Hi folks

I just thought that the following would be handy to have for those of us who do the singing ourselfes, and don´t have a sound engineer:

A plugin that detects every time volume on incoming audio (through soundcard) exceeds 0 and generates a sound until it gets below.
2nd feature: The also has a builtin fader that can be controlled by a standard pc-keyboard.

This is something that could be very useful for people who built a miniature recording booth, where they have a pc keyboard to remote control their sequencing software and its cue points, but as well the volume gain. These are people who do some singing by themselfes, and don´t wanna bother friends and family, asking for their assistance on the recordings.
What do you think?

Hey, I know the problem, but I just take the channel strip with me into the booth and control the problem like that.

Errrr, I guess you don't have a channel strip, you have a mixer, right? & it doesn't fit in the booth or you've got too many cables to unplug and stuff?

Well, in that case, my advice is...

...get a channel strip!

(there are cheap ones that sound 1000000 times better than your average mixer mic pre-amp)

A channel strip? Unless I'm mistaken, channel strips are either sections of big mixing boards or else virtual versions of the same. Kind of non-portable, I would think. What, exactly, are you referring to, Cap? Give us a make and model so we can see for ourselves...

Where I come from we refer to a channel strip as a piece of outboard gear that has all the sexy bits from one channel of a very sexy mixer (i.e. mic pre-amp, EQ & compressor).

For example:

From our good friends at TFpro (see StudioWeapons thread - I did say these are really hardware guys): P1 and P3. (P3 is very small, very sexy and very cheap).

If you like tube gear: TLAudio 5051 and VP-1 (a bit more expensive, but sound is a killer, and the 5051 is affordable). I believe the TLAudio gear used to be sold in North America under the HHB brand.

Errrrr, there's lots of others too, but they are my faves, and it should be enough to get the picture. More information at www.tfpro.com and www.tlaudio.co.uk.

(Do not go to tlaudio.com, it's anal sex and no tube channel strips!)

CaptainMark wrote:

(Do not go to tlaudio.com, it's anal sex and no tube channel strips!)

I'll leave the anal sex to the pros. And there's a joke in "no tube channel strips" somewhere, but I'm too lazy to find it.

pough wrote:

CaptainMark wrote: (Do not go to tlaudio.com, it's anal sex and no tube channel strips!) I'll leave the anal sex to the pros. And there's a joke in "no tube channel strips" somewhere, but I'm too lazy to find it.

We footballing cultures (and it's called Football, and not bloody soccer!) would say I crossed the ball to you in the six yard box before an open goal and YOU FLUFFED IT!

Here in the land of Soccer Moms (Mmm... Yummy Mommy...) we would never say "fluffed it" when we could say "fucked it up." "Fluff" is a word for little kids whose mothers are so anal that they don't let their kids say "fart."

Anyways... anal sex is all well and good (according to Larry Flint) but if no tube channel strips then I'm not interested!

How's that?

BTW, I have a couple of mic preamps (as I would be more inclined to call them) but they're stuck in my rack. Any nice rack shots on tlaudio.com?

The TFPro website sucks. They have shopping cart links on the bottom of every page, no prices in sight and you have to click the shopping cart link to get it to tell you that you can only buy stuff from the specials page. Or so it seems. There are just so many simple rules to making an effective website that so many companies just seem obsessed with breaking.

BTW, having the whatchimacallit strip with you in the sound booth won't necessarily let you know when the audio level in your host of choice is clipping. Unless you get a digital one like my Presonus DigiMAX... SO much headroom on that little baby!

pough wrote:

Here in the land of Soccer Moms (Mmm... Yummy Mommy...) we would never say "fluffed it" when we could say "fucked it up." "Fluff" is a word for little kids whose mothers are so anal that they don't let their kids say "fart." Anyways... anal sex is all well and good (according to Larry Flint) but if no tube channel strips then I'm not interested! How's that? BTW, I have a couple of mic preamps (as I would be more inclined to call them) but they're stuck in my rack. Any nice rack shots on tlaudio.com? The TFPro website sucks. They have shopping cart links on the bottom of every page, no prices in sight and you have to click the shopping cart link to get it to tell you that you can only buy stuff from the specials page. Or so it seems. There are just so many simple rules to making an effective website that so many companies just seem obsessed with breaking. BTW, having the whatchimacallit strip with you in the sound booth won't necessarily let you know when the audio level in your host of choice is clipping. Unless you get a digital one like my Presonus DigiMAX... SO much headroom on that little baby!

Ahhh, but every footballer would be able to tell you, there's s difference between "fluffing it" and "fucking it up". And you definitely FLUFFED IT!

Errrr, a mic preamp is a mic preamp. A channel strip is a mic preamp plus EQ plus compressor. That's the way folk round here call it anyways.

By the way, I also hate websites covered in shopping carts. Perhaps you can get more sensible information from your local distributor?

Personally, I have no probs with clipping, although I was too tight to get a digital I/O option (which most "thingy" strips have), I just calibrate the output meter to see how high I can go before it clips.

I don't know the DigiMax, but I've tried a Presonus tube preamp and it sounded sweet.

So when is some babe gonna give me some more headroom on my tube channel?

Hi all, and thanks for the many replies

I neither have a mixer nor channelstrip, but going to get one of them, prolly the last one, soon.
I was just starting to think about the problems I would have, and that´s why I came up with this idea.
On a channelstrip, is there a LED displaying the volume level? In that case I understand why it´s not necessary to have this plug, but for everybody with a mixer it´d still be handy, I suppose

Check out tobybear's Overloader plug (www.tobybear.de), it might solve half your problem

Clipping? Just ignore it, it adds 'charachter'. If its too bad and the vocal is totally fucked then just wang it through MDA combo and pretend you meant it to be some kind of lo-fi fall kind of thing.

Above all, avoid ever doing more than one take of a vocal, waste of fucking time.

Peel wrote:

Check out tobybear's Overloader plug (www.tobybear.de), it might solve half your problem

Interesting! Thanks for the hint!!!

donkey tugger wrote:

If its too bad and the vocal is totally fucked then just wang it through MDA combo and pretend you meant it to be some kind of lo-fi fall kind of thing.

Well, nobody believe that this was my intention if I did that. There´s just too much toothpaste and sunshine in my music to ever let distorted and lowfi´d vocals fit in

Roman Empire wrote:

donkey tugger wrote: If its too bad and the vocal is totally fucked then just wang it through MDA combo and pretend you meant it to be some kind of lo-fi fall kind of thing. Well, nobody believe that this was my intention if I did that. There´s just too much toothpaste and sunshine in my music to ever let distorted and lowfi´d vocals fit in

Ouuuf, I feel for you then. Why not get into indie pop, you can get away with murder, I do!

Yeah but I can´t get away with not wearing a weird hat that is uncomfy to wear, maintaining a weird beardstyle and either be rude or politically correct or both at the same time!
For all this, I gotta buy a double, and that costs!
So I´d rather stick to doing what I like