As a compliment to todays excerpt, What All Engineers Should Know About Meters, from Bob Katz’s book Mastering Audio: The Art and The Science, here is some video of Bob at DR Denmarks Radio from 2009 where he discussed the loudness war.
Enjoy the video, embedded below, and be sure to check back tomorrow for Part two of this lecture.
Video by TC Electronic
Sooner or later everyone knows that their electronics will give up the ghost, but somehow we’re still shocked when it happens.
Just like all electronics, eventually a Shure microphone has been subjected to so many years of abuse that it can’t be repaired and must be discarded.
Befitting a product whose specialty is taking a beating, the journey to that great road case in the sky ends . . . well, with another beating.
When a Shure product can no longer be repaired, it becomes scrap. In addition, the FCC’s closing of the 700 MHz frequency band has resulted in thousands of wireless microphone systems being replaced prematurely.
Many of these have been returned to Shure as part of its 700 MHz rebate program, adding to the amount of scrap.
Instead of simply sending all of this to a local landfill, Shure sends all scrap products and components to Sims Recycling Solutions, an EPA-approved electronics recycler.
Everything is shredded into pieces smaller than one inch, and then separated into different types of material (metals, glass, plastic, etc.). Each of these material streams is then recycled. Nothing goes to a landfill, and all processing takes place in the U.S.
“In 2009, Shure recycled 52 tons of material that would have been sent to landfills,” says Pat Knoll, Director, Global Facilities. “That has a significant environmental impact.” Knoll says that’s equivalent to saving 888 trees, or 214,206 kilowatts of electricity, or 19,844 gallons of oil, or 365,540 gallons of water.
Enjoy the video below from Sims Recycling Solutions, showcasing their electronics recycling process.
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Even need to test a speaker in a pinch with no real tools on hand?
Want to verify the polarity of a component on the fly?
Dave Rat, veteran mix engineer and the owner of Rat Sound shares his tips on quickly and easily testing speakers with what you’re likely already carying in your pockets.
Enjoy this video, embeded below.
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Veteran mix engineer and sound company owner Dave Rat of Rat Sound provides insights on his approach to mixing shows, as well as how he holds it all together and keeps things working smoothly.
Enjoy this video, embeded below.
Listening to music from the legendary catalogs of Decca, Atlantic, Stax, Sun, Parlophone, etc, it’s often hard to believe that several of those immortal recordings were made in a single session.
How could any of those revered recordings have been made in one day?
Simple… They had a killer studio, great gear, an extremely talented crew, and, most importantly, great artists. They were the masters from their day.
In homage to these craftspeople, Benchmark has created a web series, ‘Masters From Their Day’.
Each episode will document a cooperative team of highly-skilled ‘collaborators’ (artists, engineers, studios, etc) gathered for one day to execute a studio recording.
The resultant mastered recordings from each day in the studio (the ‘Masters From Their Day’, as it were) are featured at the end of each episode and are available for you to download as uncompressed audio files.
The first episode was produced on March 1, 2010, at Kaufman Astoria Studios.
The featured band was Rubblebucket, and the featured engineers were Joe Castellon and Alex Lipsen.
All of the mixed tracks from this series will be mastered by three-time Grammy-award winning mastering engineer Gavin Lurssen.
The series is available on the “Masters From Their Day” website, and the mastered track from each session will be available as a free download.
Mastered Track For Download: “Came out of a Lady”
CD Quality (44.1-kHz, 16-bit)
High Resolution (88.2-kHz, 24-bit)
Proel Amplifiers were chosen by Hollywood Service, responsible for the outfitting of a real piano keyboard built on the stairs leading out of Milan’s subway station of Piazza Duomo for “LiveMi”.
LiveMi is a major initiative aimed at relaunching Italian emergent music, under the artistic direction of Italian Music TV personality Red Ronnie and supported by the Municipality of Milan and by ATM (Milan’s public transportation company).
LiveMi offers artists and bands having their own repertoire a series of important and free opportunities for their career.
The musical staircase was installed last December for the inauguration of LiveMi; passengers going up and down the stairs of the subway station of Piazza Duomo have the opportunity to press the keys of a giant piano made up by the steps of the staircase, each of which is associated to one or two musical notes.
Built in just one night, thanks to Hollywood Service, with the technical supervision of Mario Di Cola, conceived and designed by Francesco Penolazzi, the huge piano staircase is powered by two Proel HPD3000 amplifiers, running at full operation 24 hours a day.
“The HPD3000 amplifiers are exceptionally reliable”, explains Francesco Penolazzi.
“It’s exactly this feature that convinced us to choose them, considering the wheather conditions and the context in which they have to operate: from the cold of winter to the warmth of spring, under the staircase of a subway station.”
“I can absolutely affirm that they performed wonderfully…”
Further information about the installation is available at PianoStair.com. Video of the staircase is embedded below,
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Established in 1954, St. Pius X Catholic Church in Rochester, Minnesota followed much the same path as other houses of worship.
Their first public address system was installed in the 1970’s to provide reinforcement for spoken word, however, as the church moved towards live music, the system was asked to reinforce far more than its intended purpose.
It only made sense, then, when the church undertook a massive renovation that their audio needs be addressed at that time.
Intermedia Systems Group (ISG) replaced the old sound system with a modern one that provides even coverage across the audible spectrum.
View the video tour by ISG.
At the center of the new system are Ashly NE-Series amplifiers delivering reliable power, along with easy network access allowing ISG to monitor and adjust the system remotely from its offices.
Josh Jagdfeld, ISG vice president worked closely with principal architect Carter Hord of Hord Architects (Memphis, Tennessee), parish administrator Denise DeRienzo, and director of liturgy Katie Stinson to design and install an easy-to-use system for the newly-renovated church.
The church is split into four main seating areas, and Jagdfeld arranged four EAW co-axial speaker cabinets to cover them seamlessly. RCF loudspeakers provide delay coverage for the balcony and cry rooms, and BIAMP Nexia DSP provides intelligent control of the system.
For example, if the church is hosting a smaller event, unused zones may be muted so as not to unnecessarily excite the acoustics of the room. Four new Audio-Technica 4000-series wireless microphone systems provide modern inputs that combine the convenience of wireless with fidelity worthy of the rest of the system.
“We love the feature set and price of the Ashly amps,” said Jagdfeld. “At ISG, we pride ourselves on avoiding ‘cookie-cutter’ designs. Everything we do is very intentional, and as a result we are very choosy about selecting specific equipment for particular applications. If it doesn’t fit, we look elsewhere.”
“That said, the Ashly amps have proven to be so flexible and reliable that they find their way into almost every job. Since Ashly introduced the PE-Series a year ago, we’ve put in a huge number of Ashly NE- and PE-Series amps, and we have yet to have a single problem with any of them.”
View the video tour by ISG.
{extended}ProSoundWeb has just the next installment of our fast-growing series of instructional videos for audio professionals and neophytes alike.
The Basics Of Equalization covers the necessary basics for success, as well as the keys to effective uses of equalization, in a 7-part series that’s hosted together in our easy-to-use video player. Click here to go directly to the player.
Also be sure not to miss Introduction to Compression, presented in 12 easy-to-digest entries.
All 12 installments are easily accessible via our video player here.
{extended}ProSoundWeb has just launched the first in what will be a fast-growing series of instructional videos for audio professionals and neophytes alike.
The first program, Introduction to Compression, covers the necessary basics for success, as well as the keys to effective uses of compression, presented in 12 easy-to-digest entries.
All 12 installments are easily accessible via our video player here.
Don’t miss it!
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ProSoundWeb has just launched the first in what will be a fast-growing series of instructional videos for audio professionals and neophytes alike.
The first program, Introduction to Compression, covers the necessary basics for success, as well as the keys to effective uses of compression, presented in 12 easy-to-digest entries.
All 12 installments are easily accessible via our video player here.
Don’t miss it!
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Syn-Aud-Con will be presenting its Sound Reinforcement for Designers seminar in Louisville, Kentucky, on October 26-29, 2009.
This course is designed to emphasize the codependency of room acoustics and sound system design, with mantra being “Listen - Measure - Predict”.
View this video for more information.
Lead instructor Pat Brown uses a multimedia approach with interactive exercises which enables him to teach most concepts through demonstrations making learning quicker and much more enjoyable. (Note that attendees need a personal computer to do the exercises.)
Days one and two of the seminar cover the measurement of the acoustic characteristics of enclosed spaces. The course is built around the acquisition and interpretation of the room impulse or RIR, using it to derive all the room metrics of interest to sound system designers. Topics like convolution demonstrate how to integrate listening into the evaluation process.
Days three and four outline and demonstrate an efficient, accurate sound system design process that includes listening, measurement and prediction.
Attendee comments from the previous Sound Reinforcement for Designers seminar:
“I came here to reinforce and backfill the knowledge I have gained from my many years in the industry. The only disappointing thing is that, for a modest amount of money, anyone can learn in a few days what it has taken me years to figure out!”
“Syn-Aud-Con has given me the knowledge to do my job even better. I credit the growth of my company to the information that I have learned.”
“I am amazed how much useable information Pat packs into a 4-day seminar. I’ll be back and I will bring others from my company.”
“Syn-Aud-Con seminars changes as the technology changes. With 40 years of audio experience, 10 time Syn-Aud-Con grad, I still added to my knowledge tremendously in these last 4 days.”
