My Audio Engineering Journey

Les Paul - Chasing Sound

2011-08-23T10:07:00.000-07:00

A couple of months ago I saw this documentary on Les Paul. I highly recommend that you check it out. His contributions to music will never be forgotten. Here is a short clip of what you can expect. The full version can be seen on most public TV stations.

2011-08-23T09:32:00.000-07:00

I recently purchased a field recorder and had a chance to test it out. These videos are from the Music Fusion Parks Alive performances in Kelowna. These were both recorded using a Zoom H4N recorder.

Understanding Noise

2011-08-23T09:14:00.000-07:00

A colleague and online friend of mine (thx crux) found this awesome video that provides a basic understanding of sound and frequency.

GIK Acoustics

2011-08-22T13:39:00.000-07:00

I have contacted GIK Acoustics about treating my garage/studio. Here are snippets from our conversation.

Hi Bryan,

Nice to meet you and I look forward to working with you as well. I only used that size of bass absorbers in my drawing because I thought the room would need really large ones. If you think I can get away with smaller ones then awesome! The room seems like it would be difficult to tame which is why I'm coming to you guys. I've seen Glenn's posts and have been a member of Gearslutz for a long time! :)

I will be doing the occasional live recording. This would mostly be my bands practice but eventually I would like to record other bands rehearsals as well. I will also be tracking drums/guitars/vocals etc for our albums. The other thing I plan to do in the room is video. This would mostly be lectures and training videos. This is why I'm trying to create a retro garage/service station type vibe. I will be painting the cabinets toolbox red and I want the acoustic treatment to be red as well. This is why I don't want a separate control room or any other rooms to break up the look. There will be show cars in the room from time to time and video will be filled around them.

We have now taken possession of the property so I will take several new pictures with the room empty.

If there is any other information you need just let me know and I will get back to you as soon as I can. For the timeline, I would like to have at least some initial treatment done by winter. Keep in mind I have a lot of work to do on the retro garage part as well. I need it to look great in photos and it is a long ways from that right now lol.

...and Bryans response;

Well the traps I'm going to use aren't exactly small - lol. Just nothing so big that we can't take care of the important symmetry issue. I'm thinking either Tri Traps or Soffit Traps stacked in the 2 front corners of the room.

In the rear (especially since the room is square), we'll need to address bass cancellations off the back. Monster panels (3 or more) would be appropriate in the middle of the wall. Can still be the free-standing on stands or can use our boom stand brackets and your mic boom stands to give you movement and height adjustment.

Ceiling - since you have a nice high 10' ceiling, I'd use diffusion there. The Grid Fusors are very cost effective.

For recording, we have a few options. We need to have something on the side walls for reflection control. We can hard mount those or you can use our boom stand brackets and your mic boom stands. That would give you a height adjustment as well as being able to easily remove them from the space when filming to keep the 'look' if so desiered. Another option is to use our Screen Panels - again, not mounted, moveable, and removable.

I look forward to working with GIK. They are make a very good product and this will go a long ways to making my studio fit my needs.

Bob Katz articles

2011-08-22T13:34:00.000-07:00

Looking for great Audio Engineering articles? You must drop by Bob Katz' site at http://www.digido.com/articles-demos.html. There a many articles covering everything from mixing tips to mastering do's and don'ts.

Over a month already!

2011-08-22T13:29:00.000-07:00

OK, well when I set out to do this latest project I had no idea it would take so long to get past even the first stages. With moving into a new house, the living quarters actually have taken a priority over the studio. Imagine that. Anyways, I have started painting the cabinets and the walls are awaiting paint, as is the floor. I will try and take some pictures of the progress to keep this blog somewhat up to date.

Building my new studio

2011-07-18T09:21:00.000-07:00

Wow, has it really been 3 years since I updated my blog. Yikes. Well, I have a 24ft x 24ft x 10ft shop that I plan to use for mixing, jamming/practice and even occasionally working on my car. I will be coating the floor with epoxy paint and the cabinets will be left in the shop for storage. I am not worried about soundproofing as I am in a rural area with very little traffic and I will not be jamming late at night so I won't be bothering the neighbors that are around. This will be somewhat of a multifunction room and I want to leave as much of it original as possible.

This will be an ongoing project but I would like to have a decent setup fairly quickly and on budget. I do not plan on tracking/mixing bands other than my own and that would be on very rare occasions. At this time I do not want the extra expense of building a control room.

Hmmm, not sure what other information I can provide at this time.

I know that this room is going to need a lot of dense absorption but I am not sure where it needs to be placed or exactly how much I need. The diagram below is sort of what I am thinking.

The roll-up garage door is a bit of a problem. The tracking runs right up to the ceiling and about 10 feet in along the top. I cannot put clouds there because of it.

I was thinking of filling every available corner space from floor to ceiling with OC 703 bass traps. (6x) 4ft x 8ft broadband absorbers and (3x) 4ft x 8ft portable broadband absorbers. I know that I'm going to need some diffusers and clouds incorporated into this as well.

Here a pic of the shop from the outside (click to enlarge)

This is the wall with the cabinets and part of the front wall. The room of course is completely empty now. This is a picture from before we bought it. (click to enlarge)

Left hand wall and part of the front wall (click to enlarge)

I don't have any pictures of the garage door from the inside but I'm pretty sure you get the idea.

Here is what I am planning to do for the first phase. The main objective is to have a great sounding room to be used for mixing. It will have a secondary function of tracking and a third function of working on my car.

I'm sure this project will take quite some time to complete but I'm hoping to have a good solid start by November/December. I will use this blog to update my progress.

Our latest Hockey Night in Canada Theme Song submission

2008-09-05T23:19:00.000-07:00

New semester now underway - Audio Engineering 5

2008-09-05T08:36:00.000-07:00

It seems like it was such a long time ago since I'd been in the studio but it has only been a month. Yesterday (Sept 4th, 2008) we kicked off the beginning of our new semester. Our instructor gave us the details of what will be happening in this semester and it looks like it will be awesome.

One of the projects in particular is very exciting. We will be producing/engineering this years "Stop the Rain" benefit concert. This concert features 4 bands. We will be recording the entire show as well as providing videography and lighting. For me this is an awesome opportunity to get outside of the studio and into a live environment and for a great cause to boot.

Stop the Rain Project is dedicated to humanitarian causes. Our Bandaid Benefit Concerts raised over $10,000 last year. Currently we are providing financial aid to 10 single parent families in India, funding 90 school age children in Costa Rica and helping supply a local food bank in the Greater Vancouver area. Greg Reid

This years concert will be on November 30th 2008. Check out this video from last years show. This song is featuring my instructor's band (Stop the Rain band), Greg Reid on keys. The second video is Elijah's Cry.

Thanks for stopping by Liona Boyd

2008-08-19T08:06:00.000-07:00

The other day I received an interesting e-mail from none other than Liona Boyd. She had been researching Melodyne and had come accross one of my blog entries. This was a very exciting moment for me as I have been a very big fan of her music for over 25 years. I was equally thrilled to find out that she had listened to our music.

