M-audio Profire 2626 review

When I first saw the m-audio Profire 2626 I thought this was one sexy interface! I loved the all black faceplate. This was a huge step up in design from the previous firewire interfaces. I owned the m-audio 1814 and 410. Not because if was the best firewire interface I could get, but because it worked with pro tools m-powered. While I felt they were far short of amazing, they got the job done. The Profire 2626 however, is miles closer to amazing from the previous line of m-audio interfaces. Like the FW1814 and 410, I was forced into buying another m-audio interface in order to work in pro tools at the time. Over the past year and a half with the Profire I have grown to love some things about it, and hate some things about it. Lets talk about the good things first.

First of all 99% of the work I do in my studio is mixing and mastering, so I have never once used the pre's. However, I have an engineer friend with one and he loves the pre's on guitar and vocals. Here is a quote from him on his thoughts on the pres.

“The pres are great. They are really clean for vocals and acoustic guitar and they seem to color the signal in a really unique way.

The 2626 itself is the perfect starter piece for a home recording rig and the Octane pres are just the icing on the cake.” - Trevin Tolbert

The first thing I noticed was the d/a conversion was very nice. A lot better than I expected. Black Lion Audio says the stock Profire 2626 sounds better than the Apogee Ensemble. I can’t cosign on that because I have never used an Ensemble, but compared to my Lynx Aurora the Profire wasn't as wide and had less depth, but certainly was able to hold its own. As far a/d converters once again the Profire preformed well. Not as good as the Aurora, but a very capable a/d conversion. For the price, features, and I/O count the Profire 2626 deserves a trophy for sound quality.

Now for the bad. In printing my mixes back in Pro Tools through the Profire I would sometimes get random clicks and pops. this wouldn’t happen often, but often enough that I had to be sure to check for them before sending a mix to a client. I blamed this on the Profire’s internal clock. After purchasing a Lynx Aurora I clocked the Profire to it. 8 months in and so far not a single click or pop in my mixes.

My second issue I believe is driver related. When I clock to the Aurora and open a pro tools session sometimes I get a “playback device does not support 48k”. (Or whatever sample rate I have the Aurora set to, which most of the time is the sample rate the session is set  to as well.) When this Pro Tools error occurs the clock on the Profire gets reset to spidf/coax. This has never happened opening Logic or Studio One sessions so as far as I can tell it is specific to Pro Tools. Which is pretty funny when you think about that the Profire and Pro Tools should play nicely together since they were made for each other. When this happens I have to go to Profire control setting, set the clock to internal, reopen the pro tools session, go back to the Profire control panel software, and reclock it to the Aurora. This became very annoying and was enough to make me think about parting with the Profire. Last month I got a RME Firerface 800 and it is now my main interface. I have the Profire connected to the RME by adat running in standalone mode. Since then I’ve had no problems opening Pro Tools sessions.

My third issue is the control panel software. You can save your configurations, which is pretty much standard for any interface control software, but I have no idea why the hell m-audio decided to not SHOW you what configuration you have loaded. This may seem minor but was a major FAIL to me. I have 3 different configurations saved. One for monitoring from the D-box d/a, one for monitoring from the Aurora d/a, and one to monitor from the Profire. Since I can’t see what setting I have loaded I have to just load up whatever setting I have saved, which is redundant if I was already in the setting. But to avoid wondering why my session isn’t playing back correctly from certain outputs this is how I had to do it. This is of course not an issue anymore since the RME is now my  interface, and yes, it does show you which setting you have loaded in total mix.

Another weird thing is once I installed the Aurora, I went in the profire control panel to reorder the inputs. I wanted to make the Aurora 1-8 and the profire 9-16. Reordering the inputs did nothing but route the signal out the Auroa into the profire. After a few days I gave up. This was very frustrating because whenever I played Itunes or anything other than my daw I would have to patch the profire outs 1-2 into my d-box. I have no idea why the reorder input wouldn’t simply just work.

So despite the internal clock, I have no problem with the units hardware. Since I don’t record in my studio I had no problem with all the pres being on the back. The line inputs bypass the pres which is something that can’t be said for most interfaces. Some people like full metering but I’m happy with the green signal lights (of course they show red when clipping) on the front of the unit. They let me know the Profire is getting signal, I can check metering in my DAW. This can be very helpful during troubleshooting because it allows you see if your getting signal from the source. I’ve always thought of M-audio as a consumer brand for pro audio, but the Profire 2626 moves them into pro-sumer bracket to me. The hardware design definitely gives it a pro look, and when I saw the new fast track interfaces recently announced it looks like they will continue to go in that direction. Though not mentioned in the conversations with other high end companies like  Apogee, Lynx, and RME, the Profire 2626 is as high end as you can get from M-audio right now.

