New Gear Day // Audio Ltd A10 Digital Wireless (w/ DPA Core 4061 mics)

Excitement levels off the scale, I've just taken delivery (actually two weeks ago now) of my own first truly professional level wireless audio system.

The dual channel Audio Ltd A10 digital wireless system.

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I've been meaning to get off the Sennheiser G2/3 wagon for a while now, and have finally mustered the courage to splurge the balance of my credit card on a complete set of radios, plus mics.

Last month I added 2 sets of Sony UWP-D radios, with ECM-77 mics, to achieve better audio quality and better transmission strength. I was very happy with those, and continue to be; as I'll be using those as both radio camera links and as additional mic packs too. The Sony RX's have the advantage of having incredible integration with Sony cameras like the FS5 and FS7, when used in conjunction with their powered hot shoe adapter, and I just can't deny how popular those cameras are among owner operators, and their prolific use for corporate video and low/mid tier commercial projects.

Now with my work year picking up again, I'm preparing by getting the best of the best kit to help me deliver better sound to my clients! The Audio Ltd A10 system, which has been on my radar for a year or so now, should be just the ticket for delivering better, cleaner radio mic transmission.

It combines the immense audio quality associated with Audio Ltd products, with a lightweight pack low latency digital transmission and integrated recording for those out of range moments. Only Zaxcom, from the US, have a truly 1 for 1 competing product; Sennheiser and Sony also have digital systems, but without that integrated recorder.

From the two weeks I've now had using them on locations across Europe I must confess I'm impressed. Almost cable quality transmission of the DPA mics, with bluetooth control of key functions; gain, LCF, frequency, and that 48V phantom power adding the option of a wireless boom is a great addition to my toolset.

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I think it's fair to say my radio mic game will be lifted by this product!

Gear Review: Zoom F8 Multi Track Field Recorder

Recently I've been getting a few jobs that require both portability and track counts greater than the four I usually deal with using my Sound Devices 744T. In terms of building a kit that can offer both of those factors, along with a wide number of options and similar performance level to the Sound Devices kit then there isn't much out there that doesn't cost somewhere near the thick end of £5000; and that would be before you add on all of the extra accessories that go with it. This is where the Zoom F8 comes in. It costs less that £1000 and appears, at first glance, to have a lot of the functionality of something vastly more expensive like the SD 788T or Sonosax SXR4+. So lets explore that and see just how well something this low cost can perform the tasks demanded of much more expensive kit.

Audio: Radio Lavalier Mic Shootout - Sennheiser vs Rode vs Sony

    I recently shot a video covering the sound quality of some lavalier microphones that I've been using on my video work for  the last year or so. The test I've done is a comparison between the various lavalier mics but also uses an industry standard boom mic for a reference point.
    The three lavalier mics I have at my disposal are the Sennheiser ME2, which is bundled with the G2 and G3 radio mic kits, the Sony ECM77, which I picked up cheap but has been used across the world as a professional broadcast lavalier and the newcomer in the Rode Lavalier. Which represents a middle ground in price terms but as with all Rode products it provides an extremely favourable performance to value ratio.
    The boom mic I've set up is the Sennheiser MKH60 which, in my humble view, is one of the finest shotgun microphones that money can buy.

    What we've set up is not a perfect test, but more an actual use case scenario. I've not plugged the lavaliers into a mic pre directly but have actually taken feeds from the radio system, as that's how I'd be using them on a location shoot anyway. Being as I wanted a fair comparison between the lavaliers they are all wired up identically to Sennheiser G2 radio transmitters with mains receivers. All three receivers are run into my computer audio interface; a RME Fireface UFX. The boom is also plugged into the UFX.
     Here's the video:

         

     The goal here is first, have a listen to the mics and see what you think of the quality. All three are in a good position for dialogue intelligibility, but not necessarily perfect positioning (as you typically get on set...). Secondly to help show that the use of a full size boom can really elevate the sound of the dialogue that you're recording. While radio lavalier mics are an excellent choice for difficult shots and for getting a tight perspective, correctly positioned boom mics will always give you a fuller and more appealing sound.

    Apologies if the presenting was a bit crap, it's my first time trying this so hopefully should get better as I go on.

Amazon Links:
Rode Lavalier Microphone
Sennheiser ME 2-US

As always follow me on social media:

Twitter: @chazhurst
Twitter: @SoundUnitUK
Instagram: charlie_soundunit
Facebook: Charlie Hurst Sound

Gear Review: Sennheiser HD 26 Pro Heaphones

     Once again I return to my search for the perfect set of headphones for everything I do. Something that can have me covered for location sound recording, studio recording & mixing, general music listening, gaming and travel headphones. It's a tale fraught with many obstacles, but represents a real challenge for any set of headphones.
     Today I'm taking a look into the Sennheiser HD 26 Pro on ear headphones. It promises to be a different sort of beast to anything I might have used before and has a price tag to suggest I could be on to a winner.

