Relaxing for now, trying to sort out a recording rig so that I might get some world music down of my own personal interest and decide whether I'm interested in continuing to use this T.C gear or not.
I've been a big fan of the quality of the equipment and found it easy to use despite very little chance to learn it and get my head around it, especially the incredible routing of the Konnekt 48 exacerbated by beta quality drivers for the mac.
From what I've seen though, its been incredibly stable and bug free on the P.C platform and has integrated well with programs like live, Cubase and Logic (Mac). The Konnekt 24 has been quite a great little device to use despite being a bit heavy (justified by all of its ins and outs) and really shows potential for a 12+ track interface for a hobby to semi-pro studio because of its built in DSP and firewire interface. In fact going from Pro Tools and USB powered Mbox land, I've found the quality of the converters and Pres markedly better even to my amatuer ears because of the ability to draw more current and supply more headroom. Also the T.C software does provide a number of ways to work from more traditional studio work to Audiophile direct to stereo recordings and would probably suit people from many different head spaces.
The DPA mics have also been probably the most fitting mics I could've fathomed for this project with quality so transparent its hard to appreciate. Through a good set of monitors and a good stereo set up even studio owners we've collaborated with have been blown away because the sound is just so true to life on everything from sitars and Tablas to flutes and more! Its been quite a revalation for me because coming from a college focussed on western pop recording I've been used to selecting mics for delivering particular quality and timbre and been essentially taught that omni is a bit useless.
Now, I've seen a a single 4041 used to record male and female vocals and just work so incredibly! not having to worry about whether it suits or not and just being able to get on with tracking. Using the mics with the on axis presence boost has also allowed great control over picking up the different qualities of the voice. Its a sort of EQ transparent before any sort of processing and allows you to scan which part of the mouth, nose or chest you want to pick up to get the best of or minimise the worst of a performer.
The other real stand out for me was making some incredibly convincing binaural recording with DPA's minature omnis which fit perfectly into the opening of the ear canal (allowing for encoding by the Pinnae) and super good low frequency response. The other plus was that despite tripping over and having long hair, the mics did not display any sign of picking up microphonics off the cable or transferrance from my internal noises like walking, breathing, swallowing etc.
By the way, this does sound even to me, a lot like a plug for the companies that supplied us with their best gear and made our recording possible but is honestly just my observations over almost 3 months of usage and testing under the careful watch of Greg Simmons, who wouldn't let us screw up a recording lest a performance be lost forever. And, I can't think of any other gear that I'd rather have had exposure to. The only thing I would suggest is that DPA bring out a bi-directional mic for the sake of being able to make an M-S or blumlein array because I think that it would allow any audiophile to have an all purpose recording toolbox with only 6 microphones, (2 Omnis, 2 Cardioids and 2 Bi-directionals)
More Later...
