#asp800

New Post has been published on https://songwriternews.co.uk/2020/09/songwriting-tips-you-need-to-know-jake-gosling-ed-sheeran-shawn-mendes-shania-twain/

Songwriting Tips You Need To Know - Jake Gosling (Ed Sheeran, Shawn Mendes, Shania Twain)

With credits for artists such as Ed Sheeran, James Bay, Shania Twain and Shawn Mendes, songwriter and producer Jake Gosling knows a thing or two about songwriting, here are his top tips!

Connect with us: Facebook: http://facebook.com/audient Twitter: http://twitter.com/audientworld Instagram: http://instagram.com/audientworld source

Alright, this is what you’ve been waiting for - the audio examples.

Hopefully you all spotted the links to soundcloud on the previous blog posts - so you’ve already heard the clips and made your own minds up!

If not, read on…

Starting with 808 drums & synth bass - we’ve used the RETRO channels here to add pure filth! (Solid Fuzz HMX 3, IRON 1) or (Overblown HMX 11, IRON 8). 

Moving on to strummed

Acoustic Guitar

here we use IRON to add some subtle sparkle to the steel strings - softening out the midrange honk at the same time

(HMX 1, IRON 7)

.

From here, take a listen to the

Acoustic Kick & Snare

example. HMX and a small amount of IRON are used to glue two samples together from the same session to make them sound more “real”

** (HMX 3, IRON 3)**

.

HMX and in particular IRON, absolutely shine on Bass Guitar. Check out how they can add density or punky growl on two different styles of bass playing (Fingered HMX 6, IRON 6) or (Picked HMX 6, IRON 11).

Surprisingly the RETRO channels also sounds pretty good on the mix bus - check them out here on this Big Band recording (all recorded with Audient Mic Preamps) to hear how they bring dimension and life to the Trumpet solo (HMX 3.5, IRON 4).

Back to transient material, check out how IRON adds more slam to a snare drum / room mic and how HMX adds a subby clipped kick tone on this single mic Drum Room recording (Tight no HMX, IRON 7) or (Clipped Subs HMX 4, IRON 7).

On Electric Guitar - check out how HMX can soften up a gnarly midrange and then using IRON can make it even more gnarly again! The choice is yours. (De-Harsh HMX 11, No IRON) or (Clangy HMX 11, IRON 11).

On a mono Hip-Hop style beat - HMX can make things older and slower, more 90′s ish, whereas IRON can bring a bit of slap to claps and snares. (Low Bump HMX 3, No IRON) or (Open Top HMX 3, IRON 4).

Taking it down a touch, check out how IRON adds a bit of dimensionality and swirly top to this Steinway Piano recording (HMX 1, IRON 6).

When using HMX & IRON on individual elements in a multi-track, you can carve some separation and movement by applying these non-linear RETRO saturators in varying amounts. Check out this Electronica Groove to hear each element and the final summed result.

Finally - VOCALS! Check out HMX & IRON can enhance proximity effect, smooth uneven midrange or add presence. Flexible and great value for money compared to buying 3 different preamps for 3 different sounds!

** **

Thanks for listening & reading. I hope that gives you an understanding of the available tones and possibilities with ASP800. Get one now!

For more information on ASP800, please don’t hesitate to contact your local dealer or visit our website.

** http://www.audient.com/products/asp800**

OK - here’s the last part of my technical ramblings before we go through all of the ASP800 audio examples on soundcloud. This one is for the measurement geeks (yes I did just photoshop our Marketing Manager, Andy into this photo! haha #photoshoptroll)...

I’ve already outlined the concept behind HMX & IRON - which takes our classic clean Audient mic pre (the neutral tonal centre) and shapes it into various combinations found in the Triangle of Tone!

As a brief reminder - here is the ASP800 Tone Triangle.

The GREEN TONE - Standard Class-A Clean Mic Pre

Below is a measurement of the standard ASP800 Audient mic pre, with just a small amount of 3rd harmonic distortion present and noise that is close to 120dB below signal level and the frequency response is flat between 10Hz and 80kHz. This is clean, and we like it as a starting point. The measurements in the FFT below do not contain any weighting filters and noise measures almost -100dBu in the 20-20kHz bandwidth.

THE BLUE TONE - IRON Measurements

Engaging IRON in-line with the mic amp provides a raised noise floor that is similar to that of a 2″ tape machine - about -85dBu. Instead of using plugins that stack up noise simulation (and forgetting to automate the hiss off in gaps!) - why not record with a bit of that natural glue on the sound already?

