MixBlog

What we’re doing in Electronics Class

edaudio — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 05:55:26 +0000

As usual I arrive, tail between my legs, because I have not kept up my end of the bargain. That said, Part-1 of my Fender Hot Rod Deluxe mods is now in the February issue. Part-1 implies Part-2 and, like Sourdough starter, I am already working on Part-3 even though Part-2 has not yet been put to bed.

Zooming in on a guitar amp with a microphone has a tendency to reveal certain flaws that might not get noticed at rehearsal or at a live gig. As a recording engineer with geek abilities, I wanna know how to make ‘one of THOSE amps’ sound good in the studio, especially when my ‘clients’ are students on a limited budget. It’s not hard and it’s ‘mostly time,’ lol!

Meanwhile, in the first three weeks of Electronics Class, we covered voltage dividers, series and parallel circuits, Ohm’s Law and the Power Formula. Power Supplies and basic soldering skills are currently in the cue. We learned, about half wave, full wave, voltage doublers, filter capacitors and regulators.

When I showed up to class this week, students had drawn their power supply schematics 15 times in prep for a from-memory mid-term exam. Now we can ‘relax’ and stuff some components into the circuit board and solder away. Next week we start JFETs.

Here are some review links from my own site and afrotechmods.com

Basic Electricity

Voltage Dividers

Series Parallel and Resistor Color Code Test

JFET TUTORIALS

Some of these videos are not as well done as the stuff Afrotech does, some of the audio is absolutely horrendous! That said, our minds are all wired a little differently and it’s good to check multiple sources.

FET VID-1

This one has terrible audio, but it seems relevant…

Fractured Guitars

scribeny@aol.com — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:24:26 +0000

Long a player in the lower priced sampled products market, bigfishaudio established a separate division, Vir2, several years ago. Vir2 products cost a bit more, but they are still very attractively priced and have a luster and feature sets that distinguish them. Fractured Guitars (which can be purchased for $150 as a download by visiting the bigfish site: http://www.bigfishaudio.com/detail.html?512306) fits neatly into the Vir2 scheme.

All of the sounds, Instruments, and Multis included in Fractured Guitars derive from one or more acoustic guitars-I think; I couldn’t find any information regarding the source material on the bigfish site. This product operates within the Kontakt 5 player, which is included in the download.

The five categories of Instruments (Chromatic Kits, Tempo Synced, Pads & SFX, Melodic, Drum Kits) fall into two broad categories. The quick attack/release samples have a prepared piano quality that makes for effective rhythmic patterns, while the longer samples have an ethereal sensibility that film score composers will quickly glom onto.

To get the most out of this library you’ll want to distinguish those sounds that have a clear tonal center to them, even though they’re colored with sound design elements that create a dissonant edge. Take one of these sounds, and play an F#m7(no 5th) chord in your right hand and an Fm7(no 5th) chord in your left. The ear tries to hear through the shimmering and is pleasantly confused by the tonal ambiguity. Sounds cool, right?

The effects that ship with Fractured Guitars (reverbs, flangers, etc.) are quite serviceable, and the interfaces that let you control them are well laid out. You can, of course, re-pitch, pan and apply equalization to all of the material.

No sample library worthy of the name would ship without a set of samples that evoke the magic of Jimi Hendrix at his most freaked out. Even though these sounds were all created from an acoustic guitar (again, I think!), the manipulations do include the kinds of sweeps and harmonic excitations that the great master was fond of.

Developers tend to fall in love with the permutations that their products are capable of producing. For me, the number of presets is a bit too high; quite a few of the instruments are variations on a theme that the user could be left to explore on his own. I would also like to see an audition button. As things stand you have to load an instrument and strike a few notes on your keyboard controller to get to know it.

Notwithstanding these minor complaints, Fractured Guitars is a beautiful sounding library that’s worth every penny you’ll pay for it.

DP 8

scribeny@aol.com — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 13:48:34 +0000

Big news out of NAMM from MOTU, particularly for Digital Performer fans who moved over to the Windows platform and had to switch from their beloved workstation because it was only coded for the Mac.

DP 8, due to be released in the Spring of 2012, will operate on on Mac OS X and Windows 7. Stay tuned for a full review in the near future.

Video From NAMM 2012

Kevin Becka — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 20:37:09 +0000

NAMM 2012 broke attendance records and battered attendees with a wide array of new hardware, software and other goodies. Click the links to see video directly taken on the show floor.

MOTU’s DP8 came hot out of the gate with new plugins, compatibility with Windows and much more.

