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A great tool from our friends at Aphex. Plug in that vintage ‘consumer’ level device (like a reel-to-reel or …dare I say, cassette) and listen to the levels go-pro!

That certainly was quick. The 2011 Holiday Season passed right by. Now, it’s time to buckle up and ready ourselves for a great 2012.

In the blink of an eye, Studio1A begins its ‘official’ 7th year. Official, based on the emergence of New Media to the World; the year of the Podcast.

An entire new wave of products await as NAMM and CES will very shortly reveal. I’ll be searching out new pro-audio gear as well as voicing some of the classics. The Studio1A Reasonably Priced Microphone stands ready as the ultimate low-price competitor to beat. Of course, the World of pro-audio does not spin around microphones alone. There are amps, compressors, consoles, plug-ins and much more to check out.

This year will be a fun ride. Glad I can share it with you!

@markjensen

Sponsored by BSW. Voiceover, Broadcast, Podcasting, Pro-Audio and New Media Gear is here…

As the year 2011 turns into a fond mix of gratitude and wonderful memories, I am incredibly fortunate to have you as part of our audience.

Laura and I wish everyone, both near and far, Merry times until we shortly ring in the year new.

@markjensen

Sponsored by BSW. Voiceover, Broadcast, Podcasting, Pro-Audio and New Media Gear is here…

Stay tuned for the NewMediaGear Holiday Product Roundup!

Sponsored by BSW. Voiceover, Broadcast, Podcasting, Pro-Audio and New Media Gear is here…

Studio1A is back. A new city, same sound and more professional audio gear.

So. How was your summer? …or winter for our friends across and around the globe

With Lauras help, Studio1A is now nestled in a (not so quiet) bustling suburb. The change is a positive one. Topping the ‘new feature’ list; a large workshop with endless building potential, not to mention multiple floors and almost a mile of new cable between them. Having hired movers, we certainly were surprised at how much boxing and sorting was involved. The real message is just how much more total space we have for product, mic lockers, electronic workstations and even a video sound stage.

As the components (mainly the Wheatstone console) come together, so will the audio. Only a few equipment casualties lie in the wake of the move. One of our Aphex 230s developed a switching power supply problem. Everything else came right back to life and happily feasted on a steady diet of 60Hz AC.

What to expect in the coming weeks? Several new (and surprising) microphones along with our annual Holiday Product Roundup. This year, you’re back in the celebration as we reveal some of the coolest gadgets on the planet. Holiday time is close.

Ok – enough banter for now. Back to Neutrik XLRs, Gotham installation cable, DB-25s and a lot of temperature controlled soldering.

Perhaps I should lay off the smoky rosin-core soldering for just a bit. I’m almost sure that human-sized rabbit in the lobby isn’t real?

…stay tuned!

@markjensen

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1RU of pure vocal horsepower. The Aphex Channel.

Long, long ago when Studio1A was nestled in the “rolling hills”, I was searching for a sound. As a former radio guy, that compression-wars sound was still hauntingly familiar and comfortable. New media was an infant and podcasting began changing what used to be traditional media. During this time, I remember listening to dozens of high-profile shows that simply didn’t utilize processing of any kind. Now there’s an aural contrast; over-the-air radio vs. the wild West days of podcasting.

I knew what had to be done in building a new media studio …and did it. A microphone processor (or vocal strip) was needed for each microphone to level the host and guests up front. Then, run everything, including music, sound effects and mic audio through a console, eventually blended together as program output. That output needed a true broadcast processor for the final audio massage, before being encoded.

I tried several different brands of voice processors but one of them stood out. The Aphex 230 was my Voice Channel of choice, and remains so to this day. After thousands of podcasts, our bank of Aphex 230s continue to hum (not literally) along every day, working harder than I.

Time does march on and there’s a new strip in town, simply called “Channel”. Channel appears to be a tweaked 230, but it’s dangerous to judge a book by its cover. I say appears, because we have not checked one of these new pieces out …yet. I have spoken with the folks at Aphex and a test drive is in the works. For now, simply know that the legend continues.

Until then, the question looms: has the “Channel” changed?

Channel is a trademark of Aphex.

@markjensen

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The trusty Fostex 6301B. A professional and reasonably priced monitor that has accompanied me in the studio and on the audio test bench!

Most of us have been trained to think of multiples when it comes to speakers. Stereo, Quad (remember quad?) Surround, 5.1 etc. When I was revamping the VO studio, I grabbed a ‘pair’ of powered monitor speakers without even thinking about it. …then I did

Contracted for dry (voice-only) work means mono tracking. Why do I need two speakers? I settled on an old trusty friend and have never looked back. In the broadcast studios, it’s a different story, but in my cozy voice chamber, a single sample monitor works just fine.

Most of us have to watch money these days and good quality monitors are not cheap. While we ‘surround’ ourselves with speakers to watch the latest movies, consider what you’ll be producing in the studio or even the test bench. Maybe one isn’t such a lonely number after all?

Record on!

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Have you ever jumped on an electronic bandwagon, just because of an invite? Even as I typed that, it sounded wrong. Regardless; that was the case way back in the dark ages of 2005 when I started using Gmail. Of course, only the chosen few [million or so] could snag invites. …and so it went with Google Wave and Buzz

Just this weekend, an opportunity knocked to join Google+. What is it? I’m not really sure, but I am certainly a geek. It appears to be an amalgamation of Gmail, Blog, file/photo sharing, chat and social networking. Certainly, this whole ‘+’ thing is causing quite a ‘Wave’ and ‘Buzz’ in the early adopter community.

So, if/when you are part of Google+, I invite you to join me in the virtual NewMediaGear circle. Besides a few old photos, there is not much yet. However, I do have high hopes for this service …and it is Google.

