More new stuff. Working backwards…

Today, new monitors: Adam A7X. I had done a ton of research on monitors but what I saw was review after glowing review for these so I went for it. It was time, the Event Project 6s were kind of outclassed by everything else. Time for big boy monitors! So there we are. I realized that the TRS cables I was using were no-name cheap crap so I replaced them with nice new Mogami TRS-to-Mogami. I shouldn’t be so excited about cables.

Slate Trigger Platinum. I was using my buddy Joe’s copy of Drumagog for years and it just couldn’t keep up with metal. I also had to get an iLok, which I guess is another “big boy” studio purchase.

Saturday night, I sprung for Nebula Server. Not worth explaining but it’s new, it helps me use my RAM more effeciently, and I’m happy about that.

Last weekend, I picked up an Ashly SC-50 compressor. It’s from the 80s, I believe, and is somewhat well regarded in the engineering world… by most, at least. Some people claim it’s killer for guitars and bass, others say just rock solos, others say it’s trash. Me? Not sure yet, haven’t had a chance to play with it. The price was right though so I went for it.

That same weekend I also got a Tech 21 Sans Amp RBI. This is the expanded rack version of their bass preamp pedal. The usefulness of this device was proved on more than one occasion, both live and studio, and I needed a way to record consistently usable, if not good, bass. Here it is. I ended up getting the most insane deal on it, something like 60% off, so I just couldn’t pass it up. The day after it arrived, Ashencult returned to do bass and I managed to get what I thought was a fantastic sound out of it through my VP26 (AKA API 312).

A few days before that I made a huge order of cables from Redco. I’m on this quest to replace all of my crappy cables with cables of professional quality… If everything else is going to be pro, the cables need to pro, too.

So where does the frustration set in? Technology sucks. I spent HOURS fighting with my computer. First it was getting a Nebula update in. I deliberately don’t update Nebula often for fear of something like the inability to open any of my projects because of some weird random change. And you know what? I was unable to open any of my projects because of some weird random change. I had to uninstall and reinstall a bunch of times. Then I decided I wanted to install Nebula Server, which required more uninstalls and reinstalls, a bunch of recompiling of the jBridge plugin, and… hours later, I was up and running. The night was then spent running Unrest tracks through stages of tape and analog saturation. I was in bed by about 4am.

Today, after picking up the new monitors and Trigger, I had a hell of a time getting that software going. Long story short, there appears to be something wrong with some of the samples I made. Certain hits are late. At first I thought it was a latency issue — I thought Cubase (stuck using it for this project since that’s where it started) wasn’t adjusting it correctly — but that’s not it. Only some hits are late and some patches are better than other. The problem, it seems, is the amount of empty space before the drum hits. I kind of assumed that the software would be smart enough to adjust for that… I mean, there’s no way to ensure that the attack of each individual sample is going to be identical so shouldn’t it align the playback with the signal being passed through it? I’m going to find out. It’s frustrating.

Right this second, I’m still fighting with the computer. A fantastic-sounding plugin called VTM-M2 (tape compression, more or less) has some nasty issue with my system where it just eats up ASIO bandwidth. Why? No idea. Developers don’t know either. How nice. I wish it didn’t sound so good.

I accomplished less this weekend than I hoped. The goal was a finished, listenable mix of the entire Unrest album. The result was a listenable mix of three songs, the last of which is exporting now then I’m going the hell to bed. Had these various software issues not popped up, I’d have been done this morning. I think Cubase has a lot to do with it… I’m looking forward to finishing these last few projects and moving to Reaper, once and for all.

Enough whining. This is almost done, I’m almost asleep.