Anyone have questions about DAW's or Audio? Post here...

My way of giving back to the forum.

If anyone has any questions about Digital Audio Workstations, software, plug-ins, hardware or any questions regarding audio recording post here. I will answer.

All the best,
Brock

 

first of all, ditch the soundblaster. no go. the crosstalk, self noise and utter garbage of the digital to analog conversion makes it useless for anything other than tomfoolery.

as far as a cheap quality set-up, it is like the old adage says - you get what you pay for.

My personal preference is Samplitude Pro for software, but it isn't for a novice and has its fair share of issues (as all software does).

for software - I would suggest checking out Cubase LE if you can live with the limitations. It is very servicable and extremely user friendly.

for hardware - it depends on your needs. If you do not own external mic pres and need them onboard the hardware I would check out the M-Audio Delta 1010LT. I don't like the unbalanced I/O, but I like that it is PCI based and that the mic pres are decent.

There are a lot of firewire and usb devices out there, and some of them are pretty nice. I personally stay away from firewire due to the inherint latency when compared with pci based hardware. Others aren't so concerned and work fine with firewire devices, so it is a viable option. I would stay away from USB devices.

Hope this helps,
Brock

 

no problem.

I'm not real familiar with the BR1600, are you transferring via USB or by card reader or something? I'll see if I can dig up the specs, in the meantime any information you can give me about the method of transfer, what file format it transfers too and whether there is a piece of software involved on the computer side of things - that will help.

no sound card required for mixing to mp3, just software. If you like, you can mix inside the BR1600 and then take the two track output into your computer (via spdif if the BR1600 has spdif outputs). You can then use a basic wave editing program to psuedo master and transfer to mp3. For your needs Samplitude Lite (not sure what they call it) would work well. Decent MP3 codecs as well as the ability to mix multiple tracks if you decide you prefer mixing inside the computer.

For the above mentioned spdif transfer you may need to get a soundcard for your computer. If you don't need multiple I/O an M-audio Audiophile card might be the ticket. Lots of options out there though.

Regards,
Brock

 

refers to hard disk based recording/mixing/mastering of which there are several stand alone varieties as well as Wintel/Mac/Mactel based solutions.

 

The Soundblaster cards are OK for fooling around (especially as they have ASIO drivers these days, no?).

As far as how they compare with other cards out there, when you get into the semi-pro or pro devices there is a world of difference. I participated in a series of loopback tests that tested a lot of the hardware solutions that were available at the time (mostly - soundblaster,RME,Lynx,M-audio,MOTU as well as some high end stuff). The charts don't lie. There is severe degredation that occurs when using a soundblaster card. Mostly in the form of distortion and noise which is a direct result of the poor AD conversion. The DA conversion is just as bad meaning that monitoring will never be accurate.

It is the quality of the converters that makes the most difference in regards to sample rates. High quality conversion will tend to sound the same regardless of sample rate (as long as the sample rate is 44.1khz or greater) then lower quality conversion. This is due to the fact that it is expensive to design and manufacture high quality filters which must be used. google Nyquist theorem for more.

Regards,
Brock

*edit* for the record the M-audio conversion compared very favorably to lots of more expensive cards in relation to crosstalk, distortion and noise. Still not the best, but possibly the best for the money.

on a side note, the new EMU cards sound suprisingly good (co-developed with Audigy). The only downside is that the drivers are garbage. Absolutely the best bang for the buck if they get the drivers sorted out.

 

looked up the BR1600. USB for transfer and SPDIF if you want to take your two track mixes into the computer for mastering/mp3 conversion.

I'm a little confused as to the USB transfer. does it come up on the pc as a USB drive that you can copy from? Is there a third party Roland software that you use with this device?

the issue you are having could be cured with a bios update to your motherboard or chipset update. Depends on the age of your machine and what version of usb the computer has currently (USB - USB2 - HI-speed USB).

 

I don't warm anyones tubes but my own...

;~)

one note about M-audio - sometimes they say balanced and they don't really mean it. I only figured this out when I hooked up a "real" mic pre to a m-audio delta-44. Ended up having to use transformers to kill the hum which was a drag. Turns out that even though they state "balanced" and all jacks are tip/ring/sleeve the device is actually psuedo balanced. The delta-66 is "actually" balanced. so if you ever run into some 60hz hum and you are using an M-audio card of the lower variety and a nice mic pre - could be this is the issue. It took me two days to find the answer to this gem. What was more frustrating was to dig out my $49.00 Behringer mixer to test it out and find out it is fully balanced.

As of now, the Delta-44 is the only one of their devices that I know isn't fully balanced (regardless of the hype). The Delta 1010 and Delta 66 are fully balanced in my experience. The 1010LT isn't balanced and isn't marketed as such. The Audiophile's I don't know much about, but they look good for the money.

 

You have a keyboard controller already? finding an interface that will control a software sampler as well as give you I/O will be a little difficult. I would get a m-audio usb keyboard controller (semi-weighted - the weighted action keys suck by these guys but the semi-weighted is suprisingly nice) and look into firewire interfaces for the rest. I won't touch USB audio interfaces. I know they are popular and cheap, but the protocol is pretty poor for this application.

I trigger vst-i's (Kontakt 2, etc) using a keystation es by m-audio. Works great. It sounds like you need knobs, which I don't, so you might check out the http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Radium61-main.html

if you are dead set on having all in one then you can check this firewire guy out, and again I suggest staying away from usb for audio conversion:

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Ozonic-main.html

 

Not an LE user here. Usually with most audio software, and I bet LE works the same, you will need to export the audio (probably from the file menu) and then you will be given basic and advanced options for the format you would like to export to. You can also find some decent free mp3 encoders that will work stand-a-lone with your two track mixes from ProTools LE.

When using software like LE or Nuendo or Cubase, etc. it is good to have a dedicated wave editing program for final tweaks, cd arranging, conversion to different formats such as mp3, windows audio, real player etc. That's one reason I prefer Samplitude Pro as it grew up as an audio mastering software first and incorporates all of these features. Already having your software of choice, it would be worth it to pick up Wavelab or something similar for these jobs.

All the best,
Brock

 

DP has come a long, long way. You are the first user I've run into in a good while.

The first rule of digital information is the information doesn't exist unless it exists in two or more places. Sounds from your demeaner that you have everything backed up. ( never mind. I just realized who you are... of course you have it backed up... back to my corner. go Rox!)

I'm heading to a studio in Austin this weekend to find out why a firewire drive I was delivered is blank. I'm supposed to be mixing an album from it now... No back up. Good times.

Cheers,
Brock

 

For fun I would be interested in knowing what system, software and hardware you guys are using.

Here's mine:

Dual core 3.2ghz intel with 2 gigs of ram, SATA II 8 meg buffer drive for O/S, SATA II 16 meg buffer drive for audio, USB drive for autocad projects, backup and samples. Dual flat panels of some dimension, UAD-1 card, Mackie Control Universal, Event monitors (cheap, but I compared them to soffit mounted JBL baby butt 15's and they came out alright), Mackie Big Knob (highly recommended), Delta 66 sound card (waiting on a decent PCI-e solution - you lucky Mac guys with your Apogee Symphony's)


Main software:
Samplitude Pro 8.x
Cubase SX 3.x
Kontakt 2
BFD
various plugs and other assundries