analogue
Oramics from Nick Street on Vimeo.
Daphne Oram (1925-2003) was the co-founder and first director of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, a sound effects and music studio established in the 1950s that had a vast influence on electronic music and synthesizer technology
“Oram was the first (and only?) woman to design and build an entirely new sound recording medium.” (Hutton, J. 2003. Daphne Oram: Innovator, Writer and Composer. Organised Sound 8(1): 49-56. Camb: CUP).
Read more on boingboing.net
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UA’s First-Ever Firewire 800/400 DSP Accelerators Provide Plug-and-Play Access to Award-Winning UAD Powered Plug-Ins on Wide Range of Mac Computers
NAMM SHOW NEWS – ANAHEIM, Calif. January 13, 2011 — Universal Audio (UA), a leading manufacturer of professional audio recording products, today announced the impending release of UAD-2 Satellite DUO and QUAD Firewire DSP Accelerator Packages. As the newest members of UA’s award-winning UAD-2 Powered Plug-Ins platform, the UAD-2 Satellite family combines DSP acceleration with the plug-and-play simplicity of Firewire 800/400 — perfect for modern, Intel-based iMacs and MacBook Pros.
The UAD-2 Satellite puts the entire UAD Powered Plug-Ins library within easy reach of Firewire 800 and 400-equipped computers; no PCIe card installation required. In developing these UAD plug-ins, UA’s DSP engineers work with leading hardware manufacturers — including Roland, Neve, Studer, dbx, Solid State Logic, Lexicon, Manley, Empirical Labs, Trident, SPL, EMT and more — using their exact schematics, golden units, and experienced ears. This gives computer-based musicians and engineers the warmth and harmonics of classic analog recordings, wherever they mix.
“This is a really exciting announcement, both for UA as a company, and for legions of musicians and engineers wanting to tap into UAD-2 plug-ins via Firewire,” commented Universal Audio President Matt Ward. “The UAD-2 Satellite is a sleek, high-quality product that delivers even higher quality results.”
“UAD-2 Satellite is the result of UA listening to our customers, and giving them a processing solution that is both elegant and powerful,” added UA Senior Product Manager Lev Perrey. “Coupled with our roadmap of exciting new plug-ins, we anticipate this product expanding our 40,000-strong UAD user base significantly in the years to come.”
Notable UAD-2 Satellite features include:
- Access the UAD Powered Plug-Ins library on select Firewire 800 and 400 equipped computers
- Compatible with a wide range of modern Intel-based iMacs and MacBook Pros
- Run larger mixes in Pro Tools, Logic, Cubase, Nuendo, Performer and more — without taxing host computer CPU
- 5 models to choose from: DUO (Core); DUO Flexi (w/ $500 Plug-In Voucher); QUAD (Core), QUAD Flexi (w/ $500 Plug-In Voucher), and QUAD Omni v.5.7 (w/ 50 UAD plug-ins)
The complete line of UAD-2 Satellite DSP Accelerators is slated for a Q1 2011 release with prices starting at $899 MAPP USD.
For the latest release information on the UAD-2 Satellite, go here.
About Universal Audio Inc.
Founded in 1999 by Bill Putnam Jr. and based in Scotts Valley, California, Universal Audio is best known for its vintage analog reproductions and advanced Digital Signal Processing technology, including the award-winning UAD Powered Plug-Ins Platform. The company is focused on merging the best of classic analog and modern digital technology. UA is devoted to this endeavor, following its rich recording heritage and motto, “Analog Ears. Digital Minds.” http://www.uaudio.com
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How about a quality valve amp that sounds great, with neither bells nor whistles, at an affordable price for everyday musicians?
Founded in 2009 in Seattle, Washington, that’s exactly what Jet City is all about. The company is headed up by ex-Loud Technologies/Blackheart colleagues Dan Gallagher and Doug White, plus, wait for it… Mike Soldano. Now you’re listening.
“This ain’t an amp for players who like to program a bunch of different sounds and then select them with several footswitches.”
