SE Voodoo Ribbon mics - active vs passive

I remember when SE mics came out, we all assumed they were just another company ripping off classic European mics for budget prices. Turns out we were quite wrong! SE have introduced some totally new concepts (take the Reflexion filter for example - why did nobody think of this before?), and developed their own technology - the capsule design on the Voodoo ribbon mics being a case in point. Designed by Siwei Zou (the CEO of SE), it extends the hi frequency response of the mic, giving us what is said to be the first ribbon mics with a 20Hz to 20kHz frequency response.

I managed to get my hands on both the Voodoo VR1 and VR2 mics, so I though I'd check them out, and see what the differences are between them.




The two mics have identical capsules - the VR2 is the active model, so has an extended body to fit the amplifier circuitry (Careful putting the two up against each other though - the magnets are strong enough to stick them together!). Both look pretty unusual - but at the same time, pretty cool. As with all ribbon mics, it's essential to treat them with care, so there's a small drawstring bag included to cover the capsule when moving the mic (the saying with ribbon mics is "bag it on the stand" - simply waving the mic though the air can be enough to damage the ribbon - it's only 2 micrometers thick!). In practice, the bag is a little fiddly, so it might be worth investing in something like an iPod sock to do the job.

The Test Setup
I decided to put the ribbon mics to a classic purpose - guitar amp recording. I used a Fender Strat (Rory Gallagher model, set to neck pickup), and a Vox AC30. I let the amp warm up for an hour, and played around with the tone settings until I found something I liked (which honestly doesn't take long with that set up!).

To keep the performance consistent, I DI'd a guitar take into Pro Tools, then used a Radial Pro RMP re-amp box to feed the performance back into the AC30 through a Soundcraft Reims console.

After setting up the passive VR1, I played around with the mic position until I found a sweet spot. I quickly recorded the re-amped performance, then swapped over the VR1 for the VR2, positioning the capsule in as close to the same spot as possible.


The Results
Both mics sounded great - I have a couple of guitar tracking sessions coming up soon, and can see them getting quite a lot of use. On paper, both mics have the same frequency response, so I was surprised to hear as much difference between them as there was.

The passive model definitely picked up more room sound, and the active model had a fuller low end. On balance, I'd choose the sound I got from the VR2 over the VR1, but only just. The only thing I can put this down to is the mic pre settings (the VR2 has a much higher sensitivity, so although I took care to match the record levels, the mic gains had to be significantly different).

The oddest thing I noticed was that the mics are wired phase-opposite - definitely something you should be aware of when putting multiple mics on an instrument (and simultaneously using a ribbon mic with an SM57 is pretty much a standard guitar recording technique). OK, simple enough to fix, but a bit of an oddity all the same.

The Final Word (for now)
I'd like to put the VR1 to test with a few different mic pre, just to see the kind of difference that makes (I'll try this over the next couple of weeks), but if you have a lower end interface, it might well be worth stretching your budget to the active model, and letting the inbuilt mic circuitry take the strain. However, whichever of the two you go for, you won't be disappointed in their performance.


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first impressions of The King of Limbs

Last week I pre-ordered the full package, vinyl+CD+artwork+download for £33, and yesterday was the day you could start getting your download, while the rest will arrive by post eventually.
It could have been £3 less choosing to get the download as MP3, but since there was no indication of how these were produced* I thought I'd pay a bit more for the bandwidth and get full-quality Wavs.

And just to give you the full picture, if you don't believe in material things you can get just the MP3 for £6 or just the Wavs for £9. Very fair.




"first impressions of The King of Limbs" > read the full post

Top 100 DJs in the World, 2010

DJ Mag's November issue is out, and the results are in.........

Armin Van Buuren beat out David Guetta, Tiësto, Deadmau5 and Above & Beyond for the top position in this year's list of the Top 100 Djs in the world, as compiled by DJ Mag.

For Van Buuren, it’s his fourth year at the top.

“It’s pretty obvious when you’ve been voted top for three years that at some point you have to come down,” says Van Buuren. “But, obviously, it’s a people’s vote, and I’m not going to lie and say I wouldn’t like to win it again.”

Check out the full list below. No woman on the list yet!

Vent your thoughts on this year’s list with comments!!!