Enrollment can be done online (click here), or be calling 800-796-2831. Entry fee is $1,100.
Also upcoming is the Syn-Aud-Con Core Principles of Audio and SR for Technicians, to be held in conjunction with the LDI show in Orlando on November 17-20, 2009. Register for this seminar at www.ldishow.com
{extended}Universal Audio has announced a refresh of its popular UAD-2 Neve Powered Plug-Ins line, with the new UAD-2 SOLO, DUO and QUAD Neve packages, formerly known as the “Nevana” packages, providing the ability to add the sound of genuine Neve analog audio equipment to music produced a Mac or PC. They also provide access to the complete UAD Powered Plug-In library.
The UAD-2 Neve packages include the only plug-ins officially licensed and developed in partnership with Neve UK. Based on the popular UAD-2 DSP Accelerator Cards, these packages offer an instant sonic upgrade for Pro Tools, Logic, Cubase, Nuendo or Performer, providing rich, analog sound quality that would be difficult or impossible to achieve with a native Mac- or PC-based system.
Contents and pricing of the new UAD-2 Neve packages:
• UAD-2 SOLO Neve: Single Analog Devices SHARC processor; includes
88RS Channel Strip and 33609 Compressor plug-ins; MAP price $699.
• UAD-2 DUO Neve: Dual SHARC processors; includes 88RS Channel Strip,
33609 Compressor, 1073 EQ and 1081 EQ plug-ins; MAP price $1499
• UAD-2 QUAD Neve: Four SHARC processors; includes 88RS Channel Strip,
33609 Compressor, 1073 EQ, 1081 EQ, and 31102 EQ plug-ins; MAP price
$1,999
Also included with all of the new UAD-2 Neve packages is a $100 Plug-in voucher that allows access to the entire UAD Powered Plug-ins online library — including analog classics from Roland, BOSS, Empirical Labs, EMT, Fairchild, Harrison, Helios, Little Labs, Pultec, SPL, Teletronix and more.
View the UAD-2 Neve video.
{extended}I recently had the opportunity to attend a portion of Robert Scovill’s latest “Complete Front of House Engineer” seminar and workshop, held at the beautiful Church On The Rock in St. Peters, Missouri, just outside of St. Louis.
The group of 30-plus attendees represented quite a wide range of folks in terms of experience and expertise, yet it didn’t seem to matter as Robert provided practical techniques, ideas and insights gained over his career as a multi-TEC Award winning live sound engineer.
“My agenda is to expose sound reinforcement pros and semi-pros alike to professional concepts and techniques that they can employ on today’s technology in order for them to develop a “method” for attaining the results they desire in their day to day work,” he explains.
“Be it for touring, night clubs, pro AV work or houses of worship, the seminars are strongly rooted in audio fundamentals with an emphasis on understanding the “why” rather than just the “how” to do a given task.”
One particular aspect I enjoyed was Robert’s focus on the importance of understanding music, which sometimes seems to get overlooked in the quest to know all things technical, particularly since not everyone who finds themselves working with sound has a background as a musician, and even if so, a deeper understanding can only be helpful in furthering the goal of crafting mixes that both fit and benefit the music.
For example, he offered an discussion of tempo, how to find it within a song utilizing techniques like determining Beats Per Minute (BPM), and then tied it all together as to how this can be very instructive in deploying things like reverb and delay on certain elements of a song to enhance the overall musical presentation in addition to specific instruments and vocals.
That said, basic bedrock technical information is well covered, and as in all quality educational programs, in a building block manner that’s essential. Attendees are supplied with a helpful coursebook that outlines all of the discussions and concepts, and it includes plenty of space for additional note taking.
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Check out a video I’ve also put together regarding the latest “Complete” workshop, which includes commentary from Robert and several attendees.
And for further information and announcements regarding upcoming workshops, go to www.proaudioseminars.com
Thanks to Robert, the attendees, and the folks at Church On The Rock for their gracious hospitality. It was definitely time well spent, and I strongly suspect there are more than 30 other folks who readily agree with me.
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Harrison has introduced Mixbus, a virtual “analog console” integrated into a full-featured digital audio workstation (DAW), providing True Analog Mixing for OS X.
True Analog Mixing offers a virtual mixing surface based on Harrison’s 32-Series and MR-Series console designs, plus Harrison’s proprietary digital mixing technology.
Mixbus enables the user to record, edit, and mix a musical performance “in the box” but get a sound reminiscent of the golden age of album recordings, and offers engineers a Harrison music console “in the box”.
With Mixbus’s logical knob-per-function interface, the user works with the fluidity of a traditional analog recording studio while retaining the convenience of a DAW.
