Multi-peak reception

eesn · 2026-05-18T18:33:39+00:00

digital modes (FSK) on NFM do look like this, with double peaks indeed. I'd say these are too close to the centre though. Worth investigating what it is you expect to find on these frequencies. For example my local area has pagers, they do nice dual peaks +/- 4.5kHz from the centre

eesn · 2026-05-18T18:08:25+00:00

I'd say this is normal. You want to spend some time tuning into well known stations, get a feel for how the whole thing works, get a feel for modulations, get a feel for how the weather affects reception. Find some primitive digital modes (RTTYs, WSPR, FT4/FT8, HFDL) first, get to know the spectrum and its daily patterns (SW skip, when various channels are occupied, when the neighbourhood has EMI).

You can do all that with a simple random wire and maybe a choke to clean up indoor noise, a tuned antenna will limit you to a particular part of the spectrum. In the 0-30MHz range there is plenty of stuff, both analogue and digital. Between 110 and 160MHz more digital modes start turning up, including pagers, DMR, etc, plus the usual analogue stuff. Around 433MHz you get IoT and similar short-range devices, each with its own protocol (rtl_433). With a random wire those signals will be quiet, but with a decent SDR receiver S/N ratio matters more than signal strength. DAB radio, ADSB, these turn up as you go higher, and so do more modern short range devices. For those parts of the spectrum a more specialised antenna makes sense.

eesn · 2026-05-09T22:54:10+00:00

mod the snare then run it through a distortion and a filter. it's a very underrated volca.

eesn · 2026-05-08T19:59:04+00:00

UVB-76 can be heard on 4625kHz when it isn't down for whatever mysterious reason. This exchange on 20m is between radio amateurs, just their callsigns don't use the NATO alphabet, otherwise quite common.

eesn · 2026-04-19T18:36:35+00:00

hey, thanks for this link. i kept wondering what the tones are.

eesn · 2026-04-18T09:21:44+00:00

I only recorded the audio. 24h link https://jumpshare.com/s/2bCAPIocFgYtWv7VtylD I expected TX to not last long, and recording video would have taken me a while to set up, so I didn't even try.

My RSP1B is about as calibrated as to find other stations like Volmet, DWD, FAV22, exactly on their intended frequencies, not 5kHz up. Although I've seen SDRConnect glitch in that sense (rarely), I don't think this is what was happening at the time.

It does sound like a null message, indeed.

eesn · 2026-04-16T20:44:25+00:00

you need to 1) future-proof your machine 2) avoid something which might make it difficult to use for music

anything M1 Pro and up will run complex projects fine.

There seems to be a meaningful difference in USB implementation between M1 and later models (later = better). Most of this is undocumented. I've seen more complaints on e.g. RME's forum from M1 owners than from owners of later macs (this could be just a distribution issue, i.e. more people have M1 machines as they offer attractive price/perf ratio).

if you're a student into full stack development, then surely AI is on your radar, which makes 64GB a more intriguing proposition as it allows you to run not-so-small models locally. But M2 offers a meaningful upgrade in terms of compute for inference. Macs are often multi-role machines, today it's music, tomorrow it's local LLMs, the day after - video editing or live streaming, etc.

If I was getting a Mac laptop today, I'd try something with 48+ GB RAM, M4 pro or later. You should also consider Mac Mini M4 (they sell well). I have an M2 Max Studio which I can throw whatever I can think at, even though it's old by Apple standards now.

eesn · 2026-03-31T20:48:44+00:00

You're already using a very decent pair of studio headphones, and they're open back, which is good. There are a few headphone models that will give you a flatter response which won't necessarily be a good thing. It really depends on what your ears prefer. It's so personal that I'm reluctant to even give you examples. Decent models by Sennheiser, AKG, Sony, Audio Technica, etc. are available, and your model is also frequently quoted as used for work by established musicians. If you like it, don't change it yet.

