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Post by jeromemason on Jul 31, 2019 12:26:25 GMT -6
Check out the Convert AD 2 +, as it is designed to overdrive the converters and you have a separate transformer and other features: might better suit your desired workflow ? This is EXACTLY what I was looking for thanks again! I never looked into them because I was under the impression it was all about “clean, clean, clean” but I definitely underestimated the feature set. Looks like a monster that works for everything! There's definitely nothing clean about that converter when you're really pushing it with the emphasis up. It gets downright mean. On the other hand, when you're using it like a normal converter it sounds incredibly open, like a straight wire into the computer almost.
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Post by jeromemason on Jul 26, 2019 22:47:11 GMT -6
There are some places that do the Cryo thing to these tubes and I've heard the difference. It's pretty cool. They'll take like a $20 tube and make it sound like a $100 tube. There's one out there called a Brimar 12AU7 that they do that to and they have really great sounding mids and the top is very silky.
With the stock getting depleted on the GE 5 stars companies are coming up with ways to tailor tubes for folks. Most of these places that do the Cryo stuff, you can tell them what kind of mic you have and what you'd like to have it focus more on and they'll find some NOS or new tube they Cryo and it's pretty damn incredible what they can do. Just google "Cryo vacuum tubes" and there are several sellers out there doing this nowadays.
Also, if you ever find the right sauce on a mic and it's giving off too much sibilance or does sometimes, that can be distortion that's masked seeming like sibilance, since that harsh Esss gets treated way differently by the circuit than a forward midrange or soft low-end. On 251's you can experiment by changing out the DC output cap with larger values, usually they're anywhere from 1uf to 3uf, you can drop like a 3.3uf high grade in and see what how you like it, very easy to change on most of these mics. Also the bypass cap, changing that around with different types and small values can give you a softer bottom end or tighter, just however you want your mic to sound for you. I used to fine tune those circuits for customers and the Tube, Output cap and bypass cap were always what I started with first, in that order. If you can fix a mic cable you can change the output cap, bypass is usually strapped with a 1.8k resistor, sometimes that's different too, a lot of fine tuning can be done on that 251 circuit to fine tailor it.
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Post by jeromemason on Jul 26, 2019 12:01:49 GMT -6
Most likely it's the cable. I've had two go bad in two different generations of MacBooks. You can replace it pretty quick and they sell them on amazon, just find out what model the comp is and type that in followed by HD cable, it'll pull it up.
If it's not booting or started having problems booting it's likely the issue. It's pretty common. Also the monitor cable goes bad quite often and if it's ever had anything spilled near the back of it there are some tabs that touch when the screen is removed, if there's any corrosion at all on those tabs the screen will stop working. I almost bought an entire new display for my 2014 model and accidentally had the thing on when I was removing it, saw the screen flash and found the corrosion, haven't had a problem since, good computers.
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Post by jeromemason on Jul 19, 2019 14:46:44 GMT -6
You wouldn't have to do a transformer splitter, but you could buy splitters and solder a 20uf or 100uf cap on the 48v line. It's single ended so just one wire needs to be coupled.
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Post by jeromemason on Jul 17, 2019 14:41:36 GMT -6
Lame. “Hey talented producers/engineers, do a bunch of direct marketing for us, and leverage your position of respect and trust against your friends and colleagues. Then we’ll still make you pay for something it costs us zero to make infinite supply of...” Lame. Well they have to pay the salaries of the folks that work there and to keep cranking out new plugins. My brother in law once had this idea in his mind that all music should be free, he said that it's insane that he can go to any library in the country and check out a book and read it for nothing, why can't he listen to a song the same way. He looked completely stunned when I told him in some way that book had to be purchased for the libraries, it most likely wasn't simply given to them. So if he wanted to be able to sit and listen to a song over and over again the simple thing was to pay $1.29 for it and he could just sit and listen how much and often as he'd like. Eventually UA will have to go into the subscription model. They are already doing what Digidesign did by making people overpay for their hardware just to have access. Pretty soon UA, to survive this kind of climate, will have to both allow their plugins to be used off the Sharc system and go to a subscription setup. You can equate all this to how record companies decided to allow individual purchase of a song and eventually the streaming of a song. Something was better than nothing. They made it just hard enough for folks that were not determined enough to spend a lot of time and energy finding a way to get pirated music, so the single track download and streaming at least puts something in someones pocket, but boy that's one massive subject that you can find all over this site.
