HomeStudioGuide.com - Guide to Home Studio Recording

I noticed a lot of people asking this question "How do I setup MIDI on my Mac OSX computer (Macbook, Mac Pro, or PowerPC)" so I hope to write a simple and short tutorial for this.

This procedure or steps has been tested on OSX running on PowerPC and Intel chips. It has worked from a simple 2x2 interface to a full-blown 8x8 midi router/merger interface.

1. Connect your midi interface to your Mac computer. Most probably, this will be done via USB. Some models are connected via firewire, but usually, these are combo units. i.e. audio interface and midi interface.

If you need to install drivers for your midi device, go ahead and install it and follow the manufacturer's direction. Depending on the manufacturer, it could be a simple click on a Setup program, or manually copying files to your hard drive.

2. Open up Applications > Utilities




3. Click on Audio Midi Setup.



4. Click on Midi Devices



5. At this point, if the device driver was installed successfully, (and the device is powered on), you will see it represented on your Audio Midi Setup screen.  You can change the icon representation by double-clicking on the device, and selecting a photo from the list of options provided.

Note: If you want "custom" icons for your Audio Midi Setup, I'll show that to you on another lesson.



On the above screenshot, you can see my Edirol 8x8 midi interface, and my MOTU 828mk2 audio/midi interface. For this setup, we'll just the midi ports on the Edirol 8x8 unit.

Click on "Add Device"

This is just my opinion and I'm no means the final authority.... so take my opinions and verify them with your own experience.

With compressors, the sound characteristics doesn't come from whether it uses tubes or not. You see, the tube is mainly used as a gain stage. After compressing the signal, you have reduced level, so you need some amplifying device to boost the levels up again before coming out of the equipment. This is where vacuum tubes and solid states come in.

Granted, they can *color* the sound somewhat... but coloration has little to do with whether there are tubes or not... it's got more to do with audio transformers in the signal path. With modern solid state design, they've eliminated the audio transformers for COST reason. In my DIY, transformers add about $300 minimum in parts alone to a stereo channel. Add the cost of manual labor to solder the transformer wires (because you can't automate these process) and prices go even higher.

With TRUE vacuum tube designs, because of the high voltage present, they need some way of isolating the high voltage DC from the audio signal output, and so the need for audio transformers is a MUST... not an option. Transformers also provide impedance matching and signal isolation.

Note there are solid-state design that still use audio transformers, (example: SSL, API, Neve... ever heard of those names?) and they are excellent designs. Of course, excellent prices too.  

With compressors, the more important question is the method they use to detect, and achieve their compression. Some use optical methods to detect loud material, some use solid-state method. And then, that is further subdivided whether they used JFET, or transistors, or ICs to reduce the level of the material.

Optical compression have a soft-knee response. With optical compression, you have a light that glows brightly in sync with the program material, which affects an LDR (Light Dependent Resistor) that varies the signal coming out. The famous and most revered Urei LA-2A uses optical compression.. i.e. the JBL T4B optical unit alone costs about $150. An LA-2A costs about $2300 per channel. This unit produces sound that is nice and fat... almost every pro studio have one or more of these units!

BTW, the LA-2A uses audio transformers, vacuum tubes, and optical compression! Yay! ... no wonder it sounds great. And yes it is vintage design, if you open it up, you'll just see wires criss crossing around. No PCB.

The other way of doing compression is using an IC chip (commonly called a VCA). It's usually an all-in-one unit chip that does everything. For example, THAT corp makes these chips that are used by our most loved RNC compressor. Presonus ACP-8 ($900 for 8 channels) also uses the same IC chips from THAT Corp. The RNC is pretty transparent using it's Super Nice mode. $180 for stereo channel. These units use a VCA (Voltage Controlled Amplifier) to reduce levels of the signal. The IC chips are cheap... about $2.55 per piece. HINT: if you want to build your own, using the datasheet from THAT Corp, you could be saving a lot of money.

There is also the JFET compression used by the famous 1176 compressor. The JFET in this case is used as a variable resistor to vary the gain of the device. I've never heard of an 1176 (I'm currently building one), but most pro studios have them as well in their arsenal. Cost: $1800.

