legen-wfi-dary

[legen-wfi-dary]

Apollo Twin X DUO

This review is about one of the priciest pieces of equipment in my home studio. The Apollo Twin X is an interface that is top of the line when it comes to the preamps it uses. This interface is extremely unique in what it does. The Apollo has built in processors that work in tandem with your computer to run plugins for your DAW (Digital Audio Workstation). The reason behind the extra horsepower is so you can run virtual preamps and other plugins with real time monitoring during your recording session.

This interface uses unison preamps, which can actually change physical characteristics of the preamps to help match the sound of the real piece that you are trying to emulate. This sets the Apollo apart from all other competition because it can sound like a Neve, Avalon, or many other preamps.

First impressions: The Apollo comes in a nice box that feels premium. You know you have a high-end product before you even open it up. Once you do hop in the box, you are greeting immediately by the interface. The interface has a nice weight that provides a premium feel to the product. It features an all metal design and a nice knob in the middle that is really smooth. Every button or part of the interface feels really nice and worth the price. Beneath the interface you find the power supply for it. This interface is not USB bus powered like the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2. You have to have an extra outlet for this. However, it is worth it because the sound is unmatched.

Once you get connected to your computer, you will need to go to the Universal Audio website and download the console. Console is another thing that separates the Apollo from other interfaces. You can change settings of all of the plugins you are running via this program.

Long term: I have only had this interface for about 3 months, but through these 3 months I have used it on vocals mainly. Tracking vocals through this interface has been amazing. You are able to immediately notice a difference. It is almost like it makes your microphones sound better because of the emulation of physical hardware. You are able to do a lot of your mixing on the way in rather than in the box, which can really help your end product. Plus, you can check your mixes in mono with a button right on the interface.

Overall, this interface is amazing, and I look forward to working with it even more. I have thoroughly enjoyed working with it and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who has some extra money and is in the market for a high-end personal interface.

[legen-wfi-dary]

MXL 770 Microphone

The MXL 770 is a great budget microphone for anyone looking to do vocals in a home studio. It features switches on the microphone for a -10dB pad and a high pass (low cut). It is built with a 22-millimeter capsule and a 6-micron gold sputtered diaphragm. The size of the capsule makes this a small diaphragm condenser microphone. So, the response is slightly less sensitive than a large diaphragm. However, this could be good for people who want to track vocals. It is also great with instruments of all kinds, but I have only used it for vocals.

First impressions: This microphone was on sale for 60 dollars when I bought it via Amazon, so I had somewhat low expectations for it, but I was looking for something cheap. When it showed up, I opened it up and was shocked to find a hard-shell carrying case for it. That is something that even my Aston Origin did not come with.

After opening the carrying case, you find the microphone and the included shock mount. The microphone was a little bigger than I expected, but not too big. It has a nice weight that provides a premium feel along with the all metal build. The shock mount is a little lack luster, but I did not expect anything amazing from it. It is still plenty good to get the job done and keep the microphone from catching any shakes, bumps, or other movements. It also comes with some extra elastics in case the ones on it lose their elasticity. For the price, I was blown away with everything that I received.

Long Term: After about 6 months of use, I really like the sound of this microphone. I even compare it to more expensive microphones, and I think this is because the FET preamp they used in the microphone. I have used it on several different vocals, and I have liked it on all of them. The sound is crystal clear and neutral. I really like the response of it with my vocals, because it records them clean.

The build quality has also held up well. I have actually done some traveling with this microphone because of the included carrying case, and it is easy to travel with. The case certainly provides a peace of mind when traveling. I got mine in red, so there is red paint on the body of it and even the paint has held up very well. I have not seen a single chip in the paint.

Overall, this microphone is amazing for the price and I would, and have, recommend this microphone to anyone.

[legen-wfi-dary]

Aston Origin Microphone

Welcome to the product review of the Aston Origin microphone. To start, I am going to give some basic information on it.

The Origin is a large diaphragm condenser microphone that is versatile enough for most recording situations. Aston microphones are designed and manufactured in the U.K. This explains the warms sound produced by these microphones, as that is somewhat of a signature of the area. The Origin comes with a price tag of 300 dollars (US). That price sounds high, but it is completely validated by the overall build quality on it.

The Origin has an all metal design with an industrial look. It also has a very unique look because of the built-in pop filter. The wavy look of the pop filter may be something that you either like or do not. I personally like it as it is a look that I have never seen done before. It has a 1” gold evaporated capsule, which gives it the warm sound it has. It also comes with switches for -10dB and high pass filter (low cut).

