Mastering console - Sterling/Chris

[Lampadinha]

First of all it´s a great pleasure to be here!

I got a couple of questions to Chris:

1st - Chris, what kind of console you used to use on you SS studio during your sessions?
2nd - Is there any monitoring system you like the most, Hear Technologies, Marting Sound for ex?
3rd - What do you think about Sound Blade with 304 AD/DA? Do you use them?

Tnx in advance bro!

Rgrds.

Lamp.
Redirecionando...Midas Studios

[jayfrigo]

...moved new post above out of an old resurrected thread.

[Masterer]

Originally Posted by Lampadinha

First of all it´s a great pleasure to be here!

I got a couple of questions to Chris:

1st - Chris, what kind of console you used to use on you SS studio during your sessions?
2nd - Is there any monitoring system you like the most, Hear Technologies, Marting Sound for ex?
3rd - What do you think about Sound Blade with 304 AD/DA? Do you use them?

Tnx in advance bro!

Rgrds.

Lamp.
Redirecionando...Midas Studios

I use a Muth console.

My monitors are Dynaudio C4's [both at my own studio and at Sterling - I like them a lot].

I've never used Sound Blade. I was a Sonic Solutions user for about 10 years but a few years ago I switched to Sequoia. I also use Bias Peak and Pro Tools but Sequoia is my main mastering DAW. I've heard good things about Sound Blade. I'm sure there are a lot of folks around here that can give you some feedback on it.

Peace,

C.

[Alécio Costa]

Hi, C
Have you compared the C4s with the BeW 802s?
Thanks

[Masterer]

Originally Posted by Alécio Costa

Hi, C
Have you compared the C4s with the BeW 802s?
Thanks

A couple of the guys at Sterling have the 802's and I checked them out before I got my Dynaudio's so I've heard them plenty. My take on them is that they sound great. I wouldn't mind owning a pair, but I happen to like the Dyn's a little better. It's a personal choice. To be honest I think that when you get to the level of the top of the line-ish monitors from Dynaudio, B&W, Dunlavy, EgglestonWorks, etc, you should have no problem working on them after a few hours of listening.

C.

[Alécio Costa]

Agreed. I use Dynaudio BM6As and they sound great. I have learned them . Imagine using their bigger brothers like the C4s.

[Masterer]

Oops, I mean B&W 801's.

I think Will Quinnell [Sterling] has the 802's. They sound O.K. in his room.

[Jerry Tubb]

Originally Posted by Masterer

I've never used Sound Blade. I was a Sonic Solutions user for about 10 years but a few years ago I switched to Sequoia. I also use Bias Peak and Pro Tools but Sequoia is my main mastering DAW. I've heard good things about Sound Blade. I'm sure there are a lot of folks around here that can give you some feedback on it.

Hey Chris,

soundBlade is working great, I cut masters with it 5 days a week

It still has a few minor bugs to resolve, but overall the stability is very good.

Also use Pro Tools HD and a few other Mac audio apps.

Some days I use PT and sB in tandem, other days just sB.

soundBlade is the best thing going for us Mac die-hard MEs.

Cheers - JT

[Masterer]

Originally Posted by Jerry Tubb

Hey Chris,

soundBlade is working great, I cut masters with it 5 days a week

It still has a few minor bugs to resolve, but overall the stability is very good.

Also use Pro Tools HD and a few other Mac audio apps.

Some days I use PT and sB in tandem, other days just sB.

soundBlade is the best thing going for us Mac die-hard MEs.

Cheers - JT

Does Sound Blade let you use plug-ins like VST and whatnot? What about multitrack [for parallel stuff for instance]? Can you cut DDP's with it?

Maybe I should google it. The idea of using Mac's for everything is very appealing to me. If I didn't like Sequoia so much I wouldn't have a PC at all.

Thanks Jerry.

