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Post by EmRR on May 17, 2021 23:14:37 GMT -6
Since you touched on the Zoom H6 and the Sound Devices, I’ll add the Zoom F8n has been a solid performer as an interface with a laptop on remote gigs, if 8’ll do’er. No complaints at all. Very capable standalone performance if you don’t need overdub capability. I got 3hrs45min out of 8 phantom powered mics with freshly charged 2200mAh rechargable batteries, get 20+ hours with an external battery pack. Has a Bluetooth control app too. Mostly recording loud music, but also some HS orchestra and lots of nature work. Ambient noise has always swamped anything the preamps may add. Has worked fine with ribbon mics.
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Post by Guitar on May 18, 2021 5:13:11 GMT -6
Thanks, EmRR. That's a great idea to combine with the laptop. beats my ultralite in the sense that it runs on batteries.
Just curious about the ambient and nature work. Do you get paid for that what is the purpose of the material? this is an area growing in my interest. when I get my binaural mic I'll go out and record the dawn chorus for example, just to hear it.
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Post by EmRR on May 18, 2021 6:25:12 GMT -6
curious about the ambient and nature work. Do you get paid for that what is the purpose of the material? this is an area growing in my interest. when I get my binaural mic I'll go out and record the dawn chorus for example, just to hear it. Really as as a mic array, ambient noise, gain set, and dynamics exercise. It’s extremely hard to find a low level of ambient pollution to work with. It’s a crapshoot to guess how loud a thunderclap will be. It’s a good way to reset my idea of stereo image, and a good way to test microphones. I’m on my way to a personal efx library, I don’t know that there’s any money in it.
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Post by Guitar on May 18, 2021 6:44:36 GMT -6
curious about the ambient and nature work. Do you get paid for that what is the purpose of the material? this is an area growing in my interest. when I get my binaural mic I'll go out and record the dawn chorus for example, just to hear it. Really as as a mic array, ambient noise, gain set, and dynamics exercise. It’s extremely hard to find a low level of ambient pollution to work with. It’s a crapshoot to guess how loud a thunderclap will be. It’s a good way to reset my idea of stereo image, and a good way to test microphones. I’m on my way to a personal efx library, I don’t know that there’s any money in it. Cool! I'll have to practice also. There is the model of Freetousesounds, they make a living on it, but it seems like you need a lot of social media and a massive library to be able to get the income. Becomes a full time job, I guess.
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Post by EmRR on May 18, 2021 9:44:10 GMT -6
I’m on my way to a personal efx library, I don’t know that there’s any money in it. Cool! I'll have to practice also. There is the model of Freetousesounds, they make a living on it, but it seems like you need a lot of social media and a massive library to be able to get the income. Becomes a full time job, I guess. yeah.....I already have 3-4 full-time jobs I manage badly!
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Post by lpedrum on May 18, 2021 13:47:23 GMT -6
More ULMK5 stuff, for anyone interested. Still haven't measured audio specifications yet. My laptop hates it, it hates my laptop. DPC latency spikes are too much here. Not even sure if I can use this with that computer. But my big, main computer loves the ultralite. No dropouts whatsoever, very stable. So it's picky about computers in a way that my M4 is not. Both windows 10 in this case. After living with both, the Ultralite is on 'another level' from the M4. But I could record with either. The UL is more fun, more exciting, responsive. Triple the cost and triple the functionality. Think I might buy an iPad to do mobile recording / mixing with this interface. Here's a track to listen to, not sure how much this helps, but it was recorded entirely with the Ultralite MK 5. I find the mic pres and ADC to be very precise and accurate, having almost no color at all. You will really hear transients, clarity on the top end, these kinds of tones. It's a lot of fun to play these amp sims through the Ultralite, they have an edgy sound and feel very responsive in the hands. It's an expressive platform for amp sims, assuming your computer can run the 128 buffer or better if you can go even lower. Sounds like a pretty high impedance guitar input. Extremely low input noise, very quiet signal.
https%3A//soundcloud.com/user-707541281/125-splattered-berries-strat-making-jam-ultralite-testing-di-input
Sounds great! I really appreciate what you're doing with the thread. Long story short I was planning on a studio upgrade in the fall but alas my Mac mini 2012 bit the dust last Friday. I'm aiming towards the new Mac M1 16GB and Motu says the Ultra lite is compatible with that and Big Sur. So I may get both to keep my studio running this summer. Here are a couple of questions you (or someone else) may or may not have the answers to: 1. Does the Motu use a DSP mixer like Apogee or Steinberg so that the buffering rate while recording is not an issue? 2. I have an Apogee Symphony MK1 that Apogee says will be compatible with the Mac M1 in the Fall (we'll see.) But I'm wondering if I could slave it to the Ultralite via ADAT with no concern about OS and M1 compatibility? I could ask Motu that question. Anyway, I'm intrigued by this solution because even if and when I return to my Symphony I'd still have a great, portable interface in the Motu.