The Top 100 DJs In The World – 2010 List

1. Armin Van Buuren
2. David Guetta
3. Tiësto
4. Deadmau5
5. Above & Beyond
6. Paul Van Dyk
7. Gareth Emery
8. Markus Schulz
9. Ferry Corsten
10. Axwell
11. ATB
12. Sander Van Doorn
13. Infected Mushroom
14. Steve Angello
15. Dash Berlin
16. Sebastian Ingrosso
17. Laidback Luke
18. Judge Jules
19. Afrojack
20. Aly & Fila
21. Fedde Le Grand
22. Carl Cox
23. Swedish House Mafia
24. Cosmic Gate
25. Bobina
26. Benny Benassi
27. Sasha
28. Simon Patterson
29. John Digweed
30. Eric Prydz
31. Richie Hawtin
32. Andy Moor
33. John O’Callaghan
34. Roger Shah
35. Kaskade
36. Headhunterz
37. Chuckle
38. Bob Sinclair
39. Avicle
40. Kyau & Albert
41. DJ Feel
42. Moonbeam
43. Joachim Garraud
44. Daft Punk
45. Lange
46. Sean Tyas
47. Eddie Halliwell
48. Erick Morillo
49. james Zabiela
50. Umek
51. Paul Oakenfold
52. Matt Darey
53. Mark Knight
54. Richard Durand
55. Martin Solveig
56. tyDi
57. Hernan Catteneo
58. Sven Väth
59. Astrix
60. Super8 & Tab
61. Andy C
62. Myon & Shane 54
63. Marcel Woods
64. Roger Sanchez
65. Wally Lopez
66. Mat Zo
67. Marco V
68. Leon Bolier
69. Ronski Speed
70. Wolfgang Gartner
71. W&W
72. Boys Noize
73. D-Block & S-TE-FAN
74. Dubfire
75. Dirty South
76. John B
77. Daniel kandi
78. Arty
79. BT
80. Boy George
81. Pete The Zouk
82. Fatboy Slim
83. Skazi
84. Paul Kalkbrenner
85. Pete Tong
86. Bloody Beetroots
87. Arnej
88. Joris Voorn
89. Dada Life
90. Noisecontrollers
91. Showtek
92. Laurent Wolf
93. Claudia Cazacu
94. Calvin Harris
95. Luciano
96. Marcus Schossow
97. Sied Van Riel
98. The Thrillseekers
99. Justice
100. DJ Vibe

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AC-7 Pro iPad DAW controller

Well, we've had the chance to play with the iPad and AC-7 Pro for a few hours and the conclusions are, well, mixed.......

Getting the iPad and your DAW talking to each other is a little fiddly (you need to install a couple of additional apps on the Mac - see our walkthrough with Logic), and doesn't work every time, but once you're up and running, everything starts off promisingly.

Once we were all set up, the entire LSS staff squeezed into the office to have a play, and within minutes we were seeing the potential of using the iPad and AC-7 Pro in our mixes and lectures - there were more than a few of us who went from "I don't see the point of an iPad" to "I have to have one - now!"

Eventually I managed to coax the iPad away from everyone else, as it was time to put AC-7 Pro through its paces.

When you first open up the app, it takes a little while for the fader positions to be recognised. You can give them a little nudge on the iPad, or try scrolling up and down the fader banks, and they start to behave themselves.

I'd like the option to lock onto your fader selection - once you touch a fader, it's too easy to accidentally drift to the side while looking at the DAW screen, and start moving the adjacent channel. Mixing on faders is always a more instinctive process than using a mouse, and the control is smooth and accurate.

Transport controls are reliable enough, but that's where the good news ends. Things now get buggier than an entomologist convention.

As soon as you try going beyond basic fader control, AC-7 Pro gets a little unpredictable. The channel select buttons behave erratically, and the Multifunction controls never seem to do the same thing twice. Sometimes the GView controls affect just the iPad screen, other times it also affects Logic. The Assign controls have no obvious function at all.....

I don't want to dwell on the faults with AC-7 Pro too much, as the potential for this is awesome - especially when compared to the price of a dedicated touch screen controller. I can see us using iPads in all of our studios in the future - but I'd wait a little while until Saitara iron out the wrinkles in the system.

Update

We've heard from the guys at Saitara, and they've told us about a way to get a more stable performance out of AC-7 Pro, by setting up a private network between your Mac and the iPad (see our updated setup guide). Given this a try, and it seems to help things a lot (looks like most of the problems aren't due to AC-7 Pro either - quite a few people are having issues with the iPad wireless connectivity).

With the private network setup, AC-7 Pro is a much more usable system - it pretty much behaves as a Mackie controller should do. I'd like to see a few extra features - dedicated pages for plugin and pot controls would really help make this easier to use, but at £5.99, you can't complain too much!

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Cosmogramma Is FlyLo On Overdrive

I had a listen to the latest effort from California based electronic music producer Flying Lotus and have come to the conclusion that just when you think music nowadays isn't spawning anything remotely era defining you might want to hold the presumptuous thought till you explore "Cosmogramma" which is simply a form of music genius disguised as Synth heavy Space dance music.

With backgrounds in Hip Hop, Disco, Electro-Funk, Techno and elements of World music infused into his creativity it is not surprising that something as interesting as this comes to life.

The album starts off with Clock Catcher and captivates from that point onwards, there is so much that can be felt as each track takes you on a aural journey beyond what might have seemed likely listening to anything other than old Pink floyd. Highlights on the album include 'Dance Of The Pseudo Nymph', 'Table Tennis' and 'Zodiac Shit' each with its own argument and presence within the mix and then there's the collaboration track '...And The World Laughs With You' featuring the vocals of the hallowed Thom Yorke, utter brilliance!

"Cosmogramma Is FlyLo On Overdrive" > read the full post

The Parliafunkadelicment Thang

That sho iz a mighty 'fro bro! George Clinton's crazy funk n roll bands Parliament and Funkadelic are amazing but also maddeningly inconsistent. I have selected the best albums to get you started, after that you are on your own....read on




First off a simple rule of thumb, Funkadelic were basically a black rock band with funk influences that grew bigger over time, but mainly guitar driven like a cross between Hendrix and The Stooges bathed in aceeeed.

Parliament were more of a soul funk band, big on horns and melody. Both bands featured similar players but in different configurations. There is a lot more of Bootsy Collins' bass lines in Parliament but if you like your guitar rock then aim for Funkadelic.


1) Parliament - Mothership Connection

Literally the mother load! Everything that made P-Funk great is on this album, surreal humour, squidgy bass lines, crazy avant synth work and deeeeeep grooves. Underneath the one liners and hilarious voices is a very soulful album particularly the gospel bridge of "Star Child". "Handcuff" is about fucking white women and "Give Up The Funk (Tear The Roof off the Mother)" does just that. "P-Funk (Wants To Get Funk Up)" is Lenny Bruce meets Earth, Wind and Fire.














2) Funkadelic - Standing on the Verge of Getting it On

The Black Heavy Metal Album. Killer riffs and blazing solos from Eddie Hazel plus crazy sped up voices asking you to "pee in their afro"....Also a sympathetic song about a homosexual, something you would never get on a Zeppelin album.















3) Parliament - Funkentelechy Vs. the Placebo Syndrome

Mothership part 2, but longer, stronger and weirder, if that was possible. Original album came with a pull out cartoon telling the story of the space pimp on the cover. "Flashlight" was the hit, powered by Bernie Worrell's Zappa meets The Swamp Thing keyboards but "Wizard of Finance" is possibly the oddest love song ever and reveals their doowop roots beneath the humour.















4) Funkadelic - Maggot Brain

The most acid drenched of the early Funkadelic albums this is a straight fight between fuzz riffs and soul harmonies. Starting with the monster guitar solo of the title track it then has the sweet Beatlesy "Can You Get to That". Funkadelic were always more straightforwardly political in their lyrics than Parliament and this covers the boiling racial tension of the time in "You and Your Folks".















5) Parliament - The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein

More lighter and more jaunty than the other albums it still features the killer grooves of the title track and " Getting To Know You", plus another amazing album cover!

















6) Funkadelic - Let's Take it to the Stage

The closest the band got to a cross over rock and soul album white folks might have enjoyed, if they had heard about it. Naturally it has a sinister Pedro Bell sleeve that probably killed its commercial potential stone dead but "Better By The Pound" and "Good To Your Earhole" do exactly what they say. "Get Off Your Ass And Jam" is the guitar wank off to end all wank offs...apart from "Maggot Brain" of course.














