21544583 Advice for Audio Professionals

8/14/2019 21544583 Advice for Audio Professionals

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T

he speed o sound is approximately 1,130' persecond in air, depending on the actual air tem-perature. Thereore, i you have a 1,130 Hz tone

it will complete one ull cycle in one 1'.Now suppose that you have a tone generator eeding aspeaker, with two microphones as shown below (image A).Distance aects the phase. I the mics were both the samedistance rom the speaker, they would be in phase and wouldadd together. The resulting tone would be twice the level(6dB) o either tone (image B). Similarly, i the second micwas 1' urther away rom the speaker, the two sources wouldstill be in phase and would again add together. I the secondmic was only 6" urther away rom the speaker than the frstmic, the two sources would now be out o phase. This wouldcause the tones to cancel (image C). For the next sectionreturn to the previous setting, mic #2 is 1' urther away romthe source than mic #1.

Frequency also aects the phase. At 565 Hz (1,130 hz/2)

the tone will now complete a ull cycle in 2'. As seen in theollowing example, the two tones now arrive out o phaseand thus cancel (image D). At 1,695 Hz (1,130 Hz x 1.5)the two tones also arrive out o phase and cancel. Howeverat 2,260 Hz (1,130 Hz x 2) the two tones arrive in phase andthus add. This eect, known as comb fltering, can be shownto repeat all the way up the requency band.

The ollowing graph shows the resultant gain versesrequency (image E). Note that when the two signals areequal, i they are exactly in phase they add 6dB, but i theyare exactly out o phase, they totally cancel. In an actualsituation, the eects would probably not be as pronounced,since the levels rom the two mics would seldom be exactlyequal. One good example o this situation is when two micsare (mistakenly) placed on each side o a lectern, with theidea that they will pick up the audio regardless o which waythe speaker turns. This will result in poor sound quality. Asthe speaker turns his head, one mic can be closer than theother, thus introducing the comb fltering. Comb flteringwill produce a hollow, diuse, and thin sound.

Pick up the February issue oPS or Audio Phasing:Part II.

Al Whale is a Broadcast Technologist and Assistant Chief Engineer at

CHBC-TV. He has also set up and operated sound systems and taught

sound in many church settings. Reach him at [email protected].

Audio Phasing: Part I

by Al Whale

Image A

Image B

Image C

Image D

Image E

Distance Between Mics


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F

or the best snare drum sound, using a properly tuned and proessional drumkit isparamount. Whether the band is Death Metal From Saskatoon or The Polka Palsn Gals, the drums will be the backbone o the recording.

Start with a dynamic mic, as it can handle the high transient levels o the snare drum anda solid, stable mic stand. Position the mic o-axis with the rest o the drums to minimizeleakage. Aim the mic directly at the point o impact where the tip o the stick makescontact with the drum. Look down the barrel and line up the placement.

O course, place the mic where the player cant accidentally whack it. Expecting adrummer not to hit a poorly placed mic is like asking a record producer not to order sushi;sooner or later, its going to happen. Its your ault i the drummer hits the mic with thedrumstick, not his.

For more crack, maybe place a second mic with a dierent quality, such as a crisperhigh end, alongside the rst. Keep these two mic capsules as close together as possiblebecause two mics on any one source can create phasing issues. Perhaps add a third (switchedout-o-phase) mic underneath the drum aimed up at the snares. Get the best sound usingmic choice, placement, and level beore reaching or the equalizer.

I possible, record the individual snare drum tracks on your digital recorder, and analyze

the sound waves. Work on moving the mics around so, when recorded, all the drums arein total phase. Good luck!

Tim Crich is a recording engineer/writer living in Vancouver. His credits include The Rolling Stones, John

Lennon, Billy Joel, Bon Jovi, KISS, and lots more. Watch for Tim Crichs Assistant Engineers Handbook 2nd

Edition coming soon. Reach him at [email protected], www.aehandbook.com.

As the great bulk o television produc-tion begins to make the transition toHDTV, and casts a wary eye on the

notion o 5.1 surround sound were acedwith a quality versus quantity dilemma.

On one hand, virtually all o the camerasthat were likely to employ in the acquisi-tion o HD pictures eature excellent digitalPCM audio recording. Thats a check inthe quality column. On the other hand,even the most expensive HD eld camerashave a disturbing number o audio connec-tors on the back two! Even on camerasthat utilize videotape ormats that natively

eature our (and more) audio channels, thedeault conguration o the camera usuallyeatures only two inputs! That leaves us witha signicant quantity problem.

All other things being equal, I can read-ily suggest several microphone techniques,or microphone systems which will do agreat job o capturing multi-channel sound.Even ater accounting or the requirementthat these systems be rugged, simple to use,and eld-portable theres still a numbero options to choose rom. Alas, in theworld o actual TV production all is notequal. While the last ew years have seen

an increasing number o multi-track loca-

tion recorders appear on the market, theiruse assumes as a prerequisite that double-system recording is easily accommodatedby the production. Unortunately, mosttelevision production (that isnt dramaticin nature) still relies on a single-systemworkfow (where the camera is the onlyrecording device on location, responsibleor recording both picture and sound) andtherein lays the challenge. Until producersare adequately convinced o the merit oauthentic surround production, most willbe unwilling to undertake the cost and com-plexity o changing the way they normally

work. The alternative is or manuacturersto start making camera systems which havenative multi-channel audio capabilities,which will allow us to honour the traditiono single-system production, while stillsatisying our requirement or higher trackcounts rom the eld.

Either way, the thing we need most isor the audio community to become muchmore vocal in lobbying or change in theworld o TV. Those o us who love soundand understand the crucial role it can playare already convinced we need to stoppreaching to the choir, and start educating

everyone around us.

Miking The Snare Drum

by Michael Nunan

by Tim Crich

Challenges In Recording 5.1

Michael F. Nunan is the Post Sound Supervisor at CT V Television Inc. Reach him at [email protected].
http://www.aehandbook.com/http://www.aehandbook.com/


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Comb ltering, which produces a hollow, diuse, and thinsound, will occur with one microphone receiving thesame sound rom two sources. A common example othis is shown below. I the microphone had been closer,

the dierence in the direct path and the refected path would havebeen greater, thus the refected paths reduced level would havehad less eect. Also the refected source volume would have beenless i the foor had been carpeted.

Methods o correction:1. Keep the vocal audio mix low into the monitor.2. Handhold or place the microphone closer to the singer.While the monitor helps the singer, as the monitors gain is

increased, the resulting vocal will be more mufed. Many proes-sionals use in-ear monitors to eliminate this eect. Although not

popular with the perormers, using music only on the monitors (novocal) will also minimize comb ltering. Oten, the house audio su-ers when trying to improve the monitoring or the perormers.

This article was prompted ater I attended several perormancesin which the music was excellent, however the dialogue was di-cult to understand. Most o the production crews knew the scriptso well that they were unaware o the problems. I you asked theaudience, they would probably say that they thoroughly enjoyedthe music. I you were more specic and asked them about thescript, they probably would be unable to answer. The comb eecto excessive use o stage monitoring would mush the dialogue sothat the audience (which doesnt know the words) would be unableto understand them. I the perormers are trying to tell a story, theybasically miss the goal and only provide enjoyable music.

