Master Mi

How do you upload or post pictures of your home studio stuff? Is the attachment function for admins only or do you use an external upload platform for implementing your own pictures on OCR?

Sennheiser HD 280 don't look too bad from the frequency response - but it's not too far away from my Sony MDR-7506. I wonder why the Yamaha studio headphones aren't constructed in a way they would represent their pretty nice studio monitors - the frequency response in nearly all models seems to be completely different than their HS or MSP series of studio monitors. The AKG K-702 look a bit more interesting for me, 'cause the frequency response from the lower to the higher frequencies is slightly rising there. I'm not quite sure how electromagnetic waves (frequencies) go through your auditory canal, until they get to the sensory cells in the ear. But if the process is similar to the physical way of frequency reflections of studio monitor speakers in the room (bass frequency waves remain longer in the room than higher frequency waves), then the AKG K702 could bring a fairly flat sound reproduction to the sensory celly in your ears. The feature with the replaceable cable is also really nice. But for some reasons it totally drags me in the direction of the Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pro Black Edition. Except the little peak at 6000 Hz they seems to have the flattest frequency response I've ever seen at headphones (if all the measurements of the headphones are all fairly correct so far). >>> https://reference-audio-analyzer.pro/en/report/hp/beyerdynamic-dt-880-pro.php I'm still not sure, if I can connect the DT 880 Pro (250 ohms) without problems (or without another amp for headphones) to my Steinberg UR22 USB audio interface and get the full sound quality out of it. If somebody already has experiences with using these (or similar 250-or-more-ohms headphones) in connection with an USB audio interface, please let me know. Until I got more information about the DT 880 Pro, I'll stick with my Sony MDR-7506 which are actually pretty good except the lil harsh high frequencies. The hint with Sonarworks isn't too bad there, 'cause it inspired me to create some EQ-masks as master plugins for my Sony MDR-7506 headphones and my Presonus Eris 3.5 studio monitors. For creating these presets I used a multiband EQ plugin from my DAW to counter some of the sticking out frequencies (of the frequency response graphs I got from internet) on an imaginary, fixed horizontal axis a bit for getting an even more flat frequency response and a less harsh sound of my Sony MDR-7506 headphones. I only use these selfmade EQ presets as master plugins which I can switch on or off anytime - it the mixing sounds good with both settings (EQ on & off) I guess it can't be too bad in the end. Just don't forget to switch off the EQ master plugin before measuring/adjusting the loudness and exporting the track.

Since there seems to be no possibility of uploading pictures directly on OCR, I'm looking for some decent picture upload platforms with following condition: 1) The account should be free. If there's a weekly upload limit of 3 or 4 pics - no problem with that, 'cause I will upload just a few pictures within a year and primarily for music production content, I think. As long there's no overall upload limit (let's say 10 pics are free - if you want to upload more pictures you need to pay for a premium account), it's okay. 2) All the others who have no account at this platform should also be able to see the content. It would be also a nice feature that - if you post your link with the picture from the upload platform on OCR - instead of just the link the whole picture will show up in your OCR post (just like the Youtube links). 3) The upload platform shouldn't compress the uploaded pictures once again, 'cause I still use the standard Windows Snipping Tool (which already uses compression on the saved screenshots) for getting the necessary cuttings from my DAW interface graphics, for example. I want to upload pretty clear high definition pictures with sharp contrasts where you can see the fine scales and all the necessary details without problems. Besides: I've just found out that you can also save your Snipping Tool screenshots as PNG files (which have a better definition and picture quality than JPEG files there). So, if you know some good platforms for uploading pictures at these conditions or if you even use these platforms for sharing pictures with the OCR community, please let me know. ))

Since I'd been focussing much more on this topic lately, I've updated this posting with new studio headphone models and relevant facts of these models. Edit: My big choice is actually between those headphones: 1) Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pro (5-35000 Hz, 250 ohms, semi-open) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >>> https://www.thomann.de/gb/beyerdynamic_dt880_pro.htm (also available as a slightly cheaper Black Edition) >>> https://www.thomann.de/gb/beyerdynamic_dt_880_pro_black_edition.htm frequency response graph >>> https://reference-audio-analyzer.pro/en/report/hp/beyerdynamic-dt-880-pro.php 2) Sony MDR 7506 (10-20000 Hz, 63 ohms, closed) ----------------------------------------------------------------- >>> https://www.thomann.de/gb/sony_mdr7506_kopfhoerer.htm frequency response graph >>> https://www.rtings.com/headphones/1-2/graph#386/2031 3) AKG K-702 (10-39800 Hz, 62 ohms, open, with replaceable cable) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >>> https://www.thomann.de/gb/akg_k702.htm frequency response graph >>> https://www.rtings.com/headphones/1-2/graph#332/2031 4) Beyerdynamic Custom Studio (5-35000 Hz, 80 ohms, closed, with replaceable cable, headset customization options and 4 adjustable bass levels) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ >>> https://www.thomann.de/gb/beyerdynamic_custom_studio.htm frequency response graph (depends on bass slider settings) >>> https://www.dropbox.com/s/vdu9ty3w3l0m95z/DT770-CS.jpg?dl=0 I've already got the Sony MDR-7506 which are really good (except the little bit overemphasized 10000 Hz area which can make the sound a bit harsh). They have a high-definition sound as well as a very good stereo imaging and they'll be kinda comfortable after wearing them for a few days. The only problem might be that the frequency response sinks drastically at the frequency range over 15000 Hz - so, you might have some difficulties to hear some frequency clashes or conflicting reverberations effects in the high frequency area clearly enough. I'm thinking about getting some further studio headphones for a more accurate and larger higher frequency section. The Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pro Black Edition for just 185 euro really seems to catch my attention in this case - but I'm really not sure if I can just connect this 250 ohm version to my Steinberg UR22 USB audio interface without a further headphone amp. But they really have a smooth flat frequency response graph (except the little 6000 Hz peak): >>> https://reference-audio-analyzer.pro/en/report/hp/beyerdynamic-dt-880-pro.php I don't really want to have the standard DT 880 (no-pro) 32 ohms hi-fi model, because the hi-fi series seem to have a much less flat frequency response and harsher higher frequencies - as you can see here: >>> http://en.goldenears.net/11302 The AKG K-702 seems to be really interesting, too (also has a replaceable cable). It has only 62 ohms (so, no amp needed, I guess) - but there I'm afraid that I'll have a similarly harsh sound like on my Sony MDR-7506, according to its frequency response graph. Another interesting model I've found lately is the Beyerdynamic Custom Studio. It has a quite large frequency range. According to the frequency response graph these headphones also seem to be pretty flat until over the 15000 Hz region (except the little overemphasized bass section below 200 Hz where I'm not sure which bass level setting they've used in this measurement) - obviously no harsh high frequencies here. >>> https://www.dropbox.com/s/vdu9ty3w3l0m95z/DT770-CS.jpg?dl=0 It has only 80 ohms - so, it might work well without a further amp. Another big advantage of this model might be that - in addition to the replaceable cable - nearly all other parts of these studio headphones are replaceable, too. You can also buy an additional special accessory cable with a microphone and use it as a pretty good headset. I wonder if they can keep up with the DT 880 Pro since they play in a similar price league of the same developer. Does anybody already have tested these studio headphones and can give a little comparision of the mentioned models?

