magazine db visits the windy city - worldradiohistory.com...may 06, 1989 · lab report: tascam...

MAGAZINE

May/June 1989 $2.95

serving: recording, broadcast and sound contracting fields

db Visits theWindy City

Ed LearnedWanders South

Lab Report:Tascam MSR-1616- Tracker

And the Usual Round ofStuff From-Battles. Bartlett & BariIla

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MAY/JUNE 1989 VOLUME 23 NO.3

MAGAZINE

See page 32

About the Cover Streeterville Studios' Studio 3

(above) is better known as "the finish-ing suite." 'Technical director SteveKusiciel is with the AMS AudioFile.

Universal Studios' "Backroom"(below) is a 48 -track music scor-ing/post production room. Productionmixers Bob Bennett and Mike Masonare at the MCI 628. The room is alsoequipped with an AMS AudioFilewith 4 hours of memory.

Both studios are profiled in this issue.

db VISITS THE WINDY CITY

UNIVERSAL RECORDING-Murray R. Allen HARPO STUDIOS-Carol A. Lamb STREETERVILLE STUDIOS-Jim Dolan WFMT-Gordon S. Carter SOTO SOUND STUDIO-Jerry Soto SHURE BROTHERS, INC.-Larry Zide

A TECHNICALLY -MINDED MUSICIAN-CHARLIE ELGARTCorey Davidson

LAB REPORT: TASCAM MSR-16Len Feldman

6

32

48

Tee 6ipitkivii e4A0Ace4

AD VENTURESBrian Battles

BROADCAST AUDIORandy Hoffner

35

54

Tige, 4,044%1 404444a4i ovi4.1tilSOUND REINFORCEMENT IN CENTRAL AMERICAAND THE CARIBBEAN, PART IIEd Learned

RECORDING TECHNIQUES: ON -LOCATION RECORDINGBruce Bartlett

HOT TIPS FOR THE HOME STUDIOJohn Barilla

42

38

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CALENDARBUYER'S GUIDE: CONSOLES/MIXERSREVIEW: FIRST LIGHT VIDEONEW PRODUCTSCLASSIFIEDPEOPLE, PLACES, HAPPENINGS

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Associate PublisherElaine Zide

Associate EditorCarol A. Lamb

Contributing EditorsJohn Barilla

Bruce BartlettBrian BattlesDrew DanielsLen Feldman

Robyn GatelyRandy Hoffner

Graphics & LayoutKaren Cohn

un ngmeermg TEEN 0011-7145)is published Bi-monthly by Sagamore Publishing Corn-pany Inc. Entire contents copyright 1989 by SagamorePublishing Company Inc., 203 Commack Road, Suite1010, Commack, NY 11725. Telephone: (516)586-6530.db Magazine is published for individuals and firms inprofessional audio recording, broadcast audio-visual,sound reinforcement -contracting, consultants, videorecording, film sound, etc. Application for subscriptionshould be made on the subscription form in the rear ofeach issue. Subscriptions are $15.00 per year($28.00per year outside U.S. Possessions, $16.00 per year inCanada)and payable in U.S funds. Single copies are$2.95 each. Editorial, Publishing, and Sales offices areat 203 Commack Road, Suite 1010, Commack NY11725. Second Class postage paid at Commack, NY11725 and an additional mailing office. Postmaster:Form 3579 should be sent to db Magazine, 203 Com-mack Road, Suite 1010, Commack, NY 11725.Trademarked names are editorially used throughout

this issue. Rather than place a trademark symbol nextto each occurance, we state that these names are usedonly in an editorial fashion and to the benefit of thetrademark owner, and that there is no intention of trade-mark infringement.


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UNIVERSAL RECORDING: THE HISTORY OF AUDIO FOR VIDEO

MURRAY R. ALLEN

ITniversal first became in-volved with mixing audiofor video in 1957. In theseearly days all audio wasmixed in the film format.

Sprocket holes were the only methodof synchronization. On rare occa-sions, phonograph turntables lockedto a sel-syn motor could also be usedas part of the synchronization chain.

The playback machines were the old60 -second com-

mercial would be looped. This meansthe picture, the music, the dialogue,and the sound effects tracks would bemade into 118 -foot loops and be in-dividually played -back and/or pro-jected on their own machines. Alwaysin sync, the commercial would goaround and around until the mix wasperfected. Even the 35mm film stockon the master recorder was looped.When a perfect mix was attained, thissame mix could instantly be playedback in sync.

One of the problems with thismethod had to do with the inability tojust fix one section of the commercial.The entire spot had to be mixed in totaleach time.

By 1970 we converted to film re-corders and projectors that backed up.This made it possible to fix a tiny sec-tion at will without having to remix theentire commercial. Film recorders al-ways have had the ability to punch inand out without leaving a hole. Theywere way ahead of regular tape re-corder technology in this discipline.

In 1971 Ampex introduced the RA4000 system. This system allowed theuser to lock two MM -1000 (16 -track)recorders together with an Ampex two-

inch quad video recorder. There was notime code (it had not been inventedyet). The tracks would have to be physi-cally lined up, as in film. Once they werelined up they would run back and forthin sync.

THE UNIVERSAL STORYWe did our first location and what

might be the first video sweetening ses-sion in history in 1972. We went toEvansville, Indiana, to record Mar-garet Whiting with the Cavalcade ofBig Bands. We recorded the show onfourteen tracks. On track 16 we re-corded vertical sync. Back at Universalwe mixed down to a four -track re-corder, copying the same vertical syncto track 4. Using the external codesource on a Magnatech 92C resolverwe locked the four -track to house verti-cal sync and transferred the mixed pro-gram to two-inch video tape. Theeditor then physically lined the track topicture and married the two together.This show (The Big Band Cavalcade) isbeing aired every Christmas on PBS. Itstill sounds good.

Since 1972 we have come a long way.

The one most important rule thatUniversal has followed throughout allits growth is that whatever is added inthewayofequipment and services mustmeet the highest standards of the pro-fessional audio field. Nothing has beenadded just for hype.

lbday Universal lists among itsclients every other recording studio inChicago, a couple of majors in NewYork and L.A., just about every majoradvertising agency in the world, all ofthe big five record companies as well asmost of the major motion picture com-panies in Hollywood. Also, let's notforget the blue chip corporations and

publishers. Universal also servicesthose smaller winning companies thatare nipping at the major's heels. It isimpossible to turn on prime time TVand not hear several tracks recorded atUniversal.

Universal is comprised of two filmmixing theaters, four 32/48 -track musicscoring and video post -productionstudios, five 16 -track music scoring andvideo post -production studios, one 8 -track media studio, two Synclaviertapeless studios, four film/video trans-fer suites, one optical transfer suite,three tape copy rooms, a search andstorage room for music libraries, and azillion sound effects. Universal hasenough space in its tape vaults to storeover 25,000 sessions, meaning 32 -tracksessions.

PIECE BY PIECEUniversal has also been a leader in the

area of digital recording. After eightyear's experience in this field, it proudlyboasts of owning 20 digital recordersencompassing several 32 -track digitalmachines, a 16 -track and 4 -track digitalmachine, and several 2 -track digitalmachines from such manufacturers as3M, Sony, Otari, Mitsubishi, and NewEngland Digital. In fact, Universal wasthe first studio in the world to developa system whereby a digital recordercould talk to a Necam computer.

Let us take Universal apart piece bypiece to see why it is the ultimate as aone -stop recording studio. Let us startwith the film -mixing theaters.

Theaters One and Two are placedback-to-back, separated by a large ma-chine room. Both theaters have multi-track ADM consoles with totalmachine control at the console. Thisincludes start/stop and high-speed

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Figure 1. Scoring in Universal's studio A.

shuttle controls, advance/retard con-trols, vari-speed in sync using Univer-sal's own invention called Magwarp, allin/out 8 -track record functions andBTX Softouch controls for non-sprocket/video synchronization. Theconsoles have four -band equalizers onevery channel strip as well as pro-grammable graphic equalization. Boththeaters have 35mm, 16mm, and full -screen video projection. Naturallyeach theater has echo, several digitaldelay and digital reverb systems de-signed by AMS and Lexicon. There arealso dip filters and compressors in boththeaters as well as JVC 8250 video re-

corders. As a master recorder boththeaters use an 8 -track New EnglandDigital Direct -to -Disk system.

The machine room contains twenty-seven Magna Tech high-speed dubbersand recorders. These machines have atotal of fifty-seven heads giving theclient the option of 6 -track, 4 -track, 3 -track, 2 -track, and/or monauralplay/record. If so required, Universalcan give the producer seven 4 -track re-corder/dubbers at the same time.These machines run at 24 fps, 25 fps, 30fps or whatever speed the client maydesire by the use of Magwarp. They arecapable of looking at 50 Hz, 60 Hz, or

Figure 2. Torn Miller working with the SSL console in studio B.

59.94 Hz as a sync source. In the 16mmmode they have both edge and centertrack. Naturally, Dolby units are avail-able (on special request up to 96 chan-nels). The digital arsenal has aMitsubishi X-400 16 -track digital re-corder and a Sony BVH-2800 digital Cformat video recorder.

Universal also offers computerizedADR using both 35mm, 16mm filmand/or video. Another popular formatis the synchronization of digital non -sprocket equipment with the film dub-bers either for playback or record. Thefinal master mix can be on film, audio,digital, U-matic, C -format video orhard Winchester Disc. By the way,about 50 percent of the national com-mercials aired on the last summerOlympics were mixed in these theaters.ADR for Tbp Gun, The Hoosiers,Manhunter, and Crime Story are just afew of this division's many credits.

The four film transfer rooms arecapable of handling 480 different com-binations from 50 Hz, 60 Hz, stereoNagra center track to standard or dropframe time code looking at either linefrequency, 60 crystal, or 59.94 housesync to 24 fps, 24 fps to 30 fps, orwhatever other speed is desired usingMagwarp be it 35mm 6 -track, 4 -track,3 -track, mono, or 16mm edge or centeror both.

The optical transfer facilities are theonly full-time operation of its kind inChicago.

POST -PRODUCTION FACILITIES

Now to Studio A. This is the largestroom in the middlewest. It measures68,000cubic feet. It can handle the Chi-cago Symphony Orchestra comfort-ably. Studio A is a 32/48 -track musicscoring/video post -production room.This room has been used to score theBlues Brothers film, record stars fromStevie Wonder and Frank Sinatra toThe Police and ibm Waits plusGrammy -winning albums and Clio -winning spots. Phil Ramone has beenquoted as saying, "If Studio A couldtalk, we would hear the history of mod-ern music." Bruce Swedien claims thatStudio A is one of the four best roomsin the world.

The console is a Neve 8048 withNecam 96. The digital tape machinesare an Otari DTR-900, a Mitsubishi X-850, a Mitsubishi X-86 and X-80 plus aSony DAT recorder. The analog ma-chines are a MCI 24 -track machineplus several Ampex ATR-102s andATR-104s. Videowise there is a JVC

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Figure 3. Fib?? mixer Bill Reis at the controls.

8250 with all machines looking at aBTX Softouch system. There are twolive room chambers, two EMT 140-Splates, a Lexicon 224X with La rc plus aLexicon 480L and an AMS RMX-16for echo/reverb. In addition there areabout seventy-five additional pieces ofprocessing equipment from Pultecs toTCs to help get any sound desired.Musical instruments include a Bosen-dorfer 9.5 -foot Imperial grand pianowith a 97 note keyboard, a FenderRhodes, a DX -7A, a celest, a Ham-mond B-3 organ with Leslie, a tack

piano, several drum sets to choosefrom and a complete set of tympanies.

Universal probably has the greatestcollection of microphones anywhere.Available is almost any microphoneever made from several C -12s and U -47s through today's 414s. Of course anysynthesizer required is available as wellas 16mm and 35mm full -screen projec-tion.

Studio B, like Studio A, is a 48 -trackmusic scoring/video post -productionroom. This studio has recorded fromNat King Cole to Prince and from SirGeorge Solti to Little Wally and his

Figure 4. Universal's Backroom film theater

0

Polka Kings. The console is an SSL6000 series G with 'Ibtal Recall. Thisstudio has the same digital and analogmachine components as Studio A. Italso has a dedicated JVC 8250/BTXSoftouch package similar to Studio A.For echo there is a live room chamber,a stereo EMT plate, and another Lexi-con 224X (the 480L and the RMX-16are also available on request). Thepiano is a 7 -foot Steinway. There is achoice of one of five Fender Rhodes ormany drum kits to fill out instrumentneeds. Of course there are all micro-phones and processors as well as 16mmand 35mm full -screen projection.

The Backroom is another 48 -trackmusic scoring/video post -productionroom. One of the 24 -track machines inthis room is convertible to a 16/8 -trackrecorder or a quad video layback ma-chine. For C format laybacks thisstudio has its own C format machinewith a TBC for excellent picture repro-duction. There is also a dedicated JVC8250/13TX Softouch video system. Asthis studio is used a great deal for for-eign language recording and overdubs,the studio cue has six separate channelsand a stereo mixer at every earphoneposition. The console is a MCI 628. Theother tape machines include Ampex102s and an Otari 4 -track machine.This studio also has an AMSAudioFile with four hours of memory.It has its own 7 -foot Steinway piano.For echo there are EMT plates as wellas its own Lexicon 224X. All of theabove -mentioned goodies from StudioA and B are also available. The Back-room- has recorded from GaryColeman to Ray Parker Junior.

The Synclavier Studio has a 32 out, 64voices (FM and Polyphonic sampling),200 track sequencer, 32 megabytesRAM, 320 megabytes disk storage,Direct -lb -Disk, 2 in/8 out MIDI, 2 gig-abyte WORM and Music Printing Syn-clavier System from New EnglandDigital. The console is a Harrison. Dig-ital tape machines include MitsubishiX-850 and X-86. Analog machines in-clude an Otari MTR-90 II 24 -track andan Ampex 102 recorder. The same JVC8250/13TX Softouch video package isdedicated to this studio. For echo/re-verb there are Lexicon PCM 70s,Yamaha REV 7s, as well as the sameperipheral equipment found in all theother studios. This studio also has a 90square foot overdub room.

Next to our film theaters is anotherSynclavier studio that is used for soundeffects and foley. This room, called

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nLOBBY F: -E

Figure 5. Overall floor plan of Universal Studios.

Sync -2, is just a scaled -down version ofthe above Synclavier studio with a 16 -output system. This system has the newdigital time compression from NewEngland Digital. As an added featurethis room also has a Sony BVH-2800for digital audio on C -format layback.Programs created in this room can belocked in a matter of seconds to eitherfilm theater so as to avoid transfer andgeneration loss. Among its list of cred-its is foley for the Omni max productionof "The Great Barrier Reef."

THE 16 -TRACKERS

Among the 16 -track studios there arethree in particular to discuss. Studio Cis one of the "hottest" rhythm rooms intown. The console was built by the Uni-versal staff. The piano is a 7 -foot Stein-way. For echo there is a live room andan EMT plate. Of course all the digitalreverb units can also be used in thisstudio. Dozens of national commer-cials have been recorded and mixed inthis studio. The Peabody award -win-ning radio dramatization of Ulysseswas recorded in this room.

The next studio is the Penthouse. Thisroom features a Ramsa 8616. Thisstudio has a full complement of dedi-cated processing equipment alongwithVHS and U-matic video playback.Thirty-six of the Golden Books Musicvideos were recorded and mixed in thisstudio.

Another 16 -track studio is Studio 8.This room is a media/video post -pro-duction studio that features a RamsaWR-8428 console. This studio hasanother JVC 8250/BTX Softouchvideo system for sweetening. Thestudio is large enough to record a largestring section or 20 voices. The echo isanother stereo EMT plate plus a Lexi-con 200 and a REV7. This studio has itsown film transfer facilities as well ashigh-speed Magnafax machines formultiple copies.

'lb finish off its complement ofstudios there are two more 16 -trackrooms and an 8 -track studio used formedia production. Each has its own setof multi -track machines plus 2 -trackand mono machines. These studiosalso have their own peripheral packageas well.

Just about every studio includingthese studios has its own compact discplayer and most now have DAT players.For a complete list of equipment andartists who have recorded at Universalwrite or call. The address is UniversalRecording Corporation, 46 E. WaltonPl., Chicago, IL 60611. The phonenumber is 312-642-6465. They willprobably send you one of their award -winning brochures.

Equipment is not everything. Thepeople who work at Universal are veryspecial, too. Among the 41 persons em-ployed at Universal, there will besomeone that will speak just about anyforeign language that is heard in the re-cording business. Twenty are accom-plished musicians and most are collegegraduates. The tech department hasfour people with BSEE degrees andone with a masters degree. The numberof gold records, Clios, Grammy, Oscar,and Emmy nominations and otherawards won by people at Universal'sstaff ranges into the hundreds.

If you can't make it to the AES, NAB,or SMPTE conventions, drop in atUniversal. It is probably the next bestthing.

CAROL A. IAMB One of the most exciting projects to

hit Chicago within the past year is thepurchase of a Chicago film industrylandmark, the oldFred Niles studioson the Near WestSide. For the pasttwenty years, it hasbeen the filming lo-cation for hundredsof commercials andmany feature films.

Now, Oprah Win-frey, the major in-vestor, and herpartners, syndica-tor King World, andmanager/lawyerJeff Jacobs, plan toinvest over 10 mil-lion dollars includ-ing the reportedpurchase price of4.5 million dollars.

Harpo Studios, asit is now known, isan 88,000 squarefoot television andfilm complex one mile from downtownChicago. Oprah has commenced ex-tensive construction and renovation tocreate state-of-the-art television andfilm stages designed to encouragemore local and national production.

Harpo Studios will include, amongother things, three film soundstages.Stage A is 10,000 square feet, andStages B and C are 6,000 square feeteach. These were built exclusively forfilm production, and are being reno-vated by the Chicago architectural firmof Nagle Hartray in a joint venture withinterior architectural designer PamAnderson. These soundstages will con-tinue to be rented out for commercialand feature films, as well as to shootHarpo's own productions. Jacobs alsohired a well-known local video consult-ant to create a customized state-of-the-art television operation.

The complex will also include the cor-porate offices for Harpo Productionsand Harpo, Inc., along with a screeningroom, a lounge, a gym, and a kitchen to

HARPO STUDIOS

cater meals. These facilities will beavailable to everyone: producers, ac-tors, and crew. The studio will have apost -production editing facility to dopromos and segments. It will handle 1 -

inch, 1/2 -inch, and 1/4 -inch Betacam.A new 100x100 square foot TV studio

and technical facility is being built tohouse The Oprah Winfrey Show. TheTV studio is scheduled for completionin the latter part of 1989, and Oprah'sfirst show will originate shortly there-after from the new facility. The studiowill have the capacity for a dailyaudience of 125, who will be able topark around the block in a Harpo-owned lot. When Oprah's set is notbeing used, the studio can be rented tooutside producers.

Many phone calls are being receivedby Harpo Inc. from various editorialhouses and recording studios that areall vying to be a part of the complex.The decision has yet to be made as towhether suppliers will be invited torent space in the complex, or if HarpoStudios will initiate its own supportfacilities. Eitherway, therewill be moreopportunities for Chicago filmmakersto whose growth Oprah is personallydedicated, says Jacobs on her behalf. Inaddition, studio rentals are not to be

only entertainment -oriented. Jacobs islooking to influence advertising agen-cies to use the facility, and to persuadethem how cost-effective producingcommercials at a world -class studio in

Chicago wouldbe.

Harpo Produc-tions already hasfour TV and filmprojects indevelopment,and Jacobs for -sees the studioregularly produc-ing networkshows. The stageswill be used forthree ABCprime -timespecials fromHarpo Produc-tions. A long-term use of thestudio involvesthe "R&D Net-work" of Rogerand MichaelKing's King

World. The "R&D Network" is a con-sortium of stations to fund shows andplay them for testing purposes on thenetwork.

AN ADDED VIEWMurray Allen and Universal Studios

is the creative consultant for all aspectsof audio production for Harpo Studios.When db Magazine spoke to Murrayabout his involvement, he said that itwas one of the most exciting things thathe's ever been involved with, and that itis a tremendously important project.Oprah's desire, according to Jacobs, isto open her company doors to localtalent and have the studio used as a"creative center." Oprah's commit-ment goes further than to create astate-of-the-art studio complex; itencompasses all of Chicago.

We would like to credit Screen,a local Chicago magazine, and edi-tor/author Ruth L Ratny, for muchof the information on this page.

STREETERVILLE STUDIOS

JIM DOIANAs a multiple room facilitythat services the record,film, TV/radio and in-dustrial clients, we have theopportunity in our opera-

tions to blend creativity and qualitywith speed and efficiency. This com-bination helps create answers to thechallenges that reflect our diverseand constantly changing audio busi-ness.

THE GROWTH PROCESS

Streeterville, which opened in 1969asa 6500 squa re feet, three -studio facility,now has nine studios covering over27,000 square feet (with three moreplanned for 1989/90). We've grownthrough major expansions in 1979 (twostudios), and 1985 (three studios, twocontrol rooms). The ability to expandin our location for the last twenty yearshas allowed planning and vision towork to the optimum. The result is afacility that has good flow pattern, in-telligent systems, depth and versatility.The combination of planning and tech-nological expansion has allowed us tobe ready for continued growth.

A talented engineer and a digitalaudio workstation create a powerfulteam that can truly master all the chal-lenges of a recording session. Whetherit be original music or post -sweetening,an engineer can choose the best re-

cording and processing approacheither analog or digital offer, with crea-tive freedom of non-destructive editingand experimentation and the speed ofinstant access.

The challenge of selecting a suitabledigital audio workstation to meet theindividual mixer's needs as well asmaintaining flexibility and compati-bility inherent in the design of ourmulti -room operations was the key toour growth. The ability to engineerwork privately in the studio while net-working audio throughout the facilitywas the combination of power and ver-satility we saw around the corner overtwo and half years ago.

During our investigative stages wewere looking at ways of maintainingthe highest quality audio through thewhole production process while hand-ling many sound management and pro-duction tasks. Other "had to be's" werethe ability to follow tight synchroniza-tion to picture via timecode, access toat least eight independent digitaltracks, cut and splice reel -rockingediting, intuitive and user-friendly in-terface, restoring and archiving that al-lows for multiple operators in multiplestudios.

CHOOSING A WORKSTATION

After months of extensive researchand analyzation, we decided on theAMS Audiofile. The Audiofile is a

Figure 7. Streeterville studio 1 has a Neve 8128 48 -channel with NECAM and a4 -machine lock -up.

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stand-alone workstation with controlpanel and CRT display linked to therack of processing units and harddrives. The system simultaneously con-trols a total of eight digital tracks, eachof which can be edited independentlyto the video frame, using digital reel -rocking to locate exact in and out editpoints. In addition to analog ins andouts, Audiofile had digital (SDIF-2Sony 1630 format) ins and outs.AES/EBU ins and outs will be availa-ble soon. Later this year we should beable to interface EDL lists coming outof the edit sessions for quicker audiobuild-up. We have in operation six ofthe eventual nine systems; one systemis configured with two-hour stereo andtwo-hour mono configurations.

Individual systems can be linked viatimecode to expand track capacity ifneeded. In terms of direct user -friend-liness, not all digital systems are thesame, some are a great deal easier touse than others. Audiofile is the mostuser-friendly system we've seen. Ittranslated to our engineers who areused to switches and buttons instead ofmouse -driven or touch -sensitive ap-proaches. When you're involved withnew technology that will ultimatelychange the technique of the engineer,we found it is very important to be sen-sitive to that transition of performancefrom old technique to new. We wentwith the buttons, which proved to bemore effective from a business stand-point.

Training in any facility is a never-ending process, so when we placed theorder for our first system, we insistedon a demo unit being made available tous prior to delivery so that the trainingprocess could begin immediately. Wededicated a three-week period ofgroup and solo tutorials to becomeknowledgeable of the operationalphilosophy of the Audiofile. We foundthis allowed for much quicker integra-tion into sessions when our first fourAudiofiles arrived. With a device thispowerful, and with repetitive day-to-day use, expertise became cumulative.

Every time engineers use it, they notonly step further into its power, but italso sets up another frame of referenceof confidence, an awareness of quality,of the best utilization of its creativepotential. It enables engineers to mi-croscopically edit out an ugly "pop" orseamlessly merge two performances

Figure 8. Studio 2 has an SSL 4000ETR and a 3 -machine lock up.

together-this ability creates great ex-citement and positiveness in our ses-sions that everyone involved feels.

A MYRIAD OF ADVANTAGES

There are two primary modes ofoperation on the system: sound as-sembly, and cut and splice editing.From an engineer and producer's pointof view, the Audiofile opens upenormous avenues for production an-swers and creativity, as well as costsavings and value for the budget dollar.On a recent job, a client brought amusic track from one producer and a

vocal track performed in a different keyand tempo by another producer to uswith the task of putting the tracks to-gether while maintaining the integrityof the performances. Previous tech-niques would have offered little, if anysuccess without severe signal degrada-tion. With the Audiofile, engineer BobKruger was able to shift pitch and re-line up the vocal tracks to create afinished master that sounded great andtook only forty-five minutes tocomplete. What began experimentallyquickly turned into somethingvery realand of the highest quality because the

Figure 9. Studio 5 with its Harrison 4032 with Auto Set and a 3 -machine lock up.

digital domain preserved the masterquality of the elements. The track wasdownloaded right to one -inch videoclean as a whistle.

As we go through the learningprocess with the system's capabilities,so do our clients. Producers willdevelop new and different productiontechniques as they become more ex-perienced with digital workstationsand what they offer. This will changethe preparation, budgeting and deci-sion process because now all elements,with multiple variations can be eval-uated quicker than ever.

Our "off-line" rooms give the en-gineer and producer access to experi-mental sound assembly, editing orlooping. For assembly and preview topicture with multi ple versions, the abil-ity to experiment with practically limit-less, non-destructive edits, puts morecreativity, intuitiveness and verve intothe whole production. Now recordingand assembly are closely linked andmixing/finishing (mastering in the re-cord biz) are also linked through auto-mation and digital powers.Soundtracks can be prepared formixing so precisely now that the finish-ing to the final format is easily accom-plished. This is quality audio withefficient processes that is cost-effectiveas well!

CENTRAL ROOM

With seven studios and two "off-line"rooms, the networking approach re-volves around a central digital coreroom (see associated article by SteveKusiciel, Director of lbchnical Opera-tions, Streeterville). This room housesthe hard -disk drives or what the staffcalls the "brains." The studios and off-line rooms all have terminals or heads.Using our in-house routing system, anengineer can patch any brain (storagemodule) to any head (control surface)in the facility. A new release in futuresoftware will allow for true sound filenetworking between separate systems.The networking also allows us toupload and back-up sound files in abackground mode, using a dummyhead that we have in the central coreroom. This gives good efficiency in get-ting into and out of the digital domainaround sessions that are back-to-backas well as directing audio throughoutthe facility.

The feeling that there is no session orproject that could be too complex orbig for us to handle is natural becausethe creative juices flow more readily

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when there is access to tools as power-ful as the current generation consoles,automation and digital workstations,but let us not kid ourselves-we'reheaded for the 90s and the 2000-all wecan do is keep trying and forging andtrying and forging...

BREAKDOWN OF THE STUDIOSStudio 1

A full -service 48 -track recordingstudio with open drum booth, soloisolation booth and live wooded area.Private lounges and showers off con-trol room.

Studio: 47x22x14 feetControl room: 25x16.5x12 feetConsole: Neve 8128/48 with 48 chan-

nels of Necam 2 automationMulti -track machine: 2 Sony/MCI

JH-24s with Auto Locator 3Video: Sony 5800Synchronizers: 3 Machine lock -up via

Timeline Lynx/BTX for 48 -trackInstruments: Yamaha 7 -ft. 4 -in. grand

piano with MIDI and Sonor drums set(oak).

Studio 2A full -service 24 -track studio with

controlled f=drum area, six -personisolation (max.) booth and specialwooded live area.

Studio: 37x17x12 feetControl room: 24x17x10 feetConsole: SSL 4040E with total recall

(fitted with 32 modules)Multi -track machine: Otari MTR 90

III 24 -trackVideo: Sony 5800

Synchronizers: 3 Machine lock -upwith Adams -Smith 2600

Instruments: 6 -ft. 4 -in. Steinwaypiano with MIDI, Sonor Signaturedrum set

Studio 3-The Finishing SuiteA world -class audio mixing studio

that is for finishing any project whetherit be for records, commercials, or films.The "Suite" also has a recording booththat can be used for vocals, percussion,

Figure 10. An 18 -year -old Neve discrete console. It has been renovated with anextended patch bay and 4 -track monitoring.

and small section overdubs of any sort(no grand piano).

Studio: 14x15x12 feetControl room: 21x22x10 feetConsole: SSL 6048E with total recall

and programmable stereo EQ fromSMPTE code (fitted with 48 modules)

Multi -track machine: 2 Otari MTR-90s 24 -track

Video: Sony BVU 800

Synchronizers: 5 Machine lock -upwith Adams -Smith 2600

Studios 1, 2, and the Suite all haveLexicon 480L and 224XL digital re -verb with Larcs.

Studio 5

A 24 -track narration and sfx post -production studio that also servicessynthesizer sessions.

Cdnsole: Harrison 4032 with Auto -Set 1

Multi -track machine: Sony/MCI J H-24 24 -track

Video: Sony 5800Synchronizers: Timeline Lynx 3 Ma-

chine lock -up

Studio 6A 24 -track narration and sfx post-

production studio that also servicessynthesizer sessions.

Console: Harrison 4032 with Auto -Set 1

Multi -track machine: Sony/MCI JH-24 24 -track

Video: Sony 5800

Synchronizers: Timeline Lynx 3 Ma-chine lock -up

Studio 7A 4 -track narration and sfx post -pro-

duction studio with a noted high -qu-ality signal path for voice recording.