Liona has a huge list of awards including; Five-time winner of the Juno Award for Instrumental Artist of the Year, Guitar Player Magazine's Gallery of the Greats, Five-time winner of the Guitar Player Magazine's, Classical Guitarist of the Year, The Order of Canada, The Order of Ontario, Vanier Award, Women Who Make a Difference, Artist of the Year, and Honorary Mayor of San Antonio, Texas, Four Honorary Doctorate of Law degrees, One Honorary Doctorate of Music degree, Prix "Esprit du Ciècle".

She has also done a number of collaborations. Most notably with; Yo Yo Ma, Eric Clapton, Chet Atkins, David Gilmore, Georges Zamfir, Gordon Lightfoot, Sir Andrew Davis, Al Di Meola, Steve Morse, Strunz and Farah, Jesse Cook, Pavlo Johannes, Linstead Innis, Oscar Lopez, Ron Korb, Paul Anka, The Canadian Brass, Tracy Chapman and Michael Kamen.

Our Hockey Night in Canada theme song submission

2008-07-28T11:44:00.001-07:00

Concert Photo's - Canada Day Celebration

2008-07-02T11:03:00.001-07:00

Hey all,

I went to a local Canada Day celebration yesterday and took some pretty cool concert photos. I have always respected Bob Rock as a producer but he is also an awesome musician.

Pictured below; Bob Rock, Paul Hyde, Mike Reno, Paul Dean and Wil. The last picture is me with Elisse Estrada.

Too busy doin'....

2008-06-09T07:47:00.000-07:00

I thought I would make a quick post to let you all know that I haven't fallen off of the planet. Truth of the matter is that I have been so busy with school and homelife that I haven't been able to write much to my blog lately.
Hopefully during the next couple weeks I will be able to catch up. Thanks for hanging in there.

Producer/Engineer

2008-06-07T14:33:00.001-07:00

Mushroom Studio's - Vancouver, Canada

2008-05-19T12:39:00.000-07:00

I can remember many years ago, driving down W. 6th Street in Vancouver and seeing the big backlit Mushroom Studio's sign (wonder what happened to the sign anyways... isn't there anymore). Just the sight of the studio sign triggered memories of one of my favorite bands, Heart. Heart and the Mushroom label were synonimus at the time. The music during this era was very electifying to me. In some ways Mushroom Studios was very much a part of my childhood as I grew up living with the music that came out of this studio. As a producer/Engineer, this was truly something that I have wanted to experience my entire life.

Upon entering Mushroom Stuidio's I could quickly confirm that all my favorites had been there. Chilliwack and their "Dreams, Dreams, Dreams" gold record was displayed as expected. Tom Cochran and Red Rider, Marcy Playground, Loverboy, Prism and many other great records that I had forgotten about were recorded here as well. With all this history painted on the walls how can you not hear the music?
*In 1946, one of Canada's first studios named Aragon Recording Studios was opened in Vancouver, aided by Al Reusch. Reusch was a musician, big band leader, and one of Vancouver's first DJ's. By 1954, Reusch acquired sole ownership of Aragon Studios which would lead to the construction of Mushroom Studios.
The current home of Mushroom Studios was built in 1966 at 1234 West 6th Avenue, Vancouver. Built by Aragon from the ground up as a first class audio recording studio, it was an orchestral recording room for special sessions by the Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC). Howard Tremaine consulted on the original acoustic design and equipment installation. One of the first clients was Diana Ross and The Supremes, and later Led Zeppelin would also record there.*

This is the first of several blogs that will be writing as a result to my weekend full of rubbing elbows with some of the great producers and engineers that have worked in Vancouver.

During the next few days I will be writing about my experiences with Mike Fraser (AC/DC, Led Zepellin, Metallica, Aerosmith) Jeff Dawson (State of Shock, Daniel Powter, Holly McNarland) Roger Swan (K-OS, Swollen Members) Devin Townsend (Lamb of God, Bleeding Through, Darkest Hour) Ben Kaplan (Chevelle, Trapt, Shakira) GGGarth Richardson (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rage Against The Machine) Howard Redekopp (Tegan & Sara, New Pornographers)
*Information obtained from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mushroom_Studios

Audio Engineering Session 15

2008-05-10T22:08:00.000-07:00

In this session we picked up where we left off from last week. Sophie and I were using ProTools for our mix. Later in the session I had a really good chance to talk to Greg about EQ and how to notch out the various instruments so theye each have their place in the mix.

When we recorded these tracks we had already applied some EQ to get us close to where we wanted to be so we had a lot of headroom to work with. We started by tweaking the kick and snare a bit. Then moving on to the bass.

I will try and hunt down a good EQ guide as I know that I have one around here somewhere. Anyways, the idea here is that by using EQ you can create space in your mix for various instruments to be heard without it competing with other instruments that are in the same frequency range.

New Music West 2008

2008-05-07T07:30:00.000-07:00

I have only recently heard about this music event that has been held in Vancouver for the past 18 years! I am pleased that I have finally found out about this event taking place on May 14th through 18th. From the looks of their website, it looks like it will be awesome. This is The largest and most influential new music event in Western North America. There will be over 200 bands playing in over 30 venues. For $30 you can get "all you can hear" wristbands. Well, exciting as this sounds it is not the only reason why I am excited to attend. I'm attending a couple of the workshops that are happening over the weekend. Every year New Music West puts on these amazing and exclusive workshops. I won’t be missing my chance to meet and learn from the top producers and coaches in the world, inside some of Vancouver’s best music production facilities!! How about you?

Of course there is the music as well. Past performers have included: Nickelback, Marilyn Manson, Gene Simmons, Perry Farrell, Swollen Members, Sam Roberts, The Flaming Lips, Frank Black, Hot Hot Heat, Matthew Good, Run DMC, Metric, Mark Farina, Blind Boys of Alabama, Midnight Oil, The Trews, Stars, Liz Phair, Modest Mouse etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. I wonder who will be there this year??

Here is a link to the schedule http://www.newmusicwest.com/NMW-GRID-MAY-4.xls

...and this is a link to this years lineup http://www.newmusicwest.com/NMW2008-Artist-List-FINAL.xls and finally the link to the main page http://www.newmusicwest.com

Interactive Frequency Chart

2008-05-05T20:15:00.000-07:00

A few session ago we were talking about fundamental frequencies and their associated harmonic content. This image represents the best chart that I've been able to find on the web... but wait, there's more. If you click on this link you will be able to access a fully interactive frequency chart.

http://www.independentrecording.net/irn/resources/freqchart/main_display.htm

Audio Engineering Session 14

2008-05-04T19:18:00.000-07:00

In this session we all shuffled around which audio application we were to use. Emile and Cash on Sonar, Greg and Jessie on the V-Studio, and Sophie and I were are on Pro Tools.
For us to be able to mix last weeks tracks we first had to use a ripper tool which converts Roland's proprietary file format to WAV files. The ripping process only took about 2 minutes.
Once we imported all the tracks into ProTools we gave it a quick listen. It sounded really good without any tweaks. This was because we spent some time last week capturing great sound right at the source.
I hadn't had a chance to hear the piano tracks up until now. As mentioned earlier, we used a pair of AT 4033's (see session 13 for more on mic'ing the piano). Click on the player to listen to the raw piano tracks. No effects have been added. The tracks have only been panned hard left and right. It should be noted that this is not a stand alone piano piece. I simply solo'd the piano from the multitrack session.

