Yet another reason to stay out the box

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Re: Yet another reason to stay out the box

Post by Wonks »

The Elf wrote:Just because I love Skegness doesn't mean I won't visit Cairo.

Though Cairo is less bracing.
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Re: Yet another reason to stay out the box

Post by Arpangel »

The Elf wrote:As I always find myself saying on these occasions - a balance of the two is where the really good stuff lies.

Just because I love Skegness doesn't mean I won't visit Cairo.

Good things happen when you allow yourself to see the good in everything.

It’s what suits us, I've no desire to visit Skegness or Cairo, or anywhere really, geographically, or musically, I'm a great believer in staying put, once I’ve found a comfortable corner.
Buy me a first class return to New York on a luxury liner, I may change my mind, only if I can sit in a Jazz club for two weeks.

:)
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Re: Yet another reason to stay out the box

Post by RichardT »

Arpangel wrote:My Moog is there, it will always be there, it doesn’t need updating, I don’t have to have an account to use it, it won’t stop working because of outdated drivers, I don’t need a computer to use it.
I do not like computers, but I have to have one, it’s my tape recorder, but do we really have to have them? I could change today, and not use one, record on my four track and master to CD, the stock plugs I use in Reaper I could replace with pedals, and racks, it would change my way of working, and my music might sound a bit different, but to me, that’s not the end of the world, it’s not that important, in fact, a change may be a good thing.
But we have a choice, computers aren’t obligatory, and I’m not preaching about working OTB, we all have a choice, it’s up to us, and that’s the important bit, nothing is a given.

Exactly - we have a choice! Upsides and downsides everywhere - but that’s how life is. Navigating this can be a joyful experience if we accept that this is how it really is. Plus living now we are incredibly lucky compared to musicians only 20 years ago.
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Re: Yet another reason to stay out the box

Post by Arpangel »

RichardT wrote:Plus living now we are incredibly lucky compared to musicians only 20 years ago.

:D

Back then, maybe lack of choice was a good thing!
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Re: Yet another reason to stay out the box

Post by The Elf »

Image
;)
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Re: Yet another reason to stay out the box

Post by Mike Stranks »

I bought RX from Plugin Boutique at the suggestion/recommendation of an esteemed, knowledgeable and grounded member of this forum community. I've returned to them when I've wanted to buy other iZotope things.

Apart from the iZotope set - which, like James, I almost always use in standalone mode - I think I've only every bought two plugins. I don't use either of them now, because in one case RX does a much better job and in the other my software has subsequently been upgraded - at no cost to me - and now incorporates the facilities that a plugin offers, but more flexibly, 'powerfully' and with far less user-hassle.

My experience of music production is somewhat limited, but I do wonder if the plugin market exists in large part on the back of, 'If only...'. If only I had a different microphone/preamplifier/set of monitors/plugin my music productions would be much better.

And now for BOF-mode... :lol: When I was doing music production - BC: before computers - it was generally stated/recognised that you only had access to two FXs: a compressor and a reverb. Basically you worked with what you'd captured at source. Our learning and training was all about capturing the sound you wanted - because once it was on tape there was very little you could do with it. I think it would be no bad thing if us 'aspirerers' had a ponder about that rather than thinking the solution is always to throw yet more money/kit/software into the mix.
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Re: Yet another reason to stay out the box

Post by Drongoloid »

Mike Stranks wrote: My experience of music production is somewhat limited, but I do wonder if the plugin market exists in large part on the back of, 'If only...'. If only I had a different microphone/preamplifier/set of monitors/plugin my music productions would be much better.

Of course. Why would anyone think that the music technology industry is any different from any other industry? It's there to sell things by trying to convince us that we 'need' it .......to become Paul McCartney/ George Martin/ Paul Simon (enter your own favs. here).

I once read in these pages Paul White commenting that whatever gear he uses he usually ends up sounding like Paul White. Therein lies the truth.
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Re: Yet another reason to stay out the box

Post by Drew Stephenson »

I think the "If only..." aspect is very strong. Fundamentally this is a complicated and time-consuming pastime, anything that offers a short-cut will be appealing. Especially to those who don't want to be engineers and just want to create content.
Which connects us nicely to the thread about the AI daw.
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Re: Yet another reason to stay out the box

Post by James Perrett »

Mike Stranks wrote: And now for BOF-mode... :lol: When I was doing music production - BC: before computers - it was generally stated/recognised that you only had access to two FXs: a compressor and a reverb. Basically you worked with what you'd captured at source. Our learning and training was all about capturing the sound you wanted - because once it was on tape there was very little you could do with it. I think it would be no bad thing if us 'aspirerers' had a ponder about that rather than thinking the solution is always to throw yet more money/kit/software into the mix.

My experience with transferring old multitracks bears this out. With most of them you can just push the faders up, add a little reverb/delay to a few things and you're 99% of the way there to the final mix.
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Re: Yet another reason to stay out the box

Post by The Elf »

To be fair there *have* been third-party plug-ins that offer something the stock ones don't. Try creating a wide stereo delay (not 'ping-pong' - ugh!) with the stock plug-ins from Cubase SX3!

And we didn't get a decent stock reverb for many versions.

It would be a strange mix where I didn't use an SSL channel emulation - just because I know it so well and I found something that was convincing.

I do concede that the need for third-party plug-ins has diminished greatly over time, but we didn't all buy them to make up for our lack of ability!
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Re: Yet another reason to stay out the box

Post by Albatross »

Painters have it easy, don't they ... ? A nice simple life and they can paint anywhere and when they're finished it just needs some varnish and a frame and they're done ...

Canvas - paint - brushes - palette - frame

Perhaps its easy for us too ... I paint as well as make music and I sort of see it like this;

Canvas : the air, and we move it not with light but with speakers.
Paint : our instruments.
Brushes : the microphones we use to transfer the paint to the canvas.
Palette : the work-surface. The desk or daw where we mix together our paints and thinners.
Frame : The mastering and creation of the CD or file or vinyl or cassette, (future proofing here) Audio Ear Drops ™ or whatever.

Stops me getting confused with all the gear.
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Re: Yet another reason to stay out the box

Post by Drew Stephenson »

James Perrett wrote:
Mike Stranks wrote: And now for BOF-mode... :lol: When I was doing music production - BC: before computers - it was generally stated/recognised that you only had access to two FXs: a compressor and a reverb. Basically you worked with what you'd captured at source. Our learning and training was all about capturing the sound you wanted - because once it was on tape there was very little you could do with it. I think it would be no bad thing if us 'aspirerers' had a ponder about that rather than thinking the solution is always to throw yet more money/kit/software into the mix.

My experience with transferring old multitracks bears this out. With most of them you can just push the faders up, add a little reverb/delay to a few things and you're 99% of the way there to the final mix.

I think there's potentially an element of people trying to find the secret plug-in that applies that magic 'make it sound like a record' sauce to stick on the mix-bus at the end.
Missing the point that the bit that the magic happened right back at the beginning with the composition, the performance, and the recording.
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