Rip Rowan

Point-to-Point 4: The Old 97's - Blame it on Gravity

Wed, 28 May 2008 05:20:00 GMT

Join Rip Rowan in a new installment of Point-to-Point, as we dissect a song from the new hit album by the Old 97's, Blame it on Gravity, and show how the song came together from pre-production through final mix.

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JazzMutant Dexter: The Revolution Has Begun

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 02:24:00 GMT

The problem with control surfaces is that by the time there are enough controls on the surface to actually do the job, you've pretty much rebuilt a complete console. But Dexter gives you near-total control in a tabletop-friendly format.

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Drum Clinic pt. 1: Kick Drum Viagra

Fri, 17 Aug 2007 02:18:00 GMT

Getting a good kick drum sound often seems more like luck than skill. It's all too common: a small, thuddy kick. Poor attack. No tone, or bad tone. The kick doesn't cut through... or, if it does, it sounds so bad, you wish it didn't. Fortunately, there's new help for your limp, flaccid kick drum.

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Choosing an Audio Platform

Tue, 31 Jul 2007 12:58:00 GMT

Two questions perenially surface in the world of pro audio:

1. Why are Macs dominant in pro audio, when Windows has such overwhelming market share?

2. Should I get a Mac or PC for recording?

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A Prolonged Absence

Mon, 30 Jul 2007 20:36:40 GMT

By now you've probably been wondering where we've been. To tell the truth, so have we.

Well, ProRec's demise is a powerful testimonial to the importance of a robust data backup strategy. After over eight years of uninterrupted service, our main web server experienced a (third) failure of its RAID array, and the entire contents of the server were utterly corrupted.

Normally, this would not have been such a disaster. Because, over the same eight years, I maintained a live mirror of the site at another location. The mirror - updated every 15 minutes - was an exact replica of the main site. In just a few hours following the complete loss of the main site, I could have the DNS redirected to the mirror server, and ProRec would magically come back online.

However, as is often the case, Murphy had other plans.

A Perfect Storm

It's really amazing how events conspired against us this time. Because, as it turns out, the mirror site was temporarily unavailable. Worse, it was undergoing a one-time rebuild - and its mirrored contents were temporarily erased with the intention of rebuilding them from the main site. So when the main site was lost, there was no mirror, and no way to restore the mirror.

It was a total loss.

We did have an (old) archive of the articles, which are now back online for the most part. It will be a while before all of the broken links are restored, and a few articles did not survive the data transfer and will have to be manually restored from the Wayback Machine. The discussion forum - that outstanding resource of over eight years of questions and answers from some of the best in the industry - was lost.

After the demise of the old server, and the loss of the site, I decided that when ProRec was rebuilt that instead of using the custom applications that ran the old site, I would convert the content to DotNetNuke - a very popular open-sourced content management system. This would also make it easy to find a better hosting provider, since the old ProRec had unusual hosting requirements. And a proven CMS hosted with a managed provider would require a lot less maintenance.

Network SOLutions

In the early days of the Internet, domain names were handed out by a government agency known as the InterNIC. As the dotcoms took off, and it became obvious that there was money to be made in domain names, the InterNIC was spun off as Verisign, which soon took the name Network Solutions.

Back in the days, doing business with the InterNIC was a harrowing process. There was a Byzantine system of forms which had to be copied and pasted into text-only emails with particular codes and subject lines filled out, then sent back and forth until you were utterly confused. It was truly one of those processes where you wonder how someone could have invented the complexity.

In 2003, Network Solutions rolled out their new account manager, and users had to transfer their old accounts into the new system with yet another harrowing process of forms and emails. Well, apparently, in the transfer, the Primary Account Holder (the individual with the complete authority to make changes to the domain) was transferred to some other individual, and my company name was changed to "MTI". I was still listed on the accounts, so I continued to get reminders to renew the domain name. And since no changes needed to be made on the account for several years, I was blissfully unaware of the mishap.

After ProRec's demise, however, I discovered that I had lost control of the domain, and couldn't move it! Network Solutions proved remarkably obstinate. Understandably, they cannot just transfer a domain to just anyone: the opportunity for fraud is overwhelming. However, I had a mountain of paperwork, emails, and years of payments on my side.

Lawyers got involved. Tempers flared. Time passed. More and more money was wasted. Homicide was contemplated. Then I decided to get busy. By creating a fake company that matched what Network Solutions had on record (which was a bogus company to begin with) and typing up a fake letterhead, I was able to submit paperwork to get the domain back. Amazingly, this worked without a hitch.

In short, I had to commit fraud to get my own domain back.

There's a special place in Hell for the people I had to deal with. I look forward to seeing them there.

Project Phoenix

And so the project to bring ProRec back from the Dead was undertaken. The contents of the old site were converted and loaded into the new CMS. Pages were built. The discussion forum was set up. So far the project has taken months, but ProRec is now back and limping along. I'd say we're at about 70%.

And, coming up, we have some great reviews and interviews in store: reviews of products from Manley, Universal Audio, Brett Averill, and Telefunken. Interviews with producers. And a Point-to-Point article featuring a well-known band and their return to the studio.

I'm glad to be back. Please keep an eye on our site, because we'll be making a lot of improvements around here.

Thanks for visiting!

MiniTraps Bass Traps by RealTraps

Thu, 01 Sep 2005 00:00:00 GMT

In my last studio, I was fortunate to have a great sounding control room. I can’t take any credit for this; it was sheer luck-of-the-draw. Some interplanetary alignment of room dimensions, carpeting type, and speaker placement converged to give me a near-perfect listening environment. There was no need for any kind of special room treatment. The mids were smooth and offered precise imaging, and the bass response was very flat down to a solid 30 Hz.

I got a little spoiled.

However I got the opportunity to relocate the studio to a new location with a larger and much better sounding tracking room, and had to take the offer. In most ways the new studio is superior to the old one – all except for the control room. The new studio’s control room is a too-small 8 by 13 foot operation, with a roof that’s just a little too low, and severe bass response issues.

