Ryan Vaz

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Getting into the world of Live Streaming Here in the UAE, there is a wide market for streaming live events. Having worked at an event company, I have been asked by a lot of clients to have their events be streamed online so people all over the world, who could not be present at the event, can watch. With this in mind, I dove into the process in order to learn how. After a certain amount of market survey, I noticed that most of the people offering this service do not focus on the quality of the stream. So I made it a point to ensure high quality video, and to ensure a crisp and un-distorted sound. My knowledge of audio helped a lot in this process and to ensure high quality sound, I made use of an audio interface. In terms of platforms, the most used are YouTube & Facebook as they are the easiest to broadcast to people and have the most users. Both platforms have very user friendly interfaces and I had no problems figuring out the process. To stream vid

REAMPING A GUITAR In this blog I intend to share my experience in learning how to reamp a guitar. This trimester we learned how to, and about the benefits of reamping a guitar. There are a few reasons why we use this technique in the studios, for example, we can use a recorded piece, like a guitar loop or solo and by reamping it, we can achieve different tones on different amps and processors that can be rerecorded with a mic/different mics of your choice. This also helps for when you got that perfect take and you just want a different tone on it. Moreover, booking a musician can be expensive and by using this technique, you can record the musician in one day, and play around with the recording on different equipment for days in your own time to get the perfect sound you're looking for. The process of reamping begins with a reamp box, which does the opposite of di box, i.e. it reduces the signal strength and impedance, in order to facilitate it being played th

Using Ableton Live for the first time As part of our Electronic Music Production class, we were taught to use the basics of Ableton Live. It was surprising to know that this program was originally built for DJ’s to play loops and samples live, hence the name, but has now widely become a tool for music production, especially in the Trap & Hip-Hop genre. This class was the first time I had my hands on the software, being from the live sound industry, I didn’t do much, if not any, music production. Learning this new software was one of the things I was looking forward to and it was a great experience. At first glance, it can be a little confusing as to know which button does what, but once you get to know the basics, it’s very easy to operate. We learnt how to make a simple beat using a drum machine and also to play a melody using the midi instruments. We also learned about synthesis and how to layer waves to make sounds from scratch which was interesting.

Recording a full Drum Kit Have you ever wondered how the drums sounded so good in one of your favorite record or at a live concert? Hopefully after reading this blog, you will have learnt something new as well as have that question answered for you. In the second year of my bachelors degree in audio, we learnt how to individually mic all the elements of a drum kit. This was many people's first time mic-ing a whole drum kit, but I had done it before for live shows so I was pretty well versed, nevertheless I did learn a few tricks. For our recording we used a total of 10 mics. Usually in terms of channels and order, the first channel would be the kick drum. We used two mics for the kick drum, a kick IN, to capture the fast transient attack of the sound, and a kick OUT mic to get the lower end, more punchy tone. Next we used two more mics for the snare, a snare TOP and a snare BOTTOM, to pick up both, the transient hit as well as the tone for the snares itself. W

Critically Listening to a Whole Album One of my classes in the studio 1 unit at SAE Institute Dubai was all about listening critically. This means to pay attention to details that one would not notice at the first listen, but when you hear it once, you cannot miss it again. Be it a good thing or a bad thing, it makes the difference between professionalism and amateur work. By training our ears to listen and judge specific frequencies & sounds, we help ourselves to ensure a better outcome in our end product, whatever it may be within the audio field. In one of our classes, we listened to the whole album titled ‘DAMN.’ in one sitting. Listening to all 55 minutes of it in one stretch was truly eye opening, or should I say, ear opening. We were able to listen to exactly what the artist was trying to convey to the listeners throughout the album. We were able to appreciate all the efforts put into the album by the artist and all those who worked behind the scenes

Visiting Prolight+Sound 2019

Visiting Prolight+Sound 2019 We had the privilege of visiting Prolight+Sound 2019 ("Prolight + Sound Middle East | 24 - 26 January 2021 | Dubai", 2019) at the Dubai World Trade Center ("Home", 2019) which was an amazing experience. The trip was organized by the staff at SAE for all the Audio students to check out the latest gear, technology and innovation in the field of audio. We also had the honor of listening to some of the great names in the industry, and hearing about their life experiences from amateurs to professionals. For me personally, coming from the field of live sound and with a passion for it, it was amazing to see all the different stalls and all the industry standard brands which we got a hands on experience of. I will always be grateful to the organizing team from SAE for taking the initiative for us to explore the event. References: Home. (2019). Retrieved 15 December 2019, from https://www.dwtc.com/en Prolight + Sound M