EWABS Quarterly Audio Masters Roundtable for November 2013!

I always enjoy my time hanging out with Dan and George from the East West Audio Body Shop. It's fun letting my inner crank take over and chat recording and producing with other professionals in this field.

I was honored to join their quarterly line up with "Uncle Roy" Yokelson, Cliff Zellman, and Mike Varela. We hit a number of engineering topics, and hopefully you find the chat enlightening!

G+ Mailbag: Sound Editing vs Sound Mixing?

I win a LOT of Oscar pools, mostly because I usually nail the technical awards. I just received this question from my pal Kathleen on Google Plus:

Hey, +Juan Carlos Bagnell ! Can you give me some schooling on the Academy Award's sound categories? Namely the giant differences between the two, and what one looks for when analyzing/judging sound mixing and editing? 

Sure! The difference between the two is actually pretty simple to explain.

Sound editing is the creation of individual elements for the film. Anything created, or recorded on location, is the purview of the Sound Editor, who is responsible for collecting all of the elements needed to complete the film. Often it's referred to as Sound Effects Editing or Sound Design.

Sound Mixing is the final mix down of all the audio elements to create the finished product for display. This is the older of the two categories, and in the past was simply referred to as "Best Sound".

Now judging good sound is often a little tricky. On the one hand sound effects shouldn't be distracting, but to win the award, work must be done that stands out to a degree. Looking at the list of Sound Editing winners, you'll see a number of films which pushed right to the knife's edge boundary line of "cool" versus "distracting".

Sound Mixing is judged on the cumulative effect of the audio on the film. Beyond just whether or not there are any distracting elements, the audio must have a unified vision which enhances the films it is supporting.

Obviously it's very common for one film to win both awards, though occasionally two films with amazing sound will split the awards, like in 2008 where Dark Knight took Editing and Slumdog Millionaire took Mixing.

Now, these categories are usually decided by the people that work in those respective fields. You can always turn to the awards they give themselves (like the MPSE Golden Reel) to see who's building momentum for the Academy Awards.

This year, the Reels were all over the place, so I wouldn't be surprised to see a split between Hugo, Super 8, or War Horse.

Good luck in your Oscar pool! If any of these tips help you out, you should buy me a cup of coffee with your winnings (donation links to the left)... ;-)

The Nokia BH-905i Bluetooth Headphones - A Nice Refresh to an Already Great Pair of Headphones

I FINALLY got my hands on a pair of Nokia BH-905i's!

One year ago, I reviewed the original BH-905's. I really liked them, and had very few caveats for those looking for a versatile pair of wireless headphones.

Well Nokia has refreshed the line, so lets take a quick look at what's changed!

At their core, these are a very familiar pair of headphones. Thankfully not much of what I liked from the original 905's has changed. The most immediate difference is the redesigned headband. The strange tapers on the sides are gone, in favor of a more traditional headband, and you'll no longer look quite as much like a Cyberman. Fit and finish are still fantastic. High quality materials, solid feel to joints, and extremely comfortable ear pads.

The case has also undergone a redesign. Accessories are no longer held by elastic straps inside, but now have their own pouch to reside within. The Swiss Army knife collection of adapters is still included, and they've added a new y-adapter to connect to computer headphone & microphone ports, and a special cable just for iphones (because iphones are NON-standard like that).

On the software side, Nokia has expanded support for different audio players. Most notably, new profiles for enhanced bass and stereo widening. The widening effect gave music a great stereo feel. Unfortunately, the 905i's bass response is still on the lean side, so playing club tracks with my Android phone and engaging a mega-bass profile made music feel a little muddy.

I have no way of verifying, but I think Nokia has managed to make the noise reduction even more aggressive than the last generation of 905's. EIGHT microphones are on board to sample sound around you. Turning on NR on Ventura blvd managed to make all the cars in traffic sound like hybrids. Frequent fliers and commuters will certainly appreciate the amount of audio isolation these headphones provide.

