So, this is the last post of the month. Instead of going off and talking about yet another pair of heapdhones, I thought I'd leave the month of gear with a note on microphones or mics. For the starting studio producer/musician, a decent microphone can be more important than great headphones or speakers. Like headphones however, mics come in all sorts of shapes, sizes, and types. This post is about some of those and what you might want as a starter mic.
To be honest however, I will say that I have much less experience in shopping for and discerning mics since I still only have one mic and have not been in the habit of looking at them like I do with headphones. Still, I think that this will be an informative and good post for those who are unaware and are interested in recording at some point.
Let's get to it, first up is what different types of mics are there? I'm just going to cover a couple as I'm sure to miss some but these are the ones I can come up with right now. Lavalier mics are a really common mic used by singers and speakers around the world. These are the mics that clip onto a shirt and might also be referred to as lapel mics. The most obvious use of these is to capture a person's voice and are useful in hands free contexts. These are also not to be confused with headset mics which are attached to a headset, although they serve a similar purpose.
Thursday, October 24, 2013
Saturday, October 12, 2013
Gear Days: Review: JVC HA-RX900
Here we go, more headphones. This time up to bat are the JVC HA-RX900s. Coming in at around $60, these are quite a bit cheaper than the last pair, but don't be fooled, these are some really amazing headphones.
First off, aesthetics and form. Aesthetically, these are not the prettiest headphones. They're quite large and bulky, and they happen to be quite heavy, 2.35oz heavier without cable than the M50s I just reviewed. With cord and all, it comes pretty darn close to a pound, sitting on your head which over time gets a bit heavy. Form wise, these are similar to the M50s, circumaural and closed back. They do not lie flat and really look just one way, which is fine for their function.
Next up is comfort. These headphones are really comfortable after you get over their weight. The pads are really soft and don't press much at all. The headband relieves pressure really well and doesn't push down much. They do get quite warm, but most circumaural and supra-aural headphones do. I do recommend that you keep the cable wrapped or handled in some way. It's really, really long (3.5m or 11.48ft). The long cord is really nice, but also can get caught really easily.
First off, aesthetics and form. Aesthetically, these are not the prettiest headphones. They're quite large and bulky, and they happen to be quite heavy, 2.35oz heavier without cable than the M50s I just reviewed. With cord and all, it comes pretty darn close to a pound, sitting on your head which over time gets a bit heavy. Form wise, these are similar to the M50s, circumaural and closed back. They do not lie flat and really look just one way, which is fine for their function.
Next up is comfort. These headphones are really comfortable after you get over their weight. The pads are really soft and don't press much at all. The headband relieves pressure really well and doesn't push down much. They do get quite warm, but most circumaural and supra-aural headphones do. I do recommend that you keep the cable wrapped or handled in some way. It's really, really long (3.5m or 11.48ft). The long cord is really nice, but also can get caught really easily.
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Gear Days: Review: Audio Technica ATH-M50
And now, to what we've all been waiting for, or maybe just me, gear reviews. This first review is on my currently most expensive pair of headphones, my Audio Technica ATH-M50s. At around $140-$170 they are definitely not a cheap pair of headphones. However, they demand respect as some of the nicest headphones you can get for under $200.
We'll start out with aesthetics and form. The ATH-M50s are circumaural closed back headphones and as such are a bit heavy, but not horribly so. I personally find them to be really good looking, coming in black, white, or red (I own a pair of red M50s). The cups rotate 180 degrees, which is really nice for lying them flat. They also fold up relatively well. I'm not a huge fan of the coiled cable but it isn't really a big deal in the end as the headphones themselves are very nice.
