Iguana Kitchen: Tasty Audio Treats <> Quantum Audio Mechanics (child voiceover, sound effects, microphone sounds)

ONLY $695.00

Frequently Asked Questions & Frequently Responded Answers

WHAT IS QUANTUM AUDIO MECHANICS?

The world’s first ALL NEW FULL-SPECTRUM HIGH DEFINITION surround sound SFX library.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY “ALL NEW”?

All recordings in this catalog are brand new and have never been released in any market or version before. No remixes, no nothing.

WHAT’S “FULL SPECTRUM”?

This means 12-channel surround.

WHAT ARE THE TWELVE CHANNELS?

Left front; Right front; Center front; Left center; Right Center; Left Rear; Right rear; Center Rear; Left side; Right side; IMAX (overhead ceiling speaker) and LFE (low frequency effect, aka the subwoofer channel). See the following track placement map for all details.

WHY 12 CHANNELS?

Currently there are six different surround sound formats in use worldwide, from movie theaters to home theater. These formats are: 4.1; 5.1; 6.1; 7.1 (home theater and movie theater versions); and IMAX. There are also versions of each of those formats without the .1 LFE or subwoofer channel.

Although 5.1 is the most commonly used format for the North American Consumer Home Theater market, it is by no means the universal standard. In fact, you’d be hard pressed to find 5.1 surround being used anywhere else except in the North American Consumer Home Theater Market. Post Production facilities that work on movie soundtracks for North American theatrical releases as well as international production facilities for Europe, Asia, Africa and South America are not often using 5.1 and need to have more options available for sound effect recordings. Quantum Audio Mechanics provides all the options for every surround sound format as shown in the track placement map.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY “HIGH DEFINITION”?

Every recording was done at the source at 192kHz and 24 bits. The highest sample and bit rate possible. In addition, each of the microphones used in every recording has a frequency range of 20Hz to 20kHz.

WHY 24 BIT AND 192 KHZ?

High Definition video and film is the new standard. High Definition audio is being widely adapted as well. Current technology such as the Blue Ray DVD and the HD DVD already offer capacities of 20 gigs and 15 gigs respectively in their single-sided modes and movies on either can have audio with 24 bit 96 kHz sampling rates. We can also predict in the not too distant future the flash card becoming more and more the standard – especially when large storage capacity cards of 50 gigs or more can be produced cheaply. Some predict this could happen less than five years from now, and when that does occur, larger sampling rates for the film and the audio can easily be added and consumers, especially audiophiles, will be able to have much greater sound options for their home theater environments. For this reason we at Iguana Kitchen decided to jump ahead and offer the highest sampling rates currently available in aif and wav formats.

The larger sampling rates also allow the post-production audio engineer to have ultimate flexibility in manipulating the sounds without a significant loss of audio quality. Speed it up, slow it down, raise or lower the pitch; you can do it all with a much greater sounding result thanks to these high sampling rates.

Of course, you can always down-sample to whatever size you want.

WHAT MAKES THIS LIBRARY DIFFERENT FROM THE OTHER SURROUND SOUND LIBRARIES ON THE MARKET?

Everything above – plus: if you look carefully at the fine print of the other surround sound libraries you’ll discover that many are really nothing more than remixes of older stereo recordings. Quantum Audio Mechanics is the first surround sound SFX library that is recorded at the source in 12-channel surround sound. No remixes, no “sweetening” no special studio effects, no nothing. Just real honest original surround sound recordings.

WHY ARE YOU DELIVERING THIS LIBRARY ON A GLYPH GT050Q AND NOT SOME OTHER HARD DRIVE OR DATA DVD?

Because of the extremely high sampling rate and because we are giving you both aif and wav versions of every sound, the library is over 100 gigs. To deliver it on data DVD would require 23 of them per set. We would rather use a portable drive for space saving reasons and reliability. Glyph Technologies is the only company that produces external hard drives that are approved for use with every digital audio and video editing program currently available. Their speed and reliability are legendary. Glyph products simply are the best and we won’t use anything less. The GT 050Q offers USB 2.0, Firewire 400, Firewire 800 and eSATA ports for maximum connectivity. Plus, at over 100 gigs, we needed the fastest transfer rates possible in order to move the files without spending the entire day making one copy. Click here for more information on the GT 050Q.

