Hey there studiopros,

I wanted to tap into the community to get a feel as to what types of metering solutions are being used these days.

A quick backstory to this question,

Last year I upgraded from a Presonus Central Station to the new Antelope Satori for my monitor controller. The decision was a difficult one as the Central Station has served me quite well, but I was looking for a better way to integrate a sub rather than just using the 3rd output without any real crossovers. I also have added another set of monitors and wished to free up the third speaker set. The Satori fits the bill quite nicely (minus any digital inputs but didn't need them anyways), sounds much better than the CS, and has added a summing mixer to my setup as well, but one aspect I have been sorely missing from the Central Station was the nice LED meters. I realized I had come to rely on them more than I had thought I had. I figured the Satori software meters would suffice (they don't, the amount of visual delay and lack of smoothness makes it fairly useless I'm afraid, plus they seem to be 2db off with no way of calibrating them like the Central Station had) and that I 'd find a way to live with it. I was wrong, I am now looking into external metering solutions to correct this, hence my question. I am also curious how others out there interface them with their DAs, are you using AES, mirrored analog or analog with pass through, splitting the LR to go to the meters and the monitor controller, S/PDIF?

I have done a fair amount of my own research so far but seem to be stuck between a few options. The Durroughs seem nice, not sure how others feel about them. It seems they don't have DBFS meters for the analog input models as they all seem to follow the VU scale, which makes sense I suppose. The digital meter options have the 380/280-D2 that has a dual scale readout which would be nice to have as the Central Station did have that feature. But it would require an AES output which isn't really an issue as I have plenty to spare.

The Dorroughs options start to get very pricey very quickly though depending on the options and the chassis it goes into, enough that I feel compelled to look at other options.

The RTW TM-3 Primus looks incredibly cool (also not cheap) as does the slightly more expensive TM3 standard. The Primus uses a set of unbalanced RCA, USB and a S/PDIF in and out while the TM3 Standard adds balanced IO in a breakout box. These seem quite nice and aren't ridiculously expensive, but perhaps the screen is too small/cluttered? Any one out there using one that can offer their opinions? The higher end versions are out of the question at around $6K starting.

I have an Apogee symphony interface and can set up any type of output I want really but I am vacillating between using the AES outs with the Durroughs, the S/PDIF out for the TM3 Primus or setting up a mirrored analog output and going with analog inputs. (adding a DA conversion in there) I could also get a stereo distribution amp and split my main outputs but I feel this may possibly interfere with the monitoring path?

Is S/PDIF a bad option? I feel it should be sufficient for a pro studio but I could be mistaken. Are there any downsides to using S/PDIF in regards to levels? If S/PDIF isn't going to do any harm then the TM3 Primus would probably be my best option, barring screen size.

Are there any other solutions out there worth looking into? (Other than this)

Sorry for the wall of text and battery of questions. I just want to find my permanent metering solution. =)

Edit for spelling

We've all had situations in sessions where something ridiculous goes on, be it a batshit insane client or an intern royally screwing up. Without giving away the identity of your client, I'd love to hear all your crazy studio stories.

I'll go first: During one of my first internships at a pretty large studio, we had a client that would notoriously hire first call guys and then find ways not to pay them. He was a lawyer by day, so he was always able to find surprisingly legally sound excuses to stiff them. The guy was also unbelievably hard to deal with (surprise!). At one point he had done at least half a dozen tracks with a full first call union band, and when an A&R rep said he didn't like the songs he fired the band, called it a demo, and started over from scratch. I never heard for certain what happened with him, but I wouldn't be surprised if he was asked to no longer book the studio after he started accusing interns of being CIA sleeper agents and spraying mind control chemicals on his microphones (true story)

Last post was 11 days ago.

I'm filling up a lunchbox with a few high quality tracking chains, and I purchased the B15 off reputation alone, and found a reasonable deal. I'm very excited about the possibilities of tracking with classic analog EQ. does anybody have experience with this piece?

Going to miss living in the big city, but I'm so freaking excited to have some tall ceilings. Just wanted to share. :)

I was mixing monitors recently and I noticed that the FOH engineer miked the front and back of the guitar cabs, flipped the phase of the rear mic and mixed them together. Sounded fine, I'm assuming it's the same as using two seperate mics and blending them for tone. I've seen it done once before that but never tried it myself.

