Hey folks - been busy and out of town a little bit too so haven't posted for a little bit -
but here's my usual "simple" chain:
Digital Source (SAWStudio DAW #1 w/ Lynx One AES outs, DA-20 or PCM2600 DATs, MD350 MD player. Denon or Philips CD players)
-> Z-sys digital patch bay
-> 2 Lavry Blue DAC's (1 direct to Coleman M3PHmkII for source monitoring, 2nd to chain) ->
OR
Analog Source (Sony/MCI JH110B / Sansui SR717 turntable / Denon cassette deck) ->
Amek Medici eq ->
API 2500
OR pair of custom modded NTP179-120 ->
Mytek Stereo96 ADC ->
Z-sys digital patchbay ->
SAWStudio DAW #2 (w/Sydec Mixtreme192 & ibox AES4)->
RML Labs Levelizer &/OR Waves L3 ->
Sonoris Dither (or sometimes Waves IDR dither if the L3 is the final processor)
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Of course a lot of times things aren't as "simple" in which case the above might get augmented on the analog side by:
-> pair of Filtek MKIII eq's - if I need either a hardedged bottom or more bands than the Medici gives me, and sometimes a
-> SPL Vitalizer (I have the original stereo version, the SX2) if dealing with something that has too much "M's" (i.e. Mono-ish, Muddy, Muted, overly Mid-rangey) -
& on the digital side (either patched into the playing DAW or receiving DAW depending on the processor) as needed of:
(fully automateable 64bit processing SAWStudio native plugins)
JMS Audioware Hi-res EQ
Sonoris Compressor
Sonoris Mulitband Compressor
Sonoris M/S codec
Sonoris Equalizer
Sonoris Linear Phase EQ
Sonoris Pitch/Time
Brainspawn Stereo Panner
(DX/VST plugins)
Virtos Stereo Processor
Virtos Noise Reduction
Sony NR2.0 Click Remover
Spitfish De-esser
AIPL Warmtone (only used in rare cases to distort side channel)
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OK - now the reasoning behind the choices.
On the analog side I've picked out mainly "sleeper" units - ones that to my ear sound just as good as the $4g + stuff - but that I sourced used (except for my API2500), and in some cases had racked up or modded, for generally under $2g's. The Medici is especially one of my fave things in that it is incredibly versatile and you can really boost the mids on highs with it if you need to without things getting grainy. From looking at the Neve Masterpiece seems a lot of things were carried from the Medici to the Masterpiece's eq modules (such as the "sheen" & "glow" options).
On the digital side - I've been using SAW since the first version that came out in 1994 so I know it like the back of my hand and can edit things with it quicker than using anything else. Plus the quality of it's internal processing math (64bit integer) and the efficiency of its engine (hand coded in assembly), the ability to easily layout and PQ indexes and subcodes directly in it using the JMS CSG add-on, and the amazing level of support from it's author, make it to me the best native PC app out there. The SAW native Sonoris plugins (coded by Pieter Stenekes - who has participated in the recent WUMP's) are some of the few plugins that I actually feel are "master" quality in their sound - all the while running amazingly efficiently due to the SAWStudio plugin API & environment.
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As far as things I'd like to change in the chain:
* well, while the Filtek's usually work well as a secondary eq - I'd still like to find another option that could be a lot more subtle as the Filtek's 2dB steps tend to be overkil for most applications. The Langevin MiniMassive kind of caught my eye for this. I'd like to look into getting my Filteks modded to 1dB steps also but so far seems the cash needed to do this would be better saved towareds just getting another eq
* I really love the smoothness of the NTP comps (recapped & modded with Triad input & Jensen output transformers) but they're not the easiest things to set as they work on a fixed threshold based on how much signal is sent into them - so I've been thinking of getting am active gain stage placed permanently before them (usually I feed them from the Medici which has a variable input to take care of this) - and I'd like to get them set up with meters also
* I had Dan Zellman open up my Medici and he's pretty sure he could open up the sound a little more by upgrading the caps in it. I'd like to replace the pots on the input gains (seems Neve doesn't see any problem with this as the same kind of thing is on the Masterpiece) with stepped switches in 1/2dB steps also.
* I'd like to get either a Weiss DS-1 or a Maselec de-esser to hopefully better handle this chore than my current in-the-box options
* definitely would eventually like another dynamic processor - the DW Fearn VT7 really caught my ear recently - but I'm open to other options
* and definitely would like to get an analog M/S matrix. Think the Dangerous S/M box might be the ticket - but I'd be curious to see if I could just get some of the older Neumann or Telefunken "panorama" modules racked up to get the same functionality for less cash.
* I downloaded the Voxengo Elephant 2.5 demo recently and, unlike the first version, was pretty impressed with it, so this will be my next digital processor purchase as another alternative to the other digital limiters I have
* I'd like to look into possible upgrades beyond the stock repro amps for my JH110B
* and finally thinking of getting a Lavry Blue ADC module added into my 4496 box as an option to my Mytek.
...but at this point all these things are of lower priority than getting a few things sorted out in my monitoring - so at this point stands for the N802's and some more treatments for the room that will be my next purchases.
Best regards,
Steve Berson