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Erax Sound

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Posts posted by Erax Sound

  1. Hi peeps,

     

    I appreciate that this isn't an instrument building, tuition, famous person clinic thread, so interest may be minimal.

     

    However, for those of you who take your music seriously, I'm offering you all a quick bargain.

     

    For the whole duration of January, if you have a song you want mixed and mastered, I'll do it for £120. 

     

    Examples of my work are on my website, Facebook and Instagram. 

     

    www.eraxsound.com 

    Facebook & Instagram - @eraxsound

     

    This one's in the affiliate forum as well.

  2. 2 hours ago, Leonard Smalls said:

    I'm not sure that's the case... 

    I lived in a shared house once where one guy's girlfriend was a screamer. While the performance may have been great for those in the room, the rest of us in the house trying to sleep wished for, at the very least, a full isolation booth for the pair of 'em! 

    So definitely not "once more - with feeling" then?

    • Haha 1
  3. 9 hours ago, cheddatom said:

    A wonderful session of lead vocals yesterday. This singer hates headphones and asked if there was a way to record without. Some engineers would refuse, others would try to set up a super accurate out of phase monitor system, I just handed him the SM7b, put my earplugs in, and turned the monitors up loud. He was nervous that it wouldn't work as he's never seen it done like this, but I know the guy, and he's LOUD, so when I played it back with the vocal solo'd, you can hardly hear the track at all, just his screaming voice! Ditching the headphones really loosened him up and we got some very "live" performances

    I've done that plenty of times. As long as the polar pattern of the mic isn't going to get much bleed (I tend to use an SM7b as well), you're basically laughing.

     

    It does tend to be screamers I've found who have this issue, but it's whatever gets the best performance out of someone.

    • Like 1
  4. 8 minutes ago, TimR said:

    Record everything that you're planning to record on a handheld recorder or phone, and everyone listen to everyone else's parts, well in advance. (May have been mentioned above) On the day is not the time to find out the guitarist has been playing a minor chord over the key's major chord, or the drummer's carefully crafted great fill is crashing the vocal line.

     

    That's the same time you work out the tempo should be as everyone will be nervous and playing at a million miles an hour.

     

     

    That should have been done weeks beforehand and is essential prep I insist people follow. If they haven't and it becomes a problem with various members of the band saying whatever "isn't right," I'm stopping the session as I really have no patience for it. I will always do the best I can for anyone and I'll have prepped thoroughly beforehand, but if they don't care enough about what they do to prepare properly, then I'm afraid that there is always going to be problems.

  5. I'm fairly relaxed about this stuff. However, there are red lines. Dont put drinks on my desk. Vaping is a no. Go outside. Drugs? I'm kicking you all out. Energy drinks do smell, but it's not that often that folk have them at mine. Seemingly water, cola or fruit juice is the main thing for my clients. 

  6. 17 minutes ago, Buddster said:

    I once recorded a cover of Low Rider. The producer made the (quite expensive but very good) brass section play so tight that the record company boss asked why he'd spent so much money on a kazoo! 

    As someone who played brass instruments when I was younger, I love recording brass. It's just fantastic. 

    • Like 1
  7. 2 hours ago, TimR said:

    The problem now is the musicians don't even need to pull off reasonable performances. Stock, Aitkin and Waterman were pretty bad but it's like an endless stream now of female (and male) vocalists who can't sing, coupled  with a bunch of engineers whose hearing is so "perfect" that they need to adjust everything to be pitch perfect.

     

    Karaoke...

     

    And bands expect to sound perfect (and loud) - so then the engineers have to polish using all the tools available. It's the snake that eats itself. 

     

    Oh dear. I think you'll find that not all of us are the same. I'm pretty sure both myself and @cheddatom are not one of the engineers/producers you refer to. Pile through my website and none of the songs there were quantised. Just punch ins and maybe some small edits.

     

    However, things are all relative to the material. I don't do pop at all, but I appreciate what's expected of different genres.

     

    However, to quote myself. I recorded a band and the singer said that he wanted the vocals to sound "perfect." After clarification, he suggested basically quantising and tuning the life out of them.

     

    I always say "You can have perfection or personality. You can't have both, so choose." Virtually everyone always chooses the latter option.

    • Like 5
  8. 4 hours ago, cheddatom said:

     

    I really don't get why they don't just program the drums for this sort of stuff. Loads of producers replace/layer samples and it's all so quantized and consistent it might as well have been programmed, and surely would have been quicker and cheaper!

     

    My mate is the drummer in an up and coming metal band Static Dress and they make a point of leaving his real performances alone. I personally think it helps set them apart

     

    That's exactly how I look at it. I make a point of leaving people's performances as alone as I can. I've done a lot of metal and it's more often been the case that I've managed to at least let the band discuss how the drums sound before replacing all the shells with samples. In most occasions I can show them how it'll make them different. 

