High End Mic Pres

Hi Guys
My signal chain at the moment for recording vox and solo acoustic guitar is:
SEZ5600a valve mic into my RME FF400.
I am very happy with the results i am getting but wondered if i was to add lets say a Universal Audios 6176 into the chain. What would this give me. What i mean is would i be hearing a difference and would it be £1,500 better than i have now.
John

Hi Jim
I think we might be creating a false dichotomy here.
There's the question of what mic sounds best on what source. This is a purely subjective decision, there's situations, as you eloquently point out where a relatively inexpensive dynamic is just the job. There's countless fantastic sounding recordings where the lead vocals have been made with SM58s, SM7s, M88s or the like.
However this broadly ( there are no absolutes ) wouldn't be true if you were recording a cello or violin.
The basis for my thinking is, however wonderful your mic pre it can't put back what's not there in the first place. Whereas a decent mid range pre ( RME in this discussion ) will still do a good job of capturing the output of a U47 it may not add the "mojo" of an A-designs or a Shadow Hills or extract every last ounce of "detail" like a Gordon or Millennia, it'll mostly be 'there or there abouts"
Once you have a degree of experience this becomes less of an issue. For example I regularly choose ribbon mics for guitar cabs precisely because of the inherent roll off of the extreme top and bottom. The key word in that sentence is choose. I'm lucky enough to have plenty of choices !!
http://www.jamesmuir.org/studio/studio/microphones.html
http://www.jamesmuir.org/studio/studio/rackone.html
http://www.jamesmuir.org/studio/studio/racktwo.html
However as I said in my original post it's a sum of it's parts and you really need to hear things to see if it suits your aesthetic.
This has been an informative discussion and we haven't even addressed the issue of the engineers technique !!
James

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No High-End Recording into SB Live Val

I am recording from radio into SB Li've Value by connecting a cable from the headphone jack of stereo into the mic input of the SB Li've (going into "line in" results in too low volume). The recording works great. The resulting playback of the recorded file sounds "pretty good", but is somewhat heavy on the bass end and has absolutely no high-end (the righmost 4-5 columns on the mixer display are at zero). MP3 music that I have downloaded from other sources (like emusic.com) when played show all columns of the mixer display at good levels and sounds more "crisp" than my recordings. Note: Tried "line-in". Has lower volume (I know I could cure this with a pre-amp), but still have high-end missing.
Is this lack of high-end a function of the SB Li've Value (i.e. it just will not go this high)? If so, the only way is to use a better sound board (one that will record the higher frequencies)? Which one is recommended? (note: Don't need/want to get too fancy/expensi've here. Just recording at home for myself, but would like to do a bit better than I have).
Or should SB Li've Value be able to record the high-end frequencies and the problem is with my stereo? or program used to record (Audacity)?
Thanks Much,

Just a guess, but when you're coming out of a headphone output this is a very low impedance output. When you tie this into a mic input, which is a high impedance input, you're really loading down this high impedance input (almost like you're putting a short across it...the higher the frequency the great the short), and it may be disturbing the frequency characteristics of the input.
Ideally you'd go into the line input. I know you say that the level is not high enough. Can you not turn up the volume of the headphone output enough to give you adequate level?
More ideally, the radio would have a line output, and line levels would be just right. Good luck.

Sound Blaster card 'digital out' into my high-end stereo receiver?

BSound Blaster card 'digital out' into my high-end stereo receiver?A I want?to interface my iTunes music library?(all tunes in Apple Lossless file format) to my high-end sound system, using an optical (TOSLink)?cable and a "mini TOSLink adapter" that will plug into the 'digital out' jack on the Sound Blaster card in my Windows XP PC. This configuration will take advantage of the high-end DAC's in my Denon receiver.
I don't care about getting surround sound out of my PC, and I'm not a gamer. I just want hi-fi stereo music from my iTunes library.
Will this work?Can I expect CD-quality sound?
Also, would it be worthwhile to upgrade my model SB394 sound card to a hi-fi SB card like X-Fi Xtreme Audio, or is any sound card as good as any other for simply deli'vering the digital data stream to my Denon receiver?

