[dmc] audio studio manual 2006

8/14/2019 [DMC] Audio Studio Manual 2006

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Johns Hopkins University Digital Media Center [email protected] Center 226, Baltimore, MD 21218 (410) 516-3817

DMC Audio Studio


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DMC Audio Studio

Rules for Use


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DMC Audio Studio

Rules for Use

Food, drink, and smoking are not allowed in the studio. Accidental spills can and do happen,and can significantly damage equipment. This rule holds throughout the Digital Media Center.

Only authorized studio users may checkout the studio and use the studio equipment. Anauthorized user is someone who has been authorized to use the studio by the Studio Manager (JerWelter), either after taking the Audio Studio Intro Workshop, or demonstrating significant priorexperience (e.g. a college-level course in Studio Production or Computer Music. You areallowed, and encouraged, to bring musical collaborators into the studio. But only authorizedusers are allowed to operate the equipment, and an authorized user must be present in the room atall times. By checking out the studio, you assume full personal responsibility for it, as per theDMC Loan Agreement.

If you reserve studio time, you must use it. If you cannot use reserved studio time, you mustcancel your reservation at the DMC front desk. An unused studio reservation deprives all studio

users of valuable studio time. Violation of this rule may result in cancellation of all futurereservations, and/or revocation of studio authorization.

The studio must be returned to normal settings at the end of each session. This means allextra chairs removed, all patches broken down, the board returned to the normal snapshot, allextra equipment (mics, stands, cables, etc) disconnected, packaged neatly, and returned to thefront desk. Budget time at the end of each session to do so, so that you do not take up studio timeof others, or impede the DMC from closing.

No studio user is to make or break connections behind the racks, or move studio equipment.Only DMC staff are authorized to do so. You may patch your own equipment via the top panel ofthe board, the analog patchbay, or the front port (port 8) of the MIDI patchbay. All otherconnections are off-limits.

Report any equipment problems to the Studio Manager. Do not attempt to fix physicalproblems yourself, or tamper with operating system presets. You may email Andrew Cole [email protected], or in an emergency, ask a DMC staff member to call his cell phone.

All DMC policies (including File Management) must be followed in use of the Audio Studio.You must take your data away with you on removable media, and you must not install softwareonto the studio computer. See http://digitalmedia.jhu.edu/AboutUs/Policies.cfm for moreinformation.

Have Fun!! Make beautiful music. Enjoy the Digital Media Center.


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DMC Audio Studio

Audio Suite Overview


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Audio Suite OverviewDigital Media Center, Johns Hopkins University

The Audio Suite at the DMC has been constructed to be an environment where students can workwith audio work in a wide variety of ways. It can be used for conventional recording/mixing work, asa suite for MIDI-based composition (either of standalone pieces or to film/video), or as a laboratory todevelop interactive music performance software, or anything in between. This document is intendedto guide an experienced user of professional audio technology in understanding how this specificstudio is put together. As such, I will use industry terms and 'jargon' in the document if a phrase oracronym is unfamiliar, a short definition can likely be found in the "word of the day" archives atSweetwater Sound: http://www.sweetwater.com/insync/word.tpl

If you are sitting in the studio, you will note that the equipment in the studio is physically groupedaccording to type, such that synths and samplers are all on the right (with rackmount units in the topbay), signal routing and recording and playback devices are in the lower right bay, processing is in theupper left bay.

Most equipment in the studio is wired into at least one of the patchbays in the lower right bay. Wehave a small analog audio patchbay, and a MOTU MTP AV for MIDI routing. There are also anumber of direct connections between pieces of equipment, mostly for multi-channel digital audio.

The heart of the studio is a Macintosh G5 running OS10, and a number of audio applications,primarily Mark of the Unicorn Digital Performer and Reason for MIDI and audio sequencing, Bias

Peak for digital audio editing, Live for realtime performace, and Cycling74 Max/MSP for real-timeinteractive multimedia, processing plugin development, etc. The studio is designed to be as close toan all-digital studio as possible, such that an initial analog-to-digital conversion is performed, and ifpossible the signal is never again converted back to the analog domain until it is sent out to speakers.

