Master Mi

For everybody who thinks that he/she could have missed some of the early announcements or trailers for the great Final Fantasy 7 Remake, I've added this little trailer compilation in the main posting: >>>

A new trailer for the Final Fantasy 7 Remake was released a few days ago. Here it goes - with English language (which - I think - has the best and most fitting voice acting) and English subtitles as well:

Thanks for the really useful information. )) Guess, you 're totally right - never touch a running system. If you already have a decent studio equipment that works really well and you also have a good audio interface with all the necessary connectivity options you need, you can feel blessed, take a deep breath of joy... ... and concentrate much more on the main things >>> creative compositions, professional sound design, great mixings or simply experiencing and enjoying the great world of audio. Sometimes you really have to be aware that your home studio won't turn into some kind of a shitty replacement car that makes a lot of extra noises after tuning, but mostly draws a lot of time and money or which even pollutes the fresh air of creativity you once enjoyed when riding your bike in a much more natural and down-to-earth environment. I guess, it's already a pretty awesome thing, that you can afford such really good studio equipment as a normal civilian nowadays and compose your own soundtracks and remixes with a DAW system. It would have been much harder or nearly impossible to get even nearly such great stuff at this affordable cost range around 30 years ago.

I'm not a too big fan of mere software solutions when it comes to optimizing the sound reproduction of your studio equipment - especially not for optimizing the sound of the speakers because you have lots of different parameters (especially room reflections/sonic wave reverberations) that will influence the measurement and distort the results. I guess, it would be nearly impossible for a software in the year 2019 to calculate all the parameters of your production environment correctly backwards to eliminate the room reflections from the true sound of the speakers to get really the results of the speaker sound with a linear frequency response you want. But even under this circumstances Sonarworks seems to make a fairly good job in improving the sound quality of your speakers a bit (obviously just by reducing the heavy and more reverberating bass waves of larger speakers in a way where the mids and high frequencies get to your ears in a much more present and cleaner way) - though, I can't really evaluate if this will make your mixing decisions better in the end. >>> (comparison of the studio monitors with and without Sonarworks at 7:51) Much more useful could Sonarworks be for calibrating your studio headphones ('cause there you won't have the problem with heavily influencing room reflections). And I tried it out by downloading the trial version of Sonarworks Reference 4 with which I created 2 presets - one for my Sony MDR-7506 and a second one for my Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pro. I have to admit that I was kinda impressed after calibrating both studio headphones (could use some presets for both headphone models) and - despite the really different construction of the headphones - both sounded quite similar (which seems to make some points for Sonarworks) - except the fact that the Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pro can technically still reproduce a much fuller and deeper sub-bass than the Sony MDR-7506. After this, I checked some of my own soundtracks and remixes with one headphone model by switching the Sonarworks calibration on and off. And all of my tested soundtracks and remixes sounded even better with the calibration - really like the deep low-end frequencies, as well as the really smooth & relaxed frequency response in the upper frequency section and along the whole frequency range in general with the calibrated headphones. But this also means, that my mixing decisions with the not calibrated headphones are already kinda good. So, would Sonarworks make a big difference for my mixing decisions via headphones? 1) with the Sony MDR-7506 >>> maybe... 2) with the Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pro >>> rather not... I really respect the sound results you can achieve with the calibration via Sonarworks. But I'm actually not a too big fan of those software solutions, where you always have to change your presets after changing the studio equipment you 're listening to. And it's often so, that more permanently running software on your system means a rising chance of problems like slowdowns, incompatibilities or even crashes on your system. So, I guess I'll stick with a far-sighted hardware solution like... ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) rather using smaller, but very clean sounding studio monitors for your room than getting too large monitors in an inappropriate production room and create an individually adjustable 3-way system by adding a fitting subwoofer 2) getting a high-end studio headphone system as a second reference for better mixing decisions

