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NAID! The M4 arrived, and I've been really oblivious

vindibona1

vindibona1

Apr 18, 2015
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#1
The MOTU M4 arrived today. It feels like a quality product. I did some initial test recordings and so far so good. Now I have to really dig into Reaper and find the decide on the best video editor for me. [I found DaVinci Resolve which is suppose to be very good to start with]. I also had to order a few cables and adapters so I can get use both speakers and headset. I thought I had the right ones from before.

So, my M-Audio M-Track died, but I left it sitting on the table and thought it time to throw it out. As I picked it up, I looked once more at the dials and realize that it had a "monitor mix" knob that could dial between monitor←→usb ! I've had this thing for years and never knew and was always bugged by latency. How could I have missed it? I suppose it's because I wasn't on talkbass with folks teaching me stuff :). Maybe had I known it was there and how to use it I might have used it more? Definitely maybe.
 
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#2
@seamonkey (or anyone else)... Regarding latency, Reaper is telling me I can pretty much only get the latency down to 1.8/4.2ms round trip if I take the sampling rate to 64 samples @48kHz x 24 bit. Is this decent? I have no basis for comparison.

Also, while I have (what I think are) a decent set of headphones (Audio-Tecnica M50's), I'm wondering about if and when I should be using the speaker system, which while not official "monitors" seem to be pretty good. Altec Lansing ACS44's with sub woofer that I got years ago and always seemed to sound good. On my other computer I have some older Monsoon speakers and also had another system, but this one was head and shoulders better than any of the others I've had over the years. At what point should I be considering "real" monitors- particularly because I would have to think that to better my situation I'd have to spend some serious $$. Thoughts?
 
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#3
1ms ~ 1ft of distance
4.2ms would be the same as standing 4.2ft away from a speaker
That's good! Don't mess with it.

Someone is bound to post that you can get the latency lower by increasing the sample rate.
Don't be tempted it's a complication you don't need.

I'm not going to get into the monitor wars. You should have a few pairs. Good ones, and crap ones. Mix to each.

Also do a mix to mono - just one speaker. It can reveal some surprises such as a left and right signal nulling out.
 
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#4
have you tried VSDC video editor? it's pretty fully featured and actually free. for $20, you can add on a few useful features. don't know if it's up to the task for what you need, but after the inevitable learning curve (i was coming from the old sony version of vegas), it gets good results.
 
#5
I was all excited, because reading your title, I thought you were going to couple up a Community M4 midrange horn with your bass cab. With sufficient low end drivers and a good biamp and electronic crossover, you would have a rig to be reckoned with; a killer of all other rigs.
 
#7
pcake said:
have you tried VSDC video editor? it's pretty fully featured and actually free. for $20, you can add on a few useful features. don't know if it's up to the task for what you need, but after the inevitable learning curve (i was coming from the old sony version of vegas), it gets good results.
Click to expand...

To be honest, I've kind of been hamstrung a bit (until yesterday). My old interface died and it's been over a month waiting for the new one, which came yesterday. In the next few days video will become more important as I have a camera drone that is supposed to be delievered any time and I'll definitely become more involved.

Having said that, in the meantime my research pointed me to two video editors: Filmora 9, which is supposed to be fairly simple to learn, and DaVinci Resolve. The free version of DaVinci is supposed to do many things that can be done in Adobe Premier, without the financial umbilical cord that Adobe attaches to their software nowadays. I was watching a "crash course" video on DaVinci last night may give it a go....

Frank Tuesday said:
Have you used the video editor in Reaper? It's not as fancy as a dedicated video editor, but unless you're doing complicated video stuff, Reaper can handle it. It's just another track as far as Reaper is concerned.

Click to expand...


I've tried it, but have failed to get it to recognize any video clips that I have on hand. I downloaded the appropriate plug-in files, ffmpg and VLC and tried loading/installing them in different ways but Reaper just doesn't see my video files. I'd like to get it to do that. Can you show me how/where to load these files so Reaper can do what it's supposed to do with video? While I probably won't need to do much video editing in Reaper, it would be nice (important?) to be able to sync files. I've read articles and seen videos to set it up but still no luck. I must be missing something important. Can you provide any help on getting Reaper set up for video?
 
#8
vindibona1 said:
I've tried it, but have failed to get it to recognize any video clips that I have on hand. I downloaded the appropriate plug-in files, ffmpg and VLC and tried loading/installing them in different ways but Reaper just doesn't see my video files. I'd like to get it to do that. Can you show me how/where to load these files so Reaper can do what it's supposed to do with video? While I probably won't need to do much video editing in Reaper, it would be nice (important?) to be able to sync files. I've read articles and seen videos to set it up but still no luck. I must be missing something important. Can you provide any help on getting Reaper set up for video?
Click to expand...

The only hangup I know about is you have to install 64bit versions of both. 64bit Reaper won't play with 32bit VLC.
 
#13
vindibona1 said:
The MOTU M4 arrived today. It feels like a quality product. I did some initial test recordings and so far so good. Now I have to really dig into Reaper and find the decide on the best video editor for me. [I found DaVinci Resolve which is suppose to be very good to start with]. I also had to order a few cables and adapters so I can get use both speakers and headset. I thought I had the right ones from before.

