Pro Audio, Music & Mac Blog

The much anticipated PCIe version of Universal Audio’s popular UAD (DSP powered plug in card) has arrived.

Many Digital Performer users have been anxiously awaiting this release.

Universal Audio has posted a new video about the card here:

Universal Audio | Expert PAK | Tips & Tricks

Washington Post has a nice obituary about the writer of the best column in Mix magazine, Steven St. Croix:

Sound Expert Steven Marshall; Turned Tinkering Into a Career

I certainly never knew he was responsible for Darth Vader’s voice…

I’ve been really jonesing to get my hands on one of the new TASCAM DM-3200 mixers.

The question remains whether or not it’s DAW control is functional as it needs to be. In terms of I/O and audio functionality it looks great but how does it sound?

Check out this fantastic new CD by Rob “Blastula22222″ Laufer – a regular MOTU-MAC / Unicornation contributor.

It was produced nearly entirely in DP and showcases Rob’s incredible songwriting / lyrical chops and production skill. Note, Rob’s track “In The Frame” is used in HP’s critically acclaimed “picture frame” television ad campaign.

Here’s what Rob had to say about it: “My new CD was recorded and mixed entirely in DP (except for tracks 5, 6 , 7 & 11). It was mastered at Capitol by Mark Chalecki.”

This CD is a perfect example of what’s possible with talent and Digital Performer!

You can find more info about Rob and his music at his very cool website: www.roblaufermusic.com

LOL – This clip demonstrates the factual proof that John Lennon actually invented the iPod. Absolutely brillliant, especially the accents and mannerisms of the Fabs.

Can you describe what it is about the DP experience that you feel is superior?

In short, sound quality, interoperability, ease and power of editing, scalability/open-endedness.

At the cost of rock-solid, never-fail, dedicated-box reliability – although that difference becomes negligible if you dedicate/prioritize the Mac to audio.

Computers fuck up. Fact of life. Hardware boxes fuck up too, just less often. Anything with a hard drive in it is susceptible to disk crashes and such. Buy enough RAM and hard drive space and you greatly minimize those factors on a Mac. RAM is the NUMERO UNO upgrade to make to any Mac (or
computer at all, really).

What about the user interface?

DP is a very customizable workspace that adapts and adjusts to your needs/wants/workflow in a variety of ways. You set up the windows you want, where you want, how you want, on as many monitors as you want, as big or as small as you want – and you can just save the screensets and switch them around as needs dictate. Try that on a VS or any all in one box.

What effects are easily (i.e. cheaply) available?

Any MAS plug in, including lots of built-in effects, some of which actually sound quite good.

Masterworks EQ is marvelously good and I use it on everything from mixing to mastering.

Cheaply available are any plug ins that count, really. There’s a MAS or AU version of nearly anything and DP natively supports both. They also run VST plug ins using a “wrapper” software you can buy and install.

Are there Melodyne-like plugins? Autotune?

Funny you mention Melodyne, DP features built-in, non-destructive pitch correction and automation very similar to Melodyne, very similar.

And, yes, both Melodyne and AutoTune are fully supported widely used.

> I really wish I could see it in action.

Any major music chain store will have a copy to show you. I’d be pretty surprised if they didn’t have it running somewhere (er, no, I wouldn’t but that’s another post!). Unfortunately or wisely depending on your point of view, MOTU has never made a demo available. They view AudioDesk that comes with the hardware as the demo, I suppose (and it pretty much is).

One reason it attracts me is the idea of carrying a laptop around with me rather than a big dedicated box.

Mhmmm. ABSOLUTELY. One of the major reasons to get out of the box and into the Mac with your audio. It all usually ends up in a computer eventually nowadays anyway, why resist the inevitable? – grin -

HeadRoom – The ultimate headphone store!

Just happened to stumble across this link and thought it was a pretty cool site. You’ve got a detailed listing of several popular brands, though the ubiquitious Sony 7506 is missing as are ALL Sony cans..

They’ve got ear buds to closed design studio headphones. Check it out:

http://www.headphone.com

Part 2 of a series of topical posts from the NextList – Logic vs. DP

>>> It shouldn’t frighten you but it IS definitely more of a pain in the ass in
>>> some fundamental ways (like setting up your Environment).

>> I’ve been spending time at the Logic and DP boards. Dp users all say this.
>> I’ve only met one Logic user who ever uses the environments.
>> Seriously almost no one ever uses them. Apparently in DP5 , there are
>> easier ways to accomplish the same things.