Because of this all-digital configuration, wordclock is a major concern in this studio. If you haveworked in mostly analog environments before, you may be unfamiliar with wordclock. Because it isso important in our studio, it is described in the Intro Handout. It can run either along with a digitalaudio signal, or on a separate 75ohm BNC coaxial cable.


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Tascam DM-3200 Digital Mixer

Audio Connections:

Line Inputs 1-16 to the analog patchbayMic Inputs 1-8 to the analog XLR patchbayAnalog Auxes Sends1+2 to the analog patchbayAnalog Auxes Returns 1+2 to the analog patchbayAnalog 2-Track Replay Input (stereo) to the analog patchbayAnalog Mix Output (stereo) to the analog patchbayAnalog control room outputs directly connected to HHB Circle1 Active Subwoofer, and in

turn to Circle 5A Active Near/Midfield Monitors

Digital Tape Channels 17-32 ADAT Inputs directly connected via ADAT lightpipe toBanks A & B ADAT Outputs on the MOTU 2408

Digital Tape Channels 33-40 TDIF Inputs directly connected via TDIF to Bank C TDIFOutput on the MOTU 2408

Digital Tape Channels 17-24 TDIF Inputs directly connected via TDIF to Tascam DA-78HR Outputs

Digital Tape Channels 40-48 TDIF Inputs directly connected via TDIF to Roland XV-5080Outputs

Digital Tape Direct Outputs 1-16 ADAT directly connected to ADAT Bank A & B Inputson MOTU 2408

Digital Tape Direct Outputs 1-8 TDIF directly connected to DA-78HRDigital Input/Output 1: S/PDIF(RCA) to Sony DPS-V77 ProcessorDitigal Input/Output 1:AES/EBU(XLR) emptyDitigal Input/Output 2: S/PDIF(RCA) to the DAT DA-45 HRDitigal Input/Output 2:AES/EBU(XLR) to the T.C. Electronic Finalizer Express

Word Clock:

Via External Wordclock BNC Input, via AES/EBU input, or internal clock.DAW:

The DM-3200 functions as a DAW using the Remote page. There are 2 banks of8 faders on the remote page. 1-8 and 9-16. Unless you have specified otherwisein a previous session, the page will default to the first 8 faders in DigitalPerformers Mixer. So banks 1 (faders 1-8) and 2 (faders 9-16) will control thesame faders. Because we generally want to be able to control more than 8 fadersat time, this can be annoying. To fix this problem, select the fader bank by justpressing the fader select button on one of the faders. If you press any fader 1 to 8,you will select that fader and fader bank1, 9-16 will select the fader and faderbank 2. In this case, lets select fader 9. Now you can change which group offaders this controls in Digital Performer by pressing either the > or < buttonsunder Bank under the Automation menu. You can also control the transport inDigital Performer with the transport on the Tascam Board.

Mark of the Unicorn 2408mkII

Audio Connections:

Direct ADAT connections to and from the Mixer via ADAT A & B.Direct TDIF connections to and from the Mixer via TDIF C.Analog outputs 1-8 to analog patchbay (these can be sourced from any of the three banks).

Word Clock:


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Internal, or via S/PDIF (2408 is at the head of the Wordclock BNC chain, and is normallythe wordclock master for all devices).

Set via the PCI-424 Console software (PCI-424 is the host PCI card), or when in DigitalPerformer, via Basics->MOTU Audio System Options->Configure Hardware Driver

General Notes:

The primary reason for the eight analog outputs being wired is because the board has onlysixteen channels of digital input thus, to get the full 24 channels out of the MOTU, onemust bring 8 in analog.

The "Monitor Outputs" setting in the PCI-324 Console governs which outputs will be usedas the stereo pair presented to Sound Manager applications (e.g. Peak, most apps).

Emu Proteus 2000 Synthesizer

Audio Connections:

2 analog to analog patchbay.Word Clock:

Internal only. Since the Proteus has no inputs whatsoever, it cannot clock to an externaldevice.

General Notes:

Since the Proteus only has a single stereo S/PDIF output, and cannot clock to externalsource, its analog outputs have been connected for maximum flexibility. In any patch inwhich its digital output was used, it would have to be the wordclock master for the entirestudio.

The Proteus has the potential for 6 total outputs. From practice I have noticed that this isnot necessary and rarely to never used, therefore I eliminated 4 of the 6 outputs in thepatchbay.

