One point stereo A-B?

While researching audiophile labels on the web I came across Waon RECORDS. Their offerings look interesting although most of the website is in Japanese only, which sadly I can't read.

Besides session snapshots the website informs that their recordings have been produced using "One point stereo A-B". This is an incorrect use of the term.

AB-stereophony takes it's name from a line connecting the most likely distinct points "A" and "B". It is runtime based, which means it employs differing time-of-arrival cues / phase differences embedded in the signals arriving at both microphones. Quite obviously this requires that the locations of the capsules are spatially distinct.

When you separate the microphones by about 50 cm a signal coming from one side of the configuration arrives at the opposite microphone delayed by about 1.5 msec, which, according to the rule of the 1st wavefront, results in it being localized towards the side of the speaker which first emitted it.

One-point stereophonic recordings can only be the result of coincident setups, where both capsules occupy (approximately) the same spot in space. This goes for XY (with two cardioid capsules), Blumlein-stereophony (with two bidirectional / fig-8 capsules) and M/S (with one bidirectional and usually one cardioid capsule).

This is not to say that you can't craft great recordings using a spaced pair of omnidirectional microphones. Well designed and built omnis can be extremely precise in the temporal domain, have a linear frequency response, don't colour sound arriving off axis and don't exhibit a proximity effect. Used in quiet, good sounding venues they can be used to capture the depth of the space very convincingly. Localization is impaired when compared to coincident setups, but that is a compromise the recordist might want to make.

On good monaural sound

Andrew Lutes just said @andrew_levine Personally, I love mono. I love surround too but mono seems to get right to the point. I feel so too, if it is _good_ mono, meaning the sound is...

• Based on a good mix
  
• Intelligible
  
• Wide dynamic range
  
• Wide bandwidth
  

The issue is that you can only get that by design. You can not e.g. condense two tracks based on runtime-stereophony to mono without comb-filtering intruding. You have to work with good material to start with and then carefully craft the mix, and then all will be well :-)

Making a better latte

Expanding and refining my 11 steps to a fine latte...

Go for a double. Making a double-shot really is much easier than preparing a single. I think it's due mainly to the larger basket that masks any inaccuracies when dosing. Also, with the Rancilio Silvia and baskets by Lamarzocco (Rancilio's single does not work for me), it is easier to tighten the portafilter using the double-shot basket.

These are my usual steps:

• Make sure the machine is heated up well
  
• Press the steam switch
  
• Fill a large (250 ml) cup with milk nearly halfway
  
• Let out steam until it comes out dry, but don't let the lamp go off
  
• Stretch the milk to the top
  
• Depress the steam switch
  
• Sink the wand and heat the milk thoroughly
  
• Bump the cup to get rid of larger bubbles
  
• Wipe the steam wand clean
  
• Insert the portafilter into the (doser-less) grinder
  
• Test the brewgroup to see if the temperature is right (no extreme steaming)
  
• Dose into the portafilter
  
• Tamp well
  
• Brew the shot (about 27 sec for 30/60 ml - single/double)
  
• Old - Pour it through the milk
  
• Old - Rinse the shot glass with some extra hot water
  
• Clean the group head, basket & portafilter
  
• Enjoy
  

I have now found that the result is _much_ better when steaming the milk in a steaming pitcher and pouring the result onto the espresso, brewed into the preheated cup. Now I can enjoy my single-shot as much as one half of a double shot. Surprising but replicable.

BTW, I very much enjoy my Ilsa Anniversario lattiera. It makes steaming even more fun.

Someone did invent Stereo

We take the stereophonic listening experience, with images between two loudspeakers and it's convincing illusion of width and depth for granted, but it has been used commercially for less than fifty years. It is also very interesting to note that many of the advancements in this area were fuelled by motion pictures. People were seen to move from left to right, and the sound should match. Sound is understood as an enveloping experience, and --simplifying a bit-- along comes Surround...

