Understanding Reverb 101

When we hear sounds in the “real world,” they are in an acoustic space.

For example, suppose you are playing acoustic guitar in your living room.

You hear not only the guitar’s sound, but because the guitar generates sound waves, they bounce off walls, the ceiling, and the floor.

Some of these sound waves return to your ears, which due to their travel through the air, will be somewhat delayed compared to the direct sound of the guitar.

This resulting sound from all these reflections is extremely complex and called reverberation.

As the sound waves bounce off objects, they lose energy and their level and tone changes. If a sound wave hits a pillow or curtain, it will be absorbed more than if it hits a hard surface. [read]

JamHub GreenRoom [Silent Rehearsal Studio]

Band practices are a necessary thing but don’t always run smoothly. Rehearsing at home at a reasonable volume can bring down the wrath of the neighbours and proper rehearsal spaces are not always available when you need them, can be expensive and can present problems in terms of lugging all your gear across town.

What then if someone invented a contraption that allowed a full band to rehearse silently wherever they wanted? That might sound too good to be true, but it’s a reality with the JamHub, a new patented ‘Silent Rehearsal Studio’.

What you get is a semi-circular multi-input device, half the size of a large pizza, into which you can plug a number of instruments and microphones, add an effect and then monitor the sound of the whole lot through headphones, each musician being able to balance the sounds to create their own personal mix. [read]

Lok-It USB memory stick has built-in PIN keypad

Systematic Development Group has released an ultra-secure portable flash drive, fitting a full PIN entry keypad to the USB stick. The Lok-It Secure Flash Drive from  comes in two versions, the simpler of which allows five-key PINs to be entered to gain access, with a more sophisticated version featuring 10 keys.

Apart from both using 256-bit AES encryption to secure data, both drives remain encrypted until the correct PIN code is entered at the point it is inserted into computer, which can be Windows, Mac or Linux. Each drive supports two keys, one for the user and one for an admin. [read MacWorld]

New Pro Tools 8 video tutorials available at lynda.com

New Pro Tools 8 video tutorials available at lynda.com..

• Pro Tools 8: Editing Drums Using Beat Detective and SoundReplacer
• Pro Tools 8: Pitch Correction with Antares Auto-Tune Evo
• Pro Tools 8: Time Manipulation with Elastic Audio

New Pro Tools 8 Video Tutorials

Paul Shaffer's Letterman Rig [video]

Paul Shaffer’s Letterman Rig – nice video with the exception that the video guy DIDN’T hook Paul up with a mic.

Buy Pauls book – We’ll Be Here For the Rest of Our Lives: A Swingin’ Show-biz Saga [AMAZON]

The MyFonts Top 10

Recently the folks at MyFonts—one of several Websites that offer fonts from hundreds of designers and foundries around the world—announced their Top 10 Fonts of 2009, based on sales. (The site also lists the 50 top-selling fonts each month.) To me, this list of bestsellers is far more interesting than similar lists I’ve seen at other Websites.

Typically, a list of bestselling fonts does not represent the most interesting designs—in fact, bestselling fonts at most other Websites are often simply new OpenType versions of older text fonts that were previously released in PostScript or TrueType format. [read]

Core i7 MacBook Pro Could Make Water Boil

PC Authority was putting their new 17-inch, Core i7 MacBook Pro through their typical battery of benchmarks. Then, the chassis grew hot, and then a series of strange series of errors began to occur.

The only way they could complete the testing to to turn the MBP on its side. The problem had to be heat.

So PC Authority tried more tests (in both Boot Camp and OS X) while tracking CPU temperatures all the while. Skeptical of their own results, they turned off the system overnight and tested things again.

In both instances, Cinebench—which is designed to tax the CPU in full—was able to heat the actual i7 cores to temperatures around 101°C, or almost 214°F.

That’s hotter than the boiling point of water. [read]

Akai MPK88 – an 88-note MIDI controller keyboard [review]

The MPK88 – an 88-note MIDI controller keyboard – is a beast. When it first arrived we were shocked by its size and bulk. It weighs in at a pretty weighty 67lbs (30kg) so make sure there are two of you around to unbox it and set it up.

It’s a good-looking machine, in keeping with the MPC, MPD and MiniAK products. On the whole, everything feels well made, with the main case made of tough black plastic on a metal chassis. The rotary dials feel smooth and have little play in them and the buttons all have a reassuring click.

Western Digital releases free WD Photos iPhone app

Flickr? MobileMe Gallery? Picasa? Western Digital network drive owners have no need for such services. For these customers can store their photos on a WD networked hard drive, and show them off to friends wherever they are with the WD Photos iPhone app.

WD Photos is a new app from Western Digital that is designed to showcase your photos stored on compatible WD networked hard drives. Photos are accessible anywhere you are (as long as your iPhone or iPod touch has an Internet connection, of course), and offline copies of recently accessed photos are kept for your stuck-on-the-subway or AT&T-is-down-during-my-commute-home-again browsing pleasure. [read MacWorld]

Experts: Kindle Helps You Sleep, iPad Causes Insomnia

Apple’s iPad can do movies, music, e-mail, apps and rich Web browsing. And of course, e-books. Should Amazon just put its comparably basic e-reader, the Kindle, to sleep?

Not so fast. Sleep experts say using the iPad before bed can affect sleeping habits unlike most other e-readers.

The difference? Devices like the Kindle, the Nook (the top part of the screen that displays books) and popular e-readers from Sony use a technology called e-paper. It simulates the look of an actual printed page and does not emit light. That means, unlike the iPad, you can effectively read in direct sunlight. (Beach, anyone?)

The iPad, however, contains a touchscreen liquid-crystal display that, like computer screens and television sets, emits light. On the plus side, you can sneak the device under the covers while your significant other sleeps beside you and flip through a couple pages of a book without a flashlight. [read LA Times]