Dear Friends and Followers
A lot of time has passed since the last post on this blog. We have been a lot busy at studios and i have to admit it was pretty difficult to constantly update the site, but the time has come and this is going to be the beginning of a new era for the Dark Label Studio, because we are going to introduce a lot of features that will immensely improve our services quality.
This means that we updated all the studio stuff, such as gear, equipment, software, buying professional recording hardware that marks the standards into the modern music industry.
Dark Label studio is going to put into recordings the warmness and the awesomeness that only the best analog equipment can give, mixed to the most modern stuff that the digital era we're in can bring.
We have also a new place, which houses a confortable and fully equipped control room, three dedicated live rooms for all kind of applications, facilities and an elegant lounge where to relax or take a pause between recordings;
New staff members are joining us! we 're going to collaborate with other two studios and promotional agencies to help everyone who record music with us to get visibility thanks to the phisical and digital delivery of the album/songs, a new promotional site where bands can upload their lives, demos and meet new people in the music contest and over.
We're going to put an eye into the video/short film making, offering new services to artist such as song's video production, booking and more.
This is like a dream to come true, Dark Label Studio is going to be the new reference point for every kind of musician - composer - gear addicted buddy - common listener and music lover in the whole musical contest and it will redefine the common definition for what actually ''Recording Studio'' stands for.
Those new frontiers for us includes : Recording, Reamping, Arranging, Mix-Mastering, Production, Promotion, since there are a LOT of artists who deserve to be noticed and their music to be spread everywhere.
I want to thank everyone who supported us in all those years and all the people who daily contact us joining our big Dark Label Studio family.
We kindly thank everyone of You!
So please, keep following this blog, we'll put news here and will announce the new Dark Label Studio official launch date and everything related.
The Best Wishes,
Gabriele Rotondo
giovedì 25 febbraio 2016
lunedì 16 febbraio 2015
Dark Label Studio - Waves Platinum Review
Dark Label Studio - Waves Platinum Review
For most people, those are one of the best mastering and mixing plugins actually available.
Togheter with the Universal Audio bundles, Waves Platinum (or other versions of it), are the most used plugins in the whole audio and music industry.
The range of their applications can space from the professional users, to the common audio amateur, since their reliability and ease of use interfaces and controls.
The Waves Platinum contains all of the Gold 3.2 Bundle plus it adds more. You get the Renaissance Channel (along with other plugins that were formerly in the Renaissance 2 collection) and the Masters bundles. They key question: is it worth it to upgrade to Platinum or is Gold enough?
Of course the answer to that depends on your current system. If you absolutely need an ILok authorization so you can painlessly use Waves on both a Mac and your PC or on your studio and home computer then I think you should go Platinum. This put the authorization of a USB key that you can plug into whatever computer you want. Those upgrading from a PC to a Mac g5 in particular have ample motivation to upgrade to Platinum. You can use your plugins on either system.
You get the new Renaissance channel with Platinum. Is it cool? At first, i was skeptical. Then I finally tried it. It's like a channel strip in some ways, with stereo eq, compression, gating. Ok. its a track insert, I thought. But I tried a whole mix through it and found more--phase reversal, stereo imaging, sidechains and even overload protection. Very impressive, with some well-crafted presets designed to add "punch".
You can improve a mix using the Rchannel alone rather substantially. On the other hand, you can get almost the same result by effectively chaining eq-->compressor-->Maxx Bass-->S1 imager-->L1 in the 3.2 collection. That's a combination i used a lot. The Rchannel just does it all in one plugin. Hence it is really convenient. Now that I have it, I will use it more than chaining up a lot of stuff.
Other plugins Platinum adds over Gold are the Masters linear phase eq, multiband, and L2 Ultramaximizer (the gold has earlier versions of eq, the C4 multiband and L1 Ultramaximizer). Big difference here? Depends on who you are and what you are doing. A Mastering engineer will find and appreciate the difference.
These plugins are called the "Masters" not because the programmer likes golf, but because they are designed for people who are purists about audio and who master people's material for a living. The Masters are plugins that give you a GUI that allows you to make an exacting small difference. What's this "linear phase" thing? The Waves Linear Multiband manual goes into great detail on "masking", "smearing" and phase shifts that happen with typical eq and multiband processors. And how their software saves the day for you here.
The Platinum version adds the plugins from the Renaissance Collection 2 (not to be confused with the original Renaissance collection, which is already in the 3.2 set). This gives you the Renaissance Vox, R-bass, R-De-esser. You already have the Renaissance reverb, R-eq, and R-compressor in 3.2). How important are these? The R-Bass is very very good at bring out the low bass subwoofer tonalities, better than the Max Bass in 3.2 which is best at getting a big bass sound out of a small speaker.
