MRH Audio Official Blog - Audio News, Review, Tutorial

Which Presonus Interface Is Right For You? (Comparison Chart)

3:29 am

Steinberg Announced The New Cubase 11

1:02 am

Steinberg has just recently excite lot of its fans with the official release of their new digital audio workstation, Cubase 11. Cubase 11 provides a wide variety of enhancements in workflow and performance and splendid new ways to discover creativity and maximize your productions. Cubase 11 can help you achieve them regardless of what your musical aims are. Let's take a glance of the new features in the Cubase 11.

New Improvement in Cubase 11 Across All Versions（Element, Artist, Pro）:

New slicing mode to chop up your loops, along with two global LFO, and mono legato glide for 808 bassline in Sampler Track.
Even without musical knowledge, now you can edit your MIDI easily with new scale feature. Quick snap your MIDI note or live play MIDI note to right scale instantly.
Get perfect blend by creating ramps and curves in CC and Pitch Bend lanes. You can now delete MIDI notes with double click and copy all your CC edits to another track.
New dynamic tool Squasher mix up and down compression up to three band to help your EDM production. For instance, use it to help your lead sound cut through the mix, tame aggressive bass line, enhance subtle and spacey reverberation.
Six new, exclusive sound and loop sets consisting of lo-fi hip hop, dancefloor tech house, vocal lines and ’80s synth wave.

On Pro & Artist version, you'll get a multiband Imager which allowing you to expand stereo width of your sound up to four frequency band (low, low mid, high mid, high) to get a better and cleaner mix. Thru the individual scope and correlation display, you will be able to adjust your panning of each band creatively. Also with the new SpectraLayers One, you are able to extract any vocal or instruments from a stereo track which seems to be great for remix your favorite song or creating mash-up.

Supervision audio analyzer in Cubase 11 Pro & Artist version analyzes your audio with set of comprehensive metering tool. You can choose out of several different modules for level, spectral, phase and waveform analysis, creating your own custom layout with up to nine module slots to give you a supremely accurate visual picture of your sound.

Speaking on the exclusive features only in the flagship Cubase Pro 11, audio mixdown is much easier and faster with more flexibility. You can simply select and pick the track and add them to your exporting queue, be it with the aux effects, master bus processing or dry track. Relax, sit down, have a cup of coffee, wait for your track to complete the final mixdown process. Additionally, you can mix your track in dynamic mode with the dynamic EQ, Frequency 2 for accurate dynamic mixing on vocal or instruments.

Time is important. Global Track can now be integrated in Key Editor to synchronize with your tempo changes or marker. Your composition is getting quicker and more creative without leaving key editor. New Score Editor with new properties tab in Cubase Pro 11 lets you instantly access the matching options and settings of your notation and, with the Note Editing Overlay, you can edit notes as conveniently as in the Key Editor.

☆ Our Ratings: 5/5

Grab Steinberg Cubase 11: https://cutt.ly/ug9gJyu

Presonus PX-1 Studio Microphone Review (Audio Sample)

11:06 pm

Presonus First Debut Affordable Condenser Microphone

Presonus, a renown brand of making versatile music hardware for many studio and live application releases their first ever microphone line up. The new line up cover 3 models which including the PX-1, PM-2, and PRM1. Today, we'll cover a little bit of PX-1 Large Diaphragm Cardioid Condenser Microphone. In general, the Presonus PX-1 condenser microphone comes with a piece of microphone hard mount and a zip-up vinyl carrying protection case.

The carrying case could be slightly small and tight to fit the mic inside, nevertheless it's ain't big issue. Unfortunately, the Presonus PX-1 does not include any shockmount in the package. You may need to get universal shockmount if you really need it.

Hold It. Feel It.

In terms of the build quality of PX-1, you'll feel the ruggedness of the microphone along with it's matte silver finishing and side-address capsule. The side address design greatly reject any sound interference from the side. You'll feel the secure and confidence while holding the microphone on hand. The microphone is weighted at around 0.5 kg.

