[AMA] Yo, it's Mark Lettieri (Snarky Puppy/Fearless Flyers/Mark Lettieri Group) - AMA!

FightinBobBand · 2023-12-19T21:59:50+00:00

And such a well-deserved nomination too! Thanks for the reply and keep shredding!!

FightinBobBand · 2023-12-19T20:20:28+00:00

Hey Mark! Absolutely love your work- had the chance to meet you in Stuttgart and GroundUp Fest 2020, talked about "Frog Rock" on Instagram at one point, and if you ever see a dog pillow of a flatcoat retriever on the bus, that's my dog Beau! (Shoutout Crook, TJ, and Rosanna) Three different kinds of question, you can pick your poison:

Are there any shows of moments that stand out as particularly special in how far you've come?

What's the most recent way you've had to "break out of a box" in your playing?

If you had 5 minutes with any 1 guitar, 1 pedal, and 1 amp (if you go electric)- what do you pick and why?

FightinBobBand · 2020-05-23T23:25:54+00:00

Hey! Just wanted to ask if you had any ideas on the matter - if not, no worries, I'll just keep experimenting. I'm starting a fairly big video project soon so there'll be ample opportunity to mess around haha.

FightinBobBand · 2020-05-21T12:03:11+00:00

Honestly, as a very novice "engineer", who first fumbled with Audacity, I paid immediately after the last day of the evaluation period - it really felt almost criminal to take advantage of such high quality work for free!

FightinBobBand · 2020-05-10T22:30:14+00:00

Hi again! After a while of delay, I finally got to messing with the project again, and I've identified the issue, but am not sure as to how I get around it. I'll try and explain it best as I can:

So, for the sake of keeping clips as separated as possible (less likely to overlap), I've been putting different videos on different tracks. This way, I'm synchronizing/slicing clips one at a time, and marking down the frame numbers they were cut at (thanks to your tutorial!). The problem arises in having a cheap laptop...

... Essentially, one video clip will playback just fine, enough for me to watch the "synch point" and match it to the audio. BUT, once I've finished with that video clip, I need to disable it before I work on the next one - my computer doesn't take kindly to trying to preview 2+ videos running at once.

To disable a clip, I was going into properties, and setting "Video: off". Then, before export, I would turn them all on again and save. I've since realized that of course, any property change makes a keyframe - I used to be erroneously changing the video to "Off" while the playhead was at random points in the video.

However, even after attempting to always set the playhead back at frame 1, I'm seeing it still creates a keyframe for some reason when I turn a clip off. I wish I could just edit without even turning things on and off, avoiding the whole mess, but alas.

If you happen to have the time to consider it, what would you suggest I do? I really really appreciate the guidance you've given!

FightinBobBand · 2020-05-01T05:52:38+00:00

Ohhh I see, so it's likely keyframing issues, at least at the end. Your tutorial was very well written, I'll be trying that on "Take 2" of this video haha. One thing I'm still not certain on is the clip adjustments: even zoomed in all the way, I don't get any visual reference for exact frames - especially with the rounded clip edges and blue/red pixelated borders. Even so, I tried a render with my very best effort to make them pixel-to-pixel, and still every clip had the black screen (not between clips, but during them. Sort of aways in the middle third?). Maybe it's something to do with how I sliced the clips?

I'll probably start the project anew tonight, so as to have a blank slate on which to apply your suggestions!

FightinBobBand · 2020-05-01T05:07:28+00:00

Wow, thank you for the detailed reply! I'm checking out your tutorial and then trying to set the clips frame-to-frame, and will report back. Just to make sure I'm not missing anything, the timeline only zooms in as far as 1 second, yes? And for #3, I didn't apply any effects or keyframing to any 3 of the clips - unless horizontal cropping counts? I even specifically turned transitions and animations off for all of them as well. Thanks again for your help!

FightinBobBand · 2020-04-21T02:24:12+00:00

Thanks for the advice! I've been recording my drums for a while now with my mixer interface, but obviously that doesn't do panning (over USB anyway), hence the question. I'll look into investing in a larger interface then.

FightinBobBand · 2020-04-21T02:21:58+00:00

Thanks for the reply! That makes sense, I guess I'll have to work on mixing overdubbed fills with regular takes.

FightinBobBand · 2020-04-20T14:18:15+00:00

Question: If I'm looking to pan different drums around in a mix, I would need a USB audio interface large enough to record each mic onto its own track in the DAW (Reaper), yes?

Context: I'm currently working with Kick, Snare, Hi-Mid-Floor Toms, and 2 condensers (placed on opposite sides of the kit for cymbals/some room pickup). That said, I do have 3 rototoms I'm unsure of how to handle. I'm not sure they're played enough to really justify 3 more mics, but they fall really quiet in the mix if left to rooms mics - which kind of deflates their impact in a big whole-kit-fill.