After a few weeks of working in the new control room I had started to adapt to the room’s anomalies by trusting my gut (instead of my ears) about the bass response, but was increasingly frustrated by the inability to truly hear precisely what was happening in the lowest octaves of my mixes.

We considered one of the many foam-based solutions, but with the room’s small size, I was very concerned about making the room too dead-sounding overall. I have worked in too-dead control rooms before, and the experience is very disconcerting. For me to get a good mix, the room should sound like, well… a room.

Enter Ethan Winer. For years, Ethan has been evangelizing the virtues of broadband bass absorption. Ethan has offered do-it-yourself bass trap designs on his personal web site and many happy readers of his site have built these traps with great results.

Finally sensing the opportunity to add a unique value to the market, Ethan created a startup company called RealTraps to make broadband panel absorbers. RealTraps’ product line includes five products: MiniTraps, MiniTraps HF, MicroTraps, MondoTraps, and SoffitTraps. After some conversation with Ethan about the best application of his product in my studio, I purchased a set of MiniTraps for the control room.

MiniTraps are broadband panel absorbers. They are constructed in a metal frame with semi-rigid fiberglass panels bonded to a limp-mass membrane which greatly increases low-frequency absorption below 100 Hz. The traps are available in white, off-white ("wheat") and black. Since the absorb sound from the front, back, and sides, they offer the best bass absorption when they are placed away from the walls by at least a few inches.

MiniTraps absorb mostly bass and midbass, some mids, and a little high end. This means that they do not overly color the sound of the room like some absorption material (particularly foam) which tend to absorb more high frequency content. Thanks to this smooth bass-centered absorption characteristic, you can safely add a lot of MiniTraps to a room without darkening the sound or making the room sound like a vocal booth.

I had a very limited set of placement options. The back wall of our control room has a low ceiling, so I couldn’t place any MiniTraps on the back ceiling; and we have seating along that wall, so I couldn’t place any MiniTraps on the back wall itself. In the end we were only able to treat the front wall and ceiling corners. I placed a 2x4 MiniTrap on the wall immediately facing the engineer, two 2x4 traps on the front ceiling corner, a 2x2 trap in each of the front corners, and a 2x4 trap along each of the side walls near the corners.

Installation

Installation was a mixed bag. The two traps that were installed hanging on the back walls were no-brainers. They literally hang up just like large framed pictures.

But the ceiling and corner installations were a different story. The traps are not lightweight, and in our small room, they were somewhat difficult to install in the corners. To truly give them the “floating” look it is necessary to hide the mounting bolt behind the trap and then bring the trap up to the bolt. It is difficult to describe the mounting process, but suffice to say it was not simple to make them hang just the way we wanted, and there was a little touch-up paint required on the walls when we were done. Since the front and back of the panels are made of semi-rigid fiberglass you must be careful when installing them so as not to dent or tear the fabric. In the end, there was a minor injury to one of our panels when we poked it with a screwdriver.

Once we got a few of the traps up, we immediately started hearing a difference in the room. The reflectivity dropped, but the room didn’t sound dark or colored. It just seemed to lose a little excess decay time. Probably the greatest single change came from the two 2x2 traps we installed in the corners. Corner traps have the greatest impact on bass response, and since we were able to drop the traps so that they straddled the corners they really ate up a lot of irresponsible bass.

Results

The change was so substantial that it took me a while to get used to the improvement. Overall bass response was increased slightly. Reflectivity was lowered perfectly – the room still sounds live, but it sounds “quiet”. The environment isn’t annoyingly clinical, but is quiet and tamed enough to allow me to really zero in on sonic detail.

But of course, the key benefit isn’t more bass, it’s smoother bass, and the MiniTraps delivered in spades. The bass response, which had been very uneven and unpredictable, was now remarkably smooth and balanced. I could start to trust my ears again. The disconcertingly extreme peaks and dips in the bass and midbass range were much smoother. And the bottom octave from 30 Hz to 60 Hz showed back up, enabling me to dial in the correct level of low-end oomph in kick drum and bass guitar submixes.

The bass response isn’t perfect, of course. No bass trap can completely solve all bass response problems. But the improvement has been nothing short of phenomenal. This control room – which had been almost unusable – is now a good sounding room producing great mixes, and I’m a happy camper.

I was so excited by the MiniTraps that I got a couple of MondoTraps for my home studio workroom. I was really surprised by the effect of adding even two of these traps into the room. They ate up some of the room’s reflections, and tightened up the bass noticeably.

Since installing my MiniTraps, RealTraps has introduced a new product called SoffitTraps. SoffitTraps are made-to-order bass-absorbing soffits that can be installed so that they truly blend into the look of the room, and offer even more bass absorption than the MiniTraps. When I first saw the SoffitTraps, my first reaction was, “Brilliant!” I have yet to hear the SoffitTraps but I can well imagine that they are even better than the MiniTraps or MondoTraps. Unfortunately, because my control room has an irregular ceiling, SoffitTraps would not be a feasible choice for me.

Don’t think that these traps are only useful for control room applications. Because they have such balanced absorption, they are excellent to use in a tracking room. In fact you almost couldn’t use too many MiniTraps in a tracking room. Their absorption properties are so euphonic that there is almost no sound source that they cannot improve.

MiniTraps can also be stacked to create a bass-absorbing gobo or placed on stands around a performer for extra isolation. RealTraps offers a stand with wheels ("Gobo Carriage") that holds two or three MiniTraps on their sides, to create a gobo 4 feet wide by either 4 or 6 feet high. If it's a gobo you need, the company also offers MiniTraps built with an internal barrier to create a true gobo that also absorbs.

RealTraps has a great product with the MiniTraps. They are simply the ideal bass treatment for most every studio application. If you want to improve the bass response of your system, before you invest in a new pair of speakers, take the time and effort to improve the bass response of your room with broadband bass absorption from RealTraps.

