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What makes a good YouTube thumbnail? My opinions.

published Mar 21, 2019 12:55   by admin ( last modified Mar 21, 2019 12:54 )

I just looked through a list of thumbnails on YouTube and I think I know now what kind of thumbnails I prefer at least:

There should preferably be two people on the thumbnail, facing each other

twopeople

If there is only one person, there must be text, and the text must not be continuous


discrete text

hertz

An example with continuous text:

ngplay
 

A whiteboard or similar can work instead of discrete texts, and it is good if the video title is visible in the thumbnail

comp

A single person with no text I do not think works that well:
 
ngscreen
 
 

ngspeech

And finally a group of people without any text fragments also does not work that well:

ngted
 

So for my tastes, put two people facing each other, or one person with discrete texts or a whiteboard or other teaching instrument!

 


Change VS code's insane default behavior of changing your text when you hit return

published Mar 18, 2019 12:40   by admin ( last modified Mar 18, 2019 01:00 )

Start a new document in VS code, and before saving, type:

Worklist
Describe how the certificate registration works

Hit return, and the line now says (my bold):

Worklist
Describe how the certificate registration WorkList

At least on my machine. That is insane! VS Code has no idea of what I am trying to code or write or even in what language yet.

You can get rid of this behavior in settings by disabling:

"Editor: Accept suggestions on Enter"


Three gorgeous Raspberry Pi cases I won't buy

published Mar 10, 2019 06:20   by admin ( last modified Mar 10, 2019 06:18 )

And I won't buy them because I want the USB and power connectors to be internal to the box, since I will plug in a sound card there and a power bank, and I want those to be integral to the box.

However if that weren't the, uhm case, then these would be on my shopping list:


Modep, Pisound, Puredata — more sound processing options for the Raspberry Pi

published Mar 09, 2019 12:20   by admin ( last modified Mar 10, 2019 07:00 )

Going deeper into the world of Raspberry Pi and sound I have discovered some new options. Modep (Meet MODEP - MOD DUO Emulator for Raspberry Pi)  is a ready-made operating system image with almost 200 plugins installed. I haven't tested it yet, but I am very curious as to how well they solve the optimization issues. I'm downloading it right now. There are even two de-essers among the plugins! I suupect though that many of the plugins are made for guitar effects and are hence in mono.

Modep is hosted by the Lithuanian Blokas guys who make the Pisound high-quality sound sound card for Pi. Buy Pisound - Sound Card & MIDI Interface for Raspberry Pi. At around €100 I will refrain to buy it at this point in time, since I think it is the processing limits of the Pi itself, that sets the limits for me. Still cool though!

Review: Blokas PiSound, Audio & MIDI Interface For Raspberry Pi : Ask.Audio

Modep seems to be created by the guys behind the super pedals  Mod Duo and Mod Duo X. Their stuff looks close to what I would like to create except they do guitar effects.

Finally, since I have problems with the processing power of the Pi, maybe it's time to look at PureData, maybe the bare bones approach would yield more powerful results, suitable for a headless configuration?

Update 2019-03-10: Couldn't boot with Modep from a USB stick with a Raspberry Pi 3 B+. It complained about things being on different partitions or something. Either the Modep image cannot handle the 3B+ hardware or it cannot handle being on a USB, I guess.


Plugins — Rakarrack vs Jack Rack Vs Calf Rack on a Raspberry Pi

published Mar 08, 2019 11:45   by admin ( last modified Mar 08, 2019 04:16 )

First of all, kudos to the porters and maintainers for making all of these run on the Pi!

However it seems to me that it is the Rakarrack that actually runs well, given the constrained resources of the Pi. And this is not so strange given that I think Rakarrack was made with the ARM-powered Pi in mind!

When running the two others, Jackd seems to give up eventually. It starts outputting lots of clicks, like rain. I think that happens when many samples are dropped so that the result has huge discrepancies between adjacent samples in the output. Then it goes downhill from there and locks up. Basically these two seem to strain the resources of the PI. Maybe their plugins are inherently more computationally complex, or they have not been properly optimized for the ARM architecture.

Thinking about it, I actually only tested the Calf plugins for Jack Rack and Calf Rack. It may be that they are extra difficult on the Pi: Plugin performance on RaspberryPi 3 | rncbc.org


Lots of help on how to put up Jackd with lower latencies on Raspberry pi

published Mar 06, 2019 11:55   by admin ( last modified Mar 06, 2019 12:15 )

I got here:

https://lucidbeaming.com/blog/setting-up-a-raspberry-pi-3-to-run-zynaddsubfx-in-a-headless-configuration/

In a quick test this morning it seemed to make a difference although some of the adjustments had already been made. Jackd had already prioritized up things. The things I did that were new were the following:

1. Disable the internal audio card by commenting out the "dtparam=audio=on" :

sudo nano -w /boot/config.txt

...