I'm just thinking about if it might be useful to upgrade an 24-bit USB 2.0 audio interface to a newer version within the same product line with 32-bit and USB 3.1 functions. At the moment I own the Steinberg UR44, which is a really awesome interface (just one year old - and my absolute favourite audio interface in my price range back then) with a great sound quality and lots of connectivity options: >>> https://www.thomann.de/gb/steinberg_ur44.htm?ref=intl&shp=eyJjb3VudHJ5IjoiZ2IiLCJjdXJyZW5jeSI6IjIiLCJsYW5ndWFnZSI6ImVuIn0%3D And now I'm thinking about getting the UR44C of the brand-new product line with the same connectivity options, but with 32-bit & USB 3.1 functions: >>> https://www.thomann.de/gb/steinberg_ur44c.htm What do you think - would I have some meaningful benefits from this upgrade or isn't it worth the investment? A good friend would buy my old interface for around 200 bucks - so it wouldn't be a complete waste of money and resources in this case. But... 1) Does the "32-bit" any impact on the quality of the sound reproduction if you just listen to a soundtrack with this interface - or is it just the recording with a microphone or an electric guitar that might sound a bit more accurate and better defined (even this could be useful because I'm planning to buy my first electric guitar - which might be a Yamaha Pacifica - in the coming year)? What exactly does the "32 bit" (audio depth) mean? It doesn't seem to be similar to the sampling rate and of course not to the bit rate - but it oviously has something to do with the audio-quality, right? 2) I have some USB 3.0 connections at my PC - so, will you get some greater benefits in your music production activities from the faster USB connection? Will this affect the loading speed of your projects? Will it lower the CPU or DSP usage in your DAW? Will it lower the latency? Or can you easily use more instruments plugins and effects in your music projects without putting the engine stability in danger with this USB 3.0/3.1 connection? So, does somebody in this group have some own experiences with upgrading his/her studio equipment from a 24-bit/USB 2.0 audio interface to a 32-bit/USB 3.1 audio interface - and would you recommend such an investment for me or anybody else in this group?

There 's also a new Japanese commercial with real actors (not directly related to the storyline) for the FF7 remake. And finally it got an English translation - at least partially. It's obviously some kind of a reminiscence that should make the REUNION feeling go viral. But furthermore it shows that even Japanese commercials like this are made with love, dedication and the typical Japanese humor.

Finally, I've completely updated and edited this thread with a much better choice of high-end studio monitors. I've also added some very good smaller studio monitor models for smaller or untreated rooms. And in addition to some smaller changes I've made in the main text of this thread, I also found some good new features on a great Youtube channel for very helpful comparisons of several studio monitor speakers. If you want to compare the sound and frequency response of several studio monitor speakers a bit more with your own ears and eyes, there's a pretty useful Youtube channel at which the uploader called Digital Stereophony makes kinda professional comparisons between lots of studio monitors and/or hi-fi speakers within a series of different soundtracks. In his newer uploads he has also added the original source sound of the soundtracks for a better comparison of the speakers - and further on, he has added the frequency response graphs of the speakers at the end of his newer videos. According to his own writings these are the frequency response graphs of the speakers in a semi-treated room. So, if you are still looking for some studio monitors, feel free to have a detailed look at his speaker sound comparisons. >>> https://www.youtube.com/user/skubny/videos

I radically like that tune. Could really imagine this track for a future installment of the X-Men series. A scene like this pops into my mind: "In the later future, where the wicked hardliners of the humandkind claimed to wipe out all mutants from earth - no matter if friendly or hostile to humans - some bounty hunters for former "mutant affairs", who became kinda wealthy during the last days of the mutants, were playing a kinda die-hard poker match... yelling about how easy they have tortured and killed the last inoffensive mutants. Just right in this moment the covered eyes of the silent dealer flared up and he threw the cards right on the table in front of each bounty hunter. And they really got the bad luck cards."

