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FlipEars Alpha B Green Custom IEMs

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A few months ago, my friend Johann tipped me off on a local brand of custom IEMs 1 In-Ear Monitors that offered a 20% discount on an upcoming audio convention. He intended to go, as it was his first time to have custom IEMs made. I, on the other hand, already had a pair of custom UERMs (Ultimate Ears Reference Monitors) since 2011 – so I never really felt the need to keep up with new brands and models.

Still, I was intrigued that a local outfit was doing it. The last time I heard of a foreign brand offering custom IEMs locally was years ago when Unique Melody came to town – but they have since pulled out of the country 2 I have no idea why – so it was exciting to finally have another player that can cater to this “specialized” market.

Furthermore, my UERMs were acting up. I thought I’d see if they could do something about it. They were on local soil after all – which sure as hell beats having to coordinate with Americans and the logistics of shipping.

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Notes

Notes
⇡1 In-Ear Monitors
⇡2 I have no idea why
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Closer to the Edge

A quickie recording – didn’t really spend much time mixing it properly. Partly because the backing track I filched from the net sucked, so I kinda lost the motivation along the way hehehe.

The reason I tried it though was for three things:

  1. I wanted to see if the [Shure] Beta58 could be used for my vocal recordings. While it’s an inferior mic compared to the AKGs I’m using, it does have a great polar pattern to block out the noise that comes from the road beside my room which would mean less EQing/noise-gating to get the sound I need… assuming, of course, I could even do it.

  2. A couple of the plugins I use particularly for my vocal tracks have been discontinued, and are now incompatible with the 64bit Windows 7 environment I’m running Sonar on. So I’m trying some plugins that come stock with Sonar in the hopes to get a sound I like… and hopefully future-proof my vocal workflow while I’m at it.

  3. I wanted to see if I can actually sing a 30 Seconds to Mars song. I love the band, and idolize their vocalist – I wish I could even sing 1/8 as good as Mr. Leto. Read More
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Beyond

So, I finally finished the “redo” of a song I’ve been meaning to overhaul. Revised some words, added harmonies, changed all instrumentation.

This could be considered a milestone since there are a lot of “firsts” in (re)making this song.

  1. It’s sequenced in Sonar 64-bit on Windows7.
  2. First time to use the BFD2 (drum software)
  3. First time to use Trilian for the bass track – and the different articulations are now done with one single instance 1 With Reason, I had to make different patches for different articulations. 😉
  4. First time to use Omnisphere (synths)
  5. First time to try recording using the FastTrack Pro… which honestly, sucked balls. Probably the last time I’m going to use it for desktop recording 2 I’ll keep it around in case I need to record on the laptop though
  6. First time to try the jBridge VST wrapper – this allows me to use 32bit plugins which Sonar’s BitBridge tech couldn’t handle. So I was able to use my old Waves Plugins on 64bit

There are 2 drawbacks AFAIK

  1. I lost the ability to use Reason for the meantime. But given I’m using a different synth and bass now, there really is no… er… reason to use Reason for now. There is one thing I kinda miss though; the old version had a sorta jet-engine-esque screeching sound effect, and that’s c/o Reason.
  2. There isn’t a “DX wrapper” that I could find that would let me use Antares Microphone Modeler. This is the reason why the vocals don’t sound as “good” as they used to. 3 Not that they were good in the first place, but they sounded “better” before at least Right now the plugins I had to use couldn’t “shape” the sound as well as the Antares modeler did. Also doesn’t help that the product has been discontinued – so there’s no hope of getting an “updated” version that works natively with Sonar 64bit. Read More

Notes

Notes
⇡1 With Reason, I had to make different patches for different articulations.
⇡2 I’ll keep it around in case I need to record on the laptop though
⇡3 Not that they were good in the first place, but they sounded “better” before at least