First Look: Apogee Symphony 64 ThunderBridge

Posted on April 9, 2013 by Dylan Mallia

 

It is with great pleasure that I can finally get my hands on one of these, it’s been a very long time coming thanks to the headache of Apple/Intel’s strict approval process of Thunderbolt devices and it’s still quite a rare sight to see Thunderbolt in the world of professional audio. Previously the Universal Audio Apollo or Pro Tools HD Native had been the only Thunderbolt capable interfaces.

This thing is very solidly built, the metal chassis has a bit of weight to it and it feels like an Apogee made product. To my surprise it comes packaged in a nice little hard case, something that is very important to me keeping in mind that my recording rig has always been designed to be mobile.

 

 

The first thing I tested, as you can see in the photo below, is the ability to run external displays through the ThunderBridges daisy chaining and it works 100% perfectly, you won’t have to worry about your devices that are already occupying your Thunderbolt port.

 

 

Performance

Getting down to crunch time, I ran a couple of basic tests. My rig consists of a 2.6gHz quad-core i7 loaded 2012 MacBook Pro, loaded with 16gb of ram and running Pro Tools 10 HD.

There appears to be an extraordinary difference in the way it handles large track counts at 96kHz. Here is an example of me recording all 16 analog inputs simultaneously with a sample buffer size of 64 and not a CPU overload error in sight.

I hadn’t recorded more than 10 channels at once through USB mode before, always through 44.1kHz and even at buffer sizes like 128 or 256 the system would occasionally decide to stop recording mid-track.

It appears 100% compatible with all major DAW softwares including Pro Tools, Logic Pro, Cubase 7 and Ableton Live 9. I hope to perform more extensive testing as I get the time.

The Symphony 64 system is designed to run in a similar way to Pro Tools HD Native, here is a useful diagram from Avid that shows the office latency specs for a number similar solutions to the Symphony 64.



 

 

In summary, the ThunderBridge is everything I had hoped it would be and well worth the extra investment to complete an already state-of-the-art system. Given that the majority of users are turning to MacBooks or iMacs instead of the quite noticeably neglected Mac Pro (previously the only way of running Symphony 64 mode through the PCi card), I think this brings new

The Australian RRP is $1299.00, check out our website for our current sale price.

Please don’t hesitate to give me a call in-store if you want to ask any questions about the ThunderBridge. You can now order the ThunderBridge through our online store here.

 

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This Years Top 5 Stocking Stuffers

Posted on October 31, 2012 by Dylan Mallia

Need some ideas for the audio obsessed individual in your life that won’t completely destroy your festive season budget? Here are my fail-safe picks for this year, all under the $200 mark.

 

Apogee Jam

Jam is still the best, most simple way to record your electric guitar or bass into an iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch or Mac. Fits in your pocket and offers premium Apogee quality analog to digital conversion. Perfect for recording ideas and demos wherever you are, or even just as a handy tuner for when you don’t happen to have a standalone tuner device.

Jam is currently in stock now and sells for $115.00, for more info and to order - click here.

 

Blue Mikey Digital


Mikey Digital is the second version of the original Blue Mikey. Updated for higher quality components and compatibility with the latest iOS devices, Mikey Digital is your solution for recording sources like live gigs, rehearsals, acoustic guitar demos, vocals… anything that doesn’t use a pickup like an electric guitar or bass does.

Mikey Digital is in stock now – $139.00 - Click here for more info and to order.

 

Audio Technica ATH-M50

Let’s face it, everyone needs a good set of headphones. I picked this model because our customers response to these this year has been unbelievable. They quite quickly became our most popular set of headphones, and with good reason.

These are a sturdy closed back headphone that are well suited for listening on public transport as they block sound escaping your ears, which also makes them quite suitable for use while recording as you’ll encounter minimal bleed from the backing track into your microphones.

ATH-M50 are available in black ($179.00) or limited edition white ($195.00)

 

Akai LPK25

The LPK25 is a 25 note ultra portable simple USB MIDI keyboard. Perfect for those who move around and like to work on laptops – don’t be limited to drawing in the notes with a mouse! These traveling keyboards are great value and designed to fit in your bag.

