The RedFaux Transmission

Online Storage for Recording Projects - SOS Online Backup

This is the third installment of my "Online Storage for Recording Projects" post.  In our second post we looked at "Amazon Cloud Drive", Today we'll be looking at: 

SOS Online Backup

SOS Online Backup works a bit differently than a service like Amazon's Cloud Drive, which I reviewed yesterday.  Cloud Drive is a generic online storage service while SOS is specifically a back up service which uses a client on the user's machine for backup while accessing all files can be done through a web browser.  This means that it only backs up data that you have on your computer or external harddrives hooked up to that computer. 

Space:  For home data back up, SOS offers a 50GB & 100GB plan.  

Reliability: SOS Online backup has been around since 2001 and has been chosen as  PC Magazine award winner. SOS Online also just recieved 3 million dollars in investment money from Splashpond this month so they have the financing to stay around. 

Budget: There is a free 14 day trial plan which allows you to get a feel for SOS. Pricing package for the 50GB is $79.95/year for 5 PC access and $99.95 a year for 100GB. More info HERE

File Sharing: Any folder or file backed up with SOS Online can be shared with anyone you want.  You can choose between a friend already registered with SOS, a generic friend or Facebook.  You need to have an email address for the friend you want to share with.

Security: For password protection they use the typical create a password as well as supply an answer for a personal question.  They also provide the option to use "Ultrasafe" which makes your password unretrievable.  As for your data, SOS claims it is secure from loss because it is backed up on drives at their datacenter which are also backed up on a redundant server.  As far as being safe from hackers, SOS says that they use a three layer encryption.  Read more HERE.    

Platform Compatibility: Can be accessed through a web browser on PC or Mac.  There is also an ap to access data from your iphone or BlackBerry. 

Interface: I set up a free 14 day trial and installed the client on my machine.  The back up client UI was very straight forward and intuitive.  Likewise, the web interface for recovering files through a PC or Mac was simple and intuitive.  

Conclusion:  Based on what I've seen so far with the free trial, I like SOS Online Backup.  The size of the space offered is adequate and it can be used to back up multiple PCs in your household which I like.  SOS Online seems like an established company that has been around for 10 years so I don't have any worries about them dissappearing with my data overnight. The service is not free, but the fee seems reasonable when you think that you can back up multiple PCs and harddrives on the same account. The filesharing is pretty straight forward and I like the fact that you can share a whole folder or just one file and since the file access is through the web and not an FTP client this will work for even your least tech savvy folks.  Security on SOS seems far more acceptable and robust than Amazon Cloud Drive. The files can be accessed anywhere if you have access to a web browser or an iphone or Blackberry, this allows me to not drag my external harddrive with my laptop everywhere. The interface is simple and straightforward even for less technically inclined folks.  I like this service alot and so far is at the top of my list for a solution.  The only thing I'm not very excited about is the cost... but not everything is free.

You can read the CNET review of SOS Online Backup HERE

Next solution investigated... Dropbox!

 

 

 

Until next time... over N out

RED

Online Storage for Recording Projects - Amazon Cloud Drive

This is the second installment of my "Online Storage for Recording Projects" post.  Today we'll be looking at: 

Amazon Cloud Drive

Space: You get 5GB free with your Amazon Account.  Upgrades are available from 20GB up to 1TB, priced about $1 per GB. With accounts 20GB or larger you get unlimited hosting for MP3 & ACC files.

Reliability: I don't think Amazon is going anywhere anytime soon.  If they were to phase out their CloudDrive I would imagine there would be enough notice to move the data.

Budget: Pricing packages are done in 20GB, 50GB, 100GB, 200GB, 500GB & 1TB costing about $1 per GB. 20GB = $20 / year while the 1TB is $1000 / year.  

File Sharing: There doesn't seem to be any support for sharing files with other users with Cloud Drive.  

Security: While Amazon boasts that you can "securely" store your files on their Cloud.  They don't really tell you what that means exactly, nor do I see any privacy policy specifically for content on the Cloud Drive.  I'm not the only one who is feeling dubious about Amazon's Cloud Drive Security.  Here's two articles I found on the topic.  HERE & HERE

Platform Compatibility: Can be accessed through a compatible web browser. PC, Mac, iPad & any Android mobile device can be used for streaming content off of the Cloud Player. 