Yamaha vs. Presonus studio monitors ------------------------------------------------ Got some news on this studio monitor topic. Some days ago, I've compared the Yamaha MSP 3 (smallest version of the MSP series) - the studio monitors of a good friend - with my Presonus Eris 3.5 (smallest version of the Presonus series). And somehow, I really liked the more airy, very detailed hi-res sound and the better panorama staging of the Yamaha MSP 3 a bit more. Although... my mixes sounded kinda similar on both systems concerning the frequency response levels (Presonus makes a bit more bass and a fuller, warmer sound, but lacks a bit in the top end frequency spectrum), some of my tracks I would have mixed slightly different at some parts at which the Presonus Eris 3.5 have shown me a clean mix, but the Yamaha MSP 3 gave me a little warning that there could be some minimally muffled mids there. While my Presonus Eris 3.5 are already very quiet (you can only hear some kind of a white noise, if you are really close with the ears at the tweeters), you won't even hear too much of a noise when getting really close with the ears to the Yamaha MSP 3. While the Presonus Eris 3.5 might look a bit more stylish, the Yamaha MSP 3 impress with a rock-solid building quality and they also weight more than twice as much as the Presonus. While the Presonus Eris 3.5 studio monitor speaker are rear-ported, the Yamaha MSP 3 are front-ported (which seems to make them a better option for home studios with the common fate of being placed close to a wall). The frequency range of the Presonus Eris 3.5 goes from about 80 to 20000 Hz (which is quite enough) - but the frequency range of the Yamaha MSP 3 already goes from 65 Hz to 22000 Hz (I totally love that higher top end, which only a few studio monitors can reproduce in a pleasant way). Both studio monitor systems are extremely energy-efficient - the Presonus Eris 3.5 have a wattage of around 2*25 W and the Yamaha MSP 3 have a wattage of around 2*30 W. And both studio monitor systems also seem to have a similar frequency response: Presonus Eris 3.5 >>> Yamaha MSP 3 >>> In the end, most of my mixed tracks sounded pretty nice on both studio monitor systems - so, I guess the decision between both is not a deadly one for a beginner or advanced composer or audio engineer. So, both seem to be really good for higher quality mixings - even more, if you use a good additional (adequately turned up) subwoofer like the Fostex PM-SUBmini 2 which can deliver a very dry, clean and detailed bass down to 40 Hz. I'm sure, Yamaha does a great job at least since the 80s with their NS-10 studio monitors which have been successfully used in many professional studios since then. And I really dig the sound of the successors within the HS and MSP line of the Yamaha studio monitors - like in this video which compares the bigger versions of the Presonus Eris 5 against the Yamaha MSP 5: I totally like the crystal clear hi-res sound and the very detailed mid and high frequencies - as well as the really great top end (bigger Yamaha monitors go above 30000 Hz) - of the Yamaha studio monitor speakers. No intrusive bass frequencies which could overshadow the mids in an unpleasant way - a big problem lots of studio monitors obviously have to deal with.. At least I can sense a bit of the good sound quality of these Yamaha studio monitors by listening to this with my Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pro headphones, directly connected to my high-end headphone amp Lake People Phone-Amp G109 (which is connected to my Steinberg UR44 audio interface). Finally, I would really like to see (or rather listen to) a direct comparison between the Yamaha HS series and the Yamaha MSP series - because I still don't have listened to both versions alternately in a store or within one video.

Yeah, the fact that the 192 khz sampling rate version of a wave audio file will use up more than 4 times as much hard disk space than the standard 44,1 kHz sampling rate of the WAVE audio file with nearly the same audio content, makes it rather unattractive... ... plus the fact, that you have to make a completely new mixing (due to crucial changes at the whole frequencies) and change lots of your self-made VSTi presets as well... if you want to change the sampling rate of your existing tracks/remixes. But on the other side it really seems to be a different sound. At a sampling rate of about 96 or 192 kHz it will add up to 2 additional kHz at the higher frequency spectrum - which is quite a lot. So, for electric guitar sounds or acoustic piano VSTis (just tested them) you 'll get a much sharper, crispier, crystal-like tone - and the reverb effects are just a phenomenon of its own kind... like if you are playing your sound creations in a bigger ice cave where you can even hear your own breath echoing in the whole cave. Maybe I'll create a sound comparison of a short file with three different sampling rates (44,1, 96 and 192 kHz) within the next days/weeks and upload it on a public Japanese steaming platform which seems to provide highest audio/WAVE and video quality - as well on Youtube (just to get some kind of certainty how much of this hi-res sound quality would even remain on popular western streaming platforms).