• 1857
  Monaural sound is first transcribed by Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville
  
• 1877
  Thomas Edison's phonograph cylinder enables the recording & playback of sound
  
• 1880
  Stereophonic sound, realized by Clément Ader, has a cursory appearance
  
• 1930
  Binaural Sound is studied in depth by Alan Dower Blumlein and Arthur C. Keller
  
• 1960
  The age of Stereo begins
  
• 1970
  Michael Gerzon extends on Blumlein's work with the development of Ambisonics
  
• 1970
  The golden age of Quadraphonic recordings
  
• 1970
  Walter Murch thinks up 5.1-Surround for "Apocalypse Now"
  

Alan Dower Blumlein, born on June 29, 1903 in Hampstead, London, invented two out of the three "pure" techniques for recording sound in stereo [stereos = "solid" and phōnē = "sound"]: XY (subsuming the special case of the Blumlein-configuration) and M/S. Both are termed coincident stereophony because the capsules of the two microphones involved are located at (about) the same spot. Blumlein's work has a profound influence on Michael Gerzon who developed Ambisonics as a precursor to Quadraphonics.

The third traditional approach to recording in stereo, AB-stereophonics, is based not on differences in the sound pressure level of signals reaching the two microphones but rather on differences in time-of arrival (or the "runtime" or phase) of the signals. It was developed at Bell Labs by Arthur C. Keller under the supervision of Dr. Harvey Fletcher. Stokowski was delighted: ''Listening monaurally,'' he reported to Bell Laboratories, ''gives me the sensation of the music being choked and crushed together. Binaurally (i.e., in stereo) the music sounds free, spacious, and the choked sensation is gone." []

Coincident and runtime-based configurations give rise to near-coincident techniques, one of the most mentionable being ORTF, developed by and named for the Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française.

5.1 for Apocalypse Now?

Movie-sound before the 1970's mainly utilized stereo, plus an effects channel at the rear of the audience. Walter Murch wanted to be able to spread the rear ambience to better enfold the listeners. And then there was the matter of the voiceovers...

The target of "Apocalypse Now", big movie theaters, were not suited for Quadraphonic playback. With stereo there is a more or less defined sweet spot in the center between the two speakers. If the voice of the actors or a disembodied voiceover came from the phantom-middle, that is if it were mixed into the front left and front right stream in equal parts, it would appear to come from the side the audience were located on. Members of the the audience on the far left would hear the voice coming from there. Placing a center speaker behind and in the middle of the big screen anchors the voice to that position more firmly.

The establishment of this setup as a mainstream commodity doesn't mean recordings have to be made with an explicit 5.1-mapping though. But this is (yet) another topic, to be discussed soon :-)

[Thanks to the Wikipedia & Steven Schoenherr]

Analysis - Erleuchtung garantiert

The Geman movie Erleuchtung Garantiert (Enlightenment Guaranteed) by Dorris Dörrie features Solweig Bores as the sound designer and Chris Price (I) as "sound"-person.

I was positively surprised by it's nice rich 5.1 ambience that did have a very real and unpolished feel to it. And this in a movie that uses quite a lot of camcorder-imagery. Have a listen!

Analysis - Terminator 2

Analysis - Terminator 2

Terminator 2 by James Cameron features a huge crew of sound people and Gary Rydstrom as sound designer and sound re-recording mixer. Three assistand sound designers credited are Scott Chandler, Tom Myers and David Slusser.

The sound during the credits and introduction is already very nice. Clear sounding, highly dynamic, with well-done music and dramatic voice-over. It is interesting to note that the surrounds channels are used sparingly. I imagine they will be more developed at the start of the feature.

Sure enough, when Schwarzenegger has appeared (06'30) the ambience and the sounds of the visual scanning process are presented in an enfolding manner. There is a slight change when he opens the door to the bar and an interesting phasing effect that more firmly established the character of the in-the-head mode.

