ITB mixing vs. OTB - Audio Samples

I didn't really notice it before, but listening to it a little louder on headphones I think it is either someone taking a breathe or a shirt rub kind of thing.  I'll have to go through the individual tracks to find out.  I'm going to finish it up tomorrow as well as the other songs I'm doing for them and will let you know.

-Tony

Nice mix by the way!  I like the way the instruments blend together.

Thanks, Joel.  There are a couple minor things I want to touch up, but they're happy with it (as am I, less importantly )

The noise you may be hearing may also be the noise floor on the male vocal.  After listening some more with headphones, I notice the noise floor on his track is noticeable and the thing I'm hearing that I think is what you're hearing is only there when he sings.  Thanks for pointing it out (thumbs up!). 

-Tony

I've been fighting with this question a lot lately. I built a NYDave summer recently.  You seem to have reached the same conclusion I have:

1. The difference is there but it's nominal. In my experience, I could futz with the parameters of my mix to achieve the same result.
2. The fun starts when you start playing with makeup preamps.
3. Neither product is bad.

For me, #2 has been really cool. I've been switching between my SSL9k pres, a pair of Vintech x73s, and a pair of RCA BA-31b's and the subtle differences have been really satisfying. Maybe I'll post some clips at some point. 

That said, I wish the difference were more noticeable.  I essentially used $3000+ worth of equipment for an end result that most people wouldn't really notice over an easy bounce in PT

Click to expand...

Using outboard gear into my summing mixer is where things really start to leave ITB behind for me. Much more than the summing itself.

There's something about pushing things through all those 1176's, Forssells, GSSLs that seem to give my mixes the sense you can reach your hand in and feel things, as opposed to the ITB mix, which although nice, sounds like a recording of something, rather than sounding like the musicians are right there in front of you.

Lowfreq,

Agreed.  I think that's what I really liked about the "sound of the console".  Not so much the console summing, but the combined sum (no pun intended) of using a variety of outboard gear. 

I'm about to build a LA-2A and dual 1176, so I'm excited to see what those can add to the mix.  ;D

That also means I'm looking around at patch bays and will probably have to drop more money than I want   With the cost of TT bays, I'm tempted to look into building one myself as I've found some reasonably priced jacks... but that would just take forever... someone talk me out of that idea, please.   

THere's a pic floating around somewhere that should talk you out of wiring your own patchbays...SSL Tech?

I bought 4 different TT patchbays on Ebay for about 25$ a piece.  I bought a spool of balanced cable for about 50$ and about 100 TRS/XLR connectors from Ebay too for about 50$.  I then bought probably 50 TT patch cables in different lots for about 100$ total.

I have ALL of my 24 inputs going to a patchbay so that I can patch any mic on any channel to any preamp on the console or in the rack.  From there I can patch any preamp to any effect or straight to the recorder.  Same for inserts, Auxes and outputs.

I can patch anything to anything and spent less than 400$.  I just had to wire it all up myself which took forever but I saved thousands of $$$ doing it and I was able to do it how I wanted to do it.

It was probably the single best thing I've done to the studio.

That's an interesting idea.  I had my eye on one of those new Switchcraft boxes since they're db25 on the back which would be easy for most of my gear and I have a couple appropriate snakes already.  The 64 point one is $700 though  

I'll have to keep an eye on ebay and the black market.