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Post by donr on May 8, 2023 14:13:48 GMT -6
I bought the ergolab Stealth after sitting in it at NAMM in 2020 and I love it. The spring loaded lower/mid back support is wonderful. It's strong enough to sit back in and not miss a full backrest, yet it will support your back as you as you lean forward over your desk. That part is great! It would be nice if the armrest would swing away for playing guitar, but I sit a bit sideways to workaround that. It's very comfortable for long sessions.
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Post by donr on Apr 11, 2023 13:32:37 GMT -6
Latest addition to the family. My hardware journey has been AMAZING. Coming from the pre-DJ era, I've been tempted, but could never justify, buying a DJ rig, just to go "wika-wika-wika" until I had satisfied the urge. Then Beck's "Two Turntables and a Microphone" would taunt me anew. Also, remembering how fragile high end phono cartridges and stylii were in the day, I had a natural aversion to pushing one in the wrong direction. But that modern DJ rig looks awesome!
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Post by donr on Apr 3, 2023 15:13:17 GMT -6
Where's the spdif connectivity? I'm not seeing it. The ADAT is the spdif. One or the other, I guess.
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Post by donr on Apr 3, 2023 13:16:05 GMT -6
Huh. I had opposite reaction, I really enjoyed that video, a lot. I guess it shows can’t please everyone! The difference between here and GS, here we can have an actual discussion, gs would be whose cock is bigger. I would have named it the "Tumessor." I used the CL1 a little in studios in the day. I thought it sounded sweet but too polite, but what do I know?
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Tonex
Apr 1, 2023 23:24:32 GMT -6
Post by donr on Apr 1, 2023 23:24:32 GMT -6
Sounds great. Are the FX in the ToneX too?
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Post by donr on Apr 1, 2023 16:52:16 GMT -6
The ONE day fake news should fly is April 1. Unfortunately, in the age of clicks, every day is April fools. Evil April fools.
Every time Chris cracks a joke, I envision it as an at-bat in baseball. Some base hits, some pop flies, some times tagged out trying for second.
Years ago, I had a BB on the old AOL site. For April 1, we agreed ahead of time to create fake accounts and impersonate each other. It was hilarious! Most everyone enjoyed the spirit of it, a couple people couldn't tolerate any humiliation or ridicule whatsoever. That was then! Now..
Humor is treacherous in the new utopia.
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Post by donr on Mar 27, 2023 10:23:01 GMT -6
I bet the public accepts AI generated "incidental" music without notice or comment. Perhaps golden age "real" writing and recorded performances will retain value even further beyond its sale date than they do today.
When I listen to commercial pop music, I'm most bothered by how 'perfect' the elements are. It would serve those creators right to get replaced by machine generated facsimiles. What listener's ears hear is already not real.
That said, I'm curious, kinda excited about the coming AI tsunami. Cool time to be alive.
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Post by donr on Mar 27, 2023 10:08:00 GMT -6
Apple's app software in general is unappealing to me compared to alternatives. They'll take any category of app and make a version that's less intuitive. I subscribe to it, and Spotify, but use Spotify 95% of the time.
I suspect Apple's promotion of its spatial thing is to differentiate themselves from competition. Would that they could reanimate Steve Jobs.
Agree with Christopher about "remasters." Get off my lawn!
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Post by donr on Mar 25, 2023 14:39:34 GMT -6
...and in many stereo home playback systems, one loudspeaker remains on a shelf while the other is on the floor behind the sofa When I visit people, just about everyone's 5.1 home theater systems are not well balanced. The subs are invariably not integrated into the sound field, badly crossed over, and stick out, usually too loud. The rears are too loud as well. It took me months of tweaking to get mine to properly disappear into the sound field in my living room.
