Audio Tech

Welcome to

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User Friendly 2.0 with host Bill Sikkens,

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Technology architect.

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And this is User Friendly 2.0.

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I am your host Bill Sikkens.

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Gretchen.

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Bill welcome lo there. Hello.

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So got a lot coming up for you this week.

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I'm going to be getting down to do another

episode of training on the jet suit.

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So we're going to talk about that

a little bit coming up here.

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And Bill,

you have a new business venture coming up

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that has to do with running role playing

games.

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We're going to talk about that

also a little bit after the news.

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So let's get to that point.

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What do we have in the news now.

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Right.

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Microsoft asks users to ignore

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anti-virus is turned off errors message.

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Yeah.

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On the topic of having credibility

with your antivirus software,

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can you imagine

having to put out a thing like that?

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If it says there's a problem,

just ignore it.

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Well, how do you know when it's real?

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You know, kind of thing?

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So what this is,

is it's an update that came out,

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on Windows

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Update, and it's causing a situation

for whatever reason.

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It's giving you a message

that the Windows Defender

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has been shut off,

when in fact it is still running properly.

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And you can check in your task manager

and stuff to make sure

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that the service is still there

and is still running if you're concerned.

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But this is a situation where they're

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looking at fixing it

with the next round of updates, hopefully,

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but that's something

you don't really want to mess around with.

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And I tell you one thing,

this is one of those times

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that the bad guys also know what happens

with these kind of things

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and would make an attempt

to do something, possibly.

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So you do want to be careful,

but if you get that message,

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it's probably a situation unless

you turned it off or something changed.

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Most likely it's still working okay.

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It's just Microsoft isn't

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talking about bad guys.

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Valves,

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massive 12 terabyte leak.

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Feeling a decade of steam game files.

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Yeah.

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So for anybody that doesn't know, valve

is a system to where you can digitally

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install games,

and it's been around for a long time.

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It's a lot of gamers use it.

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I use it is a great way,

and they have a huge archive of things

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where a lot of Andy

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developers can get their games to people

you can get older stuff.

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I was able to install SimCity,

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off of that system, you know, stuff

like that as well as new things.

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So there's a lot of use for this.

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It's kind of a cool service.

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It's run pretty well.

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And what they're referring to here is

there are different versions of the system

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that valve uses

to get the information in content to you.

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This includes not only new installs,

but updates and stuff like that.

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And what this is referring to is a version

of the system known as steam two,

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valve and a quarter

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as far as what caused this situation is

it's not a hack,

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it's something got left open

and publicly accessible,

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and it was found on the internet

and the files were there distributed.

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So they're saying that it was a problem

on their end,

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that they did something wrong.

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It wasn't that somebody got in.

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So there isn't the risk here, at least

according to them of personal information,

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your valve account or steam account

being compromised in some way, or credit

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card information

getting out or anything like that.

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So one of the things that is interesting

about this is starting to look through

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what actually is contained in ten years

worth of 12TB worth of game files.

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And a lot of information that's out there

kind of sheds lights on things,

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because there's a lot of releases that

never got out, things that were canceled,

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other stuff of

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that nature, betas

that we never actually saw, and so on.

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So I'm sure there's going to be a lot of

news coming out of this and just kind of

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what was going on for that

ten year period.

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again, that's when they switched systems

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to their current version,

and the current version

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was not left open.

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All right.

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pouring into the Nevada desert.

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The Burning Man.

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For anybody that doesn't know

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it's an event that's held in northern

Nevada, has been for a long time

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in which

a lot of people go out to the desert

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and have art installation,

among other things.

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They create a temporary city,

and at the end of this,

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they burn the effigy of a man

and then clean up and go away.

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And the idea is to make it look like

nobody was there.

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Now, Bill, you're in that area,

and I know at one time

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you live a little bit closer

to that event.

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Can you tell us

a little bit more about it?

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Well, literally a city pops

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up over a weekend and we're talking.

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Oh, 40,000 I think was one of the biggest.

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I'm not sure it might be even bigger

this year.

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They had to start cutting it off

because there's just

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lack of logistical ability to get water

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and sanitation and

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law enforcement.

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And many ways

this this is an event where anything goes.

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So you do have some challenges

that that can create.

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And on the flip side of it,

so very different from when I first

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heard about it.

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Well, Burning Man started in California

on the beach, and I believe it

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had something to do with somebody

getting a divorce if memory serves well.

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Yeah, I think that's probably

where the origins were.

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But when I heard about it, I was at

it was in college

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and it was like it was a camping trip

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and it was to do art out in the desert.

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Right.

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And, if I recall,

I because I was invited to it

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and while I was in college

and it wasn't something you paid to go to,

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and it was just

like an art thing that you did.

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And I think they were planning to do.

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I think it's called Raku.

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It's where you build a kiln in the dirt,

and then you do ceramics

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and you fire it out, you know, outside

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instead of a, a professional grade kiln.

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Right.

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And so I didn't have anybody to go with,

and I didn't know any of these people

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well enough to go camping,

you know, off with strangers.

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So I didn't go, but

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that would have been long time ago.

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So it's really changed.

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Things have changed.

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For one thing, that cost to get in

this year, average cost was $775.

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They do have different tiers and things,

but that was the if you just kind of

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bought a ticket and wanted to go out,

that's what it would cost.

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So it's not free anymore.

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And I know there's multiple schools

of thought on this.

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Some people love it,

some people hate it kind of thing.

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I, I don't know, I think anything

that promotes art has its place, but

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I also think that there is a point where

you can get a little bit over the top.

