soundian

I'm really sorry to hear that. Kev was one of life's good guys and there aren't enough like him around.

start buying a hell of alot of eggs

egg boxes make good sound proofing

They don't.

What they do do is diffract the sound rather than reflect it, good for calming down a boomy room.

Try to make the inner room as free from direct contact with outer room as possible. Much of the noise spillage comes from sound traveling through framework, posts, joist etc. Spaces filled with insulation!

To stop the sound going through the frame a lot of people use neoprene.

Check out Sound On Sound website, they have a few articles on soundproofing home studios.

There is actually a difference between SeriesParallel (pairs in parallel wired as series) and ParallelSeries (pairs in series wired as parallel). Eg, if one speaker fails in SeriesParallel you have 3 left, whereas if 1 fails in ParallelSeries you have 2 left. Not sure if that is the reason, but i read somewhere that SeriesParallel is more common.

I wouldn't think series-parallel is common. Firstly every 4x12 I've looked in has parallel-series wiring.

Secondly, look at what happens when one speaker fails.

P=IV

V=IR

P=V^2/R

parallel-series:

If one of a pair fails the other has it's circuit disconnected. RT increases to 16 ohms so P is halved (well, it isn't actually because the ratio depends on the apparent load in the amp in parallel with the apparent load from the speakers). Both speakers will take, nominally, the same amount of power as they were doing, reducing the risk of blowing another.

series-parallel

if one speaker fails you have 8 ohms from the single and 4 ohms from the parallel giving 12 ohms. So you're getting more power than the parallel-series circuit. Not a problem, you've got 50% more speakers to deal with it.

Except that the single speaker will take 2/3rds of the power, meaning it takes almost double the power it was dealing with in a 4 speaker combination

Plug in some numbers and you'll see, assume V^2=800:

4 speaker working: any configuration

Total power to cab=800/8=100 W

power per speaker=25 W

PS: One speaker dead

Total power to cab=800/16=50W

total power per speaker=25W

SP: One speaker dead

total power to cab=800/12=66.6 W

8 ohm series speaker will take 2/3rds of power and 4 ohm parallel speakers only 1/3rd

Power per speaker: series 44 W, parallel 11 W

As you can see, one dead speaker could quickly become two dead speakers.

Series circuit:

RT=R1+R2+R3+R4

Parallel circuit

1/RT=1/R1+1/R2...

RT=total impedance

So for 8 ohm speakers:

series:

RT=8+8+8+8=32 ohms

your amp probably won't like a 32 ohm load.

parallel:

1/RT=1/8+1/8+1/8+1/8

1/RT=4/8

RT=8/4=2 ohms

A lot of amps don't like 2 ohms either

SOLUTION: parallel-series

Wire them in series as pairs, then wire the pairs parallel.

for a pair, RT=8+8=16 ohms

two 16 ohm pairs paralleled

1/RT=1/16+1/16=1/8

RT=8 ohms

This way 8 ohm speakers present an 8 ohm load to the amplifier, 4 would give 4, etc.

In the real world not every single frequency is going to hit the mic at exactly the same time, especailly true when using mics at differnet distances etc.

It's not so much different distances, air is a non-dispersive medium (mainly, C02 fucks about above 28KHz) which means each frequency travels at the same speed. What matters is angle down to the fact that speakers aren't a point source, as I said above.

i guess my question is: why if you're using two mics (and lets say they're identitcal mics for the purposes of this question) to record one source, do the frequencies change from one mic to the other?

Now obviously depending on placement you have phase issues regarding (essentially) the time at which the sound wave hits mic 1 compared to mic 2.

But if you can use your DAW to move (in time) one of your recorded tracks so that it alligns with the other (eg get them to both start at exactly the same time), why would there be frequency phase problems throughout the tracks?

Not trying to be difficult, just wondering.

In theory, speakers are a point source. In reality they're not. Off-axis sounds are going to be slightly different to on-axis sounds.

Look at the polar charts for mics (which are basically backwards speakers) and you'll see what I mean.

Then of course you have to take into account that all mics are not created equal (unless it's a matched pair but even then there will be tolerances).

That's why people normally use theory to get the mics in roughly the right place and their ears to fine tune the positioning.

If you flip the polarity on one of the mics there's always a little bit left, the sound doesn't completely disappear as it should, in theory. There you go.