Best of Breed: Sonar 4 Producer Edition

Wed, 01 Sep 2004 00:00:00 GMT

I’ve been a fan of Cakewalk music software ever since Greg Hendershott was the only employee. Cakewalk has always had a good combination of usability, power, and relative simplicity. When the application added audio in the mid 1990s, it wasn’t clear at first if the application would remain a “MIDI sequencer with some audio features” or if it was on a track to become an “audio multitrack with MIDI”. Many arguments have ensued about what was, and what should be the direction of the product.

When the product was renamed “SONAR” it removed any doubt: the mission was multitrack audio. And with SONAR 4, Cakewalk has reached a level of sophistication that most of us doubted for years it would ever reach. When it comes to multitrack audio recording, SONAR 4 is the best of breed, managing to somehow combine terrific power, performance, and usability into a single elegant package.

For people unfamiliar with SONAR, a complete rundown of its capabilities would (and does) fill a book. I cannot devote time in this review to such a rundown. Instead I would suggest Cakewalk’s excellent SONAR 4 website at http://www.cakewalk.com. In short, SONAR 4 is a fully-blown multitrack audio recorder with full MIDI sequencer capabilities, and adds to its predecessors a number of powerful features, including video enhancements, an “overview” window, full surround mixing, world-class metering, and many editing enhancements.

SONAR supports multiple processors (great for power users), both DXi and VST effects and synths, supports ReWire, supports sample rates beyond 192 KHz, offers unlimited tracks and busses, and supports both WDM and ASIO sound interfaces. A number of control surfaces are supported, including products from Mackie, Tascam, Edirol, and others. OMF support means you can exchange projects with Pro Tools, Logic, Nuendo, and other applications. SONAR ships with software synths like Cyclone and the new TTS-1 (a replacement for the Edirol VSC). This is a great all-purpose GM sound module and makes a good starting point for anyone interested in learning more about software synths.

Workflow

But the buzzword surrounding SONAR 4 is: workflow. The primary design goal of SONAR 4 was to add features and user interface enhancements so that, however you prefer to work with audio, SONAR 4 minimizes the effort and allows you to make full use of the tool with a minimum of effort.

And, in summary: mission accomplished. The new workflow features in SONAR 4 may not seem like much to the SONAR novice, but let me assure you, as a person who easily spends 40 hours a week wrestling with various multitrack applications, the workflow enhancements change SONAR from a powerful tool that can be difficult to manage into an effortless integration of software and user. The change is often subtle, but the differences can be profound. I want to focus the bulk of my review on the workflow enhancements.

Track Layers

For example, SONAR has always featured the ability to record and comp multiple takes. In the past, these takes would stack up on an audio track, which forced the user to sort through them manually; or the user would need to set up a new track for each take. I prefer the latter solution, and have developed a kind of nervous twitch in my right hand from going through the steps of adding a track, selecting the inputs, muting the prior take, and hitting record - all in a strange feat of user interface gymnastics.

With SONAR 4, Cakewalk has added the concept of “track layers” to the application. The easiest way to think about track layers is: a track within the track. Audio clips stack up vertically within the track, giving the visual appearance of many tracks, but without the user taking any extra steps.

In sound-on-sound mode, just hit record, and SONAR will track the audio into a new lane. When finished, hitting record again just starts a new layer. Just hit R, everything else happens automagically. In fact, you can put SONAR into loop mode and start jamming. Every time the recorder hits the end of the loop and restarts, you get a new take in a new lane, and your previous take is automatically muted while you record the next one. This is great for stacked vocals.

In overwrite mode, you can have SONAR record each new take into a new track, which automatically mutes the previous take. This great for recording different versions of the same take. Then you can drag all the "keeper" takes into the primary track, where they will stack up in different lanes. I would prefer the overwrite mode to simply record the new takes into a new lane, automatically muting the other audio in the track, but this method works almost as easily.

Comping is therefore a breeze: just select the regions you want and use SONAR’s excellent comping capabilities to assemble the perfect take. You can use cropping and slip-editing to break takes up into little regions which can be dragged and dropped into a single lane. Or, you can use SONAR’s new clip mutes to mute the sections you want to mute: just drag the mouse over the portions of the audio you want muted, and SONAR will do the work. No envelopes, cuts, or slip edits needed. When you have all of the takes muted to your satisfaction, just click the track layers button, and SONAR will collapse the view, showing the audio events stacked on top of each other.

This feature alone would make SONAR 4 worth twice the price for me. I am sure most readers have had the experience of working with a vocalist who has cut nine takes of their lead vocal, and then expects you to wade through all nine tracks and find the best verses and choruses. The track may need a crucial effect on it, requiring you to set up that effect on all nine takes (which is a CPU hog) or continuously repatch the effect as you audition different bits of each take (which is a time hog). SONAR 4 keeps all of the takes in the same track, so you hear the takes at the same volume and through the same effects.

Track Folders

SONAR 4 also introduces the concept of a Track Folder. The idea is deceptively simple: a track folder is just a track into which you can drag and drop other tracks, to keep them together. SONAR 4 shows you each track with its own individual settings, and also constructs a track folder “clip” which shows all of the events within the folder as a single combined event. This allows you to collapse the folder and just see the contents in a “summary” form in the track view.

Simple enough, and powerful. Say you record a big stacked harmony vocal part that uses twelve tracks. Dump them all into a track folder, and you’ll see them as one event. You can always open the folder and work on any individual track, but they stay out of the way otherwise.

Now for the good stuff. You can edit the contents of the folder by working with the summary event. Let’s say you want to mute and slip-edit the stacked vocal parts, to silence the pauses between phrases. Back in the old days, this would mean adding mutes or slip edits to each of the twelve tracks. With track folders, you can simply add mutes or slip edits to the summarized audio event. Boom! One mute instead of twelve. What an amazing time saver.

And it gets better. I do a lot of work with loops. SONAR allows you to turn any Track Folder event into a loop! So you can edit up a bunch of drum and bass clips, with little hand claps or percussions, collapse the folder and slip-edit the summary track into a loopable region, and with a right-click command, you instantly have a killer loop combining the elements of multiple tracks. Edits to the tracks within the folder instantly become edits to your loop. You can also use the Group Edit feature to instantly apply slip edits to a set of selected tracks: just select a bunch of tracks, and drag the end point of any clip. All of the tracks are updated.