API eq shootout

Newer Doesn't Always Mean Better

In the audio world, newer doesn't always mean better, though in most cases it does. In electronic products such as smartphones, TV's, video game consoles, and computers, are contanstly being replaced by newer models with more impressive specs and performance. In audio however, this isn't the case. Lets take the Empirical Labs Distressor for example. The Distressor had its 15th year old birthday last year. The Avalon 737 channel strip is also more than a decade old. The RME Fireface series is coming up on a decade. The Lynx Aurora converters are now over 5 years old. Yet these products are still popular and selling well today. If you notice, most of the new gear today is made to sound like the old gear of the past. The Vintech series is made to recreate the classic Neve sound, and the Daking mic pre and eq is modeled after the Trident console. I'm not saying go buy the oldest gear you can afford, but I am saying if your looking at gear and one was built in 07, and one 05, don't expect the one built in 07 to sound better because its "newer". 


Because audio gear made over a decade ago can still be relevant today is actually a good thing. I don't think anyone will reinvent the microphone anytime soon. What I mean by this is you have condenser, ribbon, and dynamic mics. Will there be an awesome new technology to come out that will replace these types of mics making them obsolete? Not likely. So its a good thing because the same mic, mic pre, eq, and compressor you use today will still be able to function 20 years from now. This means you can buy gear and use it for the rest of your career. How many other industries can say that? Another good thing is that after a decade of production there are plenty of used ones available for cheaper. The bad thing about old gear still being relevant is that prices aren't likely to drop because of a products age, which makes sense. It something has been selling well for over a decade then why drop the price? If anything prices go up. An engineer I know was telling me the other day how his friend bought a tubetech CL1B for around $1800 brand new years ago. Now the price is almost doubled at $3500. So don't let the age of a product discourage you from purchasing it. (Unless its truly vintage and may be in need of constant repair.) Who knows, that gear you may end up buying that's a few years old may end up being a classic. Then you can be the one saying you bought it at lower price 10 years later when the price is doubled.

Saving Money When Making Purchases For Your Studio

Everyone loves a deal, so I decided to do a post showing how I save money when buying studio gear. My engineer friend Darius Lyles inspired me to write this post because I am always saving on purchases I make and he told me I should share. So here is 5 tips on how you can save money when making purchases.

1. I “NEVER” pay full price for plugins. Companies like Waves, McDSP, Slate Digital, always have sales. If there is a plugin you want, unless you feel you need it right away, be patient and wait for it for it to go on sale. If you know you want McDSP plugins for example, then go to the website and sign up for their news letter, follow them on twitter, like them on facebook, Anything to make sure you know about sales when they happen. Trust me, you don’t want to hold out for a sale only to find out later that you missed it. Softube recently ran their first ever sale and it was a good one. I’ve wanted Softube plugins for a long, long time. I’ve been watching them for almost a year. I finally got that email about a sale and took advantage buying pretty much their whole collection. Some plugins, like McDSP retro pack, wasn’t on my radar, but the sale at the time was an impulse buy. And I’m glad I did because I use them on every mix now.
2. Always price match before you buy. You never know when you can catch a company slipping because of a wrong price on their site. I got a sweet deal on my Empirical Labs Mike-e because of this.
3. Buy in bulk. Most companies will you give you a discount the more you buy. I got a couple hundred off from Sweetwater when I bought my Dangerous D-box, Profire 2626, Art Pro VLA II, and m-audio SBX10 all together. If your looking at more than one piece of gear find out how much it will be if you bought them together. Then decide if its worth it to save and get it together or just one at a time.
4. Don’t under estimate 10%. When we hear 10% a lot of people blow it off, its just 10% right? !0% off $100 is $10. Ok, not a big deal. But when buying studio gear 10% can make a big difference. I got 10% of my Lynx Aurora 8 from a sale Sweetwater was running at the time. That 10% brought my Lynx Aurora 8 from $2,000, to $1,800. Big difference! If your saving for gear and not quite there yet that extra 10% could be just what you need. Frontend Audio has 10% off weekends frequently, as well as a reward for reviews program. This gives you 2% up to 10% for each review you submit. If you roam the site you will find many of my reviews.
5. Shop during holidays. Of course Xmas is the big one but most companies run sales every major holiday. And seeing that there is a major holiday every few months, you won’t have to wait long to try to catch a sale.

I’ll say more than 75% of the gear and plugins I own I got on sale. As a bonus tip make a wish list. I have a Google Docs document saved with a list of gear I want. Once I made the list I prioritized them according to need, and wrote purchased next to ones I’ve acquired to keep track of my progress. If a sale comes up for something I want that's not top on my list but may be 3 or 4 spots down the list, I go ahead and get it. Even though its not at the top of my list, you never know when that sale may come around again.

JDK audio featured me in their Front Line articles

JDK audio featured me in their Front Line section on their site. This is a section dedicated to users of their gear. Check it out! http://jdkaudio.com/ftf_230.html

Softube compressor shootout: Summit TLA100, Tubetech CL1B, FET compressor

McDsp Ultimate Compressor review

When the McDSP Ultimate compressor was announced it was unique and very interesting to me. 10 compressors in one plugin modeling many famous compressors all for $229 native. To break it down with UC you get a fairchild ($149 from UAD, $320  from Waves) La2a ($149 from UAD, $160 from Waves) 1176 emulation ($149 from UAD, $400 from Waves, which includes the blue and black face model) and 7 more compressors for only $229. You can easily see the value your getting here.