So, my M-Audio M-Track died, but I left it sitting on the table and thought it time to throw it out. As I picked it up, I looked once more at the dials and realize that it had a "monitor mix" knob that could dial between monitor←→usb ! I've had this thing for years and never knew and was always bugged by latency. How could I have missed it? I suppose it's because I wasn't on talkbass with folks teaching me stuff :). Maybe had I known it was there and how to use it I might have used it more? Definitely maybe.
Click to expand...
As a video editor/assistant editor by trade, I'd recommend Final Cut Pro (if you're on a Mac) or Premiere Pro. I haven't checked out Sony Vegas myself so I can't speak to that, but Avid Media Composer (my bread and butter) is just too complex for a standalone editor to bother with. Resolve is more for color correction and transcoding and compositing but they have been making great strides forwards when it comes to editing and sound. Try it out but if it doesn't work for you or seems illogical, FCP or PP FTW.
 
#14
Charlzm said:
As a video editor/assistant editor by trade, I'd recommend Final Cut Pro (if you're on a Mac) or Premiere Pro. I haven't checked out Sony Vegas myself so I can't speak to that, but Avid Media Composer (my bread and butter) is just too complex for a standalone editor to bother with. Resolve is more for color correction and transcoding and compositing but they have been making great strides forwards when it comes to editing and sound. Try it out but if it doesn't work for you or seems illogical, FCP or PP FTW.
Click to expand...

As I understand it, Resolve started it's life as a color correction tool, but is so much more than that now. I've been watching the crash course tutorials and comparison reviews and a few people think, with a few exceptions is better than Premier. I am a retired professional photographer who has used Photoshop for over 20 years and now find Adobe's licensing practices a bit predatory. While I have an ongoing subscription for Photoshop and that package, I prefer the CS3 version for less intensive work for my slower computers. But in its infinite wisdom (and IMO greed) has discontinued activation in any manner for the CS3 version which I purchased outright. Consequently I can no longer load it on any machine. Do I want to add another $20/mo for casual use of Premier? Not a chance. I don't mind paying a few hundred $ to own a program outright, but I have no interest in "leasing" software, even if they provide automatic updates. I could do a whole diatribe about leasing, credit and debt, but I won't. And while I have friends that have used Final Cut Pro from its inception, I'm sure you won't want to hear my Apple products diatribe either, my last MacBook Pro has been in the shop 3 times in 2 years, currently being fixed right now, always breaking after the warranty, to the tune of $500 in repairs. I digress.

Perhaps you should look into DaVinci Resolve. Based on what I'm hearing a lot of guys are switching, getting out from under the thumb of Adobe.
 
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#15
vindibona1 said:
As I understand it, Resolve started it's life as a color correction tool, but is so much more than that now. I've been watching the crash course tutorials and comparison reviews and a few people think, with a few exceptions is better than Premier. I am a retired professional photographer who has used Photoshop for over 20 years and now find Adobe's licensing practices a bit predatory. While I have an ongoing subscription for Photoshop and that package, I prefer the CS3 version for less intensive work for my slower computers. But in its infinite wisdom (and IMO greed) has discontinued activation in any manner for the CS3 version which I purchased outright. Consequently I can no longer load it on any machine. Do I want to add another $20/mo for casual use of Premier? Not a chance. I don't mind paying a few hundred $ to own a program outright, but I have no interest in "leasing" software, even if they provide automatic updates. I could do a whole diatribe about leasing, credit and debt, but I won't. And while I have friends that have used Final Cut Pro from its inception, I'm sure you won't want to hear my Apple products diatribe either, my last MacBook Pro has been in the shop 3 times in 2 years, currently being fixed right now, always breaking after the warranty, to the tune of $500 in repairs. I digress.

Perhaps you should look into DaVinci Resolve. Based on what I'm hearing a lot of guys are switching, getting out from under the thumb of Adobe.
Click to expand...
I work on what I get paid to work on, which is primarily Avid Media Composer. For my personal projects, I prefer Premiere. I am familiar with Resolve, having used it on a couple of paying gigs three to four years ago, and have been keeping up with it, but I'm not that keen on editing in that interface.

And I despise the Apple corporation and the cult that surrounds it. I would never own their hardware or run their software unless paid, but I mentioned FCPX because a lot of single-user standalone work is done with it.

Hey you're not THE Vin Di Bona, are you?
 
#16
Charlzm said:
And I despise the Apple corporation and the cult that surrounds it. I would never own their hardware or run their software unless paid, but I mentioned FCPX because a lot of single-user standalone work is done with it.

Hey you're not THE Vin Di Bona, are you?
Click to expand...

The producer? No. I wish. Interestingly, my real name is very, very close to another big 20th century producer :).

Apple? A joke on millennials, I think. As I may have mentioned, I had a photography studio, the brick and mortar site I closed 10 years ago. I was heavily into Macs, starting in 1987. My studio's first network was on Appletalk. I finally gave up on them just after 2000 because I never had a Mac that lasted more than 5 years and PC's were a quarter of the price for more power. The average PC has lasted an average of 12 years with heavy use. Right now I'm typing on a Vaio that has to be closing in on 12 years. I just retired a HP Business Desktop after 12 years and now have a Dell Alienware PC that just rocks.

Well... With both the audio and video interfaces I have to learn in the next weeks it will be like drinking from two firehoses at once. :woot:
 
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