Kristal Audio Engine is Awesome

Kristal Audio Engine is awesome.

Some tips: if you do not have an ASIO sound card, you will find that there is an audio delay during playback of your "second" recorded track, i.e., you put down a series of drum loops, then you record a rhythm guitar. Of course, the rhythm guitar is slightly off with regard to the tempo of the drum track. To overcome this without an ASIO sound card, simply mouse over the "rubber track window" in the Waver pane, and "reduce" the rectangle to a very small size. Then drag the rectangle as necessary using your mouse. This will allow you to zoom in on the visual representation of your audio. Specifically go to the start point, i.e., where you want your new track to begin. Set the "nudge" drop down box to 1 ms, and then nudge the new audio track in-line to where you want it to start. It takes a try or two, but it works just fine. It helps if you assign colors to each of your tracks as this allows you to visually remember what was recorded to what track. Also, you can assign track names in the left panel of the Waver, i.e., Guitar 1, Bass, Destruction Guitar etc.

Further, if you are recording direct in from a Line6 amplifier, you would do well to keep your amplifier's master output volume way down to prevent the "snarls", i.e., digital distortion. Further, the EQ section works quite well. If you follow some basic eq guidelines for guitars:, cut the low-end for your guitars completely below 250 hz and use the Q dial in the eq to create a hard drop off. Also, reduce the high-end of the original guitar track about 1 - 2 db. This will significantly reduce the "crackles" and "directness of the line in" and make the recorded guitar sound much more realistic. To add "cream" to the track, consider boosting the Mids about .5 db at 2500 khz. Further, this prevents the old loudness war, i.e., "I can't hear the drum details or the bass anymore." Well, d-uh, the guitar's low-end is masking the bass and low frequencies of the other instruments.

If you are working with drum loops, it helps to boost the hi-end eq, say at 8500 kHz and above about 1 db. This will provide significant clarity, but not horrific sizzle.

The Kristalizer function is fair, and good for increasing the overall loudness of a track, but beware, use the drive and gain portions sparingly. You'll only add unnecessary distortion to your tracks.

The chorus function is quite nice, but you must be careful to use it sparingly. I pull the mix function of the effect down to about 14 percent and keep the LFO dialed way down. Keep the Threshold dial at 100 percent unless you want to add significant, but unrealistic distortion to your tracks. The "punch me" function is great for increasing the perceived loudness of a project, but IMHO, save this for the mastering engineer. You can always turn the volume knob up on your car stereo.

The reverbs are fair. Again, they must be used very sparingly, as they tend to blurr the audio. Remember, when adding plug-ins, you're conducting a multitude of additional math calculations with your processor, thus requiring your processor to make "judgements" by rounding to the next decimal and assigning audio to the next bit. I find that creating an "off angle room" using the room size and width controls, plus increasing the damping effect, makes for a much smoother reverb. Plus, working the dry level and wet levels sparingly will create gorgeous reverb effects on guitars and vox.

The free delay software is incredible. Even the "factory" presets offer a huge range of creative possibilities. Note the tiny slider at the bottom of the delay plug-in. This helps reduce the "hugeness" of the selected delay. Plus, you can create your own delays by spending some time with the Sync, Vol, Filter, and axis controls. Just remember that little slider control at the bottom of the delay panel. Moving the slider to the left will help make your effect more musical. Sometimes, having the delay "backing" the line will add sweetness and depth to the recording.

The time counters on the tool bar are fantastic for nailing accurate start and end times. I find that zooming in on the beginning of a track and the end of a track, plus using the mute and solo functions on the mixer allows me to isolate noise and clean-up ends and starts. I always put a fade over the silence at the end of a track. This stops track noise and additional delay effect loops from continuously ringing and then chopping when the track ends. The individual track fades, although not as "granular" as the trim function in say, MOTU, allow you to adjust "hot spots" in your recording. Carefully isolate the offending loud section, i.e., zoom in tight using the "rubber rectangle" and then use the scissor command to "cut-out" the offending "bump" (don't forget to click the arrow command when you're done cutting) and then you can ever so slightly pull down that section volume-wise by grabbing the white track volume box in relation to the entire track. The white track volume box works in isolation from the edit faders. Works wonders. Always save, and save often. Plus, if you ever do anything you don't like, you can always hit the Z key to undo. Just make sure you also "unclick" the specified track you're working on; and if you've saved the project in the middle of your editing work, you won't be able to undo what you've done.

I've learned to label my working projects as "xxxxxxprojectfile" and then label the exported mix, and send to a new folder with the song title, "songabcmix1". Plus, you can bring the exported mixdown back to the Waver in a new project and add a bit of low-end boost, at 330 khz, or high boost (1 db should do it) for additional clarity around 8500 kHz.

I know, I know, many audio gurus, Bob Katz, specifically suggest saving mixes to 16 bit. However, I've been saving my mixes at 24 bit, using more hard drive space, but that's ok. This machine is dedicated to recording. Plus, I can export the project files and mixes to an external drive for saving. Let the mastering engineer do his majic and then down-sample to 16 bit for CD pressing.

I have several criticisms. First, there appears to be a 5 minute 30 second limit to the song recording time. Not good if you are into prog., or want to splice a keyboard section between your magnificent guitar works with a resulting 10 minute opus. Second, there is no MIDI support. Third, there is a distinct lack of compatible FREEWARE VST plugins out there for the KAE.

I hope the next version of KAE offers MIDI support, additional recognition of free VSTs, additional tracks, and reverb BUS features plus volume automation assignments. Now we'll be talking.

I've just completed my latest album using the Kristal Audio Engine and a M-Audio Interface. Once the CD is mastered, it will be posted for review on my website: http://www.richgoldin.com