Ideas to reduce comb ltering:Reduce the number o paths rom the same audio source.Fewer microphones.Reduce the possibility o refections.Reduce the relative amplitude o the additional paths.Increase the dierence in path lengths, thus the secondary

path will have more attenuation.Use absorbent material.Use directional qualities o the microphones.

The ollowing sites assisted in this article: Calculations oattenuation over distance www.mcsquared.com/dbrame.html ;calculations o distances www.pagetutor.com/trigcalc/trig.html.

Richs Rights To Recording Electric Guitarby Richard Chycki

Audio Phasing: Part II

Ive been ortunate enough to recorda number o legendary-status guitarplayers like Aerosmiths Joe Perry andRushs Alex Lieson. Watching them

work is truly an inspiring and educationalopportunity; artists like these have accrueda wealth o real-world experience in mani-esting instantly recognizable guitar tones.Being the captor o these tones, Ill sharesome tips about recording electric guitars.

Right tools or the job:This is a no-brainer but is a common miss. Select gearand tone that works or the song and put

your individuality into it. Want to get theright tone? Listen to it. Really. That meanspointing the speaker right at your head, notblowing across your knees while you standin ront o a hal-stack. O-axis settings arebrittle and dont sit well in a mix.

Right mics:While there are a myriado possibilities or miking an amp, Ive had

great success with a ew avourite mics. Firstis the venerable Shure SM57. Ive tried theShure Beta 57 and, while it sounds similar,the polar pattern is so tight that nding thesweet spot in ront o the speaker can bequite a mission. Other mics I commonly useinclude the Sennheiser 421, the Sennheiser409, and the Earthworks SR30. Specialmention goes to the Royer 121 ribbonmic. This workhorse mic sounds amazingor almost any electric guitar purpose romcountry to metal and the specially designedribbon element wont ry rom the high SPLo close-miking an amp on 11.

Right place at the right time: Person-ally, I preer to record guitars in more oa dead environment, although Ive beenknown to track in extremely live environ-ments (Joe Perrys tiled bathroom or one)or eect. In all situations I have the amplited well o the foor to avoid troublesomerefections, and I dont use anything hollow

that could resonate (like a roadcase).

Right phase: For multi-miking, itsimportant that the phase relationship be-tween the mics remain consistent. Liberaltesting o phase using the consoles phasefip button is a necessity when blendingmics. For mics placed at various distancesrom an amp, comb ltering can result romthe phase shit due to the longer time thesound takes to reach the more distant mic.Fortunately, a small company in the LosAngeles, CA area called Little Labs has adevice called an IBP (In-Between Phase). It

can shit the phase to any degree rom 0 to180 so its a simple task o dialing the micsinto exact phase.Happy recording!

Richard Chycki is currently recording a new CD for

Rush and has worked with Aerosmith, Mick

Jagger, Seal, Pink, and many others in the past.

Reach him at [email protected].

by Al Whale

Al Whale is a Broadcast Technologist and Assistant Chief Engineer at CHBC-TV.

He has also set up and operated sound systems and taught sound in many church settings. Reach him at [email protected].

The reected source is -3dBo the direct source.

The comb flter eectwill be present.
http://www.mcsquared.com/dbframe.htmlhttp://www.pagetutor.com/trigcalc/trig.htmlhttp://www.pagetutor.com/trigcalc/trig.htmlhttp://www.mcsquared.com/dbframe.html


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SOUND ADVICE

Employing Sound Traps and Baes is muchlike hunting.1. Know your hunting grounds: Beore the

hunt, know and understand your acousti-cal environment. Once you bound a space with walls, a oor, and a ceiling, youvecommitted acoustics. The boundaries o

your space defne the low requency modalresponse and set limitations or the ambient

decay time. Wonderul programs and countless texts have beenwritten that clearly describe the process or analyzing, predicting,and managing acoustical boundary conditions.

Once you understand your environment you will better knowhow rogue sounds behave in the space; you can better identiywhere problems might lie and devise a trap to capture the prob-lem.2. Put the traps where the beavers are: Place traps to capture roguesound much like youd place traps or beavers. Placing beaver traps

on the ceiling will do you little good, just like placing acousticaltraps where the sound you want to capture doesnt exist. Beavers

pretty much live their lives along the oor plane. But rogue soundslive in the three dimensional world, so successul hunting can beachieved i the traps are placed in proximity to boundaries and

intersections.3. Be sure your passive trap is big enough to capture your game.Lower requencies require larger and deeper traps to control andmanage long wavelength rogue sounds.4. Know how many you want to trap: Trapping one beaver vs. anentire colony will require dierent methods. The eective trapabsorption efciency is proportional to the area o coverage.5. Conceal the trap: A good looking studio always seems to sounda little better. Integrate your traps into the architecture and alongwith those rogue sounds youll catch new clients.

by Neil A. Muncy

GroundinG, ShieldinG, humS, BuzzeS, & ThinGS

ThaT Go zap! in Your Sound SYSTem

Tips by Russ Berger

Bonus Tip #6: go to www.RBDG.com Russ Berger is Owner o Russ BergerDesign Group (RBDG), which is a design and consulting frm that combines

expertise in acoustics, architecture, and interiors to create technical

environments and buildings or recording studios, broadcast acilities,creative production spaces, and home.

DEVICE-1 DEVICE-2

MICROPHONE

HNG

HYDRO

systems must have something to do with grounding, what elsecould it be? The bad news is that the short answer to this questionwould fll up this entire issue many times over. The good news isthat on the Professional Soundwebsite, www.proessional-sound.com, a long list o reerence material will be ound. In addition,the June 1995 issue o the Journal o the Audio Engineering Soci-ety, entitled Shields and Grounds, includes seven papers whichdirectly address this matter. Go to www.aes.org, and look up Spe-cial Publications. Its available as reeware to anyone or $15 US,less i youre an AES Member it may also be downloadable. Itwont take you long to realize that the conventional mythologistsjust might be wrong!

Neil Muncy has been around since the days when recorded sound was analog mono and vacuum tubes ruled the audio landscape. He has been a consultant

in the audio feld or many years, and can be contacted by email at: [email protected].

Schematic diagram of generic audio signal processing system

showing interconections between equipment, building power, and

ground. Copyright by Neil A. Muncy all rights reserved.

5

N

oise susceptibility (or the lackthereo) in audio systems is aunction o two principal ac-tors: shielding, and the pin-1

problem. The endless conversationsconcerning this matter inevitably involveearth grounding, a subject which has beenaround or so long (200+ years) that it hasdevolved into a sea o conusion, misinor-mation, and mythology, even though it is completely dictated byeasily understandable, basic physics.

Conventional grounding mythology would have one believethat electronic systems o all kinds must be robustly connected toearth ground in order to properly unction audio signal processingsystems in particular. The grounding reality is that airplanes, mo-tor vehicles, laptop computers, blasters, etc. seem to work just fnewithout connections to earth ground. Nevertheless, A/V systemso all kinds are considered exempt.

