Audio Geek Zine

ART PRO VLA II tube swap

Admin — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 05:33:20 +0000

I recently bought the ART PRO VLA II Stereo Tube Compressor for my studio. It’s one of the most affordable compressors on the market and packs a ton of features in a sturdy 2 space rack. In researching this compressor I ended up at Gearslutz multiple times. Over and over I was reading that you MUST change the tubes for it to be useable in the studio. None of the pros that used it for the Tape Op Magazine review talked about NOS Unobtainium KGB vacuum tubes, but I felt I needed to try for myself before I permanently rack mounted the VLA.

I also own the PRO MPA II Reference Series tube preamp. It comes with lower noise, Chinese 7025 tubes that are also compatible with the VLA. Since I had a matched pair of 7025 and the stock 12AT7s, I ran audio through each set and recorded the results.

DOWNLOAD 24 BIT WAVES EXAMPLES

The audio source is 1kHz test tone, clap samples, acoustic guitar, and drum submix. The examples use a fairly heavy setting of about 10dB GR. Audio was going in line level and back to the daw. No other processing.

My opinion

The difference between the tubes is not as drastic as one might expect. They sound very similar in either the MPA preamp or VLA compressor. The 7025 tubes from the Reference Series MPA do sound a little tighter and about 1dB hotter output, and just a hair brighter. Self noise was about the same (extremely low) for either set. For me that’s not enough to immediately go buy a matched pair to replace the stock 12AT7, or even enough to spend more time and money on other options. I KNOW that I just swapped one set of cheap Chinese tubes for another, I don’t have any other matched sets to compare with. (send me a bunch of tubes and I’ll make time for a bigger shootout)

Trying out different tubes in my gear is something worth doing but not obsessing over. I tried just two of the hundreds of compatible tubes and it feels like I’ve spent all day on it. Either way it’s not magic, but it’s a solid compressor and great bang for buck.

ART PRO VLA II tube swap is a post from: Audio Geek Zine

“I am sitting in a room, compressing”

Admin — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 15:07:17 +0000

Check out this blog post and the sound file where the author covers the Alvin Lucier avant-garde recording “I am sitting in a room”.

In the original recording, Alvin records his voice in a room onto tape. The recording is played back into the room and recorded again. This is repeated over and over and interestingly it doesn’t take long before resonances in the room and audio system start to jump out and overpower the voice.

In this version he runs the loop through additional mp3 encoding until the voice is lost completely. This is a pretty good demonstration of what is lost when an mp3 converted to wav, then converted to mp3 again. I’ve had to do that before.

I recommend downloading the large file and importing it into your DAW, RX or other editing program.

http://sounds.sterneworks.org/projects/alvin-lucier-cover/

Spectrogram of “I am sitting in a room, compressing”

Here is an excerpt from the 50min clip. The original file was over 100MB so I did not want to rehost it. It’s a flac file so there is no quality loss. First is the original, then first mp3 encoding, then 10th, then another closer to the end.

Download excerpt (4.9MB FLAC)

“I am sitting in a room, compressing” is a post from: Audio Geek Zine

30+ OSX Power User Shortcuts

Admin — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 22:03:30 +0000

Inspector
Use ‘Inspector’ instead of ‘Get Info’
RT-click finder item then hold alt, “Show Inspector” will appear. Or use shortcut CMD+Option+i
This is like the Get Info window but it will not clutter up the screen and will show combined data for selections.

Resizing windows
Shift-drag will scale height and width of the window
Alt-drag will resize opposite sides at once with same center point

Cycle options in dialog boxes
It’s a pain in the arse to move the mouse to click Cancel or other buttons in those pop up option windows. Hitting Return/Enter will do the default action. Use the TAB key to cycle the options, then hit the spacebar.

Hiding apps
The hide function works how minimize should.
CMD+H will hide the active window
Alt+click the desktop (or the will also hide.
Alt+CMD+click the desktop will hide all windows except finder
Alt+Cmd+click dock icon will hide all apps except the one clicked (and open it if not already open).

Close all windows
To quickly close all windows for an app: hold Option and click the X in the top left of the window

New Folder with selected items
I love this featured added in OSX Lion
Instead of making a new folder, giving it a name, grabbing items, and dragging them to the new folder, now you can just select the items, rt-click and choose “New Folder with selected items” right at the top.
CMD+Shift+N makes a new folder.

Hidden audio controls
There are several ‘hidden’ functions dealing with your Macs audio options.
* Hold Shift to avoid the annoying click when changing the volume (or disable it completely in Sound>Sound Effects prefs)
* Alt + any volume button on the keyboard will open the sound preferences
* Alt + Shift gives you finer resolution on the volume control
* Alt + click the volume control in the menu bar to bring up a menu for quick input and output changes

Moving files
One thing that confuses many new OSX users is the lack of ‘cut’ function for files to cut and paste to a new location. On the system drive, dragging a file to a new folder will move it, but dragging to a second drive will duplicate it. Sometimes you don’t want a second copy. In OSX you copy the selected file, and use the ‘move’ command, CMD+Option+V
If you prefer drag + drop, just hold CMD.
In case you didn’t know the other files for dragging files: Option +drag will duplicate (and append a number to the file name starting at 2).