Presonus’ showed Exchange, a great way to share user-created content through a community hub available to all Studio One users.

Universal Audio’s Apollo was a showstopper with its unique look at a single rackspace IO with DSP.

Blue Microphone showed a number of new transducers for portable devices including the Spark Digital.

Focusrite had the new Scarlett 2i2 interface at the booth, the lastest in desktop IO solutions for your DAW.

A better media distribution system that makes file sharing part of the solution.

edaudio — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 21:36:20 +0000

Recently a ‘cartoon’ pointed out that the penalty for sharing a Michael Jackson file was 5 years, while killing him was only good for 4 years. It points to the media industry’s heavy handedness – and laziness – like ‘scared straight’ for the down-loader instead of ‘the owners’ finding a more viable solution.

I propose a way to make every file sharer an asset instead of a liability. It was once tested on a small scale at the early part of this century…

A better file distribution system would thwart piracy. To make file sharing a viable business requires a DRM format that embeds paying customers’ ID into the files they share.

Imagine this:

1.) Audition a file (music, video etc) to confirm it’s what you want – just like iTunes, Amazon, etc.

2.) Pay for it (this embeds your ID into the DRM for that file).

3.) Share the file with a friend. That person also gets to audition to confirm that the file is what it purports to be. Your friend pays, and you get a taste of said payment.

4.) EACH PERSON IN THE DISTRIBUTION CHAIN is compensated when someone pays for file. That gives everyone a vested interest in the system working.

5.) This system was attempted on a small scale in the early part of this century by Steve Turnidge. It was called WEEDSHARE. I had the exact same idea, Steve just had the ability to bring it to market, although my guess was that his project was under-capitalized. I was disappointed to see that it didn’t fly. Maybe it deserves a second chance?

Blade Studios Exciting First Year

Chris Bell — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 18:17:34 +0000

Well, it’s been an exciting first year for Blade Studios and we are excited to get 2012 started. We have had some amazing sessions in the studio for just opening under a year ago. Everybody from Darryl Jones to Chuck Rainey along with ADR sessions for films like “Contraband” and TV series like “Walking Dead”. So far the room is working great and sounding great. Our Studio B is rented out to CBS Sports for the Tim Brando show live every morning on the CBS Sports Network. Currently they have the room locked out for 2 years and we are excited to have them. We did a show with Tim featuring The Kenny Wayne Sheppherd Band live on his show from our Studio A room. It really tested the acoustics in Studio A. We had the band setup live with amps blazing and wedges on 10.

That show led us to our new series at Blade called “After Hours”. We will be featuring artists we either have in the studio recording or are passing through town on tour. The first band we had on the show is Galactic. A great band from New Orleans featuring lead singer Cory Glover from the band Living Colour. It’s been really great setting up the band all live in the same room together and running a mix. It takes no time at all and the sounds are turning out great. Galactic came in and knocked out four songs in 30 minutes and headed straight to their gig. This video is live with no overdubs. Check out the songs here: Galactic

We are all very excited to be nominated for a TEC Award this year for “Outstanding Creative Achievement” in “Studio Design Project”. Russ Berger did a fantastic job with the design and it shows from the sounds we’re getting in the room. Our team will be out at NAMM for the TEC Awards as well as the week at NAMM. Hope to see you walking the floor!

That NAMM wind is a-blowin’ once again

Gino Robair — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 21:04:14 +0000

It’s January and a major storm is brewing in Southern California: The Winter NAMM show begins next week in Anaheim, California and, judging by the pre-show press releases (and from the confidential information I’ve gleaned from “un-named sources” at a few major companies), it’s going to be a big year for new gear.

While there are always plenty of announcements at NAMM, the show can sometimes be a snoozefest. However, 2012’s show promises to be a very interesting one as manufacturers try to find new ways to take advantage of the exploding prosumer market (or, as some see it in their half-empty glass, the shrinking gap between pro-level and consumer-level products).

Certainly, products designed for iOS devices will be a major focus at this year’s show — we’ve gotten a few hints of that via CES in Las Vegas this week. But we’ll also see a bit of innovation in the areas where traditional instruments and recording interact.

Here are a couple of items that I plan to investigate while I’m at the show.

Moog Minitaur: A desktop version of the classic Taurus analog bass synth with a competitive street price of $599. That makes this two-oscillator synth less expensive than Doepfer’s single-VCO Dark Energy, for example. It should be a boon to gigging musicians who are looking for the Taurus sound without having to lug around the larger and heavier $2,000 model (or a treasured vintage unit).