First impressions: The first thing you notice when you get a product is packaging. Typically, packaging is an indicator of quality. The Origin comes in a super simplistic plain cardboard box with a sleeve over it showing the item. So, the packaging is fairly plain, but I think it still looks clean and elegant. Right out of the box, you can tell you have a solid microphone in your hand. It has a nice weight and a premium feel. This thing is built like a tank for the studio, but I would still not recommend a lot of travel with it as it is still a condenser microphone.

After you get it hooked up and ready to run, I noticed it has a warm sound without being so warm that you lose the highs. This microphone would sound good on nearly anything you want to put it on and that is apparent out of the box.

Long Term: After just under a year of use in my home studio, this microphone has held up extremely well. I have not experienced any problems with it and it still sounds great with my vocals. I also still think the unique design is a really cool look. I have used this microphone on several projects of my own and it continues to get better as I continue to get better at mixing. This microphone has been one that I have a lot of room for growth with.

[legen-wfi-dary]

Yamaha HS-7 Studio Reference Monitors

We are going to go back to product reviews for this post. Today I am going to do a review of some of the most popular reference monitors for studios, home or professional.

The HS-7’s are fantastic references for anyone in the audio engineering world due to their super flat response. This means that any change you make in a mix is almost perfectly represented by the speakers and gives a true representation of what you are creating. Beyond mixing, these speakers are just phenomenal for just about any sort of use. If you want a superb listening experience, whether it be for music, video games, or movies.

These speakers come in around $600 for a pair or $300 for a single one. You also have the option of getting black or white depending on what look you are going for. The HS-7’s sport a 6.5-inch cone and have a frequency response of 43Hz to 30KHz. The range of human hearing is only 20Hz-20KHz, but the extra 10KHz allows the high-end frequencies to be super flat.

First Impressions: Right out of the box, the first thing you will notice is that they are heavy. Each speaker comes in around 23 pounds. They also have XLR and TRS inputs. These are both balanced inputs, which means you will not have any parasitic buzz from the inputs. These speakers look very clean in any studio or on any desk, but they are bit as well. So, you need to make sure that you have plenty of room for them to sit on either side of your computer monitor. Once you take them out of the box, you will also notice that they do not have any pads on the bottom. Due to this, you will need to have some pads to set them on to reduce vibrations from traveling to your desk. I use some acoustic foam and that works well. It can be found on amazon fairly cheap. There is option of isolation pads, which are acoustic foam that is cut specifically for setting reference monitors on desks.

Long-Term: I have had these speakers for 3 months now, and they are holding up extremely well. I have traveled with them a couple of times, and although I would not recommend them as traveling speakers, they held up. The sound is just as good as the day I took them out of the box, and I have seen a huge step up in my mixes because of the flat response they provide.

Overall, these have been a great investment as someone who does mixing with music, but I would recommend these to anyone looking for great sound.

[legen-wfi-dary]

Closed Back vs. Open Back

In this post, we are going to take a break from the reviews and talk about something that some people may not think about too much.

In my last post, my review of the Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro’s, I mentioned that I was looking for closed back headphones without really explaining why I was looking for that in particular instead of open back.

To start, the names suggest exactly the difference between the two. Open back headphones are open on the back (or the outside) of the earcup. Closed backs are just the opposite and are closed on the back of the ear cup. So, what is the point in this difference and how can I tell which one I am looking at?

Typically, open back headphones are going to have some sort of mesh or grille on the outside whereas a closed back will be a solid material like plastic or metal. There are certainly advantages and disadvantages to each one depending on what you need them to do. First off, open back headphones are great for editing music, playing video games, or watching movies. Now, this seems to cover nearly everything. Well it pretty much does if you are not worried about audio bleed (audio coming out of the headphones and being audible to others). Since open back headphones have the open aspect, they not only send audio directly to your ear, but also out the back to the environment around you. Sound travels freely in and out of this type of headphone. This is great if you are in your home and you want an incredibly wide soundstage and great response. So, when would you need closed back headphones?

Closed back headphones are much more common because of one distinct feature; noise isolation. To be clear, this is not noise cancellation. Noise isolation helps to dampen the outside sounds from coming in, and the sounds produced by the headphones from going out by using a physical barrier; the closed back. This means that you can listen to your music as loud as you want on the plane with little to no disturbance to others, depending on how loud you have the volume. That is why we use closed back headphones for recording vocals. The vocalist can hear the music that they are singing to without getting too much of the audio into the actual recording. Now, no closed back is perfect and there will always be audio bleed, but it will be minor and easy to cover in the mix.

Hopefully I got the point across clearly. If you have any questions about this topic or maybe something I forgot to mention, feel free to message me and let me know!

[legen-wfi-dary]

Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro

Welcome back for another review! Today, I am going to review something that is critical in the audio world. Whether you are just an avid listener, an audio engineer, or an audiophile, you need a good set of headphones in your audio collection.