Or let’s say that the twelve track backup vocal was recorded for the first chorus, but you want it on the second chorus, too. Copy and paste the summary event, and you will instantly add the twelve track backup to whatever section of the song you like. For editors and loopers like me, this is an amazing creativity enhancer and time saver. Very little “squeeze”, but lots of juice.

And while we’re talking about loops, Cakewalk has managed to one-up Sonic Foundry in the loop department, which is no mean feat. Cakewalk’s loop editor now allows you to include envelope controls within the loop for gain, pitch, and pan. Non-loop users are probably asking “so what” but for people like me that create a lot of loops, this is a big deal.

Freezing

If you work on a slower machine, or with high-resolution 96 KHz audio, or with lots of tracks and plug-ins, you’ve been in the position of running out of CPU resources. SONAR has always let users apply real-time plugin effects “destructively” to audio, which lets you remove the plugin (or archive the source track) and free up computer resources. But SONAR 4 makes it brain-dead simple. A new right-click command “Freeze Track” provides a one-click way to apply the effects to the audio track and automatically disable the effect within the track. At any point you can “Unfreeze” the track to modify any effect parameters, then refreeze to commit your changes back to a frozen track.

You can use the Freeze capability on soft-synths, too. When you click on a soft-synth track, you have the ability to “Freeze Synth”. This automatically bounces the synth output to an audio track (complete with any effects, if present) and mutes and hides the source MIDI track. If you use soft-synths at all, you are going to love the ease which this command offers. Again, SONAR and other tools have offered similar capability for some time, but the execution in SONAR 4 is definitely world-class.

There are other reasons to freeze tracks, too. If you have the need to save a multitrack project in a recoverable format that may need to survive for years or decades, Freeze Track is the ticket. Let’s say it’s the year 2020. You want to go back and re-release a project you worked on in 2005. Ideally, you would be able to work on that project using the 2020 version of SONAR, or perhaps you have set aside your copy of SONAR 4, and you can find a machine that will run it. But what about all the plug-ins? Can you guarantee that in the future you’re going to be able to find, install, and run all the DXi and VST synths and effects which your project requires? Well, if you freeze your tracks, you never have to worry about getting them back, because at the very least, you will have a multitrack version of your opus that doesn’t require them in order to play back. That’s good stuff.

Precision Engineering and Surround

SONAR 4 also include a slew of enhancements collectively referred to as “Precision Engineering”. These include new Pow-R dither support for high-end dithering to 16 bit, configurable meter ballistics, enhanced time/pitch scaling (for both loops and non-looping audio), and configurable panning laws. Most users can ignore these capabilities, but power users will be glad they are there. And, miracle of miracles, SONAR finally includes a built-in, configurable audio metronome – a delightful addition for SONAR users who work primarily with audio. The metronome is bussable - allowing you to create custom metronome levels for your headphone mixes.

SONAR 4 also demonstrates advanced capabilities in the emerging world of surround mixing and audio for video. SONAR 4 offers a complete surround environment with the capability of managing both stereo and surround mixes within the same audio project. SONAR supports 5.1, 7.1, and a host of other surround formats, and the surround panner reflects the surround mode you are working with.

SONAR ships with two native surround plugins: the Lexicon Pantheon surround reverb, and the Sonitus surround compressor. SONAR also includes a tool called the SONAR Surround Bridge, which to my knowledge is the only tool of its kind. When you add a stereo plugin to a surround bus, Surround Bridge automatically creates multiple instances of the plugin and allows you to manage the controls of all instances from a single UI. This means that all of the plugins use the same settings, as though it was a single surround effect. Or, you can choose to unlink any channel or individual control, letting you make channel or control specific changes. If you have ever done surround work, you know what a pain it is to have to use three or four stereo plugins at the same time. It can be like taking a beating. Surround Bridge is brilliant!

With SONAR 4’s extensive bussing capabilities, it’s possible to create a single project with simultaneous stereo and surround bussing. This is great if you are creating a project that will have to be mixed in both surround and stereo. You can immediately hear your changes in both 2-track and surround mixes at the same time. SONAR 4 also allows you to downmix any surround mix to a stereo output.

Cakewalk has provided an excellent surround tutorial on its website. This tutorial is a great place to find out about the process of surround mixing, and also a great place to learn about the use of SONAR in a surround environment. Check it out at http://www.cakewalk.com/Products/SONAR/Surroundtutorial.asp.

SONAR 4 does not offer video editing capabilities, and let’s hope it stays that way. However SONAR 4 does offer a video track, which allows you to display video in real time and see the video in the timeline, similar to other audio / video tools on the market. This makes creating and editing sound for video a snap. SONAR is easily one of the best tools on the market for constructing soundtracks and other sound for video work.

UI Elegance

SONAR 4 adds a new user interface construct called the Navigator. It gives you the 50,000-foot view of your project. If you do 2:30 16-track pop songs, you'll never use the Navigator, but if you create lengthy, complex orchestrations, then you'll love it. The Navigator (show at the top of the screen shot below) shows you the birds-eye view. You can drag the green box around to position the track view where you want it. Dragging the box's green handles automatically resizes the track view to show those tracks you have surrounded with the box. It's a brilliant way to navigate your way through a complex project. The console view has also been enhanced with a new look that helps controls and features stand out.

Great Performance and No-BS Copy Protection

Finally, SONAR 4 continues the SONAR tradition of simple, no-hassle serial number copy protection, and optimized support for Windows 2000 and XP. SONAR isn’t going to do anything evil to your machine to prevent you from copying it. And it isn’t some half-baked port of a Macintosh application. SONAR 4 is pure Windows, and it is rock-solid and predictable. I have already completed most of an entire CD on SONAR 4, using most of its new features and capabilities, and it has been super reliable on my machines with both WDM and ASIO soundcards. SONAR also supports multiprocessing machines, so it is quite capable of scaling up onto whatever hardware you’re willing to throw underneath it.

