This holiday season is a great time to pick up hard drives at a competitive price.  With the pending death of the Chia crypto and far less mining in general, components and hard drive prices have come back down to earth.  Always buy new and always buy from authorized dealers.  The Seagate X18 18TB drive is currently selling on Amazon for $299.  This is a great price that will likely creep back up as Seagate has said it's cutting back production.  The Toshiba 12TB N300 is currently price at $215 and the Wester Digital / Hitachi  Ultrastar stars are still priced at a premium but far more competitive than earlier in the year.  So if you need to upgrade your NAS or video editing DAS, or just need to add a big ass drive to your rack, now is the time.  We recently picked up some X18 18TB drives and really like the performance, around 260Mbps sustained data transfers.  The drives are near silent apart from initial startup.  

Our hard drives recommendations are to stick with enterprise level drives or at least NAS level.  So that includes Seagate Exos, Western Digital Gold and Ultrastar and Toshiba MG and N300 Drives.  We also advise only buying CMR drives  in the 12TB to 18TB capacities for maximum performance and value.  

See our previous article and recommendations for hard drives and video editing.

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Category: Production and Creative

Published: 23 November 2022

We don't write about tires too often but figured we'd share our thoughts on the Michelin Defender 2 as we couldn't find any reviews. We recently installed a set of these on a Subaru Impreza and have been pleased with the results. After several thousand miles we can say the tires perform as expected. The ride is comfortable, the handling is good and the noise is minimal.

The car rolls and tracks well. We also drove in a recent rainstorm and didn't notice any significant change in handling or breaking distances. We also tried to spin the tires at a couple of stoplights and the tires wouldn't do it. Of course, the Subaru is an all wheel drive car, so that helps but we tried and the Michelin's weren't having it.

The other tire we were considering for this care is the General Altimax RT43, which is a great tire that we have on another car. The Defender 2 and the Altimax are similar in their aspirations to provide a good all around tire for most people that a combination of comfort, handling and longevity. Both are in that 65,000 – 80,0000 mileage warranty. I've owned lots of tires over the years and have never come close to getting the mileage the tire companies claim you can get. The Defender 2 mileage warranty is 80K miles. I don't think I'll get there. However, it does instill some level of value when you consider the tire performs very well.  Plus, if the tire wears out faster than anticipated Michelin will issue a credit towards a replacement.

The previous tires installed on the Subaru Impreza were Yokohama 740GTXs. The 740GTX were great tires but certainly picked up more road noise over the life of the tire. We're very happy we decided to go with the Defender 2 for this latest batch of 4.

If we still have the car in a few years we'll do an update to this review and report back on the actual mileage we're able to get out of these tires. We predict well shy of 80K but we'll see.

On more note, we get asked about Costco versus America's Tires all the time. Yes, you can save a few bucks at Costco and they often have rebates but the service is not readily accessible. It's just harder to get in there and the tires often take longer to get.  America's tire cost a little more but it's just easier to get in and out of there unless you live a sparsely populated area where your local Costco isn't so nuts. Can't go wrong with either and you will generally save about $100-$200 at Costco.  

Visit Michelin to see all the specs on the Defender 2

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Category: Home and Lifestyle

Published: 04 October 2022

The HDSPe AIO Pro from RME Audio is the successor to the HDSPe AIO. The “Pro” adds an improved clock, additional headroom and switchable I/O levels of +24 dBu, +19 dBu, +13 dBu, +4 @ 0 dBFS. We've been running the original AIO in one of our systems for several years with great results. When the AIO Pro was announced we wanted to see if the improvement in specs would be worth the upgrade. We also had to consider if we'd be willing to give up our AO4S-AIO-192 AIO expansion card and its 4 additional analog outputs as RME no longer offers this option with the new AIO Pro.

The AIO Pro uses the same drivers and Total Mix software so it's an easy upgrade. Just replace the existing AIO in the same slot. The AIO and AIO Pro use the same breakout cables. However, we found it curious that RME flipped the position of the connectors on the card. That threw us off at first when we attempted to connect the breakout cable to the same position on the card. We assumed they would be in the same position. We're not sure why the engineers decided to do this but in a custom installation with minimal access to the computer it would have been helpful to have the connectors in the same position as the original AIO. We're also still perplexed why RME does no include the proper balanced breakout cable with the AIO Pro. Who is using the unbalanced stuff with a $1k sound card?  Of course, we already have the balanced version from our original AIO but anyone buying an RME PCIe card for the first time might be disappointed when opening the box to fine RCAs.

