BobP wrote:>> The way he handles the eq and Levelizer plugs are great. If amp had just those plugs, and some method of recording, id be happy. As it stands, the tool kit looks good, that would make it great.
Brent,
Why would you want a plugin when the channel strip already has that built-in? You can copy / paste them if you want... Even just right-click and copy from source, and right-click and paste on destination... What a concept!
I keep a library of settings for each microphone on each speaker. I have three or four different types of monitors and mains and lots of mic options. The first time I ring out mic X on speaker Y, I make a plugin preset of ONLY those feedback points. When I buy a monitor (or use one) I do a base EQ to make it sound awesome. I've built up a library of thirty or so most used combinations which i can patch in as I go. When I go to set up a monitors on my system, it goes something like this:
i'm using a Yamaha CM12V wedge so I patch a base shaping EQ preset for that monitor called "CM12V Base". Monitor now sounds awesome with playback. I'm using Sennheiser 835 vocal mics, so I patch the "CM12V S835" preset All of the ring points for 835s are now gone. I'm using Samson C02 instrument micas, so I patch the "CM12V SCO2" preset. All of those ring points gone. I'm using a Da Cappo headset, patch "CM12V Da06," rings gone.
Next monitor wedge is a PAS 12. Patch "PAS 12 Base." Sounds great. Patch "PAS12 S835,"..... etc.
This takes about 2 mins per monitor wedge. Nothing rings, everything on stage sounds awesome, I almost never get a complaint after I set up their mix the first time. This workflow is fast, effective, and has been working for me for 3 years. I've built up presets for most of my mics and wedges. If I take a mic off the stage, i can remove its feedback points ONLY, or QUICKLY add a new set mid show if I need to. A simple copy and paste isn't enough to do that.
For the compressor plug, I've built up multi stage compressors to automate my recording mixes. I get VERY nice mixes for streaming feeds, CD recording, etc, which are perfectly compressed and limited with several stages of the built in compressor plug. It works great.
How many tracks do you want to record?,
It varies. On many shows I have 2 record feeds set up, one mastered for speech, the other for music. I typically do this on SAC Mix 24, mostly set post fader with minor tweaks. I use submasters on that mix to do group compression when needed. When it comes time to cut a master CD I cut and paste between the two mixes and the CD, usually comes out nice. It's a manual process though, since it's 2 instantiations of a plugin which have to be started and stopped separately, and max out at about 4 hours of record time, and the recording isn't saved if you hit the max and shut down SAC without clicking a button that's hid behind the SAC window. What would be nice is to be able to have syncronized recording accross all active inputs and outputs, selectable for each one in a simple matrix view (ie. record this, dont' record that, with preset save capability), and controlled with a single transport. In practice, I've never needed more than four or five stems... but I've never access to even that many. There's too much drift between instantiations of the Tapeit plug to be useful. The problem with the way SAC 4 does it is that you can record 8 outputs to SAW, but only O1-O8 on each mixer can be recorded. that means if you want to do stems (which are typically done with O9-O16) you have to pass them along to a master out. If you want to do 8 on your FOH mix so they'll track changes to the stem busses, you're out of luck. You'll have to offload at least one to a monitor mixer (you lose a recordable stem on the FOH mix with every extra output, such as a sub mix or surround mix, etc), which then has to be updated as you change stem assignments. The ladder is broken on a very high rung, but it's broken nonetheless. Then... you have to buy a $1200 full featured program to do any recording at all. That's bogus.
So... that's my gripe. For a program that descended from a DAW, it's really poorly designed in that area.
Now... here's a novel idea to tie the two together. Create a plug patch point at multiple points along each channel (pre and post each processing session) which could host a GEQ or PEQ plug, compression plug, reverb plug, delay plug, etc (all your own, no need to incorporate VST for these, you have most of the code already). Then... add a plug for recording. All the recording plugs are synchronized into a transport... heck... you could have multiple transport instantiations and have them selectable per plug instantiation... that would be super cool. Having flexible points to plug in stuff would be awesome.
Also... since I did a show on the X32 last week, this is in my head... a RTA graph superimposed on any PEQ and GEQ instance (built in or plugged in) is really cool. No need to juggle two windows that way... and having a side chain input for the RTA would be cool so you can see either the bus or a measurement mic (or both?!).
So... that's my wish list... LOL. I'll probably be sending you some money within a couple of weeks anyway... but there you go.