All 3 methods will produce different characteristic compression. You can't say X method is better than Y... They're all good, just depends on what will sound better on the material and track you're compressing and the effect/sound character you want to achieve.

So you have thousands $$$ of dollars in audio equipment sitting in your studio. You've got Korg keyboards, AKAI samplers, a top of the line music and gaming PC, or maybe even an Apple PowerMac (or MacPro). Life is good.

But you follow the power cables and you're plugging them into a $10 Wal-mart power strip? Are you crazy?

No sir! Don't do that. If you value the investment you've put in your gear. You need better protection from the unpredictable nature of power coming from the Electric Company. You need to protect yourself from power surges, sags, AC line noise and power failures.

You need a UPS or Uninterruptible Power System. But not any $50 from the bargain bin of CompUSA will do. Some of those bargain basement prices UPS output a modified square wave. Those are fine if you're only powering a cheap white-box computer. But if you'll be connecting delicate audio equipment and beefy dual core, dual processor behemoths with multiple hard drives, you want a true SINE WAVE output UPS. These types of UPS mimics the sine wave that utility power companies send. Not some stair-step square waves.

UPS's are rated in VA (Volt-Ampere). It goes like this.... the higher the VA, the more devices you can attach to your UPS.... OR the longer it can supply power to your equipment of smaller load.  Also, depending on the size of the UPS, it may only be able to give you so many minutes to keep everything powered up (just long enough for a safe shut down). So the bigger the UPS (which means, the bigger and more batteries it has), the longer it can supply power.  Some UPS will have like 4 batteries inside them. Some will only have one (1).

For instance, an 800VA UPS may give you 10 minutes of runtime power, while a 1500VA will give you 36 minutes. But pick another 1500VA model, and it may give you up to 55 minutes of runtime.

Here's a handy UPS selector sizing guide. Just select the type of computer you have, how many monitors, hard drives you're using, etc... and it will give you a "SUGGESTION."  It's a suggestion because obviously, you can always go higher. If in doubt, pick the higher VA UPS.

Note, your exact computer model may not be shown... just pick a similar model.

What am I using here? I'm using a Back-UPS XS 1000VA just for my PowerMac G5, and two (2) Smart UPS 1400VA for my servers.

And oh... UPS don't last forever. I mean, the batteries. These batteries are rated for 3-5 years. So after that time period, I recommend you buy new batteries for your UPS.

I'm going to start posting what I call "Zoddities*"... this is a collection of cool, weird looking gadgets, gear, stuff. I think you'll enjoy reading about it or looking at the pictures.

First issue of Zoddities! Straps... i.e. Guitar straps



Made by the Eyeland company. You'd notice a lot of "eyes" appearing on their guitar straps. Kinda creeps you out. But cool anyways.

from their website:

The materials that go into Eyeland products are essential in creating the most visually striking and functional guitar straps ever!

With an extensive background in the leather and fashion industry not to mention sculptural principal and design, we seek out the absolute best of all these media. The leathers used in our straps have come from the top tanneries in the world.

Our requirements are that it has to be beautiful to the eye, wonderful to touch and able to perform. The hardware has to be up to the task. It must be top quality, compliment the design and also hold up to the rigors of the road.

The glass eyes used in some of our designs are actually hand-painted and so realistic you expect them to blink! Eyeland straps are not your typical assembly line "what ya see is what ya get" situation. Each strap is created with a conviction to detail.

Adjusting the length of an Eyeland strap is a joy! All Eyeland straps are designed so they can be easily adjusted. There are a variety of methods we utilize that compliment the designs. We don't think you should have to have an Eagle Scout knot manual to lengthen or shorten your strap.

You may notice that some Eyeland guitar straps incorporate curves. The Eyeland Ergo-Curve evolved from customer input. This design conforms to the shape of your body to distribute weight and allow freedom of movement.

*Why am I calling it zoddities? Because I need a word that starts with the letter "Z" so it will show up at the end of my categories... and combining it with the word "Oddities" for odd stuff. Happy now?

So you just got a brand new pair of Behringer, KRK, or Event active monitors. Or if you're one of the lucky few with deep pockets, maybe you got a Yamaha, Mackie or Genelec active monitors. Nice!

