Audio Science

The bane of the gigging keyboardist’s existence is the monstrously heavy gear we usually have to haul around. If you’re already switched to a laptop-based rig, however, there may be a “super controller” on the way that will change the way you look at gigging forever, and also possibly put a sizable hole in your account balance.

How many times have you wondered to yourself as you load up your 70lb Motif into your commercial-sized ‘89 Chevy van, “Why can’t they just fold the thing in half?” Well, somebody finally heard you. A start-up called Infinite Response is taking 77 weighted keys, two OLED screens, polyphonic aftertouch (yes, you heard right) and cramming them into a magnesium alloy frame that folds in half to fit in overhead compartments, while keeping the total weight at only 25 lbs. Unheard of until now, but it looks like the VAX77 could make the keyboard player’s dream a reality.

Not only is it a full-fledged MIDI controller (with built in full speed USB as well), but they tell us it will also have an onboard sound generator, making it a functional keyboard even without a laptop (or a Receptor, which they apparently had in mind when designing this beast).

Still, we don’t know what it’s going to cost, as the company designing it is still working out exactly how they’re going to incorporate things such as pitch bend and expression pedals. Once finalized, they will announce pricing and availability. They have already demonstrated it at SXSW 2007, with great reactions from keyboard players from around the world, and they expect to go to events across the US demonstrating it. It will be custom made with options such your choice of six different weights (”as light as a Hammond to the weight of a Steinway”), 5 excellent colors, and band name or logo silkscreening. Read on for full specs here: VAX77 Spec Sheet

(Via Music Thing)

The audiophile community tends to be very strong on DIY in general, especially when it comes to cables that would otherwise cost a lot more to buy from a manufacturer. Interestingly enough, not everyone is after the Oyaide, Van den Hul, or pure silver lines - often Mogami and even Belden wire is used. While they may not be necessarily be using Mogami instrument cable in their custom lines (although some do), there some wire configurations produced that aren’t widely known. I’ve researched a number of these, and here are some interconnect combinations that work well.

RCA Connectors

The absolute best RCA plug you will find for the least money is the Eichmann Bullet Plug. The design has proven superior to any other copper RCA plug, not to mention absolutely all brass RCA plugs, and is the first choice of the DIY crowd. They also make a silver version.

I’m also going to mention the Oyaide (pronounced oh-yah-ee-day, in case you’re ever on the phone with them) RCA connectors, a beautiful pure silver RCA that’s going to cost a whole lot more than the Eichmanns - Oyaide connectors of any type are generally $60-$100 apiece at a bargain.

Wire

The cable of choice among those looking for high-end Mogami wire is the 2803 model, a proprietary “dual concentric” design (diagram) now being used very successfully by Audience in the Au24 series (it is widely rumored that they are actually using Mogami 2803 in the manufacturing of their cable). Very tiny AWG even for a line cable, but it has a tremendous sound. Can be obtained with great difficulty for $70 per meter. The people at Echo Loft Lounge are the most active in procuring this wire, making large group orders to meet the quota for an order from Japan (the only way to procure this wire).

Next in line is the Mogami 2497 model, which while is 1/3rd the price of 2803, is just as hard to get. Similar dual concentric design, but with larger diameter. Much easier to terminate than 2803 - the extremely fine strands of the 2803’s conductor are very easy to cut/break. The audio quality of 2803 is considered higher than 2497, but the latter is a very substantial step up from most offerings.

The diagram appears to state that 2803 and 2804 are made with OCC (Ohno Continuous Cast) copper throughout, which is much superior to regular OFC, as OCC long, continuous cells of copper, while OFC is more granulated (see comparison here). I am not positive on whether 2497 is made OCC or not - this may be part of the difference in price.

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At any rate, both of those cables are amazingly hard to get ahold of. If you’re looking for something a little more easily available and less expensive, you may want to try some of the “recipes” some enthusiasts have come up with for using Belden cable. But before we check that out, let me mention that there is an online DIY store called DIY Audio Store that is using normal Mogami 2893 miniature quad wire, which is what we normally use for our adapter cables at TCF, for an unbalanced interconnect. I would say that this is your best Mogami option if you need a cheap solution. I personally have achieved great results using all four of the conductors in the larger 2534 quad wire in an unbalanced design.

