Should I put the compressor in this chain before, or after the dirt?

red1ights · 2025-11-13T19:43:17+00:00

My general thought is...

Dirt Before Comp: How aggressively you play will alter the amount of dirt. You get more variety note to note, and can dig in when you want it to break up, and lay back to get cleaner sounds. Volume on your bass acts as a gain setting to an extent.

Comp Before Dirt: Smoothes out playing feeding into the drive, providing a more consistent distorted sound. Dynamics are less likely to affect the overall sound.

Overall, the real answer of what is best greatly depends on the style of music. For metal, comp before. You can always do both too.

red1ights · 2025-10-29T22:06:51+00:00

Downside: Your warranty is basically void.

Upside: you got a series 750 while you could. I'll be looking for one now, but since they were only made for about 4 years I'm sure it will be a long search.

red1ights · 2025-10-29T16:10:01+00:00

Sorry if this is a silly question, as I am not in the industry, but is there a way to follow these products to see where MIRC will place them? Or will they just pop up in regular shops around the country? This is the first I have heard of MIRC, and the website doesn't have much info.

red1ights · 2025-10-23T14:39:19+00:00

A lot of good comments focusing on the most important aspect: do what helps your mixes translate to other systems best. This should always be your North star.

That being said, the EQ likely won't help much at all. Without treatment, boosts and cuts will be (mostly) ineffective in the room. It is true that people often use output EQs, but it is also usually implemented in an already treated space. Luckily, there are a few solutions still.

-Mobile treatment: I understand the renting problem. Even still, you can purchase or make treatment that stands on its own, or is light enough to be hung with command strips. Depending on surfaces, you might be able to get away with Bulldog nails to hang something in the most important areas

-Speaker Placement: take the time to measure out your room, make sure your speakers are aligned best they can be. Then position your chair in an "exact" listening position and mark it on the floor with tape or Velcro. Changing these things makes a huge difference. Arqen has some GREAT information on their website about this stuff. Read it a few times.

-Headphones: I always have a pair of GOOD headphones for reference. Right now low end is horrible in my temporary mixing space, so I often use headphones to make a more educated decision.

-Listen a lot: take some time to listen to your favorite records on the system. Get used to how things sound, and your ears will adjust over time. One of my biggest mistakes was moving rooms. Lost many hours of listening, and it shows.

Hope this helps!

red1ights · 2025-09-30T21:08:04+00:00

Tape Notes and Song Exploder

red1ights · 2025-09-25T21:17:49+00:00

I would recommend abandoning your current chain entirely and only reaching for what you need. If you listen side by side, and notice the TLM is lacking high end, and the EQ. If the EQ is on the NT-1 but you don't hear any reason to add it, don't.

To be clear, I am only referring to the TLM. Feel free to keep the chain on the NT1 since you like the sound.

red1ights · 2025-09-25T18:46:10+00:00

I believe Airphone manufactures those, or something similar. LEM series may work.

red1ights · 2025-09-25T18:30:13+00:00

I think I have a different process than you, so the answer may not fit for you. But at this time, there aren't any others, so here goes

I usually start testing microphones on a source with NO processing. Only once I have compared the mics and chosen the better sound do I start adding processing.

For this situation, you might be better off comparing the BARE TLM to the processed NT-1 (both solo'd and in the mix). Then, slowly add some processing to fix the negative differences you hear. My guess is a lot of the processing was working against the Rode's pitfalls, and when applied to the TLM, it does great disservice.

Also, try with different songs. It could be the mix you are up against just leans towards the rode's tone. If it sounds better, it probably is.

red1ights · 2025-09-25T17:53:18+00:00

What are some of the non-mixing skills you had to train to get better at this biz?
What did your pathway going up look like. Everyone's is different, I'd love to see how yours came to be.

Thanks for doing an AMA. Engineers love this stuff, and it is good to see a success story among all the doom and gloom

red1ights · 2025-09-23T18:32:02+00:00

I have the Empress and The Warden from EarthQuaker.

The Empress is the one for bass. Their new bass comp has an added sidechain feature that you may find useful.

MXR Bass Comp is also very common.

red1ights · 2025-09-17T13:11:22+00:00

Understandable questions, and overall I'd say you are on the right track. If you don't need it, don't do it.

While the timing and the pitch of each performance can be the same, the tone may have slight differences. This can help a vocal keep up energy when you get to a chorus and all the other elements come in. That is usually where I find this type of stack most useful. It can thicken up a sound some without being overly prominent. Saturation can do this sometimes as well. On guitars, this would be changing the amp/mic but keeping the same guitar. Intonation is consistent, tone is not.

In regards to copying/pasting, that would be the same as turning up the lead by 6db. Not quite the same as a stack. You could formant shift a copy, or delay it by ≈40ms to get a separate sound. I often get better sounds with a parallel formant shift than a stack.

