In the Clouds

You’d think that Aircheck would post more stories about radio. No!

Previous blog entries have had nothing to do with the industry at all. Traditional radio peaked long ago and has begun a terminal decline. That doesn’t really bother me at all because 16 years ago I noticed certain trends that led me into an unrelated field completely; never regretting my decision. I am fickle by nature and have gone through many cycles in a love-hate relationship with broadcasting. Right now, I see myself as a retired deejay and programmer who started as an adolescent with an aptitude for electronics, particularly audiophile grade gear. I figured an entry into the whacky world of radio was a necessary springboard onto a recording engineer career. Not so!

I was shocked to find that nearly every person that I encountered in radio over the years—particularly sales people—were either clueless or had no interest in high fidelity sound at all. To go out on a limb, I’d say no one I ever worked with was an audiophile, chief engineers included. My assumptions at the time were shattered by both the lack of knowledge and the apathy, contempt even, for ultimate audio quality. Initially, I wasn’t in radio to be on the radio (or even make money); rather, I was enamored with its technical magic. Crazy!

In fact, eons ago, while in my early 20’s, my capricious interests veered to the radio engineering field. I was easily thwarted by our chief engineer’s impatience with my constant questioning about emerging developments in audio that I had read about only in magazines. He was visibly peeved by my passion for all things audio and was quite dismissive, “Where did you hear about that?” He’d say. To him I was just a snot-nosed kid who shouldn’t be asking for his pearls of wisdom. (In truth, he was embarrassed by a kid who seemed to upstage him.) Lesson learned. Often my audio hobby clashed with the middle-aged sensibilities of my much older associates. Granted, my head was often in the clouds. If I had spent more time on the practical side of the business maybe, just maybe, I’d still be involved. Nah!

That’s a discussion for another day.

Stay tuned.

Tubes

Not to stir audio controversy, but sometimes older is just better. I grew up in the age of solid state electronics although, at the same time, appreciating the older tube tech that preceded it. I sound like a broken record but vinyl does sound better than Mp3 or any number of the lossy digital formats around these days. Even now the Compact Disc itself is considered an old technology.

Lately, I’ve returned to my analog roots. I’ve perused local thrift stores hoping to buy good tape decks to playback my cherished cassettes, some of which are over 40 years old. Surprisingly, I have found a couple tape deck gems. Now my goal is a good reel-to-reel deck (fingers crossed). Don’t worry my CD’s are still safe.

As for the tubes versus transistors debate; I fall somewhere in the middle of the discussion. Tubes produce pleasant coloration. In guitar amps, tubes are the only choice. Solid State electronics sound clean, somewhat free of artifacts; much like digital audio seems too perfect when contrasted with analog. Recording engineers use tube electronics to give “warmth” to digital. It is the best of both. Is older or newer technology better? As long as one compliments the other, the answer is both.

Stay tuned

©2011 Neal Rhoden. My Aircheck Blog. All rights reserved.

Big Fan

Today’s post just goes to show you what little it takes to excite me. One of my favorite radio stations here in Atlanta is 680, the Fan. As you may have guessed it is an all sports-talk station. I have been listening to their coverage of the local and national sports scene for quite some time now. What gets me going right now is that their signal is getting a boost, literally. They have added a simulcast to their original 680 AM on 93.7 FM. Now, no matter what time, day or night, I can hear the Fan (static free). Yes! This turn of events is all thanks to the FCC’s recent ruling on allowing some AM stations an FM translator in addition to their normal frequency.

Stay tuned

©2010 Neal Rhoden. Aircheck blog. All rights reserved.

Rock On

Welcome to October or as I like to call it, ROCKtober.

Yesterday I rambled on about my first encounter with the Compact Disc. Although every effort has been made to proofread each post, sometimes an error will slip through. Previously I wrote:

“Christmas 1982 the audiophile community was all abuzz over the shiny 12 millimeter disk that would revolutionize sound forever.”

The date is correct, but it should have read “12 centimeter disk.” Recalling the original press reports of 1982, designers of the CD made the disks 12 centimeters as an homage to the 12 inch Long Play vinyl record album. Further, they made the 74 minute capacity of the CD standard length because it is roughly the length of Beethoven's fifth symphony, which was very popular among the Japanese, who through Sony partnered with Phillips to invent Compact Discs.

Stay tuned

©2010 Neal Rhoden. The Peanut Whistle blog. All rights reserved.

Ones and Zeros

Christmas 1982 the audiophile community was all abuzz over the shiny 12 millimeter disk that would revolutionize sound forever. The CD or, as originally known  the Digital Audio Compact Disc, was billed by Sony and others as “perfect sound forever” and I had to have one. By 1983 I was in the showroom of my local high end audio shop Audio Outlet. I was 17 and newly employed so all I could afford then was only a listen. CD players cost as much as my first car and CD’s themselves were about 18 bucks so buying one was not feasible. The technology was so new that most people would have to wait at least a decade before CD’s would be common in homes and 15 years, the late 90’s, before most cars were equipped with players.