Pairing has been seamless with an Android smartphone, a PS3, and a Windows 7 laptop.

The last change worth mentioning?

The BH-905i headphones' street price is $100 cheaper than the original 905's.
This puts 905i within $30 of the miserable Bose On-Ear headphones, and is $100 cheaper then the Bose QuietComfort 15's. The QC15's might have slightly better bass, but are wired only headphones, so they wont have bluetooth, and to my ear I think I like the noise reduction in the Nokia's better.

That was really the biggest obstacle for me with the original 905's. I had a hard time fully justifying $300 for a pair of headphones, even a really good pair of bluetooth headphones, but at $200 the 905i becomes an incredible buy, especially for travelers and commuters looking to remove separate audio solutions from their day to day gear.

And if you buy the Nokia BH-905i Bluetooth Headphones on Amazon using this link, you'll also be supporting this site!

A Little Smack Down for Some NON-Constructive Criticism

Alright.
If you've read this blog at all, you should know I'm a snarky, cranky, git most of the time. Also that I produce content all over the place, including my own pet project, a film review webseries called Movies You May Have Missed.
Since the show's creation, people have constantly made fun of the "prop" microphone we keep on the table. This hurts my feelings, as a lot of work goes into making that show look and sound natural.

We made this vid to address a few of those "not so constructive" criticisms...

Deep Listening - Why Audio Quality Matters

Ok.


This is really heady stuff.
Here is a two and a half hour round table discussion on audio fidelity, set up by the Philoctetes Center (The Multidisciplinary Study of Imagination).

On the surface it seems to be a bunch of mastering engineers ragging on digital audio (and specifically MP3), but there are some great observations on the science of audio, and the business of production.


Participants: Steve Berkowitz, Greg Calbi (moderator), Evan Cornog, Michael Fremer, Kevin Killen, Craig Street
Deep Listening: Why Audio Quality Matters 


The irony of course is that the audio of the discussion is really poor...

Random Trivia Tidbit - Radio Waves vs Sound Waves

My Mom's a big ole trivia geek too...


She just sent this my way:

Because radio waves travel at 186,000 miles per second and
sound waves saunter at 700 miles per hour, a broadcast voice
can be heard sooner 13,000 miles away than it can be heard
at the back of the room in which it originated.

Neat!

Physicist's Gadget Lets You HEAR The Sound of a Perfect Golf Swing!

A new golf gadget developed by a Yale physics professor takes a different approach to golf training. Rather than focusing on the mechanics, the device literally allows players to "fine tune" the sound of their swings.

read more | digg story

News Sound Bites - Mic Stands, Reverb, Theremin, and MORE!

Some cool stories that caught my eye this week.

Mary McKitrick takes a look at the M600 Universal Microphone Mount, and seems pretty positive on it.

What's that ringing in your ears? It could be reverb, and AudioTuts has an awesome post with FIFTEEN FREE REVERB PLUGINS! Go get your echo on!

So I wasn't so stoked about the Sirius/XM merger, but it looks like we might finally be getting dual format radios compatible with both Sirius AND XM.

So it's a speaker.
And it's round, so you can roll it around, so that's cool.
Does this make a speaker worth $21,000?

I've been constantly trying to find good places to host audio (right now I'm using Humyo). No one really seems that interested in it. Video? Sure bring it on, but free audio not so much. Apparently there have been complaints about the compression used on Youtube, so they'll be improving the audio quality of Youtube videos. Could this be the answer to free media hosting?

And speaking of Youtube, what do you MEAN you've NEVER heard the theme to Super Mario played on a theremin!?!?!

Well here you go:

Fixing Off Center Audio - DC Offset: The Enemy of Dynamic Range

A WHILE back I asked for some help on this phenomenon of audio drifting off the center line. Click pic to see --->

I was getting auditions from actors that didn't sound distorted, but were clipping really easily if I tried to normalize them.

