Mornats

[quote name='Steelyad' timestamp='1480794068' post='3187238'] It's supposed to do that, it's disengaging the audio drivers. If you don't want it to do that, you can change it in the settings [/quote] I couldn't track down anything in the settings to do that, it was driving me mad! It's strange as it's never done that before but a restart of the PC sorted it out.

Voted. Well done all!

Panic over, I restarted my PC and it's all good now. Still don't know why it happened!

This is strange as it's only just started happening. I'm playing audio in Reaper and if I alt-tab out it will mute the sound until I alt tab back into Reaper. I'm running Reaper through my Focusrite Forte and my PC is set to use the onboard Asus Xonar Essence. Usually I can alt tab out fine. It's really annoying as I use the Forte Control software to manage the volume so I have a need to alt tab out. And like I said, it's never done this before now so I'm not sure why it's happening. Any help? I'm running the latest version of Reaper on Win 10.

Got some time tonight to spend some time listening to these.

Some of us are British and trains running on time is just not the done thing! Sorry* (* Another British thing: say sorry all the time.)

I remember being completely unable to get a free Waves plugin licensed through Waves Central and gave up on them completely. I totally understand developers needing to protect their software (and I'm proud to say that everything on my PC is legit) but at times it feels like we're being punished for being honest.

Rockfordstone and christofloffer - hang in there guys and hope to hear some tunes from you both when you're ready.

It was between the Yamaha HS7 and the Adam F5 for me. I'd have gone with the Adam F7 but they were out of my budget Between the Adam F5 and the Yamahas the Yamahas won due to their flat response and the fact that they exposed the sound more. The Adams sounded nicer to listen to but I wanted that clarity over nice for mixing.

I've just upgraded from a pair of M-audio BX5a Deluxes to Yamaha HS7s. The larger speakers on the yammys give me the bass that I was lacking on the M-audios but also, their have a fairly flat response. Anything I mix on the yammys tends to sound good on my M50x headphones and hi-fi (and pretty much everything else).

There's a bass on this page that caught my eye initially as I was interested in a Fender VM jazz that looked like my Squier VM Jazz: http://www.bassdirect.co.uk/bass_guitar_specialists/Fender_Stock.html

Little update on this. After a week of having them the sound has improved noticeably! I was a little disappointed that I couldn't hear as much bass as I did in the shop but after a few days of playing music through them it's now there! Apparently they like a bit of that mythical burn in! I also mixed my last track for the comp challenge using them and when I listened to it on my hi-fi and headphones it sounded right. Previously it sounded totally different to what it did on my M-audio's. So I'm still very please with them Pic: [attachment=232194:yamahas.jpg]

Whilst there's nothing on the IZotope website about Ozone Elements TIme+Space have it on their site and have a walkthrough video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k95KhXtQsqU To be honest I'm underwhelmed. For just under £80 you get a bunch of presets and a couple of sliders for the amount of EQ or dynamics to apply. That looks far too basic for the money to be honest. Ozone 7 is on sale for £140 which seems far better value. I think I'll give it a miss.

The killer features in Neutron are the EQ learn feature which gives you a starting point for frequencies that may need attention, the dynamic EQ that can be side-chained and the masking feature that lets you compare EQ clashes between two tracks that have Neutron on. This last feature has really helped me separate choirs from strings so you can hear both clearly. A lot of people on VI Control still prefer FabFilter though. I'm not keen on the compressor in Neutron as I'm getting good results from NI's Solid Bus Comp and tend to favour that and Supercharger GT. I'm also playing more with their VC range of compressors. The exciter in Neutron is nice but it's the exciter I have so I can't compare it. Transient shaper is also nice for adding sharp impact to drums. And as already shown, I can't figure out the limiter at all lol

Haha stalker That was my latest track for the comp challenge. The first two thirds are quiet and the last bit loud and I was having trouble with the last bit clipping over the limiter hence the post on VI control

Ozone Elements has been announced but no info page on it yet, it was just in the T+S newsletter. Nectar Elements has been out for a while now. I'll take a squizz at that PDF, cheers. Oh, and I'm not one to squeeze a track to death with loudness I do like a bit of dynamic range.