So, I spent a long time searching for the best closed back headphones for my home studio. I can go into more depth on the world of closed back versus open back on another post. For now, let us just leave it at, I did not want any audio leak. Anyway, I searched everywhere, YouTube, forums, big tech review websites, and ultimately got it down to a couple of headphones. Luckily, while I was at this point in my search, I was able to talk to a Grammy nominated audio engineer about what he liked. He mentioned the DT 770’s and since they were among the several I was contemplating; I went with those.

Let me start off with these headphones sound incredible. You can get them in three different impedance levels: 32 ohms, 80 ohms, and 250 ohms. Most people may not know exactly what this means. I did not either at first. To keep it super simple, if you are listening on a phone or mobile device, you want 32 ohms. If you are on a more powerful piece of audio gear, go with 80ohms. Finally, 250 ohms is for people that have a high-end headphone amplifier. If you get go too high with the ohms without an amplifier, it will be really quiet. However, if you have the proper amplifier, the more ohms will have a better tone.

Being in the audio editing side, but not having a super nice amplifier, I got 80 ohms. The tone is awesome, the response is snappy yet smooth, and the soundstage is fairly wide for closed back headphones. This is all perfect for me since I use these headphones to record as well as an editing reference.

I will mention, these headphones have a slight u shape to the frequency response. So, they have about a 6dB boost around 60Hz and around an 8dB boost at around 6KHz. While this is not the flattest response every, they make for a pleasant listening experience and once you learn the headphones, can be great for editing as well.

These headphones are also super comfortable, they are made with soft materials, are fairly light weight, and have large ear cups that go completely around your ears. I can easily wear these for hours at a time and not feel discomfort.

For the price point of around $170, this is a great product. They are made in Germany and have a great 2-year warranty. Overall, I really like them as they suit all of the needs I had and I would definitely recommend them to anyone searching for a higher end set of headphones.

[legen-wfi-dary]

Zoom LiveTrak L-12

This is a product review of the mixer and interface, the Zoom Livetrak-L12. Again, I will break this down into general information, first impressions, and then long-term review. Long-term will, again, be around 6 months.

So, some overall information about this board: it is a mixer, it is an interface, and it can be a standalone device. Standalone meaning it does not require a computer to actually record or function. The unit costs $599 at the time of writing.

This device is really cool, because it does a lot to set itself apart from traditional mixers or interfaces by combining the two. You are able to take in up to 14 different signals at once, and you can run these into a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) or straight out to speakers from the master outs if you are doing something like a live performance. It is also capable of running up to five separate ear mixes, which means I can have completely different levels for each instrument for up to a five-piece band. On top of that, you have built in effects to send each sound to, mostly reverbs and delays. Also, this product is iOS compatible, so you can use it to track straight into your iPhone or iPad using Garageband. And finally, you have the ability to store scenes, which means if you run a podcast and have a band, you do not have to change the settings manually every time you switch. You simply choose the recall scene that you want, and you are back to how it was.

First impressions: When I first got this thing, I do not know quite what I was expecting, but it is big. I have quite a large desk, and it takes up a noticeable portion. It is about 18 inches wide by 11 inches deep. After looking around, this is actually fairly compact for a mixer of this capacity. The build leaves a little to be desired because it can feel sort of cheap on some parts. It is an all plastic build, but there is an upside to this as it is much lighter than it would be with an all metal design. The knobs are all plastic as well, but they feel very tactile and responsive. The faders all have a good resistance to them to get a slightly better feel. Even though the build is not metal, you still feel like you have a good product here though. It would be tough to recommend taking it on the road, but with proper storage, it would be fine. Just do not abuse it.

Long-term: In my nearly six months of using this thing, it has been quite incredible. It has held up very well and Zoom is very responsive to their customers. I had a question about when MacOS Catalina support would come, and I had an email back within the day. The unit is still just as tactile and responsive as it was before, the preamps are all still crystal clear, and the unit still looks cool sitting on my desk.

I say the L12 is worth the $599 price tag. It does a lot and has helped me time and time again when I needed to get creative with signal flow. This is perfect for anyone who is tracking drums, a band, or simply has a podcast with several hosts. I definitely recommend this product for anyone in the market of mixers.

[legen-wfi-dary]

Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 – 2nd Gen

Welcome to my first product review. I am going to break these reviews down into general information about the product, my first impressions, and long-term use. Long term in my case is about 6 months.

So, the Scarlett 2i2 is kind of the industry standard for home studios that are just starting. They offer some of the most solid sounding microphone preamps and analog to digital conversion on a budget friendly interface. Many people start out with this as their first, like me. The product comes in around $150, which is a fairly good entry price for such a product. If you start to look at these though, be sure to look at the third generation, the newest generation. It also comes in around $150 right now and has some new features that are great. Also, if $150 is just slightly to high, they also have the Scarlett Solo, which only has one microphone preamp instead of two, but has the same quality and starts at $99.

