SOUND > VIDEO

Boom Poles

noreply@blogger.com (Churst) — Wed, 18 Apr 2018 07:57:00 +0000

The humble boom pole is a constant feature of film and video production.

While radio mics have proliferated every facet of production filling up all of those extra channels that mixer manufacturers have been giving us, the boom is still correctly regarded as the "proper" way to capture audio for a film. With larger fuller sounding mics that can be placed in the correct location for speech pickup the boom mic has prevailed.

If the film is being shot on an iPhone, the sound still relies on its traditional form factor, and while powerful multitrack packages can fit very small bags (see my previous post "Small Packages for Professional Sound", it is still the mixer, boom and radios package required to record audio that sounds good.

A boom pole denotes a film crew, it's the first thing you might notice popping out above a crowd of people before you see the camera or hear the shout of action from the director.

What I'm here to talk about though is the boom itself. What it does, the different sizes and what those different sizes might be used for.

If you're just starting out as a sound recordist or boom operator then you probably got a Rode aluminium pole. It's cheap got decent reach, and folds up reasonably sized, but it weighs a lot for a professional boom that you're going to be using as the main tool of your trade. Save a little and you'll want to step up to something a lighter and more pro feeling.

The biggest names in the game are Panamic, Ambient, K-Tek and VDB. These companies have been providing poles for every level of the game from features to short documentaries for decades.

Panamic are probably the most highly regarded in the world of feature films. They've been swung on all of the biggest films and they have a reliability that goes relatively unchallenged.

Ambient have also been making poles for a very long time. Their feature poles are very highly regarded and are very high spec. They hand make their top poles and offer booms that can fold down and fit in hand luggage, right the way up to 17ft feature film beasts.

K-Tek have picked up a great following among documentary style sound recordists. Their carbon poles are very light and offer an excellent extension ratio.

VDB have also been making poles for a long old time. This French manufacturer claims the crown for the lightest poles for any given extension. Some say that comes at a cost of fragility at extreme lengths, but those boom operators with the touch to handle them swear by them.

A boom pole can be categorised a a few ways, but most people see the distinction as relatively straightforward. There are doco poles and there are feature poles.

A doco (documentary) pole is a pole with a reach of under 15ft. They have a numerous sections, usually five or six, in order to both have good reach and be small enough to pack away into a relatively small case.

A feature pole has a reach of over 15ft and can go on right up to 20ft. They are long so as to keep clear of action and to ensure that the boom operator can stay well clear of camera moves. Typically, due to the nature of extending a pole to those lengths, a feature pole will have fewer sections usually three or four, and will be made of slightly thicker material in order to retain rigidity on long extensions.

But what does this all mean?

Well I suppose the rest is really up to you. What work you do and how you want to go about that work. I have poles for different occasions. A small pole for travel a medium one for indoors and a massive feature one for those big time shots!

As always, feel free to comment and share these posts!

Small Packages for Professional Sound

noreply@blogger.com (Churst) — Mon, 16 Apr 2018 07:55:00 +0000

While the capabilities of cameras have been squeezed into smaller and smaller packages, to the point where a handful of feature films have been shot on iPhone cameras, sound kit capable of delivering professional level clean audio hasn't quite shrunk to the same level, and remains similarly sized to kit from the last 30 years. There's always at the very minimum a shoulder bag with a recorder/mixer and a boom mic.

One example of a tiny professional recorder is the Sonosax MiniR82, a recorder about the size of a well filled wallet (which Sonosax would gladly empty in order to own one), small enough it could feasibly fit in a pocket. However, you'd still need the boom mic and cable running to the unit, making the package considerably bigger and thus unwieldy to use without a specifically designed pouch/bag/case system.

However, what I'm investigating with this article is the "standard" PSC/ENG sound package and what can be achieved with new technology to make it smaller lighter and healthier. It used to be that a sound person on a small shoot would turn up with his SQN, maybe a couple of radio mics and a boom, and connect to camera for recording. These days it can be acceptable for a recordist on a reality show to be covering up to 12 radio mics in a bag, with mix panels and enough battery power to run all of the receivers and the mixer/recorder all day. This all starts to add up rather quickly when the Sound Devices 688 or 664 start at around 3kg, before you start adding the CL6 mix panel and and SL6 six channel radio mic slot interface, plus big NP1 batteries to power the lot for a few hours.

My personal goal has been to reduce the weight in my bag over the years. It's something our advances in technology should be allowing. I want strong, lightweight materials, miniaturised electronics, and software based UI to reduce front panel space. For me only two devices have come close to these goals, the delightfully pricey Sonosax SX-R4+ and the rather cheaper Zoom F8. Both weigh less than 1kg without batteries and have 8+ channels, with small footprints and make use of modern tech in ways I can appreciate.

I'll start with the Zoom F8... This box has eight analogue inputs all on split mic/line connectors. No other recorder has this. As the most widely used connection system for mics XLR connections offer an incredibly low cost way of getting eight channels into a recorder, without having to go down digital routes like AES. The software UI is as intuitive as can be expected, but the front panel controls are a little cramped. That is overcome when in "cart mode" using the optional USB fader controller, which gives better tactile control over the mixer. I'd be really keen on a small eight rotary fader panel for bag use too, but Zooms development team don't seem to be showing all that much love for the product range at the moment.

Then we have the Sonosax SX-R4+... This is probably one of the most technologically advanced recorders on the market. The base unit is a 16 channel recorder, which has six analogue inputs (4x mic & 2x line) and five sets of AES3 inputs split across two connectors (1x multi pin DB25 and 1x TA3). The TA3 input is also assignable as output with SRC to connect lower sample rate AES devices. It also has an optional RJ45 on the side to allow communication with audio over IP systems like Dante.

The base unit is then expandable through the multitpin AES connector to have a couple of options. The first is the RC8+ eight fader panel, breaking out the AES inputs onto 4x TA3 and providing extra hirose power outputs, from the internal Audioroot battery, for radio mic receivers and the like. The second is the AD8+ which gives the SX-R4+ eight additional mic inputs.

These two systems are perfectly suited to small high channel count rigs that weigh in at not much more than 5kg with batteries and mic receivers. With the recent proliferation of dual channel radio mic receivers it is possible to fit eight channels of radio mics into incredibly small packages with just four receiver units. This allows systems to be put into incredibly small bags like the K-Tek Stingray Jr without breaking the spine of the operator!

Case study

Here's my complete setup from a shoot for an online commercial which fits handily into a K-Tek Stingray Jr.

A Zoom F8 running six channels of radios; two Audio Ltd EN2 dual receivers and two Sony UWP-D single receivers. I was also rigged with a Sennheiser G2 transmitter feeding my G2 IEMs. The EN2's and the Zoom F8 were powered by my usual Hawkwoods NP-F shoe and a Baxxtar NP-F990 75Wh battery which ran all day. The Sony receivers and the G2 transmitter were powered by Eneloop Pro 2450mAh AA rechargeables.

All in the package was fairly lightweight at a very reasonable 5.6kg, and remained compact within the confines of the Stingray Jr bag.

The boom was wired, phantom power provided by the F8. All-in-all a super compact and surprisingly low power drain system which could easily scale to eight radio channels, with power consumption rising rapidly with the addition of digital receivers.

In a world where digital radio transmission is making more and more sense, an upgrade to a 98Wh AudioRoot or NP1 Lithium battery might be a good move for power stability.

If you'd like to check out more info on how heavy modern kit can be, check out my older post "Can Sound be Light?"

New Gear Day // Audio Ltd A10 Digital Wireless (w/ DPA Core 4061 mics)

noreply@blogger.com (Churst) — Fri, 02 Mar 2018 08:51:00 +0000

Excitement levels off the scale, I've just taken delivery (actually two weeks ago now) of my own first truly professional level wireless audio system.

The dual channel Audio Ltd A10 digital wireless system.

I've been meaning to get off the Sennheiser G2/3 wagon for a while now, and have finally mustered the courage to splurge the balance of my credit card on a complete set of radios, plus mics.

Last month I added 2 sets of Sony UWP-D radios, with ECM-77 mics, to achieve better audio quality and better transmission strength. I was very happy with those, and continue to be; as I'll be using those as both radio camera links and as additional mic packs too. The Sony RX's have the advantage of having incredible integration with Sony cameras like the FS5 and FS7, when used in conjunction with their powered hot shoe adapter, and I just can't deny how popular those cameras are among owner operators, and their prolific use for corporate video and low/mid tier commercial projects.

Now with my work year picking up again, I'm preparing by getting the best of the best kit to help me deliver better sound to my clients! The Audio Ltd A10 system, which has been on my radar for a year or so now, should be just the ticket for delivering better, cleaner radio mic transmission.

It combines the immense audio quality associated with Audio Ltd products, with a lightweight pack low latency digital transmission and integrated recording for those out of range moments. Only Zaxcom, from the US, have a truly 1 for 1 competing product; Sennheiser and Sony also have digital systems, but without that integrated recorder.

From the two weeks I've now had using them on locations across Europe I must confess I'm impressed. Almost cable quality transmission of the DPA mics, with bluetooth control of key functions; gain, LCF, frequency, and that 48V phantom power adding the option of a wireless boom is a great addition to my toolset.

I think it's fair to say my radio mic game will be lifted by this product!

Can Sound Be Light?

noreply@blogger.com (Churst) — Wed, 15 Feb 2017 19:56:00 +0000

In a desperate attempt to save my spine from years of abuse I have been considering the weight of the kit I carry across my shoulders. In doing so I've been compiling statistics on the earthly mass of every bit of kit I carry with me; and, by way of comparison, every other alternative part that could make up a sound-persons bag and boom. I've created a selection of handy tables and decided to share my findings with you, the people of the internet.

Location Recorders

Location Recorder	Size HxWxD cm	Weight (g)	Inputs

Sonosax SXR4+	5x20x14.5	910	4xmic/line 2xline 2xAES3
Zoom F8	5.5x18x14	960	8xmic/line
Zoom F4	5.5x18x14	1030	4xmic/line 2xline
SD 633	6x24x14	1100	3xmic/line 3xline 1xAES3
Zaxcom Maxx	5x19x13.4	1130	4xmic/line 2xAES
SD 744T	4.5x21x12.5	1200	2xmic/line 2x/line 2xAES3
SD 788T	4.5x26x16.3	1700	8xmic/line 4xAES3/42
Zaxcom Nomad	5x25x17.8	1725	6xmic/line 4xline 4xAES3/42
Aeta 4Minx	7.5x26x19.5	1900	4xmic/line 4xline 1xAES3
SD 664	5.3x32x19.8	2150	6xmic/line 6xline 2xAES3/42
SD 688	5.3x32x19.8	2210	6xmic/line 6xline 2xAES3/42
Roland R88	9.3x26x23.5	2670	8xmic/line 1xAES3
Aaton Cantar X3 Mini	9x23.4x25.9	2300	4xmic/line 2xline 2xAES3/42
Aaton Cantar X3	9x32x24	3550	8xmic/line 4xline 8xAES3 2xAES42 24xDante
Tascam HS-P82	10x27x26	3650	8xmic/line 4xAES3/42
Nagra VI 6 Channel	7.4x31x28.5	3800	4xmic/line 2xline 1xAES3

Radio Mic receivers 

Radio Mic Twin Rx	Weight (g)

Audio Ltd EN2 CX2-P	170
Zaxcom QRX235	170
Zaxcom QRX200	170
Wisycom MCR42	180
Lectrosonics Srb	195
Audio Ltd EN2 DX2	196
Sony URX-P03D	210
Lectrosonics Src	225
Sony DWR S02DN	280
Sony URX-S03D	303
Sennheiser EK6042	340

Radio Mic single Rx	Weight (g)

Wisycom MPR30-ENG	100
Audio Ltd En2 DX	113
Sennheiser EK100	160
Zaxcom QRX300	170
Audio Ltd DX1010	180
Lectrosonics LR	185
Audio Wireless AWDR1	200
Sennheiser EK2000	200
Zaxcom RX200	218
Audio Ltd DX2040	225
Lectrosonics UCR411a	425

Sound Bags (size laid out as per recorder orientation for easy matching) 