Rest in peace my friend

2008-05-02T07:49:00.000-07:00

On this day 2 years ago I lost a very close and dear friend. I wrote this song as a tribute to him. Chuck, I still miss you my friend. May you rest in peace.

How to make a record (1937)

2008-04-28T07:58:00.000-07:00

An associate of mine found this little gem on YouTube. I thought I would post this video here as it serves as an important reminder of just how well we have it now when it comes to recording albums on PC's. Without a doubt this confirms that it really DOESN'T suck recording on computers.

So without further ado, let's roll the calendar back to 1937 and see how they made records back then.

Audio Engineering Session 13

2008-04-25T20:20:00.001-07:00

The first thing we did this class was a de-brief of our previous tracking session with Greg's band. We reviewed the workflow and came up with a basic strategy that should be used to maintain order and to stay calm. We were told that when recording a rock band, the most important thing is to get a great drum take. All the other instruments/vocals can be re-done easily as everyone was in separate isolation rooms.

An important aspect of tracking is communication. It is important for the engineer to make the musicians feel comfortable. This will bring out their best performance. It is best to keep everyone well informed about the tasks at hand and what will be happening next. If a lot of focus is on the drums for example, you can let the other musicians know that they can kick back and get a coffee. Tell the bass player to relax for 15 mins while the headphone mix is being dialed in. Without a doubt a good Audio Engineer will be able to bring out the best in them and not make them feel like they are under a microscope in a fish bowl.

Tracking can get quite stressful. There are a lot of things going on at once. A clearly defined plan is very important. Most of your energy needs to be directed at making a great mix. This is the ultimate goal in any tracking session. Of course there are several other aspects of major importance (mic placement, tuning etc), in the end a great mix will be inspiring to the musicians. Everything else will fall into place rather naturally if your energy is focused on the mix.

After the debrief we moved onto layering some additional tracks for one of Greg's songs from last session. We did some backing vox first. Greg sang into an Audio Technical AT4033.

After a couple of takes we moved on to recording the piano. We used a stereo pair of AT4033's. These were placed about 10 inches away from the strings. One on the low end and one on the treble end. Now then, Greg has been playing piano forever and this is a very nice piano in a very good room so as one would expect, the piano sounded great!

Meet the band!!

2008-04-22T21:05:00.000-07:00

Wow, can't beleive that it took until now for me to introduce our band. Talk about lack of self promotion! Ok, well, Don, Ken and I have been jamming and writing music for some time now. About 5 years. Mind you we have been saying 5 years for awhile now.
Don is the mastermind behind all our songs. He has been playing guitar forever. For whatever reason, Don and I seem to click when it comes to writing music.
My daughter Chelsea has been working with us on a lot of our songs. Her vocals really help shape the sound of our band.
Our EP will be available in the next couple of months. Signed copies are already being distributed. So, that's like 4 copies now so don't hesitate or this spindle of CD's will be gone!

The London Project in.... Germany??

2008-04-21T09:32:00.000-07:00

Last week The London Project was lucky enough to receive some airplay in Germany of all places. This just goes to show that the Internet is playing an important role in the Indie music scene.
Click on the link below to hear the German introduction to, and the song, "I Know She Understands" as aired in Germany.

Translation:

“Well, we are here with a combination of German and English. And now I will play another song as Lonnie is here; and Lonnie is from ‘The London Project’ yes, and the song is I know she understands.”

“Yes, Lonnie also is from Canada, British Columbia and the band with members Don, Lonnie and Chelsea, work together on rock-genre music of the 70’ies, 80’ies and 90’ies. Now we will listen to “I Know She Understands“ and have fun with “The London Project” – Lonnie is in the chat room here.”

After the song “Fantastic music here from The London Project, thank you Lonnie that was great music with your band, congratulations”.

My concert experiences in Vancouver

2008-04-19T10:19:00.001-07:00

One of the advantages to living in a city like Vancouver is the access to great music! Much of which is either free or at low cost. My first example great value was this free Canada Day concert in Cloverdale. Ian Tyson, Wide Mouth Mason, Kim Mitchel and check out this video of the headliners, April Wine.

My favorite concert to date would have to be the Dark Side of the Moon with Roger Water's.

Nickelback (I know, I know, w/e) put on a kick ass show. The sound of Kroeger's PRS going through those Mesa Boogies in that drop C tuning...wow! Rock and Roll!!

The Blue Man Group were and incredible experience. I highly recommend this show to anyone.

This video of Heart was made up of the photos I took of their performance at the River Rock Casino in Richmond BC

Audio Engineering Session 12

2008-04-15T08:12:00.000-07:00

No theory this week, we jumped right into tracking Greg's band. I appoligise in advance for the picture quality as they were taken with my cell phone.

Our instructor, Greg, is in a 3 peice band and they have been preparing for their upcoming benefit gig, "Stop the Rain". This was an opportunity for them to rehearse and for us to apply our recently aquired knowledge to a real world situation.

We started by setting up the drums for Trevor in the main live room exactly as we have in the past. (Mic and positioning details are found in previous blogs so I won't go into detail again in this one). As we have experienced a few times now, the Ayotte kits are a PITA to setup. These Ayotte kits may be fully adjustable but without a doubt are one of the more complicated kits to setup.

The bass player was setup in the air lock off of of the control room. He (John) was play an awesome Ricky through a Sansamp so his setup was fast and easy. Greg was in one of the other isolation rooms playing his Godin through a Roland BR-8 and into a Roland amp which we mic'd up with a SM57.

The next step was to create a decent headphone mix for them to monitor with. We began with the drums. Adjusting the levels for each one of the mics, one at a time. Then we introduced the bass guitar into the mix and once again adjusted the levels. Finally, we adjusted the levels for Greg's guitar/amp and the vocals. After about 45 minutes we had what we thought was a solid mix for them to monitor with but found that the output to the headphones was not loud enough. The output from the V-Studio on it's own simply didn't have enough power to be heard over the drum kit. We quickly inserted a headphone amp to increase the output to all the headphones. This gave us more than enough volume and we were ready to start recording.

The band played 4 songs and we tracked 2-3 virtual tracks of each song. By the time we finished tracking our session was over so we didn't have any time to review what we had recorded. We will do this next session.

