Can I Put Kramer Master Tape On An Individual Instrument Buss?

[ghettosynth]

As Hans Zimmer says, "If there is a rule, break it"

Yes, but, this isn't a rule in the first place. Either wags is misinterpreting what this person said, or, said person simply doesn't know what they're talking about.

From the manual, as if this even need to be said.

It is not possible to create a model with this level of detail and flexibility and at the same
time keep its resource demands low. Running Kramer Master Tape does require a fair
amount of system resources as you might expect. If you want to use the plugin on
individual tracks, please do so, as there are no ‘rules’ in our art form. But Kramer Master
Tape may perform best on sub-mixes of drums and percussion, strings, guitars, vocals
and anything that requires analogue ‘warmth and clarity.’ Also, don’t forget what the
plugin could contribute to digitally sampled instruments and digital synthesizers. Many
will find that across an entire mix and especially in mastering, Kramer Master Tape may
prove to be invaluable.

It's a processor that models a tape machine. Anywhere that you want the sound of a tape machine is a fine place for such a model. Maybe you want to stack up ten instances of them in series to get the sound of degraded tape?

[wagtunes]

Question: Abbey Roads Vinyl is on sale for $79. Somebody whose opinion I trust says Kramer isn't that good. Vinyl better?

Opinions?

[do_androids_dream]

As Hans Zimmer says, "If there is a rule, break it"

..and yet still, he writes the most generic, dull soundtracks ever written..

[sfxsound3]

As Hans Zimmer says, "If there is a rule, break it"

..and yet still, he writes the most generic, dull soundtracks ever written..

And they all sound the same - a rule or an accident?

[sfxsound3]

Question: Abbey Roads Vinyl is on sale for $79. Somebody whose opinion I trust says Kramer isn't that good. Vinyl better?

Opinions?

It's different.

Now lookee here: http://klanghelm.com/contents/products/SDRR/SDRR.php

[wagtunes]

Question: Abbey Roads Vinyl is on sale for $79. Somebody whose opinion I trust says Kramer isn't that good. Vinyl better?

Opinions?

It's different.

Now lookee here: http://klanghelm.com/contents/products/SDRR/SDRR.php

I already own SDRR. It's gone on everything in my 80s Synth Pop project using the 80s Master setting.

[thecontrolcentre]

What is it you want that SDDR doesn't deliver?

[chk071]

Frankly, putting tape saturation on your tracks appears to be the kind of "cure-all" solution people tend to easily offer, when they don't know, or can't describe what is wrong really... I think the issue is a bit deeper than that. When i listen to your tracks, and your sounds, they always feel a bit sterile... try some more modulation, especially pitch modulation. Try some groove in your tracks, instead of quantizing everything perfectly. Try some saturation, yes, but don't believe that that is the fix everything solution. It's really a couple of things.

[wagtunes]

What is it you want that SDDR doesn't deliver?

I don't want anything. I was told my track was too clean. Personally, I was fine with it. But yes, I'm falling into the stupid, asinine trap of trying to please somebody else.

I think my 80s Synth Pop project is some of the best stuff I've done.

But, whatever. You're never going to please everybody and I honestly don't know why I keep trying.

Guess I'm just stupid.

[wagtunes]

Frankly, putting tape saturation on your tracks appears to be the kind of "cure-all" solution people tend to easily offer, when they don't know, or can't describe what is wrong really... I think the issue is a bit deeper than that. When i listen to your tracks, and your sounds, they always feel a bit sterile... try some more modulation, especially pitch modulation. Try some groove in your tracks, instead of quantizing everything perfectly. Try some saturation, yes, but don't believe that that is the fix everything solution. It's really a couple of things.

I'm sure you're dead on the money with all of this. I am so shell shocked from all the people telling me I have to quantize my music because my playing sucks that everything I do now is quantized perfectly. Worse yet, when something is even a 1/16th note off, I hear it and it bothers my ears. I don't even know how to do unquantized music anymore.

As for the modulation, yeah, I don't do a lot of that. I play leads pretty straight. Truth is, listening to 80s synth pop, I don't hear a lot of modulation in those tracks either. Or maybe they're just subtle. I don't know. I never said I was any good at this. lol.

[thecontrolcentre]

What is it you want that SDDR doesn't deliver?

