Sonnox - Audio Media
Sonnox - Audio Media
Sonnox - Audio Media
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Processing without the muddy<br />
clutter? SIMON TILLBROOK finds<br />
it is possible, with a little help<br />
from the Voice of God.<br />
Jonathan Little of Little Labs has been making quirky<br />
signal processors and preamplifiers since 1988.<br />
With an electronics background, and as a studio<br />
technician in many of Los Angeles’ finest studios, he<br />
is well qualified and experienced enough to produce<br />
devices that have an interesting twist to them.<br />
The Little Labs VOG (Voice Of God) is a unit that fits<br />
into a 500 series host, such as the API Lunchbox, but there<br />
are plans for a stand-alone version more akin to other<br />
devices in the Little Labs’ ever expanding range.<br />
What is the VOG?<br />
The Little Labs VOG is, in effect, a bass resonance tool that<br />
was originally designed with voiceover work in mind.<br />
The idea was to combat the problems of lost vocal<br />
definition with microphone proximity effect. You often<br />
want to use proximity effect to broaden the lower midrange<br />
for a warmer, sexier feel, but this usually comes<br />
with additional muddiness that needs to be dialled out.<br />
taken with just how well the Little Labs VOG worked in<br />
this application.<br />
This device is simplicity itself to operate and delivers<br />
broad low mid resonance with wonderful clarity. It was<br />
with female or thin sounding vocals where the Little<br />
Labs VOG was really able to show you what it could do<br />
and shine.<br />
Moving onto instrumentation, I took a number of kick<br />
drums, toms, bass guitars, and synthetic bass sounds to<br />
see what could be gained from using the Little Labs VOG.<br />
Across all of the signals that I tried, a real beefing up<br />
took place, but without the muddy clutter that so often<br />
accompanies such processing.<br />
Drums gained depth and clarity with the Little Labs<br />
VOG installed on them. Toms, in particular, could be<br />
manipulated in terms of pitch with the Little Labs VOG.<br />
There was a limit to this, but it is an interesting and natural<br />
sounding possibility to have available to you.<br />
You can be very subtle with the amount of process that<br />
LITTLE LABS VOG<br />
Analogue Bass Resonance Tool<br />
THE REVIEWER<br />
SIMON TILLBROOK is the Principal<br />
Music Tutor at Islington Music<br />
Workshop in London. The rest of<br />
his time is spent as a freelance<br />
engineer, mainly in the USA.<br />
The Little Labs VOG lets you focus in on<br />
the chest resonant frequency and bring it up<br />
without the additional clouding of the signal.<br />
This is achieved using a peaking high pass<br />
filter with a very tight bandwidth that can<br />
centre with frequencies between 40Hz-300Hz<br />
with a 24dB per octave slope either side of it.<br />
The Little Labs VOG is fully balanced<br />
throughout with a single amplifier circuit for<br />
optimum signal quality, allowing it to be used<br />
at the highest sonic levels.<br />
Control<br />
With the Little Labs VOG, we have just three<br />
buttons and two rotary controls with a series<br />
of LEDs to indicate selections and operation.<br />
The three buttons are used to select the<br />
centre frequency range you are going to<br />
sweep through. One of these is labelled ‘Flat’.<br />
This is a flat frequency response selection<br />
and not a bypass, as you may initially think.<br />
The Little Labs VOG still has an impact to the<br />
overall feel even in this position.<br />
The other two buttons are labelled ‘40’ and<br />
‘100’, with the legend ‘40/200’ sitting between<br />
them, so you can select either a 40Hz or 100Hz<br />
centre frequency or, when selected together,<br />
a centre frequency of 200Hz.<br />
One of the rotary controls on the Little<br />
Labs VOG-labelled ‘Frequency’ relates to your<br />
selection. This rotary control has a scale that<br />
runs numerically from 1-10. It is the five-position that<br />
relates to the specific centre frequency you have chosen<br />
with the buttons. It is from there you can sweep up and<br />
down to find the fundamental frequency you require.<br />
The other rotary control available to you on the Little<br />
Labs VOG is Amplitude, and does exactly what you would<br />
expect, delivering up to 18dB of additional boost at the<br />
selected frequency peak.<br />
Use<br />
I first took the Little Labs VOG and used it with a variety<br />
of vocals as per its designed orientation. I was instantly<br />
you introduce, but I can see the amplitude<br />
control spending most of its life at the<br />
higher end of its setting possibilities if<br />
my experience was anything to go by.<br />
The Little Labs VOG delivered positive<br />
results with all the options that I<br />
tried with it.<br />
Conclusion<br />
The Little Labs VOG is a very interesting<br />
device indeed. I absolutely loved it. It is<br />
very refreshing to see a company taking a<br />
slightly different route with processing and<br />
focusing on areas that are of real benefit to<br />
us, the user.<br />
For voiceover work, and virtually any<br />
sound that could benefit from some low<br />
frequency treatment, the Little Labs VOG<br />
is a unit you simply must take a listen to.<br />
I think you may come to like it just as<br />
much as me. ∫<br />
...............................<br />
INFORMATION<br />
£ GB£340.75 (inc.VAT)<br />
A Little Labs Professional <strong>Audio</strong><br />
T +1 323 851 6860<br />
W www.littlelabs.com<br />
A UK Distributor:<br />
Unity <strong>Audio</strong> Ltd., The Elms Barn, Baythorne End,<br />
Halstead, Essex, CO9 4AF, UK<br />
T +44 (0) 1440 785843<br />
W www.unityaudio.co.uk<br />
34<br />
AUDIO MEDIA MAY 2011