I love that Euphonix man, for heavy metal drums at least. I wanted something really snappy with tons of headroom and not too much character, which I found it had a little of. It sounded like a softer SSL to me, the EQs are great too, but I hear what you're saying, it ain't no Neve or API. As for the menus and such, it took me all of 30 mins to come to terms with the workflow and then it was easy, then again we set the session of and left it static during the full 3 days. The dynamics modules are really fast and super snappy, at max we were metering no more than 3 or 4 dB of GR on them and instead of sounding like they were taking away they sounded like they were just adding punch and bite.
The mic under the ride bell was the assistants recommendation. he'd recently worked on a session with Greg Haver and Clint Murphy where they did that to add fullness to the sound of the ride, it worked great but if I were to do it again I'd use a 421 (explanation coming right up).
The MD421 proved itself more than worthy the past couple of days, keyword here being rejection. We tried the standard 57 on top and bottom snare and although good and familiar I wanted something with better rejection. Swapped both of them out for 421s and straight away: much better rejection of hats, cymbals and rack, lower (in freq) punch tone and fullness and a smother, flatter mid range and clearer tops. Alround win IMO. We have a 441 on our main hats and for one song Mark plays a 2nd set of hats which we used a 421 on and it blitzed the 441... Another lesson learned.
We went straight to 'tools HD3 via Apogee AD16x and a Rosetta 800. Hit that soft limit fairly had also.
As for Marks drumming, he's by far the best drummer I've ever tracked or played with. Very much an old school mindset aka Bonzo, Ian Paice, Nicko McBrain etc...
Here's him playing with us, albeit edited and such, you can see how good he is:
And I am doing well. Glad to hear that you are too.
As for nerdy engineering counter response:
I love that Euphonix man, for heavy metal drums at least. I wanted something really snappy with tons of headroom and not too much character, which I found it had a little of. It sounded like a softer SSL to me, the EQs are great too, but I hear what you're saying, it ain't no Neve or API. As for the menus and such, it took me all of 30 mins to come to terms with the workflow and then it was easy, then again we set the session of and left it static during the full 3 days. The dynamics modules are really fast and super snappy, at max we were metering no more than 3 or 4 dB of GR on them and instead of sounding like they were taking away they sounded like they were just adding punch and bite.
The mic under the ride bell was the assistants recommendation. he'd recently worked on a session with Greg Haver and Clint Murphy where they did that to add fullness to the sound of the ride, it worked great but if I were to do it again I'd use a 421 (explanation coming right up).
The MD421 proved itself more than worthy the past couple of days, keyword here being rejection. We tried the standard 57 on top and bottom snare and although good and familiar I wanted something with better rejection. Swapped both of them out for 421s and straight away: much better rejection of hats, cymbals and rack, lower (in freq) punch tone and fullness and a smother, flatter mid range and clearer tops. Alround win IMO. We have a 441 on our main hats and for one song Mark plays a 2nd set of hats which we used a 421 on and it blitzed the 441... Another lesson learned.
We went straight to 'tools HD3 via Apogee AD16x and a Rosetta 800. Hit that soft limit fairly had also.
As for Marks drumming, he's by far the best drummer I've ever tracked or played with. Very much an old school mindset aka Bonzo, Ian Paice, Nicko McBrain etc...
Here's him playing with us, albeit edited and such, you can see how good he is: