Sound Recording - the WellMixed.com Blog

Electronic musician Brian Green - http://www.myspace.com/seeyouinsleep - has superglued 2 iPod touches onto a guitar to create this interesting instrument. It seems to put a lot of sound possibilities right at the player’s fingertips.

Green writes:

The ipod closest to the guitar pick ups is running Itouch Midi’s Matrix app which I’m using to send midi to Ableton Live on my Macbook via wifi.

And the itouch near the bottom is running Bloom designed by Brian Eno and Peter Chilvers, Bloom is a generative music application.

He shakes the instrument to clear the current patch from Bloom.

For everyone who ever wished that their mic looked more like a pink whirl-pool or desert camouflage, Audix has announced five new camo-mic finishes for early 2009. The OM2 and i-5 microphones will both get the treatment.

The obvious question is: how many people have ever wished for this finish? (…aside from Dusty and Snow Job from G.I. Joe…..) And how will Audix now answer the demands of the paisley and plaid lobby? We can only hope that they get some design nerds on that ASAP….

The folks at Recording Hacks have just posted a list of microphone reviews found in issues of Tape Op magazine.

http://recordinghacks.com/reviews/tapeop/

The product reviews from Tape Op are usually fairly positive, and advertisements often appear beside them. This has let some readers to wonder whether the objectivity of the reviews is authentic.

The positivity has been justified in the past by DIY-hero/studio owner/editor Larry Crane as not wasting readers time with reviews of products that they will ultimately not buy anyway. So take what you want from them.

The list includes many affordable mics such as AKG C1000S, the MXL V67i, the Nady RSM-2, and others.

Via the Tape Log.

Time and Space has just began shipping to the states the ESI UGM96l.

This little thing looks like…. surprisingly like a big iPod shuffle. Maybe they’re going for the new (firewireless) MacBook guitarist market. At about 7 cm x 6 cm, it runs off USB2 power and features:

• 2 x analog input and 2 analog output channels
• 2 independent mono Hi-Z inputs
• One Hi-Z input switchable to microphone input with preamp
• 2 headphone output
• One headphone output can work as line output
• Drivers for Windows Vista/XP with ASIO support with low latency
• Core Audio support under Mac OS X 10.4 and higher

The lack of XLR jack is disappointing, but fairly understandable given the obvious desire for portability.

The process of recording is completely reliant the process of transduction. So what is that?

Merriam-Webster [on-line] says that “to Transduce” is:

to convert (as energy or a message) into another form <essentially sense organs transduce physical energy into a nervous signal>

There are many transduction that occur in the recording process. The modern recording signal chain often goes like this:

Mechanical movement (a moving guitar string)

to

Waves (pressure differences) in air

to

Mechanical movement (a moving microphone diaphragm)

to

Electrical signals in a wire (magnet, ribbon, or condenser to mic cable)

to

Numbers on your hard drive (A/D converter)

It’s amazing to think that all of these forms are essentially the same information, yet the media is completely different in each case!

I recently ran across a New York Times bio piece, written just over a year ago, on Rick Rubin. There are two great reasons to read this article, if you haven’t already.

One is the writer’s take on the music industry as Rubin assumed a presidential role at Columbia Records. The other is Rubin’s personal quotes about how he approaches music production.

The writer mentions a study that Columbia records did during the summer of ‘07, and reports:

” a) no one listens to the radio anymore, b) they mostly steal music, but they don’t consider it stealing, and c) they get most of their music from iTunes on their iPod. They told us that MySpace is over … Facebook is still cool, but that might not last much longer; and the biggest thing in their life is word of mouth.”

It goes on to follow Rubin as he tries to make sense of the situation. While his co-executives seem to be sitting on the sidelines, Rubin begins arguing for a subscription model.

The subscription model seems to be the right path for the Major Labels. If you look at the success for Rhapsody, one must wonder why the big players can’t build a platform that beats Rhapsody. Or… buy Rhapsody and lock it down. It would provide them with a predictable revenue stream on which to, you know.. base a business.

Then again, Columbia’s website looks like the results of a freshman year HTML class. (…and somewhere a designer is crying…..) Also, getting the Majors to work on a project together is most likely a legal nightmare. At least they’d have money to pay the lawyers.