So how does the AIO Pro sound? The RME AIO Pro sounds great. It has a slightly more lifelike and velvety sound than the original AIO. There's a little more air and space and more detail. It's also a very quiet card. With the card connected and output at maximum with our external mixer and monitors cranked up, there's just the sound of air and the inherent noise in the external electronics. The AIO Pro is nearly dead silent with no interference audible from the PC. This provides for a transparent and clean mix that is critical when mastering.

Is it worth upgrading from the original AIO to the AIO Pro? Is it worth giving up the 4 additional analog outputs from the AO4S-AIO-192? For some folks probably. We don't use the AO4S-AIO-192 as much as we originally thought we would but we still really like having it when we need it. Also, the AIO still holds it own it against its big brother the AIO Pro. Many folks might struggle in a blind test to pick out the difference in sound between the two. We believe the AIO Pro is more lifelike and clean but RME's last two releases are both really good. So the specs are better and the sound is better but if you're currently happy with your current AIO don't expect an OMG moment. 

If you can benefit from the improved specs, tighter clock, switchable output levels and the subtle increase in sound quality than the AIO Pro is certainly worth considering as an upgrade.  If you're in the market for an extremely versatile and master quality PCIe sound card for the first time the AIO Pro should be at the top of your list.

Visit RME for all the specs and features of the AIO Pro.

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Category: Production and Creative

Published: 18 July 2022

Comet is a beautiful sounding reverb with a powerful yet intuitive design. The GUI has an organic nature to it that responds with both sonic and visual feedback allowing you to dial in both lush spaces and straight ahead reverbs. The visual feedback is in the form of, you guessed it, a comet. It turns out to be a really great way to represent how the various settings impact the sound of the space. More discrete trails in the comet represent less diffusion. The comet gets bigger or smaller to represent size and the comet trails get longer or shorter depending on the decay settings. Dial up the detune settings and the comet trails are less directional. It's a really smart way to design a reverb GUI and provides instant visual feedback. It's certainly one of the most intuitive plug-ins we've used and very easy to dial in an effect.

Most importantly, Comet sounds really, really good. It's equally effective on separate instruments, vocals or an entire mix.  In our video samples below you can hear it on a dry Moog lead sound, Korg Opsix and a full mix. It's easy to lose yourself in the sonic trails of Comet.  And it's not just the wide open lushness. You can get the sound of  tighter, smaller rooms with more discrete reflections or massive lush spaces with endless decay. With extreme settings you can create interesting effects that go beyond what a typical reverb plug-in can do and create syncopated effects.

Polyverse is aggressive on the pricing and you can grab Comet for $100 or so during special sales. We think it's a great tool to have in your sonic arsenal. At $149 Comet is very competitive with other reverbs on the market and the only one we've seen with such an inventive GUI. it's not your typical take on a hardware unit emulated in software.  Like David S. Pumpkins, it's its own thing.  We highly encourage you do download the demo and play with it. Check out our video and visit Polyverse for more on Comet and their entire lineup of plugins.

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Category: Production and Creative

Published: 21 April 2022

The AO4S-192 AIO provides four servo-balanced outputs to RME PCIe audio cards like the HDSP 9632 and the AIO. It provides a seamless way to get more analog outputs, giving you six total when combined with the two existing outputs on the cards.

When we upgraded our audio workstation we no longer had PCI slots, only PCIe slots. So we swapped out a PCI based Lynx Two B (6 channels of analog) card for a PCIe based RME AIO (2 channels of analog) card. The performance of the AIO have been very good and we were waiting for the AIO Pro to upgrade. However, once we discovered the AIO Pro would not longer offer the ability to add more analog outputs with expansion cards we opted to upgrade the original AIO instead. We prefer internal cards and IO versus having external boxes.