OK - that might seem mad but analogue noise acts like a backdrop and can often make a recording sound more natural when the audio stops and there’s gentle hiss to fill in the gaps. This is why plugins have tried to emulate this in recent years. The nice thing about the noise in ASP800 is that it is low level and will not swamp your tracks like the kind found in many plugins (you know what I’m talking about)... it is “just enough”.

So how exactly does IRON achieve it’s slightly airy & shimmering sound that can go from subtle to full on GROWL?

Just engaging IRON at MINIMUM adds lots of 2nd & 3rd harmonic distortion from the Class-A drive and recovery amplifiers. Note that fundamentally this is still musical (octave and octave+fifth) distortion.

Turning up the IRON drive control to MEDIUM shows that the midrange (1kHz) is not getting any more distorted and the noise stays consistent as it is band-limited by the transformer itself. In fact the audio in the midrange is actually getting a touch clearer as the drive increases...

And surprisingly, turning IRON up to MAXIMUM cleans up the midrange distortion, lowering the harmonic amplitudes due to changing load on the drive amplfiier. Thus high levels of IRON can be used to “clean-up” the midrange, perfect to reduce honkyness in a vocal or quack in a guitar recording.

“IRON loves low end - feed it bass, it’s hungry!”

The low frequencies are where IRON gets interesting as the magnetic core saturation starts to take effect. Here you will get punch at low settings and downright GROWL and SNARL at high levels of drive. Look at how the distortion ramps up with increasing drive and source impedance:

So what else is happening when engaging IRON besides addings lots of snarling harmonics to low frequencies?

“IRON is adding phase shift and subtle AIR boosts to the overall frequency extremes and lifts as much as +2.5dB @ 15kHz”

This provides a “sounds like a record” topend shimmer and as the midrange cleans up at high IRON settings, it can make an uneven source sound smoother and more pleasing. Notice a tightening of the subs at maximum drive (due to increased source impedance) but that AIR is “oh-so-jangly” because it’s caused by overshooting resonance in the transformer secondary.

IRON is provides a smooth symmetrical waveshaping that eventually goes into out and out magnetic saturation and creates high levels of phase shift in the distorted components.

All in all - these combined non-linearities are what give IRON it’s unique and incredibly useful (not to mention good value for money) performance.

THE PURPLE TONE - HMX Measurements

Engaging HMX on it’s own also raises the noise floor - this time by a larger amount due to the amount of cascaded gain in the three stages. However it is still nice sounding noise for whatever that is worth!

Immediately the sound is enhanced with high levels of 2nd and 3rd harmonic distortion similar to that of old tube amplifiers.

Increasing the HMX drive control continues to add huge amounts of THD until it reaches a whopping 4% at 1kHz with 0dBu input. It is possible with higher signal levels to reach 30-40% THD in HMX without clipping the mic amp itself.

Note that HMX maintains it’s distortion at all frequencies so it is not a frequency specific saturator like IRON. It does eventually soften off at high frequency and thus still sounds sweet and musical.

“HMX also adds low frequency enhancement, it loves kick drums and long envelope low frequency waveforms like Moog synth bass and such. If any of you are EDM guys - you will love it!”

Any finally the waveshaping found in HMX is nicely asymmetrical for that “tube-like” colouration.

Tune in for the final part where we will cover the settings used in the sound clips found on soundcloud in the HMX & IRON playlists.

Alrighty,

Part two - this one is for the folks who want to know what happens behind the front panel.

Here’s a look at the prototype guts of RETRO channels 1 & 2 on the new ASP800. Note the Class-A discrete MOSFET stages that run on 32V, the custom 600Ω Audient transformer for the IRON saturator and in particular the multideck potentiometer that controls 3 complex parameters in one go when adjusting IRON. Ignore the blobs of glue, mods and sliced cabling added as we figured out the best way to get this unit to sound killer!!

Signal Flow:

Let me get this out of the way first! Although the controls on the front panel appear as HMX and then IRON - the actual signal flow is IRON into HMX.

