Review: M-Audio Delta Firewire 410

Hello and welcome to this week's article! 

Today we're reviewing a discontinued product, which was in production until 2010-2012, the most successful firewire device ever produced by M-Audio, before part of the production was acquired from Avid (specifically the Usb audio interfaces).

The M-Audio Delta Firewire 410 features 2 jack/Xlr preamps, 2 line inputs, 8 unbalanced jack outputs, 2 headphone preamps, S/Pdif input and output, Midi Input and output.

This very complete Firewire interface, debuted in the market with a very affordable price (less than 500$ - 350 Uk pounds), and it represented a step forward in professionality for many bedroom producers, since until then, the only manufacturers that produced audio interfaces with those specs were Behringer, Samson and Phonic, two brands known for the cheapness of their components.

M-Audio sets itself one step higher than those three brands, making audio interfaces affordable and at the same time accettable in terms of quality; obviously its preamps cannot be compared with the Apogee ones, and its drivers are not well performing as the Presonus Ones, yet after ten years I still use this interface, today mainly for monitoring purposes, having switched to other devices to acquire the sound.

Today M-Audio, as well as many other producers, is moving away from firewire interfaces, since are dangerous for the motherboard (which can sometimes fry when hot-plugging), and since Usb interfaces are getting more and more reliable, but ten years ago firewire was essential for every "small studio", since it guaranteed a reproduction stability, especially for large projects, which Usb interfaces weren't able to give.

If you happen to cross one of these, and it is in good conditions and at a cheap price, I'd recommend you to give it a try! 

Specs taken from the M-Audio Website:

Sample rates: from 32kHz to 96kHz, plus 192kHz playback only to output channels 1/2 and headphones.
Analogue inputs: two, balanced XLR with switchable global +48V phantom power, or unbalanced TS quarter-inch jack instrument, both using mic preamp with up to 66dB gain plus optional 20dB pad, or unbalanced line-level TS jack at fixed -10dBV sensitivity.
Analogue outputs: eight unbalanced TS quarter-inch jacks at -10dBV level (can directly drive up to 7.1 surround), two headphone outputs with individual level controls.
Digital I/O: S/PDIF in and out on phono co-axial and Toslink optical supporting AC3 and DTS formats.
MIDI: In and Out.
Connection to computer: two six-pin Firewire ports.
Frequency response: 20Hz to 40kHz, +0/-1dB.
Signal-to-noise ratio: -104dB
Dynamic range: 108dBA
THD + noise: 0.00281% at 0dBFS.
Dimensions: 9.25 x 7 x 1.9 inches.
Weight: 2.95lbs.

HAPPY THIRD BIRTHDAY GUITAR NERDING BLOG!

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My Favourite 5 Vst Plugins for Mastering (with free and Paid Vst plugins)

Hello and welcome to this week's article!
Today we're completing the overview started with the article "My 10 favourite plugins for Mixing", taking a look to my favourite 5 plugins, free and paid, for mastering.
Why this time 5 instead of 10? Because even though the track can be processed in many ways for mastering, as many as for mixing, I personally prefer to arrive to the mastering phase with an already perfect mix, in order to reduce the processing in this phase to the minimum.

So here's the top 5 Vst plugins that are essential in my opinion in every mastering chain.

1) Compressor: I usually use a broadband compressor instead of a multiband one, because I've noticed that sometimes multiband compressors can ruin the complex castle of cards that is a balanced mix. Among the paid ones, my favourite ones are the Slate FG-X, and the Black 1176 module of T-Racks,  while among the free ones I suggest to try Variety of Sound Density, which is really good, Reacomp from the Reaper plugins suite, and the DiscoDsp Nightshine, which is the reproduction of an Alesis 3630 hardware module.

2) Equalizer: In this section I'm going to repeat what I've always said in the Mixing version of this article: my favourite paid equalizer is FabFilter pro Q 2, which features also a very useful frequency analyzer, and among the free ones, one of the most reliable of all is ReaEq.

3) Harmonic Exciter: Here too, I suggest the same plugins that I use for mixing, confirming once again that often you can mix and master with really few processors, there is no need to load 200 different Vsts in the same project: Harmonic Exciter for its capacity of choosing the frequency area, among the free ones (or you can also try the interesting Antress Audio Modern Exciter), and Izotope Ozone among the paid ones, because it's probably the absolute best for the task.