G&L Tribute Invader XL

2008-04-07T21:56:00.000-07:00

There is a little bit of a story behind this guitar. When I attended the NAMM Show in 2007, I knew that I was going to be meeting with Dave McLaren, President of BBE Electronics/G&L Guitars. What an opportunity I thought. Not only getting a tour of the G&L factory but possibly being able to wrangle myself a good deal on a new axe while I was at it.
I began searching the G&L website in anticipation of what would be my next guitar purchase. I quickly fell for this beautiful translucent red Invader XL. Cash in hand I thought I was going to score. Dave informs me that G&L has discontinued this model. Oh shit! What am I going to do now? No fear cause Dave pulls through. Turns out that he has a hand selected guitar sitting in his office. How much do you want for it Dave? Well how about... FREE! Wow, much too cool. Turns out to be a demo model that has been Plecked, complete with good ole Leo pups.
While I was at the G&L factory, I was privileged to be able to take a look at Leo Fender's vault.
Well enough of the nostalgia. Time to talk about why I like this guitar so much. In Leo's later days he spent a lot of time refining pickups. I had always loved the sound of Fender pickups during the peak of his career. The Invader XL had these hand wound G&L pickups that sounded great. Hand-wound in Fullerton CA. However, most of the G&L guitars were wired with these Fender alnico pickups, What I especially liked about this model was the ability to split the pickups using a second selector switch. For that true Fender Stratocaster sound, you have to try out a G&L.

Here are a couple of videos that I made of the tour I went on at G&L. The first one shows you the guitar manufacturing process. The second video is Leo Fender's lab. The lab had remained untouched until last year. Our group was one of the last to see the lab in it's original state. It has now been moved to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum.

Audio Engineering Session 11

2008-04-06T15:20:00.000-07:00

Theory for this week filled in a couple of blanks that we have had left over from previous sessions. First thing we did was finish ofF the acronym for the seven characteristics of sound (WAVEPHF). We now know these characteristics as Wavelength, Amplitude, Velosity, Envelope, Phase, Harmonics and Frequency.

One of the blanks we filled in was "Harmonic Content". In this example we will use "whole number multiples" of the A note. The first harmonic is the fundamental note. The remaining harmonics follow this example;

A = 110 Hz = 1st harmonic/fundamental, A = 220 Hz = 2nd harmonic, E = 330 Hz = 3rd harmonic, A = 440 Hz = 4th harmonic, C# = 55o Hz = 5th harmonic, E = 660 Hz = 6th harmonic,

G = 770 Hz = 7th harmonic, A = 880 Hz = 8th harmonic.

One example that was used to illustrate harmonic content was by using a piano. Upon striking the A note, you could hear the various harmonics as the note rang out.

The next item to discuss was "envelope". Envelope is also known as "loudness contour". There are three properties on an envelope. These are "attack, decay and release". A piano can be used to illustrate these envelope properties. When the keys are first struck, until the time the note reaches maximum amplitude, this could be considered the attack. The decay is the time this note will ring out and the time it takes to fade away. If the noted is "choked" then the time it takes for the note to finish ringing out is called the release.

An "envelope generator" introduces "sustain". In the case of keyboards for example, the envelope would be "attack, decay, sustain and release".
Now that we have moved on from the theory aspect of the session, it was time finalize our mixes. We began opened up our mixes where we left off last session. I found this illustration that provides a visual representation of mixing.

With many thanks to Greg, I have included a version of my mix which can be heard using the player below.

I have also posted a seperate track of the drums only. You can find the "drums only" version in the previous Audio Engineering Session 9 below. Next week we will be recording Greg's band doing a live set.

Presonus V-Fire

2008-03-31T20:07:00.000-07:00

The FedEx guy was kind enough to drop off a new piece of gear at my house today. I had been anticipating the arrival of my new V-Fire. What this piece of gear will do is allow me to connect my VS-2400 to my PC running SONAR 6. This is kind of a big deal for me as it really opens up new doors. Now I can use the Roland as a control surface for SONAR and I can feed my M-Audio cards into my VS-2400.

Tape is tape, right?

2008-03-31T19:54:00.001-07:00

From the tips department - lol

I saw my roll of tape on the counter and decided that I would write a quick blog about it. You see, when it comes to using tape on your audio gear you don't want a bunch of residue left behind. Traditional masking tape will dry out and become a real problem to remove. To avoid this I use a special type tape meant for this exact purpose. I happen to use Intertape by Intertape Polymer Group but really my point is, use the correct type of tape (found at any pro audio store) and save yourself from trying to remove glue and crap from your gear. Grab a Sharpie and you are reading to go!

Audio Engineering Session 10

2008-03-28T17:57:00.000-07:00

Mixing! W00t! My favorite part! I've always liked mixing. Back a few years ago, well ok. more like a lot of years ago, I used to mix my own party music on cassettes. I had a couple of turntables and an old Radio Shack mixer. I used to love doing my own crossfades. Some of the crossfades even started to have a life of its own. Anyways.. I guess what I'm try to say here is that it has captured my interest for over 30 years. Ha, even did some DJ'ing back in the day. Before I get to wrapped up in the past, let me get back to the session...

Now that we have all the pieces to make a song it was time to put it all together. The instructor gave us individual wav files from the previous sessions. We then imported the wavs into Sonar version 2.0. Yup, Sonar 2. Ok well now, gut reaction is, I'm on version 6 now, how can I benefit from using version 2. What is this antique piece of software? When I compare version 6 to version 2, there is not a lot different. In the end, you can acheive the same results. The biggest difference is that you can run earlier versions of software on REALLY cheap (old) machines. In our class we used a P3 with 256 Mb RAM. Keep the chuckles to yourself, in the end we were able to create a great mix. This reinforces the fact that it is the person behind the console, not the equipment that make a great mix.

In the end it is about having a great mix. Don't fool yourself into thinking that mean mixing with the latest, greatest software.

Applying new mic'ing techniques

2008-03-24T22:11:00.000-07:00

Well I wish I had a room like we have at school but since I don't, I have to work with what I have. I snapped this picture as a reminder for mic placement. In our last session we were able to get the overhead mics 8 from the space between the kick drum and the snare. In my room I can only get them 6 feet away. I will be recording the results tomorrow at our band practice.

Headin' down TheSixtyOne!

2008-03-22T12:43:00.000-07:00

We've had this membership at TheSixtyOne.com for quite awhile now. I thought I would place a couple of tunes on the site and see what happens. Turns out that there is quite a bit of traffic on the site. So, I decided to upload a bunch more of our songs.
TheSixtyOne features a unique voting system that evens the playing field for everyone.
If you haven't checked out the site before, here is a great place to start http://www.thesixtyone.com/LondonProject/collection/all/

Dustin, you're holding back on us!

2008-03-14T15:01:00.000-07:00

During last night's drum tracking session I had a chance chat up our session drummer. What I didn't know was that I was chatting up a champion runner. Not only a champion runner but a runner that is sponsored by the company I work for.

BC Blind Sports and Recreation Association congratulates athlete and member, Dustin Walsh, one of the award recipients at the 2005 Premier’s Athletic Awards.

Dustin Walsh was among 82 recipients recognized for their outstanding performance during the 2004/05 competitive year. A commemorative plaque with each athlete’s photograph and list of sport achievements will be displayed at the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame and Museum in B.C. Place Stadium for one year.

...oh, and he's an awesome drummer as well!

