Harmony
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Posts posted by Harmony
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As a paying customer, I would be pissed.
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No, that's right. 8 preamps for 8 mic recording sources. Note though that preamps are only needed for sources (like mics) that are not line-level. Preamps are not required for electric guitars or for hardware synths, for example. So #inputs you need doesn't necessarily equal #preamps. Every interface I know of gives you at least two outs, and many give you more for flexibility.
It comes down to personal choice at some point. imo, look at what you want and buy the absolute best that you can afford. If you want to get 5-8 mic inputs at a time into you software, go for something with at least 8 preamps. Settling for less would personally frustrate the hell out of me. So if you want 8 but can only afford the saffire, I say go for it. As I've said, I was in your position where I wanted 8 but had initially budgeted for the $500 firestudio project. I ended up pushing that budget up closer to $700 (even though I got lucky and found what I wanted for $600), but now I am totally confident that I have one of the best products in our class. That confidence, more than the actual features, is where I feel the additional money went.
Example: When Win 7 came out, M-Audio was very open about the progress of their drivers. They released betas which worked great, as do the the final versions. The Sapphire interfaces still use Vista drivers and I'm not even sure they have one for 64bit. When I shell out $500 or more for something, I don't want headaches like hoping my drivers work, or worrying about shady tech support (M-Audio has the best tech support I've ever had to deal with), or worrying that my unit will die a few months down the road.
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I recorded 2 simultaneous audio sources at 24/48 with 2.7-5.8ms latency routinely with my usb 1.1 interface (FastTrack Pro). I can't do better than that with my FW interface. What kind of latency are you seeing with the mobile-pre?huh. i was under the impression that you couldn't use usb for real-time recording, and that firewire was the only way to reduce your latency down to easy levels.
understandable; I would want to use that as my primary either considering the upgrades you're talking about. Bus power has it's advantages in our price range though. The fw interface I have now is not bus powered and uses a power cord with a transformer. Those transformers are notorious for introducing interference with audio signals, and yeah I hear the interference from mine. You've gotta route your audio very carefully around it just to minimize that. Secondly, if you lose or damage yours, replacing it isn't always cheap or easy. More expensive units have internal power supplies that eliminate the need for the transformer.i wasn't saying that the mobilepre was bad for what i've got, i was more saying that i just didn't want to use something as basic as that for my interface. mainly, i want more recording channels and a midi i/o on a system that wasn't bus-powered.
again, if you're planning to get some hardware synths with midi, sure. But for your controllers, especially anything with a usb port, don't waste your money - you won't gain any speed.i completely forgot about a 2x2 interface. they're cheap, i'll look into one of those.
For 8 pre amps, yeah that's budget. Consider it on a per-pre basis (one of the most expensive components). A great pre amp alone like Avalon or Greatriver will cost you $1000 or more per channel. A mid level pre like the p-solo will cost you $500 per channel. You're looking at paying less than $100 for each preamp and in real terms its even less because the audio interface includes other semi-expensive items like AD converters.500$ is ultra-budget range? =( =( =( i thought i was going mid-line or so.
eh, the only way I could see that being a problem is if you were connecting either more than 4 ribbon mics (lucky rich bastard) or more than 4 condensers and a ribbon mic. If not, then just keep the ribbons on 1-4 or 5-8 and you'll never risk damaging them because you thought you were only turning the power off on condensers or dynamics. If you don't have any ribbon mics, this is essentially irrelevant.the firestudio and the saffire pro allow you to assign phantom power per two-channel sets. the profile's got it in sets of four. not a big fan of that -
Upgrades are always fun. My 2 cents on some of your questions:
I like to think of the "mobile" preface to be an added feature, not an indication that the device is somehow not optimized for desktop use.i currently use a mobilepre with my desktop, which by definition isn't the best idea
I know there's the whole idea of usb not being as "smart" about it's data transfer as fw, but I just don't see running into issues of overloading the usb bus. I piped stuff into my FastTrack Pro (a mobile usb 1.1 interface!) like a madman and didn't have significantly more problems with it than I've had with my ProFire 2626.it's a usb-based interface, though, so i'm worried about overloading the usb bus.