Waves discontinued the Renaissance Native and Renaissance 2 collection and merged them into the Renaissance Maxx collection. So if you already have the Waves Gold and want to get the Renaissance channel should you get the Renaissance Maxx? Well, Maybe Not. You already have 3 of Renaissance plugins in the Gold 3.2. You should go all the way to Platinum, because in Platinum you get the whole Renaissance Maxx, the whole Masters plus the 3.2 Gold. Whew, it requires a genealogist to keep all these inbred lines straight. But I think we have it straight here.
One of the FAQs that is commonly read in forums and sites is : are really Waves Plugins worth it?
Well the answer is not that easy, since it depends on personal taste, but with objectiveness i cas firmly state that we are in front of a really good plugin suite which can make your mixes sound like the ones in which analog equipment is used.
Anyway
If it's worth it, depends on so many factors, most subjective, and the state of your financial well being. I think the Ultramazimixer L1+ is worth a lot. While there are many loudness maximizers out there now, none seem to do it as transparently or as simply. The multiband and reverbs totally sweeten the deal. If you work with samples, the eq is a must have. The Native Gold set is one of those things that makes you shake your head and pace around the room before you buy, but once you work with them. hear them, regrets may vanish.
Let us know what you think about just writing a coment or sending a mail to darklabelstudio@gmail.com.
For most people, those are one of the best mastering and mixing plugins actually available.
Togheter with the Universal Audio bundles, Waves Platinum (or other versions of it), are the most used plugins in the whole audio and music industry.
The range of their applications can space from the professional users, to the common audio amateur, since their reliability and ease of use interfaces and controls.
The Waves Platinum contains all of the Gold 3.2 Bundle plus it adds more. You get the Renaissance Channel (along with other plugins that were formerly in the Renaissance 2 collection) and the Masters bundles. They key question: is it worth it to upgrade to Platinum or is Gold enough?
Of course the answer to that depends on your current system. If you absolutely need an ILok authorization so you can painlessly use Waves on both a Mac and your PC or on your studio and home computer then I think you should go Platinum. This put the authorization of a USB key that you can plug into whatever computer you want. Those upgrading from a PC to a Mac g5 in particular have ample motivation to upgrade to Platinum. You can use your plugins on either system.
You get the new Renaissance channel with Platinum. Is it cool? At first, i was skeptical. Then I finally tried it. It's like a channel strip in some ways, with stereo eq, compression, gating. Ok. its a track insert, I thought. But I tried a whole mix through it and found more--phase reversal, stereo imaging, sidechains and even overload protection. Very impressive, with some well-crafted presets designed to add "punch".
You can improve a mix using the Rchannel alone rather substantially. On the other hand, you can get almost the same result by effectively chaining eq-->compressor-->Maxx Bass-->S1 imager-->L1 in the 3.2 collection. That's a combination i used a lot. The Rchannel just does it all in one plugin. Hence it is really convenient. Now that I have it, I will use it more than chaining up a lot of stuff.
Other plugins Platinum adds over Gold are the Masters linear phase eq, multiband, and L2 Ultramaximizer (the gold has earlier versions of eq, the C4 multiband and L1 Ultramaximizer). Big difference here? Depends on who you are and what you are doing. A Mastering engineer will find and appreciate the difference.
These plugins are called the "Masters" not because the programmer likes golf, but because they are designed for people who are purists about audio and who master people's material for a living. The Masters are plugins that give you a GUI that allows you to make an exacting small difference. What's this "linear phase" thing? The Waves Linear Multiband manual goes into great detail on "masking", "smearing" and phase shifts that happen with typical eq and multiband processors. And how their software saves the day for you here.
The Platinum version adds the plugins from the Renaissance Collection 2 (not to be confused with the original Renaissance collection, which is already in the 3.2 set). This gives you the Renaissance Vox, R-bass, R-De-esser. You already have the Renaissance reverb, R-eq, and R-compressor in 3.2). How important are these? The R-Bass is very very good at bring out the low bass subwoofer tonalities, better than the Max Bass in 3.2 which is best at getting a big bass sound out of a small speaker.
Waves discontinued the Renaissance Native and Renaissance 2 collection and merged them into the Renaissance Maxx collection. So if you already have the Waves Gold and want to get the Renaissance channel should you get the Renaissance Maxx? Well, Maybe Not. You already have 3 of Renaissance plugins in the Gold 3.2. You should go all the way to Platinum, because in Platinum you get the whole Renaissance Maxx, the whole Masters plus the 3.2 Gold. Whew, it requires a genealogist to keep all these inbred lines straight. But I think we have it straight here.
One of the FAQs that is commonly read in forums and sites is : are really Waves Plugins worth it?
