VibeChild

Independent Music Label and Studio out of Haiku Hawaii.

Audio Companies

Take my money companies

“Oh, you have a new product? Ok, I bought it now tell me what it is and tell me why it’s going to make me happy this time.” These companies are above Top Tier and created a new class for themselves.

  • Fractal Audio
  • Townsend Labs (Not sure yet whether the UAD merger will take this down a notch)
  • FabFilter

Top Tier Companies

If you’re thinking about one of these companies, there is only one question. Can you afford it. If yes - just buy it. Don’t waste time looking for alternatives. There aren’t any. (Unless you really can’t afford it and are willing to compromise a lot).

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Preamp Plugin Tests

Here are the results of some listening tests that I did on some popular UAD tube preamp emulation plugins. I was curious which preamps would sound better on each source, so I did some science and the result wasn’t quite what I expected.

Preamps on acoustic Guitar

In order of preference

  • Avalon (Magic)
  • V76 (Instant Neil Young vibe)
  • Helios (Classic)
  • Century
  • 610-B
  • Manley
  • 610-A

Preamps for Vocals

  • Manley (Polished)
  • Avalon (Vibey)
  • Helios
  • Century
  • 610-B
  • V76
  • 610-A
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image from John Grover

John Grover

Production is finished on the Root Cellar Sessions from 2018. Although the band was playing out publically as “The Invasive Species”, the album is being released under “John Grover” with “Invasive Species” as the album name. This keeps it grouped with earlier releases under “John Grover”.

Check out the Invasive Species album page

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Guitar Recording and Reamping Workflow

Connections

AES Out of AxeFX at 48khz into RME Converter ADAT Out of RME Converter at 96khz or native rate (clocked and switchable by Apollo) ADAT In to Apollo with sample rate already converted

ADAT Out of Apollo with switchable Clock into RME Converter AES Out of RME Converter into AxeFX at 48khz

Analog Output 1 stereo in to Apollo for monitoring

Tracking

Settings On AxeFX

Switch Input 1 to Analog Switch AES output to Input 1

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image from Headphones

Headphones

Opinions

The Sony MDR 7506 are not quite as good as the others on this page, but nothing else in that price range can touch them. I’ve mixed a lot of stuff with the Sony’s (live and in the studio) and they’ve always shown me what I need to hear. Another bonus of the Sony is that you can drive it with anything - if you’re looking at any others, make sure your headphone amp can drive them.

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image from Amp Modeler Tests

Amp Modeler Tests

I finally got a chance to A/B the Neural DSP SLO against the AxeFX SLOs. They both sounded very good, and there was not that “one sounds like cardboard” thing that you usually hear when comparing two modelers (especially when one of them is Native’s Guitar Rig). However, there were some interesting differences. As before, I switched off the cabinet modeling in each one and used a third party (Melda) cabinet simulation so that neither had the advantage of a matched cab. Both shared the same dry input track. Both were level matched and the A/B test used Hofa’s blind comparison plugin so I didn’t know which was witch until after I commented on each one. That was hardly necessary though because I could always tell which was which from listening.

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