Audio Engineering Session 9

2008-03-14T08:30:00.000-07:00

This weeks session involved tracking drums using a session musician. The first part of the session did not go as smoothly as we had liked however. We had to do a bunch of trouble-shooting before we could proceed. Through the process of elimination we were able to determine a problem with mic wall plate "B" which inevitably delayed us by a couple of hours.

Once we identified and solved the problem with the wall plate it was full speed ahead. By this time our session drummer (Dustin) had plenty enough rehearsal time and was able to crank out a couple of "keepers" within the first couple of takes.

In the end patience prevailed and we were able to get Greg's song that much closer to completion.

Here is a drum only track using the room mics only. I will post a mixdown of the entire kit in a later blog.

NEW! From Celemony (makers of Melodyne)

2008-03-12T07:44:00.000-07:00

Every once in awhile new software comes out that really makes you say wow! This is one of those times. Celemony will be releasing a new version of Melodyne this fall. For those of you not familiar with Melodyne, it is a software program that allows you to correct vocal performances by using pitch correction. Of course it will do even more than that but its main function is to be able to correct/tweak an otherwise good performance, making it even better. I'm sure you can imagine how helpful even this current version can be.

This fall Celemony will be releasing a new version featuring Direct Note Access. Direct Note Access is a technology that makes the impossible possible: for the first time in audio recording history you can identify and edit individual notes within polyphonic audio material. The unique access that Melodyne affords to pitch, timing, note lengths and other parameters of melodic notes will now also be afforded to individual notes within chords.

Celemony has a great video that shows how this new technology will work and you can find it here; http://www.celemony.com/cms/index.php?id=dna&L=0

Argue Street EP - The London Project

2008-03-07T00:57:00.000-08:00

Be sure to check out our tunes by clicking on the iPod looking player to the right

Audio Engineering Session 8

2008-03-07T00:35:00.000-08:00

This sessing we track drums using the Roland VS-2480. We used the 8 builtin pre-amps. I didn't catch the name of tom or room mics but we used a SM57 on the snare and an AKG D112 on the kick. The tom mics were Audio-Technica ATM250's (I think, gotta confirm that. They were definately ATM's though) and the spaced pair room mics were AKG C451. We left 1 channel available to use if needed on either the hi-hat or the snare. We decided after hearing our setup that we didn't need it (this time).

The AKG D112 was placed in the kick drum about 4" to the left of the beater and about 6" away from the drum head, angled towards the beater.

The spaced pair of condenser mics (AKG 451) were placed 8 feet from the centre of the kit pointing at the space between the snare and the kick drum. They were 60" from the floor.

Audio Engineering Session 7

2008-03-01T18:01:00.000-08:00

It took me awhile to get to this entry but here we go. Phase. What is it and why should we care about it? Well, phase issues appear from time to time and will (most often) have a negative impact on your recordings. Recordings that are out of phase will sound thin, muddy and just generally not too good. Phase issues can be difficult to track down. Microphones should be positioned in such a way as to reduce the possibility of phase issues.
An interesting psychoacoustic phenomenom occurs regarding phase. If you flip phase on one of two identical tracks they will cancel each other out.

Found out Reaper can read Roland VS files

2008-03-01T11:11:00.000-08:00

I knew there had to be a way to make better use of the CD burning on the V-Studio. I was able to locate some software that allows you to utilize the backup utility as a file source. If you would like to know more about this utility, click here http://www.thegoodlibrary.com/VSWaveExport.html

Reaper is the only multi-track audio editor that recognizes VS
files. Sonar does not.

It's what we love to do!

2008-02-27T09:01:00.001-08:00

Darren, Sophie and Greg working on the V-Studio.

Greg laying down some electric guitar tracks

w00t! New gear! Roland VS-2400CD

2008-02-26T08:05:00.000-08:00

I've had my eye on this unit at Long and McQuade for a few weeks now. This particular unit was used but under a very close inspection, it looks like it was used very little. It shows absolutely no signs of wear at all. It actually looks like it was only removed from the box. I found one previous session on the hard drive so I know that it is not new.

This is the cousin of the VS-2480 that we are using at school. Basically it functions the same and offers all the features except the VS-2400 comes with only 8 pre-amps and must be expanded to 16 channels via an AD/DA converter.

I fired this baby up last night and immediately noticed that the operating system and overall feel is exactly the same as the VS-2480. Since I have already had a bit of hands on with the VS-2480 I was able to quickly setup for a quick test recording. I plugged in my 8 channel snake into the VS-2400 and began connecting my drum mic kit. For this experiment I connect up 8 microphones. One on each, the hi-hat, snare, kick, overheads and toms. I didn't use any effects at all and only used headphones for monitoring. First impressions was that it was quite quick to set up and the sound quality is very good. We will be tracking drums during our next practice night on Wednesday so I will have a better idea of it's performance then.

Audio Engineering Session 6

2008-02-22T10:32:00.000-08:00

This weeks theory focused on acoustics and it is going to be a bit more difficult to condense down into bite size chunks like I have in past blogs. It is also testing my understanding of the topic at hand to the maximum. So with that being said, let me go make a sandwhich cause I think we are in for a long read.
There was mention of a computer application that will calculate the ideal speaker locations for any given room. You simply input the room data, such as dimensions and furniture etc and let the program calculate the optimum speaker placement. However, due to the complexity and countless permutations it can take a week or two to generate the information. Yes, a week or two (you read that right). A specific application was not mentioned as we were talking about the application functionality in general. I did some hunting on the web and found this one. TOA Speaker System Design Software. I am downloading it for free from their website as I write this blog. I'll be checking it out and I'll post my review in a separate blog entry. http://www.toaelectronics.com/speaker_software.asp UPDATE: I only had a chance to briefly check out this software package and I'm not sure that it will do what I described earlier. I will dig into this a little further at a different time.

We moved on to discussing "Room Modes" and why they are important to an Audio Engineer. A Room Mode Calculator can be found here http://www.mcsquared.com/metricmodes.htm Now then, I will try and explain room modes. A "Room Mode" is a set of frequencies that resonate between parallel surfaces. Room modes are calculated using the simple formula; frequency equals velocity divided by wavelength. For every 1000 hertz there are 9 modes. If you are like me you are asking yourself, why do I need to know about room modes? It is important to understand room modes as it will affect the quality of sound as the frequencies build up. Certain frequencies will get louder. The best example is to use the worst type of room, and that would be a cube. In this example we will say that this cube room is 10' x 10' x 10' to make the math simple. Using the formula frequency=velocity divided by wavelength we can calculate the frequencies. We know that the wavelength is 10 feet and the velocity is 1100 so we can then tell that the frequency equals 110 hz. This figure increases by 110 hz so then you would have 110, 220, 330, 440, 550, 660 etc. However, in this example we can cut the 110 hz in half to 55 hz. 55 hz is equal to the A string on a bass guitar. So in that example room the A string would sound louder because the room will resonate the frequencies more and they pile up to make it louder. Now that the problem frequencies can be identified, we can move on to treating the room. More on treating rooms in a future blog.

