Forget the exclusive leaks and promo material, here’s the backroom production conversation that you’ve been waiting for. DJ Khalil and Tha Bizness have a candid conversation about recording techniques, plugins, Reason, Logic, and the virtues of simplicity.
Takeaways:
- Share information with other producers.
- Simple + sweet = good.
If you’re curious about the AU plug-ins that The Bizness mentioned for enhancing drums, check out IronOxide and Logical from Air Windows. According to the producers, the plug-ins are like “steroids” for your sound.
SOMEBODY TRY IT AND LET ME KNOW WHAT THEY THINK. I AIN’T PUTTIN ALL THAT SHIT ON MY COMPUTER CAUSE I HATE LOADING DEMO PLUGINS AND IT BE LIKE THIS IS A DEMO. IT SLOWS DOWN HOW FAST I CAN PULL PRO TOOLS UP.
Dj Khalil is the truth he makes the best hip hop tracks on reason. The bizness are dope too.
I have Iron Oxide since few months and it s really dope, it simulates a tape recorder, it s easy to use and you can give a real color to your sounds.
I think Ableton can run .AU plugins too
I tried out the demo pack a few months ago and it really does work kinda like they were saying…totally changes the color of the drums and definitely makes everything sound “grittier” and “heavier”
The plug-ins weren’t that expensive either…I think $60 bucks per but I don’t even have that right now…
With the demo, everything works exactly the same except it mutes itself periodically…it’s plenty long enough for you to hear how it works though…sometimes it’ll play for more than a couple minutes at a time before it mutes itself…
WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU TAKE AN OLD 4 TRACK TASCAM MULTITRACK TAPE RECORDER AND RECORD YOUR DRUMS INTO THAT THEN OUT INTO YOUR DAW ? AIN’T THAT REAL TAPE ? WHY IMMULATE TAPE WHEN YOU CAN RECORD REAL TAPE ? I MUST TRY THIS ! YA’LL KNOW WHAT IM TRYING TO DO. I JUST SPARKED AN IDEA IN A FEW HUNDRED PEOPLE .
the point of tape (as it relates to drums) is to record as hot as you can and get that saturation not just recording to tape thats the difference between digital and tape when you clip on digi you get thatcliping sound but when you push it on on tape you get saturation. Dumping it down to 2track on tape and bringing back in2 pt is a pretty standard practice
Truth. Most people in the industry have been doin’ that for years.
Playa if you gonna record to tape you gotta get something that’s gonna do 15ips or 30ips preferred. Cassettes aren’t gonna give you the same sound you’re looking to achieve. Some saturation but no where near what you’ll get on from an affordable 1/4″ Fostex or 1/2″ Tascam reel-t0-reel.
@ silas ‘ yeah
*the point of tape (as it relates to drums) is to record as hot as you can and get that saturation not just recording to tape *
then you say.
*when you clip on digi you get thatcliping sound but when you push it on on tape you get saturation*
you discourage recording to a real physical tape ‘ then basically say use plugins i guess.i don’t understand .
im not talking about 2 tracking or putting the whole beat on a saturation plugin.
im wondering what would happen if you recorded the drums on a cassete tape from your daw ‘ then recording them back in your daw and normalizing them. Will that sound good or sound like shit ? lol
Tony…all you can really do is try it and see what happens. From reading silas’ post, he didn’t discourage you from doing that. In fact, there’s many bands out there that will run their live signal through a multi-track analog tape machine and then into the DAW or whatever recording medium being used in order to get that authentic tape sound.
Also, the point that silas is making is that in the digital world you have to really be careful with your levels, because generally when you clip you will get an audible noise because of the cpu overloading. However, with analog you have a little more leeway. You can hit the red and just as long as their isn’t any audible distortion then you’re okay. I’m not really sure what the science is behind that but it’s what I was taught and in practice it rings true.
The biggest difference I see between using a plug-in and using an actual tape machine is that with a plug-in you have a little more freedom to customize the sound, while with the tape machine your kind of stuck with that sound. However, that unique sound might be exactly what you’re looking for.
In the end, the best thing you can do as a producer is to experiment with what you have and see what happens. Sometimes the best results come by complete accident. I would suggest getting your drums mixed, hook the output up to your tape recorder, record the drums, run it back into your DAW, and then mix it in with your “clean” drums. Maybe throw some effects on it…whatever. Experiment with it. Oh, and be sure to let us hear the results!
hope that helped
fuck, i wish i was there…. could contribute and build… maybe learn some new shit.
CAN THIS BE USED ON A PC BUT ON PRO TOOLS?
I been putting drums to 4 track for a long time and sometimes keys,bass etc. as well. one tip i learned is when you put anything onto a 4 track cut the bass before you record to tape. low frequencies distort faster and eat up more headroom then hi ones. by doing this you can distort (tape saturate)sounds more.you can push the levels more in the red and get that ill grittiness.then you can always add bass back in when its back in your daw.
@RYBE
AU (or Audio Units) plugins can only be used on Mac OS X.
just checked the demos and the logical one is right on point.
Yes i don’t do plug ins either…someone would have to set it up and show me how to use it…lol.
What I want to know is WHICH Lunchbox they’re talking about and WHERE to find it. Found several and think I know the capacity they’re using it in, but the price on it was NO JOKE. Gonna have to twitter ’em. Anyone else up on this “Lunchbox” madness?
Hey Rayn, I wouldn’t worry about getting a lunchbox quite yet. Put simply, a lunchbox is just a small case designed to fit pre-amps or other outboard gear (compressers, EQs, etc). Outboard gear are the physical versions of the plug ins you might know about. The advantage of the lunchbox is that a producer can take it from studio to studio and hook it in with the existing signal chain there. Most of us can’t deny that plug ins can never really compare to good hardware…so the lunchbox can come as an empty box, and you put whatever kind of pre-amps or whatever you want in there. I think what he was saying in the clip is that running signal out of pro tools into one of these things and then back into pro tools was a hassle, so he had to find a software substitute…thus the airwaves plug-ins.
for drums and mastering(maximus fl studio)trust me and i bet ya all my gear on it!!it is th ebest way to get kicks and snares and best mastering ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!its made special for th eoudness wars so you cant go wrong yo!!it saves you somuch time
how do you run something out of protools then back into pro tools ?: wont you get a feedback loop or something ? i been trying to do this for the longest ! have a preamp i wanna test out but i thought i needed a external recorder then run it back in. anyone know how to to this without doing it the uneducated way i was gonna do it lol hit me up. tonyof757@yahoo.com
wait so can I run these plugins on pro tools 8? or only in logic?