Absynth

[BongStuff]

Totally take your point on the automation thing. I still like sitting at a moxing desk rather than a monitor though. Feels cooler for a start.

  BS

[Steve]

Steve

Absynth should have a SETUP drop down menu at the top. Go to MIDI and SOUND setting an make sure you have your sound card and midi set properly. If you don't have ASIO then select direct sound. Experiment with the delay/latency settings

D

Er.. I've been trying to use it in Sonar as a DXi plug in (vsti) There are no menus for setup. I imagine it should just work!

I cant try it at the mo cause I've just had to format my hard drive and it takes me a week to get everything back on there (being a guitarist)

[davlan]

BS

I receive my Carillon system tomorrow so will let you know how I get on.

I agree it is cooler to have a hardware mixer in front of you rather than having to use a mouse. Handy if you are mixing on a laptop though, at least in terms of portability. However it is possible to control most music packages from a midi controller. I use my VS1680 for this purpose at the moment (as well as for outboard effects), it doesn't have motorised faders though which would be nice.

You can buy dedicated midi mixing controllers. Steinberg have a Cubase dedicated one which is coming down in price at about £550. The Mackie Control is probably the best one- it's expandable- but you won't get much change out of a grand. Very cool piece of kit but don't you think this is dreadfully expensive for a piece of kit that essentially transmits midi messages. However there is a new kid on the block from Tascam which does the same thing as the control but also acts as a spanky soundcard andmassive breakout box all for about £300 extra.

Dave

[davlan]

Steve

Absynth will run as a stand alone application. So try running from without Sonar.

D

[BongStuff]

BS

Yeah you should be able to run Absynth as a standalone but I'm not sure if you would be able to run any other softs beside it. Vstack would provide you with a VST environment so you could use as many instruments and FX plugins as you can, and then be able to mix them.

However can I offer an opinion on your new PC. As someone who spend a couple of years fiddling with a PC I am very wary of non specofic PCs for music. That's why I've spent a considerable amount of dosh on a Carillon machine - still sitting at their workshops waiting on some of the more esoteric components I requested. So Ican't quite talk from experience but certainly the strong message I have received is that microsoft PC's struggle to do audio stuff unless set up properly. A dedicated machine will have had all it's components checked for stability and compatibility - it should work reliably and much more efficiently as well. Windows will have been tweaked to maximise it's ability to do sound. It will also have been rigged for silent running. Imagine a PC that makes no (or very little) sound. It will work out the box. For about 20% extra.

Dell still a good bet - you will get a reliable machine for a good price and given that in two years time processor speeds will have doubled etc the machine will depreciate in value so why spend extra on a dedicated rig, but then you could upgrade. You can get articles off the web to tweak windows, I might have some of these on my hard drive.

But I would say your best best is to go dedicated. Check out sites for Carillon, Millenium Music, Digital Village, Philip Rees and Red Submarine.

Ask John, he uses a Carillon.

Dave

In a "resurrect old threads" frenzy I found this...

http://www.steviebarrett.com/home/index.php?article=6

You were right Dave!

Anyway, synth fans, expect more REAL synth talk from BS soon. My new studio is about to be built!

OH BABY!

( ok well it's a spare bedroom, but it's 13x10! Woohoo!

  BS

[Steve]

PLenty of room for lots of guitarists in there then!  

[davlan]

Bong!

Tellusaboot the new studio. What are you going to get done. Seperate reording and control booths? Sound insulation/acoustics - you know, all that rubbery ripple stuff that goes on the walls. How are you planning this venture.

I've just moved to a small farm with mice (WAR!) that like to poo on my keyboards(reason there's been no Dave's Diary for last few months - difficult to write on valium) and have a wee studio under the stairs. Am trying to install a set of mic/cans ports to the room next door to achieve acoustic isolation. But would be into tips on how to modify the room to optimum acoustickyness.

Any thoughts?

Dave

[Steve]

I once helped some friends set up a small studio over a car repair shop. The biggest problem was stopping the noise coming through the floor. We solved this by laying down a layer of Tredaire (rubber carpet underlay) then a layer of 20mm chipboard, then layed  carpet on top of that. The walls were were fitted with a cheap layer of carpet stuck all the way from floor to ceiling, except for the control room wall which was left 'live'  The ceiling was draped with some aquired fishing nets but later removed in favour of a 'live' ceiling. A drum booth was constructed from some partitioning found in a skip that had been parked outside a nearby office refurbisment. these were about 5' high by 3' wide. Four of these were lugged up to the studio and made quite a good booth.

The biggest problem we had was isolating the control room. We finaly built a four inch stud wall and filled it with kiln dried sand! The control room side had carpet fitted to it and the window (which was about 6' x 3') was made in-situ and was triple glazed with the 2 cavities having a good sprinling of silicon crystals. The actual studio was 15' square and the control room was  about 10'x12'.

