Ame one Loves You

Recently I finally got around finishing the mixes for John B’s Hair and the Trumpet Song. I was pretty surprised at the way they came out. I did the mixes a bit different this time. I mixed them using headphones. I always hear and do subscribe to the idea that you should avoid mixing with headphones. The key word here is avoid.

So what made this experience different from my other mixing experiences? Simple answer is I used a pair of AKG 240s headphones. Picked them up last month at Miki Gakki. They were on sale cause the new versions are out. Only set me back about a little over $100 or ¥12,000. I find that I really like the way they sound. I did compare them to the AKG 271s but found that that the 271 was weak on the low end and a little harsh in the highs. Also the 271 are closed back headphones. Over all I really liked the way they sound and they are so comfortable.

Due to my current living situation, I no longer have the luxury of having my Yamaha HS50 monitors setup all the time. Because of that I was forced to use the headphones. I was worried that they would translate terrible to the Yamaha monitors, but I was wrong. I was quite surprised that I had to make very little adjustments to the mixes when I did listen on the monitors.

The things that needed to be adjusted were in the mid hi range in both songs and the bass in Trumpet Song. The adjustments were very small. When I mixed using the AKG’s I was very conscious of keeping the listening levels at nice volume, in fact I even found that at times I would actually turn the volume down some. The only problem seems to be that these headphones are just a little bit bright in the mid hi range. I mean just a little bit. The problem with the bass in the Trumpet Song is more of a using an effect badly. I tried something that I thought might give the bass more presence on small speakers, but it turned out to sound awful when I heard it on the monitors. This problem is because I was in love with the idea I had and didn’t evaluate it thorough enough to determine if it was bad idea.

After I made the final adjustments using the monitors, I burned a cd and started to listen to the test mixes on different headphones and speakers. I have to say that it sounds good. I am really happy with it. The only concern I really have at the moment is the ride cymbal in the Trumpet Song. I’m never sure how I should mix the ride. I think because I am a drummer and have a background in jazz, I like to have a good dominant ride sound.

Here’s a couple of good articles on mixing with headphones and ways to compensate.

Also check out http://www.headphone.com/ for frequency analysis of many popular headphones.

If you have read previously, you would have seen that I was mulling over whether to upgrade from Logic Pro 7 to Logic Studio or upgrade Kontakt 1.5 to Kontakt 3. Well in the end Kontakt won out over Logic. It was a hard decision but over the past few weeks I began to realize that going with the kontakt purchase was a better idea.

I realized as I was working in Logic, ProTools LE and Cubase SX 2 recently that I’m constantly using different samplers. I was using Kontakt 1.5 for Cubase. Unfortunately that version does not work on my macbook. So I ended up using EXS24 in logic and for ProTools I tried the Structure Free.

The EXS24 is a cool and efficient sampler that integrates well in to logic, but I just don’t like the way samples are loaded up in it. It didn’t really fit in my workflow. To import a sample you have to open the EXS editor and then create zones, then import the sample and after all that you have to save your instrument. It really reminded me of using Mesa when I had an Akai S2000. I didn’t like that thing that much. The EXS24 is a great sampler and pretty powerful, but there was just too many extra windows and clicks that seemed to slow down the workflow for me.

Digidesign’s Structure sampler seems pretty powerful, however I only got to experience the free version. The reason I downloaded it in the fist place was so that I would have some sort of sampler available in ProTools sessions. Since I don’t really use ProTools for production, I figured the free version would suit my needs. I thought it would be useful for whenever I need to do some last minute additions or small changes when I am doing mixdowns. The lack of being able to edit sample maps was the deal breaker. It’s really just a sample player. I only tried it a couple of times, and it seems decent, but it just doesn’t fit my work style.

The main reason I decided to go with Kontakt was that I realized it would help if I had a universal sampler that I can use in any of the sequencers that I have. Structure can only be used in ProTools and EXS24 can only be used in Logic. Although both can import quit a bit of sample types, I just feel like I will end up converting a sample in 3 different formats, one for each sampler.