...if that's your understanding of the term "working", then you might say so. But I'm sure that if you had worked (for example) only one year in 2010 and another year in 2015 for the same company XY, you probably wouldn't have said at the end of 2015: "I've been working for 6 years at company XY." For me language is a tool which should help to communicate honestly, precisely and to avoid misunderstandings. So, I'd rather say: "Since 2014, I've worked for about 2 months on this remix."

Nope, I just started working on this remix about 4 years ago as I've already wrote in the 5th comment above yours.

I guess I'll use a different set of drums for the next version (but I won't work on this one for a very long time) - although... I kinda like the snare drums and toms of this drum VSTi. Maybe I'll mostly change the kick drum and the cymbals and have a bigger focus on the panorama and a cleaner mix with less frequency issues for the next version. Dude, it 's much more an authoritative order to buy that Samplitude stuff than just an advertisement. )) Haha. ^^ Nah, it wouldn't be a good ad for the company to describe one of their highly promoted products (Magix Music Maker) as pretty bad or quite useless for MIDI-based music production - while I really love to talk about their less promoted but really excellent products (like Samplitude Music Studio and Samplitude Pro X Suite). I've already wrote Magix that they should stop putting energy in the development of Music Maker ('cause as a rather useless beginner DAW with a much weaker program engine primarily made for loop-based stuff it will totally ruin the first impression of their new standard user customers) and focus more on their semi-professional Samplitude Music Studio and professional Samplitude Pro X (Suite) or Sequoia instead. As it seems they have integrated their stronger hybrid engine in the latest version of Magix Music Maker 2019 instead - but I'm still a bit sceptical towards this, 'cause I really had a hard and very long time (especially as an absolute beginner at DAW and music production stuff) with Music Maker until I figured out that the shitty program engine of Music Maker caused all the troubles. But as you remarked correctly - the MIDI editor of the Magix DAWs is absolutely great and full of very useful functions. I think it's because Steinberg (Cubase) and Magix (Samplitude) were some of the first companies who invented full-grown high-end DAWs for the consumer market. So, they might have a pretty big pool of knowledge and experience at making great software-based DAWs. Samplitude was also made in cooperation with a university of my beloved hometown - so, I'm a bit (undeservedly) proud of owning it and working with Samplitude Pro X3 Suite ... and soon >>> Samplitude Pro X4 Suite - which also has some pretty cool enhanced MIDI editor functions as you can see in the video here >>>

This is a preview or early conception of a remix for the soundtrack "Faded", originally composed by Alan Walker. Since the original - as many other remixes of this track - tend to go into the electronic music style, I intend to create a much more organic and lively soundscape with classical instruments and some rock guitar stuff. I'm not quite sure in which way I'll go on with this track - but I guess I'll get some great ideas over the time. I think with the reinterpretation of the piano intro I'm kinda done already. I also had the idea to give this track a deeper meaning by contributing my remix to the natural natives, indigenous peoples, nomads, ancient tribes, their cultures and ways of seeing things in life. I'm very interested in these ancient human beings, because I think they had a much stronger life force and soul due to their stronger bond to the living nature than most of the modern people and I'm pretty sure they had some kind knowledge or energetic profile which could be a key to solve many problems of the modern world, like diseases of civilisation. So, I think we should live in a way that these indigenous people and cultures won't fade away completely and that these ancient tribes can live in a way they would do without us. They might be our last living legacy and connection to the vital nature and life itself. Original Soundtrack >>> ---------------------------------------- Newest version of my remix: 1.1 >>> >>> https://clyp.it/ycsfcdj1

Hahaha - it's been a long time since I laughed so hard about a source sound. xD PS: Just got it that it's not the game music of the NES game Thundercats. ;D

Thanks for your hints. )) So, you 're a professional guitar player - this might explain a lot. Your tracks sound indeed very clean and well mixed. Some of the frequency/hall/delay overlappings could be there because I've used a ping-pong delay effect on several guitars and the electric piano (which also panned on both sides) as well. I mostly use default or self-made presets for my virtual instruments (so, for the drum VSTi as well) and set these as I think that these might be fitting for the conditions of the track. In this remix I mostly use the Rock Drums from Magix. I guess you already know this VSTi - if not, here's a little Drum Groove I've created with Vita Rock Drums and some video material of this VSTi. >>> The little synth-like guitar sound of the electric piano as rhythm is intended by me. I totally love this one. But for the lead guitar sound my intention was to let it sound kinda truthful and realistic. But I guess I can't compete easily with VSTi stuff against a pro guitar player. ^^ ---------------------------------- Samplitude Music Studio and Samplitude Pro X from Magix have the same excellent MIDI editor like Magix Music Maker - but much more settings and a very stable program engine which doesn't hinder you to work with complex VSTi and plugin stuff in a project.

