Drews Sound

I walked into the  Verizon store last weekend, to look at the IPhone 17 Air, not to pick one out, but if you’ve heard? the roomers are true. Once you touch it, you can’t go back!

I feel for once, like this phone was made, for blind people. It’s not really about how it looks, it’s how it feels, and it is sure thin baby!! I used to think how cool it would be if Apple made a phone, that was as thin as the IPod touch. Well? they’ve went beyond that. It’s thinner! It’s fast! It’s sleek! I picked it up, said, holy shit! and i asked if they had any in stock! i got the UPS ship lable to trade my phone back in after wiping it, and walked out the door with the new handset.

Honestly, the last thing I wanted to do, was to put a case on it. I just loved the naked feel of it’s sleekness! It was all I had wanted, and for the rest of the weekend I used the phone without a case. Setup was normal, it was, the first phone that I’ve had that setup over bluetooth, grabbing data from my other device, the IPhone 16 Pro. Once setup it continued to download data in the background, and the chassey did heat up a bit. once everything was loaded, I tried to braille in. This, was when I learned I’d needed a case. The screen wraps around the sides of the phone. When you put your hands around it to hold the device, the screen activated, and you can not, braille in.

The phone really isn’t much thicker then the outer casing on the Apple USB c cable. when you plug it in to charge the cable is basically flesh with the device. The battery life is remarkably good, I get a day in ahalf without worry, with screen curtain on, brightness all the way down. The phone has one, mono speaker, at the ear peace of the handset. It sounds, remarkably good! I seem to bump the camera button a lot, so I changed the setting to double tap the button to perform any action. Wifi is quick, as is cellior, the camera, for OCR, image descriptions is more than adequate.

All and all, I am very pleased with the phone! You will not! regret upgrading as a blind user in my opinion, even from a pro model.

hey all! Guess what showed up today! Click below to listen to the unboxing and first impressions of the Apple AirPods Pro third generation 🙂 they’re dope!

Post updated: I just went out on a trip. the transparency mode on these are out of this world!! I can ware these and confadently travel as someone who is blind! That is a game changer, bringing me one step closer to sighted peers. I can now walk with Airpods, just like everyone else!

It’s almost September 19, which means it’s, almost Friday! TGIF… This also means, if you have placed a preorder for a new shiny Apple product, it may, almost be at your doorstep.

This is the first time I have used the Apple Store app to order, anything, and the process was a good experience. Though I haven’t received an email with my order status, the app does show, preparing for shipment! Just today, my card was charged, for the AirPods Pro 3! so, the time is nigh!

Keep tuned to Drew Sound for late breaking updates, when the order drops to my doorstep Friday! to compare the Airpods Pro 2, to the third Generation.

This is a very dope and  capable Recorder! I’ve got 2 audios below. First, my thoughts, and running through some menues, with the latest 2.10 firmware which adds greater accessibility.

The second, an acoustic guitar test, mic the guitar with Rode Nt4 and the vocal with a Rode Podmic, Into the H6 Essential. I took the tracks to my DAW and did some very light mixing, EQ, Comp.

Wo! this was an interesting experiment! Listen below!

What makes life, perfect? I think we could sum it up, as, seemless. All green lights on the way to work. quick turnaround with customer service. Same/Next day delivery. You fill in the blank, with what fits your lifes chemistry. When we spring that question on music, the answer may be the same, seemless.

It’s so interesting, the streaming eeco systems, are now each so interested with seemless playlists, automix, which, has been what Radio has been interested in for the last 50 plus years, but I’ll agree it’s really cool to have it on a much more personal level.

I used to lead musical worship in church services, the question for me, someone with perfect pitch? How to make the music as seemless as possible. The answer I found, was key matching. I started building personal playlists including crossfading and volume processing for friends/family about 5 or so years ago, and I found that answer really helped the songs to blend, the transitions to be that less noticeable. About 3 months ago I took the concept into automation in the radio world.

I went through several thousand tracks, and key matched them. Created folder per key, and then in the rotation matched keys by fourths or fifths so, for example, play 3 songs in E, 4 songs in B, 2 songs in D, 3 songs in A. If I move to sharps, I drop in imaging to assist the transition. I use StationPlaylist software, which already focus’s on energy, so to focus on key matching, makes the listener experience, that much more, seemless/enjoyable. I’ve never heard this anywhere else in life.’

I’m sure, with AI this may become habit, if anyone with high status also figures it out/puts it into practice. I created JAWS Scripting that allows me to copy the focused file, and paste it in the correct key folder with the press of two keystrokes, pretty awesome, and oh how it saves so much time! I playback files in Goldwaves preview, press control+alt+K to enable, Music keys, and then type the key of the song when I know what it is, 5-10 seconds after the song starts playing. The song is copied to the correct folder, that instance of file explorer closed, and focus is brought back to Gold Wave, where I down arrow to the next track, and continue the process.

If you program playlists, or radio, just something really interesting to keep in mind as you do your thang!

This bike was very loud!! Damn! Captured with the Bluetooth Outside Mic rig.

Wires are great, but sometimes, wireless is more convenient. I’ve been brainstorming for some time now, how, to reintroduce Stereo mics to my patio. I had a wired set for some time, and captured some incredible audio that I wouldn’t normally be able to capture without having outside mics that I can press record on and have a 30 second buffer, to give me time to capture what I’ve just heard, or am now hearing. I know having wires run from outside to in is not visually appealing, and I accept that, but when I took them down, I wanted them back.

