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Re: post processing setup questions

Subject: Re: post processing setup questions
From: "simmosonics" simmosonics
Date: Fri Dec 10, 2010 9:31 am ((PST))
I'm using a 13 inch MacBook Pro these days; it's good enough for all of my 
processing needs but I find the headphone output circuit to be too noisy for 
working with quiet recordings (e.g. nature sounds). It is always hard to tell 
where the noise in the recording ends and the noise of the Mac begins. Also, 
the headphone output circuit's noise floor seems to be a moving target, getting 
louder and softer depending on what's going on inside the Mac.

But there is a solution that is very cool...

I only use my Mac for processing, not recording, and that means I can take 
advantage of the Mac's SPDIF optical output, which is built into the headphone 
socket but suffers none of the noise problems because it is a digital feed from 
your audio software. So rather than using a budget piece of recording gear for 
my interface, for the same money I put together a very high quality monitoring 
system consisting of a Musical Fidelity VDAC (Digital to Analogue Converter) 
and Musical Fidelity VCANS headphone amplifier. The combination cost me about 
the same as some of the typical audio interfaces designed for recording, but 
all of that money was spent on playback electronics, not unnecessary microphone 
preamplifiers and so on. The overall quality is therefore much higher than any 
recording interface could provide at the same price.

It connects via a fibre-optical cable with a Toslink connector on one end and a 
Mini Toslink connector on the other end (to go into the Mac's headphone 
socket). These things are readily available at any hi-fi or consumer 
electronics store; certainly any store that sells converters and headphone 
amplifiers will also sell these cables.

I am extremely happy with that set up. I use it with three different sets of 
headphones:

a) a pair of AudioTechnica AD1000s open back headphones, which provide my high 
quality reference;

b) a pair of AudioTechnica M50 closed back headphones, which provide more of a 
real-world perspective (I also use this pair in the field);

c) a pair of AudioTechnica ANC7 active noise cancelling headphones, which I use 
for editing and similar situations where I need to hear right down into the 
recording's noise floor (e.g. editing the end of a file after fading into 
silence, etc.) - they are almost like having a soundproof control room in the 
way that they allow me to block out external sounds and focus on the recording.

By cross-referencing between the AD1000s and M50s, and using the ANC7s for 
editing and similar screwdriver work, I can get very good results.

I have mixed, edited and mastered numerous albums worth of material using that 
set up alone, and rarely have any surprises when hearing it played back on 
speakers. Before releasing any disc, however, I usually burn a CD and carry it 
with me for a week or two, playing it back on any hi-fi or similar systems I 
might come across to check how it is going to sound in the real world. In most 
cases it is absolutely fine; sometimes I find myself going back to change 
things but that is mostly for music recordings where mixing and so on has been 
involved.

There are much cheaper alternatives to the Musical Fidelity combo I use; some 
combine the DA converter and headphone amplifier in the same unit, and some are 
USB bus powered.

In terms of bang for buck, you'll get much higher audio quality from a 
dedicated playback signal path compared to a recording/playback signal path at 
the same price. Likewise, you'll get much higher sound quality from a pair of 
headphones than from a similarly priced speaker system. Considering the number 
of hours of sound that are consciously consumed via headphones these days 
compared to the number that are consciously consumed through speakers, one 
could question the validity of speakers altogether - but that depends on who 
your market is and how they are listening...

- Greg Simmons







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