Awesome powerchords and drumming skills. Very well mixed - now I understand and I have a better comparison to my remix, especially what you described as muddy or frequency clashes in my Lufia remix update. You 're Russian, right? If that's the true power of communism I want to have that in my country as well. (Unfortunately West Germany and NATO fucked up our beloved GDR - and now capitalism & fascism bloom like cancer once again. Guess we have to metal them out.) So, teach me your legendary dark red metal guitar skills, dude. ))

Dude - thanks 4 the feedback. But that sounds... ... kinda devastating. xD The time just means I began with the Lufia track 4 years ago (and with music production in general about 5 years ago) - but I've worked with lots of other projects during this time. So, I go on with my remix updates in circles just as my time and mood allow or really push me to go on with a certain track. And there are also lots of months during a year I don't do anything within music production as well. With the guitars I hope you don't mean the electric piano stuff in there which may sound similar to a guitar 'cause I used it together with my guitar amplifier called Vandal. Besides - I'm not using those Vita guitars since a pretty long time now. I rather work with the guitar VSTis of my Independence Pro Suite and Vandal as an amplifier. And I think the samples sound kinda realistic - but just have a look at the raw solo samples (they first show the acoustic guitar samples and the electric guitars afterwards). >>> https://www.producerplanet.com/de/article/acoustic-electric-guitars-2983/ It might be a tough decision in mixing to balance out properly between assertive drums/basses and assertive melodies - but maybe I'll go for much better drum samples in the future. But I still have some drum kits in my Independence Pro Suite which I haven't really used in my tracks at all. What do you think - do these drum samples satisfy your ears much more? >>> https://www.producerplanet.com/de/audio/drums-381/ Hm, strange - I've listened to this track on many systems (Presonus Eris 3.5 studio monitors, my former Adam TV5 studio monitors, Sony MDR-7506 studio headphones, my HD MP3 player and my good ol' Panasonic LCD TV) and on all of those it sounded pretty clean. On which speaker system did you listen to this track? And yep - it's about half as loud as most other tracks 'cause I master my tracks uniformly at EBU R 128 loudness standards - it's similar to the loudness levels of the 70s or early 80s where the loudness war didn't play a major role in music production. ------------------------------------------------------ PS: Wouldn't recommend Music Maker at all if you work a lot with VSTis and plugins 'cause of it has rather weak program engine that tends to crash if too much is going on in a project (it's much more designed to work with loops as a building block concept and just a few VSTis). Rather try out/upgrade to the newest Samplitude Music Studio from Magix - it's at the same price level with limited amount of MIDI tracks (although they raised them from 16 to 32 in the new Samplitude Music Studio 2019), but it has a totally stable hybrid program engine which doesn't tend to crash and which plays your VSTis and synthesizers correctly. And you'll also keep your previous Magix content if you upgrade from Music Maker to a newer version of Samplitude Music Studio. Show me some of your tracks with electric guitars and drums you prefer and tell me which samples you have used for it - I'm totally interested how your guitar and drum stuff performs in a track.

C'mon guys - really no opinion about the new version? Wanna get some constructive feedback about the things you like in this bigger update and things you would make better/improve.

If you're still looking for a very well equipped high-end DAW I've seen pretty a genereous special offer for my DAW "Samplitude Pro X3 Suite" (includes coming upgrade for "Samplitude Pro X4 Suite" in December and "Sound Forge Pro 11") for just around 200 bucks - special offer lasts until November 25, 2018. I got the notice of a close friend whom I've recommened this special offer for his ambition to create some soundtracks for his planned RPG Maker game, that the versions are download content only (so, no DVDs - upgrades in the future will come with DVDs as I am used to, I guess). If that 's acceptable for you and if you have a good internet connection, then have a look at this highly interesting special offer. >>> https://www.magix.com/us/music/samplitude/upgrade/20180112-samplitude-pro-x/

... unless you have a source track with the original frequency exposure to make a better comparison between different speakers in relation to the source track itself - like in one of the videos above I've posted. Let's take this one again: In this case you rather need a studio monitor system or headphones that don't have to be that flat at all - but which make a good definition of the sound within its fully perceptible frequency range. If that's the case you can make a good comparison of the presented speakers to the original source material. And in this video you (or I) can hear that - for example: - the Adam A7X have a pretty clear - but boosted and sligthly roaring bass - compared to the source track - the Dynaudio BM5 MKIII have a boosted and roaring bass which lacks in definition and tends to bleed into the mids - compared to the source track - the Yamaha HS7 are the studio monitors which are very close to the source track and which only differ from each other by a slightly different coloration of the sound (I guess it's also because of the used materials of the studio monitors which always reflect, absorb and transform an individual spectrum of frequencies in their own way...) Based on studio monitors within comparisons like this you can also make vague comparisons to all other studio monitor speakers where you don't have some source frequency material - for example if you take the Yamaha HS7 as a close reference for further comparisons. So, it's not completely impossible to make fairly good decisions based on comparisons like this if you have at least some studio monitors which make a very good definition of the wholly perceptible sound (no matter if nearly flat or not) and at least one comparison of different studio monitors with an original source track where at least one studio monitor pair is very close to the source track. ... ... and of course - if you don't forget the big influence of the room you want to put these studio monitors in. ;D

