Sweetwater Gearfest 2011

First of all, let me say I love Ft Wayne Indiana. Nice people, good food, and seems to be a quiet city. Our second day there we ate breakfast at Cosmo’s. We got a huge omelet and two pancakes for $6.29! The food was amazing, which reminds me I need to leave them a good review on Google.
Gearfest 2011 for me was better than last year. I think the seminars was better last year but the experience was better this year. I went with my good friend and fellow engineer/producer/mixer Darius Lyles. Darius is a great at what he does, anyone in the Memphis area should definitely hit him up (dlyles_3@yahoo.com) if you need any recording, production, etc. All of the same vendors was there, plus and minus a few from last year. I spent the most time at the JDK audio booth contemplating purchasing a R24. Best seminar we attended was Fab Dupont showing off how he mixes and masters. If your not familiar with Fab then look him up. He was at Gearfest last year and gave a great seminar on analog summing. Other audio industry stars who attended included Alan Parsons, BT, and Dave Issac. The highlight of the event was when me and Darius were eating lunch at up to our table comes Gil Griffith, Chandler Limited, Eveanna Manley, and Fab Dupont. After hanging with them for a 15-20 mins I paid for a picked up my JDK R24, yes I went ahead and got it, along with the Sound Toys native bundle. And of course I will be doing a review on both.
If your into audio, and I know you are since your reading this, you should definitely check out Sweetwater’s Gearfest next year. The Event is free, the deals are unbelievable, and the experience is worth the trip.

M-audio CX5 approved by my ears!

So one of my M-audio BX5a's started crackling. Since they were only $300 for the pair I started looking for a replacement. My mind was on Yamaha but when I spoke to my Sweetwater rep he pointed to the M-audio CX5's which were being discontinued and were on clearance for the same price I paid for the BX5a's. I didn't want to go back with M-audio because I didn't have the BX5a's long before they started acting up. I'm a sucker for a deal so I went ahead and picked up the CX5's.

First thing I noticed when I set up the new monitors were that they were noticeably larger than the BX5a's, and sexier. The rear volume has a nice center detent for easy level matching. Eq setting on the back allow you to adjust low, mid, and high frequencies. When I first powered them on the first thing I noticed was that the phantom center was right in my face. Even though the monitors are sitting on my desk I can hear the stereo image much better than the BX5a's. For $149 each these monitors were a steal and I love them!

Turns out my BX5a had blown a capacitor and was easily repaired with new caps and a little solder. Haven't decided what to do with my now extra pair of monitors, but they aren't going back on my desk as my B monitors as long as I have the CX5's.

Compressor mp3 conversion.....WOW!

I've been doing mp3 mixes for a client and have been getting little bursts of static or distortion here and there. It would only be in the mp3 version, the wav's would be fine. I tried Pro Tools mp3 converter, Logic, and even Switch for Mac Osx. Still had the same issues. I tried Compressor from Logic Studio for the heck of it and WOW. The mp3 sounded much better, clearer, and no distortion issues. Just sharing my experience here. If you have Compressor give it a try and see if your mp3's don't sound better.