The Bottom Line

In summary, SONAR 4 is one of the best examples of Bruce Richardson’s motto: “Features are meaningless. Results are priceless.” Many of the enhancements to SONAR 4 don’t seem too whiz-bang on the face of them: track layers, track folders, freezing, and other editing enhancements are probably not the first thing that the average reader is going to grok on. But let me assure you, Constant Reader, results really are priceless, and SONAR 4 delivers the goods in spades. Working with SONAR 4 is like driving a well engineered automobile: it may have essentially the same feature list as the other cars, but it fits like a glove and responds to your every move like an extension of the driver.

The bottom line is competitively priced. The full Producer version is $960 for new Cakewalk customers, but upgrades are available at The Nice Price – Producer version upgrades start at $179 (you can get into the Studio version for as little as $99). Other upgrade discounts are available depending on what you are upgrading from / to. If you are a registered user of any Cakewalk product, SONAR 4 is simply gotta-have-it software. And if you are in the market for a serious multitrack application, the price of the full version is certainly competitive with other high-end multitrack applications like Nuendo and Pro Tools. Note: at the time of this publication, retailers were blowing out their existing copies of SONAR 3 Producer for as little as $440, meaning a new user can get into SONAR 4 Producer for about $650, street.

Those who have read my reviews for a few years know that I’m not one to pull punches. I am always ready to expose a lousy product for what it is, or to point out glaring defects if I can find them. I have been a SONAR user for some time, but I have always maintained the advantages of other applications, such as Nuendo’s power, or Vegas’ simplicity, or Acid’s singleness of purpose. And I have never shied away from an opportunity to blast a failed effort, such as Cakewalk’s Pro Audio 7, or the Waves NGB using Pace Interlok copy protection. Fact is, I really couldn’t find anything at all about SONAR 4 I didn’t love.

And that’s the real bottom line. In the world of multitrack audio recorders with full MIDI support, SONAR 4 is simply best of breed. Nothing else touches it as a combination of power, features, performance, simplicity, stability, and intuitiveness. SONAR 4 gets my unqualified recommendation, and my hat is off to the guys at Cakewalk for listening to their long-time users and fully understanding our needs.

SONAR 4 may be purchased or downloaded for trail at http://www.cakewalk.com.

Mackie Big Knob

Tue, 31 Aug 2004 22:00:00 GMT

When I moved into my new facility at Pleasantry Lane studios, I made a commitment: no new rack gear, and no mixers. I am on a quest to downsize the hardware and optimize my use of a pure computer-based approach to engineering.

Of course, when swearing off mixers, one quickly bumps one’s head against the problem of monitoring. You need some kind of control over the monitors, you still need a talkback, you need a headphone mix and you need a little routing so you can play back CDs or record to a cassette deck.

What you need is for someone to take the master section from a large-footprint studio console and cook it down into a little box for DAW users.

You need a Big Knob.

Mackie’s big knob was designed with the DAW user in mind. The unit features a large, high-quality volume knob, low noise op-amps, a small but useful set of inputs and outputs, a talkback section, three headphone outputs, and other nifty features for DAW users.

Ins and Outs

The Big Knob gives you five inputs: two 2-track inputs, a master DAW input, a phono input, and a phones mix input. Any of the first four can be routed to any output. The phones mix input allows you to route a custom mix to the headphones while monitoring a different mix.

There are ten outputs: three sets of studio monitors, four sets of headphones, and three other outputs which can be routed back to the DAW and 2-track devices (such as tape decks). Two of the headphone outputs are on the front panel, each with its own volume control. Another headphone output is designed to be routed to a headphone amp, if you are already using such a device. A “Studio” output is designed to be routed to the monitoring system in your tracking room.

The Big Knob gives you useful features like a “mute” button, a “dim” button (lowers volume in control room when talking), and a “mono” button (sums control room mix to mono). The unit features a good talkback section with routing, with a sensitive mic (we keep ours turned almost all the way down) and a footswitch control (most excellent for hand-free talkback).

In Use

Adding the Big Knob to a DAW-based studio is a breath of fresh air. The unit is small enough that it is likely to fit exactly where you need it to be. It has just the right controls and great ergonomics, so within an hour I was using it as though it had been in the control room for years. Like other Mackie products, the Big Knob features solid construction, with a heavy, built-to-last feel and strong, fluid controls.

Our clients immediately recognized the productivity enhancements. The immediacy of a footswitch controlled talkback makes communication with the tracking room incredibly easy. The ability to immediately switch between three sets of control room monitors or to route audio to a set of monitors in the studio makes auditioning quick and easy.

And then there’s that big knob. It’s just so… big. Seriously, the master volume control is fluid, quiet, and accurate. Even at low levels it does a great job of maintaining balance and tonality. I do a lot of low-volume monitoring and the quality of the volume control was immediately apparent. And even when the thing is cranked, noise levels stay nice and low.

Issues

I have only one complaint with the Big Knob. The problem is that the headphone outputs are all routed to the same headphone send. You can control the send – it can be switched between the main mix and the alternate (headphone) mix – which is great. But there are times when I want the control room headphones to stay with the main mix while keeping the tracking room headphones on the alternate mix. It also means that when you monitor in the control room, you need to switch the headphones to the control room mix, and remember to switch them back to the tracking mix when you’re done. I really would prefer separate input switches – something that is not possible using the intended routing on the Big Knob.

Conclusions

The Mackie Big Knob is just one of those “perfect fit” products for DAW users. It has just what you need, and nothing you don’t, all in a compact, well-engineered package. I definitely prefer the Big Knob to most any small-format console: it puts the controls you need right in your face, instead of off to the side. And the price is right – usually under $350 street.

If you’ve been looking for this type of product, look no further. I see a Big Knob in your future.

Mackie can be found at http://www.mackie.com

A Complete Wireless DAW Remote Control

Mon, 01 Sep 2003 00:00:00 GMT

When I was building out the space for our new studio, one thing started to annoy me.

