CD MASTERING - POST PRO TOOLS

Apple’s Waveburner

SHEET MUSIC

Sibelius 5

Pro Tools HD is superb audio and midi recording software. It runs latency free, even with a multitude of plug-ins, which enables the mix and production to take shape during the recording process.

HD2 Accel will run up to 192 audio tracks (24 bit 44.1 KHz). In practise 64 track sessions with heavy plug-in useage have run effortlessly.

The 24 bit sound quality is clear, warm and musical.

Once the mixes have been mastered in Pro Tools, Waveburner is a great way way to compile them, tweaking individual track levels, crossfading tracks where required, creating track idents at any point (great for defining ‘classical’ movements without interupting the performance or introducing fades) and freely moving and auditioning track start points.

Avid, the company which own Digidesign, also own Sibelius - very convenient when it comes to creating sheet music as Pro Tools outputs the midi information directly to Sibelius. The sample in the centre of the collage above is a extract from a recent job.

The Mackie mic pre-amps sound great with the 96 I/O, using the optical ADAT input to run 16 inputs simultaneously into Pro Tools - channels 1-8 running through Digi’s A/D convertors, with 9-16 input digitally (converted by the Mackie).

There’s a choice of 16 mic/line inputs, with 4 inputs switchable to D.I. and mic inputs 1 & 2 (x 2) switchable to MS matrix (for moments requiring that flavour of coincident stereo).

The Tannoy monitors work well, in that they allow mixes to ‘travel’, playing back faithfully on a wide variety of sytems.

The AKG 414EBs were bought back at the business start in March 1986, so they fall into the ‘vintage’ category now. Very flexible, warm sounding mics, with a choice of four polar responses.

The Sennheiser MKH40 is a very accurate mic with amazingly low self noise. As a ‘what you hear is what you get’ microphone, it lends itself to Pro Tools processing to colour an other wise neutral response.

The Evolution series Sennheiser mics, the e-602 and e-604 are generally used for kick and (under) snare micing.

The indestructible Shure SM57s are handy for a range of uses from guide vocals to close guitar cab micing.