I knew wireless was the answer, but I still had a lot of questions in my mind. FM, or, annilogue transmition is noisey, and can be picked up by other receiver equipment in the area, which I’m not fond of. How do I plug it all in, and keep it lie in weather, outside elements. Well? I believe I’ve found a solution. Bluetooth.

https://a.co/d/8lQGcZz

I’ve reviewed the Bluetooth Airfly transmitter/receiver before on Drews Sound, and it’s always been appealing to me. It’s small, and charges/keep alive via USB C. The nice thing about the pro model, is the one device will both transmit/receive audio, obviously, two different modes, using one at a time. So, if you purchase two of them, there’s your wireless stereo broadcast solution.

Plug one, in transmit mode into a microphone that has built-in monitoring. Note, that though a lot of UsB mics have monitoring, they need a data connection from computer/smart phone to have the monitoring just work. So just plugging into to USB power, doesn’t do the trick. The most lightweight, easiest solution I could think of may be a field recorder, the Zoom H1 Essential, for example. Turn it on, it drops into record standby, and there you go, using the headphones jack/volume knob to set levels.

The second Airfly, is in receive mode, and is plugged into whatever you need, in my case, line-in jack of a sound card. Pare them both together once, and the next time you turn them both off/on they reconnect seemlessly. I leave them both plugged into UsB power.

https://a.co/d/0Bl5Bmo

Ok, so the next hurtal, power, outside on the patio. Sure, I’ve got a home outlet, but, I don’t want to leave something plugged in 24-7. The battery linked to above, is not only water proof, it’s, solar charged, and yes, you may charge devices off of it as it itself charges. Both the Zoom H1, as well as the Airfly don’t use much power at all, 5 watts or so each. This battery stays very cool while charging devices, like, the coolest I’ve seen. It charges via the sun, and has enough power to last all night to then start recharging the next day. Both the Zoom, and Airfly don’t get hot either. I’ve got the Zoom H1 on a very small tripod. You know the kind if you’ve used Zoom products. I’ve got a dead cat to block wind.

So after the audio comes back inside, into the computer, I am using Stationplaylist Streamer to get it sent over the local network, via an Icecast stream, local server. AAC+ 64 KBPS. I calculated the bites for 30 seconds of audio at this bitrate, and set the buffer in the Icecast server configuration.

On the IPhone I have an app, VRadio, which pulls up the stream upon app launch. I sware it used to, before an update have the record button on the same screen upon launch, but, it’s not hard doesnt take much time to get to.

The Airfly devices don’t time out, just keep streaming. Yes, you do have a bit of G Sharp Bluetooth noise, but it’s an ok compramise for me, to have the outside mics. There was to be rain storms, so I went outside, and picked up everything in one hand and carried in, it’s so portable, battery, recorder, and airfly.

So, if your ever in the marcket needing a solution where you can’t, don’t want wires, Mull over the above! I was looking to not, have a phone or small computer always outside because of heat and pore WiFi coverage on the patio.

More great audio from the outside world coming soon! We promise!

The Pod Mic is a very economical priced Dynamic Mic. Got it for my Broadcast setup. Very clear and intelligible Listen below, run into the H1 essential XLR. No processing. Volume normalised.

Rode PodMic Cardioid Dynamic… https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MSCRCVK?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Have you ever lived with sub bass? Had a car with a 10, or 12 inch sub, bigger than factory? at least 4-500 wats?

It’s one thing to sit in a car with subs, and think, either, 1: man this is awesome! or, 2: this is in sanely loud, depending on the wattage, speakers, and setup. It’s another to have the opportunity to ride in a car, for some time, and sepperate out the benifits of sub bass. The, man, I didn’t realise that bass, was in that song, type of thing

I’ll just spell it out… I .. Love .. Sub bass!!!!!

I was sitting at work a few weeks ago. I have a setup that allows me to listen to music, alongside JAWS. I thought, you know what I miss? Hearing sub bass. I don’t listen to the music loud, it’s just the background, and when the volume is as low as I have it, you hear the mids and highs, but not the bass. That’s when I started thinking about my brothers old car. You could have the volume stupid low, and still feel the bass with our 1800 wat system. I mean, obviously right? 18? hundred! wats. Nuff, said. Lol. I have plenty of fun stories about those times, but I’ll digress.

If you know me you know I love radio. I run two processors, in paralel, one with the factory preset, the other, to even out the flaws of said factory preset. To make the volume more even, and add punch and sparkle. So, lets bring down the overall volume, and add sub bass.

The goal is, audio that plays 9-12 DB lower than standard audio, so that you have headroom to add a lot of sub bass. The goal isn’t to listen to this audio loud, but again, at volumes that are quite low, but allows you still to hear sub bass. It sounds like, 12’s, with smaller satalite speakers to my ear, much like a car system, in a sense. And you know what? For me it works. I hear songs today, and I’m like, dang, I’ve never heard that before in the sub bass range of 0-100 HZ. It’s pretty cool.

The below audio, again, isn’t meant to be played loud. It’s not meant for out of ear speakers of any kind, IPhone, 2.1 etc. This preset was created for in-ear earbuds. Spisifically, JBL Wired Tune buds. Listen as you turn up the volume to how your earbuds react. If they are clipping out in the low end your pushing them past the excursion. You will hear soft clipping in the highs, that’s how I want my processing to sound.

Hit play on the audio below: and be immersed into a completely new world, of MegaBass!