The studio was constructed as a production studio, with a separate control room and nice big tracking room. I loved the layout, but I spend a lot of time tracking... myself. In the old space, the DAW was in the primary tracking room - it was a working musician's workshop - so I could, for example, set up the drums right at the computer, and run the rig from the drum kit.

But in this space, with its dedicated control and tracking rooms, I would be forced to trek back and forth from the recorder to the instrument whenever I was recording myself. What I needed was a remote.

Back in the day, we had remote controllers for our recorders. Whether this was a simple "record" button attached to the deck by a wire, or a complete remote unit on the ADATs, you could generally remote control the recorder from anywhere in the studio, if you had enough wire. But, now that the recorder is a computer, how is one supposed to handle this remote control issue?

I brought this up to several people. One expert gently suggested to me that the problem was that I had built a dedicated control room. He suggested that the future was in having a multi-purpose room. I had to explain that this is what I used to have, and while it was great for just recording myself, when I had a six piece band in for a gig, it sure would have been nice to have them in their own room, and me (and my ears) in another room. While I can appreciate the benefits of a single large multipurpose tracking and mixing room, the simple fact is that control rooms are really a Good Thing when you are working with lots of musicians.

Another expert suggested that I get a really long KVM cable and a switch, and put the keyboard, mouse, and video on a crash cart. The cart could be wheeled anywhere in the studio. This wasn't a half-bad suggestion. I've seen guys that work like this, and it's OK, but lacked a certain elegance I was going for. I knew I could do better.

Yet another expert told me that my problem was that I was using a big rackmount computer as a recorder. If only I was recording on a notebook computer, then I wouldn't have this problem. I could just carry the notebook whereever I wanted to record. Well, recording on a notebook is fine for light duty work, but the new studio is really a professional affair. I have a rack of mic preamps and mic cabling brought into a patchbay, and a 24 input soundcard to handle all of the I/O, all in a nice big dedicated desk. I didn't want to sacrifice that I/O capability just to get my audio into a notebook computer. Thanks, but no thanks.

A fourth expert suggested a control surface. I could put the control surface whereever I wanted, and run the DAW from the surface. By selecting a controller that had a timecode display it would be just like working with ADATs. But this seemed to me like an expensive solution to my problem, and it would have to have a power cable and MIDI or firewire cable. Not all of the software I use is supported by control surfaces. And a good surface is not that portable!

Fortunately for me, a solution was readily at hand, and I even already owned everything I needed to make it work. My solution would be elegant - very elegant. I would have a completely wireless remote control. You could be walking around the studio, arm a track, and then hit record. My solution would give me all of the capabilities of my DAW at my fingertips. It would be just like running the software from my desk. I could use whatever software I preferred - the solution was application-agnostic. And my solution scores a perfect 10 on gee-whiz factor. It's so cool it's almost a shame to share it, and if you haven't guessed the answer, you'll slap yourself when you realize how easy it is.

The Solution

The answer is simple: a notebook computer on a wireless LAN running Windows XP Pro Remote Desktop Connection.

For those of you who are running XP Pro and haven't had a chance to use RDC, you are in for a treat. RDC is one of the many wonderfully powerful applications built into XP. It is similar in concept to Timbuktu or PC Anywhere, except that it works a lot better, and is much more efficient and stable. Best of all, it's already built into the OS you are already using. RDC is a Windows XP Pro update to the Terminal Services capability built into Windows 2000. Note that RDC is not built into Windows XP Home Edition, and is one of many reasons you ought to choose the Pro version if you have the chance.

What makes RDC so special is that where other applications are "screen scrapers" which simply project a bitmap image of the remote computer's user interface, RDC works "underneath" the user interface. Instead of projecting "pictures" it is projecting just primitive information about the keyboard, mouse, and video. This makes it highly efficient. In fact you can easily use RDC over a modem, and it works great over a low-end 802.11B (11 Mb/s) wireless connection. For $50 you can get a wireless-B router and attach your DAW to the router (many other kinds of wireless solutions are available on the cheap to fit into any networking scheme you may already employ). Moreover, RDC uses very few resources on your main DAW. If you are running a modern Athlon or P4 based DAW, you will see only the most minimal drain on your CPU, making this solution feasible for all but the most demanding mixes with scads of plugins already running.

Since the recording application is actually running on your real DAW computer, this means that the notebook computer you use to connect doesn't need to be very powerful. I have great results with my old, tired 466 MHz Celeron notebook. Many similar computers are readily available for under $500 on eBay. I think mine would resell for about $250. You'll also need a wireless card for the notebook. That will probably cost as much as the router, say $70.

The end result is that your $300 notebook computer now serves as a wireless remote control of your DAW - a complete solution that gives you all of the capabilities you would get by sitting right at the computer on your desk - usable from anywhere in your studio. Launch apps, open / change song files, add new tracks, arm for record, play back, patch effects - anything you can do in your software at your desk can now be done from anywhere in your studio.

And what a gee-whiz factor. The first group that came over to use the studio is no set of newbies. This was a gang from LA who have worked with the likes of Bob Clearmountain and other big-name engineers. Everybody agreed that the wireless remote-control DAW was about the coolest thing anyone had ever seen. During this session I was sitting in on drums, so I had the remote computer set up on an extra snare stand. We were ripping through tracks, and I could easily start and stop the recorder, save takes, and play back, usually with only one hand on the touchpad. The convenience was wonderful. The soundcard on the main DAW has a special pair of outputs that drive monitors in the tracking room. From the remote, I could record a take, then patch Sonar's output to the tracking room and play back our tracks right into the control room... without getting up from the drum kit. How cool is that?

Since then I have used the remote in other recording situations, and I have found it to be a completely stable, robust way of running your DAW from any location in the studio. I cannot recommend it more highly for any musician who serves double-duty as an engineer - or for engineers who serve double-duty as musicians. If you could use this convenience, then my friend, this is simply a must-have.