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Post by donr on Mar 23, 2023 15:15:35 GMT -6
"On the Rode again" "I can't wait to get on the Rode again" Chris Chris hits a stand up double. : )
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Post by donr on Mar 23, 2023 15:12:19 GMT -6
Anyone here producing music with more than 12 dB of dynamic range? Do any pro studios normally run 96kHz or above sampling rate? Cranbourne uses its C.A.S.T. link for analogue summing across multiple boxes. I guess they chose ADAT digital for compatibility with outside devices. Too bad. C.A.S.T. isn't ADAT, it's more like Dante except it's Cranborne's own system. (MOTU has one too, Avid, etc). The unit you're looking at, the 500r8, isn't ADAT at all. It communicates with your computer through USB just like any other converter. The one that I got is because I already use ADAT expanders and record at 48khz anyway. I know lots of pro studios that run at 96khz and higher, but I also know lots that run at 48khz. To me the biggest benefit of 96khz is the lower latency but I do hours and hours of on-location recording every week so the file sizes are a deal killer for me. Anyway, if the ADAT thing is a concern for you don't sweat it. 500r8 and C.A.S.T. are an ADAT free zone!!! haha My point was they could've used the CAST or similar network cable based proprietary comm for linking multiple boxes' inputs as well as outputs. I assume you can't get a Cranbourne 16 or 24 channel I/O system without digitally linking via ADAT, which constrains the # of channels at high sample rates. I doubt if I'd ever need to go higher than 24/48 to record my primitive pop musings anyway. The company obviously put some thought into the utility of their products.
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Post by donr on Mar 23, 2023 12:10:09 GMT -6
Anyone here producing music with more than 12 dB of dynamic range? Do any pro studios normally run 96kHz or above sampling rate? Cranbourne uses its C.A.S.T. link for analogue summing across multiple boxes. I guess they chose ADAT digital for compatibility with outside devices. Too bad.
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Post by donr on Mar 23, 2023 12:02:07 GMT -6
I've seen so many articles about studios converting an Atmos system. This is clearly to attract business for movie soundtracks. It occurs to me that it would require people to go to the theater to hear this properly. I'm not sure I'll ever go to see a movie in a theater again. I have a great sound system, a 65" TV and a projector. I can enjoy a movie without anyone disturbing me. Last time I went to a theater I felt my chair rocking. For a second I thought it was one of those devices that simulates movement in time to the action on the screen, but no, some dumb fuck had his feet on the back of my chair and was nervously pushing it forward and back. I turned around and told the guy "you gotta be kidding me". He gave me some pushback before removing his feet. For the entire movie, I was uncomfortable knowing that asshole was right behind me and could do anything to me before I could see it coming. There were no other seats available, and I liked where I was seated anyway. That's just one of dozens of similar experiences. Cell phones lighting up the dark room. non-stop chatting, people yelling out spoilers, fights and arguments, knees in the back of my chair, someone crunching nachos during quiet scenes, the endless wrapper removal, and there's still the possibility of covid. I'd need a boatload of speakers to do Atmos at home though, so it seems like it's only for rich folks or theatergoers. I wonder if there is there an Atmos headset that can be used. VR will require some kind of 4D spacial delivery. So be it. Tunes? I've never heard a surround mix of music that beat the Stereo version. Then I haven't listen to many, either. Surround tends to "un-glue" the mix you spent such effort to gel in the first place.
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Post by donr on Mar 22, 2023 15:03:54 GMT -6
Anyone here using the Cranbourne 500r8? I saw an ad on VintageKing for it and it seems like a clever and painlesss way to integrate analog 500 series outboard and interface I/O in DAW sessions. Built in monitor section, headphone amp, and analog summing also. Class compliant, no drivers.
gravesnumber9, are you still digging your 500adat? Did you consider getting the 500r8 instead of whatever to replace the Apollo?
It looks attractive to me to downsize an entire studio setup to a very small footprint that does what you need done easily. Plus you can add the ADAT ones for more I/0 and 500 modules. Route all hardware inserts right from the DAW, no patching.
Take a photo of the Cranbourne module settings and put it in the session folder, you've got total recall.
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Post by donr on Mar 18, 2023 12:05:26 GMT -6
“The Symbol Remains” was a DAW recording. ProTools and Digital Performer. Mixed on TLA’s SSL and outboard, but plugins too. I don’t know what Masterdisk uses, but it’s voodoo.
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Post by donr on Mar 17, 2023 11:22:09 GMT -6
And so we pay extra for a master that's so loud that you can't turn it up? Times change I guess. Eh donr ? Haha!! Getting old...... Loud music sounds better on laptops, cell phones and non-sealing earbuds, I admit. But to truly enjoy a recording, I like it less claustrophobic, a recording that breathes and has some depth. 10-14dB peak to average. I'm generally not a fan of 'remastered' classic LP's.
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Post by donr on Mar 17, 2023 11:17:56 GMT -6
Slate's VSX system has Steven's studio's particularly awful sounding mono Auratone which will quickly tell you your mix sucks unless it's really well balanced.
