mode

The debut album "mode" went up on CDBaby this week. Check it out!

(listen to some samples and follow the link to CDBaby)

Monster Power PRO 2500 arrived Thursday safe and sound. Did a benchmark noise level test prior to installation. Then, after making room and rewiring everything, Ran a comparison test. Going from two power strips to a rack-mounted power supply is quite a change and all the equipment is sensitive to position of just about every wire. Not detected a significant change in background noise yet. In fact, hearing more computer processing noise, which leads back to the issue of where all the wiring is running and where the computer is positioned. More A/B testing is necessary. Latest discovery on the web is http://www.soundsnap.com/ where you can find all sorts of interesting sound effect, loops, and aural delights.

Learned this week that ground loop is possible even among two surge protectors. With all studio components plugged into two daisy-chained strips, thought everything would be OK. It wasn't. During a mix down, noticed some background hiss and hum. This led to inserting Blue Cat's FreqAnalyst to investigate the problem. (the CM version from Computer Music Magazine.) Shut down equipment one-by-one and observed the relative noise spectrum. Several bumps were predominant in the 60Hz and multiples thereof.

Found that just having the ground pin of one of the KRK studio monitors was enough to introduce a spike in the the hum levels. Heard the term "ground loop" but never really knew what it meant. After investigating the term in wikipedia, did some further research and found some interesting products that can help with power cleanliness. In particular, Blue Circle's BC86 and any of the Monster Power products in the Pro Power line for musicians.

Being creative, tried a number of plug configurations, starting with just the computer and working up to having all 7 plugs connected successfully introducing only minimal hum. The best configuration found was the mixer and powered studio monitors plugged into a separate strip. All other components are plugged into a Monster PowerCenter HT700 power strip for now. Both power strips are now plugged in parallel to the same outlet.

Upgrading to a Monster Pro 2500 this week, so will compare the relative noise floor.

Found a really cool site today containing a free collection of online audio tests, test tones, audio signals. Conducting audio tests in the studio and doing some of the listening tests to determine levels of response, range, volume and pitch variance detection. It's almost like a game.