Mornats

Wow those Solo Strings sound way better than in the demos! Glad you convinced me to buy them

Cool actually for the same price there's a 10 channel Allen and Heath Zed10 (not a Z-R though which I guess makes a difference). http://www.thomann.de/gb/allenheath_zed10.htm. Worth looking into!

Yeah I've been looking at Olympus Elements and will grab it if it's on sale. Storm Choir admits that it's for epic soundtracks and that's why there's no fff. It sounds good and would compliment something like Olympus quite well. I think I'll grab the strings anyway. Bargain at that price and like you say, they'll probably sit on top of other strings quite well. For the sake of my bank balance I should really unsubscribe from this thread!

Nice! I'll give some of those a go

My thumb is fine on the Standard P as I can rest it on the pickup. But a thumb rest in the 50's Squire would definitely have been am option. Still, it got me to pick up the MIM P bass to try and I'm glad I did!

I wonder if something like this http://usa.yamaha.com/products/live_sound/mixers/analog-mixers/mg_xu_model/mg10xu/?mode=model - one of Yamaha's fairly cheap mixing desks would do the same thing as the Z-R16, although not as good quality I'd imagine. £150 for one of those.

Heh, I ended up going for Storm Choir in the VST Buzz sale instead! http://vstbuzz.com/deals/60-off-storm-choir-1-by-strezov-sampling/. It's exactly the sort of epic choir/chanting that I've been after for ages. I did a run through of all the string libraries that I have at the moment and I've got: Session Strings Pro Miroslav Philharmonik Sampletank 2.5L and 3 (the cut down version of 3) Action Strings Kontakt Factory Library Embertone Intimate Strings Lite Pocket Blakus Solid State Symphony (including Solid State Strings) Spitfire Labs Hensons Frozen Strings and Scary Strings I think I'm strung out! Solo Strings do sound good but I have a fair few similar-sounding libraries. Let me know if the articulations and key-switching capabilities are good though as that can make a big difference.

Nice, I was looking around for a solo strings/violin VST just this morning! I really like the Friedlander Violin from Embertone but it's $125 and I didn't want to spend that much as I've got strings as part of Kontakt, Sampletank and of course Session Strings Pro. I don't have a dedicated solo strings VST that can do some of the articulations in Solo Strings though so for $20 I may just get it. I'm listening to some of them just now and they sound just as good as Chris Hein Solo Violin, Cinesamples Solo Strings and the like.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1463769612' post='3053993'] You got me here under false pretences! I want my money back! [/quote] Oh if anyone's wondering what this is about, I accidentally posted just the word "hi-fi" in my original post

I'll have to rethink the position of my desk if I get some speaker stands as I've checked and there's not a lot of room around there at the moment. But I'm definitely thinking it'll be a good idea. One thing to consider, and this will probably make audiophiles cringe, but my studio monitors are sat on top of my hi-fi speakers. Lack of space again. The DAC in my Asus Xonar soundcard is bloody good, quite likely better than the one from Maplin and definitely better than the one in my premium Asus motherboard so I think that would be the best one to stick with. And come to think of it, it cost almost double the price difference between the Marantz 5005 and the 6005 (the one with the DAC) so I'm guessing it may be better quality than the Marantz DAC. Cheers for your comments I think I'm settled on favouring the 5005 and some speaker stands and a bit of a shuffle around of my desk.

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1463770529' post='3054003'] If that's the only factor, then I'd take the RCA route, mostly because it leaves the future open, as RCA gear is rife. Unless you can convince yourself that you can actually hear an improved (or less degraded..?) signal with the Cirrus Logic DAC over the Burrs-Brown, and that this difference is worth £100..? Only you can really call that, of course, but I wouldn't bet on my old ears picking up anything different between 'em. Not helping much, eh..? [/quote] Good point. I forgot to mention that most of the music I listen to is via Spotify so any subtle differences will probably be lost by the compression anyway. Although I do check any music that I create by going through my soundcard, amp and speakers. So I do tend to listen to 24 bit uncompressed audio too but as I'm checking it to see what it sounds like on a hi-fi system I'm more interested in the hi-fi sound than the pristine quality. I'm veering towards the 5005... [quote name='taunton-hobbit' timestamp='1463770785' post='3054009'] I hate to be an old cynic (but I will...) - there to me is a difference between 'liking' what you hear out of a system, and struggling to hear the second cellist on the right picking his nose................. [/quote] Ah yes, I wouldn't disagree with that. I'm aiming at the budget end so I'm not that much of an audiophile. My main concern is that it sounds at least as good as my current system. I was able to spot the difference between Skol's cryptic audio test over in the recording section using my current setup. I'm used to hear clear audio but there is definitely a point where I can't hear the difference between higher end systems at all. Speaking of Skol, he did mention that a set of speaker stands made the world of difference to his setup and mine are currently sat on my desk to maybe the 5005 and a set of stands is the way to go.

It's interesting how others, including yourself, can't hear the difference as clearly as I did! I'll see if I can get any good quality tapes for my Tascam, or maybe I can just take a line out to my Focusrite Forte perhaps... I'll report back once I've had a go.

