IK and Gavin Lurssen set to unveil revolutionary mastering product at NAMM 2016

[ghettosynth]

Yeah, that was pretty much the song, "turd in the grass, potato in the turd."

Just think What Ik`s new product could do for that song though!!

See, that sounds like a challenge for my musical alter-ego. Clearly, one ego isn't enough for me so I have an alter ego that I force to record absolute crap whenever I get stuck. Well, I mean everything that I record is absolute crap, but this is badly recorded crap that is intentionally crap creatively. It's sort of what you'd expect if Rebecca Black's Weird Al counterpart parodied Barney (the children's show) tunes.

I'm imagining a track that is way too long, like an SNL skit where you get the joke in the first three seconds, the next ten seconds are a little funny, then after that you're just wishing that it would stop. It would consist of nothing but two voices that are obviously my voice with a bad attempt to make it sound like two children's voices, some backyard ambiance, and some, well, other ambiance from the diy-air kit.

http://bit.do/diy-air-kit

[do_androids_dream]

Mastering is about being a master of compromises. Threading the thin red line of what should and should not be done, sprinkled with subjective taste, always working towards a common denominator - translation.

How much mastering have you done? Of your own music? Of other peoples? Because I speak from experience - over 1000 tracks so far.. and what you're saying just seems like meaningless, pretty, made up nonsense rhetoric phrases that indicate a lack of actual knowledge on the subject.

Well, I do know mastering takes quite a bit of people skills to be successful (at least back when I started and people actually came to the studio for attended sessions.. which is rare now). What got your panties in a knot?

I've been on and off mastering since late 90's. Started out as an adventure and turned out to be my main living in the mid naughties and am currently considering going back to it.

I'm sure I've done 1000 tracks by now. I've done a few top 20 chart albums here in Finland back in the day in case you want to start going the "my dick is bigger than your dick" route.

The meaningless rhetoric you say that I spew actually has a point and I firmly believe in it. I can explain it further in case you are truly interested but going from your attitude I feel like it may perhaps be a waste of time to both of us.

Bmanic, I'm sorry mate - I put a general apology in the reply to scorb too. I got my knickers in a twist and related it the guff in the op video. Gotta chillout about this stuff (talking to myself).. I just get so tired of plugins being promoted as the answer to everything - the thread already put me in a bad mood so apologies there.

[antithesist]

Mastered or mass-turd?

Perfect!

[antithesist]

Mastering is about being a master of compromises. Threading the thin red line of what should and should not be done, sprinkled with subjective taste, always working towards a common denominator - translation.

How much mastering have you done? Of your own music? Of other peoples? Because I speak from experience - over 1000 tracks so far.. and what you're saying just seems like meaningless, pretty, made up nonsense rhetoric phrases that indicate a lack of actual knowledge on the subject.

Bladerunner re-enters the mastering mosh pit!

Many MEs enter, only one leaves...

Call back if and when that's a thousand records, rather than a hundred or so, junior.

[antithesist]

See you came to your senses a little... you may call back at 500 records.

[do_androids_dream]

Sense? My sense slowly dwindles as I sit staring at this screen everyday.. as each waveform starts to resemble a plank of wood at labels request.. lol

[ghettosynth]

If a product comes along that can do better than I can to do in my space I'd probably buy it and use it on my material that I value. I might even be tempted to pick it up if it provides an education as part of using it. For example I learned to track live drums better by using products like BFD. It isn't a perfect substitute for real drummers but the education you get by experimenting with mic bleed and kit pieces within software is invaluable as the knowledge gained translates to live recording.

I completely concur with all of this. I only developed mixing chops thru having proper tools, and the software I rely on is called a 'mastering suite'.

Scotty's example is pretty clear and I've learned from those kinds of drum products as well, although I don't use those kinds of drums very often, still, I get the process. Can you elaborate a bit? I suppose that you would have to talk about "the tools", but, I'm less interested in the tools, per se, than the process that you used to learn from them and how the features and qualities of the tools facilitated that process?

[bmanic]

Mastering is about being a master of compromises. Threading the thin red line of what should and should not be done, sprinkled with subjective taste, always working towards a common denominator - translation.

How much mastering have you done? Of your own music? Of other peoples? Because I speak from experience - over 1000 tracks so far.. and what you're saying just seems like meaningless, pretty, made up nonsense rhetoric phrases that indicate a lack of actual knowledge on the subject.

Well, I do know mastering takes quite a bit of people skills to be successful (at least back when I started and people actually came to the studio for attended sessions.. which is rare now). What got your panties in a knot?