According to the conventional mythologists, noise in audio
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s o u n d a d v i c e

The basic building block inaudio is the amplier. Whenthe word is mentioned mosto us have the image o a

power amp pop into our heads. Theyget all the press because they are thelargest and most glamorous o thespecies, but what about the myriad osmaller and orgotten gain stages thatoccurred beore the signal arrives atthis last power stage? They are largelyanonymous and taken or granted,but determine the quality o recordedsound.

Almost every knob on a piece o au-dio equipment is controlling a specicamplier stage. And the arther we getaway rom the basic understanding othis simple entity, the arther we getaway rom knowing how to maximizeits sonic potential.

The steady advancement o tech-nology has served to obscure their veryexistence. Amplifers have become sosmall and commonplace that they havevirtually disappeared rom human con-sciousness. Just look at the iPod nano

that thing is loaded with amplifers, allcrammed onto a little chip and poweredby another sliver o technology.

The implementation o each gainstage, individually, and then as a com-plete amplier, determines the soundquality o a piece o audio equipment. This act seems to have been largelylost in the mysteries o time. Mostpeople dont even realize the devicesthey use even contain an amplier. Itjust works.

In recent years, there has beenan onslaught o multi-unction units,

recording channels, and the like. Withthe recording business moving roma proessional to a consumer market,manuacturers are trying to oer themost eatures or the price. This looksgreat on the outside, but there is alarge cost on the inside. The quantityo unctions within a unit is usuallyinversely related to its sound quality.Fundamentally, it is dicult to designa good-sounding, multi-unction unit,because every gain stage comes with theconstraints o its implementation.

Everything Is An Amplifer Part Iby Bryan Martin

Bryan Martin owns Sonosphere Mastering.

Over his 20+ year career he has worked with

David Byrne, Ruus Wainwright, Max Roach,

Run DMC, and White Zombie. He can be

contacted via e-mail at bryan@sonosphere.

ca or on the web atwww.sonosphere.ca.

TipsE

ngineers spend more time getting drum sounds than anyother instrument. Ive seen situations where days havebeen spent getting a drum sound. Kits are changed,heads are changed, cymbals are changed, heads are

taped up or un-taped, mics are selected and changed, the kit isplaced in various parts o the studio, head damping devices areused, mini pads are cut up and placed on heads, and on it goes.

The poor drummer keeps hitting his kick, snare, and toms by the end o this, he or she is back in rehab.

Heres my approach or a great drum sound. My recom-mendations or drum mics: Sennheiser MD 421s, Shure 57,and some Neumann 87s. I like using the Neve 1081 console inStudio 1 at Metalworks, so all requencies mentioned here arerom the 1081s. I nd that padding down the preamp as low asyou can go with the ader up gives me the best result. Havingthe mic pres all the way down gives me very little leakage romthe cymbals to the toms and hi-hat to the snare.The Kick

Mic the kick drum with a Sennheiser 421, throwing a sandbag inthe drum helps to dampen out any overtones. The mic should beplaced right at the beater. I also use a Yamaha NS10 wooer asmy second mic, placed where the ront skin used to be. I recordthis fat since it has the perect requency response.

For the 421, give it +3 at 82 Hz or bottom and +4 at 6.8 Kor added attack.The Snare

For the snare drum, use the Shure SM57 at a 45- to 60-degreeangle about an inch or two above the head pointing it at thecentre o the snare.

+2 at 82 Hz, -2 to -4 at 820 Hz, and +4 at 6.8 K or crispness.

I you like the idea o miking under the snare or some rattle andhum, use an AKG 414 in a tight pattern under the stands.Toms

Mic all three toms with the 421s set at about a 45-degree angleto the centre o the tom. I usually add some 8.2 K.Overheads

For the overheads use U 87s. Place the mics about 16" over thecymbals centres and towed out at about 45 degrees. I usuallyrecord them fat.Hi-Hat

An AKG 451, pointing at the centre.

On Getting Killer Drum Sounds

The requirements of a gain stage are:

1. Its gain coecient. (With a coecient o10,1 V input will give 10 V output.)

2. Bandwidth. For audio we generally wantto double the range o human hearing (20Hz to 20 kHz) so that would be 40 kHz toinsure good transient response.

3. Input impedance.4. Output impedance. (Generally we want to

have the output impedance o the previousstage low in relation to the stage that itis driving to minimize the losses in thecoupling between the two stages.)

5. Maximum output signal beore clipping.6. Maximum input signal beore clipping.

Pick up the August issue oPS or Part II.

by Nick Blagona

Nick Blagona has recorded The Bee Gees, Chicago, The Police,

The Tea Party, Alexisonfre, Deep Purple, and many others. Please go to

www.nickblagona.comor more details.
http://www.sonosphere.ca/http://www.nickblagona.com/http://www.nickblagona.com/http://www.sonosphere.ca/


9/17


Star grounding scheme, in whichall equipment in an installation isbonded to a central ground hub, canbe useul or minimizing low re-

quency common mode voltages between variouspieces o equipment i its properly implemented.I not properly implemented, star grounding canresult in perormance, which in some cases is actu-ally worse than that resulting rom a completelyhaphazard approach.

Any secondary grounding system installedin parallel with already existing equipment U-Ground conductors in an installation has theinstant eect o causing ar more potential groundloops between equipment than would otherwiseexist. Sometimes it makes a dierence, sometimesit doesnt. The $64 question is whether it reliably,and without exception, makes noise go away per-manently and completely. Not likely.

A popular Star Grounding practice involvesusing separate ground wires to bond all equip-ment in the ensemble to a central hub, and thenconnecting this hub to a dedicated earth-ground-ing terminal, which is not bonded to the mainbuilding ground system. This practice is verydangerous and is completely illegal in the contexto North American Electrical Codes.

One connection between an ensemble oequipment and building ground is all that is

needed to make the system sae in terms o boththe letter and intent o applicable electrical codes.Most installations usually involve more than oneAC power circuit, whether actually required dueto the size o the total load or not.

What is not considered in such a scenario ishow long and by what path(s) the power circuitsand their respective equipment ground conduc-tors take beore they get back together at thebreaker panel. Just because two outlets are withina ew eet o each other does not necessarily meanthat they are on the same circuit.

Sa Gouds, Loop Aeas, & Elecical Sae I Pojec Sudios,

Edi Suies, & Oe Copac Audio Isallaios Pa II

by Neil A. Muncy

Once all o the requirements o a gain stage are met [as outlined in the June issue], the designer will then selectthe ideal requirements or a specic stage, but achieving these requirements rarely happens in the real world.Attaining one design goal is oten at the expense o another. There will be limitations imposed by the charac-teristics o the gain device chosen, economics, physics, and a host o other actors. And as the number o stages

increase, so does the diculty in bringing them all into an optimum specication.Great sounding ampliers require high-quality components. Transormers used in power supplies and or audio I/O are

both large and expensive. Quality coupling capacitors, gain devices, and hardware all drive up equipment costs. The classicand highly sought ater Neve modules have large, expensive power supplies, plenty o transormers, and build quality oimpeccable cratsmanship. You will also notice that these Neve consoles have a ar simpler layout and less options than thelater generation Neve V Series, SSLs, and the like. Generally, a very well-implemented, simple gain path will always outperorm a complex one and negates the need or urther processing.

