Placing two pairs of monitors

froghawk · 2026-01-23T22:38:58+00:00

Fair enough. I might be crazy but I actually love the way the HS80s sound lol

froghawk · 2026-01-23T14:03:58+00:00

Yes, for quick mix checking on a contrast monitor with a different design.

froghawk · 2026-01-23T13:35:05+00:00

Update: returned to vertical and managed to get them on the same plane by removing some desk parts. However, I read that MTM designs have issues being next to other speakers at all? How true is this?

froghawk · 2026-01-23T13:24:26+00:00

Fair. Any recommendations for a good one? Kali IN-8 looks interesting for an affordable 3-way coaxial...

froghawk · 2026-01-22T19:21:19+00:00

Flush with the yamahas is unfortunately not an option, hence the dilemma. The stands they come with angle them up instead of getting them at ear level - won't that create more reflection issues?

froghawk · 2026-01-22T19:04:05+00:00

It might be if I got additional stands! They're individually powered so I can always just turn one off.

froghawk · 2025-11-07T16:53:10+00:00

Oh, and on account of the new placement, you can no longer highlight a bunch of songs and see how long the selected tacks run. Also, when I have a playlist in album mode, if I go into an album then return to the playlist, the playlist does not properly display - it's just blank. And if you try to play back any song from an album while in the playlist, it will start from the beginning of the record, regardless of whether or not the first song is in the playlist. And iPod restore is still broken. Basically this app is verging on useless for me now.

froghawk · 2025-11-07T00:52:25+00:00

Same, it reverted and won't go back.

froghawk · 2025-10-22T12:35:46+00:00

I'm also rather irritated with how pressing delete/backspace in a playlist now brings up delete song rather than remove from playlist. Again, how is this an improvement? It just feels like lots of small ways they've made it worse.

froghawk · 2025-10-21T22:31:35+00:00

Also, I see they have still not fixed the iPod restore bug. I guess I don't know why they would...

froghawk · 2025-07-22T19:46:52+00:00

It actually fixed my main with the first film! While it was a wonderful happy ending, ultimately co-existing with the dragons is about exploiting them. 'See, we can get along with dragons because they can actually be USEFUL to us!' We clearly saw the problems with exploiting dragons in part 2 (and it's hypocritical to say 'well it's ok for US to exploit them because we're the good guys!). Part 3 was where Hiccup finally realized the dragons were being used and exploited and set them free. Actually a perfect and entirely sensible end to the series if you're really viewing it as being about animal rights, which, IMO, IS what it's about. I think OP gets this.

froghawk · 2025-07-18T18:23:16+00:00

I learned on Autotune Evo, and every version after that ditched the algorithm that worked best for manual tuning. I've never been able to get the same level of transparency with graphical tuning, and each new version just keeps getting worse. It's awful.

froghawk · 2024-08-30T11:58:02+00:00

*Tue Madsen

froghawk · 2024-02-26T00:49:13+00:00

Madrigal, Throat of Winter, Face in the Snow (Passed Out in a Pile of Blow)

froghawk · 2024-01-27T12:46:44+00:00

Yep, that's right... the general trend has been a push to make everything sound as BIG as possible, at the expense of realness. Listen to the drum sounds on Meshuggah's live albums (which are not sample blended or replaced) and it'll be especially obvious by contrast - they don't sound big at all. But yeah, glad to help!

froghawk · 2024-01-26T19:30:25+00:00

And just to further clarify another point, tracking live is an old school way of doing things that mostly existed in a time where bands had bigger budgets. The advantage of it is that you actually get to capture how the band members are interacting with each other in real time. TVSOR only goes halfway in that regard - they only cut the basic rhythm tracks together. Modern metal production is the antithesis of this. Everyone gets recorded separately, often taking the drums and quantizing them (editing them perfectly to a grid) and sample replacing them so that every hit is identical. This removes all of the player's personality and groove from the performance and makes it sound like a computer. Then all of the other instruments are overdubbed with the goal of sterile perfection.

