Synthopia Cakwalk V-Studio Review

Create Digital Music’s Review

Do you think its better than the Zoom R16?

VIDEO LINK:http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=95624186019&ref=mf

Ever needed to DIN Sync old gear to Reason? Check out this video where Peff does it with a TR-808.

Send DC pulses from the MOTU interface to Roland 303, 606, 808, 909 etc.

Check out his facebook page for more info & Videos.

By Peff

Tapco is kind of a weird brand to review. At the moment, I own a basic mixer by Tapco and this Firewire 4×10 interface and use them in conjunction with eachother. I bought this after the failure of two USB device. So firewire was the logical choice.

The first and sometimes only thing that matters is how stable an audio interface is. Drivers can complicate things and disconnect periodically if they aren’t a good fit or if the designers/programmers, just weren’t doing a good job. The Tapco Link.Firewire is extremely stable, surviving multiple application boots, system audio streams, restarts, and anything else. I keep it powered up 24/7 and it hasn’t failed yet.

The sound quality is what you would expect. There isn’t a harsh digital bite or character. It feels warm, or at least everything coming in/out seems unharmed. There seems to be enough headroom and volume for line level instruments. The preamps are also less noisy than the ones on my mixer. I haven’t tested them extensively. The S-PDIF connector also works well, although when connected to a device it overrides channels 1 & 2. Monitoring is a little different. When the firewire is engaged by the computer, you can only monitor whats coming back from the computer. Depending on your setup this might not be an issue. There is a little app called Line-In which can monitor for you, in Mac OSX when your computer is on and will give you a good pass thru. You can also just put the compute to sleep or unplug the firewire port and the unit switches to sending whatever is coming in 1 & 2 back out to your monitors.

The construction is great! This is not cheap feeling at all. The metal rack bars in front slightly defend knobs from some impacts. The case is plastic, but the hard bumpy rubber is a nice touch. The headphone amp could have been a little smoother volume wise at lower levels, but it is acceptable. Connectors and buttons are very good. It is very easy to monitor clipping on this unit. The LEDS change bright red when your signal is too hot, and its easy to back down to get the maximum level. Its nice to have and works better than some full spectrum volume displays. With the Firewire only plugged in, there was a bit of an external noise (probably from the chip its powered), but it is nonexistent when you plug in the wall adaptor. I chose the wall adaptor. Its nice to know this unit will work with a laptop. Chances are if you are taking it somewhere this little noise won’t bug you much. Just use the wall adaptor the rest of the time.

Also keep in mind that this isn’t a true 4×6 interface out of the box. Its 2×2. You can probably bug Tapco for the firm ware which converts to this, but hey never updated before shipping I guess. For $99 new I didn’t care. This is a great, basic firewire interface, and its currently on clearance if you look in the right spot. This also comes with Mackie Tracktion 2 DAW for mac / pc!!! Mackie Tracktion is very simple to use, compared to apples Logic, and does the job. It can be upgraded to Tracktion 3 for $69 from Mackie. Definitely pick this one up if you need a cheap, stable, firewire interface.

Stability so far: 10
Audio Quality: 9
Features: 8
Total: 8.5

Daw Controller, Audio Interface, Digital FX Mixer, and Room Control unit w/ internal mic.

The Edirol M-16dx is a 16ch digital mixer from Roland’s lesser known brand. It is packed full of features only seen on products $800 and up, when it only retails for $250 new (if your looking in the right place). Initially I purchased this mixer to fill the need for DAW control & audio interface. The fact that it was a standalone mixer just sweetened the deal. The feature set, including automatic Room Control, was too much to pass up. Lets see how it stacks up.

Audio Quality: 8 I was impressed with its preamps under phantom power. There was alot of gain and only a little bit of noise, most which was coming from the mic. It is perfectly acceptable for the price point. This mixer has 22+ decibels of headroom, so you can get a very high dynamic range, beyond line level, into your computer (although line-level instruments need to be boosted to match). The full 22+ decibels are sent to the computer. Thats a little weird but understandable.

The 22+dbl gain could really come in handy if your using it live somewhere and don’t have enough gain at least. It also virtually elimates clipping and need for a limiter.

