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Aphex is a brand of audio signal processing equipment. Aphex Systems was founded in 1975 in Massachusetts. The name is shorthand for "Audio Perception Heterodyne Exciter", [1] in reference to its original product, the Aphex Aural Exciter. The company changed its name to Aphex in 2010.
Formerly Aphex Systems, the company was acquired in mid-2015 by Freedman Electronics, [2] parent company of Røde Microphones.
Aphex moved in 2011 to Burbank, California, and in 2014 moved its main offices to Salt Lake City, Utah. Aphex manufactures pro audio products, primarily in the Burbank and L.A. area, with a few products manufactured in Asia. Aphex has design and engineering facilities located in Salt Lake City and California.
Aphex builds products for the professional audio, broadcast, fixed installation, touring-sound and home-recording markets. It has developed a number of technologies and products, such as the Aural Exciter, Compellor, Dominator, Expander/Gate and Expressor, plus the Model 1100 Two-Channel and Model 1788 Eight-Channel Ultra-Precision Remotely Controllable Microphone Pre-Amplifiers, and the Model 2020 Mk III Broadcast Audio Processor. A key element of all the dynamics processing products is the voltage-controlled attenuator, the Aphex VCA 1001. Another key element is Aphex' input and output circuitry, using electronic balancing techniques instead of transformers. In late 2000, Aphex introduced a digital signal transport product, the Anaconda 64-Channel Bidirectional Digital Snake.
Today, Aphex is focused on its latest Exciter and Big Bottom processing and Compellor compression technologies, with new patents pending and new products in the line. Key among these are a series of USB connected products:
The Aural Exciter adds phase shift and musically related synthesized harmonics to audio signals.
The Big Bottom circuit combines a low-pass filter and dynamics processor to compress and delay incoming low-frequency information. The process is reverse amplitude dependent, meaning that more is applied as the input level drops and less as the signal gets hotter. Together the dynamics processor and time delay create sustained bass frequencies that are perceived as being louder yet do not noticeably increase peak output.
Aphex started selling the professional units, and introduced two low-cost models: Type B and Type C. The Aural Exciter circuit is now licensed by several manufacturers. The so-called Big Bottom circuit was added in 1992. Later revisions of the Aphex Aural Exciter included the Model 104 Type C and Type C2 units. The most recent version is the Model EXCITER Aural Exciter and Optical Big Bottom.
Functionally similar units from competing manufacturers are generically known either as 'psychoacoustic processors' or more commonly just as 'enhancers'. Broadly comparable products are now available from BBE, Joemeek, SPL, and Behringer, implemented using either analogue or digital hardware, or software.
Aphex has also released several audio effects apps that apply the Aphex processing to digital music in iTunes.
Aphex continues to expand its licensing activities and has contracts with a variety of audio, music and other OEMs.
Digital audio is a representation of sound recorded in, or converted into, digital form. In digital audio, the sound wave of the audio signal is typically encoded as numerical samples in a continuous sequence. For example, in CD audio, samples are taken 44,100 times per second, each with 16-bit sample depth. Digital audio is also the name for the entire technology of sound recording and reproduction using audio signals that have been encoded in digital form. Following significant advances in digital audio technology during the 1970s and 1980s, it gradually replaced analog audio technology in many areas of audio engineering, record production and telecommunications in the 1990s and 2000s.
In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna with the purpose of signal transmission up to a radio receiver. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to the antenna. When excited by this alternating current, the antenna radiates radio waves.
Nagra is a brand of portable audio recorders produced from 1951 in Switzerland. Beginning in 1997 a range of high-end equipment aimed at the audiophile community was introduced, and Nagra expanded the company's product lines into new markets.
A music workstation is an electronic musical instrument providing the facilities of:
Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI), also known simply as Analog, is an American multinational semiconductor company specializing in data conversion, signal processing, and power management technology, headquartered in Wilmington, Massachusetts.
Novation Digital Music Systems Ltd. is a British musical equipment manufacturer, founded in 1992 by Ian Jannaway and Mark Thompson as Novation Electronic Music Systems. Today the company specializes in MIDI controllers with and without keyboards, both analog and virtual analog performance synthesizers, grid-based performance controllers, and audio interfaces. At present, Novation products are primarily manufactured in China.
A tuner is a subsystem that receives radio frequency (RF) transmissions, such as FM broadcasting, and converts the selected carrier frequency and its associated bandwidth into a fixed frequency that is suitable for further processing, usually because a lower frequency is used on the output. Broadcast FM/AM transmissions usually feed this intermediate frequency (IF) directly into a demodulator that converts the radio signal into audio-frequency signals that can be fed into an amplifier to drive a loudspeaker.
