Since some days I am using the Sonarworks plugin for speaker calibration to the existing room modes. First you measure the room with the Sonarworks software and microphone. Then it is calculating an EQ curve suited to correct your room modes.In my case the curve looks like this:

it shows a 5dB boost at 80Hz and a frightening 9dB boost at 160Hz

The whole lowend is massively boosted by this untreated room, making it impossible to perform any good mix decisions in these frequencies.

After using the plugin EQ correction in Logic X, the room sounds totally different, much better. A really amazing result. I do not even want to listen to itunes or soundcloud without that plugin, so I got their new product called “Systemwide”. This enables the EQ curve globally in the Mac.

I can also recommend the headphone calibration. To my big surprise, my expensive AKG-812 showed this poor curve (they deliver individual curves for all important headphones):

which is not linear at all, but quite a mess in the Mid and Hi ranges ! This means the headphone needs correction too. I verified this result with the Sennheiser HD-25. After using the recommended correction curves for both headphones, they sounded the same. So there is the question to AKG why this High-End headphone has such a poor curve !

All in all, these products by Sonarworks are definitely worth their money, especially in poorly treated rooms. Highly recommended! Will not produce without them anymore.

Apple has released a new LogicX update. The interesting part is the new synthesizer Alchemy. This is really a great instrument ! It has 4 layers, each can contain individual synthesis technologies. Also it offers performance modes for easily modifying/morphing the preset sounds.

On older (slower) IMacs it can make sense to reduce the quality from “Great” to “Good”, otherwise we can quickly run out of CPU resources when using many Alchemy plugins in a song. The sound quality still is very good. I am quite amazed about this plugin. Until now, my main synthesizer plugins have been Omnisphere and the NI synths (Massive, FM8…), but Alchemy is now also member of this hall of fame definitely. Be sure to check it out…

After using NI Maschine Studio for a while, I noticed that it has 2 disadvantages:

– not very efficient usage of CPU resources

– sequencer functionality is very limited

I got stuck with my Dream Experience 09 Track because of CPU performance limit reached on my (rather old) iMac. I then decided to buy LogicX and switch to Logic again (earlier I was using Logic 9 already).

I did not compare the performance directly, because I started another track (D.E. 10). However it seems Logic (9 and X) is using the CPU more efficient than NI Maschine Studio. I could complete my new track (which is using many AU instruments and effects) without CPU problems. Also LogicX did improve the MIDI editing features in the sequencer  (it was already good in Logic 9, but now in LogicX is it great to work with).

The disadvantage of the worse NI instruments integration in Logic can be solved quite easily by using the NI Komplete plugin temporarily for choosing a desired instrument. After the descision is done, I remove the NI Komplete plugin on the channel again, and load the chosen instrument directly.

Summarized: LogicX will be my sequencer platform, I can highly recommend it.