My name is Paul Third and I am a Scottish mix engineer / audio geek with an honours degree in audio production.
I mostly cover audio engineering related content ranging from audio plugin shootouts / plugin comparisons to actual analog vs digital / gear vs plugins plugin tests via access analog and mix analog. I even include ddmf plugindoctor tutorials in my plugin reviews so you can be your very own plugin tester and experiment and understand whats actually going on under the hood. I also discuss digital music distribution from time to time and like to give my viewpoint on online music distributors such as onerpm and distrokid.
All of my audio blind tests involving music production software are conducted in presonus studio one which is my main daw and I also use HOFA blind test 4U as my blind test software. In terms of my audio interface I record and monitor through an universal audio apollo x6 and a topping dx7 pro+ dac/amp and use an SE dynacaster for all of my voice overs.
Sonarworks really helped me with low end. i almost had way to much low end through HP mixing. yes if i mix with sonarworks the highs are like low and undefined. i know this. but i mix and produce with em and in the end i set it off and the mix opens. then i do minor tweaking and most of the time it translates good. i have way less work with priting, testing in car, bluetooth box, go back change print and do this like 10 times. xD but im just a hobbyguy with an untreated room 😂
I tried it for the first time today on a track i love. Completely ruined the hihats for me on the track. They disappeared lol. See what you mean by hi end rolloff
I have DT880s - don't like them as they lack bass and the high end fatigues my ears. I tried Sonarworks on them and it sounded so dull and awful. The M50X I have are ok. I'm looking for one decent pair for mixing bass and kick heavy club music - house and techno. Should I get the Hifiman Nano and Realphones? Is the soundstage / instrument separation good enough or should I consider I could add a pair of mdr mv1 later. I could also stretch to the LCD X. but the weight doesn't sound ideal. I don't really want to spend £1650+ on the HE-1000. I saw there's a new pair of Hifiman called the HE1000 V3 (Stealth V2) for £1350. I'm not going to be mixing for atmos or anything like that - just stereo.
Ananda nano with harman eq will be perfect for house and techno. Best low end of any headphone I've tried But you also need to ensure that you have a good headphone amp
@@PaulThirdThanks, I’ll give them a go. I have the RME UFX III if that amp is any good in that? I do want to get a cheap small interface for my bedroom though - might get a Topping, Audient or SSL2. A lot of people seem to recommend the topping for headphones but I’m not sure about the build quality of software side of things on Mac. I did see some Hifiman XS going for only £250 if they’re more or less the same?
@MadelnMachines topping e4x4 and ananda nano. That's a perfect bedroom setup for mixing on Headphones I have the e4x4 and had no issues on windows and Mac. Used it for my podcast for months
@@PaulThirdCool, Is the RME UFX III amp I have also suitable? Does impedance in audio interfaces also affect planars? If I wanted the dedicated topping amp you have is it just a case or getting jack to rca cables out of your audio interface? I thought it might have USB but it doesn’t.
@MadelnMachines rme should be fine. Planars aren't affected by impedance but they do require a bit of gain. Thus why many use headphone amps but you should be fine with nano end ufx iii
this is still so true and great piece of content.😅 Plus this EV2 its a CPU hog..in practice, to use all across all the tracks for mix, I had to use the old one. I fallen for their BS. I should have gone with brainworx.
JJ said in his video that if he is sending to someone that is mastering the track, he turns the limiter off. But he is doing it himself then he 36:17 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-FZ7f5WYwaAY.html
They cost as my avantone abbey ..bit expensive.The Abbey is toss and bair with barefoot.I am not fan of those type of tweeters i had genelec before they are crazy fatiguing.The avantone sounds so expensive like u are in ultra hi fi cinema u can work 24 hours zero issues with fatigue
the lindell sounds dull in comparison to the acustica, BUT if you crank the THD on the lindell, you will also get the clear transients that you hear on the acustica.
@@PaulThird i agree the case with tube saturation , but i was just now checking it on a kick. Maybe its because of soft clipper option the lindell. Thanks for the videos and reply.
I liked morphit much better. Sonarworks eq correction, as you said, doesnt sound right. They make headphones sound incredibly flat (and not in the good way). It sounds boring and dead
After 15 years of mixing hybrid, I finally discovered the next level - upgrading the convertors! It's real, it's a big known thing, it's 100% better. But! It takes a long time to be able to truly appreciate and fully take advantage of them. Also, when starting out, the money is better spent on a good analog compressor, saturation & eq.
Cause is buggy as fuck evenntough i got greatest sound mixes on pro tools .For my genre tough logic and bitwig makes more sense.Logic advanced a lot and pro tools dont have any clear benefits.
I use mixcube headphones they sounds like a utter shit and if u nake something good on them it makes you shit your pants.Rest headphones will make yr mixes sound from pro to amateur exceot some supper expensive ones
There is a third party mic option in ARC4 where you can upload a cal file but I'm pretty anal so would get the mic that's custom made to work with the system. I'm unsure if the sonarworks cal file works with ARC4 as it doesn't work in REW
Nowadays.. Just pick one if you want a "neve" sound. Actually just get acustica gold or get a convolution of a neve post amp and eq before it with any eq
Yup. It's a dac and arguably one of the best measuring out there. I didn't have E30. At that time it was l30ii into audient. Dx7 pro+ has various digital inputs and can output 2 sets of speakers and 3 headphones simultaneously. It's crazy
I listened to a test where someone recorded into a cheap Tascam vs an apogee a full song, in the blind tests I kept choosing the Tascam as sounding better, seemed to have a nicer low end to it.
been an iloud fan from the first line of iloud micro. Now i have one pair of micros, two pair of mtms (mki and mkii) and i'm waiting for this new little beasts. They all translate incredible, even in untreated rooms. Can't live without them, especially the micros <3
No-one who doesn't care about how music sounds on speakers has any business whatsoever calling themselves an audiophile! A good set of speakers/monitors are the gold standard for music. Human beings haven't evolved to hear things being shouted directly in their ears (the way that headphones do) by default, for a good reason. Spacial awareness is important.