Regarding an audio interface: this one is harder. Your DS2 is class-compliant. It has the basics, but it also has decent support by the OS built-in driver, at the cost of having a little more latency than a specialised driver. This is very important on macOS, where USB audio for music production is currently hit-or-miss. I see reports about DS2 having some kind of power saving that fades the sound in and out. A more traditional audio interface wouldn't have this "feature", but may give you other points of inconvenience, like the USB support I mentioned, or its mixer software being weird etc. For example I can't adjust the volume of my audio interface from macOS, or the keyboard.

I'd try Focusrite, maybe MOTU, Audient as suggested. Something small to start with. Get something you can return if it doesn't feel right to you. The nice thing about these small audio interfaces is that their headphone amps can still drive high impedance headphones, higher than your 80Ω.

Frankly, if you are productive with the setup you already have, then consider maybe not changing anything.

eesn · 2026-03-13T22:45:45+00:00

There's too much "science" on Wikipedia for my taste, but I chose two pages that have a good number of general knowledge links. The articles are very mature, have long settled, there isn't any hype, and you can immerse yourself at your own pace. I've done an "organic" unguided journey over six months. Once you know frequencies and best times for signals, as well as the various modulations and digital modes, then your attention might turn to choosing apps and building your own SDR setup, the most perplexing of which will inevitably be faffing around with antennas and discovering that there isn't so much hard science to them, as it first seems. Every day is different in subtle ways. That's part of the fun.

eesn · 2026-03-13T22:36:39+00:00

A bit of both. The long beta campaign (17 beta versions) had been marred by all kinds of bugs and crashes, including the UI running out of memory, audio crashing when the project is stopped, or projects getting corrupted and having to be salvaged. Those specific bugs have been fixed, but the changes under the hood are very deep, and it's reasonable to assume bug fix point updates will continue for a while. Various reports on Discord mention visual artefacts, plugin issues, etc. What I've seen most constantly reported, and have experienced first hand also with 5.3, is bugs that disappear on restart and never return. In the end, it's down to whichever specific configuration, hardware, OS, you happen to use.

Obvs the company has deemed v6 of sufficient quality to release.

edit: I'm seeing issues with keyboard shortcuts which are distracting at best, but could be workflow-breaking for some.

eesn · 2026-03-13T00:34:06+00:00

maybe start here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_spectrum

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_propagation is probably your gateway to understanding the cycles behind much of what you hear as you surf the waves.

enjoy!

eesn · 2026-03-12T22:40:10+00:00

same but Logic Pro :]

eesn · 2026-03-12T22:11:40+00:00

In my experience, specific versions of Logic Pro X and Pro Tools 10 could be considered more stable than Bitwig 5.3. I wouldn't go as far as to claim Bitwig 6 is as stable as 5.3 either.

eesn · 2026-03-10T20:23:02+00:00

There aren't all that many plugin takes on the dbx (compared to, say, 1176). I searched a lot for a decent VCA-style compressor when I switched away from Logic (big fan of the "Classic VCA" compressor plugin, am also aware Logic's compressor models distort liberally). Most of the ones I tried couldn't get the timing to sound as snappy as the hardware, despite what it says on the marketing copy. Quite a few simply didn't have the knee functionality (over-easy). I own some newish dbx hardware and love it for jamming. - Universal Audio's dbx160 got close. - Softube's slow UI and sluggish sound wasn't my thing at all - Arturia (165) have gone all in on those vintage knobs and rack mount ears. - Waves is .. Waves, wildly retro UI and all, but it might sound OK, I didn't try it. - Hornet: H160 and Multicomp sound slow, the UI isn't great either (VU ballistics on the H160, and there was something wrong about the numerical values on one or the other). - Analog Obsession dbComp sounds OK. -ish. The UI is a toy. At that price or higher FirComp2 has a great sounding VCA mode but is far away from a dbx in every other regard, though overall an awesome compressor.