I guess most composers and remixers have a distinct imagination of how different bit rates of a soundtrack (or other kind of audio programs) influence the sound quality in a remarkable way. Let 's say... a data flow of the same soundtrack within a bit rate of less than 128 kbit/s may sound a little bit dull and poor, with a bit rate of 192 kbit/s the same soundtrack may sound pretty fine - and with a bit rate 320 kbit/s you won't get a perceivably much better sound quality anymore compared to the 192 kbit/s version. That's the one thing with the bit rates. But what is going on with the sound quality if you change the sampling rate in your music project (as well as in the exported audio data of your soundtrack)? If you don't know what a sampling rate is, make sure to have a look at the definition before. >>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sampling_(signal_processing) I'm still not really sure what I should think about this topic. Until now, I mostly thought that the sampling rate won't influence the sound quality that much and it is just good for getting more precision at processing audio data - since an increased sample rate "sets more points at regular intervals" for measuring the audio signal. But on the other hand it would make sense that a higher density of signal measuring points may also capture the pretty spiky - or let's say narrow/tight and fast-paced - signal peaks of the higher frequency signals much better - and so, you should also be able to get a clearer version of the signal. And since I played a VSTi-based guitar track in my DAW at a sampling rate of 44,1 kHz (my former standard for my music projects) and - as a comparison - with 192 kHz, I'd say that the 192 kHz sampling rate version sounds richer, especially in the upper frequency range, and kinda crystal-like - almost a bit piercing. There are dudes out there who say that a higher sampling rate might end up in a worse sound quality caused by a non-linear response of soundcards/audio interfaces to higher frequencies that might result in perceivable ultrasonic frequency distortions. >>> http://productionadvice.co.uk/high-sample-rates-make-your-music-sound-worse/ But on the other side... With a higher sampling rate in connection with a good audio interface and a worthy studio equipment you might get much closer to the original source signals and true intentions of the developers behind your VSTi samples within a crystal clear sound. ... I'm really not sure what to think about this topic. So, I just wanted to ask you guys from the OC Remix community what you think or know about this subject area and which sampling rate you preferably use at your music projects.

This scene is from a live gameplay with Yoshinori Kitase (producer & scenario writer for Final Fantasy 7) at the Tokio Game Show (TGS) 2019. It seems to be like a radically awesome overcrossing between Final Fantasy 7 and the Battle Arena Toshinden or Soul Calibur series. >>> Totally love the light/special effects and detailed graphics, the really outstanding slow motion mode, the crisp and powerful sound of the slashes, strikes and blows... ... and of course the vital orchestration of the famous battle theme. )) Pretty cool innovation that summons will actively participate in the battle as well. I'm kinda sure they 'll also implement a function with which you can level up and evolve the skills of a summon (just like the Espers in FF6 or the Guardian Forces from FF8). If they also spend something like a multiplayer-option for that really catching and highly dynamic battle system, it would be kinda awesome to be able to play the game with good friends as well. Just straight from the gameplay insights this might be a real revolution within the RPG playing standards. If the pretty deep story will be told as dedicated as in the original game and contains a lot of additional side stories as well, Final Fantasy 7 Remake will be something like the game of the year/decade or even century and really interesting for the newbies, as well for the fans of the original game. Square Enix as a Japanese company simply knows how to create outstanding games with deep storylines. I'll definitely keep a staring eye at this one. Besides, here 's the complete recording of the gameplay demonstration. >>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ For everybody who thinks that he/she could have missed some of the early announcements or trailers for the great Final Fantasy 7 Remake, you might have a look at this little compilation here: >>>

How's that possible? Even as an advanced freshman in things like composing or remixing I'd never even get rid of any of my music projects files (and even there I have several music project files for one track - some sort of backups for different development stages of the track I'm working on) - which I also save on an external hard disk drive a second time, nearly every year. So, with these music project file sources you are always able to create quite any kind of audio files from.

Big thanks for the encouraging feedback. )) I'm pretty sure dynamic-compression-free organic rock (similar to the great rock music from the 70s and 80s) might have some great potential. In connection with some outstanding compositions and maybe with some ensouled messages it could provide attraction for the listeners of former-generation rock music listeners who can't stand modern rock music masterings which are quite overcompressed/lacking in dynamics and monotonously loud in many cases. At the moment, I don't have too much time for working on any kind of remixes or own compositions, unfortunately - 'cause of a pretty lousy work-(without)-life balance. But since I earn quite some money and can save about nearly 50 % of my monthly earnings, I might be able to invest some money in some additional music equipment stuff - like a decent electric Yamaha guitar - or buy some months of lifetime for escaping slave life at at least for a period of time and getting back into a more passionate and creative process. I'm totally keen on roaming within my inner universe and working on some interesting musical content. I also have a rough sketch in my mind for how I want to continue with this track. But since I work at different music projects in some kind of circles (for the sake of variety, joy/excitement and for developing several composition skills and new ideas within a shorter amount of time) with continuously improved soundtrack updates, there might be my Final Fantasy 7 remix "Fighting Fantasies" my next project - 'cause there 's still a lot to do for me. Until I find the time and ideas to get back working on this track, I hope you enjoy the momentary version.