Next up is comfort. Personally I find them very comfortable. Reading through some of the comments on Amazon, some people don't particularly like them with the stock earpads, especially people with glasses. However, I find the stock earpads to be fine. They're a bit stiffer than many headphones you'll come across, but I don't find them particularly uncomfortable. Something to recognize is that they do get quite hot after a while, but that is a common trait among most closed back circumaural headphones. The earpads do press against your head a bit more than some headphones but it isn't too bad and again, finding replacement earpads can alleviate this. The headband is relatively well cushioned and overall the headphones feel like very solid and well built headphones, which is to be expected at their price. These headphones, being circumaural and closed do insulate you from outside noise quite a bit, but nowhere near as well as say in ear monitors can. If you don't expect to be on planes too often though and don't want to hear the engine noises too much, these might just do fine.
We'll start out with aesthetics and form. The ATH-M50s are circumaural closed back headphones and as such are a bit heavy, but not horribly so. I personally find them to be really good looking, coming in black, white, or red (I own a pair of red M50s). The cups rotate 180 degrees, which is really nice for lying them flat. They also fold up relatively well. I'm not a huge fan of the coiled cable but it isn't really a big deal in the end as the headphones themselves are very nice.
Next up is comfort. Personally I find them very comfortable. Reading through some of the comments on Amazon, some people don't particularly like them with the stock earpads, especially people with glasses. However, I find the stock earpads to be fine. They're a bit stiffer than many headphones you'll come across, but I don't find them particularly uncomfortable. Something to recognize is that they do get quite hot after a while, but that is a common trait among most closed back circumaural headphones. The earpads do press against your head a bit more than some headphones but it isn't too bad and again, finding replacement earpads can alleviate this. The headband is relatively well cushioned and overall the headphones feel like very solid and well built headphones, which is to be expected at their price. These headphones, being circumaural and closed do insulate you from outside noise quite a bit, but nowhere near as well as say in ear monitors can. If you don't expect to be on planes too often though and don't want to hear the engine noises too much, these might just do fine.
Sunday, October 6, 2013
Gear Days: Measuring Greatness
More Gear Days, I'm thinking Octobers will be devoted to it, but we'll see. This post is about determining how good a piece of output gear (headphones/speakers) is. There are plenty of articles out there on this topic, but I'd like to put it in my words and at the same time give you some other viewpoints in the form of other articles.
The first thing you have to consider is why even buy different headphones or speakers? Sound is sound right and no matter how much you spend the sound quality won't be very different? Well in my opinion, everyone can tell the difference between cheap headphones and more expensive ones. In most circumstances and uses it might not be horribly important to you but I think that everyone who can hear can tell the differences between one pair of headphones or speakers and another.
So let's get to it. First off is the form of your output. Obviously things sound different on speakers than on headphones. Additionally, how those are built and their forms have an effect on the sound produced, see the previous post on different kinds of headphones. In this space, headphones are a bit more diverse, but there are distinct differences in speakers as well. For instance, a quad system or a 5.1 surround system has different spacial effect that a simple 2.0 system. By the way, 5.1 means 5 'tweeters' and a sub woofer, if you were curious or were not aware. They make for great home theater systems due to their ability to create sounds that can take up a space with really good positional sound, namely you can hear sounds coming from 5 directions. The spatial effect is sometimes called 'panning', more commonly so in 2 channel systems and is actually really important in determining sub par equipment from great equipment. Great equipment accurately represents space instead of shoving it all to the center or in strange places. It's also a good way to tell when equipment is going bad since the center of the sound might shift to the left or right which is likely a problem with your gear.
The first thing you have to consider is why even buy different headphones or speakers? Sound is sound right and no matter how much you spend the sound quality won't be very different? Well in my opinion, everyone can tell the difference between cheap headphones and more expensive ones. In most circumstances and uses it might not be horribly important to you but I think that everyone who can hear can tell the differences between one pair of headphones or speakers and another.