WILL GLYPH HONOR THEIR WARRANTY WHEN I GET MY GT050Q WITH QUANTUM AUDIO MECHANICS?

Yes! We’ve been in contact with the great folks at Glyph – and they have assured us that each GT050Q that we sell with Quantum Audio Mechanics will be fully warranted. What happens is when we get the drives in house we just load the files on to it and put it carefully back in the box and ship it to you. You simply register your Glyph when you get it and you’re good to go.

SHOULD A STUDIO THAT DOES ONLY STEREO RECORDINGS OR RADIO STATIONS BUY QUANTIUM AUDIO MECHANICS?

Of course! Like we said none of these sounds have ever been offered before in any other library. AND 12-channel surround gives you endless mixing possibilities not just for surround, either. Stereo producers instantly have four different perspectives for their mixing potential – the front mix, rear mix, and the two different side mixes. You can also load across an “X” pattern from front to back; i.e. left front to right rear or right front to left rear. The best part is you don’t need worry about 180-degree phase loss; all tracks contain audio from their exact reference position so there won’t be any dropout. It’s like getting six different versions of the same effect. You can also “widen” the two-track sound field by utilizing the front, side and rear tracks into your stereo mix for a much larger sound. Also keep in mind that surround sound for broadcast radio and television already exists – several companies including the Fraunhofer Society (the folks who invented Mpeg) and Phillips created format coding for broadcast surround several years ago. Radio World magazine has numerous articles on surround sound for radio posted at their website, www.rwonline.com. There still are questions to be answered for the implementation of broadcast surround, but just like HD Radio it is viable and will eventually happen. Quantum Audio Mechanics will be a great tool to help you get your station’s audio ready.

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HOME THEATER 7.1 AND MOVIE THEATER 7.1?

Movie Theater 7.1 surround is used in larger sized theaters. Two extra speaker channels are added to the front mix: one between the left front and center front, and one between the right front and center front. However this would be impractical in your house because most home theater rooms are much smaller. So for home theater 7.1 the two extra speaker channels are placed at the side of the listener, halfway between the front and rear speakers. For easy identification purposes we’ve labeled the two channels for movie 7.1 as Left Center and Right Center and for home theater 7.1 as Left Side and Right Side. Each channel contains audio that’s specifically from that area of the sound field for a perfect match. See the track placement map for complete details.

WHEN YOU SUGGEST “LOADING THE TRACKS IN A DIFFERENT ORDER” WHAT DO YOU MEAN?

Give the tracks assignments that are different than the ones for which they are labeled. The only track we strongly recommend you not swap out with other tracks is the LFE track as that has an above 200 Hz cutoff. Here are three examples:

5.1 surround mix. For this experiment we suggest using the recorded street sweeper sound tracks, which have a definite sound reference. Load the Left front and Left rear as normal but try reversing the order for the right tracks – Right rear in front and Right front in rear. Then use the IMAX track in place of the Center front track.

6.1 surround mix. Load all three “Left” tracks in the front speakers and the three “Right” tracks in the rear speakers. So you’d put the Left front in the correct place and then put Left side for Center front and Left rear for Right Front. Then do the same for the rear channels, starting with Right front, Right side, and Right rear. Note- You could also do this in a 5.1 mix but replace the side channel track with the IMAX track. The IMAX track carries all audio from a 360 perspective (since it’s pointed straight up in the microphone array) and can be used to help fill in the gaps for odd speaker mixes.

7.1 surround mix. This is for movie theater 7.1 with 5 speaker channels in the front. You can reverse the perspective of the sound field by loading the following order: Left Side (for left front); Left Rear (for left center); Center Rear (for center front); Right Rear (for right center) and Right Side (for right front). Then load Left Front in Left Rear and Right Front in Right Rear. You can also do this with an 8.1 or 9.1 configuration and simply load the Center Front into the Center Rear channel.