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And just my opinion, it kind of looks like

Art and Road Warrior, you know, meet.

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I could see where something like

that could be fun.

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As far as the event goes.

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Now, me personally, spending any time

in the middle of the desert in the heat

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and the sun is not something

I'd like to do.

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So when they move it to rock.

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Yeah, exactly.

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So when they move it to an air

conditioned ballroom somewhere,

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maybe I'll check it out.

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I actually did fencing out in the black

Rock desert.

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We did a fencing tournament out there.

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For real?

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Yeah, I believe you.

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I have done work in the desert

to believe me.

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I know what it is.

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No, but.

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Oh, yeah.

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No, but this was real fencing. Not.

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Not putting up fences, fencing

like Olympics, you know, like swords.

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Or. You have a sword. Yes, yes, yes.

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Yeah.

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And not selling legal goods.

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Not that kind of fencing.

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Haven't you ever heard that term? Yes.

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Oh, okay. Yeah.

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Anyway, coyote versus Acme

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beat Jacob Elordi, the dog stars.

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So this is an interesting story.

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Coyote versus Acme is a movie.

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Wily coyote from the Roadrunner

cartoons has

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basically gotten fed up

with all of his stuff

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from Acme not working the way that it's

meant to, so he sues them.

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And that's the premise of this movie.

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And from what I understand,

they've done a really nice job on it.

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It was one that was being produced

by Warner Brothers.

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They had pretty much made the film

and then decided they didn't

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want to release it.

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The rumor is

they wanted to use it as a tax write off.

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So through a long set of circumstances,

another production house called

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Ketchup Entertainment got the rights

to be able to release it and did,

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and it edged out

just 80/80,000,000 dollars on its

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first weekend, which is not bad for a film

that wasn't supposed to make money.

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Yeah, that's pretty good.

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The return

of Twitter could be a happy ending.

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After the worst rebrand of all time.

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There you go for a headline, right?

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So when I first started hearing

about this, it's like, okay, what is

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what is going on? Because,

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you know, there's been the situation

where there was Twitter,

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little Blue Bird, you sent tweets,

very popular social networking site,

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and then it was bought by X,

rebranded as X,

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and ever since then has been embroiled

in a lot of controversy.

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And that's a story for another time.

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But let's just say that it has certainly

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created some drama over the years.

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So another group is basically come out

and said, well, you've abandoned

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the trademark. So band and trademark.

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And again,

I'm not an attorney or anything,

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but from what I have read on this,

they're making the claim

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and actually have gotten some support

on this claim from a judge

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that since the trademark was abandoned,

it's available.

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And now they're setting up

a new social networking site called

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Twitter based on what it was originally

at a URL called Twitter Dot now.

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And I tried to get into this.

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It's not available for public release yet.

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You can get advanced access to it

for 20 bucks or no, I think it was 40

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bucks anyway.

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You pay a small fee,

you get advanced access to it.

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I might actually try it,

but when I did, it wasn't working.

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It said, we're down.

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So, you know,

we'll have to see what happens with that.

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But I can assure you that

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if there isn't already,

there's going to be a lawsuit.

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I believe that

that has already been filed.

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The idea of doing something like this,

although on my personal opinion,

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I kind of hope they're successful

because Twitter,

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what Twitter originally was,

I did like yeah, it was fun.

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It was fun, you know? Yeah, yeah.

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And I don't know

if it's possible to get that back,

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although I am led to understand that

one of the people

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that's driving this was one of the people

that was originally involved

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with setting up Twitter back in the day.

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So, you know, it'll be interesting.

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You guys want to see Twitter come back?

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I haven't been so social lately on social

networking anyway, but I don't know, be

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kind of nostalgia standpoint, I guess

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maybe from a nostalgic standpoint, but,

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I just don't do social media

that much anymore.

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Yeah, neither do I. Yeah.

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I think about how much time I spent

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on things like Farmville in the day,

and it's, Oh, gosh.

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Yeah.

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Oh, I just found stuff from Farmville

is so weird.

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When I'm in, I'm unpacking, you see,

and I found some Farmville, like,

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look like Christmas ornaments,

little stuffed Farmville characters.

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I don't know where Jeremy got these.

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I don't even remember.

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I didn't come from. Yeah.

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No, I

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actually, it's just, you know,

we have to admit these things.

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Eventually, I actually managed

to wear the paint off the mouse

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clicker

button on my laptop playing Farmville.

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Wow. Yeah.

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So I will admit to the shame of that.

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Well, talking about paint and fun

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has a coloring pages for kids

and perhaps adults to

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science.

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Nasa.gov is where you go to check this out

and they are,

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as the headline says, publishing

or have published

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coloring book pages

based on some scientific topics

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that NASA might be involved

in, including Mars.

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Something called the Nancy Grace

Roman Space Telescope.

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And basically you go on, you get PDFs

of these pages, they're free to get,

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and you can color them

and you can print them out and color them.

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Yeah, exactly.

And it's not limited to kids.

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A lot of adults love doing coloring.

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I saw some of the stuff

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that they're coming up with here,

which is really kind of cool.

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And there seems to be three categories.

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There's the adults that have posted stuff,

there's the kids that have posted stuff,

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and then there's the ones

where they've tried to have AI color them.

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I don't know why I was thinking

about actually doing this for fun.

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You know, I think it would be fun to do it

if actually do it.

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Yeah. Now, I'm not artistic.

I could try it.

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I mean, I can paint by numbers, sort of.

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So I know

maybe I could do something like this, but,

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All right, shopping malls are

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charging for prime parking,

and it's not going well.