According to Presonus, PX-1 is a true large diaphragm condenser microphone which featuring an one inch (25mm) gold sputtered capsule and 6-micron thick, centre-terminated mylar diaphragm feeding into FET electronics.

Presonus also mentioned that the PX-1 is a great microphone for recording vocals, podcast, and more. From the curve of the frequency response, the PX-1 is kinda flat up to 5000 Hz with and about +3dB centered at 7000Hz.

While testing on vocal recording, we feel the PX-1 offers more natural, uncolored and airy in tone quality with smooth frequency response. We would rate a 5 out of 10 in terms of the warmness level in tonality. It might not gives you a warm vocal you are looking for but you definitely won't lose the detail you need for your vocal recording. Noise level is acceptable comparing to the similar level condenser microphone such as the AT2020. Self noise specified at 18 dB SPL A-Weighted. With up to 135 SPL, the microphone is good enough to record any vocal or general instruments. On miking guitar, it reproduces fat and crisp tonality. Some roll off below the 200Hz will clean up the sound.

Recommended Applications

Lead Vocal Recording
String Instruments (Guitar, Violin, Double Bass) Recording
Brass Recording
Drum Overhead
Live Streaming
Pocasting

The Presonus PX-1 is now retailed at RM600.

☆ Our Ratings: 4.0/5

Grab Presonus PX-1 at: https://cutt.ly/get-presonus-px1

AKG Lyra USB Microphone Review

12:47 am

The AKG Lyra USB Microphone is specially made for individuals who need premium audio quality without having any extra gear. With its compact size, the AKG Lyra can easily become a portion of your travel kit along with a pair of headphones as well as your laptop. When it comes to the look and feel of AKG Lyra, it is modernly designed with vintage plead. It is also the best-looking mic, which would impress the individuals who perform in videos along with their podcasting. Also, it can work similarly well for audiophiles who invest a little bit of time in recording on the road. Overall, the AKG Lyra is a strong feeling as well as a robust bit of kit, which weighs around 2 pounds.

The AKG Lyra is a new brand piece of kit that gives you a new level of experience. The new USB mic from AKG is the best product to buy. Over the past few years, this USB microphone has enhanced by leaps and bounds. On sound quality, it is known as an 4K ultra HD (which stands for high definition) multimode USB microphone. Depending on your acoustic environment, we feel that the sound recorded in front mode (cardioid) for vocal is clear and crisp with minimal self noise.

At low frequencies, it is not too bassy or muddy. You'll save some effort and time by not messing around with EQ on the low frequencies. The recorded audio signal somehow remains strong and healthy when the mic input gain knob is around 12 o'clock. You may want to control the distance between you and the microphone before clipping occurs.

Lyra Frequency Response

More simply, it's a wonderful USB mic with a decent bit of uses more suppleness. Personally, we think the AKG Lyra is quite versatile for those of you who are looking for a multi-purpose recording USB Microphone which as similar as the Blue Yeti. To utilize this microphone, you can simply plug it into your PC or smartphone (require OTG cable adapter), load up your call recorder or digital audio workstation and go ahead to start your first recording project.

Excellent Features of AKG Lyra USB Microphone

If you run a solo or any internet interview show and have a fair budget to put towards your gear, the AKG Lyra is without a doubt an ideal choice. Some of the excellent features of the AKG Lyra USB microphone are listed below:

On a foundation of this mic itself, you will discover a USB power out as well as 3.5mm jack to plug into your headphones. The AKG Lyra allows you to hear what is being recorded and also it is being recorded with its real time monitoring feature.
There is a MUTE button available. It can come in handy if you are performing the interviews on the internet and also be apt to obtain concerned more while recording.
On the front side, there is a volume knob for your headphones. You can even adjust the volume of your output to match your preference that will not affect your home recording in any way.
On the backside, there is a GAIN knob for microphone. This is your adjustment to the input recording level and would directly affect audio being recorded.

To conclude our review, the AKG Lyra USB microphone is beloved by many streamers, gamers, youtubers, and podcasters for its simplicity as well as plug-and-play connectivity. If you are travelling on a long trip or looking for an alternative to processing group vocal recordings, then this is the best USB microphone to carry along.