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Post by Guitar on May 18, 2021 14:06:56 GMT -6
More ULMK5 stuff, for anyone interested. Still haven't measured audio specifications yet. My laptop hates it, it hates my laptop. DPC latency spikes are too much here. Not even sure if I can use this with that computer. But my big, main computer loves the ultralite. No dropouts whatsoever, very stable. So it's picky about computers in a way that my M4 is not. Both windows 10 in this case. After living with both, the Ultralite is on 'another level' from the M4. But I could record with either. The UL is more fun, more exciting, responsive. Triple the cost and triple the functionality. Think I might buy an iPad to do mobile recording / mixing with this interface. Here's a track to listen to, not sure how much this helps, but it was recorded entirely with the Ultralite MK 5. I find the mic pres and ADC to be very precise and accurate, having almost no color at all. You will really hear transients, clarity on the top end, these kinds of tones. It's a lot of fun to play these amp sims through the Ultralite, they have an edgy sound and feel very responsive in the hands. It's an expressive platform for amp sims, assuming your computer can run the 128 buffer or better if you can go even lower. Sounds like a pretty high impedance guitar input. Extremely low input noise, very quiet signal.
https%3A//soundcloud.com/user-707541281/125-splattered-berries-strat-making-jam-ultralite-testing-di-input
Sounds great! I really appreciate what you're doing with the thread. Long story short I was planning on a studio upgrade in the fall but alas my Mac mini 2012 bit the dust last Friday. I'm aiming towards the new Mac M1 16GB and Motu says the Ultra lite is compatible with that and Big Sur. So I may get both to keep my studio running this summer. Here are a couple of questions you (or someone else) may or may not have the answers to: 1. Does the Motu use a DSP mixer like Apogee or Steinberg so that the buffering rate while recording is not an issue? 2. I have an Apogee Symphony MK1 that Apogee says will be compatible with the Mac M1 in the Fall (we'll see.) But I'm wondering if I could slave it to the Ultralite via ADAT with no concern about OS and M1 compatibility? I could ask Motu that question. Anyway, I'm intrigued by this solution because even if and when I return to my Symphony I'd still have a great, portable interface in the Motu. I'm not sure about the ADAT routing exactly, but I am sure that it works standalone, MOTU has said this. The mixer/FX are DSP. You can record them, or monitor them, your choice. Level, compression/gate, EQ, reverb. It seems like a pretty powerful box, I'm just starting to get into it, really. Mostly have just been enjoying the sound. You can use an iPad as a control surface for the DSP mixer. Not sure how it's connected, probably with the USB-C I don't have one here (ipad) to test. Can record to IOS as well. Not sure if that answers your questions exactly, but an attempt. Also thanks for the kudos on the thread, I appreciate it.
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Post by lpedrum on May 18, 2021 14:11:36 GMT -6
Sounds great! I really appreciate what you're doing with the thread. Long story short I was planning on a studio upgrade in the fall but alas my Mac mini 2012 bit the dust last Friday. I'm aiming towards the new Mac M1 16GB and Motu says the Ultra lite is compatible with that and Big Sur. So I may get both to keep my studio running this summer. Here are a couple of questions you (or someone else) may or may not have the answers to: 1. Does the Motu use a DSP mixer like Apogee or Steinberg so that the buffering rate while recording is not an issue? 2. I have an Apogee Symphony MK1 that Apogee says will be compatible with the Mac M1 in the Fall (we'll see.) But I'm wondering if I could slave it to the Ultralite via ADAT with no concern about OS and M1 compatibility? I could ask Motu that question. Anyway, I'm intrigued by this solution because even if and when I return to my Symphony I'd still have a great, portable interface in the Motu. I'm not sure about the ADAT routing exactly, but I am sure that it works standalone, MOTU has said this. The mixer/FX are DSP. You can record them, or monitor them, your choice. Level, compression/gate, EQ, reverb. It seems like a pretty powerful box, I'm just starting to get into it, really. Mostly have just been enjoying the sound. You can use an iPad as a control surface for the DSP mixer. Not sure how it's connected, probably with the USB-C I don't have one here (ipad) to test. Can record to IOS as well. Not sure if that answers your questions exactly, but an attempt. Also thanks for the kudos on the thread, I appreciate it. Thanks that helps! It's probably a good idea to call MOTU directly with my questions about ADAT and how it relates (or doesn't) to OS compatibility.
