Allen & Heath Xone K2 : lots of buttons and faders and pots!

Some more details about the upcoming controller from Allen and Heath!

This seems to be perfect with the upcoming Traktor 2.5 remix (Remix Decks) - they do share a strange resemblance dont they? who copied who?

One difference - The Xone K2 has a built in soundcard, one stereo out (thru RCA) and one 1/8 inch jack for headphones, yes that means you can assign one of the outputs as a headphone monitor and the other for you master out! Oh and another bonus - two Xone K2's can be linked together via ethernet - so us macbook pro users wont have to worry about wasting two USB slots!

And... the Xone K2 comes with its own hard case while the Traktor F1 has it sold separately- but at the same time the Traktor F1 comes with a full version of Traktor!!!

Tough choice isnt it??

Traktor F1 & Traktor 2.5 Update Details!

The details are here!

The New REMIX Deck Launcher!

The Kontrol F1 Explained!!

Traktor 2.5 is a free update and will even come for FREE with the Ni Kontrol F1!!!

Wow I guess many people will have extra copies of Traktor Pro 2 - they are really trying to dominate the DJ Software market - agressive move from Native Instruments!

For details on the ALL NEW Kontrol F1 Click HERE , and for the massive new update click HERE for details!

You can also check out the ENGADGET hands-on review HERE :)

Your Music In The Clouds! SoundCloud VS MixCloud - Which one? Or Both?

Back in the days I used to upload my mixtapes and production on my own website / server, that was the only option back then (other than CD and tapes that is!), but now there are many really good and cheap (or even free) hosting sites that not only let people stream your content instantly - it also has a good presentation (cover arts etc) - both which are good to start building your online presence

Plus, my old hosting site (netfirms) are a bunch of tools and scumbags that always want more money while providing less and less service - NETFIRMS SUCK! DO NOT USE THEM! (sorry just had to say that... haha) so it is time for me to adapt to 2012 and move my significant mixtape collection into the "CLOUD"

I recently signed up with the two leading services of such - Soundcloud and Mixcloud
(Oh by the way THIS is my Soundcloud and THIS is my Mixcloud if you wanna check it out~)

Soundcloud seems to have bigger number of users / activities which makes it seem like the way to go, however the FREE service only gives you  2 hours of space - enough for probably two 60 minute mixtapes, or one 60 minute mixtapes and a bunch of your own production (which a lot of people are doing at the moment)

I have purchased the Soundcloud premium for the Extra storage / Extra Features, but sometimes I wonder if the other FREE alternative - MIXCLOUD - is just as capable of hosting mixes?

Mixcloud is a FREE service that allows you to host ONLY mixtapes, that has 8 tracks or more, yes no single tracks or short 10 min mixtapes here! (Unless you cram 8 tracks in 10 minutes which is probably doable these days easily). This makes mixcloud the perfect hosting place for your old mixtapes and the place where you can store all your personal mixtapes from the olde days to be listened by the new generation (which is what Im doing now) and also as a personal archive

Mixcloud does not look as good as Soundcloud though, and has less features (and less population) - Soundcloud is still the best platform for launching your sound (both mixtapes and production) if you can afford the premium accounts - the free account is far too limited for such uses so if you want to use Soundcloud you might want to check out their Premium services, while Mixcloud is totally free so it doesnt hurt to have one anyway!

One thing to note is that Mixcloud does not have (well not officially) a download option - which means people would have to stream your stuff over the internet (with questionably quality reduction as always - its being streamed!)

Soundcloud also has a funny way of downsizing your songs, I posted some production to Soundcloud and I swear that I can hear artifacts that were never there before - hmmm I suppose its the quality reduction In act?

Just My 2 Cents :)


( THIS is my Soundcloud and THIS is my Mixcloud if you wanna check it out~)

Cubase 6.5 is out... But $50 Euros to upgrade from Cubase 6???

I got an email from Steinberg today informing me about the Release of Cubase 6.5

Well since I own Cubase 6, At first I was "Oh SHIEEETTT! Downloading now!!" and then I saw the small print saying $50 Euros to upgrade?