Studio: 2-3 personsConsole: Custom NeveMulti -track machine: Studer 80 MK

II

Video: Sony 5000

Synchronizers: Q -Lock 3.10 3 Ma-chine lock -up

Studios 5, 6, and 7 all have LexiconLXP-ls and can supplement with Lexi-con PCM 60s and Yamaha REV 7 andSPX 90s.

STEVE KUSICIEL When Streeterville first began to

consider the installation of digitalaudio editing systems, we realized that

in a multiple room facility, we would

SIDEBAR

need the ability to operate with theminimum amount of disturbance tothe clients. This need meant that somesort of a central location for the maincomputer bins was necessary. We chosea location based on the distance from

the computer core to each controlroom. This ended up to be on the thirdfloor in the center of the building.

We then ran three sets of data/controlcables to each control room throughour existing central patch cable

troughs-one cable to provide the con-trol surface to computer link, one tohandle remote machine control, andone fora spare. These cables conformto the RS -422 standard so length andshielding requirements were not ascritical as they could have been. Nextwas audio I/O as well as timecode, tach,and direction signals needed to imple-ment tape machine control. We did thisby running multi -pair balanced audiocable from the Audiofile computerbins to our existing audio central patchfacility so that we could access virtuallyany of our control rooms by just chang-ing patches. The timecode ins and outsand tach/dir signals also went to centralpatch. Back in the core, a patching sys-tem was created to enable connectingany control surface in any room to theappropriate computer bin needed forthe session.

ARCHIVE AND RESTOREPROCESS

When this was completed, we went onto installation of the Archive and Re-store system in the core room. TheAudiofile currently uses a modifiedPCM701 system to archive the Cue Li-brary data and sound information tovideo tape storage. The archive and re-store process is in real time so it wasnecessary to do this more or less off-line to avoid delays when we werechanging from session to sessionduring the business day. We have twoPCM processors and a dedicated con-trol surface in the core room just tohandle the archive and restore tasks.

In view of the large number of archiveand restore tasks we have on a dailybasis, the scheduling of Aud iofile usagehas to be carefully done. One reallyneeds to know how long it will take toarchive or restore a given tape for thatsession. Streeterville has developed astaff interface concept designed tomake these tasks invisible to ourclients. We maintain a separateschedule for archive and restore andunits are available according to thattime table.

Quite a lot of our sessions require as-sembling audio elements to picture sowe decided to provide video tape ma-chine remote control via Audiofiletransport keys on the control surface.These commands are transmitted onthe RS -422 port according to the Sonyprotocol so machines like the BVU-800 JVC-850 and BVH-2000 plug rightin. Other machines such as the VO-5800 require an interface converter towork properly. The Streeterville R&Ddepartment then designed and built asingle board computer to interface themachine control port on the Audiofileto an audio tape machine so that wecould take advantage of the expandedtrack capability of locking an Audiofileto a 24 -track audio machine, or for thatmatter, any audio tape with time codeon a channel. This has proved to be veryuseful when working without pictureelements or when more than eightsimultaneous outputs are needed.

With this capability, it is possible tomix a master music element directlyinto Audiofile in a music session. A re-cord announcer can take into the sameAudiofile in a production session, addsound eft, and mix directly to a client's1 -inch video master in the laybackroom without an analog tape in thechain.

We also interfaced a Sony PCM-2500RDAT deck to the Audiofile via theSDIF-2 port (1630 format) so that wecould provide direct digital transfer toand from RDAT tapes for clients thatare now using this format in their of-fices. It should be noted that this is onlypossible at 44.1 sample rate becausethe Audiofile is at 44.1. In the near fu-ture, the Audiofile system will be ableto archive and restore to RDAT tapesas well as PCM-701 and an AES/EBUport will alsobe implemented.

SOFTWARE UPGRADEIn the a rea of softwa re updates, we are

currently involved with the system'supgrade lovers. 8.02. These cha nges in-volve new software installation as wellas hardware modes. The enhance-

ments include a greatly expanded Cutand Splice facility, timecode outputfrom Audiofile that follows the real-time position of the events list, and en-hanced editing capability among otherthings. AMS has also developed anADR function which includes multipletake features and beep outputs.

In the future, we are looking forwardto the installation of Audiofile net-working hardware and software whichwill operate similarly to a local areanetwork for PCs. This should allow usto interconnect the Audiofile systemsto a large memory system which will actas a master file server and a temporarystorage for our jobs in progress. Thiswill also permit linking multiple com-puter bins for more audio channelcapability as well as eight or moresimultaneous audio record inputs. Weare also looking forward to the releaseof AMS LOGIC1 which is a totally in-tegrated digital mixing system for theAudiofile.

TROUBLE -FREEAs far as maintenance of Audiofile

goes, the systems have been almosttrouble -free in the hardware sense. Themost notable would be a crashedWinchester disk drive which was re-placed the next day from the AMS of-fice in Seattle via Federal Express. Thetechnical support from Seattle as wellas the local area representative is asprofessional as can be found in the bus-iness. In the software sense, because ofthe number of systems we have on line,software problems become a routinetopic of discussion both in-house aswell as with the people at AMS. Part ofthe key to success at Streeterville is thefact that we can provide reliable serviceto our clients in this era of rapidlychanging technical capability. As withany business or any technology, it's re-ally the people that make it all work,after all, needs should dictate tech-nology. 'Technology should not dictateneeds.

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WFMT-A TECHNOLOGICAL LEADER

GORDON S. CARTER

WFMT, the dream child ofBernard and Rita Jacobs,was founded in 1951. Theirgoal was to share the musicthey enjoyed with their

listeners. Although WFMT is a com-mercial operation, advertisers weresometimes skeptical of a classicalradio station broadcasting in the newmedium of FM. Money was some-times tight, and it often became nec-essary to "make do." High fidelity wasbecoming popular with serious musiclisteners, and the owners of WFMTwanted to make their station soundas true to life as possible.

In the effort to provide the bestpossible fidelity to its listeners, WFMThas always been an innovator and apioneer. In 1961, before the approvalof the current FM stereo broadcastingsystem, WFMT cooperated with Chi-cago's public television station,WTTW/Channel 11 in stereophonicbroadcasting. The left channel was car-ried on the television station while theright channel was on WFMT. This pre-pared the listeners for stereo broad-casting which began on WFMT in1962, when history was made by broad-casting the first live stereo concert ser-ies anywhere.

CONSOLE MODIFICATION

At the time broadcast consolescapable of stereo were available, butwere not as good as the high-fidelityequipment available to consumers. lbsolve this problem, WFMT's engineersmodified a monophonic RCA broad-cast console for stereo. When finished,about the only resemblance it had tothe original was the cabinet and frontpanel controls. The electronics hadbeen completely rebuilt. High-fidelityturntables and phono cartridges wereused rather than so-called broadcastturntables to get better performance.WFMT was using the same type ofequipment on the air that manyof theirlisteners had at home!

Magnetic tape has always been amajor source of programming forWFMT, so to get better performancefrom their tape machines, WFMT ob-tained a Dolby A301 in 1969. This unitwas the predecessor to the ubiquitousDolby A361, found in most recordingstudios today.

In April, 1969, WFMT moved to newstudios on Chicago's MichiganAvenue. Due to the age of most of theequipment then owned by WFMT, vir-tually all equipment for the newstudios was to be purchased new. Asearch began for a stereo broadcastconsole that was truly high-fidelity andwould meet our needs. The only con-soles that met the desired audio speci-fications were recording studioconsoles. They provided many fea-tures, but did not have some that weredeemed essential. In addition, the costof such these consoles was prohibi-tively high. As a result, we decided thatwe would build our own consoles.These consoles were designed andbuilt by WFMT's Chief Engineer, AlAntlitz. These consoles had audio per-formance that was unexcelled in boththe broadcast and recording world.

The 1970s were a time of discoveryand invention in the audio world.Pioneers in the industry were discover-ing more and more factors that affectedaudio quality. The Mincom Division of3M Company had produced a pro-fessional tape recorder using the

Figure 11. WFMT'scentral equipmentroom. The modularcard cages are allWFMT-built equip-ment.

patented "Iso-Loop" transport thataddressed many of the problems oftape recording. These machinesgreatly reduced scrape flutter and hadmany other innovations such as dual -pitch screws for the azimuth adjust-ment to provide greater stability andfully modular electronics using thelatest technology. liivo of these ma-chines were purchased in 1/4 -inch ver-sions for WFMT's main broadcaststudio.

In the early 1970s the hot topic in theaudio world was no longer stereo, butquadriphonic sound. A number ofmatrix systems were developed to pro-vide quadriphonic sound on only twochannels. WFMT experimented withthis new technology, and in September,1971, broadcast what is believed to bethe first live quadriphonic (matrix)full-length opera production, Semi-ramide, from Chicago's Lyric Opera.

By the mid 1970s our changing needsnecessitated some revisions in thestudio equipment. The monitor and in-tercom facilities in the studios werefound to be inadequate, so we designeda new monitor and intercom system.

While this was a relatively small pro-ject, and did not make any changes inthe station visible to the public, manynew techniques such as CMOS logiccontrol, audio integrated circuits, andcmos analog switches were tried at thistime. This laid the groundwork for fu-ture projects.

PROCESSING PROBLEMSClassical music poses some unique

audio processing problems. AlthoughFM has a limited dynamic range, evenunder the best of conditions, classicalmusic has a wide dynamic range whichis an integral part of the enjoyment ofthe music. Processing equipment thatwill deal with the full range of classicalmusicwithout any undesirable artifactsand still deal with the 75 micro -secondpre -emphasis requirement for FM isvery difficult to find. After much re-search, we felt that we could do a betterjob than anything that was currentlybeing built. Al Antlitz set out to designan audio processor that provided lowdistortion, accurate control of theaudio, and was psycho -acousticallypleasing. The first incarnation of thisdevice, called "The Antlitzer" byWFMT staff, was put on the air in theearly 1970s. However, development ofthe device continued and the second

generation, called the "Moduplex I"was put on the air in 197$. Researchand development on this problem con-tinues to this day.

When it became time to replace theaging exciter and stereo generator (theheart of the transmitter), we investi-gated all the equipment availableat thetime. After visiting the two leadingmanufacturers for demonstrations oftheir latest and best equipment, wefound an exciter/stereo generatorpackage we I iked, but were not satisfiedwith the stated specifications. The de-monstration showed that the equip-ment was capable of much betterperformance than was shown on thespecification sheets. Negotiations withthe manufacturer led WFMT to pur-chase their exciter, but with the demon-strated performance being guaranteed.This purchase allowed WFMT tobroadcast what was probably the bestsignal at the time. Such performance isnow routinely achieved by most lead-ing manufacturers of such equipment.

As our operation expanded the ne-cessity for more tape recorders becameevident. The Mincom recorders wereno longer available, so the searchbegan for new machines. Two machinesfrom Philips were tried, but they had

Figure 12 The up-link automationfacility for ConcertMusic Consortiumand BeethovenSatellite Network

some problems with acoustical noise inthe control room that restricted theirusefulness. By the next time recordershad to be added to the operation,Studer had opened their own facilitiesand distribution in the United States. Amachine was tried for a month, andnow, over 13 years later, is still per-forming as well as it did the day it wasnew. Since then, Studer recorders havebecome the standard for WFMT. Eventhough the initial cost is higher thanother makes of recorders, the total costof ownership has proven to be muchless.

During the summer of 1978 WFMT'smanagement determined that a tapeduplication facility was needed for thegrowing Chicago Symphony Orchestrasyndication, with more than 300 sta-tions taking the weekly two-hour con-certs. High-speed duplicators couldnot provide consistent stability whiledealing with 10-1/2 inch reels without agreat deal of time being devoted to qu-ality control. WFMT's engineering de-partment proposed that the tapeduplication be done in real time. Inorder to provide quality control, a scan-ning monitor system was devised thatallowed the operator to monitor theoutput of all tape copies as they arebeing made. Since the scanning systemallows comparative monitoring of eachoutput, anything unusual is easily no-ticed. This relieves the operator of theneed to discern the absolute quality ofthe tapes. This system gained WFMTthe reputation of having the best qu-ality tapes of any classical music syn-dicator.

In 1978 WFMT participated in thefirst stereo -sound -only relay of a liveperformance by domestic satellite.Then, in June of 1979, we becameAmerica's first radio "superstation,"being delivered by satellite to cablecompanies throughout the UnitedStates.

A MAJOR UPDATINGBy 1980 we had outgrown our facili-

ties on Michigan Avenue and beganlooking for new quarters. We moved toChicago's Illinois Center in the fall of1981, where we were finally able to re-alize a dream-a music -performancestudio. This move also allowed for thefirst major updating of studio equip-ment since our last move in 1969. Asavailable equipment was investigated,we decided that we should once againdesign and build our own studio equip-ment.

A total system plan was devised sothat all equipment would be as inter-changeable as possible. Modular mi-crophone pre -amps were designedusing Jensen transformers and 990 op -amps. The consoles were designedusing VCA technology and CMOSswitching to that no audio passesthrough any faders or mechanical con-tacts. Many other features not availa-ble on other consoles were built intothe WFMT consoles, such as soft turn -on and turn-off of channels.

Since WFMT broadcasts more liveremotes than most radio stations, werely heavily on telephone lines. Theproper interface for equalized lineswas designed and incorporated intomodular amplifiers. These amplifiersare used throughout the facility for in-terface and distribution applications aswell.

All control and production rooms arefully self-contained, but may need tointerface to remotes or other roo ms. lbaccomplish this with a minimum ofcrosstalk, all lines to and from eachroom were run to a central equipmentroom. In this room is all equipmentthat is to be sha red by the rooms, as wellas the termination point for all tele-phone lines. Since patch bays can beconfusing and unreliable if not usedfrequently, all signal routing is done bya routing switcher designed byWFMT's engineering staff. Switchingis placed where it is most logical to re-duce wiring and crosstalk, and the con-trol is located at its most logical point.CMOS analog switches are used for allsignal routing, and the status of the sys-tem can be read at the control point inEnglish on an LCD display. Ibtal sys-tem performance at WFMT is betterthan many radio stations are able toachieve with only a console.

Each room in the studio/controlroom complex is provided with a moni-tor and intercom system. As is the casewith the routing switcher, the audio isswitched in the central equipmentroom, along with the volume controland muting functions. This reduces theamount of audio wiring required aswell as the crosstalk. The intercom sys-tem allows each room to talk to anyother by pressing a single button. Thissystem is interfaced to the muting andwarning light system so that it is im-possible to call a room that has an openmic. Also, signalling is provided so thatthe person being called knows what

0 room is calling, without the callerc\I having to identify his location.

Figure 13. The tape duplication facility.

All turntables in the facility are on vi-bration isolators to prevent footfallsfrom being heard on the air. The turn-tables are 'Technics SP -15s with Signettone arms and Shure V15 Type V car-tridges. These phono cartridges wereselected to provide the best reproduc-tion of records while still allowing forease of maintenance.

SEARCH FOR BEI I ER WAYS

During the Summer Consumer Elec-tronics Show in Chicago in June, 1982,Sony provided WFMT with a proto-type compact disc player and somediscs. We were the first radio station in

the world to broadcast a compact disc.Within two years CDs were an integralpart of WFMT's programming.

The search for better ways to recordconcerts and recitals never ends atWFMT. For years remotes were doneusing two Nagra IV -S portable reel-to-reel recorders. These were small andprovided good fidelity, but were incon-venient to use. We did an experimentalbroadcast in the early days of digitalusing the Stockham/Soundstream sys-tem. While the sound was impressive,the equipment was bulky and expen-sive. When Sony came out with thePCM-F1 digital converter and the

Figure 14. Some of the many Studer tape recorders at WFMT

Figure 15. A close-up of the automation controller.

SL2000 portable VCR, it seemed thatthe solution for remote recordings hadbeen found. The equipment was light,portable, and easy to use. Recordingtime was longer than reel-to-reel tapeand the fidelity was better. Editing wasa problem, but this was solved by trans-ferring to Dolby A processed tape inthe studio. In essence, a generation oftape was saved, since masters are notedited. The technique has becomepopular at WFMT, and now there arealmost as many VCRs at WFMT asthere are analog recorders.

A DIGITAL BROADCAST

The PCM-F1 converter and itssuccessors have enabled us to do thingsother than simply make recordings. In1983 WFMT broadcast a completeperformance of Gotterdammerunglive from the Bayreuth Music Festivalin Germany. The audio was digitized inEurope and sent to the United Statesby sa tellit e where it was converted backto audio and was distributed byNational Public Radio to stationsthroughout the United States. Theaudio quality for this broadcast wasbetter than most domestic broadcasts.Shortly after this, we began using thePCM technology to relay our mainaudio signal by video microwave fromour studios to the transmitter in Chi-cago's John Hancock Center. Thistechnique provides better signal-to-noise than is available by conventionalmicrowave STLs or telephone lines.

In 1986 WFMT launched theBeethoven Satellite Network, a liveformat service available to radio sta-tions by satellite. With studios locatedin downtown Chicago, the problemwas to get the audio to the uplink, morethan ten miles away without severe de-gradation. Once again PCM tech-nology was utilized over a microwavelink to relay the signal to the uplink.

EVERYTHING FROM CHICAGOWithin a few months after the start of

the Beethoven Satellite Network, theConcert Music Consortium, of whichthe WFMT Fine Arts Network is amajor participant, decided to do alltheir uplinking from Chicago. ConcertMusic Consortium distributes classicalmusic programming to subscriber sta-tions throughout the United States viasatellite. The source material is avariety of taped concerts and programs,both on analog as well as PCM on videotape. A facility was set up to performthis function, but economics as well aspracticality demanded an automatedsystem. After some investigation, wefound that there were no commerciallyavailable automation systems thatcould do the job as desired. Again,WFMT's engineering department wascalled on to design a system to do thejob. The automation system that wasbuilt relies on human operators to loadthe tapes and set the automation sys-tem, when then starts programs auto-matically and on time.

TELCO USEAs was mentioned earlier, we rely

heavily on leased telephone lines forremote broadcasts. Due to escalatingcosts over the last few years, we havedeveloped a method of using low-costcircuits from the telephone companyfor the broadcasts. Special amplifierswere designed to provide propersources and loads for the lines and dothe nemssary equalization. lb get ade-q ua te noise performance, we use DolbySR on the lines. This technique pro-vides better quality than the telephonecompany could provide fora fraction ofthe cost.

TO THE FUTUREWFMT was the first station to broad-

cast DAT in the United States, againwith the assistance of Sony. WFMT isnow using DAT for some remote re-cordings, dubbing to Dolby SR analogtape for editing, much as with PCMtapes. PCM on video tape is still used,and will probably still be around as longas equipment and repair parts are stillavailable. It is unclear if DAT will be-come a large part of our operation ornot. We have also been evaluatingsome of the new digital editing andstorage systems, but have been unableto purchase anything to this point.

TO THE FUTUREWhat the future holds is uncertain.

Digital audio seems to be the wave ofthe future, but the form (DAT, re-cordable CD, or some other format) isstill uncertain. However, regardless ofthe means to the end, the goal is clear-to provide the best possible qualitywithin the technical and economic re-strictions of the medium.

WFMT has an advantage with goodequipment, but consistently high per-formance standards is a direct productof the people involved. Proper main-tenance of the equipment is as essentialas having the right equipment. Whileperfection will never be obtained, it isstill the ultimate goal. The pursuit ofthat goal, not the equipment, is whatsets WFMT apart.

Gordon S. Carter is the Studio Su-pervisor at WFMT in Chicago.

SOTO SOUND STUDIO

JERRY SOTO

Soto Sound Studio is housedin a 2 -story brown buildingat 1215 W. Belmont in Chi-cago. To the right of thebuilding is "The Theater

Building" which rents out threedifferent theaters to various Chicagotheater companies. To the left isMurphy's "Gourmet" Hot DogStand. About five -hundred feet awayis a 7-11 store open 24 hours-veryconvenient. Soto Sound is also threeblocks away from one of the hottestintersections in Chicago-Belmontand Sheffield. The area clubs featuresome of Chicago's best talent, rangingfrom blues to jazz, pop to R&B, rockto weirdness. Soto has been able toattract some of those acts as newclients since the studio moved fromEvanston to Chicago on December26, 1987.

The studio looked a bit rough atfirst-no control room window, andcables ran under the door. I boughtsome canvas dropcloths from a localpaint store because they were ex-tremely easy to put up. They coveredthe walls and ceiling well and got rid ofthe echo at the same time without turn-ing the room into a vacuum. Some guysmight say that it takes months andsometimes years to get a decent -sound-ing room. That might be true in somecases, but I haven't had any complaints,and I'm still improving and adding onas the days go by.

Ironically, the clients really like thedropcloth technique; it makes theroom cozy and comfortable-sort oflike being in a tent! Because cost waskept low, I was able to keep my over-head down and open for business soonafter I moved in.

A LITTLE BACKGROUND

In 1968 I moved to Evanston, Illinoisand spent the next nine years involvedin various R&B groups playing JamesBrown, Isley Bros., Funkadelic, Stylis-tics, Thmptations, etc. In the early1970s, Experience II was a great band.We opened for Curtis Mayfield, TheSpinners, Alice Coltrane, and also gotsigned with Capitol Records. I alsoplayed with Eddie Clearwater's bluesband for two years which got me a lot ofmy blues clients. I've probably re-corded everybody that isn't signed withAlligator Records-Buddy Guy, Eddie

Shaw, Phil Guy, Robert Covington,A.C. Reed, Lefty Dizz, Hip Link Chainand many others. I also co -produced arap record with Chicago Bears runningback Walter Payton and William "Re-frigerator" Perry.

I got my first 4 -track (Mac 2340) in1975. At that time the lead singer in ourgroup had some originals that hewanted the band to learn. He and I wen tto my house and I arranged the musicaround his lyrics. I have a pretty goodear for hearing what chords go withwhat melody. So on track one of the 4 -track I recorded the voice, track twowas the guitar, track three was theFender Rhodes, and track four was myUnivox drum machine, the kind thatwasn't programmable (that was un-heard of). We mixed it on a cassettethrough a "Panama," a mixer that Ibuilt from "Popular Electronics." Itwas 6x2 -volume and pan, and that wasit.

We took the mixed tape back to theband and they had no excuse for notlearning the songs. Soon after, we werein a real studio-Gary Loizo's Pump-kin Studio. It was in his garage at thetime.

On April 15, 1977, Soto Sound Studioopened its doors at 931 Sherman Ave.in Evanston, Illinois. I advertised in theclassifieds of the Reader (a local liberalpaper)-seven tracks at $15.00 anhour. I managed this by recording theguitar, keyboard, bass and drums on

four separate tracks, mixing themdown to another reel-to-reel, andtaking that reel off and putting it backon the 4 -track. Then I would record thelead vocal, background vocals, and leadguitar on three other tracks. On thefinal mix, I was able to pan the back-ground vocals and lead guitar to createsome kind of stereo effect. A year and ahalf later I got eight tracks.

In 1984 I needed 16 tracks to keep upwith the competition. I asked my friendThrry Burke (now my partner) to lendme $5500.00 for a Tascam 90-16 1 -inch16 -track deck that a studio downtownwas selling. It's an older machine thattakes a licking and keeps on ticking.

NARAS AND EARS

I joined the National Academy of Re-cording Arts and Sciences (NARAS-the "Grammy" people) because I havea firm commitment in raising Chi-cago's profile in the recording industryon a national level. In 1982 I had afriend who was already on the member-ship committee. He stepped down andput me in his place. When I joined,NARAS was not very active, so I askedwhy not and pointed out that if therewas any organization that could dosomething, NARAS was it. At thattime I was regarded to some as an "up-start," but things have gotten a lot bet-ter. I'm not saying that I was the onlyone with this attitude, by any means,but I can say that I did make a contribu-tion. I am now on the Board of Gover-

Figure 16 Soto Studio. It's a studio, not a tent.

Figure 17. Soto Sound's control room is quite traditional

nors and Co -Chairman of the member-ship and studio outreach committees.

In the past three years, the Chicagochapter of NARAS has grown in leapsand bounds, and has given new life tothe Chicago music/recording scenewith seminars, outreach committeesand very active networking. One com-mittee that has become very successfulis the Engineering and Recordingsociety or EARS. EARS was formedwhen Mike Rasfeld of Acme Studio,Marty Feldman of Paragon, and MikeFreeman of Hedden West bumped intoeach other at a New York AES conven-tion. They noticed that the only timethey really spoke with each other was

Figure 18. The author at the console.

when they were out of town at a con-vention and how great it would be toform a group to help each other outwith any problems or ideas in the busi-ness.

lbday EARS meets at the legendaryKeenan O'Malley's, a bar on Chicago'snorth side, on the last lbesday of everymonth to discuss issues facing the Chi-cago Recording Industry and to foster acooperative atmosphere to benefit all.Since its conception, EARS has hadtape, mic, and reverb shootouts and vis-its from many major tape, console, out-board gear, mastering and musicalinstrument suppliers. They think it'sgreat because now they can give their

presentations at one place and theyknow where and when to find us.

EARS also holds an annual roastwhere we pay homage and rib the col-league who gets the most votes. Lastyear it was Marty from Paragon. Thisyear it was for the immortal father ofthe Chicago Recording Industry, Mr.Malcolm Chisholm. Among theroasters were Marty Feldman of Para-gon, Murray Allen of UniversalStudios, Gene Barge, the noted saxo-phonist and arranger. There were alsophone messages from veteran studiomusician Phil Upchurch, and BruceSwedien. Engineer Randy Kling cameup from Nashville. Hosting the roastwas Nate Herman, formerly of SecondCityand writer of fouryears with Satur-day Night Live. Nate did a brilliant job,especially when it came to the slides. Itwas very much like the weekend updatewith Dennis Miller. Proceeds go to thecenter on deafness in Des Plaines, Il-linois.

We've also held a round table forumabout the "tricks of the trade," a discus-sion of easy -to -implement little knownsecrets that brought more "bang for thebuck" and we voted for the best one.There were some pretty good entries,but for some reason everyone thoughtmine was the best. I told them to take a1 -inch metal hub and the metal insertfrom a tape box and glue the insert ontop of the hub, and presto-the perfectstudio ashtray! lb get really fancy,silkscreen the logo of the studio on theside. My prize was a $10.00 Vom meter.

EARS has helped me tremendously.Just from networking with others in myfield, I have gotten great deals on tapeand equipment. I was able to get a greatdeal from Seagrape Recording on aNeotek Series I console. Just by keep-ing in touch with peers can benefit acareer.

I'm also on the public relations com-mittee of EARS. One of my formulasfor achieving success is "The morepeople you know, the less money youhave to spend." I'm very glad EARSand NARAS are working well and atthis rate I see Chicago well on its way tobecoming one of the country's musiccapitals once again.

MUSIC TO LYRICS

The unique thing about Soto SoundStudio is that I arrange music to lyricsfor people who can't find musicians, for$175.00 per song. This is not where theclient sends their song through themail. They are there for the duration of

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the session to let me know exactly howthey want their song to sound, and theirvoice is recorded on their song. All theclient has to do is sing their song on acassette at home, while snapping theirfingers or tapping their feet so that Ican hear the tempo and time signature.They bring the cassette to the studio fora 1 -hour pre -production meeting at nocharge. It is then that I hear what theyhave, and they can see the studio andhear what I've done for other songwrit-ers. A recording of the style of music bytheir favorite artist is also helpful tozero in on the style they want. We thenset the recording date, usually a weeklater. The client doesn't necessarilyhave to leave the cassette with me, be-cause I do all of the work on the day ofthe session in a period of five hours.The parts that I play are always in mymind ready to go onto tape.

A hypothetical situation would be: Iprogram the drum machine with asimplebeat,withsnare, kick and hi -hat.After checking the song structure, wethen record a scratch vocal, drums andkeyboard. I put in the bass, either onguitar or keyboard, then lead andrhythm guitars. After that I add stringsor synthesizer depending on the song.Finally we put on the lead vocal andmix. This is done on the 8 -track ma-chine and the price is based on fivehours 8 -track time at $30.00 per hourplus tape, an 8 -track multi -trackmaster, a reel-to-reel and a cassette. Bythe way, all rights belong to the clientand I don't charge extra for playing in-struments myself or producing. Thebenefit here is two -fold. It keeps theiroverhead down and my chops up.

Asking for a percentage in addition tomy fee is only a deterrent to the client.As far as I see it, when the client has ahit, hopefully the next project will bedone with me. Then we'll strike up acollaboration deal. One client, Mi-chael Griffen, has been signed withAKA Records, a local dance musiclabel.

I've been doing this for about thirteenyears, eleven years with the studio, andit has kept my head above water sincenoone else in the Chicagoland areaoffers this service. I also get a lot of re-ferrals from other studios.

My equi pment is very modest. On oneoccasion a studio owner that I'veknown for years, from a studio withover forty gold and platinum albums,came to the new Belmont locationafter an EARS meeting and was veryimpressed. He went crazy over thevideo camera I have hanging over my16 -track counter. I don't have a remotefor the Tascam 90-16, so I came up withthe camera idea. I also rewired a re-mote that was really meant for aNakamichi cassette deck.

OVERSEAS ARRANGEMENTSoto Sound has a unique arrange-

ment with JSP Records in London,England. Specializing in blues record-ings, JSP and I have had the privilege inrecording such blues notables as BuddyGuy and his brother Phil, Brewer Phil-lips, Louisiana Red, Jimmy "Fast Fin-gers" Dawkins, Carey Bell and manyothers. The arrangement we have isthat JSP contacts the artist here in Chi-cago and then contacts me at thestudio. I then set up a date with the art-

ist and do the session. Blues doesn'ttake that long; it's very spontaneouswith a lot of first takes. It takes about 6-8 hours to record an album. After thetracks are laid, I then do a rough mix at15 in./sec. and make some cassette co-pies for the band. The next day, 1 -inchand 1/4 -inch masters aresent to JSP airmail. They receive the tapes within fiveto seven days. The album is then re-mixed in England. Sometimes they usethe rough mix such as on the Phil Guyalbum "Bad Luck Boy," JSP 1061.

