composed by Antonio Caldara
* 1670 in Venice; † 28. Dezember 1736 in Vienna [Wikipedia]
vox: jaqueline schwarz
vox edit: andreas ecker, pmm
drums: andreas ecker
keys: pmm
OASYS
- “Dark Aquarell” combination from KPS (indigo strings, ob-xa pad, modified #A-013)
- “Stage E.Piano”
- one of the many STR-1 “guitars”
- sample from Distorted Reality / Spectrasonics
Yesterday afternoon during a conference call a very interesting idea was suggested by OASYAN Count2Four123.
Probably you know iTunes and their podcasts? So his idea was to organise a weekly or monthly discussion of OASYANs to talk about OASYS, electronic music, music in general etc. The content of these kind of discussions should be kept flexible, but of course Tips & Tricks, new tracks of OASYANs, etc. would be the focus.
I never cared a lot about cables but as a curious person I once decided to order a pair of Monster cables. It was the fact that they are polarising which made me enquiring - either you love them, or you hate them.
It did not take long and this one pair of Monster Cable found itself connected between the Roland XV-88 and the AKAI DPS-24. For a quick test I decided to record a short SRX Tom Tom MIDI sequence. After this was finished I put the Channel Pre-Amp of the DPS to a point where the loudest signal just did not clip. Pushed the record button, stopped it, replaced the Monster Cable by the ones I was using before and played the same MIDI sequence. Oops! There was suddenly a red LED shining and a clip. I checked whether anything was changed, but it was not. I recorded that version and as a control unplugged the cables and replaced them with the Monsters … and guess what? Right. No clipping! Therefore I decided to switch off everything and listen to the files with fresh ears on the next day.
I went to bed in excellent mood as the Monster cables obviously did not give as much level as the old cables I used. Several hours later and with fresh ears I turned the DPS24 on and listened to the two files… and?… Damn*d, one version had a nice sounding and well defined bottom, whereas the other was, lets say… “strong” and therefore obviously clipped. To verify this I checked it the next day again and again. But there was still a slight audible difference, a small one, but it was there.
If you expect me to have replaced all cables by Monsters, then you are wrong. Although sometimes I am using this one pair and bought another one for the Voyager it was the price that was way much to high for such a small difference. Honestly, I was also a little bit disappointed when I opened one of the plugs of the second pair to check the quality inside. But there was something wrong with my old cables and therefore I was looking for an alternative. Finally I purchased some German Sommer and Klotz Cables. Coincidental I received a Swiss Vovox cable as Dirk Brauner - who by the way is a very nice person - is adding one of those to each of his microphones. Since then I am using cables of different manufacturers but one pair or one piece - depending on the situation - for my “high end” recording channel.
Maybe you have come around places discussing this cable story, too. But here is the chance to check it on your own and come to your conclusions. I have used the MIDI File from Purgatory Creek to record OASYS’ Bank USER-A Pgm 000: “OASYS Piano EXs2″ to check whether there is a difference or not if different cables are used. At the end of this article you will find the files for download and a poll. Vote which of the five versions in your ears sounds best. I will then choose the audio chain that has won the poll and record the complete MIDI file for Purgatory Creek as Francois at korgforum was asking anyone to do that.
Below are five different files named OASYS_A to OASYS_E for download. As these are 44.1kHz 16bit .wav files download can take a while (file size is 6 - 7 MB each). I was afraid that if there are any differences or very small ones that they maybe get losed by using .mp3. I know one could discuss whether data compression has an influence…
Recording chains: ADAT1: OASYS ADAT Out - Lynx ADAT In - dp5 (WC Master) - peak to convert to 44.1kHz.wav Klotz: OASYS L/R Out - Monster - Avalon U5s - Klotz - Lynx L22 - dp5 - peak to convert to 44.1kHz.wav Sommer: OASYS L/R Out - Monster - Avalon U5s - Sommer Cable - Lynx L22 - dp5 - peak to convert to 44.1kHz.wav Vovox: OASYS L/R Out - Monster - Avalon U5s - Vovox - Lynx L22 - dp5 - peak to convert to 44.1kHz.wav ADAT2 (as control): OASYS ADAT Out - Lynx ADAT In - dp5 (WC Master) - peak to convert to 44.1kHz.wav
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