Jebus wrote:
well, I have two devices that a combo CD player/Tape decks/radio tuner/amp; one has misc input, the other doesn't. Both are analog devices, both are old things I bought at a yard sale. I got 6 bookshelf speakers that use pairs of stripped wire as the input hooked up in 2 parallel wired sets of 3 to the CD/Tape/Tuner/Amp thing that has a misc input. Anyway, the one without misc input has a 3 disk CD changer, plus it would give me a way to input tape and radio sounds sources into my computer if I just connected it's audio outputs to the internally located Aux In on my soundblaster card in my computer. But I wonder, what considerations do I have to have?
Firstly, is the Aux In on my board analog or digital? I'm assuming if it doesn't say "digital", it's analog; correct?......
secondly, and more importantly; the CD/Tape/Tuner/Amp thing is supposed to be used with 8 ohm speakers and do I have to worry about sending too much current to the soundcard?
specific model of SB card; I'm not sure. It has 2 analog outs, analog in, mic in, digital out and a joystick port; and it came installed on a 200 Dell w/ Win ME
and please, don't try selling me something; I use old crappy hardware and really do not mind doing so.
any help will be appreciated, thanks.
Aux-In is an analog port (4-pin connector/stereo).
Don't connect powered output (= speaker outputs) into soundcard but, if possible, use some low-power connection like Headphones-Out (or if possible then some line-out port).
jutapa

Reco on high end Av Receiver? apple compatible

In my search to purchase a High End AV Receiver, it's hard to tell if any of them are able to interface with a Mac via WiFi, iPOD touch, Internet. ( but especially for firmware updates )
Can anyone recommend a brand or model that is compatible with Mac's?
Denon, Onkyo, Pioneer, Sony, HK etc

Tom,
May I suggest you post this same question – or even just search for your potential product – at the AVS forum. http://www.avsforum.com/
It’s got advertising on it so it’s not nearly as pretty and neat as this Apple site, but there are many discussions about the newer receivers, pre-amps, and AV processors. I’ve read a lot of posts about people with Integra, Denon, Marantz, and the rest with trouble trying to do firmware updates to their units.
With some of them you can do the update directly from the internet via an Ethernet connected pre/pro. Others appear to offer the option of downloading to a computer (PC is the usually one stated, but Mac may work too) and then copying the file to a flash drive. It may be that a flash drive formatted as a Windows drive might work for your unit. (For this information you really should contact the manufacturer. If you're spending $2,000, $3,000 or more for a processor they ought to be helpful.)
Some manufacturers, as someone said above, do require you to bring in your unit to an authorized service center for software updates.
Also, most modern units will have decent built-in D/A converters (that is at least part of what the “processor” is) so if you want to listen to music from your Mac you might want to get a mini-TOSLink to regular TOSLink digital cable. If your Mac has the dual mini output jack you’ll get a pretty clean digital signal direct from your Mac’s hard drive into the pre/pro for conversion to analog.
Good luck.

Migrate the Production APPS and DB to New High End Server

Hi,
current Low end server:
Single Node Installation: DB & APPS
Version: 12.1.1 (11.1.0.7)
Operating System: Redhat Linux 5.4 (x86-64)
We have bought new high end machine with more cpu, RAM anad More Hard Disks.
We are going to move everything from current low end server to new high end server.
1. Install Linux 64 bit on New High End Server with required RPMS, Kernel Parameters, User Limits etc etc
2. Make partitions on this server as same as current server ( Mount Points should be same as current server)
3. Make users and groups and assign proper permissions on partitions
4. Maintain same hostname and IP Address in Target Server
5. Run Preclone in both DB Tier and Apps Tier in Source Server
6. Take backup of current server and copy it to Target Server
7. Shutdown the Source Server
8. Run config clone on Target Server
9. Start the Services in Target Server, after clonining, Make sure that all services are running including concurrent managers
10. Configure Printers at OS Level with same in Oracle Applications Printers Screen
12. Copy the Backup scripts from source to target server
13. If tape drive is configured at current server, configure it new Server as well.
Please let me know, if i miss anything....
thanks in advance......