I don't want anything. I was told my track was too clean. Personally, I was fine with it. But yes, I'm falling into the stupid, asinine trap of trying to please somebody else.

I think my 80s Synth Pop project is some of the best stuff I've done.

But, whatever. You're never going to please everybody and I honestly don't know why I keep trying.

Guess I'm just stupid.

I never try to please anyone with my music, other than myself. Nobody else knows what Im after ...

[plexuss]

It comes down to how one's ears work, personal audio aesthetic and ability to determine what kind of sound you want and being able to achieve it. To this aim, no matter how astute one's hearing is, the monitoring system needs to be able to resolve at least to the level of detail that the producers ear/brain can hear. So it starts with the monitoring system and listening environment. Then, critical listening skills and the ability to determine the "delta" between what is heard and the end goal. From there, having and knowing what tools to use to get to that sound. This goes for track to track work, over-all mixing and mastering.

It's not as simple as putting a tape emulation on every track, unfortunately.

For example, this track uses all the plugins you guys usually use. And the playing is unquantized and you can hear the imperfections. I like that and I work to mix the imperfections into the music to give it a nice vibe. The drums and sequencing are mostly quantized. There are lots of analogue emulations use in this in both tracking and mastering.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5vCOG5YLKk

[wagtunes]

It comes down to how one's ears work, personal audio aesthetic and ability to determine what kind of sound you want and being able to achieve it. To this aim, no matter how astute one's hearing is, the monitoring system needs to be able to resolve at least to the level of detail that the producers ear/brain can hear. So it starts with the monitoring system and listening environment. Then, critical listening skills and the ability to determine the "delta" between what is heard and the end goal. From there, having and knowing what tools to use to get to that sound. This goes for track to track work, over-all mixing and mastering.

It's not as simple as putting a tape emulation on every track, unfortunately.

I have no doubt that this is 100% absolutely true.

Like I said, I never claimed to be any good at this stuff. If I were, I wouldn't be here right now asking stupid questions.

Should have gone to school for this stuff back in the 70s instead of taking composition in school.

[plexuss]

It comes down to how one's ears work, personal audio aesthetic and ability to determine what kind of sound you want and being able to achieve it. To this aim, no matter how astute one's hearing is, the monitoring system needs to be able to resolve at least to the level of detail that the producers ear/brain can hear. So it starts with the monitoring system and listening environment. Then, critical listening skills and the ability to determine the "delta" between what is heard and the end goal. From there, having and knowing what tools to use to get to that sound. This goes for track to track work, over-all mixing and mastering.

It's not as simple as putting a tape emulation on every track, unfortunately.

I have no doubt that this is 100% absolutely true.

Like I said, I never claimed to be any good at this stuff. If I were, I wouldn't be here right now asking stupid questions.

Should have gone to school for this stuff back in the 70s instead of taking composition in school.

You don't need to go to school to do this. You do need to have listened to a lot of different music and productions that have come out over the years and try and understand and learn how they achieved various sounds and vibes. When I hear something in a track, or the whole track itself, that I like, I try and replicate the vibe myself and that teaches me a) how to critically listen to determine what will sound good and b) to identify when I have achieved the sound I am going for.

Your music has all the foundational stuff needed. You tracks are basically good demos. But, all the tracking and everything needed to make a professional sound is there. It's just that next level of finesse to get the mix and the mastering to smooth everything out and give it a nice polish.

But to that aim, there is no easy way to get there. One thing you could do is go through each track in a mix and work on each track independently: massage the track so that tonally and dynamically it sounds polished while keeping whole project in mind. then start mixing them together in groups and making tweeks as you go so that as you add more tracks to the mix, you don't deviate from an over-all good sound.

One thing I that I find helps to get there quickly is iZotope Neutron. On some projects, I put Neutron on my tracks after all the track effects once I have them dialed in. I use the track assistant in Neutron set to what I think is appropriate for the track. Usually what results is a pretty good sound close to where I want things to be. It's not a silver bullet though - it will get you further along, if it works, but not to that higher level of polish.