I've created a little update for this remix. Here's the new version 1.1: >>> >>> https://clyp.it/ycsfcdj1 -------------------------------- The interesting thing is that I could finally check the mixing with the full potencial of my Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pro studio headphones in connection with my new high-end headphone amp Lake People G109-P which seem to drive these high-impedance studio headphones quite optimally. According to these headphones I should have put a high pass filter on the AUX send reverberation of the piano intro to low-cut the frequencies below 150 Hz. But then I thought it wouldn't make too much sense to cut the lower reverberation frequencies if the piano is quite the only playing instrument in the intro. And the clarity of the piano part was not so different between low-cutting the reverberation frequencies and leaving the piano intro completely untouched. In this case the low-cut filter option rather kills a bit of the naturally realistic frequency response in a larger room. And even the reverberations of the lower frequencies have got something really nice the more the piano intro builds up after a certain time. So, I quickly returned to "rather-keep-it-simple-than-unnecessarily-overloaded" slogan and left the piano part kinda untouched. But I've enhanced the remix with lots of other nice stuff like pretty heavy acoustic pop drums, new electric bass and rhythmic guitar lines, additional lead guitar melodies as well as piano chords. If you 're interested in all the bigger changed I've made in this version, feel free to have a closer look at the upload description of my Youtube link for this remix.