Just got word via a Time+Space newsletter that Izotope are releasing Ozone Elements on the 15th November. No word yet as to what it contains but it could be quite an affordable route into mastering. So my question is, what's the difference between mastering and using a something like Ozone or Neutron on the master buss of your track to provide EQ and compression? I seem to be getting on ok with either Neutron or a compressor, EQ and limiter on the master buss of my tracks but this next stage of mastering eludes me completely.

Just uploaded an update to mine. I fixed some "ew" moments in the choir and balanced out the volume at the end. It came in rather heavy originally! Solid Bus Comp replaced the compressor in Neutron as I find it provides nice easy and good sounding results pretty much all of the time.

Here's mine: https://soundcloud.com/mornats/eleven-eleven This track contains a dramatic increase in volume as it progresses - watch your speakers and ears. This is both an entry into the November Basschat composition challenge and a reminder of the loss during world wars. I went for a representation of the contrast between the dove in the one hand and the tank that the holder of the dove is sitting in. I had in my mind the sound of relative peace between battles and someone humming a melody with a hint of sadness. Ceres from Auddict provides the humming melody (and is a great vocal library). I went for a sombre slow beat in the background. I did this by taking one of the midi files from Apocalypse Elements and putting it into EZDrummer. I then used the edit play style feature to reduce the number of beats to give it a sparse feel. This was dropped back into Reaper on the Apocalypse Elements track. Later on in the track the full beat returns so this acted as build up to it. Additional shaker percussion was provided by the Latin Percussion EZX. It's time to mention the chord structure. It's Am Am7 Dm DM7 with an interlude of an Am maj7 then it mixes the chords around into Dm Dm7 and Am7 before ending on an Emsus4. This is quite a departure from my usual basic chords and helps it to sound unsettling and uneasy. The melody that accompanies the humming is a plucked guitar sound and a piano. The plucked guitar is a £2 Moon Guitar from Spitfire Audio and is part of their Spitfire Labs series. The piano is a mix of The Giant from Native Instruments' Komplete and my favourite piano - Sound Dust Plastic Ghost Piano which fills out the mellow bottom end of the piano sound. Kirk Hunter's Solo Strings provide a very light orchestral feel and is joined by brass and winds from Miroslav Philharmonik. Good use of the expression slider helps both parts fade in and out. Later on I added the snare drum to the percussion to give the track a more military feel. These were all played by hand on my midi keyboard on a separate track as a midi send to the main Apocalypse Elements track. Build ups come from NI's Rise and Hit and lead into synths from Massive and underscore from Evolve Mutations. Evolve Mutations also provide the synth drums at the end of the track and consists of three separate tracks. NI's Transient Master controls the room sound on the percussion to help the snare sombre. NI's RC48 reverb is used on the master channel to help put everything in the same space and Izotope's Neutron provides the EQ, compression, exciter and limiter to hold everything together. Reaper, as always is my DAW of choice here. This is the first track that I mixed on my Yamaha HS7 studio monitors. To enhance the contrast between the peaceful and the wartime themes in the picture the track builds up in volume quite dramatically into a hard-hitting percussive onslaught that ends suddenly with a return of the soft piano as the final few notes play out. It tries to represent soldiers taking a rest in between battles before being ambushed in a a short intense attack. The final few notes happen after the shells stop falling.

Nice site And you look *nothing* like your avatar which is disappointing

Yeah, when I was testing them last week I couldn't hear bass when I knew there was some in there! I actually picked up a pair of Yamaha HS7s today and have just set them up. They're very clear and fairly flat as far as I can hear. No booming bass at lower listening levels but it's there and I can hear it. When I put my ATH-M50x headphones on I can hear the thumping bass more clearly but these aren't flat headphones. I'm finding that I can get the bass right on the monitors then when I listen on the headphones it's thumping like it should on a hi-fi system. The HS7s are a descendant of the HS10s so they're harsh (as a monitor should be?) and not for general listening or enjoyment of music. You can sure tell the difference between a well mixed some and something a numpty like me has knocked up. I totally understand why some people would hate this but it works for me I got mine in white as they didn't have any black ones in stock so they're looking proper bling too!