Bag	Weight (g)	Int. HxWxD (cm)

Orca OR-27	990	9x21.5x13
Sachtler SN607	1100	10.5x23.5x17
Portabrace AR-MAXX	1100	16.5x33x27.9
K-Tek Stingray Jr	1300	9x22x20
Portabrace AR-788CLX	1360	16.5x33x27.9
Portabrace AO-1X	1400	14x27.9x15.9
Orca OR-28	1460	11.5x21.5x16.5
Portabrace AO-633	1490	15.2x30.5x17.8
Portabrace AO-1.5X	1500	16.5x30.5x17.8
K-Tek Stingray Small	1700	14x23x23
Orca OR-30	1780	12x26x17.5
Sachtler SN614	1800	10x29.5x19
Portabrace AO-4	1800	17.8x34.3x17.8
Portabrace AO-2X	1810	13.3x38.1x20.3
Sachtler SN617	1900	8.5x34.5x18.5
Sachtler SN601	2100	13x28.5x23
Portabrace AO-688	2100	16.5x32.4x20.3
K-Tek Stingray Med	2320	14x30x23
K-Tek Stingray Lrg	2380	14x33x23
Orca OR-32	2620	14.5x33x23
Orca OR-41	2640	15x30x22
Orca OR-34	2780	19x33x23
Sachtler SN602	2800	18x32.5x22

Batteries 

Batteries	Weight (g)	Output

Audioroot eSMART Li-49Wh	239	14.4V 3400mAh 49Wh
NP-F970	285	7.2V 6600mAh 48Wh	*4000mAh @12V
NP1 35W	300	14.4V 2400mAh 35Wh
BP-U60	380	14.4V 4200mAh 60Wh
Audioroot eSMART Li-98Wh	450	14.4V 6800mAh 98Wh
NP1 65W	465	14.4V 4400mAh 65Wh
NP1 70W	475	14.4V 4800mAh 70Wh

Battery Caddies 

Battery caddy	Weight (g)

BP-SQN2S	70
DV-SQN2S	70
NPB-SQN4S	87
NPC-SQN4S	94
Audioroot eSMART BG-DU	129
Audioroot eSMART BG-DH MKII	130

Boom Poles (around the size I currently own) 

Boom Pole	Weight (g)	length max/min (m)

VDB M	410	0.60/2.66
K-Tek KEG-100	430	0.66/2.67
VDB L	500	0.80/3.84
Ambient QXS 580	530	0.80/3.30
Ambient QXS 565	535	0.66/2.59
Panamic 5806 5 Section	580	0.80/3.00

Shotgun Mics 

Shotgun Mic	weight (g)

Ambient TinyMike ATM	30
DPA 4017B	68
DPA 4017C	70
Senn. MKH8060	80
Schoeps CMIT 5U	89
Sanken CS2	110
Schoeps Super CMIT 2U	112
Sanken CS3e	120
DPA 4017ER/ES	121
Rode NTG4	126
Neumann KMR 81i	145
Senn. MKH60	150
Rode NTG3 B	163
Sennheiser MKH 416	165
Rode NTG4+	176

Wind Shields 

Wind Shield	Weight (g)

Rycote Super Softie 5cm	65.2
Rycote Classic Softie 5cm	73
Rycote Super Softie 12cm	89
Rycote Super Softie 15cm	97
Rycote Super Softie 18cm	105
Rycote BBG	120
Rycote Classic Softie 10cm	173
Rycote Classic Softie 12cm	176
Rycote Classic Softie 18cm	177
Rycote Classic Softie 15cm	182.5
Rycote Classic Softie 24cm	208.3
Cinela Pianissimo PIANI-1	330	no fur
Cinela Piano PIA-1	380	no fur
Cinela Pianissimo PIANI-1 SP	445	med wind fur
Cinela Pianissimo PIANI-1 LP	480	hi wind fur
Cinela Piano PIA-1 SP	530	med wind fur
Cinela Piano PIA-1 LP	560	hi wind fur
Rycote Supershield Small	642	with fur
Rycote Supershield Med	662	with fur
Rycote Supershield Lrg	692	with fur
Rycote Cyclone Small	716	with fur
Rycote Cyclone Med	806	with fur
Rycote Cyclone Large	889	with fur

Cabling 

Cable	Weight (g/m)

VDC Pro Grade Classic Install	19
VDC Tour Grade Classic Mini StarQuad	34
VDC Tour Grade Classic Mic	56
VDC Tour Grade Classic StarQuad	57
VDC Green AES Mic	70

Peli Cases

Peli Case (carry on)	Weight (kg) without foam

Peli Air 1535	3.9
Peli Storm iM2500	5
Peli Protector 1510	5.4

Now all you have to do is design your ideal system by weight! How light is your rig? How much lighter can you make your rig? Comment below!

Also if you'd like me add any other products or columns to these tables I'd happily do the working for them; just leave a comment.

Gear Review: Allen & Heath Qu-16 Digital Mixing Console. UPDATED

noreply@blogger.com (Churst) — Thu, 13 Oct 2016 11:00:00 +0000

Allen & Heath have long been on my radar as a company that builds equipment that has quality far beyond its price placement within the market. In the whole space for analogue and digital mixing consoles in the £1000 to £2000 price bracket not a single one of the desks has all of the features that I've wanted to see. There's always one or two trade-offs to allow for some other forward thinking feature. The Yamaha 01V96i has card expandability, but only 12 mic pres. The Focusrite Control 2802 has 32 inputs of analogue summing and a glorious bus compressor but no EQ on the channel strip. The Allen & Heath Zed R16 has 16 solid pres, EQ's on everyone and flexible digital routing, but is cramped to operate with only 70mm faders and very narrow channel spacing.
The Qu-16 from Allen & Heath has it's own special feature. 18 channels of direct to USB hard drive recording. It also has 16 high quality mic preamps, a selection of stereo inputs and FX returns. Two built in digital FX sends and twelve mix outputs. This is a desk designed for live use but with plenty of recording grunt and comes in at a very affordable price for the features.

UPDATE: The Qu-16 has now been updated a few times and as such I've added a bit of extra insight to some of those new features. Most valuable to me is it's ability to now control DAW systems under Windows operating systems natively, making it a great hub around which to base a studio.

Initial Impression
The first thing you notice when looking at the board is that it's a very clean front facing surface. No cables cluttering things up on top and lots of space for buttons and big fingers. Having not used a digital desk for a while (my last experience was a rather more
complex Yamaha DM2000) I was intrigued to see how easy it was to st up and start navigating around the menus. I was wrong to feel any sort of trepidation as Allen & Heath have designed the touch screen menus with the engineer in mind. No hidden deep lying functions hidden under piles of tabs and menus. Everything is cleanly labelled and straight out of the box is ready to use with all of the basic routing set up.

What's it got?
Firstly this is an all digital desk with everything on board controlled digitally. All 16 preamp levels are set using the knob in the top left corner of the board and so are the stereo inputs. Just select your channel and turn the knob. The there's a digital channel strip on every input channel whcih consists of a gate, parametric EQ, and compressor. They even extend down to EQ's on FX returns and graphic EQ's and compression on every output. All of these are controlled using the controls at the top left of the board with dedicated rotary controls for each effect. The graphic EQ's are controlled by a fader flip on the main fader bank. this gives you a 100mm fader with which to control every frequency on the stereo EQ module, which is perfect for taming feedback or tweaking the PA.
Beyond the inputs and outputs are the digital features. On the back panel we have a USB-B port for streaming 24 channels of audio in both directions between a PC (Mac or Windows). This works down to very low latencies, which is perfect for recording guitars and vocals while streaming audio from the DAW rather than direct monitoring, which is also possible. Additionally the USB port can also be used as a MIDI control interface for DAW's, giving options for both HUI for ProTools and Mackie Control for other DAW's. The versatility of which will be hugely useful to anyone looking to use this desk in their studio.
Then there is the Networking port which can be used to connect the Qu series mixers to a local area network, which allows you to control the mixer using an iPad from anywhere in the room, which is going to be great for venues where the mix position is less than ideally placed.
Also present on the back panel is A&H's proprietary dSnake connection for connecting their own digital snakes to the desk. This unfortunately doesn't open up further channels to the Qu-16 but allows remote control of up to 16 preamps that are on stage.
The final unusual port on the back is a four pin XLR plug for the LED bendy lamp, which is incredibly handy for those dark corners that are usually inhabited by us soundies.
Then we move to the front panel where there is a further USB port, which is designed to have a portable hard drive plugged directly into it. This "Qu-Drive" port allows you to record 18 tracks of audio directly to the hard drive, which works out very nicely for the Qu-16 with its 16 pre's and various stereo inputs.

That's a lot of stuff in one rack mountable frame...
The combination of features really does make this a pretty astounding all in one toolbox for any combined FoH/Monitor position and you could create incredibly complex mixes with just this board at your fingertips. Just last week I saw a one man FoH engineer have to carry, up a narrow staircase to the first floor, a double rack width case with a big heavy middle of the road 16 channel analogue desk sitting on top, with 4U of parametric EQ for the PA and an old Mac Pro tower and screen (as well as a full stereo PA and foldback monitors). The combination of features he had in that rig, which probably weighed about as much as a car, can be done with exactly the same quality in a box that requires one mains socket and you can carry in under one arm.
I have already put it to task in recording a rock band at their rehearsal space. A small footprint device like this with so much going on made life vastly easier than essentially migrating my studio to another town and setting up before I even get started on cabling mics and all of the complexity that can entail. We tracked the drums using the desk and created a foldback mix of DI'd guitars for each player. The routing options available for doing so were just so simple I reckon my mum could probably operate it with a couple hours of orientation.

What's missing?
Well from my perspective I would have loved to be able to use it as a centrepiece to my current studio set up. In there I have a workstation based around an RME Fireface UFX, which has 16 ADAT inputs as well as 12 analogue inputs. The Qu-16 has two sets of USB i/o, dSnake and a stereo AES output at its disposal, but sadly no other digital connections.
With 16 ADAT outputs running 48kHz and the analogue connections this desk would actually be the perfect companion and centre piece to my studio.
This would be the best compact mixer on the market if only it didn't fall just shy of my requirements. No direct outputs on the mic preamps. The directs can only be sent over USB or to one of the mixer output buses. Sadly the Allen & Heath driver suite is nothing exciting (even more stripped back to just audio interfacing on PC) offering barely any of the incredible features that are in RME's TotalMixFX package, by which I have been spoiled for too long!
The final drawback on this board is that it is locked permanently to 48kHz. No double rates, not quad rates, not even 44.1kHz. Now for a live mixer this doesn't represent a problem at all. It's more than adequate for most recording jobs, but when it comes to music in the studio, some people will demand that their drums be recorded at 44.1 or 88.2 and so if I was sent a project that was outside of 48kHz I'd be forced to convert every file and the project to 48kHz to make sure I was getting the best audio workflow before working on it.

How does it sound?
It sounds great.
In all seriousness it sounds as good as, if not better than, that old Yamaha DM2000 and is easier to configure and has seemingly more DSP power under the hood. The effects all sound great. The compressors on the outputs are effective and easy to set up with a variety of different models to choose from. The visualisation of the EQ's also makes it very easy to dial in what you want quickly listen and then happily leave it alone for the rest of the show.
The mic pre's are very good. They are apparently based on the more expensive GLD and iLive consoles so should be more than capable of dealing with anything that can be thrown at them.
I've thrown my full range of mics at these pre's and nothing seems to push them into unusable noise. The only thing I haven't tested them with is a ribbon mic, which could test them the most.
My main point of comparison is my RME Fireface UFX mic pre's which I also think sound great. Crystal clear and safe to use on practically any material so you can add some dirt later. The preamps on the Qu-16 sound just as good, but with a bit more character than the UFX.