# Enable audio (loads snd_bcm2835)
# dtparam=audio=on

2. DBus security policy (disclaimer: I have no idea what this one does in this context):

sudo nano -w /etc/dbus-1/system.conf

...
<!-- Only systemd, which runs as root, may report activation failures. -->
<policy user="root">
<allow send_destination="org.freedesktop.DBus"
    send_interface="org.freedesktop.systemd1.Activator"/>
</policy>
<policy user="pi">
    <allow own="org.freedesktop.ReserveDevice1.Audio0"/>
</policy>

3. Default configuration to use the USB card:

sudo nano -w /etc/asound.conf

pcm.!default {
 type hw card 0
 }
ctl.!default {
 type hw card 0
 }

4. Force the pi to always be alert, by telling it so on startup:

sudo nano -w /etc/rc.local
...
echo "performance" > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor
echo "performance" > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu1/cpufreq/scaling_governor
echo "performance" > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu2/cpufreq/scaling_governor
echo "performance" > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu3/cpufreq/scaling_governor
...

 


Headphones protector, next problem: I/O levels

published Mar 06, 2019 10:40   by admin ( last modified Mar 06, 2019 10:40 )

It seems clear now that I have succeeded in building a headphones protector with a Raspberry Pi 3B+, Jackd and Rakarrack.

However some very practical problems remain, and they would actually remain for whatever solution I would have chosen, namely: How do I know I'm feeding the compressor at the right level? If the input signal is too low, the compressor/limiter may not kick in.

So I need an indicator, a VU meter that it is indeed being fed at a good level. I could go the route of having a VU meter directly monitoring the input before it reaches the Pi, but that would be a lot of tinkering.

Since Rakarrack already has built in meters for input and output, it's probably better to outfit the Pi with a small screen, and then create a viewport with xrandr that ensures that those meters of Rakarrack are displayed. And it should be a touch screen so the sliders adjacent to the VU meters can be used.

The second problem is the output level. I would really like to have an analogue potentiometer to be able to adjust the volume there, outside of the Pi. However making a voltage divider with the headset as a part in it, will introduce weird non-linear responses, since headphones vary in impedance depending on frequency. I better go and check to see how much headphone impedance does vary with frequency…


Latency down to 34ms with soft mode and "no memory lock" — jackd raspberry pi

published Mar 06, 2019 09:55   by admin ( last modified Mar 07, 2019 11:50 )

So I am trying out a Raspberry Pi 3B+ as a headphones protector, running a cheap USB sound card in duplex mode and sound processing being done in Rakarrack. The sound system hanged a lot with "xrun" error messages, even with very conservative sizes of buffer (lots) and sampling frequency (low).

By selecting "no memory lock" those hangs disappeared and were replaced with clicking sounds when the runs happened.

I then ticked "soft mode" and the clicks disappeared. I can now run with low latency, currently 34ms. Since this is for headphone minitoring I don't mind if samples get dropped; it's not for recording.

Maybe I should try to put memory lock back… Anyway, great performance progress!

Update 2019-03-07 I put memory lock back, seems to work fine, so it was the soft mode that made the difference.


One more youtube favorite on video & sound: Potato Jet

published Mar 04, 2019 12:32   by admin ( last modified Mar 04, 2019 12:32 )

I've only watched two so far but his guests are really knowledgeable, for example in this video on lighting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiUTTk67kXE&t=683s


Proof of concept of a headphones sound protector w. Jack & Linux

published Mar 04, 2019 11:20   by admin ( last modified Mar 04, 2019 11:18 )

I am trying to build a headphones audio processor with Linux, and today I got a proof of concept running. It's not running on a Raspberry pi yet, but I tried it on a laptop. An equalizer and a compressor was applied to the signal, and the processed version came out with a barely noticeable delay.

Hardware used

  • An Acer laptop
  • An old Philips USB sound card that came with a pair of headphones many years ago. It has a mic input and a headphone output. A cheap audio interface like Xenyx 302 USB is a worse choice here, since it plays the input sound over the USB mix.

