Using MOTU Interface in EMS A and B

A few people have asked me how to use the MOTU Audio Interface to hook up their own computer to the speakers in the Electronic Music Studios. This is a guide on how to do it.

Step 1: Install the MOTU 828mkII drivers on your laptop. You can either goto the MOTU website and download it yourself or you can copy and paste them from the desktop of the computer. In EMS A, I have put a folder on the desktop with the drivers. It should work for both Mac and Windows. They will be added to the EMS B computer soon.

Step 2: Plug in a firewire 800 cable to your laptop and plug in the other end to the firewire 800 jack labeled "Interface"

Step 3: Goto the System Preferences on your laptop and select the MOTU as the interface.

Step 4: Patch the output of the MOTU interface to some part of the console. You can patch into console faders and route them to the Program Bus. I like to patch into 6TK3.

Step 5: At this point, all you should have to do is play audio from your laptop and turn the volume up on the console. Make sure that you have done your bussing correctly on the console or have 6TK3 selected. Also, open up the MOTU software that you installed and check to make sure your sound preferences are as shown below.

Enjoy working from your own computer!

10 Simple Mixing Tricks

This is an article from a blog that I read: diymusicbiz. I think these tips about mixing are really great to keep in mind. I don't completely agree with all of them, but most of them are really good rules of thumb when mixing. Check it out! There are also some other great articles on the site.

10 Simple Mixing Tips I Live By Religiously

Using RANE Headphone Amps to do Headphone Mixes in the Audio Studio

UPDATE: Half of the Aviom Headphone System has been repaired and put back in the studio. It is still good practice to know how both headphone systems work in case of failures OR larger sessions.

So...back before we had fancy Aviom personal mixing systems to do headphone mixes in the Audio Studio, you had to use a headphone amp and derive the mix using auxiliary sends. These headphone amps come in really handy when you need more than 10 units OR when the Aviom system goes down like it did yesterday. I will outline how to use the RANE headphone amps to do headphone mixes so that headphones are not a problem during your upcoming sessions while we repair the Avioms.

Every room in the audio studio has at least one panel that include the mic ties, returns and a headphone amp.

Step 1: Locate a panel closest to where your musicians will be positioned. Make sure the RANE is on by flipping the power switch. In this example, I am going to use the panel located in the Isolation booth.

Step 2: Patch an aux send (227L Send Out) or a pair if you want the headphones in stereo to the studio return panel that you located in Step 1 via the patchbay. Note: You will need an aux send or a pair of aux sends if you want stereo for every separate headphone mix you want. If you have musicians in the main room, iso booth and amp room, it means you need 3 auxes or 6 for stereo. I suppose you could mult the aux if you wanted to send the same mix to multiple headphone amps in different rooms.

In our case, we are going to patch "227L Send Out" 1 and 2 to "Studio Panel Returns 25-32 ISO Booth." The first 2 jacks will be returns 25 and 26.

Step 3: Every panel has an XLR jack that reads "Headphones" in the bottom right of the panel. Using an XLR cable from the mic closet, connect the headphones XLR jack to the return that you patched in Step 2. In our example, this is return 25 and 26 marked "RTN 25" and "RTN 26"

Step 4: Goto the console and turn on the master aux sends labeled "227L." As a side note, you will want to engage the "T/B In" button so that talkback will feed through the auxes and into the headphones of the musicians with which you are working.

Step 5: Create headphone mixes by turning the aux sends on different channels that you want to send to the headphones. You will want to make the aux sends pre fader by pressing the "PRE" button and then number of the aux you are using to assign pre-fader aux to the aux send.

Remember that each aux(group of auxes) represents a different headphone mix. So lets say that we have aux 1 is for the ISO Booth, aux 3 is for the main room and aux 5 is for the amp room. If I have a guitar on channel 17 that needs to be sent to the headphones. On channel 17, I would adjust the level of the aux 1 to give the musician in the iso booth more or less signal. The same goes for aux 3 and 5 however it would control the level of that signal in the musician's headphones in the main room and amp room respectively.

You can listen to the mix you have created inside the control room by pressing the "AFL Solo" button under the aux send. This will solo the aux send in the room. Note: BE CAREFUL! If you press the talk button while aux is solo'd, you can create a feedback loop. Also, don't forget to disengage the solo because you will not be able to hear anything else and it is a hard button, so the solo clear will not get rid of this solo.

Comment or send an email if you have questions.

