Mixed Signals

Mixed Signals is a small, private, cottage recording studio hidden at an undisclosed location in Perth, Western Australia. We specialise in spacious recordings of extremely high fidelity suited to certain musical styles. We like Indie and Post Rock, Slowcore and Shoegaze mostly. We like to record it just as it sounds. We believe accurate dynamics is better than compressed level. We love great hifi recordings. We have no idea how to record metal! As a cottage studio we work on a tight budget and lots of custom building of various pieces of equipment for the studio goes on. This blog is dedicated to the indie recorders out there everywhere, struggling to get the best sounds possible out of small spaces, small equipment and no budget. We aim to document a lot of our interesting builds and recordings for you to follow along and maybe inspire you to continue to pursue achieving the best recorded sounds you can. Email: [email protected]

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Prototype control software for microprocessor heart of my diy monitor switcher running on an arduino and lcd. Uses an endless rotary encoder and pushbutton to navigate menu and monitor state. To be continued...

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2 x Drip Electronics REDD47 boards, back and front. They're HUGE! 

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The power of music.

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New Gear Acquisition

One Mesa Boogie Triaxis. 

When I was a teenager and learning guitar, I think like year 11 or 12, I desperately wanted one of these. But they had just come out and were over four grand. Instead, a few years later I got my ADA MP-1.

These units have come down so much as they've aged it's incredible. You can get them for a grand or even less if you are prepared to wait. My unit is 240V, but has some malfunctioning LEDs and one hell of a scratchy gain pot. Despite this it sounds just superb. It needs a good service and I'll be replacing the gain pot and fixing the LCD and just checking it over soon.

It came with brimar 12AX7s in every spot. I will look at getting some mullard or RCA blackplates and see how they suit. 

Since I've been playing with it, dialing in a wide variety of guitar tones is just trivial. And then you can save them for later recall. This is going to help with recording guitar a lot.

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Usurper have graciously uploaded an awesome track from their new upcoming EP to soundcloud. Check out some of the aural goodness. Recorded here at mixed signals. Mixed by Kieran at Loop. Mastered at Steve's.

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Young Alaska just recorded their EP at Mixed Signals. Used an SM57 on guitar cab for the first time in ages! Keep an ear out. Sounds great!

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A quick jam a friend of mine recorded at the studio over a few hours last night. I really like the tempo change. Unmixed.

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RPM Challenge

I'm going to try doing the RPM challenge this year. Going to record some of my own stuff for shits and giggles. The challenge is to record 35 minutes (or 10 songs) of material in the 28 days of February.

If you're interested, sign up! It doesn't matter how good your work turns out. It's about getting creative and actually doing something!

[mixedsignalstudio]

Starting to build the GDIY 511 rack Power Supply. Using high temperature on soldering iron to make working with silver solder easier.

[mixedsignalstudio]

Ronan and Riaffiora

Great Ronan's Recording Show episode about recording Italian band Riaffiora's album in live spaces around Venice:

http://ronansrecordingshow.com/2011/07/the-zoom-h4n-and-saint-marks-square-as-a-live-room-pt-1/

[mixedsignalstudio]

New Gear Acquisition

Got myself a Chandler Germanium Preamp. I have wanted this for a while because apparently its quite a unique beast and when one became available for an absolute bargain, I had to have one. Had to get a 2nd hand PSU to power it as well, but conveniently one came up on ebay at just the right time.

This unit sounds great. It has a wealth of tones available in it. It really is quite a tone machine with many colours available in its palette. With the feedback knob at zero the unit is open and clear, but doesn't have much gain. The switched gain knob only gives a little bit of gain, even when on maximum, but all the settings are clean and clear. As you up the feedback, things radically change. The sound gradually thickens and warms with more feedback. As the feedback goes higher, the gain between the switch steps on the gain knob increase as well. 