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Post by jeromemason on Jul 12, 2019 16:10:26 GMT -6
I havn't used the tape plugin, but regarding T Racks plugins, I use them over every other for the SSL G/E Channel. The Neve and API versions are top notch as well.
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Post by jeromemason on Jul 11, 2019 14:20:55 GMT -6
Man this is why I LOVE not being biased politically. I can actually sit back and look at both sides and understand why something like the climate is even political.
One side is saying we need to stop burning fossil fuels. The other is saying we need to keep burning them and actually burn more. The fun part is doing research into who each of these sides of people are tied to. It's sad.
All that said. We have a scenario where a TS is steaming for a place that was turned into hell 14 years ago. People are worried about the well being of those residents because they saw what Katrina did. There's even more worry from people because the Mississippi river is twice what it should be and will crest at 19' around the time the thing pulls in. Seems like the thread would've been created to bring awareness to people who havn't seen this yet and to also prompt people to form a mass consciousness of people to pray in whatever way they do that. Hopefully that's what people will do before and hopefully people will contribute after if they can and if there is a need. That's why I'd make this post at least.
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Post by jeromemason on Jul 11, 2019 13:34:51 GMT -6
I'm originally from Destin FL. After we got hit with like 6 major hurricanes in 2 or 3 years they moved the insurance to the state for control. My wife has worked in the insurance business for over 11 years now and it was really shitty to see piles of insurance companies file bankruptcy and leave people hanging. FEMA was the life line. Most people got free roofs, some with catastrophic damage got new homes, nearly everyone got the I'll never forget blue tarps on their roofs. After that happened all the insurance carriers got pushed out of FL and the state backed one company that all the agency's had to write coverage through, it was mandatory. Premiums were much higher but if something happens the federal government isn't paying the majority of the bill, FEMA pushes some funds into the state but that one carrier is backed by the state so people don't have to worry. I don't know how it is in Texas or LA but I'm sure if it's still a wide open playing ground there are a lot of carriers getting their bankruptcy filings ready. Pretty sad.
From what I remember. Before Katrina hit, scientist were on the news warning that the Levees wouldn't hold and 99% of them predicted exactly what happened. I remember so many debates on nearly all the major news outlets between scientists and politicians. The crappy part is they didn't listen to those screaming scientists and you see what a cluster Katrina turned into. If those same scientist are screaming and issuing stark warnings I'd hope the agencies take it seriously this time. We'll see. The river stage is twice what it should be though, no matter what that's not going to be good for someone.
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Post by jeromemason on Jul 1, 2019 18:21:02 GMT -6
I feel for her though. I've seen what those guys do to artist's and especially with females and especially when females were not dominating the charts and were struggling to be heard. Taylor came at the wrong time. She came when girls were being massively overlooked because of dirt road country and good ole' boys dominating. Today, if Taylor were to come out of no where, she'd own those masters and would be worth a hell of a lot more than she is.
Then that little Beiber acting like he know's what it's like to be a female in the working world. I'm not getting into politics or trying to go off base here, but I know if there is one thing that's for sure, it's that equality in the workplace, no matter if you're famous super star or an insurance account manger like my wife, guys always get paid more for the same work and it's true stain on our image as a country, down right sickening. My wife is insanely talented, works her ass off and she's so undervalued it makes me sick. A quick way to find out this, on Glassdoor you can see what a job title is worth, you can plug in experience and education etc. it'll spit out an average based on your location to the national average salary for that position. My wife makes $20,000 a year under that average, but, in the comments all these women are bitching that number can't be right and the occasional male that pops in thinks it's right on the "money." Just sad.
Sorry, I had to vent because it's really sad that we as a country still haven't gotten that figured out. I don't identify with either political party in this country anymore either so that's honestly coming from an independent point of view. Hopefully it doesn't cause a damn political debate, but I'd really love to see income inequality fixed in this country right alongside with royalty payouts, it's just as sad.
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Post by jeromemason on Jun 8, 2019 14:06:26 GMT -6
Yeah, I'd step it up if it were me.
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Post by jeromemason on Jun 8, 2019 13:00:32 GMT -6
Will spice let you simulate and measure the impedance on each gain point?? 350z seems kinda low on input, but I have no information behind that so maybe it's not that big a deal?