Another idea for virtually all mixes except home theater 7.1: To widen the sound field in the front or the rear you can load the side channels in place of the respective left and right channels. Left Side for Left Front or Rear, Right Side for Right Front or Rear. Or add them into a mix with the front or rear channels.

WHY THE “IMAX” CHANNEL IF I DON’T MIX FOR IMAX?

The IMAX channel can add extra “height” perspective even without an overhead speaker. Reference monitor speakers, which many home theater enthusiasts have, can reproduce this perspective. Just add the IMAX channel into your mix, especially when using sounds with overhead reference and you’ll hear it. Also, keep in mind that Hewlett-Packard is working on a new home theater version of IMAX projection (reported in the July issue of PC Magazine). It’s not too far a stretch of the imagination that when IMAX for home theater takes off there will likely be some high end audio equipment manufacturers adding an IMAX channel for home theater as well.

WHY DID YOU DO THIS?

The original idea for what is now Quantum Audio Mechanics was first realized about seven years ago and the first test recordings were made about three years ago. After spending a lot of time researching production libraries we discovered that there were very few actual surround sound libraries and that the ones that were available were only in 5.1 and were mostly remixes of older, previously released stereo tracks.

We came to the conclusion that if a surround sound effects library was to be a viable entity then it must encompass the ability to adapt to all the surround sound formats that are currently being used. And so the concept of Full Spectrum Twelve channel surround became the goal. It was also decided that since High Definition had become the new standard for film and broadcast then any new sound effects libraries coming into the marketplace should be recorded at the highest sampling rates possible. Unfortunately for our wallets we discovered that the only way to achieve true 24 bit 192 kHz sampling rates in the field was to build a portable Pro Tools TDM recording studio (as portable as a 100 pound rack on wheels can be) that could be taken anywhere to record anything.

Although we think we’ve made a good start we still have more work to do. As someone we spoke to about this back in the early stages said, “The entire world needs to be re-recorded in surround sound”. We’re either ambitious enough or stupid enough (possibly both) to do just that. Thanks for your interest!

Click here for a 12-channel track placement map (pdf format).



