Tannoy Reveal 601a for Your Home Studio

The tannoy reveal 601a two-way near field speakers has made a good impression on consumers in the market for home studio monitors. This speakers set is the active version of an earlier model weighing 8.3 kgs. and measuring 341 x 210 x 273mm. The outward look is conventional with a cabinet that features curved and contoured edges in the front baffle. The purpose of the design is to reduce diffraction at the edges. Diffraction happens with sharp edges that scatter the sound back to the listener and high frequencies have phase issues. 

The cabinet is housed in a thick black panel with a metal back-plate that is flush-mounted. This back-late has the controls and it provides the amplifiers a heat-sink. In the baffle moulding is the elliptical waveguide where the soft-dome tweeter connects to. This model has a front-mounted bass port to avoid the interaction that happens when the rear-facing ports of the speakers are flushed to the walls. 

The speakers have a pair of 130mm bass/mid driver with a soft-dome tweeter that’s 30mm in size. The bass driver has been refined to provide more linearity than previous models. Tweeter response is 30kHz allowing its monitor to deliver a frequency response of 60Hz-30kHz. 

The speakers’ woofer is flushed back to the baffle and its edges are set back with the front of the cabinet. The 90-watt amplifier power is what drives the woofer and tweeter. The cross-over frequency is at 2.3kHz and there is an adjustment control that can match the high end to the room or to the preferences of the user. There is a volume control but no controls for low-frequency. The monitors are designed for what is called a quarter-space operation, which means that it is ideal for small rooms. You have a choice of unbalanced jack connectors or balanced XLR for the audio input. There is a standard IEC socket for the power and no ground connection. There is also a voltage selector of either 110 or 230 volts.

Author: Todd Johnson
Email: Todd@australianwebsitedevelopment.com.au
Mobile: 0449 041 815

The Native Instruments Maschine System

The native instruments maschine is an ideal addition to your music production studio, a drum machine and a midi controller with a software system that can be controlled completely from a good hardware set-up. It has a total of 6 gigabyte Sample Library with great audio samples, plus a good number of internal NI FX. You can run the Maschine as a standalone system or as a plug-in for any DAW. 

You get eight instrument groups labelled with the letters of the alphabet. You can input 16 different instruments or sounds on the built-in 16 trigger pads. For each group of instrument you get 16 recordable midi patterns. All of these converge in the scene view and you have a choice of the pattern to play in the scene. This set-up is perfect for live performances but may be a bit complicated for arranging or mixing an entire song. The buttons may need some getting used to but it does have the ability to improve your workflow. You can create a demo without clicking the mouse and with two displays on your controller you do not even need a monitor. 

You can plug it in to your mixer and use the 16 midi inputs plus the 16 audio outputs to transfer the sound to and from the Maschine and the separate audio tracks you are processing. The hardware controller also works as a standard midi controller by changing to midi control mode, which has a shortcut on the controller. When used as a plug-in the Maschine can be quite heavy so it is not recommended for slow computers. 

The advanced software version solves the problem of running the Maschine with external software plug-ins. Importing your very own sample library is quite easy to accomplish and tag. The trigger pads look and feel great. Problems may arise when you use the Maschine as a plug-in to your DAW and other systems are running simultaneously and a computer system upgrade may just be what you need.

Author: Todd Johnson
Email: Todd@australianwebsitedevelopment.com.au
Mobile: 0449 041 815

Native Instruments Komplete Instruments and Effects

The native instruments komplete attempts to offer the most comprehensive set of instruments and sound effects in the market. Native Instruments has been around at the beginning of plug-in technology and has been designing and creating software products for sound engineers. The company has expanded its product line to cover not only synthesizers and keyboard emulation but also some of the most advanced sound-design tools. 

The NI Komplete is a bundle of the company’s largest and widest array of sound sets and instruments. The technology can be bought separately but it is way more affordable bundled up this way. You will definitely appreciate the USB hard drive that can store the installer content. It may take you the whole afternoon to install the Komplete though so make time. The drive is read only which means you cannot select it as your destination for the huge amount of samples content. You will have to select another drive during installation and it would be wise to pick a dedicated drive as you would want to access the content as quickly as possible. 