☆ Our Ratings: 4.2/5

Get Your Lyra Here: https://cutt.ly/akg-lyra-1

Monkey Stories - 10 Essential Gears To Start Home Recording Studio

4:56 am

On our previous tutorial, we talked about definition of home studio, type of room needed to start a home studio as well as some basic acoustic explanation. In this chapter, we are going to discuss more on the most common & essential gears in home studio. Getting excited? 😊

1. Acoustic Treatment

2. Windows VS Mac VS Linux

4. Audio Interface

5. Monitoring Headphone

6. Microphone

7. Studio Monitor

8. Cable & Connector

9. Pop Filter/Shockmount

10. MIDI Controller

Top 10 Common Home Recording Gears You Should Consider To Have In Your Home Studio.

1. Acoustic Treatment - The Remedies of Your Room

Now you have a room, and before you start any recording, do you really examine whether your room sounds clear and noise free to work out your stuff? Is there any external noise such interrupting your workflow? Why acoustic treatment as the first priority? The reason is simple, because we want our source to sound as PURE & CLEAN as possible during the process of audio recording. Acoustic Treatment is a big topic, without delaying your precious time to build your home studio, let's get started with some basic concepts and also setup in this chapter.

As a musician, this may not be an essential skill that you need to learn. However, it will be an added advantage if you are looking forward to speak the same language with the audio engineer in your studio. As a recording engineer/acoustic consultant, this is somehow considered an essential knowledges to master in your career.

1.1. Acoustic Treatment = Soundproof?

A lot of people may often misunderstood the terms of "Acoustic Treatment" as Soundproofing. "Soundproof" may seem attractive enough for certain people when building up their studio. The truth is NO. Soundproofing could be just a subset of Acoustic Treatment.

Theoretically, Acoustic Treatment is the process and methods of dealing with the acoustic problems in an untreated room/area. Acoustic problems could be background noise, over-colored room reverberation, excessive flutter echos, muddy low end, and many more.

*Notes: Depends on your application, a control room may have different design requirements and way of treatment when comparing to a vocal booth or recording room.

1.2. 3 Basic Subsets of Acoustic Treatment
To simplify this, we are categorizing the acoustic issues into 3 simple subsets (Isolating, Enhancing, Spreading). A mixture of these 3 subsets would eventually help your room sounds better.

Refer to image below.

1. Soundproofing - Stop or isolate all the sound travelling from an enclosed space to another unenclosed space or vice versa.
2. Sound Absorption - Cutting out excessive echo/reverberation and also noise level within the enclosed space.
3. Sound Diffusion - Ability to scatter all the reflected sound to an intended directions or all direction within an enclosed space.

1.3. Materials
I believe many of you have seen, heard or used eggcrate box as an acoustic solution to call the soundproofing or absorption effect in your room. Let us find out now the mystery of eggcrate now.

Soft Materials Absorb Sound 🎼

Thick Moving Blankets, Pillows, Carpet,Cork, Curtains, Cushions, Quilts, Bed Spreads, Clothes, Mattresses, Plush Furniture, etc.

Hard Materials Reflect Sound 🎼

Wood, Glass, Stone, Cement, Laminate, Bathroom Tile, Fiberglass Sheets, Bricks, etc.

Rules To Remember:

The greater the DENSITY of an object, the greater the effectiveness of SOUNDPROOFING. The lower the density of an object, the better the efficiency of SOUND ABSORPTION.

Thickness of materials would affect the frequencies in sound absorption. High frequencies are easily absorbed by shallow surfaces such as towel or thin blanket, lower frequencies require some depth in the absorbing material such as pillows or bass trap.

In this case, lets find out the normal density of eggcrate box along with the materials which deem to be effective for soundproofing as well as sound absorption.

Normal Egg Carton Density : approximately 650 - 700 kg/m3
2" Industial Level Acoustic Foam Density: approximately 30 - 50 kg/m3
(source validated by Engineering Toolbox - http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/density-solids-d_1265.html)

*Notes: kg/m3 is the unit to measure the density of a solid.

