Alternatives To Expensive Audio Gear

Neumann TLM 49

noreply@blogger.com (Nelson Santos) — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 21:10:00 +0000

http://www.sweetwater.com/images/closeup/xl/1600-TLM49_detail1.jpg

The Neumann TLM 49, a large diaphragm cardioid condenser microphone. This microphone is versatile for almost any application you may have for it, whether it is studio, broadcasting, vocal or even instruments. The TLM 49 uses a K47 capsule, which is also used in the M49 and the U47. The capsule provides a cardioid directional pattern with characteristics of a super cardioid, due to the special capsule construction. When I first purchased it, I knew straight out of the box that very few could stand up to such a legendary vocal microphone. Therefore, I did the exact opposite and to start, recorded everything other than vocals. First off, I recorded a guitar cab with mild distortion. The frequency curve on the microphone gave it a nice presence while having less bite than expected. Next, I recorded an Epiphone EJ-200 placing the capsule towards the lower portion of the body pointing at the bridge. The sound was very warm with more presence in the mid-range. I continued to test the TLM 49 over multiple instruments including a banjo, slide guitar, cello, violin, xylophone, and a bass. Many of these instruments would normally require two microphones to capture the full spectrum of the instrument, but the Neumann held up to the test. All this at a great price. After testing every instrument, I have available in the studio I had to bring in a vocalist and see this microphones true ability. I called in my friend Luis who was excited to come and run some tests with me. From the very start, there was that famous brilliant sound with amazing clarity. I have a locker full of very well known vocal microphones and the Neumann blew most of them out of the water. It was the sound I was looking for which made all the difference to me. My signal path is a Universal Audio 710 Twin Finity pre amplifier running threw an Allen and Heath GL 2400 console converted by RME ADi8 interfaces. Overall, the TLM49 is a superior microphone that comes with a superior price. For most places, it sells for around $1,600 US Dollars, which is a large sum for a single microphone. It may not be suitable for most small home studio budgets, but it is always a good idea to have a Neumann in the locker. I rate this piece of gear a 5 out of 5 and would recommend it for professional vocal and instrumental recordings.

Sources

http://www.neumann.com/?lang=en&id=current_microphones&cid=tlm49_description

EQ Basic Tips

noreply@blogger.com (Nelson Santos) — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 03:44:00 +0000

http://media.soundonsound.com/sos/aug07/images/InsideTrack_6a_pianoEQ.jpg

Once you have recorded all the best possible vocal performances down in you digital workstation, you are now ready to start the mixing process. Mainly the first thing to do depending on personal mixing taste, is to equalize the vocal takes that have been recorded. Typically, you would want to cut all the problem frequencies first instead of boosting the good ones. We start of first in the low-end frequencies with a High Pass Filter around 80Hz to 150Hz. By doing this we remove, any low-end rumble and usually these frequencies do not contain anything important. If you feel that your vocal lack body or sound to thin, then most likely you would need to apply a narrow band boost around 200Hz to 600Hz. This will give you vocals a bigger sound and not so weak sounding. If you find that your vocals sound to harsh or crunchy sounding, then you would need to cut frequencies around 2.5Khz to 4Khz. By cutting the frequencies, you will soften the vocal sound. To add brightness to the vocal without adding that harness sound you would have to boost around 6Khz and above using a wide band pass filter. If you feel your vocals are still sounding harsh then a good place to cut frequencies are from 1Khz to 2Khz. This will smooth out your vocals more. If you find that you are stuck trying to find a frequency that is bothering you, the best way to find out if busing a large narrow boost and swipe the frequency ranges. Once you find it, simply cut that frequency. These tips will not always apply to every vocal, since every person sings and sounds different from one another. These basic tips are good to know because most of the time these kinds of problems usually lie around the stated frequencies.

Business Plan

noreply@blogger.com (Nelson Santos) — Thu, 03 May 2012 17:22:00 +0000

Warren Buffett is a philanthropist and investor that was born in August 30, 1939 in Nebraska. He is seen as one of the most successful inventors in the world.

