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What Will Art's Studio Look Like?

Started by Wintermute, May 15, 2015, 12:40:05 PM

Wintermute

He seems to be spending some serious cash. It sounds like he is doing more than broadcasting from a spare bedroom like his SXM stint.

So what do you think? Will he have real furnishings instead of Walmart / Sauder desks full of HAM equipment? Will he go all "drive-through" with a headset/mic combo or will he be rocking an RE20 w/ can monitors? Neon signs and cats, or will he have a real computer and banish the animals?

...and will Art have a picture of Snoory to throw darts at?


cweb

Maybe a mixture of all those?

My guess is something that gets the job done and is comfortable. If it allows for a good show, that's all that matters.

i dunno about the look of it. couldn't even guess.
i imagine it would have a large picture window. there would be a remote camera outside at a distance and focused on that window during the broadcast. the video feed live, at night with the figure of mr bell silhouetted by the studio illumination and framed by the window as he works.

oh, and a wet bar.  ;D


Art's set up for LAN party Duke Nukem Death Matches looks sweet. Bet he kicks Hoagie's ass all the time.

secretlab

Quote from: Juan on May 15, 2015, 06:45:38 PM
Like this
It's what gets the job done.  I've always appreciated Art's simple, analog approach to his studio equipment.  This looks like an Audioarts Air-1 console as he was using for the Sirius show, minus the 360 Systems Instant Replay machines he had at that time, and other items pretty much as before.  He was using a Beyer Dynamics headphone/mic combo then which sounds really great.  It's possible to do a first rate job without a room full of racks of equipment.

I think KNYE was using a simple automation system called Station Playlist when Art owned it, and that would also be suitable for network operations and playout.

cweb

Quote from: Royal_Tenenbaum on May 16, 2015, 09:10:41 AM
Art's set up for LAN party Duke Nukem Death Matches looks sweet. Bet he kicks Hoagie's ass all the time.
Ah, so that's who was doing the old teabag animation over the virtual corpse of "DatasHead19.5"

Wintermute

Actually I didn't think Dark Matter sounded great at all if you compare it to either AM or most streaming services I use daily. Blame it on SXM relay? Blame it on a mid-range live headset? Blame it on a kind of weak DAC? Don't know, but it wasn't wonderful. Even though Art thought there was a streaming issue (which didn't exist) there was an issue with the stream and satellite audio quality.



secretlab

Quote from: Wintermute on May 18, 2015, 01:55:29 PM
Actually I didn't think Dark Matter sounded great at all if you compare it to either AM or most streaming services I use daily. Blame it on SXM relay? Blame it on a mid-range live headset? Blame it on a kind of weak DAC? Don't know, but it wasn't wonderful. Even though Art thought there was a streaming issue (which didn't exist) there was an issue with the stream and satellite audio quality.
SXM audio quality on the talk and entertainment channels (especially) is awful.  The Sirius side seems especially bad, due to its use of an old Lucent audio codec through the satellites called PAC...these days, the Sirius system is the only user of PAC.  The XM satellites use the better sounding HE-AAC+ codec.  Talk and entertainment channels on SXM are very low bitrate, so codec performance is a big issue.

For the new venture, I bet Art's streaming audio quality will be first rate.

Quote from: secretlab on May 23, 2015, 09:38:04 PM
SXM audio quality on the talk and entertainment channels (especially) is awful.  The Sirius side seems especially bad, due to its use of an old Lucent audio codec through the satellites called PAC...these days, the Sirius system is the only user of PAC.  The XM satellites use the better sounding HE-AAC+ codec.  Talk and entertainment channels on SXM are very low bitrate, so codec performance is a big issue.

For the new venture, I bet Art's streaming audio quality will be first rate.


Whenever a record I know pretty well comes on over Sirius, I am usually appalled at the sound quality. The high mid and high end is so different from the actual master of the record, its ridiculous. You really hear it in the cymbals. Also the voices of the hosts, have a downsampled and harsh sound to them. Also the cheesy digital reverb they add to the host's voice 60's channel is gross. It forces an anachronistic heavy handed and very false experience on the listener. Sirius is pretty bad. Listening to music on FM radio as a kid was much more enjoyable, even though it was compressed to all hell and the highs and lows were pretty saucy compared to the record, at least it didnt hurt my ears!

eddie dean

Quote from: guildnavigator on May 24, 2015, 12:43:43 PM

Whenever a record I know pretty well comes on over Sirius, I am usually appalled at the sound quality. The high mid and high end is so different from the actual master of the record, its ridiculous. You really hear it in the cymbals. Also the voices of the hosts, have a downsampled and harsh sound to them. Also the cheesy digital reverb they add to the host's voice 60's channel is gross. It forces an anachronistic heavy handed and very false experience on the listener. Sirius is pretty bad. Listening to music on FM radio as a kid was much more enjoyable, even though it was compressed to all hell and the highs and lows were pretty saucy compared to the record, at least it didnt hurt my ears!

Hey Guild! Nice to see you around again. :)

I agree about the over use of compression, Esp. with music.   it just sucks all the dynamics out of a song.


jazmunda

If Art was made out of lego it would look something like this.


er92

Whatever looks like he should get an ashtray with jorch's face printed on for his desk.

aldousburbank

Quote from: jazmunda on May 25, 2015, 05:19:50 PM
If Art was made out of lego it would look something like this.