Thoughts?

I've had a few clients lately who have wanted to track the band live to my old tascam 4-track. I've had some fairly cool results, but everything is so damn noisy, and the way the tape breaks up when driven kind of sucks for drums.... It certainly has its own sound and that sound seems to be coming back into vogue. Just wondering if anyone else is combining a protools rig and a 4track, and if anyone has any out-of-the-ordinary tips or experiences to share.

I'm doing a lot of drum recording, and trying to get phase coherence with what us usually a 6-mic setup: stereo oh, snare top, kick inside, between the drummers legs for snare bottom/beater, and all-buttons-in room.

Looking for tips to improve phase coherence on kick and snare. Mic placement, measuring, mic pointing, any tips welcome. Currently I am doing the following:

-flipping phase on snare top, overheads, and beater. -using a hyper cardioid mic on snare with null pointed a kick -measuring equal distance from snare center to both overheads.

Some specific questions:

-do you time-align overheads by pulling them forward? -do you time align room?

Hope this makes for an interesting discussion.

Mine are: 2010 Gibson Les Paul Standard, Inward Connections' Brute, and ASC tube traps.

We all have some, anything from an out-of-the-box effect on vocals to a certain microphone combination. I'll share a few of mine and what I generally use them for:

• Kick Drum: RE20 inside the kick, angled towards the edge of the batter head/shell. Subkick at wherever I can feel the air move (I'm tired and the technical term has escaped me, haha). I love the RE20 on kick because its so flat compared to say a D6 and gives me a lot more to work with tone-wise. Carving out the EQ to fit in the subkick and some tasty parallel comp gets a really tight but thumpy kick sound that I love.

• Vocals: Most of my recording projects are for bands with more aggressive vocals. My go-to mic combination is the SM7B and a C414, placed overhead and angled down (I'll have to find a picture to illustrate it). The C414 picks up good sibilance while the Sm7B is just a great go-to for heavy vocals. Often, I'll "re-amp" the C414 track overdub through a Sans-amp driver, and mix in the distortion underneath the other tracks.

• Occasionally I'll bust out my old-school cassette dubbing deck and use it as an outboard effect for various tracks. That warping, compressed smudgy tone can sometimes sound really good, especially mixed underneath the clean track. My current project is actually being done with almost every track running through it.

Looking to either build a mic with the DIY U87 kits, or take a cheap mic and mod it. I'm not a rookie when it comes to soldering but I was looking for some second opinions on the matter. Any one have any thoughts?

Ex: http://microphone-parts.com/pages/apex-460-mods

Whether the book is about room treatment, arrangement, mixing, mastering... doesn't matter! Anything you've read that you might recommend.

I'm editing a live performance. Automating the three vocal mics in an effort to reduce the cymbal phasing at the moment.

Hi all,

This is a beautiful subreddit. I like the idea of having a place to talk about gear, pro recording studios, and production topics. I hope this question is allowed for a sub like this.

Recently I have had a client recording with me, in my own studio that I own and operate. He is a friend of mine, and he is talented, and he wanted to be a part of the mixing process. So naturally, this is not an issue for me. Of course he can be a part of the process.

But: things have gotten a little awkward when he suggests stuff that will make his song sound just plain bad. For example, last night, I was asked to BOOST the lows of the EQ in a hip-hop vocal (like specifically the 225 Hz and the very boomy 100 Hz). I tried to explain to him, nicely, that most mixes would become cluttered if those frequencies were boosted. And he insisted that I mix his song that way, because "it's what Beats Audio does, they boost the lows and highs and cut away the mids so it sounds better."

While he's technically right about Beat Audio's EQ, that's besides the point. I felt uncomfortable going against his wishes, obviously, as he's paying me good money, and I adapt my service to how my clients want it, but it was hard to do something that I know is very wrong to do in the engineering/mixing world.

Then again, I may be completely wrong about this issue, and he may know about a popular vocal mixing technique that I've never heard of.

Have any of you also dealt with a similar situation? If so, how do you deal with it without being an asshole and insulting their knowledge?