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Forum - SOUND ON SOUND : Music Recording Technology on 2009-08-12
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I've had a Phonic Helix 18 for about a month and for the
money(£330 from DV) I'm impressed.
I've used it a couple of times to make
live recordings(8 tracks @44.1)once using Cubase and once using Audition 1.5 and
found the results to be fine.
The Firewire outputs are post trim, pre EQ
which is fine for what I have been doing but according to the schematic you can
change links on the PCB to make it post EQ post fader if that suits you
better.
No great issues with PC compatability using a TI chipset PCMCIA
firewire card on my laptop. Occasionally I loose connection on my home based PC,
probably because I am using a firewire port on my Pinnacle AV capture card.
Changing the sample rate to something else and then back again restores the
connection. If a had a slot free I would put in a dedicated firewire card with a
TI chipset.
It's not high end gear but it is sturdy, appears well made
and does what it says on the box!
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Well today I took delivery of my little Phonic Helix Board 12
FireWire mixer and I must say I'm quite impressed. I have to have a pretty
mobile setup, as I work on cruise ships, so I'm just running this through some
(pretty high-powered) Altec Lansing desktop speakers witha bass bin - even so,
it all sounds great to me! In Cubase, I just set up a new input bus and, for the
first time, I can select either channel 1-4, 5/6, 7/8 or the complete FireWire
Main L/R as my recording source - such a far cry from the basic Stereo Out from
my little Edirol UA-20.
The routing seems very comprehensive, there's 4
mic/line inputs with lo cut pad, 3-band EQ (not swept, but waddaya want for the
money?)and direct outs, there's 2 stereo channels, a 2-track return and main,
control room, phones and phono-plug outputs, not including the FireWire output
back to the computer. They've even included a 3.5mm minijack on one of the
outputs, so you can record straight to a pertable MP3 or minidisc recorder. Nice
touch!!
Only a few bugbears:
- I needed to buy a FW 6-4 cable, as my laptop uses the 4-pin fitting, so that
was another £20 from Dixons!
- Also, even though the board does very well as a multi-input soundcard, there
is no MIDI being sent through the FireWire so I still have to use my old
soundcard as a MIDI interface. Still, it means I've got 2 extra inputs if I ever
need them.
- The individual channels can't be PFL'd for matching Input gain, but I guess
Cubase can monitor all that for me so it's not a major problem.
- Phonic claim 'near-zero latency', but on my laptop (P4 3.2GHz, 1G RAM),
Cubase is reporting 11.633ms input latency and 15.510ms output latency when
using the Phonic ASIO driver. Not too bad, I guess??
Overall
though, I think this is going to be a good workhorse for me and I'm looking
forward to more control over my recordings and getting rid of the little
switching unit I was using for Sequencer playback, MP3 player playback, PS/2
playback, etc, etc, as these now all have channels on the Phonic.
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Sony Laptop Spec on 2009-08-09
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Choosing A PC Audio Interface: The SOS Guide on 2009-08-09
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Not only do you have to match the number of inputs and outputs to your
requirements, along with any other preferences, such as digital I/O for plugging
in your Minidisc or MP3 device, and MIDI I/O for plugging in an external synth
and keyboard, but you also have to decide from up to five possible formats:
PCI/PCMCIA (for desktop or laptop use), USB 1.1, USB 2.0, FireWire 400 and
FireWire 800.
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However, for recording a live band four inputs is the absolute minimum
requirement, and eight is preferable. If you definitely need more than eight
simultaneous inputs the most flexible approach is to buy several identical
8-in/8-out interfaces whose drivers support multiple hardware units (more on
this approach later).
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If you want the flexibility of being able to add software
plug-in effects to each synth separately, you can (once again) use an external
mixer during the composition phase, when you choose the most suitable synth
patch and record and tweak your performance as a set of MIDI notes. Then record
the output of each synth into your song one by one as a separate mono or stereo
audio track, and add individual plug-in effects to them afterwards (the flexible
approach). Only if you want to add software effects to each synth in 'real time'
will you need to buy a soundcard with enough inputs to record each synth
simultaneously (the luxury approach).
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If you want built-in preamps to bring the low signal levels
from mics, guitars, or record decks up to line level for recording into your PC,
it may be handier to go for an interface with some already on board than to buy
separate mic channels or an analogue mixer. However, guitarists should bear in
mind that even if an audio interface provides a suitable high-impedance input,
to avoid high-frequency loss, it still won't sound the same as when played
through a guitar amp and speakers — unless you've got suitable plug-in effects,
you may find it more effective to buy a dedicated guitar modelling interface
such as a Line 6 Pod.