Being a musician in the last sessionwith Carey Bell, I was able to sit in andoverdub organ on four tunes. GladysCooks, Carey's manager, noticed all ofthe keyboards around the studio andasked if I could play on some songs, so Idid. I felt something like Billy Prestonsitting in with the Beatles. John Sted-man at JSP liked it so much that he saidhe would leave it in. I do this with myregular clients and hope to do more ofthis on future projects with JSP.

Another benefit of recording with anoverseas label is that people in Francehave seen the studio's name on the al-bums and every year a group from Ver-sailles in France come to the ChicagoBlues Festival. While they are in town,they make it a point to stop by thestudio either to watch a blues session orrecord a few tunes themselves. It's flat-tering, and I really enjoy it.

As far as goals are concerned, we planto get a new piano around the first ofthe coming year and eventually a new16 -track deck. Another goal is to buy1215 W. Belmont within two years andrehab the interior.

TOM IIABANIf a group of A+ R men from America

were polled and asked the question,"Which local music scene has the mostimpact internationally?", the answerwould be unanimous! Chicago, with itsvibrant dance music scene whichcreated first House Music and thenAcid House, is the leader in style inboth England and the European main-land. The spirit of cooperation that ex-ists here between studio owners,engineers and clients has played a largepart in that success. The formation ofE.A.R.S. (Engineering and Recording

SIDEBAR: E.A.R.S.

Society) is both a cause and an effect ofthat cooperation.

Formed three years ago as a way toaddress issues facing the studio in-dustry, this group has evolved into acombination of tech seminar and fratparty. When formerly competitivestudio owners become drinking bud-dies it's, "Katie, bar the door and dead-beat clients beware."

Among the topics covered by thegroup are: microphone shoot-outs, re -verb units under $400.00, how to raiseyour rates, proper test tones, and a hostof other subjects. There have also beennumerous manufacturer demos in-

cluding: AMS Audiofile, Neve, Studer,Focusrite, Synclavier, Ampex andScotch tape, and many others. Manu-facturer reps say that they can accom-plish more in one visit to an E.A.R.S.meeting than they can in a week of coldcalls.

Cooperation between studios hasalso been overwhelming. Used equip-ment sales are facilitated, blank tape islent freely, and information is ex-changed on client's preferences and id-iosyncrasies.

Cooperation between all parties to arecord project improves the situationfor all concerned and in fact, it's hard to

imagine what it was like beforeE.A.R.S. Anyone interested in startinga chapter of E.A.R.S. in their city

should call ibm Haban at Seagrape Re-cording, (312) 784-0773. E.A.R.S. is anoutreach committee of the Chicago

Chapter of NARAS and we appreciatethe strong support and encouragementthey have given to us.

LARRY ZIDE

0 ne morning recently, we satin our office awaiting a tel-ephone call that wouldcome from the ShureBrothers Inc. plant in

Evanston, Illinois. We had set up thetelephone conference call to find outjust where this Chicago -suburb basedcompany is and where it is going. TheShure group, led by James Kogen,President, was seated in a conferenceroom with their automatic micro-phone system already in place.

James Kogen: I want to begin by tel-ling you a little about what ShureBrothers does in general, and t hen we'lllet you start asking the questions.

In general, our business is makingelectroacoustical products, and doingso in depth in terms of technicaldevelopment and advance manufac-turing capability. We see that as ourprimary effort. It's not a secondary ef-fort or a side issue, as it is with so manyof our com etitors. The different areas

The Participants At Shure

Jim Kogen, PresidentSandy Schroeder, Director,Microphone ProductsMichael Pettersen, Director, MixerProductsAlan Shirley, Product LineManager, Wired MicrophonesChris Lyons, Market Specialist(Professional Products)Bob Schulein, General Manager,HTS Divisionand Lee Habich, Director ofMarket Development-presentbut not speaking for interview. Hewas also extremely helpful to db inthe accurate translation from thetaped interview to the printed page.If you wish to write to Shure theaddress is:Shure Brothers, Inc.222 Hartrey AvenueEvanston, Illinois 60202-3696

SHURE BROTHERS, INC.

that we get into that are pertinent tothis morning's discussion are repre-sented by a number of people here. Wemake microphones for broadcast, liveperformance, home recording and avariety of other things. Alan Shirleyand Sandy Schroeder are here to dis-cuss that subject. We make circuitry forbroadcast, live performance, and pub-lic address, among other things. Wealso have teleconferencing equipment,and Michael Pettersen is here to dis-cuss that subject.

db: I assume we are talking on thatteleconferencing equipment rightnow.

JK That's right. We are using our ST -3000 in my conference room. We makehome theater sound equipment whichis used for home video viewing. BobSchulein is here to discuss that. Thereason we've asked Bob in-normallythat is thought of as being a high-fidel-ity product-is that we've startedworking on an encoder for recordingapplications and I think Bob canaddress that.

db: One of the things that we wantedto address briefly is the history ofShure. While we think Shure has beenmaking microphones almost from dayone, it has and probably still is very ac-tive in the hi-fi end of things and wasknown for many years as a phono-car-tridge manufacturer, and for all weknow, still is...

JK Definitely.db: We don't know that we want to

totally ignore that aspect of the busi-ness, but obviously in a magazine suchas db, it's not our main thrust. Whowould like to talk a little about the his-tory of the company and where it actu-ally came from.

JK Mr. Shure started the company in1925, when he was a very young manout of the University of Chicago. He'sstill active in the business, comes towork on a regular basis, and is deeplyinvolved. The company went into themicrophone business in about 1931,and prospered and grew during the De-pression, became a major vendor of mi-crophones to the armed forces duringWWII, and of course has continued to

grow and add to its line since then. Wewent into the phono-cartridge businessin 1936, and were an OEM supplieruntil the 1950s. During the mid -50s westarted into the high-fidelity phono-cartridge business, and of course thatgrew significantly when stereo came inand high-fidelity became popular.

We still manufacture a great manyphono-cartridges, and we expect tocontinue in that business as long asthere's a business around. We make alot of phono-cartridges for broadcastand other professional applicationsand of course for the hi-fi market. Ourmicrophone area-we've always ap-proached that strictly from an en-gineering standpoint. That is, we havevery strong technical support. Our firstengineer in microphones was BenBauer, who later became one of themost famous engineers in audio. Bendid a lot of development including theinvention of the first uni-directionalsingle element microphone. Followingthat, we've always had a very strong en-gineering core for the company, and amanufacturing facility that's been builtup to support that. Our main offices arein Evanston, Illinois, and we have fac-tories in Wheeling, Illinois, Agua-prieta and Juarez, Mexico, andsupporting facilities in El Paso, Texasand Douglas, Arizona.

db: That covers that part of the ques-tion. One of the things that we arecurious about is why the company isknown as Shure Brothers. We believethat's still its legal title, isn't it?

JK: Yes, for a very short time in theearly 30s, or late 20s, Mr. Shure'sbrother was in business with him. Hejust never changed the title.

db: What happened to the otherShure?

JK: He went off and started a com-pany of his own, I think in St. Louis,Missouri. That company prospered. Ithas nothing to do with our company,but that company is still in existence al-though Mr. Shure's brother passedaway quite a number of years ago.

db: It's interesting that suddenlyShure has gotten a history thanks tosome films (notably, Good Morning,

Vietnam) which featured early Shuremicrophones in them. That famousShure Unidyne, is, of course, not thebeginning of Shure's history in the mi-crophone business. You've alluded tothe fact that it goes back to the early30s. In the early 30s, there was radioprimarily, and motion pictures. WereShure microphones being used in bothapplications at that time?JK By all means. A lot of those old

microphones that looked like they hada ring with some springs and a circulardisk hung in the middle of the ring-asseen in old pictures; we made a lot ofmicrophones like that. We've got abook of photographs showing everyPresident since Franklin Rooseveltusing our microphones. Some of thoseearly ones were condenser mics, backin the middle 30s.

db: If we go back to the very early his-tory of the microphone, after carbon,wasn't the condenser almost precedingthe dynamic microphone?JK It was at least concurrent with it;

they didn't have transistors in thosedays so the amplifier was a great bigbox.

db: Let's move on to the new thingshappening with surround sound at thispoint because db got the fax on theGrammy Awards being done with it-is this something competing with orcomplementing what Dolby is doing inthe film industry?

Bob Schulein: It certainly is com-plementing. The driving force story be-hind what we are doing is to take this4-2-4 matrix concept, which is 4 -chan-nel on a 2 -channel transmissionscheme and take it beyond the featurefilm business into other markets thatare now available because they haveturned into stereo, or because they arestereo with picture. It is, in our view, abetter way to use a 2 -channel transmis-sion system. You get more excitementout of it than conventional two -speaker stereo.

db: Can you talk about some of theuses it is now being put to on the proend of things?

BS: We're at what you might call abeta test phase; we have a limitedamount of equipment available for useand the first national use was thisGrammy broadcast. Prior to that, wehad done some experiments withsports, namely baseball in the Chicagoarea. We had done a PBS productionlast summer, which was an outdoorevent, called the Great Circus Parade.Present plans are in the area of broad -

Figure 19. TheEvanston, Illinoiscorporate headquar-ters and manufac-turing facility.

cast-a live entertainment element. Ican't give you too many details becausethey haven't been all firmed up.Sports-that I can tell you that we aregoing to be starting baseball withWGN, which is a superstation in Chi-cago, or local Cubs games starting inApril. Other markets that we seehaving potential are music only, musicvideo, all types of commercial in-dustrial productions in wh ich an audio -video presentation is the end result.

We have trademarked a wo rd, Stereo -surround, which is oneword that we aremaking available to anybody that reallywants to use it. The idea is to try to cre-ate in people's minds an easier -to -un-derstand term for something beyondtwo -channel stereo. Stereosurroundseems to be a term that most people caninherently understand.

db: There are a number of companiesnow out there making consumer ver-sions of surround decoders. If Shure isnow going to be encoding certain pro-grams, what degrees of compatibilitycan we talk about that might exist?

BS: This is something that we've beenvery concerned about. Here is the waywe are looking at it: producing in whatwe call the Stereosurround format is aproduction involving the most sophis-ticated type of decoding. If it's asuccessful production under this basis,then all of the known decodingprocesses we believe are quite compat-ible. It's sort of a downward compati-bility with mono being at one end andthe various logic -type encoders at thetop end. Then in between there arenon -logic decoders, two -speakerstereo, and then finally mono. It'shighly compatible with existing decod-ing technology.

db: If someone doesn't have thatequipment, would it still be possible toget the normal stereo transmissionwith its own compatibility capabilities?

BS: That's correct.

db: Can we now move on to othersound reinforcement products that arecurrently in the catalog?

Sandy Schroeder: We've justcompleted the market introduction ofa very significant new dynamic micro-phone. There are actually two ver-sions-they're called the Beta 57 andthe Beta 58. This is the culmination ofa program that has been underway herefor about five years to produce a per-formance -oriented dynamic micro-phone which would make a significantadvance in performance over existingmics in high -volume situations.

db: Why does this industry need a per-formance microphone as opposed tousing the traditional cardioids andomnis that have been available up untilnow?

SS: When I say performance, I'mtalking primarily in the sense of livemusic performance or other sound re-inforcement applications that are re-lated to some sort of artistperformance.

db: I think what I'm asking is what isdifferent about microphone usage forthat application that a standard micro-phone doesn't fit?

SS: That's a fair question. Generally,sound reinforcement has become a lotmore demanding. The quality of soundreinforcement loudspeakers has got-ten much better in the last decade. Thelevels of sound that have to be dealtwith on stage have gotten much higher,which means feedback situations are alot more critical. Namely, I would saythe primary factors which have been af-fected here, and which we have strivedto improve, are the fidelity of the mi-crophone and its ability to generate aconsiderable amount of gain before afeedback situation occurs. Of course,this is directly related to the uniformityand controllability of the pattern of themicrophone.

db: Are there other sound reinforce-ment products that we can talk about atthis point?

SS: I think that shortly we'll havethings to talk about that we can't talkabout yet. One of the areas that we aretaking a very serious look at is wireless.We see the long-term impact of wire-less as being very significant in our bus-iness, and we also see a lot of areaswhere big improvements can be made.We see ways to make a lot of those im-provements, and we are indeed lookingat every aspect of this business.

db: The supposed biggest problemwith wireless is that when they areneeded most they usually don't work.

SS: The equipment is getting a lotbetter. There have been some signifi-cant technology advances in the lastfew years, not only with respect to relia-bility but flexibility also, such as givingthe user a choice of frequencies neveravailable before. Of course, the air-waves are getting much more crowdedas more wireless equipment comes intouse, not just wireless microphones butother types of RF-related devices. Itdoes get trickier, and many of the large-scale productions that are being donetoday for television and also live enter-tainment are using more and morewireless microphones together thanwas ever done before.

db: That's true.

Figure 20. An array of Shure products: (upper left) SM83 Lavalier CondenserMicrophone and preamp; (center) FP31 Compact Portable Audio Mixer; mics(left to right) SM81 Professional Instrument Condenser, SM87 Vocal Condenser,SM58 Vocal Dynamic, and 545 Multi -purpose Dynamic.

JK I'd like to interject something-ifthere's any one thing that has reallybuilt our company and our reputation,it's our reliability. The reliability of ourproducts-it's something that's been amajor priority with us for a long, longtime. We feel the same way about wire-less microphones. We don't want to at-tach our name to anything that doesn'tsupport our reputation for reliability. Ithink as the years go on, it will be seenthat when we do bring out our wirelessthey will work when they are needed towork.

db: The other side of that area is thatthere will always be a situation where ifa wireless system is made that will workin a 200 foot range, somebody is goingto try it at 225 feet, and if it doesn'twork, the company gets the blame.

SS: I suppose that could happen.Someone could take a high -impedancemicrophone and put 250 feet of wire onit, too.

db: There's some of that going onnow, and it's only something to stayaware of that any new technology mustbe fully understood and used within itsparameters if it's to work correctly.

SS: Absolutely. We have calls everyday relating to this type of problem, andin many cases by walking through theproblem with the customer we can de-termine it's not the wireless equipmentat all but how it's being set up, how it'sbeing used, or perhaps interferencefrom interfacing equipment. We findthat quite often RF interference is ex-perienced not from the radio micro-phone but from cabling, or other piecesof equipment that are in the chain.

db: What can we tell our readersabout the most frequent problems thatcome across your desks?

SS: You mean with respect to wire-less?

db: No,with all kinds of microphones.SS: There are many problems. I don't

know where we'd even start-ob-viously equipment compatibility is abig one.

There are still people trying to use ahigh -impedance microphones into alow -impedance input. Just selectingthe right microphone for the job-wehave people still trying to use anomnidirectional microphone in a liveenvironment looking to get a rea-sonable amount of gain out of a PA.

We know from a recent survey ofpeople who have bought our micro-phones that many users still don't knowthe difference between a dynamic and a

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condenser, and between an omni and acardioid. There's a lot of basic edu-cational problems to be dealt with.

We've tried to address this problemwith a number of publications thatwe've offered recently, some orientedtoward sound reinforcement.

Chris Lyons: One of the things thatSandy is referring to is a little bookletcalled The Guide to BetterAudio that werecently published, about a month ago.I wrote it, with tremendous help fromeveryone else here at the company. Thegoal of the booklet was to provide abasic starter tutorial for people justgetting into audio or who need a littlerefresher in some of the basics such asdifferent kinds of microphones, why tochoose certain models and not others,how to interface them with otherequipment, what kind of cables to use,and basically decoding the terms andwhat they all mean. We've offered thisprimarily so far to the audio/visual in-dustry, working with corporate TV andthat type of market. We've been gettingcalls from educators at colleges, fromradio and TV stations-there seems tobe a tremendous interest for informa-tion out there.

Something else that I wanted tothrow into the fray-you mentionedcommon problems that people en-counter. As someone who answersnumerous technical questions on ourproducts every day, I can tell you thatthe biggest problem people have withmicrophones and other equipment isthat they don't read the instructions. Ifpeople would just read the manualsthat come with our equipment andother equipment, they would get rid ofprobably 75 percent of the problemsthat they have, but the fact is they don'tlook at the information they have, andthat's the cause of a lot of problemsright there.

db: That's something that exists inevery industry, especially the tech-nology industries. I hear this from com-puter manufacturers, softwaremanufacturers, and from other audiomanufacturers, so that's a problem thatwe don't know how to address any-more.

CL: Neither do we. If you find a way,let us know.

db: One of the things we see at the ma-gazine is an increased need to do moretutorial -type work, because this is whatour readers actually want-to learnmore and to find out how they use theseproducts. You can't break a rule unlessyou know the rule. What other publica-

Figure 21. An important tool in the Shure microphone lab is this anechoic cham-ber. It is also used for loudspeaker and psycho -acoustic research testing.

tions does Shure have that addressthese kinds of problems?

CL: Well, we have a guide to micro-phone placement-there's a little bro-chure called Mic Techniques for Musicwhich deals with mic'ing musical in-struments and also deals with the sub-ject of stereo mic placement for stereopickup. We also have three productselection guides that are designed fordifferent markets such as studio re-cording, broadcast, sound reinforce-ment, that deal with choosing from ourlines of products the correct miss for agiven application at various levels ofquality and price. Some of these mightbe handy for your readers to knowabout.

db: Are some of these with price andsome without?

CL: They are all free of charge.

db: So we can tell our readers to writeto Shure for the particular application.

CL: The one microphone book onplacement, Mic Techniques forMusic, isabout twenty pages long and it'sgeneric. It doesn't talk about anyspecific model numbers, it just talksabout different instruments: where toplace microphones and what resultsare expected. It's a basic guide-it'scertainly not the end-all, but it's a goodstarting point.

db: What I asked about earlier is whatother sound reinforcement products isShure making at this point or contem-plating making besides microphones?

MP: Are we moving away from soundreinforcement for musical applica-tions now?

db: Yes.

MP: Okay, because that leads us intoa whole other area. We can take it inseveral different directions. Let's startwith broadcast, for instance. Besidesmaking microphones for broadcast,lavalier microphones, hand-held inter-view microphones, shotgun micro-phones, and the whole gamut for that,we are also well-known in the broad-cast field for mixers. This is interestingbecause we a re not well-known for mix-ers for musical performance. Musici-ans know us for the SM 58 and say, youmake mixers, too? The mixers that wemake are not really designed for thatapplication. They are specifically de-signed for broadcast.

The M67, which was our first entry inthat, was brought out in about 1965.This was, as far as I know, the firstbattery -operated 4 -channel mixer thatcould actually be picked up and carriedaround. Some of the first applicationsthis was used for was for on -site work atCape Kennedy. That got us into thisarea, and interestingly enough, to talkto a broadcaster about small mixers.

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Figure 22 New microphone designs are computer evaluated. The temiinal dis-plays an on- and off -axis frequency response of a new design.

db: Well, that doesn't hurt the imageany.

MP: It certainly doesn't, but the M67was actually in the line for over twentyyears. It was only recently discon-tinued.

We now have a M267 which is a 4 -channel mixer. It's hard for your read-ers, unless they are in the broadcastindustry, to realize how ubiquitous thisproduct is. You go into a station likeWBBM here, which is our news/radio

Figure 23. In another part of the lab a CAD/CAM printer draws the "blueprint"of a new mic design.

station, and they'll have thirty or fortyof them sitting around. It's amazing.They use them for everything-drivingheadphones, driving phone lines, theyneed them for an additional four mi-crophones in the studio. It's a buildingblock; I think that's the easiest way todescribe it.

db: But why couldn't they be used,equally logically, in the middle-sized tolarger recording studio market?

MP: They probably could, but theyare a little bit basic. It's just a four -inputmixer, with a mic and line switch, and avolume control and a roll -off switcher,no equalization. It's pretty basic.There's no reason they couldn't be usedas a sub -mixer, I have seen them usedthat way.

I should say that we have another linethat we brought out and introduced thefirst product in 1983. We refer to this asour FP series, Field Production series.Briefly, that has six different devices init. The one thing that's key is that theycan all be run off 9 -volt batteries. Theyare designed to be used in the field.Some of them, which I'll describebriefly again, can be run off a.c. as well.They're all designed specifically forbroadcast applications. Starting withthe FP11 which is a mic to line ampli-fier: a mic can be brought in andamplified to line level. If telephonelines are dragged with it-a typical ap-plication of that would be doing a golf-ing remote and they've gotmicrophones out on every tee. Imaginethe cost of trying to run seven or eightmiles of mic cable...what they do tomake their situation cost-effective andnot have to worry about destroying it(people with cleats for example walk-ing on the mic cable), is run a pair oftwisted telephone cables. lb drivethese telephone cables is to take themics and plug them into a FP11, andthe FP11 drives the telephone cablewhich goes back to the main truck.That's an example of how that productwould be used. We have a n FP12, whichis a sister product to the FP11. It's abattery -operated headphone amp.What's interesting about this device isit can monitor a mic or a line level sig-nal but not interrupt that signal. Inother words, it can be put in line withthe microphone level signal.

A typical example of that would beusing a parabolic mic along the side-lines at a football game, and the soundengineer wants to hear what is beingaimed at, but not to have that signal endat the headphone amp. That needs to

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go back to the truck. So this allows theuser to stick it in line and monitorthings.

Now, that product recently has be-come pretty popular with musical per-formance people for when they'resetting up these large sound reinforce-ment systems and they want to checkout real quick if a line is working or amic is working. They can carry one ofthese on their belt with their head-phones and check out anything theyneed very quickly.

db: With the introduction of portableR-DAl going out into the field for allkinds of applications doesn't havingsmall mixers to go with them make a lotof sense?

MP: That's correct. That brings mevery nicely, thanks for the segue, to theFP31 and the FP32 which are to myknowledge the smallest professionalmixers in the world. We've never seenany smaller, at least not ones that canbe operated. The 31 is a 3 -in, 1 outputmixer; the 32 is a 3 -in, 2 output (stereo)mixer. It certainly could operate withR-DAT. It was originally designed tooperate with Betacams and video pro-duction like that, but it has also foundits way into radio applications becausesomebody can now pack a mic and amixer in an overnight bag and go outand do a remote. They've done remotesfrom all over the world with these pro-ducts.

lb fill out the FP line, there is also abattery -operated 1 -in, 6 -out distribu-tion amp, which is designed for pressbridges or any type of applicationwhere one needs to take a signal andsplit it. We also have our FP42, which isa 4 -in, 2 -out stereo mixer, more like arack -mounted mixer, something thatwould be put on a table.

There's also our FP51, a 4 -in, 1 -outmixer with a compressor in it. Thewhole FP line in the last five or six yearshas pretty much established itself-nobrag, just fact if one goes into radio andtelevision stations, that's about all thatwill be seen.

There is an interesting statistic that Iheard that might get the point across toyour readers. Ayear or so ago there wasa study that I read that when pro-fessional users are asked to name amanufacturer of small, portable mix-ers, 85 percent of them named ShureBrothers first. What's really interest-ing, however, is that when asked to

Figure 24. The ST3000 Portable Audio Conferencing System.

name a second company, they can'tthink of anyone. Basically, we are thestandard in small mixers for pro-fessional use.

db: We ought to now move to a kind offinal question, so we go back to JimKogen's domain if we ask about any-thing that's coming down the pike inany of these product lines that we cantalk about.

JK: That's something obviously thatwe don't talk about. I can only say thatwe're doing an awful lot of engineeringwork, a lot of development work at thistime in all the areas we're involved in-microphones, mixers, and teleconfer-encing (which we haven't discussed).So you can look for many new productsfrom Shure in the coming years.

db: Have we left anything out that weshould be asking?

MP: One other thing about sound re-inforcement-you may rememberabout three or fou r years ago I wrote anarticle for the magazine called Broad-cast Applications for Voice -ActivatedMixers. In general, I think the automat-ic mixing market is expanding. lb gointo a typical application such as citycouncil-in fact, New York City Hallhas a fairly large example of our AMFsystem in there.

As a follow-up to that article, broad-cast applications are really expandingfor automatic mixing. The last applica-tion that was very large, and a lot ofpeople didn't even realize they werelistening to our system, was the Iran-

Contra hearings which was completelydone through our automatic system.It's grown enough in interest that I'mpresenting a paper at NAB on this verysubject and it's essentially being usednow for radio talk shows, any type ofsituation where there is a large numberof microphones. They're sometimeseven used on news sets when they'vegot five or six people talking.

People have become sensitiveenough to what comb filtering soundslike and the interference between mul-tiple open microphones-I thinkyou'll see automatic mixing, voice -acti-vation, let's call it that, growing in the'90s. I think the acceptance of thispaper at NAB kind of shows that.

db: We didn't talk much about yourteleconferencing system, but at thesame time, while we have been sittingin our office, you're all sitting around atable which has your system on it. It cansafely be said that it's been workingsplendidly, balances among everyonewere perfect. We want to thank every-one for allowing us to do this.

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A Review from

COREY DAVIDSON

N01

A Technically -MindedMusician-Charlie ElgartOne way to tell whether or not there is technical prowess behind an musician's output is to simply listen.

New debut -album artistshave the focused creativityand hands-on skills in a re-cording studio, much lessthe confidence and blessing

of the record company to compose,arrange and produce their own pro-jects entirely by themselves. With hisdebut album on RCA/Novus Re-cords, Charlie Elgart has successfullycombined the most high-tech synthe-sized sounds with sampled en-vironmental sounds...a difficult thingto do while maintaining a powerfulrhythmic and fusionesque/funk-likequality.

Charlie says, "When I was 9 or 10years old, my brother was a big in-fluence. He was six years older and wasa musician/keyboard player. He had 8 -track (cartridge) tapes of Sly And TheFamily Stone, Blood Sweat And 'Mars,Chicago, Jimmy Smith, J. Geils, JazzCrusaders...a vast selection of modernmusic. I was turned on to Blood SweatAnd 'Mars, particularlySpinning Wheel.It was the walking bass lines and hornsolos that really excited me."

"My instrument was the piano and atthe early point in my development, mybrother was turning me on to blues. 12 -

bar blues progressions and boogiewoogie bass lines were my introductionto improvisation. Then one summer,when I was 15, my brother had goneaway. And while he was away, I workedever so diligently on my boogie woogiebass lines for about seven or eightweeks. When my brother came back,my father told my brother, 'Hey, yougotta hear your little brother play!' So Istarted riffing with the right hand andpumping with the left."

"There was always music in thefamily. My grandfather was a walkingencyclopedia of opera and orchestralmusic."

Where did your experience with synthe-sizers begin?

"I started with a Multi -Moog analog,monophonic unit. A repair man toldme that the ribbon controller wouldnever work accurately so he said thatnose grease had to be used. So he tookhis left index finger and wiped it in thecrease between his nose and his faceand proceeded to improve his ribbontechnique. This worked quitewell...especially for a teenager likeme."

What was the first polyphonic synthcomplement?

"The Oberheim OBXa. It was in tuneand had plenty of memory that allowedme the luxury of fast programming thatwas very similar to the early Moog -typestructures of synthesis. I found myselfdrifting away from the piano and moretowards electronics. I bought an 8-

track machine (Otari 50-50 Mark III)and worked on creating sounds andhoning the continuity of my pieces.Peter Gabriel and Brian Eno becamestrong influences on my sounds."

You have incorporated environmentalsounds into your special brand of music.Could you elaborate on some of yoursources for these environmental sounds?

"There is a series of sounds that areavailable on records and CDs. Ofcourse, the CDs are preferred for re-production. There are all sorts ofsounds that one can choose from. Thetrick is blending sounds in a believablefashion. The psychoacoustic power ofcertain sounds is a useful tool. Theright choices of sounds can evokestrong and subtle responses."

Is stereo a part of the psychoacoustics?

"Of course. However, I like to usestereo in a live context. The live showsthat we do are in stereo. The stereoaspect of it is not so much for panning

things. It's for the lush spread. Thechorusing and the stereo reverb take onbigger dimensions when stereo is em-ployed. Many of our current gigs havebeen in small club -type venues. Utiliz-ing stereo in these small spaces helpsthicken the texture of the instruments.It's very effective. I have a dedicatedPCM 42 just for the sax. I also run aPCM 70 for the sax and change the am-bient reverb program settings duringthe performance. There is almost al-ways a slap -delay setting on the sax andthe sax chorusing comes from an SPX-

90. The reverb is the last in the sax'schain of processing so that the modula-tion of the chorus is reverberatedgiving the sax an unusually lush sound.Mack (Mack Goldsbury-saxophonist)loves playing in the echo."

Are the musicians hearing all the pro-cessing that is going on?

"Sometimes we run the reinforce-ment speakers behind us. The sax micsare pointed down and two mica areused...one on the neck and one on thebell. There's no feedback problems be-cause of the angle of the mics. I put EVmonitors in front of the band and set upvery closely. We are all actually playingin the stereo image. It's almost likeplaying with headphones on. For Karl(drummer Karl Latham) we have twosmall earphones that go in your ear,and he has a stereo feed. For me, thereare two small reference -type monitorson top of my keyboard rack, facing me.Everyone's experiencing the soundsthat are being delivered to theaudience. It's like being in the studio."

In listeningtoyour album, it is apparentthat a number of things are sequencedand time generated. Does this happen atyour live perfomances?

"No. The things that are sequencedon the record are; the bass line to Float.Most of Sojourn was sequenced onlybecause the budget didn't allow for the

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Figure 1. A flow chart of Elgart's studio set-up.

repeated takes of the live rhythm sec-tions. Hopefully the next album willallow for a totally played album. Therewas one part in This Thing We Sharethat was sequenced. Live, we don'tsequence at all, however, I havesampled sections from the album forthe sake of live reproduction. For ex-ample, there is a passage from apiece...a flourish, that I sampled instereo. Because the S900 is only mono,I ran it through the PCM-70, took thetwo outs and sampled them separately,then assigned them to one note but totwo outputs. I pan them left and right.There are some other rhythmic thingswhere I have sampled the wholephrase. Otherwise, I'm trying not to bea slave to the machines. At some pointwhen I have a tech crew or a monstroustapeless system like the Fairlight, thenI'll do it."

