GEOSONIX LAB Studio - Blog

I am done here.

5/18/2023

I am hanging up the skates as they say. After 40 years in the entertainment biz I am done.

Not with music writing or recording or even producing but I no longer will pursue this as a vocation only a hobby.

Do I see myself as relevant anymore? Well yes as an archivist of sound definitely. As a producer of quality material yes. As someone with there hands on the pulse of the music industry, nope. Don't understand it anymore. Don't speak the same dialect by any means. I know this that there where those who said the same before me.

I came to terms with this many years ago actually and made peace with it almost immediately. I realized that I could no longer make a POP record because I did not like the way Pop records sounded. Not the music or the songwriting or even the loudness (sort of). It was the dynamics, it has none. All the music has been squeezed to the point of sounding like a car commercial. I just did not speak this language. Do not misunderstand me I am not saying it is wrong or bad or good I am saying I don't know how to or want to do it that way. SO to each their own and exit stage left.

By the way I am selling a lot of gear on reverb.com

See LINK below

GEOSONIX LAB REVERB PAGE

I can't help it sometimes, going mobile...

9/3/2022

Well the writing bug hit again and therefore the dining room table has once again become a haven for the gear. Some people decorate their living rooms with photos and carpets I say ha... there is no design initiative better than old music gear!

Well..... Maybe I Have Too Much Stuff....

5/21/2022

So you ever come to the conclusion that you are a gear hound-horder, well I have!

I have been buying gear for years I have always frustrated the people who sell such things because i have never put myself in the position of needing anything. The result is I have the patience of a saint. I have always kept my overhead low and my gear needs simple. The only place that I have gone a bit gaga is in the microphone area, but these always seem to go up in value so I guess that isn't the worst thing.

Even with the stated above approach i have ,or than I can ever need, so the time has come to shed some of these acquisitions. In the coming months I will be listing pieces of gear on REVERB DOT COM and hopefully these things will find happy homes.

To blog or not to podcast.....?

1/9/2022

So I have this blog and in most ways it is enough for the cathartic outlet that I need but it is it enough?

I am obviously an audionik so naturally I have more than enough gear to do an audio podcast heck truth be told I could do a YouTube channel if I wanted to. I am wanting to do it but it is the follow through aspect of starting and not finishing that keeps me from doing it, I think. What would I talk about, what would be the major direction, should it be predictably nebulous and free-form or should it be directional and topic driven. I guess I don't really now. So maybe not eh!

Well I kind of didn't want to ever write this one.... (oh yeah Happy New Year)

1/2/2022

First a moment for those who are no longer with us......

Ah COVID 19 my old friend. How well I know thee.

I really did not want to add anymore text to the already mountain of cybertext out here in the interweb but the time has come where I can no longer not.

A new year and of course it is hard to avoid the moments of reflection and the looking back over the last year. In all personally I have very little to complain about I have my health, I was able to actually work through most of this when many of my brothers and sisters did not. I actually fell in love again, this is the last time I swear! I am vaccinated X 3 (thank you science). I even managed to travel to Europe twice. I have to say I cannot recommend world travel to anyone right now it is a beast with multiple ever changing problems.

I am writing for the sole purpose of commemorating the shared world reality that we have all been through. We as a planet have just shared a group experience we have all had to confront the same situation together. Only time will tell what the report card will reflect when, hopefully this is all said and done.

What prompted writing this was seeing an article that referenced the renaissance period which occurred in part in the aftermath of the plague . It was trying to be upbeat about what, hopefully, lies ahead for us as a world. Well I for one can only hope that this is what the light at the end of this tunnel looks like. Bring on Neo-Humanism!

Here I sit contributing, my opinions and views to an already overly crowded cyber net, fraught with non information and extreme purposeless agenda hawking. We need to get real on planet earth and really take proprietorship. Ok things are bad and they could get worse or we could all role up the sleeves and really start doing the right thing instead of the selfish thing and take a moment to reflect inward and be honest about what we are really here for as a person and act accordingly. Make where you are as good a place as it can be!

So good people of planet earth it is the start of a brave new world......what's it going to be then eh?

THE PERISCOPE IN THE HOUSE

3/29/2021

A new microphone has come to the Geosonix family actually we have a pair. The Periscope Microphone from Scope Labs in Helsinki Finland.

It's target use is the quick choice for that super squashed with compression attitude mic for the larger than life drum or any instrument you might want to add flavor to sound. It combines an electret omni capsule and a built in compression circuit in one decidedly steampunk body. So you can just throw it up and save all the fuss of fiddling with patches and compressor tweeks plus you don't burn a compressor that you might want for another use. They run on true 48V phantom power so you need a console or preamp that supplies actual 48V not a lighter fair as sadly some do. Oh and they are rather affordable for what they are in my opinion.

These have just arrived so stay tuned for a more in depth post as soon as I get some tracks out of these.

WORKING ON A TRACK

3/29/2021

My dear friend and awesome musician, singer, songwriter and bandleader Jason Rosen at my request recently sent me a multi-track session to be the inaugural mix/test for the new room. Due to the WW Health Crisis he sent me the files via internet and I loaded them into my DAW (CUBASE 10.5). Everything came up as expected and I put the tracks in a logical order and began.

Since this is an opportunity for me to fully vet the mix room I am using the DAW as an editor/tape-machine and running the entire mix through the console (see equipment list for how). It was a blast to finally hear and feel a 10 year plus journey come to fruition, it all works (see below) and really is very close to ideal for my work flow habits. Some tweaks are needed but it is damn close.

It was not without a problem or two. One channel on the console solo in place mod was not working properly so I had to swap with a spare. That drove me crazy for a bit and then my Black Lion Audio PM8 ver I summing box started having a problem on the right side. The right channel output on all outs started losing gain so again I have a stock PM8 to swap which sounds fine but is not the same sonic contributor that the Black Lion box is. I had one and only one phase reversal issue on all the cabling that was done, this I temporarily fixed at the patchbay (with all those connections I'll take it).

All in all I am happy and have an incredible space finally. I need to work on the acoustics a bit so the next big job is getting all the tube traps and bass traps installed but the room is not as acoustically problematic as it could have been so yet another happy win.

NOTE: I have purposely (for now) not gotten into details of the music as it is not yet cleared for release.

Jason Rosen Facebook page

The Makers ARt...

12/31/2020

I once again have been touched by the art in tech. Recently I had to go under the hood of the console to fix a problem with the echo buss. It turns out that while trying to add to a mod on the console I actually had cut the wrong jumpers between the input and master PCB on the back-plane. I have already stated that the reason for doing the individual outs the way I did was to avoid any back-plane surgery as this area is heavily populated and cramped to work in. While fixing my own screw-up I paused once again moved by the craft of early console makers creativity and the artistry required to pull it off. I have included my own contribution to the studio wiring madness but my work can hold no candle to the masters form. So without further ado see the pix below:

SUPER TIME LINE

12/13/2020

Super Time Line digital delay. A staple of the eighties clean and sturdy also easy to use. This unit also allowed for storing 4 preset, a big deal in the early days! Well mine stopped working, still passed signal but no effect. I realized the internal memory battery was probably at fault and sure enough it had leaked all over. Fortunately it hadn't taken any other components with it or eaten through the PCB. So new Varta battery and as good as new. Man this thing sounds great!

PATCHBAYS AND THE LIKE

11/16/2020

I recently confronted part of the studio I had been putting off for quite some time, the the console inserts. I had actually built out the looms when I did the original install but left this for last. Why? Well firstly this bay needed to be fully normalled and secondly the panels I have that are this configuration are ADC punch-block. Now I have never in my entire career worked on punch-bloc panels, never even liked them. I have done Winchester, Cannon, EDAK-ELCO, Whirlwind and Amphenol but never punch-down audio. Telco sort of but not this. Well I'll be, it worked first time out!!!

TASCAM TEAC 122 Master Cassette Deck

11/3/2020

I remember when my partner, in our first real studio, bought this, I thought he was crazy because it cost what was back then, the eighties, a fortune. If I remember right this deck and our 1176 cost about the same! Well anyway I had to replace the capstan belt as the original had turned to a literally bubble gum like substance resembling tar! It was a real task to clean it off the fly wheel and motor pulley. I had to use a lot of expensive chamois swabs and 99% isopropyl alcohol to clean it.

While I was dismantling and reassembling this true work of art I started to think, as I pulled away each piece to get to the transport mechanism and then disassembled that to get the new belt on. They just don't and are never going to ever build something like this again. The number of different screws alone that was used is staggering let alone the detail and workings of the transport mechanism, its like a fine watch! It must have taken years literally to bring this device to market just the metal work alone is mind boggling!

