Synthopia Cakwalk V-Studio Review

Create Digital Music’s Review

Do you think its better than the Zoom R16?

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

It really makes it super flat. Too flat.

I don’t quite buy into it. There is absolutely no way I would listen to music with it on full time. It seems to suck the life out of most recordings. The processing removes a good deal of bass and you lose that feeling that the sound is in the room with you. It feels like the music is being kept behind a screen door or metal fence, where you can peer in to see the ugliness if you get close enough with a flashlight. I felt the color of my music change to grey.

Its possible I did not set it up perfectly. But I don’t really care.

The system does have some uses.

Pros

1. I was able to isolate some “hidden” sounds in the stereo image I could normally not hear at all, and fix them before I started the mastering process. It was like looking at all the bugs in my recording
2. The stereo width field felt more true allowing me to properly pan sounds
3. Adjusting the relative sound levels of tracks was slightly easier.
4. Its a completely different experience

Cons:

1. Feels soul-less.
2. Not for daily playback.

Overall I can 100% recommend it for trouble shooting your mixes like some kind of swiss army knife. It will make your mixing go faster. You won’t have to take your music from system to system to compare. I do recommend trying it out. It is not the end all and be all of sound fixes.

Alternatives:
On the flipside, using a a couple regular EQs on my receiever, and taking tedious frequency snapshots in the application Fuzzmeasure, until the signal looked “more flat” I was able to get a much more enjoyable, crisp, sound without out all the deadening effects of ARC.

I will probably try to use ARC again, but only as an occasional reference.

This is the ultimate selection in FM sounds on the Alesis fusion. 29 must have FM presets range from Acid, Techno, Chip, to FX.

Alice FM presets honor the past of Yamaha style keyboards and others are remenesicient of sounds not since seen on the Sega Genesis game platform. Complex LFOs are used to generate envelope rythyms, like on those of expensive software packages costing $200 or more. Alice FM pushes the creative limits of the Alesis Fusion! Click here to listen to the demo (MP3)

Click here to visit the product page


Full List of Presets:
Water Strider
Water Strider 2
Yamaha SuX
Psegga Chip
Basix
Wasp
Black Acid (The Digital TB-303 Clone)
Spastika
Calculator Race
Blue Ram
Street Beat
RagerZ
Green Vaib
Blade
Blade Siren
Winback
Sunflower
Mystic Antler
Bangrah
Deep Space Satellite
Deep Circuit
RaveStab
Sequence LFO
Sequence LFO 2
Sequence LFO 4
Tech Disko
Tech Disko 2
Marimba+Muffle
Pliko

1. Roland SPD-20 Total Percussion Pad $650
Instead of getting a PS3 with Rock Band, why not grab a Roland 8 pad drum kit with 700 sounds loaded into it?

2. Korg Kaoscillator $200
100 of Korg’s world renowned synth sounds right at your finger tip.

3. Sterling Audio ST51 Large Diaphragm FET Condenser Microphone $99
This microphone is the top rated in the under 100 dollar range in a number of realworld tests. I would rather have this than an m-audio mic or any other costing 3 times its price.

4. Korg DS-10 For Nintendo DS $36
For only 36 dollars and Amazon delivery this video game / synth will be on everyone’s list.

5. Hal Leonard Rock Keyboard $12
Learn different Rock styles and chords to play along with the CD. If you are a beginner or intermediate I recommend this one as it helped my playing and improvising.

6. Stocking stuffer pick: Disney Hannah Montana Guitar with Bonus Amp



NO! Well if I’m not the grandaddy of all liars!

This is a great distortion box. The DF-7 is a must buy for all in one distortion, whether used or new. Its a good value with 7 “classic” distortion selectable. In fact, its a better sounding version of Guitar Rig 3s distortion box section + tasteful cabinet selection. I like it alot.

This distortion is musical and it won’t deafen your ears, unlike alot of analog units I’ve tried. If you test it against drums…..realistic or electronic, the DF-7 is a win.

