songfight recording reference guide

[the idiot king]

would anyone be interested in contributing to some sort of collected (and non-biased) reference page? i think it could be a helpful idea for those new to recording and whatnot, and we could cover everything from monitors, a/d and d/a, plug-ins, dynamic, spectral, and time based effects, mp3 conversion, etc. i've got a decent amount of schooling in all of this, and i know i am not the only person here who has a bit of knowledge on the subject based on a lot of the recordings here.

anyone?

[tonetripper]

I think possibly the issue of having a thread dedicated to this type of thing is that there seems like a bunch of smaller threads already dedicated to the specifics to what you speak of. I agree with you about this thread, myself, but it might seem to get tricky to plant it all in here and then have people sifting over pages about one specific thing, such as, say, monitors.

That being said can you be more specific about what this thread is trying to entail. Is it links to products or reviews of products or just a "how to" kind of thread? Or are you speaking of a page out in cyber-space that people could go to?

[the idiot king]

Or are you speaking of a page out in cyber-space that people could go to?

i'm not sure, although i was kind of leaning towards that. don't get me wrong, the forum is great for q + a and whatnot, and we'd never be able to cover everything in the guide anyway. but with weeklong deadlines, sometimes it could make or break a fighter if they can have their question about mp3 conversion answered immediately at 12:30 on the due date, you know?

[tonetripper]

Well if that's the case then I totally would be into throwing down in the info department. I'd even offer up the page in cyber-space if need be.

[jb]

there was a looooong thread about this a while ago, but nothing ever came of it. i'm in favor and willing to contribute, but not willing to run or maintain it. i'm willing to host it though, on songfight.net. come up with a name and i'll give you an account and a subdomain; perhaps you'd want to use a wiki.

jb

[j$]

I think a wiki would be a great idea - though i clearly have no real skills when it comes to the actual technique, I am more than happy to help do the fgruntwork of compiling and compressing of what's already up there ...

j$

[tonetripper]

I had no idea that you can actually put info into Wiki. That's cool. Anyway, that's a definite way to go with this kind of thing.

[Kamakura]

Excellent idea!

[ken]

I propose "Gearscussion" as in http://gearscussion.songfight.net.

I suggest it be less of a how to, and more of a compiling of favorites.

For example:

Soundcards:
I use a Mark of the Unicorn 828 mk2 - ken
I use the Protools Mbox - Jack Shite

Where to put your mic:
In front of whatever is making the sound - Blue Lang

Microphones:
Can't go wrong with an Shure SM57 - everyone

Something like that.

Perhaps a webpage with tables would work well.

Ken

[the idiot king]

I propose "Gearscussion" as in http://gearscussion.songfight.net.

I suggest it be less of a how to, and more of a compiling of favorites.

i like that idea, but there are some issues that aren't strictly opinion. i mean things like the nyquist theorem and sampling rates, frequency range, microphone polar patterns, etc. although a subdivision where we discuss our gear and ways in which said gear performs well and poorly would be great, too.

the reason i thought of this was because i saw a lot of people popping in with questions, and i thought it would be cool if there was a basic "how to" that could be added to as time goes on. that way, people can spend less time waiting for a response to their problem and more time working on songs. also, hopefully, we can all learn from it and each other.

questions will still arise, for sure, but we can simply add them to the database when they pop up.

i can't program wiki, but i'd be willing to program something rudimentary if there are no takers on this.

[Lunkhead]

A wiki would be perfect for this. This would be awesome!! I was brainstorming a minute about how to organize things, maybe something like this, though of course it would get fleshed out over time:

http://www.bozos.com/music_wiki.html

EDIT:

I actually have a wiki set up, though with default templates. I hadn't had any ideas for what to do with it yet, so it's been sitting empty for a while. I'd be willing to donate it if people want to start working on this.

[Kamakura]

Perhaps a webpage with tables would work well.

only if the waitresses are pretty. Wiki is better.

[jb]

It's probably better to just start with an open wiki and have people just add as they see fit, and have somebody else edit as they see fit, moving stuff around, making stuff coherent.

Rather than start with a grand plan, I mean. Grand plans tend to get stuck in the planning stage. I don't see a need to limit the topics to anything other than "It must be about making music."