4) Limiter: On this side I like to keep it simple and traditional: the classic Waves L2 is a standard choice for many professional studios, while among the free ones, there is an insteresting clone of the Waves L1 called Yohng W1, that is definitely worth a try.

5) Metering Tool: I actually use metering tools and frequency analyzers on every step, from mixing to mastering, and even though there is often a frequency analyzer and a metering tool bundled on most of the Daws, I sometimes stick to those 2 freeware ones:
TT Metering tool to keep an eye on the general loudness, and Blue Cat FreqAnalyst to see if there is still some frequency left to tame.

Let me know what do you think about this list and which are your 5 favourite mastering plugins!

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Interview: Marco "Cinghio" Mastrobuono (Hour of Penance and Kick Recording Studio)

Marco "Cinghio" Mastrobuono is a lot of things: he's the bass player of one of the most influential death metal bands in Europe, Hour of Penance, he owns a Promotion/Production Agency and a recording studio: the Kick Recording Studio.
Here's his interview:

GuitarNerdingBlog: Hello Cinghio and welcome to Guitar Nerding Blog! Introduce yourself to our readers, tell us your story!

MarcoCinghioMastrobuono: Hi there, and thanks for this interview, really appreciated!
I'm Marco, 28 years old, bass player in Hour of Penance, guitar player in Buffalo Grillz, and dictator at Kick Recording Studio.

GNB: Tell us about your career. We know you worked in many projects during the last few years, and the two most important ones are obviously Hour of Penance and Buffalo Grills.
Which are your career highlights? Which are the artists that influenced you the most? Is it there still some collaboration that you wish you would do?

MCM: Touring with Cannibal Corpse (2 times) was a real dream coming true. I was always musically inspired by them, and Alex is one of the living reason why I play bass.
They are great musicians, and you have no idea how much they are great people, so easy, so funny. 

I still remember one night around Melbourne with George totally wasted after so much drinking. Still one of the funniest night of my life.
It was incredible to play in Indonesia too, the crowd there is crazy and we played in two of the biggest festivals out there, Rock in Solo, and the Hammersonic Metal Fest: thousands people, surely the biggest crowd I've seen in my life.
Another collaboration I wish to do? Slayer. After that I could even quit with music, hahaha.

GNB: What do you think about the actual music business? What are your thoughts about underground and mainstream music scene nowadays?

MCM: Everywhere is great, everywhere sucks. I don't like to talk bad about music scene or business around the world. Hey, music is hard, being a musician is almost impossible, it was hard in the past, it is hard now, and it will be hard forever. You can do all you want in your life, you've just to work fucking hard, sleeping is not contemplated.

GNB: What do you think about the digital music distribution? What about the file sharing? How do you think the music business will evolve in the future?

MCM: File sharing killed the music. In the past if you were courious about some band you had to get your ass out of your home and you go to see them, buy the album, follow them.
Now everything is ready, you listen to the band on Youtube. Youtube is the biggest nightmare ever... All music production is going down, why? Because why should I do an album with a giant and professional production if people will listen to it on Youtube at 144p?

GNB: Tell us some funny story: which one has been your best/funniest experience as a musician? And your worst one?

MCM: The best moment was probably when Nergal from Behemoth tried to read my name on my passport and he said “MARCO MASTURBATIO”. From that moment during all the tour I became MASTURBATIO.
My worst one? Almost 10 years ago, I was touring with my old band and after 2 days of traveling we arrived in a shitty club, we played with 14 years old kids playing Black Sabbath cover in the worst way of the planet, we played in front of nobody, the soundguy left during our show, and when I was putting all the backline in the van under a huge rain, a guy with a beer arriveded and punch me in the face. I litteraly destroyed that guy after that.

GNB: Since many readers of our blog are mainly interested in the technical side of the guitar world, can you tell us something about your studio and live equipment? Can you tell us about the recordings of your latest album?

MCM: I recorded bass on last Hour of Penance album using my Spector EuroLX 5 Alex Webster signature. 

I endorse Spector and there are no better basses out there, every time a band comes into my studio, after making the bass sound I say “Hey, just two second, try this bass, then choose which one you want to use”. Well, the last 10 album in my studio were recorded with a Spector.
In studio, for bass I use Aguilar amps, my favorite one is the DB750, but it's a giant head, and very difficult to bring on tour... So I got a smaller Aguilar Tone Hammer, to bring it on tour with me.

GNB: Tell us something about you recording studio (Kick Recording Studio): which Daw do you use? What are your favourite vst plugins? Do you use hardware outboards or you prefer to mix in the box?

