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ZellerFTW

Watch timing without a machine for $10 (no guitar amp required)

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ZellerFTW

I read the original article by Dendo:

 

http://www.replica-watches-guide.com/forum...showtopic=11995

 

And knowing what I know about working with audio on PCs (I don't have a guitar nor am I inclined to buy hardware or amplifiers), I thought I'd write up an even easier way to get a timing machine operational that does not require the purchase of a guitar amplifier or other hardware. You will, however, still need the Korg contact microphone, which is only $10 from Amazon (right here) and a 1/4-inch to 1/8-inch adapter to convert the large 1/4-inch mono plug to 1/8-inch suitable for your PC sound card, which is only $0.99 from Amazon (right here). I realize the adapter plug is technically stereo and you can get different adapters, but that won't matter in a few minutes. Remember we just need to get sound into the PC, we don't care if its stereo or mono, so there's no point in hunting down a different adapter.

 

Software you will need (all freeware):

  • VSTHost (homepage) - Freeware. A VST host application. Those in the music biz will know what VST plugins are. What this app does is provide a very, very simple but very powerful GUI-based virtual stage to check out VST effects.
  • Classic EQ (homepage) - Freeware. A simple 7-band equalizer VST plugin.
  • Virtual Audio Cable (homepage) - Free version is all you need. This software is completely fucking tits! This is the special sauce and any digital audio engineer worth a salt should know this and know it well.

 

Install Virtual Audio Cable (VAC) and launch the Virtual Audio Cable Control Panel app:

 

snagit.jpg

 

In the VAC Control Panel, set the number of cables to 1 (if it is not already) and click "Set":

 

snag0000iy.jpg

 

You should see something like this (note that I use 4 cables for my work, you will not need this many):

 

snag0001j.jpg

 

Now, a note about this crazy BIBURO application. In typical Asian fashion, it's a squirrely, oddly written piece of software. Modern audio applications will let you configure the audio input device, but not BIBURO. It just picks whatever the OS has set as the default. Which is most cases is probably okay, but since this thing apparently requires very precise sound to work, we can't really just plug the tuning microphone into your PC and go. This is why, in the other tutorial, a guitar amp was needed. We need to finesse the audio a bit. Wine her and dine her.

 

Well, we're too lazy and cheap to do that here so we're going to do it the tits way.

 

Right-click your volume control in the systray in Windows:

 

snag0005.jpg

 

Select "Recording devices":

 

snag0004l.jpg

 

Scroll around a bit and see what VAC has done... what's this? A virtual line input! Who'd have thunk it?:

 

snag0006.jpg

 

Right-click that bastard and select "Set as default device":

 

snag0007.jpg

 

Should look like this now:

 

snag0008.jpg

 

Now we're all set to really start cooking. Fire up VSTHost and it should look like so:

 

snag0009.jpg

 

Select the Devices menu and then Wave:

 

snag0010e.jpg

 

Set input to your Microphone input and Output to, you guessed it, VAC Line 1:

 

snag0012.jpg

 

Now add the EQ through the New Plugin tool in the File menu:

 

snag0013.jpg

 

File the "Classic EQ.dll" file you downloaded and click Open:

 

snag0014z.jpg

 

Hot damn! We're making progress here! Click the little clock thing on the Classic EQ tool:

 

snag0016f.jpg

 

Now, this is where it gets dicey because I've never used BIBURO before and don't know what it expects, but following the previous tutorial it sounds like I need to completely turn down the bass and crank up the treble. The frequencies for bass are on the left, and the treble on the right. That's as simple as I can put it for those who have never used graphic equalizer before.

 

You'll also need to mess with the input gain and output gain so that BIBURO can "hear" the sound. Gain is just a fancy word for volume. Think of the input gain as a volume knob for the incoming sound and the output gain as volume knob for the sound as it leaves the EQ.

 

The nice, standard EQ with no sliders configured:

 

snag0017.jpg

 

You're going to want to try something like this... Once you strap on your microphone, you should see some blinking lights:

 

snag0018.jpg

 

Now launch BIBURO per the instructions in the other tutorial. When you do and after you adjust the signal to noise ratios, you should see magic (since I don't have the appropriate microphone yet, I used the sample watch audio file from the BIBURO website. Apparently this file loses 60 seconds per day, which you can see in the screenshot below):

 

snag0019.jpg

 

Now you've got the ticket. The same setup as mentioned in the previous tutorial without any more hardware than a tuning mic. No need for any preamps or EQ hardware. Done entirely with free software!

 

Continue using the previous tutorial at this point and good luck!

Edited by ZellerFTW

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sconehead

Great post mate!

 

 

 

...you now have a sticky...:D

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Nisv

Thank you :D

One more tutorial to my HD :D

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Mik

Congratulations.

Simply brilliant!

Will start messing with my watches now :ttiwwop:

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