Judging by your music, it seems to methat you are inches away front fulfilling ahighly technical, possibly tapeless show.

"That's an interesting thought be-cause at this point in my career, there isno equation for the quality of yourmusic to whose supporting you orwhose backing you with funds. That'sall business. I'd love a Fairlight."

Is it the tapeless manipulation of an en-tire piece, or is it the vast sound libraryaspects that attract you?

"Both. Not so much the sound librarybecause I use very few sampled sounds.Most of the sounds that I come up withare realized on the instruments that Inow own. I enjoy the art of synthesisand combining the various formats ofsynthesis to arrive at compositesounds. That's where something likethe Fairlight would come in because Iwould be able to document the com-posite sounds that I come up with andhave the ability to recall them and placethem in context. Once we get hookedup with an agency that will put us on theroad opening for bigger shows, we'llhave the funds to realize some of thesegreat ideas."

How far did you take your early 8-trackrecordings and did any of that materialend up on the album?

"The 8 -track was really the growthstage. I acquired all my multi -trackskills on that 8 -track. I got into tapeediting and splicing. I once did a projectthat was a documentary for an artmuseum. The curator was speakingand every five to ten seconds he wouldpause, or clear his throat, and some-times he just wouldn't know what to sayso there would be dead air for moments

at a time. So we razor -bladed all ofthose bad spots. That editing efforttook about 15 hours. Those tape -cut-ting skills were later used in my music. Iexperimented with editing -in sectionsand effects. Of course the advent ofsampling made those kinds of thingsmuch easier and less messy."

Where did the use of effects enter intoyour musical life?

"I got into a lot of tape delay. I had anAKAI 4000DB open -reel deck andused it for feedback loops, stereo pan-ning and had the tape actually playparts while I played along with it. I

would use these early kinds of delays tobuild a musical piece. I'd play the Mini -Moog into the tape delay system, getthat part going, the echo would takeover and I could still play on top of it allestablishing the premise for a musicalidea. Then I worked with combiningthose things with reverb. I have a Castleanalog stereo phase shifter (designedby Ben Cahill) that I used back then andit was an integral part of my little or-chestra of effects. I spent hours andhours...years creating that space withthose primitive effects. A pianoplayer/song writer named MarkMcMillan was one of my early mentorsfor the use of live effects. When I hadseen him years ago, he was doing his

show in stereo using two Fender 'RvinReverb amps and a Mutron chorus box.So he'd go from his Fender Rhodespiano and organ into the Mutron andinto the Twin Reverbs. At the time I hadnever heard anything like it. So I tried asimilar set-up with a Boss stereochorus. That was way before I had the 8 -track. I had a Rae Model 2a mixer andgot a lot out of it. I hooked up this littlestereo rig with the mixer and the effectsand went to heaven."

The Fender Rhodes Piano, as a singleinstrument, probably generated more ef-fects experimentation than any other key-board in its day. Even Fender triedmarketingthings that were stereo in orderto image the instrument.

"The Dyno-My-Piano and the Satel-lite amplifier system were availablemainly for the Rhodes. I had a Satellitesystem that I used live on either side ofthe stage...it was very effective."

What instruments stick out in yourmind as ones that you are particularlyfond of?

"The Oberheim X -Pander is really mymain axe. Few know about it. I justbought a Korg MI and I'm using it a lot.An instrument like the MI is a wholenew breed of synthesizer and as a resultwill give rise to a whole new breed ofsynthesists. It's not going to be thesame."

How do you feel about that?

"I'm not particularly crazy about thedirection of process that an instrumentlike the M1 proposes. The best way forme to express my feeling about this sub-ject is to relate an experience that I hadsome years ago: At one time I owned anARP 2600 that I picked up for $200.The thing was beaten up, but it worked.The 2600 turned me on to the process

of synthesis. Later when I saw the X -Pander, I was able to relate to a processby which I could create my own sounds.I used the CV and GATE inputs on theX -Pander in conjunction with the DSXsequencer. Although the X -Pander isMIDI, the DSX isn't. So the CV andGATE inputs on the X -Pander had tobe used. It was nice working with a sys-tem that actually taught me things as Iworked. It (DSX) also enabled me tosequence my Mini -Moog. I wouldsequence a very fast musical figure, putecho on it, and run it through the Mini -Moog. So in the middle of the mix, Iwould lean over and hit the key on theMini -Moog, gating the sound that wasalready running through it. My point isthat many of the newer instruments aremore sound source oriented and lessprocess/learning oriented. The resultsfrom this new era and the impact onnew musicians have not really surfacedas of yet."

As your own producer, how do you envi-sionyourselfproducingother artists' pro-jects?

"I was just called to do a project. It'sdance music. Now I'm still battling in-side whether or not I'm going to do this.I think I am just going to do it. It's an ex-ercise. However, this person that I'mdoing it with wants to be a co -producer.They want to do it quick and get it done,use a MIDI programmer to pull up 30snare drum sounds, and pick andchoose. Now I think a lot of people callthemselves producers based on the factthat they want the most current/hap-pening sound. So they want the or-chestra hit...they want that killingcracking snare drum...they know whatkick drum they want only because theyhear it out there in the world already.That's not being a producer. Being a

producer is really getting it to tape...intune...making it tight."

"It is so easy now to make a tape eitherat home or in a studio and therearecer-tain aspects of the real artistic side of itthat they are circumventing. For in-stance, take drum machines. Drum ma-chines come with samples that aregated with reverbs on them...they'rehot...they sound great. Engineers nolonger have to come up with thosesounds. That's good and bad. For oneit's quick, in and out of the studio. Ibelieve that great art takes time.Making the best product that you canis, by far, more important than makingsomething as quickly as possible thathas the elements of a quick sale of anitem that has a transient level of accep-tance. Much of dance music is the lat-ter. The material doesn't entertain usfor very long, and that kind of producthas the unfortunate ability to promotemore products like it. Fewer and fewerpeople are willing to experiment. Manysimply see dollar signs in a quickie pro-duction. The sad fact is that this is thetrend in music today."

Fortunately, technology has also givenrise to a new level of productivity in themore progressive and experimental areasofmusic and art. Hasn't this been true foryou?

"It is the technology that has enabledme to take the studio context and at-tempt to duplicate it in a live context.As the gear and my understanding pro-gresses, I am more and more capable ofrealizing some of my wildest ideaswithout detracting from the live per-formance elements of spontaneity."

REINFORCEMENT

Tandberg 3003 power amp

Mission 770 monitors

Carver 1.5 power amp

Roland M16 mixer

Stax headphone control center

INSTRUMENTS:Oberheim OBXa

EQUIPMENT LIST

Oberheim X -Pander

Mini -Moog

Korg M1

Yamaha DX -7 IIFD

AKAI S-900 (2)

EMU EMAX

Roland Octa Pad

SIGNAL PROCESSORS:

Castle stereo phase shifter

Drawmer dual gates

dbx 160X

Klarkleknik 5 -band parametric EQ

Lexicon PCM 70

Lexicon PCM 42

Yamaha SPX 9011

BRIAN BATTLES

AQ t/tatobt

KEEPING YOUR VOX MAGNA

With all the electronic gizmos, dig-ital circuits, effects boxes, MIDI,SMPTE, and other devices used in re-cording studios, some people in the re-cording business neglect the essentialconstituent in radio commercial pro-duction. I'm referring to the primaryorganic transducer, the human voice. Ifyou're going to do a lot of this kind of

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work, you'll use your voice fora varietyof demanding applications, whetheryou'reannouncing, singing, or portray-ing characters.

In my career as a prod ucer, voice-overtalent, and full-time radio announcer,and in my collaboration with seminartrainers, I've picked up a some usefulfolk wisdom and I've conferred withleading speech pathologists. Here I'vecombined scientific and medical factswith everyday practical ideas to offerthe following tips and procedures onthe care and maintenance of the humanvoice apparatus.

ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY 101

Take a look at Figure 1A. This is asimplified sketch of the anatomy of thehuman throat, including the larynx, or"voice box," the trachea, or "wind-pipe," and the esophagus.

The larynx contains two small flaps ofthin membrane called the vocal folds orvocal cords. Normally these folds restalong the sides of the larynx (Figure1B). When speaking, they are stretchedacross the airway and air passing be-tween them cause them to buzz at a par-ticular audio frequency (Figure 1C).The resulting sound is conductedthroughout the throat, chest cavity,and sinuses, modified by the placementand movement of the lips, tongue, andassociated muscles, and then sent outthrough the air. The sound wavesemitted are what others hear as yourvoice.

Since the vocal cords are so small(only an inch or so in length) they aresomewhat delicate and easily affectedby abuse. Prolonged periods of talking,shouting, and singing can irritate thevocal cords, and they may become sore,inflamed, and strained. Here are someproven techniques for reducing unnec-

essary stress on this sensitive part ofyour body:

DRINK WATER

This is not to moisten your larynx:liquids don't coat your vocal cords. Re-ferring to Figure 1, you can see that theepiglottis acts as a natural valve be-tween the main throat area and the tra-chea. The epiglottis is open only duringrespiration. It closes each time youswallow. Otherwise, food and liquidswould enter the trachea, pass betweenthe vocal cords, and get into the lungs,causing severe distress. Even the slight-est amount of foreign matter that getspast the epiglottis causes choking,coughing, and gagging. Remember thelast time you "swallowed down thewrong pipe?"

Consequently, nothing you drink isable to "coat" your larynx; rather,liquids indirectly provide moisture viathe internal blood supply to the vocalorgans. This is very important. One ofthe biggest causes of problems withyour voice is dehydration, that is, loss ofwater. Drinking plenty of water hy-drates the tissues that make up thelarynx.

Don't just gulp a pint of water once anhour; sip regularly at every free mo-ment to maintain a consistent, ade-quate flow through your bloodstream.The only drawback is that you'll requirea few more trips to the bathroom as theday wears on. Hot tea, honey, throatsprays, cough drops, and the like mayhelp soothe soreness in the upperthroat and the mouth, but rememberthat they do not directly bathe thelarynx itself.

DON'T smoke, drink alcohol or caf-feine, or take antihistamines. Thesesubstances act as vasoconstrictors,which means they stimulate the blood co

Dealer Ingunes Inveed


co

Epiglottis

Larynx

Trachea

Esophagus

A

()Vocal cords

Vocal cords

Figure 1. At (A) a side view of theupper throat, while (B) is a side viewof a relaxed trachea, and (C) shows itstretched.

vessels to close off some of the bloodsupply. This actually creates a dryingeffect in the mucous membranes.

CLEAR YOUR TIIROATCAREFULLY

An explosive cough makes the vocalcords slam together abruptly, and canraise havoc with their delicate struc-ture. If you must clear your throat, humfirst, then gradually allow the hum-ming to build smoothly to a rumble(say, "mmmMMMHHMMM", ratherthan an abrupt "AHEM!"). This gentlytightens the vocal cords and avoids theshock of suddenly becoming taut andslapping shut against each other.

RELAX

Slacken your throat, shoulders, chest,neck, and jaw muscles as much aspossible. If you tense up, you put morepressure on the organs that produceand modulate your voice. Speakingwith a tightened chest, for example,decreases the effectiveness of the natu-rally resonant chest cavity, causing agreater percentage of sound to be pro-jected via your sinuses. This gives yourvoice a thin, tinny, and strained timbre,and limits the richness of sound. Pos-

ture contributes to this as well. Situpright to avoid compressing your dia-phragm and thorax.

SPEAK SOFT AND LOW

Go down to a slightly lower, quieterregister and let the gain of your elec-tronic equipment pick up the slack.Dropping your pitch to a comfortablezone, say about a half -octave lowerthan usual, lets your vocal cords workin a more relaxed state. Keeping yourvoice volume down a bit saves your

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energy and allows you to breathe in amore natural cadence. If the mic isn'tpicking you up as well, move a bitcloser.

EXERCISE YOUR VOICEAs with any system, your voice needs

proper and regular exercise. Build yourcomfortable range by singing in theshower, the car, whenever you can. flyto hit a few high notes, but don't strainfor those extremes. Get as low as youcan, too. (Can you imitate Lurch, thebutler on the old Addams Family TVseries?) A hint: When diving for thoselow notes, don't go for volume, just amild rumble will get you used to lettingthose vocal cords flap loosely.

Never overdo voice exercises. Unlessyou're working with a professionalvoice trainer, just try this stuff for acouple of minutes a day to maintainflexibility, not to artificially extendyour range a few octaves. If you want tosing Rigoletto, get a personal coach.

PACE YOURSELFGet into a comfortable rhythm with

an even rate of speech, rest, speech,rest, etc. Don't go on nonstop fortwenty minutes and then take a ten-minute break. If possible, go oneminute on, 15 seconds off, one minuteon, 15 seconds off, etc. This gives yourbody a chance to cycle through theworking/resting periods morecompletely. A sporadic approach is tir-ing, and puts greater demands on yourmuscles.

BREATHE DEEPLYShort, shallow, tight breaths limit

your ability to take in necessary oxygenand to exhaust excess carbon dioxide.Let your respiration operate at equi-librium. lbo little oxygen causes slug-gishness, fatigue, and loss of efficiency.'Ibo little carbon dioxide creates an im-balance as well, disrupting the body'spH balance, and producing dizziness,anxiety, and muscle tension. This iscommonly taught in meditation, pro-gressive relaxation, and stress reduc-tion therapy. Why do you thinkhypnotists always have their subjectsbreathe deeply? Your respiratory sys-tem knows what works best. Let it regu-late itself naturally and you'll find thatit consistently adjusts for peak per-formance.

CONCENTRATEPay attention to content, not tech-

nique. You should practice control of

your breathing and speaking organssufficiently to make a habit of feelingrelaxed and refreshed, but when actu-ally recording you should focus on thematerial you are to deliver, be it anadvertising script, a set of lyrics, orcomplex instructions. Do your breath-ing and speaking exercises outside thestudio, so that your unconscious mindcan take care of that stuff, leaving yourconscious side free to work on the taskat hand.

TALKBACK MIC

Received some excellent letters fromGene Josephsen in Chicago, Illinois;Richard LaVoir of Ultra Live, Inc. inLantana, Florida; Dennis McAtee ofKKOW in Pittsburgh, Kansas; JohnMcPherson of AVR Networlc/Magic 97in Kentvil le, Nova Scotia...Hello to JeffHedquist of Hedquist Productions inFairfield, Iowa; and to Dave Chase ofThe Community of Jesus in Orleans,Massachusetts...Special thanks to:Steve Kiely of Vernon, Connecticut;Mark Lewis of Careerllack inBoulder, Colorado; Rob Evert of Nor-wich, Connecticut; and Kevin White,the Mansfield, Connecticut area's

finest composer and Allstateagent....Greetings to the members ofthe Middlesex Amateur Radio Society(MARS)...Speaking of AmateurRadio, if you have a PC with a modem,get online with Dave Corley's BBS at(203) 871-3791. You can also leave memessages via The Willi -Board at (203)456-1933.

PLUGOLA

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RECORDING TECHNIQUES: ON -LOCATION MULTI -TRACK RECORDING

Can a professional, on -location re-cording be made with home recordingequipment? You bet! Here is the storyo f one such recording, with examples ofwhat to do-and what not to do.

Last Thanksgiving, a band named Re-tribution phoned and asked me to re-cord them playing live in a club. It wasto be a demo tape. The major pieces ofavailable equipment were:

Fostex Model 808 -track recorder (asmall portable unit with Dolby C)

Soundcraft 2 -channel mixing con-sole

Revox A77 2 -track tape recorder

I drew a block diagram of the record-ing system (Figure 1) and used it togenerate an equipment list (Figure 2).Note that the list included small -but -necessary details such as adapters,razor blades, empty tape reels, etc.

The direct -connection cables wereunusual (Figure 3). Each one took thesignal from the guitar amps, synthe-sizer, and drum machine, and sentthem at a reduced level to the mixer micinputs. One end of each cable pluggedinto the external -speaker jack of a gui-tar amplifier (or into a synth output);the other end plugged into a mixer micinput. It was a low-cost way to recordelectric instruments, and provided per-fect isolation.

I wanted to make an 8 -track record-ing, but had only a 2 -channel board atthe time. So I modified the board tohave eight direct outputs, as follows:

Figure I. The recording set-up.

Y -cord t oP.A. mixer

Vocal mics

Instrumentmics and

direct cables

co

Snake

I installed a row of eight RCA phonojacks in the console panel. Then Isoldered one end of a 1 -conductorshielded cable to the ground and wiper(bottom and center) terminals of eachfader, and soldered the other end ofeach cable to a phono jack. Voila: 8 out-puts from a 2 -channel board. I pluggedthese direct outputs into the multi-track inputs. If your budget permits,however, it's much better to use a 4- or8 -channel board. (The 4 -channelFostex board I'm using now has 8 directoutputs as supplied by the factory.)

The signal from each fader was linelevel (-10 dBV), which matched theinput requirements of the Fostexmulti -track. Each fader controlled therecording level of the track it was con-nected to.

PRE -SESSION PLANNING

The first question to ask a band whowants to record is: "What is the instru-mentation?" What are the instrumentsyou'll be playing, and how many vocal-ists will there be? In this case, the listturned out as follows:

4 Vocals

1 Synth (mono output)

1 Drum Machine (mono output)

1 Electric bass

1 Electric rhythm guitar

1 Set of percussion: congas and cow-bell

1 Harmonica

DIRECTOUTS

Mixingconsole

EIGHTPHONE TO PHONO

CABLES LINEIN

Multitrackrecorder

.-Crb Headphones

1 Electric lead guitar (played throughtwo amplifiers one at a time)

1 Acoustic guitar

How could all these instruments befitted into 8 tracks? Fortunately, not allthe instruments were played at thesame time. The bass player occasion-ally played synthesizer instead. Therhythm guitar player sometimesswitched to acoustic guitar. Also, thelead guitarist played only percussion orharmonica on some songs. As a result,the track assignments ended up likethis:

Rack1. Bass or synth

2. Electric rhythm guitar or acous-tic guitar

3. Drum machine

4. Lead guitar (guitar amplifier 1or 2)

5. Percussion or harmonica

6. Vocal

7. Vocal

8. Vocal (2 singing into one mic)

Normally you'd use channel -assignbuttons to send two instruments to thesame track. But the 2 -channel mixingboard I was using did not have this fea-ture. Instead, I manually re -patchedthe input signals according to what wasbeing played at the moment.

Before the gig, I checked the opera-tion of each piece of equipment-amust. Then, on the equipment list, Ichecked off each piece of equipment asI packed it.

ON -LOCATION SETUP

Finally I arrived at the club and founda spot off-stage to set up. Using a heavyextension cord, I connected my poweroutlet strip to the same outlet that theband's mixer was plugged into. Thishelped to prevent hum due to groundloops between the P.A. mixer and re-cording mixer. Then I plugged all myequipment into my outlet strip.

Next, connections were made be-tween the mixer direct outputs and themulti -track recorder line inputs. I

plugged the snake into the mixer andstarted connecting mics and direct ca-bles.

The microphone list was as follows:Electric bass: custom-made direct

box plugged into the bass.Synth, drum machine, electric gui-

tars: direct cable.Acoustic guitar, harmonica, percus-

sion: Crown GLM-100.Vocals: Electro-Voice N/D 457 (the

band's)Each vocal mic was plugged into a Y -

cord. One leg of the Y -cord fed theband's P.A. mixer, the other leg fed myrecording snake. In other words, eachvocal mic was split to feed two mixers.Normally a mic splitter with trans-former -isolated outputs is best, but theY -cords worked fine in this smallsetup.

The Crown GLM-100s are miniatureomnidirectional condenser units. I

taped one to the harmonica's P.A. micto pick up either harmonica or percus-sion, and taped another to the acousticguitar's P.A. mic.

headphones intothe mixer, cleaned the tape heads, andthreaded on some blank tape.

SIGNAL CIIECKTime to see whether everything was

working. Using the monitor knobs inthe mixing board, I listened to eachinput by itself. One of the vocal micssounded weak in the bass and low inlevel. I suspected that it was a high -im-pedance mic, and my mixing board'slow -impedance input was loading itdown. I substituted a low -impedancemic which worked fine.

The signal levels coming from thedrum machine and synth were so lowthat I had to push their faders all theway up. This is bad practice because itresults in audible noise. So I asked themusicians to turn up the synth anddrum machine to maximum. This isalso bad practice! Musicians shouldnot have to change their settings to ac-commodate your recording (unless thesettings are way off).

These signals were low level becausethe direct -connection cable use was de-signed for speaker -level signals, notline -level signals. After making this re-cording, I constructed some new cablesto handle line -level signals. I couldn'tplug a guitar cord directly from the

EQUIPMENT LIST

2 CROWN GLM-100 OMNI CONDENSER MICS

DIRECT BOX

PHONE--0-PHONE CABLE FOR DIRECT BOX15 MIC CABLES

4 Y -CORDS (SPLITTERS)

1 SOUNDCRAFT MIXING CONSOLE1 SONY MDR -V6 HEADPHONES

8 PHONO-TO-PHONO CABLES PLUS 2 SPARES1 FOSTEX MODEL 80 8 -TRACK RECORDER

8 REELS OF AMPEX 456 BLANK TAPE

2 EMPTY TAKE-UP REELS

1 CLEANING AND REPAIR KIT

1 ROLL DUCT TAPE

1 ROLL MASKING TAPE

1 FELT-TIP MARKER

1 POWER EXTENSION CORD

1 FLASHLIGHT

Figure 2, The list of equipment needed.

synth output to my line input becausethis resulted in hum.

RECORDING -LEVEL SETTING

During the sound check, I asked eachmusician to play alone so that I couldset recording levels. lb do this, I seteach fader to design center (about 3/4up), and turned down the trim pot foreach input just until the LED overloadindicator stopped flashing. Some in-puts needed no trimming.

This also resulted in 0 dB recordinglevels on the multi -track machine.

Time for the gig to begin. I started re-cording and kept careful watch of therecording levels. Most of the levels

needed re -touching, but they were inthe ballpark thanks to the sound check.

When an alternate instrument was tobe played, I switched input connectorsand quickly reset recording levels. Abetter way, if you have channel -assignswitches, is to plug each instrument'scable into a separate input and set therecording level for each input. Then as-sign the appropriate instrument to itstrack as required.

While the recording was in progress, Iset up a rough monitor mix over head-phones to approximate the finishedmix, and to listen for any problems.

Figure 3. A method for direct connection to an external speaker jack (courtesy ofSteve Julstrum).

NOTE All resistor pads should matchwithin 1% of each other.

74" phone plugto external

speaker jack

50K

50K

A. BALANCED CIRCUIT

'4" phone plugto external

speaker jack

2 conductorshielded mic cable

0 0Shield not connectedat this end

2 conductor50K shielded mic cable

3 -pin male plugto mixer mic input

100

100K,./

Shield not connectedat this end

(B) UNBALANCED CIRCUIT

100

'74" phone plugto mixermic

LINEOUT

Multitrackrecorder

EIGHTPHONO-TO PHONE

CABLES LINEIN

AUXSEND

Mixingconsole

AUXRTN

MAINOUT

IH3 PIN TO

PHONE CABLE Digitalreverb

Figure 4. The mixdown set-up.

Also, for each song, I kept notes of whatinstrument was on what track.

Since the Fostex Model 80 acceptsonly 71/2 -inch reels and runs only at 15in./sec., the recording time was about22-1/2 minutes per reel. The band knewabout this limitation and paused whileI switched reels. A few times, however,they forgot to pause, so I missed thebeginning of some songs and had tofade them up during mixdown. This isnot good practice. A bigger budgetwould allow a backup machine con-nected in parallel with the first. Thesecond machine is started just beforethe tape runs out on the first machine,

TWO3 PIN TO PHONO

12 dB PAD

2

TWOPHONE TO PHONECABLES

LINEIN

2 -track

tape recorder

Headphones

and the two tapes are edited togetherback in the studio.

The next day at home, I set up themulti -track machine to play throughthe console line inputs (Figure 4). Theconsole main stereo outputs fed aRevox A77 2 -track tape recorder.(Ideally, for mastering you'd use a digi-tal audio adapter into a VCR, an R-DAT recorder, or a VCR with VHS Hi-Fi.) In -line with the cable between theconsole and the Revox was a 12 dB pad(Figure 6). This reduced the console'shigh output level (called "+4 dBm") toa lower level (called "-10 dBV") sui-table for the Revox input.

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lb add ambience to the dry tracks, anAlesis Microverb was connected to theconsole's aux send and return jacks.

I monitored the mixdown with a pairof Thiel CS3.5 loudspeakers. These areaudiophile speakers for home hi-fi use.

I threaded the first reel of tape ontothe multi -track. Referring to my tracksheet, I made a designation strip-along strip of paper placed below thefaders, indicating which instrumenteach fader controlled. Unrecordedtracks were muted.

All console controls were set to "off,""flat," or "zero" so as to have no effect.You have to start from ground zero inbuilding a mix.

The first step in a mixdown is to listento each track alone and clean it up:erase- and filter out unwanted noises.The lead -guitar track had guitar -cordcrackles which occurred before the gui-tarist started to play; I erased them. Therhythm -guitar track was hissy to due anoisy guitar amplifier, I rolled off thehigh frequencies to reduce the hiss.

Next, I set the tape counter to "000"three seconds before the song started,and enabled the return -to -zero func-tion.

Time to roll tape. I hit "play" andbrought up the drum machine track,panned to center. The synthesized hi -hat cymbals were a little dull, so Iboosted +4 dB at 12 kHz. A 6dB boostat 80 Hz added punch to the kick drum.Next I brought up the bass guitar (alsopanned to center) and balanced itagainst the drums. The bass lackeddefinition, so I boosted +12 dB at 3kHz and cut -3 dB at 250 Hz.

Then the guitars came in left andright. They were recorded with a directconnection to the external speakerjack. This jack bypassed the guitar -amploudspeaker with its high -frequencyrolloff, so the direct -recorded signalwas too bright or edgy. I rolled off 12kHz by -9dB to restore a more naturaltonal balance. The guitars also neededa low -frequency cut of 3 dB at 250 Hzand 80 Hz.

The lead vocal was panned to centerand balanced with the instruments. Itneeded no EQ except for +3 dB at 12kHz.

Finally, I added the harmony vocalspanned half -left and half -right, andblended them with the lead vocal sothat everyone could be heard equally,yet no one was louder than the lead vo-calist. The harmony vocals required a


little low -end rolloff to compensate forthe proximity effect of the micro-phones, as well as a slight high -end roll -off to reduce sibilance (over -emphasisof "s" and "sh" sounds).

With the balance well underway, Iadded a little reverb to everything butthe bass and kick drum. The "smallroom" setting on the Alesis Microverbseemed to suit the music best because itwas recorded in a small club.

The kick drum was on the same trackas the rest of the drums. I wan ted to addreverb to all the drums except the kickdrum. lb do this, I rolled off the lowfrequencies in the reverb-return sig-nal. Since the kick drum is mainly alow -frequency signal, not much reverbwas audible on the kick drum.

I practiced the mix several times byhitting the zero return button on theFostex, playing the tape, and makingconsole adjustments. I made a cuesheet that noted fader changes occur-ring atvarious tape -counter times, andpracticed these changes. The record-ing levels were set to peak at +3 VUmaximum. EQ and reverb weretouched up.

Finally I was satisfied with the mix. Itsounded solid; every instrument andvocal was clearly audible; reverb en-hanced the recording but was not ex-cessive. The tonal balance was similarto that of good commercial recordingsplayed through my headphones. Dis-tortion was inaudible. The Fostexmulti -track contributed very littlenoise; more was added by the Revox 2-track-but the noise level was still ac-ceptable. By far the greatest source ofnoise was the rhythm -guitar amplifier.

Now I was ready to record the mix. Istarted the Revox A77 in record mode,then hit playon the Fostex multi -track.Following the cue sheet, I made faderand EQ changes as needed. The mix -down for the first song was complete.

Finally, I made a Dolby C cassettecopy of the master tape to play for theband. I was with the band when theyplayed the tape, which is fortunate be-cause their cassette deck and loud-speakers were inferior and needed alot of tonal adjustment to reproducethe tonal balance I had heard overheadphones. If possible, always carryyour own high -quality equipment withyou for playback-don't rely on thespeakers the band has available.

The band was delighted with thesound but unhappy with their per-formance. Consequently, they

couldn't use the tape, but they learnedfrom their mistakes-and called againfor another session. They found outwhich songs worked the best, and re-corded only those songs for their finaldemo tape.

After several weeks of listening to thedemo, one of the band memberswanted to completely re -do one song.In my home studio, he did a new bass

line, recorded over the harmonicatrack with a synthesizer, and added newbackup vocals over the old ones. Thenew production totally revamped thesong.

As we've seen, some home recordingequipment can be used to make a pro-fessional -quality demo, as long as careis taken at every step.

1989 Editorial Calendar

JAN/FEB db Looks at the Electronic Cottage going upscale!

A broadcast report on the Seoul Olympics

GUIDE: Speakers: performance & monitor

MAR/APR db Looks at the Sound Reinforcement Scene: theory,

layout, and construction

GUIDE: Power Amplifiers

MAY/JUNE db Looks at The Windy City

GUIDE: Consoles & Mixers

JULY/AUG db goes on tour with the Major Touring Companies

GUIDE: Tape, tape recorders and accessories

Microphones

SEPT/OCT db looks at the Boston Recording Scene

GUIDE: Signal Processing Equipment, Part I

NOV/DEC db Looks at The West Coast & Hawaii

GUIDE: Signal Processing Equipment, Part II

Studio Accessories

Nit

Sound Reinforcementin Central America and theCaribbean, Part II

Wednesday, November 25,marked our departure forEl Salvador. Our arrivaltime of 7:30 pm proved tobe a concern, however. The

country has been torn for years by anasty guerrilla war, internal politicalviolence, and terrorism. Travel fromthe airport to San Salvador, about 1/2 -hour away, could be dangerous, espe-cially at night: there have been casesof armed ambush. We were greetedby the heaviest security I'd ever seenduring my five years of USIA -spon-sored touring. Our group wasushered into a waiting armored vanas soon as we left the plane, anddriven to a VIP waiting area. PAO(Public Affairs Officer) Jake Gil-lespie and CAS (Cultural Affairs Spe-cialist) Beatriz de Cortez welcomedeveryone with drinks, snacks, and ashort briefing designed to calm ournerves. They were especially happy tosee me again, and the feeling wasmutual; I've always had a great timewith them.