Apparently, the density of normal egg carton is actually higher than the industrial level acoustic foam. Therefore, it is not considered as an effective material for sound absorption.

2. Windows vs Mac vs Linux

Before you start to click on the record button on your DAW, you need a PC, it can be a Windows, Mac, or even Linux. However, the largest and common user base that we see nowadays are using Windows or Mac. Therefore, just pick one of it and start now. 😊

There's still many arguments out there whether to choose Windows or Mac. In fact, it doesn't matter which one you choose, go ahead with your own budget, sharpen up your skills and you will be surprised that you can produce the things you like.

2.1. How Far Should I Upgrade My Hardware Components?

These are all depends on how far you want to go for your own production. If you are merely doing with few tracks and also plugins, you don't actually need the world best performance PC to accomplish this. However, if you are working on with a lot or probably unlimited tracks, you may need to look into your processing power, RAM, as well as Hard Disk Space.

➡ Minimal Spec We Suggest To Get Started:

Windows XP, Windows7, Mac OS
8GB RAM
1.8Ghz Dual Core or Higher
500GB Hard Disk Space

Do you still think we need super computer to start a quality yet simple recording?

3. DAW - Digital Audio Workstation

Once you have a PC, you need a DAW, which is also commonly called as "Digital Audio Workstation", "Recording Software", "Music Arrangement Software" by people. The digital audio workstation is a software which allow you to carry out your recording and also music arrangement task more efficiently.

There are many DAW in the market regardless of paid or open source. You only need to pick the right one and put in some effort and time to learn them. However, we strongly suggest get a lifetime licence of paid DAW.

3.1. What are the common DAW used in the industry?
For Windows Users - Cubase/Nuendo, FL Studio, Mixcraft, Pro Tools, Ableton, Bitwig, Cakewalk, Studio One & etc.
For Mac Users - Garageband, Cubase, Pro Tools, Ableton, Logic Pro

3.2. Why Are Some DAWs So Expensive? Paid or Open Source (Free)?

There is no specific answer to this. The fact that you may need to know is the pricing of DAWs have been dropping to the extent of affordable for everyone who is serious in music production to use it.

Reasons?
First off, developers need to be paid for their time and knowledge, which are major expenses. Then they need to continue offering on-going support for the product, which isn't free. Just like you need to be paid by your client to produce the best content to them from time to time.

If your jobs really give you a good return, don't be afraid of paying to the DAW that satisfy all your job requirements. Most of the paid DAW provide fancy features, you shouldn't limit your capability in any of these free DAW. Instead, you should try to expand your capability by using these paid features which would eventually improve the quality of your production.

➧Advantages of using Paid DAW:

Quality in-house plugins & sound samples
More intuitive user interface
Expand the limitation features of the DAW
Fast support & software update

➧Disadvantages of using Free DAW

Quality of plugin or sound samples could be limited
Some audio driver or VST could be unsupported (Audacity does not support ASIO at this moment due to licensing issue.)
Lack of immediate support when issue occurs
Less intuitive graphic user interface

3.3. Standard Price Range of Different DAWs in Malaysia currency

Find out the recommended DAW that fit your home studio with the price range below:

FREE - Audacity, Studio One Prime, Garageband (Mac), Cubase LE

RM100 - RM1000 - Mixcraft 9 Recording Studio, Mixcraft 9 Pro Studio, Reaper Discounted License, Magix Music Maker, Studio One 5 Artist/Pro, FL Studio Fruity, FL Studio Producer, Ableton Live 9 Intro, Logic Pro X (Mac), Bitwig

RM1000 & above - Studio One 5 Professional, Steinberg Cubase Pro, FL Studio Signature, Ableton Live 9 Standard, Ableton Live 9 Suite, Pro Tools

✔Tips: Most of the DAWs provide trial version, give it a try before making a purchase.

4. Audio Interface / Sound Card / Recording Device

The audio interface or sound card is commonly known as the core of your home recording. The audio interface is basically an audio device that allow you to hook up to all your gears such as microphones, headphones, effect processors, preamp, studio monitors, MIDI controller as well as musical instrument to start your recording. In more technical explanation, the audio interface basically convert and transport your analog signal to digital signal or digital signal to analog signal.