     

    That being said, I've done metal bands where the drummer has been left out of the material entirely in favour of me using Superior Drummer. Not my choice I hasten to say!

    • Like 1
  9. I think people are confusing constant tempo and relative time. Record in free time and it doesn't matter too much as long as the whole band is in time and it's not meant to be a massive change. Playing to a click, that's where a bad drum performance has to be sorted out.

     

    I do drum editing for a few producer mates who live in Canada. The sort of stuff they do is metalcore/thrash, so it has to be exceptionally tight. They favour absolute on the line positioning. Even when someone has played really, really well. Some genres get away without it. Most modern metal (especially if it's djent) will have been quantised within an inch of it's life.

     

    As with all things, it's how you use the tools at your disposal, not what they are that makes them fundamentally right or wrong.

     

    Loads of musicians can't play to a click. Sometimes that's a problem, sometimes not. It depends who it is in the band that can't do it and what order you choose to record in.

    • Like 2
  10. My personal favourite is when bands haven't listened to what each other are doing. So, they send me a guide guitar track which sounds fine. Has the drummer practiced or listened to it? Of course not. This then ends up in a conversation of the band arguing about what structurally is right or wrong. Naturally, the drummer can't play the song properly. 

     

    I always give a band info that they should be prepared and not just try to "wing it." Very few bands actually do that though. Guess they haven't read that properly either.

     

    I inform them they've got 30 minutes to agree between each other or I halt the session and throw them out. Naturally, they can't agree, so they've just paid me for nothing as they're not getting their deposit back and will have to pay to rebook. They came back 6 weeks later prepped and it was all good. Just they'd wasted several hundred quid.

     

    As for instruments, anyone can use what I have in the studio. Quite often this becomes a necessity when a guitar or bass doesn't want to work properly. Rare, but it happens.

     

    Anyone who thinks quantising is the work of Satan is presumably still recording to tape? I generally favour light touch edits as much as possible. Which is to say, full takes if possible, but with punch ins for any part that might have been flubbed. If a drum track is so bad that I've had to quantise the whole lot then the band have the wrong drummer for their material. It's that simple. 

     

    For the most part, being relatively picky in who I work with, bad sessions are in the minority by a long way. Sometimes, folk have a bad day or don't prep (despite saying they have) and it's rare, but happens.

    • Like 3
  11. Depends on what you want really @SteveXFR. I've done live recordings which are completely down to the proficiency of the players how it turns out.

     

    There is a middle ground which I tend to prefer which is to play live, but the guitarist and bass player go straight in via software or pedals. This allows you to keep drum room sound and as you have the DI's, you can reamp them afterwards to get the sounds you want without unnecessary bleed. Plus you have the ability to correct mistakes.

     

    If you're interested, I've done a few doom bands and if you're in or near London/Kent, I'm happy to help you out. Boot me a PM if you want.

    • Like 3
  12. From experience, autotune (I use variaudio in Cubase) is great for the small fixes. Whilst some clients say not to use it, they usually don't need it to be fair. 

     

    The thing is, you can make a performance sound perfect in terms of tuning, but what you can't do is give a performance the authority of being performed confidently. Nothing will fix that.

     

    When I did a solo album I autotuned all of it. Mainly because I'm not a great singer despite having perfect pitch. It sounds fine, but someone better at singing than me wouldn't have needed it.

     

    Most modern stuff has been nipped and tucked here and there. I tend to try and do things as light touch as possible.

  13. 2 minutes ago, Dad3353 said:

    Phew..! I was worrying slightly; glad we can still be chums. I'll get back to you on the 'classical' side; I'd really like to have a second opinion on some of the rubbish compositions I come up with. One day, maybe soon... :friends:

    Nothing to be worried about. If I was going to be upset about a negative opinion I wouldn't have asked. It's good to get a wide array of feedback. 

    The offer is open for you as I'd like to do some work for you as I'm sure the material would be interesting. 

    • Like 1
    • Thanks 1
  14. 10 minutes ago, Dad3353 said:

    OK, but it's offered in honest and sincere spirit, taking nothing from your splendid offer of 'first three to reply'. Best be seated, though.

    ...

    OK, you're seated..?

    ...

    OK. Consensus in our household. The original track has many of the hallmarks of a garage-punk 'live take', with the energy that this implies. The vocals are far from operatic standards, but affirm the story line with confidence, and stand proud. The bass is pounding away, slightly 'in your face', and the guitars holding their own in the 'heft' stakes.

    The remix has taken away much of the urgency, with the vocals, whatever their 'musical' qualities, retreated to a 'safe spot'. The bass, too, has taken a back seat in the mix, where it was a stalwart pillar in the original. The guitars are brighter (and the solo does stand out more, as it should...), but the whole is now rather compressed into what I would call a 'plastic tube' effect. Not much to say about the drums; they retain their drive in both versions.