I had a listen to a few sets of speaks in BopDJ and PMT today. Over in BopDJ I tried the KRK Rokit 6 briefly before ruling them out as having far too much bass enhancement. Also tried a pair of Mackie MR6 which has less bass enhancement than the KRKs but it was still fuller and more rounded than I felt it should be on a monitor. Finally, I tried the Yamaha HS7 and the bass was spot on and they had a more bare, exposed sound to them which is just what you want in a monitor. I tried the HS5 too but they lacked bass (although had more than my M-audios). Over to PMT and I demoed the HS5 against the Adam Audio F5 and was very impressed with the bass from the 5" cone on the Adams. They didn't have a pair of Yamaha HS7s out to test against the Adam F5 but it's down to these two for me. I still think the larger cone on the HS7 would be better than the smaller ones but the size of the Adams were more appealing and still had good bass. The Adams didn't sound as harsh and as revealing as the Yamahas but I think monitors need to be harsh and revealing. I'm popping over to PMT with the car tomorrow and I'll see if I can get some HS7s out for an A/B test with the Adams and I'll walk away with one of those - the Yamahas are my favourite at the moment I think.

Yeah I hear really good things about them. How have you got yours positioned? I've been reading up on them and Yamaha recommend a minimum of 1.5 metres from the wall which would put them almost centre in my room and just wouldn't work at all.

Actually, that's a good thing to test. (I also thought, hmm could it be my interface? Nah, same issue on my old Guitar Rig Session interface.) So, dramatic pause whilst I check.... Nope, still a lack of bass from the front. The woofer is vibrating, just no audible lower tones from it. Thanks for the tip though, I'd not considered them possibly being out of phase.

Hoping you guys can help me with this one. I have a pair of M-audio BX5a Deluxe studio monitors that I'm not happy with. Problem is that they have an almost complete lack of bass. I'm trying to figure out if this is due to the monitors and their frequency range, a problem with the monitors or my room. Here's what I've discovered so far: Stated frequency range of the monitors: 56hz - 22,000hz Using a range of test frequencies available here [url="http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzFvCAfIq7a2SIBfDhpCytfJ4RHVb_KLY"]http://www.youtube.c...pCytfJ4RHVb_KLY[/url] (it's a playlist so may not embed) I can hear barely anything up until 75-80hz. My room acoustics aren't great, as per most living room acoustics. When playing the 20-20,000hz sweep from the above playlist there's nothing up to about 75-80hz, a rise in volume at 95hz, a dip around 115hz and a big dip around 145hz. I've tried moving the monitors around the room with changes happening to the above but it seems that any reduction around 95hz that I gain I tend to lose out with an added dip at 145hz. I'm doing these tests purely by ear so they're far from scientific but it's my ability to hear with my ears and not a calibrated mic that I'm interested in anyway. Interestingly, if I move my head to the rear port I can hear 60-80hz quite well but it dies almost completely when putting my ear to the front woofer. (At this close range would room acoustics play a part in this or not?). It's not just on a sine wave, I have a track that's very bass heavy with a low pulsing bass synth in it that exhibits the same issues. I've ruled anything else by listening to the same track and frequency sweep using the same audio interface but through my ATH-M50x headphones and there's plenty of bass there. A few other things that may help. They sitting on isolation pads on top of speaker stands. Currently they're only 6 inches from the wall (centre of the wall looking down the longest end of the room). I've tried them all the way out to around 36 inches from the wall with only the variations I mentioned above. I've tried them almost flat to the wall too but nothing gives them bass below 80hz. If the problem's with my monitors then I was considering upgrading them anyway but there's no point in upgrading if it's my room. On that note, I'm looking at around £350 budget with the Yamaha HS7 and KRK Rokit 6 GS3 as the forerunners. The KRKs may be best as they're front-ported but tend to be a bit more coloured than the likes of the Yamaha. I won't buy without listening first but PMT and the newly opened BopDJ in Bristol have several pairs of monitors I can listen to. Totally open to anything in my budget that sounds good. Edit: playing a track through my hi-fi and the right amount of bass is there. This is Reaper > Asus Xonar Essence STX soundcard > Rotel RA930AX amp > Tannoy E11 speakers (6" cone compared to the 4.5" on the M-audio).