Want to know little bit more about physics of the signal encoding method? We will be cover some basic on our later chapter. 😊

There are few factors to consider when picking your audio interface such as the Type of Power Connection, Numbers of Input/Output, Audio Driver Support, & Form Factor. Cost of acquiring an audio interface maybe vary depending on these common factors.

4.1. Powered via USB/Thunderbolt/Firewire/PCIe?

The differences between these connections are the speed of data transfer and also PC connectivity options. Faster connection allows you to record multi-tracks more smoothly at once.

PC User - USB 2.0 to 3.0, Firewire (with Firewire Card installed), Thunderbolt, PCIe

Mac User - USB 2.0 to 3.0, Firewire, Thunderbolt

How fast the connection?

USB 2.0 : 480 Mbps ★★

USB 3.0 : 5Gbps ★★★★

Firewire : 400 or 800 Mbps ★★★

Thunderbolt : 40Gbps ★★★★★★★★

PCIe 3.0 : 8 GTs ★★★★★★★★

For most home studio, the USB connection of audio interface is still the first choice to go due to its compatibility with most of the devices.

4.2. Numbers of Audio Input/Output?

Input - Microphone, Instruments, MIDI or Line (Synthesizer, Mixer, Effect Processors, Preamplifier) Output - Headphone, Monitors, Subwoofers

First of all, ask yourself, are you recording in solo or with a group of people ?

For solo musicians or home recording enthusiast, 2 - 4 inputs are the best to go. If you are recording a group of people or instrument which require to record many different tracks at once, you may need more than 4 or up to 20.

4.3. Audio Driver Support
The most common audio drivers which we used to see in Windows recording are WDM/Wave, ASIO or WaveRT. For Mac recording, you will be using CoreAudio USB Driver.

In this chapter, we ain't going to dive into Wave, Wave RT, or any other audio driver, we will talk about ASIO, one of the widely used audio driver in the industry. Most of the audio interface nowadays integrated or provide the in-house ASIO driver (which usually comes with installation CD). For some audio interface that doesn't come with ASIO driver, you may also go to http://www.asio4all.com/ to download.

4 facts you need to know about ASIO:

ASIO is a trademark of Steinberg Media Technologies Gmbh
Act as a driver that allowing your DAW to communicate with your audio interface
Introduce extremely low latency and high fidelity which is great when you are doing your recording and also real time monitoring simultaneously
Best to use when using a lot audio input and output.

4.4. Form Factor

What is form factor? Form factor is usually refer to the dimension, shape and also specs of the interface.

Remember, an interface can be as small as portable for you to be a travelling musicians which can bring them along in your journey. It can also be as large or long that need to rack-mounted.

Suggestion for most of the newbie in home recording, if you really have tight budget, start with a desktop interface which is usually close to your budget, easy-to-use and also require no special mounting. We will suggest a series of best audio interfaces for newbie on our later chapter.

✔Tips: Always remember, you don't need to always compare your gears with others. The final is all about the quality of your music. How much effort and passion you are willing to put will decide how far your quality to be.

5. Monitoring Headphone

One of the the most important message that everyone knows that if you have a headphone, it totally means you are fully isolated from the noise surround you. So, you could work on your project peacefully without interruption.

Unlike typical multimedia headphone, instead of emphasizing and boosting on certain frequency areas, monitoring headphone should provide balance and more wider frequency response in general. Monitoring headphone are commonly used in recording and also mixing stage.

Recording Stage

Singer use monitoring headphone to monitor their vocal closely.
Instrumentalists monitor the accuracy and also tone of their instrument.

Mixing Stage

Mixing engineer monitors and identifies tiny errors and details which sometime can hardly be detected on speakers.

5.1. Open Back VS Closed Back?

For mixing purpose, we suggest the open back design headphone because it will give a more natural and airy sound when mixing. It is not suitable for performers as real time tracking during recording session as the sound would spill into your mic recording.

Therefore, the closed back design will be appropriate for performer to track their vocal/instrument in real time when they are having a recording session.