Drivers: 5 I tested this one under Windows & Mac OS X. It faired better in Mac OS X. Under windows, there is no outgoing volume control, making it easy to damage your monitors speakers if you don’t have the return bus fader all the way down. In Mac OS X you can set it to line levels at least. I found this control really weird and annoying. i wouldn’t recommend this as an audio interface for windows, especially for casual use. Your audio will just clip internally, because it uses the 22+dbl gain for no reason I could find. Under mac os X it did seem to drop out and freeze the computer, but its probably just my iMac’s first gen USB bus. I found it to be useable to some degree, but not entirely stable. This one seems to have the same drivers or chip as the blue Edirol 10/10 USB interface, which also had drop out problems on extended use.

Another issue is that when you connect something onto the digital bus, and your using USB audio, the bus is disrupted and the audio goes all crackly. This also happened when I went into scene mode.

This thing is a little buggy, but useable. Its fine in live mode and not being used with your computer.
My thoughts are mixed on it.

DAW Control worked OK in Logic Audio

Features: 8 It has literally all of them. Room correction works amazingly. You could buy it just for that. I know some people are against eq, but this thing will EQ each speaker individually, and in under a minute you have a flat response. You can also connect an external measurement mic if you own one. The FX routing on it is amazing, including its internal reverbs. The DX Bus is really awesome which lets you seperate the mixer from the audio box. This feature was seen in 1999 on Roland’s expensive digital mixers with R-Bus technology, which would let you stream 96 channels of audio. Now you have a mini version with this unit!

Build Quality: 6 I found the build to be fine, even though its plastic. I had an issue with this unit where it was disconnecting USB and going crackly every time I touched it. Finding this static issue was annoying, since it doesn’t happen with my other gear. Since I bought it used I took it apart, and put it back together. I don’t believe I moved anything differently, but now I don’t have the problem!!! HUH!? Yes, I think this unit is put together crappily. But if you have a good one, you should be somewhat happy with it. Mine was built by a chinese child right before lunchtime when they were starting to get tired.

The Edirol M-16DX is really interesting. Its buggy. It sort of worked, but hard to recommend to everyone. I recommend it as a standalone mixer. If you are connecting alot of stuff digitally or using windows, there are probably better alternatives that you’ll want to pay more for. Ideally I would use this standalone or as a front end for a better interface, or just to have around. Its working for me right now, but I will never buy Edirol again after having two seperate USB interfaces have the same short term instability with Mac OS X, and seeing how they programmed no software control program for it with windows. Its no wonder you can get this one for half price. The M-16DX is really cool, has all the features you could ever want, some which don’t work very well, and has a neat design. But it seems Edirol/Roland has totally abandoned this unit.

Its fun, its cheap, and a good replacement for an analog mixer at this price.

Total Score: 7/10

Here is a list of available types:
Subtractive synthesis
Additive synthesis
Granular synthesis
Wavetable synthesis
Frequency modulation synthesis
Phase distortion synthesis
Physical modeling synthesis
Sample-based synthesis
Subharmonic synthesis

Definition from wikipedia:

When any mechanical collision occurs sound is produced. The energy from the collision is transferred through the air as sound waves, which are perceived by the human auditory system.

By this definition there must be a greater horizon for sound.

Expanding physical modeling innovations, for the end user, along with today’s processors, could be the greatest advance in sound generation ever.

Ideas: using a 3d scanner you could input physical objects, designate a material, then simulate what they sound like from the inside (reverb) or even what they would sound like being thrown at different surfaces with physics.
Why not make a synthesizer that can simulate the sound of an egg being crushed?? Maybe I want a building exploding from exactly 3 miles away. New, fun, models, and multiple parameters when changed, could create possibly bizzare, unheard of sound.

It sounds complex, but even a little bit of change, a little bring of fun, could bring in some fresh air and new money for those willing to pay for real creativity and not just another digital music device.

Yes, they have a certain cool factor. Its undeniable!

If the theremin can be an electronic instrument, then maybe an electric guitar is too. Well, at least quasi-electronic. The pickup converts the waves of the strings, into an electronic signal. They also sound very cool and might be worth putting into your production setup. Guitars actually sound great when played side by side with synthesizers.
With a guitar you will never have to worry about Polyphony, Midi (unless you bought those new USB ones), and using digital interfaces.

Let’s find out more about them before we choose.

Pickups:
There are two main types of pickup: single coil and double coil (known as humbuckers), each of which can be passive or active. Single Coil have a brighter sound, whereas, double coil is known for its noise cancelling abilities.

Body Style:
Electric guitars can come in solid body or hollow body designs. Solid body has NO inner holes which would allow the strings to resonate further (like acoustic). Hollow bodies do have these inner holes.

Tremolo Arms:
Also called the Whammy bar. This device moves the bridge to alter the pitch during play.

