This week, Jim Addie hits us with “War and Peace – part 2″ on the way dynamic volume adjustments are made on playback in home theatre receivers,
and Ernie asked if I could put together some thoughts on recording and processing the voice, so consider this the first part of a 2 or 3 part series on that.
Jim also provided a link to the Orban processor used for real time loudness adjustment for TV broadcast.

sl119.mp3 [ 31:29 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In episode 107, Rob Scalise gets on my soapbox about the potential dangers of prolonged use of headphones.
My man in Hollywood got back to us with answers to Jay’s questions from ep 106 re: movie audio.
Ernie wrote and mentioned that he prefers my AKG C3000 to my R84. He also commented on previous assertions that my podcasts were distorted, and asked about recording nature sounds with field recorders and what would be the best way to approach it.
This led me off on a discussion of how it’s not JUST the microphone which influences our perception of the recorded sound, but that the mic preamp, plus any outboard gear etc etc also play a big role.
Which then led me off an a train of thought related to Slau’s latest podcast episode where he did a shootout between a whole bunch of large diaphragm condensor mics.

sl107.mp3 [ 33:32 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This week, an answer for Bomar who thought he heard distortion in episode 98,
another mic comparison, this time between the R84 and my AKG C3000,
Jim Addie wrote in with detailed definitions of DC offset and wave asymmetry,
plus a reminder about a great thread on PSW about digital recording levels.

Also mentioned, the Shure SM81, and Rycote wind socks.

sl099.mp3 [ 33:16 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This week, a few listener e-mails to answer.
Curtis from the “Dingy Room in a Nowhere Town” podcast asked about mouth clicks and how to deal with them.

Mark Hobold from the “JapanesePod101” podcast is very happy with the Zoom H2. Some of his recordings made with the H2 can be heard here.

And Vassya asked about which frequency range should be used for what instrument? He also included a link to this chart which shows the range of frequencies covered by which instruments.

sl079.mp3 [ 16:19 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This week, some (rare) audio feedback, plus a discussion on microphone transduction methods, and polar responses.

sl017.mp3 [ 24:01 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download