Portable Bliss, anxiously awaiting new goodies Options

[Synthetic]

well after having been asked about playing some shows again in my local area... I decided to go ahead and order some goodies I had been eyeing for awhile.

I have coming...

1) Emagic AMT8 midi interface - needed more ports and wanted something that would fit in my traveling rack case

2) Emagic Emi 2/6 audio interface - needed something to use with my Tibook for sending out backing tracks as well as doing some live recording

3) Samson condensor mic - only had one cheap dynamic and the workhorse Sure SM57 and wanted a condensor mic for awhile... gave my dream of getting Sure KSM-27 for another year

should arrive tomorrow hehe always like getting new toys to play with... just hate paying for them... I really need a job as a beta tester for music equipment

[Synthetic]

ok... I will contribute a little diary of my working with the new equipment here and Presto, if you and or Yukulele would like to make into article form... that will be up to you

Day 1: Like a kid on Christmas day... I rip open my packages quickly and remove the goodies. First thing opened was the Samson C01 mic. I was surprised that it actaully came in its own little plastic carry case since it was a cheaper mic. The build quality of the mic feels nice too. I can't do a comparison of the mic truthfully because its the only condensor mic I own at this time. I was amazed however when I compared the sound to my Sure SM57 mic. The Samson had incredible warmth and great detail that put my vocals more upfront in my Tannoy active monitors where the Sure mic would sit more in the background. I actually found that I could get very articulate with my voice even at lower volumes which has motivated me to try do more singing.

The Emi 2/6 was next package opened... it looks even more spectacular in person than the photos on the web. The unit comes with a nice little synthetic leather case to keep it scratch free which was nice. The case could have included a pocket to carry the USB cable though but that is being picky. I quickly removed the CDROM with drivers on it and installed into my computer. This was a bit confusing at first. You see, I am the "try it first and read manual later" type of person. I can figure most things out on my own without the need for a manual. So as I was about to install the drivers... I was first confused by the install options offered on the disc. I first thought it was asking me which software I was using in order to install the correct drivers... later I found out that the disc included almost all of Emagics software and a 10 day trial XSkey. So I removed the software that I inadvertantly installed and all was well. Then I connected the unit to my Tibook using the USB cable provided. First thing I noticed was the RS232 terminator didn't seat well in the Emi 2/6 unit. It was sloppy. This was a bit more aggrivating as I had to wiggle it to get a good connection. I test the outputs of the unit with Logic and with Itunes and it worked fine as long as I didn't move the unit while playing. I did move the unit once during playback and it produced a loud pop in my PA speaker as a result the poor USB connection. My main reason for buying the Emi 2/6 was for playing backing tracks at live shows and for portable recording so now I see I must be very gentle with the unit. The ASIO output from Reason was horrible with lots of popping an crackling. This was very disappointing and will be contacting Emagic soon about that. Other than that... it seems to be ok.

The Emagic AMT 8 is the last opened and installed. I had been using only one port for awhile but really desired more than one port and liked what I read about the timing of the AMT8. Plus I liked that it could be used as midi patchbay without computer and it fit into my rack case for gigging. The first thing I notice when insterting the CDROM with drivrers was it was the same CD that the Emi 2/6 came with. Apparently Emagic now ships all of its software on one CDROM and that same CDROM is shipped with all their hardware. So I installed only needed sofrware and then connected the AMT8. Right away I knew it was working because it was flashing LEDs as I played the keys on my Yamaha CS6x that I use as my main controller. Now I boot up Logic and my autoload session. I setup Logic to use the AMT8 with Logic and OMS. Logic seems to be getting the midi data and I am able to control the ESX24 from within an audio instrument track. Running midi tracks from the sequencer to my Yamaha wasn't working however. I found that I had to go back and select the midi tracks and reassign the midi and all then worked. As a test, I then loaded a DnB song I have been working on with several midi tracks and several audio instrument tracks as well as a couple of audio tracks... it worked as usual but I did notice that the timing of my drum track (a midi track going to CS6x) was now stumbling a little and didn't seem as good as previously played through my Digi001 midi interface. Now I am currently experimenting with different preference settings in midi communications within Logic to see if I can improve that. I have also figured out what port settings I need for the AMT8 and only have ports I need turned on.


If interested... I can follow this up with findings and tests I will eventually run later.