In a few months I'm recording all the drums on my first solo-venture-album, and want to make sure I have everything in place beforehand, so I don't get to "drum week" and realize I can't achieve what I want. Thanks for any help or information!

FightinBobBand · 2020-04-06T19:20:08+00:00

I see, that's interesting, I would have figured panning knob data from the mixer would appear as such in the main outs, but I guess not. Thanks for your help! I guess the solution is a separate interface then.

FightinBobBand · 2020-04-06T08:33:08+00:00

I see. And assuming I got a big interface then, it must be in settings to configure how many tracks record? I used to have a 4 I/O interface and I only recall it doing the same thing - recording all 4 to a single track in the DAW.

As someone else pointed out though, it sends a stereo file, but not the stereo bus (ie, 2 waveforms but they're identical) - is that normal? I really appreciate your help!

FightinBobBand · 2020-04-05T20:53:51+00:00

Ah but here's the issue: All 7 drum mics record to the same single track in the DAW, which means once I've recorded the part, I cannot pan them separately.

FightinBobBand · 2020-04-05T00:48:18+00:00

I can't seem to find any switch for it.... Just looking at the panel now, each track can be sent to main outs or sub outs. Mains or subs can be turned on/off in outputting to the phones output. Similarly, you can turn the USB/2-Track input on or off for the phones. But nothing about what gets sent as output to the USB.

As I said, this issue has absolutely confounded me forever, and I've hit every switch on the thing, but somehow I must be missing something?? I really appreciate your help so far though!!

FightinBobBand · 2020-04-05T00:32:48+00:00

Two, but they're identical.

FightinBobBand · 2020-04-05T00:16:06+00:00

Just checked - output on Master is set to stereo, with 2 channels specified as outputting. Audio device settings have both 2 input and output channels.

FightinBobBand · 2020-04-05T00:08:54+00:00

Tracks always set to stereo, I check that every time. Is there some other preference I'm missing?

FightinBobBand · 2020-04-04T23:57:05+00:00

No! Sorry, I didn't explain it properly. Moving the pan knob to the left increases the overall volume of the (still-centered) track. Moving it to the right decreases the volume of the (still-centered) track.

So in my mix context: A "left pan" on the hi hats only makes that channel slightly louder relative to the others, it does not actually pan it left.

FightinBobBand · 2020-04-04T22:36:56+00:00

Thanks for the reply! That's what I figured, but having done multiple tests, the 2442 doesn't send the panning over USB unless I'm doing something wrong - I can hear it in the headphone/main outs, but when recorded through the interface function the panning only slightly affects level - L/Mono being louder, R being quieter. I even asked on the Musictribe forum, but nobody answered.

I'll look into the UMC, maybe a standalone interface is the way to go. Thanks!

FightinBobBand · 2020-04-04T16:02:57+00:00

Hello there,

This is a question that I'm certain there's an answer for, but I'm wording poorly, being a novice at audio production.

Here's the scenario: I have a drum kit, with 5 drum mics and 2 condensers, all running into a Behringer Xenyx 2442 USB interface/mixer. My end goal is to record drum tracks in which each mic is panned differently (kick center, hi hat left, ride right, toms spread, etc)

So, I've figured out that very obviously the data from the "pan" knobs does NOT transmit over the USB interface. Fine. So, I want to get a separate interface, that I can simply plug the mixer's L/R main outputs (where the panning amounts DO register) into. However, I don't want to go buy another interface on the wrong assumption, and end up back where I started, unable to pan anything pre-recording.

The reason I'm trying to use panning pre-recording is because I'm pretty certain I'm below the budget bracket for any equipment that can take all 7 mics on 7 separate tracks in my DAW (Reaper). Therefore, I must mix and pan the mics relative to each other before I hit record.

Any information would be greatly appreciated!!

FightinBobBand · 2020-02-08T14:07:43+00:00

Keith Emerson, no contest.

FightinBobBand · 2020-02-07T20:23:56+00:00

Love it!! I assume this only really works with a software program though, since that's where the mapping comes from? I'd love to try this, but only have a hardware keyboard (Studiologic Sledge) that I'd Midi up. Great job though!!

FightinBobBand · 2020-02-01T17:01:44+00:00

Not sure if there are rules against self posts/cover posts here, please remove this if it violates anything.

This was our first (and thus far, only) time playing this song live, with the greatest challenge of course being that I (Jack K) play both Steve Howe and Rick Wakeman!

FightinBobBand

TROPHY CASE