Okay, as promised.
Here are the details of my DAW. It would be nice to see what others of us are using.

PC DAW Comprising:
Windows XP Pro, SP1
Dual Intel Xeon 3.06 CPU. HT disabled
2Gb Crucial PC2700 DDRRAM
ASUS PC-DL Deluxe Motherboard
Matrox P-750 Graphics card running 3 19" CRT Monitors
Tekram DC-390 U2/W PCI SCSI Controller
Quantum Atlas V 18Gb SCSI HDD @ 7200 rpm for system
Quantum Atlas 10KIII 36Gb SCSI HDD @ 10000 rpm for Audio
Maxtor DiamondMax 8Mb Cache 60Gb EIDE HDD for Samples
Maxtor DiamondMax 8Mb Cache 40Gb EIDE HDD for DVD Cache
LaCie 120Gb FireWire external HDD
Pioneer DVR-107 DVD-R/W Burner
Generic CD-ROM
RME HDSP 9652 Audio Interface
RME 8 I/O 96 ADC/DAC 8 channel converters, external
Steinberg Nuendo - latest Version
Steinberg Nuendo Surround Edition
TC Nuendo SurroundVerb
Steinberg Nuendo Dolby Digital Encoder
Steinberg Nuendo DTS Encoder
SurCode MLP Encoder
Minnetonka Audio DiscWelder Chrome 2 DVD-A Authoring
Adobe EncoreDVD 1.5 DVD-V Authoring (For hybrids only)
Steinberg WaveLab - latest Version
All Steinberg FX/VSTi
Voxengo Curve & Gliss EQ, VoxFormer
Voxengo PristineSpace Multichannel Convolution Reverb
EWQLSO Gold
EW Hardcore Bass
EW Stormdrum
EW Bosendorfer 290
NI Kontakt
NI B4
NI Battery, with Studio Drums addon pack

There are a few other bits & pieces, but that is effectively it.

We specialise in Multichannel mixing, CD mastering & DVD authoring.
_________________
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Multichannel Audio Specialists

Wow, plenty to drool over there.

Which is the hardware bit for your surround stuff?
_________________
Recording Studio Suntans

That is sort of extra - all in the last list is just the DAW.

For Surround mixes, I run the digital signals from the DAW thru the HDSP 9652, into the RME DAC and then into a Midas Venice 240 Analogue consloe, using just 6 channels. These then go direct output from the channel into the monitoring system.

All calibration is done to 85dB SPL with pink noise at -18dBFS = unity gain on theMidas faders (no gain or attenuation applied) and then set each monitors gain until I see 85dB SPL on the Level meter.

We are about to have the control room rebuilt - dodgy ceiling - and then it will be RTA time to reset the entire room, as all the responses will have changed as were losing 7" height.
That is gonna be a boring day.

The Surround Mixing post has turned into an essay now - 3 pages of MS word & counting - and it should be with you in a few days.
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Multichannel Audio Specialists

Hi,

I run Adobe Audition in a Centrino Laptop.

Nuendo 2 running on a dedicated PC, WinXP SP2, 4.2 GHz HT (overclocked but totally stable), 4 Gb Ram (tuned for 3Gb apps + 1 Gb system), Ultra SCSI-320 disc array, 2x PCIx gfx card, Emu 1820m for capture and output, modded for total silent operation.

Stereo monitors 2x Alesis M1, surround monitors are an Array of 7 Edirol's MD20 + sub, probably to be upgraded with Roland's digital top-notches when I feel the Alesis-Edirol combo fails in surround accuracy.

All calibrated with a cheap (but reliable) db meter and software generated pink noise. Using Bob Katz's recomended loudness curves/digital headrooms for mixing. Attempting in-house mastering too, but just for my own works so far.

Kind Regards,
AMR
http://www.alvaromrocha.com

Those handheld meters do a fine job all things considered.
An RTA is better, but much more hassle for not much real improvement IMHO.

Bob Katz is king in my book, too. That man knows his stuff.

What are you mixing to level wise?
I run to K-20 via DigiCheck - a superb piece of freeware for RME users.

As for monitors, just got a new set of MSP10 Studio - these things are very good.

Looking forward to Nuendo 3?
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Multichannel Audio Specialists

wilkes wrote:

What are you mixing to level wise? Looking forward to Nuendo 3?

When sampling/capturing I try to use the most of bits (so no curve limits here, just care into not clipping and using as much bits as possible).

When mixing, I bring levels accordingly to the K20 reference. Sometimes K14 later on, if needed when making the mixdown hotter for a demo or pre-master. My days of paranoid loudness maximizing are gone.

I use PSP's freeware "Vintage Meter" configured to K20's standard, along with analog VU's on the outputs.

I'm thinking of purchasing "Pinguin"'s software audio meters later on, to make sure I stick to the scale, but it's still to expensive to consider for it adds little value once you know what you are doing and how to do it (but it will be a great help in global surround metering).

I am looking forward to Nuendo 3, but will probably only take the plounge after I get confirmation some of the most seriously unconfortable bugs are gone (relative automation curves, panning compensation, etc).

