James Perrett wrote:Well there was someone who was trying to use the mic built-in to a noisy laptop at the last meet
Ok ok 'twas me, in my defence I wasn't't planning to attend until the last minute and only stayed for a vert short time.......
I'm sure you all noticed I had trimmed my nasal hair especially for the occasion as it was quicker than finding a higher stool for the laptop.... (note to self, why not just sit on the floor?)
Last edited by Sam Spoons on Wed May 27, 2020 11:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Just a brief diversion on the subject of Zoom meetings...
A relative is rector of a church in N London with a substantial congregation. Her sermon during their first 'Zoom Church' gathering was interrupted by a shout of, "Philip? Can you put the potatoes on please?"
They now have a 'Zoom Verger' who, amongst other things, has control of all the mics and switches them on and off as necessary at the appropriate time...
Last edited by Mike Stranks on Thu May 28, 2020 7:56 am, edited 1 time in total.
Technical Editor, Sound On Sound...
(But generally posting my own personal views and not necessarily those of SOS, the company or the magazine!)
In my world, things get less strange when I read the manual...
Sam Spoons wrote:* Not the case with zoom SOS meets, obviously.....
I host quite a few Zoom sessions nowadays (mostly involving music) including the SoS ones and believe me the SoS ones are easiest to cope with (people with names related to Bonzos and cutlery excepted). All the other sessions start with 10-15 minutes or more of online technical support
CC
Last edited by ConcertinaChap on Thu May 28, 2020 8:45 pm, edited 2 times in total.
I looked into iLoud Micro and Fluid Audio F4, as well as into a few others, but I'm still leaning towards Presonus Eris 3.5 or Eris 4.5. The iLoud Micro looks great but a bit too pricey, the F4 has no tone adjustments and no balanced input. I'd like to adjust to the room which is small with speakers against a wall, and I will use them with the balanced output of the Scarlett 2i2.
The only difference between Eris 3.5 and 4.5 is the woofer diameter, and accordingly the low frequency cutoff (80 Hz vs 70 Hz). Considering my DT 770 Pro headphones go to 10Hz, would you pay 177 EUR instead of the 98 EUR of the 3.5 just for 10 Hz more? Most of my use is for listening while playing, and I never mix instruments with low frequency.
I'm looking into acoustic panels, thanks for the suggestion. I don't want a very dry room because it's awful for violin.
notuno wrote:I'm looking into acoustic panels, thanks for the suggestion. I don't want a very dry room because it's awful for violin.
For recording/tracking in a small room you can't really have it too dry* though you will need an awful lot of panels before that becomes a problem. The usual issue is that thin, cheap, foam panels absorb the high frequencies without affecting the mids and LF. The basic aim is to get a reasonably even frequency response from 20kHz down to the low mid range and minimum reflections at the recording and mixing positions.
As a minimum you need to control first reflections (mirror points on the side walls, ceiling and maybe back wall). For tracking a panel on the ceiling above the recording position to control flutter echoes and a duvet behind the performer can work wonders. You do have the benefit of not recording or mixing LF content so you have the possibility to have a room that is well controlled over most of the frequency range of your recordings, low frequencies are by far the hardest thing to control in a domestic space.
* The natural reverb in a small room is never going to sound good enough to be worth preserving for recording purposes. With great sounding reverb plug-ins available you'll get much better results by recording as dry as possible and add ambience at the mix stage.
Last edited by Sam Spoons on Fri May 29, 2020 10:35 am, edited 1 time in total.
My take would be to go with the 3.5s. They'll give you the stereo information you need and will help with reverb judgement (in my experience).
Use your headphones for assessing low end.
Use any money saved to put towards future purchases of:
- audio correction software like Sonarworks for your headphones. Or,
- acoustic treatment. Or,
- a couple of mic stands and some cheap winter duvets to use as impromptu (but very effective) acoustic treatment.
Or just buy a beer and enjoy listening to your new speakers.
blinddrew wrote:My take would be to go with the 3.5s. They'll give you the stereo information you need and will help with reverb judgement (in my experience).
Use your headphones for assessing low end.
Use any money saved to put towards future purchases of:
- acoustic treatment. Or,
- acoustic treatment. Or,
- acoustic treatment.
Or just buy acoustic treatment and enjoy listening to your new speakers.
blinddrew wrote:My take would be to go with the 3.5s. They'll give you the stereo information you need and will help with reverb judgement (in my experience).
Use your headphones for assessing low end.
Use any money saved to put towards future purchases of:
- acoustic treatment. Or,
- acoustic treatment. Or,
- acoustic treatment.
Or just buy acoustic treatment and enjoy listening to your new speakers.
FTFY
Thanks both, this was helpful. I'll go for the 3.5, and use the difference for a couple of panels for now, plus put in the necessary extra money for speaker stands and TRS cables. I hadn't thought of a duvet, I'll hang one to the doors of the cabinet 1.5m behind my chair and see what happens. Then I'll get a beer.
You never miss what you haven't had but once you hear the difference even a little acoustic treatment makes to your room there's no going back, you'll never want to record or mix in an untreated room again......
Enjoy the beer
Last edited by Sam Spoons on Fri May 29, 2020 1:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Quick update: after two months of using the Eris 3.5 with the Scarlett 2i2, I'm quite happy with them. The only problem is the aux input on the front of the speakers, that is horribly noisy no matter what I connect to it, anyway a minor problem since I don't plan to use them that way.
