This week, my Reason Balance audio interface finally arrived. Ever since I had seen the demo videos, I had wanted to check it out so when I saw a good price a couple weeks ago, I pulled the trigger. The combination of physical knobs, straight-forward buttons, and separate gain knobs for each of its two inputs, are a welcome change from the one big knob of the Apogee Duet version 1 that I currently use. But the Balance is a USB audio interface, and the Duet is a Firewire one. Additionally, the Duet is a high end device, while the Balance starts at a more affordable pricepoint. How do they compare? Well, since I haven’t had a chance to try recording with Balance (and since I need more time to feel comfortable with Reason itself) this review is more of listening review; a recording review and another review of Reason Essentials will be forthcoming. In this review, I will focus on Balance’s ergonomics and digital to analog conversion…basically how well it sounds.

While the Duet has served me well for the last couple years, it has not always been the easiest to get along with. Its clean, polished aesthetics have kind of made it a pain to use. I don’t like using Apogee’s Maestro software for setting up which of the inputs is set, nor do I like having to click the big knob to change input gain, headphone, or analog output levels; it’s all rather cumbersome. What I do like about it is Apogee’s signature clarity. The definition and high end detail of the DA, and the very nice built-in preamps and signature AD, have made me overlook the ergonomics at times.

Propellerhead’s Balance on the other hand, has none of the ergonomic foibles of the Duet. It has a big knob for main out, another big knob for headphone levels, a nice rotary knob for input gain for each of the two simultaneous inputs that you choose, and accompanying buttons to select the source. It has nice LEDs to let you know what you have selected, and if you’ve clipped on any source.

It also has a couple handy buttons that access Reason specific features. One is for activating Clip Safe which is Reason’s solution for saving recordings that are clipped. Basically, Reason records two versions of the same source, one at the level you’ve set, and one at a lower gain. If you clip, Reason can automatically switch to the lower gain recording at the clipped point, to save your recording. The other button is for Meter/Tuner, which allows you to preview recording levels and access a tuner if you’re plugging in a guitar or bass.

All of this lends itself to a very polished and easy to use layout; and it also doesn’t hurt that it looks great. Balance sits at a slight angle with a red underside that barely peaks out, and the surfaces are coated in a soft rubber. It feels pleasant and definitely helps Balance stand out in a sea of other audio interfaces.

I won’t get too much into the rear panel as the picture above pretty much tells you the whole story. I will say that it’s all laid out pretty logically. The phantom power for microphones can also be set with buttons here. The USB plug is at the top left of the picture. I should also point out that the headphone jack is to the right side of Balance, so if you’re planning on butting it up against something else, you’ll need access to the right side for headphones.

Ok, enough about its design…how does it sound? Surprisingly good for the price point, let alone anything costing double. Balance has a nicely pronounced low-end (probably to complement Reason’s history as hip hop and electronic music-centric software), with a smooth mid-range. High end is present, without being harsh. Compared to the first generation Apogee Duet, there isn’t as much sibilance on vocals, but crunchy guitars still sound with appropriate impact.

Definition is good, but instruments aren’t as separated or as detailed as the Apogee Duet, although that’s not entirely unexpected given that it’s the Duet’s strength. Sometimes though the Duet can be a little harsh in the high end, while Balance always seems to be smooth and pleasant.

One thing to keep in mind is that Balance is a new audio interface, while the Duet I’m comparing it to is a first generation version. I imagine that the new Duet has addressed some of the weaknesses of the first generation that I bought and it might be a very different comparison with the second generation one. This really is a testament to how fast music technology is advancing. These two interfaces are light-years ahead of both the M-Audio Firewire 410 and the Digi002 I used to record with.

On top of that, Balance comes with Reason Essentials which is all the basics of both Reason and Record, and contains all you need to record a full track. At around $400, that’s incredible value. Balance can also be used as an interface in other DAWs if you’d prefer. As for Balance’s role in my set up, I’m going to set up an aggregate audio device in OSX which will allow me to use both Balance and Duet as inputs. Having very different sounds from the AD and preamps will allow me more sonic possibilities for recording.

Stay tuned for a review of Balance’s recording capabilities, as well as one on Reason Essentials.