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Yeah, I wonder why.

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When I got said that, I honestly thought

this was from The Onion.

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I really did.

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And here it turns out,

if you say today that's reporting on it.

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So now for anybody

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that looks at malls

and kind of tracks this,

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I think it would be pretty safe to say

that the American Mall is a little bit

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in decline

in some places more than others.

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There are a whole John on places

like YouTube dedicated to urban explorers

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that go in and check out abandoned malls

and end up with some creepy things

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from mold filled places, stuff

that's flooded, stuff

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that's just been left to the test of time

to rumor even has at places

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that aliens have invaded.

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I don't know how true that last one is,

but who knows, right?

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Anything.

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It looks creepy.

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Regardless, on some of those shows

it's like, oh yeah, what they see

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and what they come up with

is really strange.

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And the malls have been in decline.

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There's been a lot of reasons behind it.

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The biggest thing that's claimed on that,

and it does contribute to it, is the fact

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that things like Amazon and online retail

has certainly cut into the business.

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I think another part of it is, is

we had way too many malls.

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It was just oversaturated in places. Yeah.

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And then some people bought the malls

and just kind of made them yucky.

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They lost all that cool stuff

that used to be in the mall.

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That's always one of the things

that I've had to ask.

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The question is these companies

come in, they take them all,

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which was a part of the reason you went

there wasn't necessarily to shop.

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It was like a third space,

you know, a place you would go

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that wasn't your home

and wasn't work. Right.

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So yeah, would go and you would hang out,

go food court and get some food,

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you know, hang out at the arcade,

whatever it is that you like to do,

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meet your friends.

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And in line with that,

they would have places that were nice

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to do this fountains, conversation

pits, places that were safe to be.

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And then it seemed like in the 90s

these companies would come in, strip

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all that out,

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painted gray or beige, and then go,

no one's coming to our mall anymore.

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It's because I'm not sure it takes

a degree in marketing to figure out why.

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Yeah.

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Oh, which is too bad.

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And then in line with that, with Sears,

especially with Sears going under,

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I mean, yes, there's still a couple stores

still open that are Sears,

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but a lot of the big mall anchors

like that are gone.

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Even the smaller ones.

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Even companies like forever

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you know, some of these other things.

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Sam goody, there's still a Sam Goody,

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by the way, in Oregon,

there is one left in a mall.

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Which one of these days

I want to go check out?

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But what Birney house, you know,

and some of these others.

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Yeah.

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Just gone and it's and and I know here

in Oregon, there's a big mall nearby

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where we all live

in Beaverton and Washington Square Mall.

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I believe it's what it's called.

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And you go there and it's clean

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and it's kept nice and everything,

but it does not have the

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or really the draw.

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You go in there and yeah, it's shops

and that's great and fine.

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And even a few years ago

you still had things.

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There was an Amazon store.

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There was a Star Wars store in there

that was really cool.

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You know, some specialty

things that seems to all be gone too.

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Now. People still go there.

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This is not a dead mall

by any stretch of the imagination.

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And again, the stuff

that's in there is done.

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Well, it's safe as far as I know.

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And and the environments kept nice,

but it's just not what it

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once was, which is a bummer.

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Yeah.

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So into rant

I guess we have a news topic here, right?

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About parking.

Okay, so what they're doing?

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Oh yeah.

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We completely forgot that.

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Yeah, well I was I was too busy

thinking about, when I used to like mall.

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So what they're doing is coming up

with this scheme, as the headline says,

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it isn't going over too well where it's

still free parking for the most part.

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But if you want the good spots,

you know, like near the door,

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those you have to pay for.

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So you scan a QR code and you have to

actually pay money to use the spot

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at rates of like two three bucks an hour

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or more, depending on what you're at.

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And I just, I couldn't imagine

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why people don't like that sarcasm

signed, by the way.

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Yeah, yeah.

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So anyway, it's it is really too bad.

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I, I am seeing

also a lot of places that are attempting

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this are starting to back off on the idea

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because people really don't

want to be nickel and dime death anymore.

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And the reality of the situation is, is

you do have to have something

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that attracts

people to go to your location,

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because you do have the choice these days

of going on e-commerce site Amazon,

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you know, or others

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in ordering whatever it is you want

and having to deliver to your mailbox

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versus paying for full time

driving there, getting stuck in traffic,

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probably getting there and getting back,

figuring out the park.

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And now you have to either

park in the North 40 or you pay,

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or you could go to someplace,

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that has everything like Ikea

and just wander through there.

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Yeah, you know, for a couple of hours

and get food, you know?

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So, yeah,

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I, in an odd way, has the attraction

a little bit of what used to be in malls.

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And like you say, there's the cafeteria

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and there's some unique things

to check out.

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And I love walking through there

and messing with all the stuff.

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And, you know, it's I don't know, there's

just something about that that's kind of

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fun to do.

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But yeah, the

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uniqueness and stuff of, of the old mall

certainly has gone the neons

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and all the things that would define

that in the, of the plants.

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Yeah. Yeah.

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So but in any event,

have you guys paid ever to park at a mall.

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No, no I, I yeah I think Las

Vegas is figuring out this too.

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When you have to pay to park at

the see knows that people don't park.

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I wouldn't pay to park at a casino either.

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It was like, what on earth are you doing?

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So anyway.

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Yeah. Interesting thing.

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So okay, end of mall rant.

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Why do we have next?

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Manchester Airports

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Group says hackers stole travelers data.

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Yeah. So final topic that's come out here.

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This is a group that owns

several airports in the UK.