Anyhow, the article also goes on to talk about the philosophy of how Rubin makes records. He says:

“I have no training, no technical skill — it’s only this ability to listen and try to coach the artist to be the best they can from the perspective of a fan.

“I do not know how to work a board. I don’t turn knobs. I have no technical ability whatsoever. But I’m there when they need me to be there. My primary asset is I know when I like something or not. It always comes down to taste.”

Even though the last Rubin-produced Metallica album was hard to listen to due to the mastering (or mixing depending on who you ask), Rubin got the best songs out of the group since Bob Rock’s Black Album. This seems to proves that regardless of the recording technology, what really matters is still the ears. Trust them.

The NY Times Article: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/02/magazine/02rubin.t.html

Mix Magazine Interview with Rubin:
http://www.digitalprosound.com/Features/Interviews-Discuss/RickRubin.htm

It’s not the most beautiful thing ever, but the “VersaPort” is manufactured by American Audio. So, as it is ThanksGiving, maybe we all can get American and take some interest in this guy. (Remember how when Iraq started all the jingoists started companies called American this, and American that..?) It’s retailing for an MSRP of $180.

The Specifications:
USB audio interface
2 stereo RCA inputs
2 stereo RCA outputs
1/4″ mic input
1/4″ headphone jack
Mic and Monitor adjustments

Recommended Software:
Windows: MME, MS Direct Sound, Steinberg ASIO & Audition
Mac: GarageBand, Audio Hijack

One interesting feature is a Ground Terminal to reduce humming and popping associated with magnetic phono cartridges. Clearly, it’s aimed squarely at DJ’s more than recordists, which makes one wonder about the “Versa”(tile?) part of the American Audio VersaPort.

It may serve users who require only RCA inputs and don’t like disconnecting things …. ever. Or if you’re recording strictly from a turntable, it may be your thing. Otherwise, It would be hard to see the advantages for the recordist market when products like the $130 E-MU 0202 offer an XLR jack. Let us know what you think in the comments.

We all love the sounds of our youth. But most of us have already passed on our toys to younger generations, putting them out of reach of our microphones. In situations like this, we must be thankful for sound libraries recorded by others.

Univers-Sons (UVI) has just released Electric Toy Museum, for use with its free UVI workstation.

These sample libraries include sounds from various toys - mostly European one would assume, as UVI is a Paris based company.

Hopefully UVI will continue to distinguish themselves as a publisher of unique sounds that are a bit off of the beaten path. The cost for Electric Toy Museum is $250.

One of my musical pals and I were having a pint at a favorite watering hole recently when he began his lament:

“There’s just not enough time. I have a lady, a demanding job, and a band, and I want to give them all the time they deserve.

“The band thing is killin’ me; the flyers, calling clubs and radio stations, updating MySpace and FaceBook, booking gigs… It just started as a hobby, but now I have obligations to my band mates and fans.”

I knew where he was coming from, y’all. It’s hard to be in a creative endeavour, but to also do all of those things that are not fun to …. keep it fun. Which is why I can’t wait to see how MuckWork.com turns out.

The start-up is being planned by Derek Sivers. He’s the extremely interesting guy who founded CDBaby.com, and who apparently has never tasted coffee. (Check out his Blog.)

Anyhow, MuckWork is supposed to somehow take all of those “promoter, designer, communicator, and agent” jobs off of your shoulders.

Sign up to be on the MuckWork mailing list at The Bottom of Siver’s About Page.

What does it mean when your audio is 16-bit or 24-bit?

It’s all about how descriptive the audio is with regards to loudness.

The diagrams below represent a waveform sampled and recorded by a 16-bit system, and then a 24-bit system.

The X-axis represents time. You’ll notice that the samples are taken at equal point in time on both systems. (Each line vertical line might represent 1/48,000 of a second.)

The Y-axis represents loudness. You’ll notice that the maximum and minimum loudness on both systems is the same. However, you’ll notice that there are more horizontal lines on the 24-bit system. This means that there are more loudness samples to choose from.

A waveform read and recorded in 16- bit

The same waveform read and recorded in 24-bit

Digital audio is composed of tens of thousands of loudness samples each second. Specifically, there are usually either 48,000 or 44,100 loudness samples each second.

More after the break….

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