Well I just recently received a very helpful comment from Kyle Clements, who reminded me about DC Offset. He sent me a link to a Harmony Central article with tips to correct this distortion.

I just recently encountered this again with a singer I'm working with. I think her problem might be overloading her mic (or her mic might be damaged).

Such an odd problem, as it doesn't seem to distort the signal, but it radically reduces headroom, which can cause your audio to clip easier. The distortion also seems to increase with amplification, boost your levels 10dB, and the offset increases by 10dB. Clipage!

Thanks Kyle for the helpful link!

Music Retailer Thrives Serving Captive Audience

Just caught this on Digg, and thought it was kind of interesting.
Especially as we've been heralding the death of the cassette tape for a while now.
I guess you just need to go "low-tech" sometimes...

More than 2.3 million people were locked up in federal, state or local systems at midyear 2007, according to the U.S. Dept. of Justice, and they want their Michael Jackson and Pink Floyd just like everyone else. Enter North Hollywood-based Pack Central, which runs a mail-order operation for about 50,000 prisoners.

read more | digg story

The Sound That Shouldn't Be. Violinist Defies Physics?

Mari Kimura is a New York composer and virtuoso violinist whose music includes haunting low notes on the violin called “subharmonics.” Problem is, these sounds aren’t supposed to be possible.

If the science is anything similar to wind instruments, I used to hum through the back of my throat while playing the bass clarinet, and it would creating these warbling mid tones.

Click below to hear Mari's work.
read more | digg story

Source Connect updated to Version 3, Incompatible with 2.5, Upgrade is Free

For those of you looking for ISDN like recording over the internet, look no further than Source Connect. It allows you to send your audio anywhere in the world (with broadband access), in real time (usually with very little lag), and allows you to be recorded on the receiver's end (provided they have SC).
The nice thing about SC is it doesn't require you to purchase any other equipment to add to the recording chain. You don't need to route back and forth from a Telos Zephyr. Everything is handled internally by your computer and soundcard.
It's these kinds of technologies that are a god send to voice actors across the country. It means you're just as competitive in Poughkeepsie as you would be in NY/LA/Chicago. As ISDN slowly starts to die off (wont happen for a while yet but still), these audio connection technologies are going to have to step up to fill the gap. Especially as it seems that ISDN support is getting harder to find, and ISDN lines are becoming more expensive in some areas.

Source Connect has just been updated to version 3.0. The Source elements site has a warning about this update:

Source-Connect 3.0 is not compatible with 2.5. Current 2.5 users must upgrade to 3.0. Due to a number of internal improvements Source-Connect 2.5 and Source-Connect 3.0 are not compatible. All current 2.5 license owners are eligible for a free license upgrade.

I think this is actually kind of cool. So often with software, compatibility issues seem to only be discussed in the darkest of forum threads. Kudos for putting this right out in the open and saving us all the search.
Also making the update free is a really classy thing to do. I get really tired of paying for '.1' upgrades (Apple and Pro Tools I'm looking in your general directions). Considering they are acknowedging that their upgrade breaks compatibility with their own previous version, making the update free is really appreciated.

So come on SC users. Lets get to updating, so we're all on the same page!

And you closet junkies, needing a remote recording solution or phone patch, check it out!

Hack a Mr. Microphone to Make a Wireless Bug/Spy Microphone

Ok, I'm totally ripping this off Engadget, but I LOVE Mr. Microphone. It's just an awesome idea gone horribly HORRIBLY wrong. That and the commercials are AWESOME schlock!

So, let's say you need to get some spying done, but you have a VERY small budget, and those surveillance stores really creep you out. If you have a Mr. Microphone lying around, then prepare to start listening in on other people's conversations!

Instructables to the resuce!

Mr. Microphone Hack:

Mr. Microphone Hack! - The best video clips are right here

Pretty cool stuff!