I've been on and off mastering since late 90's. Started out as an adventure and turned out to be my main living in the mid naughties and am currently considering going back to it.

I'm sure I've done 1000 tracks by now. I've done a few top 20 chart albums here in Finland back in the day in case you want to start going the "my dick is bigger than your dick" route.

The meaningless rhetoric you say that I spew actually has a point and I firmly believe in it. I can explain it further in case you are truly interested but going from your attitude I feel like it may perhaps be a waste of time to both of us.

Bmanic, I'm sorry mate - I put a general apology in the reply to scorb too. I got my knickers in a twist and related it the guff in the op video. Gotta chillout about this stuff (talking to myself).. I just get so tired of plugins being promoted as the answer to everything - the thread already put me in a bad mood so apologies there.

Hey no worries there. You may not have noticed but I actually agree with you (in this very same thread).

I think we have perhaps helped IK with their promotion enough so it's perhaps time to retire from this thread.

Cheers!

[Scotty]

Sure I can elaborate. Take an amp modelling simulations for example. I have a studio that is well equipped. I record bands, solo artists and my own material. When I got started with recording I always used amp simulators because I didn't have an isolated recording space and family and neighbours would complain. Over time amp sims added new features. You could swap out an amplified head, change the cabinets, microphones and sometimes even the room. When I started to record live guitarists in my studio many wanted to have their amp cabs mic'd. I would ask in advance what amp they wanted to record and of course I would know the genre that they were working with. I'd call up the amplifier model in advance and play with virtual mic placement. It gave my ear a sense of what I could expect by recording blended mic settings with near / far , on axis , off axis mic placement as well as a variety of mic types (condensers, dynamics). By the time the artist showed up I'd have a mic setup in mind and I could talk intelligently about the tone we were going after.

If I was recording full time I'd have accumulated this knowledge over years of experiences. This passion is a source of secondary income for me so I don't have 60 hours a week multiplied by 20 years of experience from which to draw. This would be invaluable but I simply don't have it. The software tools educated my ear as I was able to use the tools as a high quality simulator for live recording situations.

Mic placement on amplifiers is just one example. Universal Audio has a plugin called Ocean way which puts your artist in a high quality space and lets you play with mic choices and placement. I can tell you that I record my acoustic guitars in a much more informed manner now. You can hear what a few milliseconds of room delay does to your sound and when combined with the visual feedback you have a rough sense of what you can do within a given space. Tools like this give me more confidence in a live off the floor situation because I have experimented in the virtual domain in a very efficient manner. Swapping mics and dragging tripods in Ocean Way is a doddle and you can immediately hear the results.

These tools are often more than passable in a mix, at least to my ears, but I can confidently state that I am better recording live, and more knowledgeable than I would otherwise be due to hours spent with this endlessly entertaining virtual studio laboratory.

I can go on... take any of the drum environments such as BFD or Addictive drums and dial up a preset. Observe what compression, distortion and other processors is doing to the sound; follow the signal chain and listen. Swap out a virtual kit pieces... what you don't have 20 snares laying about? ... From the software you can get an idea of what snare you might want rent or borrow to use on the live track. It would take hours just to recreate one signal chain in a live drum environment that can be instantly previewed in software. In the software realm instant experimentation is available.

There are times when the virtual experience gives you a sense of where the limits may be found. I am now more confident saying "that's it.... lets hit record" because I have a better sense if I am in the zone or off the mark. This keeps you from losing hours chasing something that may not be worth the effort as it pertains to the overall mix.

Again there is no substitute for experiences obtained over years of working with hardware in a variety of spaces but this software environment certainly gives you some of that exposure. I suggest that it also enables very efficient learning especially if you are at once observant and curious. Just my thoughts. - Scotty

If a product comes along that can do better than I can to do in my space I'd probably buy it and use it on my material that I value. I might even be tempted to pick it up if it provides an education as part of using it. For example I learned to track live drums better by using products like BFD. It isn't a perfect substitute for real drummers but the education you get by experimenting with mic bleed and kit pieces within software is invaluable as the knowledge gained translates to live recording.

I completely concur with all of this. I only developed mixing chops thru having proper tools, and the software I rely on is called a 'mastering suite'.

Scotty's example is pretty clear and I've learned from those kinds of drum products as well, although I don't use those kinds of drums very often, still, I get the process. Can you elaborate a bit? I suppose that you would have to talk about "the tools", but, I'm less interested in the tools, per se, than the process that you used to learn from them and how the features and qualities of the tools facilitated that process?