Interface: There are two interfaces to be familiar with when using the Cloud Drive.  The first one is the Cloud Drive page and the second is the Cloud Player page.  While it is pretty easy to upload multiple files at once with the Cloud Drive page you can only download one file at a time unless you want to download music files via the Cloud Player.  Both interfaces are simple and fairly intuitive.

Conclusion: While I do use Cloud Drive to store my Amazon music purchases, I don't really think this is a good solution for archiving our recording session files.  The platform compatibility is good and I feel like the web interfaces are easy enough to navigate even for a newbie. However, while $20 a year isn't a bad price for 20GB, I'm sure we'll need more space.  The next upgrade package is 50GB  for $50 which is more than I want to pay for storage at this time.  Also there is currently no way of sharing content between members unless we all want to use my Amazon account, which really isn't an option.  Lastly, while the content I plan on storing isn't personally sensitive, it is a work in progress and original material.  I'd like to know its secure.  Currently I don't feel confident that Amazon's Cloud drive offers that. 

Next solution investigated... SOS Online Backup.

 

Online Storage for Recording Projects

For the last 6 months my band, Fluorescent Echo, has been busy working on our new EP.  We are in the final stages of mixing and are almost ready to hand our new songs off for mastering.  All of the mixing has been done in my home studio, thus all of the files are on hard drives in my studio.  I didn't think this was a problem until this weekend.  On Labor Day weekend our neighborhood was evacuated due to brush fires which destroyed 25 homes and damaged 30.  Before we knew the exact location of the fire I had to get comfortable with the possibility of losing all the work we had put into the album. Luckily the fire was contained enough on Labor Day and we were allowed to go back home.  However this close call made me realize that I need to think about a better way to store our work.  I spent a few hours today researching free options for cloud storage.  For those of you not familiar with the concept you can catch the Wikipedia definition here. 

I need to find a solution that allows for enough storage to store all of our recording sessions and mixes until I we have finished the album and I can archive them.  I have the following requirements:

1. Space: Audio .wav files can be big.  Currently our album folder is coming in at about 20GB.  
2. Reliability: We want to know that the company hosting the files will still be there tomorrow. 
3. Budget: Free if possible.   
4. File Sharing: we want to be able to make these files available to all band members
5. Security: While this isn't overly sensitive data, I don't necessarily want other people messing with our work in progress.
6. Platform Compatibility: PC and Mac
7. Easy Interface: band members have varying degrees of tech savvy

I have been looking at a number of options... Next we'll look at Amazon Cloud Drive.

Stay tuned... 

- RED

 

Understanding The Basics Of The Audio Compressor

Probably one of the more difficult processors to understand when you are a newbie to electronic music creation is the compressor. I have had many friends new to electronic music asking me what this processor does, as well as I have had to explain this to many an executive when trying to get my equipment budgets approved, so I thought I would post an overview here for anyone interested. 

Compression was originally created to control the range of dynamics of a sound.  Think of it as an automatic volume control. Although, compression has many applications aside from recording, a perfect example of how compression is used and what it does, is easily illustrated in a typical vocal recording scenario. When you record vocals you want to get the signal to noise ratio as high as you can. Meaning that you want to have a loud voice signal and a low noise signal on your recording.  However, vocalists can be very dynamic and if you set your recording levels to be perfect when they are singing loud your signal to noise ratio will drop when they sing a quiet part.  If you set your levels to be perfect when the vocalist sings quietly, then you will distort your input when they sing louder. To solve this problem you need to reduce the overall dynamics of the incoming signal. Back in pre-historic times the engineer would ride the faders to keep a signal's volume under control.  Nowadays, fortunately for all of us, you can apply a compressor to this problem that will automatically adjust the volume to fit with the levels that you specify. So in a nutshell, compression controls the volume of a sound, keeping it within levels that the user sets.

 Controls on a Typical Compressor

On most of the software compressors there are pre-sets that you can use for the most standard compressor applications.  However, like anything its better to know what the controls on the compressor actually do. This will give you the power to make intelligent tweaks to get the compressor to do exactly what you want it to. Don't be beholden to presets! 

Threshold - This is the signal level at which the compressor will start reducing the incoming signal. This is usually measured in dB (decibel). Typically you want to set this so the signal level is just below the threshold.  Notice in the picture below that the peak incoming signal is -8.1 dB.  You can see that I've set the threshold to -10.0 db. This will reduce the signal of anything that is louder than -10 dB. 

Ratio - This setting refers to the amount of gain reduction that will take place on the signal if it surpasses the threshold.  For example if the ratio is 5:1, then a signal that exceeds the threshold by 5dB would be reduced so you would only see a 1dB increase instead of a 5dB increase at the output.

