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JesseG
Member[quote author=”Dj Buik”][quote author=”TDCat”]Audio processing of this type is changing and arguably ‘damages’ the sound that the producer had intended.[/quote]
‘Audio’ producers these days force us to listen to totally clipped an screwed up songs.
The song gets damaged at the point these fu…ng producers turn their audio controls way too far up at the mastering / editing stage.[/quote]The problem there is that there’s no way to know *why* it got damaged, even if you have the original mix and of course the master… unless you hear it from the horse’s mouth. Where the buck stops. And almost always it’s the artist/s themselves. Ultimately it’s up to them to make sure they are working with someone who understands how not to screw up a recording (assuming the mix isn’t already obliterated), and make sure they are listening to what they are saying, and to trust them when they say something like "i could turn this up 1-2dB more, but it’ll ruin it, and sound like a distorted mess".
If an engineer is afraid to at least say something like that, then the artist/s picked the wrong guy. imo.
JesseG
MemberYou don’t need anywhere near the top i7, but i would still get an i7 personally. Memory isn’t a big concern at all, you could get away with 2GB even, but 4GB is a very sane choice, and you’ll never run out of memory.
The HD you can get a 2TB *external* now for $99, so there’s no reason to have anything less.
If your budget is a grand, then there’s also no reason you couldn’t put a 120GB SSD into it too, for the system drive. That will also speed up the use of the computer a lot.
The price of a socket 1156 setup is decently less than a 1366 setup, although I did notice quite a large decrease within the last week for those CPUs at least, so… it might still be worth it to you if you need triple channel memory. Otherwise just go for the 1156, and then "splurge" a bit on SSD and a large LCD.
For mainboards I recommend ASRock. They were started by ASUS for gamers & overclockers and even if you’re not using any of those features, they are also very stable boards, with 8 phase power, solid capacitors, energy/green features, and of course tons of sweet controls over stuff that you wouldn’t dream of getting with a pre-fab like a Dell. (actually i’ve never seen more options for a mainboard)
Get a *great* power supply. Research how much power it *really* puts out as tested by users, not just what it claims on the box. The mainboard and PSU are the two things above all others that you really don’t want to cheap out on. And it’s not a bad idea to get double the power you think you’ll need. If you think you’re fine with 350 watts continuous duty RMS, get 600-700. 🙂 And make sure it has a variable speed fan, so that it’s quiet. 😉 Some manufacturers and also users will test the loudness of fans on various things that have fans too. Depending on where it’ll be at, that might be a concern in the studio. Same with the case fans. It couldn’t hurt to get a case that has a fan speed control on it.
For cases I love Lian Li, nothing tops them for me. My new box uses a $170 one I had just sitting around unused, and it’s been a dream to work with. If you’re ever finding yourself needing to work on the guts, it can save time to have features like a well machined (vs a "stamped") case, slide out drive bays and a slide out mainboard subframe (one that doesn’t require you to take out any PCI/e cards first)
JesseG
Membertry edcast instead, superior quality too especially if you check the recommended mp3 encoder thread…
http://users.tpg.com.au/radiorio/
and i think more importantly it lets you select which "tip" it’s recording from on the soundcard. that’s probably the problem with recording from the soundcard is you’re not sending the output back into the record side. sometimes edcast can get around that requirement.JesseG
MemberThe tilt setting is really what varies most on most any card that’s not DC straight. So you’re probably doing ok to be using the PEQ like you are, if there’s not a lack of HF.
The problem with correction via EQ is that I would highly doubt that the dip around the midbass is linear. Meaning the dip there is also a sign of possible distortion.
Cheers.
JesseG
MemberI would say that the lower priced the design goals, and the lower the bar is for quality control, the more variance you should expect to see between individual units.
So there really isn’t an exact tilt or PEQ setting I would recommend, especially not for a card like that.
Not to mention the drivers can cause just as many problems as the "profit at all costs" methods that Creative Labs employs for the most part… if one doesn’t know what the pitfalls are to avoid.
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That being said, I think the best investment you can make would be to pick up an E-MU 0404 PCIe, or even better… a Marian Trace Alpha. It’s a worthy goal to shoot for, not having to put up with total crap, or even partially crap sound.