I was going to wait until I found a favorite use for all 10 compressors before I wrote this review but that may be a very long time. The UC in a way is like a sample library to me. You will only use the samples you like. So out of the 10 compressors in UC  I’ve only been using the ones I really like so far. Now this doesn’t mean these others are bad, just means I didn’t find a use for them as quick as some of the others. To be fair I don’t spend 15-20 minutes trying to get good results from a plugin. If I’m not in the ballpark of getting good results in 5 minutes or so I pull up a different plugin and try again. So with that being said lets get into my thoughts.

When I first opened up the plugin my first impression was that it could be a little bigger, I found myself squinting to see some of the setting until I really learned it. The UI is very user friendly and easy to navigate. When you first open the plugin it opens to the U670, made from the fairchild 670. Here are my thoughts on each compressor.

1. U670- This was the biggest reason I purchased UC. I really wanted an emulation of this compressor after all I’ve heard about it. First up lead vocals. The U670 added smooth compression with transparency. Also tried it on background vocals and acoustic guitar with good results.
2. Moo Tube- This is of course a tube compressor emulation. Preformed good on vocals, nice on bass, and well on guitars and background vocals. Did not try drums.
3. icomp- this is one I haven’t found a place for yet but didn’t blow me away on anything I tried it on. However only having two knobs allows for quick and easy dialing in of the settings.
4. Opto C/Opto L- these are La2a emulations and OMG do I love them! I’ve never had a go to plugin for vocals because I’m always switching it up but there is a party going on in my ears whenever I insert the opto C on vocals. This is strange because I never really cared for the hardware version of the La2a (the UA version) that I’ve used in a recording studios. The otpo C really pushes the vocal forward in the mix. This is by far my favorite compressor out of the 10. I used the opto C on a recent mix I did for JaShayla and immediately got great results. The one knob on the compressor makes its really quick to dial in. The opto L is the same, just a limiter instead of compressor.
5. British C- this one emulates a Neve compressor I believe, and its one of the smoothest, if not the smoothest, compressor in the plugin. Even at 12-15db compression I couldn’t hear it working. This preformed beautifully on background vocals, and if it wasn’t for my love for the opto C on lead vocals it would be placed there as well. Because of its smoothness I used it on mix buss once giving my 7720 a break and it preformed very nicely. This is my second favorite compressor of the bunch.
6. Over EZ- This is one of the more versatile compressors to me. I tried it on a variety of sources and it worked well on all. You’ve got the basic compressor setting you can really dial in what you need. If I had to choose a favorite source I would go with bass and snare. Vocals worked well but not as good as the British C and opto C.
7. SST76- obviously a 1176 compressor. This compressor sounded good on everything you’d expect a 1176 to work well on, which is vocals and bass. If you’ve never used a 1176 this compressor can be a little confusing at first with the attack and release labeling, but will be worth it once you get it down. Also an all buttons in mode would have been cool to have. 1176 users know what I’m talking about.
8. FRG444- or the “frog” as Colin calls it, worked really well for me as a parallel drum compressor. Its slightly aggressive tone added a nice thickness when mixed the dry signal of the drums. Kick as well as snare gave good results to.
9. D357- by looking at the layout this is obviously meant to be used to crush drums, and for that it works very well. Never tried this on any other source. This is definitely the most aggressive compressor in UC. It will have you scratching your head when you first open it. Attack, release, and threshold are labeled as min and max instead of fast and slow. The attack doesn’t get super fast, but you typically don’t want a fast attack for drums anyway because you will kill the transients.

Overall I think UC is a very good product that Colin could easily charge $499 for. But with a $229 price tag (and even cheaper with a McDSP sale) I find this to be a steal. I don’t get caught up in the whole “does this plugin sound exactly like the hardware”. To me it just matters if it sounds good or not, and I find a few of the UC compressors to sound great. With UC there is a compressor for everyone, and everything. Highly recommended if you want to add 10 more compressors to your plugin collection without breaking the bank. You can find more info on UC on www.mcdsp.com and in Colin’s corner. After making the Ultimate compressor I hope Colin knows he must now bless us with the Ultimate EQ.

JDK R24 review

JDK R24 review

Let me start by saying this. I admit I had low expectations for the R24. With the majority of stereo EQ’s costing $2000-$2500 just how good could a $1000 stereo EQ be? So why did I purchase one? Glad you asked. There are only three stereo EQ’s on the market for $1000, Black Lion audio AM/CHA1, TL audio 5013, and the JDK R24. Why more companies haven’t tapped into the $1000 stereo EQ price point is a mystery to me. The AM/CHA1 has some frequencies missing I like to use, and the lack of customer support from tl audio knocked them out of the running. Sure I could contact dealers about the product but I like to know that if I have a question I can talk to the people who made the gear rather then the people who sell the gear. My emails to JDK were returned no later than 24 hours and were very helpful. Its always nice to know you will have good support for a product.