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And what seems to have been stolen

is basically credentials and other things

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related to the use of the Wi-Fi

at these locations.

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So it isn't a lot of real

personal information

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that's gotten out, but something that

they've wanted to kind of get the word out

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just so you kind of know what's going on.

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And I think a lot of hacking

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that's going on in Europe

right now is state sponsored by Russia.

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But because we're seeing

that kind of happening all over the place,

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but it is just one of those things

to be careful.

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If you're using a public network,

don't share financial data,

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or even I wouldn't

even go to my bank account, to be honest.

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I wouldn't do them or anything

that involves putting in a password.

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The apps for the banks

and stuff are safer,

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but even if it's not someone hacking

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the network, there's things that bad guys

can do where they overpower

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the network and can monitor all the stuff

that's going back and forth over it.

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And even an encrypted connection,

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which is better still,

isn't something that I would necessarily.

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I'll wait and, you know, get on someplace

secure to do that.

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Now, if you're just going on to browse

and look up the

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store hours of somewhere or something

like that, or check into a wait queue,

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that's fine.

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But you know, such that it is.

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So let's, let's,

let's talk about Bill's new project.

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So, Bill, what are you doing?

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Well, I know I've talked about it before,

and maybe I didn't

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have the best view of it back then,

but I have begun

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my journey as a paid DM,

a professional DM on

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start playing games.

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So. And that's a little bit

about how that works.

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Now I've, you know,

you've run games for us.

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So I think if anybody would know

how to do this, it would be you

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because you've always done

a really good job.

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But what's the difference

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between that and doing something

where you're actually paid to do it?

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Well,

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not much really.

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I feel like that. Really.

431

What I missed

when I was first talking about

432

this is the understanding

that paying for it, you expect me

433

to be there on time as the DM, and

I expect you as the players to be there.

434

So it makes a consistency that may not

happen in more casual games, right?

435

Yeah, it's yeah, it's that professional

level of you need to be on time.

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With it.

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I mean I I've bought in modules

and things like that and other aides.

438

So I mean it's also I know you're expected

to have a lot of resources for players.

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And that's what I feel like

it really brings into things.

440

Well,

and you seem to have a really broad base

441

of understanding of the game

and the law involved.

442

And you also do the fun characters,

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you know, like some of your crazy

character voices are fun.

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So yeah, I do try my voice acting.

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No, but it seems like a really cool idea.

446

And I could see I,

I knew this stuff existed,

447

but until we started talking about

I hadn't really thought about it much.

448

But it seems like a player standpoint too.

449

If you just wanted to jump on a game,

you have someone that you know

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knows what they're doing,

which that seems really cool.

451

And there's a thing, you know,

I had to get reviews.

452

I check the reviews of your damn.

453

When you get into a game,

it oftentimes tells you

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how many seats have to be filled

before it started, like my current one is.

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I want four players minimum

to start the game because it is.

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I'm running a campaign

from a crooked moon and

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Fact if you want to look it up,

it's called A Time Under the Crooked Moon

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and you'll know it's mine.

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When you see the DM as Gotham mogul

for indices.

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Bill.

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Okay.

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No, that's what's a goth mogul.

463

So what's a goth mogul?

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So everybody will remember.

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Well, mogul

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is a creature from Final Fantasy,

and it's been a

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one of my favorite creatures

in gaming history.

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So I adopted that as my screen name,

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the goth mogul.

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Cool. That is.

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That's too cool.

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All right,

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so that's

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where somebody goes to check this out

if they want to see what you're doing.

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Yep. Start playing games.

476

And again, a Time Under the Crooked

Moon is the name of the campaign.

477

It'll be running Fridays at 5 p.m.

478

Pacific time.

479

And again, look me up as goth mogul

480

as your dungeon Master,

and you can find it that way.

481

It's a levels

1 to 14 campaign from the Crooked Moon.

482

And, should be fun.

483

Yeah,

I think that's going to be incredible.

484

All right. This is user friendly 2.0.

485

We'll be back after the break.

486

He's got a really big computer

487

and he uses it uses it every day

and uses it.

488

Uses it in every way.

489

What do you do for.

490

You know, I'm

not that sure because he's here as well.

491

This is user friendly 2.0 user friendly

dot show is your one

492

stop to check out everything

user friendly past episodes.

493

Place to your questions, your comments

and check out everything else.

494

Let's see you on the website.

495

User friendly

dot show. We'd love to hear from you.

496

All right, so we've got two things

to talk about in this segment.

497

And one of them is the headline

of the show, which is going to be

498

where we are with stereo audio equipment

and that type of a thing.

499

Before we get into that,

500

because I didn't get into it

in the first segment, I am going to get to

501

jump into my third round of flight

training with gravity this week.

502

Now, Gretchen,

you were with me on that last year.

503

Yeah, and I think you enjoyed yourself.

504

Oh, yeah, I wish I could go again.

505

I really feel we've got to get you

in the suit one of these days, too.

506

It is a lot of fun. Hopefully

this time I'll be able to hover properly.

507

That's my goal.

508

So I did get to that point last time,

just barely at the end of the day.

509

So, you know, you go through these

different modes of it.

510

For anybody

that hasn't seen a check it out.

511

Gravity is the website

and there's a channel on YouTube

512

and some other things,

but it is absolutely amazing

513

and it's very hard

to compare it to anything

514

because you actually are flying an Iron

Man style jet suit.

515

You can also see them on Instagram easily

to tons of videos.

516

Yeah, no, definitely around there

they've held

517

now a couple of times the jet suit races.

