Do Nothing

There will likely be moments, long dismal moments, when everything seems empty, when all possibility seems to have vanished, and when your deepest desire is to simply vanish. The feeling, if it is truly profound, is one of hollowness. It is worse than melancholy. It is the essence of powerlessness, and this is the feeling inspired by true, clinical, depression. This is the backbone of suicide, and people can be brought to it by long hours of self criticism, blame, hunger, cold, and sadness.

If you get to this terrible country, first, do nothing. You think that the feeling will persist forever. It wont. It cant. Before you know it you get an idea, and that gets you thinking about something else, and then you think of something youd like to try. Oh, you may sink back into the empty spot, but the worst part about being there is the feeling that it will go on forever. Once you know it goes away, it gets a little easier to take.

When the hours ache and linger, when the mind is poisoned with hurt, when the night is very cold and very dark, and when you can think of no where to turn, do nothing. Change will come.

Until it does, take a hot shower, and use some deodorant. Depression causes us to release all kinds of stinky pheromones.

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Why Do High Sample Rates Sound Better

Guest post by Rupert Pfaff

Human hearing is generally defined as extending from 20Hz to 20kHz, and the Nyquist criteria states that a sampling rate of at least double the highest audio frequency must be used in order to accurately to represent the signal. An unwanted side-effect of analogue to digital conversion is aliasing, where musically unrelated signal noise enters the audio band, so an anti-aliasing filter is used to prevent this, but because it is not possible to implement an infinitely steep filter, a slightly higher sample rate is used than is theoretically necessary. This is how the CD standard of 44.1kHz came about (a little more than double 20kHz), and DAT took this up to 48kHz to allow varispeed recording.

So if we cant hear above 20kHz, why record at very high sample rates such as 96kHz or even 192kHz? Some have suggested that although we dont actually hear supersonic frequencies, we somehow perceive them by another means, but experiments that artificially add and remove these frequencies have shown this not to be the case. But golden eared tests which have made A/B comparisons of the same equipment operating at standard and high sample rates have revealed that 96kHz & 192kHz recordings do sound subjectively better - so whats going on?

The answer lies primarily with the anti-aliasing filters - even the best designed filters produce a certain amount of ripple that extends downwards from the cut-off point and gradually tails off, and this is perceived as a smearing of high frequencies and the stereo image. But by moving the cutoff point way up (say to 96kHz), the ripple has all but disappeared by the time it gets down to audio frequencies, and hence, substantially improved sound quality. Importantly though, it follows that this improvement is maintained even after the sample rate has been converted down to normal rates, as no new A/D conversion is required, and therefore, no anti-aliasing filter.

Experienced Recording Studio Engineer Guidelines

In the early days of high sample rate recording, there was a preference for using multiples of the CD frequency (44.1kHz), i.e. 88.2kHz or 176.4Hz - this was because sample rate conversion was a very difficult thing to do at the time, and better quality could be achieved when converting down to 44.1kHz by using an integer multiple. However this is no longer the case, and our usual preferred rate for acoustic recording is 96kHz for a variety of reasons:

• 96kHz is the native frequency of many DVD audio releases
• Although 192kHz does sound a little better than 96kHz, the improvement is marginal
• Some plug-ins do not handle 192kHz audio
• Processing power is reduced to roughly a quarter of that available at 48kHz

That said, if you are working very largely with virtual instruments that have mostly only been sampled at 44.1kHz, and/or you like to use a lot of tracks and processing, it may be more sensible to stick to 44.1kHz. Or if youre making a small classical or jazz recording, you may only need a few tracks and little processing, and want to eke out every last bit of quality you can, then go for 192kHz - let your music make the decision for you.

Rupert Pfaff has worked in the music industry for over 20 years having operated a well known music shop in London before becoming a sound engineer and technical authority for mixing and mastering. Now involved with the day to day running and managing the online bookings for RecordingStudioLondon.

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Do the Splits and See Where Your Money is Going

Managing your personal finances is much easier when you know exactly where your money is coming from and where its going. MoneyLine Personal Finance Software helps you track your cash flow quickly and easily.

One of the easiest ways to see whats happening with your money is to use the split transaction feature in MoneyLine. For example, lets say you go to a store like Target or Walmart to buy groceries. Along with your groceries you stop off in the automotive section to pick up a couple of quarts of oil, then stop by the clothing section to pick up a few pairs of socks, and finally drop by the toy aisle to buy a birthday gift for a young relative.

Once youre home and have put away the groceries and the other items you bought, enter the purchase in MoneyLine. You can either record the total amount of the transaction and stop there, or take a few extra seconds and split the transaction into different categories. After entering the total amount spent at the store, break down exactly how much money you spent on food and allocate that to the Groceries category. Record the amount spent for the motor oil to Auto, put the socks under Clothing and finally the toy can go under Gifts.

You can even add subcategories to track things in still finer detail. For example, if you have two cars, you could make a subcategory for each vehicle underneath Auto expenses.

Over time, as you continue to categorize and split transactions you will have a better picture of exactly where you are spending your money. This helps when you are trying to create or stick to a budget—another feature of MoneyLine. You may find areas where you can cut back, or maybe you will find a few extra dollars that you can use for vacation and entertainment expenses—thats when keeping track of your money becomes fun.

Keeping track of your personal finances can be a chore, but with MoneyLine Personal Finance Software youll find that its actually a lot quicker than you may have feared.

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