The LPK25 is in stock now – $79.00 - Click here for more info and to order.

Also available – LPD8 – if making beats is more your thing!

 

Fostex PM0.3


These Fostex PM0.3 speakers are fantastic little reference monitors with only 3″ woofers. No, they’re not quite going to be able to compete with your main set of studio monitors but we’ve found they’re a great hi-fi system comparison and just really decent speakers all round for the money if you want to just use them as a step up from your computers in built sound – perhaps for applications other than mixing. Deceptively powerful!
PM0.3 come in pairs – available in black, white or grey – $179.00

Click here for more info and to order

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Getting that clean dry vocal sound without renovating your house…

Posted on September 3, 2012 by Dylan Mallia

These days there are a number of ways to control the amount your room will affect your recording. Unless you happen to have a really fantastic sounding acoustic space available, It’s often quite desirable to record the most dry vocal sound possible and to add software reverb to it to have total control over your wet/dry room sound mix later.

 

Voxguard by Primacoustic


The Voxguard is perhaps the lightest, most cost effective way to minimize reflections in your vocal takes. At $125.00, it’s a fairly modest price compared to the cost of renovating a room into a vocal booth. It’s also nice and lightweight, making it easy to move around. However, the fact that it isn’t quite as dense and complex as some of its competitors means that it doesn’t offer the absolute best performance a portable vocal booth can offer. Please note that it does not come with any stand.

http://www.sounddevices.com.au/categories/100226-Primacoustic/p3

 

 

Mic Thing V2 - SM Pro Audio


 

The SM Pro Mic Thing is really for the guys who want the whole booth, stand and microphone boom package. It weighs in at $299.00 and comes with a heavy duty stand complete with a top mounted boom pole for your microphone to hang over the booth. It is well made and very effective but you should note that because it has to be locked to that stand, it makes it difficult to use it for other purposes when an angle needs to be achieved.

http://www.sounddevices.com.au/products/1994-Mic-Thing-V2/

 

 

Reflexion Filter Pro - sE Electronics


The Reflexion Filter Pro by sE Electronics is the Roles Royce of reflection filters. It features a solid metal frame and complex layers of filtering. It’s built like a tank and will give you the best results out of all three on offer. Be sure to have a fairly reliable steady stand at the ready to hold this one up though. We have the Reflexion Filter on sale for $349.00 while stocks last. It may be the most expensive of the trio but I believe it’s a mere reflection of the quality you get out of it.

http://www.sounddevices.com.au/products/1133-Reflexion-Filter/

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Cubase + CMC Series = Complete Audio Workstation

Posted on August 10, 2012 by Dylan Mallia

A lot of people might not be aware that Cubase 6.5 is one of the most powerful digital audio workstations available. It combines most of workflow features that recording engineers love about Pro Tools with some of the composition features that composers love about Logic Pro. If you’re new to professional audio software or just aren’t happy with the workflow of the one you’ve got, take the time to check out Cubase. With 6.5 having recently been released with even more virtual instruments – It’s an extremely formidable piece of software.

Cubase 6 Introduction Video

 

One of the latest features that Cubase can boast about is a dedicated line of modular control surface devices that can allow you to get the kind of hands on control that a bigger, more expensive desk format controller would give you for other software titles. The CMC series are just $149.00 a piece.

For example, you can combine up to 4 of the fader models for a 16 track mixer that can provide easy automation feedback where you would previously have to purchase an expensive motorized fader equipped control surface. Not only that but they are really quite compact and will slide onto your desk with ease.

You can add other components to customize your controls like a transport controller or the beat pad if you use a lot of virtual instruments. As far as I can tell, you can combine as many as you like until you simply run out of USB ports!

Check out Cubase and the whole range of CMC family controllers by clicking here.

 

CMC Series Introduction

 

 

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My Top 5 Plug-ins

Posted on July 18, 2012 by Dylan Mallia

Like many of us, I’ve often fallen prey to installing what feels like a million different plug-ins on my computer to feel like I’m well and truly covered to get my mixes done.