In Use
The most incredible thing about this board is actually how ergonomic and simple it is to use. Having wandered it into a bands rehearsal space to get some recordings done I quickly set up all the channels I needed from mics and DI's using the impressive mic pres. Once set I worked on developing two fold back headphone mixes. One for the drummer and another for the rest of the band. Simple. I was recording to both my DAW on my PC over USB, and recording 18 tracks to the USB QuDrive, monitoring my mix and audio on the main mix layer, mixing and monitoring two foldback mixes. From turning up to the studio, on my own, with a car full of kit to being completely set up took probably less than an hour.
The only thing it lacks in the sense of ergonomics is the lack of information about which mix you are currently in, every now and again I did grab a fader only to find I was wrecking a monitor mix rather than playing with my own mix. The only thing indicating which mix you are in is a very small green light over the button that selects the mix. It's easy to miss, but equally if you know the board well you'll get to know it's signals better and stop making that mistake.

TL:DR
With the the continuing evolution of the digital desk that defines it as a product that can do everything in one box, a lot of companies have come out with excellent solutions to the old way of having 20u racks all around you full of effects and gear. The Qu-16 is another success story for Allen & Heath, with a well featured and well built desk that fits to a price point. That said it's not without its caveats, but they all lack something at this price point. If they didn't, we'd be paying a lot more for something which actually is the perfect product.

If you want to check out more mixers in this price bracket it'll be worth having a look into the PreSonus StudioLive series, Yamaha 01V96i, Allen & Heath ZED-R16, Behringer X32 and Focusrite Control 2802. All great desks in their own right, but each with their own strengths and weaknesses.

No more wires? Apple removes the audio jack

noreply@blogger.com (Churst) — Thu, 08 Sep 2016 09:43:00 +0000

Apple has announced the new iPhone, and with it a complete lack of revolutionary improvements, except for one thing: They've taken out the headphone jack socket in favour of using just a single solitary multipurpose lightning connector. But is it revolutionary or just controversial clickbait to send traffic to their site to buy more products?

It used to be the case that Apple would do a press release for a products and it would in each incremental revision become a more advanced and interesting device, blazing down a path never before trodden and revolutionising the way we interact with technology. However in the years since the early iPhone days or the days of quirky iMac designs and arguably since the passing of Steve Jobs, we've seen Apple turn to the safe path of small incremental improvements often paired with one, slightly "out-there", design choice, like the new MacBook and its single USB-C connector.

Sadly it feels like the iPhone is no longer the pinnacle of innovation that it once was. A lot of the so called improvements seen on this new iPhone 7 are already on other phones, infact even dropping the headphone jack had been done by Motorola before.

What then does it mean for us, the consumers, when it seems like many manufacturers are seemingly in support of the removal of such an integral part of enjoying media on what is most peoples main multimedia device?

Here's some ideas of why they might have done it and some of the (poorly thought through) reasons some people are giving from a design perspective.

~~1. Removes the requirement for housing a digital to analog converter (DAC) inside the phone.~~
No it doesn't; this is still in place because the iphone still has speakers, in fact it has two of them. In previous generations the DAC would simply have been routed to either the speaker amp or headphone amp. Equally, is there a DAC inside the 3.5mm headphone adapter? If so the space saving really is nothing at all, if not then the DAC is just rerouting the signal to lightning connector.

2. No longer requiring a dedicated headphone amp. This would be true, however stereo audio requires two channels of amplification working in parallel. So rather than the three they have in iPhone 6 they've moved to two for the iPhone 7. A small efficiency saving that would account for only minimal circuit board saving (one tiny surface mount chip) and very low power draw savings. Also the question of what is actually inside that 3.5mm to lightning adapter raises its head. If there is no amp inside that connector then the amp must be inside the phone anyway.

3. No more physical jack means extra space inside for other functions (like the extra speaker)... Well smaller phones like Sony Xperia Z3 Compact already have both stereo speakers and a headphone jack, making this an incredibly lame excuse for a design decision.

4. Removing the jack can help to make the iPhone even thinner. This may well be the case but is making the phone thinner actually worth anything at all to consumers, or are we once again being forced down the path of miniaturization for the the sake of it? You could argue that we the consumer has spoken, by continuing to buy phones with batteries that last one day. The flip side is that for a number of years now that is all that manufacturers have provided and there simply is not a good choice for a smartphone buyer that wants battery life that lasts a full weekend away.
This does of course boil down to the cynic in me saying that it's all about profits and about making a product lasts for say two years worth of charging cycles before the battery life becomes so woefully poor that it needs replacing, and because it's inside a relatively unserviceable case you have to replace the whole phone rather than just the cheap battery...

6. Apple owns Beats. Beats = profit. It would be pretty cynical to say that Apple just wants to sell more bluetooth headsets, but hey this is Apple, the company with the largest cash stockpile in the world. They claim to be driven by the quality of products, but I'm not sure Beats run by the same model as they are widely claimed to be pretty plastic cases for $1 drivers. (An opinion that I fully share. Beats are hands down some of the worst headphones I've ever heard or used in my long life of headphone ownership).

7. Pure design. The headphone jack presents a problem of design. Its functionality well documented but it creates imbalance in the design adds a hole to an otherwise unblemished and symmetrical surface. Removing it is no longer an issue thanks to the widely available bluetooth headsets and the improvements seen in bluetooth audio quality since its early days. The difference now in overall quality between bluetooth and any other connection mechanism is subtle at most.

8. Water-resistance and ingress. Another design issue presented by any holes in the case are the potential ingress of water and dust, potentially causing catastrophic damage to the phone internals and ultimately total failure. The thing is though that the iPhone 6 and previous were already fairly tight ships and were certainly all capable of being used in the rain or catching a splash off the washing up without completely dying. Infact many phones claiming to be much more water resistant than iPhones were actually pretty shit at being water resistant at all, so any claims of water resistance should really be taken with a grain of salt.

What does it mean for us though?

Not a lot really. It's an unnecessary move and one that Apple has already conceded by including the adapter in the box with the phone. A lot of location audio specific apps rely on the audio jack output for functions like feeding timecode. I only hope it makes app developers change their mind about not developing for Android because "Apple is more pro oriented".

Gear Review: Zoom F8 Multi Track Field Recorder

noreply@blogger.com (Churst) — Tue, 19 Jul 2016 13:32:00 +0000

Recently I've been getting a few jobs that require both portability and track counts greater than the four I usually deal with using my Sound Devices 744T. In terms of building a kit that can offer both of those factors, along with a wide number of options and similar performance level to the Sound Devices kit then there isn't much out there that doesn't cost somewhere near the thick end of £5000; and that would be before you add on all of the extra accessories that go with it. This is where the Zoom F8 comes in. It costs less that £1000 and appears, at first glance, to have a lot of the functionality of something vastly more expensive like the SD 788T or Sonosax SXR4+. So lets explore that and see just how well something this low cost can perform the tasks demanded of much more expensive kit.

Features

Ins

The Zoom features eight mic/line inputs on Neutrik combo TRS/XLR sockets. The XLR's are for the mic level input and the TRS for the line level inputs. This is my first minor quibble on the design. If you don't bring along an XLR to TRS cable you cannot take line level inputs at all. TRS cables are non locking and carrying an extra kind of cable can be a bit of a pain if you want to travel super light. The second point worth raising is that none of these inputs are configurable as digital. Everything goes through the F8's AD/DA, meaning that kit that has digital outputs will need converters.

That being said, the preamps are actually really very good. Long gone are the noisy mic pres of the old handheld recorders that Zoom are famed for. This really is a very different beast to the H4n and it's brethren from any other manufacturer. The fact it has eight really good preamps would suggest that this sort of technology doesn't need to be quite as expensive as Sound Devices / Sonosax / Zaxcom would have us think. But of course as we'll see later the products from those guys are offering us far more than "just" a multitrack recorder with great preamps and mix functionality.

Outs

It also has four outputs in two stereo pairs. The main output is on a pair of balanced TA3's and the other is an unbalanced pair on a mini jack which you'd have to split. Both are fine and work as expected. They've both got selectable output level between mic and line, and completely routable in any way that you like, meaning you can send whichever input or a mix track you like to any output, which does give you options, as everything is routable post or pre fade, allowing you to build a specific mix of tracks if you send post fade. My issue with the routing options here begins with arming tracks. Everything that is armed gets sent to the main mix and only armed tracks are listenable.

Time

It's got Timecode too, which makes for simple syncing with camera. I like that the Timecode inputs are on BNC connectors. It makes a nice change to not have to buy a cable with a £30 connector on one end of it. However it's timecode will not run if the F8 loses power. It doesn't seem to hold time when there are no batteries inside or the external power is not connected, which would suggest it doesn't have a battery internally for holding timecode like the equivalent Sound Devices would.

But it holds time quite well once it's been jammed and left separated from it's master clock.

I'll post a video covering it's clock accuracy and how to go about measuring clock accuracy at a later date.

Digits

In the quick adjustment of a menu item it is also possible to turn the F8 into an eight input, four output USB recording interface, and as such must be considered as an all in one audio box for any recordist who also edits their own material, as this can be used as the front end to any DAW out there making it a really good compact centrepiece around which you can build your studio system. Not only that but the fact it can be battery powered for ages on the Hirose power input means it would be perfect for use with a laptop while travelling. This is a feature that none of the other major manufacturers do (unless you include Dante over ethernet, which is a future upgrade for the new Sonosax SX-R4+).

Additionally to the USB, but also separately, is the Bluetooth remote control function. It's one of those ideas that sounds great as a concept but actually in practice isn't quite as good as you want it to be. The app is iOS only, so no Android users please, and the latency in the system is a bit much to make quick mix decisions. Also mixing on a screen has zero physical feedback as to what you're controlling.

Bluetooth as a control protocol though is well defined and has been used across a wide range of devices. When it's implemented properly like where Sony has leveraged the technology for its wireless gaming controllers you get a near zero latency control option, and that's what I'd like to see here. A hardware Bluetooth controller that can be powered by the same power options as the F8, with a headphone mix feed and a USB port for a keyboard. It's something that I'm guessing Zoom could do quite easily. They already have the protocol in place and would just need to build a fader surface with a row trim encoders (switchable to pans).

Extra special Zoom only mega feature...

Finally the big Zoom feature... Their weird 10 pin port that they use on some of their handheld recorders to attach accessories. It's definitely an odd inclusion. The accessories currently available are all microphones (and one dual channel mic input). Even if you did really like those mics, none of them really fit with this product line, and unless they plan to make proper use of the connector for things that might actually benefit the average sound recordist (see What If? below) then this part of the F8 may aswell be discarded.

I suppose with time this port could be utilised by modules specifically designed to expand the functionality of the F8; potentially elevating it to a higher level. I'd be keen to see Zoom do something like an AES module with AES3 and AES42 with SRC functionality for digital mics.

Size Matters

The form factor of the Zoom F8 is a bit of a technical marvel in some senses. It's both smaller and lighter than the 744T and offers that extra mix functionality and with six extra mic pres and four outputs (minus the AES). Admittedly the Zoom doesn't have an internal mechanical hard drive though so has that to its advantage.

However the smallness also brings with it a couple of issues. First of which is the tiny controls for setting trim, fade and pans. The eight control knobs and 16 buttons occupy an area of 7.5cm by 3cm. The knobs as standard are fine for setting trims and if you don't need to mix then that's fine; but if you do need to mix a bit due to ambient noise then ideally what you need are proper barrel knobs that you can roll the edge of. These are available as an unofficial extra and do help when it comes to mixing, but you then lose quite a lot of space between the knobs to access the PFL menus which allow you to configure your channels with HPF, digital limiters and various other parameters. It's a world away from a Sound Devices 664 or an SQN and for me is much too large of a compromise.

What If?

It's a race to see who can fit the most into the smallest package, but I wonder what other features Zoom could realistically pack in to this box if it were maybe two or three of centimeters wider in order to help with that miniature control spacing. Would you get enough room to maybe add some features? I mean these days how large can the additional circuitry for any of these features actually be?

- Additional power circuitry for a rechargeable battery pack?

- Switchable AES on the main outputs?

- Switchable AES on two input channels?

- Dante IO card?

- 512GB of internal storage?

- A battery to keep time and date running while it's disconnected from power?

Does it work though?