Features:
* Straightforward “knob per function” mixer layout based on Harrison’s renowned 32-series and MR-series music consoles.
* Precision DSP algorithms for EQ, Filter, Compression, Analog Tape Saturation, and Summing based on Harrison’s world-renowned large format analog and digital mixing consoles.
* Unlimited stereo or mono input channels (based on available CPU power) featuring High-pass Filter, EQ, Compression, and 4 Mix Bus sends on every channel.
* 4 Stereo Mix Buses (can be used for groups or auxes) featuring Tone controls, Compression, Sidechaining, and Analog Tape Saturation.
* Stereo Master Bus that features Tone controls, Analog Tape Saturation, K-meter, and Limiting to help you make polished mixes.
* Plugin delay compensation to support effects such as parallel compression.
* Comprehensive “at-a-glance” metering with peak, peak hold, and compressor gain reduction visible on every track and bus.
* Extensive DAW features via the Ardour Digital Audio Workstation.
* Supports AudioUnit plugins and any CoreAudio interface.
Mixbus is available for an introductory price of $79.99.
Click here to view a video overview of the Mixbus
{extended}With the DiGiCo SD8, the compact footprint of this entry-level console, coupled with the power of its Super FPGA processor, made it an instant hit, with record numbers sold since its launch.
Now, as the world of corporate events begins its renaissance, DiGiCo has once again produced a product to suit the industry’s changing needs - a console with an even smaller footprint but with no reduction in functionality or number of inputs and outputs. At under a meter (3 feet) in width, this diminutive powerhouse is known as the SD8-24.
Take a video tour of the new SD8-24 console here.
“A lot of our customers in the corporate world were hard hit at the start of the credit crunch,” says James Gordon, DiGiCo’s managing director. “Recently, they’ve been telling us that work is starting to come back. This is great news and we wanted to do something to address the needs of the rejuvenating market.
“Designing a smaller footprint SD8, but without reducing any of its features, seemed the perfect way to do that.”
The SD8-24 has the fixed architecture of the SD8, employing the same smaller Super FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array), a technology that has been around for almost as long as DSP.
FPGAs comprise a series of logic blocks, plus a system for connecting them, which can be programmed to perform complex operations or more routine tasks normally associated with basic gates, and in many high performance FPGAs, these logic blocks also have access to on-chip memory or even embedded microprocessors.
Applications for FPGAs are very wide reaching and this brings with it certain economies of scale. They are particularly well-suited to audio mixing applications, not least because a single FPGA can carry out the same functions as a whole board full of conventional DSP chips.
Evolution has seen the development of much larger FPGA’s and these can perform far greater numbers of calculations than the most advanced DSP. These Super FPGAs are utilized in the SD-8 and SD8-24. (Go to next page for more information about the new DiGiCo SD8-24.)
DiGiCo has also applied Stealth Digital Processing to its entire SD range. This is the technology that allows it to process all mixing functions and reverb algorithms in one of the latest FPGA design components.
A single chip processes an amazing amount of channels, providing more channel processing than can be found on any other digital live console.
All of this gives the SD8-24 an exceptional cost to feature ratio and means that less really is more.
The console benefits from all the features currently available on the SD8, as well as some additional ones courtesy of the newly developed OverDrive software, which comes as standard in all new SD8 and SD8-24 consoles and is available as a free upgrade for existing products. (Check out a video overview of new OverDrive software here.)
The SD8-24 is not only ideally suited to the corporate market, but to other applications where space is at a premium. These include regional theatre or installations that want to upgrade from existing consoles to benefit from vastly increased features, I/O capability and sound quality, but do not have the space for a larger footprint console.
Features include:
• 48/8 Stage Rack and 100m Digital MADI snake
• Unlimited application areas and an exceptional cost to feature ratio
• Up to 60 mono or stereo channels with full processing (equal to 120 channels of DSP processing)
• 24 mono or stereo buses + Stereo or LCR Master with full processing (equal to 51 busses of DSP processing)
• On Board local I/O with 8 Mic/Line inputs, 8 Line
• Outputs and 8 AES I/O
• Open format and platform recording
• 16 x 12 Matrix with full output Processing
• 8 stereo floating point FX processors
• 2 independent solo buses for monitoring
• Snapshot cue control with crossfade
• 25 touch sensitive faders for instant control
• Touch screen control
• Full worksurface precision metering
• Networking and remote control
• Remote studio grade mic pres
• MADI connection
• 24 x 32 bands of graphic EQ
• Offline and online session control
• DiGiCo high-grade processing and audio path
• 8 channels x 4 bands of dynamic EQ, mono or stereo (equal to 74 dynamic EQ sections)
• 8 channels of multiband compressor, mono or stereo (equal to 48 Compressors)
• Ability to build custom banks