First impressions:

Out of the box, you can immediately tell that Focusrite cares about build quality. The Scarlett 2i2, along with the whole Scarlett lineup, is built like a tank. It is perfect for anyone who needs an ultra-portable, high quality interface. Even if you are not going on the road with it, and you just plan to use this in your home studio, it looks very sleek and will sit right on your desk without any eye sores. Right from the start, the Scarlett 2i2 is very intuitive and self-explanatory. All of the knobs are solid and feel like they are made with high quality parts. Everything just feels premium. I also really like the red metal case. Unfortunately, if you are not a fan of the red, then you are out of luck, but the sound quality more than makes up for it.

Along with getting a great piece of gear, you also get several software keys like Ableton Live Lite, Protools First, some of Focusrite’s own plugins for the mixing end, and several others. The software is a huge plus.

Long-term:

Overall, the Focusrite remains a fantastic little interface for the portable end for me. It is powered through the USB connection with your computer, so you do not have to carry around a power supply with it, and it still has super clear preamps compared to some of the higher end interfaces I use now. The metal build still holds up and so does the operation. I would definitely recommend this interface to anyone who is new and wants a good starter that is easy enough to get as a beginner, but good enough to grow into a bit.

[legen-wfi-dary]

Welcome back to my blog!

This is my second post, but I have taken some time and done some thinking on what direction I want to take this blog. I am going to start doing some reviews over some of the audio equipment and other tech pieces that I have.

I have always loved technology, so this idea was not too far-fetched for me. Growing up I made it a point to understand every new piece of gear and tech that came out. I especially kept up with Apple and Samsung. The rivalry was amazing, and I loved to see what they would do to one up each other every year.

Eventually this love of tech and audio collided, because I was always a huge music fan as well. In my mind I kept the two worlds separate for the longest time. It really was not until recently that I even considered melding the two. I started realizing how much technology was used behind the scene in the production side and fell in love with it. I even started writing my own music just to track it with this new world of tech and get experience with it. This put me on the path of Audio Engineering, which I talked about in the last post.

Back to the main point, since I now have a decent amount of equipment for a home studio as well as some experience with them, I wanted to share those experiences. I would say good and bad, but really, mostly good. I think as long as you have the passion almost any piece of gear will get you where you need to go. Audio is a lot of fun, and the best part about it is growing into new gear and developing an understanding of everything it can do. So, if you are just starting and do not have the top end equipment, do not write off the fact that the potential for great stuff is still there. One of the best tips is simply to make sure you are in a quiet room if you are tracking anything. Sometimes the differences between a $10,000 microphone and a $200 microphone can be fairly small for the end consumer.

Overall, my point is do not let anything hold you back. So, to help whoever may be reading this, I am going to post some reviews over some good, budget friendly gear. I will also review some of the gear that I have recently gotten. It’s a bit more mid-range, but very quality stuff.

[legen-wfi-dary]

This is my first blog post... Ever

Welcome to my blog! I don’t have any real plans for this blog yet, but as of right now, the plan is to talk about music and maybe some pop culture stuff. Whatever interests me is what I will post about.

So in this first post, I’m going to talk about me and what I do. I am 22, and I love all things music. I know you hear a lot of people say, “I listen to pretty much anything,” and usually they are lying just to seem cool, or impress someone, but it holds fairly true for me. I listen to anything from Juice WRLD to Parkway Drive as well as everything in between.

I do make some music of my own, but I will be keeping that for myself for a little bit. We just met, it would be kinda weird if I started pushing my music already. Anyway, I do some rap, some singing, and I play guitar. My super successful rap career started about a year and a half ago, but I have been playing guitar and singing on and off for my whole life.

So, with all this talent, you probably think I want to be a famous artist. Well, that would be great, but improbable. However, not impossible, so I haven’t ruled that out just yet, but currently I am working to become an audio engineer. For anyone who doesn’t know what an audio engineer does, they essentially make the music you listen to sound good. At least, that’s the simple way to explain it. The slightly more complicated way is, I work with all the instruments and sounds to give them a home in the frequency spectrum (20Hz-20KHz). If you can successfully give each sound its own home, then you reduce “mud” in the mix.

I chose audio engineering because let’s be real, it sounds cool. I’m an engineer. Plus, I can be involved in music and actually make money without being famous. Another bonus, I get to help people create their music/their vision. I think being able to help other people create their vision is just as cool as being able to realize your own.

So, I think I’ll close up here. If you see this, be sure to follow for future posts about the music world, and other fun stuff. I also have an “Ask me anything” tab if you have questions.

Peace