Using it in the studio:

If you are in the studio, you can plug it straight into the mixer in stereo. It’s cabinet emulations are very tasteful and sweeten even better if you add reverb on top of it.The controls are pretty easy. Careful tweaking and experimentation yields good results. A nice feature is the sweepable mid EQ. Some of the distortions it emulates do not originally come with this. Mode 5 gave me a really straight up The Prodigy power chord distortion ala Boss Metal Zone when it was combined with electronic drums of any kind. It sounded good. The stereo effect of this pedal is very decent: not awkward or too wide.

For practice/live:

If your plugging it into your amp you can boot it up without that cabinet mode to get the straight distortion. Switching distortions is also pretty instantaneous, but you have to reach down to do it of course. The pedal clicker is durable enough. The bypass seems like a true bypass, which is good enough for me. Mode 6, the Metal Master, is kind of mix of late 80s kickass something or other. All presets sound good with single pickup & humbucker.

I can’t really say anything bad about the DF-7. Maybe you’d want to get your own Pre-Eq to do some more damage in the bass, or set it up different, but mostly I didnt feel like it, and all the presets on this thing were usable to some degree when properly tweaked. You should buy it and see if you like it. I can’t stop playing my guitar now.

Sound Quality: 8.6
Build: 9
Musicality: 8.8
Value: 10
Fun: 10
Master Shredder Factor: 8.8
Total: 8.9 Would recommend to anyone, guitar players / drum n bass producers / synth people looking for dirty sounds.

What can you do??? Get the word out and say “Boycott Phonica” on your blog. You can check their database, and also Search Youtube to see if someone posted a re-edit of your mix, which Phonica could be selling. Report content abuse on Myspace to get your content removed if necessary. You might be getting ripped off $$$ and not know it yet.

If you felt like you have been wronged by Phonica, or know anyone else who has, please post in the comments with your artist & song details. I will repost your story and let the world know. Chip Collection is fighting back for the recognition of original creators. With your help the right artists can make a stand. WE are the fame and money in the new internet age of music, not these edit-posers.

Get the word out and Boycott Phonica! Only dick holes play their music nowadays.

Link to the Video with Greg Ladanyi

PreSonus has uploaded a video series featuring Grammy-winning producer Greg Ladanyi on providing advice on mixing, producing, recording vocals, and more.

Go there and get tips to producing vocals and mixing etc.

New KRK Rokits are here. They are curved so you can mix in the wind tunnel.

KRK Rokit Link

Any one know if this line is any good to mix on compared to others in the same price range – M-audio etc. ? They have always had the appearance of being higher quality, especially with the material used for the cones.

Audio Tool is an emulation of two Roland TB-303s, a TR-909, and a bunch of the roland/boss stomp boxes. It is very reminiscent of the classic program Propellerhead Rebirth, but without the TR-808 and better graphics.

Audio tool is simple to use and includes rewiring/audio routing on the same screen that you make your music on, which makes more sense than Propellerhead Reason’s double screened rack system.

I believe they are using java/flash to run the program in the browser, but it is as easy to use as any flash app. They did an excellent job making it, even if it has been done before. Missing is a way to save your songs but you can’t complain because its better than Rebirth in alot of ways.

Its fun.
Go start making some electronic music NOW!

Link: Hobnox Audiotool

4/5 Rating
Sound quality is excellent.
Fun.
Needs a save feature, even if it is a demo.

Thanks Noizone!

The Tone Collection Reason Refill Pack ($20) has been added to the store.

The Tone Collection is a Guitar Based Refill for producers and enthusiasts who need that special guitar punch in their music. From Death Metal, Marshall Amp, and back to clean Stratocaster, you will find what your looking for. This Reason Refill attempts to do what Amplitube does, by providing preset tones that help you shape and mould the provided guitar sounds. Various presets range from aproximations of Gerry Garcia, to Jimi Hendrix. 80s style phasers and dark atmospheric tones are also there to keep you creative. Reason 3.0 & 4.0 Compatible. Standard patches will work with version 2.0. Its only 20 bucks, with download and paypal.

Listen to demos and check out the Refill in the Chip Collection store.