He is the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway and one of the most riches men in the world. The world and the investment industry have taken motivation from Warren unique way of viewing and buying stocks. Warren set up a goal for him to never lose money regardless of the conditions of the market and this is what has made him into the legend he is today.

Warren Buffet explains that to write an executive summary that will spark interest has to be clear and be understandable with the results that the plan will produce. To arouse the reader’s attention and have them take action, Warren explains that each executive summary must be all original content. It must also be easy for the reader to comprehend our goal without them having to read the entire document. Warren states that he has formats and guidelines to write a successful business plan. The summary must include a purpose, scope, methodology, results, and conclusions. Warren encourages when writing a business plan to use strong and positive language. Warren explains that this will bring reassurance and confidence to the information you are presenting, while still looking professional. He also explains that you should not read the entire business plan to the investor, you should say key points. This is because you want to leave the investor wanting more and curious to find out more, so he will read the entire business plan. His last tip is to place you self in the readers shoe. If you can honestly ready your paper and get excited from the content, then you have a good business plan, but if you do not then you still have work to do.

Tim Berry is the president of Palo A lot Software and co-founder of Borland International. He has graduated from Stanford with a MBA while receiving multiple honors from Notra Dame and Oregon University. He is seen as recognized specialist when it comes to business planning. He has made several appearances in shows like Fire in the Valley and Swaine and Freiberger's classic history of the PC industry. He has also written several business plan books like Plan as you go business planning. He has presented many seminars in thirteen different countries.

Tim Berry explains a good presentation is an excellent way to communicate the core of the plan. According to Tim “A pitch without a plan is like a movie trailer without a movie.” A business plan does not stay the same forever. It is constantly changing as more information is gathering more information and as time passes. Tim explains that a good business plan is never finished. When you are going to project numbers to a person and you do not have enough or the write information, you need to make an educated guess. This educated guess must be backed up with information for instance how many sales do you project with this amount of customers.

Sources

http://www.ivanwalsh.com/business-development/warren-buffett-on-better-business-writing/

http://www.stockpickssystem.com/warren-buffett/

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/83818

http://www.paloalto.com/uk/about_us/leadership/tim_berry

http://articles.bplans.com/writing-a-business-plan/a-standard-business-plan-outline/29

Primeacoustic: VoxGuard

noreply@blogger.com (Nelson Santos) — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 17:33:00 +0000

http://www.primacoustic.com/voxguard.htm

When recording vocals, you are trying to capture a clean sound that does not have unwanted noises. This can be a hard thing to do if your room is not treated acoustically. An acoustical treated room is essential for recording professional vocals. This could cost you thousands of dollars to hire a professional acoustician to fix your recording room. Chances are that if you are visiting this blog and reading this post, you are trying to build a studio on a budget, or trying to find a cheaper route to acquiring that studio, you have always desired. Luckily, Primeacoustic has the perfect solution for your recording room. Primeacoustic VoxGuard. A VoxGuard is a microphone isolation panel that has high-density acoustical foam that sits behind the microphone to eliminate reflections. The large curved baffle creates an acoustical shield that stops reflections from bouncing on the wall and returning to the microphone. It does an excellent job in blocking all unwanted noise from being captured in the recording. This barrier is perfect for absorbing low-end frequencies. The VoxGuard is able to enhance and not take away the ambience of the room while the vocal range is absorbed. The VoxGuard can be attached to any microphone stand such as tripods, studio booms and round base stands. The VoxGuard can be adjusted to a desired distance from the microphone to acquire the desired sound with the extension bar. This isolation panel is also very lightweight. It weighs about four pounds and is 18 inches wide, 15 inches tall and 7.5 inches deep. The VoxGuard is easy to move around to take on the road to various studios or wherever you need to record vocals. This is the perfect solution to capture great sounding vocals in any room, whether for music, film, TV, and field recording. has developed a near field absorber called the

Sources

http://www.primacoustic.com/voxguard.htm

http://www.guitarcenter.com/Primacoustic-VoxGuard-Microphone-Isolation-Panel-105918098-i1532537.gc

