Samplitude Pro X provides recording and mixing engineers with sophisticated functions and a revolutionary DAW workflow. Edit in real time, during recording. Apply effects in a custom manner to individual clips. Visualize volume, frequency and phase information for selected tracks. Use batch export for automated editing of multiple files at once. Shape your sound – with more detail, efficiency and control.
If other audio CD extraction solutions have left you feeling perplexed, you will love Easy Audio Copy. The application guides you through the process step by step. There are no complex configurations, nor additional components to be downloaded. Everything works straight out of the box! During the extraction process, Easy Audio Copy is able to handle all the necessary decision-making itself. The user is asked only a few questions about their preferences.
- Is Easy Audio Copy as reliable and exact as Exact Audio Copy?
Yes, Easy Audio Copy is at least as reliable and exact as Exact Audio Copy as they are based on the same extraction methods. Easy Audio Copy benefits from various optimisations which increase extraction speed but ensure the reliability. The main difference is the interface which is much simpler and can be used without any background knowledge of the processes involved.
Exact Audio Copy is a so called audio grabber for audio CDs using standard CD and DVD-ROM drives. The main differences between EAC and most other audio grabbers are :
- It is free (for non-commercial purposes)
- It works with a technology, which reads audio CDs almost perfectly. If there are any errors that can’t be corrected, it will tell you on which time position the (possible) distortion occurred, so you could easily control it with e.g. the media player
With other audio grabbers you usually need to listen to every grabbed wave because they only do jitter correction. Scratched CDs read on CD-ROM drives often produce distortions. But listening to every extracted audio track is a waste of time. Exact Audio Copy conquer these problems by making use of several technologies like multi-reading with verify and AccurateRip.
ere are a list of my picks of free and low-cost software tools. I am sticking with Samplitude Professional for audio and Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom for photo-graphics. The other alternatives, however, are wide open.
The International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives (IASA) has released their landmark Guidelines on the Production and Preservation of Digital Audio Objects as a free web (HTML) edition, available here. http://www.iasa-web.org/tc04/audio-preservation
A variety of noise reduction processing was used This processing was a double-ended system where the record processor boosted certain frequencies and portions of the dynamic range while the playback processor provided a complementary reduction of the signal. These systems are generally referred to as companders for compressor-expander. Two different manufacturers of companders achieved high market penetration. Two others did not, but that is not to say that their equipment was not used somewhere. To the best of my knowledge, no one has written a Direct-X-type plug-in for a computer, so you are stuck having to buy the playback processors for each system you wish to reproduce.
At some point, this tape was played on a 1/4-track machine that injected hum onto the left channel. Here’s what the magnetic viewer showed:
At the very top we can see a remnant of the left channel material, then the 120-Hz bars (62.5 mil spacing), then the remainder of the left channel material. In the middle is the guard band and at the bottom, the right channel.
I finally figured out how to power the Sennheiser MKH-104, 404, and 804 from 48 V phantom power (P48) which is very common on professional and many prosumer mixers and recorders. The MKH-X04 series requires -8V for operation. Please note that some portable recorders do not generate P48 even on their XLR connectors. This will not work with P12 or P24 inputs. It works like a charm on P48 inputs (at least from Mackie, Yamaha, and Sound Devices). Thanks to everyone for their input and assistance.
Today, 48 V phantom powering is almost universal. In phantom powering the positive voltage is fed through a pair 6k81 ohm resistors, one to each modulation lead. The matching of these resistors is often done to 0.1% to maintain common mode rejection. The negative power runs on the mic shield. XLR: Pin 1-shield; Pin 2-audio hot, +48 V; Pin 3-audio low, +48 V. Tuchel: Pin 1-audio hot, +48 V; Pin 2-shield; Pin 3-audio low, +48 V. This was standardized in the 1960s in DIN Standard 45596. //
Prior to standardization, in 1964, Schoeps produced the CMT-20 microphone which used negative 8.5 V phantom power. The CMT-200, according to Schoeps drawing SB316, dated 1964-10-14, used the same -8.5 V phantom. Later this was broadened to negative 8-12V phantom followed by the switch to positive phantom at some later point. With vintage microphones, at least from Schoeps, be very careful as they might be negative phantom.
(free) 333-page technical document on sound restoration titled "Manual of Analog Sound Restoration Techniques." It's written by Peter Copeland of The National Sound Archive in England (part of the British Library Board), and it's a remarkable and interesting document.
I don't agree with everything Copeland says, but he makes a number of good points in his report, and there's a lot of very good information in it, particularly on vinyl restoration techniques. Apparently Copeland died in 2006 without finishing the manuscript; parts of it are in desperate need of editing, and the info is dated in sports, but there's still a treasure-trove of good information there. Note that Copeland's approach is very scientific and engineering-based; subjective audiophiles may take issue with some of his opinions.
It's available as a free PDF at this link:
http://www.bl.uk/collections/sound-archive/pdf/analoguesoundrestoration.pdf
Copeland reportedly put about ten years of research into writing the document, and it's very well-done. Anybody who's trying to do restoration and mastering of vinyl, 78RPM discs, and analog tape should read it.
The late Peter Copeland wrote a handbook concerning analogue sound restoration. It is required reading. When Peter died in 2006, I despaired that this would ever see the light of day. In 2008-09, the British Library released it as a free PDF file available here.