6. Microphone

Another essential gear here and most discussed topic in the realm of recording. We all know that we need a microphone to start recording. However, do you know the type of microphone commonly used in home recordings? So, what are the "studio microphone" which we usually called or seen?

6.1. Type of Microphone in the Market
Putting other type of microphone aside, here we list down the top 4 type of microphone we usually see in any home or pro recording studio:

6.2. What are The Characteristics of Different Type of Microphone? Are They All Suitable For Studio Recording?

Vanguard Audio V4 is an example of condenser microphone.

1. Condenser Microphone - known as Capacitor Microphone or Electrostatic Microphone. They are used widely and commonly in the field of studio recording due to it's widest frequency response, fast transient response (Attack), better sensitivity which in a way provide bigger sound quality as well as clear and detailed sound images.

However, they are sometimes not really capable of handling large sound pressure level. To power them, you will need voltage supply of 48V to them. Common recording application: Vocal, Acoustic Guitars, Drum, String Instrument (Violin, Viola, Double Bass....)

Audio Technica MB1K is an example of dynamic microphone.

2. Dynamic Microphone - known as Moving Coil Microphone. Used widely in the field of live performance due to it's effectiveness to handle large SPL, resistant to moisture, robust and relatively inexpensive to setup. However, they may not as sensitive as condenser microphone if you are going to capture every little tiny and detailed sound signature. In recording realm, they are sometime being used to record live vocal due to less susceptible in capturing background noise. No phantom power is needed to record. Common recording application: Vocal, Drum

Audio Technica AT4080 is an example of ribbon microphone.

3. Ribbon Microphone - work the same theory as dynamic microphone to produce sound. They usually detect sound in a bidirectional pattern (8-figure). Likewise, most of them doesn't require phantom power to work. Works great for stereo recording. Bear in mind that this type of microphone is pretty fragile and usually need to be taken carefully.

Superlux L401U is an example of USB Microphone.

4. USB Microphone - Simplest way to explain is you are going to use your Condenser or Dynamic Microphone to power via USB instead of using any sort of power supply. Most of the USB microphones contain built in Analog to Digital Converter which in return you do not require an external microphone preamp to power them. Therefore, you may found that good USB microphone may cost slightly more than certain Low-Mid Price Range XLR Microphone. The good side? As easy as just plug & play. Other than that, they are usually quite portable and doing well if you are musician who travel a lot and need to get your demo done by easy setup. Thus, the USB microphone are quite suitable for podcasters, voice-over artist, web conferencers, and also light music production users.

6.3. How Much Do I Actually Need To Invest On A Recording Microphone?
There's no RIGHT or WRONG answer for this. If you are just a newbie who doesn't want to risk yourself in buying some overpriced microphone, just stick to your budget and start practicing with it.

Does it make any differences for the cheapest and the expensive one? Technically speaking, YES! There are some differences at the aspects of their built components and specs but we are not going to cover it today. In terms of concept you are applying to get the best sound quality, they are almost similar. In our opinion, getting the one with higher price may eventually helps your post production job to be much easier especially during the mixing stage therefore you SAVE your time and less effort.

However, there is always a standard in pricing to get a fairly acceptable recording microphone. You may find there are tons of super duper cheap microphone out there which call themselves as "condenser" microphone from as low as RM20. But uhmmm... do you really want to compromise the quality of your recording? If you are looking forward to get a real budget condenser microphone to start recording in your room, just grab any of them in between the price range of RM300 - RM600. Intermediate players look for some upgrade? Go ahead with those microphones which are RM600 and above.

Remember, your sound can be affected by all in and out of your gears. Price is not the main factor to determine the quality of your final production. Think creatively and practice smartly for a successful music production journey.

7. Studio Monitor

Yamaha HS5 is an example of 5" studio monitor.

A studio monitor is a studio loudspeaker specifically designed for accurate sound monitoring (close to flat frequency response) for mixing and mastering purpose. There are few criteria to consider when choosing a pair of studio monitor for your home studio such as the power (watt), active/passive, and driver type.

