Association Of Professional Recording Services

The association that most interested me and that I would like to become a part of is the Association Of Professional Recording Services (APRS). It’s an association that has been active for fifty years and whose sole purpose is to provide the highest standard through the industry, while providing ways for audio professionals to work together. APRS establishes many programs and conferences for professionals to get together and bring awareness of the current pros and cons of the industry as well as teaching new techniques about the recording process. APRS had a conference that caught my attention as I read their article. An issue had to be resolved over the next couple of years. The issue was the misuse and overuse of compression. The target audience was not just music recording, but also motion picture, as well as radio broadcast, and television. For the music side, it is the record companies fault for asking for a loud as possible music track. The only way for this is to compress the track enough to get the desired volume. Many audio engineers are becoming aware of an issue that needs to be resolved to bring back the quality in sound recordings. This was the main purpose of this conference, to bring this issue to light and bring awareness. I can relate to this issue very well. When I compress my mixes during mastering, I usually squash the track quite a lot in order for the music track to be loud, so that it can compare and compete with the music tracks that are released in our present day. The public and other audio engineers and recording companies feel that they have to keep up with the trend in order to survive in the entertainment world. In reality, we are giving up quality when we do this to get a loud as possible music track. The same as mp3 formats. We are giving up quality in order for the music track to become smaller in size so that we can fit more in our iPod. Our current society is getting used to this and it can become a problem in the future when they cannot tell the difference between good and bad quality recordings. Below is a picture where you can observe the difference between loud and normal tracks. 

Sources

http://www2.aprs.co.uk/Default.aspx?pageId=251628

Acoustic Foam Treatment

Owning a studio in your own house is becoming more popular now since the cost for the audio equipment has become affordable and portable. You may have all your studio equipment ready to go and record, but if your room is not acoustically treated then you have a big problem when recording and mixing. When the sound leaves the speakers, the sound bounces of the walls to the listener and sends a false signal that is not really the original signal. These false signals are known as reflections and they are a big problem that affects your sound. We can stop and control these reflections by acoustically treating the room. A popular way to do this is to buy acoustic foam and place them on your walls. You may have already gone and checked the prices for acoustic foam and seen that the prices are ridiculous for a piece of foam. The most common price for this acoustic foam is 24 pieces of 12x12 acoustic foam for $109.99. You can check them out at this link http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Wedgies/. It would seem that treating your room acoustically would put a big dent on your wallet, but it is something that has to be done to acquire the perfect true sound in your room. Today I bring you a website that will only scratch your pockets. At Foam Factory, you can find the same kind of foam for very cheap prices. You could buy 12 pieces of 12x12 acoustic foam for $15.99. You may be thinking that it has to be a knock-off for being that cheap, but the reality is that its not. The foam is identical; you are only paying more with the other foams because of the brand name. You can check them out at this link http://www.foambymail.com/AW2/acoustical-2-wedge-foam.html. Foam Factory offers different kinds of foam for you room such as, bass traps, monitor isolations, wedge foam, pyramid foam and many more. You can also pick the color that best suits your taste. I personally have purchased large amounts of acoustic foams from Foam Factory for the fraction of the price that it would have cost for the brand-name foam.