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Post by Deleted on May 20, 2021 4:15:34 GMT -6
I will say, I've had a lot of issues with MOTU drivers in the past. Especially on Windows, mac has been a little hit and miss over USB so if you can go TB3 direct or USB-C I'd highly recommend it.
You know what? The old Avid Pro Tools Mbox Pro (the silver one's) we're actually pretty good (I bought it for Pro Tools Native), I sold mine to chase something "better" as we do and I've missed it on occasion. Rock solid, no issues, sounded great for what it was. There was a lot of negative reviews but they pretty much surrounded Pro Tools native software.
Had an Apogee Duet 2, it was okay I guess. It liked to randomly reboot at times..
Owned a Focusrite Scarlett for about 5 minutes, not that they're bad per say they just weren't great either.
Can't agree more with the ID22.
For me, out of every small form factor interface I've had the newer MOTU's are winners, it's just a shame mine didn't work properly although I would take a risk with one of their TB interfaces on MAC. (Actually I might buy a TB3 - TB2 adaptor and see how well my 1248 works).. I want to compare it to the Apollo X6 again and see which one is going up on e-bay.
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Post by Guitar on May 21, 2021 6:24:11 GMT -6
Here are some graphs I made in REW of the ULMK5 frequency, phase, and distortion/noise response. This is a loopback of Line Output 3 to Line Input 3: Phase is very linear, you can see the (reconstruction?) filter phase there as well. Frequency has a very tiny dip in the audible low end, I think I can hear this, or it matches what I hear. Quoted noise specs in most common published sources seem to be the 1 KHz frequency measurement (about -109 dB or so.) Phase is the dotted line, frequency is the green line. I did my best to calibrate my levels and so on, I hope these are accurate enough. There was some astute poster somewhere out there that predicted the rising high end noise/distortion response just from quoted numbers. You can see that here in my graph. 2nd harmonic, even order distortion, is the most dominant harmonic, the red line. the black line is the total/average noise/distortion floor. I'm attempting a detailed spectrogram measurement/graph but it will be 30 minutes until I see if it comes out or not in any sort of meaningful / legible way. I've never done this type before. Maybe some of the EE and ME's on here could take me to school, or just comment on what they see here: (click for full size)
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Post by Deleted on May 21, 2021 7:16:06 GMT -6
Here are some graphs I made in REW of the ULMK5 frequency, phase, and distortion/noise response. This is a loopback of Line Output 3 to Line Input 3: Phase is very linear, you can see the (reconstruction?) filter phase there as well. Frequency has a very tiny dip in the audible low end, I think I can hear this, or it matches what I hear. Quoted noise specs in most common published sources seem to be the 1 KHz frequency measurement (about -109 dB or so.) Phase is the dotted line, frequency is the green line. I did my best to calibrate my levels and so on, I hope these are accurate enough. There was some astute poster somewhere out there that predicted the rising high end noise/distortion response just from quoted numbers. You can see that here in my graph. 2nd harmonic, even order distortion, is the most dominant harmonic, the red line. the black line is the total/average noise/distortion floor. I'm attempting a detailed spectrogram measurement/graph but it will be 30 minutes until I see if it comes out or not in any sort of meaningful / legible way. I've never done this type before. Maybe some of the EE and ME's on here could take me to school, or just comment on what they see here: (click for full size) View AttachmentView AttachmentLooks exactly how I'd expect it to, not many go into that much depth so thanks for that.
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Post by Guitar on May 21, 2021 7:21:07 GMT -6
Here are some more pretty things to look at, and some regular old numbers if you like those. They seem to match other numbers posted in other folks tests around the world. The one I understand the least is the spectrogram. Not sure if I made a meaningful graph here. As you can see, these are "good numbers." Looking into the middle chart, the little floating bubble in the top left with the "specs." And there is some possibility those harmonic spikes are erroneous measurements, when I used other test parameters the response was more even, but I kept having memory problems with REW in these hour long, 2 hour long tests so I have nothing new to post or show.