I went to Sweetwater’s Gearfest this year with the JDK R24 on the top of my wish list. When I arrived at JDK’s booth I was greeted by Jordan from API. They had the R20, R22, and R24 on display with a demo song running through them. I immediately grabbed the headphones and began turning knobs. My good friend Darius Lyles, owner of Heat Factory Studios in Memphis, made the trip with me and listened while I turned knobs on a second pair of headphones. In my opinion, the demo song was not doing the gear justice. I remember walking away telling Darius I wasn’t going to get it. He told me to sleep on it and come back day 2 and try it again. So that’s what I did. Day 2 of Gearfest I must of visited the API booth 6 times. In fact, I visited so many times Jordan ended up giving me a JDK T-shirt. He told me a lot about the EQ and the Sweetwater reps were bragging on it as well. The fact that it was on sale plus the background information I received from Jordan ( like pointing out the R24 uses the same transformer output as the API eq’s) I went ahead and purchased it. The ties to API didn’t hurt either. Who has ever said anything bad about an API eq?

I honestly thought I would be sending the R24 back. Being the gadget geek I am I wasn’t thrilled about the old school vintage design. I like shiny things with lights, but the look of the R24 really grew on me. For fun I called up Blackbird studios and rented one of the $2500 EQ’s I’d been hearing a lot about to do a shootout. Now the fun begins! Darius and I did not think the JDK stood a chance. We matched the EQ settings on both units and a/b’d them. The JDK sounded more polished and exciting, the other EQ sounded dark and dull. Round One to JDK. The same thing was repeated for 2 more mixes with the same results. JDK now up 3-0. For the final test we set both eq’s flat just to hear the tone of each unit. Same results, the JDK added a slight punch and presence, the other EQ was dull and dark. We even brought my wife in the studio who knew nothing about these EQ’s or their prices and a/b’d the mix for her.

She also chose the JDK. 4-0 unanimous victory for the R24! I kept the name of the other EQ anonymous because I did not want it to seem like I was tarnishing their brand or trying to down them. The sparkle you get from the high end of the R24 is very pleasing. The 4 bands ranging from 20hz to 20k make this a very versatile EQ. The controls are continuously variable not stepped.

So what don’t you get with the R24? There is no input or output trim, no shelf switch, Q control, and no individual band bypass. Are these deal breakers? For me absolutely not. If I need to trim the input or output, I do it before it hits the R24. As far as shelving I have not missed not having it. The R24 Q is wide, but the more you boost or cut the more narrow the Q becomes. This has not been a problem for me. Individual bypass is nice to have but even most of the $2500 EQ’s don’t have this feature. Not a big deal to me, I just move the knob back to zero if I want to hear that band flat. One feature the R24 has that is mostly found on a lot of high end gear is a hard bypass. This means you can pass audio through it with the unit powered off. To take advantage of the analog circuitry though you will need to power it on. Since purchasing the R24 it has lived on my mix buss and I have been extremely pleased with the results. It really polishes my mixes and gives them a more finished sound. Comparing the R24 to all my plugin eq’s (waves, softube, McDsp) the JDK just sounds better to my ears. Now no mix leaves my studio without running through the R24 first. For the price this EQ is a absolute steal. I emailed my Sweetwater rep the next day after we did the shootout and told him he would not be getting this EQ back. For my first outboard EQ the JDK R24 is excellent and I’m in love with it as you can tell. I look forward to more products from JDK and as well the possibility of the R22 as my next compressor.

For more info please visit www.jdkaudio.com

My Top 3 Affordable Plugin Bundles

Good plugins can greatly enhance your mixes. Of course not every one can afford some of the high price plugin bundles out today. So I’m going to share with you my top 3 affordable plugin bundles. While these bundles are affordable ($350 and less) plugin companies like Waves and McDsp run sales ALL the time, so you can end up getting them for less. I have never paid full price for a plugin bundle. I patiently wait for it go on sale. I strongly recommend going to these companies’ websites and signing up for their newsletters. This way you are always in the loop of when a sale occurs. It’s a good idea to follow them on Twitter and Facebook as well. Now to the bundles.

From affordable plugin bundles

1. McDsp Classic Pack
a. price $350
b. plugins 4
c. tweaky, versatile plugins
d. www.McDsp.com 


The McDSP Classic Pack gives you a compressor, eq, multiband compresspor and an analog console emulator plugin in analog channel. Technically this bundle gets you four plugins, but if you break it down you really get 3 versions of compressor bank, 3 versions of filter bank, 3 versions of the multiband compressor, and 2 versions of analog channel. So when you look at it that way you really get 11 plugins total. Though the Classic Pack is the most expensive of the three, I feel its the most versatile. You really get a lot for your money. Compressor Bank is the most versatile compressor plugin out there IMO. You can literally use it on anything. Filter Bank, like Compressor Bank, is very versatile and with three versions you can really do a lot. Analog Channel emulates tape machines and analog consoles. All the plugins in the bundle are extremely “tweaky”, very versatile and if your into presets you get a ton of them here. Again, $350 is more than the other two bundles I listed but Colin runs sales ALL the time. Be patient if you have your eye on a particular thing. I picked mine up this year when McDSP had a $199 sale going on. If I had no other plugins for my DAW and had to choose between these 3 bundles I would take this one for its versatility.

