KRK Rokit RP8G2 and VXT-6 studio montors

How do the KRK Rokit series compare to the VXT series monitors?

Just yesterday we had a long time customer of ours call and ask about buying another set of KRK Rokit RP8G2 studio monitors. He also wanted to know if it might be worth the couple hundred extra to upgrade to the VXT line like a VXT-6 or VXT-8. Given we hadn’t don an a/b test …

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How Many Watts do my Speakers Really Need?

The amount of watts your PA has probably doesn’t mater near as much as you think it does. We often get questions from our customers asking “Should I get the higher wattage amp to power my loudspeakers?” or “This studio monitor only has 40 watts, is that going to be enough?”. Many people assume that …

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Makeshift Mixing setup with the StudioLive

Adventures with the PreSonus StudioLive 24.4.2 -Part 2

A little over a month ago I used the PreSonus StudioLive 24.4.2 to track a live audio and video recording of The David James Band at Lannie’s Clock-tower Cabaret in downtown Denver, CO.  I took a little time talking about my experience using the Studiolive to multi-track that show in a previous post.  More recently …

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Van Halen Stage

Van Halen’s Brown M&Ms

So we’ve all heard the story about Van Halen on tour refusing to get on stage because there were brown M&Ms in their green room, after they specifically requested that the brown ones be pulled out of the M&Ms bowl! At least once, the band followed through with their threat, cancelling a show in Colorado …

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Genelec 1030 & 8040 Monitors

Genelec Monitors – Old vs New, Comparisons & More!

We’ve been getting a new round of Genelec monitors through our doors here at Sonic Sense the last couple weeks and have been using the occasion to do some new rounds of test driving too! First drive: A shootout  between the old Genelec 1030a monitors, and the newer 8040a model. Both of these speakers use …

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How do the KRK Rokit series compare to the VXT series monitors?How Many Watts do my Speakers Really Need?Adventures with the PreSonus StudioLive 24.4.2 -Part 2Van Halen’s Brown M&MsGenelec Monitors – Old vs New, Comparisons & More!

Dec 19

Handheld Recorder SNR Shootout

Categories:

Equipment Tests & Shootouts

by Preston Smits

12/19/2011

I recently received a question from someone on our Sonic Sense YouTube channel asking why his Tascam DR07mkii was making noisy recordings. We exchanged a couple emails regarding setting up equipment gain structure to minimize the noise he was getting, then started questioning whether or not signal to noise ratios (noise levels) on other handheld portable recorders might be better. He thought it might be worth purchasing an upgraded unit it it had lower noise levels. Since we have many of the recorders in stock at the office, I thought I’d do a shootout between them all to see how their noise levels compare. Check out an explanation of the setup below, and an audio demonstration of them on YouTube…

The Setup

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Dec 09

The Dangers of Interchanging 1/4″ Guitar and Speaker Cables!

Categories:

Getting the Most out of Your Equipment

by admin

12/09/2011

Last week I walked into a friends recording session to hang out and listen. The guitarist was showing me some of his boutique amplifiers and guitars when he plugged in only to showcase terrible buzz & hum coming from his rig! We were both caught by surprise and immediately started started troubleshooting some of the common causes, such as bad connector or an A/C power source radiating too much EMI near by. I unscrewed one of the 1/4″ connectors on his “guitar”cable to see if we had a loose solder joint but instead found he was using a speaker cable. Unscrewing the 1/4″ barrel relieved a twisted pair of conductors with no shield (typical of a speaker cable), rather than once center conductor and shield you’d find on an instrument/guitar cable. We quickly swapped out the cable with a proper instrument cable, and walla, beautiful tone with no noise!

This incident let me to think, using the proper type of  1/4″ cable whether it be for an instrument or speaker run is incredibly important and often doesn’t get the weight and attention it deserves while troubleshooting problems. In this post we’ll discuss why you should only use speaker cables for speakers and instrument cables for instruments.

A quick background in cable anatomy:

Instrument cables are made of a single small gauge center conductor (usually copper) then surrounded by an insulator. The insulator is covered by a braided or foil shield (used as a second conductor) which is then encased in a rubber or plastic outer jacket. The picture below gives you a visual representation of this:

Instrument Cable Anatomy

Instrument Cable Anatomy

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Dec 01

Jupiter 80 Seminar & Upgrade Party!

Categories:

Sonic Sense Features

by admin

12/01/2011

Dave Rivard of Roland will hold a free lunchtime Jupiter-80 “upgrade party” on December 12th here at Sonic Sense in Denver, CO.  Come on in for pizza, sodas, programming tips and demos on their powerful new flagship synthesizer, the Jupiter-80.  If you already own a JP-80 we will give you a free system upgrade that adds numerous features, and if you’re curious about the JP-80 we will have fun exploring it together.

Roland Jupiter 80

Roland Jupiter 80

A quick bio about Dave Rivard:  Prior to joining Roland, Dave was a programmer for numerous keyboard and software companies, and has scored films and commercials in such studios as Paisley Park, Bajus-Jones, and Creation Studios in Minneapolis.

I hope you can join us, for this free event and lunch! Check out the details below:

Time: 12:00 – 2:00pm

Date: Dec. 12th, 2011

Location: Sonic Sense

1500 W Hampden Ave. Sheridan, CO 80110

303-753-0201

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Nov 15

Pro Tools 10 Seminar

Categories:

Sonic Sense Features

by admin

11/15/2011

As part of Sonic Sense’s ongoing audio education outreach, last Thursday night we sponsored an event around Avid’s new Pro Tools 10.  Avid representatives Kirk Carlstrom and Jeremiah Ellison flew out to our facility and provided schooling on a Pro Tools basics/101 as well as the new features packed into version 10.