I supervised collecting baggage andequipment, and our convoy was soonon the way into town. Convoy? Wewere accompanied by two jeeps withmounted machine guns, and each ofour armored vans contained an armedguard with an Uzi. It was pretty impres-sive; they even blocked intersectionsduring red lights so we never had tostop. A security guard was even as-signed to our floor at the hotel foradded safety.

A morning press conference for Donand the group was the major responsi-bility on Thursday. While this tookplace, Bea Cortez and I held our ownmeeting in the hotel lobby with mysound people. Bea had tried to hire thesame company that had handledWayne, but they were booked. In ElSalvador, the November -Decemberseason is a time for school proms,graduation parties, and general holidayrevelry, so it is extremely difficult tofind sound systems due to the increaseddemand for their services. 'flvo differ-ent contractors would handle our three

concerts. I outlined our needs, andhanded out stage layout diagrams andinput lists while Bea arranged for load -in times.

With business out of the way, we ad-journed to Jake's house, where we en-joyed a sumptuous Thanksgivingdinner with the Gillespie family. Theirwarm hospitality made for an enjoya-ble holiday respite, although the armedguards outside their home were asobering reminder about where wewere.

THE CONCERTS BEGIN

Friday's work began at noon, whenBea picked me up at the hotel anddrove me over to the Cine Presidente,site of our first Salvadoran concert.This theater/movie house was a hugespace, seating 1400; its plaster interiorand cavernous dimensions contributedto a reverb time of 2-1/2 seconds. Every-one was justifiably concerned aboutthe acoustics, and I made a mental noteto keep PA volume as low as I could soas not to overly excite the room. The PAsystem was a collection of Peavey andAltec components (Figure 1). TwoPeavey CS -800, one Peavey CS -400,

ED LEARNED

and a Yamaha P-2200 amplifier pro-vided power for the PA and the Yamahamonitor cabinets. A Peavey bass headwith separate cabinet was procured forBob. The a.c. was available from US -type receptacles on either side stagewall. The grounds on these receptacleswere not functional, and I measuredvoltage at 122, with ocrasional drops ofno more than 5 volts.

My house electronics package wascomprised of a Peavey MD -16 mixingconsole, DOD R-430 dual 15 -bandgraphic EQ, and a Digitech RDS 1900digital delay. Once I fired up the PA, Ifound some work was required tosmooth out system response. The lowfrequency cabinets were run full -range,while the horns were passively crossedover (via internal crossovers) at 800Hz. The range from 700 Hz -1.5 kHz inparticular was really hot, and I had toturn down amp sides feeding the lowend to even the relative balance be-tween lows and highs. Our concert wasan early one, scheduled for 6 pm so amovie could still be shown afterwards.The a ud ience of 800 was more reservedthan the wild crowds of Nicaragua, nodoubt due to the large diplomatic rep -

Figure 1. House left PA stack Cine Presidente, San Salvador El Salvador

resentation. I0 Joe McManus had metape the show using an excellent Revoxreel-to-reel deck; we enjoyed listeningto this tape at a post -concert receptionin our honor at the Gillespie's.

Saturday's concert was scheduled for5pm; Bea picked me up at 10:30 am,and we enjoyed a pleasant drive to theUniversidad Centroamericana. Ourvenue, the Jose Simeon Callas, was asmall auditorium seating 500. It was,unfortunately, another acoustical dis-aster area: the brick walls, the concretefloor, and the metal roof created a re -verb time of 2-I/3 seconds. I checkedpower, located on the stage right wall:US -type receptacles provided 117volts, but again the ground lugs werenot functional. Sound was due in at11:00 am, so we sat down to wait, andwait and wait! After Bea made a fewangry phone calls our equipment fi-nally showed up at 3 pm, and to makematters worse they did not have theproper complement of mic stands. Ap-parently, the company we'd hired hadover -booked itself, and was forced tosub -contract at the last minute. Theschool managed to locate a few extrastands for me, but there would be a fewmics taped to stands this day.

Figure 2 Houseleft PA stackJose SimeonCands, CentralAmerican Uni-versity, San Sal-vador.

The PA provided was substantial: itwas based around 2 15 -inch woofers, 212 -inch woofers, 2 mid horns, and 4tweeters per side (Figure 2). This sys-tem was tri-amped via a Rane AC -22crossover; a Crown MT -1200, 2 PeaveyCS -800, and a Peavey CS -400 providedPA power. Monitors were 2 Yamahawedges and 2 custom wedges, poweredby a Peavey M-2600 amplifier. Bob'samp -du -jour was an Ampeg head witha Sunn bottom. My mixer was a PeaveyMK -IV 16x8 monitor console, anIbanez GE -3100 I/3 -octave graphic(house), MXR dual 2/3 -octave graphic(monitors), and an Aria AD -05 analogdelay completed the house electronicspackage. All crossover sides and ampchannels were full up; my first task wasto back the high and mid levels down tobalance out overall system response. Aminimum of EQ was used to attenuatethe remaining problem areas. Despitethe long reverb time, the band feltmuch more comfortable here than atthe larger Cine Presidente.

The predominantly student audiencecompletely packed the place, even sit-ting in the aisles, which helped dry upthe room enough so I could mix moreaggressively. They also fired up the

band; no one could accuse this crowd ofbeing reserved (Figure 3)! Ed had theaudience clapping in time during hisdrum solo, and some improvised danc-ing by Don brought the house down!Many students stayed on afterwards forautographs and a chat with the group;they were very excited by what they hadheard, and several said they'd bringfriends to the concert tomorrow at theMet rocenter.

OUTDOOR VENUE

Who says that Tiffany is the only per-son touring shopping malls? Sunday'sconcert was an outdoor performanceat the largest mall in San Salvador. Weplanned to use a temporary stage lo-cated in one of the mall's large court-yards. Our 4 pm concert allowed fordaylight visibility, yet used shadowsfrom nearby buildings to protect theuncovered stage from the blazing sun.My first concern here was the stage: notonly was it too small, but it was treach-erously unstable. Bea and I managed tolocate the mall's director, who soonhad a team of carpenters at work ex-tending and reinforcing the stage (Fig-ure 4). While the finished stage was notthe sturdiest I'd ever seen, it was safeenough for our group to perform on.

The a.c. power came from a light poleabout 20 feet from the stage. My PAwasthe same system I'd used at the CinePresidente, with 4 bass bins and 2 hornsper side this time. The "mix point" waslocated about 60 feet from the stage,extreme house right, next to a tree forshade (Figure 5). I started playing pro-gram music about an hour before theconcert; this attracted quite a crowd. Byshow time, we had about 2000 peoplecrowding in the courtyard, coveringevery square foot of grass and sidewalk;they ran the gamut from holiday shop-pers to student fans. They loved thegroup; Don's composition, Art Deco, atribute to Billie Holiday, was a specialfavorite (Figure 6). Its infectious swinghad heads nodding and toes tappingeverywhere I looked. Don and Carlosplayfully threw some Christmas songquotations into their solos in responseto the holiday shopping mood.

MIAMI TO JAMAICA

We left San Salvador Monday,November 30, to return to the U.S. Ourtour, however, was far from over; wewere scheduled to connect with an AirJamaica flight in Miami after a three-hour layover. I spent some of this timefollowing our baggage transfer while

lbney arranged a clean office for Ed'sscheduled fluid change. We needn'thave rushed: our departure was re-peatedly delayed.

After a seemingly endless eight -hourwait, we finally departed for Jamaica at2 am Thesday, arriving at Kingston'sManley Airport as daylight broke.There were quite a few USIS staffersthere to greet us despite the early hour,as their boss CAO L.W. Koengeter, wasalso on our flight. Despite a chaoticbaggage claim area, we soon had ourstuff in hand, cleared customs withouta search, and drove into Kingston tothe Wyndham hotel. We were pleasedto discover that Ed's medical stockpilehad arrived and was already waiting inhis room. Thesday had been designatedas a rest day, and after our epic travelexperience on Monday, we needed it!

Wednesday morning involved a fullslate of radio and television interviewswith the group. I elected to stay at theWyndham to coordinate plans for ourfirst concert,which would be held in thehotel's ballroom. I was able to dictatestage size and placement, an importantconsideration since I preferred to"play" to the long dimension of thisrectangular room and enjoy a narrowercoverage angle. The ballroom seated500 in row after row of folding chairs.Reverb time was about 1-1/2 seconds,and I noticed no overt colorations.Electrical outlets were located on therear and side stage walls: US -type re-ceptacles provided grounded 117 volta.c. The PA equipment came in around4 pm; it was provided by the FabulousFive, a Kingston -area band.

One of the PA guys recognized me;he'd played keyboards for Rita Marleyat a show where I'd done sound. I guessmy world really is small. This PA wasbased on Carvin single and double 15 -inch cabinets for bass, a custom boxwith 4 12 -inch woofers for mids, and 2Carvin radial horns per side (Figure 7).The system was 3 -way electronic, usingan Ashley XR-77/12 stereo crossover.TWo Peavey CS -1200, 2 Peavey CS -800,and 1 Carvin DCA-800 rounded outthe amplifier complement for the PA

co and 4 Carvin monitor cabinets. Mixco0 electronics included a Carvin MX-,a) 1602 console, Yamaha SPX -90 and Ro-S land SDE-1000 digital effects, and a

Furman LC -2 compressor. The Carvin03console had internal graphic equaliz-ers that were used for PA and monitor

_oV EQ. The band had scattered during the

afternoon, so I got them to come downTrTr individually for sound checks.

Figure 3. The band performs at the Central American University, San Salvador.Don is playing on Carlos' flute mic.

EQUIPMENT SHARING

Dean Fraser + Friends, a jazz -oriented pop group, was our openingact for this concert; I arranged for Boband their bassist to share the bass amp,saving changeover time. Bob camedown for his sound check after they'dsetup, and totallyblew their minds withhis tuba playing; a short but sweet jamsession soon ensued. Our 8 pm concertwas enjoyed by a capacity crowd that in-cluded the mayor of Kingston andother Jamaican government officials. Ihad to mix the show cold because of ourfragmented sound check, but thingsquickly fell into place. After the con-cert, we all sat through 15 minutes of

speeches before tear -down com-menced. My last act was to arrange asystem for Friday's concert. The venuewas purportedly much smaller, so weagreed on a scaled -down system.

The group conducted a workshop atthe School of Music on Thursday,which was well attended and well re-ceived. Friday's concert was a specialmatinee show at the University of theWest Indies Creative Arts Center. I wasover at the school at 10 am to preparefor our 1 pm concert. The hall seated350, with the wood construction con-tributing to a pleasant room sound.The seats were steeply raked, and thehall was much wider than it was deep.

Figure 4. The view at Metro Center stage-my carpenters are busy extending andreinforcing it.

Figure 5. Mix point electronics, Metro Center. I had used the same rig at the CinePresidente.

My PA system here was 2 Yamahaspeakers, each with a 15 -inch wooferand a radial horn/driver. Power forthese was provided by a Yamaha 12 -channel powered mixer with internalgraphic EQ. These PA cabinets did notoffer enough horizontal dispersion to

cover the wide audience area, so place-ment became crucial.

The hall was so short that stage soundcould easily cam the back row; I

figured the center audience area wouldhear the group acoustically. I placedthe speakers out on the extreme edges

Figure 6. A close-up of Don andBob at Metro -center Ma14 SanSalvador. Notethe tuba mic inthe bell and anRE -20 for thepocket trumpet.

of the stage, panning them in slightly tocover the center/outside and outsideaudience areas that were furthest fromthe band's center stage position. Moni-tors also were problematical: therewere 4 monitor cabinets, 2 Carvins and2 custom boxes. Power was provided bya Crown DC -300A. However, one ofthe custom boxes had a blown woofer,the other a blown horn. With only twofully operational wedges, we had aproblem; I demanded that other equip-ment be provided, but after a fewphone calls it became obvious that thiswouldn't happen.

Timewas running short, so it was timeto improvise. I elected to use the twoCarvin wedges for Don and Carlos, asthey needed the most volume. Ed couldplay with no monitor, and since Boboften asked for less highs I gave him thewedge with no horn. I opened thiswedge and wired the woofer directly tothe input jack, bypassing the internalcrossover. This made the woofer full -range, and by boosting high frequen-cies on the graphic controlling this mix,I was able to get just enough high endfor Bob to be happy.

We only had about half a house for theshow, but they were more enthusiasticthan the packed house at the Wynd-ham. After the concert, a question -and -answer session about the musicwas held; two compositions evolvedout of this. Ed played an extended drumsolo that represented an encyclopediaof African rhythms, and the entirequartet came up with an improvisedreggae number, which had the crowdreally going.

Saturday was another free day; lbneyand I enjoyed it with a trip across the is-land to Ocho Rios, where we spent aleisurely day exploring the falls and re-laxing at the beach.

BIRD'S EYE VIEW OF THECARIBBEAN

Sunday, December 6, marked our de-parture forllinidad on BWIAs "islandhopper." We had a nice aerial tour ofthe Caribbean this way, but after our 8 -hour flight we were thankful to finallydisembark at Ti-inidad's Piarco Airportaround 10 pm.

Wewere met by PAO Mark Glago andAPAO (assistant PAO) Bob Dance.Mark knew Don from a previous tourin West Africa; he'd been instrumentalin promoting the quartet for a Carib-bean tour. After gathering the medicalsupplies and band equipment, we slidthrough customs and drove into Port of

co

Figure 7. The house -right PA stack Wyndham Hotel ballroom, Kingston,Jamaica. PA amplifier racks are visible behind and next to the PA.

Spain. Our hotel was the Holiday Inn;out two Trinidadian concerts would beheld in the hotel's ballroom. I made atrip to check it out with Bob Dancebefore I turned in; it was a rectangularroom with a very high ceiling. Therewas a permanent proscenium stage atone end, playing to the long dimensionof the room. Capacity was 600; thethickly carpeted floor helped damproom reverb to around 1-1/2 seconds.There were, however, some clearly dis-cernible early reflections.

Monday, December 7, started with aseries of media interviews with thegroup, including an appearance on theCommunity Dateline program ofTrinidad and 1bbago lblevision (IT1).The PA system was supposed to arriveat 2 pm; it didn't actually show up until4. This system, provided by John MoonSounds, was a three-way design. Perside, the PA included 2 double 15 -inchscoop -type bass bins, 1 double 15 -inchPerkins midrange, a JBL hortVlens, anda 90 degree JBL radial. These com-ponents were fed from a Furman TX -4stereo 3 -way crossover, Crown MT -2400, DC -300A Series II, and AmcronMT -1000 amplifiers provided PApower. A Ramsa WR-8724 console,Ibanez 3101 graphic EQ (house), TbacGE -20 graphic EQ (monitors), and anIbanez DM -1000 delay were providedfor front -of -house electronics.

Engineer John Moon was quite com-petent, and had the system soundinggood from the start. My only quibblewas with the monitor system, which was

comprised of only 2 TOA SL -15 cabi-nets. These were powered by a CrownD-75 amplifier run in mono. I gave thetwo TOAs to Don and Carlos; Ed againwent without one. My plan for Bob wasto demand an additional small wedgefrom John; this was run off the bassamp as an extension cabinet, posi-tioned on the floor pointing up at Bob.In essence, he would "mix" his ownmonitor. We had another local open-ing act: the Michael Boothman Kysofu-sion. This was a most interesting5 -piece band consisting of drums, bass,keyboard, tenor pan, and the band-leader on electric guitar. Their musicwas blend of pop/jazz with the calypsoand soca rhythms of Trinidad. BassistWayne Bonaparte agreed to share hisamp with Bob which was important be-cause Michael's electrified group hadlots of gear on stage; we needed tomake the set change as quick and pain-less as possible.

Due to the late PA arrival, time be-came a little short. After getting twobands' worth of gear on the stage, Mi-chael started to soundcheck. I diplo-matically but firmly insisted that wewould check first, and despite somegrumbling, I got my way. Bob and Ihung around afterwards to check outMichael's group; while they practiced,we talked a bit about effects. Bob ex-plained an idea he had for delay on thetuba during his composition Nonet:during his solo to open the tune, heasked that I fade in a delay long enoughso he could play along with himself, or

"layer" a series of notes. I gave him anumber of options as to time and re-circulation, and we agreed to try itduring this evening's show.

We enjoyed a receptive crowd of 400at our first Trinidadian concert. Mi-chael opened with a 50 -minute set; weplayed 90 minutes after a short inter-mission. The echo effect on Bob's tubasolo worked out OK, but I thought wecould go fora slightly longer delay time.Bob agreed, and gave me some helpfulhints as to where I might fade the effectin and out. We also had a band meetingto discuss the overall show.

A MIXED SET

Michael Boothman's band was veryelectric with a contemporary sound;Don Cherry's quartet was acoustic,with a musical approach new toTrinidadian ears. We felt it would bebetter to have the electric music followthe acoustic music: a transition fromsoft to loud is always better than theother way around, especially when thesoft music requires attentive listening.Michael had no problem with this, sowe agreed to revise the schedule. Wealso planned a "third set," which wouldinvolve both bands playing together ona number. This necessitated a rehearsalbefore Thesday's show. Both bandsrendezvoused at the ballroom around5pm, collaborating on Bob Stewart'sSurinam. While this was underway,John Moon and I reworked mic'ingand channel assignments to handleboth bands at once.

Bob and I experimented with our newdelay effect, and we worked out a musi-cal cue that would allow me to get theeffect out before the verse began.Thesday's audience was slightlysmaller, but they were treated to awonderful concert. Don played a beau-tiful version of John Coltrane's Naimaon solo piano; Carlos tore out a hardswinging alto sax solo on TheloniousMonk's Bemsha Swing. The delay onBob worked like a charm: I chuckled tomyself as I saw the startled audiencereact, wondering how he could playthat many notes! The combination ofgroups was an absolute smash, as theinfectious rhythm of Surinam had theaudience up and clapping along; manyin the back were dancing! Ed and panplayer Sydney Joseph locked up in adrum solo that epitomized islandswing. The hotel manager called it "thebest concert we've ever had!"

What's Missing ?

\ot Sttl, . theI )epr.......tuti HeS.) Mall% (-,111ple

'aided%e Kids

It's not db Magazine.

db Magazine is where it belongs-in the hands of the serious audioprofessionals who can make decisions about what products to buy.

db Magazine is as important in the studio waiting area as anoutdated issue of Time Magazine is in the dentist's office.

So, if you want a magazine that helps visitors pass the time of day, buythe other guy's magazine. But if you want your ads to reach thebuyers, put it in the hands of audio professionals...the readers of dbMagazine.

For your copy of the latest media information, write:

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LEN FELDMAN

co

LAB REPORT: TASCAM MSR-16 1 2 -inch 16 -Track Recorder/Reproducer

GENERAL INFORMATION

The MSR-16 is a high-performance 16 -track, 16 -chan-nel tape recorder that uses 1/2 -inch wide tape on 10-1/2 inchreels and operates at tape speeds of 15 in./sec. and 7-1/2in./sec. The recorder features 8 -bit microcomputer controlfor reliable tape operation. Each channel has its own 4 -bitmicrocomputer to control record in/out circuitry, allowinggapless punch-in/out. The capstan motor is a phase lockedloop servo type using a 9.6 kHz reference for precise tapespeed and control by all major brands of synchronizers. Mo-tion sensing logic provides smooth and fast transition fromone tape transport mode to another. The MSR-16 has threedifferent external control interfaces: a parallel port for con-nection of SMPTE/EBU based synchronizers, an RS -232Cport for serial synchronizers and a remote control port forTASCAM's RC -416 Remote Control unit that was suppliedto us for our tests as well. The MSR-16 automatically senseswhen it is under external synchronizer control, switching itsservo system between the external source or its internal in-

terface. Rack 16 is equipped with a sync lock feature that al-lows high quality time code or FSK signals to be recordedand played back without interruption.

A digital fluorescent tape counter is driven by a tachome-ter and displays the distance that tape has moved from a zeroreference point in minutes and seconds. The counter canalso display speed variation in percentages of normal speed.Pitch control provides a maximum speed variation of ± 15percent, both in record and playback modes.

Rehearsal and Auto -In -Out features permit automatedcontrol of punch -in and punch -out times without externalcomputer control. The rehearsal feature can program theMSR-16 to repeat a punch-in/out sequence as many times asyou wish before actually executing it on tape, during record-ing. The distance between the erase and record heads is auto-matically compensated for, so as to provide gapless inserts.In addition to a conventional return -to -zero function, thisrecorder is equipped with a two -point locator that also pro-vides a repeat playback over a desired segment of tape.

perAnco Response, Inseam 16816, R VU Record Level: 13 fps speed

5.6995.8989

0.6 0.9

-16.66 -16.6

-15.6

-20.60 28.6

-25.96 -25.6

-36.80291419 Lk 19k 2111-3"

Figure 1A. Frequency response at 15 in. /sec.

Figure 1B. Frequency response at 15 in. /sec. with dbx on.

Illorevon Response, Tosco. MiR16 Recorder. 7-1/2 fps. -10 dB VU Level19.60

S.-

0.6

-1111.M -10.6

-mg

-26.M -26.6

-25.6

-26.662,166 111 169 2611-36.1

Figure 1C. Frequency response at 7-1/2 in./sec., -10 dB W.

Figure ID. Frequency response at 7-1/2 in./sec., -10 dB VUdbx on.fruincv Response. Tosco.MSRli Recorder. 7-1/2 1ps. UULevolAbm ON

p

,

-16.66,

-15.98:

-26.60

-25.89,

-26.662,

'

1k 19Y 219-3e'6

Other features of the MSR-16 include LOAD, which pre-vents tape from running off either end of the reel; a SPOOLmode for uniform tape pack; various EDIT and spot erasefeatures; AUTO INPUT that facilitates communication be-tween studio and control room through the tape returns, andmore. dbx noise reduction is also incorporated.

CONTROL LAYOUT

Sixteen peak -level meters mounted above their associatedtrack selector push buttons register signal levels fed to theMSR-16's output connectors over a range from -20 to +8dB. The main power switch is at the lower left of the frontpanel, and next to it is the pitch control knob. Nearby is aselector for fixed, variable or external speed control and thespeed selector switch as well as the display mode button thattoggles the display between running time and deviation (inpercent) from normal speed. A sync lock switch optimizesthe recording of sync signals on track 16 wh ile turning off dbxon that track if it had been enabled. 'flwo dbx enabling but-tons come next (one for tracks 1-8, the other for tracks 9-16.)An Auto Input button, if depressed, switches the output ofthe tracks in RECORD READY mode to input during re-wind or fast forwarding, allowing the control room to hearthen talent through the tape monitor for communicationwithout having to change any settings on the mixer. Whenthe next button, ALL INPUT, is pressed, all channels' out-puts will carry signals derived from the input electronics, re-gardless of the transport mode. An "Insert" switchdetermines whether source or tape signals appear at the out-put of the tracks placed in the record -ready mode by 11-ackRecord buttons. The previously described "Edit" and"Spool" buttons come next, followed by the five familiartape transport buttons ("Rewind," "Fast Forward," "Stop,""Play," and "Record.") Additional pushbuttons above thesemajor transport buttons take care of such functions asmemorizing two automatic location points on a tape, findingthose points, and beginning tape play from those points. Re-hearsal and other buttons involved in punch-in/punch outactions are also found here, as is the "Load" button that in-sures that your tape will never accidentally run off the reelduring rewind or fast -forwarding. The dual function displayis also found in this right-hand section of the panel.

The rear panel is equipped with 16 pairs of input and out-put jacks. Surprisingly, these are simple, unbalanced RCAtype jacks, rather than XLR connectors. At the left of therear panel are the parallel and serial connectors conformingto SMPTE/EBU and RS -232C standards for linking varioussynchronizer/controllers. A special connector is also pro-vided for hooking up the TASCAM RC -416 remote control,which has a cable length of about 15 feet and duplicates all ofthe transport functions except pitch control, edit and spoolmodes. The RC -416 also provides the capability of program-ming punch -in rehearsal sequence, locating the MSR-16transport at specific locations stored in the two memory reg-isters, repeat playback of a selected portion of tape, andother functions. Indicator lamps on the remote control unitshow tape speed and speed mode.

Getting back to the rear panel of the main unit, there isalso a remote punch-in/out jack for connection of an op-tional footswitch and, of course, an a.c. IN connector for theseparately supplied a.c. power cord.

TOD Seise (X) versus Frequency, Tuscan MS1116. 13 ips, 0 dl UV Record LevelIS IS

/1r,

TOD Seise (70 versus Frequency, Toss. M2R1i, is ips, 0 dB VU Loyol, Sel

IS

0to

9.12,lee ik ilk 211106.1

Figure 2A. Distortion versus frequency, 0 dB VU level, 15in. /sec.

IND Noise (Xi versus Frequency. Tuscan MS216, 7-1/2 ins, AS dB USIS -10

,

SAN1k ilk 201S.1

Figure 2C. Distortion versus frequency, -10 dB VU level,7-1/2 in./sec.

Des tortion (z) versus recorded level (dB) Taints MR -16 IS Ips Speed

9'1-11.9 -1.1111 -6.00 -4.91 -2.19 9.9 2.999 4.909 6.990 1.111 10.95.

Figure 3A. Distortion versus recorded level, 15 in.lsec.

Figure 3C. Distortion versus recorded level, 7-112 in.lsec.

MistItion 1/.) versus recorded level (dB) Imam 10111-16 7-1/2 ins Speed

-11.9 -11.99 -6.99 -4

11.124198

. .1

. I ik

1 I

1 i

'

10k 21114"

Figure 2B. Distortion versus frequency, 0 dB VU level, 15in./sec., dbx on.

ND s Noise (7) versus Frequency. is caw MS211. 7-1/2 in 111 dl VU. 4. ONIS IS

Figure 2D. Distortion versus frequency, -10 dB VU level,7-1/2 in.lsec., dbx on.

Distortion 095

. . .

recorded level (AIM taso. 12 Ins Speed 4. OM

-3.90 9.0 Cies 10.90 211.0e

Figure 3B. Distortion versus recorded level, 15 in.lsec., dbxon.

Figure 3D. Distortion versus recorded level, 7-112 in.lsec.,dbx on.

Dsssorc ion Iv.) versus recorded level (dl) Taints MSS -it 7-1/2 ins, Alit ON3.

.v1p

9'1-28.8 -SAW cs SAms JOAO 16.2141 kikome

Interchannel phase error, (deg.),add t tracks, 15 Ip. Tama. 61111-161611.66 Lip

Interchannel phase error. (des.), tracks 1 and 14, Tascam 102 16 15 IM166.60 Ap

132..0

16.669

43.0611

6..

-311.6a

-133.0

-126.62, 1.6

........

I 1

+f I

! !

12

1 11

'41

! ;

1112 2112

Figure 4A. Interchannel phase with recordings on adjacenttracks.

Ider-and-, inseam 022-16 a 15 Ips Speed.1116116 Ap.10166

.6269

.676661

.04116111

.615660

AMMO

.6361116

.01610

" NANO'/:N.-CANS it is it ffig rf Y H. 1111 11 Mil El 11-11.1D

Figure 5A. Wow and flutter IEC weighted at 15 in./sec.

IABORATORY MEASUREMENTS

The MSR-16 has no input level controls and depends uponproper level being fed to it from the mixer with which it isused. In our tests, therefore, we had to adjust input levels ofthe generator section of our test equipment to meet theinput level requirements of the instrument. Note, too, thatthis 16 -track recorder/reproducer uses a single heads for re-cording and playback, so each test involved first making anappropriate recording and then playing it back while meas-uring and plotting the test parameters we were interested in.Figures 1A,1 B, 1C and 1D are plots of the frequency responseof this recorder/reproducer, using Scotch 250 tape. It shouldbe understood that response will vary depending upon thetape used, and the rise in response at the treble end of thespectrum is due to the fact that we did not use the specifictapes recommended by TASCAM in their owner's manualfor theses tests. Obviously, if one wanted to adjust bias andEQ, response could have been made flatter at the high endof the response curves. What is less dependent upon tapetype are the slight "bumps" in response at the low end of thespectrum. We purposely repeated the response measure-ments using dbx (Figures 1B and 1D, for the two operatingspeeds) to emphasize the fact that any deviation in responsewill be exaggerated by dbx or, for that matter, by any com-panding system. The lesson to be learned here is to make cer-tain your tape/machine combination yields as flat responseas possible before using dbx on this or any other machine.Overall, response was at least as good as claimed by TAS-CAM, and specifics are listed in the table of Vital Statistics atthe conclusion of this report.

133.661

70.009!

45.ass.

Figure 4B. Interchannel phase with recordings on tracks 1and 14.

Mow and -flutter, Taseam M511-16 AI 7-1/2 6,94 Speed.10900

.639999

.089919

.9,909

.066109

.95090

.04000

03009

.02009.

.916109

Apti

1

1e'e 2.666 3.000 'd616 11:66 13:66 12.1101 14:66 14 IMO 21:66 23 66 x5.61

Figure 5B. Wow and flutter IEC weighted at 7-1/2 in./sec.

lbtal harmonic distortion versus frequency for both oper-ating speeds (and with or without dbx) is plotted in Figures2A, 2B, 2C and 2D. While THD at 1 kHz was well withinspecs without dbx, the addition of that companding systemtended to increase THD at the bass and treble ends of thespectrum, as shown in Figures 2B and 2D. While it would ap-pear as though the 11 -ID exceeded specs at the slower 7-1/2in./sec. speed, these curves are plots of THD plus noise, andnot just THD alone.

