...lol :(
Hello, friends. I am Nav. I sometimes produce or DJ, but I always listen. On a musical journey that never quite seems to end.
Jake
@Nav
Age 31, Male
Tech
NYC
Joined on 1/6/07
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Comments
Yeah :(
In all honesty I have no idea what that dsp card thingy is, even after having read the description for it. However, if you think it's going to immediately benefit you, go for
it. Sounds to me like the old guns versus butter model.
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns_versus_butter_model">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns_ver sus_butter_model</a>
Not really, Guns Vs. Butter is domestic vs foreign affairs, totally something else XD
The Audio Interface is really, in essence, a soundcard. It just does some of the processing, gives me some more ins and outs, and takes some of the load off of the CPU.
Also, its not that I think it will immediately benefit me. No, the monitors would benefit me more, its just that I can purchase that immediately because it costs less. The monitors are over 300, while the card is 175.
Thanks for the feedback, though.
I need a DSP card, my cpu sucks donkey dick.
Anyways, what contest did you win?
Teh Pico Punchout thingy.
Eh. The guns vs butter comment was an analogy. You have a very literal way of looking at things... not a bad thing though.
K, I guess I do. That's why I don't pick up internet sarcasm alot :(
lol. I know what you mean. Emotion through text can be difficult, especially if you don't like to use emoticons or caps lock. I like to joke about how computer companies should make a sarcasm button on their keyboards. It would work like caps lock and would do something to the text to convey sarcasm. Dunno. Maybe I should sell my idea to Steve Jobs and let him mold it into something.
Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Steve Jobs. I'd kill him. He's the murderer of our great system of uniform parts. Who says monopolies (Microsoft) are a bad thing? Everything works for me, and I can use that soundcard and you probably can't.
Sure Steve is a dick, but he's made a killing off of ripping other people's ideas and augmenting them into his machine. Besides, I was being sarcastic.
I could really go for a sarcasm button right about now.
Yeah same here.
The EMU 1212 is an excellent choice for the money - especially the onboard fx I've heard to be top-notch. It's a very good thing to be able to take load off the cpu itself and mix through say powercore/uad/scope type of cards (I assume it loads the fx themselves as vst fx - I would think that would be the easiest form of implementation...)
I'd go with the Wharfedale's over the KRK's (which I know to be a little on the fatiguing side because of their typical hyped high-end) - whereas most british/english brands of speaker tend to be much less colored. Congrats on winning the contest...what was it? How much was it, particularly?
The only problem with a pci card per say is that you expose the DAC to a good deal of electromagnetic interference due to it being right next to the motherboard/cpu. Outboard interfaces tend to exhibit a little less jitter in this respect - but the tradeoff of having the onboard fx would put me towards getting the EMU 1212 anyhow just from what I've heard from it. I'd go ahead and purchase that one.
Monitors are indeed a very good investment (especially at that price range they will certainly up your game...) You should consider getting both. However - I will say this - if you want to save yourself a very good deal of money and still attain a very reliable monitoring system - consider the Behringer Truth's Actives with the 8" woofer. If you don't already have something nicer than this (I can't remember if you were one of those guys here mixing on sh**y headphones or whatever...) then this will be a huge step up. There are a few tricks to the monitor upgrade though that you should seriously consider unless room aesthetics are simply something that you feel you CANNOT fudge on. First - when you get the monitors - also buy 12 neoprene mouse pads from a junk sale online or wherever you can get them - just make sure they are the same width. Put 3 of those neoprene mousepads stacked on top of each other under the front and back parts of each monitor so that each stack of 3 covers the full part of the monitor's base as it sits on your desk.
