Audio processing

Monday evening was looking fairly blank, until Howard phoned me with a file restore problem. Windows ME is a pain. Not much else you can say really. Managed to get on the Waddo net, but not a lot to say really.

Tuesday evening's short visit to the studio to reboot a computer turned into a long session of playing with the kit. Tim suggested I should run a memory test on the studio machine, since it keeps falling over, so I thought I'd play some music to pass the time. Having plugged in my laptop to the mixer, I decided to use Cooledit to generate some tones, and I started to play with the compressor again. I've been trying to raise the "elbow" on the compressor for some time, because with the threshold too low, everything sounds compressed, and I'd rather let everything below -4dBU sound uncompressed. Because the threshold is so high, I need to set quite a high compression ratio to squish down the range between -4dBU and +12dBU to between -4dBU and +4dBU, which is not too high to cut slightly when feeding the audio into the stream encoder, which has a hard limit at 0dBA, and I generally like to have 0dBU line up with -6dBA, giving 2dB headroom. Discovered I have to do this with the Spectra effect turned off on the SCOM, as it shapes high freqencies, and measuring compression with a 1kHz tone becomes a bit of a nightmare with it turned on (and is possibly where I've gone wrong before)... no objection to turning it on after I've got the compression curve I want. I had a bit of a play with the time constants, but decided to leave them on auto as a reasonable compromise on the range of different kinds of music and speech programming. I've now got it so that with PPM5 peaks, we get PPM4 peaks on the return monitor, and PPM7 peaks result in PPM5 peaks on the return, with greater compression so that it still "feels" much louder, but the audio levels are pretty much under control. Not sure about setting it up to feed two streams though... we'll have to see about that.

All this work resulted in Tim installing shoutcast and an encoder on gateway, and we ran a few tests, and played with the config until I was happy that the capture level wasn't too high (actually, I had to set it very low, because the output levels are set high to allow reasonable throughput to the logging). The upshot is that I can now drive the mixer to PPM7, and while it sounds very loud, it's not too badly distorted, and regular driving to PPM5 sounds reasonably open, with minimum compression... which is how I like my audio. I guess if I had an AGC, I'd set it to drive the compressor a bit harder (maybe up 6dB). This has a knock on effect of improving some tracks that "play" the elbow rather badly. For example "I Know Him So Well", the low levels seem to be pushed down, and then you get a high peak, which goes too high after the compressor has responded to the low level. This causes the track's level to go all over the place. Running it 6dB up seems to resolve this issue, but resulting in an obviously compressed output. Can't win really.

Wednesday was a hard day at work, but at least I can work out for myself why something doesn't work these days. The evening trip to Grantham was uneventful, but received a SMS from Dave inviting me to have a look at some converted PMR kit. How that I've upgraded my ham license, I can now use this kit, so I took up this offer. Ended up drinking whisky until gone midnight...

...making this morning a bit of a slow start. Dragged myself swimming, and did at least 24 lengths, probably more, but I lost count. For some reason, they were piping Radio 1 into the pool area rather than Classic FM. That combined with someone swimming a splashy front crawl in the middle lane (maximum disruption to everyone else), made the morning swim more stressful than the sigmoidoscopy I had last year. Anyway, I now feel rather groggy, sort of mild migrain symptoms, so I'll try to catch a nap later to try to rectify things.

Onwards...

More breaking, building, and a kebab!

Ok, so last Wednesday was slightly exciting. I went down to Grantham, for my usual stint at Radio Witham, to find, shock, horror, someone has fitted the mixer in the new studio. It's been FIVE YEARS since the last time there was a mixer in that room. Do I feel the endo fhte project approaching? Only a few more wall panels, a bit of wiring, and a carpet to go I think. On the way home, I stopped via the Boundary Sound studio to reboot the studio computer, which Tim had managed to lock himself out of after he forgot to restart the ssh process. Doh. This presented me with an excuse for a kebab. I've not had one for a while, so I thought I'd treat myself.

By thursday morning, it had become apparent that the studio computer had crashed while it was completing its updates. Damn. So another late night trip to the studio to kick the reset button again. Once we'd got home, we finally removed the arm chairs out of the lounge, and into the garage in preparation for the delivery of our new sofa. Shelagh had managed to get a delivery time of "about 09:30" out of them, so we cleared as much as we could. The evening was spent in the Navigation celebrating Andy's birthday. I was on coke - my turn to drive.

On Friday morning, I was woken at 07:40 by the delivery people informing us they were on their way with the sofa. Great. It was delivered 40 minutes later, giving me just enough time to help Shelagh to unpack it, but not put it together. I knew there would be a bit of work to put things together - you'd expect it with an L shaped sofa, but this was virtually flat-pack! I managed a bit more construction at lunch time, and completed the job just as my parents arrived for dinner. I decided not to bother with choir practise, as I'm not playing at St Giles again for another 4 weeks, and so had a nice night in.