Setup

Setting up RDC is easy. All you need is to have Windows XP installed on both your primary DAW as well as the notebook you intend to use as a remote control. The DAW must be running Windows XP Pro, but the notebook can be running Windows XP Home Edition.

To set up the DAW to be remotely-controlled,

Right-Click the My Computer Icon and select Properties
Click the Remote tab

Check the box that says "Allow users to connect remotely to this computer"
Windows will warn you that accounts with blank passwords cannot be used to connect to the computer. Click OK, and you are configured.

If you are like most people, you have Windows XP set up in "single-user" mode with a blank Administrator password, so that it does not prompt for a password. In that case, you may not be able to connect to the computer because by default, RDC will not accept connections to the computer for accounts with a blank password. Fortunately, as is usually the case, Microsoft has provided a way around this security feature. As long as you are behind a firewall (as you should be) this procedure is a safe one to use.

Navigate to Administrative Tools - Local Security Policy
Navigate to Security Settings - Local Policies - Security Options

Find the option "Accounts - Limit local account use of blank passwords to console logon only"
Change this to "Disabled"

Now you are ready to log into the DAW from the notebook computer.

From the notebook, navigate to Accessories - Communications - Remote Desktop Connection
Select the Options button. There is something here you will want to change.
Under the "Local Resources" tab, change the "Remote Computer Sound" option to "Leave at remote computer"

Under the "Experience" tab, change the Connection Speed setting to LAN
Click the Connect button
If necessary, log onto the DAW
You are now running your DAW from the notebook. Enjoy!

A Soapbox Moment

For years I have extolled the virtues of DAW based recording. Well, here is a wonderful example of why. Thanks to the friendly folks at Microsoft, who built this kind of functionality in order to let techies troubleshoot end-user PCs and remotely configure servers located miles away in server farms, we have a capability which would likely never emerge in a dedicated standalone package. There are serious shortcomings to running a production DAW on a general-purpose OS like Windows: the hassle of messing with drivers, getting viruses, keeping the thing maintained. On that we can all agree. But there are benefits, too, often from the least likely of places. Being able to cheaply and easily remote-control your audio recorder is only one of many fine examples of "unintented benefits" we get from running our recorders on standard, generalized platforms like Windows.

Conclusion

If you need the ability to remotely control your recorder, grab yourself a $300 notebook and a couple of wireless-B (or G) interfaces, and do it... now! Thank me later!

ATI 8mx2 Preamp / Mixer

Sun, 20 Jul 2003 06:00:00 GMT

Audio-Toys, Inc. (ATI) made a name for itself in the past decade with its series of Paragon mixers, which have earned high marks as monitor and broadcast mixers. With the 8MX2, ATI is earning high marks for its mic preamps.

The 8MX2 was apparently designed primarily to be a front-end system to an DA-88: it has 8 mic inputs, feeding a single DB25 output jack. The 8MX2 provides limiters on every channel, making it an ideal candidate for a live remote rig. Additionally, the 8MX2 offers some limited mixer capability, rounding out its usefulness as a front-end to an 8-channel digital tape machine.

The front panel controls are fairly straightforward. Each channel has a pair of dual knobs which control input gain, limiter threshold, mix level, and mix pan. Switches are available on each channel for phase and phantom power. Another pair of switches control the mixer input selection and cueing selection.

It's easiest to understand the functionality by separating the mic preamp controls from the mixer. As a straight-ahead mic preamp, each channel gives you phantom power, a phase switch, a gain knob, and a limiter threshold knob. The knobs are 41-position detented, giving you precise control and letting you easily match the gain and limiter settings of several channels. Easy enough.

Each channel also allows you to feed a two-channel mix bus from either the mic preamp or your multitrack. The channel gives you level and pan controls for the feed to the mix bus (think of the pan and fader on your mixer). Switches are provided to send the track to a cue bus, like a channel solo.

On the far right of the unit are a pair of meters for output level and limiter gain reduction. A variety of combinations of output level can be monitored: the output of the mix bus, or any single channel, pre or post limiter. The gain reduction meter shows the amount of limiting on any soloed channel. A headphone jack is provided along with a monitor level control. In the end, you can use the 8MX2 to replace your mixer in your rack, provided you just use the mixer for light-duty monitoring use. It makes the 8MX2 an ideal front end for "mixerless" DAW systems.

The unit sports decent measurements. The unit offers a good portion of usable gain (+64 dB) and low noise (-132 dB e.i.n), giving it plenty of dynamic range. Frequency response is 10 Hz - 50 KHz +/- 1 dB.

Road Test

I had the opportunity to use the 8MX2 on a CD project I recorded in November of 2002, and enjoyed every minute of it.

Sonically, the 8MX2 is somewhere between "colored" and "colorless": it definitely has a sound of its own, but that sound is hardly "effected". Rather, it recalls classic board preamps - just slightly boxy, barely warm, ever-so-slightly rolled-off on the highs and lows, and just a little forward. If you listened to it on its own without any frame of reference you might not even pick up on these characteristics. They are very subtle, and generally speaking, very pleasant. The sound is not fatiguing. I could use the 8MX2 on just about anything from kick drums to horns and love it.

I loved the sound of the 8MX2 on electric guitars - use used it with a variety of amps including Vox, Marshall, Rocket, and Clark amps, with mics including SM57s, AT4050s, GT AM40 and MD1a, and others, and in every case the sound of the 8MX2 flattered the amp and mic. The sound had great presence and focus, and seemed to stay put in the mix. We also used the 8MX2 on drum overheads, which really benefitted from the subtle presence boost, as did kick and snare drum. The 8MX2's gain control goes from 0 dB to +64 dB. The availability of a 0 dB setting virtually eliminates the need for a pad, an unexpected convenience.