Pick up the October issue oPSor Part III.

by Bryan Martin

In smallish installations in which all equip-ment is in one area/room and the longest audiocables are perhaps less than 100' in length, andassuming that the breaker panel is somewhereelse in the building, a very eective approach is toarrange to have all o the power circuits end up ata point in one box in the middle o the equipmentensemble. Very oten, this middle point wouldbe in the foor trench under the tabletop o theproducers table equipment cabinet behind wherethe engineer/producer sits.

Install as many circuits as you think you need.What this scheme buys you is that by bringing allcircuits into one multi-gang outlet box, all o theassociated equipment ground conductors (one percircuit) also end up in the same box, all bondedtogether as prescribed by code. This star pointbecomes your one connection back to buildingground, with the added advantage that now youhave a demonstrably lower impedance path backto building ground by virtue o having X paral-leled equipment ground conductors.

From this central box, 3-wire branch circuitsare then run out to each grouping o equipment.I at all possible, all o these circuits should be inone continuous raceway/conduit, so that the as-sociated equipment ground conductors are daisychained throughout the acility. This ensuresthat the total length o the equipment ground

conductors between dierent equipment loca-tions within the room is as short as possible. Foronly a ew circuits, series-connected power barsare acceptable or this application, but use goodones and try to stay away rom conventionalSurge Protected ones, which employ MetalOxide Varistors (MOVs) they have been knownto start res when they ultimately outlive theirservice lie. This ensures that the total lengtho the equipment ground conductors betweendierent equipment locations within the room isas short as possible. As simple as this seems, this

approach may eliminate enough residual noise soas to end the eort to go any urther.

OK wise guy, so what happens when I thenrun shielded audio cables all over the place? youask. Dont I end up with a big bunch o groundloops anyway? Yes you do. Minimize the areas othe resulting ground loops by selectively cuttingcable shields at one end or the other, the One-End-Only (OEO) approach. This is a simple wayo smothering the symptoms o Pin-1 problems,

and while in larger systems it may be requiredor other reasons, its usually not necessary in asmall installation besides which, its a pain inthe ass and you cant do it anyway in unbalancedsingle-conductor shielded cable installations orreasons which should be obvious. What you cando to minimize these loop areas is to simply run allo the low-level audio cables parallel and adjacentto your new branch power cables.

Be sure to pick up the October issue oPSwhere Muncy delves into the Pin-1 problem andother RFI solutions.

Neil Muncy has been around since the days when recorded sound was analog mono and vacuum tubes ruled the audio landscape.He has been a consultant in the audio feld or many years, and can be contacted by e-mail at: [email protected].

Bryan Martin owns Sonosphere Mastering. Over his 20+ year career he has worked with David B yrne, Ruus Wainwright, Max Roach, Run DMC, and White Zombie.He can be contacted via e-mail at [email protected] or on the web atwww.sonosphere.ca.

EvErythInG IS An AmPLIfIEr PArt II

A
http://www.sonosphere.ca/http://www.sonosphere.ca/


10/17

Star Grounds, Loop Areas, & Electrical Saety In Project Studios,

Edit Suites, & Other Compact Audio Installations Part III

by Neil A. Muncy

Every amplier has a sound. Mankind is still searching or theaudio grail o a straight wire with gain. What a great amplierdoes is transer the maximum amount o the inormation rom itsinput to its output with as little damage as possible. This translatesinto ull bandwidth, wide dynamics, and undamaged transients: theessentials o great sounding reproduction.

In the brave new world o the 21 st century, technology hasbrought powerul tools to the everyday. Recording studios live ina laptop, and declining are the great temples o sound recordingand the monks who populate them. We take music and technol-ogy or granted. We want it all in a bundle. And very ew peoplehave the privilege o experiencing music in an ideal listening en-vironment. Ear-buds, iTunes, and laptop speakers are a pale copyo a breathtaking audio system. As the audio chain gets dumbeddown, there is all the more reason to give recorded sound thebest possible vehicle on its way to immortality. Because ater it iscommitted to a stream o digits, the road it takes back to soundwill be challenging.

Equalization, compression, and the like are oten reached orin an attempt to correct a sound source that is lacking. I have

always been bafed by manuacturers whopackage a mic preamp, EQ, and compressorall in on package. I the mic preamp was goodin the rst place, then why the need or thecompressor and EQ to x the sound comingout o it? Note: Manuacturers spout specsand tech-speak, which may sound impressive, but to the educatedreader is oten contradictory or plain rubbish.

Audio specs are like accounting: you can make them look likewhatever you want. But specs dont translate into good sound.There are plenty o horrible-sounding units out there with amazingspecs. To cheaply achieve good bandwidth, hideous mechanismsare employed in the signal path. Using a large amount o negativeeedback will drive the bandwidth into the nether regions o thesub and supersonics, and also completely kill the sound quality.People listen with their eyes these days, not their ears. How otendo we nd ourselves staring at the waveorm while it plays backout o a workstation? Its become a refex almost totally associatedwith the listening experience. The box looks great; it has to soundgreat. But that is not always the case.

Neil Muncy has been around since the days when recorded sound was analog mono and vacuum tubes ruled the audio landscape. He has been a consultant

in the audio feld or many years. E-mail: [email protected].

Everything Is An Amplifer Part III

by Bryan Martin

Bryan Martin owns Sonosphere Mastering. Over his 20+-year career he has worked with David Byrne, Ruus Wainwright, Max Roach, Run DMC, and White

Zombie. E-mail: br [email protected], www.sonosphere.ca.

Still have noise let? I youve reworked your power as describedin previous issues, youve done everything you need to do to makeyour power and grounding system sae and legal.

The Pin-1 problem is a term coined to describe the almostuniversal practice employed by most audio equipment manuactur-ers, in which the old-ashioned (pre-1970) method o connectingcable shield terminals (Pin-1s) on I/O connectors directly to thechassis at the point o entry has given way to connecting Pin-1s tosome convenient nearby ground circuit trace on the motherboard.The consequence o this practice is that the moment you con-

nect a cable, you have justattached an antenna to themost sensitive inner work-

ings o your equipment! Seethe AES publication [1] orhow to do a Pin-1 test, andsuggestions on how to dealwith the consequences.

Once you uncover Pin-1problems, send the manufac-turer a letter/e-mail outlining

your observations. Surveysconducted by the author

suggest that only about 10 per cent o all the equipment presentlyin use in the audio industry is demonstrably ree o Pin-1 problems.I the manuacturer in question doesnt respond, or implies thatyouve gone bonkers, tell them that you are going to sell o theoending equipment and buy an equivalent unit rom another

manuacturer who has seen the light. That should get their atten-tion. I not, you now know whom youre dealing with.