My homebuilt electric guitar (Samba)

2008-02-21T23:49:00.000-08:00

I have always wanted a chance to build a guitar to see if it helps you really connect with it. I found a company called Grisly Industrial and they make these guitar building kits. Basically you assemble it yourself and do your own finish. They no longer sell this particular kit, but they do make several others.
It took about 2 months to build and finish. Final product sounds and looks great and was a lot of fun to build.... and the answer is, yes, you can really connect to a guitar you build yourself.

My favorite websites

2008-02-21T15:55:00.000-08:00

I have been a member of a few music related internet sites for awhile now. The forums on the following websites have been very valuable to me in my pursuit to be an Audio Engineer.

iMusicScene which was formerly Guitaristworks has been hosting our music files since our bands conception many years ago. We are surrounded by excellent talent and very patient and helpful members. A lot of comments and encouragement from fellow members has helped us through many obstacles. If you are a musician or simply enjoy listening to great indie music, I urge you to check out the iMusicScene site.

When I first started out doing home recording I began seeking out various websites. I came across a few before settling in with HomeRecordingConnection.com. The reason I chose this site over many others out there was that it was a family friendly forum. Meaning, I didn't have to worry about my kids reading over my shoulder when I'm visiting. Once again, lots of talent and very helpful members. I honestly would not be where I am at now if it wasn't for these sites.

Promoting friends of The London Project

2008-02-21T08:10:00.000-08:00

I thought I would create a single blog entry to promote my friends bands. If you get a chance, please check out their website... or even go to see them if they are gigging in your area. First up is Uncle Nestor. Chris Waldner is the drummer for Uncle Nestor and The London Project has been fortunate enough to be able to take advantage of his supreme percussion abilities on our upcoming EP, Argue Street. Uncle Nestor has an awesome music video that has seen regular rotation on MTV. Woman Like The Wind

Add to My Profile | More Videos Uncle Nestor can be found on the web at www.unclenestor.com/ or on MySpace at www.myspace.com/UncleNestor1

Next up is my buddy James Brander's band. James has played in several band including JP5 and most currently, Big John Bates and the Voodoo Dollz. They are currently on tour playing across Canada and the US.

Check out this video: Big John Bates - Kitten With A Whip

Add to My Profile | More Videos

APEX 210 Ribbon Microphone

2008-02-19T21:37:00.001-08:00

I recently purchased one of these APEX 210 Ribbon Mics. The first thing I noticed was that the cord was permanently attached to the microphone. I'm thinking that since cables are prone to fail, it may prove to be a PITA. On the other hand, hard wired like this will make for a cleaner, more direct connection to your pre-amp. After first plugging it in I thought I received a dud. It was then that I realised that this mic requires a lot of gain.... huge amounts of gain. Once I pumped in a lot of gain I started to experience awesome results. I was only able to test this mic for a short time but my first impressions is that this mic would be well suited for female vocals and acoustic guitar. Especially when used in acoustically treated room.

My OGG Blog

2008-02-19T21:02:00.000-08:00

In my previous blog I mentioned OGG files, a type of compression used by Reaper. Well thanks to my buddy Noise2u over at http://www.homerecordingconnection.com/, I was able to get pointed in the right direction. He quickly noted that OGG files refer to a technology given to us by http://www.vorbis.com/ If you really want to learn about the indepth operations of OGG files then I suggest that you check out their site. I will however, try and summarize a bit from what I have read.

First mention should be that Vorbis is Open Source meaning that it is available for free and being an Audio Engineer we like the word free. OGG Vorbis has been designed with the intention of replacing MP3 and all other compression models. There are a few reason why Vorbis thinks you will be interested. Well, I already mentioned free, but you are also able to compress WAV files into a much smaller size and still sound fine. Inside the OGG packet, you are able to put notes and such which can come handy when elaborating on the track to your fans for example. There are already a lot of companies adopting OGG files as their primary compression and these include EA Games, Crystal Dynamics, PopCap Games and of course Reaper.

All of this is very exciting. Not only will you be able to load 10x the amount of songs on you MP3 player but also allow for supreme performance in audio applications.

Audio Engineering Session 5

2008-02-19T09:20:00.000-08:00

Our session this week opened up with a discussion about file compression. This conversation was sparked by a recently created audio file compression discovered in Reaper called OGG. OGG files appear to be a very efficient means of file compression. Note: we were wondering about the OGG files being possibly the only option that Reaper would use, however I have looked into this and in fact Reaper supports many file formats. From the Reaper Help File

REAPER allows you to use different recording formats for different tracks in the same file. The default format for each new track that you create will be determined by your Project Settings. To change these or any track, simply right click over the track’s VU meter, then from the menu choose rack Recording Settings. You can choose any of the formats WAV, AIFF, Monkey’s Audio, FLAC,MP3, OGG Vorbis, or WavPack lossledd compressor. Depending on which format you choose, you will be presented with a range of options appropriate to that format.

WAV files that have an original file size of 40 MB can be compressed to about 400 k throught the use of OGG files. This is approximately 1/100 of the original WAV file size. By comparison, a typical MP3 file will be 4 MB or 1/10 of the file size. Please note: the above ratios are yet to be confirmed but I will be searching the web for the exact ratios. The MTP compression that the Roland V-Studio uses compresses by approximately 40%.

Next we learnt about velocity (speed of sound) and effects. Sound travels at a speed of 1130 feet per second. For ease of calculation we are rounding down to 1100 feet per second. References of thunder clap we discussed as a way of determining distance. Temperature also enters this equation. For every drop of 1 degree, sound will slow down by 1 foot per second. Here are some notes about effects. Reverb can be referred to as the overall ambient characteristic of the sound. Decay time refers to how long the note/sound sustains. Typical examples are a 2.5 second decay at a rock concert, .4 second decay in our classes live room, and 6 seconds in a cathedral. Diffusion refers to how smooth the reverb is. Early reflections are discernable echo/series of repeats. Repeats must be more than 35 milleseconds before a destict repeat can be detected. Chorus modulation is at a fixed rate and decay.

Now for the fun stuff. We began recording one of the instructors original tunes. In this session we first recorded a scratch track. This was done by recording a rough version of the song using one microphone and was set to a click track at 99 bpm. In this case we used an AKG 414 set to a circle pattern. The placement of the mic allowed for both the vocals and guitar to be well balanced. The location was approximately half way between the sound hole of the guitar and the mouth of the performer and about 12" in front. We then began replacing the scratch guitar parts with overdubs. One guitar overdub was panned hard left while a additional guitar overdub was panned hard right. Once we were happy with the guitar parts, we moved on to recording the vocals. We only had enough time to lay down one vocal track but the quality and performance were good enough to print and move forward. We saved the project and will be adding more instruments in the next lesson.

My microphone collection swelled a bit today

2008-02-15T19:21:00.000-08:00

Every year around this time, Long and McQuade have a sale to blow out their previous years inventory. This year was no exception and there were some great deals to be had. I walked in looking to purchase the APEX DP4 - 7 piece drum mic kit. Two other mics caught my eye and were priced too good to pass up. I ended up with an APEX 410 Wide Diaphram Condensor and a APEX 210 Ribbon Mic.