[ghettosynth]

Sure I can elaborate. Take an amp modelling simulations for example. I have a studio that is well equipped. I record bands, solo artists and my own material. When I got started with recording I always used amp simulators because I didn't have an isolated recording space and family and neighbours would complain. Overtime amp sims added new features. You could swap out a amplified head, change the cabinets, microphones and sometimes even the room. When I started to record live guitarist in my studio many wanted to have their amp cabs mic'd. I would ask in advance what amp the had and of course I would know the genre that they were working with. I'd call up the amplifier model in advance and play with virtual mic placement. It gave my ear a sense of what I could expect by recording blended mic settings with near / far , on axis , off axis mic placement as well as a variety of mic types (condensers, dynamics). By the time the artist showed up I'd have a mic setup in mind and I could talk intelligently about the tone we were going after. If I was recording full time I'd have accumulated this knowledge over years of experiences. This passion is a source of secondary income for me so I don't have 60 hours a week multiplied by 20 years of experience, This would be invaluable but I simply don't have it. The software tools educated my ear as I was able to use the tools as a high quality simulator for live recording situations. Mic placement on amplifiers is just one example. Universal Audio has a plugin called Ocean way which puts your artist in a high quality space and lets you play with mic choices and placement. I can tell you that I record my acoustic guitars in a much more informed manner now. You can hear what a few milliseconds of room delay does to your sound combined with the visual feedback. You can appreciate how widening the stereo image may or may not produce the sound you are after. Tools like this give me more confidence in a live off the floor situation because I have experimented in the virtual domain in a very efficient manner. Swapping mics and dragging tripods in Ocean Way is a virtual exercise and you can immediately hear the results. These tools are often more than passable in a mix, at least to my ears, but I can confidently state that I am better recording live, and more knowledgeable than I would otherwise be due to hours spent with this endlessly entertaining virtual studio laboratory. I can go on... take any of the drum environments such as BFD or Addictive drums and dial up a preset. Observe what compression is doing to the sound, follow the signal chain and listen. It would take hours just to recreate one signal chain in a live drum environment. In the software realm instant experimentation is available Again there is no substitute for the real experience obtained over years but this software environment certainly gives you some of that exposure, and I suggest very efficiently, especially if you are observant and curious. Just my thoughts. - Scotty

Thanks for the detail Scotty. The ocean way plugin is interesting, and I don't have any easy way to experiment with mic placement, but that's not really what I was trying to get at. I was pretty clear on the use of amp sims and drum products, sorry if my message wasn't clear. I was hoping that jancivil elaborate on her experiences with more detail.

[Scotty]

Well that is funny.. I blew a lot of words on that.... I'll Iet Jancivil chime in now.

[ghettosynth]

Well that is funny.. I blew a lot of words on that.... I'll Iet Jancivil chime in now.

Well, just view it as help for someone else for whom the details weren't quite clear.

[incubus]

Haha! Very true

For me, it's simply that I hang out in the effects forum rather than anywhere else. This whole thread should probably be in the "Everything Else" or "Off Topic" forum, but that's a mod's decision and IK probably pay for a fair wedge of ad space on KVR so that ain't gonna happen.

@android...

I hear you mate, I spend too much time here as well (especially when bouncing!!) and there are a lot of pundits here with no real industry experience. However, Bmanic isn't one of them imho.

Anyway, it's Saturday night so time to get a beer or three!

Cheers

Scorb

Well, it's all cool and everything. I just kvr (and many other forums) are funny.

Anyways, I'm ready for IK to take my money for the multi-band potato.

[incubus]

This thread is absolutely hysterical!

Some company announces a product with a tad of hyperbole and now everyone is discussing every single detail of minutia about being into mastering/the evils of it, how good/bad everyone is.......

And we don't even know what the product is

It's obviously a multi-band potato.

I'm in. As long as it's not a multi-BLAND potato.

[ghettosynth]

Haha! Very true

For me, it's simply that I hang out in the effects forum rather than anywhere else. This whole thread should probably be in the "Everything Else" or "Off Topic" forum, but that's a mod's decision and IK probably pay for a fair wedge of ad space on KVR so that ain't gonna happen.

@android...

I hear you mate, I spend too much time here as well (especially when bouncing!!) and there are a lot of pundits here with no real industry experience. However, Bmanic isn't one of them imho.

Anyway, it's Saturday night so time to get a beer or three!

Cheers

Scorb

Well, it's all cool and everything. I just kvr (and many other forums) are funny.

Anyways, I'm ready for IK to take my money for the multi-band potato.