So, if Sonarworks can't detect and eliminate room reflections (thought it could do it approximately 'cause of the 24 points room measurement method) it would make more sense to buy fairly flat and much smaller studio monitors (with a small sub which makes a tight 'n' dry bass maybe) that don't make too heavy low frequency reflections in your cozy couch-wallpaper-and-floor-covering-'n'-carpet-treated room. @SnappleMan Dude, if "20x13x8 room" is not a special term for any kind of a plain vanilla cave then you obviously have something like an awesome small cinema for music production (hope it won't freeze your ears in the winter 'cause of the immense heating costs :D). If you already have a simple pair of Yamaha HS7 studio monitors, be content and don't invest into more expensive little downgrades like Adam A7X. I've listened to them in the store and they sounded kinda impressive (I guess I was deceived by the powerful bass) - but they sound (figuratively speaking) a bit more like "an engine than nature" and they seem to have some slightly extended basses and high frequencies where especially the basses could bring some problems in your room at home cause of the low frequency waves tend to stay much longer in the room. I guess I had exactly this problem in my room which induced me to bring my Adam T5V (which are similar to the A5X) back in the store. If you compare the A7X und the HS7 to the source track you might recognize that the HS7 are slightly closer to the original sound in this case: The wattage of the HS7 (about 95 W) is also much lower than the A7X (about 150 W!!!). If you can't stand the plastic-like sound of the Yamaha with the sometimes a bit harsh sound, check out the Presonus Eris E5 (only 70 W - sound similar, but a bit warmer and less harsh - and just around 300 bucks as a pair!!!) in comparison. >>> I guess you won't regret it because the Presonus studio monitors do a pretty well job (kinda flat and very faithful sound, choice of materials - which are also important for a nice and faithful sound, design, price) - although I'm just fine with the smallest and newest ones (E 3.5) with which I don't have too much annoying bass frequency reflections in my small room. Maybe give all your favourites a try, order all these in your local music store and compare them with the Presonus studio monitors. I'm totally interested how you would decide after this. ))

@SnappleMan So, for the room adjustment of the speakers I guess I've got some luck. 1) The sound of the speakers (which are quite in centered position on one end of the room) goes into the long side of the room, where it might go a bit through the glass of a window and a balkony door - so, a pretty open room structure. 2) I've set up the speakers on angled absorber pads on my desk - pointing within a slight triangle slightly upwards to my ears (so, the bass reflex unit of studio monitors won't reflect directly and straightly towards the wall as well). 3) I've got wallpaper on walls and ceiling, carpeted floor and a carpet on the floor and a couch on one side in the middle of the room - which might absorb some of the roaming frequencies or reflections. And of course I've got some smaller studio monitor speakers with a far less dominant bass activity and more present mids than others who tend to put larger studio monitors in comparatively small rooms. I guess that could be a big advantage of a smaller studio monitor system with less bass response - because bass frequencies obviously tend to stay longer in the room within their long-wave reflections than mids or high frequencies. And even at close range (due to my room structure and doors I'm pretty much forced to sit less than one meter in front of them) and even with low volume they make a pretty decent sound where my former (much bigger) Adam T5V studio monitors had to be about 2 meters away and turned up much more to get an hint of imagination of certain details of the full sound spectrum (especially in the mid and high frequency range). So, for my room conditions I guess I can't get so much better results with most studio monitors within my price limit up to 600 bucks... ... except with Sonarworks maybe. But now I'm a bit curious. Just tell me - what kind of studio monitors do you own (and in which kind of room with which room size they are placed) - or to which studio monitors are you looking up to eagerly?

@PRYZM Sounds kinda impressive what I've read about Sonarworks and the pretty complex measuring method. But tell me one thing. The both graphs in your picture.... 1) Are these the two graphs of the frequency response of the sweet spot listening position vs the average frequency response of the different measure points in the room? 2) Or are those the two graphs of the frequency response before and after calibration? I guess it's rather 1) - because I've seen after calibration results that were much more impressive concerning a flat frequency response. But just to get sure about the meaning of the graphs in the picture... And just another question. After the measurement of the frequency response of the about 20 differents points of the room with the special microphone of Sonarworks - what happens afterwards? Is there some kind of a software equalizer within Sonarworks that adjusts the whole sound output of your PC into a more flat frequency response by taking the peaks and adding a similar, mirrored counter frequency on an imagined axis supposed to be the intended "flat frequency axis" to flatten the exceeding peaks?