The AO4S AIO comes with a cable to connect it to the main AIO card. Simply seat it in an empty case opening and secure it close to the main AIO card as the included cable is fairly short. So it's best if the two cards are adjacent to each other. The AO4S AIO does not use a PCIe slot. It occupies the space in the PC but the the extender on the bottom of the card has no electrical connection. It's simply for stabilization and is not connecting to the PCIe bus. All the connectivity happens through the cable.

Once installed the additional outputs show up in RME's Total Mix software. The next step is to turn the additional channels on in the Hammerfall DSP settings. This is a critical step because while the channels show in Total Mix nothing will happened until the additional outputs are configured in the Hammerfall DSP settings. This is not obvious if you haven't configure your AIO card in a while

We tested the the new outputs with the exact sames cables, settings, content, mixer and studio monitors. To our ears all the outputs sound exactly the same. So now, we have 6 pristine channels to work with and we can route audio in endless ways from our PC to our mixer and back out. This is very useful for mixing multiple tracks but also for podcasting and and being able to have multiple sources mixed into our feed.

You can find the RME-AO4S-192-AIO selling for $350 new and for $200 or so used. Online retailers no longer stock the device and it drop ships from RME directly. You also may receive a unit with different colored capacitors. The boards with the blue and red capacitors appear to be the latest version.

Learn more about RME-Audio and it's lineup here.

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Category: Production and Creative

Published: 29 March 2022

The opsix is a powerful little FM based synth from Korg that sounds really good. Korg has made FM programming accessible with the opsix. They've included many of the iconic key and bell sounds you'll recognize from the DX-7 days but that's just a fraction of what the opsix is capable of. The presets are so good. Come for the built-in sounds, stay for the addition to discovery.

After downloading the 2.0 update we were impressed by many of the new presets that are complex patches that sound really good. With or without the built-in effects of the opsix the instruments you can create are very musical.

We love the way the opsix pairs with something like a subsequent 37. It's just the right combination of analog and FM we like. We found ourselves firing up the opsix more and more to simply explore the sounds and tweak the faders and knobs to see what we could come up with. We don't remember FM being this fun with the DX-7.

The opsix is cheaply made and does not inspire confidence upon unboxing. It's a lot of plastic with a really cheap keybed and, well, it's a lot of cheap plastic. We feel we could accidentally damage any of the various in/out jacks on the back of opsix easily. The main controls, knobs and faders are fine and we also love the way the opsix looks. It photographs really well. But it's really cheaply made. The BOM or bill of materials must be really low on this sucker. So kudos to Korg for making what we imagine is a fairly profitable unit at scale.

So yeah, it's cheaply made and we would have liked a much better keybed. However, what counts is the sound and the opsix sounds great. It really does. The built-in effects are really good and it pairs nicely with outboard gear too. At times, we simply forgot we were playing an FM based synth. It's that good. It's not just bells and biting sounds. The opsix can do warm pads, poly sizzle, and interesting atmospheric sounds as well. It's an extremely versatile synth and would be a great first synth to learn what FM can do.

Would be nice to see Korg release a sound module version of the opsix unless they plan on doing a better versions with a proper keybed with a much better feel and aftertouch...etc. For users where this is not their primary keyboard this isn't an issue. However, it wouldn't take much much to improve the keybed for the opsix plus.

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Category: Production and Creative

Published: 13 January 2022

One of the things we've been doing during Covid is listening to more vinyl. It's been nice to revisit the analog realm of the spinning discs. Of course, it was also a good time to check out some phono preamps. We created a nice compact setup with our vintage Pioneer turntable, Yamaha studio monitors and an ART Precision Phono Preamp. We pick it up for $65 and think it provides excellent value. It's small, easy to connect, nicely labeled and sounds great.

The ART includes settings for moving magnet and moving coil cartridges. It has a switchable low-cut filter and includes standard photo line input and output jacks. It's a very small unit so the power supply is external. On the front there's a gain control, clipping indicator and really bright power light. Really. They could make this 1/10 the brightness and that would be fine. ART should have a dimming capability because if you want to fall asleep to some vinyl this light is going to keep you up. Now, if you prefer to have a nighlight this offers extra value. Depends how you look at it but yes we had to put a cloth over that light at night. It's distracting. <br<
Other than that, this is a great little preamp. The sound quality clean and transparent with plenty of ouuput. We were able to drive our Yamaha studio monitors to very high output level no problem. For a simple, clean and very good sounding setup the ART Precision Phono Preamp is an excellent value.