I'm doing the math in my head for what it would take to use an old FM Transmitter I have (those things never work well in cities). Hmmm.... In-ter-est-ing...

Oh hell, just for kicks here's the Mr. Microphone commercial I love SO much.

Let's get this party started!

Acoustic Cloaking Device to be Made From Crystals

Now you hear me...

So this is following up on the theories of cloaking objects from the visible light spectrum, that if you can get acoustic energy to flow AROUND a structure, then the inside of that structure is essentially acoustically neutral.

BBC News has the scoop:

Scientists have shown off the blueprint for an "acoustic cloak", which could make objects impervious to sound waves.

The technology, outlined in the New Journal of Physics, could be used to build sound-proof homes, advanced concert halls or stealth warships.

Darpa had a similar project running in 2007 to try and reduce acoustic energy from military vehicles, but I think this current project from Spanish researchers could prove more effective. It would also have more immediate consumer benefits (as well as more practical application for the Navy), though probably less effective for ground based vehicles.

Or maybe it would be too good. It might not be such a good idea to make a completely sound proof car...

Thanks for the link Jeff!

Is MP3 about to become obsolete?

In a word "no".

But if I didn't write BOLD headlines, would you even be reading this?

Wired's Listening Post has a really interesting post up about a new type of music reproduction/digital compression.
Unlike MP3 it doesn't work as a way of compressing and sampling actual sound, but as a way of reproducing the performance of the original. So really, in a way, I was being even MORE misleading with my post title, as this isn't so much competition for MP3 as it might be for MIDI.

So? We've been using MIDI for a while. What's the big the deal?

Well, checking out the samples on the post, the research team (using an actual recording of a clarinet) has been able to create a MIDI-like recreation of the clarinet, (which would normally be around 32KB
in MIDI), but with this new method takes up less than ONE kilobyte (1KB).

For those of you like me, who weren't math majors, that's less than ONE THIRTIETH the file size!

Check out the post, with samples to listen to, over at Wired!
someaudioguy some audio guy audio voice over technology voice acting demo agent compression

I just got invitedto the ODEO Beta! Woot!

Back in the day Odeo was the premier podcasting service.

Or at least it was MY favorite to use.



Well, Sonic Mountain is bringing it back from the depths of internet obscurity (a bit much?).

They invited me into the beta, and I've been playing around with podcasts, and so far I like it. It's simple and clean, and seems to be up and moving quick.
I'm hoping to see some more social tools built in. I like being able to vote for good episodes, I'd like to see some more tagging for similar content, and right now there is no commenting on "pod shows".

All in all I like the new look, and I'd love to see this community back up and running.
some audio guy someaudioguy odeo podcasting podcasts beta website community voice over voice acting

NRV10 Update - You CAN dasiy-chain the NRV10 with the Firewire 410!!!

I LOVE Firewire!

I updated the driver on my desktop to play with the NRV10. Apparently there is now only one "family" driver for M-Audio firewire products.

I didn't feel like disconnecting my FW410 to plug in the NRV10, so I used the spare port on the FW410. Upon rebooting, my computer ran it's updates, and could see both the FW410 and the NRV10.

I fired up Acid, and set up a couple audio tracks. Acid not only saw both devices, but let me run inputs from different devices at the same time.

Now this might not seem like a huge deal. You've always been able to daisy-chain firewire devices, but usually that means hooking up an external hard drive to your external soundcard. As far as I knew, very few sound cards could be daisy-chained to show up as a single multi-input device. Those devices usually had to match as well, as they would have to use the same driver. M-Audio's firewire "family" driver marks the first time, that I know of, where two different devices can be linked and used as one big interface. This is something that can ONLY be done over Firewire, as USB can't share resources like this.

MAudio NRV10 Analog Mixer and Firewire Audio Interface

What do you even call that? Asymmetrical audio interface daisy chaining?

