Sam Mallery's blog

Audio waveforms are among the greatest tools that the digital audio revolution has given musicians and producers. But sometimes it's important to forget they're there. It's wonderful that so many audio tools have turned into lush, graphical experiences, but making sonic decisions based on visual information isn't always the best way to go. It's funny, when I'm working on a mix, it often takes lots of will power to pull my eyes away from the computer monitor and just listen...

A typical human being sees the world through two eyes, smells the world through two nostrils, and hears the world through two ears. Why we only have one mouth is a mystery, but it likely has something to do with noise pollution. Since we hear the world through two separate ears, recording audio in stereo for video work seems like a natural choice, but it isn’t always the best choice. Even so, there are many situations where using a stereo mic on a camera yields really nice results. In this article I’ll tell you about the times when you should use a stereo mic on a video camera, and make it clear when you should use a different kind of microphone. Plus I’ll share some mission critical tips for getting good sound when shooting outdoors.

Modern television is filled with shows about high-tech crime investigators, and the detectives in these shows almost always use touch screen computers. Often times their futuristic computers take the form of a large glass wall in the center of the room, where at the touch of a finger an officer can instantly display a suspect’s file. The entertainment world is fixated on predicting what touch screen technology will look like and how it will operate, even though it’s already here. Since 2007, gadgets like the iPod Touch have revolutionized how human beings interact with electronics.

The new workstations at B&H bring together the worlds of video post and audio production like never before. They allow you to test drive the latest software and hardware, and witness firsthand how the sonic and visual sides of post production interact. Have you ever used Final Cut Studio software on a powerful Apple Mac Pro computer? Want to audition the latest Universal Audio UAD-2 plug-ins in a Logic session? Now you can!

Our customers have always been Sennheiser fanatics. Their Evolution Series wireless systems and wired microphones have maintained a well deserved popularity. Even when I walk around the B&H executive offices, I always see lots of our employees wearing Sennheiser's HD-280 Pro headphones (because they sound so nice and really block out noise). So it goes without saying that B&H is indeed proud to be named Sennheiser's Dealer of the Year in their professional audio business category.

The quiet little world of camera XLR adapters has been ablaze with activity lately. Here's a brief recap: the juicedLink DN101 came out and proved to be a great accessory for DSLR video shooters who own a CX series juicedLink XLR adapter. The latest news is great for people who need to plug professional microphones into their video-enabled DSLR cameras, but don't own an XLR adapter yet. JuicedLink has released the DT454, which gives you all of the functionality of a CX series box, with a DN101 built-in.

This curious looking wavy blue ring is causing a lot of confusion for customers who buy new R0DE microphones. The ring is a small spacer that comes installed inside of the mic. The ring can be easily removed, and it's a good idea to remove it immediately after you buy a new R0DE. The ring prohibits many XLR cables from connecting, and you may think your new mic is defective if you're unaware of this issue.