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Post by jeromemason on May 30, 2019 14:44:56 GMT -6
You could almost say that doing a post eq drive circuit is adding flavor or "character" to the eq as a whole. I have no idea if they overdrive the entire eq on the Sie emu.... they could be doing exactly what I'm talking about. What I know is, that on a snare drum and electric guitar I HPF/LPF and then put something like JST Clip after it..... That makes everything just sound better, bigger. It's how we've had to start mixing in order to get things to fit and have a sound but not eat up a shitload of bandwidth from eq'n everything. That's what I myself am getting away from, the less eq I can use and the more overdrive and such, the better. So you make an eq that has a good sound to it, add in modern day features and say "here you go, great sounding eq that can do all kinds of cool things." In the end no one is going to care if it's a direct copy of the original eq, they just like it sounds awesome and has features.
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Post by jeromemason on May 30, 2019 14:12:25 GMT -6
I always say stand on the shoulders of giants and make something great fit the modern times. Putting in the circuit to drive the unit wouldn't be massive, but it's really not as easy as the plugin. They can just copy and paste another eq, take a tap from the output of EQ1, code in a blend circuit of EQ2 overdriven and that's it. As just shown above, when you start to throw things on circuits, electricity etc. reacts. But, with that said, you'd just take a tap off the output and put in a knob that's basically a blend knob on the end of the output of the eq overdriven. That would be how I would setup a "character" knob. I'm not sure how you'd do that in the analog domain. If you're overdriving the EQ, you're overdriving it. So the only thing left to blend in is the original signal, like a wet/dry mixer. If I was gonna do it for this application, I'd add a discrete +12 dB stage with a trimpot afterwards, so you can go from +12 dB to -12 dB. But you do this, you immediately lose 12 dB of headroom. That suddenly matters if you're trying to take an already hot track and shove that bax shelf up 15 dB... I would take a tap from the output and build another gain stage, overdrive it and just have the blend knob. Now, I'm not sure how they go about doing this in the plugin, they can basically do whatever they want. I guess if it were me and I was designing something like this I would use the original for inspiration but design the whole circuit to do the things we're talking about here. A lot of work! But, be cool eq for snare/guitars for sure.
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Post by jeromemason on May 30, 2019 13:50:09 GMT -6
I always say stand on the shoulders of giants and make something great fit the modern times. Putting in the circuit to drive the unit wouldn't be massive, but it's really not as easy as the plugin. They can just copy and paste another eq, take a tap from the output of EQ1, code in a blend circuit of EQ2 overdriven and that's it. As just shown above, when you start to throw things on circuits, electricity etc. reacts. But, with that said, you'd just take a tap off the output and put in a knob that's basically a blend knob on the end of the output of the eq overdriven. That would be how I would setup a "character" knob.
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Post by jeromemason on May 30, 2019 12:17:26 GMT -6
Sowter for the transformers? They do a lot of vintage stuff that is usually drop in ready, original specs. Plus Sowter's just are amazing transformers, best IMO. But, taking the original schematic and using it for inspiration, calculating your own curves etc. A lot of work, but I will say that if I were taking a stab at the design I'd throw a post eq HPF/LPF on that EQ. I use the Sie Q on snare, every mix usually and always crank the hell out of the Low/High. The Sowter 3603 would be used for both input and output transformer. It’s made for bridging a low impedance source to a low(ish) impedance loaf. They don’t have a reference for the original here. No one seems to. The original schematic has an inductor LPF after the Baxandall stage, right around 20k. Adding an RC HPF/LPF would not be hard. You’d probably have to buffer it though, to keep from interacting with the other EQ portions. Not difficult, but changes the feel of the original perhaps. Probably wouldn't mess with it too much if you put something ultra clean like an opa1612 behind it. Not sure I'd go discrete, although there are plenty of options there, some type of drive could be put as the buffer with a push button to activate it as a drive option, going discrete that is. Might be cool.
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Post by jeromemason on May 30, 2019 12:01:43 GMT -6
I built my last ones with a piece of mass loaded vinyl in the middle, 1/8" ply on the front. One thing I did do was made it so there are 6 screws I can use to put more/less tension on the vinyl. You can use that to tune them, it works, I built 4 of them and tuned them like a drumhead and it knocked a chunk out of the standing wave I was having issues with. Plus, if you move rooms or add/remove something you can again put more/less tension on that piece of mass vinyl. It's like this, 1/8">4"Rouxl>Vinyl>4"Roxul>3/4" particle board. Side,top and bottoms are made of 1x8 pine.