Finally, here's the promised brand-new version of my Lufia remix - after taking much longer for this one than I had expected. For this new version I have composed so many new things - I'm sure you'll really love this one if you already liked the last version of this track (if you want to compare I'll leave the short preview as well as the last version 1.5 for a few days on my Youtube channel). So, here is the new version 1.6: >>> >>> https://clyp.it/04kbvlt1 --------------------------------- Since I couldn't implement the whole information of the changes I've made in the Youtube upload description of this new version, here's the full text (I know it got a bit huge - but might contain some interesting stuff for video game music lovers or Lufia fans as well - I'll work on a shortened version of this one for the Youtube upload during the coming days): "Some time ago I had the strong urge to make a remix of the Battle #3 theme (the battle theme that starts when you fight the Sinistrals) from the Super NES game Lufia (in my country Germany the game's title is just "Lufia" - while in other Western countries it might have the title "Lufia II - Rise of the Sinistrals"). Since I've got a lot more knowledge and skills in composing and mixing during the last two years I think it was the perfect time to make a brand-new version of the former - kinda outdated - track version and take all the time I need until the remix was like the version developing in my mind. With my professionell studio headphones Sony MDR-7506 - as well as my new studio monitor speaker system, consisting of the pretty nice and faithful Presonus Eris 3.5 studio monitors and the awesome Japanese Fostex PM-SUBmini 2 subwoofer - I was able to go much more into detail and bring the soundtrack quality within the improved mixing on a completely new level. There are some really big changes I've made in this version 1.6 - far too many to explain them in every little detail. So, here are some of the essential alterations: 1) First of all, I've set up a brand-new mixing with a much cleaner sound, less impure reverberations and a wider stereo panorama. You can hear it already in the beginning of the battle against Gades - the rather thin sound of the previous version is finally history. Now the sound of the instruments is much stronger and all the instruments have some space to breathe a little without clashing too much or creating an annoyingly muddy soundscape. I also decided to make the basses much drier 'n' tighter - I think it was a good decision. 2) I worked much more with different velocity dynamics at certain instruments - especially in the clean electric guitar and drum section. 3) For the drums throughout the remix I've created much more variations and new, pretty cool transition parts where the drums take on a more dominant role in the soundtrack. 4) But this was just the less important stuff I've done. Since there are four Sinistrals you fight in the game I wanted to create four individual parts which would truly fit the characteristic traits of each Sinistral. 5) For the battle against Gades - the Sinistral of Destruction - I've created a pretty strong, bassy and straight forward musical part that sounds pretty heavy and hulking. Therefore, I used some different electric bass guitars which have to compete against the powerful drums and some rather unobtrusive electric lead guitar sections. 6) For the battle against Amon - the Sinistral of Chaos - I've made a much more fierce part with some heavy power chords which goes into an uptempo and more melodic part later on. For this intention I had also made some extraordinary guitar rhythms which are actually based on an electric piano VSTi I've combined with a selfmade preset of my pretty awesome Vandal: Virtual bass and guitar amplifier VST plugin - a pretty nice combination and good example for experimental, creative sound design. 7) For the battle against Erim - the Sinistral of Death - I've composed a completely new part which is much calmer, more melodic, ambient, really soulful and a little bit sad as well, within a progressive and rising musical structure. For getting into this calm new soundscape after the fierce battle part against Amon I've composed a little transition that works a lot with drums and bass elements and some special guitar techniques which slow down the tempo of the track within a few seconds. Then some smooth electric basses and a clean electric guitar kick in - the part where you can finally listen to the well-known lead melody of the Sinistral battle theme for the very first time in this remix. This musical passage expands progressively together with different ambient synth pads, a celtic harp, an acoustic guitar, rhythmic synthesizers and a whole choir (where I could finally compose some majestic chords for my pretty nice Vita Choirs VSTi). I tried to compose even a drum part for this section - but I overruled this purpose because it kinda destroyed the mystical atmosphere of this unique musical soundscape. My intention to create a bit different, less rocking and much more soulful, mystically melodic part for the battle against Erim was based on the really arcane entity of this female Sinistral, the extreme length of the whole soundtrack, which really needs at least one great break from the fast-paced rock/metal stuff and the fact, that Erim had also been the mysterious lady Iris in the story who helped the heroes several times on their journey. And she is not only a Sinistral of Death. She is also some kind of a Goddess of life and balance and develops some kind of compassion for humans within the story. In the Nintendo DS remake "Lufia: Curse Of The Sinistrals" the inner conflict of Erim/Iris between her nature of being a Sinistral of Death and her growing compassion for living and loving beings like humans gets even much deeper. There, in an altered ending on a New Game+ mode, in which she used the Dual Blade to revert time, Erim sacrifices her own life to save Maxim and Selan from dying on Doom Island (whereas the death of both is part of the inevitable, a bit sad ending in Lufia II - Rise of the Sinistrals) and sided with human friendship over Sinistral godhood. That sacrifice also impresses even the pretty much unknown fifth and obviously most powerful Sinistral - Arek the Absolute - who acts mostly in the background of the story as some kind of an observer. And there he mentions that her sacrifice will not be in vain. So, maybe you can now understand much better why I composed a special part for Erim in a way like this. 8)... After the battle against Erim a short musical part with an alternate lead melody ensues. It's still pretty atmospheric, but a little bit more propulsive. Related to the video material in my Youtube upload this musical part represents the last way to the final Sinistral Daos - the Sinistral of Terror - and his personal introduction where he starts to explain some of his intentions and where the music finally goes over into a melodic peak. 9) And then, suddenly - when Daos explains that there are two ways of looking at things, one side that believes in love and the good thing and the other side, that seeks destruction, some kind of an eternal duality of life - the music turns back into its vigorous metal temper with some powerful drums and heavy power chords. Then the track gets one more short break that slows down the pace of the soundtrack one last time - before it rises with a premonitory guitar triad, accompanied by some nice synth pads and - knowing that the final battle is inevitable - leads over in the final battle as well as in the final part of the soundtrack. 10) The final battle against Daos begins with a little forceful introduction - which comprises some heavy bass guitars, drums and some new electric lead guitars - and where Daos points out that he is the Master of Terror and that the heroes won't have a chance against him. As soon as the battle begins the music turns into a fierce and powerful metal track where lots of different instruments struggle for supremacy and clash like in an engulfing inferno of frequencies which finally ends with a raw electric lead guitar sound as some kind of the last breath of the decisive battle against the Sinistrals. For this part I've set a great value upon the playing techniques and different articulations of the 3 electric lead guitars I've used - which took up a pretty long time until it sounded like I wanted. Together with the basses and the rhythmic guitar stuff I aspired to make this final part of the battle against the Sinistrals sound kinda furious and badass - as if there's an high amount of sealed life energy that gets unleashed und breaks free within a fierce battle of two mighty opposing forces. In the end the great life force of the heroes - formed by inner strength, courage, friendship, compassion, love and a sense of justice for a better future - triumphed over the rather loveless, power-crazed and destructive force of the Sinistrals. 11) Apropos life force... Since many rock and metal tracks suffer from heavy compression in these days - which is often made to create a louder maximum output volume, but which reduces the dynamics, the definition and the clarity of the sound quality in the same way - I want to go a new path inside the rock and metal scene which - in the way I have also created this remix - works without using compressors, limiters and other sound surgery tools which mostly reduce the definition and clarity of the sound just for less defined din. So, I think about creating a new metal genre that could have the fitting name "Life Force" - a term that stands for drive and power on the one side, but also for life - which consists of breathing, evolving and vitally moving in the other side... just as music should sound in order to bring back an idea of life force in the minds of the listeners. It might still sound pretty big and bold for the current state of my musical progress - but I'll keep on this path, try to make further progress in music production and get much better and even more skilled in things like music theory, imagination and realization of complex compositions, mixing, creative sound design and a much more natural, instinctual understanding of music as a whole. And of course I'll also try to get much more life force inside me by eating raw natural food, getting a good amount of sleep, sunlight, natural impressions, by physical workout, living a down-to-earth life and by exploring and going the path of my soul. Yeah - mooooaar life force... for... nah, not for world domination... ;D ... mostly for staying sane and healthy, getting stronger, excited and passionate, feeling radically awesome and for getting into an extraordinary state of mind and emotions from which I can bring in this life force in my tracks and remixes as well. 12) Because of the new music structure, my new intentions and the extended length of the track I've also made a completely new video with fitting scenes of the final battles against the Sinistrals for my youtube upload to create an even more exciting audio-visual experience - especially for the fans of the game. At this point I want to give radically great thanks to my good ol' Youtube comrade lufiaevolution666 for allowing me to use scenes from his Let's Play of the German version of Lufia and getting the opportunity to enhance my Lufia remix visually. Here's a link if you want to watch the whole final part of his Let's Play of Lufia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27TxJW2SROg&list=PL0qWmcB4HVFa-lxLoj-Y62qffD3-fqCEl&index=58 I hope you enjoy the efforts, skills and passion I've put into the new version of my remix. Nevertheless I'll keep the fire radically burning and try to improve even more in the future. ))"