Gear Review: TC Electronic BMC-2 Monitor Controller and DAC

    When my old TC Level Pilot died on me I needed a new master monitor controller. The TC Level Pilot is essentially a stacked matched pair of variable resistors in one pot. The build quality seems high, until general wear and tear takes it's toll and it starts crackling and cutting out. Not great for a pro audio device. I needed something more feature packed and with more advanced features and greater overall value.

    My final choice as the replacement for that mini monitor controller was the BMC-2 also by TC Electronic. This unit is really a very different beast. What we have here is a multi-input DAC with the ability to take AES, SPDIF, ADAT and TOS and convert any one of those to a couple of balanced XLR outputs, a headphone output, and to a digital output of your choice. All the while the BMC-2 provides a variety of monitoring functions for the mix and mastering engineer.

Gear Review: Audio Technica ATH M50x Headphones

   Audio Technica's ATH M50x headphones are the latest revision to their very popular ATH M50 cans. They represent a professional solution for people using the headphones in a wide variety of scenarios. They are the same great headphones, with those great full sounding drivers, but with a very useful collection of detachable cables. You get standard length curly and straight cables, as well as a long straight one, for those occasional long runs you get. So lets take a closer look.

Studio: Now Finished!

I have just completed work on my own studio!!!

Here's a quick video run-down of it:




For a full kit list, hit the Studio tab on my website (http://charliehurst.co.uk)

Twitter: @chazhurst

Gear Review: Roland R-26 Portable Recorder

Just arrived this week, a shiny new Roland R-26 portable recorder. This little device has the best and most complete feature list of anything on the market in this form factor. Compared with the ubiquitous Zoom H4n, the Roland R-26 is quite simply another level above, putting it close to devices in the 4+ channel recorder segment. In my five hours with the device since I got home from work, and then charged some AA batteries, I've only been impressed with how it performs. The depth and quality of features on show is quite astounding. I would put it right at the top of the pecking order of portable recorders available right now.

New Audio Stuff: iZotope Ozone 5 and RX2

   I took the plunge a few days ago and decided to actually spend some money on the activity I like to call my profession. Based on a wide selection of reviews and from speaking to fellow "sound guys" I bought iZotopes Ozone 5 mastering suite and RX 2 noise reduction software. I decided that I couldn't afford the Advanced versions but the lower priced standard editions are still incredibly powerful tools.

Go to the iZotope website for more information on them and their advanced bretheren:

Ozone 5
RX2

   My initial impressions are extremely positive. Even though I'm no expert at operating them, the various presets are actually very good and work as excellent starting positions for most work you'd care to do in them.

Gear Review: AKG K271 MKII studio headphones

     The AKG K271 mkII headphones are the, closed-back, bigger brother to AKG's own K240 mkII headphones. They feature very similar design aspects, but have a few little tweaks to make them much more suitable in use as your go-to set of professional cans. Keen readers will know that I reviewed the K240 mkII's last year, and that I liked them quite a lot; but they weren't without their flaws (not least their open backed-ness).

Music: New original track by me "Supernova"

I've been off work and ill since Friday, but I haven't wasted my time in front of the TV or playing video games... I've wasted it making music! Well maybe not wasted, but used for extra curricular pursuits. I've been toying with idea of writing an album/EP for a very long time, and I've always had a few little ideas which needed turning into bigger ones to make something worthwhile (longer than 1minute 30 anyway).

I had a little idea at the start of January. Just a lick over a little melody. It lasted maybe 10 seconds. It's become a monster 3:30ish song with at least two parts of a song structure! I'm relatively pleased with it in it's embryotic state. Have a listen


http://soundcloud.com/churst/supernova-full-wip-1st-draft

2011: A Year in Gear

I spent more money on guitar related gear last year than I ever have in the past (and more than I'm likely to ever again!). 

Audio: TouchDAW - Wireless Sequencer Control

     TouchDAW is an affordable midi control app for Android OS devices. It's developer, humatic, charges a mere £3.03 for the app from the Android Market. While the hardware you run it on is obviously more expensive, if you already have an Android OS phone or tablet then the additional outlay for a full hardware control surface is likely to exceed this £3 investment. What you get for the money is a full pre-configured mixer, 9 octave keyboard, transport controls specific to your choice of DAW and a host of other assignable midi controls. Which all in all makes for a bit of a bargain really, as you'd probably end up spending in excess of £200 on a device with as much functionality.