From affordable plugin bundles

2. Softube Mix Bundle
 a. price $300
 b. plugins 5
 c. battling UA for top analog modeling plugins on the market
 d. www.softube.com 


Softube has really made a name in the audio game for analog modeling. For those who don’t know what analog modeling is its taking hardware and creating software that sounds just like the hardware, or as close they can get it. With the mix bundle you get their passive-active pack, which features 3 EQ’s, the FET compressor, which models the 1176 and the TSAR-1R, which is a mini version of the TSAR-1 reverb. The passive-active pack is modeled after 60’s and 70’sBritish EQ’s. These EQ’s aren’t surgical EQ’s, but they are very good and boosting and sweetening your tracks, especially in the high end. The FET compressor is a 1176 on steroids. low and high cut filters, look ahead and a mix knob makes this a very versatile compressor. The reverb is the best I’ve used in a plugin. I’m comparing that to Digidesign D-verb, AIR verbs, Sonnox reverb (which is a very good reverb!) and McDSP revolver verb. I just finished a mix for JaShayla where I used this reverb on her vocals and the results were amazing. This bundle is versatile, but the least versatile IMO. However these are really, really good sounding plugins.

From affordable plugin bundles

3. Waves Musicians Bundle 2
 a. price $99
 b. plugins 6
 c. plugin originators, veterans in the game
 d. www.waves.com 


If there is one thing you are guaranteed to see in commercial studios besides pro tools and an analog console its plugins from Waves. Waves has been making plugins since 1992 and has what I believe is the largest number of plugins available than other company at 128. Waves has also been the most expensive I’ve seen, but over the last few years they have been lowering their prices to help compete with all the new competition. The Waves Musicians 2 bundle, which I paid $199 for two years ago, gives you some nice plugins for an affordable price. These were the first plugins I ever purchased. This bundle gives you eq, 3 compressors, and a delay. The Rvox compressor is easy to use and easy to get good results with, making it my favorite plugin in this bundle. You get Raxx specifically for bass, Rvox for vocals, and Rcomp can handle everything else. The Req is good, and considering it comes in a $99 bundle makes it great. Waves also runs specials all the time. This bundle ranks #2 in versatility to me of the three.

Sending your beats and sessions to artist and engineers

Since I get so many sessions that look like WTF I decided to write some some Do’s and Don’ts when sending your beats to artists. This is mostly for producers but some can be applied when sending off your session to a mix engineer. 

1. Do not send mp3’s! A mp3 is good for listening and in some cases tracking to, but once a beat has been purchased the artist needs Wav files to have the song mixed once it has been recorded. Wav files should typically be 44.1k or 48k and 24bit.
2. Each sound should be separated on its own track. This includes the kick and the snare. This will allow the mix engineer to properly mix the song. If there are 20 sounds in the beat, then the artist needs to be sent 20 different wav files. These will of course be too big to email so use a service like dropbox or wetrasfer to upload and email the files.
3. Name your files. This will make you look more professional and will make your mix engineer very happy. Even if you just label your tracks kick, snare, hi hat, etc. Its better then audio 1, audio 2, audio 3. 
4. Your tracks should have no clipping. If its hitting the red then pull it back some. Clipping in the digital world is never good. 
5. Include a a master track with your beat. This way if you full beat needs to be heard instead of playing all the wav files together the master track can be played. 
6. While we are on master tracks make sure to leave some headroom on the master track. Many sessions I get when I go to track the song the master track is so hot its pinned into the red clipping. I have to trim it down 12db just to have it at a level where I can hear the artist on top of it. 
7. Always include the BPM. Easiest way to do this is to add it to the name of the beat, or to the master track. For example mybeat1_BPM95. When its time to record having the BPM will make the engineer’s a lot easier when its time to copy a hook, or the mix engineer when they want to add delays. This also beats opening up a session just to see the BPM.
8. When moving beats and sessions from one DAW to another its best to start the song at bar 1, but the beat or music at bar 2. This will ensure if something needs to be looped it will loop properly. I’ve noticed starting at bar 1 can chop of a few milliseconds or samples of the song. Then when you go to loop it the track won’t loop smoothly. Starting at bar 2 gives your DAW 1 bar to start  up ensuring that it captures the whole start. Basically be careful of your DAW chopping off the beginning on the music before you track it out into wav files. 
9. If you can, contact the artist’s engineer and see how he or she wants you to deliver the files and if they have any special requests. This way you can get the beat to the artist’s engineer just how they like it. 
10. Ask the artist how he or she wants the arrangement to be or if they want to sequence the track on their own. Don’t assume the artist wants three 16 bars verses and four hooks. If the artist wants to sequence the track on their own then send them the 4 or 8 bar loop of each sound. Again be sure to start the music at bar 2 but export from bar 1. Then the artist can loop the track out how they please.