Kind Regards,
AMR
http://www.alvaromrocha.com

Can you mail me an fxp file for Vintagemeter preset please?
I never thought of that one - a fine call.

I'm not convinced I need the Pinguin hardware myself, as the RME DigiCheck has all 3 scales built right in - it's just a case of going in and resetting the LED scale to match. No trouble at all

Must admit I'm going to go N3 as soon as it ships - there is always version 2 if there are problems, and I figure the reason SX3 got released so far ahead of N3 is for precisely what you are worried about - bug catching.
But then again, I still have a machine with 1.6 running too. We use that one for Dolby Encoding to Video projects. Had a right result when upgrading the DDE from 1.01 to 1.1 for N2, as they forgot to get my original iLok back off me - so I ended up with 2 encoders.

There is also a whisper that the DTS encoder is going to get an upgrade to the 24/96 version too!
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Multichannel Audio Specialists

wilkes wrote:

Can you mail me an fxp file for Vintagemeter preset please? There is also a whisper that the DTS encoder is going to get an upgrade to the 24/96 version too!

If you wish to follow the universal AES-17 convention (as I do):


The rule of thumb with PSP Vintage Meter is as easy as configuring 0 dBFS to -20 (or -14, depending on your "K"), and leaving the orange/red to the following 6 dB's.

Complement with a VU integration time of 600ms, as Bob Katz sugests., which mimes human ear's inertia.

There you go, instant view of real psico-acoustics in action.

You may then (automaticaly or not) adjust volume to the standard monitoring dB pressure levels when you change scales, so that the monitoring volume remains the same. It can be as easy as having volume change scripts/programs or doing it by hand to a known value, which has been previously calibrated.


DTS 24/96? Now that's good news.

Kind Regards,
AMR
http://www.alvaromrocha.com

PS:

If you wish to follow Steinberg's convention (and some other digital VU makers) and making things a bit more complicated, this "convention" assumes the RMS of a sine wave is 3dB lower than the peak:

Calibrate for -18dBFS (more musical considering pink noise, not sines, or -17dBFS if being "Steinbergish" math perfect).

That will do nicely.
Thank You.
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Multichannel Audio Specialists

The nicely tuned fxp, as explained above, may be downloaded at:

http://www.alvaromrocha.com/fxp/psp/vintage_meter/amr_k20.fxp

The VintageMeter (free) is at:

http://www.pspaudioware.com/indexen.html?url=http://www.pspaudioware.com/plugins/vmeter.html;



Kind Regards,
AMR
http://www.alvaromrocha.com

Last edited by AMR on Fri Nov 12, 2004 7:59 pm, edited 1 time in total

And well worth the download it is too!

Makes such a pleasant change to the awful digital PPM meters.
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Multichannel Audio Specialists

Hello I'm new here,

I see both post are including Adobe software. I see Adobe has a Premire Pro package of several programs that add 96K audio to their video system. I'm particularly interested in 96K audio recording. I also have an RME ADI-8 (numbers may not be quite right) converter. It was the limited edition version along with RME Multiface. I use Samplitude Pro and the new version 8 (due in Jan) will have a DVD burning program

Chuck

PC based running Windows XP
Sonar 4 Producer
Sound Forge
Wavelab
slew of plugins as well

Windows XP Pro, SP1
AMD 64 3.0 GHz CPU
2Gb Corsair PC3200?*sorry, not shure*
ASUS V8 deluxe *not shure once more*
Matrox G-450 card running 2 19" CRT Monitors
80gig slave
37gig serialATA/10k HD
WesternDigital 300Gb FireWire external HDD
NEC 3500 Duallayer DVD-R/W Burner
NEC CDR/CDRW 52x
Terratec EWS88MT 3x ==> 24channels simultanous
Terratec 24/96 for gigastudio
Steinberg Cubase SX 2.?
TC native bundle 3.?
Steinberg WaveLab - V5
Steinberg Masteringplugins
Steinberg clean V4 for LP copying
Voxengo all plugins
Waves Platinum bundle Ver.4.0
NI complete
NI Battery, with Studio Drums addon pack
BFD Drumkits + drumexpansion
Propellerheads REASON 2.5 + additional 8 gig's of RFL's

My DAW
I just recently built a PC for audio. Here are the specs:

- Athlon A6 2200+ processor
- WinXP Home, SP 1
- 512Mb of RAM
- 400w silent power supply
- Radeon 64 graphics card
- 3 Firewire ports
- 2 - 80 Gb Seagate hard drives

- EMU 1820m Audio Interface (sweet unit!)
- M-Audio SP5B Powered Monitors
- Mackie 1402 mixer

- Cubase SX2 (DAW)
- Propellerheads Reason 2.5
- Mackie Traktion (simple but effective and cheap DAW)

- Samson C01 Condensor Mic
- Sure Beta 58 Dynamic Mic
- Behringer ProXL Compressor

I've been really impressed with this setup (and the PC only cost me $430 to build!!!!)