The reality of it is, I almost always stick to the same basic formula and this usually involves roughly five essential plug-ins so I’m going to run through them one by one in the hope that you guys can have a think getting a simple method together. When you think about it, having just a few great plug-ins will save hard drive space, help your DAW software boot up faster and just generally clean up your working environment.

 

5. Softube Summit Audio Grand Channel

 

Summit Audio are a highly revered American company that make boutique high end outboard gear and have done for decades now. As unfortunate as it may be, not all of us can afford to have a couple of TLA-100 compressors sitting in a rack at home.

Thanks to Softube, who are renowned for putting a little bit of analog spirit back into their plug-ins, have teamed up with Softube to turn a couple of their classic units into plug-ins at a very reasonable price. The Grand Channel plug-in is actually brand new but the TLA-100 part of it has been around for a while and has always been a great set-and-forget easy to use compressor for me.

Does it sound like an exact replication of the actual hardware? No.

Does it sound fantastic all the same? Absolutely.

The Summit Audio Grand Channel is on sale at a special introductory price of $269.00 but if you check out our website, we’re doing one better…

 

 

4. Waves Native Power Pack

 

The Waves Native Power Pack has some of the best Waves plugins out there and more than enough to fill up your mixing toolbox. Yes, there are many more Waves plug-ins out there but do you really need them all? The Native Power Pack is very reasonably priced, covers a wide range of tasks and will compliment your DAWs pre-existing plug-ins rather well. I like to use TrueVerb, L1 UltraMaximizer and the S1 Imager quite a lot.

The Native Power Pack is currently on sale for the modest price of just $189.00, usually $299.00

 

 

3. Avid Channel Strip

 

Yes, this is one for the Pro Tools 10 users (apologies everyone else, but this is a great reason to make the switch or upgrade). The new channel strip plug-in is a fantastic all in one powerful channel strip plug-in borrowed from their extremely high quality Euphonix System 5 digital desks. Not bad for an included plug-in!

The new Avid Channel Strip plug-in comes free with Pro Tools 10. Unfortunately it cannot be purchased separately. Click here to check out the variety of outright, upgrade, crossgrade and student priced editions.

 

 

2. Waves Dorrough Meters

 

Dorrough hardware meters do metering better than any other and are quite commonly found in some of the most prestigious studios around the world. While we’d all love to have actual hardware versions sitting on our desks not everyone can afford to invest the amount that would require just into their metering.

Fortunately, Waves have created a faithful digital reproduction of the Dorrough meters and in my experience they are much more accurate than the included bombfactory meters in Pro Tools and a better way to keep an eye over the level of your whole mix especially if you need to keep it in a certain range to send it off for mastering etc.

The Stereo Edition is currently on sale at only $215.00 but hurry, Waves prices are never constant and it may go back up very soon. Also available: Surround Edition. Please call for pricing.

 

 

1. iZotope Ozone 5

 

I can’t say enough about Ozone. It’s long been a highly regarded piece of software and iZotope’s expertise have earned them such a reputation that their algorithms have been featured in countless other companies software.

Ozone is essentially an integrated suite of devices that come together to put the final mastering polish on your track. The first time I tried Ozone and put it over a mix I’d just done, I could not believe that with a simple preset the whole mix came to life. It really does bridge the gap between finished mix and album ready.

Ozone 5 standard is currently on sale for $199.00 and we can do even better for qualifying students, please call or email us to find out more. Also available: Ozone 5 Advanced – for the serious mastering guys.

If you’re going to spend any money investing in your sound – check out Ozone, you won’t regret it. iZotope offer trials through their website so you can see what I mean before you buy.

Thanks for checking this out.
Written by Dylan for Sound Devices – 18/07/2012

Posted in Digital Audio Workstations, Pro Tools, Software, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

Digital/Optical I/O

Posted on June 19, 2012 by Dylan Mallia

Take for example, this Focusrite Scarlett 18i6 interface. It’s a reasonably small desktop audio interface which reflects the size of many 2-in interfaces such as Avid/Digidesigns Mbox. So one might wonder, how on earth can they possibly call it an 18-in, 6-out interface? On first look, there’s absolutely nowhere all of the connections could fit into it. Considering it sells for less than $400.00, that simply adds to the confusion.