On the prototype we’d placed jumpers inside to change the order based off what sounded best. It took us a good few listens to decide, but in the end, the subtle sparkle and cleaner midrange tonailty of IRON worked best on nearly all material BEFORE HMX. I think it just tees up the signal for HMX to feed off it and it nearly always made for the most useful combination. It most closely mimics the signal flow of a classic mic pre - input transformer > gain stage. I think it has more to do with the fact that HMX is a compressed sounding saturator and thus it doesn’t leave much transient detail behind for that nice little transformer to eat. Thus IRON into HMX was the final arrangment. Here’s the block diagram.

IRON - Saturator 1

Let’s start with IRON, which is based around a real transformer. Transformers have been used for decades in audio gear (before and including the good old 1950′s). 

Typically we use transformers to convert impedance (reflected values) and match level and impedances between devices that would otherwise mis-match. We also use transformers to create floating, balanced audio inputs and outputs that are very hardy and resiliant from a noise point of view.

However there are a few creative side effects in transformers (and magnetics in general) that for many years designers tried to remove (by the 1980′s lots of equipment used transformerless circuitry for performance, cost & weight reasons).

Transformers inherently distort at low frequencies as the magnetic core runs out of flux headroom and can no longer store the energy from the signal which is converted via induction into magnetic field. This is called core saturation and lots of classic 1970′s equipment had a lot of it (unintentionally). We have used a small core transformer in ASP800 to deliberately create saturation. 

“We have exaggerated this effect by also varying the drive impedance into the transformer which can shape bass response and the amount of saturation“

The distortion found in a transformer is symmetrical and by default strong in 3rd harmonic content, which equates to an octave + a fifth and forms a sort of punchy power chord! I guess this is why rock guys like old transformer gear?!

Transformers also shift phase and band limit the frequency response. Often times, the high frequency roll off that occurs is affected by parasitic capacitance and resonance in the windings to create high frequency non-linearity. These can be controlled or flattened out with loading (often called Zobel loading).

“In ASP800 we vary the damping and loading on the transformer to create variable “air” and “sparkle”. This is based upon the response found in some classic 1970′s British gear that sees a 2.5dB rise at approx. 15kHz“

Transformers like magnetic tape feature hysteresis - which is effectively a memory effort that will slew transients as the magnetic energy that is used to pass signal from primary to secondary windings in the core does not start and stop immediately. It has a sort of delay or storage effect. This will slow down and shape transients in your material, this is why you can really hear the effects on IRON on snare drums and acoustic guitars.

A friend of mine uses an analogy to describe this effect as:

“it’s like getting hit by a punch that stays in that little bit longer for some extra pain...”

OK so there, transformer hysteresis is the audio equivalent of Bruce Lee’s One Inch Punch!

To complete the IRON sonic puzzle, we used single ended Class-A MOSFET drive & recovery amplifiers which are rich in asymmetrical (even harmonic distortion) to make the circuit sound even richer.

Here is the block diagram for the network that achieves the complex interaction of parameters in the IRON circuit:

HMX - Saturator 2

HMX stands for HARMONICS and is a three-stage saturator. Instead of driving one stage really hard for gross overdrive, HMX works like a guitar amp preamp stage and saturates three amplifiers in row, multiplying the subtle distortion from each previous stage with the subsequent one - achieving a very high amount of distortion but it stays smooth because it’s coming from 3 smaller buckets of colour instead of a single large one!

HMX has been around since our acclaimed Black Series modular range and harks back to early tube amplifiers with single-ended, single high voltage power supply bias (32V) and A.C coupled amplifier stages.

To further enhance the sweet overdrive that is possible...

“...with HMX, we use pre and de-emphasis filtering to shape the tone into and out of the distortion section”

HMX boosts low frequencies into the distortion stage, creating a bass-centric saturator - but compensates for level and frequency changes at the output to achieve a more consistent level overall, however the de-emphasis filter is not the receiprocal of the pre-emphasis filter, which results in a low frequency bump that fattens sounds in a lovely way. This leaves a small rise in lows below 150Hz, mostly centred at 50Hz - which is similar in location to tape head bump! It loves kick drums, bass synth & male vocals.

Combining the two RETRO saturators creates all manner of creative possibilities and allows the ASP800 to navigate the Triangle of Tone.

More in Part 3, where we cover the measurement and performance of each RETRO stage. However if you want to skip ahead and take a listen, head over to https://soundcloud.com/audientworld and check out the HMX & IRON playlists.

Hey,

as you may have seen, we’ve just launched our new 8-channel mic preamp, the ASP800.