Audiofile Engineering Quiztones

Wow, where has the time gone? It’s practically been a year since I last posted! Anyways, Dan from Audiofile Engineering was kind enough to send me a review copy of Quiztones.

Quiztones is a small app that helps audio engineers and producers train their ears. After all, the best place for improvement is not in gear or software, but in yourself. In this case, you’re investing $19.99 for Mac, or $4.99 for iOS, to improve yourself.

The app works by providing tones and audio samples in a quiz format. In tone mode, you press play and listen. You get four choices and you pick what you think you heard. Depending on the difficulty, you get a decreasing frequency range to choose from. In EQ mode, you get a choice of a variety of sound samples from strings and acoustic guitar, and even music from your own iTunes library, and the difficulty is based upon levels of boost or attenuation of certain frequencies in the sample. You then guess which frequency has been boosted or cut.

Having a variety of sources to practice with is awesome. You can train yourself on a variety of sources and while you may be terrible when you first start practising with Quiztones, you can only get better as you keep at it. I like the super simple interface, and the focused nature of the program. There’s not much to it besides the just diving in and trying your hand at the tones or audio samples.

Quiztones is a very cool app, and if anything there are only a couple things that might be nice to have. One would be an example of the clean audio sample so you can use it as a baseline. Because Quiztones immerses you in quizzes right away, there are no unchanged samples to compare to. You just don’t know what the “ideal” sound you’re comparing the boosts or cuts to is. This isn’t such a big deal though because it only really takes one or two samples to get an idea, but especially for those that haven’t tried this type of training before, hearing the clean sample at least one (perhaps before the quiz is started) would be helpful. UPDATE: Dan from Audiofile Engineering let me know that there is an EQ button that allows you to toggle the effect on and off. Don’t know how I missed it! There will also be a hint sheet in an upcoming update that will help explain how it all works.

Another “would be nice to have” is a portion that coaches you. Now this doesn’t necessarily have to be an explanation of what you should be listening to after each quiz question, but if there was a little “training manual” of sorts that you could read for ideas on what to listen for, I think it would help those that are floundering around and guessing and testing. I understand that it’s pretty hard to articulate these listening skills though, so I’m not sure if this could be done in a meaningful way.

When I first heard about Quiztones I was pretty excited. The iOS version is a pocketable app that you can use to improve your listening skills when you have a spare moment waiting for the bus, or sitting in a coffee shop. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any iOS devices to install the software on, but with the release of Quiztones for Mac, the software has pretty much lived up to my expectations. I would say though, that the Mac version has convinced me that the iOS version (which provides similar functionally although some extra features in the Mac version are available as in-app add ons) would be even more useful.

So if you have a Mac, Quiztones is a great app for training your ears. If you have an iOS device, I’m guessing you’ll find a lot more time to practice Quiztones while on the go.

Here’s a short accompanying video review:

February 23rd, 2011 – Lately, I’ve been working on mixing a small musical that will debut this Friday. It’s definitely a step outside of my comfort zone as mixing live is very different from mixing in a studio, and mixing a musical is very different from mixing a band. Here’s a compilation of some of the things I’ve learned and things that are different from studio work.

For one, there’s a lot of waiting around, but when the show is live, it’s very stressful. In fact, I don’t sit down for the entire performance, constantly monitoring levels and riding the faders. I am communicating constantly with the stage manager, a partner that cues music, and another that cues multimedia portions. Great communication between all of us makes the job flow a lot smoother.

One of the things that makes mixing theatre particularly difficult is different actors coming on and off scene at different times in each act which requires muting and un-muting their wireless microphones on the fly. This requires learning the scripts very well to know who needs what at any given time. Additionally, the actors have very different levels when singing versus speaking. This can be partially combated by subtle compression, but to remain dynamically interesting I prefer to manually adjust levels as the situation requires.

Occasionally all twelve of the main actors sing together. We have the use of stage monitors but not in-ear monitors. This means that for the actors to hear enough of themselves to work out their sometimes complex harmonies, the monitor mix must be loud enough for them to hear, but quiet enough to not feedback into their sensitive wireless microphones. Because they’re dancing and moving around quite a bit, there is no ideal position for the monitors. I must EQ out the natural feedback tones of the space to reduce the occurrences of feedback, but I cannot eliminate it.