Attack & Release - On the most simple level, the attack refers to how long it takes the compressor to pull the volume down on the signal once it reaches the threshold and the release refers to how long it takes the compressor to returns the signal to its original level.

Soft & Hard Knee Compression - Hard knee refers to compression that happens abruptly where soft knee compression is more gradual.  As you can see in the graph below, hard knee compression squashes the signal as soon as it reaches the threshold.

With soft knee compression the signal starts to be compressed gradually as it approaches its threshold.  See the soft knee compression chart.

Output or Make Up Gain - This setting specifies how much the over all signal should be boosted after compression.  Some compressors have a setting to do this for you automatically. 

Additional Features Some Compressors May Have 

Side Chaining - Some hardware and software compressors allow for side chaining. This means that there is a separate input aside from the original audio input. This input can be used to introduce an audio signal that can act as an envelope for the compressor acting on the signal coming in through the normal inputs. A good easy example of this is when you hear an announcer on the radio talking over music.  When the announcer starts talking you can hear the music get softer so you can hear the announcer more clearly.  This is done by having the signal of the announcer informing the compressor when to attenuate the music. When the announcer stops talking, the absence of the signal returns the compressor back to its original level bringing the music back up in volume. 

Hold Control

This setting is typically found on compressors that have a side chain feature.  This allows you to have more control on the compressor's release value when side chaining.  For example, using our announcer scenario up above, if the announcer took a long enough pause while speaking the compressor would release, bringing the volume of the music back up momentarily until the announcer started speaking again.  This would sound unexpected and sloppy.  To fix this you would set the Hold control to 40 to 60 ms after it detected silence from the announcer before it would return to the original volume level allowing for pauses. 

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So there ya have the very basics of the compressor. There are obviously more nuances and things to know to be well schooled in the sorcery that is compression.  Stay tuned for some more advanced compression topics in the weeks to come :)

Free VST Compressors to get your feet wet with: (Click on the bold face names to go to the VST website for download) 

1. BlockFish

2. Modern Compressor

 

Until next time... Over N Out

RED

Ambient Ocean Recordings from La Jolla

I was in La Jolla, California for a few days a week or so ago, visiting some friends.  The weather was amazing and I spent a lot of time out on the beach.  I brought along my Sony PCM-M10 portable recorder and did a little ambient recording.  I'll share a couple of the best files :) All files are 44kHz/16 bit and available to download if you'd like, just click the downward arrow on the left side of the player. 

Ocean on the Rocks by redfaux

Ocean on Sandy Beach by redfaux

And Now With Seals by redfaux

Enjoy!

Until next time... Over N Out

RED

Portable Vocal Recording with Fluorescent Echo

 Last week I headed over to Colorado to record some demo vocals for the new album my band, Fluorescent Echo, is working on.  We are in the process of writing and learning the songs currently and recording them as rough demos.  After we have the song demos done I will do the synth and arrangement work and we'll get back together to record the final takes. 

This was an interesting exercise for me as I hadn't ever taken a portable laptop recording kit out with the intention of recording vocals. I have taken DAT rigs and a plethora of mics out for sound effect recording, but never vocals in this type of context. In my suitcase I packed a little Lexicon Omega audio interface box, my BeyerDynamic studio headphones and some cables, which fit nicely in my carry on suitcase. I brought my laptop as well as my Akai LPK25 and Korg NanoKontrol which all fit in the laptop bag. I used Sony Vegas & Ableton Live in this session. My singer provided the microphone which was an MXL V69M Vacuum Tube Condenser mic.   

 We set up to record in a spare bedroom.  I set up the "control booth" in the walkin closet and we set up his microphone in the bedroom.   The bedroom was pretty empty except for a big bed which did alot to help absorb reflections in the room, which was good because we also had a window in the room without any drapes. Next time we might want to set up some sort of diffuser, but for these demo takes the room worked out ok. 

The Lexicon Omega did pretty well except I really was wishing it had onboard audition reverb and compression.  When we record the final vocals we will have to a better solution for this. The session went well and overall I was amazed at the clarity of the MXL tube mic we used.  It sounded amazingly good for being a $400 microphone. 

Stay tuned for announcements in the future about the Fluorescent Echo website and new release.  In the meantime I'll be periodically posting about our happenings in the studio on this blog. 

Over N Out... 

- RED