Thanks for the hint. According to my ears the Presonus Eris 3.5 sound pretty flat, very clear and much less bassy than most of the other studio monitors I've checked out in the store and on Youtube-Videos. As I wrote about the sound they 're kinda close to the Yamaha HS series (or comparable with my Sony MDR-7506 headphones). The missing deep bass (and I think this is a good fact in this case) comes on a separate way from the just slightly turned up Fostex PM-SUBmini 2 subwoofer (another example of excellent Japanese technology) - so there 's much more place for clear mids at the monitors. I don't know how you would measure the frequency response of the studio reference monitors exactly by yourself (maybe by recording a mostly linear flat noise with a mostly linear studio microphone like Rode NT1 (not the NT1-A which has some elevations in higher and low-end frequencies) , play it with a frequency analyzer tool of your DAW and compare it to the orginal source?). But I've found a source with the possible frequency response of the Presonus Eris 3.5 (have to enlarge the pic by right mouse click & examining the graphic element to see the whole scale until over 10k Hz) >>> https://fr.audiofanzine.com/enceinte-active/presonus/eris-e3-5/medias/photos/#id:2090536 If you compare them to the frequency response of other famous studio monitors they seem to come off pretty well - even more in relation to their smaller size. Just have a look at the picture with the title "Frequency response (before calibration)". >>> https://sonarworks.com/blog/studio-monitor-test-and-calibration-5-speakers-in-a-bedroom-studio/ So, to me the Presonus Eris 3.5 look kinda well-balanced if you take the frequency response graphics - what's your opinion?

