Sonic Valentine

Four cheap plug-ins I used everyday. from The Sonic Fedora on Vimeo.

Who says that plugs have to cost a lot of money? Well… Waves does. I have succumbed to spending a fair chunk of money on many of plug-ins. Many of them I hardly use or worse yet I don’t use them at all. On the other hand there are four plugs that I use on 98% of my mixes that can be had for little to no money at all. Here they are.

Aptrigga – Apulsoft $55.73 – VST/AU Mac and PC

I can’t say enough about the value of this plug-in.  For less than sixty dollars you get a sample accurate sample trigger.  Sure it may not have as many features as drumagog ($199 for the basic) but it does everything I ask of it.  Normally I trigger a couple of samples and to separate tracks and mix them in with the originals so I don’t need drumagog’s “stealth mode”.  As for Digidesign’s Sound Replacer… it is pure crap and I refuse to even talk about it.

ADT – vacuumsound $0.00 (yup… free) VST/AU Mac and PC

With 9 out of 10 free plugs you are getting what you pay for.  Not so with vacuumsound’s ADT (Automatic Double Tracking).  If you haven’t read Geoff Emerick’s Here There And Everywhere get it now.  In the book he talks about the ADT box at EMI studios.  Well… this plug does just that.  It is free… you have no excuse… check it out.  It kills Waves Doubler.

PSP PseudoStereo – PSP Audioware part of the $49.00 Stereo Pack – RTAS/VST/AU Mac and PC

I use this plug on everything from background vocals to acoustic guitars, drum rooms to keyboards.  It takes and mono signal and using comb filtering makes it stereo.  Phase is rarely an issue with it if used properly and it just flat out sounds great.  After watching my demo video (above) on my laptop I couldn’t hear the difference, but listen on a good set of speakers or headphones and it will sell itself.  Honestly the whole PSP stereo pack is great but this plug alone is worth far more than the measly $49.

PSP Vintage Warmer 2 – PSP Audioware $149.00 – RTAS/VST/AU Mac and PC

My go-to plug for a killer bass tone.  PSP Vintage Warmer is the most expensive on this list but it is still an incredible value.  Mean and dirty is the name of vintage warmer’s game.  I know people who use it as a two buss limiter but it is to tough sounding for me.  Killer on drum busses and to kill the hell out of loop.  Honestly though, I don’t know if I would ever want to mix a bass track without it again.

Recording engineers are just about the only people who work on records non-stop. Most artists make a record once every 1 or 2 years. At most producers will generally make six records a year. A good recording engineer will be working on records non-stop… year round. Recording engineers will work with many producers and even more artists, watching them each make unique mistakes.

So here is my list of the most common mistakes I am forced to watch artists make… over and over.

1 – Not being ready to make a record – Just because you have written ten songs does not mean you are ready to make a record. By all means… go ahead… but don’t expect something that is going to stand the test of time. Many think that they know who they are as an artist, they think that they have a grasp of their artistic voice. Let me tell you, chances are if you have just started writing songs, just started playing live, you really don’t know what you have to say or even how to say it. Think of your first recordings as demos or experiments and try to budget accordingly.
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My second page of apps.

I am obsessed with my iPhone.  I don’t even try and hide it.  My wife would probably throw it in the ocean given the chance… that’s why I had to get her one… so that she could “get” it.

If someone asks me if I like it or tells me that they are thinking of getting one I tell them that an iPhone will change your life.  If something happened to my beloved friend I would go out that day and get another one… no doubt about it.  It not only changes the way that you interact with people it changes the way you do things.  I have two computers, my macpro at the studio and a macbook at home.  The macbook probably sees thirty percent of the use it once saw.

There are probably about fifteen apps that I use everyday.  I am only going to cover the apps that I use frequently as an audio engineer.  Some of them I use everyday.  Some of them I use once a month but they save the day every time.

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I received an interesting email the other day from a friend of mine.

hey ben… how’s it goin man? got a question for ya! is that entry level pro tools, that sells for about $249, good to get your ideas and songs together on? for about 4 years i been usin this fostex unit that’s a bitch to use.
i want somethin easy to use and a computer based program.
thanks man,
m

Instead of responding directly to Merrol’s email I decided it was about time I write another article.

I met Merrol about three or four years ago when Dan Baird and I recorded his band Miles From Nowhere. Merrol was the lead singer, lead guitar player, main songwriter. Very, very talented “salt of the earth” kinda guy. Can I imagine Merrol getting along with pro tools or some other program equally as good? Short answer… not at all.

It isn’t because I think Merrol is dumb or anything. Merrol is the type of guy who wants something to do it’s job and not get in his way. I think Merrol is one of those people who would have loved a couple of ADAT’s and a Mackie mixer. Can I recommend to him that he gets ADATs… no way. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. But there is something to be said for their simplicity. Arm the tracks… hit record… play… done. I have a friend who used to make very good recordings on his ADATs. One day he hired me to come over and set up his pro tools rig, show him how to use it and basically get him up and running. Have I heard one recording he has done since that day in his home studio? Nope, the technology got in his way.
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I get a lot of people asking me about mixing. Normally I come up with some smart ass answer as to why you can’t really tell someone how to mix better. Well thanks to Stumble I came across this article on the “mixing pyramid”.

It’s kinda a cool way of looking at it… honestly it is what I do just explained better.