Software used

  • Ubuntu Linux 18.04
  • Ubuntu Studio components including Rakarrack
  • Low latency kernel

Setup and problems

The laptop refused to switch to the USB sound card. The solution was to kill jackd, and start it from the command line. I have no idea how jackd is automatically started by the way. It's not reachable by service or systemctl. Start it up indicating the sound card to be used. I think the problem is that qJackCtl never managed to modify or restart jackd, it just pretended.

Rakarrack, a guitar effects host, is more stable than Jack Rack so I used that.

In qJackCtl, patches would already be correctly set up by Rakarrack.

Modify the rack in Rakarrack to contain an equalizer and a compressor.

The sound of the mic input on the card should now be routed through Rakarrack to the headphones output. At least it did for me.

Next step will be to get this running on a raspberry pi! That means an Arm version of all this.


Cheap voice compressors that do not take up too much space

published Mar 03, 2019 01:45   by admin ( last modified Mar 04, 2019 12:14 )

Ready-built

ART Tube MP/C

Looks cool. ~€110. This one's possibly made for guitars, not sure. No headphones output.

Behringer Xenyx Q502USB

This is a mixer, and audio interface. But it has a compressor and tone controls and it's the cheapest on this list by far! €45. Headphones output!

Rolls CL 151

On-line reviews seem to indicate that people either hate this one or tolerate it. It seems to have a non-standard behaviour. ~€130

No headphones output.

Amazon.com: Peavey HB2 Headphone Amplifier

This looks great but I think it's discontinued. The HB2 is specifically made for headphones listenting, I guess for a live band member so that he can hear the others clearly without suffering the ill effects of sudden bursts. This is the closest to my use case.

Semi-built

SSM 2167 pre-built

SSM2167 Microphone Preamplifier Board Low Noise COMP Compression Module DC 3V 5V-in Replacement Parts & Accessories from Consumer Electronics on Aliexpress.com | Alibaba Group ~€3

This one will give you 30dB (I think) of gain that you maybe didn't want, and I am unsure of how to desolder or switch in components for changing compression and limiting.

Teensy audio

The audio card for the Teensy SOC. The audio chip has built in compression possibilities, so can be switched on and configured in two lines of code. ~€20 + ~€20 for the Teensy + cabinet and knobs. This is a powerful solution with I guess close to instaneous boot times. But it does mean you have to do 28 solders, and use the arduino IDE with at least a few lines of C code. Having done that though, you can deploy different kinds of code.

Raspberry Pi + Jack + Rakarrack or similar

A Raspberry Pi with JACK and a USB audio interface ~€50 + cabinet and (possibly USB) knobs. This is the easiest semi-built option by far, since it requires no soldering or mounting of other components. JACK can patch any sound input or ouput to and from any JACK-compatible software. When JACK is installed you can use different plugin hosts to drag-and-drop a sound processing chain from your sound card's input to its output. One such plugin host is Rakarrack. Remember to use a low latency Linux kernel and to prioritize audio.

The more I think of it, the more I like this solution: You can prototype on your normal laptop or desktop Linux machine, there is a plethora of ready-made effects of which some are of high quality such as in my experience the Calf compressor. And there are hundreds of more plugins.

The things that I am wary of is how quickly it would boot and how stable it will be in practice. Also, although it's no harder than any other option in this section, what kind of user interface you will want to have. You could go with a touch screen, with potentiometers directly wired to the Pi's inputs or with a USB controller. I'm gonna do this one! At least prototype it on a laptop.

Roll your own

SSM2166SZ Microphone Amplifier IC SO-14 Analog Devices

SSM2166 - more configurable than the previously mentioned 2167. It has a a limiter and compressor built in that are easily configurable. But there are no breakout boards for the 2166 afaict, and it only comes as a surface mount component. Although of the soldering-is-humanly-possible surface mount component kind.

Conclusion

Well, all the above options exist for a reason, but I'd recommend the Behringer or the Raspberry. Unless you are a serious tech-head and might think of selling your work to others.

 


Zoom H5 — first gripes from first impressions

published Feb 27, 2019 10:25   by admin ( last modified Feb 28, 2019 11:26 )

Let me first say that I like the Zoom H5 audio recorder and USB audio interface. But since it easier in the beginning, and I got it yesterday, to find some things you would like to be better, I'll start with some gripes:

  1. The headphone volume buttons. These should have been a knob instead I believe. The reason being that with a knob you can more quickly turn the volume down, if by mistake something loud is coming in.
     
  2. The headphone output makes a slight pop sound on each change in volume. It's probably not loud but I will check that with my other sound card, because our brains are not good at estimating the volume of short (<<100ms) noises.
     