Learn more and get all the specs here.

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Category: Home Electronics

Published: 22 September 2021

The Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro Headphones offer an excellent value in the $150 price range for professional level headphone with excellent isolation and long lasting comfort. There's a reason so many of our production friends refer to these as “the clouds” and you're seeing podcasters and field mixers replace their trusty Sony MDR-7506s with the DT 770s.

The DT 770s come in several versions depending on what type of device you think you'll be using to drive them. We've tested both the 80 Ohm and 250 Ohm versions and recommend the 250 Ohm version when connecting to professional gear and quality headphone amps. The 250 Ohm version pair nicely with a Mackie mixer for example and we could mix with confidence on par with our studio monitors. We found the 80 Ohm version a little boomy and less accurate.  

The DT 770s are nicely made with beautiful velour ear pads that make them comfortable to wear for extended sessions. Since these pads are inherent to the design you get the comfort and the quality sound. If you replace the ear pads on the Sony MDR-7506s with velour pads the sound is not the same and they're still not as comfortable to wear as the DT 770s. The DT 770s have a better feel overall. We also like the look of the silver pads. 

The DT 770s are not nearly as heavy as they look. Before taking them out of the box we expected them to just feel heavy. That wasn't the case and we were pleasantly surprised by the design. It's just the right mix of metal and plastic. You can't really fold them up in a compact way like the MDR-7506s but that's not a concern in the studio. They're kinda too nice to take in the field anyway. That's what the Sony's are for.

We're not sure why we waited so long to try the DT 770s. We just got so used to the $100 headphones from Sony, Shure and AKG. If you can, spend a little more and check out the DT 770s, especially the 250 Ohm version. You'll find them on Amazon as low as $125 but typically around $150. They're certainly worth a listen and will be in our arsenal going forward.

Visit Beyerdynamic for more details and all the specs.

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Category: Production and Creative

Published: 25 August 2021

The SM7B and RE20 microphones from Shure and Electro-Voice are the benchmark dynamic mics for professional broadcasting in the sub $500 range. You can usually find both mics in the $400 range with the Shure SM7B offering a better value as it includes a proper mount and wind screens. The EV RE20 comes with a well made but simple mic clip that is a little more cumbersome on a boom stand.

We've used both mics over the years but usually in separate studios. So we finally got some time to enjoy both mics in the same setting with the same signal path and decide which one we prefer if we had to choose one primarily for live broadcasting. We tested a variety of signal paths and preamps which included gear from Daking, True Systems, DBX, FMR Audio, Mackie and Yamaha.

The RE20 is perhaps the most recognizable dynamic mic on the planet. It's a beautiful and functional design with minimal proximity effect and just looks awesome in that timeless fawn beige color. The RE20 is really good in a setting where the talent may be interacting with other folks, turning side to side and perhaps not really paying much attention to the mic. The Variable-D design works as designed and you can move considerable distance around this mic with very little effect on timbre. Even without a wind screen or isolation mount the RE20 minimizes handling noise, popping Ps, and is very good at isolation. It's a little more sensitive than the SM7B and will pick up a little more of background noise and HVAC. The bass roll-off switch is easier to access and quickly refer to versus the SM7B which is on the back of the mic and requires a flat head screwdriver to set.

The RE20 sounds great on voice and instruments and can take high pressure levels. We also did a test recording acoustic guitar and singing with just the RE20 in the room the results were solid for a quick and easy setup to get down ideas with good fidelity. Same goes for the SM7B. It sounds great on everything and you can scream out lyrics to your hearts content. Both of these mics are proven, tough designs that should provide years or quality service.