Thank you for the video! Sometimes you can only do so much room acoustic treatments specially in open concept living rooms. I'm talking about home theater setups like mine. I agree with this video you will need to compromise on certain frequency responses. Thank god for room correction software that's available for us consumers. For my front stage speakers and subs I use REW to find best placement and avoid SBIR issues as much as possible. What helps in my room, absorption panels on the front wall behind left & right speakers, and absorption/diffusion panels in first and second reflection points. I still have ceiling SBIR issues but this one will be more difficult to treat because the wife doesn't approve. I'm trying to train my brain to accept reality but there is the other part of me that want to tweak more.
I'm confused. I touched on all of that. It's all part of mixing on speakers. That's why I mentioned that I'm baffled as to why people are spending tons of money on plugins to mix with them on speakers in shitty rooms and instead of buying plugins on black Friday, look at buying a few bass traps/treatment etc. I mentioned the monitoring journey myself and Ed Thorne are on which we discuss on our podcast which has covered all of that and more in depth The whole video is about focusing on monitoring instead of plugins. All of that is part and parcel of monitoring. Just common sense
Paul may I ask the differences you see in Fairchild vs Abbey road compressors, I've got the unfairchild and royal compressor and trying to compare. mTurbocompressor too actually. Thanks
Rs124 is a relatively slow compressor all round where fairchild has an an ultra fast attack. We are talking micro second attack time of 200 or 0.2ms. with variable long release times ranging from 300ms to 5 seconds based on the time constant setting. Position 5 & 6 are program dependent which means that the release can vary from 300ms to 25 seconds or 2 seconds to 70 seconds! Very different sounding compression Position 2 on the fairchild is normally the most common as it's release time of 800ms is normally defined as the most "musical" and appropriate for most sources
@@PaulThird Nice one Paul. Yeah the more I learn about compression and limiting the higher my stuff seems to jump up in quality lately, really enjoying the journey with it!
On the ARC i have a question: the specific characteristics of an individual mic, even within the same model, will vary. For a measurement mic, every subtle variation matters, especially since we're deriving a corrective eq curve from it. Sonarworks addresses this by measuring the frequency response of every single mic they send out, and they include a serial code that identifies the measurement results as a 'calibration profile'. When the user is setting up sonar works room eq, the software asks for this code, the matching calibration profile from sonarworks is loaded, and the corrective eq curve is calculated based on the measurement of both the speaker and the microphone. I was wondering If ARC also takes into account variance between mics. If there are no identifiers included with the mic, they're probably using an average curve for the measurement mic model they provide. It's always going to be a little less precise. Practically speaking the result may still be usable, but it just means different people having more variable results
ARC mics are pretty well standardised. ARC4 takes the mic being used into consideration with it's correction. That's why it asks which mic is being used prior to calibration. However whilst the sonarworks mic will theoretically on paper offer more consistency, it doesn't make any real difference to the end result or my final conclusion so it's a moot point
Ahhh, damn, I guessed wrong. I thought they would send you a pair of precisions. But strategically it was probably wise of them, because the result/expectation ratio is best on on the small ones. I can't say I ever heard coloring on iLouds (I don't have the very small ones though). The regular MTMs (not the big Precisions) will start to fall apart in the low-lows when you push them hard enough or have the kind of 808 that hits just the frequency it can't handle well. However, I don't listen very loud and I like very flat frequency-responses - so I don't push lows or cut highs (that's just what works for me). I wonder how you'd rate the big MTMs - or any speakers from the precision series for that matter. I agree, transients are awesome on all iLouds I've heard. The bigger versions don't lack depth. But it takes a little bit of time to "figure out" depth with fast Snares or Snaps (not an issue with regular instruments). But once you do, you do (in my experience).
Hey Paul, as a long-time listener I totally agree with your comments on SW as that is also my experience. I've not used Arc but I do suggest taking a look at MathAudio Room EQ, it's unheard of but I really like clarity and tone it produces and it is very simple. There is fantastic and detailed thread on audio science review called 'Comparison of DRCs....' which concurs which much of what you've said and MathAudio fairs really well. I would definitely recommend as cheap starting point for home studios over the big named products.
Hi Paul, have you ever heard the ADAM Audio T8Vs? I have them, very satisfied with them for what they are, especially after careful time alignment & room correction (done myself in REW). I'm really curious how these iLouds would compare and whether or not they would make a good secondary monitoring setup in your opinion.
I had the MTM version and they were really good for mixing. Sadly had to sell em by covid financial problems . But im looking forward to get a new pair again. I remember i used to take em with me back and forth different houses and rooms , they always gave me the best sound after calibration. Awesome speakers 👍🏻
Thanks for the Video! - i am curious about your comparism to the HEDD Type 20 - because i finally switched from the Type 20 to Focal Shapes65 - ;) - because of translation issues and the latency of the lineariser (which i find necessary) - have a nice day!!!