I can’t really say I am happy with Kontakt 3 yet. I have barely used it. So far I just used it to tweak some samples and create a multi instrument for a remix I have to do. Usually I can’t wait to open and play with my new toys, but this time I was not really excited. Truthfully I was pretty happy with version 1.5. It did everything I wanted and was not full of extra things. Some things appear a bit more complicated now like the whole mixer section and routing. I do miss the simple routing options of 1.5. However this is something that can be taken care of if I setup the program to be a certain way when it loads. Although the program is more complex and I need to learn some of the new features, it still fits my work flow style. When I write I like to try different samples all the time. Especially with drums. Keep the part playing and just load up different samples to hear if I like it. This is the problem I had with the EXS24 I couldn’t do this unless I premade instruments. At this point in time I don’t feel like spending a great deal of time turning all whatever amount of gigs of samples I have into EXS instruments. Truthfully I don’t know how many gigs of samples I have. All I know is I have a hard drive that has only samples and a cd case full of cd’s that are either sample cd’s or just backups of sample packs I downloaded. I prefer to have a file browser available and to be able to drag and drop samples.

One last note on samplers. I just downloaded the free DiscoDSP High Life sampler. Although it’s only a Windows program it has a feature that I am interested in. It is supposed to be able to auto-sample from vsti’s. This seems pretty useful. I can sample patches from my favorite windows only vst instruments and use them in logic. Also if there is a cool patch on some demo I can easy sample it. I will report more on this sampler later.

I recently came across an old friend from high school on myspace. It turns out her husband is an MC out in Cleveland, Ohio. I got a copy of his album and really liked it. I liked it so much I decided to write about it.

Social commentary and the way life is for the struggling musician is the main themes of Raystar’s album “Raystar Volume 1.” His lyrics are something that we can all relate to. Everyone can understand his criticism of society, because what he is saying is so easy to see. In addition to that, the struggling musician theme can transcend to all walks  of life to everyone who is struggling to get by and achieve their dreams. In a way he kind of reminds of KRS-One with the lyrical content of his songs.

As for the  beats, they are cool. There is a lot of use of organic samples. Many of the songs utilize a jazz kind of sound. The album is really organic sounding. I think this is a good thing. It doesn’t sound over processed or overly electronic. This is something that you can just throw on and listen to and relax. It can also supply a good source of conversation through the commentary that is provided in the lyrics. 

Overall I think this is a great album. I highly recommend you pick it up. You will enjoy it. If you are tired of what mainstream rap offers with its misogyny, gangsterisms and the flashy image it represents then you will enjoy the more intelligent serving of Raystar.

http://www.myspace.com/raystarhiphop

I noticed recently that people have been coming here after entering the search term Yamaha HS50 in a search engine. I guess this page is not too useful, for that. So I guess I will add my opinion on them.

The Following is the original post. The additional information is after.

Today I finally have my first complaint about these speakers. I love them, think they are great. Damn the thing that sucked most about them was, lugging them half way across Osaka. That sucked. I’m glad I had the foresight to keep the boxes and the little make shift handles that the store I bought them at made, but walk to the train station and catching the train and then walking to my place, sucked. I did not like the attention that they brought me on the train. People staring at me and my speakers. After awhile those bad boys got heavy. I’m just glad I didn’t go with the bigger Yamaha monitors. I really considered it at one point, but these are fine.

By the way I used these on my EP. Berliner and Robot were mixed in ProTools and the Umbra tracks were mixed in Cubase SX2.

So far after having the monitors for about 8 months, I have to say I do love them I find that they were better than Alesis Monitor ones I used to use in Hawaii. Those had a nasty little brightness in the mid highs. I could never really get the area sounding good on the first try in my mixes. When I listened to the test mixes after mixing on the Yamahas, I found that my mixes were a little loud in the same frequency range as the Alesis’s. However it turns out that the Yamahas were not to blame. When I went back to fix the mixes, I noticed that the mix was just bad. I think part of it was that I had not done in mixing in a long time and was having difficulty hearing things properly.

The monitors have a bass roll off switch on the back. It’s intended to help with the low end when the speaker is placed in a less than ideal location such as close to walls. I did play with it when I first got them and noticed a difference in but I believe I left it alone and didn’t bother with the roll off. That is what my ears liked best.

The only problem I have with them besides the one mentioned above is that the low end is not low enough. I can’t blame them, they are not very big speakers. I should really get sub. I would recommend anyone getting a pair of these to get a subwoofer to compliment them. I’m sure it will make a big difference once you get everything calibrated and set up right.

Today when I was at SofMap I caught a demonstration of Sonar 7. It seems like a pretty cool program. I have not used any Cakewalk Products since Cakewalk 8.