MCM: I'm not a VST fan, and I really love hardware. You know, there are some kind of music you can mix in the box... But if you are in a rock band, and with rock I mean from Led Zeppelin to Behemoth mixing with analog stuff (in my opinion) will give you a different tone.
I could spent hours listening my Urei 1178 working on an acustic guitar, or a bass track going thru my Distressor...And yes there are many VST EQ, all working very good, but, i will always prefer my API, and I'll get a couple of Neve very soon.
Are you using impulses from drums with your favourite samples downloaded from Internet?
No problem, but I still prefer getting a real kick and snare thru my 1073 Neve.

GNB: Let's talk about guitar tone: what is your favourite way to get a good guitar tone? Do you use vst amp simulators or you prefer to mic a cabinet? Have you got any tip to share?

MCM: The ONLY vst amp simulations I like are the Ignite stuff. The Emissary VST is the best amp simulation ever, and the ONLY one that could sounds like a real amp.
Don't tell me “Oh my Fractal sounds like a real amp”, “My Kemper sounds even better!!”, you are a liar, and you know it. I always get problems with digital stuff, especially on the low/mids freq...
Try many mics, don't use more than two if you're trying to get a distorted sound, and start always with an SM57, than add something else.
Get a great cabinet, you can use the best head in the world, if your cabinet sucks you'll never get a good tone.

GNB: Do you have any advice for the guys that wish to open a recording studio on their own, or to become mixing or mastering engineers?

MCM: DON'T DO IT.

GNB: The interview is over! Tell us about your latest works, projects and tours! Thank you very much and we hope to see you soon live!

MCM: Thanks a lot for your time, it was a pleasure. I'm working to some stuff in my studio, and you can check on my soundcloud page all the recent works, please, tell me what you and what you don't like, I always try to improve myself, and your opinion is important.

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Review: Beyerdynamic DT-880 Pro

Hello and welcome to this week's article!
This week we're going to review an exceptional headphone set designed for mixing and tracking instruments: Beyerdynamic DT-880.
Beyerdynamic is a German manufacturer specialized in high end microphones and headphones, and in this case we have tried one of the top tier models for tracking, mixing and mastering.

Here are the 3 different models, each one made for a different purpose:

DT 770 PRO – Closed back (studio, stage)
DT 880 PRO – Semi-open back (reference monitoring, mixing, mastering)
DT 990 PRO – Fully open back (critical listening)

I have always said in my articles that a decent pair of monitors is fundamental for mixing and mastering, but since this is a home recording-oriented blog we are fully aware that most of our followers are bedroom producers, that maybe mix by night or with someone else in the room, therefore there are some situations in which using a pair of headphones is unavoidable.
Starting from the point that no headphones will give us an exact representation of the full frequency spectrum (especially the low end is not fully reproduced), there are some manufacturers that are trying to produce specific headphones for mixing and mastering use, and these brands are Beyerdynamic, Akg and Sennheiser, among the others.
Probably Beyerdynamic is one of the highest quality (and most expensive) manufacturers in the market, and actually I have mixed more than one demotape with these headphones; obviously you can't rely only on them, and as always I have, especially in the Mastering phase, made a lot of corrections using other sources, such as the car stereo, the Ipod headphones and the computer speakers, to point-out details that did not emerge using these headphones.

Anyway these are probably the best recording and tracking headphones I've ever tried so far, and I can surely suggest them to any bedroom producer that cannot use a pair of reference monitors.

Specs taken from the Beyerdynamic website:

- Semi-open diffuse-field studio headphone
- 250 ohms
- Analytical Sound
- Comfortable fit due to rugged, adjustable, soft padded headband construction
- Robust, easy serviceable construction as all parts are replaceable
- Velour, circumaural and replaceable ear pads
- 3.0 m (9.8 ft.) coiled cable (single sided)
- Including drawstring bag

- Transmission type:   Wired
- Headphone design (operating principle):   Semi-open
- Headphone impedance:   250 ohms
- Headphone frequency response:   5 - 35.000 Hz
- Nominal sound pressure level:   96 dB

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Presets and why you should not use them

Hello and welcome to this week's article!
Today I would like to share my thoughts about presets, since lately I've been asked to share some of my to-go presets for mixing and mastering.
It's not that I don't want to share my presents, it's just that I don't have actually any of them.
First because moving on with the years my plugin chains are getting more and more minimal and my attenction is switching on how to capture a sound that needs less processing to sound good (a good starting sound is really 60% of the total work), second because presets are always "caricatural" and created for a project that is different from ours.