So how do you place your new monitor on your desk for proper monitoring of your music?

The rule of thumb is imagine an equilateral triangle where the tips of the triangles touch the left and right monitors, and your head.  The distance between the left and right monitors, and the distance between the monitors and your head (i.e. where you're sitting, i.e. the SWEET SPOT) should be approximately equal.  Now, point the monitors inward so the tweeters (or high-frequency drivers) approximately hit your ears, i.e. at ear level. At this point, you may do some fidgetting if you want it more toed-in or less. But this is a good starting point when placing your monitors.

This assumes that your head and monitors are on the same plane/height. If your monitors are placed higher than your head, tilt it down so the tweeter's line of fire is approximately hitting your ears. We're not too worried about the woofers or low frequency drivers since they won't be as directional as the high frequency drivers.

What can you use to tilt the monitors down?

 

You can use these Isolation pads. They're also good since they decouple (or isolate) the base of your monitors from your desk. That way, you don't get symphatetic vibrations (especially of the low frequencies) which results in unclear stereo imaging. Also, sometimes when a monitor is sitting directly on your desk, you can feel the whole desk vibrating due to mechanical vibrations of the monitor being transferred to the desk. These pads reduce those vibrations too. For less than $40, these pads are a great addition for your studio.

A Limiter and Compressor belong to the same family of dynamics processors. You can say the Limiter and Compressor are close cousins.

If you don't know what a compressor is, or need a review of it's basics, click here.

A Limiter is just like a compressor that it prevents the signal from exceeding a threshold value. While you can use low to mid compression ratio with ordinary compressors, limiters work with very high compression ratio... like 20:1 or infinity:1. Think of it like a glass ceiling. You ain't going above the glass ceiling no matter how hard you jump up. That's what a Limiter does. It prevents the signal from going beyond that point. Just like a compressor, it also has an ATTACK time on how fast it should clamp down or limit that signal.

Very expensive limiters offer 100% guarantees that the signal will not exceed the set threshold you've set... These high-end type limiters are usualy used in the broadcast industry, PA systems and most importantly, in-ear monitoring systems. (You don't want that million dollar singer of yours suddenly go deaf because of feedback because some intern manning the FOH fell asleep.)

A good example of a limiter is the 1176LN by UREI/Universal Audio. You can also buy plugin versions of the 1176 via the UAD-1 package. Click here to search our gear database for limiters/compressors.



Related Articles
How to connect a compressor
The best compressors you can buy
Build your own 1176 Compressor/Limiter
Build your own SSL Buss Compressor

Crossgrading to SONAR 6

If you've considered switching to SONAR 6 from another DAW platform, you're in good company. With unique features, amazing sound quality and top shelf plug-ins, SONAR 6 is hard to ignore, and we hear from customers daily who are interested in finding out how SONAR 6 can make a difference in their studios.

Cakewalk is now making it easier than ever to switch by offering special "crossgrade" pricing on SONAR 6. So if you're ready to step up to SONAR 6, visit these retailers today to recieve special competitive upgrade pricing. Eligible customers can buy SONAR 6 Producer Edition for only $399*, or SONAR 6 Studio Edition for just $199*.

Cakewalk will honor crossgrade pricing for all Cubase and Nuendo customers from all versions of the Steinberg programs, including Cubase LE, SL, SX and older Cubase titles on all platforms. In addition, owners of Ableton Live; Apple Logic; Magix Samplitude; MOTU Digital Performer; Pro Tools LE, M-Powered, and |HD; SONY ACID Pro and Vegas will be also able to take advantage of this special deal.

This is a repost of my SSL Build Thread. Thanks to Gyraf.dk for the schematic plans.

The compressor is a clone based from the SSL4044E desk (1985 era). The SSL mixbus is actually an integrated part of the desk's main quad fader and autofade system. Schematics and mods can be found below the article.

I also did some mods on my unit. Mainly, adding transformers at the output. Originally, the unit uses opamps for balanced outs. I have some MCI 416 output trafos that I used for my SSL unit.

The PCB...



Screenshot of my PCB stuffed with components. A few missing parts but almost there.