On 10/22/2011 09:57 AM, Leigh Dyer wrote: Hi Leigh, <namedropping mode>In A Safe Place and Into The Blue Again are my faves. Basically anything Jimmy LaValle has done is worth checking if you're into that kind of music. I adore Tristeza too, one of the best postrock bands ever</namedropping mode>. Will do, as soon as I get my hands on a copy of the magazine. Wasn't in last week so hopefully more joy this week. Best, Jeremy

On 10/26/2011 12:35 AM, Leigh Dyer wrote: Got myself a copy of CM171 with a working 64bit CumulusVST. As a bonus the DVD comes with a demo of Harrison Mixbus 2, the magazine also features a review of Mixbus 2. Best, Jeremy

On 21/10/11 5:42 AM, Folderol wrote: Thanks for listening, I'm glad you enjoyed it :) I really like the idea of waiting before releasing something, but I always find it very hard myself, too! The most recent "lessons" post from General Fuzz, a San Francisco artist that makes downbeat electronic and has written a few brilliant posts about music-making and creativity, touched on this -- it's a really good read: http://www.generalfuzz.net/blog/?p=850 Thanks Leigh

On 21/10/11 10:29 AM, S. Massy wrote: Thanks for the feedback -- the glitchyness of the drums is deliberate, of course, but I wonder if there's a way to smooth out the higher frequencies a bit. I've heard people say that bouncing to some good quality tape has various magical qualities, including smoothing out high frequency transients in general, but I tend to be suspicious of such claims :) I may revisit this mix in a while; if I do, I'll see what I can do with some EQ to smooth things out. Thanks Leigh

On 23/10/11 04:21, S. Massy wrote: I had actually been thinking about trying exactly that -- I do have a good quality hi-fi VCR here still, despite the fact that I haven't used it in years -- so I set it up yesterday and gave it a go. I hooked my laptop up to the VCR, played the track while recording, then swapped the connectors around, rewound the tape, and recorded the audio from the VCR back in to the laptop. It's amazing just how clean the signal from the VCR is. In fact, it's so clean that it sounds identical to the original audio to me. Comparing the signals in Japa, I can see a sub-50Hz hump in the VCR's audio, and a slight roll off above about 10KHz. There's clearly some stuff going on in the time domain, too, but it's very subtle, and I definitely can't hear it myself. So, an interesting exercise, but perhaps a pointless one :) I can upload the audio if anyone's curious and wants to do their own comparisons, though. Thanks Leigh

On 24/10/11 14:09, S. Massy wrote: No problem! Here are the original track and the VHS-bounced version, both as 24-bit 48khz FLAC files: http://wootangent.net/~lsd/music/releases/texel/texel-original.flac http://wootangent.net/~lsd/music/releases/texel/texel-vhs-lp.flac I've lined up the starts of the files as closely as I can, so you should be able to start playing them at the same time and solo one or the other to compare them. They're both normalised to 0dB peaks, but the VHS version seems about 2dB louder, so you may need to adjust its gain down a little if you're doing that kind of comparison. As it happens, the VHS version has the phase reversed, so if you play them both at the same time, they almost cancel out, at least at first; they do eventually drift ever-so-slightly apart. I had the audio as hot as I could manage at the time, though it may not have been hot enough. I also used long-play mode, on the assumption that using less tape would impart more effect on the signal. I suspect the VCR may have some automated level control, anyway, so it may not be possible to actually make it any hotter than this when it hits the tape. Thanks Leigh

On Mon, Oct 24, 2011 at 08:47:38AM -0400, Al Thompson wrote: Hifi-VHS records the audio on FM subcarriers, the actual tape magnetisation curve has no impact on it at all. And indeed video tape is very different from audio tape, one of the reasons why standard linear audio recording on it doesn't provide high quality. Ciao, -- FA

On Mon, Oct 24, 2011 at 11:22:38PM +0000, Dale Powell wrote: AFAIK NICAM was used only in TV broadcasting, not in any videotape format. Ciao, -- FA

On 10/22/2011 04:48 AM, Leigh Dyer wrote: Tape CAN do that, depending on the type of tape, and type of machine. You have to hit the tape HARD. The excessive magnetic field from the record head trying to record that level actually tends to erase some of the higher frequencies on the peaks. But, again, a LOT depends on what brand of tape you are using, your reference 0VU, how hard you hit it, and the type of machine you are using. If you use a combination such as a 3M 2" 16 track with Ampex 456, you will have good luck after you find the sweet spot. If you try it with a Fostex and TDK tape, you will probably be disappointed. -- --- My website is down. I had a motherboard failure on that computer!! (ugh) http://lateralforce.no-ip.org My blog, with commentary on a variety of things, including audio, mixing, equipment, etc, is at: http://audioandmore.wordpress.com Staat heißt das kälteste aller kalten Ungeheuer. Kalt lügt es auch; und diese Lüge kriecht aus seinem Munde: 'Ich, der Staat, bin das Volk.' - [Friedrich Nietzsche]