This musical moves pretty quickly between acts and scenes with no intermission. This means that I have very little time to set up audio for the next scene. Luckily, the venue I’m mixing in has a digital mixer which allows me to save mix settings. I’ve found that saving presets for each significantly different scene helps a great deal. I can set up default mutes for actors that aren’t onstage at the beginning of a scene, and I can also set mutes and un-mutes for the monitors for when the actors are just speaking and not singing. The downside of this is that if I want to adjust say the pre-amp setting of an actor’s microphone, I must do it across all preset scenes which can’t exactly be done on the fly. If I need to adjust more than one actor’s settings, that multiplies the work. Take the amount of changes you need to do across the board, and multiply it by the number of presets. You can see how one small change could be a big problem.

For this particular musical which lasts just an hour and a half, I have 19 different scene presets. Even with the presets, I have a copy of the script beside me that I’ve written all over that includes my own scripted movements. For example, when one actor goes into a whisper, I have a note to myself to raise the gain on his channel and bring it back down again after that short section. As well as I think I know to make certain changes, I write everything down because when it’s showtime, I can get caught up in the moment and forget. I never want my mistakes to kill the actors’ flow.

One of the biggest things I’ve learned is to let things out of my control go. In a studio setting, you can control almost everything in the environment down to the performances that are recorded for posterity. In live situations, anything can and does happen. Sometimes an actor will position their microphone in a position that pops when they move in a certain situation. There’s nothing you can do during the performance except compress their channel so that pops don’t feedback into their microphones and maybe ride the mutes along with their dialogue.

Coming from a studio background, the “in the moment”-ness of live sound mixing is a refreshing change. It’s definitely been an eye-opening experience. I was a bit apprehensive when I first took on the project, but I’m glad I had a chance to be a part of it. And then there are great moments when I can forget about what needs to be done, and just lose myself in mixing the music; it’s fantastic.

If you’ve mixed live sound, do you have any tips to share?

February 7, 2011 – As you may have noticed, my posting hasn’t been as regular as usual. In fact, I haven’t even had a chance to check out the changes that were completed last week on the collaboration project!

There are some pretty big changes happening in my life right now, and some of it is music related. Even though I’m easing back into a music schedule, it’s hard to find time to actually write. Finding an appropriate time to work on writing has always been a problem for me. How do you find time to write music? Do you schedule regular Saturday afternoons? Do you work on it evenings after your day job? In between baby feedings?

January 23, 2011 – A new year, a brand new product review! Audio-Technica was kind enough to send me a set of their DJ headphones, the ATH-PRO700. I’ve been itching to try out a good set of headphones since the ones I’ve used to mix and listen with for the past 10 years, have begun disintegrating.

Because I check my mixes with a couple sets of in ear monitors, one of them being the Ultimate Ears Triple-Fi I reviewed last month, I haven’t been in a rush to replace my old headphones. When the ATH-PRO700′s arrived, however, I was eager to see if they would be a good replacement.

It helps to know that the ATH-PRO700 has been categorized by Audio-Technica as for DJ’s. As I’m sure you know, DJ’s are pretty rough with their headphones and need something that can withstand the punishment of gigging professionals. When I picked up the ATH-PRO700′s I was surprised by their weight. I normally look for the lightest set for comfort but I was surprised at how beefy these headphones are.

The headband is especially thick and feels like it could take a bullet. The closed ear capsules both fold and rotate completely which means that the headphones are easy to store (they come with a vinyl bag for storage) and are more likely to rotate than snap when put in an awkward situation; definitely a plus. I’ve heard that some have had issues with the swivel portion of the headphone cracking, but since I haven’t had the headphones for that long I can’t comment on that; they seem pretty well-built to me so far. The ear cups isolate the sound well, but a bit more foam would be nice as. For me at least, they pressed on my ear a bit.