518

And that's kind of a sci fi thing

just in of itself, which is kind of cool.

519

Hopefully one day

I'll be able to participate in that.

520

We'll see. That would be a lot of fun.

521

But again,

522

I'm going to go ahead and check this out

and see where we're at.

523

And it'll be fun to talk about this again,

because it's been a while.

524

It's been over a year

since I've been in the suits,

525

so I'm starting to have

or have started a long time ago

526

having withdrawal from it.

527

So anyway.

528

On that note, let's

go ahead and jump into audio file stuff

529

because we've been having some fun

with this.

530

This is unofficially been

something we've covered every year, and

531

we tend to get a lot of great

input from everybody listening

532

to this, and it's a lot of fun

to check it out and see where it's at.

533

And being that next year

is going to mark 150 years

534

since the first recording was ever made.

535

Really?

536

Yeah.

537

when Thomas Edison made

538

the first mechanical

recording on the cylinder and, you know,

539

going from there, it is interesting

to see how much this has changed.

540

So there's been different

generations of this.

541

And right now

I think what we would look at is from

542

a description, the best way to look at it

is that what audio engineers do today

543

is they're trying to recreate a place,

like actually being in an auditorium,

544

if that was the place

you were trying to recreate,

545

which is a little different

from where this began.

546

So looking back on this a little bit,

just to kind of look

547

at the history of these things again,

548

was ever made, and at that time

you didn't have things like microphones,

549

amplifiers, certainly digital processing.

550

And they use sound

to physically move a stylus,

551

which created a representation

of those vibrations on a cylinder.

552

And then playback

was just simply the reverse of that.

553

And it was for the first time

that humans could store sound.

554

So it's kind of cool

to think about that, you know.

555

Build out from there.

556

557

And that's when they started

using electricity to do recordings.

558

And in that time you started

having your microphones, amplifiers.

559

In those days

vacuum tube based loudspeakers and so on.

560

That would make it sound

a lot more realistic.

561

So the original sound definitely

had a very, I don't know, tinny aspect.

562

How would you describe that?

563

It was a recording, but it wasn't.

564

Yeah. Hollow. Hollow my.

565

Yeah, yeah.

566

Good thing from that.

567

And then from that you got to the age of

magnetic tape and that changed everything

568

because your recordings can now be edited,

copied, manipulated and so on.

569

And then you stepped into

where you're starting to get modern area

570

instead of recording just one track.

571

Why not several?

572

Well, multi-track recording.

573

So even like with user friendly,

each one of us

574

and when we have guests on each

guess has their own separate audio track.

575

And this is a little different

than stereo.

576

It's the idea that each person

you can mute out everybody else.

577

And from a standpoint of recording a show

578

like this,

it helps if you have background noise

579

on somebody's channel

and they're not talking.

580

It's easier to clean it

up, stuff like that.

581

But it is definitely a direction

that was a big change.

582

Or they would go into that

and where this would have

583

originally been used

was that you would have had one track.

584

Let's say you're

recording a musical performance, one

585

track would be the drums, one

track would be the guitarist,

586

one track would be the vocalist.

That kind of a thing, you know?

587

And then you can later

go in and adjust these things.

588

Then you step into when we

589

look at multi-track, the idea of stereo

and of course this is nothing new.

590

This goes back to last century.

591

What? It's

the idea that you had a location.

592

So you have a left and right channel.

593

And in a lot of cases,

if the mixing was done properly,

594

your brain would create a central channel.

595

So you'd have music coming from

front of you, which was mixed in that way.

596

And then you

597

had to the left and the right, and they

actually called that a phantom center,

598

something that actually worked quite

well if the stereo was produced properly.

599

So that was a thing.

600

But we're still in a lot.

601

Right, still recording in that format.

602

Well, of course, like with everything else

in late 70s early 80s,

603

we start seeing digital compact

604

which was the first way to distribute

sound in a completely digital format

605

and be able to recreate things in a way

606

that sounded supposedly

exactly like the original.

607

And there's, I'm sure, a lot of debate.

608

I can already hear the keyboards clicking

well with,

609

you know, the records actually real sound.

610

And we'll talk about that in a minute

because there is some truth to that.

611

But like with anything else, when CDs

first came out and still to this day,

612

of course, with them is it

isn't just about having a format

613

that can authentically recreate

sound properly.

614

You now have a situation where the way

that the audio file was mastered matters.

615

The equipment you use, the room you're in,

the you know, the way it's done,

616

and you could very easily

have a great system

617

to distribute the audio

and have a terrible recording,

618

because now you could hear the problems

better should they exist.

619

Right? Okay.

620

So will you think about

621

it with vinyl records,

which was before CDs,

622

the most common way of buying an album

or something like that,

623

there was Surface Noise

and all the rest of that kind of stuff,

624

so that was just considered

part of the listening experience.

625

But if you had a bad underlying recording,

sometimes that was hidden a little bit

626

because you weren't

expecting it to be perfect.

627

Okay.

628

You know, there wasn't the crystal

clear, crystal clear bit.

629

So anyway, so that's kind of,

you know, just a real quick

630

review of the history

of all this kind of stuff.

631

And then we get into today

and a lot of this that I'm going to be

632

covering

is based on questions that you've sent in.

633

So if I'm jumping around a little bit,

that's why.

634

But one of the things that we get asked

is the whole idea with modern audio,

635

what is lossy, lossless and what's good

and what's not,

636

what's high resolution

and that type of a thing.

637

So if you have a digital recording

that is complete

638

and has every bit of information

there that is lossless.

639

So in other words, it's all there.