There were some good bands recorded here. The studio lasted about 18 months before moving to bigger premises just up the road.

Sam studios, Bristol.

I know not if they are still going? They were there about five years ago as far as I recall.

[BongStuff]

Cool story Steve. Yeah, sound insulation is the no.1 enemy of the recording studio. You can start to pinpoint acoustico-sonic gradients in your control room ONCE you are able to turn it up loud enough to have them!!!

I reckon I'll get away with a small hifi amp and a couple

of nearfield monitors ( NS10's still the way to go? ) for the most part. I'm thinking of building some kind of sealed unit SLIDING door to go over the INSIDE of the room door as well...

Other than that, come midnight it's cans-cans-cans and wondering why that delicately ping-ponged reverb that you put on the percussion loop that you spent all night programming can't be heard on the tape you play in your car the next morning...

 BS

[Didier]

I reckon I'll get away with a small hifi amp and a couple

of nearfield monitors ( NS10's still the way to go? )

Hi BongStuff,

NS10s? Eek

I think they now do some very decent monitors, a half cross between nearfield monitors, and real monitors.

And even pure nearfield monitors you can find nowadays (in my humble opinion) are far better than NS10 ever where. I can't imagine mixing 10 hours on that. And (as far as I know), they went out of fashion in the early 90s.

Be carefull also with the "hi-fi" amp. Most of them add so much colour to the sound you will lose the neutrality of "real" monitors.

Just my 2 Euro cents.

Didier

P.S. But NS10s were a huge improvment over the Auratones (anybody remember these)?

[davlan]

I read somewhere that the point of NS 10 s is that, although they sound crap, if you can get something to sound good on them it will sound brilliant on just about anything else.

D

[Didier]

I read somewhere that the point of NS 10 s is that, although they sound crap, if you can get something to sound good on them it will sound brilliant on just about anything else.

Hi Davlan,

I agree with that. When Yamaha issued first the NS10, it was either that, or the horrible Auratones.

But since then, numerous near field monitors (we're talking studio gear here, not multimedia speakers) provide the same result, with a better control, and much less fuzzy sound.

My impression on the NS10s is they can be usefull is you have also reference monitors. If you have only one pair of monitors, I wouldn't recommend the NS10s. And I heard them both in a real studio, and side by side with other near fields monitors.

But that's just me

Didier

[BongStuff]

Cheers for the info Dave/Didier.

OK, so what's the current thinking on nearfield monitors?! Mine will have to sit around 0.5m behind the desk ( Soundcraft 24:8:2 ) about 2m apart. Can sit them on brackets or stands.

Currently have pairs of...

  JPM Mini monitors

  Mordaunt Short MS35Ti

  Old disco speakers somewhere in my Mum's attic

Bear in mind that big volumes are not preferable for me.

  BS

[BongStuff]

I read somewhere that the point of NS 10 s is that, although they sound crap, if you can get something to sound good on them it will sound brilliant on just about anything else.

D

LOL! Yeah I remember reading an article by Vince Clarke on monitors when he used to do the old Yazoo stuff on a BBC micro. He had old Akai hifi speakers and said "if it sounds good on them, it will sound good on anything!"

 BS

[davlan]

I am currently using Mackie HR 624's. These are small active speakers that I purchased on recommendation rather than testing but I struggled to find somewhere in Glasgow (Scotland)where I could demo a broad selection of boxes. The 624's are OK but I would have like to have heard some KRK stuff before having made my decision.

[BongStuff]

Thanks for the info.

And Glasgow SCOTLAND you say! Well, aye thanks for clarifyin' the location an' that...

  BS

[davlan]

OK smart arse! Just as i am trying to lose my cultural paroquialism . . . I  wondered if there might be a tribe in the Amazon who are accessing this sight but have never heard of Glasgow. Also I wonder how many other locations on the globe go by the handle "Glasgow". I couldn't find my copy of Encarta to verify this. The plastic gauntlet has been dropped!

[Steve]

Would that be Glasgow, Scotland near England?

[Didier]

OK, so what's the current thinking on nearfield monitors?! Mine will have to sit around 0.5m behind the desk ( Soundcraft 24:8:2 ) about 2m apart. Can sit them on brackets or stands.

Bear in mind that big volumes are not preferable for me.

Sorry, I'm really not up to date on that subject. I think John might have an informed opinion on that. As on anything related to music

As this has really nothing to do with Absynth (or even synths in general), you could perhaps create a new topic in the Recording section.

Didier

[Steve]

As this has really nothing to do with Absynth (or even synths in general), you could perhaps create a new topic in the Recording section.

Yeah... Whatsamatter with you synthy types?.....   ;D