So let's get to it. First off is the form of your output. Obviously things sound different on speakers than on headphones. Additionally, how those are built and their forms have an effect on the sound produced, see the previous post on different kinds of headphones. In this space, headphones are a bit more diverse, but there are distinct differences in speakers as well. For instance, a quad system or a 5.1 surround system has different spacial effect that a simple 2.0 system. By the way, 5.1 means 5 'tweeters' and a sub woofer, if you were curious or were not aware. They make for great home theater systems due to their ability to create sounds that can take up a space with really good positional sound, namely you can hear sounds coming from 5 directions. The spatial effect is sometimes called 'panning', more commonly so in 2 channel systems and is actually really important in determining sub par equipment from great equipment. Great equipment accurately represents space instead of shoving it all to the center or in strange places. It's also a good way to tell when equipment is going bad since the center of the sound might shift to the left or right which is likely a problem with your gear.
Friday, October 4, 2013
Gear Days: Headphones
So it should be obvious that I really like headphones. If not, I'm saying it now, I really like headphones. When looking to get a new pair of headphones, it's important to know what different kinds of headphones exist, and what they're each best at and that's what this post is about, all the different kinds of headphones. I won't talk about the different ways sound are produced by headphones, ie balanced armature vs moving coil, also known as the different transducers used. This post is more about the general form factors.
Most generally, there are 4 main types of headphones, circumaural, supra-aural, earbuds, and in-ear. Now let's just hit them all in order. Circumaural headphones, also called full size headphones or over-ear headphones are just that, over the ear. They are designed to fit around the ears and while usually quite comfortable can get quite heavy just due to them being designed to go all around the ear. Examples of this type of headphone include Bose QuietComfort 15s, Audio-Technica ATH-M50s, and Beats Studios.
Next are supra-aural headphones, also called on-ear headphones. That is because this class of headphones lies on the ear instead of going all the way around. As a result, depending on the pads, they can be quite uncomfortable, especially if the headband is too small. Examples of this type of headphone include Grado SR60s, AKG K81 DJs, and Bose OE2s.
After that are earbuds. These are probably the most prolific type of headphones as every single phone these days seems to come with a pair. This type of headphone rests inside the ear but does not actually go in them. Examples include Apple earbuds and Yuin PK1s. Often times these are pointed at as the worst headphones soundwise, although there are exceptions.
Lastly are the in-ear type of headphones. These go into the ear canal and are very good for blocking out external sound sources if you can manage a good seal. Examples of these include, Skullcandy Ink'd 'earbuds', Klipsch S4s, and Etymotic HF2s.
Most generally, there are 4 main types of headphones, circumaural, supra-aural, earbuds, and in-ear. Now let's just hit them all in order. Circumaural headphones, also called full size headphones or over-ear headphones are just that, over the ear. They are designed to fit around the ears and while usually quite comfortable can get quite heavy just due to them being designed to go all around the ear. Examples of this type of headphone include Bose QuietComfort 15s, Audio-Technica ATH-M50s, and Beats Studios.
Next are supra-aural headphones, also called on-ear headphones. That is because this class of headphones lies on the ear instead of going all the way around. As a result, depending on the pads, they can be quite uncomfortable, especially if the headband is too small. Examples of this type of headphone include Grado SR60s, AKG K81 DJs, and Bose OE2s.
After that are earbuds. These are probably the most prolific type of headphones as every single phone these days seems to come with a pair. This type of headphone rests inside the ear but does not actually go in them. Examples include Apple earbuds and Yuin PK1s. Often times these are pointed at as the worst headphones soundwise, although there are exceptions.
Lastly are the in-ear type of headphones. These go into the ear canal and are very good for blocking out external sound sources if you can manage a good seal. Examples of these include, Skullcandy Ink'd 'earbuds', Klipsch S4s, and Etymotic HF2s.
Thursday, October 3, 2013
Gear Days: Audio
First actual Gear Days post. What could be more fitting than going over what audio actually is and an overview of what gear is out there?