Kristal Waver, been messing with it for a couple of weeks.

it's pretty much a really simple version of cuebase and the likes.

i've been recording using a shitty pc microphone and my amp.

could be better, but it's pretty cool when you have nothing else.

when you record a second track it CAN make the metronome be a bit off and stuff, but just move the tracks to the left or right (as appropriate) and record like that. worked for me

KRISTAL Audio Engine

tell me what you think

berni

The syncing problem you're having is most probably due to sound card latency than Kristal.

Kristal gets a bang-for-your-buck rating of: :up::up:

It was Rae Campbell for a while....dunno if that's who you mean, although the description sounds in the correct ballpark. It was when he packed it in Tubbus was going to take over the sound desk, and I was offered the chance of being 'trained-up' for the stage sound, but, having observed closely for a couple of gigs I didn't fancy the grief (especially if it was bands I liked....I'd've been in floods of tears).

Now I've seen soundian in action I realise that there's nothing to it

*bomb shelter order already in the post*

I just make it look easy.

*orders 1x bunker buster bomb from Bombs'R'Us*

Is numlock on?

it doesn't do the same every stroke of the same key.

(8 characters.)

What was Tubbus proper name?

Rod Grant? I'm not 100% on that so my apologies to any Rod Grants out there if I'm wrong.

True. We once took him along with us on a tour of the west coast purely for the abuse factor. It was great, really stopped the drummer abuse for two glorious weeks...

So he is useful for something.

Funnily enough, saw him last year when we supported Miles Hunt in Insch. Hasn't. changed. a. bit...

Who was the guy that always used to do sound at the Venue? Long haired stoner guy. One of my first ever gigs there (Colin Cant and the Zimbabwe Five) we made the mistake of paying him to do our sound before we played. He went straight out and 'self-medicated' himself to the point that he was virtually passed out for the whole gig and never touched the desk once...

I can't remember who used to do sound there, another one for the Cynic I think.

I was at that gig. I can't believe I've actually paid money to see you play.

I just went in for the bands.....(was once asked to do the monitor mixing, but chickened out when I heard Tubbis getting abuse from bands).

Bands abuse Tubbus because it's Tubbus. It's in the contract.

Good job you chickened out, monitor mixing is not for the inexperienced, or anyone with skin thinner than a Rhino wearing 10 leather jackets.

I built it myself:up:

Whoops! I hope you've taken yourself outside and given yourself a jolly good talking to.

Great news problem solved! I managed to get a New PSU and it's done the trick. Apparently I didn't have enough rails in my old PSU which meant there wasn't enough of a consistency of power (hence the reason why it was turning off when the GPU was demanding more power). Its now a 550watt PSU but more rails so more consistency... also a better make too.

Hopefully that will be the last problem for a while.

Thanks folks.

The cynic in me has to ask: was it the same people that built it?

When you say it fails to boot sometimes, do you mean boot or reboot? If it has that problem from cold then I think you can rule out thermal issues since your GPU and CPU temps seem to be fine under load (I'm assuming your CPU temp was under load).

If it only fails to boot within a few minutes of shut-down then that points more to thermal issues.

The most common cause of non-application specific random shut-downs however, is a dodgy PSU. There's nothing much you can do about this except replace the PSU and try it out for a while.

I'd put hardware (could be drivers) and bad RAM as the next two culprits. So yeah, re-install/update your video drivers. you could also try something like memtest86 to give your RAM a workover.

Look in device manager to make sure all your other hardware is reported as functioning fine.

Acoustic amps have a flat response (in theory) as well so include them in your search.

Using the line out could be tricky.

If the DI feed is taken pre then all you'll be able to do is adjust the input gains before sending the signal FOH, which will even out the gain differences a bit but maybe still give you the same EQ problems you're currently experiencing. It will give you more control over your monitor sound though.

If the DI feed is taken post then ANYTHING you do to the amp will affect the FOH sound, a dangerous thing sometimes, especially knowing the racket your rhythm section makes :-).

Miking may be the best bet but a bit of experimentation is required.

Of course, in places like the LT, where a full complement of DIs is available, you should use them and use the amp purely as a monitor.

Some amps have pre/post switches for the DI feed so keep an eye out for them. That would give you all three options available.