7.1. Active VS Passive

A passive studio monitor often require you to have an amplifier or crossover to work with. As a result it will introduce extra cost to your setup. Active studio monitor get rid of all the extra cost. All you need is just to connect to a monitor controller or your audio interface/mixers to power it. This is one of the reason many worldwide professional studios rely on active monitors with no regrets.

7.2. How Much Power Do I Need For My Home Studio?

Size of your studio monitor is always inter-related to the output power of your studio monitor. A larger studio monitor always have a higher output power. For example, a 5 inch studio monitor always have an average output power around 50-80 watt whereas a 6 inch usually higher than that. Larger studio monitor usually introduce more detail in the low frequencies.

✔Tips: Though larger studio monitor will give you more detail across the frequencies response, yet the monitoring accuracy can be affected by your room size and acoustic environment in your room. Choose a pair of monitors according to your home studio room size. For instance, a 5 inch studio monitor is just good enough for balanced and accurate monitoring in a small room within 4 meter square.

7.3. One Way VS Two Way VS Three Way Amplify Driver

One Way

Two Way

Three Way

Single Amplifier
One Amplifier To Drive The Output of Subwoofer (Low Frequencies) & Tweeter (High Frequencies)

Dual Amplifier
Two Separate Amplifier To Drive The Output of Subwoofer (Low Frequencies) & Tweeter (High Frequencies)

Triple Amplifier
Three Separate Amplifier To Drive The Output of Subwoofer (Low Frequencies), Midwoofer (Mid Frequencies) & Tweeter (High Frequencies)

7.4. The Myth 1: Why Are Most of The Multimedia Speakers Cheaper Than Studio Monitors?

Most multimedia speakers are not designed for studio monitoring, mixing and mastering purpose. They are usually manufactured in mass and sold cheaper to cater for the major consumer market.

7.5. The Myth 2: Can I Still Use My Multimedia Speaker For Mixing?

Yes, you may use it but definitely not recommended. This is due to most multimedia speakers are designed to fit most consumer listening preferences , be it too bassy or too bright. A good pair of studio monitor should sound natural (close to flat frequency response), uncolored, and balanced. The best way to test the effectiveness? Check your mix on as many output devices (car audio players, multimedia speakers, smartphone, TV...) as you can.

8. Cables & Connectors

Choosing the right cable for the right signal is essential. Well built audio cables and connectors improve sound quality by introducing less noise and also less interference to your audio signal. Let's look at the most commonly used connector on gears and cable in a home studio.

8.1. Balanced Cable VS Unbalanced Cable

Other than the built component, the main differences between a balanced and unbalanced cable is the maximum cable run support for every connection as well as the susceptibility to external noise interference.

	Balanced	Unbalanced
Cable Length Support For Optimal Performance	50 to 100 feet (15-30 meters)	15-20 feet (4-6 meters)
Noise Suppression Ability	Strong	Weak

8.2. Connectors

3-Pin XLR Cable - Balanced Cable. Connect our microphone, speaker/studio monitor, subwoofers, effect processors, and preamplifiers.

1/4 inch TS Cable - Unbalanced Cable. Connect music instrument such as guitar, keyboard and etc.

1/4 inch TRS Cable - Balanced Cable. Connect any output devices such as studio monitor, headphones or subwoofers.

RCA Cable - Unbalanced Cable. Connect devices such as studio monitor, preamplifiers, or music players.

3.5mm TRS Cable - Balanced Cable. Connect any output devices such as studio monitor, headphones or subwoofers.

9. Pop Filter/Shockmount

9.1. Do I Even Need A Pop Filter During My Recording Session?

Are you recording a vocal? If YES, then most likely you need it because it helps you to clean up and avoid any explosive sound like the letter 'P or B' during the recording. As a result, you have a clear and non explosive word pronunciation during a close up vocal recording.

✔Tips: Do you know a pop filter can be used to record the best distance between the vocalist and the mic? This is useful to control the proximity effect.

9.2. Eh, but how about the "Spider Web🕸"?

Well, in studio term, we call them "Shockmount". Due to most studio microphone transducers are highly sensitive to rumbles and vibration, a shockmount will really need to take place to fix this.