I you still have RF Intererence (RFI) problems, start lookingor equipment with less than major Pin-1 problems. Just becausea piece o equipment doesnt exhibit a signicant Pin-1 problemat powerline requencies doesnt guarantee that it will not be sus-ceptible to RFI. A piece o ground wire a couple o inches longinside a piece o equipment, which is employed to internally chassisground Pin-1(s) can be a very eective re-radiator rom well below100 MHz to the upper limit o the RF spectrum. An RF signalgenerator can be utilized or this type o Pin-1 test.

This scenario will make your system virtually immune toareld magnetically coupled intererence. Wall warts, line lumps,

and power transormers in your gear are all sources o strong ex-treme neareld magnetic eld energy, which will also cause humproblems i you arent careul. Locate wall warts, line lumps, andanything else that has big power supply as ar away rom your lowlevel equipment as practical. Make use o the Inverse Square Law,which dictates that as you increase the distance between a sourceo intererence and the victim equipment and cables, the strengtho the intererence decreases as the square o the distance. In otherwords, in this case an inch is (almost) as good as a mile.

Pick up the December issue ofPS for Muncys conclusion and hisinvaluable tips on MOV surge suppressors.

[1] The June 1995 issue o the AES Journal, Shields & Groundsre-printed as a Special Publication by the Audio Engineering Society.On the web at:www.aes.org.
http://www.sonosphere.ca/http://www.aes.org/http://www.sonosphere.ca/http://www.aes.org/


11/17


Intodays digital audio recordingenvironment there are a widevariety o plug-ins to choose rom,ranging rom homemade EQs to

$1,000-plus bundles. All can be useul iused in the proper applications.

The most consistently useul plug-insor me seems to be in the WAVES bundle,including Renaissance Strip. The EQs andcompressors are predictable and always do

what you require without adding too muchcolouration to the sound.

Another great plug-in I use a lot isIsotope Trash. Its by ar the most in-depthdistortion plug-in I have ever heard. It takesa little more iddling with the controlsto get the sound you want, but will yieldgreat results in the end. It works ne onbass as well.

For reverb, I still preer the classical

outboard digital reverbs like the Lexicon480 and 960, but Rverb and TLspace arealso superior sounding plug-ins. I also haveound Dverb is useul rom time to time but dont tell anyone I said that.

So, basically, i youre able to aord it,go with WAVES. I not, the Digidesignplug-ins can do you just ine. For cooleects and nice distortions, check out theIsotope series.

Star Grounds, Loop Areas, & Electrical Safety In ProjectStudios, Edit Suites, & Other Compact Audio Installations

Part IV

by Neil A. Muncy

Neil Muncy has been around since the days when recorded sound was

analog mono and vacuum tubes ruled the audio landscape. He has been a

consultant in the audio feld or many years, and can be contacted

by e-mail at: [email protected].

Chris Plug-in Script

Chris Crerar is an Engineer at Metalworks Studios. Visitwww.metalworksstudios.com.

Surge Suppressors are widely ad-vertised as the answer to noise andintererence problems in all kindso systems. Consider a ew points.

First, as mentioned in previous issues,conventional Metal Oxide Varistors (MOV)surge suppressors incorporated into powerbars are in widespread use. Unortunately,

unless they are built to a robust standard, which many o the older ones werent,they may constitute a serious re hazard,because when MOVs ail, they oten gethot enough to melt the plastic housing oa typical power bar long beore the use orcircuit breaker operates. (Murphy at work!)Newer ones must meet a considerable moredemanding UL/CSA specication, and aresupposedly saer.

Lets suppose the computer(s) in yourinstallation are ed by a power bar with abuilt-in MOV. When a surge comes along,the bad stu is diverted into the equip-

ment ground conductor and supposedlynds its way back to the service entrance.I the equipment ground path is more thana ew eet in length, the natural inductanceo the equipment ground conductor willbe enough to signicantly limit the fow ohigh-requency noise current, which is whattransients and surges are made o in the rstplace. Instead o getting rid o surge energy,

what happens is that or the duration o theevent the entire computer systems groundreerence voltage goes up towards the levelo the surge itsel, which can be hundredso volts i not more.

I the computer is sitting there all byitsel and is not connected to any otherequipment, this problem may be more

academic than real. But i the computer isconnected to something else, and the resto the studio equipment is either not on a MOV surge suppressor ed by the samepower circuit, which eeds the computer,or worse yet, is ed by a dierent powercircuit altogether, during a surge there canbe suciently high voltages between thecomputers protected ground reerenceand an unprotected studio equipmentground reerence to cause major noise andeven permanent damage.

I you are absolutely convinced that youneed MOV surge suppression, the best way

to minimize this problem is to rst cong-ure your studio power as described above,and then use the same kind o MOV sup-pressor on each power circuit eeding theroom. Connect all o them to the centralhub o your power distribution system, andthen run all branch circuits rom there. Amuch better solution is a new Series Modesurge suppressor technology, which does

not contaminate equipment grounds. Abit more expensive than good MOVs, butmuch saer and much more eective in thelong run. You can nd out about it at www.surgex.com.

Getting rid of noise in audio systems isnothing more than applied Good Engineer-ing Practice (GEP), the formula for whichis: BP + GOCHS = GEP (Basic Physics +Good Old Common Horse Sense). Theproponents of alternative esoteric groundingschemes would do well to keep in mind that

Mother Nature wrote the original script forthe show and she dont do re-writes!
http://www.metalworksstudios.com/http://www.surgex.com/http://www.metalworksstudios.com/http://www.surgex.com/


12/17

sound adviceO

When required to connect speakersover large areas with non-inter-acting area controls like halls or

classrooms, the 70-V system is ideal, althoughit should be noted that some places consider70-V systems to be unsae, so the 25-V systemis used instead.

Transformers are used at each speaker loca-

tion to convert from the 70(25)-V system to thespeaker impedance (eg. 8 ohms).

Aew years ago, I wrote an article or PSabout the art o mastering and how itwas evolving. No longer are we there

just to make sure that the technicalrestrictions o the record era are in check; we arenow an important part o the creative chain.

Lately, however, I have been seeing an alarm-ing trend: people who, thinking that they canbypass any ormal training in engineering, arebuying mastering sotware and instantly callingthemselves a mastering engineer.

This is a dangerous trend.Firstly, the mastering engineer brings a resh

pair o ears to a project that probably eels like ittook an eternity to make. Having that unbiasedperspective is priceless to any project.

Secondly, the mastering engineer is not onlythe last o what seems to be an interminableparade o engineers, but he or she is also a skilledtechnician/editor/musician who has spentmany hours listening to music, and understandswhat people want to hear in their music, and

how they want to hear it. They understand whya Latin mix should be bright and why a hip hoptrack needs to be bassy.

