Well That Could Be. Too.

C'mon. Jalopy. I haven't even been there and yet still I know it's the most awesome music venue.

In the Vast Iteration is a City Samanas record. Well. Maybe. It may be a Diatomaceous Earth album. In any case, Greg has somehow been saddled with the responsibility of arranging the elements of this album into a single song -- like "Roundabout" or Pink Floyd's "Echoes". Ha! 
Might this also be a part of The Imaginary Opera? Well, that could be. Too.

Tom Tom Notes

So I'll admit it. I failed. I tried a 3-microphone setup on drums. And I just couldn't quite get the sound I've been looking for all this time.
The only things I know about recording drums are what Eric Rachel at Trax East has told me. One thing he pointed out is that recording toms and making them sound good is relatively easy. And to rely on the overheads and room mics.
We're not using room mics because the room isn't that awesome sounding anyway. But just putting microphones on the toms makes mixing the drums so much vastly easier because I'm not over-compressing everything just to get the toms to sing. Instead the cymbals can sit where they need to (most of their sound comes from the overheads) and the toms will go boom when they're played.
This is an improvised rehearsal. There were some songs or song-like things which some of us knew but others didn't. All the mixes were done on my laptop with an archaic version of Samplitude. This is because my main mixing computer lost its power supply and I'm waiting on the new supply to show up. So we're using the Tascam US-2000. The overheads are a pair of very sweet-sounding Ear Trumpet Labs mics going into Neve 1272 preamps.
There's a "distance" kick mic which is a RODE NT1 feeding a 1272.
The bass goes direct into the US-2000's DI input. The guitars are both recorded with SM58's. Mine goes into the last channel of my 1272. Greg's (in this recording at least) is preamped with the Tascam's internal preamps. Which sound surprisingly good.
The snare goes through an Equation Audio hypercardioid. And then it hits a Lindell 500-series preamp.
There's no close kick-drum mic on this recording. That'll be different next time. Also, my listening to the mix makes me want to do, er, things with the drum sound. And before we go and release an album with this material I want to actually mix it -- bring some instruments up and down rather than just setting the faders and letting it run all the way out.

Invaded Their Home With Myself

We recorded a new Diatomaceous Earth rehearsal.

This was the first experiment with close-miking the toms and snare (and, theoretically, the kick). I had been under the impression that everyone hated the way I'd been recording the drums so I went to all this trouble to set up a system where the drums could be recorded a tad more conventionally. As it turns out, apparently the other band members claim happiness with the drum sound up until now.
To which I say "feh".


So. Some things.
The Equation Audio kick drum microphone was DOA. But we slapped a pair of mics on the toms and one on the snare. We continued to use the distant "kick drum microphone" which is a Rode NT1 about a meter from the front of the kit.
The other thing that happened was that the Aphex dual-channel microphone preamp which we were using on Greg's guitar and Lily's bass pretty much just crapped out. The signal just faded in and out and started crackling and so we gave up. Instead we used inputs 7 and 8 on the Tascam US-2000. The preamps on the Tascam sound pretty good actually.
One issue is that we'd got very used to the soft limiting on the Aphex and in order to give Lily the headroom she needs on her Schecter bass we have to turn the preamp down pretty low and then turn up the monitor output on our headphone system. Which does make the whole thing noisier to listen to.
Next week we hope to use Ethan's compressor as a limiter on the bass just to control the "funk". And that will help us keep the levels up a bit.
Me? I'm under the impression that the close mic of the toms and the snare does in fact help betterize things. Not in the manner that I was thinking though. We have bleed through all the mics like crazy. And sometimes the cymbals sound pretty good on the off-axis tom and snare mics. I know. It's weird. I believe the mixes you hear above have pretty heavily compressed toms and snare (and maybe even kick) but the overheads are left wide open without much (or possibly any) processing.
The effect of the snare drum mic is that we put a bit of plate reverb on that channel but it's not super-duper loud in the mix. Most of the snare sound (I think) is coming from those overheads and the "kick drum mic". Right? I know.
+++++ 
If you want to know anything about Afton, here's a view. I mean, the concert business is rough anyway. I'm not really one of those "the musicians deserve to get paid" folks just because, it seems impractical. As long as the sound mixer is paid it's all right with me.

Whack a Letter

Teen Getaway is another cool Alabama band. Dig this review.
+++++
But you're asking yourself: how are you going to arrange the preamps and A/D converters in order to record Diatomaceous Earth?
I know. I know you're asking this. I will try to help.

US-2000 input -- Source              -- Preamp used
1.                                                 --  Tascam preamp 1
2.                                                  -- Tascam preamp 2
3.                         Low tom mic --     Tascam preamp 3
4.                         Hi tom mic --         Tascam preamp 4
5.
6
7.                         Greg guitar    --       Aphex preamp L
8.                         Bass DI --              Aphex preamp R
9.                         Kick close mic        Lindell L
10.                        Snare close mic      Lindell R
11.                        Drum OH L            Neve 1
12.                        Drum OH R           Neve 2
13.                        Kick distant mic     Neve 3
14.                        Drew guitar            Neve 4
15.
16.

Data Dump

The Zoom H6 will be a portable 6-track recorder for only $400.
I also realized that I can get 10 analog inputs with my Focusrite 18i6 and the Apogee Mini-me.