The audio wire only comes off of one side which makes it more convenient to wear, especially when monitoring each ear separately. It’s a decently thick gauge, with an eighth inch stereo plug (a screw-on quarter inch adapter is included). The cord is sufficiently long for personal listening, but you might want an extension if you’re the dance-while-dj’ing type.

Ok, so how does this set of cans sound? Super bass flavour! These things have a tonne of bass, and pretty decent treble as well, although I found the mid-range lacked a bit of clarity. The ATH-PRO700 also get plenty loud, and with the good isolation from the cup design (although it could be improved even more with increasing the padding size as I stated before), these things are great for a noisy club environment.

The soundstage was distinct, though not as wide as I would have liked in some situations. Would I use these to mix on? Probably not, as the frequency range is boosted for a DJ’s ears. I would definitely use them to reference on when creating dance or hip hop music. These two genres are what the ATH-PRO700 are clearly designed for and while classical music might not sound great through these, dance and hip hop do.

The bottom line is that DJ aren’t necessarily worried about the same things as an audio engineer or audiophile; they want a loud, and great sounding set of headphones and the ATH-PRO700 delivers on those counts. DJ’s also want something that is rugged, and the ATH-PRO700 seem to be pretty well built. As some others have had issues with the headphones breaking, I will update this review if anything happens to my set, but so far they’re working out great. With a very affordable street price of around $115, I’d definitely check them out if you’re in the market for a set of headphones for dance and hip hop.

Audio-Technica ATH-PRO700

January 17th, 2011 – I hope you guys have gotten a great start to the year. Mine has been quite busy and I have big plans for the site. For one, I’m working on a visual overhaul, but as regular readers may have noticed, I’ve stopped posting as many articles on new gear coming out.

I will still continue to post about new gear if I find it exciting, but I’d like to focus this site on more DIY engineering, producing, and songwriting articles, as well as product reviews. I feel like I can provide more value that way. You may have noticed that the site has already started moving in that direction.

Our joint collaboration project has been coming along quite well with many readers from around the world collaborating, with many more to come. If you haven’t already, check out the progress so far at the link above.

For those of you who are participating in the project, I really appreciate your hard work. I’m hoping to run more collaboration projects with different criteria and hopefully you’ll meet people you like working with and you can splinter off into your own collaboration projects. Would anyone be interested in a forum associated with this site that would allow you to collaborate with other readers, and perhaps ask for creative advice? Let me know in the comments.

I’d also appreciate it if you could tell me what direction would you like the site to take? Are there certain posts you like more, are there posts you would like less of? I can’t promise I’ll be able to incorporate all suggestions, but I’ll do my best.

I received a pair of Audio-Technica ATH-PRO700′s and I’ve been itching to write a review, so look for that to come out in the next couple days!

December 29th, 2010 – Hey everyone, hope your holidays are going well. With all the hubbub these past few weeks, I haven’t had much time to write music. The other day however, I got to record a bit with some friends which was a refreshing change from my normal work week. Yesterday, I sat down to polish a couple of my own songs, and it got me thinking about the phrase “Don’t bore us, get to the chorus!” (I often get cerebral with songwriting when I’m not in a particularly inspired mood).

I’m sure that if you’ve ever read tips on songwriting, they often suggest getting to the meat-and-potatoes of the song as soon as possible. Usually this means getting to the song’s title lyrics, or it could mean the chorus. Whether it’s a memorable lyric or musical phrase or sound, the idea is to grab the listener as soon as you can or risk losing their interest.

Of course, this advice really only applies for those who are trying to write hit songs. If you want to write songs for other people, the easier it is to sell it, the better. If you are writing songs to express yourself (the best situation to be in IMO), then ignore all of this and write from the heart.

Gary Ewer has posted a blog article (linked below) that examines the top 10 songs in the Billboard Hot 100. He breaks down when both the title of the song first appears in the lyrics, and when the chorus first appears. His examination seems to show that having your song title and/or chorus occur early does help a song’s initial popularity.

Is “Don’t Bore Us, Get to the Chorus” Fact or Myth?

December 19th, 2010 – With the amount of cool apps coming out for iOS, there hasn’t been a whole lot of good hardware solutions for getting great sound in and out of the iPhone/iPod Touch. Sure there are some for plugging in a guitar, but they aren’t exactly the highest quality. New Signal Process, a boutique shop out of Portland Oregon, has released the NSP BreakOut to remedy that situation.

The BreakOut has an input to get your audio into whatever music apps you’re running in iOS, and an output to send to your outboard gear. There’s a gain knob and an on/bypass switch and that’s pretty much it; no muss, no fuss. You can buy the BreakOut for $115 at the New Signal Process website.

NSP BreakOut

December 13, 2010 – I recently received a set of Ultimate Ears TripleFi 10 IEM’s (in ear monitors) and I’ve had a few days to put them through their paces. The TripleFi 10s, as the name suggests, contain 3 drivers, each corresponding to the low, medium, and high frequency ranges.

Many earphones claim to go down to super low frequencies, lower than the normal range of human hearing in fact; in the TripleFi 10s Ultimate Ears says the can get down to 10 hz. While I have no way of objectively measuring if they can back this up, I can say that the amount of bass energy they were able to provide was surprising.

Over the years, I’ve owned dozens of earphones and headphones. I even had several iterations of the Panasonic portable CD players and tape decks (remember those?!) that had a motor in the proprietary headphones to shake them off your head. Honestly though, it was all for show because the bass distorted pretty easily.

I could almost feel the bass in my chest with these IEMs. Will they replace a nice set of speakers? Of course not, but when they are well sealed in the ear cavity, they provide a nice rich bass that’s quite warm. To ensure that you do get the best fit, Ultimate Ears provides 3 sizes of rubber tips, and a couple sets of expanding foam ones. While I use similar rubber ones in my Shure IEMs, the Ultimate Ears foam set is so comfortable, it has me thinking of installing a set on the Shures.

Aesthetically, the TripleFi 10s are beautifully designed. In practice though, I find the earphones a bit awkward. I realize that they must be big enough to support the 3 drivers and the proper porting, but they are about an inch long and don’t sit flush against your outer ear; in fact, they stick out a bit. I’m not sure why they did this as the competing Shure SE530 sits more flush inside the ear and looks better on your head.

But looks aren’t why you’re paying $400 (MSRP but retails for much less), for a set of IEMs; you buy them for the sound. In that department, the TripleFi 10s excel. These IEMs are the best sounding earphones I’ve ever used. At $400 they are a good buy, but if you find them for less, they are a MUST buy.

As I touched on before, the bass is rich and warm, but at the same time not overpowering. There is great detail in the mids and highs, without being overly boosted. The best part of the aural experience is that everything sounds cohesive. When I say this, I mean that everything sounds like it’s playing together in one room rather than all in separate booths and then stuck together.

I used an Apple Lossless file and compared the output to a set of Shures (to be fair, they are less than half the price, and not a class competitor) to see the difference. Formerly the Shures sounded damn good for their price, however when compared to the TripleFis, I found that the frequency range was sharply boosted and cut in certain ranges. This made the instruments seem more isolated from each other.

In contrast, the TripleFi 10s had a very smooth frequency range but still retained great detail across the range. This is not to say that they have have a flat frequency response, but they sounded very pleasant. If I were to fault them aurally, I would say that they show off a bit too much in the low to mid range. In some lusher mixes I found it a little overwhelming.

One thing I might mention is that if you aren’t used to IEM’s, you may find the vocals too far forward. While the vocals sound great on speakers with the appropriate space away from you, IEMs sometimes bring the vocalist into your head spacially. This is not a mark against the TripleFis as all IEMs and earphones suffer from this, but it’s something to keep in mind if you are considering taking the plunge.

While a nice headphone amp would definitely help, I feel that the TripleFi 10s can be used on a daily basis without. They’re quite comfortable (if a bit awkward when putting them in), well constructed, sound great and are well-priced at most retail outlets. If you are in the market for a set of nice earphones, I strongly suggest you check them out. Also, if you work in a noisy office like me, they block out a lot of ambient noise without even being plugged in. You also get the benefit of people not bothering you as much because they think you’re listening to music.

December 9, 2010 – Ok, we are a go! Participation for this project is closed, and I’ve sent out invitations to the Dropbox account to everyone who showed interest. If you missed out on this project, we’ll get you on the next one. Hopefully this will all work out awesome, and will be the start of a cool collaborative community.