[MAzevedo]

Originally Posted by Masterer

Does Sound Blade let you use plug-ins like VST and whatnot? What about multitrack [for parallel stuff for instance]? Can you cut DDP's with it?

Maybe I should google it. The idea of using Mac's for everything is very appealing to me. If I didn't like Sequoia so much I wouldn't have a PC at all.

Thanks Jerry.

You can get 8 channel support in sB as a paid add-on. You can use plug ins, but not as fluidly as in Sequoia, the biggest limitation being that stereo plugs have to live on output busses, as all the channels are build as multi-mono. DDP export is native (and required, as it writes a ddp image as a source image before and CD burns), DDP import is a paid add-on.

At M Works we've been using Sequoia as a source machine and Sonic as a destination. You can do all your processing setup in Sequoia, which is the best for it, and editing and burning in Sonic, where it really shines.

[jdg]

u can use plugins regionally ala samp/seq with the "desk events"

it works O.K.

[MAzevedo]

Originally Posted by jdg

u can use plugins regionally ala samp/seq with the "desk events"

it works O.K.

The catch when you do spot processing is they get loaded as dual-mono, so things like stereo compression need to live on the busses. Granted, if you are doing most of your processing outboard it's not a big deal because most spot-processing you'd be doing would be EQ, but it is sometimes an annoying limitation.

[jdg]

also my fav annoying "feature" of the desk events is sometimes they process audio beyond their regions. awesome

[MAzevedo]

Originally Posted by jdg

also my fav annoying "feature" of the desk events is sometimes they process audio beyond their regions. awesome

Yeah, that's a great one. I generally just drop a plug on the buss and export in place, then remove the plug. No worries about screwy desk events that way, and I can crossfade in and out of the eq change.

[grandmasters]

Originally Posted by Masterer

...What about multitrack [for parallel stuff for instance]? ...

Would this suggest, Chris, that you are using mutil-track for parallel processing?

Noah

[grandmasters]

Originally Posted by MAzevedo

Yeah, that's a great one. I generally just drop a plug on the buss and export in place, then remove the plug. No worries about screwy desk events that way, and I can crossfade in and out of the eq change.

FYI, with Sequoia's object based real-time processing, bouncing would not be necessary. You can cut up the track, process and cross-fade each object separately and in real time.

[grandmasters]

Originally Posted by MAzevedo

At M Works we've been using Sequoia as a source machine and Sonic as a destination. You can do all your processing setup in Sequoia, which is the best for it, and editing and burning in Sonic, where it really shines.

I'm curious why you say Sonic is better than Sequoia for editing and burning?

[Masterer]

Originally Posted by grandmasters

Would this suggest, Chris, that you are using mutil-track for parallel processing?

Noah

Yeah, not that often but I definitely prefer to have the option.

Plus sometimes I have to do weird editing things and I need multiple tracks and I don't feel like using protools.


Hey, don't forget to send me a copy of your CD. Did it come out yet?

C.

[jayfrigo]

Originally Posted by grandmasters

I'm curious why you say Sonic is better than Sequoia for editing and burning?

He just said Sonic shines in that function, not that Sequoia is deficient; but characterizing it as above may invite some people to start a needless platform war. A small distinction, perhaps, but I have to go clean up some users bickering in another thread, and I'm probably just being overly cautious.

[MAzevedo]

Originally Posted by grandmasters

I'm curious why you say Sonic is better than Sequoia for editing and burning?

I just find it faster and cleaner. When you get to that end of the project, I feel Sequoia's multitrack roots really start to show, and it's just smoother sailing to edit and roll in Sonic.

When I spot process in Sequoia, I don't do a bounce, it just works right on it's own. This is why I like Sequoia as a source machine.

[grandmasters]

Originally Posted by Masterer

Yeah, not that often but I definitely prefer to have the option.


Hey, don't forget to send me a copy of your CD. Did it come out yet?

C.

I'll have copies in a week. You are first on my 'send out' list.