Still a big fan of the VSX, and all the varied references to check.
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Post by donr on Mar 17, 2023 11:12:18 GMT -6
Anyone else think Tom's mix sounds way better than the finished master? It has huge peaks that extend and are not clipped. The Jensen master clips all the peaks as is the norm with most commercial music. To my ears, the mix could use a little more clarity, but that could also just be because it's an mp3. A touch more compression, just to blend the backing vocals more with the rest of the song. It doesn't need radical changes. It's already got a ton of character, sounds very forward. I've always heard that it's impossible to get things to the standard level of loudness without compromising the sound and I'd tend to agree. Ted's master sounds too aggressive for my tastes. Pushes the cymbals forward in a way I'm not a huge fan of. I've tried converting it to wav and playing around with it in Pro Tools. Just thought it'd be educational to see what happens since it's so rare to hear an unmastered mix from someone like Tom, even if it's a lossy version. At times I'll take a commercial cd and run it through my stuff to try and make it easier for me to listen to as a fan. With this song, the character Tom imparted gives me a lot less flexibility than stuff I mix myself. I don't use any master bus processing on my mixes at all. The third version with the L2 still has a lot more dynamics than the master. It would be great if the labels offered masters with the dynamics intact, I'm not sure why we're stuck with only one version when it shouldn't be that hard to bounce a second one without all the extra compression and/or limiting. Earache Records seems to be the only place that does this and it's only with a handful of classic albums. As a fan/listener, I've spent a lot of time on forums like stevehoffman.tv discussing different masterings, pressings, etc. Recently, I noticed some of the 2015 Bowie remasters had a lot more dynamics than usual. Life on Mars was much clearer than the European RCA cd, but the compression they added compromised the song even though there are no clipped peaks in the waveform. The RCA's peaks extend louder and keep the breathing room that the song needs. The prevailing thinking amongst a lot of mastering people these days seems to be about how they can make stuff as loud as possible while minimizing the damage. That seems to be the best we can hope for. The information we got about Chinese Democracy and Death Magnetic in 2008 was very helpful. Two very opposite approaches there. Some MEs also overdo the EQ. It's easy to go overboard. I've started to use less processing on masters and my stuff sounds better and better as a result. With plugins, it's so easy to just start chaining stuff together and creating all sorts of chaos. Mastering your own stuff makes a lot of sense...or at least attempting to. Just to understand what's possible. As a client, I quickly understood that a lot of supposed pros don't know some basic things. I'd read that a lot of mixing guys would start creeping into mastering territory so that the mastering person had little to work with and couldn't make any real changes. That way they would not get the blame if the mastering engineer ended up doing something that the label or whoever didn't like. Mastering my own stuff has shown me a lot of when to back off on a mix. There have been times where I've heard of mastering guys going back and asking for someone to send them the mix with no bus processing because the mix had such strong character that they had a lot of trouble working with it. The more you know, the better you can communicate what it is you're looking for and the better you can understand the other person's job. It's also easier to work with your own stuff at times. When Ted Jensen mastered the BOC record, I first thought it was 'way too loud. I asked for a version about ⅔ as loud, and he did it, (Don't know what he changed to do it,) but no one in the band thought it was an improvement, even me. If I want to listen to my own record for pleasure, I'll listen to Tom's mix. I'm so old I remember when I liked a song on the radio, I'd turn it up. Today's music, I don't do that. It's already loud enough, no matter what the volume is. I CAN'T turn it up and tolerate it. The last loud modern hit I remember turning up was "Semi-Charmed Life."
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Post by donr on Mar 15, 2023 22:22:06 GMT -6
I'm not getting the "Tone = Translation" thing. If 'ya go back a wee bit & listen to the examples donr put up it'll either hit you in 90 seconds... or it won't. To me its really obvious even on the tiny Sony office rig. YMMV? To my mind, it's like TLA knew what making his mix as loud as commercial music would do to the tonal balance of it. He steered us to Ted Jensen, and Ted has done a lot of his stuff.
