Recording - January 2015 - 47

"Une Bobine" means "a coil," which is
an apt description for this handy gizmo. It's
a flexible metal gooseneck, about two feet
long, with a USB-A connector at one end
and an iOS connector with a clamp at the
other. Lightning and 30-pin models are
available, as well as micro-USB models for
Android and other devices. For a bit more
cash, you can get a car kit that includes a
charger and dashboard mounts.
So what's it good for? Anything you
can think of that involves a connection
between your iOS device and your computer or power supply that is stable, moldable, and flexible. In the time I had Une
Bobine in my office studio, I used it to
charge my iPhone while talking hands
free on Skype, wrap around a mic stand
to hold it steady for photographs, sit on a
table with notes open for easy access
while typing articles... and yes, as a rigid
and reliable table stand for recording
with attached microphones.
It's well built and works as advertised,
and is one of those things that you may
well look at and say, "Oh, yeah, I can use
one of those!". Une Bobine elegantly
replaces a tripod, a mic stand clamp, and
a charging/sync cable; if you use your
iPhone around your studio in various roles
for recording, podcasting, remote control,
and more, this is a good way to put it
where you need it and have it stay there.

tenkettles hearEQ
$0.99, in-app purchases
$1.99 each;
www.heareq.com

Last but not least, here's
an app every recording
musician should have. For
99 cents plus four bucks
for the two in-app purchases, it will pay for itself many times
over in improving your studio chops.
hearEQ does just that: teach you how to
hear what EQ changes do to music.
hearEQ has a 10-band graphic EQ that
processes audio from your Music library.
You select a track, then select Learn or
Begin. In Learn mode, you can select any
of the ten octaves from 32 Hz to 16 kHz

and slide it up or down by up to 12 dB,
and hearEQ will suggest terms often used
for that change (e.g. boosting 250 Hz
might be called "warm" or "boxy").
When you're ready to test yourself, you
can select from one to ten of the relevant
bands, then play the song and let the app
quiz you on which band is being boosted
or cut. You can start and stop the song,
turn the EQ on and off, and when you
make a guess, hearEQ tracks your score
and tells you what the correct answer was
if you get one wrong. With practice, you
start hearing where certain elements of music lie,
and your ears become
better tools for tracking
and mixing.
The basic version is
great for beginners, as it
does massive boosts or
cuts: 12 dB up or down. If
you want finer control so
you can learn to hear
smaller changes, you can purchase
Advanced EQ, which lets you select a
boost or cut of 1 to 12 dB for each quiz.
You can also purchase a Pink Noise
source, which some engineers find helpful
as a listening and learning tool (or to calibrate speaker systems). For five dollars
with all the trimmings, hearEQ is one of
the best ear-training tools I've found.

http://www.heareq.com http://www.isoacoustics.com http://www.isoacoustics.com

Recording - January 2015

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