Google+ me and join in the circles:
markatnewmediageardotcom

Time to run. I need to update my facebook, LinkedIn timelines and tweet the word to get more people in my Google+ circle (for some reason). Once my Google+ circle grows, we should be able to ‘Plus’ my timeline to the other social networks …and maybe even RSS all of it! Or, is it the other way around? Have fun, and a great weekend!

PS: More Gear is on the way! Hints available on our facebook page.

Google, Google+, facebook, twitter (did I mention twitter?) and LinkedIn are registered trademarks of their respective companies. They are in no way associated with NewMediaGear. …except I do use them.

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The microphone that remembers! The HHB Flashmic is back and BSW has B Stock for 57% off!

Let’s rewind to that sweltering summer day in 2007 when I scheduled a photo shoot for Studio1A. At that time, I was trying out a prototype microphone and flash recorder from HHB called the Flashmic. This was, and is, unlike any other product that has passed through our doors. The Flashmic accompanied me to a few trade shows and I had a blast with it. Instead of a pocket digital recorder with small internal electret mics, why not add a small recorder to the bottom of a pro mic? That was the idea behind the Flashmic. The large capsule and body of this mic screamed professional all the way. The small recorder section rendered a similar profile to that of a modern wireless stage mic.

The price point, even for such a high quality product, was simply too high. After much fun in the field and on the road, I just couldn’t justify the purchase. Like me, many others were enamored with the product, but put off by the price.

As I was perusing the BSW site, an amazing sight graced the front page. The Flashmic is back in a big way, and the price set at $499! These are B-Stock, so when they’re gone …they’re gone. This is still a niche product and $499 is not pocket change. However, the Flashmic is one of a kind when it comes to quality and presenting a pro stance in the field.

With small inexpensive flash recorders flooding the market, you have to keep in mind that this is a different animal. The full-on pro Sennheiser omni capsule is born of the stuff that today occupies the largest stages and concert venues. A broadcast quality preamp and A/D converter start things off. The automatic gain control can tame things or run wide open when the environment allows. The small flash recorder attached below looks almost identical to the RF unit of industry standard wireless peers and provides 1GB of USB connectable storage. Sample your audio at 48, 44.1 or 32kHz with 16-bit resolution; linear PCM or MPEG 1 layer 2 (MPEG bitrates of 192, 160 or 128). On the bottom, you’ll find a mini USB connection for file transfer as well as a 3.5mm headphone connector, allowing real time monitoring.

You really have to try one of these out to appreciate the quality and unique experience. Interviewees definitely took notice of the Flashmic over portable recorders. Indeed, a niche product. We have one on the way, so you can hear and see it in action.

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Audition CS5.5. Mac OS X gets to run a classic multi-track editor and recorder.

Do you use a Mac or PC to edit audio? If the answer is Mac, your choice for multi-track recorder/editors just grew by one.

Anyone who has listened to NewMediaGear knows that I’m an Audition (formerly CoolEdit) fan. Audition isn’t the only multi-track choice for either platform. The choices abound. Some of them are good and some …not so much. Many editors are somewhere in the middle, as solid, well thought-out accomplishments. So, what is it about Audition that brings people back – again and again?

I’m convinced that Audition is more than the sum of its programming. People either learn, teach themselves or are taught on a specific editor (insert almost any name) at the beginning of their musical or media life. If we’re audio professionals, we spend a LOT of time with this program. As time goes on, it just gets comfortable. When I started in radio, our solution to editing didn’t involve a computer, but a splicing block. Times certainly have changed.

One of the early GUI options that really made a splash in radio production studios was CoolEdit. CoolEdit worked well and got the job done without getting in the way. CoolEdit was borne of musical and sound studio aspirations, possibly surprising the folks at Syntrillium to find how quickly it was adopted in mainstream media. Evident today, is the fact that Audition feels at home in both venues. I’m simply looking through broadcast colored glasses.

After acquiring Syntrillium software, Adobe* set out to tweak Audition. Many worried that it was over and things would never be the same. Of course, things never stay the same; but Adobe nurtured Audition instead of trying to change it. As time went on, Audition blossomed. Adobe made the amazingly smart move to tighten-up the code, add features slowly but never lose sight of that Audition ‘look and feel.’ As a result, an old CoolEdit user could sit down with the latest rendition of Audition and feel pretty comfortable.

The moment Audition was released, rumors began to fly about a Mac version. Many OS X devotes kept a PC around just to run Audition. While trying a myriad of recorder/editors on the Mac platform (it seems as though I tried them all), none of them were as comfortable as Audition. The same feeling of frustration echoed throughout the net. Entire sites and forums were built, hoping Adobe would port Audition to the Mac.

Welcome to 2011. Faint rumors became audibly louder until the words ‘alpha’ …and finally beta programs became a reality. Audition for the Mac? It seemed to be happening and many PCs were sent packing.

With the release of Adobes newest Creative Suite, comes Audition CS5.5* – available for Windows or Mac!

Our last few shows have been recorded using Audition CS5.5 on the Mac. The best part is that I can move seamlessly between Mac and Windows. Features? There are quite a few tweaks and updates; especially effecting performance and addressing multi-core processor distribution. I’ll be posting and tweeting much more about features, and how they can help with voiceovers and broadcast production.

Right now, the best part is that I can wheel around the desk, using different versions of Audition on different platforms without skipping a beat! More to come…

*Adobe, Adobe Audition and Creative Suite are registered trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated

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I am very pleased to be included in this edition of Shure Notes. Sign on to their mailing list for great tips from an audio legend!

The Shure logo, above layout and Shure Notes are registered trademarks, and property of Shure Incorporated.

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