Using a 1 kHz test signal, we plotted distortion versus re-corded level for all four operating conditions (both speedsand with or without dbx). Results are shown in Figures 3A,3B, 3C and 3D. These plots not only show how much "head -

Figure 6A. Crosstalk versus frequency at 0 VU, adjacenttracks, 15 in. /sec.

stalk (dB) weans Frootedep. Tam. 160-16, 6 dO VO. Rajas* t Iraalts-26.16

-26.60

-02.66

59.99

69.90

Ap

cn

Cre sssss M 1,111/ versus Frequency. Sesame 1151116 C al VU. 6.1J. Tracks, dim IC-29.09 /lp

Figure 6B. Crosstalk versus frequency at 0 VU, adjacenttracks, 15 in./sec., dbx on.

room" exists in the system, but also help us to determine the3 percent THD point, used later in determining the signal-to-noise ratios available for the various operating condi-tions. With dbx ON, the 3 percent THD point was reached ata level in excess of +18 dB VU at the 15 in./sec. speed and at+16.5 dB VU at the slower speed.

The latter's display LEDsmake it literally unnecessary

to be within sight of themaster unit to know exactly

what's going on with the tapetransport...

With our particular tape samples, A -weighted signal tonoise ratio measured 63 dB at the 15 in./sec. speed and 58dBat the slower speed. With dbx turned on, S/N increased to anincredibly high 109 dB at 15 in./sec. and to 105 dB at 7-1/2in./sec. We suspect that anyone will be willing to tolerate a bitmore harmonic distortion (introduced with dbx) if thosekinds of S/N ratios and dynamic range are made available bythis companding system.

Since the same tape head is used for recording and repro-ducing, we didn't expect to find much phase error betweenchannels. Nevertheless, we decided to measure this parame-ter for a pair of adjacent tracks as well as for a pair of tracksthat are far removed from each other. As Figure 4A reveals,there was negligible phase error between adjacent tracks.When the same test was made using tracks 1 and 14, (Figure4B) a very slight amount of phase error was noted at the ex-treme treble end of the spectrum. We would hardly consider

cr, a phase error of 25 degrees at 20 kHz to be worth worrying09 about.

a) Wow -and -flutter was plotted for a period of 30 seconds atS both operating speeds. We used the IEC weighted method and were delighted at the low wow -and -flutter figures ob-

tained: about 0.022 percent at the higher speed and even slightly less, 0.021 percent at the slower speed where we nor -.0v mally would have expected the wow -and -flutter to be some-

what higher. For all practical purposes, these levels ofto wow -and -flutter are inaudible.

Gra ssssss (.19) versus rreqUelley. Tascan 1101114 AB VU. Tracks 2 and 15-39.00

-30.09

-50.00

-MVOS

-70.199

-110.10

-MOW

-100.0

-119.9.

1211.0

Alp

Figure 6C. Crosstalk versus frequency at 0 VU, from track2 to 15,15 in.lsec.

At 15 in./sec., and without turning on dbx companding,crosstalk between adjacent channels measured -63 dB at 1kHz. However, as shown in Figure 6A, at lower frequencies,crosstalk was considerably worse, decreasing to only about -

40 dB at 60 Hz. Tinning on the dbx system improved thingsconsiderably, as shown in Figure 6B. Since the crosstalk ap-pearing in the unrecorded channel is at a low level, the actionof dbx compresses it downward even further, so that at nofrequency was the crosstalk any less than 50 dB and at 1 kHzit actually reached a level of -108 dB. The same sort of meas-urement was repeated for tracks that were far apart; tracks 2and 15. Under these conditions, as we would have expected,crosstalk was better than "70 dB over most of the audio spec-trum".

CONCLUSIONS

For the small studio that aspires to 16 -track capabilitiesbut doesn't have the small fortune needed for some of themore complex multi -track machines, this TASCAM unitoffers a great deal ofvalue. Of course, the fact that it is a two-

head machine does pose certain problems insofar as studioproduction techniques are concerned, but TASCAM hascompensated for that fact by making it extremely simple toreview, edit, a nd punch in segments. In fact, in many ways, thecomputerized control of so many of the functions of thismulti -track unit puts it ahead ofsome of the earlier machinesthat, while able to provide as many tracks, don't offer thesophisticated control provided by the MSR-16. TASCAMdoes make a 3 -head version of this 16 -track unit that iscapable of real-time tape monitoring, but that unit, as youmight expect, costs considerably more than this version.We operated the unit both by means of its front panel con-trols and using the RC -416. The latter's display LEDs makeit literally unnecessary to be within sight of the master unitto know exactly what's going on with the tape transport andthe current operating mode of the recorder/reproducer. Ashas nearly always been the case with TASCAM products, wefound the combined owner's/service manual to be completeand well -written, arranged so that the inexperienced usercan quickly gain familiarity with the operation of the unit.You'll probably want to check out the descriptions of themany useful optional accessories listed in the manual, too;everything from a MIDI -tape synchronizer to a console rackand even cleaning kits, bulk erasers and demagnetizers.TASCAM continues to serve the needs of the small studio inexemplary fashion.

VITAL STATISTICS

SPECIFICATION

Tape

Track FormatReel Size

Speed AccuracyPitch Control RangeWow -and -Flutter (DIN Wt'd)

15 in./sec.

7-1/2 in./sec.

Fast Wind Time (2400')Spooling Time (2400')

Nominal Input LevelMaximum Input LevelInput ImpedanceNominal Output LevelMaximum Output LevelOutput ImpedanceBias/Erase Frequency0 VU Record LevelPower Requirements 120V 60 Hz,

Frequency Response15 in./sec. (±3 dB, @ OVU)7_1/2 in./sec. (±3 dB @-10VU)

THD @ 1 kHz, 0 VUS/N ref. to 3% THD (A-wt'd)15 in./sec.7-1/2 in./sec.

Crosstalk (Adj. Channels)Erasure

General SpecificationsDimensions (HxWxD, in.)

Price, MSR-16RC -416 Remote

MFR'S CLAIMMechanical

1/2 inch

16-track/16-channel10-1/2 inch

±0.2%±15%

0.06%

0.08%

120 sec.

400 sec.

Electrical

-10 dBV+18 dBV50K ohms-10 dBV+18 dBV220 ohms145 kHz250 nWb/m

160W

Performance

40 Hz -20 kHz

30 Hz -16 kHz

0.8%

65 dB (108 dB*)60 dB (105 dB*)48 dB or more70 dB or more

18-3/8 x 19 x 11-9/16

$7499.00

$349.00

db MEASURED

Confirmed

Confirmed±0.13%

Confirmed

0.022%

0.021%

118 sec.

380 sec.

Confirmed+20 dBVConfirmedConfirmed+20 dBVConfirmed

N/A

ConfirmedConfirmed

32 Hz -20 kHz

20 Hz -16 kHz

See text

63 dB (109 dB*)58 dB (105 dB*)50 dB or better73 dB or more

Confirmed

* Measured with dbx companding on

RANDY HOFFNER

gaie40644 Atizo

Video 'Pape Audio

The professional video tape re-corder has been with us since the 1950s.For much of the history of thiswondrous device, a great deal of efforthas been expended on the optimizationof its video performance often to theneglect, if not the outright detriment,of its audio performance.

The venerable two-inch quad videotape recorder, which is still with us inspite of the television industry's massmigration to one -inch tape, was not aparagon of audio virtue, notwithstand-ing the fact that its origins may betraced to the audio recorder. The two-inch recorder's kinship to the audio re-corder may be seen immediately in thatits linear tape speed is 15 inches persecond, a standard audio tape speed.With few exceptions, the two-inch ma-chine has but one broadcast -qualityaudio channel which, while deliveringacceptable performance, could not beaccused of "pushing the envelope" ofhigh fidelity.

AUDIO FOR VIDEO

The one -inch Pipe C video recorderthat has become rather firmly en-trenched as the standard professionalvideo recording machine in the UnitedStates boasts three audio tracks, two ofwhich are well -enough matched to beused as stereophonic audio channels.The overall quality of audio channelson one -inch video recorders suffersfrom the fact that they are subservientto the machines' video requirements.Everything from the mechanical con-struction of the tape transport to thealignment of the magnetic particles onthe tape itself were designed to op-timize video performance. It must beborn in mind that at the time the one -inch format was created, audio, letalone stereo, was not the factor in tele-vision that it has since become. In viewof all this, the audio performance real-ized from one -inch video recorders is

actually better than might be expected,but there is little debate that the theyare presently one of the weaker links inthe television audio chain. Three-quar-ter inch video recording will not beconsidered in this discussion. Suffice itto say that the audiophile will not sheda tear for the imminent passing of thisformat.

Audio characteristics in need of im-provement fall into two general cate-gories: those that relate to audiofidelity per se, and those that relate tostereo, and thus mono compatibility.The first category includes distortion,noise, and headroom capability. Thesecond includes interchannelfrequency and phase response. Defi-ciencies in any and all of these parame-ters produce a buildup of errors fromgeneration to generation of dubbingwhich are cumulative in their effect onthe end product.

AUDIO SPECSTable I lists some published audio

performance specifications for a typi-cal widely -used and highly regardedone -inch machine. The signal-to-noiseratio is shown to be 56 dB below thelevel producing three percent distor-tion. The three percent distortionpoint is typically about 10 dB above thestandard one -inch audio referencelevel of 100 nanowebers per meter. Al-though actual testing will probablyyield a somewhat better noise figurethan this, an examination of these"guaranteed" specifications revealsthat if audio is recorded at a nominal"zero" level, there is about 10 dB ofheadroom for peaks, and a noise floor46 dB below the average recordinglevel. The noise floor rises about 3 dBfor each generational pass. Although10 dB may be just enough headroom toavoid serious peak distortion from tapesaturation, a minimum 15 dB of head-room would be preferable. Recall thatin our audio metering discussions itwas stated that program audio gener-ally contains peaks 6 to 10 dB above the

level indicated by a vu meter, and thatfor either a vu meter or a peak programmeter, the highest peaks present inaudio program material are around15 dB above line-up level.

Present-day audio distribution andtransmission equipment may be easilyexpected to have a dynamic range of atleast 60 dB, and often 70 dB or more.With this realization, it becomes ap-parent that the television broadcaster'saudio noise limitation lies in the videotape domain. Add to this a so-so distor-tion figure and wider than desirablefrequency response variations, and weare faced with a medium that couldstand some improvement.

IMPROVING PERFORMANCEOne way to effect some improvement

in the audio performance of one -inchvideo tape is through the employmentof a tape noise reduction system. Sucha system will contribute improvedheadroom and noise floor charac-teristics, as well as some reduction indistortion products. But there areother things to worry about.

Audio characteristics that relatespecifically to stereophonic perform-ance are interchannel amplitude,frequency, and phase response. Allthese affect mono compatibility, be-cause they affect the integrity of thesum signal produced by combining leftand right channels.

The interchannel phase problem is inthe final analysis one of differentialtime delays. Ideally, the azimuth of thegaps of a longitudinal audio head is ex-actly perpendicular to the linear mo-tion of the tape. If the head gaps areactually tilted with respect to the tape'stravel, one audio channel will precedethe other in time, introducing an un-wanted frequency -selective phasedifferential between correlated (iden-tical) material present on both tracks.When the two tracks are summed toobtain mono, this phase differentialwill cause frequency -selective cancel-

Table I

Typica 1 inchRecorder

Table II

M -II

Longitudinal

Table III

M -I1

FM

Frequency 50 Hz -15 kHz 50 Hz -15 kHz 20 Hz -20 kHz

Response +1.5, -3.0 dB +1.5, -3.0 dB +1 0, -2 0 dB

200 Hz -7500 Hz 200 Hz -7500 Hz

±1.0dB ±1.0dB56 dB below 55 dB below

3% distortion 3% distortion

Dynamic >72 dB

Range

Distortion <1.0% <1% (1 KHz) 0.6% (1 kHz)

Wow/Flutter <0.01% rms <0.15% rms 0.005%

Crosstalk -56 dB -50 dB -60 dB

Phase ±15° at 15 kHz ± 15° at 15 kHZ

Differential

lations of certain components of thesum signal. This problem often sur-faces when tapes are interchanged be-tween machines, and is cumulativefrom generation to generation. It isonly relatively recently that some man-ufacturers of one -inch video recordershave begun to provide a means forazimuth adjustment of their audiohead stacks. There are also devices onthe market that either manually orautomatically compensate electroni-cally for the audio time base errorscaused by azimuth misalignment.

In addition to such efforts to improvethe performance of the longitudinalaudio tracks of the one -inch video re-cording format, some completely newapproaches to audio recording onvideo tape have been developed.

An example of the future direction ofaudio recording on video tape is seen inthe M -II recorder. M -II is one of thetwo relatively new half -inch pro-fessional video recording formats.Along with component video record-ing, serious efforts have been to im-prove audio recording on M -II. Table IIlists the published specifications of thetwo longitudinal audio tracks of thisformat. Although the longitudinaltape speed is slower and the tracks arenarrower than those of one -inch tape,the use of metal particle tape and otherimprovements deliver basic perform-ance from these tracks essentiallyequivalent to their one -inch counter-

parts. These tracks additionally incor-porate Dolby C noise reduction, whichmaterially improves their dynamicrange, and gives them a significant per-formance edge over one -inch.

The M -II recording format also hastwo FM audio tracks. Table III liststheir performance specifications. TheFM audio tracks offer significant im-provement over longitudinal audio re-cording in dynamic range, distortion,wow and flutter, and crosstalk, and theyeliminate the potential for audio timebase (phase) errors that is an integralcomponent of longitudinal audio re-cording. On the down side, FM audio isrecorded along with the video signaland may not be edited separately fromit, restricting its usefulness in certainapplications. In those situations whereFM audio may be used, it offers a mate-rial performance advantage over longi-tudinal audio.

The M -II format and one of the one -inch recorders offer the option of twochannels of PCM digital audio. On thePCM one -inch machine, the digital sig-nal is time -compressed and recorded inplace of the sync track, a track which isusually used for recording several ver-tical interval lines that are missed whenthe video head makes its transitionfrom one helical track to the next and isactually off the tape. In the M -II re-corder with the digital audio option,the tape wrap around the headwheel isextended an additional 20 degrees, and

in this extra wrap a time -compressedPCM signal is recorded.

The M -II PCM audio option sacri-fices one longitudinal audio trackgiving this machine five audio chan-nels. The digital audio recorded issampled at 48 kHz and with 16 -bitlinear quantization, so a very high levelof quality may be expected. It should bepointed out that the digital recordingoption for M -II has been implementedfor machines recording in the PAL for-mat, but not for those operating inNTSC, and that very few machines in-corporating digital audio in either theM -II or one -inch formats have beensold.

Digital audio on videotape offers theultimate in audio performance, fullediting flexibility, multi -generationaldubbing without degradation, and theabsence of wow and flutter or inter -channel phase errors. All of the newdigital video formats, D-1, D-2, andD3, incorporate digital audio, as mightbe expected.

Although there are some problemsand compromises involved with re-cording stereo audio on video tape, sig-nificant improvements are being madein the traditional longitudinal audiotracks, and new, better methods ofaudio recording are producing evenbetter audio from video tape. It may beanticipated that the future will bringnothing less than excellent audio,andvideo, from video tape sources.

JOHN BARILLA

Tur- ri ri-.TfiriKiiin inr-ITTA rr-I I II_ 1_ 1_1_ 1_, I I\L i 1 1_, 1_, ii I 1 /-% 0 i_

HOT TIPS FOR THE HOME STUDIO

1. Getting A Wanner Sound FrontYour Microphone.

So you can't quite afford an upscalestudio microphone just yet. Until youcan buy the real thing, here's a way toget a warmer, more expensive soundfrom almost any decent microphone.All you need is a programmable signalprocessor (something in the league ofYamaha's SPX 90 will do just fine).More expensive mics tend to do nicethings with the harmonic structure ofthe input signal-a most critical factorwith the human voice. This is especiallytrue of tube -driven condenser micro-phones. Whether the result is accuracyor flattery is a debatable issue, but itsure sounds good.

Some of this effect can be simulatedquite nicely by radically adjusting theparameters of an Early Reflectionstype program on your signal processorand subtly mixing it in with the mic sig-nal. To try this, select (if you can) a"natural" algorithm from the Early Re-flections menu (something like a"room," rather than a "random" or"plate" type sound). Then adjust theparameters so that the "size" factor and"hardness " factor (reflectivity) are assmall as possible. If there is any pre -delay, remove it. In other words, makeit into a very small, acoustically deadroom. Then, boost the level of the "firstreflection" so that it totally dominatesthe program-something like 85 per-cent. Mixing this in with the mic signalwhile recording will give a new warmthto your microphone and add increasedintelligibility to your vocal sound.

2.MakingA "Running Master."No matter what format you mix down

to, it always pays to make a safety copyin order to preserve the quality of youroriginal master tape. If you are makinga cassette run-say forty or fifty copiesof your studio demo for promotional

purposes-you may blow some of thatprecious oxide right off your masterbefore you're done. Highs seem todiminish first, leaving you with a mixthat lacks the original luster it oncehad. So play it safe and make a second-ary running master.

Making a running master has manyother benefits besides preservation ofyour original. Just as a mastering en-gineer tweaks the sound for a record orCD, so can you tweak up your mix andprint it to your running master. Then,when you make your tape run, you canjust patch it in with as short a wire aspossible and forget about it.

Here are some obvious and some not -so -obvious things to do when you aremaking your running master. If youstudy your mix on different speakers,you may find that a certain amount ofequalization may be indicated. Lim-iting is also helpful in creating a "hot"master (maximum signal-to-noise).Using an aural exciter may also perk upyour mix a bit. Beyond these obviousthings, it is also possible to rehabilitatean ailing mix by adding a little extra re -verb or echo. (You don't have to tellanybody what you had to do to get yourtape to sound so good. Just do it andkeep it to yourself.) Almost anything isworth trying at this stage if it actuallyimproves the sound and does not add asignificant amount of noise. It can be abit of a trade-off at times. The balancepoint is, of course, up to you.

An acceptable medium to record arunning master is a metal cassette withDolby C or dbx. You will find the levelof quietness with that combination tobe quite acceptable. Just make sure youuse a brand of tape that is compatiblewith your cassette deck. It does make abig difference. You can sometimes findthis out from the manual that camewith the unit or by calling the manufac-

turer. (If you know how to do an align-ment on a cassette deck, then do it forthe tape of your choice. Otherwise findout which tape the manufacturer usedfor its initial calibration and stick to it.)If you take a little time to make a goodrunning master, it will save you lots oftime later on when you need multiplecopies. It will also preserve the integrityof your original master tape.

3. Two For One: Stereoization of AMonaural Track

Ever run out of tracks? (No, not you,right?) How about tracking some diffi-cult background vocals for severalhours and wishing you had time todouble it all. But alas time (or money)runs out.

Artificially synthesizing a stereodouble can really do the trick, if it'sdone properly. Here's how it's done.Pan the "real" track radically to oneside. Then split the signal in that chan-nel (using a "mult" on your patchbay ora "Y" cord) so that a parallel signal canbe fed to a delay line of some sort. Re-turn the delayed signal-only thedelay, not a mix-to a separate channelhard -panned in the opposite direction.Set the delay time to achieve the maxi-mum stereo separation, but don't let itsound sloppy. Usually short notesbenefit from shorter delay times (40-100 ms.), whereas longer flowing lines(string pads etc.) usually require longerdelay times (100-250 ms. or so) in orderto be perceived as stereo.

Changing the timbre slightly (on thesynthesized track) with EQ will alsohelp "convince" your ears that they areactually hearing a stereo image.

Got any brilliant ideasyou would like toshare with db readers? Tell us aboutthem. While we can't guarantee thatyouridea will end up in print, if it does, we willacknowledge who sent it to us. a:

THE SOUND ENGINEERING MAGAZINE

BUYER'S GUIDE

CONSOLES AND MIXERS

On the pages that follow, we present this issue's Buyer's Guide on consoles and mixers. The informationsupplied is furnished by the respective manufacturers. Further, if a manufacturer you seek is not listed, thechances are strong that as many times as we tried we could not get information from them.

ALLEN & HEATHSR series is a low-cost mixer designed for sound reinforcement and 2 and 4 track recording. They are available in fiveconfigurations ranging from an 8x2x1 through a 24x4x2x1. Features include four -band EQ and 4 aux. sends per inputchannel, 2 additional FX return sections.

CMC SERIES has a 16 -bus in line format designed for "home recording " Bus assignment and mute functions are undermicroprocessor control. With external software these functions can be controlled from SMPTE time code.The CMC 24 canaccept up to 40 inputs, the CMC 32 can have 56.

Scepter 12 -channel, 20 -input rack mixer features Alps faders, direct outputs on all input channels. Balanced outs areprovided on a left, right, and mono channels. Separate mono and stereo tape outputs are also provided.

Sigma consoles are 24 -bus in -line consoles with input configurations up tc 56 inputs. Each module can process 2 separateinput signals, microprocessor -controlled MIDI muting is standard, EQ is 5 -band, there is 8 knob aux. send into a maximumof 32 buses. Full patch -bay systems are also available. The console ranges from 16x16 to 56x24.

consoles are designed specifically for 8, 16 and 24 tack recording and sound reinforcement. All versionsinclude microprocessor controlled MIDI muting of all inputs. Input channels include 4 -band EQ with switchable high- andlow -frequency ranges and 2 bands of mid sweep plus high-pass filter ng. Aux. sends include 6 buses, all recording versionshave 16 -channel tape monitoring. 24 -channel tape monitoring as well as patch bays are available.

SRC Modular Series is an advanced version of the SR series with Alps Glass Smooth faders and fully modular design.Modules can be intermixed and include stereo input, fixed frequency EQ, sweepable EQ. A rack -mount power supply isstandard.

SRM Monitor Mixers are available in 18 or 24 input configurations. This series is designed specifically for on-stage monitorapplication. All units include a built-in splitter and road case.

System 8 is a recording console but can also be configured for scund reinforcement. It is 8 -bus for 8 and 16 track recordingor MIDI recording. All versions have Alps faders, direct outs on all input channels and 16 channels of tape monitoring thatcan also be used as additional FX inputs when used for sound reinforcement. Configurations are 16 or 24 input. EX7 is anoptional 8 -input expander.

ALTEC LANSING CORPORATION231A is a sound reinforcement mixing console with 12 mic/line inputs. Inputs may be mixed into 4 sub -mix channels, directliinto the stereo mic and into the monitor, effects or auxiliary mix channels allowing a variety of simultaneous mixes to becreated.Price:$5,276 00

1678C is a sound reinforcement automatic microphone mixer with 8 mic inputs (2 can be line inputs). Rack mount. Patentedgain sharing principle holds total system gain constant automatically. Xfmr balanced inputs and output, priority, mute, TTLlogic, linkable.Price:$3,376.00

1692B is a sound reinforcement mixer/preamplifier with 6 mic inputs (2 can be line inputs) and 2 main outputs. Rack mount.Switching is provided to assign any input to either output or both. Output VU meters, xfmr balanced inputs and outputs,tone controls, link.Price:$1,790.00

1699B specs are similar to 1692B except for 1 main output and weighs 12 lbs. Can be used to extend the 1692B.Price:$1,330.00

0)

1689A is a sound reinforcement mixer/preamplifier with 2 mic/line inputs and 1 main output. Rack mount. Xfmr balancedinputs and main output, unbalanced line output for each input, linkable, tone controls. Single rack space.Price:$798.00

1700B is a sound reinforcement mixer/preamplifier with 6 configurable ports and 1 main output. Ports can be made intobalanced inputs or balanced outputs. Rack mount. Built-in compressor/limiter, tone controls, linkable, automatic priority,mute, RVC.Price:$852.00

AMEK/TAC (TOTAL AUDIO CONCEPTS LTD.)Bullet is a 10/4/2 modular free-standing or rack -mounting multi -purpose console with hard busing system, hybrid circuitry, 15segment LED metering, 4 -band EQ with swept mids, 6 aux. send buses with 4 stereo returns.Price:$4250.00

SR9000 Superconsole is for sound reinforcement and has 42 input modules (each with 2 mic and 1 line input), 16subgroups, 8 VCA groups, 8 mute groups, 16x8 matrix, fully parametric 4 -band EQ, swept HP filter, 16 aux. sends, in -placesolo feature and 24 -channel extender option.Price:$83,215.00

Angela 24 -bus in -line recording console comes in three chassis sizes, 24 to 62 inputs. Features include: on -board orexternal jackfield, 4 -band semi -parametric EQ plus HP and LP filters, 6 aux. sends, 6 aux. returns and has extremelyflexible/comprehensive routing possibilities and automation options.Price:$40,471.00-$99,664.00 plus automation

Classic broadcast and general audio reproduction console is of a modular design and flexibility allows it to be configured tofit most applications. With 4 -band EQ, swept HP and LP filters, 8 aux. sends, balanced busing, optional dynamics, optionalmulti -track monitor modules, this console offers automation options, including the GML moving fader system.Price:$75,000.00-$170,000.00 plus automation

G2520 studio/post-production 24 balanced -bus in -line console has 24 to 68 inputs for 24, 32 or 48 -track operation. Featuresinclude: 4 -band fully parametric EQ and swept HP and LP filters switchable separately into the channel or monitor path,master status switching, 8 aux. sends, 8 stereo aux. returns, 2 stereo cue sends, plasma metering, optional dynamicsmodule. Automation options include GML moving faders.Price:$120,846.00-$439,261.00 (with GML)

Mozart multi -track recording console features 32 balanced buses, 32 to 80 inputs, in -line or all -input type modules (or acombination), integral switch grouping computer for user -configurable master status switching, 4 -band semi -parametric EQ,HP and LP filters, 16 aux. sends, 12 stereo returns, 4 floating patchable stereo faders, and is available as standard with theAMEK Supertrue automation system. System is optionally available with GML moving fader automation.Price:84,971.00-$397,231.00

APC1000 assignable production console has up to 128 all -input type modules, 48 -bus. Channel switching and routing is allunder the control of a central assignment keyboard. Three automation computers work separately and simultaneously:Recall (knob positions), Reset (switch settings), and GML moving faders. Synchronous Rest recalls switch settings againsttime code. Optional dynamics modules also come under automation control.Price:$301,975.00-$587,110.00

AMS INDUSTRIES INC.UA8000 is a music recording and mixdown console. It has a minimum of 32 channels, a maximum of 72 channels, filtering,4 -band parametric, compressor, limiter, and AMS/Calrec TASC automation.Price:ranges from $150,000 to $300,000

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'M' Series Virtual Console System is an assignable computer controlled broadcast TV/video production console with up to128 channels, 8 stereo groups, 4 stereo outputs, 24 recording groups and 16 auxiliary groups. Other features includefiltering, 4 -band parametric EQ, optional compressor/limiter/expandelgate per channel, and automation with total instantreset of all settings plus moving faders.Price:$100,000 and up.

Logic 1 Digital Audio Mixer for music broadcast production applications, integrates with AMS AudioFile Digital Workstation.10 channels with full EQ and compression per channel. Features include full dynamic touch sensitive automation with instantreset and linear motorized faders.Price:depends on configuration.

Edit 1 Digtal Mixer has 10 channels with 4 -band EQ and assignable dynamics RAM memory can hold 99 console settings.Price:$40,000

ARIES AMERICAApollo recording console is a fully modular console available in 16, 24, and 32 input mainframes. An 8 -channel expanderunit is also available. All Apollo consoles have balanced mic and line inputs, switching on all inputs, inputs offer 8 aux.sends and 4 -band high and low mid sweep EQ with selectable shelving points.Price:16x8x16-$11,950.0024x8x16-$15,950.0032x8x16-$19,950.008 -channel expander-$5,450.00

Astrid series is a sound reinforcement console that is fully modular. This series is available in 24 and 32 input mainframes.An 8 -charnel expander unit is available. All Astrid consoles have balanced mic and line inputs, 8 aux. sends and 4 -bandhigh and low EQ with selectable shelving points and a sweepable mid -range.Price:24x8x2-$13,950.0032x8x2-$17,950.008 -channel expander-$5,450

16 -track recording console features electronically balanced mic inputs with 20 dB pads available. Equalizers are +/- 14 cBswitchable to 60 or 120 Hz, sweepable from 350 Hz to 7 kHz, and switchable from 6 kHz to 12 KHz. There are 8 -groupoutputs and 16 monitor/FX returns -8 with 2 -band EQ. There are 4 aux. sends per channel, switchable pre/post. Available witheither 16 or 24 inputs.Price:16x8x'6-$6,895.0024x8x' 6-$8,595.00

Mix -Rack has the performance and sound characteristics of the 16 -track console with the added flexibility of a rack mount.The basic unit comes with 10 -inputs, 4 -output buses and 8 -monitor returns. It allows mixing of 18 channels on mixdown, 14of them with EQ. A rack mount expander is available offering 14 additional inputs for a total of 32 channels on mixdown.There are 4 aux. sends, a 3 -band EQ with sweepable mid -range and switcnable high and low frequencies.