We’re really proud of the quality and feature set we’ve delivered on this unit, and it makes a great partner to your existing audio interface, our iD14 / iD22 offerings or in partnership with big brother the ASP880.

In particular, we’re proud of our tonal shaping options and the new HMX & IRON saturator combination.

I’ve written a piece on HMX before and also the Triangle of Tone concept - but here I wanted to uncover a little more about the technology behind the saturators & why they do what they do.

In this multi-part series I will cover how these concepts relate and why our new IRON saturator was the missing piece to this puzzle - a colour I felt we really needed alongside HMX to balance the ying/yang of the tonal centre on the mic pre.

The Triangle of Tone:

You may have seen us mention the concept of the Triangle of Tone before with regards to variable impedance but it can be applied to anything.

It is a simple way to assist training your ears to recognise transformations in the source sound to a desired sonic target. By learning to map your equipment and it’s “personality” to what you hear, you can eventually break the rules, ignore the “theories” and technological choices and go with 100% feel and vibe - with more appropriate musical directivity.

Consider mapping the characteristics of the piece of equipment in a graphical way, a visual reminder. Would you categorise a piece of gear as slow, soft, hard, clean, coloured, trashy and if so by how much, in which frequency ranges, how does it relate to the source? How do those changes make you “feel”? These characteristics can be placed on the graph above in a scale of strength from 0 (centre) to 10 (outer perimeter). You could also make a Triangle of Feel if you prefer!

Take a source, such as a soft singer with a darker tone on the mic and add an airy, forwards lift with your sound shaping tools to achieve the “appropriate” tonal centre, or take a sound with an uneven midrange and “smooth it out” with something that softens details to slot it into a mix.

Good tracking engineers know how to do this on the way in, leaving less guesswork for the mix engineers. Great mixers now how to shape these choices and blend within thousands of subtle changes to make sense of the puzzle and ensure the pieces fit together perfectly, thus increasing the emotional impact of the song. A great mastering engineer should understand the relationships of these choices and know when to tread lightly to preserve them but also when to apply more heavy handed tonal shaping to ensure the message of the material really hits home on with the listener across various playback systems.

“I got 99 plug-ins but it’s a b*tch choosing one...”

Keep it simple, make easy choices and try not to confuse yourself with too many options. Restrictions often enhance creativity.

How many of you truly feel that you understand the sonic impact of each of the plug-ins you have in your DAW? Are you aware that some change the sound by just turning them on, even set “flat” and I’m not talking about fashionable channel saturators but seemingly transparent digital EQs etc? Do you really need 6 different mic preamps to make a decent recording?

You should be making sure you have a few reliable tools that get the job done - and don’t fall foul of having a gazillion different options available that confuse your creative process.

If you spend your time recording or mixing, you may find that the subtle tonal shaping available in ASP800 with HMX & IRON allows you to do less processing in the box later downstream and it may allow you to reduce the number of mic pres you need to use when recording. If you produce electronic music, running elements through the saturators can replace the need to stack hundreds of “tape emulation” & “console saturation” plugins in the DAW which can tend to cheapen the sound or at the very least, compromise 3D depth to some degree in my experience if over used.

The Classic Audient Sound Modified:

HMX & IRON are our new tonal shaping tools that allow you to take the fundamentally clean Audient mic pre sound and add sharper edges, smooth complex midrange dirt all the way to full-on-fuzz and growl.

I would categorise our ASP Class-A mic amp as pretty fast and clean sounding with a tonal centre that is neutral - neither too hard or too soft (the green triangle).

HMX - our MOSFET saturator is pretty soft, slow and very colourful with low frequency emphasis and a gentle compression style. It can take the tonal centre towards the purple triangle.

IRON - our new TRANSFORMER saturator is shimmery, hard, offers a slightly distorted midrange, with lots of low frequency harmonic distortion and it can shape transients and add some attack / punch to very transient material. IRON takes the ASP mic amp and moves it towards the blue triangle.

By combining these two in varying amounts - ASP800 allows you to take the source tone on a trip around the map - providing more separation and personality with very simple choices at unbeatable price/performance value.

Once learnt, you can forget about the “concepts behind the tool” but remember why & when you would choose a certain sound when you are making records - it is our job as engineers to fully understand these choices.

Tune in for Part II - where I’ll cover the circuits behind HMX & IRON. However if you want to skip ahead and take a listen - head over to https://soundcloud.com/audientworld and check out our HMX & IRON playlists.