So idiot king, gimme a name (or I'll get Deep Throat to come up with one if you prefer), I'll make an account, and you can go from there. It was your idea, and you just went through music school right? I think you're in charge of getting the ball rolling.

JB

[the idiot king]

It's probably better to just start with an open wiki and have people just add as they see fit, and have somebody else edit as they see fit, moving stuff around, making stuff coherent.

Rather than start with a grand plan, I mean. Grand plans tend to get stuck in the planning stage. I don't see a need to limit the topics to anything other than "It must be about making music."

So idiot king, gimme a name (or I'll get Deep Throat to come up with one if you prefer), I'll make an account, and you can go from there. It was your idea, and you just went through music school right? I think you're in charge of getting the ball rolling.

JB

yeah, still in school for recording. goddamned live sound, it's the only class i need to be there for before i finish in december.

i agree with an open sort of "donate articles" sort of format. this would go well with questions that pop up on the side, and the answerer of said question jumping in to submit the question and answer. i can keep an eye out on this sort of thing anyway (even if i'm going through one of my few months of silence i tend to do around here), because i really don't think there are enough resources like this on the web. i'd really like to see it happen, and more so, i really want to help people who want help. above all, i'd like for it to be in the vernacular so it's not like reading a textbook.

i'm not too concerned about the name itself. if people want to include songwriting advice and whatnot (which wasn't my initial intention, but i'm not opposed to this), we could even just go lame with something like the reference desk. if it's more geared towards recording and whatnot, i'm drawing a blank. deep throat may need to get creative.

i'll start writing away. i already have a paper i wrote on the school's collection of microphones (a collection of about 30 well known and used mics, ranging from 58s to shure ksm44s) that includes polar patterns, frequency responses, sensitivity, and common uses that we can basically throw right in (i'd like to edit it first). i can write an introduction to compression/limiting/expanding(gating) if you guys would like. i think a good idea is for all interested people to find an area of expertise, let us know about it, and start writing away. a collection of ten articles or so is a fine start.


edit: isn't there a songwriting resources link on the main page?

[deshead]

Perhaps a webpage with tables would work well.

only if the waitresses are pretty. Wiki is better.

Ken's suggestion could even fit within a wiki. (Or am I stating the obvious?) I think gear lists are great, especially for beginners, because discovering what tools exist to solve a problem is often a huge challenge for neophytes.

Anyway, the whole centralized reference is a great idea regardless.

[Dan-O from Five-O]

Perhaps a webpage with tables would work well.

only if the waitresses are pretty. Wiki is better.

Ken's suggestion could even fit within a wiki. (Or am I stating the obvious?) I think gear lists are great, especially for beginners, because discovering what tools exist to solve a problem is often a huge challenge for neophytes.

Anyway, the whole centralized reference is a great idea regardless.

My 2 cents are this: I would love to see an incorporation of both of these ideas, technical and user experience based. How about something like letting Idiot King build the format and leave room for Wiki input, hence fact / opinion / user reviews?

[the idiot king]

so what's the current status of this venture?

[deshead]

I guess it's sitting in limbo.

Would this help? http://www.schtuff.com/

I have a crapload of cheat sheets (common EQ settings, compressor settings, BPM/delay maps, that type of thing) I can add to the cause to help get things started.

[jb]

Gimme a few days yet to get this up.

J

[the idiot king]

Gimme a few days yet to get this up.

J

ok, cool. i wasn't trying to add pressure, i was just trying to make sure there was still interest.

[Kamakura]

Here's a really useful reference site
http://www.saecollege.de/reference_material/index.html
after it loads click on index in the menu

and another good forum
http://johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/index.php

[pegor]

I'm pretty ignorant about recording but I found the archives at prorec.com to be valuable. This articale about EQ was very cool
http://www.prorec.com/prorec/articles.n ... D6001E69A8

This description of a real recording process was great
http://www.prorec.com/prorec/articles.n ... enDocument

I would kill to see some of the SF production gods do simular articles on winning fight entries

I dont know how well this would all fit into a wiki but it would be valuable to us noobs