For a long time, Environments were the only way to set things up, I guess maybe that’s been changed in version 7? The last version of Logic I had was 4 or 5 several years ago on OS9. Whole different ball game under OS X with
CoreAudio and CoreMIDI, I presume.

Another thing that’s incredibly important is the way DP allows you to manage projects. It’s really very slick working with different sequences and Quicktime video and chunks (”chunks” are basically your cues or chunks of music).

> “> And I’ve got to tell you–the bundle that comes with Logic 7.2–the sounds
> and the effects–are really stunning and very useful for what I hope to do.
>
> Absolutely. This is the real strength of Logic Pro, IMO. It oughtta be though,
> for the cost differential.”
>
> I think a decent convultion reverb is worth a few hundred bucks, and it’s far
> from the only cool plug. The sampler seems excellent and pretty intuitive to
> me.

That’s an excellent point, I forgot about that plug… Though, once you’ve heard Altiverb, there IS no other convolution reverb anymore. Heh.

Audioease is a great company and make other great plug ins too, btw. Check them out.

> “Additionally, you’ll really need to add some crucial must have plug ins to
> either (you can use them with either, too as they both support AU format
> natively so buy it once, use it anywhere).
>
> What do you think this would entail? I really have no idea. I think between my
> normal acoustic sounds (created while I’m actually playing, I mean) plus some
> ear candy, I’ll be set with the internal sounds of Logic. The verb is lovely
> and seems very usable, but then I do good work with the Roland verbs. The
> guitar amp plug sounds good to me, but I’m not that demanding. I don’t do my
> own mastering at this time. What else is there?

I happen to really like some of the Logic plugs, for compression and eq. particularly. They are clean, and just work easily. There’s one EQ called FatEQ that came with WaveBurner that I was in LOVE with. That said, sometimes, you just have to try different flavored plug ins to find the right one for the sound. For example, DP’s KICK ASS MasterworksEQ is stellar. However, it is not the only EQ I will use for any given production because I know that I have RenEQ handy, VintageWarmer’s super sweet high end is incredible, etc. Calling plug ins up is the same whether you instantiate a built-in Logic or DP plug in or choose a third party one instead and, well, you’ll see… You’ll want a nice long menu to choose from. -grin-

> I’m not arguing strongly for Logic, just saying that to find better sounds
> than what I’ve heard would require effort that I’d rather spend learning a
> platform right now.

There is much to be said for Logic’s efficiency versus DP’s CPU bloat. And, again, Logic is available right NOW. DP is eh… Jul…August…

Here is part one in a series of topical posts I responded to on the NextList recently.

Part 1 – Which IntelMac to get, MacBook Pro or iMac Core Duo?

I’ve already ordered a MacBookPro, 17″ 2.16Ghz, 100 gig 7200 rpm drive with 2 gigs of RAM. HOWEVER…

Nice… It’s a fast PC too if you load XP via Boot Camp (from all reports I’ve read).

Yesterday my wifes’ ancient PC died, and I bought her a 17″ 1.83 Ghz iMac Core Duo (Intel). It has a 160 gig drive (also 7200 rpm) and 512 mb of RAM, upgradeable to 2 gigs.

Is it good enough to score an indie film in Logic, if I keep my samples on an external drive?

Yes and no. For some people, even the fastest G5 isn’t fast enough. I am currently working on a 17″ 18Ghz G5 iMac and it’s plenty fast for full productions. Not doing any video, however.

I know it has a slower processor–1.83 vs 2.16. Are there other factors that come into play, say a desktop drive being faster than a laptop drive? Will one run hotter or quieter?

Yes, the Serial ATA drive in the iMac is definitely going to be faster than the one in the MacBook but not by a mile or anything. If you use an external FW 400 drive, you can switch between them seamlessly, actually. That’s what I did, track on my old PowerBook G4 and mix on the iMac with a FW drive bopping between garage and “studio”.

I don’t want to set myself up for increased latency or noticeably slower function. But did I mention how SEXY this thing is?

Indeed. Latency isn’t going to change between them really as you’ll set your buffers between 128 and 64 on either to minimize latency. If you’re recording an external box, there will be no latency if you monitor via the Ultalite’s CueMixDSP which is a built-in hardware playback DSP chip that sends the audio to whatever output you choose before it hits the A/D converter. So, you’ll be monitoring the live, analog audio while the signal prints.

More importantly, Logic is able to run on the IntelMacs while DP cannot YET.

I expect the universal binary of DP5 will drop at Summer NAMM in July.