I’m new to recording. I’m just curious how each of you record your analog synths. Do you go direct into your mixer? Do you use a preamp before your mixer, like a tube preamp? Once your signal is in your DAW or whatever, do you use compressors? Do you use EQ? Anything else? I’m sure fx are employed by most, like reverb and delay etc…
So what’s your preference? And what gear do you like for each step?
I run the Voyager to a Peavey 14 Usb mixer to Logic. Most of the time I bump up the eq and it makes a wonderful difference.
Before that I would run my synths into a Roland VS840EX, and I wouldn’t add anything to the signal. No eq or compression.
Before that it was a tascam porta 02 4-track.
Some people here use tube preamps and things, but I have found that the Voyager and all my Moogs sound great as is.
I record everything dry and then post process as needed. This makes it a ton easier to edit a track.
Interesting. I plan on going into my mixer dry. I love the synth sound on the old Rush records. They recorded to tape which has natural compression. I was thinking about experimenting with a physical compressor to try and emulate that tight synth sound Rush got. I wanted to see if that was normal.
Still, I’m interested in more ideas.
I run about 18 channels of mostly Analog gear into an Allen & Heath GL2400 then out of one of the group outs I go into a Saffire Pro 24 into Logic. The board is super warm and has a really nice EQ. Even an iTunes feed out of my Mac which goes over the firewire into the Saffire then converted into Analog and into two channels on my analog board sounds better than I’ve ever heard anything sound short of a super high end system.
But effects continue to elude me. I have a bunch of Foogers and a Pedal board full of crap that I don’t use for my synths but on the board is a Diamond Memory Lane BBD pedal which like would be very good with Moog. I’ve dabbled with the effects built into Logic and some plug ins but I really can’t get past the mouse based interface. And yes, I have all sorts of controllers (like Novation MK II) that would let me map pots to functions but I just can’t bring myself to get it all setup.
Speaking of the Analog tape, there’s a setup for the Universal Audio UAD ( http://www.uaudio.com/ ) that is supposed to do exactly what you are after. It’s not cheap; in fact a UAD-2 systems with just a few bundled effects is about a grand but I know guys down at the local GC in the pro audio dept that swear by the $15,000 worth of plug ins that they own. I’m tempted to buy UAD stuff because it’s said to be spot on and since it models the original devices, it should be free of the bogus ‘skins’ that turn me off.
The only other thing I’ve done as of late was to use a Fender tank based reverb on my Little Phatty. It’s pretty good for a very specific patch / sound but it’s a bit noisy and somewhat limited in what it can do. I’ve since sold it and am now looking for a DOD FX45. It never ends !!
Not the most popular opinion, but when using analog gear a high quality multitrack tape machine has no match. I have tried the UAD Studer a800 plug in (the best out there by many standards), and it does sound good, but it does a clinical emulation of tape, which is far from the real thing. I have had partial success with recording in the box and processing and summing OTB, but a pure analog signal path from keyboards to multitrack analog to 1/4" stereo analog retains and even adds a fatness unbeknownst to digital. That said, I have heard good digital mixes that were just as good sounding, but the ear fatigue is so much worse. I think that may be a contributing factor to the “fast food” nature of most of today’s music, it’s hard to listen to for more than a few minutes. And most music edited digitally is so perfectly in time it loses a certain quality. The wow and flutter of tape has a particular sensation of being constantly changing, that and capturing the musicians’ original (imperfect) performance without editing makes it a lot more palatable.
But short of buying an expensive, pain to maintain multitrack tape machine, the UAD plugs coupled with something very vintage and very analog outside of the box after mixing is the best alternative.