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Post by donr on Mar 13, 2023 11:12:48 GMT -6
A thread about dynamics? They are Dyna-Mic! Wicked cool, pissahs. Favorites and what I like them for. Telefunken M80. Snare top. Crack snap BANG thud. More details than a typical SDC Senn M441. Snare bottom. Hypercardioid. Gets the snares and shell and nothing but Beyer M201. Hi hats. straight down, 9" above, opposite side of contact point. Nice off-axis rejection and easy on the ears Shure SM7. Great for guide vocals when tracking live off the floor. nothing else. That's it's only use. Shure Beta 57 gen 1. Fabulous on a piccolo snare. Yamaha MZ205be. Awesome on a bright or clingy snare. Senn MD421. Toms. But not top. BOTTOM heads. Proximiity is perfect Shure SM57. Guitar cabinet. Slightly off axis mid cone. Great alt to a Royer 121. EV RE20. Love this mic on inside kick. Natural full with great snap! T-Funk M82. also great on inside kick when you need more snap or click or point. Great for metal and hard rock EV 308 408 et al. Nice alternative mic for top of toms. Great pickup and you can get to almost touching the heads Shure Beta 58. It is what it is. Back of a guitar cab, flip the phase and it works, Some vocal applications also. AKG D12e. perfect natural kick pickup without any hype. Love it for anything that borders on jazz or folk stuff AKD D112. Not sure why I still have this. Great for death metal vocals. Those are ones I have and use all the time. I'm probably forgetting as many again. i.e. this is like 1/2 my dynamic mics. P.S. Also have a bunch of RE 635 re10 re15 re16 mics. They all make good talkback microphones. Been looking for a really good talkback mic.. : )
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Post by donr on Mar 12, 2023 10:31:29 GMT -6
Biggest problem I have with my home recordings is not anticipating playback systems with hyped top end. Then I realized I've overdone the highs on my mixes/master. Partly because I'm old and going deaf, and partly because I don't know enough to make elements bright without making them harsh. That's something that people like Tom Lord-Alge and Ted Jensen know how to do.
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Post by donr on Mar 11, 2023 22:31:07 GMT -6
+1 for Trillian. A lot of useable bass sounds, although I bought it for this patch from Charlie Puth’s “Attention” Wow, I'd never heard this guy before. The arranging, production and mixing are awesome. The transient releases kill. Everything is just so and musical and ear candy. And the bass patch is sweet too!
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Post by donr on Mar 10, 2023 19:54:31 GMT -6
This mastering thread got me thinking to generate and post three clips from BOC's "The Symbol Remains" LP. Here's three versions of a clip from an album cut called "Edge of The World." The first is the final mix by Tom Lord-Alge. The mix was delivered with about .5dB of headroom from digital 0. I gained up the clip .6 dB so it barely tickles an L2 on the master fader at the loudest peaks. www.dropbox.com/s/00us1q4dag0sx74/Tom%27s%20Mix%20.mp3?dl=0The second is Ted Jensen's mastering of the same tune. When I first heard Ted's master of the LP I was astonished how loud it was. It was less than 8dB peak to RMS, but most the time its was 3-4dB. This file is always right up to the Master fader limiter but doesn't touch it. www.dropbox.com/s/wbxfnher07f8f8v/Ted%27s%20Master.mp3?dl=0The last is Tom's mix, run through another instance of L2, with me trying to get it as loud as Ted's master. I think I got it pretty close with L2, but it's not as clean, punchy, and open as Ted's. It doesn't touch 0dB on the master fader either. Also, trying to match Ted Jensen's master, I pushed L2 quite a bit harder than I'd ever had. I realized that for a given gain raise, you could tweak the attack and release so it still sounded plausibly musical. Although my finished settings weren't too far from the default. www.dropbox.com/s/zyf2rpzwd63pmf6/Tom%27s%20Mix%20w__L2.mp3?dl=0There's certainly something to be said for professional mastering! Thing is, if I turn up Tom's original mix to be as loud as the mastered mix is perceived, I'd rather listen to the un-mastered mix, it's quite a bit less claustrophobic. [listening to the clips on my MacBook instead of my studio now, the mastered version makes a lot more sense in a real world playback way.]
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Post by donr on Mar 10, 2023 19:04:18 GMT -6
I use a couple year old 55" curved Samsung TV for a monitor, about 3' away. The 4k resolution is 'way too small for DAW use, I have to downscale so the DAW looks like you'd expect. Also, the TV has a latency that can't be improved, even with "PC" or Game mode. Other than that, it's great.
For DAW work, high Rez really isn't required, I've found. TV, OTOH, looks good at high rez.
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Post by donr on Mar 10, 2023 12:44:31 GMT -6
I remember using Dolby A for noise reduction.
One of the more inside jokes in "Spinal Tap."
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