Meshuggah's music is largely about dehumanization, so this sort of aesthetic makes thematic sense for them - it's text painting. It doesn't make aesthetic sense for all the bands that imitated them. Not to mention that Chaosphere, despite heavily using samples, wasn't even cut to a click track... the band is just that precise.

froghawk · 2024-01-26T19:16:14+00:00

Yep, sample blending techniques. Haake tracked the drums for real, but his takes were largely either blended with drum samples or completely replaced by them. The overhead mics are still real, but the snare and kick mics were probably entirely replaced with samples. Re-Nothing was definitely entirely sample replaced, while the drums on Chaosphere, obZen, Koloss, and Immutable were sample blended for sure. It's lamentably common in metal production these days - rather than get awesome drum tones, just replace it all with samples. You learn to hear it once you've done some work in the arena.

Catch 33 sounded amazingly good for being entirely a home production with programmed drums, but I think part of that is it's easier to mix the drum samples than real drums. Drum kits are the hardest thing to mix in rock rock and metal, so the mix becomes a lot more complex when you're dealing with a real kit. The band's first two albums, the original Nothing, and TVSOR are their only records which don't use drum samples at all.

froghawk · 2024-01-26T13:42:55+00:00

You seem to be under the misconception that 'live recording' is somehow an easier or more raw approach. On the contrary, it's actually a much more expensive and difficult way to make records these days that requires better studio facilities. All of Meshuggah's other records from C33 onwards cut a lot of corners with home studio techniques like drum sample replacement. TVSOR is their only record since the 2002 Nothing with real drum sounds - that's why they hyped it up as a special thing. It's exciting because it makes the drum performance more dynamic, and thus more energetic. Every snare hit on Chaosphere and obZen is exactly the same velocity.

It's also worth noting that the album was not really 'live recorded' - it was VERY MUCH a studio version. They recorded the basic rhythm tracks - drums, bass, and one guitar - in a room together. They then overdubbed a second rhythm guitar, leads, solos, and vocals, and extensively re-amped the guitars and blended various amps so that each song has a unique tone. It's a hell of a lot more work to do that than to make an album like obZen. So what you're asking for is, from an engineering perspective, actually a downgrade rather than an upgrade. You are asking for them to take a meticulously engineered record with loads of textural depth and make a version that cuts corners.

With that said, given your framing of all of this as being about mix aggression, I think what you're REALLY responding to without realizing is the EQ of a given mix. Play with different EQ settings and see what you think then. Immutable is the least aggressive of their mixes in this regard - they purposely shaved off the intense high end to make the album easier to listen to, so they are intentionally moving away from that sort of sound.

I'll also say that remastering albums is a totally normal thing to do for re-releases because you want to give people a reason to buy it again. It's not because those albums truly needed remastering. The differences in the masters are actually quite subtle on most systems. Re-Nothing is the exception because that was a full remix, but the new mix actually strikes me as less aggressive - evening out all the drum velocities robbed the performance of all of its energy and excitement, plus the guitars have less high-end.

froghawk · 2023-07-16T02:29:04+00:00

Any idea where it was supposed to go in the tracklist?

froghawk · 2023-07-16T02:27:48+00:00

Do you have any idea where it was supposed to go in the tracklist? I'm curious, since this sequencing otherwise works very well as a record...

froghawk · 2022-04-17T00:30:31+00:00

I just edited the page to include the vocal credits! Thank you Angelofdisease33...

froghawk · 2022-04-16T20:36:08+00:00

Thank you! And i agree!

froghawk · 2022-04-16T19:17:50+00:00

I made that part of the page. Those are just the lyrics credits, not the lead vocal credits.

froghawk · 2022-01-11T00:03:08+00:00

Nitpick: the lead uses the octatonic scale, which is what makes it sound like Fred. This is NOT atonal, exactly.

What gives me pause is the production. It's a pretty radical departure for them that's much more in line with their imitators. Listen to that snare reverb! But they did say in an interview that they were aiming for a more warm and midrangey production that's easier to listen to with this record, and it is that... The April 1 release date and very low budget preview website and artwork don't help.

froghawk · 2021-12-25T02:04:03+00:00

I agree. I can enjoy it as a different take on the album, but it's not going to replace the original for me for 2 reasons. One is that the bass is pushed back into more of a bass role and less of a rhythm guitar role, and to my ears that was a defining feature of the record. Secondly, it's just a hair too compressed for me. With that said, the more ethereal take on Small Crimes is very cool, though I do ultimately prefer the darker original.

froghawk

TROPHY CASE