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Do computers give you a headache?

Tuesday, February 26th, 2008

Computers can be great tools for recording. But they can sometimes give you headaches, and even nightmares…Here’s an interesting question from a Sound Affair Mastering visitor… I have played guitar for almost 30 years, and have been recording on tape for years, and on a Zoom MRS 1266 CD for about 4 years. I have recently been looking to get into computer based recording via Pro tools Mbox (not sure which model yet). My problem is that I want to buy a separate computer to record audio only, as recommended by just about everyone in the know. I have no idea what the system requirements specs actually mean. Is a 2.4 GHz way better than a 2.3? Do I need a separate hard drive to record on and not the one in the computer itself, and what the hell is DDRAM and SDRAM anyway? I keep seeing words(?) like Fat32 and IDE/ATA, SATA, ATTO, HBA and Firmware etc. I can surf the net and get around Windows pretty well, but I cannot speak Computerese, please, can you help translate? Thanks. I got a headache,
Mike O. We all like computers because they give us great recording and audio mastering facilities at an incredibly low price, compared to the way things used to be years ago. Accordingly we often talk about computers and software. But we don’t like the way computers often get in the way of making great recordings. Perhaps you shouldn’t have to be any kind of computer genius to be able to use one to make great music and recordings.So, back to the question…You are exactly right that you should devote a computer to audio. It will simplify things no end. And if you only connect it to the Internet specifically to register software and then disconnect it immediately, you will be fairly safe from being preyed upon by those who would do your computer harm from a distance. Now, talking about speed. Buy the fastest computer you can afford. But also bear in mind that there might be a significant price-hike to gain just a couple of extra points of gigahertz. More speed equals more tracks and more plug-in instances, but 2.4 GHz is only fractionally better than 2.3. You probably won’t notice the difference. Also, bear in mind that your hard disk affects the number of tracks you can achieve. A faster rotation speed is better. 10,000 rpm is better than 7200. 7200 is better than 5400, which really is the lowest practical limit. ATA is the same as IDE and is an internal hard disk connectivity technology that is just on the way out now. SATA is the newer standard and will lead to further progress. However, many great recordings have been made on ATA drives. It is usually recommended not to record onto the system disk. This is busy doing system stuff, so your audio will have to take its turn. A second internal disk is a good option. An external FireWire disk is a good option too. Many people find that external USB disks work fine, but since the whole point of FireWire is that it is intended for audio and video signals, it is a safer bet. Regarding the rest of the ‘computerese’ you mention, this is really the province of your dealer. If you are not confident with computers, then you should buy a complete system from a single pro audio dealer, and get them to guarantee that it will work. If it doesn’t, then it’s up to them to solve any problems for you.By the way, if you want to have nightmares as well as headaches, just look at Digidesign’s compatibility info.

This will show very clearly what we don’t like about computer recording…

I hope this helps.

Ron.

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How To Improve Speaker Performance in Your Studio

Saturday, December 22nd, 2007

Picture the scene in your studio. You are sitting at your mixing console, DAW or control surface, right between your loudspeakers at mix position. The acoustics of your room are relatively well controlled. Although there are first, second and third order sound reflections from around the room coming at you, they are not too offensive and don’t distract you from the direct sound of the monitors. But something else is bothering you. Somehow things don’t sound quite right. What could the problem be? Well, the problem could be that you are hearing ‘echoes’ that arrive before the direct sound from the monitors. All monitors radiate sound from their cabinets. Try putting your ear up against the rear of a loudspeaker cabinet and you will see exactly what I mean. Generally it sounds pretty poor. When this sound gets into the air, it definitely does degrade the sound of the loudspeaker. Also the sound from the cabinet can get into the speakers’ supports. And from there it can distribute itself all around the walls, ceiling and floor of the room. And all of those surfaces can radiate or vibrate that sound at you. Perhaps you may think it’s just like another reflection then and may not be too much of a problem. But there is a problem. And that is that sound travels faster through solids than it does through air. So sound from the cabinet that is pretty poor, is arriving at your ears sooner than the direct sound from the speakers drive units. This is greatly confusing to you when recording or mixing and you are trying to capture the best sound possible. The answer is somewhat simple and that is to decouple the loudspeaker cabinets physically from the room. There are all kinds of decoupling devices from pro audio dealers and my experience has been anything small such as foam wedges won’t really solve the problem. Ideally what you would need would be a heavy slab of material to stand each loudspeaker on. Underneath the slab would be a layer of resilient material. The heavy slab would be difficult for the cabinet to vibrate, so not much energy would get through. And the slab is decoupled from the room by the resilient layer. I know this may not work for everyone’s studio because of such limitations such as physical space or budget, but there are quite a few solutions on the internet and from several manufactures that have a remedy to this problem. I have come up with one solution of my own just by using simple products found at your local hardware store. I’m not suggesting you spend a lot of time worrying about this, because usually there are far worse acoustic problems to deal with especially in the home studio environment. But it is a real problem that won’t go away, and if you want your studio to be perfect, you should definitely look into this issue.

On my next Tech Tips article, I will explain how to improve speaker performance in your studio by at least fifty percent by just using a few household items.

Ron Leeper

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Internet Mastering Scams

Tuesday, February 20th, 2007

A serious problem in the recording community has been brought to my attention. It is not my intention for my blog to be negative in nature, however maybe I can help others avoid being the victim of a scam.

I have received phone calls from two individuals recently regarding an Internet mastering scam. Both of these artists had sent their music to be mastered to two different studios that advertise “discount” or “low budget” CD mastering services. As per request, the payments were made in advance and were sent in along with the CDs to be mastered. It is not unusual for deposits to be requested for services, so I am not suggesting that this was a red flag. Unfortunately both of these artists never heard from the “mastering studios” again. They both e-mailed numerous times and heard nothing back.

Both guys contacted me in a bit of a panic and I was able to help one of them to get a completed master to the replicator on time. They gave me the names and I decided to snoop around and do some online investigating. It didn’t me take long to find them. Upon review they didn’t have much substance or information on their websites. Both had maybe one or two pages on the site dedicated to mastering, but they were boasting everything under the sun as far as being the “experts of mastering.” Looking further, I could not find any contact names, telephone or fax numbers. Both websites only had a post office box and an email address. Both victims had been emailing these studios but never received a reply. I too tried several times, but never received anything.

The only solution I had for them, was to contact the United States Postal Service and submit a case for mail fraud. Every now and then I keep an eye our for these fake mastering studios, however they have seemed to have changed their advertising method as I don’t see them any more. I hope we all see the last of this phony scam. We all know there are music business and Internet scams everywhere. Don’t become a victim of Internet fraud. Do your homework and find a mastering facility that has a long track record. Telephone the mastering studio and speak to the engineer. Ask questions. Develop a relationship with them. A good facility will be happy to speak to you and discuss the best process for mastering your project.

This is your music and you have put a lot of hard work, time and money into it. This is the most important and the final stage of your music. Don’t skimp on this final step.

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