Ok, made some serious progress today. I’m just gonna tell ya’ll a story, and if it helps you out, then cool.
I’ve been writing music since 2008. Picked up a UR44 in 2015. Love it. Thought the 192,000 sample rate was gonna blow me away. I’ve been recording in it since then (Something like six albums published since then). I’ve just been converting to 44,100 for Mp3, and keeping the high sample rate in WAVE for upload to Bandcamp (Which is like one of the last islands for independent musicians who want to promote their music. Free uploads, free website, free monetization, unlimited uploads, it’s amazing. All hail Bandcamp).
So I realized something. I convert to 44,1 eventually, anyways, except for people who download Wave from Bandcamp, which is like no one (But hey, it’s an option, which is dope). And I started thinking, why would I record in 192, and then mathematically chop up beautiful content until it was 44,1, when I could start in 44,1 and potentially have a more accurate, and not chopped up original content. Does anyone have any experience with comparing 192 converted to 44,1 with content started in 44,1? Someone convince me to record in 192, cause I’m about to give up on it (Which is like one of the biggest selling points for the UR 44).
Anyways, I started a new project with a beat maker, which has me listening to new genres, like Hip Hop, and Lofi, when I’ve been doing nothing but Indie Alternative for my whole life. So I started noticing things. Why does my bass sound muddy on my Mackie CR4s. Imported Mp3 tracks into Logic are mixed at 0.0, but sound excellent (So it’s an iTunes issue), everything sounded poppin in my aftermarket mounted sub in my car, bouncing through studio cans, and even great on a wireless Charge 3. So I started thinking like a software engineer.
New drivers. New software. New firmware. Got the dspMixFx_UR44, which didn’t recognize the device at first. Realized I had the CC switch on, which allows the device to work with an iPad/iPhone. Switched it to off, rebooted the device, and bam, now I’ve got a new mixer interface. Cool. Noticed that iTunes Hip Hop tracks were peaking when played back still. Everything sounded the same, but I was making progress. Started talking out loud to a duck (it was actually a friend, but you get the point), and she was like what EQ do you have iTunes on? And I was like, iTunes has an EQ? Turns out iTunes has an EQ. Stupid. Why would you want to EQ something that’s been mixed and mastered. Honestly. So I turned it to flat/off, and bam. No more peaking. No more muddy bass. No more distortion. Turns out, all the tracks and bass that producers were exported at max, or 0.0 was being boosted in my iTunes EQ, which was making it peak. This is like the GarageBand Auto Normalize on export default flaw. Which is a similar sin. Hopefully this post helps ya’ll fix both problems, (and potentially a couple others).
Bonus points. Anyone have experience with Logic and multiple Interfaces? I’ve used a Lexicon/Alpha and the UR 44. I’m interested in knowing which EQ balance you prefer, or if you could just describe the soundscape of the major interfaces you’ve used. I’ve heard a Tascam rack mount, and the bass was way more punchier, and I’m kinda jealous. But honestly, I feel like it wasn’t accurate, so maybe I should be happy with a flatter sound… thoughts? Anyone know how flat the EQ on the UR 44 is?