In this article by “Mikey”, an Echo Loft forum member, he relates his experience with two different types of Belden wires, the 89259, an unbalanced coaxial wire, and the 89207 (pdf), a balanced wire. I would encourage you to read it through, as I think it will show you that these designs can be a suitable component of a high-end rig. In the end, the 89259 wire sounded warmer due to a slight high-frequency roll-off, whereas the 89207 was far more detailed, especially in the high frequencies. A note: It appears that the 89207 is wired with one of the conductors as the ground, and one as hot.

I would probably recommend just using Bullet plugs or a comparable copper or silver RCA as the connector.

I thought I’d start out by saying that I’ve been away for over a month, which would be the reason for the complete lack of articles recently, but now that we’re back in action, let’s touch on a subject that’s often confusing to most people.

Professional single-channel audio line cable (as in not speaker cable) comes in two flavors: balanced and unbalanced. Well, normal professional line audio comes in two flavors. It seems that there is always someone taking something that isn’t supposed to work and claiming that it sounds better.

Let’s start with balanced cable. In normal balanced cable there are two conductors, which carry the hot (in-phase) and cold (inverse-phase) audio signal. It’s the same audio signal traveling along two wires, but the cold wire carries an inverted wave phase version of the signal. Now here’s the reason for this: Everything with an electrical charge emanates an electrical field, usually evident as electro-magnetic and radio-frequency fields. These fields can affect any electrically sensitive materials within their reach to a degree. Since audio is a delicately preserved article, and in signal form must pass through electrically conductive metals, any interference caused by outside sources will result in audio degradation. Internal reflection can also cause slight audio degradation.

The shield (earth) around the conductors protects them from radio-frequency (RF) noise to a degree, but in long lengths is not completely effective, as the cable becomes one long antennae, easily picking RF noise. In combating electro-magnetic distortion, as well, the shield is not 100% effective for isolation. Therefore, the two conductors mutually cancel out noise, allowing much longer lengths to be run.

Unbalanced cable is basically for short length use. It may be a guitar cable, a small patch cord for a patchbay, or anything with a length shorter than 30 feet. The reason unbalanced cable is only usable for fairly short distance is for the same reason balanced cable exists - it is simply much more susceptible to outside interference, and therefore has the potential to introduce more distortion.

Your old Playstation 1 may be collecting dust in your closet, but some audiophiles have allegedly discovered that its CD player function rivals that of $4000-$6000 players on the audiophile market.

It appears that Sony put some very high-end components in it, and it is possible that with some excellent design this player could live up to the claims.
One commentator mentioned that he had liked the sound from his PS1 when he played CDs through it more than the performance of his normal CD player or computer. It seems that there is a consensus of enthusiasts who share this opinion.

However, as is the case with almost any audiophile product, there is some controversy as well. A couple of people declare that the sound is “muddier” and lower quality than their normal CD player or computer.
As usual, take everything you hear with an audiophile-sized grain of salt. What you hear is what counts, and in this case, it’s almost effortless to get your hands on one to try it out for yourself.

(Via Destructoid)

As of just now, Reason 4 has been announced. That’s right, the eternity of wait is finally over. Today, June 19th, is the day, and now is the time to get the first look at all of the features of the software. If you are a registered Reason owner, you can sign up for beta-testing.

Leading up the pack is Thor, which by all intelligent assumptions should be the soft synth to end all synths. Along with it are, in usual Propellerhead style, less features than the optimistic might expect, but may prove to be some of the most powerful yet. After all, Reason is not about what it is, it’s about what it does.

Next up in the list of the most important sub-features to ever hit the program is the RPG-8, a monophonic arpeggiator (possibly polyphonic in functionality as well). This has been badly needed by some of us, such as myself, and has been requested more consistently than most other features besides audio in and MIDI out.

There have been some major changes and improvements in the sequencer - there is now a separate groove mixer for dialing in different groove feels to tracks, beefing up Reason’s appeal to hip-hop producers and electronic producers. From looking at the pictures, it appears that Reason has jumped up a level in complexity.

Check out the site for more upgrades: propellerheads.se