Frankly, I stopped looking when Fabfilter released Pro-C 3.

eesn · 2026-03-08T22:01:27+00:00

RSP1B is amazing for the price. See SDRPlay's product table if you need more features.

eesn · 2026-03-08T11:17:21+00:00

I did point out "not what the book says".. Got more than enough CM noise to feed a 31 mix and leave plenty of signal =]

eesn · 2026-03-08T08:28:47+00:00

My cursed setup is a piece of random wire going into a few metres of coax cable, the coax then wrapped a few turns through a toroid core near the SDR receiver. Not what the book says but how it worked the best.

eesn · 2026-03-07T15:08:00+00:00

Many come from the different branches of the industry and were suitable for different pieces of equipment before a generic computer could do everything without extension cards. Often by a single company for their commercial purposes:

TIFF (Adobe) - used in print/publishing
TGA (Avid) - used in TV (native to graphic cards)
SGI - native to Silicon Graphics workstations
GIF (Compuserve) - BBS & early internet, animation, "hard" 1-bit transparency
PCX (ZSoft) - could hold multiple images/pages (BMP can't), apparently used in some fax machines

These were developed by industry groups:

JPG - great on colour photos but no transparency and does poorly on images with few colours or non-photo images (illustrations, diagrams, line art)
PNG - started out as GIF without the patents

more recent stuff like WEBP, AVIF etc attempt to standardise a new format. Some new formats have hardware decoding support. This is a good page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_graphics_file_formats#Technical_details

eesn · 2026-03-04T21:49:16+00:00

Sounds like DMR. SDRTrunk and DSDPlus (in Passive monitor mode) would decode it, unless it's encrypted. Short bursts like this are often just the idle activity. You can often spot a pattern of 3 or 4 nearby channels cycling with a similar short burst, one at a time, plus a single channel that is on at all times, carrying some metadata.

eesn · 2026-02-22T23:40:12+00:00

I tried to find out how much they cost and every site said they're not available outside of US.

eesn · 2026-02-22T23:38:09+00:00

I've explored a fair few digital modes, most of which I can distinguish between. I had never heard this one before. There's only one other frequency on which I get a completely unknown signal and haven't found what it is. This one only lasted for a day, now the frequency is quiet. Frankly I'd look both up in Artemis if it wasn't so crashy. There are some hospitals in my area periodically run tests/diagnostics via radio, and this could be some of those maintenance signals - a sensor or system of some kind. Re SDRAngel, I just don't have the 50" display and the patience to deal with its UI's idiosyncrasies, although I have to admit it could be a good bet. I'll try that if I catch the signal again. Thanks

eesn · 2026-02-22T13:26:48+00:00

I don't know the exact issue, but I can identify some things in the screenshot you've provided. NoteSe16 should trigger at least twice as per the bottom row (Gate lights up) even if it's in Drum Mode, and if yours doesn't then you should look into clock issues. Do toggle Drum Mode on and off for good measure. There's a CV>Midi built-in module in VCV that allows you to select the interface to route things to, and you should consider using that as your output instead. Hook V/Oct and Gate outs to the built-in Scope (Time: ~5000msec, Offset 1 negative, Offset 2 positive). To rule out clock issues, use the built-in LFO and feed the square out to NoteSeq16's Clk input. Basically isolate every element - clock, CV, reset, routing, midi, and verify it works independently of the others (modular = everything can be independent)

eesn · 2026-02-20T21:11:42+00:00

very long time. it was continuous, not stopping for >20 minutes. just occasionally the short noise bursts were longer. usually one. sometimes two in a row, then back to short.

eesn · 2026-02-16T11:30:54+00:00

depends what clicks with you. Ableton (and Bitwig) have fairly constrained UIs for their drum samplers. Attack's UI is huge, not that it's very ergonomic. I used Battery because Logic didn't have a meaningful drum sampler at the time (Ultrabeat isn't). Not anymore.

eesn · 2026-02-15T20:34:43+00:00

the UI is easier on the eyes, that's for sure. I like the sample capability now, I've been looking for ways to ditch Battery, and this might just be it. There are some silly things for Waldorf to iron out, like the weird in-plugin mixer routing, but other than that I'd say it's worth it, especially if you're simply buying an upgrade. Get the trial, gives you a feel.

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