Hi oraDBA2,
It's been long time, how are you doing?
Your steps are correct and I would say there is nothing missing. Please note the mount points on the target node(s) do not have to follow the same naming you have on the source node as you are going to run postclone on the target server(s). However, keeping it the same would make it more straightforward. As long as you have all pre-req. OS packages and software installed and you are going to keep the same hostname/domainname as well as IP Address, you should be good.
An alternative would be restoring the files on the target node(s) without running preclone/postclone but this requires relinking as per the following documents.
Note: 356878.1 - How to relink the whole Applications 11i Installation
Note: 131321.1 - How to Relink Oracle Database Software on UNIX
Note: 407055.1 - Process To Upgrade the Operating System and Oracle Database Server
Since Rapid Clone is your option (which I personally prefer) you can skip this part as relinking will be done by Rapid Clone, so you do not have to worry about it.
Good luck!
Thanks,
Hussein

Best High End Earphones

I'm looking for a high end pair of earphones (sub $150). I took a look at some of the Shure products online but I wasn't certain of how good they really were. Noise canceling would be great, if not, thats fine too. In ear, such as the stock Apple ones or like the Shure's do would be preferred. The conventional style headphones are too clunky for me.

I am using the Plantronics DSP 500, they are noise canceling and come with a mic attached as well. I realize that you did not specify that you needed a microphone, but these are simply great head set for the price. They can be had at Radio Shack for about $110. They are USB and integrate perfectly with the Mac. I've also used them on a PC with no issues.
Beavis2084

Slow Render with High-End System?

Im currently working on a (in my opinion) high-end Windows system for video editing. The system is about 2 years old and has cost a fortune in that time. So Im expecting significantly better speed. So heres my problem:
Im working primarly in Premiere Pro and After Effects. All the media I work with are as a video imported Jpeg Sequences. Often I have multiple Sequences (up to 7 or 8) overlayed and tweaked with Dissolves and plugins like Twixtor. I also use the Adobe Dynamic Link from After Effects to Premiere and vice versa. All the footage is currently in 1080p but in future I will want to render 4K. Im aware that a 4K workflow is probably a pain in the *** so Im surely going to edit offline with 1080p. However I cant get any real-time playback with all my sequences. I ALWAYS have to render a preview to watch my edits. I dont know if Im just having too high expectations for my system, but Im kinda sure there has to be an issue for this lack of performance. Maybe the Dynamic Link is slowing my system down?
System Specs:
Model : HP Z400 Workstation 103C_53335X
Mainboard : HP 0B4Ch
System BIOS : HP 786G3 v03.15 10/29/2010
RAM : 12GB ECC DIMM DDR3
Processor : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU           W3530 @ 2.80GHz (4C 3GHz/3GHz, 2.13GHz IMC, 4x 256kB L2, 8MB L3)
Chipset:
     HP X58 I/O Hub 2x 2.4GHz (4.79GHz)
     HP Core Desktop (Bloomfield) UnCore 2x 2.4GHz (4.79GHz), 3x 4GB ECC DIMM DDR3 1GHz 192-bit
Graphic card : NVIDIA Quadro 4000 (8CU 256SP SM5.0 950MHz, 512kB L2, 2GB 2.81GHz 256-bit, PCIe 2.00 x16)
Harddisks:
      4x WDC WD2002FAEX-007BA0 (1TB, RAID10/SATA600, SCSI-4, 3.5", 7200rpm) : 932GB (C:)
     Intel Raid 1 Volume (4TB, RAID, SCSI-4) : 4TB (D:)
     HL-DT-ST BD-RE BH10LS30 (SATA150, BD-RE, DVD+-RW, CD-RW, 4MB Cache) : k.A. (E:)
Thank you very much in advance for your help and I apologize for any grammatical mistakes since english is not my main language.