  3. Unclear when it's running on USB when set to be in recording mode. I eventually made sure it was indeed running on USB juice, by simply removing the batteries and it booted up without them. There is a setting to control this when used as a sound card, but not afaict when used as a recorder.

    But it seems to run fine on USB when in recording mode. Maybe the heuristics are that if you plug in a cable when in in recording mode, it's for that sweet sweet USB juice, since there is no other reason to have USB in that mode.
     
  4. The weird bursts of random noise incident. After transferring the files to my PC, all recording had bursts of noise and hiss at maximum volume. I returned the SD card and upgraded the firmware from 2.0 to 2.10. One of those things fixed it. Or possibly a combination of them. Internet said, from what little I could find that it could either be a problem with PulseAudio (I run Linux) or with the card.

    For all I know it could have been a problem with PulseAudio still, but I did convert the files to FLAC from WAV with ffmpeg and the problem persisted. But I guess still don't know for sure!
    Actually, these burst were clearly visible in Audacity, so it cannot have been a Pulseaudio problem. Phew. And now I found a file from the old card, and it still has the bursts. So there.

    I tried the files with Audacity, VLC and aplay. Same problem everywhere. Maybe Zoom used a non standard WAV format for a while?
     
  5. The menu selector button has edges that are a bit too sharp. Minor gripe.

Cheap directional condenser mics for voice use - some ideas

published Feb 27, 2019 01:00   by admin ( last modified Feb 27, 2019 11:50 )

I'm thinking of getting an affordable directional condenser mic for use as a boom mic but also as a general voice mic. It would be nice if it is switchable to different polar patterns. Ideally I'd like to pay around €50, but two of the below ones are more expensive.

AKG C1000S MkIV

Around €90. AKG C1000s MKIV The AKG C1000S is a classic condenser microphone, that gets a surprising amount of hate on the Internet, including from some people who have actually used it. The only mic I've seen receiving more hate is the Blue Yeti. Both mics are best sellers so they can't be all that bad. The AKG CS1000S Mk IV can run on two AA batteries besides 48V which is great, and it has switchable polar and frequency characteristics which also makes it more versatile.

Here is a Youtube example including rap. The Session with Blazewun - indoor dialogue AKG c1000 test - YouTube The rap is also recorded with it, and not just the monologue. The rap uses the hypercardoid setting.

AKG C1000 Battle - Indoor Dialogue - The Adapter Features - YouTube same guy again, now comparing all the modes: Cardoid, hypercardoid and presence.

Avantone CK-1

Around €150. Avantone CK-1. Rave reviews on the store sites. A bit on the expensive side for my budget. It gives you three different capsules and a shock mount included. Good.

This is the video I found wrt voice. It seems to have been lossily encoded into oblivion though: Avantone CK-1 Microphone Test w/Hyper Cardioid Cap Installed on Vimeo

Samson C02

Here we're coming down to €45 territory. Samson C02. Supercardioid characteristics and shock mount included.

Samson C02 Voice-over Test Demo - YouTube

Vocal Test Samson C02 Condenser Mic - Beneath The Surface - YouTube

Samson c02 mic vs Zoom SGH-6 shotgun - YouTube


Best microphone setup for indoor interviews?

published Feb 23, 2019 12:45   by admin ( last modified Feb 23, 2019 12:41 )

Summary: The two options seem to be lavalier/lapel microphones or overhead boom microphones. Lav mics seems by far the easier option.

Curtis Judd talks about this a bit and seems to favoor boom mics. However he points out that so called shotgun mics have problems with room echo and are best used outdoors. For indoor use you can use directional mics without that shotgun tube. Hypercardioid is the description to look for, for highly directional mics.

Boom mic'ing is a lot of work and lavalier mics is a much easier option. If going with headset mics, plosives can become a problem, might be interesting to see if there is a good pop shield for headset mics.

One other option that could work would be to put directional mics below the subjects, at least if they are sitting down. But I think you want to place the mic within 50 cm or so of the mouth, which might be difficult. Still, it would be elegant to just have two mics, one in front of and below each subject's head, since that would very easy to set up.


