Mornats

Thanks Lowdown. My main requirement is to be able to control the faders but if I could tweak EQ plugins too that would be awesome. I feel like i'm not too far from detaching myself from my PC when I'm recording and mixing! Ideal for my new room setup

That sounds like the ideal option I reckon. I recall trialling their headphone calibration software and finding that it turned my headphone response into a nice flat response. How loud is the calibration tone on it by the way? I know it's a minor consideration but one review said it was fairly loud! If I still wanted to go down the treatment route, is there a way to find out what problems my room has so I know what to prioritise fixing? That would help me decide. On another note, you may have noticed that with my new setup my listening position is away from my desk. I've been looking at Android OSC apps such as TouchOSC and OSC Commander to give me remote access to the faders in Reaper. OSC Commander seems to be the best but the demo doesn't want to install on my ageing LG G Pad. Maybe it's time for a new tablet - perhaps a switch back to Apple so I can grab iMaschine and Sampletank for iOS (sadly missing on Android due to Apple having better support for low latency music "stuff" apparently). Any experience of using an OSC app at all?

Having had a look round at different bass traps I found these: [url="http://www.auralex.com/product/cornerfills-cornerfill-cubes/"]http://www.auralex.c...rnerfill-cubes/[/url] I reckon I could easily fit some of the smaller ones in the corners of my room but it would have to be 2-3 inches thick at most to fit behind my door. I have no idea whether that would help at all or if it would be far too little. ** Edit ** a bit of Googling says no no no no no

I got myself a pair of Audio Technica ATH M50x headphones and they're fantastic. I find that room reverb sounds totally different on cans than on monitors so it's best to mix on both. I've made a mix sound good on headphones only for it to sound like I'm stood at the back of a long room when I put it on my monitors. Thanks for the link Paul. Those gobo traps wouldn't actually fit in my living room I'm afraid. I'd have to put one over the living room door and another where my desk sits. I have my TV in another corner and a door through to my kitchen in the fourth corner! Not ideal! I'd have to move them out of the way when not is use and there's no space to store them. That's the trouble with living room studios, the first sound treatment you need to apply are bass traps and a lot of rooms just don't have the space for them. Speaking of bass, my M-Audios don't pump out a lot of bass. It's audible of course but not booming.

Yeah that's what I've always been told too. The tweeters on my M-audios are just above the woofers (as most are) so I guess the article saying that having the top of the woofer at ear level isn't much different to having the tweeter at ear level. There's less than 2 inches in it on my monitors anyway!

[quote name='Burrito' timestamp='1475427629' post='3145830'] There's a whole anti-Fender snobbery on forums but a good bass is a good bass regardless of make. The trick is to play what feels right whether it is a Harley Benton or a Warwick. It stands to reason plenty of us are happy with fender, regardless of custom shop or MIM status. [/quote] I admit to have once been a bit anti-Fender myself. Then I got a Fender MIM P bass. Then I smiled and understood. And you can tear it out of my cold dead hands.

