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Audio Recording - Four

Steps  Pt. 1

 

Audio Recording - Four

Steps Pt. 2

Recording Guitar Tracks

with Distortion

 

Apogee Big Ben Master Clock

The Big Ben Word Clock from Apogee has been around for quite some time, and the overall press surrounding it has been relatively positive. Many reviewers and recording forum regulars claim it can work wonders with consumer grade converters. Though the Big Ben has a few tricks up its sleeve besides providing a master clock (like digital signal conversion), my primary interest is what effect it has on sound. In this review, I put one to the test with a Lynx L22.

Racking Up the Big Ben

On it’s own, the Lynx L22 is a mid level A/D and D/A converter that offers good noise specs (despite being installed in the machine) and offers clarity well above other products I’ve used and tested by manufacturers such as M-Audio, Presonus and RME. Though the cards is by no means a recent development, it still holds its own after a few years on the market.

It’s next to impossible to judge converter performance without a comparison, so I’ll skip my thoughts on the overall sound quality of the Lynx on its own. Sufficed to say, I’m fairly pleased or I wouldn’t still be using it. So…the obvious question is, what does the Big Ben bring to the table?

...This is why I never have any studio space.  I always keep the boxes.

Connection of the Big Ben is easy and simply requires a word clock cable, some adjustments to the Ben itself and setting the clock source on the Lynx via the associated software. I put the Lynx A/D through the paces with the Big Ben by low level monitoring a variety of recorded sources. I used another machine with a Lynx L22 only and ran both outs to a Mackie Big Knob so I could switch input sources across the same monitors. I used individual tracks of guitar, bass and vocals recorded for the purposes of this review as well as stereo recordings from CD to the Lynx’s audio input. I tested the D/A through mixes of recorded material, standard CD’s and MP3’s for good measure. The A/D recordings of two tracks per album and various instrumental takes took 4 hours to complete as I duplicated everything on two machines.

Aside from the homegrown stuff, the CD’s I used on both ends included “Beethoven Piano Sonatas” by John O’Conor, Diana Ross’s Greatest Hits (Motown Era), “Hysteria” by Def Leppard (the slick overproduction of Mutt Lange is very telling), “So Tonight That I Might See” from Mazzy Star, At War With the Mystics” by the Flaming Lips, “This Perfect World” from Freedy Johnston and “2001” by Dr. Dre.

Results

The main effects the Big Ben imparted were homogenization, top end sweetness and what I will call for lack of a better term, “rounding of the edges”. Of those three, the rounding was most prominent.

Both homegrown and mass release tracks sounded more cohesive with the Big Ben. While I didn’t notice a considerable difference in homogenization on the pre-recorded stuff, finished mixes I used sounded a lot closer to “radio ready” with the Big Ben. The mixes seemed to be less homegrown, and my business partner noticed the same. Interestingly, there was a discernable difference between tracks played off the computer’s CD ROM and those recorded through the A/D. The A/D tracks were surprisingly clearer than from the CD’s themselves only running through the D/A. I would’ve thought the added step might have muddled them up a bit.

The lows and mids were comparable through high end roll off and A/B switching of the source, but the highs were noticeably more present and less shrill with the Big Ben.

As for the “rounding of the edges”, which is undoubtedly related to what the Big Ben does for the highs, the material all seemed much less fatiguing to listen to. It wasn’t blurry or dulled in any way, just more palatable.

Is the Big Ben worth the $1300 plus price tag? I think so, and you’d be hard pressed to find a single item that can do more for your overall sound, but…it all depends on what you are using for converters. If you’ve invested in a some mid level converters that meet your needs in terms of set-up and the number of ins and outs, a Big Ben will serve its purpose well. If you have a $200 interface (most of which won’t take a word clock anyway), you might want to consider upgrading your converters. If you’re using a Rosetta 800, Myteks or Lavry Blue’s, would the differences I experienced be as noticeable? I don’t know. I can say that I was impressed with what it can do for the converters I use, and will be a permanent fixture in the studio from now on.