High-end headphone amps for optimal use of high-impedance studio headphones like Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pro and accurate mixing/mastering via headphones ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This one might be interesting for all those who live in ordinary flats and who want to compose or just listen to music and other media most accurately at all thinkable times of the day at which you can't listen to your studio monitors without annoying your neighborhood. When I started mixing music and listening to several audio stuff with my first high-impedance headphones Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pro some time ago, I still had my very first Steinberg UR22 USB audio interface at which I had connected these headphones. The listening experience with this combination of audio equipment was really not that bad. But for accurate mixing and mastering I was afraid that the DT 880 Pro wouldn't get enough electricity just from the USB connection to work properly at their full potencial. The first things which might indicate I should be right with my assumption was the fact that the legendary DT 880 Pro obviously couldn't handle the bass and lower mids that well at this USB audio interface. It felt like the bass and lower mids lacked a bit in definition or as if there had been some kind of damping curtains at the lower frequencies - while the reproduction of the mids and higher frequencies seemed to be pretty good, compared to the sound reproduction of my studio monitor system or my Sony MDR-7506 studio headphones connected to the UR22 audio interface. And since I've read some comments of obvious Beyerdynamic DT Pro series users, in which they mentioned that these high-impedance headphones might not get enough electricity from most of the ordinary audio interfaces (guess they have especially meant all those audio interfaces which don't have one of those larger IEC/C19 socket connections for getting much more electricity into the electronic device), I thought about getting an additional high-end headphone amp. After gathering some information about good headphone amps for a few months, I finally decided to go for the G109-P from the German company for professional high-end audio equipment Lake People. It's also the company behind the legendary Violectric and Nimbus audio stuff. >>> https://www.lake-people.com/product-page/phone-amp-g109-p It's one of the headphone amps which can reproduce a very large frequency range from around 0 Hz to 150 kHz, while many other headphone amps seem to start with their frequency response at around 10 or 20 Hz. So, it should be a great device for reproducing the deepest sub bass frequencies. The Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pro can technically handle a frequency range from 5 to 35000 Hz - so, it would be a pretty nice combo for the full listening experience with even a much larger frequency range than ordinary listeners might perceive. And with the stylish black colour and sturdy design it was like perfectly made for my small but totally decent home studio which already has a pretty stylish black design (don't like it if the studio looks like a happy rainbow - already have a beautiful and colourful little forest in front of my flat - but for the studio stuff I prefer the modest, spartan and uniform style). Don't worry too much about the technical information about the frequency response "0 Hz - 150 kHz (-3 dB)". I've phoned an employee from the company Lake People and he told me that the divergence within the frequency range from about 0 Hz to 50 kHz is just around 0,5 dB (just like the HPA series, the F series and the other products from Lake People) - so, it's a pretty linear frequency response. At first, I wanted to go for the G103-P - but after the employee told me, that the G109-P can reproduce still a little bit better sound quality with a slightly better definition than the other G models below the G109 and together with the fact that the G109-P (not the G109-S!) is one of the only G models which has a safety relais with power-up delay (with these you can leave the studio headphones always connected to the headphone amp without risking technical damage when turning on the headphone amp - although the employee mentioned that even the other headphone amps from Lake People wouldn't damage my permanently connected headphones), I finally decided to spend a few more money and bought the G109-P - as well as some TRS-to-XLR cables for balanced audio. According to the information of the employee, this headphone amp won't need much more than 6 W - so, you could say it's a kinda energy-saving electronic device as well. But for connecting this headphone amp to my home studio in the best possible way, I also had to buy a larger audio interface with more line output ports than my good ol' Steinberg UR22 USB audio interface had to offer. And before buying the headphone amp, it took me also a few further weeks to make a good decision for an appropriate audio interface. It was a pretty close battle between some several audio interfaces from the companies Roland, Tascam and Steinberg. But since Steinberg (belongs to Yamaha in these days) has an excellent reputation and a long history of German & Japanese cooperation/development in things like producing professional audio interfaces and software, I decided to stick with the Steinberg audio interfaces and went straight for the bigger brother Steinberg UR44. It has more than enough possibilities of connections, a completely separate power supply, furthermore 2 separately volume-adjustable headphone outputs and it's pretty well-known for its flat frequency response reproduction and its ultra-robust build quality. Of course I've tested the Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pro studio headphones also with the Steinberg UR44 - especially in direct comparison to the UR22 USB version. Although there shouldn't have been too much differences between the UR22 USB audio interface and the UR44 audio interface (both supposed to have the same transducers), I could perceive a few differences. Besides the fact that you have to turn up the headphone output volume knobs at the UR44 a bit more to get the a similar volume as with the UR22, the Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pro seem to perform slightly better at the UR44. The bass and lower mids sound a bit more defined and cleaner on the UR44 with these headphones - and also the higher frequencies seem to have a perceivable wider range and obviously sound crispier as well. And even my studio monitor system sounds apparently a bit clearer in connection with the UR44. I'm not quite sure - but it could really be because of the better power supply of the UR44. But after connecting the Lake People G109-P headphone amp to some of the line output ports of the Steinberg UR44 and finally putting the Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pro into the new G109-P headphone amp, some kind of desired dreams and audio miracles started to happen. In one of the worst case scenarios I thought the headphone amp would only boost the original signal from the Steinberg UR44 interface just as an employee of a nearby music store told me. But that doesn't seem to be fully right - there's obviously much more audio magic going on. With the help of the G109-P the formerly perceived effect of damping curtains at the lower and lower mid frequencies vanished completely. The reproduced bass of the DT 880 Pro headphones doesn't only sound crystal-clear now. It also seems to drive the sub-bass at much deeper levels. The mids and higher frequencies seem to be even more crispier and much better presented at the DT 880 Pro in connection with the G109-P headphone amp. And yeah, the stereo panorama is kinda a (freshly polished) stage now. All this could really be because of the massive power supply of the high-end headphone amp that seem to drive the DT 880 Pro quite optimally. So, if you don't already own a professional headphone amp or one of those really expensive high-end audio interfaces with integrated high-end headphone outputs (as audio interfaces like Antelope Goliath HD or several RME audio interfaces are supposed to have) and if you want (or you are forced) to compose lots of stuff with high-impedance studio headphones or if you just want to enjoy audio with those headphones on a new, much clearer and more detailed level, don't hesitate to intensely inform yourself about several high-end headphone amps und get one. For composing via headphones, I'm really sure I'll get excellent mixing results in the future with my new trinity of professional audio equipment, consisting of: 1) Steinberg UR 44 audio interface -------------------------------------------- >>> https://www.thomann.de/gb/steinberg_ur44.htm 2) Lake People G109-P high-end headphone amp --------------------------------------------------------------- >>> https://www.thomann.de/gb/lake_people_g109_p_highend_phoneamp.htm 3) Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pro studio headphones -------------------------------------------------------------- >>> https://www.thomann.de/gb/beyerdynamic_dt_880_pro_black_edition.htm >>> https://www.thomann.de/gb/beyerdynamic_dt880_pro.htm If you additionally want to connect your studio monitor speaker system with an external high-end headphone amp as well, just have a look at the products from SPL (Sound Performance Lab), for example the SPL 2Control: >>> https://www.thomann.de/gb/spl_2control_black.htm If you are unsure about which audio equipment you want to buy, make sure to find a professional music store where you are allowed to order, check out and compare different audio equipment in a silent atmosphere by yourself. ---- PS: And always make sure to primarily invest in vital food and life force before making investments in good audio equipment. There is absolutely no reason to starve for high-end audio stuff. But you can sell your expensive car and get a nice bike or season ticket for public transport instead. And of course you can flee from those mostly unnatural, noisy and unhealthy environments of big city centres with paradoxically some of the highest rental costs and pay much less for a cosy flat at the more natural outskirts, smaller towns or romatic villages instead. Anyway, most of those shady rent sharks, racketeers and big profit-over-life investors which make your easy 'n' carefree life usually harder without any meaningful reason, seem to shun the vital areas close to the forests and wild nature - you might increase the effect by creating urban legends with all the dangerous wild animals, nasty monsters and cannibalistic tribes, that might dwell in those lovely natural environments. In this case, you might be able to enjoy high-end audio equipment as well as a pretty modest, healthy and joyful life close to vital nature (including free tickets for high-quality and truly realistic philharmonic bird sound orchestras which might become your enhanced and naturally well-timed alarm clock). Good luck. ))