Pictured; Shure SM57, Shure SM58, NADY SP5, APEX DP4 Drum Mic Kit, APEX 210, Studio Projects B1, APEX 435, AKG D190C, APEX 180, APEX 410, Karma Micro

I'm looking forward to experimenting with these new additions.

The Envision Jazz Festival & Big John Bates and the Voodoo Dollz

2008-02-07T22:07:00.000-08:00

There was no class tonight as our instructor is working the Envision Jazz Festival. For those interested, this Jazz fest has been going on for 26 years now. Performances are tonight (Thursday) and Friday night. You can read all about it here;

http://www.envisionjazzfestival.sd36.bc.ca/

I'm not sure that I will be able to attend the Jazz festival this year but I will be going to see a buddies band on Saturday. Big John Bates and the Voodoo Dollz are playing. Cheers JT Massacre! Looking forward to seeing you. For more information on his show, check out their website at http://www.bigjohnbates.com/

Sessions resume next week so watch this blog for the latest.

My newly cleaned control room

2008-02-04T08:29:00.000-08:00

With many thanks to my wife Maria I was able to get my control room into some sort of orderly fashion. This is where I do all of my mixing as well as listening to my old LP's on occasion.

I thought I'd better snap this picture while the room is still clean.

Now that I have this ultra clean control room, I guess I don't have anymore excuses for not getting our long overdue EP completed.

Roland VS-2480CD

2008-02-01T22:11:00.000-08:00

In our class the other night, we were once again using the Roland 2480CD DAW. I'm really beginning to appreciate this piece of gear so I thought I would post a quick blog about it.

The further we get to know the Roland DAW, the more I want to have one. I can see this DAW working awesome in a live application as well as the studio. The prices are getting to be very affordable as well.

It features 16 inputs. 8 of which are XLR with pre-amps. I like that it is very flexible when it comes to routing signals.

There are a few used units available on Evil-Bay for around $1200-$1500. I'm thinking the time will come sooner rather than later to pick one of these babies up.

Audio Engineering Session 4

2008-02-01T08:32:00.000-08:00

In this blog I would like to welcome my fellow AE students! Hopefully these blogs will help you as much as they help me. I should point out however that this blog is primarily written to re-enforce my understanding of the AE sessions. Certain information may be missing as I may have already gained this knowledge. Therefore it is important to say that this blog should not be a substitute for your own notes but rather a supplement to them.

This weeks session began with a discussion on WAV files. We took a look at a variable waveform in ProTools. Zooming in on the wav file we were able to see the peaks and valleys. It was pointed out to us that the waveform includes both amplitude and frequency information. The image to the right displays a typical waveform as viewed in many audio software applications. The image to the left displays a zoomed in image of the waveform. The jagged edge displays the frequency while the overall shape of the wave represents the amplitude.

Next up in our session was to learn about microphones and how a microphone operates. The example we looked at was a Shure SM58 dynamic microphone which is a staple in most every studio. The SM58 is known for it's ruggedness and it's ability to perform well on stage.

Microphones are a type of transducer which is a device that converts energy from one form or another. Microphones convert acoustical energy (sound waves) into electrical energy (the audio signal).
Different types of microphone have different ways of converting energy but they all share one thing in common: The diaphragm. This is a thin piece of material (such as paper, plastic or aluminium) which vibrates when it is struck by sound waves. In a typical hand-held mic like the one below, the diaphragm is located in the head of the microphone. When a magnet is moved near a coil of wire, an electrical current is generated in the wire. Using this electromagnetic principle, the dynamic microphone uses a wire coil and magnet to create an audio signal. The diaphragm is attached to the coil. When the diaphragm vibrates in response to incoming sound waves, the coil moves backwards and forwards past the magnet. This creates a current in the coil which is channeled from the microphone along wires.

Loudspeakers perform the opposite function of microphones by converting electrical energy into sound waves. This is demonstrated perfectly in the dynamic microphone which is basically a loudspeaker in reverse. When you see a cross-section of a speaker you'll see the similarity with the diagram above. In fact, some intercom systems use the speaker as a microphone. You can also demonstrate this effect by plugging a microphone into the headphone output of your stereo, although we don't recommend it! I have an old speaker that I have wired up to be used as a kick drum microphone and it works quite well in that application.

Well folks, that is about it for now. I will update this post at a later time. Discussion on the DI Box, gain staging and a look at the Shure KSM32 will be added at a later time.

*REMINDER: There will not be a session next week.

Audio Engineering Session 3

2008-01-25T10:10:00.001-08:00

Heyyy!! I didn't get lost. Not only didn't I get lost but I confidently walked straight to the class. This was really good news for me as I was running late and was quite worried that I would be late for class. We started this session out by burning up some song tracks to CD so that everyone had some material to work with. They were burnt at 4x so that it would be a nice deep burn.

While the CD's were burning we entered a discussion about analog versus digital. Upon discussion we quickly realised that even though we all had a basic idea of what the two technologies were, we were not able to quickly describe them. In analog recording systems, the continuously varying amplitude of the sound waveform is translated to a continuously varying level of magnetism, LP groove amplitude, etc. In contrast, with digital audio encoding, discrete (noncontinuous) time sampling and amplitude quantization is required, a process that breaks the originally continuous and smooth waveform into a staircase or other pattern of pulses. The instructor went on to mention that "The Principles of Digital Audio by Ken Pohlmann" was a really good read for anyone that wants to get in depth information about digital audio and it's origins. I found a summary of this book here http://mcgoodwin.net/digitalaudio/digitalaudio.html.

After a short break we began discussing a bit about frequencies of instruments and why it is important to know them. Basically it is important to know the frequencies so that through the use of EQ you can increase (amplify) or decrease (attenuate) the corresponding frequency allowing for the instruments to sound better in the mix. We briefly talked about impedance which is basically resistance. High impedance cables are intended for short distance of under 15 feet. By contrast low impedance cables allow for an audio signal to travel a lot further without introducing signal loss. It is important to select the appropriate cable for the task at hand.

"Enough of the theory stuff" says the instructor and off to the control room we go. We begin with a quick review of the Roland DAW. When quickly moved on to the steps required to route a signal to the Roland DAW and onwards to the Peavey console. We setup the a computer to loop a song for continuous playback which would be used as a quick and easy sound source. We grabbed a SM57 from the mic closed and set it up about 12" directly in front of the computer. We then plugged it into the closest wall plate. Once this was done we returned to the control room to route the signal into the DAW and console. Once all the routing was physically connected we began working with the Roland DAW routing so that we could forward the signal to the console. I will stop writing here as there would be too many steps to list.

Yamaha F-310

2008-01-21T23:11:00.000-08:00

While I'm doing all this blogging I might as well bring you up to speed on my guitars. I've been playing guitar for about 6 years now but actually my very first guitar was a 3/4 size acoustic guitar when I was 9. I briefly took some lessons but it wasn't until quite recently that I started playing again. Ha, what do you call a 30 year absence anyway?

