sounds of the Universe’

14 DM studio vids

1. unknown

Martin Gore, acoustic GTR tracking

adding “air” to vocals

This came up in a conversation with an old friend of mine in Canada.  He was trying to get the classic airy sheen on female vocals for a pop-diva song… but he was using the wrong tool.  Again, you won’t find this stuff in the recording manuals because it’s too gear specific… but I think this trick is pretty well known, so everyone should have it.

Anyhow, here’s how you add “air” to a vocal without all the negative effects normally associated with EQ…

Pultec EQP1A - the irony here is that the picture I found pretty much has the right settings... hmm! it must be a popular thing to do with a Pultec!

• setup vocal chain with large diaphragm condenser mic and decent “money” mic preamp
• find a pultec (or emulator — any will do for this example — bombfactory, UAD, Waves, real Pultec, Lang, Summit, whatever)
• set the BANDWIDTH to SHARP (as far left as it will go)
• set HIGH FREQ to 12 or 16kHz
• BOOST till you get all the “air” you want

a narrow boost at 16k should not interfere with anything you’re doing around the sibilance band

REAPER

reasons to use REAPER for mixing

• reads just about any audio format, including mp3, OGG, flac
• can combine formats on the fly
• folder tracks
• solo in front
• PEAK & RMS meters
• customizable mixer
• routing & patchbay

90’s sound (NIN, DM, ministry, 242, FLA)

environmental concerns

a lot of what i think of as the “SSL-sound” was born out of the necessity of using tape.  over time, by repetition, it became a “sound”… noise gates were originally used to kill analog tape noise. this allowed the mixer to use more tracks and mute the unused sections. it allowed a more machine-like control over sound. tighter timing was emphasized with gates.  precision.  professional.  polished diamond.  perfection.  also, it added artistic envelope shaping to the mix.  this should not be confused with the modern digital workstation function of strip silence.  strip silence is, for all intents and purposes, transparent. it’s a hard cut or a cut with a fast-invisible–crossfade.  a gate is designed more towards envelope shaping since it reacts to peaks.  the envelope shaping with a gate has a particular sound we now associate with a musical style, for good or ill.  it’s a potential artistic layer, a part of the audio toolbox.

the rhythmic sound of gates opening and closing. this is why dance music is mixed on SSL desks.

so now the bass can be split into deep low end and mid grrr, compressed differently, panned differently (so middle doesnt clog up), different attacks, different envelope… again, the idea of constructing sounds in parallel again.

kick drum could be split into smack, oomph, reverb, and key a compressor.  check on key for dynamics processor in SSL manual (they might have used outboard ds201 for this)

SSL 4000 E-series LFAC

• mults = parallel thinking. (vs serial thinking of digital) split sounds across many channels.
• deconstruction. track split onto __ (4) channels, each emphasizing one euphonic element of track then rebalanced, automated and combined.
• time machine. automation records time. this encourages the idea of sounds evolving over time.  past and future.  the past is more distorted or more romantic, softer, less top end, underwater… the future is immediacy, up front, now, too big for the speakers, distorted…
• HP/LP filters on every channel - fit sounds into tighter windows or frequency bands.  split sounds across many channels and use filters to emphasize different bands in each section.  use pans to space them out and create width.
• mixing as sculpture – added the concept of iterations, sounds which appear over multiple listens, layers, studio as instrument, movie soundtrack, ambient elements.
• deconstruction.
  
• gate/expander on every channel – this allows for more extreme sounds since the noise will be gone when the gate is closed. added contrast. from dead quiet to loud and noisy!  the gate also has an envelope on it so it fades to black instead of cutting abruptly… which allows more feel of groove.
  
• compressor on every channel
• EQ on every channel
• mute automation on every channel
  
• add more layers in loud sections
• add more layers as song progresses
• add distressed versions of sounds underneath
• parallel compression.
• fader automation on every channel
  
• vocals: push up words, breaths, etc.
• push up tracks to add tension.
• slowly pull down tracks once they “grab.” weave sounds in and out.
• groups & routing
  
• mixing in sections… different EQ can be used on the same part (with a mult) in different sections.
  