Looking back on 1983 at my first audition, I didn’t believe my ears. The sound of instruments was clear and distinct with life like separation as though the musicians were actually performing live. I forgot that I was listening to a recording and transcended to a different setting altogether. As good as that first session was, none of the music I liked was yet available on the new format so I had to continue buying vinyl for a while. As much as I wanted one I told the eager salesman that “My ears loved it but my pocketbook couldn’t take it.” It would be four more years before I got my first CD player. That was 1987 and CD’s were still about $18 a piece, worth every penny however scarce. As time progressed the hardware and software became much cheaper. For me, though, recording digitally on CD was only a pipe dream. My hobby, and by then profession, was recording. I did everything in an analog world.

The best thing about digital sound is not what it adds it is in what is missing. Freedom from noise, tape hiss, immeasurable wow and flutter, extended frequency response and wide dynamic range are all earmarks of the CD. Many sound enthusiasts claim that digital sound is harsh and bemoan the loss of what analog added to the signal. Most call this “warmth.” Modern recording engineers agree that analog is better and attempt to replicate the sound in software. I would have seen this trend as a step backward in my youth, although now I appreciate both approaches to recording sound.

Analog reminds me of how 35mm film makes an image warm and inviting while digital is akin to the look of live video, realistic and stark. Both technologies continue to coexist. Since no technology really is “perfect forever” blending both is the way to go. The best attribute of digital is its ability to archive without any loss of quality on the shelf. Analog tape, on the other hard, degrades over time. Cassette tapes, especially, lose high frequency content over time. That is why I have been transferring my analog originals to digital with a few recordings made into CD’s. Most of the transfers exist on my hard drive. I began my digital migration in 1995 with the now defunct Sony Mini Disc then to CD and finally Mp3 files. A Peanut Whistle subscriber has suggested that I transfer my dad’s old recordings to CD. Thanks, I’m way ahead of you. I’ve been doing just that for the past 15 years.

Stay tuned

©2010 Neal Rhoden. The Peanut Whistle. All rights reserved.

File Under: Audio

The dictionary defines an audiophile simply as “an audio enthusiast.” A short, all too simple definition for my lifelong obsession with sound. Thanks go to my dad for getting the ball rolling on my aural hobby. As early as age three I remember his portable reel-to-reel and microphone recording me in one of his interviews with me his toddler son barely old enough to talk. Flash forward a few years later I had taken up the hobby recording sound effects—doors slamming, thunder clapping—with a stereo cassette boom box and an electret condenser microphone. Just like Daddy I had been bitten by the audio bug.

Age 17, I began and continued a career in radio only as an excuse to play with all the knobs and switches that shaped sound. It was never for the purpose of money or fame. I was also a very young and capable soundman in church often wearing my emotions on my sleeve because older folks often lacked the deep understanding of audio I possessed. In time I learned to put my hobby in perspective: got a real job, learned how to deal with ignorance, developed diplomacy and generally became less of a nerd. As the short dictionary definition proves, society as a whole cares much less than I do for audio. That’s alright we all have our interests. If only I could combine my experience and attitude now into my teen ears.

Stay tuned

©2010 Neal Rhoden. The Peanut Whistle blog. All rights reserved.

‘Check this

Once again answering the questions that no one asks Gospel Aircheck comes to the rescue! How exactly is an aircheck made. Well, I’m glad you asked. The most simple method is using a component stereo system or boombox with a built in tape recorder and an AM/FM radio and rolling tape on your favorite radio station. An unattended recording of a station is called an unscoped aircheck. You see ‘scoped is short for telescoped, which is technical jargon for an edited recording of a program:often with commercials, music, and ID’s removed leaving the DJ’s voice only. Therefore, “unscoped” has not been edited. The problem with editing from one tape to another is that some audio quality is lost. The upside is that you never miss anything in an unscoped aircheck. Of course, this quality reduction only applies to analog tape. Certainly you could hover over the pause button and edit on the fly, but miscues are inevitable with live programming.

Most of the recordings I made of my own DJ shows were on analog cassette tape made on professional equipment directly from the source, the station’s soundboard. The resulting recordings are vastly superior to what is possible on any consumer gear, especially the lowly boombox. The problem I have with recordings of this type is that they are often too good. They don’t sound like authentic (gritty) over-the-air broadcasts. By the late 1980’s I started recording from the station’s modulation monitor, which is a fancy very expensive radio tuner that broadcasters use to listen to their signal. A modulation monitor is factory preset to receive one frequency, your own. Capturing broadcasts this way not only preserves content it gives a representation of signal quality as well. Naturally, hobbyists don’t have the luxury of a direct recording; but I have recently read about software that automatically digitally records radio shows just like VCR’s and DVR’s have done years for TV. So far only Internet radio streaming, not old fashioned AM/FM, is covered.