Im still investigating the features and benefits of 6.5 before deciding whether to upgrade or not, but here are some videos to see what's new...

My House/Electro/Brostep Remix of The Winstons "Amen, Brother"

hey there!

this is my original  house/electro/brostep remix of the Winstons' classic song "Amen, Brother" that I did for my school assignment

Check IT Out! :)



Done on:
Ableton Live Suite 8
Massive
Sylenth1
Operator
Sausage Fattener
Waves L2/L3/S1
Izotope Ozone 4

For those who are not familiar with the fascinating history about the "Amen Break" or "The Winstons" here is an awesome documentary that explains everything! Oh and you can hear that I took out the audio commentary from here :)



Oh and if by any reason you want to check out my Soundcloud you can click HERE :)

Mini Review: Audio Technica ATH-M50 Headphones

So my old, trusty Sennheiser HD25 1-II just died...

The Sennheiser HD25 went through a lot of things with me, it was pretty much used for anything from DJing in clubs as early as 2007, to playing games, watching movies, it was like my swiss army knife headphone that gets the job done, other done the ear pads peeling off (damn leather!) they have performed exceptionally over the years

However, while i was doing an audio engineering school mixdown project the other day i noticed a distortion on the right driver of the headphones - this happens mostly on the lower frequencies (100-300 hz) and it would crackle the shit out of anything that plays - I tried pulling out the cords and refixing them without any luck, the distortion remains at all times on the right side,  so I would assume that the right driver simply died - well it's about time, it served is purposed over the years and was pretty much beaten up on the daily so it was bound to happen sooner or later

As always before buying anything I do A LOT  of research - I found that  it is very hard to find a negative review on the ATH-M50, most reviews everywhere are rock-solid, from consumer reviews from amazon, all the way to the gear heads in gearslutz from, these headphones seemed to reach a legendary status for its quality and price

So there I decided - The next headphone that will be my faithful companion for (hopefully) years to come like my Sennheiser HD25 did, so after a bargain hunt on the lowest price in Singapore (where I am studying audio engineering at this point) , In US these seem to retail around $150 - $160 USD, in singapore the prices range from $220 - $230 SGD (which is just a little bit more than the price in USA after currency conversion), I am not going to say how much I got them for but lets just say that I paid a little bit below what they are selling over here - Just Luck! :)

The headphone will be primarily used for studio related audio work, being an Audio Engineering student I do need a good pair of headphones that is quite balanced (good near flat frequency response) and also isolation as I need to do some work in my headphones when people are asleep at night, the objective is a little bit different with when I first bought my Sennheiser HD25s (which was bought for the purpose of DJ monitoring when I was still a DJ full time years ago)

This review will be largely comparing the ATH-M50 to the Sennheiser HD25 1-II which I owned for many years and was a solid performer as well, having owned the HD25 for so long and the HD25 being a somewhat legendary headphones among DJs i would say that the comparison between these two headphones would be appropriate and applicable to many - not just me

The ATH-M50

The Audio Technica ATH-M50 - They Look Good Dont They? :)

The ATH-M50 is big and solid, even when folded!

The Audio Technica ATH-M50 is a closed-back dynamic headphones with a frequency response of 15 hz - 28khz and 38 ohms impedance. It is one of Audio Technica's most well known and praised headphones.

The over - the ear design (rather than the on the ear like my old sennheiser HD25's) proved to be much better for me for isolation, when wearing the ATH-M50 i can hardly hear anything that's happening with the outside world compared to the HD25s where i can actually still talk to people without removing my headphones -

with the Audio Technica's I find myself asking "Say What?" all the time when someone (my wife most probably) tries to talk to me - which can be both a good thing and a bad thing - I can imagine in a very loud club sistem the Audio Technica would be a better monitoring device than the Sennheisers which honestly did not give me much isolation (perhaps my ears are too big) and in the past I ended up cranking up the volume up to hear things better - this is not a good practice for the ears!

So for isolation : +1 point!