    Overall, there was no match nor recount: a clear win for the original, as being much more true to the genre. The remix suffers from cleanliness, and would probably pass much better as 'lift music' than the original; that, in this context, is not really a compliment.

    I should state that we listened to these, a few times each, through my decent M-Audio monitors (not cubic metre JBL's, but decent enough...), and at higher volume than I normally set for Soundcloud, which has a default volume a bit high for ordinary listening. I left the volume as that default, for both tracks (the remix is slightly lower level, but not by much...). I should also disclose that, for my part, I'm on the wrong side of seventy, and haven't the audio clarity of my youth. Our two sons (musicians, both...) do have, however, all their auditive faculties intact.

    There. I'm sorry that we couldn't be more positive in our appreciation of your efforts; I would allow that this type of music needs a certain 'touch' to keep it alive (less is more..?), and that it may not be your field of speciality. I'd repeat that your offer of a remix was, and still is, a wonderful gift, so kudos for going through with this whole deal. I'm really hoping that we can be more generous if we get to compare the others. Please accept my personal apologies if this offends in any way; it really is in Good Faith that I post this. Others are very likely to be of the completely opposite view, and it's us that are 'off the page'.

    Douglas

    No offence taken whatsoever! That's the thing about mixing, you're making a subjective choice based on what you think are the main points of the song. At least when given free rein to do whatever you want.

    I kind of heard a thrash element in a way in this. Hence why I sharpened everything a bit more. I don't do smashed masters unless it's death metal, but if you put it on Spotify, it would still get turned down slightly. So to say it's slightly quieter is fair enough, but it's still hitting -10dB LUFS Whether soundcloud has altered that I don't know. I try not to use soundcloud as a host actually.

    So no offence taken in any way squire. I kind of want to do some of your orchestral stuff now!

    • Thanks 1
  15. I've apologised to @SH73 as he won't get a mix until tomorrow. My wife had her covid jab and spent several days in bed. So I didn't quite finish it. He'll have it tomorrow morning as I won't have to look after my kids!

    Opinions on the "before/after" comparisons gratefully and gracefully received.

    • Thanks 1
  16. 2 hours ago, Nail Soup said:

    Hello Basschatters, I PM'd  @Erax Sound  to take up this offer!

    I handed over the stems from one of my home recording projects... it didn't sound so great with my mix ☹️.

    Andy at Erax has done a great job.... really bought the track to life and even fixed a couple of timing issues.

     

    Good job, very happy with the results.

    Thanks Paul, was good fun to work on it.

    For everyone else, I would just say that there's still 2 left!! Do you want one? PM me!!

    "Free?" You say? Yes. I like to give back a bit and help folk out. You'll get exactly the same service as though you paid me full price. Can't say fairer than that can I?

    You literally have nothing to lose.

  17. 9 minutes ago, Dood said:

    In fairness, stock plugins (I use Logic and Mainstage etc) are very good and are more than capable at getting amazing results.. but GAS... lol, you know me only too well! It turned I. To a career path after all ha ha! Sometimes a plug-in or suite of comes along and just makes sense or makes my life so much easier. MAutoAlign fixes problems with phasing when recording multiple instruments (like a whole drum kit) - which is brilliant as it saves me so much time. So, I mean, I like plugins that speed up my workflow ha ha! Or sound epic immediately (Scheps Omni sounds SO good for bass).

    I’ll try not to make your wallet wince and stop typing now :)

    I must admit, I sort phasing issues in tracking. Of course, if I get handed a session where that stuff is a mess, it's nice to have a few plugins to fix it. Or just fix it with a critical listen and some patience if you don't have an instant fix.

  18. The only thing that slightly irritates is the fact that they update the versions, so you're paying to able to do that. Otherwise you're stuck with a version which may not work after you update Windows or whatever mac's run. Hence the low cost of the plugins per se. Also there's so many of them to choose from.

    The SSL channel strips are great as is the 1176, CLA and SSL compressors. I use them all for different things. Depends what you like really.

    • Like 1
  19. I'm happy to do a before and after for you @Beedster. Send me a file.

    There are many things at play like the signal chain, mic, timbre of voice. There will be small parts of everything going on of course.

    Mind you, I've edited podcasts that were really badly recorded and no amount of creative effects would have made it sound like the smooth product you want.

    • Thanks 1
  20. 14 hours ago, dave_bass5 said:

    I didn’t realise that. I made a promise to myself to stick with the stock Cubase plugins for as long as I cold, but after seeing Vocal Rider in action i wanted it. It was very expensive when i first looked so didnt think any more of it until today. 

    To be fair, I sold them short. Last week I got 9 emails.

    As a rule of thumb, using stock plugins will save so much RAM you wouldn't believe. I tend to use stock Cubase plugins myself for the obvious things like delays and reverbs, but for like the SSL emulations or character type compressors, you kind of have to go elsewhere.

    • Like 1
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