KRK Rokit - Affordable, Prosional Quality

noreply@blogger.com (Nelson Santos) — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 19:18:00 +0000

When building a music studio, there are numerous pieces of gear you are going to rely on to run a session smoothly. The one piece of gear that is the heart and soul of your studio is the monitors. You will be constantly listening to your monitors to get your mix sounding perfect. The quality that your speakers can give, is going to result in the same quality your mixes sound. Professional sounding quality monitors can cost you a fortune. The price for professional monitors can go up to five thousand dollars for a pair. If you are building a studio on a budget, you probably do not have this kind of money to drop.

KRK Systems is known for creating professional sounding quality monitors for a good reasonable price. They have a line of monitors called Rockets. They range from six to ten inch speakers. The speakers that I personally use and would recommend would be the six-inch speakers. For a pair of these speakers it will cost you $400, which is not bad at all for the quality, these speakers produce. These monitors are two very active studio monitors.

Their frequency response ranges from 48Hz to 20kHz. The loudness that these speakers reach on a SPL is 107 dB. This is amazingly loud for the price of these monitors. Overall, the quality that is most important is the accuracy of these monitors. If your studio is fairly treated acoustically based on how I explained on my previous posts, these speakers will give you a very accurate mix. The last thing I will talk about is the design and colors of the KRK. These black and yellow monitors are very stylish and its colors definitely catch the eye of your clients.

Altogether, I believe you cannot go wrong with these speakers if you are building a studio on a budget.

Sources

http://www.krksys.com/krk-studio-monitor-speakers/rokit/rokit-6.html

http://www.guitarcenter.com/KRK-Rokit-Powered-6-Generation-2-Studio-Monitor--Each--105130256-i1401613.gc

Self Publishing In A Nut Shell

noreply@blogger.com (Nelson Santos) — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 12:08:00 +0000

As time passes by, technology also evolves. Back in the day in the music industry, to get your music in the radio and profit from it, you had to go through a recording company. So that it can be heard, that recording company would take care of distributing the product and placing it in the right place. As times have changed, we can see that we do not need professional recording companies in order to record a professional sounding quality single. For example, Amazing quality sounding songs are being recorded in bedrooms. The same holds true for distribution. Self-publishing is more common these days. It is not difficult to do when you learn the right steps. You may even end up earning more then what you would with a traditional recording company. The first thing we must do when we have the final version of the song is to copyright it with the Library of Congress. This will insure the protection of our work and it is proof that we own it. The next step is to find an aggregator that will take care of distributing your song in the retail outlets. For example, in digital distribution, some of these retail outlets are iTunes, Amazon.mp3 and Rhapsody. The aggregator you select will usually take care of the collection of the royalties earned through digital distribution. If you plan to collect royalties from physical albums, it is wise to register with the Harry Fox Agency. This agency specializes in hard copies such as CDs. If you wish to collect royalties from performing rights then you would need to register with performing right organizations such as ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC. Another source of income is distributing your songs to stream in internet, apps, and radio. For example, if you utilize Pandora, you would need to register with Sound Exchange. Once your music is streamed, they will be in charge of monitoring and collecting your royalties. Once you get your music out there to all these outlets, you are going to need to promote and market your content so people will know it is out there. There are many ways to go about this, for instance, securing interviews, concerts, and blog exposure to name a few. In a few words, this is what you must do in order to self publish your work.