Scarlett 18i6
The secret behind this boxes expansive I/O capabilities is the digital/optical connections on the back panel. Digital connections can vary but the two most common are S/PDIF (Sony Phillips Digital Interface) and ADAT (Alesis Digtal Audio Tape) lightpipe. Digital connections use a fiber optic cable to interface with each other, hence the method being called either digital or optical I/O.

S/PDIF is commonly found in Pro Audio devices but less relevant these days at least in my opinion for multi-track recording purposes. It’s a method developed by Sony and Phillips for transferring two channels of audio digitally over short distance, primarily for use in home theater systems.

ADAT lightpipe is a very common standard in modern day audio interfaces, offering a much rather bandwith of digital audio channels. It was developed in the early 1990s as a protocol for use with Alesis ADAT digital audio tape recorders. While that technology has long since been surpassed, the connection standard for transferring digital audio between devices is still quite relevant.

Lightpipe has a bandwidth of 8 channels, uncompressed at 24bit/48 kHz, meaning unless you’re adamant about using higher sample rates which has questionable benefits and significant negatives, you can add up to 8 microphone pre-amps to your pre-existing audio interface. That is of course provided that the interface is equipped with the necessary functionality to accommodate this.

The Focusrite Scarlett 18i6 is a rare case for providing such functionality in such a low price bracket. Typically you’ll need to spend closer to $1K and upwards to get this kind of expandability. It’s worth noting that is comes with a cost on this unit, you don’t actually get ADAT out, only in.

Not to mention that you would want to be reasonably skeptical of the conversion quality etc. in a unit so cheap which will still affect the overall quality of your expansion interface and your built in mic pres because all of the audio will pass through them to get to its final destination in your computer.

ADAT can be found on interfaces such as the rack format interfaces from Apogee, the Ensemble and Symphony systems as well as most interfaces from high quality brands such as RME, MOTU, PRESONUS etc. It’s an essential feature when you consider that most of these main audio interfaces only contain 4 built in pre-amps which is not ideal for recording drums.

In terms of the actual ADAT expansion unit, MOTU and Focusrite make great 8 mic pre units that will offer reasonably similar quality to your main interface. Have a look at both but note that Focusrite offers a version with simple compressors built into every channel, a useful feature when you’ve got drum tracking in mind for one of these.

Digital/Optical I/O is an important concept to get your head around when you’re running a home studio set-ups and is the key to getting your I/O potential as close as possible to that of a professional studio running a Pro Tools HD rig or similar. If you’d like to know more about it and the various other products on the market that utilize it, give us a call or come in for a chat.

Motu 8pre

Focusrite Octopre

Focusrite Octopre Dynamic

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Student Essentials

Posted on April 26, 2012 by Dylan Mallia

Here at Sound Devices, thanks to the thriving audio student population in Sydney, a great deal of our walk-in customers are actually students from the various nearby universities such as the Australian Institute of Music, SAE Institute and JMC Academy.

This produces an interesting pattern in the stuff that we sell regularly and here is the “essential line-up” of products that students can’t seem to get enough of. They’re basically my recommendations for getting the most out of not spending a lot at least terms of what you can end up spending in what is surely one of the most expensive to equip yourself trades around.

Keep in mind you can always come into the store and have a chat about your individual needs to make sure you’re getting the best product for your situation. We’ll always try and do students the absolute best deal we can to help get you started.

 

1. Pro Tools 10

Let’s face it, whether you’re a recording engineer, a musician who needs to record their ideas or a composer… you need a solid Digital Audio Workstation program that is going to enable you to do so in a way that suits your work flow. Pro Tools is still the industry standard DAW and no matter which university you go through, you’re going to come out very familiar with it.

Another key element of Pro Tools success in the student communities is Avid’s student pricing program. If you have valid identification as a tertiary student, you can score Pro Tools 10 in its full form for just $308.00 at our price. For a program that normally retails at $675.00, that’s a significant cut. To make things even better, you get 4 years worth of free upgrades to whatever versions of Pro Tools that follow, which essentially translates to hundreds of dollars saved.

Click here to order it through our website, all you need to do is email us a copy of your student I.D.