Well in short; yes it does. (Barring any issues with your SD cards; please read below)

And quite well in fact. The preamps are clean and actually nice sounding. The headphone amp has plenty of level and sounds fine (which alleviated one of my main fears having heard a pre-production model at an industry trade show). The output routing is effective and intuitive. The Timecode generator is fine, but I'd recommend using another device as the master. The Dual SD card recording function is quite handy for redundancy or delivering mix and iso file separately.

It wouldn't be right if I said everything worked flawlessly. The software seems to have a few bugs. I personally had problems with SD cards (admittedly ones that were not on the approved media list) incorrectly recording the audio. Of course having a take that sounds like half a second of audio on a continuous loop for its duration is a problem, but the main issue in my eyes was that the software did not warn me that the recording error was actually happening. Had it simply given me a warning and refused to record I could have made changes and prevented wasting time running with a take that eventually being a corrupt and totally unusable file. Upon examination and attempting to recreate the recording problem, it seems that the issue is linked to the six second pre-record function over rolling. The timer on the recording starts beyond the six seconds specified and then has a chance to corrupt the recording. Part two of this problem links it to the length of the recording and the time between recordings. As such I would recommend all users currently disable the pre-record function in the menu if they plan to deliver every single take in a usable form from their rushes.

One other issue I had when booting the F8 was that the screen froze in a way that did not instil much confidence. I was very nearly mixing completely blind but in this case a total power down fixed the issue and it has not cropped up again.

In addition to these I've been reading about some instability with the menu system when trying to access it at speed, like you might be required to on set. These typically include text boxes not fading and a complete hang in the software. I've not experienced these but they have caused issues for a number of users. (I've also heard reports of the same thing on Sound Devices 633...)

Final Thoughts

This is a very low cost product in this category and in its own way it delivers a very effective package for a lot of things. Some people have said "it's too music focussed" and others that it's simply a bit crap. The way I see it is that it delivers what is actually a really impressive feature set, which is compromised by some inexperience in designing a product for the film and TV production market. These compromised areas do make it less than ideal for a certain set of usage scenarios; like mixing... which, if you actually try it, is only a problem when you need to actively mix more than four inputs at once.

In comparison to it's competition it does come out with the least features. Everything else out there has a broader feature set and have "future features" that will extend their longevity. However as a straightforward eight track recorder it works very well indeed, and for this kind of money you'd struggle to find a device as good as this anywhere else. I can only imagine that if Sound Devices, Zaxcom or Sonosax made a device at this price point it wouldn't have half of the functionality. What we have in the Zoom F8 is a product that has the potential to reinvigorate the market for recorders like this and add some much needed price based competition.

I do however warn of the issue wt I've had with my loaned unit. It quite simply has not been as reliable as any Sound Devices, Sonosax or even Roland recorder I've used in the past. As I stated above it would seem that it is possible to alleviate the recording issues I have by disabling the pre record function. Being as it's the biggest issue I've experienced and that it can be fixed easily, it arguably becomes a moot point; although it does mean losing out on a feature that the run and gun recordist would find extremely useful.

I'll be taking mine out on a couple more jobs before I make my mind up about it's suitability as a backup, or as a higher track count field recorder than my Sound Devices 744T.

UPDATE 11/09/2016

After a full month of jobs out with this recorder I can say that I am happy with it. The track count has allowed me to do a few jobs already that I would otherwise not have been able to do with my 744T or would have had to take my frankly too large Allen & Heath QU-16.

Of course I've also spent some time interacting with other users on the Facebook community for these machines. It seems that there are problems that people are getting with their units, and even with a report rate of only four users in every hundred, for the sake of completeness I feel they are worth mentioning. Amongst the most frequent reported problems are:
- Screen failure - Machine boots to a white screen. Functions still accessible by Bluetooth control

- Buttons stop responding - usually happens during a working day without any prior warning. Requires reboot. May cause partial loss of recording.
Sadly I feel like it's these sort of gremlins in the software/hardware that are slowing the F8's uptake and will inevitably be its downfall if they are not properly addressed by Zoom's tech support team.

Using an Allen & Heath Qu-16 with timecode sync

noreply@blogger.com (Churst) — Tue, 14 Jun 2016 15:31:00 +0000

It's a regular thing in this industry: A last minute call for a production that is happening in 2 days time or the other side of a weekend with requirements a little bit outside of what you can provide out of your own standard kit store.

I was asked recently to provide a mix and multitrack of eight inputs for a quiz panel show in just such circumstances. Thankfully I'd already made a vague plan about how to go about this ever since I'd picked up my Allen & Heath Qu-16 digital desk and had even thought of a few things that add functions which, on the face of things, aren't really part of its design remit.

Mixing on the Qu-16 is as simple as any other digital desk. It has all the lovely digital toys you could want for making a decent mix on location, HPF, EQ, Gates and Compressors on every channel and a whole lot more than any other desk that I'm aware of in this form factor. Not least it's neat dual USB connections for making recordings to a PC/Mac or direct "Qu-Drive" recording directly to a USB 2 HDD. I've written about it before and still find that this desk has an awful lot to offer, especially the regular firmware upgrades that make increasing use of the DSP chip at the heart of the desk. Highlights of which are its increasing compatibility with Windows based PCs and the Automatic Mic Mixer (AMM), which is incredibly useful.

So here's a our full usage case:

- Seven contributors. Two teams of three and a host/quizmaster.
- One room mic
- Open mic mix guide track
- Main LR mix track (controlled by manual mute groups and AMM)
- Mix Track routed to five cameras and my sound recorder
- Time Code sync

Getting extra radios is easy. Just ask around; in this case the production company was able to provide me with the four additional radios for the contributors that I requested.

Now the hard bit was trying to get the desk timecoded up...Timecode is a tricky thing to do when you don't really have a properly timecode enabled recorder... Will it drift? Won't it? It's difficult to say truly how the clock will hold when there is effectively no clocking sync point.

Here's my work around.

Timecode from camera sent to my 744T recorder. Timecode from the 744T out to a single channel of a stereo line input on the desk (keeping it as far from the mic preamps as possible to avoid bleed). In this particular case it was also daisy chained in a rig of five cameras, so I also split the TC out on a BNC splitter and sent it back to the camera teams remaining cameras.
The 744T took the AES output of the Qu-16, locking the sample clocks at 48kHz, and every camera took a mix feed from the AB168 stagebox (which gave me eight completely isolated outputs that can be routed as any mix output). This interlinking of Timecode and sample rate gave me some level of confidence in the clock sync for the whole process. Whether or not it worked 100% will be found in the edit...

Extracting the Timecode (UPDATE: See below for TentacleSync software method)

Get your multitrack onto your computer. This can take a while as the data transfer on disks formatted by the mixers can end up slower than usual. You'll also need a couple of bits of handy software for this process. One is a video encoder, the next is DaVinci Resolve and then finally Sound Devices Wave Agent.

I will point out now that the first process is to get around a limitation of DaVinci Resolve. It, somewhat bafflingly, can only read timecode from audio that is embedded in a video file. So you have to encode your one channel of timecode audio into a video. I used Adobe Media Encoder just because I have it and know how it works. There's loads of free transcoders out there.

Then once you have your blank video with one channel of timecode as audio bring it into DaVinci Resolve. You have to add folders and files through the built in media browser in the software rather than drag and drop. From here you can bring the file into the media bin and right click to "Update Timecode from Audio - LTC" this will update the number to the side of the clip with the start and end times of the timecode. Note this down.

Import your multitrack files into Sound Devices Wave Agent. This great bit of software allows you to edit the metadata of your wav files, adding track names, frame rates, timecode start time and a variety of other features like creating poly-wav files from the multiple wav files generated by the Qu series mixers. All you have to do to get the Timecode set in these files is to set the frame rate as a batch and then type the TC start time into the first file then copy it into the same box of the others. Then try and import into the Timecode enabled editor of your choice and you'll see it snap to the newly inferred timecode position straight away.

This is a complex workaround I know. UPDATE: Thanks to the kind people at TentacleSync I've been able to try their PC software tool. It happily reads the timecode from the audio files and can add that timecode to the metadata of a number of files in a batch, allowing post production to sync the files in any NLE software. This removes the requirement for almost all of the above steps and replaces them with one single software suite!
But in the end there are better ways of doing this anyway...

How to do it properly

One simple addition to the rig above would have made it TC capable straight off the bat... A Mac Mini or MacBook Pro running software like Boom Recorder or Wave Tracks Live.

The there's the elegant way... In this case it would have been simply renting out a Sound Devices 688 mixer/recorder and the CL12 mix surface. This whole system could have been done in a vastly smaller footprint, especially with a full set of SuperSlot radio receivers in the SL6 bolt on pack (plus one more radio channel). That rig would have made the whole thing super simple and reduced the space required in my car for the associated kit by some not inconsiderable margin. Maybe next time.

So what have we learned?

Aren't I clever? Anything is possible? Could have done it better? It's possible to create needlessly complex workarounds when actually the kit required for the job is readily available from rental houses fairly local to me? Under a small budget it's possible to put together a rig that despite its limitations, is actually incredibly functional?

Yes all of those really. I surprised myself by coming up with the timecode workaround, but everything could have been a little more elegant had I been given a bit more budget and more time to get my stuff together in preparation for the job.

Electronics & Antennae: Sennheiser G2 Radio SMA aerial mod

noreply@blogger.com (Churst) — Thu, 12 May 2016 15:53:00 +0000

Welcome to another episode of "What to do when you have no work on..."

This week I've been tinkering with my soldering iron and doing a bit of basic electronics; while also gently dipping my toes into the black art of antenna repair/design. Neither of these things are completely alien to me. My degree in Broadcasting Technology got me problem solving electronics and I've been soldering for half of my life, and basic antenna design was a semester length module as part of my University time so after about a half hours reading I'm getting the gist of things again.

My first job, to get my eye in, was to fix a couple of cables that had stopped working. They'd been sitting on my desk in the "fix it" pile for about 6 months so I thought it was about time I did something about them. One old guitar lead (arguably my favourite one before I started wiring all my cables with Neutrik self muting jacks) is now back to it's former glory, and one long XLR, that somehow had all of the connections in one end broken, is now back in the regular rotation of cables.

My second and more ambitious project is to replace the ratty old antennas on my Sennheiser G2 radio packs. Now it seems as though Sennheiser has stopped stocking the particular part, for UK channel 70 operation, that I needed, which is a shame because they are cheap, (although fairly involved as a replacement job compared to simply screwing on a new one like you would on the typical SMA connectors on most professional level radio packs). A though which made me seek out guidance from the internets about how I might go about putting SMA connectors on these packs. Turns out someone else, a chap named Ian Sands, had already documented his method and has a pdf available to download. (Here's a link to his page)

With the exact part he's listed from RS Components (I'm sure other suppliers can provide the same connector) and a bit of patience, mainly for hand filing some metal from the connectors so they fit in the space available, it's a pretty easy mod and one that'll no doubt be appreciated over their further increased years of service, even if all it does is make them look a tiny bit more "pro" with their detachable whip antennae, or, even even better, connected to an RF distro and some high gain antennas. All in the parts cost me about £35 including shipping. (I've now sourced cheaper parts and brought that down to £15 to £20 in total)

Here's my Instagram of the finished article:

Old radios with their new & improved antennae. . . . . . . #Sennheiser #G2 #RadioLink #gettingthemostoutofyourkit #SoundTechnician #SoundUnit

A photo posted by Charlie Hurst (@charlie_soundunit) on Apr 29, 2016 at 3:51am PDT

As you can see they really look smart with their sexy gold connectors. They've been out with me on two jobs since I did the mod and can happily say that they work very well, and the added convenience of having detachable aerials made of a more robust material makes it completely worth the time and monetary investment. However I think it's important to note that by replacing the originals with similar quarter wave antennas you absolutely WON'T get any marked performance alteration from your radios. What you do gain on the flip side of that is, that by adding the SMA connector to the receiver body, you get the opportunity to attach half wave or even full wavelength antennas, which in theory should increase the gain of the antenna by some degree.

As a side note I'm also thinking about doing this mod (and the same thing for G3 radio packs) for other people who might want it done. So if you're comfortable with me wielding a soldering iron near to your electronics then do get in touch!