Professional, very energy-efficient 3-way studio monitor system for under 300 bucks ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After waiting a few months I could finally check out my brand-new 3-way speaker system which consists of the following components: 1) Studio monitor speakers >>> Presonus Eris 3.5 >>> https://www.thomann.de/gb/presonus_eris_e3.5.htm?ref=intl&shp=eyJjb3VudHJ5IjoiZ2IiLCJjdXJyZW5jeSI6IjIiLCJsYW5ndWFnZSI6ImVuIn0%3D >>> https://www.amazon.com/PreSonus-E3-5-3-5-Professional-Multimedia-Reference/dp/B075QVMBT9 2) Subwoofer >>> Fostex PM-SUBmini 2 >>> https://www.thomann.de/gb/fostex_pm_submini_2.htm?ref=intl&shp=eyJjb3VudHJ5IjoiZ2IiLCJjdXJyZW5jeSI6IjIiLCJsYW5ndWFnZSI6ImVuIn0%3D The beloved equipment is already prepared and adjusted - while the subwoofer just stands on its little feet on my floor covering in front of my feet (love it to have some bass in the center just like in the mix) the speakers are placed on slightly angled absorber pads on my desk (at a distance of about 80 centimeters to each other and about 60 centimeters in front of me, slighty turned inwards and pointing almost in the direction of my ears). The system is set up in my living room which is around 4 meters long, about 6 meters deep (in this direction the sound of the speakers goes primarily) and over 2,5 meters high. The room itself is not specially prepared for musical purposes (for example with wall absorber mats or things like that) because I really like the bright Mediterranean colours and cosy atmosphere of this room - especially when it is flooded with sunlight. The whole speaker system is connected to my Steinberg UR22 USB audio interface. The EQ settings of the speakers are set to normal (centered positions of the knobs). The frequency range of the speakers is 80 - 20000 Hz - while the subwoofer has a frequency range of 40 - 150 Hz and a variable crossover frequency switch that can be adjusted between 60 - 150 Hz (used the lowest setting of 60 Hz to separate the moderate bass of the speakers and the deep bass of the subwoofer much better and to avoid unneccessary overlappings of frequencies with this setting). The speaker volume is turned up at around 50 %, while the subwoofer volume is only turned up at around 25 % - just to add only a small and decent amount of deep bass for getting the most faithful results of the sound within a flat frequency response. With this setup I could achieve a really amazing sound experience for many different music genres - like electronic music, rock/metal, jazz and especially classical music. I'm really in love with these speakers because the sound is totally clean and highly defined. The bass, the mids and the treble are really well-balanced (nothing seems to stick out or sound too weak here) and well separated from each other. And in addition to that I can hear some more details I couldn't even hear with my professional studio headphones (Sony MDR-7506) - for example, I can hear if there's just a bit too much reverb in the track or if some frequencies of different instruments are interfering with each other too much and create a muddy sound. Compared to my former (and much bigger) speakers Adam T5V which sounded totally awesome in the big music store room - but really roared in my small room where a clean sound with these speakers wasn't possible anymore (cause of this I brought them back in the store) - the sound of my new Presonus Eris 3.5 speakers perfectly fills my living room and makes a really nice and clean sound. Just by the sound they might be pretty close to the Yamaha HS speaker series - although the Presonus speakers have a bit less salient treble, fully present mids (which seems to be a pretty rare phenomenon at most studio monitor speakers) and a slighty warmer bass which - altogether - make a fuller, very detailed sound with a quite flat frequency response. They could also keep up with some of the smaller Genelec speakers - especially if you compare the larger Presonus Eris 4.5 studio monitor speakers with the Genelec 8010A speakers. >>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OjbZQoLviY But I decided to take the smaller Presonus Eris 3.5 speakers because I didn't want to risk the big speakers' roaring effect once again and I thought the smaller ones could be quite perfect for my little room. Another important point is that the mids of the Presonus Eris 3.5 speakers don't seem to interfere with the bass frequencies so much - compared to the Presonus Eris 4.5 speakers (which make a bit deeper and stronger bass) as you can hear in this video. >>> So, in the case of the Presonus Eris 3.5 speakers you really have some very clean treble and some well-defined mids which don't tend to bleed into the still pretty decent amount of lower frequencies. And the missing part of the lower frequencies comes on a separate way with the subwoofer Fostex PM-SUBmini 2. So, with this combination you probably have one of the best small home studio speaker systems you can set up in a small and totally unprepared room like this. In addition to the speakers' lower frequencies this subwoofer contributes a decent amount of deep bass until 40 Hz. Compared to the subwoofer unit of my former Logitech Z533 multimedia speaker system the Fostex PM-SUBmini 2 is not just an oversized roaring cube. It's not some kind of Magitek with which you can create heavy earthquakes and tear down whole buildings - but I guess this shouldn't be an ultimate goal of a composer. Instead this little subwoofer can shake your room if you turn its volume up to the maximum (of course you shouldn't do this in a flat with lots of nice and peaceful neighbours around - and, as I mentioned before, I recommend a setup with just 25 % of the maximal volume at the subwoofer and 50 % of the maximal volume at the speakers). But no matter how you set the volume of this awesome subwoofer, it always comes with a highly defined, radically crisp bass. You can easily listen to the high quality of the subwoofer bass if you turn off just the speakers while listening to a soundtrack with lots of lower frequencies while leaving just the subwoofer turned on. I'm sure you'll fall in love with this pretty smooth and clean bass. If you keep in mind that this combinated speaker system has also a very low power consumption (2 * 25 W for the speakers and around 50 W for the subwoofer - makes 100 W in total for the whole system) - especially compared to many other studio monitor speakers (which often surpass 100 W easily - even without a subwoofer) - it's also one of the best energy-saving high-quality home studio speaker systems you can get in the music stores at the moment. Another important thing I really like about this speaker system as a whole is the really awesome design. The black colour, the very stylish tweeters, woofers and control elements, as well as the neon blue LED of the Presonus Eris 3.5 speakers, fit totally with the black design of the Fostex PM-SUBmini 2 subwoofer (which also contains a neon blue LED) - and of course the design of whole system totally fits the rest of my dominantly black PC and studio environment. So, if you really look for an accurate, faithful and a very energy-saving, pretty stylish speaker system with which you can hear lots of details in the sound and which fits on an ordinary desk - no matter if you want to use it for a down-to-earth home studio, for playing video games or for other multimedia applications - you should give this really amazing studio monitor speaker & subwoofer combo definitely a try.

It's not that I don't want to use AUX/effect sends at all - they offer indeed pretty nice possibilities for further sound design I would definitely use for certain tracks. But before I have to find out why AUX sends in some of my soundtracks within my DAW tend to use up much more of the CPU/DSP unit than mere inserts. At least it's good to know that you can use inserts for reverb as well if you don't want to edit the reverb separately.

So, you would say you can achieve similar results with reverb inserts and reverb sends in the end - but reverb sends allow a much more accurate mixing between dry and wet signal parts? Okay, so I don't have to rework all my tracks and remixes just because of this. I guess I'll keep it this way (at least for most purposes like just creating reverb and delay for an instrument without anything else) because AUX sends tend to consume much more CPU/DSP at my DAW in hybrid engine mode where I can use all the functions to the maximum. For example - with inserts at a complex track with some high-end plugins the DSP may go up to 70 % (at a normal remix with around 14 tracks and moderate plugins it might just be around 30 %) - but if I want to use just one AUX send the DSP can go up easily beyond the 100 % mark and create ASIO buffer problems (even with the highest ASIO buffer size of 2048 samples). I don't know what's the cause of this problem - but that's one reason I'll mostly stay with the inserts. -------- Some other points why I use sligthly different reverbs in tracks are following things: 1) Every reverb/delay of each type of instrument spreads a bit differently in one same room - so, the reverb/delay of a metallic instrument like a saxophon won't be exactly the same like the reverb/delay of a wooden flute or a contrabass. 2) With the help of different reverbs you can create a nice depth staggering (the impression that some instruments play more in the front of the room or stage while other instruments play more in the back/far away). 3) In most cases it doesn't make sense to use lots of reverb in the bass for example as if you do it for other parts of a track like clean guitar guitar melodies. As long as the bass has not an outstanding solo part in the track you rather want to make the bass as tight as possible that it won't bleed into other low frequencies too much.

