General Music Chat

Here I set waiting for the UPS guy to get here with my new mixer I ordered last week a Allen & Heath Mixwiz3 162
We were using the Yamaha v96 digital mixer for 2 years but the rythm guitar player friend that just left the band at the first of the year owned it and of coarse it left with him, what a difference we had to go back to my analog Yamaha MX 12/4 and it was limiting the hell out of us, but that is all about to change Yipee!

Hello J,
I have a vaguelly similar mixer problem over here too! I mean of borrowed kit etc.
Tonight I have been adding tracks of guitars and bits to a song I laid yesterday; I have a lovely Tascam stolen from my mate who does much less recording than me, trouble is, fine piece of kit though it is, it seems to produce crap!
My songs are beautiful and my voice is fantastic, but what comes out is pathetic in the extreme!
Can you tell me what I might be doing wrong, as the fault is clearly something to do with the Tascam!
All help appreciated,
Mark D Phillips...................

I hear you JH...I'm 53, and still get wound up like a kid when new gear happens. I recently picked up an MXR Carbon Copy analog delay pedal. After playing Gilmour's solo from "Time" about 50 times, I sat it on one of the night tables in the bedroom so I could watch the light from the TV bounce off its sparkle finish during commercials

You guts are nuts! Me too!

Hello Mark, you always are going to start with the imput volume (gain or pad) the rule of thumb is you want the hottest signal as you go thru the signal path just before distortion the reason for this is so you are not boosting the mixers noise level (all mixers have a certain amount of line noise in them) and at low levels you will be boosting that noise if your imput signal is to low, but don't boost so much that you distort the imput signal. I am assuming you have one of those studio's in a box (mixer and recorder in one unit. When you start the first thing to do is monitor your imput volume turn it up to where the indicator light comes on and then reduce it to where it just comes on every now and then. If you do this all the way thru your signal path your recording should come out fine I hope this helps. Is this Tascam unit digital or analog?
I have a Boss BR 1180 Digital recorder that I just love. I paid a $1000.00 for it five years ago. I see them all over the place for $500.00 to $600.00 now adays. I bought it because it billed itself as the easiest unit to use (at the time I was completely computer illiterate) but have since learned a lot about these things. Good Luck!

Dajax, I read those carbon copy units sound just like the old analog Echoplex units just without the matainence or reliability issues those old tape units had, I read this in an interveiw in Guitar Player Magazine with Brad Paisley he uses that same unit and loves it!

Well the Mixwiz 3 came about 5:30pm and what a nice mixer 16 independent channel strips with inserts on each channel and a line out for each channel for recording live (pre fade) this means I can hire some one to come in with a digital recorder and we can come out of each indivdual channel record live and mix it all later on it has 2 on board digital effects processors 6 aux sends 4 for monitor mixes and 2 for effects plus the option of adding an additional outboard effect processors without using anymore aux sends (saves channels) way to many features to list. A very flexible unit indeed. I did a lot of research, Oh and it is rack mountable. Yipee!!!!!!!!

Freakin cool, that sounds like just what I have been looking for!

I want to hear more, as you use it.

I would advise any one in the market for a small format mixer to consider this unit. I have yet to use it at a gig so untill it is field tested on 3/14 I will reserve my praises on it.

The best advise I can give to anyone looking to buy a mixer for their band is do your reserch, 9 years ago I went in to buy a mixer half cocked,
really just looking to put together a 3 peice blues band and not considering what the future might hold and thats when I bought the Yamaha MX 12/4 not a terrible mixer but very limiting if you are wanting to do something a little more involved with sound reinforcement, of which in my opinion and looking back is the natural progression of being a musician and is a line that we all cross as we are on our journey to be the best we can be we start to realize (good sound and good entertaining is what seperates the average band from the best bands) and that transfers to better gigs and better pay. Even if you are in it for your own enjoyment isn't it better to play for 200 or more people than to play for 20. If you approach sound from a methodical standpoint making each purchase with the future in mind you will save yourself and your band a lot of money and heartache later on down the road.
Just a little advise from a dinosaur

Hello J,
Of course when I said my songs are beautiful and my voice is fantastic, being English I was really saying, my songs are crap and my voice is rubbish... then trying to blame the Tascam for my failures!

The real problem in my recording is that I seem to write songs which I think will record and sound okay, but they drop dead as soon as I start to record them.

My friend bought this Tascam (digital) in Boston on Ebay and brought it back across the pond; but the big shock is not suddenly recording stuff and finding how great you sounded all along, but thinking, Geez! is this what people have had to listen to all these years?
Mark......................

I thought that was what you were saying but I wasn't sure so I took the easy way out and answered your question at face value.
Any way it is always like this don't let it get you down, it is often a real shocker when you hear your voice coming back at you thru the monitors for the first time. In reality we are our own worst critics but that is what keeps us moving forward. This is why a lot of bands record their rehearsals and it is a great idea. I have listened to your recordings and I think your guitar playing is good and so is your tone, an acoustic approach with an electric guitar. The last time I listened was some time ago but if I remember correctly you play folk music your voice (vocals) has kind of a hypnotic feel, story telling to them. When I write music I do a lot of pondering over them without my instrument at work, during my commute to and from work and I find this helps me look at them from a different perspective (outside looking in kind of thing) this is one of the things a producer will do, you kind of have to remove yourself from the equation so you can use a fresh approach. If a song is not working for me I will shelve it for a while and move on to a new one and come back to it later some times years later untill I can see it from that different perspective. If I don't like the way my voice sounds on a particular song I change the keys untill I find the sound that fits the mood of the song, alot of times I will use a capo to achieve this. The main thing is to keep an open mind because the answer is there you just have to find it I hope this makes sense and helps you.

Hello again J,
Yes I was trying to joke about, but I should know that without the face to face jokes are so often misunderstood or take literally!
What you said made very good sense, but, no I don't like to think I play folk though perhaps it leans that way sometimes.

For two years I have been back on the electric after a twenty five year lay-off, I did play piano and cello though those years, then eight years ago joined a little band and played bass for six years... and returning to guitar this time I abandoned the pick and have played fingers only to help me arrive at a technique to acompany my songs... I use just fingers for lead breaks as well.
My guitar is a Washburn WG587 seven string that now has six wide spaced strings to give finger space for my new technique.
That Strat on my profile was my main guitar with the same 7/6 string mod, but I sold it to a farmer friend last week.

Thanks J for listening to my songs and giving your thoughts... yes we are our own toughest critics sometimes, but I think we see quite well when a song dies a death, or when we die in the role it asks us to sing... you hear that utter flatness in your own voice that another might mistake for a style!

I am just about to do exactly what you suggest and leave a troublesome song till later... trouble is I find the most fresh and inspired time to play and record a song is while it is still new.

Write on!
Mark............................

Dajax, I read those carbon copy units sound just like the old analog Echoplex units just without the matainence or reliability issues those old tape units had, I read this in an interveiw in Guitar Player Magazine with Brad Paisley he uses that same unit and loves it!

Yes J, I used an Echoplex from 1973-1983 give, or take, and that's the sound I've been searching for in a box since the plex went tits up. The Carbon Copy IMO is a very good approximation of a tape echo (the modulation mode helps out with that a lot). When I can get it together I'll post some samples using the new delay.
Dave.
Ajax Ontario

Dajax, Alas you have been doing this longer than me I have a lot of respect for my fellow dinosaurs!

T ROX