Price:$3,450.00Expander-$3,250.00 (14 channels)

AUDIO LOGICSC -610 is a rack mounted 7 -input by 1 -output mic/line mixer. It has 4-mic only inputs, 2-mic/line inputs with phantom power,a 1-aux. input with clipping indicators on each input, is one -rack space high, and has a master level control with bass andtreble -.one controls and a 6 LED headroom indicator.Price:$450.00

SC -611 is a rack mounted, 7 -input expansion module for the SC -610. It has 4-mic only inputs, 2-mic/line inputs withphantom power, and 1-aux. input with clipping indicators on each input, is one -rack space high, and conveniently cascadesinto the SC -610 via mix bus inputs and outputs to add additional input capabilities to the SC -610.Price:

$400.00

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AUDIO-TECHNICA U.S., INC.AT4462 is a stereo field production mixer. Its features include 4 -input channels, 1 and 2 mono pannable, 3 and 4 true stereoon a dual concentric central, headphone with cue system, phantom power, slate tone and mic, limiter adjustable (mono orstereo) built in IFB system, 3 -tone oscillator, low cut on all channels, switchable, level warning system in operator phoneswhen approaching clipping. Has Cordura- carrying bag.Price:$1,395.00

BIAMP SYSTEMSMAXXAM is a line level mixer with 8 standard input channels and 8 stereo input channels. Other features are: 4 sends, 4stereo returns, no channel EQ, patch insert points on each channel (stereo inserts on stereo input channels). Front panelswitch interrupts main outputs to allow return bus number 4 to act as a 2 -track tape return for tape monitor, or for playingrecorded break music in a live set up.Price:$1,699.00

RACKMAX is a 16 -channel input rack mount mixer. Features include 48 -volt phantom power switchable on each channel,100mm faders, complete solo system, 3 -band EQ and 3 sends per input channel, LED ladder metering. Available is andoptional Integral Digital Reverb with 16 programs, including digital readout and control.Price:$2,099.00with IDR-$2,349.00

883RX is a compact mixer with 8 inputs. The output section is organized into main, monitor and two submasters. Featuresinclude 3 -band EQ on each input, 10 -segment switchable LED ladder metering, floating and balanced outputs, 4 transistordiscrete front end, phantom power is standard, rotary faders. Optional IDR.Price:$1,099.00with 1DR-$1,349.00

Legend Series are modular, inline recording consoles available in models ranging from 12 to 32 inputs and from 8 to 24submasters in two frame sizes. Features include 3 -band semi -parametric EQ with true shelving filters on high and low filter,12 -segment high intensity LED meters on every channel, fully switchable, complete control room and studiocommunications, playback and tape monitoring systems, 48 -volt phantom power switchable on each channel, 100mmfaders with Penny & Giles 3220 conductive plastic faders optional, stereo monitor send and 4 effects/cue sends.Price:2016-$ 8,599.003216-$13,499.003224-$13,999.00

CARVIN CORPORATION -See our ad on Cover IIIMX842 is a stereo powered mixer designed for sound reinforcement and multi -keyboard applications. It has a stereo 400watt MOSFET amplifier, stereo effects loop, dual graphic EQs.Price:$749.00 sold directly only.

MX1222S is a stereo sound reinforcement/performance console with 12 input channels and 800 watts of internal MOSFETpower. It also features 3 -band EQ, 2 monitor sends and 1 effects send per channel and patchable graphic EQs.Price:$1499.00 sold directly only.

MX1644 is a recording/sound reinforcement console with 16 -input channels and 4 sub groups. Its features include 4 -bandchannel EQ, 4 aux. buses, 2 effects returns.Price:$1995.00 sold directly only.

MX2488 is a recording console with 24 inputs and 8 sub groups. Features include 3 -band parametric EQ, 4 aux. buses, 2effects.Price:$3995.00 sold directly only.

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DOD ELECTRONICS CORPORATIONR 855 is a rack mounted, 4 -input, stereo output mixer, one -rack space high, with pan pots, headphone output, master levelcontro , an effects send/receive loop, and a clipping indicator.Price:$279.95with XLR-$299.95

ELECTRO-VOICE8108 is a rack mounted mono mixer with four outputs

8208/8212/8216 are 2 -bus 8, 12, or 16 channel sound reinforcement consoles. Features include equal headroom in allstages, gain -calibrated level controls for visual check of mixer input stages, transient performace not slew -rate or powerbandwidth limited under any operating conditions from 20-20,000 Hz.

8408/8416/8424/8432 are 4 -bus sound reinforcement consoles with 8, 16, 24, or 32 inputs. Features include rear -panel micinputs inc uding 48 V phantom power, channel patching and output jacks on each input panel, flourescent bargraphmetering, talkback, panning, solo, and subgrouping.

BK832/BK1232/BK1632/BK2432 are stereo sound reinforcement consoles with 8,12,16, and 24 inputs, with 4 outputs.Features include channel insert send and return, input trim, high, mid. low equalization, panning, PFL assign, LED-bar levelmeters, subgroup patching send and return left and right phantom power, sub, main and monitor output master faders.

FOSTEX -See our ad on Cover II260 Multitracker is a 4 -track cassette mixer/recorder with 6 inputs. It has independent stereo bus, 2 mono buses, 3.75in./sec. tape speed, Dolby C, parametric equalization, and true rolling punch -ins.Price:$1,195.00

160 Multitracker is a 4 -track cassette mixer/recorder with 4 channel simultaneous recording and accessory patch points.Price:$840.00

X-30 is a 4 -track cassette mixer with Dolby B and C noise reduction. The mixer section is 4x2 dedicated sub -mixer foroverdubbing and bouncing tracks.Price:$499.00

460 is a multi -track cassette mixer capable of synchronization with video recorders. The mixing section contains 8 inputs, 4bus outputs, dedicated stereo mixer for the 4 -channel bus, selectable monitoring, switchable LED bar graph metering andaccessible patch points for flexible system interface. The recorder section features true 2 -speed transport (separaterecord/equalization circuits for 1.87 and 3.75 in./sec.), Dolby B and C noise reduction, 2 -position autolocate, search to zero,auto repeat and SMPTE/EBU synchronization capability.Price:$2,495.00

FURMAN SOUND, INC.Rackmount mixers MM -4A and MM -8A feature four inputs, mono (MM -4A) or stereo (MM -8A) outputs, pan pots on eachMM -8A input, effects bus with send and return jacks, stereo aux. inputs with RCA jacks and level control, low-cut buttons oneach input (-3 dB at 100 Hz), master fader, headphone amp with front panel jack and volume control. This is a compactutility mixer for sound reinforcement or recording use. "-B" models have balanced ins with both phone and XLR connectorsand miciline switches. "-BP" models are the same as "-B," plus 48 -volt phantom powering on all inputs and phantom powerswitch.Price:$335.00 (MM -4A)$375.00 (MM-4AB)$405 00 (MM-4ABP)$395.00 (MM -8A)$435.00 (MM-8AB)$465.00 (MM-8ABP)

GOTHAM AUDIO CORPORATION (AUDIO DEVELOPMENTS, LTD.) -See our ad on page 4

AD 160 is a mono engineering mixer with the following features: 3 mic inputs, 1 line input (all are balanced), 1 line output(balanced), limiter on line output, phantom/A-B powering on mic inputs, 1 kHz oscillator, talkback mic, VU or PPM meter,monitor output, battery or a.c.(with optional a.c. adapter).Price:$1,765.00

AD 260 stereo engineering mixer is the same as above with the following differences:4 mic/line inputs with pan pots, 2 line outputs, 2 limiters on line output (linkable for stereo), 1 stereo aux. input.Price:$2,500.00

AD 145 Pico mixer has 4-8 mic/line inputs with pan pots (all are balanced), 2 line outputs (balanced), 3 -band equalization oneach input, phantom/A-B powering on mic inputs, 1 kHz oscillator, talk back mic, monitor output, cue input. Battery or a.c(with optional adapter)Price:$4,400.00 to $6,775.00

AD 062 multi -mixer has 4-16 mic/line input modules with pan pots (balanced), 2 line outputs, 3 -band equalization on eachinput, phantom/A-B powering on mic inputs, auxiliary send on each input module. Options include stereo line input moduleto replace mic/line input module, dual auxiliary return module, communications module, stereo compressor/limiter module.Standard features include monitor level, selector controls, master auxiliary sends, A + B mixdown, battery or a.c (withoptional a.c. adapter).Price:$6,000.00 to $20,000.00

HILL AUDIO INC.Multimix is 16 channels in a rack and can be used as a 16x4x2x1 or 12x4x2x1 or 16x2x1 console. With 16 mic/line inputs, 4subgroups, 3 -band EQ with defeat, direct outputs on all channels, 2 auxiliary sends (expandable), 100mm faders, 48 -voltphantom power, 4 RIAA equalized inputs, this console is designed for recording, broadcast or sound reinforcement.Price:$2399.00

Soundmix is a semi -modular console available as 24x4x2x1 or 16x4x2x1. Designed for recording, broadcast or soundreinforcement, features include: 16 or 24 mic/line inputs, 4 subgroups, 4 auxiliary sends, 4 auxiliary returns, 4 -band EQ,100mm faders (Alps or Noble), 48 -volt phantom power, direct outputs on all channels and subgroups, insert points on allchannels, subgroups and masters, PFL system, and 12 segment LED display on subgroups and masters.Price:$4499.00 (24 -channel Noble faders)$4999.00 (Alps faders)$3499.00 (16 -channel Noble faders)$3899.00 (Alps faders)

Stagemix is a 12x6 rack -mount monitor console with a 12 -channel zero splitter (built-in), 12 transformer balanced inputchannels with 3 -band EQ, peak LEDs, PFL system and individual channel mutes. Other features include 6 transformerbalanced output channels with 4 -band EQ and EQ defeat, individual output mutes, 12 -segment LED display, PFL and AFLsystem, TRS effects loop and the console is color coded for ease of operation.Price:$2999.00

Remix is a 24x8x16x2 console designed for 8 or 16 -track recording or sound reinforcement as a 24x8 console with 8 effectsreturns. Features include 24 mic/line input channels with peak LEDs, 8 subgoups, 16 -track monitoring, 6 auxiliary sends,tone oscillator, 2 -track return, 4 -band EQ with sweepable mids, 16 tape returns with EQ and aux. sends, direct outputs andinsert points on all inputs, subgroups and masters.Price:$8999.00

Concept 200 and 400 Series are sound reinforcement and recording consoles. Available from 16x8x2 with an 8x8 matrix to56x24x48x2, these consoles feature patch bays, Alps or P&G faders, 3 -way speaker select, 2 types of EQ available (6 -bandwith sweep filter or 4 -band sweepable), 8 or 12 auxiliary sends using dual concentric or 4/6 sends switchable to 8/12,programmable mutes, A&B 2 -track returns, d.c. controlled subgroups.Price:To specification

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INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH PRODUCTS, INC.DE -4013 automatic microphone mixer has modular construction in 2 -channel increments. Its features include: up to 12inputs in a single chassis, tandem connected chassis allows addition in 12 channel increments, 12V phantom power,level-matic AGC. Auxiliary output and chairman override are standard.Price:$3,395.00 (12 channels)

DE -4018 is the same as DE -4013 but includes DE -208 TEQ 9 -band transversal equalizer module. 10 channels in singlechassis before tandem connecting others.Price:$3,546.00 (10 channels)

DE -4014 is a mixer with 4 -microphone input channels plus auxiliary line level input and auxiliary output. 12V phantom pcweris optional.Price:$1,467.00

DE -4016 s the same as the DE -4014 but with remote control via DE -207 remote control box. Remote functions are individualchanrel sensitivity and master gain control. DE -207 box includes ten feet of cable terminated with an amphenol 165-9connector.Price:$1,860.00

DE -4024 is the same as the DE -4016 but includes both auxiliary gain control on both front panel and remote box. Auxiliaryoutput is the mix of gated microphone inputs 2, 3, and 4 plus standard (ungated) microphone input 1 plus the auxiliary nput.Price:$1,920.00

DE -4025 is the same as DE -4024 except the auxiliary output is a mix of standard ungated microphone inputs plus theauxiliary input.Price:$1,920.00

INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH INDUSTRIESPM -1600 is a 16 channel stereo mixer with 2 built-in power amps (400 watts/285 watts), built-in 2/3 -way crossover network,and built-in digital effects.Price:$2195.00 (factory direct)

INNOVATIVE ELECTRONIC DESIGNS, INC.4000 automatic microphone mixing system is a modular, rack mount, automatic mixing system which allows customconfigurations and programmable gain control. Each frame can hold up to 8 cards creating 32 inputs and offers optionalcomputer control for room combining, and channel on/off.Price:On request

MITSUBISHI PRO AUDIO GROUPSuperStar recording console has dual in -line I/O modules, 44 to 84 inputs, and 32/64 centrally assigned mixing buses. Thereare also 16 auxiliary send buses, 2 stereo outputs, modular bolt together aircraft frame, field expandable, optional meteroverbridge for peripheral and in -line devices, with VU, or 60 segment LED bargraph meters. Selectable top panel plug-inequalizers, selectable top panel plug-in preamplifiers, selectable plug-in VCA. Audio, VCA, automated and intelligent digitalfaders are all standard as are Compumix PC automation, 20 Mbyte, moving fader automation, 30 Mbyte.Price:$139,000.00 to $354,000.00

Westar 8000 recording console has dual in -line I/O modules, 20 to 52 inputs, 24 mixing buses, 8 auxiliary send buses, 2

stereo outputs, a modular bolt together aircraft frame, field expandable, and VJ, or 60 segment LED bargraph meters.Selectable top panel plug-in equalizers, selectable top panel preamplifiers, selectable plug-in VCA, Audio, VCA automatedand intelligent digital faders are all standard, Compumix PC automation, 20 Mbyte moving fader automation, 30 Mbyte.

Price:$70,000 00 to $225,000.00

Westar 8300 film re-recording console is available in 16 to 72 inputs. Features include: 8, 16, or 24 mixing buses, 10 auxiliarysend buses, 3 -channel pan bus, and a 2 -channel pan bus film monitor system with 8x4 to 24x8 matrix select systems withdedicated monitor format buttons, recorder and bus/film pushbutton control panel(s) 8 to 24 tracks, reassign, transfer key,and mono and stereo composite modules, multi -track pre -dub input modules, a modular bolt together aircraft frame, fieldexpandable, VU, or 60 segment LED bargraph meters, selectable top panel plug-in equalizers, and selectable plug-in VCA,Audio, VCA, automated and intelligent digital faders are standard as are Compumix IV film automation, 85 Mbyte, 1 to 4sections, moving fader automation.Price:$89,000.00 to $600,000.00

NEVE"V" series console is an automated "flying fader" multi -track recording console for the music, video post and film industries,available in 36, 48, 60 or 72 inputs, including the Formant Spectrum Equalizer, mic/dynamics unit and 8 mono/4 stereoauxiliaries. Additional benefits include a centrally positioned monitor path status indication to enable rapid console statuschecks and choice of metering options.

DTC (Digital Transfer Console) for compact disc mastering and is used for the preparation of compact disc master tapes,the unit also provides total digital mixing and processing capabilities. All console parameters can be instantly reset underSMPTE control, also permitting the user to select or mix either of 2 stereo digital inputs and 1 stereo analog input withmanual or auto crossfade from AES/EBU or 1610/1630 inputs to compatible outputs.

8232 console for TV production, post -production and multi -track recording has 32 mic/line input channels with 24 mixingbuses and optional stereo reverb returns. Each channel features the Formant Spectrum Equalizer, 4 mono auxiliary sendsand 1 stereo cue send, and is "flying fader automated."

542 console comprise a range of small compact audio mixing consoles for broadcast and post -production applications.With 8, 12 or 16 input channels and 2 playback inputs, the console provides 2 main stereo program outputs with a monofacility, 2 auxiliary outputs and a comprehensive stereo/mono monitoring system.

Necam 96 is a computer -assisted moving fader automation system that is also available for fitting to non-Neve consoles,controlling up to 96 faders, and instinctive mixing, completely free grouping, unlimited mute groups, intelligent rollback. Itkeeps the pass as a virtual mix for review or update. Auto merge and merge -off-line capabilities.

Prism series is a range of rackmount units derived from the V series console comprising a 4U 19 -inch rack with capacity for10 modules that may be powered from an existing console or by a 2U power supply. The 2 modules are the FormantSpectrum Equalizer and the mic amp/dynamics unit comprises compressor/limiter/gate/expander.

PANASONIC/RAMSAWR-S852 house sound reinforcement mixing console contains the following features: 52 mic/line inputs, all inputs andoutputs are balanced, 8 groups, 8 aux. groups, L/R master, 8x10 matrix, 4 -band sweepable EQ and high-pass on inputs,300,000 operation, 100mm MRP faders, discrete design using hybrid ICs.Price:$33,000.00

WR-S840F stage monitor mixing console contains the following features: 52 mic/line inputs, all inputs and outputs arebalanced, 18 discrete monitor mixes (18 outputs), 4 -band sweepable EQ and high-pass on inputs, 300,000 operation,100mm MRP faders, discrete design using hybrid ICs.Price:$35,000.00

WR-8428 production/post production mixing console is also suited for sound reinforcement. It contains the followingfeatures: 28 mic/line or stereo inputs, separate 24 -input tape monitoring, 4 groups, 4 aux. groups, L/R and mono master, 4x8matrix, 3 -band sweepable EQ and high-pass on inputs, 300,000 operation, 100mm MRP faders, discrete design using hybridICs.Price:less than $20,000.00 depending on configuration.

co WR-8616 production/post production mixing console is also suited for sound reinforcement. It contains the followinga),_ features: 16 mic/line or stereo inputs, separate 16 -input tape monitoring, 4 groups, 4 aux. groups, L/R and mono master,(1) 3 -band sweepable EQ and high-pass on inputs.

Price:less than $11,000.00 depending on configuration.

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WR-T820B 8/16 -track recording mixing console contains the following features: 20 mic/line inputs, separate 20 -input tapemonitoring, up to 48 separately mixable inputs for mixdown, 8 groups, 4 aux. groups, L/R master, 3 -band sweepable EQ and

high-pass on inputs.Price:$8,500.00

WR-S216 sound reinforcement mixing console has the following features: 16 mic/line inputs, last two inputs accept mic orstereo source, 'NB" (L/R), effect, monitor, send and mono master outputs, 3 -band EQ (mid-sweepable) on inputs.Price:WR-S216-$2,700.00WR-S212-$2,200.00 (12 -input)WR-S208-$1,600.00 (8 -input, rack mount)

WR-133 sound reinforcement mixing console has the following features: 8 mic/I ne inputs, LJR, effect, monitor, mono masteroutputs, 2 -band EQ on inputs, rack mount option.Price:$1,200.00

WR-M10 sound reinforcement/music rack mixer has the following features: 4 mic/line inputs, 2 stereo inputs and each stereoinput can select 4 different sources for a total of 8 stereo inputs (2 are RIAA phono), automatic music mute on page(defeatable), LJR, effect, mono master outputs, 2 -band EQ on mic inputs, 2 -bard EQ on left and right master outputs.

Price:$900.00

PEAVEY ELECTRONICSMark VIII sound reinforcement console is available in 24 and 36 channels. It also has the following features: 8 submasters, 8

aux. sends, 4 -band sweepable EQ, 8 outputs with LED output level indication, 3 -band EQ on aux. returns, stereo L/Routputs, totally modular design.Price:To be announced

Mark IV sound reinforcement console has the following features: 16 and 24 input channels, four submasters, mono (sum)output, transformer balanced inputs and outputs, 2 -monitor sends, 1 effect send, PFL, 4 -band active EQ, built-in heavy dutyflight case.Price:$2,499.00 (16 -channel)$2,999.00 (24 -channel)

Mark III sound reinforcement console has the following features: 16 and 24 input channels, 2 submasters, mono (sum)output, stereo, transformer balanced inputs and outputs, 2 monitor sends, 2 effects sends, PFL, 4 -band active EQ, built-inheavy duty flight case.Price:$1,999.99 (16 -channel)$2,499.99 (24 -channel)

MS 2421 sound reinforcement console has the following features: 24 channels, stereo and mono outputs, 3 -band active EQwith sweepable mid, 2 monitor sends, 2 effects sends, four 9 -band graphic EQ (patchable), electronic crossover, built-in

delay, PFL, two submasters.Price:$2,699.99

MS -1621 has the same features as the MS 2421 but only 16 input channels.Price:$2,099.99

SRC -421 sound reinforcement console has the following features: 16 -channels, 4 submasters, stereo, 3 aux. sends (oneswitchable); 3 -band EQ with sweepable mid, LED output level indication, channel patching, PFL, 4 outputs.

Price:$1,699.99

MD -11 sound reinforcement console is configured in 8, 12 and 16 channel inputs. Its features include 2 submasters, stereo,1 monitor send, 1 effects send, 3 -band EQ with sweepable mid, LED output indication, PFL, channel patching, dual outputs.

Price:$749.99 ( 8 -channel)$949.99 (12 -channel)$1,1149.99 (16 -channel)

701 R rack mountable sound reinforcement mixer includes the following features: 4 -band active EQ, 7 input channels, stereoL/R outputs, sum output, 1 effects send, 1 monitor send, LED output indication, channel patching, transformer balancedinputs and outputs.Price:$649.99

SECK (JBL PROFESSIONAL PRODUCTS)SE1882 is a recording console, 18 -channel mixer with track select, monitor section with 3 aux., 1 pre, 2 post fader aux.,3 -band EQ with mid sweep, solo switch, stereo bargraph meter, headphone sockets.Price:$3,475.00

SE1282 is the same as the SE1882 above except 12 -channel mixer.Price:$2,650.00

SE62 is a 6 -channel live mixing console with balanced mic and line inputs, individual channel insert points, 3 -band EQ withmid sweep, panning, solo control, stereo bargraph meter, 4 aux. sends, headphone level control, twin headphone sockets.Price:$1,095.00

SE122 is the 12 -channel mixer version of the SE62.Price:$1,675.00

SE182 is an 18 -channel live mixer with the same features of the SE122 above plus 48-V phantom power.Price:To be announced.

SE 242 is the 24 -channel version of the SE182.Price:$3,275.00

SHURE BROTHERS, INC. -See our ad on Cover IVM68A and M68-FCA have male XLR inputs and female XLR inputs respectively and are designed as a general purposeaudio mixer. Features include four mic input channels (each switchable for high and low impedance, aux. level input, mastervolume control, and high and low impedance outputs).Price:$220.00

M268 is designed as a general purpose audio mixer with 4 transformers coupled low -Z mic inputs and 4 high Z 1/4 -inchphone jack inputs, aux. input, switchable phantom power, mix bus, peak indicator and master volume control.Price:$300.00

FP31 is a compact field production audio mixer with the following features: 3 inputs, 2 outputs each switchable for mic orline level, VU meter with lamp, adjustable limiter with LED indicator, tone oscillator, built-in slate tone and mic tone and mic,headphone jacks, battery or a.c. power, phantom and A/B power.Price:$990.00

FP32 is a compact stereo field production audio mixer, a stereo version of the FP31. It includes all FP31 features pluscenter-detented stereo pan pot for each input channel and concentric clutched stereo master gain control.Price:$1,350.00

M267 is a field production audio mixer with the following features: 4 transformer -balanced inputs, switchable limiter, phantompower, VU meter, headphone jack with level control, LED peak indicator, tone oscillator, mic/line switches on each input andoutput, low-cut switches on each channel, battery or a.c. power.Price:$520.00

FP42 is a stereo version of the M267 and includes all the features of 'he M267 plus stereo pan pots for each channel andconcentric clutched master volume control.Price:$990.00

FP51 is an audio mixer/compressor with the following features: 4 trarsformer-balanced inputs, 1 output, gated -memorycompressor, phantom power, tone oscillator, pull pot cuing, 1/4 -inch and mini headphone jacks with level control, low-cutfilter switches, dual range VU meters, a.c. or battery power.Price:$940.00

Prologue 200M is a general purpose audio mixer with the following features: 4 XLR inputs, mic and aux level outputs, on -offswitch with LED indicator.Price:$117.00

SOLID STATE LOGICSL 4000 G series master studio system is a multi -track music record,ng and mixing system available with 24 to 72input/output channel, full dynamics processing and G Series EQ. Also G Series Studio Computer and Total Recall TM.Price:On request

SL 5000 M series audio production system is a stereo broadcast, on -air, continuity and post -production system based on amodular cassette structure. Up to 96 channels, accepts G Series Studio Computer, Total Recall TM and Instant Reset TM.Price:On request

SL 5000 M series film post -production system is a modular, cassette based film console system, available in configurationsfor ADR/Foley, premixing, music scoring, final mix, video post -production, and multi -operator film dubbing. Up to 96channels, optional moving fader automation, accepts G Series Studio Computer, Total Recall TM and Instant Reset TM.Price:On request

SL 6000 G series stereo video system is a stereo music, video and teleproduction system with 24 to 72 input/outputchannels, full dynamics processing and G Series EQ. Also G Series Studio Computer and Total Recall TM automation.Price:On request

01 Digital production centre is an integrated digital audio recording, mixing, and editing system, including digital dynamicsand EQ. Includes edit suite, 8 -channel mixes and hard disc store. Suitable for stereo program mastering, production andpost -production.Price:On request

Screensound is a digital audio editing, mixing and recording suite fcr video and film post -production, with full VCR/VTR andfilm reproducer interfaces. Pen, tablet and monitor display user interface, 6 -channels, optical disc and hard disc stores.Quantel Harry TM interface.Price:On request

SONY COMMUNICATIONS PRODUCTS COMPANY, PROFESSIONAL AUDIO DIVISIONMXP-3056 VF audio recording/remixing console is intended primarily for use in recording studios. It has 56 -channels wnichallows for interfacing with the Sony PCM-3348 digital audio multi -track recorder. Each input/output module features modularequalizers and mic/line pre -amplifiers. The Audio Group Master (AGM) function allows for audio grouping on the ACN busas well as conventional in -line operation.Price:up to $190,000.00 depending on configuration

MXP-3036 VF is designed with a vacuum fluorescent (VF) light meter that displays various selectable scales including VU,BBC Peak, Din Peak, Nordic Peak and a d.c. scale. This d.c. scale ndicates fader position in the automated version of theMXP-3036 VF. The automated version includes Version 2.0 software and optional wild faders that permit a user to increasethe number of effects in a mix.Price:up to $110,000.00 depending on configuration

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MXP-3000 series also has the MXP-3036 and the MXP-3040 in addition to the two consoles mentioned above. Featurescommon to all models include user configureable with a choice of 5 different equalizers, 4 different mic pre -amplifiers and ahard disc automation.Price:MXP-3036--up to $99,000.00 depending on configurationMXP-3020-up to $40,000.00 depending on configuration

MXP-2000 series audio consoles includes the MXP-2016 (featuring a 20 -module frame size), MXP-2026 (featuring a30 -module frame) and MXP-2-36 (up to 40 -module frame size). These consoles are designed for broadcast andpost -production applications. Features include 2 independent stereo outputs, 4 stereo internal monitor inputs and videoeditor, interface capability.Price:MXP-2016-up to $17,500.00 depending on configurationMXP-2026-up to $25,000.00 depending on configurationMXP-2036-up to $35,000.00 depending on configurationMXP-29 is an 8 -channel audio mixer. It can be controlled from the Sony BVE-900 editing control unit. Features include trimcontrol for each balanced mic/line input, built-in 3 -band EQ and VU meters with 15 segments of LEDs.Price:$3,849.00

MXP21 8 -channel audio mixer is designed for audio -for -video applications. It features built-in 3 -band EQ and low-cut filter, aswell as 2 -way operation (a.c. or external d.c. 12V).Price:$1,899.00

MX-P61VU is a 12 -channel audio mixer. It is equipped with 12 mic/line inputs and 4 line outputs. Features include: built-in 1kHz test tone for precise level setting, high -cut and low-cut filters for convenient bandwidth limiting, and a.c./d.c. operation.Price:$10,675.00

SOUNDCRAFT ELECTRONICS (JBL PROFESSIONAL PRODUCTS)TS12 is a 24 -track in -line recording console with each channel having electronically -balanced mic/line preamps, 4 -bandparametric EQ and 6 aux. sends with source selection. Each group module includes separate stereo effects return. Can befitted with TS12 Automation System. VU or LED metering optional.Price:range from $33,100.00 to $51,100.00

6000 is 16- or 24 -bus recording console with optional MIDI computer retrofit. Each input has 6 independent sends and4 -band EQ with 2 sweepable mids. Features include PFL and true solo -in -place, low crosstalk routing matrix, silent electronicmuting. Consoles available in 16-56 inputs.Price:ranges from $16,300.00 to $40,300.00

8000 is a live console featuring 48 -band parametric EQ, 8 aux. sends, direct routing, VCA subgrouping, LED input meteringor three-way panning option for theater use. Consoles range from 16- to 40 -channel inputs.Price:ranges from $18,785.00 to $41,500.00.

200B is a recording consoles with balanced lin/mic inputs, assignable input channels directly to the four subgroup busesand stereo mix bus. Four aux. sends selectable as pre-EQ/pre fader, or post fader. Has 48V phantom power, individualchannel inserts, balanced left/right output separate with control room output.Price:ranges from $2,575 to $10,370.00

SOUNDTRACSERIC production console is a 24 bus split configuration digitally routed console with a high analog specification that isavailable in 32, 40 and 48 input sizes. It has the following features: software controlled features which include routing,muting, mic/line switching, PFL, in place solo, and record ready function (facilitating automated drop ins), all may be syncedto time code in addition the 24 groups duplicate the line inputs providing up to 72 inputs for mixdown.Price:starts as $175.00.00

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In line series contains a 32 bus console primarily suited to multi -channel recording with functional facilities for mixi.,g. Dualline inputs are provided in addition to a mic on each channel which contains 8 aux. sends, 6 mono and 1 stereo. Mastermuting facilitates the pre-programming of 2 groups of channel mutes. Mix noise is better than -82 dB. Patchbay is standard.Price:$71,499.00 36 input (loaded)$80,799.00-48 input

PC series MIDI mixer is an "in -line" mixer available in 16 and 24 input conf gurations with 16 or 8 bus outs. It includes MIDImuting on all inputs, monitors, masters, and auxiliaries, which may be p'ogrammed or written in real time or as up to 100patches. Dual line inputs enable effects to be returned to the channel allowing up to 56 channels on remix. External functionallows changing of MIDI patches on remote equipment from console.Price:$8,299.00 PC 16/16$10,799.00 PC 24/16

Trackmix is a stand alone fader and mute automation system for up to 64 audio channels, using retrofittable dbx VCAs. Pourfader modes are available, record, playback, trim and isolate, allowing each channel to be in any mode at any time. Mixinformation is held in RAM for optimum speed and may be automatically or manually saved on 3.5 -inch floppy disc.Price:starts at $19,500.00

STUDER/REVOXC279 mixer is for remote recording. It features 6 inputs, mono balanced mic, mono balanced line, stereo unbalanced line, 2outputs plus direct outputs, 2 -band EQ.Price:$2,799.00

961/962 is for remote recording and broadcast production. Features include up to 16 inputs, 4 master outputs, 2 aux. inputs,an optional editor interface is available, 3 -band EQ on each input, compressor/limiter on outputs. A variety of meteringoptions are available.Price:ranges from $13,000 to $21,000

963 is a recording console available with 16 to 56 inputs, up to 8 subgroups, 2-4 masters, 3 -band EQ on each input,compressor/limiter on outputs. Alternate input modules, metering, monitor mixers, and machine remotes are available.Price:ranges from $44,000 to 90,000.