It's a little weird to start with. Basically set your tone with the feedback knob, then get your gain as close as possible to your level with the rotary gain switch. By combining your feedback and gain you can easily drive enough signal through the unit to distort it, too. It depends on the heat on your input signal. But the distortion is natural and pleasing and certainly usable. You have to be careful though when aiming for a clean sound, because the distortion comes in so smoothly you can underestimate its impact on the sound.

The only real downside to the unit I can find is the meter. It got a weird two-sensitivity switch which takes a while to come to grips with. A normal meter, either LED or VU, would be much preferred I think. It just seems a little gimmicky. Not sure if the various sensitivities have some kind of parallel meaning to the circuit or preamp. I just tended to leave it on the large gain range and just monitor for overall clipping.

Overall I'm very happy with the unit. Usurper vocal overdubs coincided with the units arrival perfectly, so tracked vocals through it and it really helped add a little magic something to the voice. Helped add some body and thickness and the 'feedback' sound certainly made it a little more interesting.

[mixedsignalstudio]

Usurper track nominated for wami

Those alternative scholar's, Usurper of Modern Medicine, have had one of their tracks, Dental Plan, nominated for 2011 wami song of the year. Dental Plan comes from their Acid Chess EP which was recorded at Mixed Signals. To celebrate the nomination, Usurper have uploaded the track onto their sound cloud for your listening pleasure. Grab yourself an earful and enjoy. Join me in wishing the guys best of luck!

[mixedsignalstudio]

Usurper of Modern Medicine recording.

Usurper of Modern Medicine came in a few weekends ago to do some recording. Recorded them live as an ensemble, cause ensemble recordings have a magic layered recordings don't have. This approach suits the band really well because they are all excellent musicians who can play a tight set and they are well rehearsed and can just put it down and they did and it sounds great!

Just for the recording nerds out there when they eventually hear the recordings the setup was as follows...

Rack tom: Shure SM7b -> JH clone.

Overhead: Coles 4038 -> UA 610

Floor tom: Electrovoice RE-20 -> Millenia clone

Kick beater: Shure SM98 -> Millenia clone

Rides: SE Electronics SE4a -> Millenia clone

Crashs: SE Electronics SE4a -> Millenia clone

Kick outside: Shure Beta52 -> Quad Eight clone

Snare: Beyerdynamic M201 -> Quad Eight clone

Bass DI 1: Countryman -> Sytek MPX

Bass DI 2: Countryman -> Sytek MPX

Drum MS Side: Avantone C12 fig 8 -> Sytek MPX

Drum MS Mid: Neumann U87ai -> Sytek MPX

Keyboard Left: Peavey VMP-2

Keyboard Right: Peavey VMP-2

Vocals: MJ mod Rode NT-1 -> GAP pre-73

Click track: Radial DI -> GAP pre-73

All straight into the Aurora converter, clocked to the Antelope at 96kHz.

Had some problems with software at the beginning. Having just recently upgraded Sonar a lot of things have changed. It's taken longer than expected to learn the differences. All in all I think the X1 interface is much much better. This is as much an indictment on the old interface as praise of the new one! Still got lots of bugs, though!

EDIT 11/11/11 - before I forget, I should add the reamp setups:

'Guitar' Mic 1: BD M201 -> Millenia

'Guitar' Mic 2: Coles -> Millenia

Bass: EV RE20 -> Quad Eight

Keys & Laptop: UA 610

Vocals: U87ai -> Chandler Germanium

Guitar Amplification by Fender. Bass by Gallien Kruger. 

[mixedsignalstudio]

Usurper of Modern Medicine recording session.

[mixedsignalstudio]

Acquisition: RK-47 Capsules

In order to build some DIY condensor microphones I need some affordable flat response capsules. I went with RK-47s and they arrived yesterday.

A close up of the capsule:

EDIT: added RK-47 link

[mixedsignalstudio]

Trent Reznor in his home studio with Atticus Ross discuss creating the Social Network sound track.

[mixedsignalstudio]

Interview with Greg Calbi

Watched this a while ago, but rewatching it's as interesting as ever.

http://www.artistshousemusic.org/node/5369/4613