BIG Audio Book Blow Out

Continuing the audio effects series, again, we all know of audio effects and what they generally are supposed to do. They are used to manipulate audio in ways that are not available with traditional playing and recording techniques. If you’re like me, and enjoy dabbling in audio production, you’re probably familiar with all the basic effects and maybe some other types. Noise gate will be one of the topics of discussion today. Noise gate, what the heck is that? If that was your first reaction, you’re not alone. Please don’t worry; we will be demystifying this subject later on in the article. We will also be discussing flange, which is a more standard and widely used audio effect. So, in today’s article we will be discussing both noise gate and flange effects, how they work and why they work the way they do.

Noise Gate
Basically, noise gate is a device or software logic that is used to manage the volume of an audio signal, in recording studios and in sound reinforcement. They are also used by musicians, in a portable form, to control amplification noise. At its most simple form it controls noise by only allowing sound to pass through it at a certain set threshold. Think of it as a literal gate; when the gate is open sound can pass, when the gate is closed no signal is allowed through. More robust noise gate units have extra controls, I.E. attack, sustain, decay, release. This is so that you can further control the gating of your audio. Say you’d like to have the gate applied in a hard fashion, you would set a short attack and a short release, so on and so forth. Noise gates are often used to isolate background noise from live recordings in order to eliminate them from the final copy.

Flange
Flange is related to the phasing effect produced by a, well, phaser effects unit. It is produced when two identical signals are mixed together, with one of the signals time-delayed by a small and gradually changing amount. The amount is usually equal to or less than 20 milliseconds. Peaks and notches are produced in the combined frequency spectrum, related in a linear harmonic series. Part of the output signal is fed back in and resonates, intensifying the peaks and notches. This effect was originally generated with 3 three headed tape machines. Two of the tape machines would play the signal, obviously somewhat out of synch, and the third tape machine would record the output. The modern version of the effect is created using DSP (digital signal processing) technology.

This is the second part in my continuing series on audio effects. Today we discussed noise gate and flange, we’ll be moving on some more advanced effects later on. I hope that this helped you all understand the basic functionality of these two effects, ultimately making your next foray into audio editing a bit less intimidating.

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The average daily commute to work and back home is one hour. That means on average you are spending 5 hours on the road a week. Or roughly 20 hours on the road a month. Or 240 hours on the road a year! What do a lot of us do while we are on the road? Most of us listen to music. Some start talking away on their cell-phones. Others feel the need to yell at every inept driver on the road. When you take into account that most university students spend roughly 250 hours a year in the classroom earning a degree, you can understand the true importance of those accumulated road hours. Commuting hours should never be wasted, but rather converted into value-producing time for personal and/or professional development.

Over the years, I have accumulated quite a collection of audiobooks and courses. I make sure that whenever I get into my vehicle for a drive that will last over 20 minutes, that I have an audiobook CD ready to play. Just think about it. In one daily commute, you can have the equivalent education of a university lecture right there in your car, without doing anything extra.

People are often surprised that I can speak in both Portuguese and Spanish and they ask me where I learned how to speak those languages. I tell them, “Inside my car.” I simply listen to those foreign language courses everyday to and from work and having not added any extra things on my already busy schedule, I have self-taught myself two new languages.

The audiobook industry publishes a lot of great titles out there for personal and professional development and I highly recommend that you convert those commuting hours into hours of significant value for your overall self-improvement. If you dedicate your commuting hours to learning something of value, then in a 30 year career, you can get the equivalent education of seven or eight PhDs without changing anything in your life. Take action on this today and go out and get your first audiobook and make it a regular commuting ritual.

Tristan Loo is the founder of the Synergy Institute, LLC. A personal & professional development company based out of San Diego County, Calfornia. Tristan is a former police officer, author, professional mediator, and conflict negotiator. He is the author of Street Negotiation–How to Resolve Any Conflict Anytime. Please visit our website at http://www.synergyinstituteonline.com or email us directly at info@synergyinstituteonline.com

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Quite often, when someone decides to make positive changes in their lifestyle and personality, the first thing they’ll do is head for the nearest bookstore and start looking through the self improvement book section. Although their desire to become a better person is honorable, there are some things they should know before selecting a self improvement book to help them on their course. If you are one of these people, please read on.

First, not every one of these books is filled with advice that will be helpful for you. Sure, the cover may be flashy, the title intriquing and the write-up on the back may hold promises of the many secrets to be revealed within. Please don’t fall prey to this type of gift-wrap marketing though. Take the time to actually crack open the book and read through the contents and a few random paragraphs or pages within.

Secondly, ask yourself if the course of self improvement being offered in the book is information that you already know. As you skim the book, you may find yourself agreeing with what the author is saying. That’s a good sign that you already know this information. In this case, what you need to do is take action with the information you already have, not procrastinate by purchasing another book on the topic.

On the other hand, if you find yourself having lightbulbs go off in your head as you browse through the book and saying to yourself, “Hey, I never thought of things that way!”, you might be onto a good find. Self improvement books that make you think on your own and motivate you to take action on your new ideas are often a worthwhile investment.

Finally, if you do discover the perfect book, don’t buy it right away. Being frugal is one of the first steps to self-improvement, so you might want to consider leaving the bookstore and checking your local library to see if the title is available for free. Another option is to comparison shop at online bookstores to get the best price available.

Keeping these book buying tips in mind will not only save you time and money, they may also help you further along your path to personal perfection.

James B. Allen is the cosmic publisher behind PowerLivingPress.com. Before you spend your hard-earned cash on any more self improvement books, come explore his site. It’s overflowing with free articles, tips and resources to help you enjoy life to the fullest - starting right now!

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