Valentin,
I have always called a raid10 a solution for the paranoid in a hurry. It takes 4 drives to give you the capacity and performance of two disks, but gives you security by the mirroring.
Before going into your specific situation, allow me to tell something about volumes and drives, because they can be confusing and at the same time they are very important for optimal performance of a system.
Single disk, not partitioned is 1 disk = 1 volume to the OS
Single disk, partitioned is 1 disk = multiple volumes (not a good idea BTW)
Multiple disks in one raid array is Many disks = 1 volume
Multiple disks in one raid array with partitions is Many disks = multiple volumes (not a good idea either)
Each volume has a distinct drive letter for access.
Partitioning is a thing of the past and should not be used at all on modern systems.
You have to think about volumes more than about number of disks. In my current system I have 27 different physical disks but only 4 volumes. In the old one I have 17 disks and 5 volumes.
Now that we are clear what we are talking about, volumes with distinct drive letters, we can address your situation.
You have TWO volumes, C: (single disk) and D: (4 disks in raid10). Spreading the load across two volumes is more demanding and gives slower performance than using more volume, unless one or more volumes are very fast, as I tried to explain in a previous reply (remember Isenfluh/Sulwald?). If you add a SSD as you intend, you have increased the number of volumes to 3, which will definitely help performance, because SSD's are faster than conventional disks, the pagefile can be stored on the SSD, so all your performance will go up.
Compare your setup with mine with rough estimated figures:
Volume
Valentin
Harm
Transfer rate Valentin
Tranfer rate Harm
C:
1 HDD
1 SSD
125 MB/s
450 MB/s
D:
4x Raid10
1 SSD
250 MB/s
450 MB/s
E:
NA
21x Raid30
NA
2,700 MB/s
F:
NA
1 HDD
NA
150 MB/s
These figures are indicative, but do show where the major differences are. In my experience disk setup is overlooked quite often, but has a huge impact on a system's responsiveness. It is the weakest (slowest) link in the chain, afterall and with your workflow, doubly so.
But in your specific case there is something else, and that is your disappointing hardware MPE score. 100 seconds is extremely slow, even for a Quadro 4000. I would be quite normal to see a score around 8 - 9 seconds on such a system, well maybe around 12 - 13 seconds with your ECC memory, but 100 is way too slow. Some background services or processes are interfering with the hand-over from memory-GPU-VRAM-GPU-memory. This can be caused by a myriad of things, but a good starting point would be the BlackViper list of services to set to manual or disabled and taking a closer look at the processes running with Process Explorer. There should normally be less than 50 processes running.
Hope this helps.

Time to upgrade hsdpa to 21mbps on high ends

htc and samsung now produces high end phones with 21mbps hsdpa capability so i think nokia should upgrade next symbian^3 phone with hsdpa 21mbps downlink and 5mbps hsupa uplink capability rather than usual 10mbps hsdpa and 2mbps hsupa

I currently have a Droid Global 2 and while I enjoy the expanded features of a smartphone, I miss my Env2 terribly for one main reason : The keyboard was the best!. The Droid Global 2's slide-out keyboard lacks dedicated number keys and is a bit cramped compared to the Env, but much faster/accurate than an iPhone.
I will be upgrading to the DROID 3 as it now has dedicated number keys and a larger screen.
While I really wanted an iPhone, the lack of a physical keyboard was the dealbreaker. I test drove a friends phone and made so many errors in email, texting, dialing #s that I knew it wasn't going to be acceptable for me. It took forever to do basic texting...and I have very small hands/fingers! Can't imagine how big 'man hands' would handle the iPhone.
If keyboard accuracy/'speed is not a big deal the and iPhone will work for you. The iPhone is much lighter as it doesn't have a physical keyboard....some people just have to have Apple regardless.
Good luck on the Apple
Tony1790 wrote:
Hello,
It's time to upgrade to a new phone for both me and the wife, she needs a new phone now as her LG env3 is acting up. I'm a looong time Apple user, and of course the Apple iphone is a natural to pick, however It'll cost $350 for 2 when we use the last $50 credit for new/every 2. The new Droid 3 looks very interesting and we can get 2 for $149 for both with the credit and the BOGO sale going on.
So which should we get, mainly use the phone for talk, texting and will of course check emails, etc once we get a smart phone. The Env3's we have now are good at texting with the keyboard and of course good for talking.
If we go for the Apple, I could get her the iphone 4 for her and I can wait for the iphone 5 if it's actually coming out this year.
Tony

