Metric Halo MkIV—Tech Test

Sep 17

Written By Sol

A quick test of the Metric Halo MkIV—just a raw drone off the modular synth, captured 8-track into these new A/D converters.

Recording Setup

Recorded two segments of 8-track audio into the Metric Halo 3D converters, from a modular synth which was playing back previously recorded midi tracks. Then opened up the Metric Halo box, installed the new MkIV analog board, and recorded the same two segments. Meticulously tuned the synth before each take. Normalized all recorded tracks (8x2) to the same LUFS level, performed a quick digital mix, and printed both sets of recorded audio thru these same mix settings. See the first set of files below.

Mixing Setup

Next I updated one of my mix desk’s LIO8s to MkIV. Then took the existing MkIV recorded tracks, left all mix settings the same, but instead of digitally summing I routed the tracks out 8 of the new D/As, into Dangerous 2Buss+ summing, into a Pendulum OCL-2 compressor, and captured the analog mix with the new MkIV converters. This is an example of 18 conversions (8 A/D + 8 D/A, + 2 A/D)! In order to have a comparable, I routed the 3D recorded tracks thru the same analog chain, but instead used the D/A A/D of my 3D box which I hadn’t yet updated. So here we have 18 conversions of the 3D sound too. See the second set of files below.

Listening

Note: when you download the files and A/B between them the sound will shift due to three factors unrelated to the converter comparison: 1) no oscillator sync, 2) no stereo chorus sync on the organ sound, and 3) no sync on the wandering stereo white noise LFOs in clip B. It’s a flawed test, like all tests, but doesn’t prevent me from “hearing thru” to the different sonic characters.

The Sound

I’ve always found the LIO-8 A/D converters to have a “pokey” top end, somewhat so with the low end too, with the lower mids ending up feeling a bit anemic. In relation, MkIV’s low mids are big as a house, wide and deep. There’s no pokey-character to the top end, at all. As far as bass it perhaps feels fatter and smoother, maybe due to better low-mids?

All in all, my first impression of these converters is that they sound “flat,” sort of “matte,” in a cool non-hyped way. Most importantly, they just feel more pleasingly musical to me. Especially the capture of the Pendulum tube opto conpressor felt natural and musical—this is a unit with lots of subtle analog detail, wide stereo, and depth, to really challenge these converters.