• because of the filters/EQ/gate/compressor and mute/volume automation on every channel
• EQ/filter sections to step forward or sit back.
• SSL buss compressor.  more importantly, the SSL put the buss compressor on a switch that was always within reach.  ppl learned how to mix into a compressor with fader automation. this became another “sound.”
• SSL “quad” compressor. Qs: does this really have 4 inputs?  split drum buss?  need more info
• EQ to Filt Dyn S-C. use filters to influence what the compressor reacts to…
• out of phase EQ trick. split to 2nd channel. flip phase. put crazy EQ boost IN. pull up fader to hear everything EXCEPT the boost disappear… use fader automation to make sound shrink as it disappears.

cheap equivalents:

• Pro Tools
• digi 002R, 8-18 analog outs
• drawmer DS201 stereo gate with filters (HP/LP 6dB/oct) Use “key listen” to engage filters into audio path and shape the “window” the sound fits into.  use 2nd channel for gate and envelope reshaping.  the decay of the envelope is very important.. smooth but fast tails on every percussive sound. ~ $125/ch ($250 total)
• dbx 1066 comp/gate (with jim williams’ hi-fi mods).  sounds terrible on it’s own but might be cool after jim gets it. possible mod platform
• JBL/UREI 7110 compressor (optional output transformers for some IRON sound) 2 detectors (Peak/RMS with wet/dry knob) for parallel compression.  possible mod platform

future hybrid mixing techniques

Empire Prod: For those of you who think I want to use line amps on the 2buss to try and save a mix or fix something in the mix, that is not correct. I am a professional mixer by trade and understand very well how to craft a mix. The Idea behind the line amps is to simply soften things slightly and add a hair of color and unity. I do use a compressor on the 2buss. The line amps will pre-feed a Red3. A huge part of the console sound is the line amps. Granted I am not going to have 1271’s on all the busses etc, but why not add a pair on the 2buss? I was looking for some feedback from people who work ITB that have done this, and I appreciate their feedback.

but shouldn’t the compressor go before the preamp?

with less dynamic range you get more audio in pre’s sweet spot… it should be easier to creep the post compressor gain right up to the breaking point of the iron… and you can use the transformer as sort of a post-compression limiter..

it’s cool if you use a pre with some iron in it and find that spot in the gain where it just starts to fur-up nicely.. you get some tapey rounding and ear candy.

i like a pre i can gain stage a few different ways to get different sounds because i never know which one will sound cooler till i twist around… and even then i usually have to print a few passes and burn a disk to know for sure.

that shadow hills box (equinox) looks cool for this application… 3 transformer sounds on a switch, what could be easier?

the folcrom idea is cool because you can base a workflow around it and then swap in different preamps for different records… so each record has a coherent (all songs go thru that pair) but slightly different sound from the last record… change the sound of your “desk” by getting (or even renting) a couple mic preamps… no more rewiring.. how cool is that?

i still like 1/4″ 15ips tape for mixing.  GP9 if i can get it… to me this makes a record sound more “finished” and “official” than the preamps do…. reverb and cymbals also sound a LOT better coming back off tape… you lose a lil smack and immediacy but i can usually live with that.  it’s not like smack is hard to get these days with all the SPL TD4s out there… you can even do it with a plug-in now.

tape is like a time machine for me… it really changes the way i hear records… call me an old skool romantic, maybe… but it always sounds like a demo to me until it plays back off the 1/4″.  call me crazy…

i do believe that we’re working towards a multi-buss future and it’s only a matter of time before ppl see the wisdom of this… they want it.  it’s good for music.  they just don’t know that they want it yet.  they will.  hahaha.  my crystal ball has spoken.  heh

get 4 buss processors (comp, EQ, whatever) with different topologies and mix into em… you’ll find you like different processors on each instrument group.. develop a “preset” around your preferences and mixing will go a lot faster… this also works great with clients who think they can get your sounds at home because they have protools… let them take the tapes home and try.  they’ll be back.  bumpkin

the problem we have now is that everyone uses the same gear. we all have the same plug-ins. nobody has a SOUND–CAPITAL S, baby, SOUND.  everything’s so ****ing GENERIC and HOMOGENIZED now… and it’s ruining music… these jokers actually think loudness is important.  use your knob, as emeril says.

CONTRAST is important.  always has been.

with outboard gear, everything has a sound… even a simple $100 effectron delay is also an eq, dynamics processor, HP/LP filters, unique chipset, aged components, non-linearities.. you know, sunspots and gremlins type stuff…. the plug-ins have taken this aspect away from mixing and replaced it with the null of precision.

I think the non-linearities are what’s gonna start separating people… the ear candy stuff that makes ppl listen [I]just one more time[/I] because they can’t quite put their finger on it…