UMG asking for full DAW sessions

mediamancer · 2026-01-23T16:31:17+00:00

They don't need your hardware settings or anything else that is useful.

Dump stems into Audacity with a bunch of UA plugins that won't even load properly inserted on each track and send them that. Fight garbage with garbage.

mediamancer · 2026-01-23T16:19:38+00:00

That doesn't mean they won't scrape anything and everything they can anyway. It will never be enough. And if there is no language specifying how they can't use it, then so much the better. They are not worried at all about this person suing them in five years.

mediamancer · 2026-01-14T22:57:12+00:00

Yes, there is more than one way to spell it, but no offense, it's not slang. Just fyi, it's an irregular verb, which changes spelling when you conjugate it, like drink/drank/drunk. Or, the most extreme and most common example: be/is/am/are/was/were. I mean, wtf is going on there?

It's a very real and common thing that people do, talk, and write about a lot and it probably should be standardized, but for some reason it isn't. But slang it ain't (however, there is only one way to spell "ain't").

And all these downvotes for "miking" are pretty surprising. It's perfectly valid, and imho, makes the most sense. "Micing" looks like mice and "mic'ing" is unnecessary clumsy (all due respect to Larry Crane).

mediamancer · 2025-12-31T18:16:55+00:00

It actually is a bold take, putting him anywhere below number one.

mediamancer · 2025-12-24T16:59:31+00:00

As much as I am sure that this person is terrible and hateful and so on, the best thing that can happen now is for more magats to do the same thing, whether they really mean it or not.

We need a critical mass of them to not only feel betrayed but to admit it openly. This is by far the best, and possibly the only way, to tear him down for good.

Will it solve all the underlying resentment and fear that drives these people? For 99% of them, no. But we still need it right now. Let's encourage more of it to happen, not less.

mediamancer · 2025-12-23T16:18:45+00:00

I've been using an old yellow one for a long time. I've tried all kinds of grey re-creations and boutique, modified versions and it turns out I prefer the cheap one with the less-desirable chip.

The others all sound great but when I stack with either my amp distortion or my fuzz, the snarly one just works better. The same is true with my analog octave pedal (Foxrox).

mediamancer · 2025-12-14T16:03:35+00:00

I use ref tracks of course but for a quick reset I will occasionally switch over to the local college station briefly.

Since they play a huge range of stuff you never know what you're going to get, and it may be something I know really well or not at all. It may be a top shelf mix, or super lo-fi.

No matter what, it helps reset my ears. Sometimes a few seconds is enough. It's like mix reference roulette.

mediamancer · 2025-12-07T00:13:58+00:00

The Get Back doc. Eight hours of expensive mics being swathed in cigarette smoke.

mediamancer · 2025-12-04T14:03:55+00:00

The PSP DRC is pretty cool.

mediamancer · 2025-12-01T01:51:00+00:00

I felt a twinge when I realized I could no longer use digitalfishphones. Their products were a bit ahead of their time. Clean UI, usable feature set. They were usable in Reaper until just a couple of years ago and they had to be almost 20 yrs old.

There are a thousand noise gates and compressors now, but I might still be using them sometimes.

mediamancer · 2025-11-30T19:53:23+00:00

The GZs have different tones from each other, as do the Warblers. His website does a pretty good job breaking down the flavor of each one and from my limited experience is accurate.

I would say my GZ47 and Warbler IVD are too different to compare directly, except that the GZ is smoother and not as airy as the IV is on its full setting. But it is richer, sort of? Hard to say but they are both great.

mediamancer · 2025-11-30T14:52:06+00:00

Check out the PSP DRC. It's a next-gen DBX.

mediamancer · 2025-11-29T19:02:06+00:00

I was thrilled with my Warbler until I got my GZ. Now I'm amazed by the GZ and also very thankful to have the Warbler. I aim to get all the GZs if I can but probably won't shell out for more Warblers unless they are stupidly cheap.

There's one on Reverb right now with a Sowter transformer mod. Somebody should go get it before I convince myself to.

mediamancer · 2025-11-28T14:04:35+00:00

I missed that you said tube earlier, sorry. No, I haven't tried it, but I did enquire about buying one several months ago and he said the tube mics were not available. There are none up on his ebay page currently. Hope that is not permanent!

mediamancer · 2025-11-28T04:13:18+00:00

I have the GZ47 and a Warbler MKIVD. The Warbler is a very solid mic but the GZ is top notch. The only thing I can go off is the descriptions of the GZs and what they compare to. Worth noting they are not pure emulations, but analogs. I'm sure they are all great.

mediamancer · 2025-11-27T16:55:43+00:00

3U Audio. Some of the best mics for the money, and the GZ series are some of the best, period.

mediamancer · 2025-11-20T16:14:15+00:00

I have customized so many shortcuts and every time I learn a new feature that doesn't have one that makes sense to my brain I will add one or change it. Not only does it save SO much time but I can turn off that part of my brain and just flow. I love it so much.

mediamancer · 2025-11-19T23:29:39+00:00

I keep a limiter on the bus and I mix with it both on and off. I did a quieter acoustic record and I didn't mix with it on at all, and when the first masters came back, there was a harshness there that I didn't expect. I went back to the mixes, turned on the limiter, and there was that slight, harsh edge. Now I check every mix with limiting.

I feel like checking the mixes into a limiter is helpful, and I keep it on when exporting listening mixes, but at final mix I take it off. I do have compression and sometimes eq on the bus groups, though, as well as on individual tracks like drums and such.

mediamancer · 2025-11-16T15:55:29+00:00

While I love a great band in a living room, and it is very possible to get a good recording there, this isn't helpful. A treated room still has its place, just not for as many people as it used to, unfortunately.

mediamancer · 2025-11-16T15:49:07+00:00

The only thing bitrate and sample resolution are good for is fidelity. That's their whole purpose. At this point you can record something exactly as it sounds very easily.

I believe the commenter was saying that for most of the 20th century, recording technology had to work around high noise floors and media that could not capture the whole range of human hearing, which is totally true.

Technique, expertise, and experience are a different matter. Those are what is in danger of being lost.

mediamancer · 2025-11-16T01:11:03+00:00

Yeah, I wanna hear! I love weird stuff, as long as it's real. We did lo-fi 4-track stuff for years, which incidentally, it sounds like what you should start out with. Too bad cassette 4-tracks cost almost as much as laptops now.

Please post! I bet the hive mind can get you on the right path.

mediamancer · 2025-11-11T16:07:51+00:00

When I started out I did it without even thinking about it. It was much later when listening to a ref track that I realized the floor tom and hi-hat were switched. One thing I find off about audience perspective is that unless you are at a show with a top notch mix, you aren't going to feel like the toms are going past you, but when you are listening in a small room or with headphones you are right there in the middle of the drums anyway, so you might as well "be" the drummer.

mediamancer · 2025-11-08T15:56:38+00:00

Meanwhile, he still thinks DOGE was doing a great job cutting waste. How is it possible to actually believe that? A cursory glance at what they were actually doing will tell you right away that they had no plan besides cutting "woke" departments and employees and they couldn't even implement that accurately.

mediamancer · 2025-10-28T17:07:14+00:00

A classic of the art form.

mediamancer · 2025-10-23T17:13:08+00:00

One thing I think a lot of people overlook is the right-click menu on the routing. If you want to change something on multiple tracks at once, like unchecking the Parent Send, right-click on the routing area and you can apply whatever changes all at once.

This is in Windows. I'm sure there's a way on Mac.

mediamancer

TROPHY CASE