I have made another HDD test for those of you who wondered [Why don't you connect those FW800 HDD before the FW400 audio interface?], so, here it is.
I now connected things in following order: PC-FW800 1TB HDD-FW800 2TB HDD-FW400 audio interface.
I have read somewhere long time ago that audio interface should be connected first in your FireWire chain so I obeyed this but it is always good to try a different configuration yourself to see if things improves without gaining any problems.
In this new configuration, disk usage reads 32% and for some reason the CPU usage has been dropped to 44%.
It is slightly slower than when those HDD were connected directly to PC's FW socket (26%) but it's definitely better than 53% when those HDD were chained after my FW400 audio interface.

Thanks for looking!

YS Sound Production

Hello everyone!
In this festive season, I have treated myself with a new USB 3 hard disk drive and I would like to write a little report in here.
I've been using 2 of Western Digital FW800/400 HDD (1TB and 2TB) for the past 3 years and I never had any problems with them but the disk has been filled up recently, so I've decided to purchase another HDD and use those 2 WD for backup purpose.
I don't want to go into too much details but you can see the differences in system usage meter below.
The left screenshot is my previous setup which: PC-Audio interface (FW400)-WD drive daisy chained. The disk usage reads 53%.
I changed the configuration slightly for the middle screenshot. WD drive is now connected directly to the PC's FW800. You can see that the disk usage is now reduced to 26%. I guess it's the full use of the bandwidth of FW800 instead of FW400.
The right screenshot is my new LACIE 3TB USB 3 HDD connected directly to one of my PC's USB 3 socket. The disk usage is 24%.
I was expecting a slightly better result compare to the one from FW800... Well, 2% more efficient.
The song is 24bit 48kHz, consists of around 60 Channels (audio tracks) including sub group bus and effect returns etc.
Those screenshots were taken at exactly same point where the song gets busy and most of the audio are playing.

One last thing, both of my WD HDD were 7200 RPM, my new LACIE is 5400 RPM. I have to say, I'm more than happy with 5400 RPM at the moment.

I used to own an Iomega JAZ drive back in 90', and 1GB cartridge used to cost £100 each. I am amazed to see how cheap HDD these days!
 
Thanks for looking!
 
YS Sound Production

Hello!

Just like to introduce you a plug-in that I have discovered recently. It's from Nomad Factory, it's an analogue flavored channel strip called Studio Channel SC-226. Compressor, EQ, limiter, phase switch and a tube saturation in one package.
It sounds very nice and musical. Compressor is very useful in taming the level fluctuation without killing the natural dynamic of the musicians (there are RMS and peak mode), and overall shaping of the sound with those EQs. The limiter could be handy if you are dealing with some unknown audio materials (sound design project etc) to protect your monitors (or your ears!), though, I'm not sure where the threshold is. It could be just below 0.0dBfs.
Phase switch can be very handy as I often use Trim plug-in just to do flipping the phase of the multi-mic-ed instruments.
You can change the order between: Comp-EQ, or EQ-Comp, it's always good to have choices.
And one of the best thing in this plug-in is the tube saturator. I'm trying not to use all the time but I tend to reach that section! I like to use it on acoustic guitars if it's sounding too bright. There are many other occasions this will become handy.
Although I'm really liking this plug-in, there are few things you'll need to get used to. The HPF seems it starts way above those frequencies (20, 30, 40, 60 and 80) so most often I use another plug-in for this.
Also the compressor distorts quite easily with low frequency instruments (kick, bass etc) so again, I would use another plug-in for those things.

Overall, it's a great addition to my plug-in list and I will be using this one here and there for sure!

Thanks for looking!
YS Sound Production

Finally we have upgraded our system to Pro Tools 11!

Always wanted to do this, offline bounce. Still waiting for the '150x' speed as Avid claims!

Thanks for looking!

YS Sound Production

07 September 2013

Matshidiso's latest single 'Running' was on yesterday's Metro, one of London's most read newspapers!
Please see Breaking Tracks section!
 
http://metro.co.uk/2013/09/06/breaking-tracks-pixies-chase-status-3951858/

 

Thanks for looking!
 
YS Sound Production

02 September 2013

Matshidiso's new single
'Running' is out on iTunes now!

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/running-single/id696597789?ign-mpt=uo%3D4

Mixed and mastered by YS Sound Production

Thanks for looking!

YS Sound Production

28 August 2013

Annalie Wilson has released physical CD of her EP 'Water Snakes' !
Please visit her bandcamp page for more info!
http://annalie.bandcamp.com/album/water-snakes-ep
 
Thanks for looking!
 
YS Sound Production

06 August 2013

A great music video from Sea Monster Eyes titled
'Boat I Row'.
They've just won 2 prizes at 2Weeks 2Make It film competition!
 
Directed by Rob Gravenor
   
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJ6KZh9CknQ

Music mastered by YS Sound Production

Thanks for looking!

YS Sound Production 

27 July 2013

This is one of Annalie Wilson's music video that has been released for a while now. Congratulations Annalie, it looks great!
YS Sound Production was involved from the recording to the mastering on this track.
Enjoy 'Perfect Love' by Annalie Wilson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4RwZV00iS8&hd=1

Thanks for looking!

YS Sound Production
 

11 July 2013

Please check this beautiful video out!
It's a new music video from Matshidiso, shot in Johannesburg.
It's been a pleasure working with you Matsy, also big thanks to our producer D-Boy for your direction, and all the musicians, engineers who were involved in this great project!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bs-U_Go1_ts&feature=youtu.be

I hope you'll like the video, please spread the word, share it on your network!!
 