Dangerous D-box review

After comparing a ITB mix to a mix I did on a SSL duality I knew the analog console sound is what I wanted for my mixes. Since I won’t be spending $300,00 for an SSL Duality console or $23,000 for the SSL Matrix, I knew an analog summing box was what I needed. I was very close to purchasing the SSL 8 channel summing mixer and mynx, but learning it needed special cables was a turn off. Plus the vertical case design of the Mynx would make for an awkward set up in my studio. When I told my Sweetwater rep I was looking for an analog summing box he pointed me to the Dangerous D-box. After researching it and seeing its features compared to its price I went ahead and purchased. The D-box is really bang for your buck gear. You get 8 channels of analog summing, 2 headphones jacks, an extra analog input, talk back, outputs for 2 pair of monitors, a mono switch, and my favorite feature, 2 digital inputs for Dangerous d/a conversion. All this for $1,399. Combined with the Dangerous 2bus-lt and you have 24 tracks of summing plus the d-box features for less than $3,000. Since I mentioned the d/a conversion was my favorite feature lets look at that first. The d/a conversion on the D-box sounds so good I would pay the price of the D-box just for it. Seriously. Its not transparent like my Lynx Aurora, but compared to it the D-box has a more “hi-fi” sound to me. Switching between the two the D-box has a slight lift you can feel. With Focal CMS65 monitors and the D-box d/a conversion all my mixes have translated very nicely. There is also a second digital input you can use labeled CD. So that gorgeous “hi-fi” sounding d/a conversion can be used for whatever else you like. Think of it like dating two beautiful twins that you can switch between. The monitor selector is one switch that toggles two pair of monitors. Cool thing about the switch is that it has momentary toggle. This means when you hold the switch it will switch monitors, and when you let go it will revert back to the monitors you were originally listening to. It also has a mono switch which I love. I always check my mix in mono to make sure I can still hear everything clearly. Also when I have background or lead vocals that I spread out a little, I can quickly get it back in the middle by soloing the track and pressing mono. Now I have it in the middle of the mix and I’m able to add processing without losing my panning I have set. Incredibly useful. The talkback also has momentary toggle. Press to talk, release and the talkback mic is off. Now for the main reason I purchased this, the analog summing. I find the analog summing from the D-box to be on the clean side, but definitely a winner for removing digital harshness. The D-box added punch, and widened the stereo image of my mixes just like the SSL board. I feel the SSL had more separation but that could also be due to the SSL Alphalink converters the console is connected to. The d-sub connections on the back make for easy connection as well. So what don’t I like about the D-box? Not much, my few gripes are in no way deal breakers. One, I wish it had a dim switch, and two, I wish I could run both pair of my monitors to my sub and into the D-box. Spoke with Dangerous and found out the dim switch would make the price go up a lot. I’m still hoping for a sub control if Dangerous decides to do a mkII. Even if they don’t the D-box is the heart of my studio and It will continue to be for many years. I plan to purchase the 2bus-lt in the future for 24x2 analog summing, making my setup extremely, dare I say, DANGEROUS!

Empirical Labs Mike-e Review

So I’ve had my Mike-e for about 5 months now and I’m ready to write a review. To start, when the mike-e says its a mic pre amp with new tricks, its not lying. This has been my go to pre since first using it, defeating my previous favorite pre, the Avalon 737. First off, when I got my mike-e hooked up for the first time I could not get the phantom power to work. After extensive troubleshooting I contacted Empirical Labs. Dave Derr quickly responded and sent me a new mike-e. When I got the new mike-e, I couldn’t get phantom power to work either. WTF! Took to it to another studio and phantom power worked fine. At this point I’m going crazy trying to figure out why I can't get phantom to work. Well Dave ends up sending me an email telling me to make sure I don’t have the mic and line input connected at the same time. Well sure enough I did. So basically if you have a mic and line input connected at the same time it will cancel out the phantom power. This is no problem for me because I just mix in my studio, I don’t record, so I leave the line input connected. For a recording studio this could be tricky since both can’t be connected at the same time. The mike-e to me is parts of all empirical labs products rolled into one, excluding the lil freQ. You get a very clean mic pre with saturation borrowed from the fatso, and a compressor borrowed from the famous distressor. In tracking hip-hop vocals I found the mike-e to sound bigger than the Avalon 737, way bigger than my Joemeek TwinQ, and a tad bigger then Great River 500 series pre. It makes vocals sound huge with the comp/sat section. Between hitting the mic pre hard and really driving the saturation circuit, you can get a lot of different tones from this channel strip. I’ve been running lead vocals for almost every mix I do through it with great results. It really brings the vocal forward and in your face in a mix. I also tracked bass with it through the DI adding a little saturation and compression. The bass player was very pleased with the sound. One of my favorite features about the mike-e is that when you power it off it saves your setting. So lets say you or your assistant forgot to fill out the recall sheet for the session, or you want to run the signal through the same setting you recorded it with when its time to mix. Well when you power it back it on all your setting that are digital like attack, release, etc, will be maintained. Pretty cool! Since I thought I had a bad unit and ELI sent me another, for a few weeks I had 2 mike-e in my possession. What to do with two mike-e’s? Put them on mix buss of course! I normally use a chameleon labs 7720 on mix buss. I used the mike-e’s with its slowest attack and fastest release will driving the saturation hitting the toasty light on the peaks with no more than 3db gain reduction. I don’t know how much was the mike-e and how much was my mixing skills but having it on mix buss gave me what I think is one of my top 3 mixes ever. I love the distressor on drum buss so its not surprising that two mike-e’s on drum buss worked very well. The mike-e has a wet/dry knob for parallel compression on the unit. No need to blend in your parallel compression with your DAW fader. As I said before, this is now my go to pre for tracking vocals. Empirical Labs customer support was great. I hated to send back the second unit but I didn’t have an extra $1600 laying around in my account. But after a few more purchases I will definitely be picking up a second mike-e. There is a insert mod available and a transformer output mod will be available soon. Not crazy about the insert mod but the transformer mod will be mandatory for me once it becomes available.