In practice, I found myself not using the limiters much. Back in the days of 16-bit recording, where every bit was precious, the idea of running super-hot and using limiters made more sense than it does these days, with 24 bit converters sporting 120 dB of dynamic range. The limiters are super-fast brickwalls, and do work well to absolutely prevent digital overs, but their sound is fairly harsh. Used in moderation as failsafes, the limiters serve their purpose very well: they prevent a keeper take from being ruined when some freak transient threatens to splat the converters. In at least one application the limiters absolutely saved the day as we tracked a very dynamic song and the drummer just lost his mind at the end of the track.

Unusual Quirks

The unit has some curious quirks. The printing on the face, while easy to see, is strangely laid-out, with numbers and labels seeming out of place and crammed around the knobs. The mixer routing is somewhat confusing at first, and the sparse block diagram in the manual did not help much. I found myself just hooking stuff up to the 8MX2 and pressing buttons to figure out what everything did.

The high-voltage design of the 8MX2 means that it runs hot. To combat the heat, the designers employed a micro fan in the back of the unit. In most situations the fan should not be an issue, however, if you use your control area to record, or if you record in a common area, the fan noise could be a concern. In our application, we were tracking in a single large room, but were able to control the noise from the 8MX2 by using some baffles. Generally speaking, though, I don't like fans near me when recording. I would have preferred a no-fans design.

Finally, the 8MX2 only has a single DB25 output connector. No 1/4" outputs are provided. While this is surely a great convenience for use with a DA-88, it will require most users to purchase (or build) a fanout connector. In my opinion, for a unit with a $3000 list price, the $50 1/4" fanout should have been included in the package. But enough about me.

Mixerless DAW?

Functionally, what intrigued me most about the 8MX2 was the ability to use it as a simple mixer. These days, I pretty much only use my mixer as a volume knob on my DAW's output. All the mixing and routing happens in the DAW. With the 8MX2 I was able to put my old mixer to rest. By routing the DAW's output to a pair of less-used inputs (7 & 8), I was able to monitor those channels through the 8MX2 while using the mic preamps to record. The only thing you cannot do is mix a channel's mic input with the machine return. In other words, you can either monitor the mic, or the return. This is not an inconvenience to me, since the only time I'm likely to be using all 8 channels of the 8MX2 is when I'm recording the starter rhythm tracks and there isn't anything coming out of the DAW to be monitored.

Be forewarned, though. The 8MX2 is not a full-featured mixer. There are no aux sends, or multiple busses, or EQs. Before you decide to "go mixerless" with the 8MX2, you really need to decide if you can live without those other features.

American Ingenuity: Comprehensive Answers
Bill Park

The ATI 8MX2 is a uniquely configured box. Using the popular mic pre from the Paragon console should be recommendation enough, but the folks at ATI have looked into the market place and tried to provide a high quality option for the recordist who requires a large degree of flexibility in a small space. It was designed for MDM/DAW usage, with a very cool routing structure, which I will explain in a moment.

Each of the 8 channels has the following switches: Cue, Phase Reverse, Assign to Mix, and Channel/Return Select. The channel level control is a dual concentric setup, with the Pan being the outside control. The inner Mix Level knob is not a conventional pot, it is a 41 position control. Why? Repeatability. The outer portion of the second dual concentric control sets the limiter Threshold, while the inner knob, also a 41 position control, sets the channel Gain.

That’s a lot of power. And here is what I think is the really cool part: Each channel has direct outputs and machine return inputs. You can feed a recorder, and monitor the returning signal. You can assign any or all 8 channels or their machine returns to the Mix, and from the Master section mix to 2 track.

The Master section is equally simple yet powerful. There is a ten-segment meter to read limiter Attenuation of cued channels and a ten-segment meter to read the selected Level. There is another dual concentric control, this one handling Left and Right Mix Master Pan and Mix Master Level. There is a headphone output jack and a Monitor Level control. Selecting between the monitored signals is accomplished by the use of three switches.

The Mix Return switch sends the input from the 2 Track Return TSR jacks to the Monitor section when pressed. The 2 Track Return TSR jacks are located on the rear panel.

If the Pre switch is in the ‘up’ position, the signal sent to the monitor section is the Channel Output of the cued Channel/s. If the Pre switch is pressed in, the monitored signal will be the Channel Input of the cued Channel/s.

The Ret switch sends the Return signals of any cued Channels to the monitor section.

Monitored signals show up at the headphone jack, on the appropriate meter, and at the left and right TSR Monitor Output jacks on the rear panel.

The rear panel also contains the 8 XLR inputs, phantom power and ground lift switches for each channel, and the TSR left and right Mix Output jacks. There is a D-sub connector for the 8 channels of Direct Output, and a D-sub for machine control. The pinout of these D-subs conforms to the Tascam standard.

And there are two 9 pin D-subs. These connection points allow one to stack and interconnect multiple 8MX2 units, allowing one to be the master, and having cue functions follow through multiple units. This also provides similar control access for compatible consoles and other units using the same communication protocol. And gee whiz, we’re talking about an amazing, eye-straining, finger scrunching 73 controls in one rack space, though to be fair these are spread among 8 channels and a master section.

The ATI 8MX2 exhibited plenty of character without descending into the fuzz-box realm of many inexpensive so-called “Microphone Pre-Amplifiers”. The ATI 8MX2 retains the highs, but the lows and mids were fuller and richer than either the John Hardy M1 or the Midas XL-42.

Conclusions

The 8MX2 is a flexible, great sounding unit that is one part mic pre, one part mixer. It is one of the best conceived packages of functionality available for the digital recordist: great preamps, brickwall limiters, lots of gain, and a very usable, if simple mix bus. It is no mean feat to stuff all of this functionality into a 1U container, and ATI deserves credit for building a very portable, usable piece of gear. With the 8MX2 and an 8 I/O DAW with flexible routing, it is quite conceivable that one could build a completely mixerless, highly functional DAW with a total "face space" of 2U.

At a list price of $3000 the 8MX2 comes in at about $350/channel. That's a great price considering the quality of the preamps and the other great functions available int he mixer section. If you are interested in building a mixerless DAW, the 8MX2 might very well be your Holy Grail. And if you just want to add a great-sounding 8-pack of mic preamps, this unit is definitely worth your time.