I don't know, but between the FW410 and the NRV10 I now have 12 routable inputs (10 analog 2 stereo mix down), 2 digital inputs, 10 analog outs (18 software routable outs), and 2 digital outs all in a fairly compact set up.

I'm stoked!

M-Audio FireWire 410 4-In / 10-Out FireWire Mobile Recording Interface

And if you want to see more shots of the NRV10, you can click here for my un-boxing post!

MONSTER POST - AudioGuy got an NRV10 - Lots of Pictures!

MAudio NRV10 Analog Mixer and Firewire Audio Interface

WARNING: LOTS OF PICTURES FOLLOWING.

LOAD TIMES MAY VARY.
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

So I just wanted to say thanks for all the comments and emails regarding my call for help. I needed a new mixer, and I was trying to decide between the NRV10 and the Zed-14. I ultimately decided against the Zed-14 when I found out the USB port only carried buses not individual inputs. That clinched it. I put in my order for the NRV10, and it just showed up today.

WOOT!

I took a bunch of pictures of the unboxing and first setup, so prepare for geek-pr0n!

Biggelow helped inspect the packing:










Huh? A box, within a box, within a box...










There. That's better:










Biggs momentarily gets bored and re-inspects packing:










He then realizes there's more to sniff:










The outer box:









Biggs checks out the innards:









Finally the NRV10!









And profile:









"Hmmmm smells good"









Behold the NRV10!







The NRV10 by my old Behringer (I never throw anything away):







Back Panel:










Plugging in some mics!










Soundforge is ready:









That's a lot of audio!









Biggs tuckered out from all the excitement:


OK, so first impressions.

I love this thing!

Setup has been the easiest I've ever had with any M-Audio kit. M-Audio drivers are "IN"-famous for being a little twitchy. I went and downloaded the newest from the web (not even bothering with the CD), and my laptop recognized the mixer without a hitch. Soundforge and Audition instantly knew what to do with the machine, and so far the only program giving me grief is Pro Tools, which refuses to see more than 4 channels. That's really obnoxious, as PT compatibility was a main buying point for me. Watchagunnado, a day without a Pro Tools annoyance...

Firewire is a perfect data transfer protocol. My laptop is OLD (1.8GHz P4, 768MB RAM), but it had no issues simultaneously recording 5 mono tracks and a Stereo Main mix-down @ 24/96. I can't wait to seriously light this thing up.

Build quality feels solid. Metal casing, the faders feel tight (really tight), but the knobs are all a little too loose for my taste. If you're really working a mix, a careless gesture could flip a couple knobs around (especially as placement is really close, it is a portable mixer).



The only thing I really don't like about the mixer's layout is how it vents. Rather than have any airflow come out the back of the mixer (see above for the back panel shot), heat comes out the bottom of the mixer. The bottom. What the mixer rests on. There are some stubby feet, but they wont guarantee a lot of clearance. Heat kills electronics, so if you aren't going to mount this puppy, you might want to throw a book under the back feet to aid in cooling.

In all, I'm very happy with this mixer, and am looking forward to really putting it through its paces. Maybe some Shakespeare? Hmmmm...

Thanks again to everyone that helped me make up my mind through comments and emails!

MAudio NRV10 Analog Mixer and Firewire Audio Interface

Recording Booth on the Cheap!

So my friend Erik was having some problems recording auditions from home.

He lived in a very modern apartment with nice hardwood floors, off a fairly busy street, and the only space he could dedicate to a microphone was a tiny little closet.



The quality of his auditions was ... lacking ...



Off the advice from a friend, he started trying to put up foam (as you can see in this picture), but actual acoustic foam can be kind of expensive, and that really wasn't his problem. His auditions suffered from a boomy echo, and foam wouldn't help that very much.

Here's an example:





The problem with closets is they become low frequency echo chambers. Low frequency sound loves to bounce around, and hard flat surfaces set at 90 degrees just help that sound bounce around. The ridges in most foam treatments aren't really big or deep enough to properly diffuse, and the foam itself is rarely thick enough to properly absorb that kind of bass energy.