Sources

http://www.squidoo.com/music-self-publishing

http://ostimusic.com/blog/music-publishing/

http://www.ultraelectronicactive.com/selfpublish.html

Copyright Act of 1976 - Termination

noreply@blogger.com (Nelson Santos) — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 13:48:00 +0000

Copyright is the ultimate protection for artists, musicians, and producer’s works. Because of this, it is wise to learn as much as possible regarding copyrights so you can defend and attack copyright infringers and other problems. Today I bring you some information that you may not have known about the Copyright Act of 1976. What most people know is that this act states the basic rights and fair use rights for copyright holders. What most people do not know is the termination rights that are in 17 U.S.C §. This amendment gave the right to songwriters and musicians to terminate or transfer copyrights after thirty-five years have passed. This is very helpful for those artists/musicians who gave their copyrights over to record labels and did not get much back in return. You can say that this is sort of a second chance. What this means is that in 2013, there is going to be many court cases regarding this subject since this is when the law goes into effect. Now, the next thing to look for is the fact that you cannot apply for this transfer if your work was made work for hire. For example if a recording studio contracted you to work on a song in their studio and they provided you the materials for you to work, then you cannot ask for the transfer or termination of the copyright. All work that you were paid to do was not yours, but of the label, unless stated otherwise in a contract. The next step is to give the record label or the publisher a notification of at least a minimum of two years before the thirty-five years have passed. Failure to do so will not make you eligible to participate in this process. A well known case that is an example of this took place in 2011, where Victor Willis, the lead singer of the group The Village People, is trying to acquire back the copyrights for songs such as “YMCA” and thirty three compositions which he created or co created. The problem with this is that his works where works for hire. Stewart L. Levy who represents the publishing companies in this case stated, “We hired this guy. He was an employee; we gave them the material and a studio to record in and controlled what was recorded, where, what hours and what they did.” As you can see, 2013 will be an interesting year in the music industry.

References

http://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/lawyer-2-lawyer/2011/09/the-new-legal-battle-over-song-rights/

http://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/lawyer-2-lawyer/2010/07/the-legal-issues-of-blogs-fair-use-and-attribution/

http://nysbar.com/blogs/EASL/2011/10/copyright_termination_rights_t.html

http://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/lawyer-2-lawyer/2008/09/federal-copyright-law-guns-n-roses-chinese-democracy/

Copyright Infringement

noreply@blogger.com (Nelson Santos) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:43:00 +0000

The following are court cases that have influenced and had an impact on the music industry in some way, form, or shape.

The first case is the A&M Records Inc. vs. Napster Inc. in the Implications for the Digital Music Library. Napster is a peer-to-peer file sharing system. A person can upload from their computer an MP3 file online and another person can download that MP3 file from anywhere in the world to their computer. Napster was sued because they were conducting copyright infringement. They were duplicating the works and distributing them to the public. Napster was ordered to shut down from the world. However, Napster came into a settlement with the National Music Publisher Association. Napster agreed to pay twenty six million dollars for music that they distributed as well as ten million for future royalties.

Napster was the pioneer for online piracy. They knew what they were doing. Napster could have been the original iTunes, if they would have seen this great opportunity and done everything legally. However, sadly, this was not the case. Napster has as much right to be sued as the users who use it. Napster knew what their users were doing and they let it happen.

The second case is the George Harrison vs. Bright Tunes Music Corporation. George Harrison was a former member in the band The Beatles. In his solo career, he released a song called “My Sweat Lord.” This was his first single as a soloist. "My Sweat Lord" reached number one on the charts for a number of weeks. Bright Tunes Music Corporation filled a lawsuit against George Harrison for copyright infringement. George Harrison’s “My Sweat Lord” was too similar to Chiffon’s “He’s So Fine.” It was implied that it was the same song, with the exception that the words were different. The court ruled that even though George Harrison may not have intentionally committed copyright infringement, he still had to pay $587,000.

Even though, by all accounts, George Harrison did not intentionally copy Chiffon’s song, he is still guilty. I disagree with Bright Tunes Music Corporation for waiting until the song hit number one in the charts before they sued George Harrison. It seems they were waiting for him to make money and then go after the money in a lawsuit. They should have sued when they first heard the song.