Mastering is understanding every item inyour toolbox and knowing when to use it, how touse it, and even whether to use it. I one doesntunderstand the principles o compression, howcan one possibly use a compressor properly? Ione doesnt truly understand Q, also knownas bandwidth, how can one properly equalizea mix without phase cancellation? Improperlymastered music sounds over-compressed, out ophase, and has too many highs and too many

lows. And its distorted.This distortion is my biggest concern.Because the music is so terribly over-

compressed thanks to plug-ins like theUltramaximizer and others similar to it onegets tired ater just a ew songs because o earatigue; without peaks or valleys in a song, theear becomes physically tired and listening tothe music become tedious. In addition, when

one crosses the linewith that sotwaretrying to make it loud-er and LOUDER, theresimply isnt any more

room or the soundfle to fll, and it beginsto distort. It is at thatpoint that the outputjust isnt musical any-more. Its noise.

I am not against all the sotware that isnow generally and aordably available to all; it

is a wonderul tool or writers, musicians, andengineers.

When one spends the time learning abouthow to use these tools properly, as does a mas-tering engineer, it is amazing how wonderullyclear and proessional-sounding music can be.Ater such a long process, wouldnt you want

your project to sound its best?

The Art Of Mastering: Part 2by Marisa T. Dry

Marisa T. Dry, a native of Ottawa, ON, is the owner and engineer for Tamar Mastering in Boston, MA. A graduate of Berklee College of Music,her clients have included The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Tugboat Annie, and RUSHYA. She has also mastered soundtracks and TV scores that have

appeared on ESPN, TLC, Animal Planet, and in the Boston Film Festival. Also, she currently works in the Audio Preservation Studio atHarvard University. For more information, check outwww.tamarmastering.com.

by Al Whale

Audio Transformer

1.25 Watts

2.5 Watts

5 Watts

10 Watts

Com

8 ohms

Com

70/25 Volt Winding

Speaker Winding

4 ohms

W= E x 1 I = VR

Therefore W = E2

R

W = Watts E = VoltageI = Current R = Resistance

For 70 volt systems

E2 = 70 x 70 = 4900(or approximately 5000)

Therefore use

W = 5000 or R = 5000R W

The 70(25)-V line rom the amplifer is applied to the input o the transormer. The input selectedis based on the maximum power needed rom the speaker. Each speaker location comes rom thissame 70(25) volt line source (in parallel). The sum o the power setting o all transormers usedshould be less than the maximum power o the amplifer.

Be warned: i the total is over the maximum setting, the amplifer will be overloaded andthere will no longer be a constant output. Switching a group o speakers in this situation will thenaect the other speakers.

From the above calculations, the 10-watt tap will be 500 ohms, and the 5-watt tap will be 1,000ohms. When wiring, a smaller gauge wire can be used to go long distances without aecting theaudio due to line loss.

Example: I the total load on the 70-V line is 100 watts, rom the above ormula, the imped-ance would be 50 ohms. Using the practice o 5% max, the wire would have to be under 2.5 ohms.Checking wire tables, or 50-t. run, the wire would only need to be #22 gauge (1.614 ohms). For500 t., the wire would be #12 gauge (1.588 ohms). This is ar easier than using 8-ohm lines #16& #6 gauge, respectively.

Al Whale is Broadcast Technologist and Assistant Chief Engineer at CHBC-TV.He also performs maintenance, design, and installation set-up.He has operated and taught sound in many church settings. Visit Als website at: www.whalco.ca.

70-V Audio Distribution: Part 1
http://www.tamarmastering.com/http://www.whalco.ca/http://www.whalco.ca/http://www.tamarmastering.com/


13/17

sound advice

by Al Whale

Switching And Controlling The Speaker ZonesSpeakers can be individually switched (on/off) or switched in zones(such as several speakers in a hall). It is a good practice to switch bothconductors going to the speaker.

Best Practices In Disk Keeping For Maximum Performance: Part 1

by Scott Leif

In a world filled with high-throughput appli-cations such as those found in video editing,

colour correction, audio mixing, and uncom-pressed playback, degraded disk performance

can cost users thousands of dollars a day in lostrevenue, a well-known but not frequently ad-dressed area of content management.

Applications and workflow require thatusers add and delete content on a regularbasis, sometimes as often as daily. This practicescatters bits and bytes of data all over the disksor RAID sets, which leads to negative impacton both read and write performance, and canresult in erratic playback, as well as erratic ap-plication behavior.

To better understand the grey area of diskperformance, we must first understand how adisk drive works when it comes to reading andwriting. Lets take a look

A disk drive writes data to blocks on theplatters of the drives. The blocks begin at the in-

nermost (centre) part of the platter and disperseout from there in a sequential order as data iswritten. In a RAID environment where multipledisks are used, data is typically written oneblock at a time, one disk at a time. So, if you canimagine the first block being 0, data would bewritten to block 0 of the first drive, then block0 of the second drive, and so on. The moredata that gets written, the further out from thecentre of the platter it goes.

Since the blocks at the inner part of therotating disks reach the heads of the disk drivesfaster than the blocks at the outer edge of theplatter, there is a measurable performance dif-ference in both reads and writes as the disksbecome more full. That is because data writtento blocks further away from the centre requirea longer length of time to access.

Fragmentation occurs when data is deletedand new data is written in place of the deletedblocks. Again the disk drive writes from the inside

out and the first bit of data will be written to thefirst available block. When this occurs, the dataeffectively gets written out of sequence, whichcauses additional latency in both reads andwrites. Compound that with a well-filled drive,and you have a recipe for a major slowdown.

In the film and post-production markets,where large sequences of frames are playedback sequentially, fragmentation can be a hugeheadache for any user. Its very commonplace forfacilities to add and delete hundreds of gigabytesand even terabytes a day. This practice, without

the proper maintenance, has a tendency to de-grade disk performance by more than 50 per cent.Pro audio applications such as Pro Tools can havethe same effect on disk performance and can beequally as sensitive to fragmentation.

Next issue, Scott will offer practices you canadopt to keep your storage devices working atoptimum level.

Scott Leif is President and CTO of Globalstor Data Corp., a leading storage technology provider for the professional audio and video, post-production, government, medical,education, and military industries. He is responsible for designing high-performance storage servers and storage area networks that are widely recognized among film

and video, post-production, and audio professionals.

70-V Audio Distribution: Part 2

If designed properly, switching speakers on and off should not affect thelevels in other speaker locations.

Special Controls are used to adjust the volume:

These controls will reduce the volume to the systems that they feed, stillat 70 (25)-V. Although not usually done, use of series/parallel circuits canstill be used on the 8-ohm output side of the transformer to limit thenumber of transformers used in low power situations.

Summary

70 (25)-V systems are designed for multiple speakers in remote loca-tions. For higher-power systems, use of the standard impedances (16/8/4ohms) is still the best course. The 70 (25)-V systems frequency responseis affected by the quality of the transformers used. A transformer ratedat a maximum of 10 watts will probably saturate, giving distortion, ata far lower value if the frequency is 60 Hz. This will only be evident forloud low-frequency situations. If the system is designed with plenty ofheadroom, this will probably not be an issue.