Looks like someone forgot to bring their Beats

Another thing that I noted with the ATH-M50 is that they are much heavier than the Sennheiser HD25s to the point that If I do jump around with them , I really worry that I might drop them (due to the size and weight) , with the Sennheiser HD25's they are so lightweight that you can just clamp them to your ears and they will pretty much stay put - if you wax up / gel your hair you will definitely know what I mean by this (lol) .

The Audio Technicas are heavier, bulkier, but for me a little bit more comfortable to wear due to the bigger ear pads that goes around the ears - I find this design work really well , I must say though for DJing I would still take out my Old Sennheisers (which I would need to fix first) due to their feather - light weight , as much as I love the isolation and sound of the ATH-M50 i still much prefer to take out the HD25 because it is so light and so compact

From Skrilly to Sir McCartney! 

No Replaceable Parts!

One thing the ATH-M50 did not have was replaceable parts, while the HD25 was a modder's heaven due to its ability to be taken apart piece by piece quite easily, the ath-m50 does not allow you to do that other than the ear pads - which is a shame! I would have been much happier if at least the cords (where most problems happen) are user - replaceable. Sadly they are not. If anything was to go wrong with your ATH-M50 you would have to either send them to the service centre or try your luck with the soldering iron - there arent many cases of them going broken though so at least they are known to be durable


The Sound : ATH-M50 VS HD25 1-II

the frequency graph of the HD25 (blue) vs ATH-M50 (red)

The ATH-M50 definitely has much deeper bass than the HD25's. If you see the graph above it clearly shows that, but there are some things that are not able to be described graphically, the bass on the ATH-M50 is really much much better, deeper without being muddy at all, I can describe the ATH-M50 as having a deep and defined bass sound, sub basses are much much more apparent without being annoying - BUT THIS MAY DISTRACT YOU when doing proper mixdowns!

For example, I was adding layers of sub bass to my new track im working on and I swore that on the ATH-M50 it sounds just right, however on my Yamaha HS50m reference speakers i suddenly find no bass at all - why is this happening? Well due to the slightly boosted lower frequencies you might find that the mixes that you do with the ATH-M50 might just get really flat in other speakers - you see the boost in low is not always a good idea, however this makes the ATH-M50 pleasurable as a listening headphones other than just as reference monitors , so if you plan on using this to mixdown the low frequencies, be aware of the extra boost in the lows!!

The mids and the highs are represented well as well, the HD25 had this weird notch cut in the mid-highs (8khz?) which I have grown to be used to, upon listening to the ATH-M50s it was good to hear this mid-high that was strangely missing / notched out with the HD25s again.

Sound wise , I much prefer the sound of the ATH-M50, I can actually use the headphones for a much much longer time than I could with the HD25 before getting ear fatique, I dont trust the ATH-M50 enough to do final mixdowns and mastering (reference monitors are irreplaceable for these purposes) but for quick rough mixing and sketching out ideas at night, the ATH-M50's are perfect!

I would conclude that for DJing - the Sennheiser HD25's might still a better choice, except if you really want the isolation that the ATH-M50 can provide, I personally having used to the feather weight HD25 find it a little hard to get used to the solid weight of the ATH-M50, although I much prefer the sound and the isolation of the Audio Technicas rather than the Sennheiser, the ATH-M50 is much much better for studio / audio related purpose where good monitoring / isolation / sound is required

For me I'd say I will use them for different purposes, my old HD25 will get fixed up / modded and be used as my primary DJ headphones, while the ATH-M50 is my permanent home monitoring headphones for my late night ableton sessions!

Verdict:

The isolation + sound quality of the ATH-M50 is simply really really hard to beat - this is an extremely well built,  high quality, awesome sounding headphones that is definitely worth every $$$! If the weight / size does not bother you - this one's a keeper!

If you want something lighter, with a balanced sound, the Sennheiser HD25 might be a good alternative!

Link:
Audio-Technica ATH-M50 Professional Studio Monitor Headphones

Sennheiser HD25-1 II Closed-Back Headphones