PRODIGY’S FRONT OF HOUSE ENGINEER JON BURTON TRIES OUT sE INSTRUMENT REFLEXION FILTERS, NOW THEY’VE BECOME AN ESSENTIAL PART OF THE BANDS TOURING PACKAGE.

When it comes to loud stages very few can compete with the sheer blistering volume of The Prodigy. With an on stage monitor system of epic proportions sound spillage is a major problem.

In an effort to help clean up the drum sound FOH engineer Jon Burton turned to SE for help. “As we were also recording the most recent shows, I wanted to get as clean a sound from the drum mics as possible” says Burton. As most of the mics are mounted internally it was the overheads that were presenting the greatest problem.

“Sonic kindly leant me some instrument reflectors as part of their loan scheme. We tried them in rehearsals and they seem to work so we bought four. When we did the first shows, some small warm up gigs in tiny clubs, they came into their own.

The spill was dramatically reduced and the sound more focused. They exceeded my expectations”. The reflectors have now been on tour for two months doing major festivals around the world, and have become an essential part of the bands touring package.

Jon Burton has also mixed for Beth Gibbons (Portishead) and Bjork at Live8 in Japan. Katrina & the Waves, Radiohead, Suede, Cocteau Twins and has also done monitors for Stereophonics, Lulu and Blue.

Sound On Sound said this……

“Those recording in less-than-ideal recording environments have been looking for a ‘magic bullet’ quick fix for recording vocals since the term ‘home recording’ came into being, and the SE Reflexion Filter represents a serious step in that direction. It can’t keep all reflected sound out of the mic, as some will end up bouncing into the mic’s frontal axis from the wall behind the singer, but it certainly reduces this by minimising the amount of voice making it out into the room and by attenuating off-axis sounds. This could be particularly useful in a typical studio vocal booth where there is often a glass door directly behind the microphone. If rear-wall reflections are still a problem for you, some thick blankets, duvets or similar behind the singer should bring about the desired degree of improvement, and in combination with the Reflexion Filter should allow anyone to record clean vocals that are free from damaging room coloration. The price of the Reflexion Filter could actually be said to represent extremely good value when you consider that it might well make more difference to the subjective quality of your recordings than blowing an extra grand or two on more sophisticated mics and preamps! “

SE Electronics Instrument Reflexion Filter

The SE Electronics IRF Instrument Reflexion Filter. Innovative and useful portable acoustic isolation screen for recording instruments. The SE Electronics IRF is a development from the hugely successful Reflexion Filter. Designed to give a degree of acoustic isolation and rejection of room ambience for drum mic separation, the Instrument RF can also be used for micing guitars, pianos, wind instruments……

SE Electronics The Reflexion Filter

The Reflexion Filter ‘portable vocal booth’ is a revolution in recording technology. The Reflexion Filter is a portable device for recording live sources with reduced room ambience. It is an advanced composite wall which is positioned behind any microphone by means of a variable position stand clamp assembly which ships with the product. The main function is to help obtain…

Apogee Dumps Windows, Tells Users Macs are Better

Maybe it was aesthetically incompatible with ugly PCs.

Apogee Electronics has just announced they’ve dropped support development for Windows. Now, that’s their prerogative – not least because customers who prefer using Windows can simply choose to buy their competitors’ products. But in a press release entitled “Apogee Discontinues Windows Support,” “Apogee Discontinues Windows Development,” Apogee decides to tell you why, if you’re using Windows, you’re using an inferior platform.

Correction: Apogee just sent an updated press release.

ATTENTION ALL RECIPIENTS: Correction to Apogee’s most recent press release titled “Apogee Discontinues Windows Support”.

IMMEDIATE: Please revise headline to read “Apogee Discontinues Windows Development”

Apogee Electronics will no longer develop products for the Microsoft Windows platform. Apogee has made this decision in order to focus all research, development, and support resources on the Apple platform with its unparalleled power and stability. Apple offers a wide range of affordable, powerful desktop and laptop solutions ideally suited for music creation and audio production.

This comes as no surprise, as Apogee’s interface line has already focused on the Mac. And, honestly, maybe that’s a good thing; the added focus could benefit Apogee as a small, boutique vendor.

More helpful advice if you are using Windows:

Windows users can obtain the Apogee sound by connecting Apogee converters to their Windows-compatible audio interface via AES, optical, or S/PDIF. Apogee technical support will continue to support legacy Windows configurations installed on Windows XP Service Pack 2.

Well, of course, that’s correct: if you’re just using Apogee for their converters, you can connect to Linux or FreeBSD or an Amiga or whatever you like, provided the audio interface itself has digital ins and drivers on your OS of choice.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I think Apogee is free to do what they want. It also doesn’t speak well for Windows – it’s a vote against Windows as a platform and the costs of developing for and supporting it. But locking yourself to one platform has dangers, too. Apogee invested a lot of time and resources into supporting their Duet FireWire interface, only to see Apple drop FireWire from their non-Pro MacBook line.

Anecdotally and statistically (in surveys and server logs), we see about 40-50% of you using Windows. So, whatever Apogee’s opinion of the Mac platform’s merits, I don’t see this as making that market any less relevant. In fact, I expect the handful of vendors paying attention to Linux, too, could have an edge as platforms evolve over the coming years. Apogee may be better off focusing on the Mac, but that leaves some opportunities for those vendors supporting PCs.

Source: createdigitalmusic