Both of these mics are industry standards. Give them a good preamp, a little compression and EQ to taste and you are off and running. To our ears however, the RE20 is lacking a bit in the mids. We found ourselves fiddling with knobs on our gear a bit more with the RE20 to dial in the sound versus the SM7B. This is probably something we wouldn't notice with just an RE20 in the studio but compared to the SM7B it took more work for us to dial in the sound the way we like it. Subjective yes. So your ears might prefer the RE20 right out of the box.
The RE20 looks the part. It's just such an awesome looking piece of gear. The classic color, the heft, the grill, it's just beautiful. Aesthetically, you can't go wrong. However, the SM7B is a smarter design. The clever isolation mount is less obtrusive and allows for the mic cable to run along the boom stand if needed. It's just more stealth and sleek. So in a setting where you might not see the talent the RE20 is excellent. In a setting where the talent is on camera the SM7B is a better choice.

To our ears the SM7B sounds better and the proximity effect is not an issue. It's easy to dial in a sound we like and adjust our mic technique accordingly. At first, the RE20 has a more flattering sound perhaps because of the slight attenuation in the mid frequencies. However, over time we preferred the flatter response of the SM7B. The SM7B also includes two switches for bass roll-off and boosting mids. The boosting of the mids can be helpful for some voices to help them cut through the mix. For both mics we preferred to engage the bass roll-off feature and leave it at that.

So when we consider sound and practical use we like the Shure SM7B better. It's a flatter sounding microphone that we can EQ to taste so we're not fighting the sound characteristics of the mic right out of the box. It works better with a noise gate in less than ideal conditions such as computers or HVAC noise in the space. We really like it paired with a Daking Mic-Pre One and the RNC 1773 from FMR Audio.  We also had less sibilance to tame using the SM7B.  

To be clear this is not a binary choice. These are both great microphones and anybody should be excited to own either of them. If you're lucky enough to own both even better. The RE20 is amazing on drums and other instruments and is built like a tank.  We wanted to like the RE20 better than the SM7B because we think it just looks cooler. However, in the end the SM7B is our choice for dynamic mic especially in an on-camera podcast setting or less than perfect studio conditions.  Again, both great mics but if we could only choose one we'd pick the SM7B. 

Visit Shure for more information about the SM7B

Visit Electro-Voice for more information about the RE20

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Category: Production and Creative

Published: 02 June 2021

The Bose QuietComfort 35 II noise canceling headphones are comfortable, sound great and provide very good noise canceling capabilities. We like them especially for air travel and tested them on a 4 hour flight for comfort.

The QC 35 II headphones can be connected directly with the included 3.5mm cord or via Bluetooth. Bose includes a short cord perfect for connecting to in-flight entertainment systems or portable electronics. Bluetooth pairing is fast and seamless. The QC 35 II headphones found and connected instantly to our Samsung S10E. We listened to Spotify for hours and the battery life was outstanding for these headphones. We never were caught needing a charge with all day use.

Bose products always sound good. They've been at this a long time and the QuietComfort 35 II is no exception. These headphones are very comfortable with soft ear cups and just enough padding around the headband. They look and feel substantial without being heavy and can be worn comfortably for extended periods of time. We really like the silver color and it's easier to see the switched and controls.  Bose also includes a nice little carrying case with a pocket for the USB and 3.5mm cord that's handy.

Noise canceling is very good. Although for extended periods of time we find we need a break to baseline our environment. White noise is the easiest to deal. So once we're at 35,000 feet it's quiet bliss. During takeoff or other times where there are random loud burst of acoustic energy it can be unnerving when a blast of sound is not attenuated and jolts you back to reality and you're reminded just how loud your surroundings are. This is one of the reasons we often prefer our studio monitors such as the Sony MDR-7506. The closed design helps seal out some noise while not going completely under water which is the sensation we sometimes get from the Bose noise canceling headphones.

Bose has an app for iPhone and Android users and these headphones are ready for interacting with Google and Alexa. The built in microphone works great. Everyone we talked to thought we were speaking directly into the phone and not on wireless at all. So these are great headphones for taking walking meetings. It's a bit overkill obviously and we got similar results with Skull Candy cans we reviewed recently. However, for the premium experience it's really hard to beat QuietComfort 35 IIs.

Learn more and check out the specs at Bose

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Category: Home Electronics

Published: 27 May 2021