We had another great turnout from Colorado’s Front Range music/audio professionals, once again reinforcing our dedication to providing these learning opportunities and social events in our growing community.  During the seminar, Jeremiah gave an overview and “how to” demonstration on the new features in version 10 (see our blog post on the list of new features).  Watching Jeremiah use an M-Audio Axiom Pro 49 within his Pro Tools session, a score for a major TV production, on the projection screen along with hearing it through the new Neumann KH120 studio monitors really illustrated the power of Pro Tools.  He also demonstrated Avid’s new plug-in and virtual instrument bundles.

Pro Tools 10 Learning Event

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Nov 10

PreSonus Studio One version 2 Software Ships—a Stunning Upgrade!

Categories:

Sonic Sense Features

by admin

11/10/2011

Many people have been eagerly awaiting version 2 of Studio One, PreSonus’s easy-to-use DAW for Mac OS X® (Snow Leopard and Lion) and Windows® XP/Vista/7 (and soon, Windows 8). It’s now shipping, with more than 100 new features and enhancements, including fresh takes on multitrack comping, multitrack MIDI editing, transient detection and editing with groove extraction, and Folder Tracks. And only Studio One 2 offers exclusive, tightly integrated Melodyne pitch correction. Version 2 is everything you’ve asked for and much more, yet the software is still uncluttered and easy to use.

Three versions of Studio One ver2 are available: Artist, Producer, and Professional. Anticipated street/MAP prices are: Studio One Artist $99; Studio One Producer $199; and Studio One Professional $399. Upgrade paths enable users to move up as their needs grow. As of this writing, the current version is 2.0.2.

For in-depth information, please visit the new Studio One Web site at http://studioone.presonus.com.

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Oct 29

A Night Listening to the Neumann KH 120 Monitors

Categories:

Sonic Sense Features

by admin

10/29/2011

As many know, Sonic Sense hosts educational events as often as possible.  This last Monday, Oct. 24th we had a “Come Together and Listen” gathering at KUVO Jazz 89.3 Radio here in the heart of Denver.   For the fantastic crowd of Denver audio professionals that attended, we were honored to have the legendary Wolfgang Fraissinet, President of Neumann Berlin providing the history and future vision of Neumann products.

Sonic Sense Neumann KH 120 event Read the rest of this entry »

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Oct 24

Sound Devices 788T new firmware version 2.16 now available

Categories:

Sonic Sense Features

by admin

10/24/2011

Sound Devices recently released new firmware ver. 2.16 for the 788T multi-track recorder. This firmware provides a few great extra features including “Mix Assist” described below…
Last update
October 17, 2011

Changes introduced in 2.16 include:

  • new – Mix Assist – an automix function which turns unused microphones off.
  • new – Input Linking ’5-8′ option in menu 18.
  • new – option for 48V phantom on mic inputs only to help prevent inadvertent damage to vulnerable line sources. Options are now 48V (mic only), 48VL (line and mic) and Off.
  • fix – prevented entering certain characters (/, \, <, >, &, %) in Sound Report menu which could cause various issues relating to missing data in Sound Reports and potential lockups.
  • fix – some rare errors could display incorrect error messages on the LCD.

Overview of Mix Assist:

Mix Assist™ is a powerful feature of the 788T which can automatically attenuate the level of any microphone which is not active, reducing the background noise level in the mix. This function is commonly referred to as “automix”. The 788T’s MixAssist™ feature automixes post-fade signals to the L and R tracks. Pre-fade signals are not affected by Mix Assist.
Inputs that are automixed will be “open” (unattenuated) when a person talks into the input’s microphone and “closed” (attenuated) when the person stops talking. Microphone channels open within 1 mS to ensure that no syllables are lost, and then will gate off smoothly over 500mS. This gating action is smooth and imperceptible when switching between microphones. Mix Assist will allow several microphones to be open simultaneously if there are several talkers – Mix Assist does not limit the number of open microphones. Read the rest of this entry »

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Oct 21

Pro Tools 10 is released!

Categories:

Sonic Sense Features

by admin

10/21/2011

Yesterday Avid announced the release of the latest version of Pro Tools, version 10.  Like ver. 9 was, this release is another major jump in improvements and features including major workflow enhancements, better midi support, better audio for video support, and the new AAX plug-in format.

These upgrades include:

  • Mix multiple audio file formats and bit depths within the same session!!
  • Like many of the other music production programs already had, Pro Tools 10 now offers support for 32-bt floating point formats.
  • Also, like many other music production programs have had, Pro Tools 10 now provides the ability to do real-time fades, giving you the ability to add & edit them during playback. This includes more detailed editing of crossfades.
  • Audio Clip Gain. Each clip now has its own volume control independent from track volume allowing you do do much more detailed automation and much easier volume alignment of many clips across a track.
  • New Bus Interrogation window makes tracing individual audio paths a breeze! (provides a signal flow diagram for your audio)
  • AAX Plug-In Format! This new format has been designed to use Avid’s new HDX DSP integrated hardware. This format also makes it possible for previous TDM only plugins to be used in all versions of Pro Tools 10!! This is great news for all of us who can’t afford the upgrade to HD version, but have been dreaming about getting our hands on some of the TDM plug-ins it uses! With 64-bit ready architecture, and version 10′s greater delay compensation, feel confident Pro Tools is ready to handle all of your plug-in needs.
  • Rewritten file handling/processing performance. This improvement is one of the best changes in the pack! The Disk Engine now allows loading all files into RAM for super fast access/playback. It also makes using flash drives, NAS, RAID, and other server storage systems a much easier. Read the rest of this entry »

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