The third and final case is Grand Upright Music, Ltd. vs. Warner Bros. Records Inc. Grand Upright Music sued Warner Bros. Records for copyright infringement. Biz Markie has a song called “I Need a Hair Cut” in which he sampled material from Gilbert O'Sullivan’s song called “Alone Again.” It was clear that Warner Bros. Records Inc. knew that they were committing copyright infringement. They tried to argue that Grand Upright Music did not have the copyright to the song “Alone Again.” The judge simply referred the case to the United States Attorney for criminal prosecution. The charges were intentional infringement against Warner Bros Records Inc. The judge who held this case was highly criticized for his actions. This case affects the Hip Hop genre greatly because fewer samples are being used in songs. It was clear who was guilty and innocent. There was no need for the judge to extend this dispute when he could have ended it right there. Warner Bros. knew they were committing infringement and continued as if it was all right.

Sources

http://www.dml.indiana.edu/pdf/AnalysisOfNapsterDecision.pdf

http://www.moyak.com/papers/napster-history.html

http://digital-law-online.info/cases/221PQ490.htm

http://cip.law.ucla.edu/cases/1970-1979/Pages/brightharrisongs.aspx

http://www.enotes.com/topic/Grand_Upright_Music,_Ltd._v._Warner_Bros._Records_Inc.

http://cip.law.ucla.edu/cases/1990-1999/Pages/granduprightwarner.aspx

EMI

noreply@blogger.com (Nelson Santos) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 22:16:00 +0000

Bridget Unger & Joya Nemley Explained how did they acquire their positions at EMI

The Man Behind The LeBron James Special

noreply@blogger.com (Nelson Santos) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 21:39:00 +0000

By now, we have all probably heard or seen the one-hour television special on LeBron James announcement to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers, to go to the Miami Heat. What many people do not know is the man behind the scenes that brought this entire special together. That man was Ariel Emmanuel, a super talent agent. LeBron’s manager, Maverick Carter approached Ariel and asked him, how can they publicize LeBron’s announcement on whether or not he would be staying with Cavaliers or joining another team. Ariel came up with the idea to have this big transition televised on a network prime time for an hour special. The entire event and any income the show generates would be donated to charity for the Boys and Girls Club. Ariel’s goal was to get as many sponsors as possible and to push the needle on advertiser content programing. Ariel was able to get eight big name sponsors to make this event possible. The two major sponsors in this event were University of Phoenix and Microsoft’s Bing. There were also companies like Vitamin Water, McDonalds, Nike, and State Farm who also participated in the advertisement in commercials and in the special. This event generated more then two million in revenue. The ratings for the special peaked to a staggering 9.6 rating, when an average rating is about 7.3. This event was ESPN’s highest non-football show views that year. Ariel Emmanuel saw all the possibilities that could have been made with this event. He knew LeBron was not just a player, but he is a product yet alone a brand. He capitalized by having the sponsors make the show possible by ads. He knew the companies could not resist because this special was going to be a gold mine. LeBron James received good and bad press for how this event took place, but the main goal behind the event was to get advertisers to participate and donate the revenues to charity.

http://adage.com/article/news/lebron-s-entourage-decision-espn/144882/

http://articles.businessinsider.com/2010-07-12/sports/29996662_1_ad-revenue-advertisers-charity

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2010/07/usually-when-an-agent-scores-a-big-deal-they-like-to-boast-about-itbut-creative-artists-agency-has-been-curiously-mum-about.html

http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2010/07/08/did-ari-emanuel-set-up-tonights-lebron-special/

Negotiating Interview

noreply@blogger.com (Nelson Santos) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 14:32:00 +0000

I recently did an interview on Orlando Rodriguez. He is a Grammy award wining audio engineer and producer who is frequently negotiating contracts. He told me of a situation where he made a deal with a label to produce and mix a song. The song had to be done in exactly a week in order for him to receive his pay and to receive thirty five percent of royalties. Orlando began working on the song, but was falling behind schedule and was not sure to finish by the deadline. He knew of a friend who was an also an audio engineer who needed work. He quickly sat down with him and explained the situation. The friend agreed to help Orlando out with the agreement that he would receive fifteen percent of the royalties Orlando would receive plus a certain amount of money, which Orlando was going to receive when the job was done. Orlando knew that without his help, he would not finish the song in time and he would not be paid. Orlando was going to agree to his terms but pushed on to bring the deal more in his favor. He knew this song was going to generate a large amount of revenue in royalties and he knew his friend was in need of money. He proposed that he would not give royalties to him, but he would give him eighty percent of the money he would receive upfront. The engineer immediately agreed. Orlando was able to get the song done in time and receive his payment. This I believe is an example of mutual benefit. Orlando had to have the song done by the deadline to receive payment. He knew he would not have it in time so he hired his friend who was in need of money to help him out. Orlando was more interested in the royalties than the upfront money he was going to receive so he gave a larger amount of that money to his friend. At the end, everybody’s needs were met and they all had a mutual gain.