Well the answer is not that easy, since it depends on personal taste, but with objectiveness i cas firmly state that we are in front of a really good plugin suite which can make your mixes sound like the ones in which analog equipment is used.
Anyway
If it's worth it, depends on so many factors, most subjective, and the state of your financial well being. I think the Ultramazimixer L1+ is worth a lot. While there are many loudness maximizers out there now, none seem to do it as transparently or as simply. The multiband and reverbs totally sweeten the deal. If you work with samples, the eq is a must have. The Native Gold set is one of those things that makes you shake your head and pace around the room before you buy, but once you work with them. hear them, regrets may vanish.
Let us know what you think about just writing a coment or sending a mail to darklabelstudio@gmail.com.
venerdì 13 febbraio 2015
Steven Slate Drums 4.0 - Review
Today we'll talk about one of the most used and most famous drums VST in the audio production industry: The Steven Slate Drums 4.0 .
With 100 kits to choose from, your possible overall drum sound is endless. Mix and match drum sounds to make your own User kit presets, then record a nearly perfect sounding kit using a MIDI keyboard or another form of triggering. The Steven Slate Drums 4 software covers all it’s bases by including features such as a built in mixer, room & overhead mic emulation, and the ability to split out your recordings to 16 individual outputs (8 mono/8 stereo.)
Sound Quality
The samples used within the Steven Slate
Drums software is what makes it stand out from any other sampler. Being
able to operate a sampler is important in the creation stages, but the
end product is what musical productions are judged on. With over 100
kits ranging from classic Led Zeppelin styles to current pop style kits,
as well as the option to mix and match your favorite sounds, you can
choose the perfect hits for whatever style track you are working on. I
would like to see more of the electronic influenced kits for House, Hip
Hop, and other styles, but 808 samples are plentiful enough in other
programs for SSD4 to break away and add new sounds to the market. For
me, kick drums and snares usually end up being the easiest thing to
find, but cymbals really sell a kit if you can find good sounds for
them. The Steven Slate Drums cymbal samples were recorded using various
Soultone cymbals, a legendary cymbal manufacturer used by hundreds of
professional drummers. The Steven Slate team put together an assortment
of tones from dark to bright cymbal hits which add tons of color to each
kit. Adding these natural sounding cymbals to the kit add realism to
the kit, especially when mixed well within the new Steven Slate Drums
plugin environment.
Mixing drums with SSD
Within
the SSD4 plugin, you have to option to change almost anything about how
you trigger the samples, how they sound, and where they’re going. Each
piece of the kit can be edited using individual controls for Attack,
Sustain & Release, as well as the drums tuning, panning, and volume.
On the right hand side of the interface, you have MIDI control options
to decide the curve of the hits dynamics, velocity, and range to ensure
your hits are as consistent or extreme as your track calls for. The
mixer allows you to choose from 16 outputs, which is great for printing
stems for each part of the kit. You can control how much bleed each
piece has into the room and overhead mics; a nice touch to add a sense
of realism to the kit. You can also add a groove to the performance from
within the plugin which functions much like the Beat Detective Grooves
found within Pro Tools. Finally within the plugin, you are able to
assign parts of the kit (and up to 20 additional samples) to be
triggered by any MIDI note. By default, this is set up as most
traditional samplers are, starting with kick samples, followed by snare,
toms, then cymbals. The plethora of options fills a good 3 octaves for
most kits, so if your space is limited, it’s nice to be able to move
hits around to accomodate your workflow.
Variation
I
think the variation found within each kit largely creates the feeling
of realism without an actual drum set. With programmed drums, music
creators are usually limited to a single sound, or the tedious process
of selecting dozens of samples and choosing them independently. There are more
options to choose. Most notably, I enjoyed the
realism of the hi-hats as they were split out to several keys (open,
semi- closed, closed, etc.) and had various samples based on velocity.
These two layers of depth to such a specific piece of the kit gave the
program what it needed to sound as if the drums were being played on a
real kit. Though I most noticed it in the hi-hats, most kits in SSD4 had
multiple hit types for each piece of the drum kit, as well as velocity
changes on everything.
Samples in Steven Slate Drums 4 are simply awesome,
and for what it costs the sampler almost just seems like an added
bonus. It’s great to see the group at Slate Digital put so much time and
effort into the detail of these kits. Every sample sounds clean and
works well in any environment, so feel free to add your jazzy kick to an
otherwise metal setup. The combinations of sound and style are endless,
so you really just need to get your hands on the software and see what
you can make.
martedì 8 aprile 2014
XLN Addictive Drums + Metal Pack Review
XLN Audio has taken a fresh look at the live drum sampler concept and come up with Addictive Drums.
XLN Audio has taken a fresh look at the live drum sampler concept and come up with Addictive Drums.