Haha, thanks, man. :DD I guess that was more detailed stuff than I could technically digest at the moment. xD But if you 're interested >>> I already went for the ultra-nice headphone-mixing-audio-combo: - Steinberg UR 44 (audio interface) - Lake People G109-P (headphone amp) - Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pro (headphones) Be sure, this combo might blow even your meticulously analytic mind away with a suprising smile. But I'll start a new thread for this topic because it will contain much more information about the headphones and headphone amp stuff. And thanks again for your great ambition to teach me about all those things which hold the world of audio technology together in its inmost folds. ))

The main background of my whole intention to enlarge my studio equipment is basically that a guy from a music store told me that my 250 ohms Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pro headphones might not be driven properly on my Steinberg UR 22 USB audio interface. He said that some frequencies (I think he named especially the top end frequencies und deeper bass frequencies) of these headphones might perish or won't sound as clean and truthful at my current audio interface - so, I should rather go for a good headphone amp. Another customer in a product rating corner mentioned that the Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pro with the full frequency response range from 5 to 35000 Hz sound much better and cleaner on a good headphone amp. And so, I looked for some higher end stuff of headphone amps, got stuck to the Lake People G103-P (has a very large frequency response range from 5 to 150000 Hz!!! - so, much more than the Presonus HP4, for example - at which the frequency response range goes only from 20 to 20000 Hz). But I recognized that I would need more line outputs on my audio interface. 2 line output connections go already into my Fostex subwoofer - so, there 's nothing else left for my preferred headphone amp and I want to keep the heaphone output on my audio interface for the lower impendance headphones. So, my decision was to buy a new audio interface first and sell my old one to a friend who wants to start with composition and music. There are 2 other audio interfaces which are still in my mind and which have a good power support, lots of line input and line output ports and which have already 2 headphone output ports. 1) Tascam US-20x20 (also good ol' Japanese hightech stuff with USB 3.0 support!!!) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- https://www.thomann.de/gb/tascam_us_20x20.htm?ref=intl&shp=eyJjb3VudHJ5IjoiZ2IiLCJjdXJyZW5jeSI6IjIiLCJsYW5ndWFnZSI6ImVuIn0%3D >>> Without the nasty stands (don't really know if you can demount them completely) which bring the interface obviously in a slightly skewed position, I could easily place my monitor screen on this pretty big interface. or 2) Steinberg UR44 (the bigger brother of my momentary UR22 USB audio interface and highly established stuff, grown in a long-term German-Japanese development) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- https://www.thomann.de/gb/steinberg_ur44.htm >>> I'm still thinking about getting this one, because with the Steinberg products I already know what I have and lots of people say that these are very good. But even for this one I need to enhance my desktop with some further attachments to get enough place for my equipment. I'm thinking about getting some attachments for my desktop whereon I place my Presonus Eris 3.5 studio monitor speakers and under which I can also place something (like the new audio interface on the left side and the Lake People headphone amp on the right side of the desktop). Maybe I'll build some handcrafted stuff with the wood of my desktop design before I tend to buy some faltering stuff in a furniture store. But, yeah - with the Roland Rubix 24 (which is also a high quality Japanese studio gadget, I guess - and I kinda love its highly stylish design, by the way) I could just concern about the audio stuff without caring too much about my desktop. But there still some people who say that the Roland Rubix audio interfaces have a pretty prehistoric audio driver settings design where you should choose between levels with numbers from 1 to 7 or things like that... instead of choosing between spezific buffer size settings with the usual values. Guess I'll have to think about this topic a bit longer before making too fast decisions.