Audio Transformer

An interesting method to wire three speakers:

the 8 ohm tap is half loaded & the 4 ohm tap is half loaded.

The tranformer sees 2x half loads i.e. a full load.

8 ohms

4 ohms

Com 8ohms

8+8=16ohms

Speaker

Speaker

70 Volt

Source

Switching Speakers on/off

Speaker

Speaker

70/25 Volt Fader Control

70/25 Volt

Source

Off 70/25 volt

Output

Max

Al Whale is Broadcast Technologist and Assistant Chief

Engineer at CHBC-TV. He also performs maintenance, design,and installation set-up. He has operated and taught sound in

many church settings. Visit Als website at: www.whalco.ca.
http://www.whalco.ca/http://www.whalco.ca/


14/17

sound advice

So you have been asked to do a live webcast for your company, friend,community, or local band. You ask yourself: Whats a live webcast?

Dont worry! I am here to help you out. Ive done live webcasts onQueen St. in Toronto, as well as the ivory towers of the corporate world.I started my career doing community events, which meant that I had noaccess to T1 or fibre connections with incredible amounts of bandwidth.Instead, I learned from the beginning how to do quality webcasts usingstandard household DSL and cable broadband. I started this work in 2002when webcasting, or live internet streaming was in its infancy. Okay,lets get you started.

If youre in live production, youre already 75 per cent of the way there

and thats good news, but before you can commit to doing a webcast foryour over-excited parties, you must check the available bandwidth at yourwebcast location. Bring your laptop or make sure there is a computer on-site that is accessible to you.

Connect to the network and go to www.speedtest.net. This onlinespeed test tool is fun and accurate. Its like looking at the speedometer on

your car and it can be a real adrenaline rush. Click on the geographicalarea that is near to you. Dont worry about the download pay attentionto the upload! Upload is important because youre taking your broadcastout of your location to a multimedia server. Upload speeds can be from100 kbps to 1000 kbps or higher depending on where you are. Do this testseveral times, using different locations, then average the numbers. If yourupload speed is 200 kbps (average) then you should be webcasting at 100kbps. Why? Bandwidth fluctuates, and if you are broadcasting at 200kbps

and there is a fluctuation, yourwebcast will be kicked offline, so

you need to leave some room.You are not quite ready yet.

If you are in someones homeits fine to disconnect any com-puters on the network before

your broadcast. If you are in acorporate environment, you maybe behind five firewalls and asuspicious IT department. Go to

the IT department and explainwhat you are going to be do-ing. Make sure you understandthe culture of the network andhow its used. Also, if you haveto obtain a static IP (InternetProtocol) address, which you mayneed to do depending on the type of webcast youre doing, only the ITdepartment can do this and it may take time to sort out.

Warning! If you test your connection two weeks before your broadcastand everything is fine dont assume when you return that it will still beset up for you. IT departments have huge responsibilities and things canchange while you are gone. One more thing: Do not do a webcast usinga wireless network just dont go there.

by Scott Leif

Live Webcasting From The Streets

To The Corporate World: Part 1

Last issue, Scott offered some introductory in-formation on disk drives and the headaches offragmentation. Heres some advice on how to keepyour disks running efficiently and effectively.

There are many tools available for deal-ing with fragmentation; some are evenincluded with many typical operatingsystems used today such as Windows,

which has an application built right in calledDisk Defragmenter. Such tools can analyze thedisks or RAID volumes to determine just how

scattered the data is, where the blank blocksor sectors are, and then will proceed to reor-ganize the data so that its in sequential orderbeginning with the innermost blocks, movingthe blank sectors to the outer ends of the diskswhere they belong.

Many of these defragmentation tools willallow users to schedule defrags so they aredone when the system is not in use. In manycases, defrags should be performed on a dailybasis, depending on how much data or content

is removed and written in relationship to howfull the disks are. The fuller the disks, the morefrequently a system may need to be defragged.By defragmenting, your system could find re-newed performance.

Another tool that can have a big impacton performance, especially write performanceon a system, is virus software. Most of us havehad, at one time or another, the misfortune ofdealing with a virus and have been forced tobe prepared for future scares. What we do notrealize is that the very software we rely heavily

on to combat these threats can severely impactour business productivity, especially in writeperformance-sensitive applications such asuncompressed video capture as well as profes-sional audio software.

This happens because the virus softwarewants to scan each file as it enters the system aswell as when the file is opened, and that processis time consuming. Even a millisecond can causea drop frame or a write delay. Either can requirea user to start over only to have it happen again.

Not only can this be frustrating and costly, butalso confusing. Not being aware of the issuecould cause a software problem to look like ahardware problem. Of course, the solution canbe as simple as disabling the software duringthe use of performance-sensitive applications.

As the industry continues to change, sotoo will the issues and demands facing diskmanagement. In response, more and more solu-tions will become available for overcoming suchissues. Having the knowledge and appropriateresources in place before encountering any ob-

stacles can protect your day-to-day operationsand essentially ensure streamlined contentmanagement and productivity.

Scott Leif is President and CTO of Globalstor DataCorp., a leading storage technology provider for

the professional audio and video, post-production,government, medical, education, and military

industries. He is responsible for designing high-performance storage servers and storage area

networks widely recognized among film and video,post-production, and audio professionals.

Best Practices In Disk Keeping For Maximum

Performance: Part 2

Brad Marshall is the Owner of Popular Minority Productions, which brings live events to the Internet (www.popularminority.com). He is currently writinga 10-week course on Live Webcasting to the Internet for Conestoga College in Kitchener, ON. He can be reached anytime at: [email protected].

by Brad Marshall
http://www.popularminority.com/http://www.popularminority.com/


15/17

sound adviceO

Picking up where we let o last issue,there is another important psycho-acoustic eect to remember whenworking with IEMs. When IEMs are used

in both ears, there is a stereophonic eect (ste-reo mix not required, just both ears used) knownas binaural summation which yields a perceived6dB increase in volume without any change in

the level o either ears input volume. This meansthe let and right IEM are each outputting90dB

SPL, but when both IEMs are inserted, our brainsums them together and we hear an equivalent96dB SPL, yet without the hearing damage as-sociated with those extra 6dB SPL.

You can try this experiment yoursel byturning on your MP3 player, setting a level, andputting in one earbud. When you add the sec-ond, you will notice a substantial jump in level.

The practical upside o this is to always use bothIEMs and not just one like so many perormersI see on TV. It makes me cringe to think o howmuch louder they are blasting their IEMs to getthe same volume. Even worse, i they are usingoor wedges in an attempt to get the best oboth worlds, they will be blasting their openear too.

I learned another trick or wireless IEM usersrom Mike Prowda, monitor engineer or NineInch Nails and David Bowie. Prowda likes touse a compressor and limiter beore the wire-less transmission stage. Wireless systems haveairly narrow bandwidths in which each channel

operates, so to best exploit what is available,it is important to aggressively compress and

limit the signal beore the wireless stage tokeep it rom overloading while at the same timenot leaving any dynamic range unused andthereore wasted.