Digital Noise In Audio Studio

We have recently discovered problems with digital noise in the Audio Studio thanks to the detailed logbook entries of a few of our users. Dave and I were able to find out that the problem is occurring on channels 33-48. We have not had a chance to debug the problem in great detail, however it sounds and seems that there is a clocking error between the converter and the computer. We will hopefully have the problem fixed soon. For now, you will have to use the studio as a 32x32 setup.

ProTools 10 and UAD/Waves Plugins in the MM Rooms

The Multimedia Workrooms now have Pro Tools 10, ten UAD plugins and the Waves Diamond Bundle! These new additions make the Multimedia Workrooms even more powerful for computer based audio work. I was playing with the UAD plugins a little bit yesterday and today and they are very nice, especially compared plugins by many other manufacturers. The Waves bundle is a wonderful set of utility tools that includes compressors, EQs, reverbs, delays and more. I recommend checking it out!

I will also take this opportunity to plug the Multimedia Workrooms. These rooms have some of the fastest computers in the building and are loaded with Pro Tools, Logic, Final Cut Pro, Motion, Adobe CS 6 and more. Each room has 3 monitors including two 27'' Apple Cinema Displays and a pair of ADAM A7 speakers. Much of the audio setup is paralleled in the Audio and EMS Studios: Pro Tools, Logic and Waves Diamond bundle. Furthermore, the ADAM A7 speakers are the same speaker set that is in EMS A.

The UAD Plugins include:
Pultec Pro
Pultec
Neve 1073
Neve 1081
Helios Type 69
Neve 33609
Neve 88RS
Roland Dimension D
Real Verb Pro
CS-1

NOTE: Multimedia Workroom 1 has a slightly different set of UAD Plugins. It includes: 1176SE, Real Verb Pro, CD-1, Pultec and SSL 4K Channel Strip

The Waves Diamond Bundle Includes the plugins found in the link below.
Waves Diamond Bundle

Enjoy!

Welcome Back/Summer Maintenance 2012

Welcome back to a new school year! I just wanted to provide some updates about maintenance that happened in the studios this summer.

A quick overview of some of the changes:

1. All 3 studios now have 3 displays that function as an extended desktop. You can drag the windows around in any configuration that suits your workflow.

2. The TC6000 remote screen is now mirrored on one of the 46'' displays in both the Audio Studio and EMS B. It is hooked up to the VGA input. Use the VGA for the TC6000 and DVI for the computer monitor.

3. Fans were installed in the API Vision console in the Audio Studio and EMS B that will help regulate the console temperature.

4. A samples drive has been loaded into the computers in EMS A, EMS B and the Audio Studio. They are currently loaded with "Discrete Drums." Over time, we hope to add more sample packs to the drive.

5. The hum in the right surround Alt 2 speaker in the Audio Studio has been repaired

6. Durrough meters were installed in EMS B. They are currently not normalled to outputs 1-8, however you can patch into them. We plan on fixing the normalling as soon as possible.

7. We had a slight power supply issue this summer in the Audio Studio. Dave and I were able to diagnose and fix the problem over the course of 2 days. For a second, we thought we were in for some big trouble. I got to learn how the power supplies are setup and routed for the API Vision Console.

8. The interface for the meters in EMS B was changed and they are much more stable and reliable.

These are just some of the highlights. We completed even more maintenance than this, especially in terms of infrastructure. Hope you enjoy the rooms

The Sound of the Olympics/Sports

It was no surprise to me to find out that the audio on sports programming is a mix of real sounds and samples. The experience for the audience comes from sound design at its finest. I first learned how sports sound design was created while listening to one of my favorite podcasts, 99% Invisible. I found that episode particularly interesting because I had just started doing sound design for a film.

With the Olympics approaching, there was an article written about how the sound design is created. Links to the article and the 99% Invisible podcast show below.

Sound of the Olympics

Sound of Sport

Music In the Digital Age

The debate and discussions regarding young people building their music library by swapping tracks with friends, file sharing and illegally downloading music is not new. About a month ago, an NPR intern wrote a post titled "I Never Owned Any Music To Begin With." Again, there was no news here, but it sparked a huge internet debate that really illuminates how society has changed.

On one hand, not paying for music is hurting the artists and many of our professions/future professions as a whole. On the other, it lets us know that the current model doesn't work because it is no longer the way that people want to experience music. The last two lines of the article says it all, "All I require is the ability to listen to what I want, when I want and how I want it. Is that too much to ask?"

