Well… it’s been quite awhile since I’ve been active on TheStudioFiles.com.  It was a busy year – full of world travels and tons of audio work.  Luckily, my schedule will now allow me to return to TheStudioFiles.com and resume articles, videos, Q&A’s, and general tech support.

In other news, Avid has gone through some major changes and upgrades while I’ve been gone.  Most notably – we have the release of Pro Tools 9 along with a new line of interfaces for all lines of Pro Tools.  As you’ll see in upcoming articles, I’ve actually just upgraded to HD Native on an Avid 16×16 analog HD I/O – and I love it.

So – sorry for the hiatus – but I’m back!  I look forward to another great year with The Studio Files.  If there’s anything in particular you’d like to hear about or see in upcoming articles/videos, please let me know in the comments or via email.

Connor

TheStudioFiles.com

What? A technical book written in 1987 (last updated in 1990) is a necessity??

Answer – yes!  This book is chock full o’ great information.  Although it is technically a “live sound” handbook, it covers a huge range of topics that are also relevant to the studio engineer.  Best of all, the book sells for just over $20 on Amazon.com (which is significantly less expensive than my other favorite, Handbook for Sound Engineers).

The authors, Gary Davis and Ralph Jones, have an excellent style – the very technical information is presented in such a way that even a novice engineer can grasp.  That being said, this book is a great reference for even the most experienced engineers.  I noticed when reading even the basics chapters that I learned a few new tidbits.  There are great charts/graphs/illustrations in every chapter (which, in part, is why the book is such a great reference manual).

Here’s a list of selected chapter subjects -

• What is a Sound System
• Frequency Response
• The Decibel, Sound Level, and Related Items
• Dynamic Range
• Sound Outdoors (also a Sound Indoors Chapter)
• Block Diagrams
• Preamplifiers, Mixers, and Mixing Consoles
• Microphones
• Electronics
• Cabling

The chapters on microphones, amps, mixers (etc.) all contain technical drawings and/or block diagrams to help with the explanation.  For anyone not comfortable with reading those types of drawings, there are chapters and sub-sections on how to read them (as well as charts with what standard symbols look like).  This book will help you better understand the principles of audio and acoustics, the inner-workings of your gear, and will help you troubleshoot (non-computer or software) problems more efficiently and effectively.

This is an excellent book.

C

The Studio Files

We’ve been able to solve a high percentage of problems, but often it takes 2-3 emails back and forth before we have all the information available to help.

If you are emailing us (or even posting in the comments) about a problem you are having, please include the following information, as it will make it possible to help you:

• Computer OS (which version of windows, leopard, tiger, etc.)
• Computer specs (processors, RAM, HDDs, firewire cards, etc.) – if its a Mac, let me know if its a Mac Pro, MacBook, iMac, etc
• Which DAW and what version (i.e. say “Pro Tools 8.0cs2″ not just “Pro Tools”)
• What interface you are using
• What plug-ins/VIs do you have installed

(more below the fold)

If you are having problems installing programs, let us know if its a clean install or not (did you uninstall the previous version).

If its a Pro Tools problem, did you try trashing your preferences and databases?

You can never give me too much information on your system.  The more specific you can be, the better.  In addition to helping you a lot faster, the information allows me to document which systems are having specific problems, so its faster to help others in the same boat later on.

Thanks!

C

The Studio Files

I’m still trying to answer comments and any email anyone sends me, so please keep them coming.  I go on break soon, and I should be able to start up some new articles and videos. 

Send any ideas for videos and articles you’d like to see my way!

C

The Studio Files

It looks like the release is just a small “fix a few bugs” update.

Apple announced Tuesday an update to the media suite iLife during their Macworld 2009 keynote presentation.  Here is an early list of some of the new features announced.

iPhoto ’09 – Support for GPS geo-tagging (with Google Maps), face recognition, built in uploading to Facebook and Flickr.  The face recoginition will actually remember faces that you’ve tagged in Facebook and tag photos automatically!

iMovie ’09 – Advanced and easier to use editing, true drag and drop controls, image stabilization, more video effects and Indiana Jones style animated travel maps!  Apple actually acknowledged the uproar over iMovie ’08 (the majority of users considered it a downgrade from iMovie ’06) by stating “it was missing some features.”