Thanks for the detailed feedback and many practical hints. )) (EDIT: I could manage to create an infinite number of AUX/effect sends in my project within my DAW settings - so, technically I could create an effect send for each instrument/MIDI track.) But you would say that just for the sound quality it makes no big difference if you use reverb as an insert or use it as an AUX/effect send? It's because I got the impression that if you use an reverb insert on an instrument the sound of this combination gets more into the background or sounds farer away in my speaker. If I use reverb as an effect send the unprocessed original source instrument stays totally in the front (sounds close and assertive) while just the reverb goes into the back of the room. Maybe it's just an illusion shaped by an unequal mixing ratio between the wet and dry components of the effect send - compared to the reverb settings an insert. But I'm not quite sure about this.

I got into a pretty interesting topic concerning mixing lately. There's obviously a big difference between using integrated VSTi effects and insert effects (blend original signal and effect together into a new sound) and using AUX/effect sends (adds an additional signal like just the reverb on a separate AUX bus track to the original signal). https://l2pnet.com/insert-effects-vs-send-effects-2/ 1) Integrated VSTi effects and insert effects ------------------------------------------------------- For my tracks I was used to create some MIDI stuff, add a virtual instrument or synthesizer for this track and mostly use some VSTi-integrated reverb and delay effects or some external reverb and delay VST plugin effects as an separate insert on the VST plugin slots within this track. The problem with this combination is that the original & pure sound of the VSTi/synthesizer loses its former power and blends together with the reverb/delay effects (although the reverb might be the most problematic effect in this case) into a new (and in this case less powerful, less assertive) sound. So, it 's not like "instrument + effect" - it 's much more like "instrument * effect" or "instrument x effect". With my new 3-way studio speaker system I can perceive this issue much clearer than before and I notice much better if the sound of an instrument or synthesizer gets too thin, gets lost in the reverb or shifts too much into the backround/depth of the room. It's not that you can't do it this way if you want to use some reverb in your tracks - but it doesn't seem to be the very best way of creating clean, assertive mixes on a professional production level. Nevertheless using reverb as an insert effect could be useful if you want to create a more spatial offset in depth in your soundtrack. However, it's a bit strange that I haven't got into the obviously very important topic of using AUX/effect sends for creating reverberating and highly assertive sounds at the same time - until now, after almost 5 years of music production. But after looking up a few things in my DAW manual some time ago I stumbled over this topic and tried it out. 2) AUX/effect sends ------------------------- If you want to use AUX/effect sends you have to create a new separate AUX bus track (like if you want to create an additional MIDI track in your mix - but instead you choose to create an additional AUX bus). On this AUX bus track you only use the desired effect (or even more than one effect at once - let's take a good reverb effect in this case) in one of the plugin slots and set up the plugin in the way you want to use it in your soundtrack. Several producers recommend to set up the plugin of the AUX track 100 % wet because the drier the effect gets the more it will mostly raise just the volume within the combinated interaction of VSTi/synthesizer and effect sends. Now you choose the track with the instrument or synthesizer with which you want to connect the AUX/effect send and try to set up the instrument as pure and raw as possible (especially turn off all reverb and delay effects, additional VST plugins and everything that makes the VSTi/synthesizer sound thinner, less assertive or moves the raw sound out into the room). Then you open your mixer and look for this instrument track, look for "AUX" within this instrument track and there you choose/activate the prepared AUX track with the desired effect in one of the free AUX slots. In my DAW I can draw a bar with my mouse below each of the AUX slots within the instrument tracks in the mixer view where you can regulate the volume of the additional effect send (don't worry about the volume of the instrument track, it makes no changes there - it just controls the volume of the effect sends on the AUX bus track there). So, if you play just the instrument track in solo mode afterwards you will hear the raw, unprocessed and highly assertive instrument sound. And if you play just the AUX bus track in solo mode you will just hear the separate effect of the instrument (so, just the reverb in this case). (If you turn up this AUX send effect on other instrument tracks in the mixer as well you will hear different effects (reverb from different instruments in this case) on the same AUX bus track.) With this method you can create really strong reverb effects without loosing the power and assertiveness of the raw source instrument/synthesizer. I am not quite sure how I should handle the panorama setting at the AUX bus track - I guess it would make sense to pan it the same way like the instrument. Maybe you can be a little creative there (for example if the reverb effects of two intruments who are pretty close in the mix interfere too much with each other you could take the reverb effect sends of one instrument more to the left/right side). If you plan to use an AUX/effect send on more than one instrument at the same time it could be problematic to deal with effects from different instruments at one AUX bus track with the same panorama. On the other side it will be pretty effortful, confusing and CPU/DSP-intensive to create individual AUX/effect sends for each instrument/MIDI track. And as it seems I can only put 10 different AUX/effect sends in the slots of the instrument tracks in my mixer. So, it might be useful to take the AUX/effect sends just for some instruments who really have to shine with effects (like reverb in this case) and be highly assertive at the same time (for example drums or leads). (EDIT: I could manage to create an infinite number of AUX/effect sends in my project within my DAW settings - so, technically I could create an effect send for each instrument/MIDI track.) What is your opinion about this topic and what kind of experiences do you have made with this?