July 16th, 2010
Despite a few niggles I am really enjoying iSequence on the iPad.
Here are a couple of demos so far. Things are a little harsh with iSequence and there’s no eq to use so too much playing with the effect filtering can produce harsh results.
First one is the raw output from iSequence (LAME Mp3, VBR7)
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Second has a touch of compression and some eq to try to deal with the harsh mids (or could be my new monitor headphones not yet broken in).
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Not the best but still getting to grips with the workings. I used a couple of field recordings from a train journey recorded directly onto the iPad while creating the track.
July 14th, 2010
I’ve been using iSequence on the iPad to do a bit of tracking and sequencing and it’s a fantastic application – the iPad I’m sure will revolustionse alot of audio produciton work – and had some problems using the built in sound recorder.
If you too are getting distorted recordings I’ve found a workaround.
- Power off the iPad (hold down the power button and swipe off)
- Restart the iPad
- Start iSequence and record sound – result is distorted
- Shut down iSequence
- Start iSequence and record sound – sound is good to go! (within the limits of the hardware)
The iPad isn’t very configurable for recording yet and I don’t see any devices on the horizon to support plug in microphones however for rough and ready instamatic sound snapshots in the right environments, it has interesting possibilities.
 iSequence for iPad Record
July 3rd, 2010
I had wondered why there was an app for using WordPress – as far as I could see, the only bit I would miss by using a web browser would be Flash based stats presentation and the Flash file uploader (which I could never get to work).
The killer seems to be the content/post form is not recognised by the iPad browser as editable!
So this is via the WordPress app – still a bit buggy on presentation (has some real issues with the keyboard drawer and redrawing the post area) – the spellchecker is nice though.
Tomorrows challenge will be using the iPad at work – luckily I have the kind of job where I can try to make that happen.
July 2nd, 2010
Ok, so today I finally bought an iPad, something I’ve been thinking about for some time.
So why then? My head said Android but like most people appreciate, that’s not where Apple position there stuff. It’s probably not going to replace a laptop and I doubt I can do any sound editing or composition on it (now), but from the people I know who already have them, there is always something new, so who knows. Audacity on iPad would be nice!
As you would expect there are a few jiggles; cursor keys (ie none), using the keyboard (getting better now).
March 8th, 2010
A French amateur radio operator was able to record and convert the signal of the Mar Express probe’s X-Band transmitter into an audio file. More information plus a sample of the recorded sound is available from here.
The equipment from an abandoned telecom uplink site used to listen in on the ESA’s Mars Express space probe wasn’t enough to allow download of the actual data.
“Listen here to the whistle of Mars Express as it hurtles towards Phobos and consider that this signal was generated on Mars Express by a transmitter only slightly more powerful than a light bulb.” – http://webservices.esa.int/blog/post/7/1058
March 4th, 2010
Some intersting potential for a new midi controller could be possible after some reseach and development carried out by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology into creating mobile technology which reads the users lips. A development of this could be to create a midi expression interface?
Current applications highlighted are communication in silent environments or where the phone user may disrupt other users and the transmission of confidnetial or sensitive information – not to mention “having a quiet word” in public.
A post from Cellular News covering the story.
A link to Karlsruher Institut für Technologie
March 4th, 2010
A little off topic but can’t resist this post from http://www.sott.net/ – on the use of classical music to scare away youth culture
Apparently, “the most successful deterrent music”, in one area “included the Pastoral Symphony by Beethoven, Symphony No. 2 by Rachmaninov, and Piano Concerto No. 2 by Shostakovich.”
January 18th, 2010
I’m seriously looking at buying a M 10 and have been doing the usual web research and conseqeuntly picked up a few interesting links to reviews, specs and opinions. Here they are.
Pricing
Product previews and reviews
 PCM M 10 http://www.soundonsound.com/news?NewsID=11803
December 14th, 2009
Via the BBC, the European Union is proposing changes to MP3 players to prescribe default safe listeing levels for MP3 players. Current legislation mandates that “a statement be put in the instruction manual to warn of the adverse effects of exposure to excessive sound level”. The new proposals would see that the default sound setting for any device “shall be the ‘default’ settings on products”. January will see the start of a two-month consultation of all EU standardisation bodies with a final agreement expected in the spring of 2010.
The EU notes that safe use depends on exposure time and volume levels, “At 80 dB(A), exposure should be limited to 40 hours/week. At 89 dB(A) exposure should not exceed 5 hours/week”.
November 19th, 2009
I’ve done a short test to look at how much saving lossless digital sound formats can provide considering the 20 or so gigabytes of data I generate a month. I did some tests rendering a WAV file from Reaper.
I used a single 16 bit WAV file of a P-51 Mustang downgraded from the original 24bit original arranged on a single track in Reaper then used the standard render option in the application to generate each file. The file sizes are taken from the windows command prompt as the standard explorer window tends to display “size on disk” which is not necessarily the file size – don’t know what additional things are allocated.
