The Recursive ISV

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A really good day today.  Not nasty surprises in the code, everything popping in just as it should!! 

I’ve probably jinxed myself for tomorrow having said that now. 

We have a graphic equalizer.  Seven bands working just as they should and sounding pretty sweet too, especially on the largest power amp and speakers attached to the development system.

250 watts RMS @ 8 Ohms + 500 watt sub, hardly “reference  monitors” but perfect for testing MixAction on the kind of system it’s likely to be used on.  As these are actually PA speakers (of the kind used by DJ’s and bands) they thump and they hold out better with boosted EQ levels than the little things that come with PC’s. 

Also more capable for this kind of punishment than my real “reference monitors” I use for studio recording and of course my “standard” HI-FI speakers that are comparative babies rated at  100 watts RMS @ 8 Ohms.

I can assure you that while the neighbors have no idea what I’m writing they certainly now know that I can shake and break their best china.  :-O

Very pleased with the sound. 

The EQ interface is embedded.  A click on the Special Effects button at the bottom of the main window toggles the EQ, Dynamics Controller and a few other options into visible/hide mode.  Reasonably happy with the look of these, but reserving final judgement until I work with them for a few days.

As these particular tools are “system wide” and not dependent on individual tracks it makes sense to group them together and make them available for changing at “performance time” given that a users favorite settings will probably sound like rubbish when they get to a real “hall” and again later when it becomes full of middle frequency soaking human audience members.

Nothing like a standing wave to make carefully selected EQ settings sound like total garbage! 

I’m writing this post to take a break, I’m still coding the interface for the Dynamics Expander. 

I’ll need to revisit these later and add the presets.  In my own experience the average person tends to set an equalizer up in the classic “S” curve.  See picture below from iTunes ®:

This looks “cool” perhaps but is essentially meaningless as a setting.  An equalizer is designed to “tune” acoustics, not look pretty.  Most folks seem to think they are a little bit like “bass and treble” controls.  In a basic sense they are, but that basic sense is limited to, well, basic.

Unlike a bass and treble control an equalizer such as the one above is boosting or cutting very precise frequencies and volume. With that comes a good deal of baggage. 

At best that baggage sounds bloody awful.  At worst it turns the Audio source into a peaking speaker destroyer that even massive compression can fail to protect.

Precise is the key word here.  Small increments are far more effective in terms of the end audible result than the “more is better” approach of the “S” curve.

If I had a dollar for every time I’ve setup a graphic EQ in a studio or live venue and had some twit come along and do the “S” curve “abomination tweak” on it I’d be a lot better off than I am today.

Hence the use of presets.  To offer the user a choice of safe settings that will look nothing like the above cliched “S” curve and offer the opportunity to avoid some of the issues faced when working with live sound.

If you’ve never seen and heard a large speaker system blow or even catch fire (no I’m not joking, those thick cables on PA systems are used for a reason) then you might wonder about why I’m so uptight over this.  Suffice to say I don’t want to be the one blamed for destroying a system, so the presets are there and with the caveat that what they do beyond them is entirely the users responsibility. 

Naturally the EQ is not visible unless you want it to be (see Effects button below EQ on bottom status bar of main screen).  This makes it easy to make adjustments without obscuring the rest of the interface.  For this a modal or even a tool window would not be appropriate.

The tabs allow you to select the other effect options that pertain to the entire project.  Note these are not all of the “special effects” (far from it), as those pertain to individual tracks being played and thus are separate.

Automation setting normally would not be changed during performance.  However, Murphy and his law are no strangers to Theatrical productions.  So it’s possible to override these on the fly:

OK.  The soundcard settings tab is yet to be finished.  Basically it will offer the chance to adjust the master levels of the Windows mixer assigned by Windows to that soundcard and and the WAVE level as well for fine tuning of the output.  In addition there is an option to do a system check.  Basically it plays a selection of Audio files shipped with the program for the purposes of checking connections, outputs, speakers and levels.

OK.  More from me tomorrow!

Quote of the day:
We are continually faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems. - John W. Gardner

*iTunes is a Trademark and Copyright of Apple Computing.

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