The IASA “Green Book” TC-04 Guidelines on the Production and Preservation of Digital Audio Objects can be purchased from IASA. The Second Edition is available online.
The CoOL (Conservation On Line) site has many resources. In particular, read Gilles St-Laurent’s 1996 article on The Care and Handling of Recorded Sound Materials.
The National Recording Preservation Board of the Library of Congress and the Council on Library and Information Resources March 2006 Capturing Analog Sound for Digital Preservation: Report of a Roundtable Discussion of Best Practices for Transferring Analog Discs and Tapes
This Tape Timing Chart is approximate. Most reels will contain a bit more tape than indicated time implies, typically about 6%. The footage is actual.
These timings are for one program. There can be as many as four mono programs on one 1/4-inch tape.
This document discusses the speeds used for most analog magnetic tape recording.
See the tape timing chart to convert speeds and lengths into times.
Note throughout most of the rest of this document we are using the correct ISO form of in/s instead of i.p.s. which is the traditional way of stating "inches per second".
One of the challenges for good sound reinforcement or speech recording is keeping the speaker “on mic”. There are many ways of handling this, but some work better than others. Here are my favourites:
- If the room is quiet and you can do a proper setup, a pair of Sennheiser MKH-416 short shotgun mics, one for the interviewer and one for the interviewee, gives very natural and unselfconscious results.
- For larger groups, I’ve had good results with an Audio Technica AT-822 (or the phantom-powered AT-825) stereo microphone, but the actual voice quality of that mic is inferior to the MKH-416. The high-end is harsher, but, used at a greater distance that is often not as noticeable. The room needs to be very quiet for this to work well, however. This is currently my least favourite approach (of those listed).
- So far, some of the best pickup I have found is a headworn mic–the main subject of this post.
At our church, they had tried headworn mics from Shure and they really were uncomfortable. Whoever selected the units, selected dynamic units and they did not sound all that good. They were retired in favour of the Countryman E6 units (also available from Shure, although I prefer the direct-from-Countryman version with the 2mm cable for robustness).
The Countryman units were working reasonably well, but never seemed to stay in the same place. It was frustrating as it was causing a widely varying sound quality, so we decided to try a DPA 4066 headworn mic on our head priest. The results were outstanding. The unit is comfortable (no more sore ears), it stays put, and it sounds better!
It is no surprise that these are taking over the religious and theatre markets.
A New Year’s view of at-risk audio formats
2024-02-20
2015-01-11
This article was first written in January 2015, with minor revisions in 2018. The revisions made in 2024 are highlighted, like this line. The deletions are struck through.
There are many factors that affect the ability of people like us to digitize tapes for you, our clients.
One of the most difficult issues to balance is the physical space that different formats take up, the ongoing maintenance of these formats, and, to be brutally honest, their return on investment.
What we discovered is that some of the machines we were archiving for future use would not work when they were brought out of storage. Rubber parts, capacitors, and lubrication are probably the most prevalent causes of failure. We have said to clients more than once (with a wry smile), “Yes we can probably restore your tape, but first we need to restore a machine.”
Manufacturer and maintenance depot support for various formats is waning or fully discontinued. Parts are hard to come by, and good machinists with an interest in doing this are either non-existent or very expensive.
So, what formats are at risk:
The benefits of using a voltage audio transmission system in broadcast facilities is investigated. State of the art microphone preamplifier requirements and an ideal voltage system distribution amplifier are outlined. The application of the Peak Program Meter to the new systems and the modified installation at WABC-TV are covered.
Introduction
Over the years, many audio practices have been followed without anyone asking WHY? or IS THERE A BETTER WAY?
The [then (i.e. 1980)] present [but now deprecated] standard for Broadcast Audio Systems is EIA Standard RS 219 [1]. In light of the fact that the [then] current standard was published in 1959 (and this was merely a reaffirmation of an earlier standard), one might imagine that in relation to today's common audio practices, it is somewhat archaic.
The Antioch Broadcasting Network (ABN)
Playing today's date in history when available
Conyers Old Time Radio
Streaming the Widest Variety of Programs from the 1930s, 40s and 50s!
Technical Bulletin No: 1101 – The Lattice Splitting Pad
601 Heron Drive, Logan Township, NJ 08085
Phone: 856-467-8000 • Fax: 856-467-3044
http://www.radiosystems.com
The lattice splitting pad may be used to combine two audio sources into a single audio output or to derive two separate outputs from a single audio source. A characteristic of the lattice pad that makes it very desirable for audio work is the port to port isolation. When used as a splitter, output port to output port isolation is theoretically infinite if the pad resistor values match the input port source impedance. In combiner applications, input port to input port isolation is also theoretically infinite if the pad resistor values match the output port load impedance.
HTTPS for Roku SoundBridge M1001
The SoundBridge M1001 has a lot of protocols the device can work with. But being 15 years old, HTTPS is not implemented. So the radio is dying in slow motion - each time a station is changing from HTTP to HTTPS it passed away for owners of a SoundBridge. Until now. Cause I love my M1001 I made a workaround. So have a look at https://mind.work/2021/01/18/rescue-of-the-soundbridge-m1001/