Roland XV-5080 Synthesizer/Sampler

Audio Connections:

2 analog to analog patchbayOne bank (eight channels) of TDIF digital audio, wired directly to Tascam 33-40 TDIF

Digital (Tape) InsWord Clock:

Clocked via the TDIF connection.Clocking is changed via the System/Utility->Outputs page.

General Notes:The XV has been upgraded to its full 128MB RAM complement, and has a SCSI Zip250

attached, for ease of importing samples. It is a very versatile unit, and could be expandedstill further by the addition of any of the XV/JV-series sound ROM expansion cards (it cantake eight, I believe, none have been yet installed). Another option might be a SCSI CDdrive, with which to read the many Roland-format sample CDs that are available out there.

The XV's native digital audio interface is R-BUS, Roland's proprietary format. It isconnected to a Roland DIF-AT, which converts R-BUS to/from ADAT and/or TDIF.

For some reason, the XV can clock to its onboard wordclock BNC input when it isconnected to the outside world via ADAT (i.e. R-BUS->DIF-AT->ADAT), but when theformat is changed to TDIF (R-BUS->DIF-AT->TDIF) it cannot do so. Thankfully, theDIF-AT is one of the few non-Tascam devices that can send and receive clock via TDIF, sothe XV is technically clocked to the DIF-AT, which in turn is clocked to the Spirit viaTDIF.

The XV-5080 is unsupported by Mark of the Unicorn's Unisyn, the MIDI editor/librarianwe have, and at the time of purchase was unsupported by any editor software. Unisyncame for $25 extra with Performer it now appears to be a dead product, no longer under


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active development. There is an actively developed editor called SoundDiver by Emagic(www.emagic.de) which now finally has a full XV-5080 editor module in public beta. Itmay be worth purchasing this software.

Nord Modular Synthesizer

Audio Connections:

2 analog outputs to the analog patchbay.Two analog inputs (for using the Nord as a custom effects unit) may be connected to the

board's analog Aux sends with patch cables.Word Clock:

Internal only. The Nord does not have digital outputs.General Notes:

The Nord requires two MIDI connections one for traditional MIDI, the other for Nord-specific control data which is used for connection to the editor application on the Mac.

Kurzweil SP-76 Keyboard

Audio Connections:

2 analog outputs (one stereo pair) to the analog patchbayWord Clock:

Internal only. The SP-76 does not have digital outputs.General Notes:

Although the SP-76 has some sound patches, its primary utility is as a controller.t.c. electronic Finalizer Express

Audio Connections:

1 AES/EBU I/O pair connected directly to the Digital Input/Output 22 analog outputs to the analog patchbay2 analog inputs from to the patchbay

Word Clock:

The Finalizer should always be set to clock to its S/PDIF input.Clocking is changed via buttons on the front panel.

General Notes:

The Finalizer and the V77 (see below) are connected to the MIDI Timepiece on the sameport, via MIDI Thru. This is because the Finalizer can only receive one MIDI message control over its main output for fadeouts.

Sony DPS-V77 Effects Processor

Audio Connections:

One S/PDIF I/O pair, connected directly to the Tascams Digital Input/Output 1Word Clock:

Should always clock to its S/PDIF InputGeneral Notes:

As noted above, shares a MIDI port with the Finalizer.Tascam DA-78HR 8 Channel DTRS Recorder

Audio Connections:

One bank (8 channels) of TDIF output directly to the 17-24 Digital TDIF inputs of theboard.

One bank of TDIF input directly from Tascam Tape Direct outputs 1-8.Word Clock:


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Wordclock BNC. Should always be clocked to the board. Should remain on even whennot in use to provide clock to the DA-45HR.

Wordclocking adjusted via buttons on the front panel.There is a BNC T-adaptor and a 50 ohm terminator attached to the wordclock input of the

78. This is to solve a known electrical problem with the wordclock input of the unit. Seethe DTRS users message board (accessible from the Tascam website, www.tascam.com).

General Notes:Recently repaired for a freezing/crashing problem.The DA-78 is primarily useful for bringing in tapes from other locations, and for doing

recording in the room in which the fan noise generated by the Macintosh would beproblematic. Tracks recorded in this way can then be brought into Performer digitally.