RCCNY June 19 2013
The Amateur Mind
Professionals are never satisfied.
T226 movement 3 take 1
(Note to Drew: Gain at 36.1, Oktava mics)
T232 movement 3 take 2
T235 take 3 w/pu ("with pickup")
T243 take 1 w/pu
T245 movement 2 take 2
T247 take 3
T248 last chord take 2
T250 take 4 (noises over beginning)
T253 Movement number 4 take 1
T254 movement number 4 take 2
T256 pu ending
T257 pu take 2
T258 pu take 3
T260 number 5 take 1
T264 take 2
T227 pu
T269 with marker for video w/repeat of number 2 (and others) w/ number 4  w/ number 5
T270 w/ 2 "claps" (multiple takes)

Fiddly but cheap

Basically there are no portable little desktop workstations which will record more than 8 tracks at a time. As far as I can tell. And Yamaha seems to simply be out of the market.
But here's the thing: I have a Tascam 680 (six-channel) portable recorder. And I also co-own a Sound Devices 702 which has very nice preamps. And then Greg has a Fostex 2-channel machine. So if, and yeah it's annoying, but if we used all three machines we'd have 10 channels of pure love.
The Tascam US-2000 is the only sub-$1000 box that'll help. I mean, it needs a computer but at least it's USB. Yeah, there are some standalone 16-track machines at about $500 but meh.

The line inputs on the US-2000 can only handle +20dBu. And the mic inputs are even worse, only being able to put up with +12dBu before they crap out. For those of you playing along at home the "instrument" level inputs will only do +16.
(Ugh. I hate typing "+" in blogger now because it apparently wants me to link things to some dumb Google Hangouts thingy. Bleh.)
So, getting back to recording on three separate recorders. It's very fiddly. And one has to line up the tracks all by hand. Truthfully I end up lining up tracks by hand much of the time anyway.

Okay but I still have to figure out how we want to split out the tracks. We'll be recording at 48kHz and 24-bit. We're doing that just... because. I don't even want to have to justify it anymore, it's just the way things are.

Kick -- Lindell preamp 1
Snare -- Lindell preamp 2 to Fostex
OH L -- Neve 1
OH R -- Neve 2
Tom 1 -- Sound Devices 702 Left
Tom 2 -- Sound Devices 702 Right
Bass -- Aphex tube preamp 2
Greg's guitar -- Neve 3. Or. Or we could use a Lindell preamp (because we did one recording with the Lindell and it sounded pretty good) is a possibility. If we were to do that we could flip one of the Neves to the kick (which also tends to work as a room mic.)
Drew's guitar -- Neve 4
Adjunct bass -- because what band doesn't need two basses? This would be a Countryman or an Aphex channel to the right channel of the Fostex

So that's 10 channels of recording. Three recorders -- the Tascam, a Fostex, and a Sound Devices. We have 8 outboard mic preamps (two Lindell, four Neve, two Aphex). This will work. And it'll only be slightly annoying to set up. And slightly annoying to re-align and mix.
The other option is some other sort of recorder. I don't know. But now you don't know as much as I don't know. So there.

That then, which what.

You want random notes that don't make sense to anyone but me?
I can give you those.
I visited a studio recently. They had a pretty complete preamp collection -- including 8 channels of API, some Great River, even a pair of the same Neve 1272's by Brent Averill that I have. Funny thing was that their monitors were those Mackie Genelec knockoffs and a pair of the "new" Yamaha NS10's. Which, you know, is so not how I'd go about outfitting the end of an otherwise class-A signal chain.

But you know, that's just me. 
I'm still going back-and-forth in my own head about whether to separately mic the toms or not. Maybe we should just do it and I'll complain about it later? I think that perhaps my biggest complaint is the rattling of snares whenever any other freakin' drum is hit. Why can't the snares just shut up when the kick is smacked? Sheesh.
++++
Preamp list
1. Aphex L
2. Aphex R
3. Lindell L
4. Lindell R
5. Neve 1
6. Neve 2
7. Neve 3
8. Neve 4

Er, so if that's Kick, snare, OH L, OH R, Tom1 and Tom2... that's six channels right there.
So guitar, guitar, bass... that's nine channels altogether.
If we add an adjunct bass then we're staring down the throat of 10 tracks.
Is there a portastudio-like thing that'll record 12 tracks?

June 17 2013 Notes

RCCNY
T122 mvmnt 6 open 1 stick
T128 closed - False Start
T129 "take 2"
T130 - last chord
T132 "take 3"
T137 "take for Misha"
T139 "take 4" long false start
T140 "take 5"
T141 pickup from previous take
T147 addition 1 page 24 (w/fs)
T149 addition 2 piano only
T155 number 5 take 1
T156 addition take 1
T159 addition no. 2
T161 addition no. 2
T162 addition no. 2
T165 number 5 take 2
T167 addition 6
T192 number 4 take 1
T193 number 4 take 2
T194 addition (w/fs)
T198 number 4 take 3
T211 number 1 takes 1 and 2
T212 take 3
T213 take 4 (w/fs)
T215 pickup 1

(w/fs) = "with false start"

Tubular Diatoms

Here's an acoustic guitar arrangement of Tubular Bells:


Plus, I'm finding some diatoms have reasonable CC licenses.

Diatomaceous Earth

We've come to an agreement to name the new band Diatomaceous Earth. Because our commercial instincts are so well honed.

As it turns out, diatoms are psychedelic.

This week we played a 40-minute jam I named "Chimerical Weathervane". Yes, this will have to be edited down considerably. And mixed (because right now it's all over the place). But basically this is what we sound like.
 

The Ghost of Arthur James

Groove to The Ghost of Arthur James.
I own the vinyl.

Because I am so cool.