What Erik needed was to subtly change the shape of his room, and try to reduce the hard reflections he was getting. I told him to try hanging two packing blankets in half circles behind him and his mic, and made him throw down an old carpet scrap on the floor. I then also had him pass his audio through a low-cut filter.

It's ugly, but the setup cost less than $30 (also less than what he spent on foam).



Here's what his audio sounds like now:





Not a bad jump if I say so myself (which I do).



And if you want to hear Erik in action, here's a link to a Funny or Die vid he did during the writers strike. Very funny!

someaudioguy some audio guy help how to recording home recording voice over voice acting recording booth sound proof auditioning actors

AudioGuy Mail Bag - Some Audition Questions...

This question comes in from Janet, who has a few technical questions about her auditions:

I love all your Some Audio Guy postings and you've been a big help.
I've done on-camera and voice over work for many years as a radio and TV
anchor/reporter but now am after strictly voice-over work.

Here are my questions -

In my home studio, I can't hear my voice in the headphones while I'm recording
with Audacity or Adobe Soundbooth CS3 - playback is no problem.
(it was set up by a broadcast engineer friend but I never
noticed that I couldn't hear in the headphones when he was
here, or maybe I've done something wrong since.)

Also - if my intention is to supply "dry reads" from my home studio, how much
cleaning up should I do on the auditions? if I take out breaths and normalize
the volume (as you show on your video) is that a false impression of what I
intend to deliver? Isn't that more an "I can deliver edited and finished voice tracks" as voice123 says or do I misunderstand the term "dry read?"

Whew, that's a lots of questions all wrapped into one. I appreciate any help you can give me.

Thanks - Janet

Hey Janet,
About hearing yourself while recording, that can be a little tricky, It's largely going to come down to what sound card you're using to record. Most modern external soundcards should be fast enough to let you monitor. Depending on what recording software you're using, there should be a recording setting to allow hardware monitoring. Now this is where latency comes into play. Your card has to sample the audio you create (vibrations in the air), translate it into a digital signal (1' and 0's), and pass it over a USB or FW cable to your computer, WHILE re-routing it to your headphones. If you dont have a reasonably quick soundcard/computer setup, then you'll hear yourself as an echo with a split second delay.

As for this notion of "dry reads", well I just try to go for simple. Some of the casting studios use dynamic mics plugged directly into a mixer into the mic port on a computer (no soundcard at all). They do this so their recordings aren't good enough to use for an actual spot, but are good enough to hear what the actors are doing. This doesn't seem to negatively affect their business (though I can't say I love the quality of the recordings).
I say, as long as you're being honest about your talents, then do what you're comfortable doing. If you get to the end of an audition, and you have to do a ton of editing to make it sound good, then maybe it's not for you.

I tend to leave breath noise in auditions, except for deep breaths before and after copy (like my big sigh in the video). One they are perfect points to edit around, and two there's an odd psychological trick to long copy. If an audience member hears continuous monologue, but no breathing, it can cause a little distress (like when you see an action movie, and the hero dives underwater for 10 minutes, the audience will try to hold their breath along with said hero).

I think normalizing is fine, as long as it's done subtly (you want your sound balanced nothing too spikey loud or too quiet), though I would avoid heavy compression (audio not MP3 compression). You really don't want a solid WALL of sound. You never know what kind of speakers you'll be played on, so you could sound really muddy or distorted. It's like music mixing, you want to sound the same on crappy car speakers as you do on a $15K home theater. It's not glamorous, but it's a better way to represent yourself.

Thanks for the question (I'll probably steal it for the blog ;-), and thanks for reading!
-SomeAudioGuy
someaudioguy some audio guy mailbag question help how to recording music voice over voice acting auditioning acting actors animation commercial