Not exactly sure what you mean here. If you connect via midi cable to a usb interface, the data transfer is still "limited" by the usb of the interface. And there's really no perceptible limitation. While latency can come from a variety of sources, the latency introduced directly between your controller and the processor is completely insignificant when compared to the latency added by the time it takes your cpu to crunch the numbers and tell your daw to tell your audio card to tell your monitors to play a sound. Even going to fw isn't going to dramatically change your latency, all else equal. I get the basically the same latency on my fancy ProFire as I do with my usb 1.1 FastTrack pro. Bottom line: reduce latency by getting a faster cpu.thing is, i'd also like to be able to run midi from my axiom 49 (and possibly a 76-key no-frills controller at some point) into this to reduce the lag that usb currently gives me.
No. Like you said, you can go usb, fw or pci and get the same functionality. The differences are primarily ease of connection, compatibility, potential latency, and cost.i'm assuming i'd need an external interface for the amount of inputs and outputs i want. is firewire my only option
You've got options. The easiest and I'd say best way would be to hook your axiom up via usb. It'll be bus powered and you can easily transfer presets without having to plug it up each time (yeah I know, I don't do that often either, but w/e). Then you could use the interface's midi port for the other controller.:midi inputs of some kind. i'd prefer it if it had inputs for two different keyboards - should i get a splitter or something, or what?The axiom can also function as a midi interface where you could plug it up via usb, plug another midi controller up to it's midi in port, and still have the midi in/out on your interface free for another device.
If you're dead set on using midi cables, you could buy a midi patch bay or small dedicated 2x2 midi interface that would allow you to directly connect both to the interface and share the 16 channels of midi between the two devices. But this is just overkill for a couple of controllers.
I was recently in the market, and Jimmy advised me against the firestudio project, having had a number of problems with a number of different units during his time at guitar center. The saffire pro I haven't heard much about, but it's in that same ultra budget price range as the firestudio project which would make me wary. For the same price, I'd probably go with the sexier usb 2.0 Lexicon Ionix U82S. If you can splurge though, I've been overjoyed with the ProFire 2626 which is at $672 on amazon right now. Wait for a sale and you can get it $100 bucks cheaper.i'm looking at the presonus firestudio project or the focusrite saffire pro 40 right now. -
Another potential benefit to dsp: Lately I've been recording a vocalist who must have reverb and light compression in her headphones. That's easy to do within the sequencer when I'm tracking with a single guitar track, but when I bring her in on a project that's already got dozens of tracks, a bajillion FX, and she wants 7 part harmony...say goodbye to 2.7ms latency, or anything that a singer would be able to handle.
When I bought my M-Audio Profire 2626 a little while ago, I knew this would be one of the bigger downsides to it over my other top choice (Lexicon FW810s) which had at least the dsp dynamic fx (not reverb.) While I think I made the right choice in the end for other reasons, the lack of dsp has really bothered me lately as I've had to go out and buy a an external multi-fx unit to get the fx in the monitoring chain with zero latency.
If live tracking with FX, even low quality ones, sounds useful, might want to consider a card with dsp capabilities.
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There seem to be a lot of things out there that can get the same things done as session drummer, so I really don't miss it (I have Sonar SE). But I would pay the extra for V-Vocal. Compared to the way I have to work with Antares AutoTune, V-Vocal looks so cleanly integrated. But I use AutoTune every day, so it's a big priority for me. If my biggest priority was drum samples/sequencing, one option would be to take what you would save on PE and put it towards Battery or something similar.
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Very cool applications they've come up with.
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Oh I get it, and it's funny....but not one of my favorites. On a scale of "meh" to "ROFLCOPTER", I give it a "haha". Just above "hehe", but non quite "LOL".
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Yep, and based on your post you'll probably want the remixes subforum: http://ocremix.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=16
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Happy Birthday Amy!
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Tweakheadz Lab guide is a great resource for understanding the basics of many studio related concepts. If you haven't already run across it, this article in particular:I think I'm starting to understand how the mixer plugs in.http://www.tweakheadz.com/choosing_a_mixer_for_your_studio.html
should help you get an even better understanding of mixers, audio interfaces, and if you really want or need one.