Budget interfaces at under £200 aren't likely to include
world-class preamps either (and you wouldn't expect them to), but they will
certainly do the job. However, budget analogue mixing desks are now surprisingly
capable, so as long as you buy one with channel insert points so that you can
route each of its mic preamps to a separate input of your audio interface, this
may still be a cheaper approach than buying an interface with lots of exotic mic
preamps to record a live band.
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You'll need interface outputs for listening through loudspeakers (two for
stereo, and anything up to seven for surround work, which is why some soundcards
have two inputs but six or more outputs), and possibly further outputs for
sending different monitor mixes to other musicians in a studio environment.
Finally, if you want to patch external hardware effects into a software studio,
your best bet is to allocate a further stereo input and output for use as
effects send and return respectively (although if your effects boxes support
digital I/O that may be the better option — see the next section).
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It's always useful to have a few spare inputs and outputs now, rather than
having to sell and upgrade later on, but you can start small and expand smoothly
if you choose an interface with drivers that support multiple hardware
interfaces, as mentioned earlier. Various models from manufacturers including M
Audio, MOTU, RME and Soundscape support up to four units, sometimes in versatile
combinations from their range, so you can add further analogue inputs and
outputs as you need them.
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hose who have decided that the USB/Firewire route is the one for them face an
even more confusing set of facts, rumours, and misleading comments. Some
musicians regard USB as fundamentally flawed for audio and MIDI use (I even
spotted one damning claim that 'USB is only suitable for mice'), but my
experience doesn't bear this out. Admittedly, some of the early USB 1.1
interfaces caused no end of problems, partly due to flaws in the early USB chips
in both the audio interfaces and in the PCs at the other end of the cable.
However, these issues were resolved years ago, and modern USB 1.1 and 2.0 audio
peripherals generally work very reliably.
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USB 2.0 seems to be stuck out on a limb, since so few
manufacturers currently support it, but Edirol's UA1000 has proved this format's
reliability for multi-channel audio interfaces, and other USB 2.0 products, such
as Behringer's BCA2000, are slowly starting to be released. However, if you want
an external interface with support for 24-bit/96kHz and plenty of channels,
Firewire is currently the most popular choice. I suspect one of the main reasons
for this is that for the manufacturer a USB 2.0 interface is PC-only (Macs don't
currently support USB 2.0 audio), whereas a Firewire one can be used on both PCs
and Macs.
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Dynamic range is therefore a slightly more reliable real-world test. You may
spot some cheap soundcards with significantly worse results for their dynamic
range than for their Signal/Noise (S/N) ratio.
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Despite the fact that most audio recordings still end up on a Red Book Audio CD
at 16-bit/44.1kHz, most of us have abandoned 16-bit recording and playback in
favour of the wider dynamic range possible with 24 bits. A typical soundcard
will provide a maximum dynamic range of 96dBA at 16-bit, but well over 100dBA
when using 24-bit, which allows us to worry less about taking our recordings to
within a few dB of clipping, because the background noise levels are so much
lower
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It's also worth pointing out that switching to 32-bit recording and playback in
your audio application won't result in an even larger dynamic range — the
benefit of the 32-bit float format is massive internal headroom and no
possibility of internal clipping when mixing together loads of tracks, but the
interface will still have 24-bit converters on the input and output. Unless the
world suddenly becomes a much quieter place, 24 bits will remain quite
sufficient to digitise it.
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Many musicians stick to 24-bit/44.1kHz because they still create their music
largely with hardware MIDI synths and soft samplers that themselves use 44.1kHz
samples, so they see little point in moving higher, especially as they intend
the final mix to end up on a 16-bit/44.1kHz audio CD. However, even those using
electronic sources will probably find subsequent compression and peak limiting
more accurate at higher sample rates, while EQ tends to sound far more analogue
in nature and metering is more accurate. Those using soft synths that calculate
or otherwise model their waveforms may also find they sound cleaner.
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For live classical and other acoustic recordings I suspect most serious
engineers now prefer 24-bit/96kHz
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These higher sample rates should ensure that you capture the top-end transients,
detail, and spatial localisation (the ability to pinpoint each instrument's
position in a recording) more accurately than rates of 44.1 or 48kHz, and they
arguably make high-frequency signals below 20kHz sound slightly more natural, by
using more gentle anti-alias filtering above 20kHz. However, while mainstream PC
magazines may mark a particular review soundcard down if it doesn't offer a
192kHz sample rate, I personally consider this option a huge red herring in the
case of most audio interfaces under £500. If you can hear the improvement, use
192kHz, but bear in mind that the rest of the signal chain needs to be of
extremely high quality to really exhibit any benefit over 96kHz.
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Youthwork Links and Ideas: Activities on 2009-04-05
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Team Building San Francisco | The Go Game on 2009-03-31
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team building activities, ideas, games, business games and exercises for team building, learning organisations development,training, management, motivation, kids activities and childrens party games. on 2009-03-31
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