Nice one Jazmo!

eyenoeyeno

Quote from: jazmunda on May 25, 2015, 05:19:50 PM
If Art was made out of lego it would look something like this.



I can't remember the name of it, but aldousburbank had a computer made of Legos. 
Right aldous?

aldousburbank

Quote from: eyenoeyeno on May 26, 2015, 08:28:41 AM
I can't remember the name of it, but aldousburbank had a computer made of Legos. 
Right aldous?
Used to have a Lego 286 in the nineties, put together from spare computer parts. We lacked a case for the innards so built it out of Legos, with (Lego) windows installed and little Lego dudes sitting at monitors. Used to have to keep an old disposable camera stuck inside of it to keep just the right amount of pressure on the video card or the monitor would flicker. I hope to come across a photo of it someday. The thing is, somewhere in some cop shop storage unit the fucking legos still sit as potential "evidence".  Heh

cweb

Quote from: eddie dean on May 24, 2015, 04:57:27 PM
Hey Guild! Nice to see you around again. :)

I agree about the over use of compression, Esp. with music.   it just sucks all the dynamics out of a song.
FM radio is starting to get silly with the compression stuff too. Flipping through the channels, I landed on a top 40 station that had ho-lee-shit levels of bass pumping out of it- on a song that was largely acoustic guitars. The acoustics had no subtlety about them, just crammed right up there with the vocals.

What worries me is when the USA finally goes digital radio, how many channels are they going to try to cram in there? You're seeing the ridiculousness now with satellite radio (and all paid-TV providers). Where's the fidelity going?

Wintermute

Quote from: cweb on May 26, 2015, 10:15:31 AM
FM radio is starting to get silly with the compression stuff too. Flipping through the channels, I landed on a top 40 station that had ho-lee-shit levels of bass pumping out of it- on a song that was largely acoustic guitars. The acoustics had no subtlety about them, just crammed right up there with the vocals.

What worries me is when the USA finally goes digital radio, how many channels are they going to try to cram in there? You're seeing the ridiculousness now with satellite radio (and all paid-TV providers). Where's the fidelity going?

The bass pumping you hear isn't really from just compression. It is from poor setup of a multiband compression device. Compression in terrestrial radio broadcast does one big thing: it tricks the listener into thinking the signal on a specific station is louder than it actually is. Multiband compression allows this perceived loudness bump without risk of overmodulation. If you hear an FM station that seems bass-heavy, it is because their audio engineer either did it on purpose for effect... or set it up without thinking about spectral balance and proximity effect (yes, distance from a tower effects bandwidth of sound... 101 stuff there).

I've even seen audio engineers test signal on non-balanced speakers or cans. Just testing quality through earbuds or some old speakers rather than a spectral analyzer and some real monitoring equipment.

Bottom line... compression isn't the enemy. In fact I'd argue that better use of compression allows for more bandwidth. Lack of basic audio engineering know-how is the real enemy in FM radio today. SXM audio is a completely different matter.

Wintermute

I started this thread hoping that Art would build a real space for this broadcasts. Why? Because operating out of a bedroom isn't really commitment. Can it be done---- sure! Lots of people do it for podcasts.

But if you buy studio time or have studio space, the fact is that you are far more committed. It's like dating someone vs marrying someone. The really successful, long-term broadcasters work in a studio setting. A studio means permanence which means we have a lot more Art Bell to come... not just 2 months of shows.

cweb

Quote from: Wintermute on May 26, 2015, 03:15:22 PM
The bass pumping you hear isn't really from just compression. It is from poor setup of a multiband compression device. Compression in terrestrial radio broadcast does one big thing: it tricks the listener into thinking the signal on a specific station is louder than it actually is. Multiband compression allows this perceived loudness bump without risk of overmodulation. If you hear an FM station that seems bass-heavy, it is because their audio engineer either did it on purpose for effect... or set it up without thinking about spectral balance and proximity effect (yes, distance from a tower effects bandwidth of sound... 101 stuff there).

I've even seen audio engineers test signal on non-balanced speakers or cans. Just testing quality through earbuds or some old speakers rather than a spectral analyzer and some real monitoring equipment.

Bottom line... compression isn't the enemy. In fact I'd argue that better use of compression allows for more bandwidth. Lack of basic audio engineering know-how is the real enemy in FM radio today. SXM audio is a completely different matter.
I didn't mean to blame the bass on just compression, but what I did mean to do was point out that radio stations are overprocessing stuff. I would blame the shitty sound of the acoustics in my example on compression- which might have occurred at the mixing/mastering stages, but was worsened by whatever junk the station was doing.

I agree that a lack of good engineering is detrimental to radio. And that compression can help with bandwidth.  It's just sad how nobody thinks about headroom or giving instruments their space any more.

Art building a studio on his own home property doesn't necessarily mean lack of commitment, for me. I see your point, but he seems to dig the tech end and probably likes being close to the family. Plus it's a little nicer to finish the show at 1am, turn stuff off, and take a short walk to bed instead of driving a ways.

If anything, building a home studio might mean commitment more than buying studio time. If the show ends tomorrow, you cancel the studio time. But if you have gear at home that you paid for, it's a little harder to part with.

lasertron

I hope there is some kind of custom building/tuff shed situation. a "radio shack," if you will

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