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.

Sonnox Oxford Elite bundle Review

After seeing Fab Dupont demo these plugins on their website I told myself I had to have them. Been using these for 6 months now and must say these are some of the best plugins I now own. I really just wanted the EQ but after seeing all of the plugins demoed I wanted them all. I desperately wanted a new EQ plug in and Limiter. When I added the price up ala carte I decided to look into just getting the whole bundle. I got these from Sweetwater at a student discount price of $630, which is 50% the normal cost.

Pros:
The EQ is extremely smooth, flexible, and will now put my Waves R-EQ's on the bench. The reverb sounds great and having early reflections as a separate engine from the reverb tail as well as EQ makes it only better. The Dynamics section features a gate, expander, compressor, limiter, and analog warmth all in one plugin. The inflator make your track louder without increases the signal level, its truly special. I use it on everything including the whole mix. The transmod lets you control the attack of transients. The Surpresser is a De-esser on steroids. Most featured filled De-esser you will ever use. The limiter can control peaks and is very transparent.

Cons:
No dislikes. It would be cool to add EQ in the dynamics plugin so you truly have everything in one, besides that no complaints at all.

Summary:
This bundle will definitely step up your plugin game. I see myself using at least these plugins on every mix I do for now on. The EQ by far is the best I have now. After using these I truly believe they are some of the best plugins out there. You can find more info at sonnoxplugins.com

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Searching for my Neve 1073 clone

Pretty much every vocal chain I hear these days has a Neve 1073 pre behind the mic. I’ve heard a lot about Neve series and now I’m ready to purchase my Neve clone pre to see what all the hype is about. This choice won’t be easy. My budget will be around $1,500. I really want a channel strip so I can use it for tracking and mixing. Here are the pre’s I’m considering right now. I’ll let y'all know what I decide to purchase and why.....

1. Vintech x73i - The Vintech has been said to be identical in sound to the original 1073. I’ve seen a youtube clip from soundpure.com doing a shootout between the two. If you contact them they say they will send you the original files from the shootout. The x73i right now is my front runner for its price, reputation, and customer support. Dallas from Vintech has been very helpful with any questions I’ve had about the unit. I could not see the EQ frequencies from any pics, even on their site. I emailed Dallas, he replied with his cell number, and I gave him a call to get my eq frequency question answered as well as a few others. Doug at Soundpure had nothing but good things to say about the Vintech as well.
2. Miktek mpa-201 - While not a channel strip the MIktek looks very promising. 2 channels based on the Neve circuit with three impedance settings, a HPF, and a smooth switch for added flexibility. I’m strongly considering this pre because I’ve met the guys at Miktek a few times and believe they really know what they are doing. They got a great rep for their mics and I expect the same from the pre. Mike at Miktek told me they would probably do a channel strip in the future so I kind of want to hold out for that since it will better fit my needs, but jumping on the Miktek bandwagon early would be nice.
3. Slate Pro Audio Fox- Again, not a channel strip, but a very interesting pre I saw come out NAMM. The Fox is a pre that offers four different flavors. One of them being a vintage Neve flavor. I haven’t heard much about this pre since it was announced but I’m still very interested in how different the four flavors on the pre sounds.
4. BAE audio is said to make the closest thing to an original Neve 1073. The only problem is for me to get a BAE audio pre and eq in a channel strip the price would be $3500! For me to get a BAE pre within my budget I’d have to sacrifice the eq and can get even lower by sacrificing the filters. I know someone that has some BAE pre’s and swears Vintech are no competition compared to the BAE’s. So is it worth dropping the EQ to get a BAE pre for $1500? I may have to borrow his and find out.
5. Chameleon Labs 7602mkII w/ zen pro mod - this one is low on my list but I love Chameleon labs and have heard good things about this channel strip. I have a 7720 stereo compressor from them and I absolutely love it. I’ve heard the mod that zenproaudio.com does for them really helps the sound of the sound of pre.

Lynx Aurora review

Got my new Lynx Aurora 8 added to my setup and here is my review. First of all I’ve heard great things about Lynx customer service, unfortunately I haven’t experienced that. I emailed them three times over the last few months with product questions and received no reply at all. Instead my Sweetwater rep was able to answer all my questions. First thing I did was install the lt-adat card I purchased with it. This required removing the top of the unit. Between watching the NBA Allstar weekend and installing the card the process took me about 20 minutes. I could probably do it 10 minutes now that I’m familiar with the process.

I connected it to my M-audio profire 2626 by adat and fired it up for a listen. I played one of my recent mixes and well as some music in my Itunes. I was impressed by what I heard, but switching over to my Dangerous D-box d/a conversion I was blown away at the difference. The D-box was most noticeably louder. Since it was louder it felt like it was a little brighter and little more low end, which now leads to believe that Dangerous D/A is not as transparent as I thought, but I still love the sound of it.