Types Of Mechanical Royalties

noreply@blogger.com (Nelson Santos) — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 14:06:00 +0000

In the music industry, whether you are a publisher, songwriter, recording artist, or a recording company, you have many ways to capitalize on profit. One of the biggest and the main stream of income in the music industry are royalties. Royalties are the payment for the use of the asset. The percent of royalties each person gets is based on who is on the copyright of the asset and what is stated in the contract. There are four types of royalties, which are mechanical licensees, performance rights, synchronization rights, and print rights. All of these different types of royalties have their own subcategories to break royalties down in their specific group. Today I will be talking about the different types of mechanical royalties. The first type is the recording artist mechanical royalties. This may be one of the most difficult royalties to understand since recording companies operate differently. The artist is paid a percentage of the sales of the recording depending on the contract. The artist does not get the immediate percentage of the record sales. The recording company must first collect the money they invested in the artist. They also deduct the promotion and packaging. The artist collects in royalties what has been left of the profit. The second type is the writer/publisher mechanical royalties. The record company calculates the total royalties and gives the publisher its percentage share. From there, the publisher pays the writer a percentage of the royalties received. The government has set up a statutory rate of $0.08 for a song that is five minutes or less in time. The third type is the Internet royalties. Each time a song is downloaded, the artist gets a percent of the royalties. This type of royalties is usually less compared to the other types. The recording companies also deduct a twenty-five percent packaging fee even though there is no packing involved in online songs.

Sources

http://musicians.about.com/od/musiciansfaq/f/paymechanicals.htm

http://www.songwriteruniverse.com/mechanical.html

Rise And Fall Of The Music Industry

noreply@blogger.com (Nelson Santos) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 06:11:00 +0000

In these last couple of years, the music industry has lost a significant amount of sales, which has caused numerous professional studios to close down and lower their prices. This is partly due because the number of home studios currently built is rapidly increasing. Recording equipment is affordable enough for a person to create a home studio and provide high quality CDs. These people can also distribute their own song by cutting the middleman and selling the songs themselves with help from online websites such as CD Baby or Sound Click. This has cut into the profit margin of many labels. However, the primary reason is that the digital era has overwhelmed the physical CD world. There is a slow but steady transition from physical CD to digital media. Consumers are buying more songs online then actual physical CDs. In 2007, 80% of record sales was from physical CDs and the remaining 20% was from digital downloads. In 2009, 64% of record sales were from physical CDs and the remaining 36% was from digital downloads. As you can see, the trend of digital downloads keeps rising. This has forced record labels to promote, distribute, and sell from what they are used to in the physical records realm. The music industry is slowly changing into the digital realm. There is a lot of material to capitalize on, but as of now, nobody has come up with a way to do this. The closest thing we have seen is iTunes, which is the biggest online music distributer. One of the areas, which is improving the music industry and is currently growing in numbers and sales, is concerts. It’s not that more people are going to concerts; it is however that people are paying more to get into concerts. The reason for this may be that concerts and live productions have improved tremendously. The growing income from live performance
has compensated losses from the dying sale of CD’s.

