Iostream

This is the first track from an album following the concept of the machines taking over using the information we post. Let me know what you think. Iostream - Hostile Takeover

I was looking for a second set of headphones and bought the Q701s after 8 years with these if that says anything. The are crystal clear, I can tell exactly where in a mix things are off. Many people consider them to be bass shy, but I find that they just are not bass heavy. You can hear a 30Hz hit just fine, on some systems which push more EQ into the low frequencies, they seem shy, but they match up with my monitoring set up well, which is within 3db from 26Hz - 20kHZ+. My only real complaint is that there is a break in period. I never believed it when I bought my K701s, but when I bought my Q701s which are supposed to be the exact same headphone, they sounded different to me. I let them play for about a week without listening and they suddenly were in line with the K701s. They are harder to drive than the specs would suggest. But I have driven them with everything from my mixing board to high end headphone amps over the years (Schiit Lyr, Meier Aria, Peachtree Decco). They do sound slightly better on the Lyr or Decco, but you are well beyond diminishing returns at that point. The mixing board is fine, the Scarlett 2i2 is not recommended. At this point, I listen for pleasure to the Q701s driven by the Peachtree Decco, I listen to record/mix/check my master on the K701s driven by the Yamaha mixer.

Actually, with most orchestral, never take your hand off of the wheel. Even very slight variations when you are trying to keep the same volume give a much more human feel. Bow pressure is very organic, never a constant line.

I haven't used the DT-880 before but impedence is only part of the equation. I use AKG K701 and Q701 which are fairly low impedence, but notoriously hard to drive. My experience with the Scarlett interfaces (2i2) is that they don't have a ton of oomph in the headphone amp. At max volume, they would not touch my mixer at 50%, and nowhere close to my headphone amp at 25%. I have heard good things about the 880s, but you might be looking at a headphone amp either way. Or even a basic mixer board with a good headphone section.

Always good to remember reality. For instance, brass and woodwinds player have to breathe, not ridiculously long legato.

I suppose it depends on your budget for the sub. One bit of importance is how well it will blend with what you have already. I am not real familiar with the M-Audio monitors. In the budget category, I have a friend with the Audioengine S8 which sounds fairly good, though he has it paired with audioengine monitors. Bluesky subs also sound fairly good, again, I have only heard them paired with Bluesky monitors though. Generally I would avoid any home theater focused subs unless you are willing to spend a lot. Most of them are geared towards impact, and not musical at all. Exceptions to this come from REL, B&W, Velodyne (at their high end), and JL Audio, but you pay dearly for them.

It's a Saitek Eclipse II. I have a couple of them, and love them. They have taken years of abuse without a single problem.

I have a ton of libraries, various organic pieces, but for symphonic, I tend to use Albion I the most. It doesn't give all individual pieces, more broad strokes (strings hi, lo, brass hi, mid, low, and winds hi, lo), but it is a great library for cinematic bits. I tend to augment this with Session Strings Pro, or Action Strings. There are many other libraries which sound as good or give more control, but Albion works for me, and does a great job at a reasonable price. Whatever you use, you will need to learn the library. Even when they are all in Kontakt, they are all scripted differently and to get the most out of any given library you will have to learn its particular expressions and articulations.

I go one of two ways. 1) For more orchestral pieces I use Kontakt for drums and use the maschine controller to tap in beats in Sonar. Frequently not in loop mode, and I go through in piano roll to fix them up a bit after the fact. 2) For more song structure pieces, I do loop recording in Maschine and use the maschine controller to tap out the beats. Using pads lets me get a more human feel than just clicking in the beats I want. I still clean them up a bit after the fact, but velocity just seems more real when I tap them in. Occasionally for more simple beats, I get my 7 year old to play them in using the drum kit (Simmons SD7) to input midi, mapped to the drums I want instead of the head on the kit. He is pretty good for a 7 year old, and honestly the variation from him is even better than my tapping pads

My humble setup. Almost all ITB at this point, though I want a few analog pieces to augment things (Eurorack!) Yamaha CP33 controller/sustain/expression i7 w/24G of memory NI Maschine NI Kore 2 Controller Korg Nanokontrol2 AKG K and Q 701s Sonar X2 Producers NI Komplete 9 Ultimate U-He Zebra2 Heavyocity Aeon Spitfire Albion I 8dio Forgotten Voices Various small libraries Not pictured are a couple of guitars, a bass, and a bad electric kit (Simmons SD7) used to trigger battery samples.