No Noise? No Way.

Well, after having a stroke of brilliance as to how to remove noise from my recordings, I wrote a program and compiled it, only to find out that if you have additive noise in a signal, then you are basically toast. I looked at some techniques for noise reduction, but since it isn't typically filter noise in a signal, a simple deconvolution won't work like I was hoping. This being said, I may have to abandon the idea of a great, free noise reduction program. I guess such is life . . .

Anechoic Chamber Page

Well, I thought I would do a thing here about designing and building an anechoic chamber, but because it was such a big task, I created a google page all about it. I consider it to be a pretty definitive treatment of what things to take into account when building a chamber. Of course, I claim no responsibility for anything negative that may happen due to it's use. You should check it out if you are feeling scientific or just curious about a chamber or if you just want to see some pictures. You can get there clicking here.

Cool Recording Tip

Here is a great recording tip for those of you looking to add a bit more "realism" to the stereo image of your recording. Say you wanted to make a rhythm guitar track sit in the stereo field little bit better. If you have just a single track, clone it and pan the two hard left and hard right. Adjust the volume so that it seems to be pretty much where you want it to be in the sound field. Then on the track that has lower volume, add a delay plugin. The key here is that you want only the delay signal and none of the original. You can add up to 20-30 ms of delay to help the stereo image seem more natural. This is because when you add the delay, it changes the relative phase between the two tracks and this is what happens when you have two guitars on opposite sides of the stage. If you have two separate tracks, you can do the same thing and it will work equally well.

Try As I Might

This is a great little song that I have been working on for a while. The drums are from an expansion tank library and Groove Monkee grooves. Everything else was recorded live. I recorded the vocals, but more so that when I find a singer he can sing them (I don't sing well and I recognize that fact, this is just so that I don't lose the ideas that I have for the vocal).

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Great Instumental Track

This is an instrumental track that I have been working on for a little while. The strings are from an expansion tank library, as is the bass. The guitars were all recorded direct through my PODxt. Let me know what you think.

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Turn My Head

This is a song that I wrote and recorded for my wife.

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The words go as follows:

We fell in love so long ago
But we still feel the same
And let me say something you already know
That I'd do it all over again
There's not a moment I would change
Or a day that I'd take back
I'd leave it all just the same
Even if I had the chance

But some things haven't changed
Just like you always said
And every time you walk by you
You still . . . You still turn my head

We've had our share of hard times
And there've been times we've had to wait
But we managed to make it through just fine
And now the price has been paid

But some things haven't changed
Just like you always said
And every time you walk by you
You still . . . You still turn my head

I see you laying next to me
There's so much going through my mind
Then you ask me what I'm thinking
And suddenly the words seem so hard to find but I say

Some things haven't changed
Just like you always said
And every time you walk by you
You still . . . you still turn my head

All words and music copyright 2007 Brian Thornock

Preview of Coming Attractions

Since there isn't a whole lot of good stuff on here just yet (I just started like an hour ago), I thought I would go ahead and give everyone an idea of what to expect here in the coming days and weeks.

Audio:
I will be posting several of my songs that I have written and recorded. I think I will try to make them streaming as opposed to downloadable (for copyright reasons). They will be provided as a way for people to hear what I am up to and make suggestions, carry on conversations about techniques, etc.

I have a great idea for a noise elimination program that I hope to have a first version of within the next couple weeks. I had the idea in the shower the other day of a great, easy way to do it. I intend this program to be free, since I have gleaned a lot from the audio community for free and want to give back at least something. Hopefully it will make it to places like KVR audio so that anyone who wants a great free program can have one. Of course, if the idea doesn't pan out, then it'll be back to the drawing board for however long.

Woodworking:
I am currently making a mantle clock for my wife and will probably post some pictures of it when I finally get that done. It is in the same vein as one I made several years ago for my mom.

School:
I have been in charge of the design and construction of an anechoic chamber for the university (BYU) and due to the extreme lack of information on how to build one of these things, I think it would be great for me to put up a couple posts that describe the design process, considerations and construction.

There are more things that will come along as well, but these are the things that I can think of off the top of my head that I would like to post here. Let me know if there is anything else you want to hear about.

My Recording Rig

Since this is intended to be a place for me to discuss the things that interest me, I don't feel the need to use a vocabulary that everyone understands. Also, seeing as how there may well be other people who are interested in this kind of stuff, a list of equipment that I currently use seems to be in order. These are pieces of equipment that I use for making my music:

Guitars and equipment:
PRS CE-24
ESP MH-300
Two custom-made electrics
Tacoma DM-9
Rogue 4-string Bass
Line6 PODxt
early '80's Marshall solid state combo
late '70's extension cab

Recording gear:
Custom Recording PC (AMD dual core processor, 250 GB recording drive, 1.5 GB RAM, DVD burner, Firewire)
Presonus Firepod interface
Aardvark Direct Pro 24/96 interface
Event TR-8 studio monitors
M-Audio Oxygen 8 v2 midi keyboard
Koss recording headphones
2 - SE1A small diaphragm condensers
MXL 990 mic
Shure SM-57
Sennheiser E-825
Mogami cables

Recording software:
N-track studio recording software
Sony Soundforge Editing software
Sampletank LE
Expansion tank modules
Various plugins, etc.

If you have any questions about any of this stuff, let me know.

Welcome to my page

Well, I decided that it would be nice to have someplace on the ol' world wide web to put stuff related to my hobbies, which consist mostly of music and woodworking. I also thought it would be handy to have a place where people could check out my music and let me know what they think. I'm not sure just how much use I and/or others will get out of this, but hey, we'll just have to see. Take a look around and let me know what you think and drop any suggestions you may have.