This is similar to the approach radio stationstake with their transmissions, using multi-bandcompressors and limiters to deal with dierentrequencies separately so that the overall energy

level is controlled while not making the musicsound overly squashed. At the time, Prowdawas using Aphex Dominators, though there aresimilar units that can also handle this multi-band compression approach. For those o youwithout access to advanced tools such as this,try experimenting with whatever compression

you do have beore the wireless stage to seei you can fnd improvement. I you have anyquestions, please drop me a line.

Keith Gordon is a veteran audio engineer whohelped develop a DSP-based hardware/softwareIEM system (inearsounddesign.com) in conjunc-

tion with Westone Laboratories. He can bereached at [email protected].

Location recording o non-live events hasits pros and cons. On the pro side are nat-ural acoustics, a unique sonic characterthat can give the recording a distinctive

sound, prestige rom the name o the acility,and sometimes lower rental costs. On the conside are external noises, little or no control overthe early reections and reverberation, difcultyisolating musical elements, and less than idealcontrol room monitoring conditions.

I the cons can be overcome, or ways to suc-cessully deal with them ound, good recordings

can be made. These recordings do not have to belimited to just classical recordings, which typi-cally are recorded in natural acoustics, or liveperormance environments. As an example,a 40-voice choir backed by piano, bass, anddrums singing contemporary jazz-inuencedmusic can be successully recorded in a naturalambience.

The choir sound that one would naturallypick up in a church or concert hall using mictechniques associated with classical choralrecording would have a signifcant amount oambience and depth, suitable or that style omusic, but not with the sort o warmth and

presence that is associated with a contempo-rary pop sound. A good hall acoustic has a lieand character that only the best studios canemulate, and so it is oten worth fnding a wayto capture this sound.

Close-miking the choir would deeat theadvantage o the hall by suppressing its naturalattractive acoustic. Even the best cardioid pat-tern mics have signifcant colourations resultingrom their uneven o-axis response, and theseoten do not compliment the room acoustics. Acareully-placed array o three or our omni mics

over the choir can produce a natural-soundingpickup.Make sure that choir members are as

equally distant rom the mics as possible, withthe lower voices singing directly on-axis to themic, and the higher voices projecting slightly be-low the 0-degree axis o the mics. The distancebetween the mic array and the choir will alsodepend on the ratio o direct to early reectionbalance that sounds best.

Use two additional omni mics placed behindthe choir to pick up the warmth o the choir,and give additional boost to lower male voices,which tend to be more omni-directional.

by Earl McCluskie

Location CD Recording: Miking Techniques Part 1

Earl McCluskie is a producer/engineer andOwner of Chestnut Hall Music, a music produc-

tion company based in the Waterloo region ofOntario. The company specializes in location CDrecording, both live and session. Recent projects

have included Vancouver-based composer Timo-thy Corlis with the DaCapo Chamber Singers

and the Guelph Symphony Orchestra.

In-Ear Monitors: Tips & Tricks Part 2

by Keith Gordon
http://www.inearsounddesign.com/http://www.inearsounddesign.com/


16/17

sound advice

Well, outdoors or indoors, you apply your modus to your mix. We allhave our tricks weve picked up along the way, and so just because youreoutside doesnt mean this should change.

Its always nice not to be fighting with some dreadful hall or badmix position, which is helpful, but it means that outside there are lessexcuses.

If you have a good system tech (the guys at Torontos Virgin Festivalwere superb), you have to trust him.

Most of all, remember youre not mixing for audio engineers youremixing for kids who have the record and want that same experience, onlybigger, better, and louder. Be bold.

I dont dig the chin scratching static-sensible mix, where people aregoing, Hmm nice mix. Give me excitement any day. I try to rememberthe way I felt when I was 17 (that was some time ago), when your life depended on this gig. If the kids walk out saying, That was fucking amazing,then the job is done

Pete Bartlett is FOH engineer for UK-based indie rockers Bloc Party, recently in Toronto for the Virgin Festival. He can be reached at [email protected].

Location CD Recording:

Miking & Mixing Techniques Part 2by Earl McCluskie

When recording, for example, a con-temporary choir backed by piano,bass, and drums in a natural hallenvironment, the backup will

be picked up by the choir mics, and will soundboomy and unfocused if not carefully controlled.Fortunately, most halls have a built-in solution:reception spaces and other rooms with doorsopening into the hall. The drums and bass can

often be located here. If the bass is acoustic,some sound will enter the hall, but consider-ably less than if the instrument was in the hall.Communication for the instrumentalists, andconductor if necessary, can be achieved withheadphone fold-back and video monitors.

Typically in such a space, one would mic thepiano by putting mics inside the piano, closingthe lid, and perhaps even encasing the piano

in packing blankets. This produces a distinc-tive sound, but does not take advantage ofthe natural piano sound in the room. Instead,position the piano with as much distance fromthe choir as is possible, and balance its pickupwith the leakage into choir mics. During soundcheck, experiment with your post-productionplans (EQ, compression, etc), as getting the rightbalance has to happen now.

Miking technique alone will not give youthe kind of control you need to produce a fullstudio sound. Once you have captured a fullchoir sound, you will find that the room charac-

teristics will define the choir sound as being in anatural acoustic space, and this will not balancewell with the drums and bass.

An old trick used for fattening up the soundof a guitar involves double tracking the soundsource, applying compression and expansion toone track, and then mixing the two together. Thechoir pickup will have unneeded bottom endfrom the omni mics, so in the processed track,

much of this can be rolled off. You can also nar-row the stereo width of the processed versionof the choir, using the unprocessed original tocreate a sense of depth and width. You can delaythis track as well, although care must be takenwith possible phase cancellations, leading toan unnatural choir sound. Also, any processingdone to the choir sound will impact the pianosound, and vice versa.

The sound of the hall has now becomean integral part of the choir sound, and canbe blended with the backup ensemble tracks,sweetened with appropriate reverb.

Earl McCluskie is a producer/engineer and Owner of Chestnut Hall Music, a music production company based in the Waterloo region of Ontario. The

company specializes in location CD recording, both live and session. Recent projects have included Vancouver-based composer Timothy Corlis with theDaCapo Chamber Singers, Montreals violinist/composer Helmut Lipsky and soprano Suzie LeBlanc, and the Guelph Symphony Orchestra.

FourKey Tips For Mixing An Outdoor Festivalby Pete Bartlett

Bartlett with the Digidesign Venue


17/17

Recommended ReadingAssistAnt EnginEErs HAndbook sEcond Edition by tim cricHPacked with Proven Recording Studio Secrets. Key Priorities or Beore, During and Ater the Session. Required readingin dozens o audio engineering courses at college, institutes and universities across North America.http://musicbooksplus.com/bassistant-engineers-handbook-second-edition-p-10893.html

criticAl listEning skills for Audio ProfEssionAls by f. Alton EvErEstWith this course you can acquire the audio discernment skills o a seasoned recording engineer by studying this courseat your own pace, in your own home.http://musicbooksplus.com/bcritical-listening-skills-audio-professionalsb-p-7162.html

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21544583 Advice for Audio Professionals