the boss surprised me with sound samples today

[R.G.]

If you do have one that fails like that, I'll trade you new one for it. I'm very interested in new problems with them, and this is an unusual kind of issue to come up. Just drop me a PM when/if you find it or if your current one fails that way.

[ayayay!]

Not to keep swinging this away from the original purpose of this thread, but I experienced the same thing.  I was a 1Spot user for YEARS, having fried one in the process.  I think I've gone through about 8 of them.  I am totally with Doug Deeper.  I was replacing mine every 18 months or so because they would start oscillating.  I should have contacted VS, but like a lot of other consumers I just said, "enough"  and moved on.  Granted, at the end of it I was using 3 1Spots on my board simultaneously, but they were all well within mA range and I didn't have more than 4 pedals on a chain.  Over time, it just all started getting noisy. 

I ditched them all for a BBE Supa Charger and my board has been virtually noiseless since.  Some are daisy chained, some are not (I'm not a BBE fan, but this product best suited my needs.)  In all fairness, the BBE is totally different and each output is isolated & regulated. 

[R.G.]

Again, I would like to find out why this happens. Can you please locate one which does this and then get in touch with me?

[solderman]

Hi all

R.G Wrought

knew things like this were possible, and of course everyone likes to hear sound clips of pedals and such. I mentioned to Bob a while back that we really ought to get more sound samples of our (Visual Sound) gear up on the web page to listen to. He said he'd work on it. I forgot about it.

This is EXACTLY the reason to why I have put time and effort in to create a website around my hobby.  I started this hobby of building effects a year ago. I have, as of today, built 21 different effects. To do this I have spent a couple of hors surfing the web to learn and for info. There is a HUGE amount of very good sites with info out there (this site is one of them). The one thing that I have missed is sound samples. After the first 10 or so effects I started to look on the schematics of the effect I wanted to build and wonder how it actually sounded. This goes specially for sound modulating filters effects (Dr Quack, Ocatvers and such.). I felt I wanted to pay something back to the web community for all the info and knowledge I have got. Since I missed soundsamples I thought making a site with soundsampels of the actual build might interest some one else than me. And to share my own goofups so others wont have to do the same mistake. And of cause, I have to admit, a bit of vanity to show them to the world 

But I have run in to a problem. When I record the files grow too big. 10 sec=4.5 Mb. I use Cubase SX . The first time I exported 10 seconds at 128/44.000 stereo it was 5.3 Mb way to large. I the exported 96/44.000 mono but still 4.5Mb. I have seen clips at 128/44.000 15 seconds long under 1Mb. What do I miss??

Pleas anyone, If I cant get the size down I cant finish my work on the site and no sound

If you go to my site and look up My effect Projects" and in there the Effect "Captain America" and click on "Sound Sample" you can see how I was planning to present it.

Some of the sites I have found with sound samples.

http://www.runoffgroove.com/

http://www.home-wrecker.com/

http://www.pedalarea.com/index.htm

http://www.storm-software.co.yu/diy/index.php?project=clips

http://www.zeta-sound.se/effects.html   (Only in swedich but self explaining)



//Solderman

[Mark Hammer]

Maybe you need to export in "leaner" formats.  I know we have debated whether soundclips do justice to things here, but those questions really are more a reflection of  the means used to record them (direct, amp choice, mic/mic-ing choice, etc) and means used to listen to them (cheesy 3" computer speakers, headphones designed for throbbing bass, etc) than the bit-rate and such.  I suspect there are some things that might want/need 16-bit resolution or higher and sampling rates of 44.1khz or more, but you would be surprised how many things will sound pretty much the same with fairly modest resolution and 22khz sampling.

Not having worked with Cubase, I'm not familiar with how far down it lets you go.  If it focuses on higher-quality recording that aims for widest bandwidth, then try out something like Audacity (free).

[frokost]

You are talking about mp3, not wav or similar, right?

[bdevlin]

I'm curious about that Comp 66.  It sounds great.  Of course the playing stands out in the sample.  What are the IC's in general.  An op amp and a separate chip performing most of the compression circuitry?  No op amp, or a custom made chip? 

[cheezit]

But I have run in to a problem. When I record the files grow too big. 10 sec=4.5 Mb. I use Cubase SX . The first time I exported 10 seconds at 128/44.000 stereo it was 5.3 Mb way to large. I the exported 96/44.000 mono but still 4.5Mb. I have seen clips at 128/44.000 15 seconds long under 1Mb. What do I miss??

Pleas anyone, If I cant get the size down I cant finish my work on the site and no sound

Well I looked at the Captain America sample you referred to, and you have a 22-second 128bit mp3 which is 348k.  That's about 1MB/minute, which is average for a normal stereo mp3.  I don't think you'll do much better than that unless you drop down to 96 bit, which will probably be audible.

I use Audacity for mp3 encoding---I'll export to WAV from whatever I am using to record, then bring it in to Audacity and export to MP3.  But Audacity won't do better than 1MB/minute for decent quality.