Color labels
You can color code files with the Labels function either through rt-click menu or adding the labels button to the toolbar.
I use Red for current projects, Green for recently finished projects that have been paid for, Purple for personal, Grey or none for misc

Arrange & Sort
Since OSX Lion, the Arrange function can be found in Finder. It’s great if you work in Icon view a lot, but not great if you work in list or column view. In fact there is a bug with color labels in column view, it doesn’t refresh correctly.
If you set Arrange to None, you can sort your files by name, date, label etc. by clicking the column headers.

Navigating files with the keyboard
I use Finder in List View almost exclusively because it is very easy to navigate through files and folders within the same window using just the keyboard arrows. Instead of double-clicking to open, you can use CMD+O or CMD+DownArrow. In list and column views you can use the left and right arrows to expand folders. If you push any letter key it will select the closest file starting with that letter. Pushing the same letter does NOT go to the next one though. Try typing the first 2-3 letters of the filename. Use spacebar to preview files.

OSX Lion Mission Control
click to enlarge

Navigate dashboard and workspaces
The Control key plus arrow keys allows you to jump to the Dashboard, Mission Control, and Spaces/Desktops. The Dashboard is where helpful widgets live. Primarily I use this for a basic calculator, a couple timers, and a unit converter. Get to the Dashboard with Control+Left Arrow.
You can have multiple desktops/spaces to work in. It’s a bit like having multiple monitors. You can assign apps to any desktop from the dock icon or just click and drag them around. Control+Right Arrow moves over to the next desktop.
Mission control zooms out and shows you all open windows, the dashboard and desktops at once. Great for finding that dialog box hidden under other other windows or for moving stuff to other desktops. Control+Up Arrow shows Mission Control

30+ OSX Power User Shortcuts is a post from: Audio Geek Zine

Frustrating OSX and iOS inconsistencies

Admin — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 17:23:42 +0000

I use my iMac and iPhone for hours and hours every day. Sometimes I get frustrated when I have the same app on both devices but they do completely different things. The point of this article isn’t to complain and rant but to point out the differences and hopefully save you some frustration.

iTunes
iTunes for OSX is a media player, music library, and store for audio, apps, podcasts, movies, tv shows, and audio books.
iTunes on iOS is just the store. To play music on the iPhone you need the Music app.

App Store
App Store for OSX allows you to browse buy and update apps for your computer, but not for iDevices
App Store on iOs allows you to browse, buy and update apps for your iDevice.

Already it seems like I need a chart just to keep this stuff straight.

Task	OSX	iOS
Buy music	iTunes	iTunes
Update iOS app	iTunes	App Store
Listen to music	iTunes	Music
Buy App	iTunes	App Store

Address Book & Contacts
In OSX you use the Address Book app to manage contacts. This gets synced through iTunes to your Contacts app on your iPhone.
BUT on the iPhone there are two ways to manage contacts. Either through the contact app or through the contacts section in the Phone app.

Photos
iTunes does not transfer photos when you synch your iDevice. You must do this through iPhoto. On the iPhone there are two ways to access photos, the Photos app or the “camera roll” in the Camera app. These apps have different options and it’s quite annoying when you can’t find something. For example: when you access the camera roll from the lock screen, the sharing options are disabled.

Videos
Transferring of videos made on your iPhone is handled by iPhoto on the Mac. The Videos app on the iPhone is for viewing videos purchased from iTunes.
Videos you took with the iPhone camera are accessed through the Camera Roll or Photos app. Would be really nice if the app could sort images from video files.

Notes
The iPhone has the handy Notes app. The problem is there’s no way to access these from a computer besides emailing them from the phone. May as well just type the note in an email to begin with. Evernote is a good alternative.

These are the main ones that I’ve come across since getting my iPhone last year. I’m sure there are more. It would be so nice to have things more unified between the two systems.

Frustrating OSX and iOS inconsistencies is a post from: Audio Geek Zine

Ian Shepherd’s Home Mastering Masterclass

Jon — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 15:19:30 +0000

Are you ready to take your home studio mastering skills up about 10 notches? Ian Shepherd – mastering engineer, loudness activist and full-time Englishman – has just opened the doors to his audio mastering training course. This is an excellent course and there’s nothing else like it. Videos, written material, interviews and in-depth while Ian masters real songs.

The course is 8 weeks starting on April 5th 2013

I learned a ton from Ian in this course last year. Are you ready to accelerate your mastering skills?

