Aural Exciter Proven to Enhance Speech Intelligibility
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In this issue: Winter 2001 VOLUME 3, NUMBER 1 Sir Elton John Chooses the 1788 A message from Marvin Caesar Aural On Tour with Aural Exciter Proven to Excitement Pearl Jam for the Enhance Speech Intelligibility Many Uses Seussical: The For years we’ve been extolling the benefits of the of the Aural Musical and tried and true Aural Exciter, and now the proof is Exciter in the pudding. Or, in a technical paper presented Aphex at the AES show in Los In the beginning there was the Angeles this past word- Aphex. That word was the September. Josef acronym for Aural Perception 1100 Wins SSAIR Chalupper, a leading Heterodyne Exciter. That name Award German audiologist, has became the product known as the spent years studying the Aphex Aural Exciter. It was so rev- effect of words when olutionary that it was not even Message from processed through the sold, but rather rented for $30 per Aural Exciter, and has recorded minute. It has been twen- the President come away with some amazing conclusions. ty five years since its introduction Chalupper reports the following: and during that time it has been used professionally to enhance the Wayne’s World • An increase in intelligibility of 11% for single words in noise audio for millions of recordings; • An increase in intelligibility of 18% for radio, Internet and TV broadcasts; and live performances. It has also Aural Exciter in sentences in noise • An increase in intelligibility of 12% in been licensed by other manufactur- ers for use in applications as the Spotlight reverberant fields diverse as musical instruments, Chalupper concluded that increases in intelligi- telephone message-on-hold sys- bility were the result of both the linear and the tems, audio mixers and amplifiers, Aphex on the nonlinear distortions introduced by the Aural and assistive listening systems. All Exciter. Road these users and uses have generat- “These percentages were absolute on a scale of ed a mountain of anecdotal evi- 100%,” says Marvin Caesar, President of Aphex. dence on its effectiveness, but the "Measured as a percentage increase above the 'non- Aural Exciter had never been mea- excited’ audio the numbers would be as high as sured by independent experts–until 40%. There has always been a certain amount of now. controversy surrounding the Aural Exciter. This paper should quell the doubts of those who still The accompanying article is just the have trouble believing their own ears, or the ears of first of studies that prove that the their customers. Our licensees, including Yamaha, Aural Exciter increases intelligibili- Gentner Engineering, Bogen, Mackenzie Labs and ty of voice in a noisy environment. Emu, have recognized the benefits of the Aural Exciter; this paper will further help their efforts." continued on page 3 1788’s1788’s andand SirSir EltonElton JohnJohn aa HitHit atat MadisonMadison SquareSquare GardenGarden When it came down to Elton John’s to several types of recording medi- Instead, we sent one line level analog much anticipated “One Night Only: um,” he said. “Inside the TNN truck output to the TNT truck and hence to The Greatest Hits Live” concert at we rolled Sony PCM-3348 DASH for- the onboard Neve Capricorn console Madison Square Garden, Effanel mat recorders, plus Otari’s RADAR II manned by session engineer Frank Music, the concert sound recording and Tascam DA-88 machines in time- Filipetti, and the other analog output company hired to make sure the code sync. Multiple machines were to the R-1 recording suite. sound quality was per- needed to provide suffi- The Model 1788’s were used for on- fect, took no chances and cient track capacity, as stage microphones plus audience insisted on Aphex 1788 well as a close to three mics; a total of 80 separate line-level remote controlled mic hour record capacity, In outputs were routed to the recording preamps for maximum addition, backstage at The areas. “Effanel has been using the control. Garden we had organized 1788’s on a number of critical events,” Connected directly to a a separate recording suite Randy states, “and we love them. We high precision 24/96 kHz that held a number of experienced zero overload on the hard disk recording sys- Euphonix R-1 24/96 hard Elton John recordings during both tem without equalization disk recorders.” nights–and we had very limited or compression, and a Close to the stage rehearsal and set-up time for the con- digital mixer online to area, an array of 1788’s certs. The units behaved flawlessly! provide off-disk monitor- provided duplicate, isolat- The 1788 is extremely versatile, and ing, the 1788’s were an integral part of ed outputs to the TNN truck and the meets our stringent requirements for the sound requirements set by project recording suite. “The model 1788 was audio quality, ease of set-up, and supervisor and Grammy winning perfect for this application,” Randy problem free performance.” record producer Phil Ramone. continues. “With the cable runs of The live CD recorded at Madison Randy Ezratty, Effanel Music close to 800 feet from the stage to Square Garden was released in the US President was up to the task. “Phil truck and R-1 room, we didn’t want to in November, with US and UK televi- Ramone asked us to record the concert compromise the audio quality. sion concerts to follow. Oh, the Places You’ll Go with the 1788 and Seussical: The Musical Seussical: The Musical, a current Broadway hit based on hookup to the remote controlled unit locat- the works of Dr. Seuss, is using nine model 1788 remote ed next to the mixer.” Line level signals controlled microphone preamplifiers. The systems, com- connect the 1788’s to the theater’s mixing prising eight online units plus a backup, will be used to console. connect on stage and orchestral microphones to an all digi- “The ability to control all eight preamp tal mixing console. units from a single remote control makes life Leading sound designer Jonathan Deans specified the a lot less crowded at the mix location,” states units. “We have used the Aphex Model 107 two-channel Jonathan. “The remote controller unit is easy preamplifier on previous to use–I like its clear display and intelligent productions,” Jonathan interface. You can set it and forget it. In addi- explains, “but needed a tion, the 1788’s MicLim circuits, basically a fast more compact solution for limiter ahead of the mic preamp, means that we run sig- Seussical: The Musical. nals hotter at the mixer without having to worry about Also, we have a long cable sudden transients and system overload.” run from the stage and “Several theater operators and producers, as well as orchestra pit to the mixing location–it’s approximately 300 creative staff, have commented that they can hear feet– and were looking for something more elegant. We enhanced clarity and definition,” Jonathan continues. positioned the 1788 rack under the stage, close to the pit “One producer even went as far as saying he had never and wireless receivers, and then used a simple serial cable heard anything like it in a theater!” On Tour With Pearl Jam continued from page 1 Other studies have been conduct- and the 1788 ed to show that the Aural Exciter increases intelligibility in noise for The North American leg of the Pearl Jam World Tour began August 3 hearing impaired people. We are with a major change to the band's recording and PA rig. An array of Aphex now working on technology that Model 1788 remote-controllable pre-amps replaced the traditional technique will bring the Aural Exciter to of connecting on-stage microphones into a transformer-isolated splitter, and hearing aids. routing the low-level signals down long cable runs to pre-amps contained within front-of-house and monitor consoles. "The 1788s are installed up on the A company that records and stage," says Aphex president Marvin Caesar, "thereby eliminating the splitter stores voice messages on comput- and long mic-level cable runs. And, because the microphones are now driving ers for telephone playback experi- a short cable and only one mented with the Aural Exciter pre-amp, all the sonic Model 250. I called the system on degradations caused by my own Nokia cell phone and the traditional mic split- was amazed at how much the ters and cable snakes are audio literally jumped when the eliminated." chief engineer switched the Aural "Pearl Jam as a band Exciter into the circuit. and as an organization are fanatical about audio qual- The Aural Exciter is still the world ity," comments Brett standard for professional sound Eliason, the band's front- enhancement. Bringing this mar- of-house mixing engineer. velous, evolving technology to "For example, they do not other audio applications is an use any wireless micro- important challenge for this com- phones - the band is equally Pearl Jam front-of-house Mix Engineer Brett Eliason and pany. We look forward to meeting fanatical about capturing Monitor Mix Engineer Karrie Keyes, pose with 1788’s this challenge. the energy of live perfor- mances. When the opportunity arose to experiment with a method that ful- filled both goals, they jumped on it." "Brett already had some experience with the Model 1788," Caesar recalls, "and so he specified them with confidence. But after using them for several 1100 WINS concerts, he is thrilled with the quality increase of both the recording and PA RESTIGIOUS systems." P "Compared to recordings made in Europe using our traditional [mic-split- SSAIR AWARD ter] system," Eliason says, "the tracks are fuller, punchier and warmer.