Gear Review: LOM Uši electret condenser microphones

noreply@blogger.com (Churst) — Tue, 01 Mar 2016 13:41:00 +0000

"Uši /uʃɪ:/ is a pair of stereo-matched, high quality omni-directional electret microphones. Compared with regular built-in microphones supplied with many recorders, Uši have exceptionally low noise and high sensitivity. They are especially useful for recording delicate sounds and environments."

These Uši mics were pointed out to me by a sound designer and friend of mine who was using them to surreptitiously gather atmos in places and scenarios that it would be awkward to put up a boom with a pair of mics to capture a stereo field.

The mics are very small, but larger than your typical lapel mic. The are powered by either plugin power from an appropriate mini jack input, like those found on DSLR cameras or small video cameras, or indeed seen on the side of most portable handheld recorders, like the ubiquitous Zoom H4n. New purchases also ship with a small mic clip for easy attachment to cloth-like surfaces. The exact model is actually a Sennheiser one that they specify for the ME-2 lapel mics that come with G2, G3 and AVX radio mic kits. An optional, 35 EUR, extra allows you to plug these into an XLR mic input and convert 48v Phantom into the voltage required to run these electret mics. A "Pro" version of these mics is also available. The mics remain the same but the have the the XLR's hard wired to the mics for greater reliability of connection.

For me, the ability to switch between interfaces with these mics makes them that bit more versatile, hence why I went for the standard model plus adapter, which ends up being 5 EUR more expensive than the Pro model anyway.

This pair of little electrets are so convenient to carry around that they always make it into my bag, whether i'm out on a paid shoot or just hopping on the train to meet friends. Their portability and quality means that you can always have something of high enough quality to capture those unique little sounds you hear when you're out and about. The mics also fit perfectly into the larger size of Bubblebee mic windshield, which means you can keep using them in moderate winds and light breezes, without too much or even any of the associated.

I'd also never rule them out of being a very handy plant mic on set that could be used in a car or somewhere it might be impossible to otherwise get another mic placed.

And how do they sound? Well for me they provide a step up in quality over the Omni mics built into my handheld recorder (Roland R26). They can also be placed in a more versatile way, with correct spacing and with some sort of baffle between them in order to make more accurate stereo recordings. They are up there with the best electret mics around, with a low noise and fairly high sensitivity.

Lom mics and accessories are available direct from LOM here: https://zvukolom.org/product-category/microphones/

Follow me on:
Twitter: @chazhurst
Instagram: @charlie_soundunit

Gear Review: Telefunken M82 Dynamic microphone

noreply@blogger.com (Churst) — Fri, 26 Feb 2016 17:06:00 +0000

The Telefunken M82 is a microphone aimed most directly at people looking to get an "all-in-one" mic for tackling one of the most challenging sources in music recording.; the kick drum.

Why?

The Kick provides a number of challenges. First and foremost is the fact that it generates a lot of sound pressure; around the 106dB mark. The tone of the kick is also a contentious subject. Not only does it require the big bassy thud, it also has an attack sound in the upper mids from where the beater hits the skin, defining the two separate tones from a single mic has always been a challenge without having to apply masses of EQ or applying quite a lot of other post process effects which improve either the attack response or the bass content.

The M82 is a fairly rare breed among mic forms. It is a large diaphragm dynamic mic, which makes it similar in basic design genre to the Shure SM7B, a go to mic for hard rock vocals and also often deployed as an option for kick mic, usually in addition to another dedicated kick mic. In appearance however they couldn't look more different. Despite the appearance of the M82 (much like a large diaphragm condenser) it is infact an end address mic, as shown labelled on the side of the mic.

It also has two EQ switches on the side for switching it to "Kick EQ", which is effectively a mid cut to get rid of all the mud in the middle of the range and also a switch to kick in a high boost for additional attack.

I've also been made aware that the mic is also specified as a "broadcast mic". Suggesting that it would be great for getting that super clean radio DJ or voice over sound that we all love so much. Further to that it can also be deployed in a similar fashion to the SM7B as a hard rock vocal mic, its high SPL ability making it more than suitable for those screaming lead vocals.

How does all this work in practice, and more importantly how does it sound?

In my testing of the mic, used as the only mic for a drum recording for a heavy metal band, I found it to be absolutely superb. It gave me an instantly usable sound for monitoring on the day, and which required very little EQ in the mix process to get everything fitted around it. By far and away the easiest way of getting a great stage tone straight out of the box would be to use this mic and have it placed right inside the drum head. It gave every element that I wanted from the tone, with all the snap and power that a kick drum has when it's being played in front of you.

I sent the mic out with a rental package too, again for use on the kick drum, but as part of a more low key drum rig; with just a couple of overheads for company and a snare spot mic. The music was a more varied selection of pop, rock and jazz and I got glowing reports back from the sound team at that event, even from the drummer when he heard the recording back off the desk later on said he'd probably go out and buy one for his next session.

As a voice mic however I find it fell a little bit flat. For me it just doesn't have the cleanliness to properly be considered a broadcast mic. I'd much rather use a normal large diaphragm condenser or high end small diaphragm condenser for spoken voice work or even singing, where you might typically find yourself reaching for a dynamic mic too.

I used it on the aforementioned hard rock vocal, albeit a female voice, and found it over-emphasised the high frequencies in this particular voice. It may fare better on a male vocal timbre but I'll have to wait to get someone in the studio for that particular test to happen as I am no singer!

Overall

This is a fairly pricey mic for good reason. It's a multi tasker that can shine on the right source and for me it's the best kick drum mic I've ever heard. It doesn't mess about with being too much of one thing or another it just does a great job on kick and a passable job on anything else you care to try it on. Plus it does come with it's own mic stand mount, padded carry bag and right-angled at one end cable, so there's extra value right there!

Gear Review: Fostex AR501 Mic Preamplifier

noreply@blogger.com (Churst) — Thu, 28 Jan 2016 14:56:00 +0000

Fostex are a company that have always been in and around the field audio recording market. With their industry leading portable DAT recording machines and excellent preamps they have always historically brought good products to market.
The Fostex AR501 is a single channel (although capable of being ganged into a stereo configuration) microphone preamp which can provide +48V Phantom power which can run off a single AA battery. The concept behind the product is a high quality preamp that can be used quickly and easily with small camera setups on cameras that lack proper XLR inputs. However Fostex have had the forethought to include an XLR direct output should you require it (I do!).

Control

All of the controls for the device are situated inside the battery compartment, right next to the battery. They are all just small switches, allowing you to make a number of menu selections without having to go through the manual. You've got individual controls over input type (line/mic), phantom power (on/off), HPF (160Hz, 80Hz, off), mic level (H - - L), attenuation of the unbalanced out (on/off) and power (on/off).
Those basic functions are pretty much all anyone would need from a simple mic pre. I don't have any further requirements from it and it really does function very well indeed. But if we delve a little deeper into the manual you'll find that there is a little hidden functionality in there. There is a Low Power mode which switches down the operating voltage of the circuitry to half of normal. This has the caveat that you then get a reduced phantom power down to 24V, and also possibly some slight reduction in the overall headroom. I found no problem with the headroom, but in case of scenes requiring a wide dynamic range I'd always run in full power mode anyway.

Gains
The gain control for this preamp is not the traditional knob that you'd find on most kit. It's just on of those small stepped switches (with four steps) marked from H to L. The manual gives further insight and describes L as +24dB gain, followed by +34dB, +49dB and finally H which delivers +64dB of gain. These are good, well thought out steps giving enough variation in level to accommodate every mic that I have. Generally I found the +64dB step to be a little on the noisy side, but I never had the need to use that amount of gain anyway.

Output

The AR501 gives us two output options, there's simple balanced or unbalanced. Both work as you'd expect really. However a quirk in the electronic design means that the XLR balanced output will only work if the input is set to mic. The unbalanced output also has the added functionality of being attenuable from line to mic level.

Gangs
Another cool feature for those using it with anything other than pro audio gear is that two of these units can be operated as a stereo pair designed to feed a 3.5mm stereo jack with either mic or line level audio. This means you could run two channels of great quality audio into the stereo mic input jack on a DSLR using pro level mics or radio mics, or alternatively if your portable recorder has the same powered mic connector then you can do the same. My backup recorder is currently a Roland R26 portable, with these two boxes I can add two more XLR inputs making it a (nearly) proper four channel recorder, which would be much more suitable for low end film production.
To set up this function all you have to do is plug one units unbalanced out into the others R-IN socket. The unit with the R-IN being used then becomes the output feed for stereo functionality. Every AR501 comes with a short coiled 3.5mm cable so that you can use this straight away without any additional parts. There's also a handy rail connection that you can use to stick them both together so they're not rattling about all over the place.

Usage
Given all of the above features you get in this little box I've come up with a few usage scenarios that range from the broad to the slightly more specific:

- Mic input for DSLR camera (also stereo input)
- Additional XLR mic inputs for portable recorder such as Zoom H1 through H6 or similar.
- Stereo balanced XLR input for Sony PCM D100 (low cost DSD recording with proper inputs)
- Additional mic inputs for pro recorder (small channel counts such as 744T)
- Phantom powered mic input for radio beltpacks. (Add radio capability to your boom!!)

Power
As a small and portable unit that his is, it runs off a single AA battery. Pretty simple and readily available anywhere on the globe, which is perfect for those jobs away from home. The battery life on AA batteries is pretty decent getting anywhere from 10 hours with cheap alkaline AA's in full power mode all the way up to 18 hours from high capacity rechargeables in low power mode.
It also has an extremely handy DC input on a microUSB connector, which means these can run on any USB power pack suitable for phones or using Hirose-USB adapters from your current battery solution if you're running those in your recording bag. The DC input won't charge the AA batteries, but it will automatically switch power sources when the DC power falls below a certain threshold.

Verdict
The Fostex AR501 always intrigued me as a product since I saw it listed at it's full retail price, but I was wary of the product at that price because it seemed to me to be a risky investment. It turns out that it was actually a really good product all along, with a balanced set of features for a wide set of usage scenarios. The mic preamps are clean and the stacking features are an added boon. It's also lightweight making that wireless boom rig I mentioned even more viable with the right kit up there.
My only gripes with this preamp are that firstly, there's no limiter on the input. That would be a really nice feature on a preamp originally priced at £300 or so and make one man bag recording even easier. And secondly, although not much Fostex could do about this, they're not Sound Devices 7xx input channels. (If Sound Devices were to make a lovely, compact, two-channel mic input module for the 744T I'd probably buy it straight away.)
All in all I've had a very positive experience using this mic preamp and ha
ve added these two to my standard recording kit paired with my Sound Devices 744T giving me four mic channel recording on set.

ADDITIONAL NOTE: This handy little box is now discontinued by Fostex and suppliers are now selling off the remaining stock. It could be that Fostex has a newer higher performance model coming out soon or they just never sold enough to make it viable to continue manufacturing it. Either way they are going cheap over at B&H photo in America so they work out after tax and shipping at about £80 a piece instead of their original price which was a slightly eye-watering £300.

Audio: Radio Lavalier Mic Shootout - Sennheiser vs Rode vs Sony

noreply@blogger.com (Churst) — Mon, 16 Nov 2015 10:54:00 +0000

I recently shot a video covering the sound quality of some lavalier microphones that I've been using on my video work for the last year or so. The test I've done is a comparison between the various lavalier mics but also uses an industry standard boom mic for a reference point.
The three lavalier mics I have at my disposal are the Sennheiser ME2, which is bundled with the G2 and G3 radio mic kits, the Sony ECM77, which I picked up cheap but has been used across the world as a professional broadcast lavalier and the newcomer in the Rode Lavalier. Which represents a middle ground in price terms but as with all Rode products it provides an extremely favourable performance to value ratio.
The boom mic I've set up is the Sennheiser MKH60 which, in my humble view, is one of the finest shotgun microphones that money can buy.

