09.12.10
Posted in Gaming, Home at 12:14 pm by JohnB
One of the projects I’ve got bubbling is the connection of XBox Live communications to my audio set up.
The typical way of using XBox Live comms is through a headset connected to the controller. This means that there’s a microphone input to the controller and a mono output to the headset via the 2.5mm jack plug. The plug is a standard TRS (Tip, Ring, Shield) and must therefore share a common ground between the mic input and headphone output, the layout is thus:
A TRS connector - this is 1/4inch
The Tip carried the +’ve for the mic, the Ring carries the +’ve for the headphones and the Shield carries the common ground signal for both.
So the cabling isn’t that complicated, however the signal I want to feed to the controller is not at mic level, it’s going to be line level as it’s an AUX-out from my main mixer so we need to do something to attenuate that signal back. There’s also the issue that the controller is expecting to have an electret-type microphone attached and as a result supplies a voltage in order to power the mic, having this up to the line output on the mixer isn’t going to do a lot for the signal quality!
The solution for both of these issues is the following:
C1
+Line level in --||----R1----+-- +Mic level output
+ |
|
+----R2----+
|
Ground (input)----+--------------- Ground (output)
R1 = 10 kohm
R2 = 1 kohm
C1 = 10 uF
In practice I actually used 2 x 10K resistors in place of R1 as the levels being supplied on the Aux Out of the are still a little higher that the contoller and the audio ‘gubbins’ doing the encoding are expecting so I was getting a lot of distortion and noise – this probably gives some indication of the overall quality (or lack thereof) of the components used in the standard headset, but that’s another issue!
I tested the various configurations using the XBox Live messaging system by attaching a voice message and using the play-back to listen and set the output levels. All working very nicely!
Then I hit a wall. The ‘output’ side of the XBox Live Audio was planned to be routed into an input channel on on of the tertiary mixers – the one I have dedicated to the games consoles – and I felt confident that this would be a pretty easy task, the mixer was happy to take an unbalanced input and the cable was a simple connection to a mono 1/4 inch jack. The reality is that when I plug in the jack to the mixer by mic levels get sunk. There’s simply nothing there, in fact the XBox reports there being no connection in place. So I’m stuck!
My workaround has been to make a simple cable to carry just the mic signals so I can use my boom mic and i’ve told the XBox to send the Live output to the main speakers, it works.. but dammit it’s not right! I need to look at what’s going on, but that’s where we are now.
I’ve alos started looking at the connection of my iPhone to the audio kit for hands free calling and I’ll update that this coming week.. things are never as easy as they should be!
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08.24.10
Posted in Home at 9:59 am by JohnB
You know sometimes you have those days when you seem to have been working at stuff non-stop, but when you take a step back there’s not much to e seen?
I’ve had a few of those recently.
That’s, I think, one of the reasons my updates here have been less than frequent and today I made the promise to myself to change all of that. There have been more than a few occasions where I’ve had a mental rant about something and come to conclusions which should be shared, there have also been a few interesting things going on in the audio studio which have also been kept secret – no reason either. So here’s the deal, I’ll be updating here more regularly about the non- and semi-work related stuff going on and I’ll also be letting you know about the other projects too.
The Project List:
- Audio interface for iPhone to recording / mixing kit. This will be line-in and line-out from the IPOD interface, I can’t find anything out there some I’m going to make one. The point of this is to be able to take / make calls on the phone in the same way as I do for Skype, Live Meeting and other stuff, I’ll also be able to record calls for interviews etc.
- Audio interface for Xbox Live to recording / mixing kit. Taking the feed which would go to/from the Xbox Live headset connected to the controller and using the desk to drive both the mic input and the audio received from the Live gaming sessions. Same reasons as above really.
- Sell old bike, get new bike. I don’t think I’ve been fitter than when I was riding motorbikes, especially when I had the CR125 and did regular trips to practice tracks. With this in mind I’m going to be selling the Husqvarna SM610 and getting something I can use on and off-road. I’m thinking WR or DRZ at the moment, but it’ll depend on what’s around over the next couple of weeks.
- Update CV. It’s been a while since this document last had a tickle and I think now’s a good enough time to get that sorted out. I’m using iProfile too – kind of an online CV for agencies etc – so I’ll marry up the two and tick that box off!
As you may, or may not, know I’m also writing on a couple of other sites (Hosting Thoughts, Ready-Up) and that’ll continue too, along with the audio work here at Studio 13 for Rogue Productions. Plus the Twitter and Facebook nonsense as well.
Holy crap! With that AND work to do I’d better get started! 
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07.17.10
Posted in Home at 9:57 am by JohnB
I was at a significant keynote speech this week over in Washington DC and during the oration I was struck by a thought.
“This is like being in Church!” I’m not a religious person – I respect those who are but it’s just not my bag – so this was a bit jarring. The speaker in question was very, very good. He knew just what buttons to press, he knew when to pause for reaction, he knew when to repeat point for emphasis, he knew ALL of the tricks. He also knew that his audience were drinking deeply from the corporate Kool-Aid and would lap up the digs at the competition.
This is where the jarring elements came for me. I’ve sat in on corporate keynotes before and they’ve certainly been corporate but they’ve not been ‘religious’ in their approach. By this I mean the deliberate deposing of those they believe are in competition – even those that are not, not really. The most bizarre example of this was a Microsoft Senior Executive who, during a keynote speech, took a stab at Apple and the iPhone4, describing it as “Apple’s Vista”. This of course drew cheers from the assembled congregation but I was simply left with the thought that there had to be a Vista first for that comparison to be made and that a bad version of a desktop operating system which occupies 95%+ of the market is actually a far more serious blunder than the issues which some users are seeing in signal attenuation on an otherwise good piece of hardware – one which can easily be fixed with a simple add-on.
I use both Apple and Microsoft technologies. I’ve already mentioned that I moved away from Windows Mobile to iPhone only this year but that was as a last resort when the – otherwise lovely – HTC TyTN II finally ticked me off. I use OSX and Windows 7 every day of the week and I believe that the Microsoft enterprise solutions are – on the whole – without peer. With this in mind maybe I have a more balanced view of the technology, maybe it’s my belief in using the right tools for the job, regardless of the brand it wears, which allows me to be a bit more dis-passionate about things and therefore a little more cynical about the exhortations and hyperbole which comes from the keynote speeches.
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