My iPod Touch is damaging my high-end earphones. What should I do

3 weeks ago, my Sennheiser CX-300 started to acting weirdly on the right channel. With each listening period passing by, the volume was going lower and lower, till to the point that this channel was barely audible. I tested them with different sources and I faced the fact that this problem couldn't be undone. Even if I threated them carefully during a whole year, I could just say now that they are completely dead, due to some sort of driver failure.
So, I rushed out to buy a new set on earphone and I decided to pick a higher end one, a brand new pair of Shure E4C. God I was happy, having finally sound in both of my ears. I listened to them during a 2 hours period. When I was over, I folded them back in the carrying case.
The day after, after plugging them back in my ipod, I just wanted to cry : the left channel was inaudible to a point that I needed to boost the sound to the maximum in order to ear something in the left channel. I tested them back in different sources and the same thing happened. After 3 hours of testing on different sources, I thought they were completely damaged.
So , this morning, I tested them back in my macbook and, to my suprise, they are working 100% like the first time I tried them.
Now, I'm thinking, could my ipod have some sort of voltage problem that could do such irreversible damage to an high-end earphone ? I just can't find another explanation.
Should I go to the genius bar or ask for a repair online ? I just don't know how to prove this awkward problem to a genius at the bar.
I won't be plugging my shures in this cursed ipod , that's for sure !!!! I don't want to lose $200 + over this.
Please, help me.

I don't think it is damaging your headphones (including the CX-300), I think the headphone jack on your Touch is damaged. Headphones don't heal so if the Shure E4Cs are working on your macbook they are in working order.
Take your Touch and headphones to the Apple Store and make a Genius Bar appointment.

Question on workflow for high end inkjet prints from InDesign CS4

Photographs are imaged in Photoshop using Adobe 1998 as a profile. These files are linked in InDesign. My question is how should I output the files from InDesign. I've tried "High Quality Print" saving the files as a PDF then parsing those files with Photoshop as high res files. But the files lack the quality in the original photoshop files.
My system in completely calibrated and I'm quite used to creating output for both offset printing (generally as per vendors instructions) as well us highend digital printing.
Thanks ahead for your comments.

You need an ICC profile that defines the destination color space. In this case the high end ink jet.
This will be an RGB profile. You can use a factory profile corresponding to the printer model and paper (this would be part of the printer software install), or you can have a custom profile generated by reading a color target printed on the device. There are online services that can actually create the profile if you send them a print out. Follow their specific instructions if you choose to do this.
Once you have the print device ICC, check the Color Settings in ID. Make sure the RGB policy is "Preserve Embedded". As long as this was the setting at document creation, the image Adobe RGB profiles were honored.
To double check, look in the Links panel. Under ICC you should see Adobe RGB, not Document RGB.
You can also right or control click on an individual image. Go to Graphics: Image Color Settings. By profile it should say Adobe RGB, not Document RGB.
In the print dialog, Color Management, select Document radio button. Color Handling, Let InDesign Handle Colors. Printer Profile, select the Printer ICC. Do a small test print, then check the result to see if it's satisfactory.