You can manually change the permissions on your Komplete drive from your desktop, essentially turning it into a write-enabled drive. But shifting samples after completing the installation can take a lot of effort because the instruments will be relying on the hard links to find out where their sounds are located. You can authorise your Komplete software through the Service Centre application. You will be thankful to know that the one serial number you have will authorise your content all in one go. 

After completing the installation then you are all set. The Komplete software will provide you with a comprehensive sound and processing range. You will get a good mix of the new and the old but you can be sure that the money you paid for the bundle is way below what you would have spent if you bought half of the features separately.

Author: Todd Johnson
Email: Todd@australianwebsitedevelopment.com.au
Mobile: 0449 041 815

Synthesize Your Sound with the Moog Slim Phatty

Moog slim phatty analogue synthesizers is a powerful piece of sound equipment that can either join your desktop set up of be housed separately in a rack 19 inches long. The ports for audio input and output, and headphones are at the rear panel as well as the controls for pitch, volume, and the filter CV inputs. There is a gate input, ports for a MIDI in, out, and thru and of course the USB connector. 

The master section is below the screen and the main synthesizer section is at the right-hand section. There are two oscillators found in the first module, which shares a waveform dial. After selecting waveforms for the two oscillators, you can then set their octaves and fine tune them independently. You can also create portamento effects by tweaking the Glide control. This can reveal liquid bass or searing leads sounds. The controls may look modest in the face of the existing technology in plug-in synthesizers. But keep in mind that this is a Moog, the first designers of the synthesizer. 

The Slim Phatty costs less than £400 and has all the features of the more high-end Little Phatty. Its operating system is actually more advanced than its more expensive brother. Some may miss the keyboard as well as the mod wheels and the pitch control. The synthesizer is only 17-inches wide and some may find the controls too crowded in this small size. 

The Slim Phatty appears to be the most affordable way to adding the much sought after Moog sound quality to your personal music studio. The genius of Bob Moog is still driving synthesizer technology today and having a Moog synth in a sound technician’s arsenal is truly a treasure. The expertise and pedigree coming out of the Slim Phatty assures a wonderful sound. Consumers now have the choice of buying contemporary synthesizers that come with a retro design. This is one synthesizer that is hard to ignore or pass up for any serious sound technician or music producer.

Author: Todd Johnson
Email: Todd@australianwebsitedevelopment.com.au
Mobile: 0449 041 815

Moog Little Phatty : A Cool Mix of Vintage and High-Tech

If you want the vintage Moog synthesizer sound mixed in with the latest and most advanced sound mixing technology, the you cannot go wrong with the Moog little phatty. This synthesizer uses a fully analogue signal path and has 100 presets plus a keyboard with 37 notes. The Little Phatty is a monophonic synthesizer that has two oscillators with a waveform selector that has an oscillator-sync. The selector is variable among the waveforms and the filter has the classic design of the Mood ladder. There are two ADSR generators for both the filter and the volume. The low-frequency oscillator or LFO comes with four destinations, six wave shapes and controls for depth and rate. The Master section comes with controls for Octave Transpose, Tuning, Glide, Pitch and Mod wheels as well as data entry controls.

You will enjoy the Little Phatty’s simple interface and although there are less buttons and knobs, you will not find hidden layers or sub-functions. All the controls are hands-on providing outstanding visual feedback through a set of two-tone backlit buttons, pitch bend and mod wheels, and various dials. This synthesizer features the simple, hand-built, effective, powerful, beautiful and classic Moog technology. The Little Phatty has been designed to offer a state of the art analogue synthesizer in a portable and compact package in an affordable price that sound engineers and musicians can surely afford.

Moog released two editions for the Little Phatty, the standard and the special edition called the Bob Moog Tribute Edition. For a limited run of about 1,200 units, the Tribute edition offers consumers special Moog side panels made of wood. It also has the Bob Moog signature in a silver plate. The package also comes with a CD-ROM that features that highlights of the Bob Moog Memorial Celebration Service plus a Bob Moog poster.