970 is a 9-24 input console specially configured for radio/TV on -air production. There are 2 stereo outputs and mono sum,3 -band EQ on inputs and compressor/limiters on outputs. Alternate metering options are available.Price:ranges from $22,000 to $40,000

900 series consoles can be configured for on -air TV, production use, or multi -track recording. Features included 12-60 inputswith 3- or 4 -band EQ, mono or stere inputs, stereo master, GML or Audio Kinetics or Studer VCA automation is available,outputs have compressor/limiters.Price:$80,000 and up.

SUNNMX4100 Series stereo sound reinforcement mixing console is available in 8, 12, and 16 -channel versions with 3 -bandchannel EQ, 2 aux./eff. sends, phantom power, gain and pan control.Price:MX4108-$749.99MX4112-$949.99MX4116-$1,119.99

MX4200 Series stereo sound reinforcement mixing console is available in 8, 12, and 16 -channel versions with 3 -bandchannel EQ, 3 aux./mon. sends with pre -post assignments, gain and pan controls dual in/out channel patch, cue, phantompower.Price:MX4208-$1,099.99MX4212-$1,299.99MX4216-$1,599.99

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PX2100 Series stereo powered sound reinforcement mixing console is available in 8, 12, and 16 -channel versions with 250wattsx2 at 4 ohm, 3 -band channel EQ, 3 aux./mon. sends, dual in/out channel patch, dual 10 -band graphic EQ.Price:PX2108-$1,549.99PX2112-$1,749.99PX2116-$1,999.99

TASCAM, TEAC PROFESSIONAL DIVISION -See our ad on page 3M-700 Recording/Production console contains the following features: 40 -channel I/O console, 32 groups, quad (dual stereo)mix buses, 12 aux. send buses (2 stereo, 8 mono), 4 -band EQ, high/low sweep, mid high, mid low parametric, variablehigh-pass filter, 3 group mutes, integral patchbay and producers desk, automation ready.Price:$69,999.00

M-600 Series modular recording/production console contains the following features: 16 group, stereo mic modular consolethat may be configured with any combination of mono or stereo input modules, and a choice of single or dial monitormodules. It has 4 -band EQ, 8 aux. send buses, 2 -dedicated effects returns. Minimum configuration is 16 mono inputs with16 tape returns. Maximum configuration 32 stereo inputs with 32 tape returns. Third party automation available.Price:$9,999.00 to $27,000.00

MM -1 Keyboard mixers has 1 stereo line input, and 16 mono line inputs each with a trim control with 40 dB of gain. There isincluded 2 -band EQ on each channel, small rack mount or table top operation, 4 effects sends, 4 stereo returns, direct outson each channel, individual channel mute and solo, group mutes through 99 scene presets, MIDI control of individual andgroup muting.Price:$1,099.00

M-06ST Compact mixer has 6 stereo line input channels, 2 -band EQ, 1 aux. send bus, 8 mic inputs, RIAA EQ on line inputs1 and 2, 1 effect return.Price:$499.00

M-200 Series PA/recording consoles are compact 1 group stereo mix consoles with 8, 16, or 24 -input channels, 3 -band EQ,2 aux. send buses, 3 effect returns, PFL and full monitoring. M-208 and M-216 have 8 tape returns. The M-224 has 16 tapereturns. The M-208 can be rack mounted.Price:$1,199.00 to $2,599.00

M-3000 Series recording/PA consoles are a compact 4 group stereo mix consoles. There is a choice of 8, 12 or 20 -inputchannels, 8 tape returns in the dedicated monitor section, separate mic/line trim controls, 3 -band EQ, 4 aux. send buses, 2effect returns, full solo system with AFL or PFL, phantom power.Price:$2,999.00 to $4,599.00

M-500 Series recording/PA consoles are 8 group stereo mix consoles with a choice of 12 or 20 -input channels, 16 tapereturns in the dedicated monitor section, 4 aux. send buses, 3 -band sweep EQ, individual mic/line trim controls, separatesolo and PFL controls, individual channel and aux. mute controls.Price:$4,499.00 to $6,999.00

YAMAHA MUSIC CORPORATION OF AMERICA, PROFESSIONAL AUDIO DIVISIONPM3000-24/32/40C Series is available in 24, 32 or 40 inputs and has the following features: 8 group buses, 8 aux. buses(each pre/off/post) and separate stereo bus, VCA assignable grouping with 8 submasters with automation interface, 8 busmuting master system with safety override. The XLR inputs are differentially balanced with 34 dB trim and 5 position pad foroptimizing gain structure. There is also a 4 -band parametric EQ with variable high-pass filters on each input plus 2 -band EQon the 4 stereo aux. returns, a 11x8 mix matrix, insert point selectable in/out on each input, extensive cue and solo system,a comprehensive talkback system with full intercom capability, VU metering, phantom power individually selectable on eachmic input.Price:PM3000-24-$33,500.00P M3000-32--$38,500. 00PM3000-40C-$44,500.00

0

PM2800M-32/40-C series is available with 32 or 40 inputs and the following features: 8 group buses, 4 aux. buses, signs:assignment for the input channels via level control, 8 master mute groups with mute assign switches, 4 matrix mixes withlevel for all 8 channels, stereo L & R level and master. The XLR inputs are differentially balanced with 34 dB trim and3 -position pad for optimizing gain structure. There is also a 4 -band parametric EQ with variable high-pass filters on eachinput, extensive cue and solo system, comprehensive talkback system with full ntercom capability, VU metering system,phantom power individually selectable on each mic input.Price:PM2800M-32-$31,500.00PM2800-40C-$36,000.00

M916 has 16 inputs, each switch selectable to mic or line. In addition there is 3 -band, 9 frequency EQ with post insert jacks,11 mix buses -2 program, 2 foldback, 2 echo, 4 mix matrix and 1 cue. 5xe- mix matrix= x, cue switch on each input forpreview/solo via headphones, headphone feed is stereo in PGM and mono in echo/foldback, 5 illuminated VU meters withpeak overload, switchable to indicate stereo program, matrix foldback, echo, and cue levels. The main input/outputs aretransformer -isolated XLRs, and there is switchable phantom power on each mic input.Price:$6,595.00

DMP7 dicital mixing processor has all digital mixing and signal processing w,th analog inputs/outputs. Features include 3onboard DSPs (Digital Signal Processors), digital 3 -band parametric EQ on each channel, preset memories: 32 internal, 67external via supplied RAM cartridge, motorized multi -function faders. digital stereo output compressor, MIDI control of presetchanges and parameter manipulations, 4 bar-grapn meters and LCD parameter read-out. A digital cascade input/output 'tiesmultiple units together.Price:$4,225.00

DMP7D digital mixing processor has all digital mixing and signal processing with digital inputs and outputs, 3 on -boardDSPs, digital 3 -bank parametric EQ on each channel, preset memories: 32 internal, 67 external via supplied RAM cartridge,motorized multi -function faders, digital stereo output compressor, MIDI control of preset changes and parametermanipulations, 4 bar -graph meters and LCD parameter read-out. A digital cascade input/output ties multiple units together.Price:$5,995.00

DMP11 digital mixing processor has all digital mixing and signal processing with analog inputs/outputs, 2 on -board DSFs,digital 3 -band parametric EQ on each channel, preset memories: 32 internal, 67 external via supplied RAM cartridge, dicitalstereo output compressor, MIDI control of preset changes and parameter manioulations, 4 bar -graph meters and LCDparameter read-out. A digital cascade input/output ties multiple units together. This unit is a rack mount size.Price:$2,395.00

M406 sound mixer has among its features: 6 channels, with 3 -band EQ and 6 -position input level controls, high gain (84 dB)for full output, stereo program output with L & R master controls, echo/effects send bus with master send control, 2 effectsinputs, each with level and pan control, dual illum.nated VU meters with peak indicators, right VU meter and headphoneoutput switchable to monitor program or echo output, rack mountab e with front panel power switch.Price:$1,375.00

MC1204/1604/2404 series is available with 12, 16 or 24 inputs. It has the following features: 4 program mix buses, 2 effectsbuses, 2 foldback buses and a cue bus. Each input features a pad, gain control and peak LED for precise gain matchirg.There is also 4 -band EQ with the two mid -bands featuring quasi -parametric control, foldback 1 and 2, and ECHO 1 and 2strappable re/post EQ, channel ON (mute), is post cue for proper cue mcnitoring, complete talkback system, illuminated VUmeters, each with peak LEDs, phantom power available for mic inputs.Price:MC1204-$2,695.00MC1604-$3,295.00MC2024-$4,395.00MC2404M-$4,395.00 (stage monitor)

Allen & HeathFive Connair Rd.Orange, CT 06477

Altec Lansing Corporation10500 W. RenoOklahoma City, OK 73128

Amek Systems and Controls10815 Burbank Blvd.N. Hollywood, CA 91601

AMS Industries, Inc.PO Box 31864Seattle, WA 98103

Aries America22122 S. Vermont Ave.,Unit ETorrance, CA 90502

Audio LogicSee DOD Electronics

Audio-Technica US, Inc.1221 Commerce Dr.Stow, OH 44224

Biamp Systems14270 NW Science ParkPortland, OR 97229

Carvin Corporation1155 Industrial Ave.Escondido, CA 92025

DOD Electronics5639 South Riley Ln.Salt Lake City, UT 84107

Electro-Voice600 Cecil St.Buchanan, MI 49107

ADDRESSES

Fostex15431 Blackburn Ave.Norwalk, CA 90650

Furman Sound, Inc.30 Rich St.Greenbrae, CA 94904

Gotham Audio Corporation1790 BroadwayNew York, NY 1 001 9-1 41 2

Hill Audio Inc.5002 N. Royal Atlanta Dr. #BTucker, GA 30084

Industrial Research Products321 Bond St.Elk Grove Village, IL 60007

Industrial Strength Industries13042 Moore St.Cerritos, CA 90701

Innovative Electronic Designs9701 Taylorsville Rd.Louisville, KY 40224

Mitsubishi Pro Audio Group225 Parkside Dr.San Fernando, CA 91340

NeveBerkshire Industrial ParkBethel, CT 06801

Panasonic/Ramsa6550 Katella Ave.Cypress, CA 90630

Peavey Electronics711 A St.Meridian, MS 39301

Seck (JBL ProfessionalProducts)see Soundcraft

Shure Brothers Inc.222 HartreyEvanston, IL 60204

Solid State LogicBegbrokeOxford, England OX5 1 RU

Sony Professional Audio1600 Queen Anne Rd.Teaneck, NJ 07666

Soundcraft Electronics8500 Balboa Blvd.Northridge, CA 91329

Soundtracs/SamsonTechnologies485-19 S. BroadwayHicksville, NY 11801

Studer Revox1425 Elm Hill PikeNashville, TN 37210

Sunn6024 SW Jean Rd, Bldg. DLake Oswego, OR 97035

Tascam/Teac Corporation7733 Telegraph Rd.Montebello, CA 90640

Yamaha Corporation6600 Orangethorpe Ave.Buena Park, CA 90620

c\J

0REVIEWQ 0C 011; 10 0L 0G 00 000 0000 How can you make your recordings sound more like a record? How can you get your sound 10 the way you want it? 00c oc oQ 00 With these provocative questions, so all important as they maybe, three new video tapes 00 have been released that go a long way to offering answers. 0L) 0C First Light Video Publishing (374 N. Ridgewood Pl., LA., CA 90004) is the company 0

producing the tapes. So far, there are three. The first released at the end of last year is 0C 0C "Shaping Your Sound With Microphones;" the other two newer ones are "Shaping Your 0C0 0Sound with Equalizers, Compressors, and Gates," and "Shaping Your Sound with Re- 0C verb and Delay." li0

riEach tape is over 80 minutes long, and is packed with information. An eight -page 0printed guide about the use of the respective tapes also comes with each one. But infor- 0mation alone can be almost useless. 0

0 00 Fortunately, First Light Video has done their homework. They are first to realize that a 0

video tape, like a book, can not be fully digested in one or only a few run-throughs. The 0C tapes are therefore broken into logical sections, permitting the student to first get a total 00 overview, and then go at it in detail, section by section. 0L 1 00 Lubin0Tom narrates the tapes and demonstrates most of the technology and practical 0

techniques and use of many typical products. Lubin is a practicing recording engineer and ri

0producer. He also conducted a Fostex-sponsored lecture series that toured the U.S. re- 00C cently. 00 oC More than his impressive credentials, Lubin also has the ability, so important in this ap- 00 plication, to communicate both an enthusiasm for what he is doing, and a knowledgeable 0L7 approach to the more technical things that also must come across. It is rare to find such a0 00 skill at both the theoretical and practical ends of recording, and with communication. 0C Lubin is a delight to watch. 0C 00 You really need a top-notch video tape deck to fully benefit from the sound on these 00C tapes. Thy are recorded in "hi-fi stereo" and that was amply evident in the many product 00 and musical demonstrations that abound on these tapes. 00 0C If anything at all was distracting, it was in a sense caused by the high sonic quality of the 0C0 0tapes. Many of Lubin's voice-overs have scene -by -scene sonic shifts of quality. Some- 00 times he is close mic'ed, the next surrounded by reverb. 0C No matter, these are excellent basic tutorials. And for the more advanced, they just

00C might turn out to be excellent refresher courses as well. 000 Two versions of the tapes are available. A pro version for schools includes a 40 -page 00 workbook and a lifetime free tape replacement-for $119 per tape. An individual -user 000 version with the 8 -page guide is $59.95 per tape. LZ. 1

BETTER THAN EVER!The Best Book In TheRecording Industry Is NowEven Better!

Completely revised and up to the minute; thisis the book you must have.

Rewritten by Alan P. Kefauver, director ofrecording at the world famous PeabodyConservatory of Music, this book is foreveryone who is involved in recording.

This book has information on: DIGITAL MIDI AUTOMATED CONSOLES SMPTE TIME CODE AND SO MUCH MORE!

ELAR PUBLISHING CO. INC.203 Commack Road, Suite 1010, Commack, NY 11725

Yes! Please send me copies of the New Recording StudioHandbook ©$44.50 per copy. Add $2.00 for shipping. (New YorkState residents please add appropriate sales tax.)

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AVAILABLEOW!

Contents

E7 LAB7P-nnecthe,iL'Uciam°t.,

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Since this room does not exhibit uniform distribution of absorption.it would appear to be a good candidate for the Fitzroy reverberationtime equation. We will calculate the reverberation time using thatequation:

RT

RT..

16 (16.801 [2 x 20 x 12+2x 12 x 7 2 x 20 x719281' - In 0-.4/ - In 11-.52) - In (I - .04)

269

861104 { 480:T +

168

24'34

RT.. - .0003 (941 + 230 + 7000)

RT. - .0003 (8171) a 2.4 seconds

The Fitzroy equation gives a value of reverberation time aboutthree times that of the Norris.Eyring equation and is probably a moreaccurate estimate of what will actually take place in the room. Notethat this room has a pair of opposite walls whose absorption coeffi-cient is considerably lower than the others in the room. The implica-tion here is that sound will reverberate between these surfaces forsome time after it has died down in other directions in the room. Werecognize this in many room as a 'flutter echo' between parallelreflective surfaces. and the Is itgroy equation takes such conditionsinto consideration

44A

Handbook of

by John Eargle%)

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co; cr n in reverberation time from roomto have longer reverberation tinesieech communication are generally'ration times than those used fores of reverberation time as a f int-iurposea are given in Figure 2-19.

II DISTANCE INDOORS

r in a reverberant room. we *illin Figure 2-20. There is a region,wed bytransition intoa regionie reverberant level is in :act;good diffusion and if the aver.'en than about 0.2. The d is reverberant fields are NIt this distance the dire'eased in dB.

1

111CII.LEVEL SOUND REPRODUCTION

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Figure 18.1 Toe in ore loudspeaker for better stereophonic coverage

A not.lient Ctirtairkntlimos

In some large spaces. echoes. or discrete reflections. are often aproblem. and they should he eliminated through proper surface treat-ment_ In motion picture theaters floor -to -ceiling double -fold velourdrapes are quite often used on side and back walls to render the spacequite dead and free of reflections. A sense of ambience in the motionpicture theater is generally created through the surround loudspeakersystem rather then through natural reverberation in the theater.

The motion picture screen 1L2[11111quite reflective at high frequencies.nny reflection off the bock is art 212 result in a front -to -back

flutter echo in the room.Problems in 'wording 211.11111control ec.rn are usually more complex

in nature and Are left to those acousticians who specialize in thorn

NOTE

aro s re ...c.o., wit smt ies.20222110<tavu MU:ens* 22 a.12 n *Is[....22 2.. (0011 1 1.21: 2,2 21212, rn. Th22 12. 2.0 22212 fan[e1Tr221[2/....,e (VI .f.y01 1.0.1 1.th V3, ,N re S

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Yes! I'm interested in the Handbook of Sound SystemDesign by John Eargle. Please send book(s) at$37.50 plus $2.00 for postage and handling. (N.Y. Stateresidents add appropriate sales tax.)Send orders to: ELAR Publishing Co. Inc.

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New P14,44(44

INTERFACE

The JHM-2 Auto Locator Mult is aninterface for the MCI JH24 tape re-corder that allows its auto -locator anda synchronizer to be used simul-taneously. Housed in a metal chassis, ithas two sets of "Remote, Auto Locator,and Capstan" connectors identical tothose found on the rear panel of theJH24. It also features a lifter controlswitch and a capstan control switch andincludes a set of JH24 interface cables.Mfr.- Brainstorm Electronics, Inc.Price- $495.00


POWER AMPLIFIER

The PPA600 is a two -channel poweramplifier that delivers 225 watts of con-tinuous output power per channel into8 ohms, or 350 watts into 4 ohms, bothchannels driven. In the switchablemono bridge mode, the unit delivers650 watts of continuous power into 8ohms. It has heavy duty output termi-nals, toroidal power transformer andthe input inrush current limiting cir-cuit and relay -protected speaker con-nections. Additional safeguards arefound in the independent rectifiers andcapacitors for each channel. The unit isfully protected against electrical andthermal overload and short-circuitedoutput terminals. If a d.c. voltage ap-pears at the output terminals, thespeakers will be disconnected. In theevent that the heat sink temperaturereaches 70 degrees Celsius, the input

coa) signal will be attenuated and,aga in, thea) speakers will be disconnected. When(1) the temperature has dropped to 60S degrees Celsius, the speakers will be re--) connected and the amplifier gain willco gradually increase to the previous2 level. All of these actions are confirmed43 by the LED indicators located on the

front panel. The unit features 16MOSFET metal power transistors

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11111.0sK1wit.Ave,7

(eight per channel), with a total dissi-pation of 1600 watts to produce peakoutput currents in excess of 40 amps.This enables the power amplifier todrive low impedance and/or highly re-active speakers. The power devices aremounted on an efficient cooling tunnelrunning between the front and rear

panels. For further cooling efficiency, itfeatures a thermally controlled, varia-ble speed fan.Mfr.- OrtofonPrice- $2000.00


IN -LINE CONSOLE

The SPA console is available in twoframe sizes, allowing 32 or 48 channelversions. Access points to all audio,VCA and mute buses are available onrear panel connectors, enabling twoconsoles to be linked providing up to96 inputs. The unit can be reconfiguredvia a single switch on each group todouble as a monitor desk. The inputchannels feature a four band equalizer,with fully parametric mid andfrequency sweepable high and lowbands switchable between bell andshelving response. Eight auxiliarysends, all switchable pre/post fader,

selectable pre/post equalizer arc Lilted.Each channel also has a ninth send, thelocal auxiliary. Channels may berouted to any of the eight audio sub-groups and the stereo masters, andeach can be controlled by one of theeight VCA groups and the eight pro-grammable mute groups. Output me-tering is via eleven moving coil VU me-ters.Mfr.- SoundtracsPrice- approx. $54,000.00 (32 chan-nel), $60,000.00 (48 channel)


TEST DISC

The Studio Reference Disc (SRD)is a compact disc containing a largevariety of tests for allaudio and A/Vap-plications. It will convert any CD playerinto a versatile test generator. The CDformat enables the user to quickly pro-gram any order or repeating tones,sweeps, bursts etc. It features 70minutes of audio test tones and refer-ences, and includes two sets of 17different sine wave calibration tones,four bands of different sine wavesweeps, pink and white noise: steadystate, bursts of different lengths, 1/3 -octave and full bandwidth, CAVEATheader, two different control roomtests, polarity check, left/right tests,musical pitch references, both digitallygenerated and acoustic piano, acousticpiano listening tests, and much more.Mfr.- ProsonusPrice- $49.95Circle 62 on Reader Service Card

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- a .0. . ' 0 e :- ° ;-. .0 12%; -.O. ? *0.: , - a . .; *.i:).*:' ; ' 0. ; 0*?: ..-04 ); o..0.' :!...'*? 0:. . . - "AURAL EXCITER

The Aural Exciter Type III featurestwo modes of noise reduction andAphex's "SPR" Spectral Phase Refrac-tor, for improved bass clarity and open-ness. It is a single -ended processor thatcan be applied at any point in the audiochain, and requires no decoding. Theunit's processing will recreate and re-store missing harmonics, producingnatural brightness, clarity and pre-sence. It provides its audio enhance-ments without raising the noise floor ofany nominally noise -free source. Twomodes of noise reduction make thispossible. Mode A functions as a linearsidechain expander with variable thre-shold. Mode B is an all -new noise re-duction method which actually "er-ases" source audio noise while the unitsimultaneously enhances the signal.

Mfr.- Aphex Systems Ltd.Price- $995.00 Circle 64 on Reader Service Card CD

FLOOR MONITOR

The FS -212 is a two-way, biampedconcert floor monitor containing twoDL12X woofers and one DH1A 2 -inchcompression driver mounted on anHP64 constant -directivity horn. Thecabinet is constructed of solid, 14 -plyBaltic birch covered with black OziteSuper TNT carpeting, and has a cloth -covered steel grille. The 60x40 degreeconstant -directivity pattern enablestight, consistent performer coveragewhile allowing for higher gain -before -feedback levels. The unit is capable ofproducing sound pressure levels inexcess of 130 dB with full power input.The ITT -Cannon EP -4-14 connector isused for the power input and EP -4-13for the loop-thru connection.Mfr.- Electro-Voice, Inc.Price- $1995.00


STEREO MIXER

The MX842 is a professional stereopowered mixer designed to give highperformance in a wide variety of appli-cations. This eight -channel mixer has apowerful stereo 400 watt MOSFETamplifier, stereo effects loop, and dualgraphic EQs. The amplifier can be splitto run both mains and monitors, andthe heavy duty power supply allowsloading of up to four Bohm speakers.Mfr.- Carvin CorporationPrice- S749.00


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EMPLOYMENT

Experienced Manufacturing Mark-eting and Sales executive seeksnew challenges in the ProfessionalAudio Industry. Proven accomplish-ments include: sales level achieve-ments, development of marketingstrategies and materials, Inter-national sales, marketing and dis-tribution, and product dev-elopment. Send inquiries to:Sagamore Publishing Co., Box AB,203 Commack Rd., Suite 1010,Commack, NY 11725.

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John Reitz has been named record-ing mixer at Buena Vista Sound, an-nounced by Jacobus Rose, director ofpost -production services for BuenaVista Studios. In his new position,Reitz will be responsible for re-record-ing and mixing work on motion pic-tures and filmed television produc-tions for Disney as well as outsideproducers. Reitz has over 100 featureand television films to his credit.

Audio Animation announces the ex-pansion of its engineering staff. Re-cently hired are Steven Kurant, SeniorDevelopment Engineer, Neil Martin,Senior Development Engineer, MarkSchmid, Software Engineer, RichardGuay, Hardware Engineer, Jeff Berry,Laboratory Manager, and MelissaStallings, technical support.

Willi Studer AG, Switzerland, hasnamed Tore B. Nordahl President ofStuder Revox America Inc. The deci-sion was made public at the occasion ofthe AES convention in Hamburg, Ger-many, by Bruno Hochstrasser, Presi-dent of Studer Revox America. Nor-dahl has held the position of VicePresident and General Manager atStuder Revox prior to his promotion.Hochstrasser has been elected Chair-man to the board of directors of StuderRevox America Inc.

Telex Communications, Inc., hasannounced a reorganization of its salesand marketing staff. Dan Dantzler waspromoted to vice president of sales forthe company's professional audio,aviation and RF communications pro-ducts as well as OEM sales. DonMereen has been appointed executivedirector of marketing. This is a newlycreated position with responsibility fornew product and market planning,marketing services and technical cus-tomer service. Ted Nemzek was named

senior director of sales for theaudio/visual products group.

Electro-Voice has appointed Mi-chael V. Torlone as market develop-ment manager, music electronics. Theannouncement was made by Jim Long,E -V director of marketing. Tbrlone willbe responsible for the continuedgrowth of E -V's music -market elec-tronics business.

At Altec Lansing, Frank McMullenhas been appointed Director of Manu-facturing by Dave Merrey, President.His responsibilities include purchas-ing, production control, production,shipping, quality control and customerservice.

Neve has moved its Western Re-gional sales and support office into ex-panded facilities in the new Mercedes-Benz building in Hollywood, CA. Thenew office is a modern complex that in-cludes complete conference facilities,an enlarged parts department includ-ing a greater inventory of supplies forthe entire range of Neve consoles, anexpanded lab and service area, and acomplete demonstration area.

University Sound, Inc. has an-nounced the appointment of Robert W.Sandell as company president. The an-nouncement was made by RobertPabst, head of Mark IV Audio. Sandellis responsible for all of the operationsof University's business and for im-plementing University's strategic planas one of the Mark IV companies.

Sonopress, an audio cassette dupli-cation company based in Atlanta, GA,has expanded with six million dollars ina new plant addition and equipment forcassette shellmanufacturing. The com-pany is building an adjoining 70,000square foot facility to its Weaverville,

NC plant. It will provide space forwarehousing, offices, and cassette shellproduction equipment.

Lindsay Allen has been promoted toManager of Professional Audio 'PapeProducts at Ampex Corporation Mag-netic Tape Division. He succeeds War-ren Simmons who is retiring after morethan twenty years at Ampex. Lindsay isresponsible for developing worldwideproduct strategies, implementing pro-duct marketing programs, anddeveloping product support programsfor the company's line of professionalaudio tape.

WaveFrame Corporation has an-nounced the promotion of Gus Skinasto the position of Senior ProductManager, Professional Audio, and theappointment of Dave Frederick to theposition of Product Manager, MusicApplications. Gus Skinas will focus ondevelopment of WaveFrame productsfor professional audio applications,especially recording and editing. DaveFrederick will focus of development ofAudioFrame applications for musiccomposers and editors. Also an-nounced were the appointments ofMike Buffington as Director of FieldEngineering, Craig Damon asEuropean Support Manager, and Ar-thur "Midget" Sloatman as SystemsEngineer.

Solid State Logic has announced theappointments of Piers Plaskitt asChief Executive Officer, and DaveCollie as Product DevelopmentManager. In addition, Solid StateLogic's Los Angeles office has under-gone a major expansion of its facilities,with the provision of an additional1,500 square feet of space for extra of-fice, stores, and demonstration studiouse.

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"CARVIN PRO SOUND...I COUNT ON IT."

As keyboardist for Robert Palmer,David Rosenthal knows that on theroad or in the studio, the quality of theequipment makes all the difference.With his sophisticated multi -key-board se:up and heavy touringschedule, David knew he needed prosound gear that was state-of-the-artin sound quality, flexibility and relia-bility. Thafs why he chose Carvin.

From recording consoles to livesound mixers, from power amplifiersto graphic EQs, Carvin is proud to pro-duce a complete line of ProfessionalSound equipment built to please themost discriminating user. The designand construction reflect our essentialcommitment-quality without com-promise. A commitment you can dis-cover for yourself.

In the studio or on the road, the pro-fessional choice is Carvin.

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We Didn't just Design ANew Microphone We Changed

The Future Of Sound.

The Beta 58 represents a significant advancein dynamic transducer design and a major break-through in microphone performance. Everymeasurable parameter has been optimized forunprecedented sound quality.

The Beta 58 microphone is the first to com-bine the extra -hot output of Neodymium with atrue supercardioid pattern.

The unique three -stage directional tuningnetwork eliminates the irregular off -axis responsedisplayed by other microphones. The result:greater working flexibility and extraordinarygain -before -feedback. No other dynamic micro-phone has more usable power.

Another new performer is the Beta 57 instru-

ment microphone. The Beta design providesoutstanding isolation from unwanted soundsand freedom from off -axis coloration. All formore impact and separation in the mix.

Hear how a Beta Microphone can change thefuture of your sound. For our new brochure andthe nearest dealer, call 1-800-257-4873. In Illinois,1-800-624-8522. Shure Brothers Inc., 222 HarneyAve., Evanston, IL 60202-3696. The Sound OfThe Professionale...Worldwide.

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magazine db visits the windy city - worldradiohistory.com...may 06, 1989 · lab report: tascam...

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