I've been meaning to sort out the sound in my room for ages now. I had my studio monitors (a pair of M-audio BX5a Deluxes) sat on top of my Tannoy E11s (my hi-fi speakers) which were sat on my computer desk. I had these positioned in the corner of my room based on advice I got to help with the stereo image. I struggled with getting accurate sounds out of them for a while, in particular the bass frequencies. Here's the before shot: [attachment=229133:studio-before.JPG] So today I popped down to PMT and bought myself a pair of Samson MS200 speaker stands and decided to rearrange my room. I've positioned my monitors on the narrow wall facing down the length of the room (room setup 101 - check!) and sat my chair in what I thought was a good position - turns out it's bang on the recommended 38% rule. Result. Both speakers are equidistant from the left and right walls and are sat 14" from the back wall. Here's the after shot: [attachment=229134:studio-after.JPG] I had a good read of this article: [url="http://arqen.com/acoustics-101/room-setup-speaker-placement/"]http://arqen.com/aco...aker-placement/[/url] which pointed me towards a handy spreadsheet that simulates the influence of wall reflections based on your speaker distances. Of course it can't guess what type of things in your room frequencies will be bouncing off but I popped in some measurements. I was quite pleased with the results. No big dips anywhere. I'll try out a room EQ wizard at some point so I can get an accurate measurement. Here's my results from the wall bounce spreadsheet: [attachment=229135:wall-bounce.PNG] The result? Everything does sound better, clearer and I'm noticing things in my tracks that I should go and fix, mostly around certain sounds at certain frequencies that are standing out a lot more than they did previously. It seems to lack a bit of bass but I put this down to the monitors as they have a 56hz cutoff and 5" drivers. Listening to Blood Sugar Sex Magick (the song) I found the bass hard to pick out. However on Portishead's Glory Box, it sounded perfect. I still need to do a lot more listening to find out if I'm getting an accurate enough sound. I'm unsure about what height I should have my speakers at. Sat in my chair I've positioned them so that me ears are just above the woofers. This puts the base of the speakers at 98cm from the floor. The article above recommends at least 120cm but that would put them way above my listening position (do studio engineers sit on high chairs?!). Next step will be acoustic treatment. I can get away with a panel on either of the side walls that I should be able to prop up on top of existing furniture and put them away when I'm done. That's all depending on where they should go but's doable. Bass traps will be tricky as like most home studio people this is my living room and it's pretty full. I'd find it very difficult to pop big bass traps in the corners. You may have noticed one small problem... when I'm listening to these speakers in this position I'm not at my computer and can't see the screen that well. I don't thing this is a bad thing. I spend most of my recording and arranging time sat in front of my Komplete Kontrol keyboard and Maschine, at least at times when listening to an accurate sound is important. I think it's also an advantage to just sit and listen and not be watching faders or EQ graphs when deciding what needs to be tweaked. Overall I'm pretty pleased with how I spent my Sunday afternoon

I'll just leave this here : http://www.findsounds.com/ISAPI/search.dll?keywords=evil+laugh

[quote name='bassinvader36' timestamp='1475323908' post='3145036'] Well Done Mornats , well deserved win Great Selection of tracks by everyone, Many thanks for all your comments . SOrry about the Length of my track, i was planning on getting more musical genres in there, but ran out of time. but its good to leave people wanting more ...... the next track will be EPIC> if i have time. well done again [/quote] Looking forward to it!

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1475277737' post='3144779'] Where's October(s picture then, eh..? Eh..? Where is it..? [/quote] I've sent it, I've sent it, call off the hounds! Thanks everyone, I'm really chuffed to bits to have won this month, especially with the quality that was on show here. It's my goal this year to enter every single composition challenge. I spent a year and a half not really doing much music stuff and wanted to get back into it and this competition always gives me the motivation and inspiration to do it. I would have been very happy to have just entered every one, let alone win any! So thanks again Also, I'd love to hear more of Bassinvader's piece. It was my favourite but only lasted 1m 40s! I neeeeeed more!

Well, that had to be the highest scoring round of them all so far! (I rate each track out of 10 to try and find 3 winners.) Some great tunes here everyone

I'm gonna have a good listen to them all tomorrow night. Really looking forward to it

I've had a play on this and it's really nice. I found that playing with the pickup switch gives you a set of sounds that replicate the common bass types. There's a P sound, A PJ sound, a J sound and an MM sound in there. Not quite replicas of the real things but a good usable range of sounds. The neck is classic P bass neck. Different to my 2015 MIM P bass slimmed-down neck. That's my P in one of the pics above for comparison to the Burns.The P may look wider but the Burns is just a bit wider than the P. It's a nice bass and looks great.

I've just uploaded a little tweak to mine. I've reduced the volume of one of the synths in the first half and turned down one of the female choirs in the second half. I also turned up the orchestral percussion near the end a bit. It's a little more balanced now I think.