Cannot open relatively large PDF on a high end workstation-

My client is having issues opening 15MB PDF on a hig end workstation but can open it on a lower end computer. Here is my client's question…
We have an issue when opening some map file.
The file is 15MB PDF that open successfully with adobe reader 10 and acrobat 10 in normal workstation but it hang when open that file in high-end Workstation.
Workstation Type
Configuration
OS
Normal workstation
HP COMPAQ 8100 3.0GHZ 4GB RAM 320GB HD 1GB ATI DVD
Windows 7 X64
High-End Workstation
HP Z820 DUAL E5-2660 8C 2.20 64GB DDR3 256GB 500GB 2TB HDS 6GB QUADRO 6000 DVDRW
Windows 7 X64
The file open successfully in the high-end Workstation HP Z820 when installing Adobe reader 9 and 8. We also try adobe reader 10 & 11 but it did not work.
We change the graphics card but same issue.
We need to be able to open that PDF file in HP Z820 workstation using either adobe reader 10 or 11. Would you please assist.
I wonder if there are conflict issue with this particular Graphic Card of theirs!

Here is our client's answer to the suggestions made earlier.
We tried following two cards with latest driver from NVIDIA website but still same issue the adobe reader open half the document then it disappear.
NVIDIA cards QUADRO 6000
NVIDIA cards K5000
Adobe Reader still running but consume more than 368,860 K !!

High-End headphones and iPod cases don't match

I just received 4 cases for both my Nano and iPod Video. They were ordered sight unseen long ago. There's a terrifying trend here. iPod Lounge will only give high marks to cases that cover everything with little holes for access. And so 3 of my 4 high end headphones will not fit in the holes cut out for them in these new cases. The plastic molding is just slightly wider than the standard Apple phones.
Etymotic ETY 4p, Shure E5c and Westone UM2 are all super-fi headphones endlessly discussed on Head-Fi.com. Read about them and you will buy. None of them fit and they all share the same connector molding.
Does anyone know of a kind of adapter that would have a female end to receive these and a male end that would fit the standard opening? Of course they all work without a case just fine. It's only that the trend now is to restrict the size of the opening to just the Apple size.

that is what happens when you don't look at what your product (by the way, "sight unseen" usually prefers to a home or other property)
iPod Nano 2GB | Accessories: Belkin Carabiner Case for iPod Nano (black)

What high end A/V Receivers use iTunes to stream Music, Pictures and Videos to a TV ?

I'm going to be purchasing a high end a/v receiver and need one that uses iTunes to stream music, piuctures and videos to my TV. Any recommendations?

I don't believe there is a receiver that supports AirPlay of video and photos. Many will AirPlay audio however you'll probably have to use an Apple TV for photos and video.

Xserve and high end graphic cards?!

anybody tried to put a new graphic card (like ati 850xt or similar with 256 memory) into a xserve??
could it work? i want to use xserve as desktop machine with gb ram on photoshop... so i need as well a high end graphic card ...
any suggestions?

No, you can't do this. The Xserve will only take PCI video cards; high-end graphics cards all use the very high speed AGP interface. The best graphics card you can put in it is probably going to be an ATI Radeon 7000 or thereabouts.
The Xserve is not designed as a desktop machine. My suggestion is you buy a PowerMac G5 instead

Will anybody kindly recommend a high end wav to MP3 converter software

There are so many WAV to MP3 converter software on the market. I tried some of them and was not very happy with them. Will anybody kindly recommend a high end wav to MP3 converter software that they have had a good experience with. I need this software to convert WAV speech recording into MP3 in batch processing. Thank you

[email protected] wrote:
> There are so many WAV to MP3 converter software on the market. I
> tried some of them and was not very happy with them. Will anybody
> kindly recommend a high end wav to MP3 converter software that they
> have had a good experience with. I need this software to convert WAV
> speech recording into MP3 in batch processing. Thank you
Audition comes to mind .... O;-)
Kind regards
Peter Larsen

High End Mic Pres

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