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Post by jeromemason on May 30, 2019 11:53:17 GMT -6
Sowter for the transformers? They do a lot of vintage stuff that is usually drop in ready, original specs. Plus Sowter's just are amazing transformers, best IMO. But, taking the original schematic and using it for inspiration, calculating your own curves etc. A lot of work, but I will say that if I were taking a stab at the design I'd throw a post eq HPF/LPF on that EQ. I use the Sie Q on snare, every mix usually and always crank the hell out of the Low/High.
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Post by jeromemason on Apr 24, 2019 21:02:03 GMT -6
Waves L1 or L2...... We literally call those two plugins snare killers. 33609's and DBX160's.... it's nice to have them for parallel because they really make the snare cut and can give a track some groove. Some guys out there will cut drums with them and you either toss the snare and sample it, or throw an L1 on it and dumb it back. Live drums anyway, that's what I've always done.
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Post by jeromemason on Apr 17, 2019 14:58:18 GMT -6
Wondering if you're still loving your Doublewide 2? I've been thinking about getting one and just saw Sweetwater dropped the price. I use it on every vocal..... It's not leaving my rack for sure.
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Post by jeromemason on Apr 15, 2019 10:54:49 GMT -6
I switch back between the console and the mix print and just ride the master into the buss comp until it sounds right. Usually when I "hear" it is when I back off. I think 4dB is about are hard as I like to hit it, usually just tapping the needle. Seems to bring up the RMS without changing the sound too much Thats how I do it. Slow attack auto release and the needle sitting on -4 and bouncing to -6, seems like everytime I mix into it that's what's happening when I look down. I usually dial the blend in a bit to give it some more transient back with the glue.
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Post by jeromemason on Apr 4, 2019 11:15:13 GMT -6
I tried it on everything and it sucked... I’ve heard the Klark Teknik is pretty darn spot on and sounds good. I probably I’ll grab one if those. I dunno, maybe you had a bad or poorly calibrated unit? I really don't hear a lot of tonal difference between G revs and others that aren't the A revision. If a unit is out of FET calibration, they can sound pretty bad. That is possible, I did buy a returned unit, a demo unit, so there could be something wrong with it. Still, I think I’m going to try the really cheap one out, I’ve heard it’s pretty darn good for the money.
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Post by jeromemason on Apr 4, 2019 9:44:18 GMT -6
I've always gotten along with vintage Rev Gs, despite their bad rep. Mostly on drums though. Same. I typically put mine on things that need the 1176 spank but no real change in tonality like snare and bass. I tried it on everything and it sucked... I’ve heard the Klark Teknik is pretty darn spot on and sounds good. I probably I’ll grab one if those.
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Post by jeromemason on Apr 3, 2019 21:49:11 GMT -6
I hope it out performs the "Seventeen" they put out. I had that in here and had it on a vocal for about 10 minutes and I couldn't stand the sound of it. I'm usually a big fan of BLA, but they screwed that one up. It has an IC front end and didn't have an input transformer, and boy you could really tell, it just sounded awful.
I'll try this one out, sounds like they went more back to what makes 1176's do their thing. Electronic, chipped front end's sure as hell isn't the way to go.
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Post by jeromemason on Apr 1, 2019 14:18:37 GMT -6
You're probably right Blackdawg, but we're hoping the market shifts and they have reason to make something like a 16 track mixing board under 5K with features like the Six, but more advanced, and preferably under 3k. If the six is $1500, maybe they can make an "18", like 3 sixes with a more pro layout. Why leave that market to Behringer or Allen & Heath when SSL could take it all away with the right move. They could also pull way ahead of Audient and API if the made a board that's similar to their small boards but under 5k. Sure there would be compromises, but like computer technology, things keep getting more powerful and less expensive, and much of the tech SSL needs they've already developed. I bet they could put this together on paper in no time using parts they've already designed. A&H and SSL are already under the same unbrella. www.gearnews.com/solid-state-logic-ssl-gets-acquired-allen-heath-owner-audiotonix/If SSL is selling channel strips for $1500 each, why would they release a 16 channel console for $5k? Why would they completely undercut themselves like that? They MIGHT push out an 8 strip version of the SIX for $5k or $6k, but it's not going to have motorized faders and DAW control like Jerome is dreaming of. They already have a product similar to The Box pricing as well. vintageking.com/ssl-xl-desk-unloadedI'm not talking about in the next 6 months, I'm not even talking about in the next 6 years. I said one day before I retire I believe they'll be forced to put out what I described for $5k. So if we're just talking about SSL at some point they're going to have to deal with the same thing Neve and API are dealing with right now, that so many companies are using those old schematics and making affordable gear that sounds and does exactly the same thing. Would you buy a vintage 1081 for $7k or a remake for $700? Thats pretty much reality now, and I never thought in a million years just 10 years ago, that today you could get a 1073 pre/eq strip for that price. SSL just hasn't came into the focus of these guys yet, but they will. The more and more people talk about wanting the sound of the SSL desk, someone out there will build the line amps, eq, compressor, summing buss and buss compressor in a rack mount processor. That will be just the start of it, eventually companies like Klark Teknik will take notice and actually start building the full blown consoles with all the modern interfacing we need. No telling how much those would sell for. And for SSL the even bigger problem is that these companies don't have the transformer hurdle to jump over. SSL (SOLID STATE Logic) its nothing but monolithic chips and VCA's. Once they have to compete with that they will start to wheel out products that keep going lower and lower in price, either that or they will be slowly and quietly swallowed up and gone, and like I said that would be a sad day, they changed the way people heard music. Like I said, I don't want what I said to be misunderstood. I'm not talking about in the very near future, I'm talking about in the distant future. The technology for taking schematics to PCB's is exponentially increasing, and the size and scale they're able to do it on is going right along with it. Something will have to give at some point. Just my opinion.