What we've set up is not a perfect test, but more an actual use case scenario. I've not plugged the lavaliers into a mic pre directly but have actually taken feeds from the radio system, as that's how I'd be using them on a location shoot anyway. Being as I wanted a fair comparison between the lavaliers they are all wired up identically to Sennheiser G2 radio transmitters with mains receivers. All three receivers are run into my computer audio interface; a RME Fireface UFX. The boom is also plugged into the UFX.
Here's the video:

The goal here is first, have a listen to the mics and see what you think of the quality. All three are in a good position for dialogue intelligibility, but not necessarily perfect positioning (as you typically get on set...). Secondly to help show that the use of a full size boom can really elevate the sound of the dialogue that you're recording. While radio lavalier mics are an excellent choice for difficult shots and for getting a tight perspective, correctly positioned boom mics will always give you a fuller and more appealing sound.

Apologies if the presenting was a bit crap, it's my first time trying this so hopefully should get better as I go on.

Amazon Links:
Rode Lavalier Microphone
Sennheiser ME 2-US

As always follow me on social media:

Twitter: @chazhurst
Twitter: @SoundUnitUK
Instagram: charlie_soundunit
Facebook: Charlie Hurst Sound

Gear Review: Sennheiser HD 26 Pro Heaphones

noreply@blogger.com (Churst) — Tue, 20 Oct 2015 13:00:00 +0000

Once again I return to my search for the perfect set of headphones for everything I do. Something that can have me covered for location sound recording, studio recording & mixing, general music listening, gaming and travel headphones. It's a tale fraught with many obstacles, but represents a real challenge for any set of headphones.
Today I'm taking a look into the Sennheiser HD 26 Pro on ear headphones. It promises to be a different sort of beast to anything I might have used before and has a price tag to suggest I could be on to a winner.

TECH-NOTES

Here's the technical data direct from Sennheisers product page:

Impedance    100 Ω (stereo)
Frequency response    20 to 18.000 Hz
Sound pressure level (SPL)    115 dB (1 kHz, 1V)
Max. sound pressure level   128 dB (1kHz, 200 mW, ActiveGard™ off)
Characteristic SPL 105 dB
THD, total harmonic distortion <0.5 % ( at 1kHz )
Contact pressure ca. 3,9 N
Ear coupling    supra aural
Jack plug 3,5 mm jack plug with screw on adapter for 1/4" (6,3mm) jack
Cable length    1,5 m easy replacable
Transducer principle    dynamic, closed
Weight Without cable: 180 g
ActiveGard™ protects from peaks over 105 dB at 1kHz, on / off switch

It looks good. Lots of good numbers, although I'll be interested to hear the high frequency clarity with what seems like quite a low 18kHz specification. Some may say that it's too low but it actually makes sense considering most adults can't anything over 20kHz anyway.

HOW DO THEY SOUND?

Through out my listening tests, I immediately found them to have a natural and familiar character, despite never owning any decent Sennheiser headphones before now. My standard listening material all sounded great. What is my standard listening material I hear you ask? I typically cover a load of different styles from my high bitrate mp3 & m4a collection, plus a few bits direct from original CD's. Here's a little extract of what I was listening to while writing notes for this review.

MODERN POP / ELECTRONIC

Aluna George / Disclosure / James Blake

PROG METAL:

Animals as Leaders / Periphery / Plini / Tesseract

PROG ROCK:

The Aristocrats / Guthrie Govan / Steven Wilson

FILM / GAME SOUNDTRACK:

American Beauty / Fight Club / Oblivion / Taxi Driver
L.A. Noire / The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim

ROCK

AC/DC / The Foo Fighters / The National / The Rolling Stones

ACOUSTIC

Jon Gomm / Mike Dawes / Turin Breaks

JAZZ

Gregory Porter

CLASSICAL

Mahler

Across all of that I can say that I really really enjoyed the overall depth of sound. I felt a connection to the music in all cases. The qualities of the arrangements, performance and mixing all becoming abundantly apparent in my time with each artist.
Clear, defined, punchy; all of those excellent technical descriptions came to mind and a few others that I won't list for the sake of brevity... They are not especially flattering but have a bit of a bass bump; more than I'm used to, but it's a side effect of the extra isolation they provide over other models I've had in the past. They also describe a detailed high frequency capable of resolving exceptional clarity in the top end, which comes with it the slight caveat that MP3's, even iTunes decent bitrate m4a files, have audible artifacts not always highlighted by other good headphones. All of that despite the technical specification listing a highest useful frequency of 18kHz...
At work, recording speech and dialogue I found them to be accurate and detailed enough to make decisions on microphones and recording EQ. They keep everything nice and tight and the extra isolation, which I'll get onto later, gave me an extra boost in confidence in knowing what I was monitoring and isolating background noise problems.
What about when ActiveGard is enabled? Well it's effectively a limiter. It doesn't sound great, and 105dB is a massive volume, so my advice is you'll probably never need it in day to day audio monitoring. Infact for that use case I'd go as far as saying that with the passive isolation you get from them it's borderline unnecessary.

ERGONOMICS / ISOLATION / COMFORT

These are an over ear headphone design, meaning that the earcups sit actually on your ears. Having never really owned any quality on ears, I was pleasantly surprised that the background noise isolation was actually pretty exceptional. The combination of headband pressure, soft leather earcups and a thick driver enclosure keeping out a good amount of noise. Vastly more than the Audio Technica M50x and with zero additional noise, as is the case with the Bose QC15.
The cable is fairly short, but it is plenty long enough for my usage. Plugging in to devices that require a bit of reach could cause issue. It's terminated in the usual mini jack with a screw on jack adapter, which really covers the best of both worlds. It also comes with this little clip for the cable, which can be used to stick a microphone on so you can use them as a comms headset, which I think is actually a nice touch.
After long periods of wear, over an hour, these cans do cause me a little discomfort due to me having to wear glasses most of the time. I'm more used to completely over ear designs, such as my Bose QC15 or Audio Technica M50x. Both of which sound good but are flawed in different ways.
Handling noise is also a slight problem despite the curly bit to relieve cable tension. I noticed during quiet moments that I was hearing some low frequency rumble from my own heartbeat and from movements in the cable. This is however a very minor quibble with what are some very high performance headphones

CONCLUSIVE VICTORY?

Nearly. I love the sound and these will be promoted to my cans for location audio work and a fair bit of general listening, but I don't think I can help but be a tiny bit disappointed by the comfort factor for people who wear glasses most of the time, which lets face it is a lot of people.

However it's difficult to deny that they really are an aural treat to your ears. Despite the specification for quite a conservative high frequency reproduction, they produce plenty of HF content that is useful for most human ears.
I'd highly recommend anyone looking for new headphones to add these to the list of options they should try out, as in terms of pure audio performance they are going to be tough to surpass.

Game Profile: Beyond Eyes

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 25 Jun 2015 12:35:00 +0000

In the run up to games biggest gaming show in the world, E3, I went up to Wakefield with the guys from Explosive Alan Productions to meet the people at Team 17 who are helping to fulfill the potential in a really cool looking indie video game designed by Sherida Halatoe. The game is called Beyond Eyes.

The profile for this really mesmerizing looking indie game can be watched at the 56min mark on this Twitch video after the break:

Check it out the Twitterings:

@BeyondEyes_

@Explosive_Alan

@chazhurst

Location Recording: Power to the Bag!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Churst) — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 13:05:00 +0000

Petrol Bags, a company known for it's innovation in the audio bag sector has been bought by a bigger fish in the film accessories game and have been re-branded to suit. Petrol bags are now Sachtler branded and built. They now have a classy black and red colour scheme and what feels like a better price point. So I bought one for my new revised location recording rig (rather than trying to shoehorn everything in to an old Portabrace, which was built for my SQN and not much else!).

I spent most of a morning fitting out my new Sachtler SN601 "Eargonizer" audio bag. For a fairly modest sized bag I was pleasantly surprised to squeeze in so much kit. I've paired the bag with the SN605 Heavy Duty Harness to reduce the strain of 8.5kg (!!) across my back.

Here's what I've jammed into it:

- A Sound Devices 744T recorder with line inputs driven by...
- A SQN-4S Series II...
- Powered by a Hawk-Woods DV-SQN2s power supply with a DSTE NP-F970 high capacity battery.
- Headphone monitoring through Audio-Technica AT-M50x.
- Two Sennheiser G2 RX packs (soon to be upgraded).

One thing I like a lot in this bag is the internal cable routing built into the pockets on the front and rear; allowing me to run those power cables around the bag and giving quick access to the battery for fast changes. Also the fact that the front and rear panels fold down when unzipped giving me access to the recessed option switches on the underside of the SQN.

It also comes with these nice little radio pouches, so you can keep your belt pack receivers outside the bag for marginally better signal, and faster access. They are detachable and have a nice locking clip on them which can be attached at four points around the bag. The heavy duty harness also has a couple of attachment points, so I can use them for any further comms units I may require on set.

It's the best bag I've ever owned and well worth it's price of entry and considerably cheaper than similarly sized audio utility bags from ORCA and K-Tek. The harness is also good, but for whatever reason seems difficult to adjust to someone of my quite slight build. I also feel that with the bag loaded to it's heaviest weight it would be advisable to take advantage of the waist belt fixing on the bag, in addition to the shoulder harness, so the the bag doesn't pull your stance out too much. Sachtler don't actually make a belt but pretty much any well adjusted padded belt would do it. Something from Setwear or Dirty Rigger would probably suffice.

Another new addition to the kit is the Hawk-Woods power supply that now live in the front pocket, which delivers 12 Volts to up to three devices. That serves both the SQN and the 744T, so that I don't have to carry any more batteries around with me than is absolutely necessary. It means the SQN doesn't have to be loaded with its eight AA cells; taking vital grams out of the bag.

At this point I reckon my kit is quite tricked out. I'll agree that some of the kit is quite old in comparison to the very latest and greatest stuff out there, but in terms of the sheer functionality and audio quality I don't think I can have much cause for complaint.
My radio mics are a good utility set, as they operate in the license free channel 70 block. They can infact be reversed so that they could be used for camera feeds as scratch audio tracks. For a higher quality radios, rental companies do excellent prices on top of the range kits, which actually work out to not that much more expensive than renting one of my sets of G2's.

What more could a sound recordist want...

Gear Review: Sound Devices 744T location sound recorder

noreply@blogger.com (Churst) — Tue, 03 Mar 2015 11:14:00 +0000

I'm a little late to the party here as, now, the 744T has been around for quite a number of years now and has effectively been superseded by newer and more feature rich recorder/mixers like Sound Devices own 664 and 633 and Zaxcom's Nomad. However, as I was in the market for an improved recording experience over my Roland R26, the 744T presented itself, through the 2nd hand market, as a very affordable upgrade path to reaching a professional grade recorder with Timecode syncing capabilities. That combined with my collection of Sennheiser MKH mics, fulfills my goal of attaining the most transparent audio recordings I've yet been able to make.

Features
The 744T has a very long list of features so here's the basics:

- 4x Analogue inputs: 2x Mic / 2x Line
- 4x Digital inputs: via the 2x XLR inputs or 2x AES connectors
- 2x Analogue line outs
- 4x Digital line outs
- 1x Headphone out
- 4 Track recording
- Timecode and Wordclock sync I/O
- Comprehensive routing options
- Track, Scene, Slate, Take naming
- Simultaneous recording to various media
- Built in HDD (upgradable)
- Compact Flash

That really is just scratching the surface...

Input
The twin XLR inputs are switchable between line / mic and AES inputs types, allowing great flexibility through just these two sockets. The two adjacent TA3M connectors are the two dedicated balanced line inputs. Then on the other side are the digital inputs. BNC connectors for two sets of dedicated AES inputs aswell as WordClock and TimeCode I/O.

Lets start where this unit makes most of it's money back; the two XLR mic inputs. Sound Devices have, for many years, produced really top grade mic preamps to rival even the best studio grade amps. They are a transistor balanced output mic pre with an amazingly low noise floor (114dB SNR), which is barely noticeable on all but the very quietest of sources. They have a character of extreme transparency coupled with an excellent transient response. These are microphone preamps of the very highest standard.
The twin line inputs are of equally high merit. They are clear and clean when fed by a high quality signal from a professional mixer (ideally something with closely matching pre's). My old SQN 4S series II sounds wonderfully clear through them, transparency of the highest order, as if I was listening directly from it's own headphone amp. These two line inputs also have adjustable gain with 18dB available to boost weaker signals from sources such as some wireless radio packs that don't have true line level outputs.
I've yet to use the AES functionality as I'm not fortunate enough to have any AES capable mics, nor have I had need to run any additional AES equipment thought the recorder. Booms and radio mics tend to make up most of my work these days.

