To my ears, everything in this mix is WAY too compressed. There may well be too much compression on the mix bus as well. There's also something very weird going on with the vocals, it could indeed be that the pitch correction is overdone.

I must admit I have never understood why it took so long for M$ to implement properly USB Audio 2.0, and even now I understand it's not complete. Whereas Macs had it long ago and never needed ASIO drivers. Still, that's off the thread. If Apple have found ways to improve it that can only be good ...

I'm told that Tahoe will include some significant improvements to the Class Compliant USB driver within Core Audio, which deliver lower latency and improved stability.

I haven't bought from them personally but they are good people and I wouldn't hesitate to.

Be aware that there are loads of fakes of popular stage mics around, especially the Sennheiser e-series.

I too am a fan of the Earthworks SR117. It's an amazing mic for the money.

Those are all good and thoughtful points. One thing I would mention in response to some of the earlier posts is that as far as I'm aware, none of the plug-ins that has been mentioned in this thread uses AI or machine learning. They're all algorithmic in nature, so although the algorithm may be ...

Both Soothe and Bloom have time constants like a conventional compressor, although they aren't calibrated numerically, so I guess they are both frequency and programme dependent. Either way I'm pretty sure they aren't modulating anything hundreds of times a second. Are they natural? What's natural ...

I don't think I have ever used Soothe across the mix bus. When I use it, it's generally on an individual source that is badly recorded -- most often vocals or drums. By contrast I do use Bloom on the mix bus, albeit at a low level. I nearly always set the 'window blinds' so that it's doing nothing ...

I had a positive meeting with Behringer at NAMM, and was told that they would be willing to start sending us review gear again. As it happens the Wing has been top of my list. Let me see if I can get the wheels moving.

What sources are you mainly recording, and in what sort of a space? The sound of most records made at Paisley Park or through Neve consoles is likely to have more to do with the room than with the mixer. Rupert Neve never designed his consoles to sound coloured -- rather the opposite. Whenever I've ...

Like it! I'd echo many of the comments made above. The guitar and piano are uncomfortably out of time with each other, and the guitar needs to sit back in the mix more. That's less of a level issue, more that it needs to occupy a space rather than being very dry and up front. I'd try adding some ...

I'll add to the chorus praising the M201, with the caveat that it's more prone to popping if used up close than a dedicated vocal mic would be.

They are unfortunately very expensive now, but the Sennheiser MD441 is an amazing mic.

Both are great plug-ins, but I don't think they are quite the same. Gullfoss strikes me as lending itself most naturally to 'broad brush' applications, whereas Soothe is more about zeroing in on specific areas of the spectrum and zapping nasties. So if for example your mix was too dark, but ...

OK... so, the reason I did this was that I was excited about finally having tracked down a mic I've been looking for for ages. That mic is the Neumann KM88i, which is example C in this comparison. It's noteworthy for being the only solid-state mic Neumann produced with a nickel capsule. Apparently ...

Nothing so interesting -- it's just that the bass was DI'd and thus not part of the test.

There's something funny happening with the polarity on A though. Running both B & C together gives the typical boost of signal level, but running A&B or A&C gives significant cancellation of everything but the bass. Ah I know what's going on there. That particular mic needs a DIN to XLR converter ...

I've found that recording an entire song with the same mic is quite a good way of getting to know its qualities, so here's a comparison that I think is interesting . This is a demo recording where every acoustic part was tracked using the same three mics, placed as close together as I could get them ...

Welcome to the forum, and thanks for posting. I am listening on headphones on a train, so take what follows with a slight pinch of salt! First, I don't think this is a bad mix by any means. And mono compatibility doesn't seem to me to be an issue with it. As you say, the stereo instruments get a ...

I've lost count of the number of times I've thought 'Oooh, this is a beautiful dark sounding instrument and I want to preserve that darkness,' only to find that it completely disappears in the mix unless I add a ton of EQ. So if the piano is already dark sounding I'd caution against recording it ...

I could hear at least one verse being much more stripped back. Just vocals, drums and perhaps bass.

Yes, historically all Earthworks models used the full 10mA current permitted by the phantom power spec. I think they've moved away from that recently though.

Thanks Hugh for this gold mine. I just want to clarify something regarding the AKG stereo mics. As far as I know, the C24 only used the original "brass ring" variant of the CK12 capsule, whereas the C422 and 426 only used the later "nylon ring" version. Hence the C422 is far from being a solid-state ...

Phew! Looking at the photos I think it's likely that the positioning made a difference on the guitar takes, depending on how far away the mics are. The 414 in this case is the nylon ring version, presumably? It's funny, I've only ever used a U47 FET a few times and I have never liked it. I guess it ...

I've just downloaded them at the studio and listened on speakers. As suspected, the differences seem more apparent for some reason. On Guitar Take 1, Mic 04 is by far the best. Mic 01 is hard-sounding, Mic 05 is OK at the top end but woolly at the bottom, and Mic 07 is the same only more so. On ...