[frequencycentral]

But I have run in to a problem. When I record the files grow too big. 10 sec=4.5 Mb. I use Cubase SX . The first time I exported 10 seconds at 128/44.000 stereo it was 5.3 Mb way to large. I the exported 96/44.000 mono but still 4.5Mb. I have seen clips at 128/44.000 15 seconds long under 1Mb. What do I miss??

Pleas anyone, If I cant get the size down I cant finish my work on the site and no sound

There is a facility within Cubase SX which allows you to 'mixdown' and 'export' your audio in multiple formats, including .mp3. You can specify bandwidth etc. I use Cubase SX extensively, mostly for writing music for ad agencies. My finished work is generally emailed or uploaded onto an FTP, it's only us techie type who care about the difference between .wav and .mp3. I usually record in Cubase, mixdown and export as .wav, then open up Wavelab for post production, normalising, maximising etc. For soundclips I post here on the forum I just record direct into Wavelab and use the 'Save Special' feature to create an .mp3. Again, you can specify bandwidth, stereo/mono etc.

[R.G.]

On the MP3 encoder stuff, I've been getting brushed up to convert all my CDs to softcopy, which entails making bit-exact digital copies of the .wav files with EAC and then encoding .wav to .mp3. There is an open-source encoder called LAME that is not only well regarded in the CD-audio ripping community, it's been USED BY SONY AND OTHER CD MAKERS FOR MAKING THEIR OWN MP3s.

MP3 conversion is not a science, it's an art. The basis of MP3 encoding is that certain parts of the audio waveform are redundant, and other parts are masked by psycho-acoustics. The MP3 process makes scoring judgements about what can be left out as redundant and/or masked and puts in only enough to get most of the audio back. The quality of the resulting mp3 playback depends on how good the judgements were about what could be left out. Different mp3 encoders produce different results. LAME is a good one.

Google.

[MovingInSloMo]

Back on track.. YOU designed THOSE? I forget how many good people post here. I knew you had a reputation, but I didn't know you worked in the biz

[jacobyjd]

On the MP3 encoder stuff, I've been getting brushed up to convert all my CDs to softcopy

Hey R.G.--I hope you haven't made too much progress on converting all those cds without making sure the audio coming from the cds is absolutely perfect.

If you don't already have one, I'd recommend using one of these to eliminate micro-wobble-induced anomalies in the finished product:

http://gizmodo.com/5062660/900-contraption-trims-your-cds-to-make-them-rounder-you-poorer

[vanhansen]

Man, those Double Trouble clips sound GREAT!  Out of the V2 series, that one is definitely my favorite.  I still haven't been able to get one.  Things went from ok to worse for us and I'm currently hunting for a new job so it'll be a while longer still.  So, in the meantime, my SD-1 turned TS808 is doing the job for me.

R.G., are you going to be at the Arlington Guitar Show this weekend?  I'm looking to go on Sunday if I can.

[R.G.]

Sorry to hear about the difficulties, Erik. I think we're all going to be in the soup for a while until the folks who are only making $25M a year now recover back to their normal $100M a year.

No, we're not fielding a booth at the Arlington show this time. We'll be at the Dallas show next spring, though.

[vanhansen]

Thanks, R.G..  We're getting by and I'm making do with what I do have.  Although, I think my Crybaby has finally given up the ghost after 17 years and countless little repairs the last few years.  I'll know more after I get the meter and probe after it again.

You can make a good bet that the Double Trouble is up near the top of my list of gear purchases/upgrades when things get better.  Luckily, I can still use my gig money for taking care of my gear.

I didn't go this year to the Dallas Show but I'll try to next spring.  Maybe you'll have some show specials. 

[solderman]

But I have run in to a problem. When I record the files grow too big. 10 sec=4.5 Mb. I use Cubase SX . The first time I exported 10 seconds at 128/44.000 stereo it was 5.3 Mb way to large. I the exported 96/44.000 mono but still 4.5Mb. I have seen clips at 128/44.000 15 seconds long under 1Mb. What do I miss??

Hi and thanks for all answers
I Exported in WAV from Cubase and compressed to MP3 with Sound Forge. That made the trick. The clips are now down to what I expected. I just thought that Cubasic could handle it by it self but whatever. This works.
About sound and listening quality. To me the most important part is the way a box effects the original sound. This part often comes trough even with poor quality recordings and listening gadgts , especially for filter boxes


//Solderman

[~arph]

Bummer, I was expecting sound samples played by springsteen..

[earthtonesaudio]

Thanks for posting the link to those clips R.G.  Everything on that site is very well done.  I've always been under the impression that Visual Sound is a pretty small company, but everything they do seems very well-thought-out and elegant.  I'm sorry to admit that even though the local guitar store stocks the new VS pedal line, I've never tried one.  Now I just might have to.

[ayayay!]

+1 on LAME & Audacity.  It's all I use for my simple needs and it's surprisingly feature rich. 

[cheezit]

+1 on LAME & Audacity.  It's all I use for my simple needs and it's surprisingly feature rich. 

And F-R-E-E!!!  I even record into Audacity for jamming scratch tracks.