(For those who care, Chris mastered my own CD - after 11 years of mastering, it was weird to be a client. Working with Chris was awesome though.)

[grandmasters]

Originally Posted by jayfrigo

He just said Sonic shines in that function, not that Sequoia is deficient; but characterizing it as above may invite some people to start a needless platform war. A small distinction, perhaps, but I have to go clean up some users bickering in another thread, and I'm probably just being overly cautious.

LOL, I would never argue about what DAW, OS, Platform et al is better or not. What a waste of time to do so. They all have their merits and I was actually curious as to why he thought Sonic was better. I didn't think he thought Sequoia was deficient, and if it was I'd love to know about it. Always looking for better tools.

But I do understand your frustration and caution Jay.

[Darius van H]

I do source and destination in the same PC, using two instances of Sequoia, each with it's own soundcard - works great - no glitching, even when switching to other programs like excel.

[jayfrigo]

Originally Posted by grandmasters

But I do understand your frustration and caution Jay.

Luckily, only calm, reasonable people are populating this thread. Can I hide in here for a while?

[mischa janisch]

Originally Posted by Darius van H

I do source and destination in the same PC, using two instances of Sequoia, each with it's own soundcard - works great - no glitching, even when switching to other programs like excel.

We also recently switched to source and destination in the same PC. 2 souncards, but different applications (Samplitude as source and Wavelab as destination). Good to know that 2 instances seem to work - I'll have to try, since we have to reimport into Samplitude to cut the DDP master...

One question - can/do you switch to Excel while capturing a mastered track?

[inlinenl]

Well I'm doing playback/capture in the same application on 1 audio-card .. wavelab. I always capture in the same sample-rate/bit rate as the source ..
maybe it's not that handy, but I feel okay , converting SRC afterwards ...
somehowe I never got that running with the asio drivers, there's always an audio loop, The WME drivers work perfectly .. the latency is not a problem with those drivers, I'm running outboard only .. very stable system.

running Izotope RX with the asio-drivers ...

no problem switching to other applications while I capture ...

[grandmasters]

Originally Posted by Darius van H

I do source and destination in the same PC, using two instances of Sequoia, each with it's own soundcard - works great - no glitching, even when switching to other programs like excel.

Ya, I've been doing that since Samplitude 4 and it's the reason I switched from Mac to PC way back then. It's an amazing program for that. Which 2 cards are you using? The trick for using 2 instances of ASIO is to use two different cards with different ASIO drivers. In my case a Firewire device for playback and PCI card for capture.

[mischa janisch]

Originally Posted by grandmasters

Ya, I've been doing that since Samplitude 4 and it's the reason I switched from Mac to PC way back then. It's an amazing program for that. Which 2 cards are you using? The trick for using 2 instances of ASIO is to use two different cards with different ASIO drivers. In my case a Firewire device for playback and PCI card for capture.

We're using two RME cards - AES 32 for source and an older one with just pair of AES ins and outs and an ADAT I/O (can't remember the name) for capture. So far we have been 2 different apps - as I mentioned before - using Samplitude for source playback and Wavelab to capture the mastered tracks.
When using two instances of Samplitude - do you select the different driver each time after opening the second instance of Samplitude, or is there any way to to store the different driver settings permanently?

[Darius van H]

I'm using a RME AES32 and a Lynx AES16e

I can do anything and it won't glitch - excel, internet etc.......even when playing back and capturing with lots of plugs (i got a pretty new, dual-core PC with lotsa ram)

Yes, each time i open Sequoia, i need to hit y (shortcut to system) and select the correct asio driver

[Darius van H]

Originally Posted by inlinenl

I always capture in the same sample-rate/bit rate as the source ..
maybe it's not that handy, but I feel okay , converting SRC afterwards ...

Hi Wim, when you're mastering, are you monitoring with the SRC in-line?..........i my view, when mastering, you should always be listening to the final, limited, dithered, SRC'ed (if applicable), 16 bit sound that will be on your audio CD.