Old 06-24-2019, 08:23 PM   #1
Stringer
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Default Master Tom

I recorded a track with cajon, ride cymbal, bass and guitar. The cymbal and the bass port on the cajon, which I was recording with a Sennheiser e602-II, created loud peaks while the overall volume was low, so I decided to put a master compressor on the master channel to bring up the overall loudness. Cajons are kind of difficult to record. So I tried the JS version of Master Tom, a Stillwell plugin I have used in Windows, but not in Linux. About a minute in, I think right after a particularly loud bass cajon hit, the volume dropped by about 50% and continued like that for the rest of the track. No matter what I did, Master Tom caused that to happen. So I took that out and tried Fairly Childish, another Stillwell plugin. This seemed to work fine, though it seems to create some compression artifacts. This is just home recording, no big deal. This is what the track sounds like now:

https://guitarsophist.files.wordpres...nechordjam.mp3

Has anyone else had problems with Master Tom? Do some JS plugs work and not others?

Thanks,

John
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Old 06-24-2019, 08:50 PM   #2
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Here's what might be going on. Your cymbal sounds like maybe it's being played by hand? If so it's going to create a much lower fundamental than if hit with a stick which in turn might cause any compressor thing into a big volume rider. If possible I would put the cajon and cymbal on discreet tracks and process them independently. Cymbals in general suck with any kind of compression.

Edit: Much compression.

I am hearing some pumping happening now around the 6:00 + mark.

Cool slinky groove you got going on there BTW.
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Old 06-24-2019, 09:21 PM   #3
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I'm playing the cymbal with a Pro-Mark Broomstick. I was trying to see if I could play cajon with one hand and a ride cymbal with the other. I am trying to put a kit together that would serve for low volume coffee house gigs with a friend who is an amazing guitarist. I might try using rods, but I was happy with the variety of sounds I was getting out of the ride with the broomstick, which is basically a bundle of straw with a couple of bands around it.

I only had two mic cables so I put the Sennheiser on the port of the cajon and used a small condenser for the cymbal and the front of the cajon. My other mic cables are elsewhere at the moment.

I hear the pumping too. Should I back off on the threshold? The rest of Fairly Childish is pretty automated.

Thanks,

John
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Old 06-24-2019, 09:46 PM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Stringer View Post
I'm playing the cymbal with a Pro-Mark Broomstick. I was trying to see if I could play cajon with one hand and a ride cymbal with the other. I am trying to put a kit together that would serve for low volume coffee house gigs with a friend who is an amazing guitarist. I might try using rods, but I was happy with the variety of sounds I was getting out of the ride with the broomstick, which is basically a bundle of straw with a couple of bands around it.

I only had two mic cables so I put the Sennheiser on the port of the cajon and used a small condenser for the cymbal and the front of the cajon. My other mic cables are elsewhere at the moment.

I hear the pumping too. Should I back off on the threshold? The rest of Fairly Childish is pretty automated.

Thanks,

John
The overall sound and groove of the cajon and cymbal is good, and I'm guessing probably sounds pretty balanced in the room when you are playing it. Backing off the threshold or increasing the attack time will bring back the life of the performance. Longer attack times like 2-5ms will let the initial hit of percussion sounds through while keeping the rest in check after that.

The other thing is try using compression at the track level such that the cajon and cymbal are each being processed independently and have no effect on any other tracks.
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Old 06-25-2019, 02:05 AM   #5
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If you find it more difficult to work with those you can try these two:

https://mrelwood5.wixsite.com/plugins/mothercomp

https://mrelwood5.wixsite.com/plugins/sonnycomp

I tried them and they work very well and are simple to use.
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Old 06-25-2019, 08:44 AM   #6
Stringer
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I put mrelwood Mother Comp on the master instead of Fairly Childish and increased the attack time on the copy of ReaComp on the cymbal track. Now it sounds much more natural, but maybe not as glued together. Big improvement though.

https://guitarsophist.files.wordpres...am-newcomp.mp3

Thanks for the feedback!
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