640

But this takes up a lot of space,

a tremendous amount of space.

641

So in line with that, there has been a lot

of work done, some better than others.

642

I'm being able to compress

the digital signal, but in order to do

643

that, you have to take something away

by the nature of what it is.

644

So the advantage to

this is you reduce the file size.

645

The disadvantage is

if you don't do it right,

646

you can really tell that you've reduced

the file size.

647

Most common

method of compression that's used as MP

648

of course MP3 players.

649

That's where that comes from

is that is a format of compressing audio.

650

And there's other things out there.

651

One you may have heard of as Flac,

652

which is one that's used,

653

and there's a whole list of these things,

654

but it is definitely

655

one of those situations where you're going

to have a lot of different opinions.

656

Some are good

and some are very obviously bad,

657

and some of them,

658

I don't think you could hold a razor next

659

to the another one

and really know the difference, but

660

those are out there that seem to be able

to hear that I'm not one of them.

661

So, you know, and it all kind

662

of comes down to what you prefer.

663

Now, the other thing of it

too, is, is when you have a compression

664

format, again, using MP3 as an example,

it's also possible to change

665

what's called the bitrate.

666

And that can drastically also reduce

the quality of what you're hearing.

667

So if you've ever heard it,

where it's sound,

668

where it's like really tinny,

that's a little bit right usually.

669

So in any event,

670

that type of technology

is used to be able to fit things in

671

something like an MP3 player

now streaming over your phone,

672

but it's still all the same basis

in technology that goes from there.

673

And as we move forward

with those type of things, where we are

674

now, where a lot of us

675

listen to our music over

Bluetooth speakers and that type of thing,

676

and that's basically

what's powering all of that.

677

All right, guys,

have a mortgage to death yet. Or

678

I mean, I do this on, you know, weekly.

679

So there you are right. Yeah. Exactly.

680

Yeah.

681

He's a sound editor. So yeah. Yeah.

682

No, you would be the professional among us

on knowing how all that works, right?

683

You somehow get me to sound good.

684

So I think you're maybe more of a magician

than an electronics, but,

685

hey, you know,

so he's using his DM skills.

686

Yeah. There you go. There you go.

687

Just don't process me through AI,

and we'll still be able to work together.

688

So another question that

689

we get asked a lot on this subject

is the whole idea of surround sound.

690

So we've talked about stereo.

691

You have a left and right channel

and kind of a footnote to that,

692

and it really is from history

is something called quadraphonic

693

that was out for a little while

where you had four channels,

694

so you'd have a left and right

front and a left and right back.

695

It never really took off

because the formats to be able to encode

696

that were never standardized.

697

So you could have one kind

of a quadraphonic stereo.

698

And if you bought a record that was meant

for a different kind of wouldn't work.

699

And there never was really a common

format, you know, between all of that.

700

So what's Dolby?

701

Well, we're going to dive into that here

because that is a form of digital

702

sound sound.

703

And that's kind of our next topic here

is to go through

704

what all of those different are because

Dolby is one of many for one thing.

705

Okay.

706

So I think one of the things to kind of

preface that in a way, to make it

707

a little bit more understandable

is the whole idea of home theater.

708

So if you go right now to a big box store,

709

look online and want to buy a amplifier,

it's most likely going to say

710

something where it has numbers

after it, like 5.1, 7.1, 7.2 okay.

711

And these

type of things are ratings of what it is.

712

And that what that has to do with surround

sound.

713

So most common are 2.0.

714

That's stereo right.

715

Two two speakers 2.1.

716

The number after the decimal point

is your subwoofer or low frequency

717

bass channels

which is usually a subwoofer.

718

So 2.1 would mean stereo

with a subwoofer 5.1, which was one of the

719

meant that you had five channels.

720

So a center channel, front, left

and right, rear left

721

and right, and a subwoofer.

722

Then you had 7.1, which is seven speakers

723

with one subwoofer,

and then real modern stuff, 7.1.4.

724

They've got four.

725

The third number has to do with height

speakers or overhead

726

so that you can get sound from up down

as well as from just around you.

727

So that's what all those numbers mean.

728

So if you had like 7.2, that would

essentially mean you had two subwoofers.

729

And that's all that is.

730

So Gretchen, you're asking about

731

technologies and encoding like Dolby.

732

So let's talk about

one of the most current versions of that,

733

which is Dolby Atmos. Okay.

734

And I know you guys have heard me mention

this because I do like my Dolby Atmos.

735

Right.

736

And this is a format of surround sound

737

Initially.

738

It's gone through a few generations

since then.

739

And what we were just talking about

was the number of channels

740

that you would have.

741

So 5.1 was five speakers.

742

So that's five different channels, right?

743

And as technologies have progressed, Atmos

and some of these other ones

744

that have come out, Dolby

being the company that created it.

745

So the answer Gretchen at 10,000ft

746

view to your question is

Dolby is a company that creates surround

747

sound codecs or technologies

to distribute surround sound.

748

And then there's different types of Dolby

of which Atmos is one.

749

Okay, okay.

750

Hopefully that makes sense.

751

So what they've done with

this is they've started mapping sound.

752

And that's the biggest difference

that Atmos brought to the table here.

753

So instead of being channel based

you have an engineer with channels

754

saying this sound goes to the left speaker

or that that one to the right and so on.

755

Atmos treats the sound as an object.

756

So let's say it's a helicopter.

757

So instead of encoding where it should be

on a speaker, it is encoded as to

758

where it you should hear it in the room

that you're sitting in okay okay, okay.

