About Us
Started recording in 2001 on a Roland U-8 plugged in to an old 500 meg AMD machine I had
lying around. Got a Joe Meek VC3q and a Behringer (yes, I know!) B2 mic. Monitored through a
little Sony Hi-FI system. Quickly discovered the mix transportation issues that were inevitable
with this setup and learned how to compensate for it. First upgrade to that was a Phillips CD
recorder to master to via a Behringer Composer Pro. The Composer Pro is a very nice piece of
gear and is still working all these years later. Not that it ever gets used anymore. Did some
reasonable stuff with this rig two or three years until the disk crashed. No, I didnt have any
backups. So those old songs can not be tweaked. Bummer. Looking back, this was the most
productive period, I'm determined to change that...
Upgraded the pc at that stage to an AMD Athlon XP 2.4. The Win98 from the old system would
not install on the new mobo. Bought an OEM XP and then discovered that the U-8 support was
less than brilliant. Cant remember exactly why now but it didnt work properly. Got a Tascam
US428 and started playing with Cubase at 24 bit which was OK except that all of a sudden
there was 'something' I just didn't like when mixing. I could not get on with it at all.. So later went
for a legal Sonar Producer 6 which mixed the same files no problem. So 16bit U8 Cubasis was
OK, Sonar 6 is OK, 24 bit Cubase was not OK. But remember this is just my own opinion. I'm
not the only one though.. The US428 broke in the summer heat and had to be replaced.
Monitoring with Sonar and the US428 does not seem to work as well as with Cubase, so got a
Behringer 1U 8 channel stereo mixer and can now monitor realtime OTB, and have all the
various bits selectable on the front panel...
A good friend recommended Yamaha MSP5 monitors so got a pair of those. They cured the mix
transportation problem for sure but it was a long time before I actually liked anything I was
hearing on them. They do say that like the NS10's, if you can get a good mix on them it will be a
good mix anywhere. That seems to be true as far as I can tell.
Soon began to run out of steam on the Athlon XP and decided to take the plunge to Quad Core.
Have used loads of Asrock mobos before with no problem, but the 4-core dual sata was a
disaster... Beware the Via chipset!. Finally have a Gigabyte P35 S3G which is brilliant.
One Birthday present was a UAD-1 flexi pak. BIG WOW. Recently got another 2 cards second
user so can really crank up the plugins. The Pultec is amazing. The 33609 is always in the
master bus, and the 88RS are used anytime there is a voice or a guitar..
It was the 3 UAD's that finally exposed how pants the Asrock mobo was.. I'm sure it's the Via
chipset.. The details are long and too boring. Just avoid..
Started doing an acoustic guitar instrumental a while ago, all this did was expose the
weaknesses of the mics I was using at the time.. Now have AT4033 which is fantastic.. Picked
up a Focusrite mic pre and now that is sorted.. Reflexion filter is as good as everyone says..
Feel close to being able to concentrate on the music again, actually the song I wrote off the top
of my head just to test the system throughput is looking very promising. Finally, have replaced
the US-428 with an M Audio ProjectMix IO, it's a fantastic piece of kit..
lying around. Got a Joe Meek VC3q and a Behringer (yes, I know!) B2 mic. Monitored through a
little Sony Hi-FI system. Quickly discovered the mix transportation issues that were inevitable
with this setup and learned how to compensate for it. First upgrade to that was a Phillips CD
recorder to master to via a Behringer Composer Pro. The Composer Pro is a very nice piece of
gear and is still working all these years later. Not that it ever gets used anymore. Did some
reasonable stuff with this rig two or three years until the disk crashed. No, I didnt have any
backups. So those old songs can not be tweaked. Bummer. Looking back, this was the most
productive period, I'm determined to change that...
Upgraded the pc at that stage to an AMD Athlon XP 2.4. The Win98 from the old system would
not install on the new mobo. Bought an OEM XP and then discovered that the U-8 support was
less than brilliant. Cant remember exactly why now but it didnt work properly. Got a Tascam
US428 and started playing with Cubase at 24 bit which was OK except that all of a sudden
there was 'something' I just didn't like when mixing. I could not get on with it at all.. So later went
for a legal Sonar Producer 6 which mixed the same files no problem. So 16bit U8 Cubasis was
OK, Sonar 6 is OK, 24 bit Cubase was not OK. But remember this is just my own opinion. I'm
not the only one though.. The US428 broke in the summer heat and had to be replaced.
Monitoring with Sonar and the US428 does not seem to work as well as with Cubase, so got a
Behringer 1U 8 channel stereo mixer and can now monitor realtime OTB, and have all the
various bits selectable on the front panel...
A good friend recommended Yamaha MSP5 monitors so got a pair of those. They cured the mix
transportation problem for sure but it was a long time before I actually liked anything I was
hearing on them. They do say that like the NS10's, if you can get a good mix on them it will be a
good mix anywhere. That seems to be true as far as I can tell.
Soon began to run out of steam on the Athlon XP and decided to take the plunge to Quad Core.
Have used loads of Asrock mobos before with no problem, but the 4-core dual sata was a
disaster... Beware the Via chipset!. Finally have a Gigabyte P35 S3G which is brilliant.
One Birthday present was a UAD-1 flexi pak. BIG WOW. Recently got another 2 cards second
user so can really crank up the plugins. The Pultec is amazing. The 33609 is always in the
master bus, and the 88RS are used anytime there is a voice or a guitar..
It was the 3 UAD's that finally exposed how pants the Asrock mobo was.. I'm sure it's the Via
chipset.. The details are long and too boring. Just avoid..
Started doing an acoustic guitar instrumental a while ago, all this did was expose the
weaknesses of the mics I was using at the time.. Now have AT4033 which is fantastic.. Picked
up a Focusrite mic pre and now that is sorted.. Reflexion filter is as good as everyone says..
Feel close to being able to concentrate on the music again, actually the song I wrote off the top
of my head just to test the system throughput is looking very promising. Finally, have replaced
the US-428 with an M Audio ProjectMix IO, it's a fantastic piece of kit..
About Us
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |