I am a MnM soloist and need to figure out which option would be the best for me in terms of finances and particular pieces of equipment. As I am producing new stuff like a machine every day, here comes the question: What am I doing with these tons of unmastered tracks? Of course I want to upload them somewhere they could be purchased. But first, they need to sound OK.
What is unfortunately inevitable is one piece of gear - a soundcard. I’ve done a lot of research on that topic and found out that there is no such a thing like "cheap decent soundcard ". I need to route my MnM and make use of all its outputs. What I finally found was the MOTU Ultralite MK3. Obviously, in order to get some stunning results, channel separation is needed to balance vol levels accurately.
I have the SONY PCM-D50 - it is a 24bit/96kHz linear PCM recorder which I use mainly for level monitoring.I’ve got crappy headphones. Apart from being able to capture high quality audio through the recorder’s input, it does not help too much combined with the MnM. How do you find the MOTU? Any experience with this piece of hardware?
Very soon, you’ll be really amazed by what the MnM is capable of, as what I am preparing now is massive, but hopeless if not mixed properly. Perfectionism rules!
i think something similar to this was already discussed somewhere else here on the forum but can’t remember who/where/when
i’m sure others will chime in on this one; my view is that, unless you really want to do it yourself, invest the money you have into getting your music properly mixed by someone who does it as a job (i know there’re people here who do it); fresh ears, faster (unless you know what you’re doing) and overall easier so to say…then again, it also depends on the market you’re aiming at and how much you want/can invest.crappy headphones don’t help (can’t tell from the post whether you’ve got monitors or not), even with a great soundcard/recorder. if you want to keep things in-house though, start thinking about a wee studio, monitors and then the rest…or perhaps good headphones, which would probably change things a bit
[quote=““Rady Valkov””]
How do you find the MOTU? Any experience with this piece of hardware?
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I’ve used the Ultralite Mk3 for the past few years. Its 8 inputs would suit your needs. I use it occasionally for multitracking into a DAW and it’s great.
Of course, you’re going to get better results if you work with a DAW that allows you to visually monitor your signal levels across frequencies, and if you listen through monitors as well as headphones while you’re mixing. But that’s another topic entirely.
We have got a fairly complex composition with a lot of P-locks which can’t be routed to a particular channel independently. I need full control over the whole process and do it at home. There is another topic about good headphones and I got some sort of impression what/how much/why. My headphones are the obsolete AKG K105 UHF wireless… What I’ve uploaded onto YouTube recently is unmastered output. Maybe good monitor headphones would be one step further? How about the SONY? It gives me the overall impression of the output level. Could that be an option? I am afraid I do not have any adequate reference level monitor which means I am lost. Can I rely on the SONY and some sort of high grade headphone monitors?
If the tracks here sound OK (I believe there are many people here who are able to assess it), then I just need a good monitor headphones and that’s all. These are mixed within the MnM on my iMac’s speakers…
Here is what works for me: (and doesnt mean its the most superway of doing things).
I jam all my stuff straight into a zoom q3hd recorder… (captures video and audio)
as long as i dont pump the audio in to hot… it sounds good enough for most purposes…
and basicly put it straight on youtube.
I know, I should do some editing, but in reality it just doesnt happen for various reasons (mainly lack of funding for better laptop)
Every 4 to 6 months… I listen to everything I made during the last period. and bundle them together into nice little ep’s… which I put on bandcamp for a PayWhatYouLike amount of moneyz… The things that end up on bandcamp. I “master” in reaper.
and with “mastering” I mean… level them out. so all have kinda same amount of bass. same amplitudes. add a bit of tape-vst to make it sound extra old… that type o deal.
So if i worked your tempo… I prob would make 360 youtube video’s a year. and put out about 10 albums containing 15 songs on bandcamp… heh I would be pretty proud of myself.
If I would arrange everything in a daw (which i do for some songs) I just build the loops on my gear. and record 4 or 8 bars on my octatrack, and import it into my computer.
or in the case of field-recordings… record it with my zoom thingie… chop it in computer. and feed my machines with the resulting sample-bits. (single cycle’s or oneshots or loops)
Anyways… Daws for me is difrent fun then “playing a song in realtime”
Yes, it’s not the superway of doing things but there are a lot of similarities here. You’ve got the zoom, I’ve got the SONY. My YouTube uploads have been recently temporarily suspended - I cannot handle all the stuff and should prioritise my work. Well, it’s true that I would love to clone myself (more work output). As soon as I manage to handle all my tracks, I’ll shout out here. I want to keep things simple and not much spatially uncomfortable on my desk.
But I am really going for an expensive mode of work this way.