759

That that that changes. Yeah.

760

That makes it different.

761

So is this what they use in the movie

theaters?

762

Oh yeah. Big time.

763

Big time.

764

And with these systems being set up right

now, that was another big thing too,

765

because it used to be

we're going to get into T.H.

766

and George Lucas's answer to this,

which was one of the very first

767

hearing that that THX thing in my head.

768

And I'm like, what was that talk about?

769

And we'll talk about that in a minute.

770

But basically what you had going on there

is exactly what you're talking about.

771

So you had something that was engineered

for a movie theater with channels.

772

It would work great,

773

but if the home theater system

had the speakers in a different spot

774

in the room or something,

it wouldn't sound right because of that.

775

Yeah,

776

but if you haven't,

where it can say, well,

777

the helicopter is supposed

to go over your head

778

and whatever

779

your speaker format is, that's

where it's going to appear to come from.

780

That's

what something like Atmos does. Okay.

781

So it's

a completely different way of encoding

782

and that type of a thing,

but it is one that made a huge change.

783

And what basically you're doing with

784

that is you're creating

something called a sound field.

785

Okay.

786

So there's competitors of that.

787

Another one that you may have seen

the letters for is DTS or DTS X.

788

And if you haven't it's out there.

789

And it's basically a enhanced sound system

that uses a similar

790

object based philosophy,

just using a different method of doing it.

791

So think back to quadraphonic.

792

Now we have two competing technologies,

right?

793

The difference being with a digital

amplifier you can support more than one.

794

So it makes it not a problem like it used

to be with that type of a thing. But

795

there

I you know, really as far as immersive

796

audio goes, I think both of them

do about the same thing.

797

DTS if you've ever been to an Imax movie,

798

that's the system it uses there.

799

For being able to do this,

although I have seen Atmos

800

with Emax as well, but primarily DTS

is used in that kind of environment.

801

And Gretchen

so you were asking about George Lucas and.

802

Right.

803

Yeah.

804

Well, believe it or not,

805

t h is something more than 15 seconds

you see, in

806

front of a movie that's really loud

with a really strange tone.

807

And it sounded kind of cool and

impressive, but okay, cool and impressive.

808

There's actually people

that that terrifies.

809

There is actually a phobia of the sound.

810

Really.

811

It really is a thing.

Yeah, I didn't know that, you

812

know, but

813

this was a little different approach

when Lucasfilm came up with this,

814

what they were aiming to do was actually

creating a set of standards, not a format.

815

So t h is actually not a format.

816

It's standards that formats are based on.

817

Okay.

818

And George Lucas and creating Star Wars

and his other films as well.

819

But primarily Star Wars had a situation.

820

In order to experience a Star Wars

film properly,

821

it had to be able to be reproduced

in the way that he wanted it to be,

822

which means sound in the right place,

video in the right place.

823

And at that time, late 70s movie

theaters really didn't do that

824

because there wasn't

really a way to do it, to set it up

825

and this is going to work

or that isn't going to work.

826

Right.

827

So what he did is he created standards,

828

and the standards were designed

that if you met these standards,

829

you would end up with the sound

being the way that it's supposed to,

830

but it would still if you had speakers

in the wrong spot or something like that,

831

it wouldn't sound quite right.

832

They also have a thing called

spatial audio, which is a technology

833

belonging to t h that does take beyond

just the certification.

834

So one of the things that's interesting

to you,

835

and Lucas tends

to be on top of the technology

836

when it comes to this stuff,

which is really kind of cool.

837

And I did not know this existed,

but one of the things with spatial audio

838

and with H.

839

And I just got a new amplifier,

so I'm gonna have to try this out

840

as the headphones

track your head movement.

841

So when you move your head,

it moves the sound

842

based on where you're looking in the room.

843

Really? Yeah. Oh.

844

Oh. And I would have a lot of questions

about that working properly.

845

But I also know that stuff that comes from

Lucasfilm, it'll work properly.

846

He wouldn't have released it

if it didn't. Yeah.

847

So you know, what is it?

848

It's Skywalker sound

you see often at the end of of movies,

849

you know that Skywalker Sound

worked on the project, right?

850

Yeah.

851

And that means

it's going to have good sound.

852

And these technologies, by the way,

are being incorporated, are not being

853

have been for a while

and a lot more than just simply

854

movies, video games

that use Atmos and, and other formats,

855

spatial in this sense and other formats

correctly.

856

It really adds to the game experience.

857

I mean, you know, you are immersed, right?

858

So it makes a huge, huge difference.

859

And some of the other things that go

along with this are quite interesting.

860

Like I said,

I just bought a new amplifier.

861

My old upmost amp,

which was a previous generation, died.

862

Oh, about two months ago.

863

And then I started

looking into buying a replacement.

864

And then I found out how much they cost,

865

had an appointment with my cardiologist,

and after recovering from that.

866

Managed to, stuff's not cheap.

867

Although one thing I have noticed

that most certified stuff.

868

You can get some audio equipment

that's not

869

totally wallet breaking,

and it still sounds pretty good.

870

So that that actually is a thing.

871

But this is my primary home theater.

872

I love working with this stuff,

so I did end up getting a good quality

873

amplifier

that does Atmos, does the standards, does

874

you know, all these other formats

and doesn't quite well.

875

And Gretchen,

I know the first time you were listening

876

to it, your comment to me was the voices

are coming from the back of the room.

877

So one of the things about this

878

that really kind of impressed me

is going through the setup process.