Tascam DA-45HR DAT Recorder

Audio Connections:

Stereo analog inputs and outputs to the analog patchbay.One S/PDIF I/O pair to the Tascam Digital Input/Output 2: RCA

Word Clock:

Wordclock BNC, S/PDIF, or Internal. Should usually be locked to Wordclock BNC(which it can do while receiving S/PDIF input).

Wordclocking adjusted via switch on front panel.General Notes:

Has a wired remote on the desk. The remote has a battery compartment, but requires nobatteries. Go figure.

General Note on MIDI Configuration

Currently the MIDI configuration of the studio has the DA-78, the Sony V77, and the Finalizer allsharing port 7 on the MTP (via their MIDI thrus). This may ultimately prove untenable, in whichcase a second MTP will be required.


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DMC Audio Studio

Connection Schematics


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DMC Audio Studio

DM-3200 Presets


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DMC Audio Suite

Troubleshooting Tips


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Troubleshooting Tips in the Audio Studio

Understand Your Signal Path Diagramming Helps Start from the sound source, and work through each signal stage. Audio

could be diverted or attenuated at any input stage, causing it not to make it

to its destination (a recording device, the monitors, etc.)

Be careful about volume often may turn up C/R if sound is attenuated when problem is fixed, it may be very loud. Proceed with caution and takecare of your ears.(use C/R cut when appropriate)

Trouble spotsi. Have you patched correctly? Recheck connections. Analog

connections might not be fully inserted.

ii. Are you using the correct fader bank?iii. If an analog soruce, is input gain high enough?iv. If a mic, does it require phantom power? Is the line jack

disconnected?

v. Select your channel, and inspect the select panel on the mixer. Isthe channel assigned appropriately?

vi. Are all the faders up(channel, mix, any bus faders that areneeded). Check the master fader section.

vii. Is 2TR replay switched in?viii. Is c/r cut depressed?

ix. Is the boards clock source set correctly? Are the clock sources ofall equipment in your chain correct?

x. In the case of S/PIF or AES/EBU I/O. is the appropriate channelassigned to the physical input or output?


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DMC Audio Suite

Example ClearanceExam


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Johns Hopkins University Digital Media Center digitalmedia@jhu edu

Digital Audio WorkshopStudio Clearance Exam Study Sheet

This is a study sheet for the exam to become cleared for the DMC Audio studio. Each ofthese questions will give an idea of the kind of questions the instructor may give to assessyour ability to work in the studio. You can take the test as many times as you need to but

please do not set up a time with me unless you feel you are ready. You will have access tothe studio to work on this questions so feel free to come in when you are available.

_________________________________________________________

Two rules that are important to remember:

1. If you have any questions use the resources at the DMC effectively. Please usethe manuals in the DMC library, and ask Greg Stonerock and I if you have any

other questions that cant be answered here.2. Do not get frustrated!! If you do please take some take away from the studio andcome back. Please dont start pushing buttons if you dont know what they do.

This could cause some problems and could make the studio not usable for a

period of time until I can fix it which would disadvantage everyone.____________________________________________________________________

Sample questions that couldbe asked

MIDI1. How do would you connect the XV-5080 so you can hear it in the studio monitors?2. What is the difference between a MIDI file and an Audio File?3.How do you record the Proteus, XV-5080 or the Nord modular into Digital Performer?

Audio1. How do you record the input of a microphone into Digital Performer?2. If I want to hear the roland XV-5080 coming out of the mixing board how do I setup thatconfiguration.3. What are some things to be aware of when using a microphone in this studio?4. How do you record to DAT tape?5. What is Phantom Power and how is it used in this studio?6. You cant hear any audio in the studio speakers. what are 5 things that could be wrong with themixing board? What are three things that could be wrong with Digtial Performer?7. How do I record someone speaking in a microphone into Peak?8. How do I load an audio sample into Digital Performer?9. What kind of microphone requires Phanton Power?

Connections1. What is the TDIF input and what is it connected to? How would I control the TDIF inputs on theMixing board2. how do I hear a CD in the studio?3. How would I record a CD into the computer?4. How do I connect the Nord Modular to the mixing Board?

5. What is the Word Clock? How is it used in this studio?

[dmc] audio studio manual 2006

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