Sources

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/08/10/090810fa_fact_seabrook

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118021441?refCatId=16

http://www.jamesehearn.com/media/Threats-To-Studio-Survivability.pdf

Julian Treasure: The 4 ways sound affects us

noreply@blogger.com (Nelson Santos) — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 21:18:00 +0000

The speaker I choose from the TED speakers was Julian Treasure. He shared his knowledge through his speech by explaining how sound affects everything we do on a day-to-day basis. He explained that sound is divided into four different groups that effects us differently. The first one is physiological that affects our breathing, heart rate and brain waves. The second one is psychological which affects our emotional state. The third one is cognitive which affects our productivity. Finally, the fourth one is behaviorally, which tells us actions to take. He explained based on these four groups of sound that you can design a plan on how to attract or accomplish a goal with a specific brand to attract people. He goes on to explain that music is the most powerful sound in the planet because you are able to recognize and associate it faster then any other type of sound. This speech caught my attention immediately and helped me better understand sound. I can benefit from this topic tremendously since my passion revolves around sound. Using these four groups I now understand what sounds affect people and how. I am now able to use sound to control people subconsciously. This knowledge will help me tremendously when I create products for my clients. When I create music, I can add sounds into the work to influence the listeners and attract them. I believe there is a key in this research of the four groups of sound that could help engineers bring popularity to their work. This speech also reinforced the thought that music is not going to go anywhere since it the most powerful form of sound. The music industry is suffering in some aspects, but I believe there is a new way to go around this and prosper. Music is a constant evolving sound that drives human beings and I want to capitalize on it as much as possible.

Source
http://www.ted.com/talks/julian_treasure_the_4_ways_sound_affects_us.html

Association Of Professional Recording Services

noreply@blogger.com (Nelson Santos) — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 18:22:00 +0000

The association that most interested me and that I would like to become a part of is the Association Of Professional Recording Services (APRS). It’s an association that has been active for fifty years and whose sole purpose is to provide the highest standard through the industry, while providing ways for audio professionals to work together. APRS establishes many programs and conferences for professionals to get together and bring awareness of the current pros and cons of the industry as well as teaching new techniques about the recording process. APRS had a conference that caught my attention as I read their article. An issue had to be resolved over the next couple of years. The issue was the misuse and overuse of compression. The target audience was not just music recording, but also motion picture, as well as radio broadcast, and television. For the music side, it is the record companies fault for asking for a loud as possible music track. The only way for this is to compress the track enough to get the desired volume. Many audio engineers are becoming aware of an issue that needs to be resolved to bring back the quality in sound recordings. This was the main purpose of this conference, to bring this issue to light and bring awareness. I can relate to this issue very well. When I compress my mixes during mastering, I usually squash the track quite a lot in order for the music track to be loud, so that it can compare and compete with the music tracks that are released in our present day. The public and other audio engineers and recording companies feel that they have to keep up with the trend in order to survive in the entertainment world. In reality, we are giving up quality when we do this to get a loud as possible music track. The same as mp3 formats. We are giving up quality in order for the music track to become smaller in size so that we can fit more in our iPod. Our current society is getting used to this and it can become a problem in the future when they cannot tell the difference between good and bad quality recordings. Below is a picture where you can observe the difference between loud and normal tracks.

Sources

http://www2.aprs.co.uk/Default.aspx?pageId=251628

Acoustic Foam Treatment

noreply@blogger.com (Nelson Santos) — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 16:38:00 +0000

Owning a studio in your own house is becoming more popular now since the cost for the audio equipment has become affordable and portable. You may have all your studio equipment ready to go and record, but if your room is not acoustically treated then you have a big problem when recording and mixing. When the sound leaves the speakers, the sound bounces of the walls to the listener and sends a false signal that is not really the original signal. These false signals are known as reflections and they are a big problem that affects your sound. We can stop and control these reflections by acoustically treating the room. A popular way to do this is to buy acoustic foam and place them on your walls. You may have already gone and checked the prices for acoustic foam and seen that the prices are ridiculous for a piece of foam. The most common price for this acoustic foam is 24 pieces of 12x12 acoustic foam for $109.99. You can check them out at this link http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Wedgies/. It would seem that treating your room acoustically would put a big dent on your wallet, but it is something that has to be done to acquire the perfect true sound in your room. Today I bring you a website that will only scratch your pockets. At Foam Factory, you can find the same kind of foam for very cheap prices. You could buy 12 pieces of 12x12 acoustic foam for $15.99. You may be thinking that it has to be a knock-off for being that cheap, but the reality is that its not. The foam is identical; you are only paying more with the other foams because of the brand name. You can check them out at this link http://www.foambymail.com/AW2/acoustical-2-wedge-foam.html. Foam Factory offers different kinds of foam for you room such as, bass traps, monitor isolations, wedge foam, pyramid foam and many more. You can also pick the color that best suits your taste. I personally have purchased large amounts of acoustic foams from Foam Factory for the fraction of the price that it would have cost for the brand-name foam.