		ONLY $695.00 Frequently Asked Questions & Frequently Responded Answers WHAT IS QUANTUM AUDIO MECHANICS? The world’s first ALL NEW FULL-SPECTRUM HIGH DEFINITION surround sound SFX library. WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY “ALL NEW”? All recordings in this catalog are brand new and have never been released in any market or version before. No remixes, no nothing. WHAT’S “FULL SPECTRUM”? This means 12-channel surround. WHAT ARE THE TWELVE CHANNELS? Left front; Right front; Center front; Left center; Right Center; Left Rear; Right rear; Center Rear; Left side; Right side; IMAX (overhead ceiling speaker) and LFE (low frequency effect, aka the subwoofer channel). See the following track placement map for all details. WHY 12 CHANNELS? Currently there are six different surround sound formats in use worldwide, from movie theaters to home theater. These formats are: 4.1; 5.1; 6.1; 7.1 (home theater and movie theater versions); and IMAX. There are also versions of each of those formats without the .1 LFE or subwoofer channel. Although 5.1 is the most commonly used format for the North American Consumer Home Theater market, it is by no means the universal standard. In fact, you’d be hard pressed to find 5.1 surround being used anywhere else except in the North American Consumer Home Theater Market. Post Production facilities that work on movie soundtracks for North American theatrical releases as well as international production facilities for Europe, Asia, Africa and South America are not often using 5.1 and need to have more options available for sound effect recordings. Quantum Audio Mechanics provides all the options for every surround sound format as shown in the track placement map. WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY “HIGH DEFINITION”? Every recording was done at the source at 192kHz and 24 bits. The highest sample and bit rate possible. In addition, each of the microphones used in every recording has a frequency range of 20Hz to 20kHz. WHY 24 BIT AND 192 KHZ? High Definition video and film is the new standard. High Definition audio is being widely adapted as well. Current technology such as the Blue Ray DVD and the HD DVD already offer capacities of 20 gigs and 15 gigs respectively in their single-sided modes and movies on either can have audio with 24 bit 96 kHz sampling rates. We can also predict in the not too distant future the flash card becoming more and more the standard – especially when large storage capacity cards of 50 gigs or more can be produced cheaply. Some predict this could happen less than five years from now, and when that does occur, larger sampling rates for the film and the audio can easily be added and consumers, especially audiophiles, will be able to have much greater sound options for their home theater environments. For this reason we at Iguana Kitchen decided to jump ahead and offer the highest sampling rates currently available in aif and wav formats. The larger sampling rates also allow the post-production audio engineer to have ultimate flexibility in manipulating the sounds without a significant loss of audio quality. Speed it up, slow it down, raise or lower the pitch; you can do it all with a much greater sounding result thanks to these high sampling rates. Of course, you can always down-sample to whatever size you want. WHAT MAKES THIS LIBRARY DIFFERENT FROM THE OTHER SURROUND SOUND LIBRARIES ON THE MARKET? Everything above – plus: if you look carefully at the fine print of the other surround sound libraries you’ll discover that many are really nothing more than remixes of older stereo recordings. Quantum Audio Mechanics is the first surround sound SFX library that is *recorded at the source in 12-channel surround sound. No remixes, no “sweetening” no special studio effects, no nothing. Just real honest original surround sound recordings. WHY ARE YOU DELIVERING THIS LIBRARY ON A GLYPH GT050Q AND NOT SOME OTHER HARD DRIVE OR DATA DVD?* Because of the extremely high sampling rate and because we are giving you both aif and wav versions of every sound, the library is over 100 gigs. To deliver it on data DVD would require 23 of them per set. We would rather use a portable drive for space saving reasons and reliability. Glyph Technologies is the only company that produces external hard drives that are approved for use with every digital audio and video editing program currently available. Their speed and reliability are legendary. Glyph products simply are the best and we won’t use anything less. The GT 050Q offers USB 2.0, Firewire 400, Firewire 800 and eSATA ports for maximum connectivity. Plus, at over 100 gigs, we needed the fastest transfer rates possible in order to move the files without spending the entire day making one copy. Click here for more information on the GT 050Q. WILL GLYPH HONOR THEIR WARRANTY WHEN I GET MY GT050Q WITH QUANTUM AUDIO MECHANICS? Yes! We’ve been in contact with the great folks at Glyph – and they have assured us that each GT050Q that we sell with Quantum Audio Mechanics will be fully warranted. What happens is when we get the drives in house we just load the files on to it and put it carefully back in the box and ship it to you. You simply register your Glyph when you get it and you’re good to go. SHOULD A STUDIO THAT DOES ONLY STEREO RECORDINGS OR RADIO STATIONS BUY QUANTIUM AUDIO MECHANICS? Of course! Like we said none of these sounds have ever been offered before in any other library. AND 12-channel surround gives you endless mixing possibilities not just for surround, either. Stereo producers instantly have four different perspectives for their mixing potential – the front mix, rear mix, and the two different side mixes. You can also load across an “X” pattern from front to back; i.e. left front to right rear or right front to left rear. The best part is you don’t need worry about 180-degree phase loss; all tracks contain audio from their exact reference position so there won’t be any dropout. It’s like getting six different versions of the same effect. You can also “widen” the two-track sound field by utilizing the front, side