I switched to digital editing of my analog originals in 1995 and never looked back. Happy airchecking!

Stay tuned

©2010 Neal Rhoden. Gospel Aircheck blog. All rights reserved.

Mr. Microphone

“I’ll be back to pick you up later,” the young man announced from his convertible to the blonde stranger standing on the curb. His voice had been mysteriously amplified over his car stereo. One of the wonders of the late 1970’s, Mister Microphone was one of those $19.95 as-seen-on-TV wonders that everybody had to have. A toy, really, it was a cheap wireless mic that sent a signal via FM that was tuned in on a nearby radio affording many hours of fun—such as picking up chicks. I assure you no young woman has ever been wooed by one of these novelties. Sorry Romeo.

Stay tuned

©2010 Neal Rhoden. The Peanut Whistle. All rights reserved.

Freebies

Back again on the Internet beat Gospel Aircheck has returned with some great free forever software and services many of you can use.

One of our faves is Picasa™ from Google. For electronic photo sharing and storage and—did we mention?—it is free. Google offers a full gigabyte of storage of your priceless pics. Instead of the photo software native to our computers the Whistle has opted for Picasa. Check it out at http://www.google.com/picasa

For photo editing try Paint Dot Net; a surprisingly comprehensive and feature laden image editing software 100% no charge forever. Many of the things you can do in Photoshop™ are done just as well with Paint Dot Net. Follow the link above or: http://www.getpaint.net

Finally, Gospel Aircheck has found a wonderful file storage site that is totally free; we now use it for all our audio storage. The sound clip elements on this and our sister blog, The Peanut Whistle plus the Gospel Rewind Podcasts are handled by DivShare. You get 10 Gigs of storage and 5 Gigs of downloads. They offer more storage for a fee, but we highly recommend the free starter package. So far, so good; they promise storage is forever. Recently that offer seemed very attractive due to a failure with another so called free storage site that erased all our sound files because their 90 day inactivity policy. Do not use File Factory get DivShare.

Stay tuned

 

©2010 Neal Rhoden, Gospel Aircheck. All rights reserved

Freebies

If you are as cheap as I am then you are probably looking for good deals all the time.

To be even more similar to me you like to find free software on the Internet. Two very useful programs that I have found are 100% free to use forever, no strings attached. They are free of ads as well. I give my personal recommendation.

If you need an awesome free word processor nearly equal to Microsoft Word ® try Open Office. Download at http://www.openoffice.org

If you like to tinker with digital audio then get the beta version of Audacity for multi-track recording and editing. I find it very reliable and easy to use, weather you're a beginner or an experienced pro. I have been using Audacity for about five years. There was a slight learning curve in the beginning. With the on-line users manual, all features are comprehensively explained. I am not a beginner; audio has been a serious hobby of mine for 30 years: in radio production for a dozen years and church sound since I was 14. Devices and fads have come and gone, but I can truly say that Audacity is the most useful tool ever. It does things impossible for even state-of-the-art analog production studios when I began in radio. The only criticism: there is no real time preview of plug-in effects. Hey, it is free after all. You may download at http://audacity.sourceforge.net

Stay tuned

New Roots

I have found that blogging about church life is generally a very slippery slope. What I mean is that last week was both good and bad for the companion blog, the Peanut Whistle. I wrote a couple of posts that I felt were necessary. My family is transitioning to a new church home that we are very excited about; I wanted to chronicle the thought process that went into making the decision to leave a congregation and denomination where my wife and I shared deep roots. We met there, fell in love and had two of our babies dedicated there. Change is a process. This one is for the better.

Watch for new posts on what I continue to learn in church sound beginning my venture volunteering in an audio department that is now fully integrated with digital technology. When I began nearly thirty years ago the state of the art was analog; trending to using tracks on cassette, letting the piano collect dust. By the mid 90’s CD’s were used for soundtrack accompaniment. Note here that I always felt that live musicians were superior to canned music in worship. Tracks seemed too karaoke. I don’t want to offend an entire industry built on producing these recordings but they kill spontaneity. Not to mention the poor audio quality of the cassettes in the eighties; tape hiss was my constant nemesis. Although CD’s sounded better than tapes, the instruments needed playing again. Good news is that this new church has some talented musicians and singers playing 100% live.

Houses of worship are now using digital technology for visual presentation very effectively. That’s uncharted territory for me and quite an opportunity to learn something new. Running a board and mixing I can do, but lighting and video presentation are my weak points. I am nothing if not flexible, so please teach an old dog new tricks.

Stay tuned