My next guitar was a Yamaha F-310 that was originally bought for my wife but instead ended up kicking off one hell of a gear addiction.

I originally thought that I'd create a blog about my Audio Engineering sessions but really, all this other gear plays an important part in the scope of AE.

Seagull S-12

2008-01-21T22:24:00.000-08:00

My latest aquisition was this Seagull S-12, 12-String acoustic guitar. Shown here with the Fishman pickup that I installed. Actually the Fishman is pretty cool. It basically just clamps onto the edge of the soundhole. It has two watch batteries which according to Fishman, will last for 3 years. It was really easy to install. A couple of screw clamps to hold it in place. A jack is installed in place of the regular strap button. Very clean look.

If you can believe it, I bought this guitar in the US for cheaper than I could in Canada. Now then, this is rather strange since it is MADE IN CANADA!! The rising Canadian dollar did me well this time around.

Epiphone Valve Jr.

2008-01-21T21:45:00.000-08:00

This past weekend I decided to reward myself for not smoking. From the money I have saved from smoking for 2 weeks, I managed to buy this Epiphone Valve Jr amp. I love this thing. Nothing like pushing tubes past their breaking point! As you can see it has 1 knob, from loud to louder.

This new amp is a welcome addition to my studio and share the duties with my Traynor YCV40. I really like this amp as well but it is simply too loud for the size of room that we play in. I can't push it too that sweet spot without it being too loud for the room.

Audio Engineering Session 2

2008-01-18T00:10:00.000-08:00

I got lost again! Well, not really but still don't know my way around the school. I ended up being one of the first to arrive. I got there in time to see some band members loading up our isolation booth with instruments!! Band dudes! Get out of our room. I didn't say it but I sure was thinking it.

The instructor arrived right on time and after a bit of chit chat he talked about one of his students that brought in his SAW system. Built with a Asus MB, SATA drives, Lightpipe and a Frontier interface. We didn't get a chance to see it or discuss it much more. Sounded interesting and I'd like to learn more about it.

We checked out a ProTools system. It was an older 001 running with PT 5.01. Quickly went over the interface. 2 mic pres, and 6 analogue ins. We opened up a project and did a basic mixing
overview.

Into the control room we go. We spend a bit more time on the board this time. First off we learnt a bit about the board itself. This is a 32x16x32 board meaning, 32 input channels, 16 sub channels and 32 monitor channels.

We then went on to reading the meters. The meters read voltage with 1.23 volts = 0 on the meters. This is considered pro standard. 0 being optimum. In comparison, VU meters on a consumer cassette deck only require 0.316 volts to be at optimum. Because of this variation, it is important to watch that you don't overdrive consumer level products with the board. He went on to say that broadcast standard requires 1.96 volts = 0.

We also found out that 0 on the board is equal to -20 on the Tascams. Another way to look at it is, 0 = full scale on a digital syatem which equals +20 on the board.

Next up... the Roland V-Studio 2480. This is a DAW unit with 8 preamps and 16 inputs. It will record up to 96k - 24 bit. It can be connected to a pc through the use of Roland R-bus PCI cards (up to 2). It has a built in CD burner and a 80 gig drive partitioned into 6 drives. It uses native compression (MTP) to save space on the drive.

AT this point there would be way too much to describe in this blog as we dove into the DAW quite a bit. If you want to learn more about the Roland you are going to have to RTFM. Basically it was pointed out that we are going to be using this piece of equipment at lot in this semester.

I guess that is about it for this week. Bye for now.

Audio Engineering Session 1

2008-01-11T23:22:00.000-08:00

I left home early so that I would have plenty of time to check things out at the college (never been there before). Parking wasn't a problem at all. (due to the fact that this is an evening course I'm sure). So off I go into the school. Wow, its big. I see that there is a large lobby with 3 wings. Cool cause I know that it is in the 3rd wing. Signs are everywhere to guide me. Room 3825 is just over there through the doors on the right, I say to myself. Found the room pretty quickly but it started to feel kinda strange. There is no studio here and why are there a bunch of people talking about physics. Hmmm... Back to the front lobby I go. Quickly spotted the general information area and found out the guy gave me the WRONG ROOM NUMBER! It was actually 3285. Now it is getting close to the time the class starts and I still don't know where the room is. Well, eventually I found the room with about 5 minutes to spare. Two students were already there. Four more arrived to make a total of 7 in our class.

We grab some chairs and start our session in the live room.

The teacher introduced himself and asked a couple of basic questions like, how did you hear about us etc. He moved onto the session pretty much right away. He showed us some cable types and began talking about what it takes to make a good recording. "Good musician+good room+good instrument+good engineer=proffessional product". "But how do you define a good instrument", he says. He then used drums as an example. How do you know a good drum kit? By the way it sounds, and general reputation. He went on to say that a good drummer can make a crappy kit sound good.

On to learning about SPL and decibels. Here is the basic breakdown;
-To increase the volume units (VU) by 3 dB, 10x the energy is required. To increase by another 3 dB, 20x required. To increase yet another 3 dB to make a total of a 9 dB increase requires 40x the energy etc. It is an exponential scale.

Here are some quick info bits on dB.
74 dB is conversation level. This is based on the phone system. It was a comfortable volume to speak to someone on the other end of a phone.
118 dB is the threshold of feeling.
130-140 dB is the threshold of pain
Ambient noise is around 25-35 dB.

After a quick break we went into the control room. He introduced us to the equipment which included a Peavey 1600 32 channel console, Avalon pres, Focusrite, Tascam and some really nice vintage Tannoy monitors and a set of Genelecs. A Roland DAW was hooked up to a set or Roland monitors as well. Too much stuff to list so I will try and get some pictures next week.

EDIT: These pictures were taken during the second session but I thought it would be appropriate to update this post rather than start a new one.

Introduction of myself and the course

2008-01-11T22:30:00.000-08:00

I have been a recording and creating music for the past 6 years. I am mostly self taught with the help of many great sites on the internet. I am in a band called The London Project and I record all of our stuff in my home studio. You can listen to our latest music at http://www.thelondonproject.ca/

I have been interested in music all my life. I guess what started it all was a Christmas present when I was 9 (35 years ago). A cassette recorder and 3 tapes; Nazereth Rampant, Gordon Lightfoots Greatest Hits and The Stampeders. It came with a couple of blank tapes as well as a microphone. Didn't take long before I was recording my voice doing hockey broadcast impersonations.

A few years later I began collecting LP's. I still have most of them (about 500 in total). I eventually used my knowledge of music to get me some DJ work. Spun the platters just for fun at company parties etc. while going to college to learn Graphic Design. My graphic knowledge launched a career in the Trade Show and Signage industry. Working daily on computers lead me down the Information Technology path which is what I currently do for a living.

I selected this particular course as it was in the evenings and would allow me to keep working.

The course is broken down into six levels. The first three levels are grouped together and teach you recording fundamentals. Rather than listing what the literature says about what we will be doing, I will write separate blogs on what we were actually taught.

I hope you find these blogs helpfull. I'm not the greatest writer but I will try to keep you entertained.