Sunday, October 09, 2011

Inputs and Outputs

If my last post wasn't esoteric and boring enough (you seriously have to be a mixer who does what I used to do to have any idea what I so inelegantly wrote about) I'm going to go one further and make an input list of the "acoustic" Tyrannosaurus Mouse.
This is a work in progress. I'm just trying to figure out where what goes how.
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OK, so we're recording a version of the Mouseverture "reprise" and maybe a 3/4 or 6/8 instrumental version of chorus of Ice Maiden. And we're either doing it at Ethan's house, my apartment, or at Theatresource.
Input List Version A

  1. Piano L (Direct insert into MOTU UltraLite 1)
  2. Piano R (Direct insert into MOTU UltraLite 2)
  3. Kick (Oktava to Neve preamp to MOTU 3)
  4. Snare (Oktava to Neve preamp to MOTU 4)
  5. Overhead L (Rode NT1 to Neve preamp to MOTU 5)
  6. Overhead R (Rode NT1 to Neve preamp to MOTU 6)
  7. Acoustic guitar (AKG 460 to Apogee preamp/digital in 1)
  8. Acoustic bass (AKG C12a??  to Apogee preamp/digital in 2)

The key here is that the MOTU will be clocked by the Apogee. That makes everything about the MOTU sound vastly better. No really, I've A/B'ed it and there's a gianormous difference between the MOTU's internal clock and the (vastly more expensive) Apogee's internal clock.
Note that we're prioritizing the drums in the above list. But maybe the drum overheads and guitar and bass should get the Neves. Like this:

Input List Version B

  1. Piano L (Direct insert into MOTU UltraLite 1)
  2. Piano R (Direct insert into MOTU UltraLite 2)
  3. Acoustic guitar (AKG 460 to Neve preamp to MOTU 3)
  4. Acoustic bass (AKG C12a?? to Neve preamp to MOTU 4)
  5. Overhead L (Rode NT1 to Neve preamp to MOTU 5)
  6. Overhead R (Rode NT1 to Neve preamp to MOTU 6)
  7.  Kick (Oktava to Apogee preamp/digital in 1)
  8.  Snare (Oktava  to Apogee preamp/digital in 2)


Version B has some advantages in that we can put a bit of soft limiting on the kick and snare, which would likely sound pretty nice.
But maybe what we want to do is make the overheads the main mics for everything. Maybe the overheads are where the magic really happens?

Input List Version C

  1. Kick (Oktava to MOTU UltraLite 1 preamp)
  2. Snare (Oktava  into MOTU UltraLite 2 preamp)
  3. Acoustic guitar (AKG 460 to Neve preamp to MOTU 3)
  4. Acoustic bass (AKG C12a?? to Neve preamp to MOTU 4)
  5. Piano L (Direct insert into MOTU 5)
  6. Piano R (Direct insert  to MOTU 6)
  7. Overhead L (Rode NT1 to Neve preamp to  Apogee preamp/digital in 1)
  8. Overhead R (Rode NT1 to Neve preamp Apogee preamp/digital in 2)

The kick and snare get the short end of the stick in version C, but our overhead signal chain is as good as it gets. I don't know that I actually have enough mic stands for everyone. But I'm sure we can figure out something.
Maybe we want to use the AKG C12a as the mid in a M/S pair? And make that the overhead?
Do we want the C12a on the bass?
An AKG 460 would sound nice on the bass too. It would be a small diaphragm rather than a large diaphragm mic. But... maybe?
What do you think?

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