PC NOTES

Eliminating Physical Computer Noise

Published in SOS July 2002
Printer-friendly version

Technique : PC Notes

If your loops sound boring and lifeless, why not give them a new lease of life with the latest version of BeatBurner?

This month we investigate a simple solution for eliminating physical computer noise from your studio, and an application to create more noise in your studio by manipulating drum loops.

Regular SOS readers will be familiar with my various efforts to make PCs as quiet as possible, and this month I've been investigating another product that takes this crusade one stage further. PowerSnooze is a noise-reduction kit, apparently based on years of practical experience and investigation. It aims to significantly reduce airborne noise by using a set of sheet absorbers, which you can either fit inside your PC or use to line an existing wooden cabinet or custom-built enclosure. PowerSnooze is being distributed by QuietPC (www.quietpc.com) in the UK, and they kindly sent a kit for me to try out.

PowerSnooze consists of six large self-adhesive mats made from three different acoustic materials. All the mats conform to flammability safety standards and can be mounted next to hot components without having to later call the fire department. Installation is certainly quick and easy, even for someone who is completely non-technical: simply decide what size panels you need, cut them out with a pair of scissors or a knife, peel off the backing paper, and press them into position.

Although there's a web-based installation guide (www.power-snooze.com/html/install.html), you'll need to adapt this advice for your own PC, depending on where the majority of noise is coming from. I started by cutting large panels of the heavy mats to fit inside the side plates of my PC case, making sure I left enough margin for them to slide into position. This completely dampened all resonances from the side panels, with the added mass noticeably reducing sound leakage, and there was still enough material left over for me to fit further panels to both the top and bottom panels of the case.

Next, I fitted small pads of the thickest foam to the backs of the unused 3.5 and 5.25 inch drive bay panels to reduce noise from the front, and larger pads to the top and bottom panels over the black barrier material, creating a sandwich that further absorbed trapped sound energy. There was just enough space in my case to create another sandwich using the thinner foam mats on the side panels. Finally, since

PC Snippets     Since I last mentioned Michael Bray's XGpad editor for XG synths (including the SW1000XG soundcard, PLG cards, and Kenton's PlugStation), it's moved on quite a few versions to 1.63. New features include support for Windows XP, a part randomisation tool with more options, user-defined labels for the wave channels, a choice of rotary knob actions, user-defined colour schemes, a test sequence player, MIDI in and thru functions (so that you can play the sounds using an external keyboard while editing), and visual indications of MIDI in and SysEx data. www.xgpad.com Version 6.0 of Sonic Foundry's Sound Forge was released as a time-limited public beta at the beginning of April, and by the time you read this the full release should be available. It features non-destructive editing (only the final version of the file is resaved, so intermediate edits are heard 'instantly'). A real-time version of the 'Plug-in Audio Chainer' is a vast improvement on the previous preview functions, while background rendering lets you work on multiple files simultaneously. There's also an enhanced zoom and preset manager. www.sonicfoundry.com Aardvark have released some new drivers for their Direct Pro soundcard series (Aark 24, LX6, 2496, and Q10) with a twist -- they're in A/WDM (Aardvark Windows Driver Model) format. This is a proprietary driver model allowing audio data to be transferred from Aardvark soundcards to WDM, ASIO or MME software applications, which apparently provides much lower-latency performance from applications only supporting MME drivers. Sonar users will be particularly pleased to hear that latencies down to 1.5mS are possible with DXi and Rewire-compatible soft synths, in addition to 'real-time' monitoring of input signals. Full ASIO 2.0 support is also included, and the ASIO turbo mode and buffer slider should also provide VSTi latencies down to 4ms. www.aardvark-pro.com After what's seemed like a long wait, Native Instruments have finally released a version of their popular Absynth software synth for Windows. Both FM7 and Absynth are now shipping on hybrid Mac/PC CD-ROMs, and existing users of either single-format CD-ROM can download a free crossgrade if they wish to change platform. www.native-instruments.com I'm pleased to report that since completely disabling virtual memory on my PC (see PC Notes May 2002), I've experienced no problems at all, although Windows still insists that I might get better performance by reinstating it.

the remaining noise was mainly due to the air exhausted via the power supply unit's fan on the back panel, I used the remainder of the thick foam to create a duct (top, two sides, and back) outside the PC so that the air was forced downwards towards the floor.