Recording: Acoustic Guitar

    Recording acoustic guitar is a relatively simple thing to do, but for most guitarists the world of recording is seen as a bit of a dark art. In this article I will attempt to allay that myth and help you on the way to recording with confidence.

    The first thing to do is understand the different mic types and understand what they look like, so that you can work out what they are for. You don't have to be able to name them, just associate the design with the function. For this article I'll briefly explain the ones that follow in the main body.

Gear Review: AKG K240 MKII studio headphones

     AKG's open-backed studio-grade monitoring headphones, equivalent to their own closed backed 271 mkII, are a lightweight and well priced option for the hobbyist or professional musician and audio engineer.
     These headphones have been out for a little while now, but I've been using them fairly extensively since I bought them around Christmas time. I thought it was about time I did a review in case anyone was thinking of buying a new set of cans...

Audio: More Free VST plugins

The Cockos Reaper forum is a very handy place to go when your looking for free stuff. Most of the people who use the software are using because it is free/cheap, so these guys spend a lot of time looking for good free stuff. The people there have recently pointed out this rather nice collection of free VST plugins from Antress Modern Plugins.

It contains a few of their own Modern effects and tools, which cover a great many of the effects you might need for your day to day mixing. But more interestingly they have also produced a series of plug ins that emulate classic studio gear. The clones include Fairchild, SSL and Universal Audio compressors which is nice if you like the colour of those units.

Also, thanks to my freinds at the Monkey Lord forum I was reminded about FerricTDS (Tape Dynamics Simulator), which is a part of another great set of plug-ins from Variety of Sound

Check them out!

Movies: Straggler of '45

The film on which I was sound recordist in January is now approaching release to be shown at a number of the usual film festivals around Europe (and possibly the World!).

I was sound recordist/boom op/mixer for the duration of the shoot. The whole experience was a pleasure and I hope that the full movie is finished with the same level of commitment that was shown by the whole crew throughout the process.

The film is listed here:

- IMDB
- Facebook
- Twitter: @StragglerOf45

More info at Virtus Productions

Trailer after the break

Audio: The cables aren't made of gold anyway!

I always hear people talking about cables and tone, whether they are guitarists or Hi-fi enthusiasts, and I think there is quite a lot of dodgy folk-lore about what is actually going on with regard to the design decisions made on using certain metals, like gold, nickel and copper, in their construction. I have a certain amount of experience in this field and would like to put a few things straight.

Audio: Learning Mastering

I've decided that it would be worth my while learning how to master music. So I thought I'd share my experiences on here as it happens. I'm not really following any guides. Maybe the odd pointer here or there, but mainly just working from my own experience and instinctually feeling my way through the process. Given that it is said of the process said "the better the source material, the better then end product" I thought I'd have a bash at some of the worst (audio quality wise) source material I've ever recorded!

Last week I tried my hand at re-mastering a piece of music I recorded with my 'band' at Uni.

The piece was painstakingly arranged in an entire day after my friend, and guitarist, James, walked the length of the corridor and said "I've just come up with this awesome acoustic thing... We have to work out how to make a song around it!" or something to that effect. So I called my friend Chaz, also a guitarist, who owned a bass and told him to come over for a jam. It's pretty heavily influenced by a couple of Coldplay tracks which were into at the time. (I still stand by my opinion that the Blue Room EP is pretty magical)

Audio: Handy Free VST plugins

A list of free to download VST plugins that I've been finding very useful over the course of the last year, with some links to where you can get your hands on them.

The Kjaerhus Classic series - available here - The Classic Master Limiter is very useful as a quick loudness tool.

VacuumSound RIAA - vacuumsound plugins - The RIAA plugin allows you to use a line level input as an input for a raw turntable signal

SSL X-ISM - SSL free plug-in - A handy metering tool to make sure you aren't making too loud or over-compressing on the master buss.

Studio Devil BVC - StudioDevil BVC - A single amp model from their main guitar modelling plug-in. A very decent vintage sound.

Arturia Analogue Factory Demo - Arturia downloads - VST synth. 137 presets from the full version of analogue factory. Saving of presets disabled and two of the synth models have been disabled. The rest is fully functional and unlimited use.


Native Instruments Kore 2 Player - NI Kore Player - A large collection of synth modules and effects from the full version of Native Instruments Kore 2. There are also further collections available, normally when NI release a new version of any of their synth engines.

Hopefully that's a good place for most people to start their collections. If you know any excellent free plug-ins feel free to leave a comment and I'll check them out!