software drum panning vs. drum panning on recordings

it sounds to that the panning in drum software like EZDrummer is by far wider than drumming that I hear on recordings. for example if you open EZDrummer > load any set > select a groove and press play. Or just click on random drums and cymbals... notice how wide they are panned?

now listen to this - notice how the toms, cymbals and sometimes even the room mics are all pretty much close to mono
"No One Loves Me & Neither Do I - Them Crooked Vultures"
"Hardened Sole - Firebird"
"Druganaut - Black Mountain" (this one have the hats on the left but everything else is very centre.)
"The Day I Tried To Live - Soundgarden"

what does a 1994 Jeep Cherokee a MacBook Pro and Audio files have in common?

a really nice mixing environment! over the years i've read in countless articles how it's good practice to listen to your mix in the car because of the acoustics and that there aren't much bass buildup. so i decided to mix a song in my trusty old Jeep; Julie aka Jules... and the result was awesome!! i can't believe how everything just sounded different and that there wasn't a lot of room EQ problems.

i've got an above average sound system in but nothing too fancy. what i've done was using the aux input of the stereo and the headphone out of the mac. the mac sound card is 48khz and that's also what i record at so no problems there. the result WOW! i'm going to try it in my friends fancy new car with a fancy big sound system and see if i get a better result. if i do i'll have to buy a new car with an awesome sound system :)
i might even buy a van. nice thought - getting the bucks to buy it is something else...

room EQ

i'm thingking about room EQ... just not sure if i should just slap some EQ on the "logic bus" or if i should get a hardware rack EQ.

now i know a lot of people are against it but i haven't got money for some fancy room EQ plugin. the bass traps work great but there's still a spike at 125hz. (i've tested it with this bass tone sweeping from 40Hz to 300Hz).

other ways to do it:

http://drc-fir.sourceforge.net

http://pcazeles.perso.cegetel.net/acxo.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkj_VMB9m4E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKjskxpNL5c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqMMTyXTLDA

http://www.realtraps.com/art_audyssey.htm

Logic Pro 9 Essential Training - www.lynda.com

here are some free video tutorials from Lynda.com about Logic 9.

http://www.lynda.com/home/DisplayCourse.aspx?lpk2=58707

getting your workflow in order

http://www.lynda.com/home/Player.aspx?lpk4=62244

recording live music and getting stuff into the box:

http://www.lynda.com/home/Player.aspx?lpk4=62250

playing with guitar madness: pedal board

http://www.lynda.com/home/Player.aspx?lpk4=62252

understanding why alt mixes are a good idea
http://www.lynda.com/home/Player.aspx?lpk4=62311

scoring music to video

http://www.lynda.com/home/Player.aspx?lpk4=62291

looks well worth the money, sign me up please!

Toontrack SD2.2

before i tell you how i went about adding the NIR Z midi folder i just want to tell you this... if you've got superior drummer 2.0 don't upgrade to 2.2 because then you can install Hit Factory and it will work without authorization!! now don't get me wrong. i hate it when people steal software, music or movies. if you do that - you only want noise around you to break the silence. if you really appreciate the music you'll buy it out of appreciation and respect for the art and artist. anyhow... if they make a mistake like this then they didn't really care if i use it or not. i did upgrade though so i can't use it any more but it was nice to demo. if you don't upgrade then you can't see the groove library in the midi groove browser.

anyway, they did give instructions on how to install the NIR Z files but it doesn't seem to work for me. so i had to take the long way... by browsing to the folder on the mac and pasting it there in a folder that i've created. see images above.

Superior Drummer 2.20

i can't seem to drag the Nir-Z midi files into the browser on my Mac. i'll see if i can find another way off adding it :( there must be another way right?

Toontrack - EZDrummer - Nashville EZX - recording blooper

Nashville EZX - if you whack the second tom and let it fade out to silence you'll hear the recording engineer's radio play in the background (turn up the volume though - it's not that obvious) Not what I'd expect from these guys but I guess we all make mistakes now and then.

Other than that it's a really awesome kit and well worth the money.

Logic Express 9 and Guitar Rig 3 - bug?

installed logic express 9 yesterday and - yup - it's worth all the hype! just one thing that caught my attention, when i load Guitar Rig 3, with a few amps and FX, everything works fine until i try and select another preset. for example: if i want to select a different reverb preset and switch from the default "init" to "nice room" it doesn't work. it took me a while to figure out that you have to hold your mouse down and slide/drag it to the preset you want to select instead of clicking on the drop down menu - release the mouse button - look at preset list - click on the preset you want to select. a bit annoying really but i guess they made up for it by adding other cool stuff!

Toontrack DrumTracker does not work on my Mac OS 10.5.x

so i thought i'd download Toontrack's DrumTracker demo and give it a shot. but sadly it doesn't seem to work with my configuration. i've got a Mac and an Edirol FA-101 and when i open a drum file in DrumTracker i just get an error saying: "unable to start audio device: Edirol FA-101". I tried to search for a solution but to no avail. that sucks! i was really looking forward to DrumTracker and now this! luckily Logic Express 9 is on the horizon and it will have a drum replacer - among other things. can't wait! i just hope it's not as disappointing as DrumTracker from Toontrack.

EQ

i read a great article on hometracked.com about EQ. all the articles on that site are pretty good actually. anyway - it's about how you should cut narrow and boost wide because the human ear will find it strange if you do it the other way around. there's another article about EQ for vocals so that it "sits" better in the mix. the way that i always approach it is by creating a "hole" in the frequency range for the vocals (see above) to sit in and the another instruments around it. i usually follow the EQ settings given by Bobby Owsinsky who wrote The Mixing Engineer's Handbook. in there he clearly specify the EQ for each instrument so that they can all coexist in the frequency spectrum.

my approach to recording a band

the band records the guide tracks live.
the drum tracks get put down.
the bass tracks get put down - rhythm foundation section out of the way.
the guitar tracks are next.
lead vocals.
backing vocals.

then the mixing begins! when i'm happy with the final mixes i'll send it off to get mastered... you can do it youself if you want by using some mastering software like Ozone from Izotope, but i prefer to stand back when it comes to the black art of mastering.

oh and none of the above would be going smooth if it wasn't for logic 8 from apple...

sample-based drum software

if there's one thing any serious singer/songwriter should have it's sample-based drum software, like EZdrummer from ToonTrack. of course there are other drum software out there... i've tried them all and i find EZdrummer to be the most straight forward and easy to use. And the EZX expansion packs ROCK! don't take my word for it, listen for yourself! the only thing i still need is an electric drum kit to play my own custom beats if i need to. but that will have to happen when I've got the "time" for it. i'm looking at the Roland V-drums TD4...

now, if you don't like EZdrummer then check out XLN Audio's Addictive Drums. i sometimes think that maybe I should get these as well because it just sounds so bloody good. But I'm used to EZdrummer now and to tell you the truth... too much options slows me down because I can never stop tweaking stuff.