Product reviews, tips and more for photographers and Youtube producers
If you record audio via an external recorder in order to replace the audio your camera captures, you’ll usually need some sort of a synchronisation tool. The simplest is using a clapper, with the second-best using Red Giant’s PluralEyes. But what if the audio your recorder captures drifts out of sync during recording? Why does that happen and how can you avoid it?
Youtubers, wedding video shooters, broadcast sound men/women and filmmakers: they all want to record sound with the best possible results. But practicalities such as pricing often stand in the way of reaching this lofty goal. Yet, equipment that exceeds the basic technical requirements – essential to even think about reaching it – is what you’ll need. A microphone is the first and one of the most important links in the chain from the sound you capture to the audio the viewer/listener gets out of their speakers. The results depend on the whole chain, but if you start with a tin can sound because of a low-end mic, you’ll never get to the full and rich sound you’re after.
If you are recording audio separately when shooting a documentary, interview or movie, chances are you'll not only have to synchronise it with the footage but also edit your audio to make it sound perfect in post production. The two apps I use for this are the iZotope RX 6 Advanced Audio Editor and the …
A microphone pre-amp is meant to amplify your mic's signal, not to introduce its own noise and artefacts into the recorded results. You need a mic pre because your microphone has a signal that's too weak to be captured by a recorder. A preamplifier boosts the signal to a standard line level, which all recorders …
Continue reading "IK Multimedia iRig Pre HD is a good and inexpensive mic pre-amp"
Sound Devices released their MixPre series of audio recorders earlier this year, with the MixPre-10 the most recent to have been introduced. We had the opportunity to try out a MixPre-6, a recorder that can handle eight channels.
The iRig Pro I/O is the successor of the iRig Pro. It’s slightly bigger but offers higher specs and more professional capabilities, including headphones monitoring and a dedicated power supply that charges your iPad while recording.
Suites for mastering audio exist in all shapes and forms. IK Multimedia developed a mastering suite together with Gavin Lurssen, the owner of a multiple Grammy award winning mastering studio. It looks exactly like the real thing and is based on Lurssen's studio equipment. The app annexe DAW plug-in incorporates the best practices of the studio.
If you use your iPad for audio recording or music making with any of the power consuming iRig devices, IK Multimedia has a solution for you: the iRig PowerBridge, a continuous charging system for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch while connected to digital iRig accessories. Unfortunately, some people do not fully understand how the iRig PowerBridge works, resulting in disappointment. iRig PowerBridge is not a pure iOS device charger, it’s different.
Creating virtual system-level devices from apps and audio equipment with Loopback is a breeze.
The USB MIDI keyboards I’ve tested so far were all spring-loaded and therefore quite light and indifferent to the touch. The Impact LX88+ is an 88-key semi-weighted MIDI keyboard/controller. Its keys are part spring-loaded, part weighted. You instantly feel the difference.
