SOUND ON SOUND
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Speaker-building is an established art, but occasionally it can still yield surprises — such as the strange and wonderful Baby Reds.
Lady Gaga's latest album was two years in the making, and marked a return to her electronic roots.
I've put together 11 of my personal favourite cost-cutting tips that won't burn a hole in your wallet, covering everything from monitoring and recording improvements to making your instruments play that bit better.
SOS Technical Editor Hugh Robjohns chats to the MD of Cranborne Audio, Sean Karpowicz, about how and why he started this innovative British pro-audio manufacturer, the many business and technical challenges involved along the way, and his company's approach to product design and manufacture.
Mike Senior delves into some of the most common troubleshooting tasks when dealing with acoustic guitar recordings at mixdown, and shares his own favourite processing fixes.
Robin Rimbaud, AKA Scanner, takes us on an autobiographical sonic journey as he talks about his early fascination with tape recorders, to life beyond the computer screen and his studio filled with modular and table-top synths.
Xaoc's Odessa aims to bring additive synthesis to the Eurorack world.
Audio signals are conveyed electrically as an 'alternating current' or 'AC' signal. This might typically result in a signal voltage that varies, for example, between +3 Volts and -3 Volts, with a waveform that is more or less symmetrical about the 0V line. However, there are circumstances — often, but not always, as the result of a fault condition — where instead of alternating equally above and below zero volts, the signal voltage is offset, so it might now vary between, say, +4V and -2V. In this example it would have a DC-Offset of +1 Volt.
DC-Offsets are generally considered a bad thing, as they can result in audible clicks when editing the audio material, they can result in premature asymmetrical clipping (eg, postive peaks clipping before negative peaks), they can confuse level metering systems, and they can even cause damage to loudspeakers and headphones in some specific circumstances.
As the DC-offset 'signal' effectively has a frequency of 0Hz, a DC-Offset can be removed with a high-pass filter set to a few Hertz (typically 3 or 5Hz, but anything with a turnover below 20Hz would get the job done).
A safety copy of software or other digital data. A popular saying is that unless data exists in three physically separate locations at the same time, it hasn’t been backed up properly!
A form of audio-over-IP (layer 3) created by Australian company Audinate in 2006. DANTE is an abbreviation of 'Digital Audio Network Through Ethernet'.
Audible steps that can occur when a parameter is being varied in a digital audio processor.
The point at which a signal waveform crosses from being positive to negative or vice versa.
A form of adapter cable that passively splits the output of a source to feed two or more destinations. Y-leads may also be used in unbalanced console insert points, in which case a stereo jack plug at one end of the lead is split into two monos at the other for separate send and return connections. A Y-lead must never be used to combine signals.
The form of electrical current supplied by batteries and the power supplies inside electrical equipment. The current flows in one direction only.
A term first used in the 1980s to describe early ‘tapeless’ recording/sampling machines like the Fairlight and Synclavier. Nowadays, DAW is more commonly used to describe Audio+MIDI ‘virtual studio’ software programs such as Cubase, Logic Pro, Digital Performer, Studio One and such-like. Essentially elaborate software running on a bespoke or generic computer platform which is designed to replicate the processes involved in recording, replaying, mixing and processing real or virtual audio signals. Many modern DAWs incorporate MIDI sequencing facilities as well as audio manipulation, a range of effects and sound generation.
A bi-directional computer interface based on the PCI Express protocol, used for both data transfers and to connect display monitors (it supports DVI, HDMI, and VGA monitors via adapters). Introduced by Apple in 2011.
A sliding potentiometer control used in mixers and other processors.
A type of magnetic tape coating that uses iron oxide.
A solid-state semiconductor device in which the current flowing between source and drain terminals is controlled by the voltage on the gate terminal. The FET is a very high impedance device, which makes it highly suited for use in impedance converter stages in capacitor and electret microphones.
A form of audio compressor in which an FET is used to provide variable signal attenuation. FET compressors are fast-acting in comparison to opto-compressors.