This awesome pluginhas verything a musician needs to work with songs: effects, patterns, processing and the mixer.
Addictive Drums has 3 editing sections: a library, effects processing and performance patterns. The library is quite compact but samples are very accurate and can absolutely be competitive with other familiar plugins of this sector, such as Superior Drummer or SSD.
The library includes three main kits and the source samples were recorded at 24-bit/96kHz. Although at first glance the library might not seem to be that extensive (add-on packs are now available, by the way), the basic kit patches are complemented by about a hundred presets.
Some of those presets are good and some sound a bit strange, due to the strong equalization and compression they choose to put on them, but this is obviously personal and of course the user is completely free to personalize each drum component following its own taste.
Almost these presets give you an excellent palette of sounds that goes way beyond a typical live kit. What's more, they're all fully editable.
What about the onboard processing? Well, there are a number of aspects to this; The main screen has a mixer on it, and each piece of the kit can be opened in the Edit screen to reveal a full chain of processing. Here, you'll find everything from basic sample manipulation controls (envelopes, pitch and filter) to compression, distortion, EQ and saturation devices. And because the mixer is always visible, you can tweak and balance without having to switch screens.
The mixer also hosts a few other notable features, including feed levels to the overhead and room mix mics, mic balance controls for the kick and snare (each has two mics), and send levels to the two reverb busses.
The interface is very user friendly and even if you are new into the vst world you will find out how much easy is to deal with this plugin. The sound library is very compact but accurate.
Simply connect your USB or MIDI device into your computer (mac or windows) and spread out the power of this toy. We've used XLN Addictive Drums to trigger some drums into the new upcoming Vurricator's album (a song of them incoming in the site very soon) and the result is excellent.
Final Verdict:
Addictive Drums is a very reliable drum plugin, which is highlighted by ease of use and sound quality. We found Superior Drummer a bit better about drum samples, but this vst is a great one for sure, very close to his big brother. AD packs are good , expecially the metal pack one which comes with a Getsch kit, very good for metal and heavy rock.
Addictive Drums is one of the most accomplished plug-ins in the market. This one will give the established players a real run for their money.
Pros
Very easy to use. Good, realistic sound. Onboard FXs and processing. Small space-saving library.
Cons
Library could be more varied (only 3 default kits).
Sound Samples will be posted in the next days, so stay tuned!
lunedì 27 gennaio 2014
domenica 18 marzo 2012
Dark Label Studio - Guitar Rig 5 - Amon Amarth cover ''The War Of Gods''
Guitar Rig 5 PRO
Who said only the analog equipment can give good results? For sure it has a singular warmness and definition, but we are in the digital era, where the emulations are becoming always more and more similar to the original sources. We are introducing the new guitar\bass plugin: Guitar Rig 5.
Native Instruments have been pretty quite when it comes to Guitar Rig since the release of version 4 2 years ago with only a minor update along the way but just as I thought NI had forgotten about us amp modelling loving guitarists they announce Guitar Rig 5 Pro which comes loaded with a couple of stunning new amps and cabinets and a huge update to the Control Room.
The Amps
The two amp additions to an already versatile collection are the VAN 51 (based on the Peavey 5150) and the Hot Solo+ (based on the Soldano Hot Rod 50 Plus). Both of these as you probably know are high gain amps which Guitar Rig 4 was lacking a little with the majority of amp models based on Plexi’s and classic Fender amps so this comes as a welcome addition to the Gratifier (Mesa Dual Rectifier style amp) and the Ultrasonic (Bogner Uberschall).
With amp emulation getting better and better with every release Native Instruments are helping guitarists all around the world get exactly the tones they want without having to spend thousands on amps, effects, speakers and mics and make recording a simple and speedy process.
Review
Sound: 8\10 - Compatibility: 9\10 - CPU usage: 8\10 - Price: 8\10
We tried to reach a good digital emulation of this awesome full analog release, to check the Guitar Rig 5 quality. Drums are from Addictive Drums Metal (a very close review of it in the next posts).
The gear used:
- Guitar: Musicman JP6 (baritone tuning)
- Guitar Rig: Dark Label Studio custom preset (available to download, contact us for a free copy of it)
- Addictive Drums + Metal expansion
- Bass: direct
- Voice: MXL V69 Mogami edition [recorded in a shitty room :) ]
Enjoy.
domenica 4 marzo 2012
Working with LaVentunesimaFobia in studio: Mastering session
Currently we are working with some bands and this took us some time in the 24 daylight hours and sometimes at night too.
The works are now finalized and in the next posts we will upload some preview tracks from the new upcoming EP\Albums recorded.
We have also some new hardware\software reviews .. so stay tuned with our site and the spicy news won't be late to come!
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