Author: Todd Johnson
Email: Todd@australianwebsitedevelopment.com.au
Mobile: 0449 041 815

Making Great Music with Genelec 8030A Monitors

Setting up studio monitors can be as arduous as picking the right monitors in the first place. If you run a small and modest sound studio the task is easier as it only involves positioning the monitors properly. With the Genelec 8030a speakers, proper positioning would entail installing the baffles for a good low-end response. You get three bass tilt options that will allow you to keep your low-end extension at your desired level. Treble tweaking is a bit limited so it will suit engineers who want less sparky high frequencies. 

The look of the 8030a is different from the company’s traditional speakers. The monitors have been designed for heavy duty sound-reinforcement tasks. The housing has rounded corners with moulded back and front sections and a metal grille that covers both drivers. The power indicator and switch plus the volume pot are all at the front panel. The pot is positioned too low and may be a little hard to manipulate if you have large fingers but it can be moved back and forth with one finger. The power switch is easy to press and the LED guide is prominent and large. The front panel also houses the tweeter grille, the concave woofer grille, plus the wave guide. 

At the rear panel are all the high-quality features commonly found in Genelec speakers. The bottom has a recessed cavity for the upward plugging in of the power cord and the balanced XLR cables. You can connect as much as six 8030As together. The pot controls the XLR output so that the first monitor in a chain will be your master volume control as long as you turn the other pots clockwise. 

The DIP switches are at the connector section and there are a total of four switches that can be manipulated for the sound to match the room. There is a reflex port at the upper portion of the rear section. The port is made from a curved, long tube ending at a wide flare for improved bass articulation.

Author: Todd Johnson
Email: Todd@australianwebsitedevelopment.com.au
Mobile: 0449 041 815

The Fostex PM0.4 Near-Field Monitors

The Fostex PM0.4 rounds up the array of the highly reputed PM-series that ranges from 4 to 8 inch woofers. The PM0.4 is recommended for desk-top use but it has greater application with its excellent audio performance and compact size. You can hook it up to a portable audio monitoring set-up, an audio installation, or a professional console studio. 

The monitors look really good and boast of great audio performance. The company aims to design and make monitoring systems that lets users create unique sound through continuous research and development, thousands of listening tests and measurements. The result is this wonderful next generation PM series. 

These particular monitors capitalise on the company’s superior knowledge in speaker and acoustic sound engineering. The monitors offer a tighter and brighter sound and have been designed inside out to offer outstanding monitoring sessions, with deep, rich lows, sparkling highs and surprisingly minimal resonance. As a bonus, the speakers come with high-gloss baffles that look absolutely as great as they sound. 

The PM0.4 speakers come with an exclusively styled four-inch woofer and a UFLC soft dome tweeter. It has a high performance bi-amp drive that yields 18 watts each for low and high frequencies. There is an independent amplifier for the left and right speaker. The set is magnetically shielded so you can set it near your video monitor. 

The monitors give off very crisp sound that is clear and pleasant on the ears. The bass thumps are great though some would argue that they can be a bit loud. They can provide some great sound consider their small four-inch driver. At half volume, you can manipulate the volume through your mixer at your desired levels. In the end the sound quality of the monitors is a pleasant surprise, if you consider their affordable cost and the many different specs. It is a must for sound engineers operating from a small studio.

Author: Todd Johnson
Email: Todd@australianwebsitedevelopment.com.au
Mobile: 0449 041 815

Spruce Up Your Home Studio with Avid Mbox

The avid mbox sound interface lets you have control over your Pro Tools software while giving you Avid’s high quality hardware in a compact package perfect for your desktop set-up. It is a great option for anyone from an acoustic music producer or a voice-over talent seeking an uncomplicated but robust recording platform. The interface is elegantly designed in a sleek black box that is powered by USB. At the connection end there is a combination of TRS ¼ jack and an XLR with a microphone preamp. There are two more inputs and two monitor outputs plus a headphone output positioned next to the impedance controls. 

The front panel has the gain control for two channels and a large volume knob. The Mbox is not bundled with a software program so you can get the software you prefer and have it licensed separately. It is compatible with a wide range of audio equipment to give you utmost flexibility in your music making career.