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Post by Guitar on Jun 3, 2021 14:31:04 GMT -6
Got my BRAND NEW Ultralite today. Some interesting testing has occurred. First of all I found this resource: www.fidelizer-audio.com/ and I downloaded their program, as well as the foobar2000 WASAPI driver (2020 version), and configured foobar using the tips suggested in the PDF file that comes with Fidelizer. Anyway, even without running Fidelizer, my main PC seems to run the Ultralite rock solid with foobar now, using WASAPI and the recommended settings. Even with sample rate conversion DSP which adds a bit of CPU hit. I'm going to listen to the ASIO driver now for an hour or two with the foobar tweaks and see how it behaves. First 10 minutes or so, no dropouts. WASAPI is fine, check. This is great progress, a good result. Also both people I talked to at Sweetwater for the RMA wanted to listen to my music, I thought that was pretty cool. My poor laptop is a hard case. The BRAND NEW Ultralite is better behaved than the defective one that's going back, but it's still not perfect. However, when I run Fidelizer, a seeming miracle work brute force program, my DPC latency goes down under 500 micro seconds and stays that way, and the Ultralite is perfectly stable. I have started with foobar, we'll see how Reaper and Studio One behave soon, and I'll get into Cubase on the main PC. Fidelizer is a great free program for minimizing latency, check it out. What it does is scale back or disable (temporarily) non-essential windows services, while boosting priority for audio services and apps that you select. I'm going to see how low I can get the Ultralite buffer and still be playable, and see how stable the computers are longer term. If this works well with Studio One / Reaper might have just saved this interface/laptop combination. Even though it's an extra step, oh well. Also I know it's not logical but this Ultralite sounds different to me, smoother on the top. All I can think of is that my ears are different today, allergies or long hours, etc. I've been mixing and listening since about 5 AM, about 12 hours ago. And it's completely subjective, there was no blind test. Just a funny observation about hearing fallacies, having them, noticing them. A real obvious difference was noticed switching from the M4, which I had been on for hours, to the Ultralite, huge sound change. The Ultralite has a much broader bass response, is the main thing I hear. There was this whole extra bottom octave, or whatever people say, it sounded like that. The M4 has more of a "sweet mids" kind of profile, to my ears, a little frowny face. Not on a graph, but how it sounds. Pshew, what a relief. Hopefully I can start seriously recording now.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 4, 2021 9:09:16 GMT -6
Got my BRAND NEW Ultralite today. Some interesting testing has occurred. First of all I found this resource: www.fidelizer-audio.com/ and I downloaded their program, as well as the foobar2000 WASAPI driver (2020 version), and configured foobar using the tips suggested in the PDF file that comes with Fidelizer. Anyway, even without running Fidelizer, my main PC seems to run the Ultralite rock solid with foobar now, using WASAPI and the recommended settings. Even with sample rate conversion DSP which adds a bit of CPU hit. I'm going to listen to the ASIO driver now for an hour or two with the foobar tweaks and see how it behaves. First 10 minutes or so, no dropouts. WASAPI is fine, check. This is great progress, a good result. Also both people I talked to at Sweetwater for the RMA wanted to listen to my music, I thought that was pretty cool. My poor laptop is a hard case. The BRAND NEW Ultralite is better behaved than the defective one that's going back, but it's still not perfect. However, when I run Fidelizer, a seeming miracle work brute force program, my DPC latency goes down under 500 micro seconds and stays that way, and the Ultralite is perfectly stable. I have started with foobar, we'll see how Reaper and Studio One behave soon, and I'll get into Cubase on the main PC. Fidelizer is a great free program for minimizing latency, check it out. What it does is scale back or disable (temporarily) non-essential windows services, while boosting priority for audio services and apps that you select. I'm going to see how low I can get the Ultralite buffer and still be playable, and see how stable the computers are longer term. If this works well with Studio One / Reaper might have just saved this interface/laptop combination. Even though it's an extra step, oh well. Also I know it's not logical but this Ultralite sounds different to me, smoother on the top. All I can think of is that my ears are different today, allergies or long hours, etc. I've been mixing and listening since about 5 AM, about 12 hours ago. And it's completely subjective, there was no blind test. Just a funny observation about hearing fallacies, having them, noticing them. A real obvious difference was noticed switching from the M4, which I had been on for hours, to the Ultralite, huge sound change. The Ultralite has a much broader bass response, is the main thing I hear. There was this whole extra bottom octave, or whatever people say, it sounded like that. The M4 has more of a "sweet mids" kind of profile, to my ears, a little frowny face. Not on a graph, but how it sounds. Pshew, what a relief. Hopefully I can start seriously recording now. Motu has never had great quality control. I can only imagine Ultralite 5 ‘s is worse being made in China. The thing I mainly noticed with M vs Ultralite was the much worse stereo image on the M. Slight tonal differences yes but it was hard to get past the image change.
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