Scientifically, the sounds we hear as humans are the interpretations of pressure waves by our brains. More specifically, our eardrums vibrate due to pressure waves in air and our brains interpret those vibrations by our eardrums. Now that's all well and good, but let's talk about gear and their functions at a high level.
Obviously we have output devices. These include headphones and speakers and their use obviously is to interpret audio signal and reproduce it for us to listen to. There are a bunch of different ways that these are made and different ways to recreate sound from a non-analog signal. A good distinction to make is that these output devices represent a digital signal and output an analog signal which is what we hear.
The second class of devices are inputs. These include MIDI devices like MIDI keyboards or synths as well as microphones. The point of these is to either take an analog signal, like microphones do, and interpret that and spit out a digital signal that computers can understand. MIDI devices are a bit different in that they do not start out as an analog signal but are instead send values down the line to represent sound in a numerical manner, but I'll get into that later, when I actually get a MIDI device.
The last class of devices are audio interfaces. These bridge the gap between outputs and inputs and computers or other devices. This class includes Analog-to-Digital Converters (ADC) and Digital-to-Analog Converters (DAC) examples of which include what are called audio interfaces as well as sound cards and media players like cd players. This is an interesting class of devices because when you're beginning to get into headphones or speakers, you'll completely ignore this class of devices. However, if you ever get to serious recording or listening, this is sometimes seen as the most important class of devices of the three. But I'll get into these in a bit.
As of this post I own 7 pairs of headphones, 1 pair of speakers, 1 audio interface, and 1 microphone with plans to get another pair of headphones. More specifically, I have 3 pairs of closed circumaural headphones, 1 pair of closed supra-aural headphones, 1 pair of in ear monitors, 1 pair of earbuds, and 1 pair of closed circumaural noise cancelling headphones. The speakers are a pair of studio monitors, the microphone is a condenser microphone with a cardioid polar pattern, and the audio interface supports two inputs and two outputs. I'll go into what all of that means in future Gear Days posts, namely later this month. I hope you're as stoked about this as I am and until next time.
--CsMiREK
Scientifically, the sounds we hear as humans are the interpretations of pressure waves by our brains. More specifically, our eardrums vibrate due to pressure waves in air and our brains interpret those vibrations by our eardrums. Now that's all well and good, but let's talk about gear and their functions at a high level.
Obviously we have output devices. These include headphones and speakers and their use obviously is to interpret audio signal and reproduce it for us to listen to. There are a bunch of different ways that these are made and different ways to recreate sound from a non-analog signal. A good distinction to make is that these output devices represent a digital signal and output an analog signal which is what we hear.
The second class of devices are inputs. These include MIDI devices like MIDI keyboards or synths as well as microphones. The point of these is to either take an analog signal, like microphones do, and interpret that and spit out a digital signal that computers can understand. MIDI devices are a bit different in that they do not start out as an analog signal but are instead send values down the line to represent sound in a numerical manner, but I'll get into that later, when I actually get a MIDI device.
The last class of devices are audio interfaces. These bridge the gap between outputs and inputs and computers or other devices. This class includes Analog-to-Digital Converters (ADC) and Digital-to-Analog Converters (DAC) examples of which include what are called audio interfaces as well as sound cards and media players like cd players. This is an interesting class of devices because when you're beginning to get into headphones or speakers, you'll completely ignore this class of devices. However, if you ever get to serious recording or listening, this is sometimes seen as the most important class of devices of the three. But I'll get into these in a bit.
As of this post I own 7 pairs of headphones, 1 pair of speakers, 1 audio interface, and 1 microphone with plans to get another pair of headphones. More specifically, I have 3 pairs of closed circumaural headphones, 1 pair of closed supra-aural headphones, 1 pair of in ear monitors, 1 pair of earbuds, and 1 pair of closed circumaural noise cancelling headphones. The speakers are a pair of studio monitors, the microphone is a condenser microphone with a cardioid polar pattern, and the audio interface supports two inputs and two outputs. I'll go into what all of that means in future Gear Days posts, namely later this month. I hope you're as stoked about this as I am and until next time.