Thanks for looking!
 
YS Sound Produciton

02 June 2013

Guitar tab for 'Amar Shonar Bangla' from Khiyo!

There have been quite a few requests for guitar tab for 'Amar Shonar Bangla'. We're happy to announce that our guitarist has finally got round to transcribing it from the original recording stems. Being generous, he's also thrown in the Vocals, Viola and Double Bass parts.

You can view / download it at either:

http://issuu.com/khiyoband/docs/amar_shonar_bangla_gtab__khiyo_

or

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bx63r5YtOKjbUmExNTE3TUlseEE/edit?pli=1

Thanks for looking!

YS Sound Production

22 May 2013

A new track from 'mo yo' titled 'Ghosts'.
It's been a pleasure working with you, and hopefully we'll carry on like this!
 
Mastered by YS Sound production

Thanks for looking!

YS Sound Production

20 April 2013

I know, I should use my ears, not my eyes when I deal with audio but... this looks so much better! Thank you very much IK Multimedia for updating the GUI of British Channel.

Thanks for looking!
YS Sound Production

09 April 2013

I had the pleasure recording Sohini's vocal at a studio in south west London yesterday.
As usual, she sung beautifully, great microphone technique etc, all I had to do was pressing REC and STOP!
We did 4 songs in total, another big step forward to completing the upcoming Khiyo's new album!
It was lovely to see Olly too!
Please visit their soundcloud page:
 
http://soundcloud.com/khiyoband
 
Thanks for looking!
 
YS Sound Production

31 March 2013

We were asked to edit the show CD for 'My First Cinderella' which opened last Wednesday at Peacock theatre in Holborn, London.
There were 29 tracks in total, and I only had a couple of hours to complete the task so I've decided to go with Logic.
I know some people might argue that off-line bounce isn't very professional, but I didn't have much time waiting for a real-time bounce in Pro Tools, also in Logic I can dither down to 16bit using Apogee's UV22HR algorithm.
The original audio weren't mastered so there were loads of level fluctuation between the tracks. I had to carefully bring the quiet section up without losing the dynamic range of Prokofiev's music.
Once the dynamic range of each track were controlled using Logic's volume automation, I set the overall level track by track using Gain plugin with an automation.
There were few door knock sound to be added on top of the music as well. I was informed that the door is wooden, and it's placed on upstage centre, so I have chosen a wooden knock, and panned at centre with a touch of reverb to make it sound more natural.
I have sat through a couple of stage rehearsals with the music director Gavin Sutherland to check the FoH sound. The show consists a live narration by Jane Wymart using a radio mic, we noted that the music CD needs a manual fader ride in order for Jane's voice to be heard at certain places. I wasn't sure if there were any possibility of using a compressor with a side-chain, or any kind of ducking system, but I guess it's OK to do manually for a single radio mic.
If you are interested to come and see the show, please visit: http://www.sadlerswells.com/show/English-National-Ballet-My-First-Cinderella for more information.
The students from English National Ballet school were looking very good too, and Jane's story telling was very magical!!
Thanks for looking!
YS Sound Production

17 March 2013

Multi talented mo yo, aka Hassan Mohyeddin has released his latest single '6am Crystals' !
Please spread the word!!

http://soundcloud.com/moyosmusic/6am-crystals

Mastered by YS Sound Production

02 March 2013

The EP from Annalie Wilson is out now!!
All the best to you and your band!

YS Sound Production was involved through out the process from recording to mastering for all songs.
Many thanks to London School of Sound for allowing us to use the studio, big thanks to D-Boy at BEATCIRCLE for your generosity, Annalie, Lorena, Ben and Jiří for your great musicianship, and all the other engineers who were involved in this great project!!

http://annalie.bandcamp.com/album/water-snakes-ep

Thanks for looking!

YS Sound Production

17 February 2013

During the recent mixing session of Matshidiso Mohajane, there was a small noise that printed on the lead vocal track on one of the song.
I usually do either: cut the audio region, dip with the volume automation, use pencil tool in Pro Tools to smooth it up, or swap the audio from another bit of the song, but neither of them worked very well. Then I remembered reading about iZotope RX2 in a magazine recently, so I decided to have a go with the demo version. It said fully functioning for 10 days (apart from saving the project). Had a quick look at their website's tutorial video, and imported the problematic vocal track into RX2.

Please take a look at the screenshot, I probably didn't do very neat, nor artistic work but I did manage to eliminate the offending noise around 1.5kHz-3kHz without affecting her voice! (see the red circle)

It is an impressive piece of program, but the standard version £215.00, the advanced version £749.00, umm...very expensive.

12 February 2013

For the past few weeks, I've been working on a new project from Matshidiso Mohajane. It consists of 4 beautiful songs.
I have just received a confirmation from both, Matsy and our producer 'D-Boy' to go ahead with the mastering process.
Here is the screenshot of a track called 'Running' which I've just finished doing some final adjustments, and have bounced down to a stereo WAV file.
Those plug-ins were heavily involved in this project. I particularly liked the Midnight compressor from Focusrite. Very smooth, and very musical especially on Matsy's vocal track. Massey's CT4 is my all-time favorite, I also have CT5 but I much prefer CT4. Massey's TD5 is a beautiful tape delay emulator. After using demo for nearly 3 years, I've finally purchased the full version. It's great that now Pro Tools keeps the setting everytime I re-open the session!

Let's give a little break to my ears a bit...

19 January 2013

An official YouTube video of Purbo Digontey from Khiyo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tI8mitR9ZO4
Please enjoy!!