I don't have any solutions, but I found this article and the response on the internet to be extremely interesting. Personally, I find it kind of sad and disappointing that consumers are no longer supporting music in the same way as the past, but that shows a change in times. I recently got back into listening to vinyl records and it is one of the most enjoyable aspects of my life. listening to records, looking at all of the album art and trying to figure out how the musicians in conjunction with the engineers and producers made those sounds is one of my favorite things to do. I realize that I'm an outlier.

In any case, check out these articles and form your own opinions. At a minimum, they are quick and informative.


The original article written by NPR Intern:
I Never Owned Any Music to Begin With


How Much Does A Band Earn From Each Music Platform?


Where To Buy Music To Get More Cents On The Dollar To The Musician


Owning Music In the Digital Age

Hope you enjoy the reads!

Compression Article

It has been a while since my last post. It was a busy end of year working on student thesis projects and studio maintenance. I will be including some small write ups about those end of year projects. I just stumbled across this article compression. I think that it is a good read to understand the very basics of compression.

Understanding Compression

Drum Overhead Techniques

Great article i passed today. I think I read it many years ago too, but it does a good job of describing different overhead drum techniques with sound examples.

Overhead Drum Techniques Compared

Fixed knobs in Audio Studio

The lowest frequency selection switch on the Chandler Curvebender and the gain control on the Mercury M72 preamp have been fixed. Thank Dave for those two!

Channel 20 in Audio Studio

Channel 20 in the Audio Studio is on the fritz. It makes lots of random crackling noises. We'll troubleshoot and likely swap out the channel as soon as we can. For now, I'd recommend muting the channel and not using it.

Bad Channels in EMS B

There are 3 fader 1 channels in EMS B that do not work as expected. They are channels 2, 22 and 27. Channels 2 and 22 have gone bad at the EQ. If you bypass the console EQ, you will gain access to these channels again. You can do this by simply pressing the blue "byp" button underneath the EQ. Further troubleshooting needs to happen on channel 27.

Audio Studio Checklist

As more users become certified in the Audio Studio, there has been many studio shutdown errors. To help everyone remember what needs to get done before leaving the room, I have provided a checklist. It is taped to the table right next to the computer monitors. It is also provided below.

Migrating Sessions between the Audio Studio and EMS B

Now that the studios are being used in full swing, many of you are bouncing back and forth between the different studios. This is wonderful and encouraged. In this post, I will show you what settings to change in order to move your sessions between the Audio Studio and EMS B.

CLOCK:

The first setting you need to change is related to the clock. In the Audio Studio, the clock is an internal clock generated by the Apogee Symphony I/O Converters/Interface. In EMS B, the clock source is the SYNC I/O. When you open up a session from a different studio, if the clock is not set properly, the converters will blink and you will often here a periodic clicking noise.

To change the clock, follow the steps below.

1. Goto the "Setup" Menu in ProTools and select "Session"

2. Find the Clock pull down menu and select the correct setting.

3. If you are using EMS B, it should read "SYNC." If you are using the Audio Studio, it should read "192 I/O #1 Internal"

EMS Setup Session Picture

Audio Studio Setup Session Picture

I/O:

The next step is to configure your I/O to match the converter setup for each respective room. In order to do this, goto the "Setup" menu in ProTools and select "I/O." Match the current I/O with the pictures below and you should be all set.

EMS B Input

EMS B Output

Audio Studio Input

Audio Studio Output

Eventide H8000

The Eventide H8000 in EMS B has not been working for a few days. One of the studio users had gone into the setup features and turned the Analog input level to -100dB, effectively turning the inputs to the unit off.

PLEASE DO NOT CHANGE THE SETUP PARAMETERS ON THE EVENTIDE IN THE AUDIO STUDIO OR EMS B. It makes it really difficult for the next user to know what has changed.

The unit in EMS B should be working as expected now.

EMS B Meters

The EMS B Meters have only been working intermittently as of late. I have debugged this problem mostly, and the meters should be working correctly. There are a few settings that seem to time out every once in a while that you should know about. If you do not see the meters working check the following:

Open up Matrix Settings under the Surround Menu.

Make sure that the box labeled "Read Output" is NOT checked.

There is also a great feature where you can have the software open, but have the meters turned off. You must make sure that the meters are on. If they are not working, goto the Surround Menu and select "All On."

If you experience any metering problems, please let the Audio Staff know by filling out the logbook and by sending us an email

Cooking with Gas

My friend, Alex Hug sent me this article to read recently. Its a very short, but good read from an old TapeOp. Hope you enjoy.

Waveburner

UPDATE 2/20/12: Found my first major glitch. If you are using CD-Text in Waveburner, it will add a pop at the end of the disc. There is a disc preference that says add silence. Add a little bit of silence at the end of the disc and it fixes this problem.

