Everything is working nicely here in the sound isolation study, and in a bit of serendipity as a reward helping someone make sense of "M+S" with respect to some of the IK Multimedia VST effects plug-ins that come with T-RackS 3.5 Deluxe (IK Multimedia), last week I discovered three vastly amazingly productive bits of information:
(1) Although I thought that I understood "M+S", I was just as clueless about it as the person I was trying to help . . .
(2) Digital Performer 7.24 (MOTU) includes a Trim control which makes it possible to do true stereo panning in the same way that the NOTION 3 Mixer does true stereo panning . . .
(3) Digital Performer 7.24 has a "folddown" drop-down list on the Master stereo output track which makes it very easy to preview the stereo track in monaural, since selecting "Mono" sums the left and right channels ("L+R") . . .
And I was able to verify the accuracy of (2) and (3) via a call to MOTU Technical Support--which is
stellar--since these two things were very troublesome here in the sound isolation studio . . .
Without using the Trim control, the "panning" controls for stereo tracks in Digital Performer 7.24 actually are "balance" controls, where all you can do is raise or lower the volume levels for the left and right channels, which for me is vastly annoying, but with the Trim control I can move the left channel stuff anywhere, as is the case with the right channel stuff . . .
The monaural previewing aspect is very important for fine-tuning phase alignment, as is being able to view phase alignment in more detail with the Phase Scope that is part of CueMix FX (MOTU), which is considerably more detailed than the phase scope and correlation meter in T-RackS 3.5 Deluxe, where the following video shows the Phase Scope for CueMix FX during the first minute or so of the high-quality iTunes version of the single version of "Billie Jean" (Michael Jackson) and is vastly enlightening with respect to phase alignment . . .
"Billie Jean" (Michael Jackson) -- CueMix FX Phase Scope -- Windows Media Video -- WMV (8.1MB, approximately 1 minute)Additionally, the new full-range studio monitors here in the sound isolation studio are coming along nicely, which has been an ongoing project for several months and is fully documented in one of my fabulous topics in the IK Multimedia FORUM, where among other things I discovered via yet another bit of serendipity that there are two general types of listeners on this planet:
(1)
fundamental tone hearers, who are
not fooled or tricked by the "Missing Fundamental" auditory illusion . . .
(2)
overtone hearers, who are easily fooled and tricked by the "Missing Fundamental" auditory illusion and consequently cannot trust what they hear . . .
[
NOTE: There is a simple audio test for determining whether one is a fundamental tone hearer or an overtone hearer, and based on the test results I am a fundamental tone hearer, which is excellent. There is a link to the audio test in the wikipedia entry,as well as in the following topic in the IK Multimedia FORUM . . . ]
"Missing Fundamental" (wikipedia)The Fabulous Affordable Studio Monitor System Project (IK Multimedia FORUM)Fabulous! 
But what is really disturbing regarding studio monitors is that unless you have an acoustic engineer design and calibrate a custom studio monitor system, the fact of the matter is that you do not have a full-range studio monitor system, because there are no
new commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) available anywhere on this planet at the dawn of the early-21st century, because all the manufacturers have been engaging in egregious sneaky weaseling for over four (4) decades by making the vastly incorrect presumption that everyone on this planet is an overtone hearer, hence is easily fooled and tricked . . .
The fact of the matter, which I knew but kind of forget or at least did not realize in a fully dot-connecting way, is that deep bass maps to "big and heavy", which in the grand scheme of everything indicates without doubt that accurately reproducing deep bass in the range of 20-Hz to 100-Hz at equal loudness to the middle and high frequencies requires loudspeakers (a.k.a., "woofers") which can push a lot of air, which in turn requires "big and heavy" magnets as well as loudspeaker frames, cones, and all that stuff . . .
"Big and Heavy" also maps to significantly increased manufacturing and shipping costs, which is the primary reason that most manufacturers prefer to sell studio monitors which are physically incapable of handling deep bass at equal loudness, often to the absurd level of not being able to reproduce at equal loudness the notes on the low-pitch "
E" string of Paul McCartney's Hofner electric bass guitar, which for reference at "Concert A" (440-Hz) is approximately 41.201-Hz, which maps to a studio monitor system with a frequency range of 45-Hz to 20,000-Hz essentially being a piece of junk unless you augment it with a deep bass subwoofer or at least (a) calibrate it with an equalizer, real-time analyzer, calibrating microphone, various calibrating software, and a sound pressure level meter and (b) are able to push the deep bass down to 20-Hz without destroying the woofers, which for reference includes the approximately $7,500 (US) top-of-the-line JBL studio monitoring system, which also is a piece of junk (at least until it is properly calibrated, at which point it probably is nice or perhaps could be nice)) . . .
For reference, the full-range of normal human hearing is 20-Hz to 20,000-Hz, and
to mix and master accurately you need a full-range studio monitor system, which is the way things were done until sometime in the 1970s . . .
I have more than enough college level training in Mathematics and Physics to understand all the required stuff, and I did professional sound reinforcement for a while in the 1970s, but the mistake I made starting approximately 10 years ago was presuming that studio monitor system and loudspeakers generally were manufactured according to generally accepted standards and rules of Classical Physics, which have been known since Sir Isaac Newton delineated them several centuries ago . . .
An additional aspect of the problem was making the vastly
incorrect presumption that since most folks listen to music with ear buds and headphones, it would be smart idea to mix and master when listening with headphones, which as I discovered about a year ago simply does
not work, because when you listen with headphones each ear hears a completely separate and isolated set of audio, which essentially makes it impossible to control phase alignment, even with phase scopes and all that stuff . . .
Lots of FUN! 
P. S. For all practical purposes, I have a complete system for doing instrumentation via music notation and VSTi virtual instruments with NOTION 3, so other than helping folks with problems; making an occasional suggestion for new features; and documenting some of the finer aspects of using NOTION 3 with respect to creating a multidimensional "Wall of Sound" in what I call the "Spherical Sonic Landscape™", there is not so much to discuss, really . . .
Really!
Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2012 10:01 am