The incidental music is faded out as the mechanical drone and orchestral score move to the foreground in waves. All very subtly done.

At 09'15 the now fully dressed Schwarzenegger leaves the bar to a rock-like tune. The ambient channels carry an extra large reverb that links back to the industrial feel of the drone. Some very nice foley work follows as the hero acquires the sun glasses.

The appearance of the T-1000, played by Robert Patrick, is also accompanied by a matching industrial soundscape, in which the backdrop of the score is composed out of effects. There is no "traditional" music for this robot.

The 1st scene with Edward Furlong as the young John Connor starts with a stereophonic spread that goes full depth when the camera approaches him in the garage. Moving back into the house limits the panorama, which widens again as the foster father tries to talk John into cleaning up his room.

The transition to the hospital is again very interesting. A bouncing reverb cuts to an enveloping ambience and then to the silence in Sarah Connor's cell. The editing intercuts quit scenes from within the cell with reverberant scenes of Dr. Silberman approaching. When he talks with her her breath can be heard on the rear channels.

Music comes back as two male nurses enter Sarah's cell, accompanied by a soft yet menacing electric buzz that has no visual origin as yet. After she has been forced to swallow a tranquilizer an acoustic effects cue, like the movement of a piston, kind of like a sonar probe, connects to the T-1000's last appearance. Then there was a much longer slap delay-like interval between the two beats, but now the robot is much closer to John's foster-home.

There is the drone from the T-1000's last scene, then the sole sound of the car approaching and a door opening expands into a peaceful urban soundscape, with a hint of thretening chords reappearing in the background. The once industrial soundscape assumes a more musical texture.

The cut to the boy's in action at an ATM reestablishes a by now known technique. The enveloping soundscape unfolds gradually at the scene changes. Contrasting to this the cut to the boy's on the way to "spend some money" jumps right into a full-depth fast-paced musical score. The soundtrack turns incidental during the cut to a street perpendicular to the passage of the motorcycle.

Then the rumble of the Terminator's motorcycle takes over. Industrial ambience has a brief appearance. The motorcycle leaves the screen but the rumble of it's passing in the distance prevails over the scene cut to Sarah's cell and merges into musical chords.

The dreamlike appearance of Kyle Reese is accompanied by a long musical backdrop, the end of which is signified by a piston-like sound overlaying the pads. Enveloping industrial rumble is opposed by the sound of naked feet running. A preview of Sarah's vision of the apocalypse follows, mainly in the frontal array, the creaks of playground-toys punctuae the strings of the soundtrack, a crescendoing chorus leads to the brief sound of destruction before a visually and sonically abrupt cut back to the cell.

This review covers the first 23 minutes of the (ultimate edition) DVD release.

Here is some information I researched on the web pertaining to Gary Rydstrom's involvement with the soundtrack on DVD:

Q: Typically, how involved do you get in the DVD release of a movie that you worked on theatrically?

Rydstrom:I've done a couple of DVD mixes. I did one for Terminator 2, and for Punch Drunk Love. I love to. It's a matter of time. Because there's things you want to do. There's things I want to do myself; I don't want someone else to do it. It's a different listening experience; I want to make the balance adjustments myself. Not as often as I'd like. [...] when I could do a DVD mix of a mix that I did I was very happy. There were always those things that I wish I'd done in the final mix anyway --do this little balance adjustment to make this cleaner, make this more punchy, make this more subwoofer.

Analysis - Primary Colors

The movie Primary Colors by Mike Nichols features quite a few people in the sound-department, but no sound designer. The two re-recording mixers credited are Michael Barry and Ron Bochar.

Although the soundtrack on the DVD is said to be DD 5.1 it is a very sad listen. The ambience in the surrounds is only noticeable when accompanying large spaces, and there to the detriment of the overall impression. The dialog is clear and there is some music, but that is about the extent of the positive comments I can offer.