Soldano, of course, is a legend in guitar amplification. His were the hand-built, no-compromise heads that stood behind Clapton, Knopfler, Lukather, Gary Moore and countless other heroes in the eighties and nineties: he still makes them and they still cost limbs. Now, however, his design nous is available to all via Jet City, so just how do you compromise on no-compromise?
You start by designing your amps in the US and building them under strict quality control in China. Jet City makes much of the fact that the three key parties – Gallagher, White and Soldano – are free of penny-pinching corporate pressure, and that Soldano has carte blanche with design.
Nevertheless, offshore build is essential if you want to hit these price points. “We chose our contract manufacturers carefully and we’re really happy with the processes of development,” comments Gallagher.
Read more on musicradar.com
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The 40th anniversary of the Minimoog hits this year: that’s four decades since the original reshaped the very notion of what a synthesizer looks like. Moog Music has answered with a real beast. It returns the core of the Minimoog Model D, but with the Voyager’s stable oscillators, patch storage, signature X/Y touch surface, pot mapping, and MIDI control – all while retaining a 100% analog signal path, if you’re a purist. Just like the Voyager, that means some analog-ically good sound, without sacrificing modern convenience. (Yes, even the Minimoog’s original creators recall that working without patch memory was a huge pain.)
And then it gets, well … a lot bigger. There are 61 keys instead of the original 44, plus a touch-sensitive ribbon controller, so you get more octaves and control. (I’ve long loved having ribbons on a keyboard since I first tried one on a Kurzweil.) And in an unexpected departure, the all-in-one keyboard design is coupled with patching right on the front panel, a feature we haven’t seen in a major instrument since 1970s keyboards from the likes of England’s EMS.
With raw voltage to patch in or out, the XL allows new sound customization, and unique opportunities to integrate it with other analog gear. To route out to other gear, you get 20 CV outputs, covering the keyboard, wheels, LFOs, ribbon, and more, 3 gate outputs, and 3 4-way mults. You also get inputs: 10 CV ins for the oscillators, of course, but also mod, sample & hold, LFO rate, and more, plus 4 gate inputs for envelope, LFO, and S&H gate.
In short, Control Voltage is back. At US$4995, a lot of people won’t be able to afford the XL, but that’s little matter. The instrument we’ll be gawking at in centerfolds, that boys and girls will paste on their ceiling and dream about as they go to bed at night, will be analog. Sorry, digital.
Find our more on createdigitalmusic.com
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london-based japanese designer yuri suzuki is known for his interactive sound installations.
his recent experimentation has looked at the act of buying CDs which has become increasingly
more obsolete as downloading music files has gained popularity. suzuki wanted to bring value back
to the compact disc so he explored the idea of producing a CD record hybrid, first through his
series ’physical value of sound’.
then, suzuki proposed the idea of the disc to DJ jeff mills for his new music project ‘the occurence’.
the result is a disc with a vinyl press-on on one side and a CD mix on the other, merging analog
and digital music formats into one. the disc has been produced by AXIS records and manufactured
by german company optimal media production. mills’ digital-analog album is finally on the market
in a limited edition.
[via www.designboom.com]
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Elite Tone Fillmore Thunder fuzz octave guitar effects pedal demo w SG & Dr Z amp
Now shipping, the Elite Tone Fillmore Thunder is a trippy new two-channel guitar effect pedal designed to reproduce the legendary sound produced by Jimi Hendrix in the latter half of his career.
At the heart of the new limited-edition ring modulator / fuzz pedal is a four-knob classic silicon Fuzz Face circuit — with the addition of a gain control and transistor bias — that’s further decked out with a set of classic BC-108 vintage transistors.
A two-stage effect, the Fillmore Thunder pedal features true bypass, two fully analog and independent pedals in one box, a hand-constructed design, low ambient noise, an LED On / Off indicator, a 2.1 mm diameter DC jack adapter, and an included battery.
The Fillmore Thunder is now available for $177 MRSP from elitetone.com
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Features:
» Newly designed 1176-style compression/soft-limiting circuit per mic channel
» Eight channels of high-quality 24-Bit, 192kHz A/D conversion
» Digital output via dual ADAT optical or AES/EBU DB-25
» Monolithic balanced output stage
» Balanced send/return inserts
[via FutureMusic]
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Korg Introduces Tiny New ANALOG Synth, it actually contains the same filter as Korg’s famous MS-10/MS-20.