There are brilliant individual songs scattered through out the Parliafunkadelicment discography that are worth downloading from otherwise weak albums:

From Parliament:

"Side Effects" and "Together" from the Chocolate City album

"Mr Wiggles" from The Motor Booty Affair

"Up for the Down Stroke" and "Testify" from Up for the Down Stroke

"Big Bang Theory" and "Theme the from Black Hole" from Gloryhallastoopid


From Funkadelic:

"Loose Booty" and "A Joyful Process" from America Eats Its Young

"Soul Mate" and "Smokey" from Hardcore Jollies
(this whole album features some amazing guitar work from Michael Hampton by the way)

"One Nation Under a Groove" from One Nation Under a Groove

"(Not Just) Knee Deep" from Uncle Jam Wants You



maningrey

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Yellow Tools Independence Free Review

OK, at 15kbps, with frequent time-outs, after 3 days I've managed to get this thing downloaded, installed and working. The verdict? Awesome. Well worth the hassle....

This is a fully featured VST, RTAS, AU and stand-alone sampler, the only limitation is that Audio Import is limited to 25 samples.

Modulation control on this is very powerful, with Step Modulation, LFOs, Envelopes, Note On, Note Off assignment as just a few examples.

Then there's the Arpeggiator, which as well as the usual patterns, allows you to import your own from MIDI files.

Built-in effects include amp, cabinet and even mic modeling, as well as a full array of reverbs, flanges, choruses etc. And if that isn't enough, you can import 3rd party VST plug-ins too!

This is a pretty serious plug-in. The only down side I can see, is the incredibly slow download speed from the Yellow Tools website - over an hour just for the application, not to start on the 2GB free sample banks.

(Any LSS student reading this, go ahead and register for your copy and download the plug-in - come see me for the library!)

"Yellow Tools Independence Free Review" > read the full post

Breverb AudioMIDI.com review

So, can you get a pro reverb for £3? According to AudioMIDI.com, you can.

Overloud Breverb AudioMIDI edition is a cut-down version of the Breverb reverb plugin, offering two algorithms: room and plate, as well a 2 band parametric EQ section.I was tempted by this mostly for my Pro Tools rig - I've been pretty happy with Space Designer in Logic - especially since I added the free Acousticas impulses. Though Pro Tools 8 improved upon the D-Verb plugin by throwing in the AIR reverbs, I've been looking out for something better that wouldn't empty my bank account too much. Enter the Overloud Breverb AudioMIDI edition....

Ordering and paying for the plugin was fairly straightforward (keep in mind that they don't accept PayPal for payments from outside the US, and here in the UK, we're not eligible for the discount full version upgrade). There's some confusion on the product overview page worth mentioning though - the Mac system requirements don't list RTAS format. Trust me though, it comes in AU, VST and RTAS flavours.Once that's out of the way, you'll be e-mailed your order confirmation, but you won't be able to download the plugin or serial number until they process your order. This is supposed to take 1 or 2 business days, but I made my order in the morning, and received everything by late afternoon (though I found the e-mail in my junk filter - according to the forums at Gearslutz, I'm not the only one this happened to).Install went without a hitch, so now to make some noise....
First impressions are good, and flicking through the presets reveals that even this 'lite' version is a very versatile reverb - though you can't use the Pro Tools Plugin Setting select controls, you have to use the Breverb interface. This works, but it's not as easy as scrolling through with the arrow keys.The more you play with the plugin, the more you notice that it's the cut down version. Several of the edit tabs are greyed out, and there are dozens of unused automation parameters. Breverb is not a convolution reverb. Although these can give astonishingly accurate recreations of "real" reverb, you are somewhat limited within the impulse responses. The Overloud approach is to give you the flexibility to mold the reverb to your needs. It's quite refreshing to come back to a reverb plugin where each parameter is immediately obvious to what it does.
Now to where it counts. How does it sound? Simple answer: pretty damn good actually. Against the D-Verb, it sounds fatter, without the slight fizzyness (though I'm quite a fan of this on a snare drum). It's simply a nice, very usable effect. For around the price of a coffee at the local organic deli, it's a bit of a no-brainer. Would I pay £260 for the full version? Maybe not at the moment, but ask me again when my wallet is a little fuller.
Next up, the PSP Nitro deal.....