Output
The outputs are equally comprehensive. next to the two line inputs on the TA3 connectors are also the two TA3 connectors for Output 1 L and R. Allowing analogue output to any camera, providing a wide variety of I/O routings to either connector. Sadly there are not any further analogue outputs except for the headphone connector, which could conceivably be configured as another (unbalanced) output to allow full 4 x 4 analogue matrix routing, at the expense of simple monitoring functionality through the recorder
Talking of monitoring, the headphone amplifier and monitor matrix is incredibly well implemented, allowing solo monitoring of each input and what is going down to disk. Also implemented is MS matrixing for each pair of inputs, allowing proper stereo field monitoring of MS configured mics, such as my Sennheiser MKH30 and MKH40 pair which make for a lovely couple for capturing stereo ambience.

It's Pro!!
Up until this point I've pointed out what's good about it, and it shouldn't be surprising that any of those features are perfectly executed, brilliantly implemented and well thought out as if they'd been designed by people who use these features on set every day. Considering the price of the unit when it was new the great mic pres and excellent routing come as a given.
This is a professional level box of tricks. It's ruggedized for everyday use in harsh environments that film crews find themselves in fairly regularly. It's got pro level connections and deep menus to configure every last digital controller on the main board. That said the menus aren't the simplest. If you're given a unit that has't been reset to typical usage scenarios in your country then it can be a pain to set it up from scratch. You have to know your stuff before you can just delve into the menus, otherwise things can get messy.
It also has features like Timecode, which means that files generated by the recorder can fit into a production workflow with two or more cameras without the need to slate. The timecode implementation on the 744T is truely a complete solution. It contains parts developed by Ambient who make some of the finest and most accurate timecode equipment on the planet. That means that it operates within the tolerances of Ambients own solutions, so combining the 744T with Ambient Lockit boxes or slates is a no brainer. The 744T can be the master timecode generator or can be jammed to any other timecode sync source.

How Do I Use It?
My personal usage scenario is quite simple. I typically go out as a solo run and gun recordist. I operate boom, and usually run one or two radios (I don't sell myself with this kit as a mixer and I think as a recordist that is a complement of kit that I think is not unreasonable to run as a solo engineer). With the 744T I try to keep sources as matched as possible so I try to save the pre's for my boom mics and the line inputs for my radios. I can add my SQN into the mix if I need more preamps, but that does tend to make my bag significantly heavier. A more efficeint solution for preamps would be something like Kortwich's VCP M2 two channel preamp model, or even Sound Devices USB Pre 2, which works in standalone mode from a USB power source like those USB battery chargers.
With my old setup, of a Roland R26 with the SQN sitting on the front end, I did manage to get good sound recordings but the rig to take that setup to a higher level of versatility was less than elegant and a long way from ergonomic. Now I have 4 discreet channels, all covered by balanced connections, and all easily accessible; both physically and through the menus. I also get timecode functionality too, so can sync up with cameras to make the job of the editors that little bit easier.

To Sum Up...
Needless to say this is a vast upgrade from my old way... This upgrade was the only way to go and I'm just a little bit proud to finally feel a little bit less of an imposter in this world of sound recording. Ownership of a recorder like this makes me feel like I can do my job better, with more flexibility and with a better sound; which at the end of the day puts me in a more comfortable position when it comes to delivering on my promise of delivering the best audio quality possible.
It's only downside; it's not a mixer too. The matrix outputs are useful for sending camera sync of a selection of your input mics, but the lack of true panning puts this device just shy of the functionality of a unit like the newer 633 or 664 recorder mixers. That being said the price per square inch of recording awesomeness on a second hand 744T has dropped fantastically since the 633 was released, as the features of the 744T have been matched and evolved quite significantly with the 633.

If you are a recordist, looking to make the switch up to a timecode capable device with a set of really good preamps (I'm not sure that I can emphasise their quality highly enough), then it seems like a good choice would be a 744T. It's a great device and is available relatively easily and cheaply, due to being out of favour with many owners.

Review: SSL Duende Native Essentials

noreply@blogger.com (Churst) — Wed, 10 Dec 2014 13:23:00 +0000

Solid State Logic (SSL) have been at the top of the studio audio market for what seems like forever. Their success has been built on products that are both consistently incredible sounding and reliable. Studio tools that never fail and hardware that stands the test of time.

Their Duende plugins are no exception. When these plugins were first realised it was required that any users also had a powerful DSP card to go with them; such were the processing requirements that would have strained computers of that time to breaking point without ever hitting useful numbers of instances of the plugins. With the power of modern computers SSL have completely revamped their plugin offering over the last few years so that they can all be run "Native", which means without additional DSP cards or boxes.

The SSL Duende Native Essentials bundle brings you together with two plugins that will give you the core of that unmistakable SSL sound, in the heart of your chosen DAW. They are based on two bits of hardware which are ubiquitous with SSL as a brand. A Channel Strip and a (arguably THE) Bus Compressor. Here's what SSL say about them:

Duende Native Channel:
A classic SSL console channel strip ported directly from their top end C200 console.
- Separate high and low pass filters
- Four Band parametric EQ (switchable E and G series characteristics)
- Compressor/Limiter (with "over-easy" soft ratio)
- Gate/Expander
- Variable process order routing
- Dynamics side-chaining with independent chains for compressor and gate
- Mono and Stereo versions included

Duende Native Bus Compressor
A classic analogue stereo (or mono) bus compressor fully modelled in digital
- Based on the bus compressor from a 1980's SL 4000 G Series analogue console

How do they sound?
I was in the camp that asks "how can it sound much better than any other retro modelled channel strip?" and probably had fairly low expectation of it; but they sound really great. They have all the features you could want and more than the analogue hardware versions can easily offer you.
The Channel Strip just works and is so ridiculously intuitive that you get results straight away, whether you're taking cymbal crashes or nailing down the guitar tone. I found it handling my drum tracks really nicely, giving me punchy transients and really smooth high end with tonnes of headroom.
The Bus Compressor sounds just how you want it to and does exactly what you need it to, while imparting that classic SSL character. I compared it to the Glue bus compressor that now comes bundled with Ableton Live Suite, which is modelled by Cytomic, and found they certainly aim at the same place. They certainly take the same functions and do both sound great, but the SSL really does sound nicer for whatever reason.

Negatives?
Well, for one the price is pretty high. Outside of any special offers and deals the essentials bundle is $475 (!!!). So there's that...
The other thing I noticed was that they do tend to eat a little bit more processing time than many of my other plugins. Not quite as much as my Mastering plugins but still more than you would expect from a channel strip and EQ. So you probably couldn't use them much while tracking. If you wanted to do that you'd have to go with an actual SSL console; which would set you back some £40,000 or so to get you started.

Round-up
I picked these plugins up during a special offer on the SSL store when they just put out the AAX versions of the plugins for ProTools 11. I paid less than half price and can say for that money they are stunning value. But these are still stunningly good sounding plugins and have real utility in them that can be applied to basically any mix session you do in your DAW.
I have no doubt that these two will become staples in my audio arsenal, whether that me mixing music, dialogue for film/TV or sound design. If you can afford to splash the cash, these are well worth considering alongside anything from the likes of UAD or Waves, but without the hassle of adding yet another piece of hardware to your system.

Film&TV: Ren

noreply@blogger.com (Churst) — Mon, 08 Dec 2014 14:32:00 +0000

A few months ago I agreed to help out on the set of a new fantasy web series called Ren.

It was a real pleasure working with Kate and her highly skilled and amiable crew, on what should end up being a great series.

Here's the synopsis:
Ren is a new original independent fantasy series from producer and director Kate Madison, the creator of the hugely successful Lord of the Rings prequel Born of Hope which has had more than 29 million online views.
When a young woman is possessed and her face branded by a powerful ancient spirit, she becomes feared by all who see her. Banished from her home and hunted by the powerful ruling order of the Kah’Nath, Ren refuses to accept her fate and journeys across the land to discover what she is and if there are others like her. Joined on her perilous quest by a small band of outcasts, led by the mysterious Hunter, she discovers that the truths she has been taught may all have been a lie.

And here's the trailer (which was made before principle photography of the main part of the series)

The series has now wrapped on photography for the series and post production is now underway. Please go and check out the sites below and keep following the project as I think it has a lot of potential.

www.rentheseries.com
Ren on Facebook

Gear Review: TC Electronic BMC-2 Monitor Controller and DAC

noreply@blogger.com (Churst) — Wed, 10 Sep 2014 08:26:00 +0000

When my old TC Level Pilot died on me I needed a new master monitor controller. The TC Level Pilot is essentially a stacked matched pair of variable resistors in one pot. The build quality seems high, until general wear and tear takes it's toll and it starts crackling and cutting out. Not great for a pro audio device. I needed something more feature packed and with more advanced features and greater overall value.

My final choice as the replacement for that mini monitor controller was the BMC-2 also by TC Electronic. This unit is really a very different beast. What we have here is a multi-input DAC with the ability to take AES, SPDIF, ADAT and TOS and convert any one of those to a couple of balanced XLR outputs, a headphone output, and to a digital output of your choice. All the while the BMC-2 provides a variety of monitoring functions for the mix and mastering engineer.

Functionality

I use it in conjunction with the AES output of my RME Fireface UFX. The BMC-2 then feeds line level to a pair of Genelec S30NF monitors. The built in headphone amp is also running my Audio Technica M50x headphones. This not only gives me an additional headphone output, tied to the main monitoring output, but frees up two more analogue outputs on the rear of the UFX. The monitor section offers a large number of really handy functions too. Switching between preset monitor levels, Reference and Dim, and an alternative, digital, monitor feed. It also has the facility to isolate the Mono and Side elements of your mix, which is an invaluable mix tool for me. Now while it is possible to get these functions out of the DAW without the aid of a hardware controller, I've found that having real physical hardware buttons to press on my desk makes accessing the functions a whole lot simpler. It's about workflow.

Limitations

The BMC-2 can, however, only handle a limited range of sampling frequencies compared to the RME UFX. The RME will output between 32kHz and 192kHz with all of the double and quad rates in between (and a manual pitch adjustment). The BMC-2 is limited to 44.1kHz / 48kHz and then the double rates of those (88.2kHz and 96kHz). So for those of you out there who have clients insisting on using those sampling frequencies above 96kHz, this isn't the product for you. For the rest of us, for whom double rates are plenty it's got a ton of functionality in the box.
It is also "just" a stereo monitor controller. If you need something that does the same on a 5.1 surround signal you'll need something more akin to the Audient ASP510; but then that's an all analogue device and would eat up six IO for playback and record.

Sound

The sound coming from the BMC-2 really is great. It has an air of quality to it that a lot of TC equipment that I've used over the years seems to have. I think it would make a really nice sonic upgrade from some of the lesser audio interfaces out there, or even as use as a desktop audio monitoring controller from any sound card that has an optical TOS or SPDIF output.
There is a very slight difference between this and the audio output from the RME UFX analogue outputs, but it's quite subjective as to whether it's "better". I think, to my ears, what we have is the difference between the sonic signatures of the two engineering teams; giving you what you could describe as the "RME sound" and the "TC sound". Both are highly reputed companies in the pro audio sector and have a reputation for delivering superb and reliable audio quality.
As for the headphone output you will get varying mileage depending on your headphones of choice. Through my Audio Technica and AKG headphones it sounds great and seems clean at all useable volume levels, however with my Sennheiser HD26 Pros I'm left feeling a little let down. I'm noticing a fair bit of audible noise generated by it, which is completely inaudible coming from the headphone outputs of the Fireface UFX. The HD26 are a more sensitive headphone though and it may be that either the headphones or the output of the BMC2 could be sensitive to an imbalance in impedance.