879

And in this,

880

the stereo system itself

came with a microphone,

881

and you put the microphone

in your listening position

882

where you're going to sit in the room,

and then it runs through a test setup

883

and it automatically

through the use of AI, determines

884

what's going to sound

best for your position in the room.

885

Okay.

886

So if you're Sheldon, you get it.

887

It's it's set for your spot and

everybody else gets stuck with a bad spot.

888

Well, okay, it would be primarily Sheldon

889

big bang reference for anybody

that doesn't know Big Bang Theory.

890

For your position in the room,

it would be best.

891

But let's just put it this way.

892

I have not had anybody complain

about other spots in the room.

893

Okay, so it is. It is very good.

894

But your primary spot

would be basically what it's

895

set up

896

that that's the location

where it's going to be audio nirvana.

897

Right.

898

Okay. So.

899

So you know and this technology's continue

to grow here.

900

It's kind of gone full circle

because there was a time

901

with audio equipment, 80s and 90s

that you had this

902

big giant stereo

and showed it off to everybody.

903

The speakers were the height of the room

sometimes and that kind of thing.

904

And now it's almost like, in a way,

905

except for the weirdos like us

that are into retro electronics,

906

that you don't want to see the technology,

you just want to hear it.

907

And, you know, that's

kind of where it's coming through here.

908

There's a thing called Aurora cars

now that actually leverages

909

Bluetooth to make like radio broadcasting.

910

So anybody that has a device

that's compatible with this can go

911

into a situation on their personal device

here, what's being sent out.

912

So think about you go to a museum and

you have your own headset on your phone.

913

So your earbuds whatever. Right.

914

And you have the setup when you walk

into the appropriate room and the museum,

915

you can hear whatever it is they're doing

over your Bluetooth connection

916

are okay.

917

So, you know, that's a step

that's kind of a new thing.

918

I haven't heard of this much

919

until earlier this year when I saw it

for the first time somewhere.

920

So it's definitely brand new

and it uses low power

921

Bluetooth low power,

I believe is what it's called.

922

And from that standpoint, it's able

to, you know, do that kind of a thing.

923

So what in the old days

was a radio station?

924

Now you would pick it up,

925

I think where I'm going to leverage this

as my holiday lights.

926

We're going to be talking about that

technology up here in a couple of weeks.

927

But you know,

928

you have to do the audio broadcast to go

929

along with

what's going on with the lights.

930

And I'm going to be doing that

for the first time this year.

931

I'm sure my age

is going to love me for that, but oh well.

932

And I'm going to be trying out

Aurora cast.

933

I'm still going to have a transmitter

934

with my hacker RF radio

that will do the FM broadcast as well,

935

but most modern cars

have Bluetooth capability in them already,

936

so it should work with that.

So we'll see what happens.

937

So anyway,

my girlfriend teases me about this

938

because the whole retro tech thing.

939

So I've got an Atmos THX setup.

940

And the other thing I have

is Dolby Vision, which among other things,

941

is really clear clarity

on the screen and the backlit.

942

So the lights behind the television match,

943

what's on the screen,

all this kind of stuff.

944

And it works

really well for playing Pac-Man.

945

I just haven't been able

to get that into stereo yet. Oh.

946

Oh man, I had to do some weird things.

947

I got my, a Sega Genesis set up,

and I found out it doesn't

948

actually output stereo sound

except through the headphone jack on it,

949

so I rewired it so the headphone

jack is now what's going out?

950

The audio output

on the back of the thing. It worked.

951

You know, so I don't know.

952

What do you guys think?

953

Still Bluetooth speaker, do you?

954

Gretchen,

I know we just rebuilt your Kenwood system

955

from the early 80s,

which was a lot of fun. Yeah.

956

And we still need to probably reorganize

957

all of the pieces

before we can really get into it.

958

But yeah, I'm excited about it.

959

So Gretchen has.

960

And I will not give the address

where this is so that,

961

in original

962

serial number

matched Kenwood component system,

963

including the cabinet with the Kenwood

logo on the door and everything.

964

It's in pristine condition, and

it had been in storage for a long time.

965

So we've been going through

966

changing belts, changing caps

where necessary,

967

that kind of a thing,

and getting the system up and running.

968

And to this point, well,

apparently my dad turned it up

969

way too loud while my mom was away and,

970

blew the amp.

971

Yeah,

972

he blew out

one of the power packs in the amplifier.

973

Getting that fixed was pretty

straightforward, but the belts were,

974

you know,

975

getting to a point

where they were starting to turn to mush,

976

which I'm glad we got at the point we did,

because that's incredibly difficult to

977

clean up when that happens.

978

Belts and old

systems will turn into kind of like a goo.

979

Don't forget, your trash cans

980

will turn into a goo,

and when that happens,

981

you end up with a situation that

in addition to taking out your trash cans,

982

you have a situation that trying to clean

it up can be very difficult.

983

And you go through a lot of Q-tips,

among other things.

984

So really? Yeah.

985

Wow. Doesn't sound like a lot of fun.

986

No it's not.

987

And I'm kind of dreading

that I have a original sharp,

988

989

It has a full vertical record player

990

in it, among other things,

that has that problem.

991

I'm going to restoring that this winter,

and I'm prepared for a lot of that.

992

So let us know what you think about audio

and if there's any other questions

993

you want us to touch on, send them

in. User friendly dot.

994

Show us your place to do it.

995

There's not enough time

to go through all of this stuff,

996

but it's still fun to talk about

and definitely something that I know

997

a lot of us enjoy because we appreciate

what you send us on these topics.

998

Until next week, this is user friendly

2.0 keeping you safe on the cutting edge,

999

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