Review: Brian Scherman Uses a New Unit Analog Summing Mixer
on their new Recording for Dangerhole. From The Man Made Music Blog "The beauty of analog summing is that it allows one to take advantage of both processes, using the computer for what it’s excellent at (editing, recall, unlimited tracks) and using analog equipment for what it’s best at (immediacy, tone, headroom). There are many excellent boxes on the market for summing audio, but I turned to Unit Audio’s New Unit ' Brian Scherman Man Made Music When I pulled up a song from the record, I found myself scrolling through lots of tracks. It’s typical to have multiple microphones capturing one source (for example, a mic on the inside of the bass drum to capture the click of the beater, and a mic outside to capture the low end sustain of the resonant head), but this means that recording a three-piece band can end up being thirty-plus tracks. In modern production this could even be considered spartan! I knew that to have the best chance at a great mix, I had to get my head out of the details and into the bigger “picture” of how the track would sound as a whole. This would mean simplifying the session so that when I wanted the kick drum louder, I would be turning up one track called “Kick,” versus balancing an inside/outside mic. This would allow me to flow easier through the mix process and focus on what’s really important: How does the song feel? Does it have enough impact? Etc. Though I could have used the features in my DAW to print these tracks together, I wanted to take advantage of our studio’s great selection of outboard analog equipment, so I turned to a process known as analog summing. The basics of analog summing are that you send audio out from the computer into a box that “sums” it all together, then re-record that summed audio back into the computer. Read the whole article on the Man Made Music Site ...here |