Ian Shepherd’s Home Mastering Masterclass is a post from: Audio Geek Zine

Tubescreamer shootout part 3 – frequency response compared

Admin — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 04:29:56 +0000

OK OK! Just one more post about Tube Screamers (this week). As I was comparing the plugins in the second shootout I was thinking that some of them sounded very similar, and that some were totally different. I set up Q-Clone to see more closely what was going on with each of the plugins and my two pedals.

The plugins and pedals were each set to 0% drive, 50% tone, 50% level.

Go here if you can’t see the imgur album embedded.

Tubescreamer shootout part 3 – frequency response compared is a post from: Audio Geek Zine

Tubescreamer shootout part 2 – free options

Admin — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 03:58:26 +0000

I was convinced to add all the free plugin options to the shootout. So I’ve downloaded several more plugins and ran them through the same test.

There are several free options currently available: TSE Audio TSE808, Ignite Amps TS-999, Ignite Amps TSB-01, Skreamer module in Guitar Rig 5 Player, Screamer module in POD Farm 2 Free, and Greener module in Peavey ReValver HPse (free for Addictive Drums users).

I made clips of 3 different knob settings for each:
Setting 1 is 0% gain, 50% tone, 50% level (no boost, just tighter lows)
Setting 2 is all knobs at 50% (medium clipping distortion)
Setting 3 is all knobs at 100% (lots of distortion, boosted highs and boosted ouput level)

Download all clips

POD Farm Screamer

TSE-808

Ignite TS-999

Ignite TSB-01 “Tyrant Screamer” (boost off)

Guitar Rig Skreamer

ReValver Greener (out level was set to +12dB in the last clip but can go up to +32dB)

Reviewing the sounds
I’m still not liking PODFarm much at all. Guitar Rig’s Skreamer is pretty aggressive in a good way. The TSE-808 sounds nearly identical to my TS7 pedal but with no noise. Both of the Ignite plugins sounded good to me also. Some of these plugins offer some additional features to tweak the sound, input and output buffers, EQ, asymmetrical clipping, germainium diode clipping and more. I think my favorite out of these would be the TSE-808.

Tubescreamer shootout part 2 – free options is a post from: Audio Geek Zine

Tubescreamer pedal shootout with hardware and software

Admin — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 21:09:56 +0000

It’s pretty amazing how many different options we have for Tubescreamers these days. There’s the classic TS-808, TS9, the TS7 which I just bought last weekend, then there’s Screamer emulations in every virtual guitar amp package and then there’s the boutique and modded screamers. Ibanez even has 5 different Tubescreamers in production today. They all sound different! Every guitarist and studio engineer has one version they swear by.

A Tubescreamer can be used as a distortion pedal of course but it’s most used as a way of tightening up the bottom-end of an amp and to push an amp into distortion while still maintaining the character of the amp. The circuit includes a high pass filter which makes a huge improvement in tightness of palm mutes, it also has a midrange hump that adds clarity to picked notes. To learn more go here.

Today I spent some time shooting out my Ibanez TS7 pedal with my CMATMods Tube Slammer (a boutique pedal based on TS-808 circuit with upgrades). Since I put that effort in I figured I’d continue and run my software versions through the same tests – Amplitube, PodFarm and GTR.

Audio Examples
There are 19 clips below (or download all the clips in one zip). The first is the direct guitar played through Amplitube (Jet City JCA20 head + HiAmp Cab). The guitar gain is rolled down a bit in the first half. The real pedals were reamped and rendered with the amp sim. All clips have the same virtual amp with only the pedals swapped OR settings changed. A stereo drum track plays with the mono guitar.

Original guitar with no Screamer

Ibanez TS7 in TS9 Mode

Ibanez TS7 in HOT Mode

CMATMods Tube Slammer

IK Multimedia Amplitube Overscream

Line-6 PODFarm 2 Screamer

Waves GTR OverDrive

Reviewing the sounds
As you can hear, each version has a similar but distinct sound. Between the two hardware versions I preferred the TS7 for it’s more aggressive sound (steeper HPF) and the HOT mode makes it like two pedals in one. The Tube Slammer doesn’t filter the lows as much, the clipping is smoother. The Tube Slammer is much less noisy than the TS7 but also has a little less edge on the pick attack.
Out of the Software versions I prefer the Amplitube version. To me it sounds most real and smoothest and nearly identical to the TS7′s TS9 mode. The PodFarm version is most saturated and thin at the highest settings. The GTR is the one I’m least likely to use, the mid-bump makes it sound like a a wah pedal was left on.

There are so many other options out there but for now I’m happy with both of my pedals and Amplitube.
Do you hear the same things in these clips that I do? What’s your favorite?