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SSL Six
Mar 29, 2019 20:47:13 GMT -6
Post by jeromemason on Mar 29, 2019 20:47:13 GMT -6
I don't know man, I think there is already the tech there...... And a company like SSL would be investing in the future, putting up the R&D for a miniature high resolution motor would be peanuts to what they'd save and also what they'd be able to offer. Bottom line is this. Companies like SSL are losing not only the hobbyist and bedroom producers, they're losing the big fish now. When a guy that used to have a giant SSL4000E in his room now has a little desk with a few choice outboard pieces and a summing rig, and had to build a special shelf to put his grammy's on instead of all over that SSL console, they've got a problem. And that same guy is still getting grammy's, so now SSL has to build something that doesn't cost much more than the summing rig he's got but gives him the exact euphonic feeling his old SSL gave him. That's what SSL has to do now. I had a SSL6000E...... It took me 5 years to come up with something that gave me a sense of what that console would do, just enough to make me happy with my product, and for me not the customers sake. Hell I could do it in the box all day and still have happy customers, they don't listen to that stuff, but I do and I want my mixes to have a certain flavor and feel to them. They'll come up with something like I described and in that price range or they'll wither and die, and that'll be sad because those consoles made a shitload of references we use today to sculpt our mixes to. Jerome The only market for faders is analog audio, it’s not about market and losing it, it’s about making profit. It there isn’t enough buisness even if you sold your faders in every analog console made to justify the investment to build a new fader production line, it’s just not there. SSL and it’s parent design and assemble gear, faders are electromechanical device and the skill and equipment to build them is an entirely different ballgame. It’s like saying GM could build better cheaper tires than Yokohama sure if a tire plant didn’t cost billions to build! SSL’s parent also knows the $$$ in audio is live and Broadcast digital, look at their portfolio, Hell I was told buy a former Digico rep point blank they bought them because they were afraid to lose market share. When I talk to guys who have gone from mixing on SSL it’s 4 guys telling me they moved ITB for instant recall and moving from project to project to every one who that still wants any analog summing of any kind. Most are now kind of stoked that with a PT rig they can do Music, ad work and video without having to get dressed! Plus they don’t have to explain why they either can’t or it will take awhile for that revision! Time is money and the DAW today is what the 4K was in the 80’s, all about moving projects to make money. Well that's why I moved ITB, because I ended up using two channels on the console to monitor the mix out of protools with. All about recalls. I'm going to keep looking at it how i'm looking at it. SSL will come out with a 16 channel board that has total recall and DAW integration, with those flying faders, their summing section and mix buss comp. All channels will have EQ and compression and you'll be able to buy it for $5k. I just think the cost on parts has come down so much, and SSL has the designs, they don't have to come up with anything, just copy and paste circuit by circuit in a main board schematic..... It's not us guys out here mixing that want instant recall.... I loved the down time and telling the client we'd have to charge to do stamped recalls because of remixing the songs, most shrugged and said never mind. Now if the reverb tail isn't 3ms longer it just ruins the song and it just must be changed, "you can do that really quick can't you?" GRRRRR Anyway, I love what I do, and grateful everyday I fire this rig up and hit the cha ching button, love the gig. And SSL will come out with that board before I retire, bank on it.
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