JesseG
Member[quote author=”Lee XS”]I’ll be working on the preset over Christmas, I’ll let you know how I get on. 😀[/quote]
ooo me too, with the preset file. have i not sent you Passive Aggressor yet? i’ll PM you a preset pack right now 🙂JesseG
Member[quote author=”Modulator”]Hmh, just figured out that I can’t achieve latency low enough not to be disturbing for a speaker..[/quote]
using which version/latency of the core? and what buffer settings? can we get screenshots of the settings and I/O config?
JesseG
MemberIf you want something great that you’ll own forever…
http://www.rme-audio.de/en_products_babyface.php
It’s a serious portable soundcard, and as usual the drivers & support is second to none. =) Cost is $700-750 USD ish right now, and worth every penny.Something with more I/O and a bit cheaper, and still quite decent for this class…
http://www.motu.com/products/motuaudio/ultralite-mk3/
$500-550 USD ish right now. plenty of analog IO on this one.on the cheap end, i wouldn’t go under something like this:
http://tascam.com/product/us-144mkii/
about $130 USD ish right now. good if 96kHz is enough.or this:
http://www.emu.com/products/product.asp … duct=15185
about $155 USD ish right now.JesseG
Member[quote author=”Guillou”]I’m also interrested.
The purpose is to load it before the edcast that stream aac+ low bitrate.[/quote]I would be interested in some blind ABX testing to show where it’s possible to hear a difference. For what low-pass frequency & slope it happens at, and then let’s compare which ones actually sound "better" subjectively. HE-AAC at low (16-32 kbps) rates should already be at 16kHz, so you would have to low-pass it to less than 16kHz.
JesseG
MemberSure, with the "Final Drive" dropped a bit if required so that it doesn’t limit the output too much. And the "Range" turned down so you don’t get too much of gain rushing when there’s live mics open. I think a bunch of Breakaway DJ users can repeat some of the drop-jaw comments they’ve had from "soundguys" at clubs they’ve played at.
You might try the Zenith preset actually. Leif uses it for his karaoke installations, and I would agree that it’s one of the better candidates for stage use.
JesseG
MemberSomething must be wrong, yes. You need to add an exception for the two drivers that are installing. One is the Breakaway Pipeline, which is a licensed copy of Virtual Audio Cable. The second one is called "Oreans" and is part of the copy protection. Especially the second one needs to be able to be installed, or Breakaway will not function.
Just curious, what AV are you using?
JesseG
MemberMarian Trace Alpha
http://www.marian.de/en/products/trace_alphaJesseG
Member[quote author=”hardcore”]It does not "fix" any of the issues of over compression, limiting or clipping by using more EQ, compression and limiting. It’s a ridiculous claim used solely to sell product to people who don’t know any better. I don’t have to try the product.[/quote]Where was it ever claimed that Breakaway fixes/undoes over-compression/limiting/clipping? Just wondering. As a mastering engineer with 15 years experience (and believe it or not adamantly against multiband comp/lim or any heavy handed comp/lim period for mastering and especially against over-compressed mixes), I wouldn’t see a mistake like that without letting Leif know about it. Did I not notice it somewhere?
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As for how clean & dynamic Breakaway can sound… check this mp3 out with no need to install anything. And I’ve improved that preset slightly more since, including adding another 2-3 dB of headroom. Hyper-limited input audio comes out about -6dBfs on the output.
I think the hangup you have is Breakaway in relation to critical listening. People that have experienced great sound first hand "get it" in ways that people with crap for daily listening just don’t understand, or they wouldn’t have crap. I think there’s very few people that know great sound and critically listen to music that don’t press the bypass button on Breakaway. Or don’t even have Breakaway installed on their main system at all. I do have it installed on one of the inputs to my main system, but only to use the linear-phase parametric EQs. 🙂
JesseG
Memberit’s possible to lower latency pretty far if you use the lower latency/quality modes of core & clipper, and work to optimize the number and size of buffers. but not as far as using ASIO version, if you’re able to record/stream from that.
JesseG
MemberAh yea I forgot it could do that, my bad. Note: it’s still not surround sound, just L/R being sent to more than 2 outputs.
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