Line 6 Mobile Keys: A pair of keyboard controllers that plug into and can be powered from your portable Apple device (iPad 1 and 2, iPhone 3Gs and later, iPod Touch 3rd/4th generation). And they’re compatible with Mac/Windows computers via USB. They even have sustain and expression pedal inputs. With 25- and 49-key versions priced under $200, these controllers provide a welcome alternative for those of us who enjoy the convenience of playing music on i-devices but who want to schlep the fewest accessories possible.

Are we seeing a pattern here yet? Like many musicians, I want to carry as little as possible when I gig. Isn’t that what the future was supposed to promise us?

Fine, then check this out:
IK Multimedia iRig Mix and iRig Stomp: A mobile mixer and stompbox, respectively, for iOS devices. I’m particularly intrigued by the iRig Stomp because it appears to be able to hold a chain of effects from Amplitube in a sturdy, pedal-board friendly form factor.
Meanwhile, iRig Mix includes DJ Rig among the four included apps, promising plug-and-play turntabalism in a handheld controller. I’m curious to see how well it works. They’ve also introduced the iRig Mic Cast microphone for iOS devices, though it seems to have been overshadowed by…

Blue Microphones Spark Digital, Mikey Digital, and Tiki: More mic concepts for the highly lucrative prosumer market. Spark Digital has USB and iPad connectivity, while Mikey Digital works with the newest iOS devices (but retains the useful features of Mikey version two, such as a USB port for power and 270 degrees of rotation). Blue claims that the Tiki USB mic “mimics the intelligence of human hearing by focusing on desired sounds, minimizing background noise and knowing when to mute altogether.” It’s geared towards podcasting or use with Skype. Perhaps the noisy tradeshow floor will provide the proper environment for testing such a transducer.

You can also expect big announcements from Arturia, Peavey, Roland, Fender, and Universal Audio, among others.

DIY Sub Kick Options

edaudio — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 16:07:16 +0000

Students often get ask about sub kicks and while I have not experimented other than to prove a speaker can be a microphone – I get plenty of low end from the kick without trying – I wanted to point out the where the sub kick resonance comes from to assist DIY’ers in their selection choices.

All ‘woofers,’ large and small, have a Free Air Resonance, or Fs. It is pretty much what you might imagine, the natural resonance of a woofer in free air.

There are a range of resonant frequencies that are useful in augmenting an overly dampened kick drum – really, whatever your preferred frequency might be, 65 Hz plus or minus 15 Hz is the ballpark.

To find an off-the-shelf woofer, all ya gotta do is go to web site that caters to loudspeaker components, like MCM, Parts Express and Madisound. When used for their intended purpose, better woofers manufacturers are more likely to provide more detailed specs. A sub kick doesn’t need much more than an Fs

Below is an 8-inch woofer available from MCM Electronics. Notice the Fs is 65Hz…
http://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/55-2805

This 5 1/2-inch driver from Parts express has an Fs of 82 Hz…
http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=299-956

And from Madisound, this Fostex product sheet goes into remarkable detail about all of the essential loudspeaker component parts. Fs is is determined by the cone’s mass – both material, thickness and larger diameter generally translate into high mass, lowering the Fs. More compliant surround material lowers Fs while stiffer surround raises Fs. Behind the cone is the ‘spider,’ which is used to center the voice coil in the magnetic gap. Not that the frequency response charts also show include an Impedance curve that reveals both the Fs and the effect the voice coil has on inductance (a gradual impedance rise at high frequencies).

http://www.madisound.com/store/manuals/FF-WK_manual_all_eng.pdf

More Hot Gadgets from CES

Kevin Becka — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 00:48:56 +0000

More Hot tablets, notebooks, TVs and gadgets from CES

Acer Iconia Tab A700 quad-core tablet

Griffin Twenty: Makes any speaker Airplay ready

Lenovo X1 Hybrid Laptop

Ion Audio Guitar Apprentice

LG 55EM9600 OLED TV

Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga Ultrabook

Hot Gear From CES 2012

Kevin Becka — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 01:22:32 +0000

As always, CES takes consumer audio gear (and often prices) up a notch, but it’s always worth a look to see what’s hot at the show. Here’s what’s in the news so far.

Logic3, Ferrari Create Premium Speakers for Discerning Audiophiles

Cambridge Audio Azur 851 amplifier and DAC/CD player/preamplifier

IK Multimedia iOS Audio Accessories

SRS Labs Pushing Object-Based Audio at CES 2012