 

2. Audio Technica ATH-M50 Closed Back Headphones

Headphones are essential anywhere that sound is concerned. Anyone working in the music industry should really have a reliable decent pair of headphones whether it be for casual listening, working on your tracks, listening back while you record etc. etc.

M50s are really well designed closed back headphones and they’re designed for minimizing sound escaping from the cups which is great for keeping your music to yourself on public transport and keeping your backing track out of the microphones while you record individual parts etc. They also come with a nice pouch for keeping them safe while traveling.

The M50s retail for $249.00 but we always do students a great price, come in and see us for more info.

 

3. Novation Impulse 49

This one is perhaps more for the composers out there but it’s got plenty of features that anyone operating a DAW can benefit from, especially the faders for controlling volume with your hands or the transport controls for hitting recording without dragging your mouse around.

The Impulse series is probably the best choice for fully featured controller keyboards on the market right now and the 49 key version gives you the full set of faders, knobs and pads while being sized appropriately to fit on most average sized desks.

The best part about the Impulse series over something like the Akai MPK series is the bundled mapping software called Automap. Automap will automatically map out your Impulse to work with your mixer or your plugins, something that the MPK simply can’t do. You have to painstakingly manually map it out which is a headache you can do without.

You can score an Impulse 49 for just $349.00

(That’s $96 cheaper than the Akai equivalent too!)

 

4. Sennheiser MK4

Whenever i’m speaking to someone who’s starting out in the world of audio, i’m always asked to recommend a decent all-rounder microphone. If you want something good straight up that you won’t just toss aside as you progress through your course and go for more expensive elaborate microphones, the MK4 is the mic for you. It’s a genuine German designed, German made large diaphragm condenser microphone for a fraction of the price you would pay for a world famous German made Neumann microphone (who happen to actually be owned by Sennheiser).

This mic is going to sound great on anything from vocals to acoustic instruments like guitars, electric guitar cabinets and even as a drum overhead.

The MK4 retails for $499.00 but we sell them for about $399.00

 

5. Yamaha HS50 Studio Monitors

Let’s face it, it’s difficult to produce decent mixes on iPhone earbuds. As an audio engineer, a good pair of properly designed studio monitors are an absolutely essential part of your set-up. We have a lot of budget conscious monitors here at Sound Devices but in our experience setting customers up with them and comparing them all, the HS50s almost always win.

They’re designed by the same company that brought you the famous NS10s that you’ll find in almost every studio around the world and they have the most even response out of any of the monitors in the same price bracket from other manufacturers.

A set of HS50s sells for $529.00

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Pro Tools 10 Tip – Ram Caching vs CPU power

Posted on February 21, 2012 by Dylan Mallia

 

To some, Pro Tools 10 didn’t look like it really changed a whole lot. One of the biggest innovations is its ability to cache audio into your computers memory which allows much faster use of the audio rather than straining your hard drive and reduces the strain on your CPU etc.

If you ever run into CPU overload errors when mixing with a few plugins simultaneously like many do, you could stand to benefit significantly from increasing your computers ram. Speaking from personal experience, taking my 2009 MacBook Pro from 4gb to 8gb has definitely made a difference for me. If you’re on 2gb, you stand to benefit enormously. You can also go all the way up to 16gb which is more appropriate for those who are also relying heavily on virtual instruments as well.

Please note that the amount of ram you can add is dependent on the number of slots your computer has but most have two slots which is enough to go up to two 8gb chips equaling to 16gb total memory.

If you’re not sure how much ram your Mac currently has you can find out in the system profiler app under memory.

We can perform such ram upgrades for you free of charge minus the cost of the ram itself if you’ve purchased your computer through us. Feel free to contact us for individual quotes and advice.

 

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Current run-out deals

Posted on February 15, 2012 by Dylan Mallia

Here’s a current list of some stuff we’ve decided to let go dirt cheap. Our loss is your gain! Call now on (02) 9283 2077 to check availability if you have any concerns.

 

Blue Microphones Mikey

The original Mikey is unfortunately incompatible with the iPhone 4 and 4S but is still a fantastic add on for earlier models, iPod Classics and iPod Touches.

