Sine Language

This episode, the guys at MIT have managed to reconstruct audio from nothing more than video footage! Infrasonic sound, what it is, how it affects us, and its use in cinema, which got me talking about Mount Yassur, Izotope have just announced the forthcoming RX4, an update to their Emmy Award-winning audio restoration software, and … Continue reading "Episode 140 – Infrasonic sound"

This episode, Tom Ferguson (who is looking to digitise his vinyl collection) wrote to ask my thoughts on 19″ rack mountable flash recorders. He’s been looking at the Gemini DRP-1, which doesn’t look too bad (from the specs), although I did have a couple of concerns. Some alternate products I suggested he look at included: … Continue reading "Episode 139 – Flash recorders and Ozone"

This episode, a long-overdue response (and apology!) to an e-mail I received from Greg Anderson a couple of months ago, Greg mentioned Dolby Atmos, and Headphone:x, I also saw this a couple of weeks back: a guy who took a slice of a tree and played it like a piece of vinyl! I also received … Continue reading "Episode 138 – Channels, channels and more channels"

This week, Sine Language is brought to you by Bill Vencil! Bill asked me to talk about Crest Factor, what is it and what is its importance? He also wanted to know my thoughts on technologies like SoundCheck, which iTunes is now using to create playback-managed volume levelling. Will technolgies like this bring about the … Continue reading "Episode 137 – Crest factor"

This week, I’ve musing over some things that crossed my radar over the last couple of weeks. Joel, one of the Broadcast Tech’s at work recently posted about the Orban Omnia 9 on his facebook timeline. The Omnia 9 is designed to undo the damage done by excessive peak limiting at the mastering stage. Probably … Continue reading "Episode 136 – Loudness"

This week, Rob Bettla opened a huge can of worms regarding the apparently never-ending quest for improved video, while almost no progress seems to be hapeening in the area of improved audio quality. This led to a discussion of (count ’em!) 22.2 channel audio reproduction systems, ultra high def TV, Occulus Rift, these strange video … Continue reading "Episode 135 – The future of audio"

Happy new year, one and all! This week, an e-mail from Carlos in Venezula, asking about the state of the pro-audio industry in Australia, more hilarity from Rob Bettla, and Karel Weis (via Facebook) asked me to discuss mid-side decoding…. what it is, when and why we’d use it, and how to do it. As … Continue reading "Episode 134 – Mid-side processing"

This week, a follow-up e-mail from Rob Bettla, a quick discussion on televsiion audio levels (plus, here’s a few useful links for those who are interested…) ITU BS.1770 EBU R128 ATSC A/85 Wikipedia article on LKFS plus a whole page of useful links. Then, I discussed the video that made the rounds over the week … Continue reading "Episode 133 – Sidechain compression"

First off, thanks for all the love! It’s good to be back! After ep #131, I received an epic e-mail from Rob Bettla, who pointed me toward (amongst other things), this awesome video of balls of red hot nickel being dropped into water. The sound it makes is fascinating! I came across an article on … Continue reading "Episode 132 – Outdoor dialogue in the studio"

Yeah baby… I’m baaack! This week, WHY I’m back, why we should stay on the bus (here’s the link that inspired this episode’s title), and an invitation for topics.   All contributions gratefully received!

To quote Jim Morrison, “This is the end”. Size: 4793575 bytes Duration: 4:20

This week, Jim Addie weighs in on the Loudness War, including providing us with this link to Audyssey’s room calibration tool for your DAW, a link for AudioLeak, and a link to a technical document on the subject of loudness, Geoff Hankerson points us toward a recent epsiode of the Home Theatre Geeks podcast, and … Continue reading "Sine Language – Episode 129"

This week, Kevin Smith chimed in some more on tracking with effects in place, a brief comment on how the use of reverb has changed over the years, Ron Eastwood suggested another way of accomplishing the “richer harmonics” that I talked about in episode 127, and J.R. sent us this link which he says is … Continue reading "Sine Language – episode 128"

This week, Jim Addie replied concerning Dave King’s link to the Vacuumsound RIAA plugin, my trip to the Sony DADC plant here in Sydney, baking tapes, Springsteen’s Nebraska album, the Mixerman Diaries, an e-mail from Kevin Smith regarding “tracking with mixing/mastering in mind”. Size : 40198669 bytes Duration: 33:22 Love the podcast? Want to share … Continue reading "Sine Language – episode 127"

In ep 126, some pros and cons of the Fast Track Ultra 8R soundcard, Dave King sent me this link for an RIAA EQ Curve Plug-in, Todd Sadowski asked about USB mics, Rob Scalise wanted me to cover digital noise reduction some more, so I’m asking for your samples, plus, in a recent edition of … Continue reading "Sine Language – episode 126"

This week, we follow on from last episode, talking more about restoring your vinyl and converting it to digital media. Firstly, I came across Warren Barnett, a Sydney-based Mastering Engineer with what was, to me at least, an unusual approach to restoring vinyl, so I got him on Skype for a chat. Then it was … Continue reading "Sine Language – episode 125"

This week, a discussion on digitising your vinyl collection, and turning it into a digital music collection. Everything from preparing your vinyl, to setting up your hardware, recording, editing, mastering, encoding, completing the metadata, and finally, your playback options. Links: (preparation) Gruvglide (hardware) Ortofon cartridges Stanton cartridges Techincs SL1200 (software) Adobe Audition Audacity Reaper (noise … Continue reading "Sine Language – episode 124"

This week, a quick explanation of the new website layout (audio2u.com is now NOT the landing pad for Sine Language), the MOTU UltraLite as a mobile recording interface (NB: the link provided is to the current mk3 version… mine is the original mk1, courtesy of Daryl Gungadoo and AWR), dynamics control on portable recorders (and … Continue reading "Sine Language – episode 123"

Happy new year! A quick mention of our holiday cruise (blog and pictures start here), an e-mail from Steve Filmer regarding a couple of articles on NPR; this one on the loudness wars, inluding this great pdf, and this on one the average level of TV commercials, a quick mention of James Cameron’s epic, Avatar, … Continue reading "Sine Language – episode 122"

Yay! Got another ep out the door before the eyar escaped from me! This week, just tidying up some loose ends. A while back, JR sent us a link about the Schwartz Engineering Laser microphone. That link has now been revised. Someone also sent in a link to the Waves Vocal Rider, which at the … Continue reading "Sine Language – episode 121"