Shelagh and I spent some time on Saturday re-arranging the lounge a bit. Trying to find new homes for displaced items, such as the nested tables, the bin, and a pile of newspapers. Then, we went down to Grantham to get the car washed, and return a 6 channel mixer to Nigel. We hadn't been to see the Blands for a good 6 months, so it was nice to catch up with all the latest news. Then home for another quiet night in, arranging a meeting with Jacko next Thursday to plan a new jingle set.

Made the mistake of watching a film until gone 1am, when I had to be up early on Sunday morning to take Shelagh to work, as I needed the car to get to the Congregational church. I don't think the lack of sleep affected me too badly, although I took Sunday afternoon steadily. I should have attacked the lawns again, as more rain was forecast, and it had been dry for most of the weekend. Oh well... as long as it's not too long for next weekend. Had an early night...

...for an early start - Monday morning swimming. At last, managed to get there early enough to complete a full 32 lengths. Still weigh 13 stone, but then I've had a naughty week with kebabs, etc. Must try harder this week to behave!

Breaking, fixing, and burning things...

Lots of things keep happening, and I'm just about managing to keep up with things. Unfortunately, that means I don't have time to write about them as they happen. This has been the case for several weeks now. I feel another holiday is needed in the near future to try to slow things back down.

Last Thursday, for the first time since last August I think, both Don and Dave joined me at the radio club. So many things have happened in that time that have prevented us all being there at the same time. Anyway, as usual, a good evening was had by all.

I really don't remember last Friday. Didn't do anything special in the evening either. Had an unexpected phone call from the Congregational Church who were looking for an organist for Sunday. I wasn't aware Linda was unavailable. Not a problem - I quite enjoy playing there anyway. I realised, while I was on the phone, that Ikea had tried to call on Wednesday to tell us when they will deliver the sofa... we weren't expecting this call until the 13th!

On Saturday, Shelagh was working the early morning shift again, so I caught up with some sleep, before mowing the lawns, making a trip to the tip, and then buying an incineration bin to burn the stuff I couldn't be bothered to move (or was too spikey and dangerous to move). Sadly, the weather wasn't going to hold up for me, so I put it off for another day. Spent the evening chatting to Dave. I miss the sofa... with Shelagh still being awake, there wasn't anywhere for me to sit, so I ended up on one of the chairs we bought from Ikea.

Sunday was a blur of three church services. I managed to burn most of the rubbish in the garden later in the evening. Had an amusing moment when there was a small explosion from the fire. I think the case of an old firework might have landed among a pile of leaves, and didn't take to being burnt too well.

Early start on Monday morning to go swimming. I weighed in at 13 stone exactly. Another pitiful 24 lengths, again caused by a slightly later start than I need to do a full 32. Had some fun and games with the radio station's internet connection. JHCS claimed our router was injecting DHCP onto their network. However, we couldn't find any record of this in our logs. So we reconnected, and will keep an eye on it, but something odd was going on. Then went to Grantham to give my mother her birthday card.

Tuesday was even less exciting. Mostly spent at work with a large pile of things to be done. After dinner, spent a couple of hours on the radio. Nothing in particular to chat about. Made the effort to recompile the new linux kernel I downloaded last week. Still waiting to reboot battenberg though. I installed VB4 on eccles to check something out, which forced me to reboot eccles...

...then this morning, MS annouce 6 new patches for win2k. So I had to reboot eccles again. Why don't MS announce these things on a Monday morning or last thing on a Friday, when it's more likely that I'm going to be rebooting my machine?

Back to the grindstone

Work is as intensive as ever, with piles of things to do. Keep discovering minor changes that need making to improve some of the functionality. I can foresee this remaining the case for some time to come.

Tuesday evening was a quiet one. With my parents out playing cards, I tried to make some plans to see them on Friday, but it turns out that they're not available then either. Decided to try doing some late shopping at Woolworths, only to find that they now close at 20:00 not 22:00. Ended up sitting in, watching TV, and writing a testimonial on behalf of the radio station to one of our service providers. Always find writing those things difficult.

Chickened out of swimming on Wednesday morning. Not a lot happening really. Howard reported a problem using AOL with the new webmail system, which was fairly easily sorted out. Noticed that there's a special event RSL due in Grantham for 4 days during the summer for Gamefair (looks like a green wellie event at Belvoir).

Battled with wind and rain to go to Grantham last night. After my usual Wednesday visit to Radio Witham (some more progress on the new studio - a couple more panels have been covered, and I don't know who's doing it, otherwise I'd try to organise a time to help out), I decided to play radio for a bit, and ended up chatting to Tony and Ant on the Wolds repeater for a while, making the first official contacts with my new callsign, before getting to bed probably a bit late...

