mitkapevski's Reviews

Nice speakers for home studio.

To my ears little "home studio", it suits me PERFECTLY. The sound seems accurate on all frequencies. Compared to my old speakers (KRK) living room, this is the day and night! If one looks at a speaker distance (say 2 meters), the stereo image feels very well represented.

Really strength amps and USA quality.

A/D D/A While I don't have a ton of experience with converters, I immediately noticed how good the conversion was when listening to music on my computer. It's simply light years ahead of the onboard sound card. Even music streamed over the internet seemed better defined and clearer, though this did expose how compressed the high end is in streaming music. It's conversion was equally good when running a guitar direct into it and through an amp simulator.

Preamps The preamps on this interface are a great value for their low cost, and they are quite clean, however they do add a hint of character to the sources run through them. They seem to add a mild punchiness to anything recorded to it, which suggests a slightly boosted mid range. However, this isn't the the point where it becomes detrimental on some sources. The rest on the frequency range seems quite true to the source, and I've been really happy with the early results I've had on vocals and acoustic guitar. The preamps also do have quite a bit of gain available, and I've been able to get a good level with my active ribbon microphone Blue Microphones Woodpecker Ribbon Microphone Kit by turning the knob to about 2 o'clock.

The Unit Itself The build quality of this unit is excellent. Though it's made of plastic, it seems very durable, and is pretty heavy for it's size. (It's larger than it looks in the photo, about a foot long and about 4 inches tall) The knobs all turn slowly, and feel quite solid. They also are fairly large, and spaced far enough apart that you won't accidentally change the wrong one. All of the inputs feel solidly built as well, which is reassuring in regards to this unit's lifespan. My only gripes about this is that they could've put db level markings around either the knobs or alongside the level indicator. The unit looks awesome and the leds for input and output levels are a nice touch. Though I don't sit it between a keyboard and monitor like Lexicon recommends, it fits well next to my laptop.

Latency Of course the latency of an interface and turn a phenomenal unit into a paperweight, but I happy to report that I've been able to achieve quite low latency (19ms roundtrip) on my 2.1 ghz, 3 gb ram laptop. This allows me to record guitar through amp simulators, and do midi work with ease. Response on both guitar and soft synths controlled by a midi keyboard is pretty much instant, which makes it really easy to work with.

These are the best headphones you can buy for 200 bucks.

These are the best headphones you can buy for 200 bucks. Honestly, you will not find better at this price point. I have heard several pairs of headphones at the 200 dollar price level. These include Beyerdynamic, Shure, Audio Technica, and Sennheiser. The K612 Pro definitely beats them all. They have a very neutral, and musical sound signature to them. These headphones are certainly not for bassheads. However, they are not lacking in bass either. They sound awesome for music, and also for gaming. The imaging, detail retrieval, and soundstaging allow you to detect exactly were the sounds are coming from during gaming sessions. These headphones have a tight and controlled bass, with a slight roll off in the sub bass region. Should you desire a little more low end, you can easily add 1 or 1.5db across the 30-60hz region with an EQ. The mids are smooth, musical, and slightly warm sounding. The treble on these headphones is not bright at all. It offers nice detail, while not introducing additional unwanted brightness or sibilance. Be aware that these headphones require a decent headphone amp and dac. If you are planning on running these off of garbage onboard audio, you are dreaming. If that is your plan, they won't sound right, and they won't offer a decent amount of volume. Get yourself a decent amp/dac combo for a couple hundred bucks, and you will be good to go. These headphones require a little burn in time, but not much. The pads soften up after about 10 days of use. The bass and treble will also smooth out after around 8-12 hours of usage. At around 12 hours or so, you will have a nicely balanced sound signature.

Simple, convenient and high-quality.

Small, compact and easy to handle, the novation xio is a synth for the modern-day home studio musician. its hybrid feature (midi controller and virtual analog synth) is what many bedroom rockstars would probably love. plus, the sound of its VA synth engine is in the same tradition as those of older classic novation products. may not be accurately the same sound, but no less great as it is. i predict that this model will be another sought-after portable synth, just like everything that novation came out with. another modern-day classic, indeed.