Podcastage, Judd, & Krause: Fav channels for sound for video/podcast/screencast

published Feb 21, 2019 03:25   by admin ( last modified Feb 22, 2019 07:07 )

Current favorite video channels for sound for video/podcast/screencast are:

Read more on them below:

Podcastage

There is no way around podcastage. Bandrew is a machine (figuratively speaking one must add in this day and age) who has reviewed tons of gear in a afaict fair way with technical knowledge and excellent presentation. Here are some of his videos, but he has hundreds surely:

Best USB Microphone Under $100 (Oct 2016) - YouTube

What's the Best Mic & How To Select the Right Mic (For Beginners) - YouTube

16 bit vs. 24 bit Audio, What Should You Record At? (FAQ Series) - YouTube

Julian Krause

Julian Krause, has a fair and technical approach which comes over very well, with objective tests, se for example:

Preamp Shootout - Sound Devices MixPre VS Zoom F/H VS Rode VS Roland - YouTube

Dynamic Mics are Noiser than Condenser Mics? (ft. Shure SM7B) - YouTube

Podcastage posted a comment of approval on the last one.

Curtis Judd

Curtis Judd talks about how to bring it all together, mostly with video but also with sound.  He is open about when he is a rookie and when he is experienced. Judd has the closest job compared to what tasks I need to get done sometimes, as he is a professional videographer working for companies. See for example:

Which Audio Recorders for Filmmaking Do I Still Use? 2016 - YouTube

Dialogue Boom Mic Comparison Results - YouTube

How to Get Loud Consistent Sound for Video - YouTube

 


Shortlist of audio interfaces of which I will select one

published Feb 20, 2019 05:55   by admin ( last modified Feb 21, 2019 04:39 )

I currently have a 16-bit Behringer Xenyx 302USB, and I'd like to upgrade to 24 bit to get some more room under 0dB. I'd also lke to try out a large diaphragm condenser mic so I need an XLR, and I'd like to keep the ability to have a powered mic input for 3.5mm. Actually the Xenyx I have has a 12V XLR which is enough for the mic I'm looking at, so maybe better to start in the mic end and arrive at the interface end later.

I'd also like to have a recorder in it, since Android phones have problems with USB and Bluetooth has problems with, well, the Bluetooth standard which has no capability for good mic audio (maxes out at 16KHz sampling rate).

And since I prefer to do everything in post, more than 3 channels into the computer would be nice.

Interface €        Good
preamps
according
to youtube +
comments
24-
bit
#Powered
3.5 mm
#48V
XLR
Good
VU-
meters
#Multi track
to computer
Recorder #unique inputs  
Behringer U-Phoria UMC202HD 62 3 Monitoring is hard left & right, get UMC204HD for rectifying that. y 0 2 1 2 0 2  
Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 2nd Gen 129 4 y 0 2 1 2 0 2  
M-Audio M-Track 2x2M 115 5 Podcastage found it worse than the focusrite, but I liked the sound of it in the video. Has cnnection problems according to Amazon reviews. y 0 2 3 2 0 2  
Yamaha AG03 Mixer and USB Audio Interface 149 4, same as Steinberg y 1 (shared with XLR) 1 1 2 + feedback 0 5  
midiplus Studio M 79 ?? y 0 1 5 1 0 1  
Zoom H5 225 Is still good but in internal ranking a 1 Preamp Shootout - Sound Devices MixPre VS Zoom F/H VS Rode VS Roland , y 2 2 5 4 5 4  
Behringer Xenyx 302USB 49 2? n 1 0 1 2 0 5  

 


Apps to the rescue to record from USB on android?

published Feb 18, 2019 11:55   by admin ( last modified Feb 18, 2019 11:59 )

I tried to record sound to a Motorola G5 through a USB sound card connected via an OTG adapter. Didn't work although playback worked. On a Nexus phone playback didn't work either.

It turns out USB sound card support is skimpy even in newer versions of Android.

One solution that is recommended on a forum is USB Audio Recorder - Apps on Google Play. The app has its own USB driver and their site shows support for a lot of phones and a lot of audio interfaces, including some really fancy ones.

But its free version available from their web site behaves lik a zip file on the phone, instead of as an apk, despite having the right suffix and being in the same folder as other working apks that can demonstrably be installed, downloaded with the same program.

I found also n-Track Studio Music DAW - Apps on Google Play but it wants to read my contacts. I'll see if I can turn that off and see how it behaves.