RRP $159.00   >>>>>>>>>>>  Sale price: $79.00           50% off!!!

Click here to purchase through our webstore or call now to reserve one in store.

 

Korg nanoKEY/nanoPAD mkI

Available in black or white colour schemes while stocks last. Please call or email regarding availability.

nanoPAD – RRP $129.00   >>>>>>>>>>>  Sale price: $64.99    50% off!!!

nanoKEY – RRP $119.00   >>>>>>>>>>>  Sale price: $49.00    Over 50% off!

Click here to purchase through our webstore or call now to reserve one in store.

 

Motu Microbook


RRP $399.00   >>>>>>>>>>> Sale price: $199.00           50% off!!!

Click here to purchase through our webstore or call now to reserve one in store.

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DAW Specific Hardware

Posted on January 31, 2012 by Dylan Mallia

 

Here are a few cool add-ons to your favourite Digital Audio Workstation of choice…

 

Pro Tools

Avid (previously under the name Euphonix) MC Artist and MC Mix

The Avid Artist series (Formally by Euphonix as the MC series) is a range of universal control surfaces (meaning it will actually work with DAWs like Logic or Cubase but it is made by the company behind Pro Tools now) that are very powerful yet very reasonably priced considering you get motorized faders which have always been quite an expensive commodity in the pro audio world.

You can find more information and pricing on the Artist Series by clicking here.

 

 

KB Pro Tools Keyboard Cover


 

For those of us who have difficulty remembering the essential shortcuts that are necessary for a quick and easy work flow, there’s a simple solution which not only helps you remember the shortcuts but keeps your existing keyboard clean.

KB Covers make a simple rubber case that goes right over the top of your Apple slim keyboard (or laptop keys) and can easily be removed and cleaned.

 

M-Audio Axiom Pro Series

 

 

M-Audio make a series of controller keyboards with a software backing called Hyper-Control which is unique to Pro Tools and works very well in regards to mapping your keyboard out in Pro Tools. Considering M-Audio is an extension of Avid, you don’t need me to tell you that this keyboard is going to work exceptionally well with Pro Tools.

Available in 25, 49 and 61 key versions.

 


Logic

 

KB Logic Pro Keyboard Cover
Same deal as the aforementioned Pro Tools keyboard covers. Choose whichever you use as your main DAW.

 

Cubase

CMC Series

 

 

The CMC series is probably my favourite of all the DAW specific hardware I know of. It’s effectively based around a modular style of working, breaking down each specific function of the DAW into multiple individual smaller pieces. This allows you to pick and choose exactly what you need in front of you and could save you a lot of money.

They’re quite reasonably priced at $200.00 a piece ($250 for the faders model). Be warned though, they work very well with Cubase but unfortunately cannot work to their full potential with other DAWs at this point believe me, we tried :’(

You can find more information and order the CMC series by clicking here.

 

 

Reason

Balance


http://www.propellerheads.se/products/balance/img/balance-full-405px.jpg

 

Although Reason is gradually becoming an underdog in terms of being a standalone workstation, a lot of people are still happy to stick with it especially in terms of using it as a rewire. New users of Reason can take advantage of this cool new controller they’ve put out called Balance that comes bundled with Reason Essentials. It retails for $499.00 but you can grab it now for $449.00 here.

 

 

Ableton Live

Ableton excels through its quite unique interface, mainly because of its highly popular clip launching ability. This is an extremely useful way of using your DAW to perform live which is why a couple of companies capitalized on this and created some awesome hardware companions from studio or live use.

 

http://images.amazon.com/images/G/01/musical_instruments/detail-page/novation-launchpad-hero-450.jpg

 

The Novation Launch pad is a simple no frills way of putting your clips at your fingertips. It is quite compact and features only the grid, no level controls etc. Ideal for the user who still relies on their computer for all other functionality. You can read more about it and purchase it by clicking here.

 

 

Akai take this concept to the next level with their APC series. They’re built like tanks, come in two different sizes and offer complete hardware control of Ableton Live. You can look at the separate models features and pricing by clicking here.

 

 

Posted in Digital Audio Workstations, Midi Controllers, Pro Tools, Software | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off
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