GarageBand ’09 – Built in video lessons for piano and guitar and downloadable “Artist Lessons” for $4.99 each where the artist teaches you how to play their song (for example Sting will show you how to play guitar on “Every Breath You Take”).

Hopefully we’ll see some other additions to GarageBand ’09 such as more software instruments and improvements to the interface.  Stay tuned to the Studio Files for information on GarageBand ’09 as its released.

-PJ

This academic stuff is a tough sell.

But!  As boring as this stuff can be, its really important.  I’m going to breakdown the complicated human hearing system into three parts to give you a basic understanding of what’s going on.  I’m writing this article as sort of a preface to some upcoming posts (about things like safe listening levels and how to protect your hearing).  Honestly, if you are working in audio, you should have a basic understanding of your own hearing system.

It’s best to think of the human hearing system as having 3 distinct sections: The Outer Ear, Middle Ear and Inner Ear.  (click for fullsize pic)

(“Ear.” Wikipedia.org. 20 Nov. 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ear>. Colored lines added)

The Outer Ear (RED)

The outer ear is comprised of the Pinna (the outer part of the ear), the Auditory canal (ear canal), and the surface of the tympanic membrane (ear drum).  The Pinna directs sound into the auditory canal, which in turn begins to vibrate the ear drum.  Simple enough right?  Its good to note that at this point, the energy from sound is acoustic energy until it hits the ear drum (tympanic membrane)

The Middle Ear (BLUE)

The middle ear is made of the tympanic membrane and the ossicles (three bones of the middle ear: malleus, incus, and stapes).  There are other parts to consider (Eustachian tubes, labrinyth, etc…), but the ones I listed are the most important.  The middle ear’s job is to convert the acoustic energy coming in from the outer ear into mechanical energy.  The ear drum (or tympanic membrane) moves back and forth, causing the three bones to vibrate in turn.  The final bone, the stapes, is connected to the inner ear (at the oval window) where the energy will be converted into electrical.

The Inner Ear (GREEN)

The inner ear is the most complicated part of the ear.  Its most important parts (for this discussion) are the oval window, the cochlea, and the basilar membrane (which is located inside the cochlea).  We know the stapes connects to the cochlea at the oval window, vibrating it back and forth.  The cochlea is a spiraled, fluid-filled bone cavity.  Running the length of the cochlea (inside) and dividing it lengthwise is a thin membrane called the Basilar Membrane.  On the basilar membrane, you will find thousands of tiny hairs, which are one of the most important parts of our hearing system. The hairs, among other things, aid in the process of translating the mechanical energy into electrical, which can then be sent to the brain. The vibrating stapes causes the fluid to vibrate, which excites areas of the basilar membrane.  The basilar membrane also responds to frequencies at different areas along its length (more high frequencies at one end, more lows at the other).

Phew! Got through it.  Here’s a summary

• Sound comes in ear, makes the ear drum vibrate.  Ear drum vibrates the 3 bones (ossicles) of the middle ear.  The last bone (stapes) pushes in and out on the cochlea (at the oval window).  The now vibrating fluid inside the cochlea excites the basilar membrane (and the hairs on it), and transmits that data to the brain.

In upcoming articles, there may be some references to information in this article (such as when I do the article on protecting yourself form hearing damage).

If you have any questions on the material here, OR if you would like deeper information on any part of the hearing system, please post in the comments.

C

The Studio Files

- A Review of Sontronics Microphones (a fairly new, UK-based microphone company)

- Another article in the Guerilla recording series.  This one will be about quickly converting an average room in your house into a “Recording-ready” room very quickly and cheaply

- Mixing 101 videos (we’ll start with the basics, and then get to some very in-depth concepts and techniques)

- And as always, we will keep you up to date on Pro Tools and Leopard news.  The word on the street is that the pre-release (7.4.2pr) is rather buggy, and isn’t really that much better than running 7.4cs2 on Leopard 10.5.1.

Stay Tuned

C

First off, thanks a bunch for all the great discussions and input (and the traffic) you’ve given The Studio Files.  This community doesn’t happen without everyone’s contributions.