Final Thoughts

The BMC-2 is a wonderfully well thought out and keenly priced piece of equipment that wouldn't look out of place in any studio. It sounds good enough to keep up with any set of monitors you care to plug into it. It could be argued that the DA conversion isn't the best out there, but I think that you'd have to spend exponentially more money on hardware to improve upon it significantly. It is probably the perfect monitor controller for most project music studios.

Short Film: Malachi Trailer

noreply@blogger.com (Churst) — Wed, 13 Aug 2014 06:55:00 +0000

Here's the trailer for a short film I did production sound recording on earlier this year. The film is called Malachi.

"MALACHI is a dark, psychological thriller that embarks on a roller-coaster journey of love between three characters from different walks of life. Ricardo, Charlene and Malachi.

Set in a world filled with trauma, Ricardo and Charlene must battle to overcome past demons in an attempt to disable psychological disorder from unfolding and disrupting their newly found equilibrium.

As the drama begins to unfold, we are gradually introduced to flashbacks and nightmares, which distort Ricardo and Charlene’s reality, leaving the coast, clear for Malachi to manipulate Ricardo to a path of destruction."

Director - Daniel Bailey
Writer/Producer - Sanchez Brown
Ricardo - Solomon Israel
Charlene - Naydene Mills

Gear Review: Bose QC15 Noise Cancelling Headphones

noreply@blogger.com (Churst) — Wed, 23 Apr 2014 12:48:00 +0000

As the long standing flagship model in the Bose headphone range, the QC15's are highly regarded as a benchmark in not only noise cancelling technology, but also in sheer audio fidelity. They are an icon of both style and quality. With that in mind, how does this pair of £250 cans live up to those lofty expectations?

Bose Say:

"QuietComfort® 15 headphones feature exclusive Bose® advancements in noise reduction technology, making them our best around-ear headphones. You hear even less noise and more of your music—with brilliant sound and a long-lasting comfortable fit. You won't find this combination of benefits in any other headphone. And when you hear them, you’ll understand why they've received critical acclaim."

- Advanced noise reduction across a wide range of frequencies; ideal for home, work or travel

- Lifelike sound that reveals even the most subtle nuances of your music

- Comfortable fit with soft, around-ear cushions

- Includes two audio cables, one with mic/remote for iPhone/iPod control and hands-free iPhone calling

- 35 hours of use on average from AAA battery

Out of the Box

As soon as you open the box you can appreciate the quality of the headphones. Well made, smooth plastics, great lines, a weightiness that makes them feel like a tool rather than a toy. They come with a hard travel case, a plane adapter and two cables, one with a mic & inline controls and one pure audio cable without those. Both cables have a level switch on the headphone end so you can tailor the input level to the output of your listening device. All quality, all working as it should for the rest of it's lifespan.

Sonic Character

This graph is the same as the one I put in my Audio Technica M50x review. It is a good collection of headphones that represent a good mix of common studio and listening headphones.

You can see from the blue line that the Bose QC15's have a lot of bass extension, and arguably have a very hyped bass response. In practice the bass response is quite strong, but it's character is a result of decisions made in the design process, in order to make them suitable for travel scenarios, where the overriding problem with the noises around you are low frequency ones. Adding a boost in the LF is a simple design decision, implemented in EQ at the built in active amplification stage. The relative flatness in the high mids and HF is also a result of tuning that active amp stage.

That active amp stage is a significant part of the design of the headphones. It is the part that makes the noise cancelling happen. A microphone on the outside of each earcup allows the headphones to generate audio phase cancellation of all of those pesky external noises. It's really quite an astounding feeling when you are sitting on a train, plane or bus and just flick the switch to turn on the headphones. The ambient noise is instantly significantly reduced so that you can listen to Mahler's Symphony No. 10: Adagio in almost perfect silence. You'll feel like the orchestra is playing inside your skull. Wonderful.

Comfort & Practicality

One of the key features of this pair of cans is their overall comfort level. after half an hour of wearing them, you actually tend to forget that they're there. They are light enough to not ever cause any strain to your neck and soft enough to just hug your ears without and discomfort. The fully encompassing over ear design being a major factor of this comfort.

They also fold up pretty small, and fit comfortably into a smallish man-bag or handbag without the included hard case.

The AAA battery does happily last as long, if not longer, than Bose say it will too. So you don't really have to worry too much about it running out. I generally carry a single spare with me though just incase it starts popping out on me in the middle of my experience.

The mic and control cable is pretty useful too. The controls will control most Apple devices, but sadly will not do the same for Android phones. The mic still works with anything that has the usual four part mini jack connector. The mic on the headset will work perfectly with your PlayStation 4 controllers too, allowing you to use them as gaming headset for those late night sessions of Killzone or Battlefield.

Negatives?

Not a lot really. The cable is a touch on the thin side and the controls don't work with all devices. If you can overlook those then your set to enjoy a great listening experience

Conclusions

Look no further than these headphones if you want a solid pair of noise cancelling travel headphones for your commute or for international travel. They have the audio fidelity suitable for studio listening; they are comfortable enough to wear all day; and the noise cancelling is the best out there. There's a reason that most consider these to be the benchmark in the world of headphones, and that's because they're probably one of the most refined listening experiences around.

Sound/Music: Priism: An Introduction

noreply@blogger.com (Churst) — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 22:22:00 +0000

Earlier this year I worked with a great crew to record a promo for a DJ duo known as Priism. I've not been into my House music for a long while, but these two got me listening to some of the stuff I was into at uni again. They are both gifted DJ's in their own right, but together they have a chemistry that can only create something quite special. With their debut record on the precipice of release, this is the promo we put together in a day of cross London shooting. I hope you enjoy:

They have a Soundcloud page, where they have been uploading mixes, so go and check it out:
PRIISM Soundcloud

Sound Design: Bringing Realtime 3D Environment Art to Life

noreply@blogger.com (Churst) — Tue, 18 Feb 2014 13:40:00 +0000

My brother is a 3D environment artist, who now works at Rocksteady Studios.

He got the job based on the work from his website. One of the works on there was a video he'd rendered out, from the Unreal Engine 3, of a replica set of the Chess House scene from a Jet Li movie.

The original didn't have sound, but he asked me to have a go at making it a bit more exciting for him. I didn't get round to doing it until very recently, after I found it floating around amongst some old files in my "Video" folder on my PC.

Here's the finished result:

There's more information about the model at my brothers website : www.willhurst.co.uk
For more about what I do check my website : charliehurst.co.uk

Follow on Twitter :
@chazhurst

Gear Review: Audio Technica ATH M50x Headphones

noreply@blogger.com (Churst) — Mon, 17 Feb 2014 12:44:00 +0000

Audio Technica's ATH M50x headphones are the latest revision to their very popular ATH M50 cans. They represent a professional solution for people using the headphones in a wide variety of scenarios. They are the same great headphones, with those great full sounding drivers, but with a very useful collection of detachable cables. You get standard length curly and straight cables, as well as a long straight one, for those occasional long runs you get. So lets take a closer look.

Audio Technica's Feature List

- Critically acclaimed sonic performance praised by top audio engineers and pro audio reviewers

- Proprietary 45 mm large-aperture drivers with rare earth magnets and copper-clad aluminum wire voice coils

- Exceptional clarity throughout an extended frequency range, with deep, accurate bass response

- Circumaural design contours around the ears for excellent sound isolation in loud environments

- 90° swiveling earcups for easy, one-ear monitoring

- Professional-grade earpad and headband material delivers more durability and comfort

- Collapsible for space-saving portability

- Detachable cables (includes 1.2m - 3.0m coiled cable, 3.0m straight cable and 1.2 m straight cable)

- Top choice for studio tracking and mixing, as well as DJ monitoring and personal listening

- Also available in white (ATH-M50xWH) and limited edition blue (ATH-M50xBL)

Out of the box

These headphones appear very well built. Audio Technica do specify that they are built rugged; designed for use on the road, on location or anywhere you might care to abuse them. They look pretty good too. Fairly understated, just plain black, with just a silver circle on each earcup to break it up. Actually, they don't look too dissimilar to the, now well established, Sony MDR-7509 or 7506 headphones that a lot of engineers have sworn by since they came out. They fold up fairly small, but not as small as my more travel friendly Bose QC 15's. The folding mechanism does seem a little stiff at first, but I'm sure that it will ease up after a couple months of solid usage.

Sonic Character

Talking of the Bose QC15's, these Audio Technica M50x's do have a similar, but less hyped, character to the Bose flagship noise cancellers. The M50x's have a similar bass extension, but more definition than found in the Bose's. They seem to present a best of both worlds from my Bose's bass extension, and the detail and precision of my AKG K271 mkII's.

Here's a graph that should help describe what it is that I'm going on about, provided by headphone.com, which takes a look at four pairs headphones that I own:

From what you can see in the graph, it could be seen, essentially, as a bass extended version of the AKG K271 mkII, which is no bad thing as they are one of my favourite headphones for both work and general listening. The graph can be misleading though, it doesn't take into account perceptual things like "musicality", "space" between the instruments or perceived detail, neither does it consider practical features, like sound isolation and comfort.

My personal insight into some of those perceptual features is that this set of cans tick all the boxes for a positive, accurate and useful representation of the audio being passed through them. Superb bass response matched with detail in the highs and mids, does indeed create a kind of space between the sounds. I would say that these headphones sound as close to hearing the music through quality reference speakers as I have ever heard, without losing the usefulness that headphones have in picking out those close details in the upper mids and highs.

Comfort & Practicality

Audio Technica have provided some very comfortable, ear encompassing ear pads, which I must say don't seem to get more uncomfortable the longer you wear them (even with glasses on). They impart a very even pressure around the ear too. This not only makes for good comfort it also improves the sound isolation they provide.

One of the coolest features of this revised model is the interchangeable cables, much like the AKG models that I've reviewed before. Included here are three different cables. Short (1.2m) and long (3m) straight cables and a stretchy curly cable that extends between those two lengths. They attach through a locking mini jack cable in the left earcup, which works effortlessly and locks very solidly so you never have to worry about a cable popping out. On another note the quality of the cables seems high too. The curly cable is a bit less springy than the one that is bundled with the AKG's; more like that of the permanently fixed cable on the Sony headphones I mentioned earlier.

Loud Enough for iPod?

Yes, without doubt. These headphones deliver good volume while listening on mobile devices. My Samsung Galaxy S3 manages to coax enough signal out of it to get these headphones loud enough to listen to classical music, comfortably on a noisy commuter train.

My Roland R26 portable field recorder also manages to drive these headphones very well. Something that is more of a challenge with the AKG K271 mkII's that I usually use. Even with very low level signals running as low as -60dB, I can hear them well if I push the volume wheel all the way up.

The headphone amps built into the controllers for my PlayStation 4 also deliver plenty of grunt meaning you can get aurally surrounded by audio from your games. (As a side note I'd hugely recommend playing Outlast on headphones, at night, in a fairly darkened room. That game will terrify you once you get so immersed in the feel of the world when the sound is uninterrupted)

Any Negatives?...

Well, no, nothing really. They cost £159 or thereabouts at the moment, which isn't by any means cheap for a pair of headphones. But for that money I don't think you can get anything else that sounds this great or is built this well. Saying that, they are made of plastic. The Sony MDR7509 and 7506 are made of metal, which some may prefer. But the plastic won't get as cold when you're out in a field, recording sound for that short film your friend wanted you to help out on. There really is nothing negative I can say about them at this point.

(If I find anything that I dislike over the coming months, then I'll be sure to update this accordingly)

The Final Word(s)

Audio Technica's ATH M50x headphones sound phenomenal. I mean, they sound like your reference monitors, while also imparting the information you would expect from a great set of headphones. They're comfortable and well built.

I would encourage anyone in the market for a top end pair of high end listening and reference headphones to check these (or their predecessors) out. They sound like music is happening in your ears. My Bose QC15's also sound like that, but with a touch more bass hype and with the added bonus of world class noise cancelling abilities. They are £100 more expensive though. They also have a more appealing character than the AKG K271 mkII or the K240 mkII, if only in the bass response area.

@chazhurst
@AudioTechnicaUK