I clocked my Profire to the lynx by adat and opened up some pro tools sessions. I was greeted with a “playback device does not support 48k”. I changed to 44.1k and got the error message for that sample rate as well. I then booted up Logic and tried to play some sessions from it. Logic gave an error message saying “sample rate 40500 recognized”. 40500??? Thats not even close to 44.1k! After calling up one of teachers It was clear that something was going on with the Lynx when it was being clocked by adat. When I switch the Profire to clock internally everything would be fine. I noticed when clocked by adat changing the sample rate on the lynx would not change the sample on the profire. So something was definitely off. I ended up running to Sam Ash to get a BNC wordclock cable. Since clocking to word clock everything is fine. I posted on Lynx support forum my issue but have yet to receive feedback.

I then proceeded to a/b the lynx and my Profire going through the inputs of the d-box. I was in awe at how close the Profire sounded to the Aurora to my ears. The Lynx sounded slighter better to me, but I could see the Profire winning in a blind test. In case your wondering I’m monitoring on my Focal CMS65.

Now to the a/d conversion. I haven’t had time to directly compare the profire to the lynx as far as a/d conversion, but I can say I have been pleased with the Lynx’s conversion from the few mixes I’ve printed through them so far. Not all the time, but often enough, the profire would give me digital clicks and pops on its a/d conversion which I feel was being caused by the clock in the Profire. For this reason clocking the Profire to the Lynx was a no brainer for me. So far I am yet to experience these clicks on pops with the Lynx.

In the search for converters I really wanted to go Apogee because of their reputation but Apogee ended up just being to expensive. The Lynx Aurora 8 feels like a steal at $1,995. You get 8 channels a/d, d/a, and a very nice clock. You would spend twice as much or more to get the same with Apogee. The Profire control panel software made routing to the Lynx very frustrating, to the point I was thinking of getting a new interface, but I’ll go more into that later. Focusing on the Lynx I highly recommend this product for the quality and cost. Now owning the Lynx has also made me appreciate the Profire d/a more now. Black Lion Audio posted on their Facebook page in some comments that they thought the Profire sounded better the Apogee ensemble. At first reading that I thought that was BS giving the reputation of M-audio and Apogee, but now I’m starting to believe it.

Also I’ve noticed people complain of the lack of metering on the Aurora. Downloading the remote control software give you full metering for inputs and outputs and you can control things such as clock source and sample rate from the software.

post winter NAMM 2011

Post Winter NAMM 2011


WInter NAMM is over so now its time to recap in my opinion was the best products announced. I wasn’t able to attend but sites like gearwire.com, mixonline.com, and soundonsound.com kept me up to date with what was happening. Sad to say I still haven’t seen or heard the Slatepro Audio fox pre which Slate would be on display at NAMM, and there is still no extra info on the site. Maybe nobody has posted video of it yet. I did see a tweet from Slatepro Audio about a program called gobbler. Gobbler lets you organize, back up (50gb’s a month), and share sessions. Its almost like dropbox made specifically for pro audio. I downloaded it and first impressions are very positive. It scans all your connected drives for sessions and you can easily search and pull them up.
Presonus was selling there Studio One Artist DAW for 90% off making it only $20.11. For that price I went ahead and jumped on it. First impressions have been good. The key commands are weird to me but you can customize them so thats no problem. Its not enough to take me off of Logic, which I’ve been using since Logic 5, but its easy to use and within an hour I had a pretty good handle on it. For $20.11 I got a DAW, some virtual instruments, and a sampler. Not bad.

Here is what I found interesting at Winter NAMM this year:
Focusrite Rednet looked amazing to me. High quality a/d and d/a converters and mic pres in customizable units. Whats special about rednet is that it uses ethernet to pass audio connection. The ethernet connection can pass 128 simultaneous I/O allowing 256 total channels. The units look sleek and I’m impressed by the product design. Focusrite never disappoints in product design to me. I contacted Focusrite on their facebook page for pricing info but nobody has responded yet. Seeing the Focusrite red pre is $4,000 I’m guessing these will be what I call stupid expensive. But we won’t know for until Focusrite releases price info. Hopefully they will be competitively priced. Lynx offers the Aurora 8 for $1995, 8 channel high quality a/d and d/a converter, comparable to the Rednet 1. So I expect it to at least start there in price.

Universal Audio Satellite made a huge announcement with this one. The popular UA plugins are now available via firewire dsp hardware, similar to the SSL duende. So now you can use the UA plugins without needing a pci card and a mac pro. It was only a matter of time I felt before UA made this move.

Izotope Stutter edit is a very cool software that easily lets you stutter tracks. I was working on a mix few months ago for a client that wanted stuttering in the song and this would have been perfect. I ended up rewiring Reason into Pro Tools, sampling the vocals into the NNXT, and chopping them up there playing em back on pads of my MPK to get them to stutter. I downloaded the demo and have been playing with it the last few days. Throw it on a track and create a midi track and set the i/o and your ready to stutter. It seems to have a lot of weird left field presets that I would probably never use, but would be good to have. The intro promo price at $149 is pretty good. For as much as I’d probably use it I would prefer to pay $99 for it. The reg price of $249 is too much to me.



Other cool things was Korg Kronos, Presonus Studio Live Ipad app, and SSL’s stereo dynamics module for their X-rack series.