[quote name='christofloffer' timestamp='1474393166' post='3137667'] i dont dispute that those sounds have places and uses. its just that the film music industry seem to have gone "ooooh! a new toy!" and shoehorned them into as much as possible and made them as loud as possible to show them off. i tried watching interstellar with headphones and nearly blew my eardrums out despite being unable to hear the dialogue. to my mind a good soundtrack should be almost entirely forgettable until after the event. at the time it should be subtle and make you really engage with the film. film scores that become iconic are usually done so by association with an iconic film/scene. it should be a whole package. as it happens i dont dislike your tune this month. the first section reminds of the playstation game "alien trilogy" soundtrack, which was one of my favourite games as a kid. there are certainly sections of the second half that are a bit more that way but its much more balanced and rhythmic. the strings may be chaotic but they follow a pulse and rhythm, whereas the insidious strings dont and are just noise. i could easily imagine it being quite effective in a horror flick. [/quote] I did post my comment with some jest I agree with you though, you can't just have huge boomy scores or screeching strings without them meaning something or relating to something. Check out the classic bike chase scene from E.T. below. This track has stuck with me since the 80s as it aurally describes the action on screen perfectly. I love how the rise and falls of the strings are synced with jumps on the bikes. [url="https://youtu.be/Ct6O2nSOMlI?t=63"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ct6O2nSOMlI&t=63[/url] Thanks for the comparison to the Alien games. I found those to be some of the scariest games around. I remember spending most of my time running backwards firing randomly into dark corners and whimpering like a little girl. I do use one of the £2 Spitfire sample libraries called Scary Strings in one part that sounds just like the Insidious strings you mentioned but I hope the use is just subtle enough.

[quote name='christofloffer' timestamp='1474363588' post='3137353'] the only bits of modern soundtracks that i honestly loath are those godawful tortured strings like the ones in insidious which just sting my ears, and that obnoxious bassy swell like the one in interstellar/dark knight/inception etc etc that has made me fear the opening scenes of many modern films. they would be fine in moderation but they are just exaggerated and irritating. [/quote] You'll hate my entry for this month's composition challenge

I watched that a few days ago. It's a really good insight into temp tracks. There's a follow-up one too which is also interesting although I can't remember where it was linked from.

Locks your doors. Turn off the lights. Put headphones on. Turn up the volume. Hide behind your pillow. Never come back. https://soundcloud.com/mornats/that-place Drums and percussion -------------------- NI Maschine Heavyocity Damage Synths and pads --------------- Heavyocity Vocalise (synth pad) Heavyocity Evolve NI Rounds Bigfishaudio Zodiac Orchestral ---------- Kirk Hunter Solo Strings NI Session Strings Pro Miroslav Philharmonik NI Action Strings NI Rise & Hit Spitfire Audio Scary Strings Choirs and voices ----------------- Strezov Sampling Storm Choir Heavyocity Evolve Operatic Choir Soundiron Olympus Elements Choir (men and women) Soundiron Sick 1 (voices and monsters) Embertone Arcane (voices and effects) Effects ------- NI Transient Master Izotope Neutrino NI Guitar Rig 5 T-racks Classic Comp NI Solid EQ NI Passive EQ NI Supercharger GT NI Reflektor Produced in Maschine and Reaper.

[quote name='lurksalot' timestamp='1474133447' post='3135873'] I think it needs some vocalisation slapped all over it now [/quote] http://soundiron.com/collections/choirs/products/elvish-choir

I've got mine done now. I'm at that "listen on every system possible" stage. I *may* have bought Olympus Elements choir for this one... (I know, I have a problem...)

Yes, I've installed 5.6 and it's quite a bit sleeker and quicker so far. No issues with it yet!

I've got mine down now pretty much. I just need to listen to it on various systems to make sure the eq and whatnot are all hunky dory and I'll be good to go. On this one I've been using my Maschine Mk II within Reaper to see how it fares. It's not too bad although there could be improvements. I have to set its track to be armed for recording otherwise there'll be huge lag. Arming it sorts that out but it does record a blank midi track in Reaper. Not a problem really, more of a niggle. I also discovered that it can output the midi for an entire group into separate tracks (16 at a time) with each track automatically set to a channel. That would be a good way to compose beats in Maschine and export them to Abbey Road drums in Kontakt or to EZDrummer.

It's tempting to tweak stuff in the software and I do it myself sometimes.It's much more satisfying to record another take and nail it though. Plus it's practice and you end up playing better as a result.

Oooh I've been gearing up to do a dark ambient spooky track. Lowdown's given us the perfect picture for it!

Well done! Superb tracks from all