...mainly because getting up to go swimming this morning was a battle. I managed a pitiful 24 lengths, although in my defence, I was rather late into the pool, but I just couldn't bring myself to swim any faster. Also note that I'm now 13st 1lb. I need to get a grip on this weight creep (and I'm due to cook burgers for tea tonight!).

Pull the other one

Another week passes, and while I've been "too busy to write" I've also been "not here to write". Being slightly security aware, I don't advertise in advance that I'm going away for a few days, but of course, I'm willing to share my experiences afterwards.

So quickly hopping back to last Tuesday, and the arrival of the previous thursday's Ringing World (long bank holidays and the postal service obviously don't mix), I pushed through a 2 day week. I spent the evening at the radio station, since I'd left my soldering iron there, as the kitchen scales had developed a fault on the on/off button - a simple matter of fitting a new push button.

Wednesday was also a hard "heads down" day to complete the various bits for the project milestone, before I went away. Had a surprise at Radio Witham, when I found Paul covering for Trevor. Not a huge issue, but I wasn't really expecting it. Got home early to tidy the house a little, and start packing.

Thursday was a very long day. Not wanting it to start too early, I slept in for an extra hour, allowing Shelagh to go into town to buy a few things, including more micro-pore tape that I use when doing lots of bell ringing. She also managed to get my watch strip sorted out, as it had a habit of coming off (turns out I'd got one one size too small). We made some sandwiches, packed everything into the car, and headed off to Hereford at about 13:00, arriving around 16:30, which wasn't bad considering how bad traffic in Worcestor had got. Sorted out our accommodation, group (AB - so more rounds and call changes and plain hunt... for the third year in a row), and after dinner we went to the initial practical session, on tied bells for the AB groups, to see what needed doing. No great shocks really, always a few points, but nothing too bad. Then things went a bit pear shaped. The bar. After having to drive around so much, and then not having to drive anywhere for a few days, the temptation to drink too much is strong, and after 5 pints, I was quite finished.

This made Friday morning rather interesting. I forced myself to go to breakfast, get something inside me to help sort myself out, and then I intended missing the 9am lecture (that's usually optional for helpers anyway) to wash my hair, and have a shave, as I hadn't shaved on Thursday. I found that someone (it wasn't me, honest) had puked in the sink, and blocked it. Not wanting to think too much, and go downstairs to perform some personal grooming, I though "sod it" and decided to have another hours sleep.

Ok, I went through Friday looking like the walking dead (and felt it too), but managed to ring well enough, and get through the day ok. Was down as a helper at a Grandsire conducting practical in the evening, which didn't go too badly. Stuck to drinking coke at the bar, and introduced myself to Robert Lewis, the editor of the ringing world. We talked about the recent events at Settle, where one of the bells had broken up after being retuned and rehung.

Saturday morning was much better. I tidied myself up, and bounced down to breakfast. Saturday is quite an intensive day for ringing, and I decided to use some tape on my fingers to stop them becoming too sore. I'd opted to go to Hereford Cathedral in the evening, to find out for myself how bad they were. Actually, they're no worse than Newark, except the visibility in the tower is rather hindered by the woodwork. Had a quiet evening in the bar, a couple of pints of beer, and a pint of coke to balance things out. Decided that I was going to have to do something about my own ringing career, which has been rather stalled for the last 7 years or so, and I think Robert suggested I should write an article about the tour for the comic. I don't know how serious he was. I've not written anything. Maybe I should sort out those mini-guides I started writing last year, and get them published? The pope's death was also mentioned, and the length of his term in office was debated.

Sunday didn't quite go to plan. During morning coffee, it was suggested that I go to visit Yarkhill (SO608426), the birthplace of Stedman, and what seems to be an impressive augmentation project to take it from 4 to 8 (although I think the old bells will be simply retired). Managed to get back for lunch in time to join the very back of the queue, but was still able to eat fast enough to get to the last tower on time. After some nice stately ringing, and a group photo, it was time for a goodbye coffee, and the long drive home, departing at 17:00. Had to stop to buy petrol, and for some stupid reason chose to stop at Ashby de la Zouche. What a crap town... there doesn't seem to be anywhere to eat, and ended up with grabbing something at the petrol station. Got home just before 20:00.

Monday was an expensive day. We've been thinking of buying a new sofa for some time, and now was the time to do it. So we went to Ikea in Nottingham, and ended up buying a new dining table too. So now we're £700 poorer. We had to remove the old sofa to make room for the table, which we built and ate tea at, before I dashed off to the radio station to train Andy and Howard on the use of the linux workstations. The new sofa should arrive in the next couple of weeks. We're expecting an phone call on around the 13th April to confirm a time and date. I'm dreading moving the armchairs, as there's so much stuff piled up behind them... it's all got to go.