Haha, thanks for the in-depth guide. ^^ And yeah, I was really impressed of the obviously powerful headphone device of the Roland Rubix 24 as well. 40 mW (20 mW left + 20 mW right) into 47 ohms seems to be pretty much. Even my already pretty powerful Steinberg UR 22 USB audio interface seems to have only an output level of around 12 mW (6 mW left + 6 mW right) into 40 ohms, compared to the Roland Rubix 24. http://download.steinberg.net/downloads_hardware/UR22/UR22_documentation/UR22_OperationManual_en.pdf But yeah, in other words... The set-up for the audio-interface+headphone-amp combination in my imagination would technically work well, right?

I know - it might be a funny question for the studio hardware experts out there. But I want to go absolutely sure before buying some new equipment. My intention is to buy a new audio interface with additional ports where I can connect an external high-end headphone amp for the best possible use of some high-impedance studio headphones (Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pro, 250 ohms) and some lower-impedance headphones (like my Sony MDR-7506, 63 ohms) at the same time (so, in the end a hardware solution with 2 separate volume controller units for 2 different headphones). The headphone output of the audio interface should be used for the lower-impedance headphones (so, I don't want to connect the external headphone amp there). And the headphone output(s) of the high-end headphone amp should be used for the high-impedance headphones. I'm pretty sure I have to buy an audio interface with 2 additional line output ports and make a connection between both elements from there to the input ports of the external headphone amp. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) Is it correct or do I have to choose an audio interface with 2 additional line input ports instead (so, that the signal goes the other way from the headphone amp to the audio interface? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If my first assumption is correct I'd go for the following studio equipment: - audio interface >>> Roland Rubix 24 (4 line output ports, impedance balanced >>> guess it's to handle like normal balanced ports) https://www.roland.com/de/products/rubix24/features/ - headphone amp >>> Lake People G103-P (2 balanced XLR input ports) https://www.thomann.de/gb/lake_people_g103p_phoneamp.htm?ref=intl&shp=eyJjb3VudHJ5IjoiZ2IiLCJjdXJyZW5jeSI6IjIiLCJsYW5ndWFnZSI6ImVuIn0%3D For the connection between both elements I'd use 2 standard balanced male mono 6,3 mm jack to male mono XLR cables. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Is that okay or would you prefer some special cables for this purpose? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Besides, I've got the Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pro studio headphones (Black Edition, 250 ohms) meanwhile and I've connected these to my Steinberg UR22 USB Audio Interface (the first version - not the new MK II). If I listen to a youtube soundtrack like "Rock Box" by Run-D.M.C. with the loudest volume setting on Youtube, for example, I just have to turn up the volume control unit of my Steinberg audio interface at around 11 o'clock to listen to this track at my preferred loudness level. >>> In comparison to the Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pro I have to turn up the volume control unit at around 10 o'clock, if I use my 63 ohms Sony MDR-7506 studio headphones (so, not too much difference in this case). At least this USB interface seems to have a not so bad headphone amp for high-impedance - as well as for lower-impedance - headphones. And just in connection to this USB audio interface the Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pro sound already pretty amazing - wide sound stage (as if you sit in a little home cinema), very clean, detailed, linear and full sound. And with these studio headphones you cleary hear, if reverb and certain frequencies are too much or stick out in your mix or get in conflict with other track elements - exactly what I was looking for. The bass of the Sony MDR-7506 might be a bit tighter (at least at my Steinberg audio interface). But I'll save some money for another audio interface (maybe the Japanese Roland Rubix 24 with 2 additional line output ports) at which I can connect a high-end headphone amplifier designed for high-impedance headphones (maybe the German Lake People G103-P headphone amp). So, maybe this combination will bring the Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pro studio headphones to their full potencial. In the end it might be around further 500 bucks with uncertain results. But nevertheless I will be able to use some lower-impedance headphones like my Sony MDR-7506 on the Roland Rubix 24 audio interface and some high-impedance headphones like my Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pro at the Lake People G103-P headphone amp at the same time. So, it would be also a really nice combo, if you wanna listen to some music projects or plan some big gaming or movie evenings with good friends and without annoying the neighborhood in the later evening hours. As soon as I've got the new stuff, I'll give a little feedback if there are further sound improvements of my high-impedance 250 ohms Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pro studio headphones when connected to the Lake People G103-P high-end headphone amp. So, stay tuned, dudes. ))

Hm, the Sennheiser HD 600 seem to have a similar frequency response like the AKG K-702. Since the HD 600 is a 300 ohms model, does it mean these headphones work correctly with a normal USB audio interface or do you use further amps or stuff like that for composing and mixing with 'em?

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. ))