Solid State Logic (SSL) is a British company based in Begbroke, Oxfordshire, England that designs and markets audio mixing consoles, signal processors, and other audio technologies for the post-production, video production, broadcast, sound reinforcement and music recording industries. SSL employs over 160 people worldwide and has regional offices in Los Angeles, Milan, New York City, Paris, and Tokyo, with additional support provided by an international network of distributors. Solid State Logic is part of the Audiotonix Group.
In analog telephony, a telephone hybrid is the component at the ends of a subscriber line of the public switched telephone network (PSTN) that converts between two-wire and four-wire forms of bidirectional audio paths. When used in broadcast facilities to enable the airing of telephone callers, the broadcast-quality telephone hybrid is known as a broadcast telephone hybrid or telephone balance unit.
Neve Electronics was a manufacturer of music recording and broadcast mixing consoles and hardware. It was founded in 1961 by Rupert Neve, the man credited with creating the modern mixing console.
The DTX range consists of electronic drum kits and percussion controllers manufactured by the Yamaha Corporation. They currently cover levels from entry-level to pro-range. DTX kits use sampling for their sounds, meaning each kit has built-in digital recordings of real drums, and cymbals. When the drum or cymbal pads are hit, the digital recordings are played back to replicate what is being played. On all kits, the sounds are editable – the pitch can be made higher or lower (tuned) and many other features. The higher the range of the DTX, the more functions there are editable.
Sound Blaster X-Fi is a lineup of sound cards in Creative Technology's Sound Blaster series.
A patch panel is a device or unit featuring a number of jacks, usually of the same or similar type, for the use of connecting and routing circuits for monitoring, interconnecting, and testing circuits in a convenient, flexible manner. Patch panels are commonly used in computer networking, recording studios, and radio and television.
A wireless microphone, or cordless microphone, is a microphone without a physical cable connecting it directly to the sound recording or amplifying equipment with which it is associated. Also known as a radio microphone, it has a small, battery-powered radio transmitter in the microphone body, which transmits the audio signal from the microphone by radio waves to a nearby receiver unit, which recovers the audio. The other audio equipment is connected to the receiver unit by cable. In one type the transmitter is contained within the handheld microphone body. In another type the transmitter is contained within a separate unit called a "bodypack", usually clipped to the user's belt or concealed under their clothes. The bodypack is connected by wire to a "lavalier microphone" or "lav", a headset or earset microphone, or another wired microphone. Most bodypack designs also support a wired instrument connection. Wireless microphones are widely used in the entertainment industry, television broadcasting, and public speaking to allow public speakers, interviewers, performers, and entertainers to move about freely while using a microphone without requiring a cable attached to the microphone.
An exciter is an audio signal processing technique used to enhance a signal by dynamic equalization, phase manipulation, harmonic synthesis of (usually) high frequency signals, and through the addition of subtle harmonic distortion. Dynamic equalization involves variation of the equalizer characteristics in the time domain as a function of the input. Due to the varying nature, noise is reduced compared to static equalizers. Harmonic synthesis involves the creation of higher order harmonics from the fundamental frequency signals present in the recording. As noise is usually more prevalent at higher frequencies, the harmonics are derived from a purer frequency band resulting in clearer highs. Exciters are also used to synthesize harmonics of low frequency signals to simulate deep bass in smaller speakers.
TC Electronic is a Danish audio equipment company that designs and imports guitar effects, bass amplification, computer audio interfaces, audio plug-in software, live sound equalisers, studio and post-production equipment, studio effect processors, and broadcast loudness processors and meters. In August 2015, the company was purchased by Music Group, a holding company chaired by Uli Behringer.
Røde Microphones is an Australian-based audio technology company specializing in the design and manufacture of microphones, headphones, audio interfaces, and audio software. The company's product range focuses on applications such as music recording, location sound recordings, broadcast and podcasting, filmmaking, and content creation, for the consumer, producer, and professional markets.
A headset is a combination of headphone and microphone. Headsets connect over a telephone or to a computer, allowing the user to speak and listen while keeping both hands free. They are commonly used in customer service and technical support centers, where employees can converse with customers while typing information into a computer. They are also common among computer gamers and let them talk with each other and hear others while using their keyboards and mice to play the game.
Amplifier modeling is the process of emulating a physical amplifier such as a guitar amplifier. Amplifier modeling often seeks to recreate the sound of one or more specific models of vacuum tube amplifiers and sometimes also solid state amplifiers.