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

The trusty Aphex 2020MkIII broadcast processor in Studio1A.

No — the title isn’t about a new cable television series.

It’s amazing how little things can cause big problems. There are always small things going wrong in a studio, but when one of our main audio conduits started making noise, I knew it would be a long night.

The Aphex 2020MkIII is a broadcast processor that I’ve come to rely on. It would usually be the last (or one of the last) lines of processing in radio. The 2020 gives me 4 split bands of compression, a limiter, leveler and a host of other modules that go unused, such as FM radio pilot tone injection and radio data service (or RDS).

Yesterday afternoon, I heard a small clicking noise and narrowed it down to the 2020. My first thought was; this can’t be good. After quickly clicking over to a bypass chain, I turned the unit off and pulled it out of the rack. From the telltale sound, I was almost certain of the problem source. Taking it to the bench quickly confirmed the 2020 cooling fan bearing ran out of life, like a tired hamster on the wheel, but I also needed to dust off the equipment air intakes more often.

WARNING: DO NOT ATTEMPT TO REPAIR YOUR OWN GEAR. DO NOT EVEN TAKE THE COVER OFF! The following paragraphs describe my choice, as an engineer, to pull the hood on a very expensive piece of gear and replace something that is not meant to be user replaceable.

I’m no stranger to data centers where this is an almost daily problem. Fans are needed for airflow and they just call it quits after being in service (continuously) for years. I figured this fan lasted almost exactly 5 years, running 24/7, 365 days a year. No complaints.

After taking the hood off the 2020, I found it was easy to access the high quality Panasonic fan. The most common ‘muffin’ fan in this equipment uses a sleeve lubricated bearing. I happened to find an exact voltage/current/size ball-bearing replacement. A quick solder job with some heat shrink and it was ready to go …almost. After about 30 well placed screws were back in the cabinet, I was ready to re-rack and re-route the cabling. Then, it was time to re-calibrate, even though the global variables were still in tact. Hopefully, the CMOS backup battery for front panel logic will hold on for another few years!

So, this is very likely the most boring post I have ever made. It really just goes to show how a trivial (but important) component can cost a lot of time. Even more if you had to send it back for service. I also had a backup plan for bypassing the 2020, but didn’t have a spare sitting around to do its job. Dust or not, these little fans only last so long at 100% duty cycle.

However, I already put a repeating reminder in Google Calendar to “clean processing rack” every 6 months with compressed air.

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Studio1A is Powered by Panamax…

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Drop me a line with comments, thoughts and suggestions:
mark at newmediagear dot com

Sponsored by BSW. Voiceover, Podcast, Broadcast and New Media Gear is here…

Be sure to check out the NewMediaGear YouTube Channel!

Regardless of the product, one-size-fits-all never seems to work out as well as made-to-order.

Processing is always a hot topic, so I wanted to smooth out the processing as well as punch it a little. Notice that (if you keep listening), your ears eventually begin to adjust. The brain is an amazing A/B comparator.

When enjoying music after work, I want to hear the soaring highs and dramatic lows. The extra bandwidth and bit depth of Home Theater has (arguably) taken over the audiophile hobby, trumping transparent audio with exaggerated bass and dynamic range. However – when I’m listening to talk radio in the car, a ‘classical’ approach would be ineffective. Much of this can be translated to how we, as broadcasters process our audio.

Have a listen as we twist the knobs on first and second level processing in Studio1A…

Studio1A is Powered by Panamax UPS Line Protection…

Studio1A BlueMax Lighting by full spectrum solutions…

Drop me a line with comments, thoughts and suggestions:
mark at newmediagear dot com

Sponsored by BSW. Podcast, Broadcast and New Media Gear is here…

Be sure to check out the NewMediaGear YouTube Channel!

After a lot of soldering and cable re-routing, Studio1A is a little more video friendly. It’s hard to turn an audio guy to video. However, I have to admit that even an SD show has the potential to bring a whole new dimension to product demos.

The main racks are now powered by Panamax UPS and power protection. The real time, multi-function displays on these units are great. The piece of mind is even better, knowing that pricey gear is protected by the best. By glancing at the panels, I get a constant readout of line voltage, switching and battery capacity/estimated load. The Panamax MB1000′s also interface via PC using USB. More coming up on the MB1000′s.

A real surprise is lighting. The entire studio feels like daylight with our BlueMax 70 watt lighting from full spectrum solutions. At 5900 degrees kelvin, the color temperature is perfect. Continuously variable intensity, from 20-100% gives us endless possibilities for tweaking. The best part is that these are compact floor lights that blend right in! No huge umbrellas, tripods or diffusers.

Studio1A is Powered by Panamax UPS Line Protection…

Studio1A BlueMax Lighting by full spectrum solutions…

Drop me a line with comments, thoughts and suggestions:
mark at newmediagear dot com