Digital Recorders/Pro Tools...what do you use or suggest?

mixing is an art just like beats are an art. u can be good at both. if u have an ear to make beats properly, mixing only naturally will come next.. everything is a matter of progression and learning. i stunk when i first made beats, not its easy and fun. mixing is the next step. while i mixed like 16 of my beats with just eq, compression and maybe filtler, and reverb here and there, some of the mixes i thought sounded bangin. some ehhh. and i only reallly did it for a few weeeks. i know when i really play around and learn exactly what all the plug ins can do, i will be able to really make the mixes sound on point. it tough for me becauase i am deaf in one ear. but i make it workd.

deafdiction wrote:it tough for me becauase i am deaf in one ear. but i make it workd.

I am the same way mane, I rock a hearing aid in my left ear from a childhood accident. Its hard sometimes cause even with an aid, you only feel like you're hearing half of what you were intended to hear in the beats and breaks and that can drive you nuts mane but it didn't stop me and i'm glad it didn't stop you.

deafdiction wrote:

DOVESKI wrote:yo doveski this is going off the topic, but i understand the concept of panning left and right, but i dont hear it when i try it. i do alittle, but i am deaf in my left ear. so when i pan basically the sound just dissapears from my hearing and then it comes back in. is there something you can suggest and also. what sounds should be centered and what sounds should be panned? i know its experiment. Do u even double sounds and pan one left and one right? does this make for a better mix?

peace thanks

Nah, it aint going of topic were here to build, not argue, ya feel?

Aight now, when I talk about panning, I'm not talking about automative panning like techno music or wherever when they pan a lead sound from righ to left through the whole song.

I'm talking about subtle panning, stuff the average listener probably wouldnt notice, but in the end it will just give your track more room in 3D space. A simple example, in Pro Tools I can copy my snare track three times, set one track a little to the left, set one a little harder to the right, and put a little plate verb on one of the channels, now this aint something thats gonna jump out on you, but in the final mix it will make everyting sound fuller. And give it more "room."

This is just some basic mixing skill, now back to topic....this is what I like so much about ProTools, is you can just sprinkle your track with these little things until your done, then hand the stereo track in PT format wiht no hassle to the mastering house and let them handle the pump of the track.

peez.

dove, how does panning the snare to both sides of the stereo field give you more "room" Ive alawys been taught to pan the drums like a real kit, thus the snare is to the right, slightly off center.

i think he is talkin about making a big sounding kit. i know what you are saying though, i will pan my snare a little to the left, hats a little to the right, kick in the middle and extras hard right or left. but as an efect, i have definitely messed around with making an ultra big kit sound by having huge stereo sounds and letting them fill the soundscape. after all, hip hop is all about the drums. there are so many ways to do things....

Dr.Foo wrote:dove, how does panning the snare to both sides of the stereo field give you more "room" Ive alawys been taught to pan the drums like a real kit, thus the snare is to the right, slightly off center.

Yall are both right, on my VF160 I would pan a mono snare track a little to the right, snares to the left, kick down the middle, etc. But when i got Pro Tools I started playing around more cos I had all these tracks at my disposal and everything just makes sense on PT (its easy, really a virtual mixer, nothing more, nothing less), so I started experimenting more and more, for instance if I have a dry snare panned to the left on one track and a fully wet snare panned to the right at a lower volume it just adds a little something to the mix. And then if you add a pre-delay to that wet snare some cool things start happening and your mix just comes alive and so on and so forth, and I'm just using the stock plug ins, nothing fancy....hope that makes sense.

I got a lot of ideas from the tutorials at the Digidesign website and from my buddy that went to audio engineering school.

Depends on the style of the track too. Sometimes I just keep my drums in the center. Keep in mind the impact diminishes when you pan, so you may want to compress or boost volume on that sound once panned. Again, depends on the track.

Phenomenal. Foo you tell it like it is, though I gotta throw my 2 Cizzents in the pot. Let me say that DigiDesign are real smart and real greedy. You can't score Video unless you spend rediculous and get TDM or HD, or get LE 6.1 and a DV toolkit for another $800 bucks. MOTU digital performer you can lock to video straight out the box. So PT really F's you on the cash. And thier midi is not as good as MOTU platforms. But check this: Yes, you can do a good mix on anything if your nice. Yes, you can use cubase for audio. But why get used to a standard that's built for beginners? Well if you want to spend litterally ZERO dollars, you can get cracks of Cubase and all VST pluggins. That's cost effective if you know how to tweak your computer and want to be totally illegal (disclaimer). BUT: If you get ProTools, you get easy compatability with most of the US pro studios. I mean, who really WANTS to import/export files and S#*t, you know? And dig it, if someone signs me, yes I will record joints over or have them remixed. But guess what else? I have sessions ready for those cats and they are appreciative of that. Especially if you are shopping beats. THat shows you know youe ish when you can hand over a session disk instead of spending thier money to track beats. Plus, scince I'm on my Ps and Qs, some of mixes are radio ready. Foo is right about doing fine work on Cubase and other programs. However, I firmly believe that I could not have gotten to the level I am at the speed I did by using Cubase. Also, Five years ago when I started using ProTools, the plugins were much more professional than duplicates of the even the exact same ones for Digital performer. AND, VST plugs at the time were junk. Now that everything's somewhat standard, you can do anything with most platforms. But, I still say the learning curve and intuitive design of ProTools is a step up. To me, tweaking effects or cutting up audio in Cubase is like painting a wall mural with Crayola Crayons instead of spraypaint. Just remember one thing: if you buy something, the important things are these four: 1) Can you accomplish what you need to do, and then some? 2) How compatible w/ your peoples and the rest of the industry do you want to be? 3) Digital converters are what you are paying for; your stock soundcard or a low-cost card that comes with Cubase is going to sound worse than a 001. AND THATS A FACT 4) Is it intuitive? That is, do you ejoy using the software that runs the workstation?

Damn man! So many responses. Sweet! Getting a good PC is an issue, since I am not a Mac guy and just lost my PC to an unfortunate anger/shutdown accident. Money is always an issue, since there is a lot of gear I want. I will do some evaluating and as I progress see how things go. I knew the 001s were discontinued and notice that they are regularly on ebay so not worried about availability. The PC purchase is an issue though...me thinking aloud. We'll see what happens I guess...thanks for all the input.
BsK