nnotis
500+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jun 22, 2007
- Posts
- 515
- Likes
- 35
Hello Head-fiers.
I've just finished up my new album "Lycopods". It's electronic music to be sure. But it incorporates a whole lot of acoustic instrumentation ranging from bells, kotos, shamisens, gu zhengs, and banjos. Often, they're hybridized with synthesized instruments, making for a lot of unidentifiable sounds. I also focused on elaborate melodic development, something more familiar to classical music. To do this I studied a lot of European and Japanese classical recordings.
Despite being instrumental electronic music, I hope a reasonably large swath of you will be able to appreciate this album.
You can download it FOR FREE in FLAC, ALAC, and MP3 from my website: nicknotis.com
I mixed and mastered the whole thing with headphones. I used SA5000s, K1000s (balanced), UE10 Pros, and HD600s. I ran all of them through a Lavry DA10. I relied most heavily on the K1000s. Their detail resolution and large soundstage really allowed me to sculpt each instrument in its own location. The SA5000s helped me to hear textures, as well as present frequencies below the dreaded K1000 roll off point of about 45 Hz. Even the UE10 Pros were useful for resolving a few graphic equalization (EQ) issues.
I'm aware that most engineers think that it's completely impossible to mix and master with headphones. I disagree, for the most part. First, they say that the hard Left and Right placement of the HP speakers is inaccurate. It might be if you've designed your mixes to be heard only on speakers. If one simply takes into account the placement of headphones while doing stereo field positioning, there need not be any problem. Second, I've read claims that one cannot possibly EQ with headphones. I don't imagine that those making such claims have had the pleasure of hearing quality headphones. Without a top notch stand alone amp, I certainly don't have an ideal setup. Yet, I've found that my mixes track extremely well on every speaker setup I've heard them on.
There is one point of concern I have with headphone mixing though. Sub 50 Hz bass has a totally different character on headphones vs a speaker sub. The impact of a sub is far beyond what any HPs I've heard can do. Even if a HP can depict such frequencies, they sound so different that it's hard to know how they'll track on a sub.
Perhaps this problem is largely due to my gear. Maybe the SA5000s, UE10 Pros, and/or the DA10 are presenting sub bass issues that wouldn't exist on the L3000 and Omega IIs with proper amps.
Whatever the case, I'll now turn my album over to your ears and gear for evaluation. By all means, let me know what you think, even if you think I completely failed to effectively compose and mix.
Thanks,
Nick Notis
I've just finished up my new album "Lycopods". It's electronic music to be sure. But it incorporates a whole lot of acoustic instrumentation ranging from bells, kotos, shamisens, gu zhengs, and banjos. Often, they're hybridized with synthesized instruments, making for a lot of unidentifiable sounds. I also focused on elaborate melodic development, something more familiar to classical music. To do this I studied a lot of European and Japanese classical recordings.
Despite being instrumental electronic music, I hope a reasonably large swath of you will be able to appreciate this album.
You can download it FOR FREE in FLAC, ALAC, and MP3 from my website: nicknotis.com
I mixed and mastered the whole thing with headphones. I used SA5000s, K1000s (balanced), UE10 Pros, and HD600s. I ran all of them through a Lavry DA10. I relied most heavily on the K1000s. Their detail resolution and large soundstage really allowed me to sculpt each instrument in its own location. The SA5000s helped me to hear textures, as well as present frequencies below the dreaded K1000 roll off point of about 45 Hz. Even the UE10 Pros were useful for resolving a few graphic equalization (EQ) issues.
I'm aware that most engineers think that it's completely impossible to mix and master with headphones. I disagree, for the most part. First, they say that the hard Left and Right placement of the HP speakers is inaccurate. It might be if you've designed your mixes to be heard only on speakers. If one simply takes into account the placement of headphones while doing stereo field positioning, there need not be any problem. Second, I've read claims that one cannot possibly EQ with headphones. I don't imagine that those making such claims have had the pleasure of hearing quality headphones. Without a top notch stand alone amp, I certainly don't have an ideal setup. Yet, I've found that my mixes track extremely well on every speaker setup I've heard them on.
There is one point of concern I have with headphone mixing though. Sub 50 Hz bass has a totally different character on headphones vs a speaker sub. The impact of a sub is far beyond what any HPs I've heard can do. Even if a HP can depict such frequencies, they sound so different that it's hard to know how they'll track on a sub.
Perhaps this problem is largely due to my gear. Maybe the SA5000s, UE10 Pros, and/or the DA10 are presenting sub bass issues that wouldn't exist on the L3000 and Omega IIs with proper amps.
Whatever the case, I'll now turn my album over to your ears and gear for evaluation. By all means, let me know what you think, even if you think I completely failed to effectively compose and mix.
Thanks,
Nick Notis