--CsMiREK
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
Coding 101: Next steps
So this is going to be the last post with the label Coding 101. My goal with this wasn't really so much to teach a lot of syntactical things or coding style. Mainly I wanted to see what kinds of broad topics I could cover that applied to all forms of coding. I wanted to put out some of the languages that are popular at the moment and what they're best uses are.
For next steps, if you're interested in coding, I suggest enrolling in a free online course like the ones on coursera.org. These are often well designed and if you can find a good introduction course, it can be a good motivator to actually learn something new. If you want to take a more exploratory path, you can look at all the code around you. After all, every single website you touch is backed by some amount of code. Simple sites might just have static HTML, but as you get to more complex sites, you'll see sites made with CSS and then JavaScript and if you look into it further, you'll find things like CoffeeScript and AngularJS which can be used to create JavaScript in a simpler manner.
As always, I encourage you to learn coding as it can be a really fun and productive past time. However, I'll also say that coding is a skill that takes time and if you feel you aren't up to it, don't feel obligated to learn it. While I have a really biased view considering my occupation, I definitely think that learning how to code or even just how to read code can enrich your life in ways you wouldn't quite think of. Anyways I hoped you enjoyed Coding 101 and look forward to Coding 102 in the future.
--CsMiREK
For next steps, if you're interested in coding, I suggest enrolling in a free online course like the ones on coursera.org. These are often well designed and if you can find a good introduction course, it can be a good motivator to actually learn something new. If you want to take a more exploratory path, you can look at all the code around you. After all, every single website you touch is backed by some amount of code. Simple sites might just have static HTML, but as you get to more complex sites, you'll see sites made with CSS and then JavaScript and if you look into it further, you'll find things like CoffeeScript and AngularJS which can be used to create JavaScript in a simpler manner.
As always, I encourage you to learn coding as it can be a really fun and productive past time. However, I'll also say that coding is a skill that takes time and if you feel you aren't up to it, don't feel obligated to learn it. While I have a really biased view considering my occupation, I definitely think that learning how to code or even just how to read code can enrich your life in ways you wouldn't quite think of. Anyways I hoped you enjoyed Coding 101 and look forward to Coding 102 in the future.
--CsMiREK
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Gear Days: An Introduction
It's October now and I've been at this writing random stuffs thing for 10 months now, let's disregard the 3 month break during the summer. But really, let's talk about some of the stuff I'm interested in.
To my friends, it's no surprise that I enjoy music. To that end, it's also not surprising that I like the gear to record and listen to music. Over the course of this summer alone, I've picked up a microphone, a pair of studio monitors, an audio interface and 3 pairs of headphones. Since I've started, collecting, see hoarding, audio equipment, I felt like I should talk about audio equipment. Note, I'm not so bad that I would classify this as a mental illness, but also far from a passing interest. Let's call it a hobby.
In the posts labeled 'Gear Days' or GD for short, I'll be talking either talking through how a piece of audio equipment functions or I will be going over and reviewing a particular piece of gear that I own. I hope you find these posts as interesting as I find the gear themselves. Until next time.
--CsMiREK
To my friends, it's no surprise that I enjoy music. To that end, it's also not surprising that I like the gear to record and listen to music. Over the course of this summer alone, I've picked up a microphone, a pair of studio monitors, an audio interface and 3 pairs of headphones. Since I've started, collecting, see hoarding, audio equipment, I felt like I should talk about audio equipment. Note, I'm not so bad that I would classify this as a mental illness, but also far from a passing interest. Let's call it a hobby.
In the posts labeled 'Gear Days' or GD for short, I'll be talking either talking through how a piece of audio equipment functions or I will be going over and reviewing a particular piece of gear that I own. I hope you find these posts as interesting as I find the gear themselves. Until next time.
--CsMiREK
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