The Mbox performs well in a test environment. Its preamp performance is better than its predecessors sounding smooth with a solid extension from top to bottom. The converter is nicely coloured giving you a warm presence reminiscent of an analogue set-up. The interface can handle recording to as high as 24-bit at 48kHz in resolution. The monitor and headphone sounds of the Mbox are clean, and have plenty of drive. It can be used your all-in-one interface solution while sitting daintily in a small compact package at your desktop. You can get more out of the Mbox with a computer that has at least a 2 gigabyte RAM, a 4 gigabyte would be optimal if you want an easier and snag-free experience when running both your Logic and Pro Tools with your Mbox. This interface is competitively priced and quite affordable if you will consider that you still have the cost of the software to worry about. With the right software program, upgrading your interface in the future would be so much affordable.

Author: Todd Johnson
Email: Todd@australianwebsitedevelopment.com.au
Mobile: 0449 041 815

The Beauty of Apogee Symphony

The Apogee Symphony I/O is a digital audio interface that carries on the company’s tradition of providing flexibility and improved quality of digital audio conversion. The machine’s interface may well be one of the most expandable and customisable interfaces around. Apart from offering extra card slots on the audio gear, the Symphony give you two empty I/O modules that allows you to distribute its 32 input and output channels the way you deem fit. The unit comes with a set of Audio Interface Modes for easily switching the Symphony between various connections. It also has three different connections to satisfy a broad range of users. 

The base of the unit is styled well with a rack-mounting box housing 16 bar graph meters lined up across the front panel. You also get two rotary encoders with over-press switches, a pair of headphone sockets, and a power button. You can easily view the your selected sample rate through a LED display, plus different text labels that are illuminated to show you what is going on in the meters. Another LED display below shows the status of the system as well as the various operational modes. 

The Symphony has four modes of Audio Interface, one for passing control and audio data to a Mac computer and one for the Pro Tools HD mode. There is also a stand-alone mode and the USM mode that transfers control and audio data through a USB port. The logic behind the four modes is the optimisation of the Symphony configuration for various types of interfaces. There are two PC32 multi-pin connectors found at the rear panel and a USB port that will allow 16 channels for up to 96kHz streaming of sample rates. You also get a comprehensive word clock and the universal voltage mains IEC socket, plus a fan whose speed is temperature controlled. The Symphony provides many options for different users. It is a machine that can definitely grow with you as you upgrade or downsize. It offers expansion capabilities through its additional options and many different ways of using the unit via its Audio Interface Modes.

Author: Todd Johnson
Email: Todd@australianwebsitedevelopment.com.au
Mobile: 0449 041 815

Akai APC40 Midi Controller for Ableton Live

The Akai apc40 midi controller is a dedicated equipment for the Ableton Live software. It was developed through a collaboration of Akai and Ableton and it bears both companies’ logo. It is smaller than other midi controllers with a replaceable cross-fader module that can be bolted in from the bottom of the machine. It connects to your host computer through USB and has two useful footswitch inputs, one that is defaulted to trigger the preferred Scene and the other to launch or punch-in the preferred Clip slot. 

When the APC controller is hooked up to the Ableton Live interface you will see a red rectangle in your session view. The Clip slots are controlled through and 8x5 control grid on the APC. If you press a pad on the grid, it launches the Clip in Live. You can also a trigger an empty slot on a loaded track and start a new Clip recording. You will see different colours of buttons lighting up to show the status of the controlled slot. Orange indicates that there is a Clip, green shows a playing Clip, red indicates that a Clip is being recorded, and if you do not see any light, this means that the slot is empty. 

You will also find a row of buttons below the grid which you will use to stop playback on every track. At the right side of the grid is a column of buttons for the Scene Launch that will trigger rows of Clips, including a “Stop All Clips” button. This will also appear on the Master Track in the Live software. There is more to the APC than its 8x5 control grid, five scenes, and eight tracks. There are Bank Select buttons on the right side of the grid that moves the grid around your Live Session View a row and a track one at a time. The bank keys may be a bit hard and clicky, and may not be too great for fast clicking. 

Author: Todd Johnson
Email: Todd@australianwebsitedevelopment.com.au
Mobile: 0449 041 815