Audio Technology4 min readTechnology & Engineering
Last Word
In the early ‘60s Arthur C. Clarke wrote: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Thirty years later I was baby-sitting a fully-configured CEDAR (Computer Enhanced Digital Audio Restoration) system; a great opportunity
Audio Technology6 min readTechnology & Engineering
ROSWELL MINI K47 Stereo Cardioid Condenser Microphones
There’s an air of efficiency around Roswell’s Mini K47; no-nonsense, straight to the heart of it, says what it does on the tin. And at the heart of these mics is the capsule; a K47-style one, the sort you’ll find in Neumann tube mics like the U47 and
Audio Technology1 min read
Need To Know
$1199 for a matched pair Audio Chocolate: (03) 9813 1833 or audiochocolate.com.au Great high-mid presence without sounding shrill. Well-matched pairs. Cutaway shockmounts. None While they’re still manufactured in China, Roswell has used its DIY herit
Audio Technology3 min readTechnology & Engineering
Audio Voodoo
Jonathan Burnside talks with Rick Perrotta of Royer Labs about passive microphones, impedance and how the dBooster does what it does... Jonathan Burnside: There are a lot of boosters on the market. What inspired you to add yet another to the fray? Ri
Audio Technology5 min readTechnology & Engineering
ROYER LABS dBOOSTER Inline Mic Gain Booster
Recording an album for the Melvins some decades ago, I put an RCA 74B a few feet back from King Buzzo’s Sunn amp and had my first listen to a ribbon mic. A friend had gifted it as a joke; he’d grabbed it at a garage sale, found it to be noisy and dis
Audio Technology1 min readTechnology & Engineering
Need To Know
RRP: $362 Mixmasters Pro Audio: (08) 8278 8506 or www.mixmastersproaudio.com.ausales@mixmasters.com.au Allows passive ribbons and low-output dynamics to be used with any preamp. Maintains original sound of the microphone. High ‘bang for buck’. A soph
Audio Technology7 min read
DYNAUDIO CORE 7 Active Studio Monitors
Dynaudio’s Core series of studio monitors has that feeling of getting back to basics. It was as if Dynaudio went a little too ‘mad scientist’ with the previous flagship studio speakers, the Air series, and Core is the natural course correction. The A
Audio Technology1 min readTechnology & Engineering
Need To Know
RRP: $3299.50 per speaker Amber Technology: ambertech.com.au or 1800 251 367 Plenty of power. Well-tailored low end. Just enough DSP. AES digital input onboard. Hard to fault. With the Core series, Dynaudio has stripped back from the DSP-laden Air se
Audio Technology2 min readTechnology & Engineering
32-bit Float
32-bit floating-point has been a processing standard for years and, now, as an audio file format theoretically provides a staggering dynamic range compared to Linear PCM. As a rule-of-thumb, Linear PCM offers a dynamic range of 6dB per bit, so 16-bit
Audio Technology7 min read
ZOOM F6 Portable Field Recorder
I recently reviewed Zoom’s F8n [see AT132] and both it and their new F6 demonstrate that Zoom is continuing a strong evolution of design in its products. There will never be a single device that is perfect for all needs, but the F6 is an interesting
Audio Technology1 min readComputers
Need To Know
$1399 RRP, expect to pay $1099. Dynamic Music: (02) 9939 1299 or info@dynamicmusic.com.au Rugged, small & light weight. No need to adjust input gain. Numerous powering options. Cannot adjust recording levels of 32-bit files. A small, lightweight and
Audio Technology3 min read
KORG VOLCA NUBASS Vacuum Tube Synthesiser
My first drum machine back in the ’80s was a Roland TR-606. It was what I could afford at the time and it didn’t stay in its original form for more than one day — it soon had separate outputs and tunable toms, and it was quite unique. At the same tim
Audio Technology1 min read
Need To Know
$269 RRP CMI: (03) 9315 2244, cmi.com.au or sales@cmi.com.au Tube oscillator and sub-oscillator give a warmth and grit to the sound. Controls should go to 11, or even 13. A diminutive but mighty little tube-enhanced bass synth that harks back to Rola
Audio Technology1 min read
Ultra Optimised
Mark Woods talks with Pablo Espinosa, Meyer Sound’s Vice President & Chief Loudspeaker Designer, about the Ultra-X40. Mark Woods: How do the Ultra-X40s maintain their dispersion pattern below the horn’s crossover frequency? Is there some kind of arra
Audio Technology8 min read
MEYER SOUND ULTRA-X40 Active Compact Loudspeaker
Meyer Sound Laboratories’ popular UPA speakers are retiring after a long and distinguished career as leaders of the professional mid-sized point-source class. The full-range passive UPA-1 was released in 1980 and was the first live speaker to use a t