and rear tracks into your stereo mix for a much larger sound. Also keep in mind that surround sound for broadcast radio and television already exists – several companies including the Fraunhofer Society (the folks who invented Mpeg) and Phillips created format coding for broadcast surround several years ago. Radio World magazine has numerous articles on surround sound for radio posted at their website, www.rwonline.com. There still are questions to be answered for the implementation of broadcast surround, but just like HD Radio it is viable and will eventually happen. Quantum Audio Mechanics will be a great tool to help you get your station’s audio ready. WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HOME THEATER 7.1 AND MOVIE THEATER 7.1? Movie Theater 7.1 surround is used in larger sized theaters. Two extra speaker channels are added to the front mix: one between the left front and center front, and one between the right front and center front. However this would be impractical in your house because most home theater rooms are much smaller. So for home theater 7.1 the two extra speaker channels are placed at the side of the listener, halfway between the front and rear speakers. For easy identification purposes we’ve labeled the two channels for movie 7.1 as Left Center and Right Center and for home theater 7.1 as Left Side and Right Side. Each channel contains audio that’s specifically from that area of the sound field for a perfect match. See the track placement map for complete details. WHEN YOU SUGGEST “LOADING THE TRACKS IN A DIFFERENT ORDER” WHAT DO YOU MEAN? Give the tracks assignments that are different than the ones for which they are labeled. The only track we strongly recommend you not swap out with other tracks is the LFE track as that has an above 200 Hz cutoff. Here are three examples: 5.1 surround mix. For this experiment we suggest using the recorded street sweeper sound tracks, which have a definite sound reference. Load the Left front and Left rear as normal but try reversing the order for the right tracks – Right rear in front and Right front in rear. Then use the IMAX track in place of the Center front track. 6.1 surround mix. Load all three “Left” tracks in the front speakers and the three “Right” tracks in the rear speakers. So you’d put the Left front in the correct place and then put Left side for Center front and Left rear for Right Front. Then do the same for the rear channels, starting with Right front, Right side, and Right rear. Note- You could also do this in a 5.1 mix but replace the side channel track with the IMAX track. The IMAX track carries all audio from a 360 perspective (since it’s pointed straight up in the microphone array) and can be used to help fill in the gaps for odd speaker mixes. 7.1 surround mix. This is for movie theater 7.1 with 5 speaker channels in the front. You can reverse the perspective of the sound field by loading the following order: Left Side (for left front); Left Rear (for left center); Center Rear (for center front); Right Rear (for right center) and Right Side (for right front). Then load Left Front in Left Rear and Right Front in Right Rear. You can also do this with an 8.1 or 9.1 configuration and simply load the Center Front into the Center Rear channel. Another idea for virtually all mixes except home theater 7.1: To widen the sound field in the front or the rear you can load the side channels in place of the respective left and right channels. Left Side for Left Front or Rear, Right Side for Right Front or Rear. Or add them into a mix with the front or rear channels. WHY THE “IMAX” CHANNEL IF I DON’T MIX FOR IMAX? The IMAX channel can add extra “height” perspective even without an overhead speaker. Reference monitor speakers, which many home theater enthusiasts have, can reproduce this perspective. Just add the IMAX channel into your mix, especially when using sounds with overhead reference and you’ll hear it. Also, keep in mind that Hewlett-Packard is working on a new home theater version of IMAX projection (reported in the July issue of PC Magazine). It’s not too far a stretch of the imagination that when IMAX for home theater takes off there will likely be some high end audio equipment manufacturers adding an IMAX channel for home theater as well. WHY DID YOU DO THIS? The original idea for what is now Quantum Audio Mechanics was first realized about seven years ago and the first test recordings were made about three years ago. After spending a lot of time researching production libraries we discovered that there were very few actual surround sound libraries and that the ones that were available were only in 5.1 and were mostly remixes of older, previously released stereo tracks. We came to the conclusion that if a surround sound effects library was to be a viable entity then it must encompass the ability to adapt to all the surround sound formats that are currently being used. And so the concept of Full Spectrum Twelve channel surround became the goal. It was also decided that since High Definition had become the new standard for film and broadcast then any new sound effects libraries coming into the marketplace should be recorded at the highest sampling rates possible. Unfortunately for our wallets we discovered that the only way to achieve true 24 bit 192 kHz sampling rates in the field was to build a portable Pro Tools TDM recording studio (as portable as a 100 pound rack on wheels can be) that could be taken anywhere to record anything. Although we think we’ve made a good start we still have more work to do. As someone we spoke to about this back in the early stages said, “The entire world needs to be re-recorded in surround sound”. We’re either ambitious enough or stupid enough (possibly both) to do just that. Thanks for your interest! Click here for a 12-channel track placement map (pdf format).
	Note: we will be adding more items to our menu soon. Our menu is 100% nutrition free – contains no allergy causing substances and is completely void of animals, vegetables, or minerals. Entirely fat free, sugar free, and totally inedible. Enjoy!