I have fully reached my (one) goal

Erik Sheppard

After tons of soundproofing, creative mic placement and isolation, my downward expander and Mogami cables, I have no noise floor.

None.

It is a fantastic feeling.

It was especially difficult since I favor a dynamic RE20 that has tons of self noise and a Symetrix that is temperamental to say the least.

I made quite a lot of clients happy using some of my old rigs which I am quite embarrassed about now so I feel like I can impress them all now.

You just can't (usually) compete if you have any flaws in your recordings.

Of course, not everyone appreciates my voice or my delivery but my studio can create audio that rivals many top-notch, multi-million dollar studios that I have worked in in New York.

With all apologies, I just felt the need to crow.

Deby Cedars · Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2007, 06:28 (GMT) Post subject:

That's great Eric! I'm going to buy carpet for the floor. I have hardwood floors. The only time I notice reflections is when I yell really loud, so it's not a big deal. I'm thinking dark purple or medium eggplant. Carpet that's fluffy and hopefully on sale.

Perhaps the next time I'm in NYC I can check out your new set up. Very Happy

Emmett Andrews · Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2007, 06:55 (GMT) Post subject:

Out of curiosity (because I'm a geek), when recording at 24-bit, what's your floor? And what card do you have? I'm just wondering if you are getting as low as the card's conversion floor. That would be a sweet deal! My mixer outputs 16-bit S/PDIF, so my floor cannot drop below -96dBFS (and doesn't drop below -92dBFS).

I'm nutty about it too. I always think about going back to analog connections instead of S/PDIF just to see if I can drop the floor a little more!

E

Lance Blair · Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2007, 17:02 (GMT) Post subject:

Congrats on improving your sound!

Even though a downward expander isn't the same thing as a direct noise gate, isn't it kind of the same thing? Won't the noise still be there a bit when you're speaking? And don't you think negative questions are really annoying? Smile

Still, it's important to keep the quiet bits quiet and the loud bits loud.

While it's not as rich sounding as an RE20, my PR 40 through a True Systems P-Solo with no HPF or expander lives at -72 or better (with 80Hz HPF it's -76 or better) with +53-55 gain (it doesn't require full crankage).

Ancient Chinese Proverb: Happy is the man with a good sounding RE20.

Deby Cedars · Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2007, 17:53 (GMT) Post subject:

What is the difference between a PR40 and an RE20??? What does the R and the E stand for? I'm working at being more of a geek lupe

Lance Blair · Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2007, 18:04 (GMT) Post subject:

Threadjack alert! This is about Erik's great new setup, Deby! Smile

I'll PM you, the industry standard RE20 is made by ElectroVoice and the PR40 is a newer mic made by Heil Sound. They're both large diaphragm dynamic microphones.

The R stands for "Really" and the E stands for "Excellent"...j/k Wink

Jacob Ekstroem · Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2007, 18:04 (GMT) Post subject:

Deby Cedars · Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2007, 19:57 (GMT) Post subject:

Hey Eric.....What color is your carpet? (somehow that just doesn't seem like a geeky question) wink und grin

Diane Havens · Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2007, 20:21 (GMT) Post subject:

Congrats, Erik! Sounds cool ... uh, do you rent out studio time?

Claire Dodin · Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2007, 20:24 (GMT) Post subject:

Erik, congratulations!
And I'm deeply jealous, I'm dreaming of an absence of noise floor...
But I'm working on it, little by little, upgrading the equipment and learning engineering skills... (and reading the geek place!)
Very Happy

David Oxford · Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2007, 23:37 (GMT) Post subject:

Deby Cedars · Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2007, 05:46 (GMT) Post subject:

I have a MD1A groove tube. I've always wanted to know what the MD1A stands for......model 1 A???? The first of it's kind??? It's a tube condenser. Roger says it's the reason, I don't need a pre-amp! I'm thinking it should stand for Magnificently Deby's one and only Artmaker.

LOL....I really had no idea what I was asking.....sorry Rolling Eyes

Erik Sheppard · Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2007, 18:50 (GMT) Post subject:

Once the mic room was taken care of acoustically I just had to track down anything else that would give me any noise.

I plug everything into a power conditioner and ground lifted it all so the little hum was conquered.

I spent approximately a zillion dollars on cables so the line noise was gone.

My converter is an M-Audio Delta 1010 and it is just freakin' clean as as can be.

Pretty much all that was left was a bit of self noise from the mic and the downward expander kills that. For some reason it doesn't bleed through when I am talking. I really had to spend some time getting the right settings but it seems to working out great now.

I feel like I have been battling all these little noise monsters forever but in retrospect it was fairly easy. It just takes obsessive compulsive levels of attention to detail.

Jacob Ekstroem · Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2007, 20:12 (GMT) Post subject:

Well done, Erik! Very Happy

Now go help Edwin Oldfield.... Wink

J.S. Gilbert · Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2007, 20:43 (GMT) Post subject: RE vs. Heil

Wow. Am I the only one who has extyensively used the Heil PR40 and RE20 and prefers the Heil?

I own both and get no kickbacks from either company. Plug in the RE20 and you have to crank up the gain and there is this slight little hiss that comes into the mic. Also, you get this sort of deep resonant sound as if you had run plenty of compression on the recording, but your wave form shows quite a bit of peaks and valleys. The Heil gives you nice depth and no hiss and no cranking up and a tiny bit of low midrange.

I suppose the question might be as to what people are monitoring through. I've shot out the Heil and RE20 on a bunch of different speakers and with different amps and it's rare that someone said they preferred the sound of the RE20. And yes, I've actually used a few differnt RE20's thinking that might have had something to do with it.

Oh well, I guess to each their own and that's what makes the world go round.

--j.s.