If you have a computer (or external drives that tend to buzz or whatever else) sitting on a hard desk - do the exact same thing with it - in fact you might consider using some polyurethane glue to glue an extra mouse pad or two (cut them to fit of course) to the inside of the computer case to dampen the sound. Remember that the more ambient noise you can eliminate from your recording environment - the better low-level resolution and detail you will be able to detect. Meaning your judgment of track levels and eq tweaks will be better. Next, if you can find a bunch of eggshell carton foam to tack to the walls (the more the better) or if you can put up blankets on the walls or even (if your parents will okay it) mount extra drywall up to the existing wall (on the studs naturally - so it doesn't fall) leaving a 4 inch space between the wall and the new piece (this allows sound to become trapped in the area between, bounce back and forth and absorb at a much higher rate than it would otherwise) you will make much more significant gains per dollar than if you were to spend it simply on better monitors. The fact is - the closer to an absolutely acoustically dead room you can make it - the more accurately you'll be able to monitor. Of course, this is simply because all reflected waves have gone through time delays and attenuation - meaning that when the reflected waves combine with the direct radiation you will not only suffer from hearing comb filtering artifacts but also significant coloration, room modes, standing wave sympathetic vibrations and other such detrimental things.
The only thing that should be resonating and moving anywhere in a completely ideal room are the speaker transducers and your eardrums...that's it. Nothing else should be moving or re-radiating sound...
Now - if you were to do this I would probably suppose you would have a couple hundred bucks left over. Here's what I would do. Buy Voxengo's Elephant limiter and their gliss eq. I would also seriously consider picking up a copy of Sir2 (convolution reverb) as it runs at 0ms latency that is full real-time - and virtually nothing sounds better than using convolution for reverb applications...especially being that it works without any latency - it is very worth it for the price ($150 i think?). I'll send you a copy of all the free convolutions I have accrued over the past couple of years as well if you like (and you end up getting it...)
Now, you see, I am in a completely different situation than you think. I won the audio contest. It was 100 dollars, so not much. I also do absolutely ZERO recording, so the noise isn't as much of a problem as you probably think. I will take all of that into account if I do decide to record.
See, its more like I have a few bucks to spend, and I totally lack equipment. I'll be sure to go for the Wharfedales if I do go for monitors, but Geier/API convinced me to get a good pair of headphones instead. Supposedly they will allow me to hear more of what is going on, without having to shell out thousands of dollars on expensive monitors. He recommended the Sennheiser 280 Pros. I've heard they are good, but I'm not so sure. I'll look into them some more.
Another issue is that my room is not very soundproofed, and I have younger siblings with earlier bedtimes, so the headphones will get rid of the problems caused by sounds coming out of my room.
I'd be getting the card itself for easing my CPU load, and for recording Vinyl directly (through RCA) for sampling. If I get a vinyl preamp box, then it should work, as currently I'm running a very bad recording environment for that kind of thing.
About effects... I have found freeware for mostly anything, including a freeware version of Waves' L1 Ultramaximizer (http://www.kvraudio.com/get/1510 .html). Effect-wise, if I get the soundcard, I can use its specific 0-latency reverb effect. However, what makes Gliss EQ special? I can run FL's PEQ2, and it seems to work decently enough for me, I don't see why I should shell out my limited money on another EQ.
Last note: take a look at my age. I'm mixing on 15 dollar headphones, and I can't even get a job working at a retail store. Money is TIGHT for me, even though I live in a middle class suburban neighborhood. Next year I'll have more cash to throw around, but now I seem to be locked. However, I do know the owner of a local recording studio, so if I ever need anything, I bet I could get a discount or something similar there. Its also good for learning about all of this hardware stuff, considering he has a gigantic effects rack... Hopefully I will get pictures next time I go over there.
Anyways, thanks for taking the time to respond! :)
Just a question for you, though, what is the purpose of your hardware purchases? Simply having a huge rack to play with? Thanks!
-Nav
gawd..you are soooo blah blah blah...
i've been less motivated with my jokes lately D:
Doberman
WE WANNA FUCK A DOG IN THE ASS
Nav
THATS AWESOME TELL ME HOW IT GOES