These are the results. As part of the test I’ve also included OGG Vorbis – I think that most people can imagine the savings if going to MP3. I’ve included the reference file at the top of the table and added in the resulting file size, how much space this would save and how big this is compared to the original. I’ve not played the files so I have no idea whether the renders were successful or not but I must assume they are.
| File Name |
Encoding |
File Size (bytes) |
% saving |
% of original |
| render_tests_mustang.wav |
WAV 16 bit |
3,528,654 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| render_tests_mustang.aif |
AIF |
3,528,054 |
0% |
100% |
|
|
|
|
|
| render_tests_mustang_0_0.ogg |
OGG Vorbis Quality 0 |
147,604 |
96% |
4% |
| render_tests_mustang_0_1.ogg |
OGG Vorbis Quality 0.1 |
182,530 |
95% |
5% |
| render_tests_mustang_0_2.ogg |
OGG Vorbis Quality 0.2 |
215,947 |
94% |
6% |
| render_tests_mustang_0_3.ogg |
OGG Vorbis Quality 0.3 |
244,887 |
93% |
7% |
| render_tests_mustang_0_4.ogg |
OGG Vorbis Quality 0.4 |
259,348 |
93% |
7% |
| render_tests_mustang_0_5.ogg |
OGG Vorbis Quality 0.5 |
329,504 |
91% |
9% |
| render_tests_mustang_0_6.ogg |
OGG Vorbis Quality 0.6 |
396,084 |
89% |
11% |
| render_tests_mustang_0_7.ogg |
OGG Vorbis Quality 0.7 |
440,737 |
88% |
12% |
| render_tests_mustang_0_8.ogg |
OGG Vorbis Quality 0.8 |
529,460 |
85% |
15% |
| render_tests_mustang_0_9.ogg |
OGG Vorbis Quality 0.9 |
718,815 |
80% |
20% |
| render_tests_mustang_1_.ogg |
OGG Vorbis Quality 1.0 |
1,065,815 |
70% |
30% |
|
|
|
|
|
| render_tests_mustang_0_16.flac |
FLAC 16 bit Quality 0 |
1,536,320 |
56% |
44% |
| render_tests_mustang_1_16.flac |
FLAC 16 bit Quality 1 |
1,532,669 |
57% |
43% |
| render_tests_mustang_2_16.flac |
FLAC 16 bit Quality 2 |
1,529,202 |
57% |
43% |
| render_tests_mustang_3_16.flac |
FLAC 16 bit Quality 3 |
1,428,272 |
60% |
40% |
| render_tests_mustang_4_16.flac |
FLAC 16 bit Quality 4 |
1,428,331 |
60% |
40% |
| render_tests_mustang_5_16.flac |
FLAC 16 bit Quality 5 |
1,419,175 |
60% |
40% |
| render_tests_mustang_6_16.flac |
FLAC 16 bit Quality 6 |
1,418,948 |
60% |
40% |
| render_tests_mustang_7_16.flac |
FLAC 16 bit Quality 7 |
1,406,657 |
60% |
40% |
| render_tests_mustang_8_16.flac |
FLAC 16 bit Quality 8 |
1,405,965 |
60% |
40% |
|
|
|
|
|
| render_tests_mustang_fast_16.ape |
APE 16 bit Fast |
1,378,608 |
61% |
39% |
| render_tests_mustang_normal_16.ape |
APE 16 bit Normal |
1,358,408 |
62% |
38% |
| render_tests_mustang_high_16.ape |
APE 16 bit High |
1,357,000 |
62% |
38% |
| render_tests_mustang_extrahigh_16.ape |
APE 16 bit Extra High |
1,336,964 |
62% |
38% |
| render_tests_mustang_insane_16.ape |
APE 16 bit Insane |
1,331,224 |
62% |
38% |
|
|
|
|
|
| render_tests_mustang_fast_24.ape |
APE 24 bit Fast |
3,120,876 |
12% |
88% |
| render_tests_mustang_normal_24.ape |
APE 24 bit Normal |
3,096,668 |
12% |
88% |
| render_tests_mustang_high_24.ape |
APE 24 bit High |
3,094,732 |
12% |
88% |
| render_tests_mustang_extrahigh_24.ape |
APE 24 bit Extra High |
3,081,804 |
13% |
87% |
| render_tests_mustang_insane_24.ape |
APE 24 bit Insane |
3,077,728 |
13% |
87% |
A conclusion from these tests is that APE produces smaller file sizes that FLAC so if space is your major concern this is the format to go for, however it could be said that support for the FLAC format for playback is more widespread and has been included in some of the newer MP3 players released recently (the iRiver range has direct support for in some newer model and support via RockBox firmware upgrades).
Does this start to adress some of the issues, around storage, not just space issues, but archival format and archive media, archive risk etc?
For me, the archival format will be the original file on harddisk with a back up on DVD. My day to day review format will probably remain as VBR Mp3 but I may start looking at FLAC for distribution of sound.
See also “48Kbps AAC+ and 160Kbps OGG Vorbis Testing“
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