If Drummerboy is struggling to accept this then he really needs to play somewhere else where the slaves aren't so uppity!

That made me giggle.

Here's my perspective on using kits live, from a sound engineers point of view.

Take your own kit when:

1) You're a bona fide headline act, especially if your bringing your own engineer. "Headline" doesn't mean playing last at a 3 door tax gig to your mates and the mates of other bands who haven't buggered off home yet.

2) You know the house kit is poop and you know all the other bands and the venue are happy to use your kit.

3) You're the only band playing and the venue doesn't mind.

4) If there's no house kit. Obviously.

Changing kits is a pain in my arse for several reasons:

I have to soundcheck the other kit. If the venue is open for business this can result in a loss of trade.(OK, not really a pain in MY arse but venue owners nipping my head about it is)

I have to mic, EQ and dynamically process a different animal. Since most desks are analogue this involves scribbling settings down on scraps of paper. Since a drum kit can quite often constitute half the channels and a large amount of the dynamic processors I'm using for a band this usually more than doubles the chances of me making a fuck up*.

Then there's the storage. How many venues have a big enough stage to accommodate two drum kits in "ready to go" fashion?

At the end of the day, there's not many people here at the stage where their drum sound (if it's not shit) really matters live. If the engineer's sufficiently on the ball the only people who'll notice are other drummers and engineers. It's not as if you've got a whole room of people eagerly anticipating hearing exactly what they've heard on your last hit album and paying a handsome fee for the privilege.

*TIP: If you see a sound engineer scribbling things down at soundcheck don't talk to them, don't even stand patiently beside them (we know you're there, we can feel you looking at us); save the questions until they look finished.

You'll need a decent graphics card as well.

Thinking about cost, XPMC would be a better bet, not only is it cheaper but you need less RAM to run it. Double saving. Result!

hello,

i was just wondering if anyone had tips on how to get rid of software metronome bleeps from their recordings? had this problem a few times but as my new song is soley on acoustic guitar you can really hear the beeps in that background and its a bit shit.

i only have an LE version of my recording software so it doesn't offer any other sounds for the metronome, like a click or anything, so beeps it is. the acoustic was just mic'd up and did the mic just pick up the bleeps from my headphones when i was playing or....?

anyhoo, i've fiddled with the autogate and limiter in the dynamics but i seem to only ruin the 'naturalness' of the acoustic playing when i fuck with these (or i've not been patient enough!). but, yeah, can anyone help me oot?

Cheers, Davy.

Sounds like you've picked up bleed from your headphones. Gating it won't help much, except when you're not actually playing the guitar. Limiting it will make it worse because you'll lower the dynamic range, making the metronome sound louder relative to your peak volume.

I agree with LFO that most remedies are doomed to failure. Your best bet is copying and pasting a section with just click on it (i.e. no guitar playing, coughing, finger-on-string noise etc) onto another track, reversing the phase and having a little play with it.

Personally, I'd get a set of closed-back headphones and record it again. They will not only greatly reduce headphone bleed onto the mic, they will also reduce ambient noise bleeding into your ears.This allows you more control over your monitoring and the ability to turn the headphones down, reducing mic bleed even more.

The best way I've seen to run a network game is to choose a day and time, between 7.30 and 10.30 on a Tuesday for example.

That way only one person has to commit to be there, the host.

You'll be out of luck unless you upgrade anyway idol_wild, you need to be running the same version (including updates), as the host to play.

First a bit of pedantry: they're both attenuators, as is your gain and master volume. Amps are fixed-gain devices.

Seems to me that all your getting for your money there is another master volume to slip in before your master volume. If you want more pre-amp drive turn up your gain and turn down your master. If you have problems with the master because it's down near 1-2 and you don't have enough control over it the correct solution would be to downsize your amp.

I suppose if you played in a metal band AND a jazz band and didn't want to buy a second amp, or you wanted a temporary stopgap while you investigate smaller amps, it might be useful.

A trip to Maplins, some basic tools and half an hours work would get you the same thing though.

but all my squad apart from one player are under 23, i just got me scouts out and about looking for young talent. i'm the arsne wenger of mexican football!!!!

More like a Mexican Graham Rix if you ask me

Of course an external keyboard is always an option if you need to type larger documents, for those of us who have stubby fingers and can't type.