Most electric guitars are completely passive. They require external amplification and effects! But you can jack them into an audio interface that supports phantom power and use plugin effects and guitar amp emulators! This is a great way to not clog up your studio and get any kind of guitar sound that you want for cheap. The effects you use on your guitar also can determine style of music you want to produce. Examples would be distortion, overdrive, chorus, etc.

Electric guitars come in many body styles for you to choose from. They also having varying degrees of quality. You must be considerate of price too, as you are just buying a piece of wood with strings attached to an electric pickup. A very expensive guitar might be close to that of a cheaper more affordable one. Other than actually going somewhere and just picking up and playing a guitar, you’ll want to check out some guitar reviews:

Stick to what feels good, something in your price range, and what sounds good.

Guitar Reviews:
http://reviews.harmony-central.com/reviews/Guitar

I hope that helps you get started!! I think I will be buying my guitar soon.

Extra: Use your Guitar to trigger synth tones to differentiate your sound with this module Roland GR20

Below are some models of guitars I would check out!

Price Ranges

Under $200
Behringer V-Tone II & Amp $109 Cheap, and nicely rated.
Epiphone Les Paul Special II Electric Guitar Classic looking.

Over $200
Fender Standard Stratocaster Electric Guitar Nice!! I would get this or something similar.

There are alot of guitars out there and it will come down to personal choice! Find something you like!

UPDATE: Open Labs upgrades MIKO SE and MIKO LE: Link

From future music blog

UPDATE: Mackie Anounces Control Pro Surfaces: Link

Mackie anounces Tracktion 3!!!! (I love Tracktion’s ease of use and its better mastering plugins)

TAPCO Anounces 4×6 Firewire audio interface for $249: Link

UPDATE: KORG IMAGES on Gearjunkies.com: Link (currently having server issues)

A Stupid Mixer, MINI Kaoss Pad (***AWESOME***), M3 Synth, and R3 (new Darth Vader edition microkorg).

Check back for status and pictures / adds.
If you know anything, please comment!

Most Anticipated / Rumored:

Apple Logic version 8 or 7.5: Unconfirmed

Alesis Master Control Firewire Audio Interface: Confirmed


Alesis Master Control
Nice!! Check out the specs on this audio interface. Its everything you’ve ever dreamed of….6 discrete outs, 5.1 surround. 8 Channels of 44.1-192khz audio in. Motorized Faders, MIDI, 2 Preamps, SPDIF, LCD, Jog wheel, fully editable presets.
New Korg Microkorg called the R3: Leaked Images / Confirmed From Gear Junkies



New Korg Mini Chaos Pad: Leaked Images / Confirmed From Gear Junkies

Roland MV-8800 Sampler Workstation: Confirmed

MV-8800

Roland V-Synth GT: Confirmed

V-Synth GT

Previously Confirmed:

(Coming in March)
Arturia Origin: Origin is the first Arturia Hardware synthesizer. It is a modular system of a new generation opening innovative avenues in sound design.
Loaded with modules extracted from the best synthesizers of all time (Moog Modular, ARP 2600, CS-80, minimoog and Prophet VS). Details Link
(Arturia Origin sounds like it could be really expensive…)

No word yet on Steve Urkel Edition Moog.

Korg M1000 Product Page

Future-proof digital recording is here
With the pristine fidelity and ultimate flexibility of 1-bit technology, the new, surprisingly affordable MR-1000 and MR-1 ensure that your final mixes and location recordings are never obsolete.

MR-1000
The MR-1000 is the perfect tool for the professional who wants to record and archive their final mixes in the studio, while its compact size and portability make it ideal for location recording. Whatever the use, you get the benefit of capturing it at the new high 5.6 MHz rate. After recording and editing all your tracks in the DAW/hardware system of your choice, you can mix directly, or via an analog summing mixer, to the MR-1000. This gives you the superb fidelity of high-rate1-bit technology, which when transferred to your computer can be converted to the mastering format of your choice thanks to AudioGate. And backing up in 1-bit format “future proofs” your mix for potential reuse in the future.

Uncompromising, future-proof fidelity at an unprecedented price
Korg’s new, super-portable MR Professional Mobile Recorders break new ground by providing high fidelity 1-bit recording technology at unheard of low prices. The hand-held MR-1 provides high quality 1-bit/2.8 MHz recording and playback, while the mobile/tabletop MR-1000 delivers an astonishing 1-bit/5.6 MHz, doubling industry DSD recording quality standards.