Audio Technology1 min read
Need To Know
$9,999 RRP Audio Brands Australia: (02) 9659 7711 or www.audiobrands.com.au Point source fidelity. Controlled dispersion. High power-to-weight ratio. Handy size. No volume control. Limited I/O. Meyer’s new Ultra-X40 is the result of decades of on-goi
Audio Technology4 min read
PC Audio
Someone once said “a little knowledge is a dangerous thing”, and that is certainly true in the case of plug-in effects. With the advent of investigative utilities such as the excellent DDMF PluginDoctor (which I explored in AT133), and Christian Budd
Audio Technology9 min read
Mixing Synth Pop Synths
In the previous two parts of this series we went through my processes of mixing drums and mixing bass for synth pop. Having established the foundation of our mix with the drums and bass, we can now begin introducing the more atmospheric and harmonic
Audio Technology2 min read
MONITORS: SIDEFILL, WEDGES & IEM
The current tour saw Michael Bublé move from Sennheiser’s 5000 Series to the 6000 Series. The system is interesting for the fact it converts the signal to digital in the transmitter. I spoke to Monitor Engineer Marc Depratto about his experiences: “I
Audio Technology8 min readTechnology & Engineering
FEELING GOOD Michael Bublé Live
‘A mix is a mix is a mix.’ This is the sage advice given to FOH engineer Craig Doubet by a recording engineer mentor David Leonard (who won a Grammy in 1983 for co-engineering the Toto IV album). By which he meant: a good mix will translate across an
Audio Technology15 min readTechnology & Engineering
Recording The Teskey Brothers Live
Walking into the Forum Melbourne on a cold Spring afternoon I’m looking for Naomune Anzai (Nao to his friends), production manager and FOH mix engineer for the Teskey Brothers. Recently renovated and restored to its original beauty, the Forum’s insid
Audio Technology3 min read
Jelmore
To illustrate their mix approach for I,I, Hanson and Messina chose ‘Jelmore’ as the most indicative. The first six tracks are sends to outboard gear – an Eventide H3000 side chain and a Thermionic Culture Vulture side chain. Below that are nine drum
Audio Technology11 min read
i For Detail
Justin Vernon, leader of the alt-folk band Bon Iver, called their 2016 album 22, A Million, “a new way of telling a story.” It was an understatement. 22, A Million was as experimental as it’s possible to get (short of going atonal), with tons of dist
Audio Technology1 min read
TOP 5 Producers’ Show 'n' Tell with: Dave + Sam
Without this there’s no record! Everything was recorded, arranged, mixed and processed through this thing. Purchased in 2014 and still going strong! What better selling point is there than it being the mic that “was used to record Thriller”. We reco
Audio Technology1 min read
Need To Know
$179 RRP Sennheiser: (02) 9910 6700 or sales@sennheiser.com.au Impressive tone with gutsy lows Lightweight Headband feels a little delicate Sennheiser’s HD25 Light won’t disappoint as a trusty ‘desert island’ monitoring tool for audio engineers or re
Audio Technology1 min read
Take Your Pick
The Sennheiser HD 25s are available in three offerings. While the new HD 25 Light is cheapest, the established HD 25 model sports a single sided cable, split headband and rotatable ear cup. The HD 25 Plus is the deluxe package — same headphones but w
Audio Technology2 min read
SENNHEISER HD 25 LIGHT Closed-Back Headphones
Lightweight and unobtrusive, Sennheiser’s HD 25 on-ear headphones may not impress with their looks but effortlessly impress with their sound. Those little earcups deliver big sound and a thumping bottom end without sucking anywhere nearly as much amp
Audio Technology1 min read
Need To Know
Expect to pay $369 Røde: (02) 9648 5855 or info@rode.com Works with almost any device Lightweight and rugged construction. Mic sound quality not incredible Rode continues to impress with its innovative product design and problem solving. While you ma
Audio Technology3 min readTechnology & Engineering
RØDE VIDEOMIC NTG Shotgun Microphone
Rode’s VideoMic NTG sees two worlds collide — namely, the VideoMic family of utilitarian tools for videographers, and the NTG line of broadcast-style shotgun microphones aimed at audio professionals. The result is a versatile supercardioid self-power
Audio Technology3 min read
UNIVERSAL AUDIO APOLLO TWIN X Thunderbolt 3 Audio Interface with DSP
A studio in a box. That’s the basic premise of a Universal Audio interface. With the DSP-enabled line of Apollo interfaces, UA has done a fantastic job recreating the signal chain workflow of an outboard-laden analogue studio within a digital microco
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