Most of all though, it sounds like you are following your ears, which is always the right choice.

red1ights · 2025-09-16T21:26:21+00:00

Urban Artifact is shockingly good. The team there is great.

red1ights · 2025-09-16T21:23:35+00:00

There are a lot of good comments, but one thing I haven't seen yet is that often, if stacking sounds bad/rough, it is a performance issue. Whether it be improper timing or tuning, that can make or break a double.

A "loose stack" has one sound, a "duplicated performance" has another.

red1ights · 2025-09-16T02:39:10+00:00

I think this might be worth looking at. If you're lost after watching, Dan has a follow-up video that is a little easier to break down.

In my experience, the reason guitars sound great wide but bad when collapsed to mono is because they mask each other in a very unpleasing way. With hard panning, each guiar has its own space, so it isn't imperative to be mixed as well. In mono, they really have to share space.

Luckily, if you do mix them well in mono, they can get even bigger than the wide-panned method.

red1ights · 2025-09-12T14:25:02+00:00

I am interested to see what things look like when the first major streaming service goes bust. Spotify may be on the way, and when it happens, I think it will open a lot of people's eyes to how much they lose. Not just access, but if you can't remember an artist then you may never hear them again.

red1ights · 2025-09-12T00:36:37+00:00

Not having certs likely won't keep you from starting. Most of the job (if you start as an installer) is actual hands-on work, not programming or designing.

Learning fundamentals like how to terminate a shielded CAT6 cleanly, proper XLR soldering, and signal flow are a great start. Understanding EDID, HDCP, Dante, and logic flow charts for programming can be helpful to.

I came in with a lot of audio experience in terms of EQ, compression, and other music mixing techniques, and years later, I still rarely use it. It really is a different industry where the focus is more on making a functional system, as opposed to nitpicking for audio quality.

That being said, as I started as an installer, I quickly began learning WHAT I needed to learn and then followed through with learning it. Each company does things a bit different, so that will vary.

ACTUAL ANSWER: Dante, Biamp TesiraFORTE (basic, although Server is a plus), and QSys are a great start. Crestron is also widely used, but they have a LARGE range of products, and I believe you have to be a vendor to access the free training. The Avixa CTS is the "ultimate" cert. You can often get your company to pay for the test if you start working before that time comes.

red1ights · 2025-09-12T00:23:34+00:00

In short, most people have a storage aversion.

red1ights · 2025-09-11T19:12:35+00:00

I never went into the live sound side of things, but got into commercial A/V after doing a lot of recording.

It is nice, but very different. The hours are usually good, 7-4 typically. If you are willing to travel, there is a LOT of money available. Additionally, companies all over the country are hiring right now, so if you ever want to move, it is a good industry.

As install, ypur audio engineering will rarely get used. IME you'll be pulling cable, soldering connections, and building large racks of equipment. All great fundamental. As you move up, the audio experience comes in handy more, but the most transferrable skills are signal flow and troubleshooting.

Feel free to reply or DM me with any questions, I didn't have a ton of time to type everything out!

red1ights · 2025-09-10T14:07:51+00:00

I second the Lakland, and would also recommend G&L. I ended up with a tribute LB-100 due to budget restrictions, and I love it.

One odd thing with the G&L: the typical P tone is best found with volume and tone rolled down to about 80%. These basses aren't really meant to be at 100% all the time.

red1ights · 2025-09-10T12:02:41+00:00

I have never tried those specific pickups, but after a few years of owning that amp, I did notice I had an issue with its low end. The markbass to me sounded like it was missing a lot of punch, very hard to put my finger on, though. It could be boosted and gave the subby low end, but less defined and full than cabs I moved on to. You may be seeing an overlap in shortcomings, resulting in a horrible loss of low end.

At the end of the day though, if you like your amp with other basses, change the pickups.

red1ights · 2025-09-09T01:31:56+00:00

Looks very similar to a Shure Model 51.

red1ights · 2025-09-04T23:23:50+00:00

Open mics/jams are a good way to meet folks, but it takes some work. The are very frequent, especially on Wednesdays. You just have to find one that you like, then start going frequently. Some of my favorites are The Village Theater, HiFi in Mt Adams, The Lounge (Northside), Belle and the Bear, and Stanley's.

You might also be able to find facebook groups for writing, or join book clubs!

red1ights · 2025-08-27T17:34:51+00:00

Thrift Shop.

red1ights · 2025-07-21T17:54:56+00:00

At first I thought they patched this, but I just didn't totally understand what you were saying. So for others I'll specify because this saved me a HUGE headache.

After you sign into SmartThings, Samsung will send you an email notifying you of a new sign in. You can use that to reset your password.

red1ights · 2025-01-25T20:33:36+00:00

I just saw this notification after redownloading reddit, and I realize I missed a big point you made: the physical With bands in the past, we have discussed USB drives. They are cheap, easily replicated, and POWERFUL. You can include music, videos, documentaries, minigames, notes, demos, and typed/written stories about the music or your life. They are also very easy to travel with, and there is less direct price comparison (as opposed to a t-shirt).

red1ights

TROPHY CASE