Core Sound: Introduction

1
Core Sound Introduction

• Founded May 1990
• First product miniature microphone pairs based
  on psycho-acoustic principles -- Binaural
• Since expanded into a full line of miniature
  binaural and stereo microphone sets
• Core Sound is the world leader in binaural
  microphones

2
Core Sound Organization

• Limited Liability Company (LLC)
• All manufacturing services are subcontracted
• All business and customer services are in-house

3
Core Sound Marketing

• Strong Internet/Web/Newsgroup presence
• Search engine prominence
• Active newsgroup participation
• Listserves (mailing lists)
• Web links from key sites
• Print advertising
• Customer referrals

4
Product Focus

• Support high resolution/high fidelity field
  recording
• Miniature microphone sets and microphone mounts
• Microphone pre-amps and A-to-D converters
• Digital audio data transfer between recorders and
  computers
• Special purpose cables

5
Manufactured Products

• Binaural (omnidirectional) and cardioid
  (directional) microphone sets
• Digital Format Translator (DFT)
• 7-pin cables for Sony portable DAT decks
• S/PDIF and AES/EBU coaxial and plastic fiber
  optic cables

6
Select Retail Products

• DPA (Bruel Kjaer) world-class microphones
• Denecke (portable mic pre-amp/A-to-D converter)
• Midiman/M-Audio (digital audio interface cards
  and recording front ends)
• Edirol (digital audio interface cards and
  recording front ends)
• ATI portable microphone pre-amps
• MBHO Jecklin and Schneider Disk (microphone
  baffles)
• FMR Audio compressor

7
Our Customers

• Concert and ambience tapers
• Sound studios
• Film/Video studios
• Computer game designers
• University (acoustics, audio, ethnomusicology,
  music)
• Musicians (rehearsal and performance)
• Educators
• Customers in almost every countryon the globe!

8
Field RecordingCurrent State of the Art

• Portable DAT 16-bit/44.1 KS/s sampling rate
• Outdated in the high-resolution DVD/SACD world
• Transfer of audio to computer is real-time
  (slow!)
• Transports no longer manufactured
• MiniDisc (16-bit/44.1 KS/s) and MP3 recorders
• Not a viable Pro Audio solution lossy
  compression
• Hard Disk Recorder (Nomad Jukebox3)
• Limited to 16-bit/44.1 KS/s

9
Field RecordingCurrent State of the Art (2)

• Laptop computers with USB/FireWire front ends
  (24-bit/96 KHz)
• Laptops are costly and large (ref DAT)
• USB front ends are complicated, computer
  specific, not designed for portability
• S/PDIF front ends are expensive and limited to
  24-bit/48 KHz
• IEEE-1394/Firewire front ends are expensive
  (2k)
• Takes an expert to configure properly for
  reliable audio

10
Field RecordingCurrent State of the Art (3)

• Electronic News Gathering (ENG) Recorders (Denon,
  Marantz, Sonifex)
• 16-bit/48 KHz maximum
• Not intended for high resolution music recording
• Price 1k
• Alesis Masterlink (24-bit/96 KHz)
• Large rack-mount device, not portable
• Sound Devices 722
• 2k
• A professional solution!
• Dedicated hardware -- not reconfigurable
• Needed Very Portable 24/96 (or 24/192) DAT
  Replacement

11
PDAudio-CF

• A key part of the next generation
  high-resolution, very portable audio recorders
• Type I (extended) CF card
• Optical and Coaxial S/PDIF (IEC-958) inputs
• Mono 16-bit _at_ 32 KS/s to stereo 24-bit _at_ 192
  KS/s
• 45 mA _at_ 5V
• Drivers for Linux (ALSA), WinCE/PPC, Win 2000/XP

12
The Rest Of The Solution

• Core Sound Mic2496 dual microphone pre-amp/A-D
  converter
• HP/Compaq iPAQ PDA and dual CF expansion pack (or
  two-slot PDA)
• Sandisk/Lexar/Pretec 6 GB CF cards Toshiba 5
  GB PC Card hard drive IBM/Hitachi/MagicStor 4
  GB CF card hard drive
• Portable recording applications for Linux,
  WinCE/PPC2002/WM2003, Win XP/2000
• Target total price under 1k

13
Mic2496

• Handheld dual microphone pre-amp/A-to-D
• Very low noise (-140 dB), medium gain
• Optical and coaxial S/PDIF outputs
• Balanced and unbalanced inputs
• Six hours operation on one 9 Volt battery
• Dual ganged level controls
• 24-bits _at_ 32 to 192 KS/s
• Activity (-12 dB) and Clip (0 dB) LEDs
• Phantom power (P48V) and 9V (for HEBs)
• Low battery indicator
• Price Under 500

14
PDAudio Recorder (Linux)

• Tape transport graphic metaphor
• Dual level meters
• Time elapsed/storage remaining clocks
• File and format controls
• Built on top of Familiar/GPE2 0.7.1 with standard
  toolset
• ALSA driver

15
PDAudio Status (Oct. 2003)

• PDAudio-CF is shipping
• Mic2496 is shipping
• ALSA driver complete
• Linux recording application in Beta
• Three of four WinCE/PPC vendors are shipping Beta
  releases
• WDM Audio driver for Win 2000/XP nearing Alpha
  release

16
Typical Configurations

• Digital-only Recorders
• 24/96 PDaudio-CF, 5155, 2 to 6 GB CF card
• 16/44.1 PDAudio-CF, iPAQ 2215, 1 GB SD card
• Analog Recorders
• 24/96 Add Mic2496
• 16.44.1 Add Mic2496 or Denecke AD-20
• Any industry-standard microphones

17
Familiar Wish List

• Card Remove/Replace issues
• Low latency mods to kernel