Professional Audio Recording

DIGITAL VS. ANALOG

Both CD's and DAT's record numbers instead of analog signals. For example a standard cassette tape records sounds by magnetizing a tape. When the sound being recorded gets louder, the tape recorder writes a stronger magnetic field to the tape. When the sound gets, softer, the tape player writes a softer magnetic field onto the tape. A DAT recorder, on the other hand, records numbers. For loud sounds, it writes a large number, for soft sounds, it writes a smaller number. There are several reasons why numbers are better to record than analog signals (such as the magnetic signal on cassette tapes) For starters, it is much simpler to edit digital sound. Using a computer program makes it easy to move parts of sound around or insert one sound into the middle of another. In the analog world this is accomplished by cutting and splicing tape. Another advantage, and the reason the music industry is concerned about DAT, is that when you copy digital audio you always get a perfect copy. Remember that digital sound is just numbers and is manipulated like any other data in your computer. When you copy a disk with a computer, you get an exact copy of the data. On the other hand, every time you copy a magnetic tape (analog tape), you add a little distortion or "tape hiss".

OUR AUDIO SOLUTION 32 Bit, 8-Track Audio

The sound capabilities are based on the Texas Instruments TMS320C30 high performance DSP (Digital Signal Processor) delivering 20 MIPS and 40 MFLOPS of performance. We offer an optional data memory which is expandable from 256K bytes to 4MB.

Audio editing software is intuitive, user-friendly and completely non-destructive; you can undo, redo, and save several versions of the same edit. You can now seamlessly edit both your video and audio in sync with up to 8 audio tracks. Our audio solution features real time envelope and pan controls. Effects include echo, reverb, scrubbing and quad surround sound output. Users have a choice of balanced line XLR or RCA inputs and outputs (2 in and 4 out). Also included is AES/EBU IEC958, S/PDIFF &EIAJ CP 340 compliant Digital Audio Input and Output.

Editing software allows:

Equalization

The filter will remove high or low pitches, as in a scratch or rumble filter. A step up from this is the shelving type of equalizer. Good examples of shelving equalizers are the bass and treble controls found on most stereos. These allow you to boost as well as cut certain pitches. One of the more advanced and flexible forms of EQ is the parametric. Parametrics allow not only boost and cut, but control over the exact tones affected as well. We allows you to use all three types of EQ.

Envelope Generator

Envelope refers to the over all loudness contour of a sound. We let you draw a desired envelope gain characteristic with the mouse, which it then applies to the wave. You can implement both subtle and overwhelming envelope changes. These changes can even be selectively applied to specific sections of a wave.

Compression

If you have used signal compressors or limiters before, you know exactly how to use this function. Its purpose is to produce a leveling of the wave. In other words, it constricts the dynamic range of a sound. It can also be used to accentuate the attack portions of a sound (eg, a bass guitar).

Fast Fourier Transform

This function is somewhat out of place in this list. The FFT is used as an analysis tool. It does not change the contents of the wave. In essence, this function lets you examine the frequency spectrum of the wave as a function of time. The result is a psuedo-3D graph plotting frequency along the horizontal, signal strength vertically, and time at a diagonal. You might use this in conjunction with the Equalizer function in order to determine where to place a high frequency "hiss" filter, for example.

Scale To Full

Now here's a straight forward function. Scale To Full will give your sound as much gain as it can without producing clipping. You end up with maximum volume.

Unclip

Unclip is very unique function. The purpose of it is to "reclaim" waves which have been clipped, either due to overload while digitizing or excessive gain during editing. Using Unclip is a simple process.

Resynthesize

Resynthesize gives you access to some powerful tools. 1) Time stretch (or contract) a wave without producing a pitch shift. 2) Shift the pitch of a wave without changing its time duration. 3) Reduce noise in the waveform.

Reverse

This function is the back-masker's delight. Selecting Functions/Reverse will flop your wave front to back. If you preview it, it will play backwards. This can be used for some nice effects. Reversing the wave again will restore it to its original state.

Crossfade Looping

The one headache many people have with samplers is achieving seamless loops. There are many techniques which can be used. Some of the ones supported here include zero crossing detection, compression, and custom envelope generation. As useful as these techniques are, they will not take care of all waves. Crossfade Looping is designed to do nothing but smooth out loops. It does this by carefully mixing sound from one part of the loop with sound from the other part.

DC Offset

Generally, you don't wish to have any DC (direct current) in a wave. A pure DC wave would be shown in an editor window as a simple horizontal line shifted either above or below the 0 axis. The purpose of this function then, is to add an opposite offset to cancel any existing offset.

Time Stretch

Time Stretch is used to alter the length of a sound without changing its pitch. While it is possible to do this using Resynthesis, Time Stretch has been optimized for more modest shifts and ease of use, and as a result, operates much faster.

Pitch Shift

Pitch Shift is a function similar in use and operation to Time Stretch. Much of what is said about Time Stretch in relation to Resynthesis is also true of Pitch Shift (see the section on Time Stretch for details). The Pitch Shift function allows you to create modest shifts of +/- 400 cents (4 half steps).

Flange

Flanging imparts a characteristic swishing quality to a sound which is rather unmistakable. There are five main settings for the Flanger. They are Delay Time, Feedback Percentage, Loudness, Percentage, Modulation Speed and Modulation Depth. There is also signal Inversion.

Chorus

Chorusing is very similar to Flanging. The major difference is that Chorusing uses longer delays which results in a different sonic characteristic. Whereas Flanging creates phase cancellations and results in a swishing sound, Chorusing delays are too long to do this, and instead result in a thickening of sound (like a chorus, get it?)

Echo

This is an effect familiar to almost everyone. It imparts a repeating quality to the sample, in much the same manner as shouting into a canyon reflects your words back to you. There are three settings for the Echo generator. They are the Delay Time, Feedback Percentage, and Loudness Percentage.

Reverb

"Artificial ambience reconstruction" is the catch phrase here. The Reverb effect allows you to create the impression of a new acoustic space around a given sound. For example, you can make a tight, dry vocal sound as if the person was in the basement or a cave. You can set the effect to range from subtle to overpowering. Reverb has the following settings: 1) Decay Time- 2) PreDelay- 3) Damping- 4) Diffusion- 5) Loudness- 6) Enclosure Type- Hall, Room, or Spring. Hall will generally give the most lush and full reverb.

All these effects and more are made possible by the addition of a very powerful DPS (digital Sound Processor) giving it both audio and video power. The DAVID system takes advantage of this processor for video, increasing the speed of transitions, CG overlays and compiling and converting animations. Computer Graphic renderings are vastly accelerated and include real time preview.

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