It only took a couple of hours to fit the entire PowerSnooze kit, and to give you some idea of the improvements I managed in my PC, it's now difficult to tell from the other end of the studio whether my PC is switched on or not.

PowerSnooze shouldn't be regarded as a one-stop cure for all computer noise problems, and you'll get better results by choosing quiet components in the first place, such as Seagate Barracuda or Fujitsu hard drives, and low-noise cooling fans. However, it can still make a significant improvement, even if you do have specialised 'quiet' components fitted. The entire PowerSnooze kit is £39 and, considering the amount of material included, this seems a reasonable price to pay for some extra peace and quiet in the studio.

Described as a loop resynthesis tool, BeatBurner (www.beatburner.com) runs under Windows 9x, ME, 2000 and XP and might be just what you're looking for if you want a way to create original-sounding loops. Simply load an existing WAV file and start tweaking it in real time, transforming drum loops into pitched phrases, and other sonic building blocks. The loop can be played at the original tempo (which is detected automatically) or at any user-defined tempo between 80 and 160bpm, and it can even be played back in reverse.

The new sounds are created by a synth engine that first passes the loop through two band-pass filters, followed by the main pitch conversion section. This has decay, detune and glide controls, followed by a five-band waveshaper to alter the timbre of the pitched sounds. The synthesized version of your loop passes into an effects section containing a stereo delay, flanger, distortion, two filters offering control of cutoff frequency using an LFO and envelope respectively, and a 'post' filter (more on this in a moment). You can blend in the original sound with the synth, and a bypass switch lets you revert to the original loop for comparison purposes.

The most creative part of BeatBurner is the sequencer, where notes are displayed in a graphic window with zoom facilities. This uses beat detection to trigger the integral synth engine from the loop,so the synth sounds rema

With a clutch of new features such as part randomisation, the latest version of XGpad is an essential download for XG synth owners.

in locked in perfect sync, and you can repeat your loop 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16 times during the duration of the 128 available steps. Notes can be drawn into the window directly using the mouse, either while the loop is playing, or during standby.

Alternatively, you can 'play' the PC keyboard or use an external MIDI keyboard in real time, which makes entering riffs much easier, and you can still use the mouse to correct any mistakes afterwards. A transpose function lets you alter your sequences to fit in with the original key of other files, and you can synchronise the delay effects to the tempo of your loop.

The additional output filter is provided with its own graphic window, enabling you to create a multi-point filter envelope graph by clicking and dragging. Using this, you can synchronise cutoff frequency changes with the sequence and create chopping/gating, wah-wah or synth effects, all perfectly synchronised with the loop. By using longer repeat values you can achieve very slow sweeps lasting 30 seconds or more if desired.

Once you've created that killer combination of notes, synth parameters and effects, you can save it as a pattern. A maximum of 25 patterns can be stored in a BeatBurner file, which contains everything except the original source WAV file. BeatBurner is a great way to get 'new sounds for old' thanks to its many tweakable parameters. Once you're ready to capture your new creation, you can use the export function to save it as a new WAV file.

Moreover, BeatBurner isn't limited to use with drum loops -- I found it effective for adding additional effects or some subtle 'synth overdubs' to a complete track, and even managed to turn a jazz quartet into a guitar solo. If you've already discovered this great little program, the latest version (1.1) has enhancements to sound quality, controllability, a more refined user interface and a new randomise feature.

BeatBurner is an extremely clever concept, and capable of producing some extremely musical results. Although I did experience a couple of unexplainable crashes during several hours' use, for once I didn't mind since I was having so much fun. A time-limited demo version with save and export disabled is available as a free download, but the full version is a bargain at only £35.