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Perfect Solution for MultiTrack Live Recordings

Over the years I have seen people spending fortunes to create 'the ultimate live recording rig'.
Let's face it, buying the most expensive rack-mounted pc (or mac), adding 3x audio interfaces, a digital mixer and putting it all in a massive rack on wheel is not cheap, it's not very portable, and it's a recipe for disaster. I have helped in the past setting up something like that, and I cannot even begin to describe the nightmare it was working with MLAN protocol (if you don't know what it is, no surprise. It was multichannel audio and midi via a single Firewire400 cable, using Yamaha's proprietary system - one of those ideas that look great on paper but which never really worked, like imagine the complexity of setting up a local network and add digital clocks losing sync every two minutes).



So when I first read about the BlackBox recorder I was intrigued, but it was only last week when I had the chance to see one in detail (in an otherwise incredibly boring LIMS 2009).

The BlackBox is beautiful because it is so simple: a small rack-mountable (1 unit) device which accepts 24 analogue inputs and records them as discrete tracks on to a connected hard drive.

Now if you are like me, and have already started thinking of the possible drawbacks.... let me give you the answers I found:
1) the converters are top quality 24 bit 96 KHz - the developer of the BlackBox is the man that originally designed the SADiE system (and if you don't know what SADiE is, keep in mind that most of your favourite records have probably been mastered on it).
2) the files are saved in time-stamped Broadcast Wav, so you can take the hard drive and connect it to anything using whichever software you like (Pro Tools, Logic, Nuendo) and they will open immediately and appear in the right order. There is no need to have a BlackBox to open the files, no need to 'export' in one format or another. Any computer that can read FAT32-formatted drives (and currently that's all of them) will have no problems at all.
3) the BlackBox doesn't run on some sort of windows, osX or Linux which could crash during the recording. It's as stable and solid as any other hardware recorder you've ever used (but the firmware can still be updated to add new features in the future, if required).
4) there is a wide range of adapter cables to choose from, so you can go in as TRS jack, XLR, and it's possible to have an optional choice of digital inputs (ADAT, AES/EBU).
5) only 24 tracks? no. You can stack multiple units to get all the channels you need.
6) What about naming the tracks you are going to record? After all you don't want to get back to the studio having to sort out a few hundred of tracks all called 'audio_01_1.wav'... There is a computer keyboard input at the back so you can name things right (and th efront panel has a lovely colour LCD which is easy to read in the dark and has all the information you need).
7) there is a dedicated headphone output so you can check any file at any time without having to connect the hard drive to a computer (genius).
8) in fact it's hard to stress too much how easy is to set up and use this thing: you might know nothing at all of mixers, computers, nothing, and still plug a common hard drive in to the unit and simply press record.

I would strongly recommend the BlackBox to anyone working in live music, broadcasting, or anywhere else there is the need to capture a performance with fool-proof reliability.
Some people might feel that a rack of Digidesign converters and a laptop is the way to go, and I personally think they are crazy, but even if you insist on having a Pro Tools rig as your main recorder, you'd be crazy not to have a BlackBox as a backup.

To read more about it check http://www.joeco.co.uk/main/BBR1_Summary.php

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Never buy a new set of strings again, with The Swipe!

Well, ok, maybe you will still change your strings every now and then, but for as long as they last they will sound brighter and feel better to play.
Introducing The Swipe, another one of those incredibly simple ideas that make you want to say "why didn't I think of it?"



It's simply a semi-rigid piece of plastic or something like that covered with microfibre, and shaped to clean under the strings of a guitar or bass without damaging the instrument in any way. It doesn't contain chemicals, it's nothing different from the microfibre wipes you get with a new pair of glasses, and the properties of the microfibre mean that it removes grease effortlessly.

Couldn't you use your glasses wipe then? Yes and no. These normally come as super thin bits of fabric, and it would be impossible to do a good cleaning between strings and neck without removing the strings. Consider now that you can buy The Swipe for a mere £4.99 with free delivery and tell me if this is not the best £5 you have ever spent on your guitar.

While allowing your strings to play better for longer, the manufacturer states that The Swype will last six months, but we reckon it could be much more, depending on use. There is nothing like the satisfaction of seeing the dirt that was on the strings transfer on the microfibre, and when its there all it takes to clean The Swipe is a scratch with your finger (thus returning all the greasy disgusting stuff to its rightful owner).

Finally the days of boiling strings (or for those of you with money, having a second roadie to put a new set every two songs) are over.

And if you are wondering why are we so enthusiastic about this little gadget, well, when you think that LSS owns about 80 guitars, anything that make our strings last a little longer deserves all the praise it can get.

Find out all about the Swipe and place an order direct from www.the-swipe.com

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