Snap, Crackle, and Pop

I still enjoy listening to records. I am not a know-it-all audiophile who insists that vinyl sounds better then cds. That argument usually has something to do with sample rates; sound is a wave, analog equipment (represented below in grey) perfectly reproduces the wave, but digital audio (red) is only a rapid series of samples and your brain fills in the rest.

I don't care about that, and modern digital equipment uses such high bit rates that anyone who claims to be able to hear the difference is simply lying. No, I like listening to records because my parents listened to records. My grandparents listened to records. There's a sense or nostalgia involved with carefully placing the record on the turntable, inspecting the needle for dust, before gently setting it into the grooves, and listening to the hisses and pops until the music rises above the noise floor.

I haven't taken a head count in a while, but I think I have 40 or 50 albums.

My collection includes:

Jefferson Airplane - Surrealistic Pillow

rare first pressing found at a local record shop $8

Linda Ronstadt with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra

thrift store $1 cheap

Rob Zombie - Dragula 7" 45 rpm

this was part of a promotional display at a music shop and was not for sale

Billy Joel - 52nd Street

white label promo copy for radio DJs $11 local record store

The Marx Brothers

family heirloom

Neil Young - Decade

3 disc greatest hits of early work $4 garage sale

Along with lots of Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Van Halen, and Jimi Hendrix. I'm currently bidding on Fleetwood Mac - Rumors, and John & Yoko - Plastic Ono Band on Ebay. I like records because they are severely undervalued. Even now with downloading as the most common way to get new music, CDs cost an astonishing $17-$20!!! The most expensive record in my collection was maybe $12 and most were $2-$5.

The pops and crackles that flank the 12 minutes of music are almost as magical as the music itself. It's such a soothing sound. You can't get that from an iPod. But then again, you can't put a turntable in your pocket and jog around the block.

Tech Specs vol. III

...which I would love to build in the future. It is my hope that the now empty space on the other side of my garage will someday be my music room.

So I am planning and budgeting and designing the space. I would like to start construction in the spring of 2011, but you know how quickly time can slip away.

http://sketchup.google.com/

Tech Specs vol. II

In Pro-Tools however, each microphone becomes a separate mono track. So after you record all those drums you can listen back and adjust each drum to get a more balanced sound.

Need more bass? Less snare? Want to use EQ or compression? All of this and more is available in post with Pro-Tools.

As you can see, I'm excited about the new equipment and looking forward to really using it. Now if only I had a nice, new, smoke free, acoustically treated studio to keep it all in...

Tech Specs vol. I

Here's a little look at the recording equipment for the Acid setup. I use this Yamaha mixer to bump several microphones down to one stereo signal. For example; when we record the drums we'll mic the kick, mic the snare, and use a pair of overhead condensers.

Then everything goes into the 1/8th inch mic input on the laptop.

Each take becomes one stereo track. Guitars and vocals and additional sounds all get overdubbed later, and are separate tracks. Here's what that looks like:

Acid can only make one new track at a time. All four drum mics get mixed down into one track. The old expression of "garbage in garbage out" definitely applies. Because you cannot adjust the individual drums in post production, the signal at the 1/8 inch jack is final. The drum sound has to be right before you press that red button.

Dropping Acid (it's not what you think)

Every Bella Dramatic song for the past 10 years has been recorded with Sonic Foundry Acid 2.0

This month we are setting up to use Acid for the very. last. time.

I'm in the middle of switching to Pro-Tools 8, a much more professional piece of software. Once it's up and running Pro-Tools should drastically improve the sound quality of future recordings. But first let me tell you a little story...

About a year ago decided it was time for an upgrade, after all, 10 years is a good run for any computer program. Are you still using the same operating system you used a decade ago? So I got permission from my loving wife to spend $250 on Pro-Tools. What an exciting day that was! I was installing it on the laptop before the UPS truck was out of the driveway.

The first snag was a memory issue. The program won't run on the laptop. No problem, $60 for a little RAM upgrade and we are back in business. I'll just double click this exe...CRASH! Unlike Acid, Pro-Tools will not record audio from the sound card. You need a dedicated USB interface to even start the thing. Oh boy, so much for that $250 upgrade. So I begin to shop online for a supported USB audio interface. The unit that I want goes for $500 on most websites. Ouch! But Julie catches a break and wins a brand new one on Ebay for $350.

Now Pro-Tools boots up for the first time, I even recorded a scratch track. Happy with that, I attempt the first overdub. CRASH. You bonehead! Laptop hard drives don't spin fast enough playback and record at the same time! "You've got to have power" It becomes clear that if I'm going to do this right I need a new computer. A desktop with lots of RAM and 2 hard drives: one for the OS and one for the audio. Once again Julie to the rescue. She goes to the Dell outlet and finds a great open box deal. Several weeks go by and the new compy hasn't arrived yet. When we call customer service they discover that one computer had been sold twice. Awesome.

Dell makes it right by sending a better computer for the same price! Sweet! 64 bit Windows Vista with 8 gigs of RAM and duel hard disks. Perfect. CRASH! There are no 64 bit drivers for the audio interface, I need a 32 bit OS. After several more customer service phone calls to India; Dell sends a 32 bit Vista disk over night. Now, finally, 4 months and $960 later, the switch is complete! "It's alive, ALIVE!"

I have started playing with Pro-Tools and made a few demos, but there's a lot to learn. This is a powerful new setup and I need some time to get comfortable. Am I upset about how much money we spent? Not really, I mean this did get out of hand - $250 can become $1000 pretty fast. But the previous set up lasted ten years, and I feel like this will too. One last song with the old gear and then we are finally dropping Acid. It was a good run.