In the mixing phase presets can be useful to understand how a certain plugin works: for example if we load a "lead vocal" preset on the Compressor plugin we can see that the attack usually is pretty fast, that the usual ratio is set on a certain way etc., but then we should reset it and then apply the same principles to OUR specific vocal track, because each project has its own gain staging, and using the preset of a compressor, for example, will mess with our gain staging or not affecting the track enough or affecting it too much, either way ruining it.

Working only with presets will make the song sound unprofessional and bad, then happens that some douchebag asks me "why does my song sounds like a trainwreck? I have applied the signal chain you suggested, loading the presets for the tracks on each plugin!".
The answers are 2
1) I always list ALL the plugins that can be used usually for a single instrument, but then you have to choose only the ones that you really need for your specific track.
2) You don't have to use presets on each track, and if you have no idea on how to use a plugin study it, don't load on the host some piece of software that you have no idea of what it does and wait for some magic, because it will only screw up your project more.

If working without a clue of what we're doing and just relying on presets can screw up our mix, using presets in the Mastering phase can really destroy anything good that's left of our track, since in this case damages are much bigger because they affect all the single tracks together.
Using a mastering suite like Ozone or T-Racks it's not a bad choice, but we should understand exactly what each module does and keep open only the modules that we really need, if we have a processor on and we don't hear any benefit keeping it open or bypassed, we should remove it, and we must also remember that understandind the gain staging and making it work properly is the single most important thing to make a master track sound right.
So turn off all the modules of Ozone, and start turning them on and tweaking one at the time, and see if they are really making our track sound better or not: if they're not essential, we don't need them.

Start trusting your own ears more!


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Interview: Bloodthruth (Stefano Rossi Ciucci) shares their secrets! (live rig, studio gear, touring...)

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My Favourite 10 Vst Plugins for Mixing (with free and Paid Vst plugins)

Hello and welcome to this week's article!
Today I would like to share with you the list of my favourite plugins for the mixing phase, those are the plugins I use most of the time on the various busses, and so far they've never let me down.
My philosophy is to give continuity to the various sounds of a record, the way the great mix engineers of the past used to do with hardware processors, therefore I like to choose as fewer sound plugins as I can (1 good compressor, 1 equalizer and so on..) and to learn how to use 'em in depth, instead of experimenting 10 different types of equalizers in the same song, for example.
Getting familiar with few processors makes you use them with more awareness (even the ones that comes bundled with the Daw are often more than enough), and using for example the same type of compressor, although tuned differently, for each track of our project will give to the song a sort of "timbric continuity" that eventually will make the record sound more professional.

I have included a list of freeware ones and paid ones, according to your needs, and if you click on the category it will bring you to a dedicated page with even more free plugins to try.



1) Compressor: Antress Seventh Sign for the free ones. T-Racks Black 76 for the paid ones. If i need more controls to make some surgical adjustment, Waves c1 is a great alternative.

2) Equalizer: Equilibre for the free ones, Fabfilter pro Q 2 for the paid: this one features also a very handy built-in frequency analizer.

3) Reverb: I often use the reverb built into the DAW, if it sounds good enough, but when I need to use a third party one, I go for Smartelectronix Ambience (which is donationware).

4) Delay: I like the way the Variety of Sound Nasty Dla colors the sound, plus it's freeware.

5) Autotune: on this ground, Antares Autotune in graphic mode just can't be beaten.

6) Harmonic Exciter: for the free ones I'd suggest Harmonic Enhancer Vst, while among the paid ones, the best is probably the one Built inside the Izotope Ozone suite.

7) Gate: in this field I've noticed that often the bundled plugins are not so good. If you need one, Fabfilter Pro-G is probably the best gate money can buy.

8) Bass preamp: virtual bass preamps are very handy nowadays, and among them I'd suggest Ignite Amps SHB-1 for the free ones, and Overloud Mark Studio for the paid ones.

9) Multiband Compressor: Gmulti, a good freeware multiband comp that I use mainly to tame the lows of electric guitar and bass. For the paid ones the preference probably goes to the Waves C6.

10) Chorus: About chorus I like to keep it very simple: if the one bundled iside the Daw doesn't satisfy me, I usually go for the classic Orange Chorus, which is free.


Let me know what do you think about this list and which are your 10 favourite mixing plugins!



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