I’ve been getting a lot of emails lately, and I find that often I need to send 1-2 back and forth before actually getting to the “help” part.  We like to answer everyone’s questions and fix as many problems as we possibly can to get us all making music as fast as humanly possible.  Here are some things you can include in your questions that will help for an even faster response (and hopefully a solution!). :

1.  Please let me know what computer (model, speed, RAM, etc.), what operating system (aka Leopard 10.5.2), DAW version (Pro Tools LE 7.4cs2 etc….), and interface (Digi 003R) that you are using.

2.  Detail as many specifics as you can about what is going wrong.  (So, rather than, “Pro Tools doesn’t work”, say “Pro Tools stalls while loading when it gets to ReWire.dpm”) This way, I can compare it to the database of problems other people are having, and hopefully give you a very specific answer.
3.  Also include what you’ve tried already (and what went wrong).  For example, if you are trying to get PT LE to work on your Leopard computer, let me know if you’ve tried installing it (which worked), but then Pro Tools stalls on launch, or you get kernel panics… etc…

Thanks!

Hopefully pigs will fly and we will all see Pro Tools compatibility with Leopard in the very near future…

C

The Studio Files

This Logic Pro 8.0.2 update addresses specific customer and compatibility issues of Logic Pro 8.0 and WaveBurner 1.5. This update is recommended for all Logic Studio users. For more information about this release, please go to: Late Breaking News as well as Logic 8.0.2 Details.

The second link in the quote above has a full list of fixes for this update. Just glancing over the list I’m happy to see a number of Ultrabeat bugs I’ve been running into are now fixed. Here’s to improved software!

-PJ

Sorry for the lack of posts recently… things have been REALLY crazy for me.  But, new videos and articles are coming very soon!  Thanks for your patience.

C

The Studio Files

The Studio Files is here to help out with any studio problems or techniques that you may be tackling.

I try to do new videos everyday, and sometimes coming up with ideas is hard. I’d love to hear your suggestions/what you’d like to see. I can go as basic or advanced as you’d like. Right now, I have Logic Studio Pro and Pro Tools LE installed (and of course, Garageband) that I can do videos in. But, we can also do videos in Digital Performer, Final Cut Studio Pro, virtual instruments of ALL sorts, etc…

Just post in the comments here if you’d like to see a video on a specific topic.

C

The Studio Files

From Brendan M.

…my question is how do I bring an audio apple loop with a key change into logic’s arrange page and have it retain the key change I executed in the loops browser? At the bottom of the loop browser I change playback of a selected loop from C to G# but when I drag the file into arrange it plays in C. Can this be done in LP8?

Answer:

From what I understand, that “play in” dialog box in the bottom corner of the loop browser is only for previewing. When you drag it into your Logic song, it will conform to whatever key you have chosen in the timeline. I attached a screen shot. In the bottom right corner of the shot, you can see the key (Bm). If you double click that, you can change it to whatever you want (or you can draw in subsequent changes later in the timeline).

From John H.

…so do you have any information on when Digidesign will release a Leopard-compatible version of Pro Tools LE??? We’ve been waiting since October. I am having problems with PT and stuff. how Long do I have to wait?

Answer:

Well, we’ve covered this pretty thoroughly on the site, but I would look for it soon. Apple is about to release 10.5.3 (within a few weeks probably) and Digidesign has suggested that they will release the 7.4 update at the same time. (It will be a free “dot” release for anyone who has a registered copy of 7.4). Hang in there! If you need help getting things to work on your system in the meantime, let me know, and I will do what I can to help.

From Ryan N.

…I need a MIDI controller, I’ve never really played piano or keyboards or anything like that. I mainly use Garageband and sometimes other stuff at other places, but the keyboard will stay at my house. I [have] about $100 to spend but not much more. Whats a good deal or what should I buy do you think. Oh and smaller too, my desk isnt that big.

Answer:

Well, there isn’t too much available in the $100 price range. I would suggest saving up for something in the $170 range, such as the M-Audio Oxygen 61 key controller. Thats a great entry level controller with some extra knobs and faders to assign to parameters in your DAW. If you think that’s still going to be out of your price range, you might check Ebay or some other used places for a good deal. ‘

I’ll try to do some more here soon. Please feel free to keep the questions coming (especially in the comments on the site, its faster)

C

The Studio Files

Thanks for your patience

C