An example of the use of Neutron is on this track. every track has Neutron on it as mentioned and I just left them set as the track assistant set them because in general I think it worked out ok. This can save time and effort if it works out. Sometimes with Neutron what it suggests is not on the mark and I have to abandon using it. But Neutron might help you get a more polished sound with minimal effort. But you still need to determine if the result sounds good/better or not and know when abandon or adjust to get where you want to go. Simply slapping Neutron on tracks won't necessarily help unless you think it helps.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRDmHuzAvRw

[wagtunes]

It comes down to how one's ears work, personal audio aesthetic and ability to determine what kind of sound you want and being able to achieve it. To this aim, no matter how astute one's hearing is, the monitoring system needs to be able to resolve at least to the level of detail that the producers ear/brain can hear. So it starts with the monitoring system and listening environment. Then, critical listening skills and the ability to determine the "delta" between what is heard and the end goal. From there, having and knowing what tools to use to get to that sound. This goes for track to track work, over-all mixing and mastering.

It's not as simple as putting a tape emulation on every track, unfortunately.

I have no doubt that this is 100% absolutely true.

Like I said, I never claimed to be any good at this stuff. If I were, I wouldn't be here right now asking stupid questions.

Should have gone to school for this stuff back in the 70s instead of taking composition in school.

You don't need to go to school to do this. You do need to have listened to a lot of different music and productions that have come out over the years and try and understand and learn how they achieved various sounds and vibes. When I hear something in a track, or the whole track itself, that I like, I try and replicate the vibe myself and that teaches me a) how to critically listen to determine what will sound good and b) to identify when I have achieved the sound I am going for.

Your music has all the foundational stuff needed. You tracks are basically good demos. But, all the tracking and everything needed to make a professional sound is there. It's just that next level of finesse to get the mix and the mastering to smooth everything out and give it a nice polish.

But to that aim, there is no easy way to get there. One thing you could do is go through each track in a mix and work on each track independently: massage the track so that tonally and dynamically it sounds polished while keeping whole project in mind. then start mixing them together in groups and making tweeks as you go so that as you add more tracks to the mix, you don't deviate from an over-all good sound.

One thing I that I find helps to get there quickly is iZotope Neutron. On some projects, I put Neutron on my tracks after all the track effects once I have them dialed in. I use the track assistant in Neutron set to what I think is appropriate for the track. Usually what results is a pretty good sound close to where I want things to be. It's not a silver bullet though - it will get you further along, if it works, but not to that higher level of polish.

An example of the use of Neutron is on this track. every track has Neutron on it as mentioned and I just left them set as the track assistant set them because in general I think it worked out ok. This can save time and effort if it works out. Sometimes with Neutron what it suggests is not on the mark and I have to abandon using it. But Neutron might help you get a more polished sound with minimal effort. But you still need to determine if the result sounds good/better or not and know when abandon or adjust to get where you want to go. Simply slapping Neutron on tracks won't necessarily help unless you think it helps.

https://soundcloud.com/musicofplexus/al ... logy-today

First off, let me say that if you think I don't appreciate all this help, I do. More than you can ever imagine.

Okay, listened to your track. Very well done. Reminds me of Alan Parsons.

What I need, and I know this is never going to happen, is somebody who is actually good at this stuff to sit next to me while I do a song and show me what I'm hearing and not hearing that's right, wrong or whatever. See, I'll put something on a track like a desk or whatever and I don't hear any difference at all. I have to go to extreme settings just to hear it do something. I'm getting better with compression using Fabfilter C. I can hear the differences between gentle wide and pumped to the radio. So there's hope for me.

I want to do something like this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXrzSTtFOaw

I have zero clue where to begin as far as getting this kind of mix. I can hear the instruments. I know what I need to use as far as they go. But getting that overall sound? You might as well ask me to do advanced calculus.

When you know close to nothing, how can you possibly know where to begin to get that sound?

Let's start with the guitar and the underlying bass that gives it that deep chug, chug thing. Not a clue. I guess I'd put a compressor on the guitar as well as distortion and overdrive and play low power chords. Not sure what I'd do with the bass to get it to sit right in there with the guitar.

Just getting that much right would take me forever and I'd never get there, not without help.

So that's what I need. I know it's not happening but that's what I need. I've tried doing this mixing thing on my own now for 40 years. I've gotten better. I mean as bad as I was, I couldn't get worse. But I've reached a point where I'm not going to get better than I am without somebody to hold my hand and show me things that I'm never going to figure out on my own.