Presonus Studio Channel

noreply@blogger.com (Nelson Santos) — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 16:31:00 +0000

If your on a budget and you need to start acquiring gear for your signal chain or you just simply want to just upgrade, then I have the perfect all in one wonder for you. The Presonus Studio Channel has a preamplifier, compressor, and equalizer. There is no need to purchase these three different types of audio gear where you can get it all in one and for the price of $300. The Studio Channel has a class A 12AX7 tube amplifier. MXL microphones are not the best microphones when you want to purchase a microphone, but it will get the job done for engineers starting in this career. I recorded vocals with this microphone through the Studio Channel and it sounded amazing. It changed the characteristics of the microphone by adding a wider and fuller sound. The studio channel also has a VCA compressor, which is known for its ability to manipulate the fastest transients when recording. The compressor has all your basic knobs such as threshold, attack, and release. The Studio Channel’s three band parametric equalizer is good to take out those unwanted frequencies that are disturbing your sound. It also adds a smooth and sweet type of color to the sound. Equalizing when recording is not common, but you can also you this as an insert in your postproduction. The Presonus Studio Channel is an amazing piece of gear. This was my first gear for my signal chain and it definitely transformed the quality of my recordings to reach that professional sound. For the price on the Studio Channel, you cannot possibly go wrong. This is a piece of audio gear that will upgrade your sound, especially if you are on a budget and starting in to the recording world. Below I provided links so you can read the technical specifications for the Studio Channel.

http://www.presonus.com/products/Detail.aspx?ProductId=57

http://forum.recordingreview.com/content/presonus-studio-channel-review-77/

Advanced Audio Microphones Review: Neumann U87 vs. CM-87

noreply@blogger.com (Nelson Santos) — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 02:11:00 +0000

Neumann U87 vs. CM-87

In our current economy, it is difficult to stay on top of the recording industry, buying the latest gear or owning some of the best gear out there. For instance, the legendary microphone, which almost each known engineer has in his or her arsenal, is the Neumann U87. The price of this microphone starts at $3,000 and keeps going up as newer versions are made. Not everyone can afford to buy this type of microphone. Luckily, the patent rights expired for this microphone and Advanced Audio Microphones took advantage of this. They created an almost identical twin to the Neumann U87. They call this microphone the CM-87. You can purchase this cheap professional microphone for $380. You may think this might be a cheap knock off, but it is far from it. I compared this microphone to the original and I had a hard time trying to find differences between them. Advanced Audio Microphones even lets you add parts to customize your microphone to the sound you are looking for. The CM-87 also includes the three polar patterns like the Neumann U87, which are Cardioid, Omnidirectional, and Figure 8. As you can see by the frequency charts below, they are very similar.

CM-87 Frequency Chart

Neumann U87 Frequency Chart

You can check the bottom links to compare the specs from the Neumann and Advanced audio Microphones website. You will find out that they are identical even with their internal parts. You might still be thinking it sounds too good to be true, but you can check the reviews on these microphones from some of pros in the industry. The CM-87 was also featured in Tape Op magazine where they give a run down on the microphone and Advanced Audio Microphone. Therefore, if you are on a budget and need to acquire a microphone that sounds amazing then you should try the CM-87.

Sources

http://www.neumann.com/?lang=en&id=current_microphones&cid=u87_data

http://www.aamicrophones.com/fet_mics/cm_87.htm