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Hey folks,

I'm a little bit late to the game on this one, but I have been using Waveburner to author discs lately and wanted to let you know that we do have this software in the studios. It gives users a pretty good amount of flexibility for finishing work. It also allows you to embed meta data and disc information. Like all pieces of software it certainly has its quirks, but if you need to author more than a few tracks and want to control the pacing and make some extra finishing tweaks to a final disc, this is one good option, especially when using the DMC Studios.

High Fidelity Audio

Article I stumbled upon about sound quality, consumers and high fidelity audio. Its a good read.

Music lovers pursue technologies to return to high fidelity

Surround Speakers in EMS A

EMS A is now properly set up for 5.1 surround mixing. The 6 speakers have been in the room since it opened, however we were waiting on stands in order to have them at the same height as the left, right and center speakers. They are now installed and the cables have been managed. We haven't bolted the stands to the table yet as we are experimenting with placement and functionality in the room. Let us know your thoughts as you work on surround sound projects. Please note that the power for each surround speaker is controlled by the Furman power conditioner located at the bottom of racks 3 and 4 respectively, so you must turn these conditioners on. I don't anticipate that users will have any problems remembering this because these two power conditioners should be turned on at the beginning of every session and turned off at the end of each session.

ProTools Not Launching in Audio Studio

UPDATE 2/16/12: After running disk utility and trashing the preference files, ProTools in the Audio Studio appears to be responding and working as expected.

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ProTools appears to not always be launching correctly in the Audio Studio. If its not working, you will notice that it will just keep bouncing in the dock and not actually launch the software. We will hopefully have this fixed within the next week, however until that happens, here is the work around.

If you turn the computer on and ProTools does not launch, open up activity monitor. You can do this by going to Applications and double clicking it, or by typing in "activity monitor" into spotlight located in the top right corner of the screen.

Tab down to ProTools, select it and press "Quit Process." When it asks you to force quit, go ahead and press Yes. Once ProTools quit, wait a few moments and open it up again. This should fix the problem. If it does not, repeat these steps.

Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin Documentary

Pitchfork just released a documentary on the creation of landmark album by The Flaming Lips, The Soft Bulletin. This is one of my favorite albums ever. It is a real masterpiece and the record was put together by using the recording studio creatively. This documentary and the album are both worth checking out, even if this is not your favorite style of music. Note that the band mixes fidelity, isn't afraid to let things distort and made conscious decisions when to sample themselves from demos etc...instead of re-recording everything from scratch.

Pitchfork Classic: The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin

Console HUI in EMS B

Many users like the tactile control of faders, but prefer to use an "In the Box" workflow. For users who subscribe to this camp, control surfaces are a great tool. The API Vision console allows you to use the console as a control surface. You can use the console as a HUI control surface, by simply configuring ProTools and enabling control surface mode on the console. (Please note that the console control surface only allows you to control faders, solos and mutes.)

To configure ProTools, goto the 'Setup' menu and select 'Peripherals.' Tab over to 'MIDI Controllers' and assign the different fields to look like the picture below. This ProTools configuration is for EMS B ONLY. The send and receive channel numbers are different in the Audio Studio, but the process is the same.

Next, goto the Vision control panel and make sure the 'ENABLE CTRL SURF' button is pressed and glowing green. The console should now mirror your ProTools mixer.

Troubleshooting AKG 414s

I have noticed that sometimes the AKG 414s in the Audio Studio are causing users some issues. If you hear a crackly windy noise when using the AKG 414s, there is a good chance that the mic is the problem and not some other piece of gear or your patching. To my knowledge, the mic is NOT broken. Sometimes the polar pattern selector switches on 414s have intermittent problems. I believe that this is the case with the mics in the studio. If you simply, change the polar pattern, it should fix the problem.

Fixed EMS B Left Channel Speaker

The left speaker in EMS B was causing lots of crackling noise. We originally thought that it was either an opamp going bad from the output or input section of the API Vision console. Each channel/set of channels has a card with the opamps on it. I swapped out opamps on the output section and found that the noise went down but was still present. I then swapped the L/R input channel card with the SL/SR card expecting that the noise should migrate with the bad opamp to a different speaker. The problem did not migrate, which was very confusing. This pointed to the fact that it might not be a bad opamp, which was unexpected.

Dave and I eventually found that it was another part of the output card that went bad. We received a new card from API, swapped out the old card for the new one and the problem disappeared. We are taken preventative measures for the other 6 channels to avoid this problem. Below are some pictures from the troubleshooting.