Tubescreamer pedal shootout with hardware and software is a post from: Audio Geek Zine

The Ocean recording and mixing new album “Pelagial”

Admin — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 05:08:52 +0000

The Ocean are an ‘experimental’ prog-metal band from Germany. They have a new album coming out April 30th called “Palagial” which takes a musical journey to the bottom of the ocean. It is intended to be heard as one continuous 53-minute piece of music. The album was mixed by the amazing Jens Bogren.

In these two studio report videos below we get a look at some of the recording and mixing process. There’s some really cool stuff in here.

The Ocean recording and mixing new album “Pelagial” is a post from: Audio Geek Zine

Explosions In This Guy “Surrounded” song dissection

Admin — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 01:41:45 +0000

Community Kitchen Vol. 1 compilation is out now and you can get it free on bandcamp. This compilation was organized and mastered by Kim Lajoie and includes my song Surrounded. Kim has written a short review of the song on his blog and I thought I’d share some background information about how this was recorded.

The Demo

Have a listen to the original demo from 2010:

This song is actually the first thing I recorded as I learned REAPER. I recorded the main melody and soft strums with my brother’s cheap acoustic guitar with really dead strings. If I remember correctly, I used a dynamic mic sitting on the edge of the desk to mic the guitar. Adding the basic REAPER ReaVerbate plugin gave the acoustic a really depressing and emotional vibe. From there started filling out the arrangement with bass, Addictive Drums, and electric guitars. The track really relies on reverb and delays. The electric guitars were processed with Amplitube 2 and layered for a chaotic wall-of-sound.

In total there are 3 layers of acoustic guitar, virtual drums, 1 track of bass, 3 tracks of electric guitar, Novation Bass Station and a delay bus. A total of 12 including bussing.

The collaboration

In 2012 my friend Joel Adams in Australia and I decided to collaborate on some post-rock style music. I don’t consider myself to be a composer or even a musician but I play guitar and bass, I can program drums and I can make stuff sound good. With two engineers working on this it should at least come out decently. We rerecorded this song and made a few more demos of new songs. In the end this was the only one that was finished before we both became too busy with other projects.

Using the demo as a template we started rerecording each instrument with way better gear and better performances. The first ‘verse’ was shortened but the arrangement is the same otherwise.

Joel went first by recording the main acoustic parts. He used an old Ibanez and miked it with an AT4040. He also played some of the electric parts through a POD.

I played bass (direct then reamped with MXR M-80) and some of the electric guitars. My electric parts were through a RAT and Hall Of Fame pedals into my weird little vintage tube combo and miked with an SM-7B.

We sent the tracks to Eric Beam for the live drums. Eric sent me back 60 tracks of drums and percussion, pretty much everything but the kitchen sink! This included hand claps, tabla, sticks on cement wall, shaker, two drum kits and two sets of room mics for each. This was far beyond what I could have imagined for this project and nearly everything he sent fit in the final mix.

The mix

With all the tracks recorded for this song it was time to mix. Most of the mixing was just creating space for each of the nearly 100 tracks. Eric’s drums sounded incredible and required only basic eq and compression.

I did a basic mix for my segment on Long Distance Collaboration for HRS.

Strangely, once I wrote about how to run a successful long distance collaboration, mine fell apart and work stopped for the four songs in progress. Joel got too busy being a model or something.

When Kim posted about the collaboration it gave me the kick in the butt I needed to actually finish the mix and send it out to be mastered.

The song still needed something after all that time. The intro seemed too bare and incomplete until I added some samples of noise I got from FreeSound.org. I probably could have recorded my own noise samples for the intro but I really just wanted to get it finished. I also recorded some more distorted 1/4 note guitar layers for the heavy part. The song still plateaus in the second half, I could never figure out a part that would move the song forward but shortening the section was wrong too. This mix and the previous are not drastically different mostly more focussed.

Here is the March 2013 mix:

Mastering

At this point the song still had no name, it was just ‘project 01′ since forever. I sent the final mix off to Kim to see if he wanted it for the compilation.

I was happy to be chosen as 1 of 10 for the compilation. Now I really needed a name for it. I came up with the artist name Explosions In This Guy as a play on Explosions In The Sky one of the more famous post-rock bands. I had a lot of possible ideas for the track name based on the sort of imagery that came to mind as I listened. Kim did the mastering and a few days later it was out on Bandcamp.

Here is the finished song mastered by Kim.

Its always interesting to hear one of my mixes after someone else masters it, I usually do my own mastering.

In this case Kim made it a lot brighter, my mix was dark but also it had to fit into a compilation with drastically different musical styles. It’s not just brighter though, its clearer, it’s not as muddy and holy crap that kick drum is massive! I never tried mastering this one myself so I can’t say I would have done anything differently. Comparing the mix I sent him to the master makes my mix sound like a big turd. It sounds right now, it sounds finished. Time to write more epic music.

Explosions In This Guy “Surrounded” song dissection is a post from: Audio Geek Zine