Could have been worse. I could have tweeted my own name

I need some advice on upgrading my current hi-fi amp/receiver. Here's my setup: Rotel RA-930AX amp Tannoy E11 speakers (bi-wired and sealed - bit of a custom job by the Tannoy rep ) Source: Mostly PC through an Asus Xonar Essence STX I've had the Rotel and the Tannoy's for around 25 years and they've sounded great to me. I'm also extremely familiar with the sound after all this time. I'm only thinking of upgrading as my amp is starting to blow the same fuse over and over which results in horrid crackling and no audio from one speaker. I've replaced the fuse a couple of times which fixes the problem for a while but now I think I'm going to have to admit defeat and retire my faithful friend. I'm currently looking at the Marantz PM5005 and the Marantz PM6005 as my upgrade route. There's about £100 difference in price (£165 vs £250). I plan to take my current amp and speakers into Richer Sounds and audition both amps to see which is best. I'll be open to auditioning others too. So anyway, my question lies with the source that I'll be feeding into the amp. Most of what I listen to is played through my PC. Before you cringe, this isn't going through any crappy onboard sound. My motherboard claims that the onboard sound is best in class (I have an Asus Maximus Ranger VII) but the reality is that it's pants. So I use an Asus Xonar Essence STX. The sound is amazing. The main difference between the Marantz 5005 and the 6005 is that the 6005 has an optical in and a good DAC. My soundcard has an optical out so that would seem like the best option. However, the soundcard also has a very good Burrs-Brown DAC with swapable opamps. I can't really take my PC into Richer Sounds to demo the difference between RCA output from the soundcard using the Burrs-Brown DAC vs. going through the optical out and using the 6005's Cirrus Logic DAC. I don't want to spend £100 on a DAC that doesn't offer anything better than my current one. So, any ideas if using the soundcard's DAC via the RCA connection to the 5005 would be any different to using the soundcard's optical out and going into the 6005's DAC via an optical connection? Cable quality plays a part in the RCA connection but I've got a high quality Cambridge Audio connector cable which should hopefully mitigate some/most of that maybe?

Bit late to the party here but I've had a listen to them both and I voted for number 2 as by far and away the clear winner. I'm listening through my PC using an Asus Xonar Essence STX soundcard (blooming awesome quality) into my 25 year old Rotel RA-930AX amp then into my 25+ year old custom wired and sealed Tannoy E11s. I've had that amp and speakers for 25 years so I'm very used to the sounds that come out of it. I also use it as my second set of mixing speakers as it's more hi-fi than my monitors but still separates the sound out and is crystal clear with the right source. So, I picked 2 as the instruments simply sat in their own space whilst still being glued into the one track. The bass was clear in T2 whereas in T1 there was a lot more mix glue that took away the definition in the lower frequency ranges. I was struggling to pick out the instruments from each other in T1 but T2 had them all displayed nicely to me. I wonder... I have an old Tascam Portastudio 424 that my uncle gave me a few years ago. It's only been used once in the 90s and is in pristine nick. Would I get the same effect if I sent some tracks into this and bounced it down onto tape before bringing it back into my DAW? Would I get some tape compression on it too?

[quote name='lowdown' timestamp='1462817318' post='3045974'] Blimey, how many VST's? If you had been related to Tchaikovsky, I suppose you might have used some canons as well. (It does sound good though). [/quote] Ooh, cannons... let me check my VST list...

I've updated mine slightly as I found the vocals from Vocalise were clipping a bit. Couldn't figure out where until I checked an EQ on the master channel that was pushing some frequencies above and beyond.

I did that with a Squire VM jazz

[quote name='Geek99' timestamp='1462683828' post='3044829'] And a rounded shape so he cant rest thumb on it is how I read it [/quote] Aye, it had a more rounded shape and sat closer to the strings so I couldn't rest my thumb on it like I usually do on a P or a J. I probably would have bought it otherwise. Still, I'm totally happy with my P I'm going to wait until the strings are completely dead before putting the Elixirs on but they've been on since September and just sound better and better as they fade!

Bit of a resurrection of this post with an update. This is now definitely my number 1 bass. I just love it. Interestingly, as the strings on it die off it sounds better and better. I've had a set of Elixirs waiting to go on this since October and they're still sat in their packet. I played this at Mr Wolf's in Bristol a few weeks ago through my MarkBass CMD 121P and the bass player for the next band complimented me on the sound of it

Finished mine today So, I went for the obvious - a sci-fi style affair, a fairly slow one with a variety of instruments - like I'd ever stick to a few instruments! My favourite being the Sound Dust Ghost Piano, a fantastic sounding instrument. My MIM precision sounds rather nice on this too (as the strings get older it sounds better and better). I held off on my usual overuse of EQ and compression and it really helped on this. https://soundcloud.com/mornats/the-living-night

I was at the Louisiana in Bristol about 3 years ago and me and a mate just turned up on a whim to see who was playing without knowing who was on. We caught an act called Lionface who were really good (one of my favourite local bands now) and I got chatting to the bass player. Their singer overheard us talking about basses and chatted to me for about half an hour about bass stuff. Turns out she was Kat Marsh, ex-bass player for the The King Blues. Bloody lovely person she is (and I have both of her Lionface albums signed by her now!).

Yeah sorry, I should have mentioned it only runs in the full version of Kontakt. Most of the cheaper ones need the full version due to the licencing costs of making them work in the free player.

Actually I've just taken a few bars out and shortened a part that in hindsight was a bit too drawn out anyway. So now it nicely fades out to bang on 5 mins! Having restrictions can help! Just the mixing to go now The bass fills out my monitors a lot which means I probably shouldn't put it through my hi-fi speakers just yet just in case...

Almost got mine at the stage where I'm happy and start mixing it. Only trouble is that it's 7.5 seconds too long! I'll see if I can swipe a couple of bars out of it...