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Nice everything room. If I wasn't afraid of pissing my neighbors off, I'd install some guitar wall mounts and hang mine too.
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Oh man, this is the "make Harmony jealous" shot. Look at all of that space! Why have I not been to your house? Why am I not there right now?
here's my attempt to get everything in one shot
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Even if looking at only ticket sales, for a fair comparison we'd have to adjust for population, since the US has about half as many people as it did 70 years agoIf that’s the case, all we would be looking at is the ticket sales.
Avatar 2!So with the overwhelming amount made on this movie, where does the money go? I assume it first goes to cover the cost of the movie, but then what? To Cameron? The studio for upcoming productions? To the staff distributed accordingly?But seriously, I had the same question. If I were the studio/staff/actors, knowing what huge names were behind this film, I'd expect it to do well and therefore would have asked for a percentage of profits, rather than a fixed upfront fee. Not sure at all if this is how it's done...but it should be.
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The film is deserving of that honor imo, but I'd be more impressed with the box office dollar totals if people weren't paying 50% more than standard films to see it in 3D.Well, according to wikipedia, Avatar needs only $2 million more to become the highest grossing film of all time. Go Cameron.What I'm trying to say is: $16 for a movie!? Painful.
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Hmm, but it actually can be done like itsays in the manual? That's somewhat encouraging. I've got what I want working in Sonar by typing in NRPN events manually, but I just thought that with this uber-controller I'd be able send events in a much less noobish fashion. Guess not.PS: it's a bitch to get to work... -
Well, my primary problem is similar. I've read the Axiom manual cover to cover, and the functions make sense, but that doesn't mean I know how to apply all of the things that it can do to my work. The most complicated thing I've ever done is setup multiple zones to control multiple instruments. I'm always thwarted when attempted anything trickier. For example, for the life of me, I can't figure out it's method of sending NRPN LSB/MSB. Ugh.I'm always surprised at the amount of people who have Axioms, I have a 61. I think I could figure out the features, but I really have no need for any of them. -
Nice setup Brad.
I'm still on the learn-one-Axiom-feature-per-month plan-axiom 49 (wish i knew how to use most of the features)
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First of all, this is very compressed! If that's the sound you're going for, fine, but while you're mixing it and changing the EQ, I'd take the compression off. This much can severely change the relative volume of the instruments and you don't want to have to deal with that AND the stuff that's sharing the same frequencies.
Secondly, it sounds like you still have a lot of lower frequencies to play with. I'd try increasing the low frequencies on the kick and lowering the volume of the bass. Also, since the bass is playing such high notes in it's range (starting around C3) I'd layer the bassline with a simple sine synth an octave below what you have here. Add only enough volume to punch up the sound without making it muddy.
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Well, one general thought is to emphasize frequencies in each part that don't have to overlap. That way you can still clearly hear instruments without worrying about muddiness. For example, although the kick can have lots of low sub-bass frequency content, you might choose to cut some of that and punch up the upper bass (100-200Hz). Similarly with the guitars. Although they can have lots of lower frequencies, you might choose to emphasize the lower mids (around 500 Hz).
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Bragging rights?Why would I wear a shirt with a vagina on it when I got one in my pants?2 is better than one?
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You should be able to use the 5.1 speakers with either of those cards:
http://forums.m-audio.com/showthread.php?2100-5-1-speakers-with-Audiophile-2496
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TV in the last pici only see one. -
Uh oh Doug, don't let Jade see this! She hurt my feelings by ragging on my CRT, and you've got TWICE as many as I did
Holy sh*t! There's a ghost in my french horns!
in Music Composition & Production
Posted
No, in some (certainly not all) cases you won't be able to hear it in the final mix, and yeah you could (and I'd have to) sort of edit it out. But if I paid hundreds of dollars for samples to a huge company that makes samples all day long, I'd expect them to have put in a day of work listening to their samples to make sure that crap doesn't happen. I mean we're all worried about 24 bit 96kHz super-triangular-hyperbolic-dithered perfection and I've got a cough in my recordings!?
I'm interested to hear if anyone else can reproduce it though.