✔Tips: In order to lower total cost of ownership, not all microphones especially those below RM500 comes with and need a shockmount. In case you really need a shockmount, you may try your luck to look for any universal one which can fit nicely to your microphone.

10. MIDI Controller

Tired of excessive 🖰 mouse movement and clicking to control your DAW? Perhaps a MIDI controller will help you to make your recording and mixing job easier and faster. A MIDI controller or control surface basically is a device with some pads, button, rotary encoders, motorized/unmotorized faders, transport controls and joystick on it surface which allow you to transmit real time MIDI messages. Functions in your DAW or VST plugins can be programmed and mapped to your controller surface.

✔Tips: Certain MIDI controllers comes with the feature of auto MIDI mapping to specific or different DAW.

Does the new Behringer BH770 Headphone look like another 'B' headphone?

2:58 am

Buckhorn PRO12 | New Qualcomm Enhanced Audio Interface For Live Streaming, Recording & Sound Arrangement

7:52 pm

About Buckhorn Tech

Buckhorn Tech, a newly established audio company in China founded by a team of elites who are mainly from Qualcomm Atheros in 2016. The software engineers in the company are formed by a bunch of people who specializing in Windows/Linux driver for Wired/Wireless Network Interface Card. Buckhorn starts by creating their first consumer audio product on 2019 and in the progress of for more professional audio products line to cater the global audio market demand. Despite as a China local company, Buckhorn Tech also works with R&D partners from United States to ensure all the audio products meet the 4 essential elements - Fast, Robust, Performance, & Quality.

Interface for Mobile Karaoke, Live Stream & Recording

The second audio interface model released from Buckhorn Tech, PRO12 is compact in size with silver metallic case, molded with 3 aluminium alloy made knobs, and designed in professional look. Texture of the build quality is great and rigid. The most attractive part here about Buckhorn PRO12 audio interface is the features they designed to support for high quality online streaming. With the integration of micro usb and 3.5mm Aux Input/Output connection, any iOS or Android devices can be connected to this little giant without any issues.

Similar to any other audio interface out there, it powered via USB 2.0. The Aux Input/Output can now be used to connect to any of your smartphone or audio player for audio playback, live streaming and recording purpose. Guess what? You can now stream on desktop or mobile concurrently via Buckhorn PRO12. Most importantly, your streaming shares the same audio quality. On the rear dashboard of the audio interface, it also has a Stereo TRS Output which allowing you to connect to your studio monitors or speakers.

On front of the control dashboard, the interface comes with 1 Combo XLR Input with 48V phantom power support to connect your condenser microphone/dynamic, music instrument, or pre-amplifier. Along with gain control, you are able to control the signal input to your application. A GAIN control is also available beside the XLR Input. The stylish light indicator surrounded the GAIN knob gives you an indication whether the signal is overload/clipping.

On the bright side, it has a PAD switch to provide you extra headroom to your recording application by reducing your signal level before amplification process. Extra headroom means you get more sonic clarity and musicality in your recording mix. Unlike you any budget audio interface out there, you can't find this useful feature pair with them.

The front control dashboard provides you the ability to change the volume of your main output with a big rounded control knob. You can also connect any of your monitoring headphone such as the Audio Technica M50X, AKG K92 or any other headphone to the TRS Headphone Connection. A standalone headphone gain knob allows you to adjust the output level of your headphone when playing back or monitoring in real time. Any headphone with low impedance can also be amplified to achieve great sound when connecting to the headphone output connection.

If you are a Multi-Tasking home/travelling musicians or live streamers who is looking for an audio interface that does more than just audio recording, the Buckhorn PRO12 is one you can put into your list of consideration. Put it in a good use to build more audience for your live streaming session.

Highly Recommended To:

1. Live Streamers

2. Youtubers.

3. Video Creators

4. Home Studio Musicians

5. Podcasters

6. Hi-Fi Enthusiast

We will be UNBOXING the Buckhorn PRO12 audio interface on our next topic. Stay tuned to our next review!

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