First off, I want to really thank you guys for your enthusiasm. I started this site a couple years ago, wanting to get a musical dialogue going. I wasn’t really sure how I was going to do that but I hope this project will be where it all ramps up.

Alright, enough with the sappy stuff, and down to the meat and potatoes of how I think this will go down. I’ve uploaded the starting loop into the Dropbox folder. It is a glockenspiel melody I recorded last week. In the course of this project, you are allowed to do whatever you want to it. I’ve CC-licensed it under Non-Commercial so if you want to use it for something else as long as you don’t sell it, I’m cool with that. I’d appreciate the attribution though.

Since I’ve never done anything like this before, the way this works may change as we see how everyone reacts. To make this truly collaborative, everyone will have a specific task in relation to this song. Whether that is laying down a drum or bass line, or mixing the track, tasks will be delegated by me. If you want to fill a specific roll, please let me know in the comments and I’ll try my best to accomodate. Please keep in mind that I still may not be able to give you the task you want. The list of tasks will change as the song begins to take shape. I will attempt to manage the project and keep everything in check, but I want you guys to feel free to cut loose.

Off the table currently are drums and mixing. The former claimed by Travis and the latter by Jon. Of course, the starting loop is also taken…after all I already recorded and uploaded it. For those who will be writing and recording melodies or filling in, you are able to do whatever you want as long as you respect the work of those who came before. In other words, feel free to create, but don’t bury others’ work.

As suggested by Jon over at AudioGeekZine, we will be working in Reaper. Reaper is a cross platform DAW that is available with full functionality even in the trial version. You can find it at www.Reaper.fm. If you need to pull the project into your own DAW to leverage your tools, go ahead, but be sure to export what you’ve done and re-import it into Reaper for the next person who works on the song.

If you are not part of the mixing team, please do not mix the track for the next person and especially do not “print” the mix so that it cannot be undone. As well, please keep the effects to a minimum unless it is a part of the sound you’re adding. Not everyone will have the same effects which will undo your work. If you must use an effect for a certain sound, please keep the original version without effects (muted of course) and “print” a version with the effect recorded on it.

As everything progresses, I will post updates on how the song sounds at every stage, probably using Soundcloud. This allows everyone to see what everyone else is doing, and also serves as a chronological timeline, which I think will be pretty cool in the end.

I’m very interested to see how this all turns out. When I produce music, I usually do everything from the songwriting all the way to the final mix. It never gets done the same way, or in the same order. With all the different ways we all create music, it will be interesting to see how our talents and weaknesses will fit together.

Ok, so the loop is out there. The first person to work on the track will be Travis Whitmore. I realize that the loops is simple and short, but I’m hoping his drums will bring a feel that the rest of the song can be built on. I expect the drum work will be short, and will only be played over the initial loop. After that, the song can be built, and we’ll bring Travis back near the end of the writing to flesh out the drums with all the other instruments.

So far the following people other than myself are in this project:

Darren Levy
Travis Whitmore
Jon Tidey
Jamal from True Brew Records
Dan Foley
Mr. Fresh
Bryan from the ImaginationConsultant
TC Helentjaris
Moveair
Andreas
CD
Paul Schaeffer
Doug

For all those listed, please confirm your interest in the comments, and if I missed any of you in the Dropbox invitation, please let me know. Also, let me know what your preference is to work on.

I would like this track to be accessible to people who aren’t music nerds like us, so while it doesn’t have to be commercial, it would cool if it wasn’t too out there in the end. I’m also going to provide a theme that we should think about as we get to our tasks. The theme will be music you would enjoy listening to while driving. Could be a plane, train, or automobile; whatever works for you.

Ok, the track is now in Travis’ hands. Who wants to work on melodies next? Let me know in the comments. Goooooooo team!

Collaboration Project Loop for KeyOfGrey.com by keyofgrey

Update Jan. 17, 2011 – Here is what the project sounds like as of 1/10/2011. Sounds great so far guys! Jan 10 Rough Mix of Collab Project by keyofgrey