The thing that really impressed me most was the Roland V-Voice Plugin. That thing was bad ass! I wish they would make that into a AU or VST plugin. It does pitch correction, time correction and a couple of other things. I think the coolest thing was pitch to midi. The other plugins were not that impressive. Nothing that you can not find for free or comes with any other sequencer.It’s nice to see that Sonar is now supporting VST along with DXi. When DXi first came out I thought it was going to be the new standard because of the way direct x integrates with the windows operating system. However it never really seemed to catch on. A lot of companies made DXi versions of their stuff, but at the same time it was bundled with VST and RTAS versions too. So if you were not running Sonar it was not used. I don’t think Cubase, Nuendo, or ProTools support DXi. That is probably the biggest reason why it never took off. Whether it is superior to VST, I don’t really know.

Another nice feature is the POW-R dither. I think of all the major sequencers, Cubase/Nuendo are the only ones that don’t utilize POW-R. Steinberg opted to go with the UV22hr dither by Apogee. From what I understand POW-R is a better plugin. Bob Katz also did some tests which indicated that it is a better choice over Apogee’s UV22hr. I have used both in the past and either one is fine. Odds are these days a lot of music is being dithered with POW-R or UV22hr or the Waves L series limiter dither.

The only thing I didn’t like about Sonar was that the screen seemed cluttered. With all the available windows and sub windows and tabs it just seemed like too much. Other than that, the only other thing I question is the the stability.  During the demo, Sonar crashed. I don’t know exactly what the reason was because I was not quick enough to read the error screen due to that it was in Japanese. However I suspect that one of these three reasons are why it crashed. 1. Windows Vista caused some sort of error. 2. Sonar itself had some sort of internal error. 3. The Edirol digital mixer interface lost connectivity or caused an error.

Overall I have to say Sonar has come along ways since when I first used it when it was Cakewalk 6. In fact sequencers have come a long way. This past year I had a chance to play with Cakewalk 6 and I realized that is a real unfriendly program. I don’t know how I even managed to learn it without using a manual. I have to say with out it, I would not have such a good understanding of the way sequencers work. I think if someone asked me whether they should pick up Sonar 7 for their studio, I would say go ahead. The only negative things I would say about it is what I mentioned above. There is no reason to tell not to pick it up. In the end it’s all about how they choose to use it. I really think that Sonar 7 is kind of similar to Apple’s Logic. I mean similar in the way it comes with a lot of plugins that are really useful. Unlike Cubase, which always seemed to be the most lacking in the included plugins.

After watching the demonstration, I will say that for as cool as Sonar seems, I will not be picking up a copy. Mainly because I currently have Cubase SX2, Logic Pro 7, ProTools LE 7, Cakewalk 8, Reason adapted for Digidesign, and Live Lite 6. It’s not all the latest and some aren’t even the full versions, but I do have to say that I am pretty covered for sequencers. In addition to that I don’t feel the need or want to learn a new one. There is still a lot for me to learn about Cubase, Logic and ProTools. Not to mention the others which I barely use. Now if Roland only released that V-Voice plugin as a VST/AU/RTAS!

So I got a copy of American Gangster by Jay-Z. I have to say overall it is an ok album. As with most albums I come across these days there are only a few songs I like.

Maybe that’s why the music industry sucks. You buy an album and most songs are soso with a few good songs. I think that is a reason why I support digital distribution. As a consumer you can buy the songs you think are good. In addition, the artist can no longer rely on releasing crap with a few good songs to prop it up. The only people who will be hurt by digital distribution is the one hit wonders. But all they need to do is, write some quality music. 

 Anyways, back to Jay-Z, the reason I find the album soso, is because the beats are just average. I didn’t think they were really cool. He’s a great lyricist and has achieved a lot. One of the things i didn’t like was the songs that had strings/orchestra sounds. I’m not really a fan of that to begin with. I understand it, but it’s not something I really like. Another thing I didn’t like was that the bass lines had a lot of open  notes. These days I find I am not a fan of that kind of booming bass. It give you the boom, but it just seemed like the song had the boom for sake of having a big booming bass so you can rock the big bass in your car or system. 

Overall I would classify this more as a concept album because of the vibe and imagery he is trying to capture. In that context it’s not bad. As a regular album, it’s just on par with the rest hip-pop.