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Getting Started: Techniques
Recording vocals can be simple or scientific. It depends on how much time you have to try different microphones, gear, or techniques if you’re in a recording studio on the clock, or in the privacy of your own home studio. Of course, you hope that the vocalist coming through the door knows how to “work” a microphone. For example, vocalists like Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Chaka Khan, and Gladys Knight will move in and away from a mic, depending on the intensity of thoughts they are singing. This technique provided us with incredible dynamics, and in most cases meant we did not have to heavily compress a vocal.
Next, the proximity of where the vocalist stood was key. When we did anything like doubling or background vocals, the proximity on one track may be closer than on another track, or if background vocalists were recorded together, the blend of the harmonies or levels were based on how close they stood to the mic. If you were loud, or if your harmony stood out, you had to stand back more. Back in the days of analog tape, you might have one chance to get it right. Some vocalist would come in ready to go, do one or two takes and that’s it. They barely would allow you to get a level.
Usually, the first take was the best take or it might have the most creative moments in it, so your levels needed to be close immediately. We couldn’t assume that we had plenty of warm up time, and punching in to fix a distorted vocal was embarrassing to say the least! The key was to make sure that you kept the dynamics of the vocal without overloading and distortion, to use a pop or wind screen, and having the mic at a good height and angle helped to eliminate plosives and kept you from having to de-ess later.
For the most part, there was no copying and pasting unless you transferred the information to another tape machine, then pressed Play at the right time to record it back to the multi-track. Later, in the ’80s, units with short sampling times came along which made that much easier.
We made sure that the vocalist had a good headphone mix to prevent any distractions. The right headphones were used to keep out as much headphone leakage as possible in the recording. The booth was usually dark or dim, in most cases to create the mood and allow the singer to see the music easier. This also kept them from feeling self conscious and gave them the ability to give an uninhibited performance. To see a room full of guests in the control room could sometimes be nerve wracking, so it helped to know that they couldn’t see you. The producers had to know the art of what to say to the vocalist over the talk-back and in the studio, between takes, to motivate them and guide them to the promised land of the perfect take.
Microphones
My first response was and still to this day is, “Use whatever you have that sounds the best!” Typically, if you stand in the vocal booth and listen to the vocalist, then go into the control room, it should sound close to what you heard in the vocal booth to maintain the natural color of the vocalist, unless you want to add warmth or a color via the mic, mic pre, or compressor. In other words, use a ribbon, dynamic, condenser, whatever works and fits the track. What good is a big fat vocal in a dance track if it’s not the main focus of the song, or a small vocal in a big lush ballad that calls for a big vocal because you did not choose the best mic?
Now with that being said, in the ’80s and early ’90s, I used Sanken, AKG 414 EB or C 12, and Neumann U 87 mics a lot. Sometimes we would use the Electro-Voice RE20 dynamic mic. We used to call it the “Stevie Wonder” mic. This mic allowed you to not have to worry about the typical proximity problems if you were working with either a soft singer or a strong singer who was close to the mic, the low end didn’t change like it would using the typical dynamic mic. We also used the Shure SM7 mic. We called that one the “Michael Jackson” mic. If the singer was one to snap their fingers, stomp their feet, et cetera, and we wanted to hear that, we might set the mic pattern to omni to record everything, and heavily baffle the area behind the mic so as not to pick up anything in that area.
Susie Akita, unknown, Brenda Richie, and Lionel Richie
Choosing a Compressor
Now that we’re recording into computers, those of you who aren’t sure can always record an extra track simultaneously without compression to be safe and not lock yourself or a mix engineer into an over-compressed vocal. UREI 1176, dbx 160 and 160X, Drawmer 1960, Teletronix LA-2As were used often. We would compress anywhere from 3:1 to 8:1, and only if needed and always using soft knee whenever available. Now that we’re in the age of recording digitally, it’s really important not to distort. In the days of analog, you could also hit a little bit of tape compression and that was okay too, but today some of those levels would sound nasty in the digital realm.
read the rest of the article By Dave Isaac on here
[via universal audio ]
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