Best mics under €150 judging from the male soul sample at Thomann

published Feb 17, 2019 11:25   by admin ( last modified Feb 19, 2019 09:16 )

These five microphones I selected from going through most of the sub €150 large diaphragm mics on their site listening on the male soul dry sample through my my laptop speakers, and then ranked the below five between themselves by using a Sony MDR-XB950 (a so-so) headset listening to the same sample. A couple of mics on their site did not have the soul sample and were ignored. No mics between €119 and €150 made the list, as can be seen below:

Rank Name Price Interface Comment
1 Samson G-Track Black €105 USB 16-bit Gorgeous sound, even truer than the C03U, but with a bit of personality (this has a different soul sample than the others)
2 Samson C03U €89 USB 16-bit Great sound, but with a weird distortion, which might be from my headphones still sounds very honest. Shines on the processed version, is best there.
3 Audio-Technica AT2020 €89 XLR/48V Slightly tinny but still great
4 Superlux E205 €38 XLR/12-48V sounds fantastic over laptop speakers but loses its luster in the MDR-XB950 headphones but shines again in the Sony MDRCD480 phones. As somebody said in the reviews, this mic sounds a lot better that ithas the right to.
5 the t.bone SC 1100 €119 XLR/48V weird wandering sound in headphones

Audio-Technica AT2020 USBi and AT2020 USB+ sounded worse than the XLR Audio-Technica AT2020 listed above.

Superlux E205USB sounded worse than the XLR Superlux E205 listed above.

The Rode NT-1 is good but felt too dull, but might come to life with post-processing.

The 24-bit Samson G-Track Pro did not have the sound samples.

Disclaimer: Don't rely too much on random blog posts :)

Update 2019-02-19

I have now listened through a better set of headphones (Sony MDRCD480), and I still believe the above mics are the best in their selection, but I am less sure about the order between them. I also listened to the female soul voice and the AT-2020 does the best job there.

Some between €150 and €200 that sound fine

Audio-Technica AT 2035 €154

the t.bone SCT 800 – Thomann UK €175 sounds nice



TIL on audio: Small diapraghm mics, Ardour, 24 bit sound & podcastage

published Feb 16, 2019 07:20   by admin ( last modified Feb 17, 2019 06:43 )

Small/large diaphragm condenser mics

I've wondered a bit why podcasters are using the old style large membrane mics of yonder. You could see these mics in '80s music videos when they wanted to be retro, such as Robert Palmer's "Johhny and Mary" and Ultravox "The Voice".

The Neumann mic company has a page on this: What Is the Difference Between Large and Small Diaphragm Microphones?

It turns out that strictly speaking small diaphragm mics are better, objectively seen (or, uhmm, objectively heard…). But many people like the sound characteristics of large diaphragm mics. I actually like my very cheap T.bone headset mic ,which is from the cheapest T.bone wireless system. Maybe I'm a small diaphragm mic man.

Podcastage

Bandrew Scott's Podcastage is a fantastic Youtube channel that tests a lot of podcast gear thoroughly and in good spirits. A gem.

Best USB Microphone Under $100 (Oct 2016) - YouTube
What's the Best USB Sound Card / Audio Adapter? - YouTube
What's the Best Mic & How To Select the Right Mic (For Beginners) - YouTube

Which mic should you choose?

Podcastage come through with a great guide on his web site: FindTheRightMic.com — Bandrew Scott

Plosives and sibilance

Turns out they are different things. Plosives is a powerful puff of air that is mainly a problem for large diaphragm mics with a lot of physical leeway.  Plosives can push those membranes to bottom out and they can take some moments to recover. Plosives are caused by "b" and "p" phonemes.

Plosives should be dealt with at recording time, apparently hard to correct in post production. Plosives are why you can see a screen in front of the big mics.

Sibilants are cause by "s" phonemes and similar. They can be dealt with in post by de-essing, which can be done with a two-pass compressor working in the high frequency band.

9 Techniques for Controlling Sibilance — Pro Audio Files

24-bit sound good

Podcastage explained this very well 16 bit vs. 24 bit Audio, What Should You Record At? (FAQ Series) - YouTube.

…and it's a no-brainer whan you think about it. You get a lower noise floor, and overall better quality. One thing that I will appreciate is that clipping ought to be a thing of the past. Since I started recording on cassettes on analgue, 0db is fine but in digital it most certainly is not! I have to get that into my brain better. With 24 bit (or -24 dB if you want) you can dial down and be far away from 0dB.

Ardour

Ardour seems to run on my Pulseaudio Linux machine. I thought it wouldn't. I've slaved away in audacity for no reason! :D


Idea: An Android audio recorder that streams VU data over UDP

published Feb 16, 2019 01:29   by admin ( last modified Feb 16, 2019 01:29 )

Let's say you want to use mobile phones to record sound locally, but you want to be sure that they are all recording. One way could be to have an app that streams volume data to a server on the Internet. In that way you could have a web page that gives you an overview of all devices recording.