Well just to cut to the chase it fired up perfectly and is running like a champ!

The racks up close

6/21/2020

First dynamics and pres then EQ and Filters lastly Time and Space.

The gear in these photos is not reflective of what is available now, See gear list page for what is available

IT HAS MOVED AND FIRED UP!

5/11/2020

So the PM2k has been moved and fired up passing signal like the champ that it is!

The two tube mic saga.

4/14/2020

Firstly this is an old post that I moved here from the main page as I am working towards updating it.

Recently I built one of the U47 Copies that are out there. I have built many mics over the years but I have to say this was satisfying. The Kit if you will is an amalgam of several different sourced items. First the body and the mic PCB's, BV8 transformer and the circuit concept are designed and fabricated in Austria by one Max Kircher AKA, IOAudio with the exception of the head basket that comes from Flea Microphones which uses a magnetic relay for pattern switching. The capsule which is an M7 BlueLine PVC skinned unit comes from Germany and is machined and skinned by Thierch Elektroakustik. The PSU PCB is designed and manufactured by a person who goes by Zayance in France.

The new concept at play here is the dual tube topology. The mic employs a circuit that is true to the original except instead of using a single (outrageously expensive and unobtanium) VF14 it uses two (2) 4o8a tubes wired filament in series and tube path in parallel. Thus the voltage for the mic can be kept to the original concept of one supply voltage (105VDC) and a drop down resistor used to get the filament voltage.

UPDATE: I have since sold this mic and moved on from the two tube concept. I still have some mics that use it but I have come to the opinion that the 408a tubes are just not reliable or quiet enough for studio use! Sadly it is more problematic than it is worth.

Meet the meters!

4/14/2020

I put these up here because very often I think people don't quite understand what is going on with this element of the process and how the varying types of meter scales correspond to one another. Just good old reference stuff.

I swear I'm working on it!

3/22/2020

So I know I keep saying I am working on studio just to prove it here are a grouping of shots in various stages of said build.

COVID DAYS

3/19/2020

So I have a lot of time off due a world wide viral crisis. I am taking the time to push hard to finish the studio main room and get all this gear out of the staging space, where it has been for way too long, and hooked up in the main room. I hope to be done by the time we all come out the other side of this rabbit hole.

The above pic is the room I have been storing and building out the gear in for 5 years. All good things come to those that wait! Under the plastic is the Yamaha PM2K, all the racks and plastic boxes are mostly microphones and associated studio gear like cables, DI boxes, stomp boxes etc...

Lewitt LCT 940 Mic might be it........

5/7/2019

The LCT 940 combines a premium large-diaphragm FET condenser microphone and a top-notch tube microphone in a single housing. All functions are controlled from the PSU and the two impedance circuits (tube and transistor) can be combined. The mic comes in a rugged case which houses PSU, cable and shock-mount.

The only complaint that you could possibly have with this mic is all the options, some might say too many options! Lewitt has crammed all you could possibly want in an LDC mic and put it at an incredible price point. This is what happens when great design, high tolerance and affordable manufacturing is really implemented properly. The only knocks I can give this mic are in the visual aesthetics department, it has a very industrial sci-fi look which might not be everyone's cup of tea, it is also heavy. This is not the mic to put up in front of the singer that is new to the studio as it might be intimidating.

How does it sound, quiet and open to this persons ears. The FET and the tube circuits can be mixed via a single pan like control. Mixing offers a lot of sonic options. The best way I can describe in words the FET to tube sonics is imagine having an LDC mic that you can warm up or tighten up for the desired result, change the impedance amp instead of EQ'ing, it's like having a U47 tube or a U47 FET on the same source and preamp and being able to blend them. That Sax or Violin sounding a little harsh for the track, head for the tube side that acoustic or electric guitar not clear or punchy enough head FET'wards and you can just imagine what you might be able to achieve with vocals or spoken word work. This might very well be the best foley mic I have ever seen. The pattern selection is easy and quiet (no loud popping when switching) great versatility as well, it literally offers them all from omni to Figure of 8 and everything in-between, the pad is a real pad and the high pass filter has multiple steps with more low end roll off than any other mic I know of. Lets face it quite handy in the less than optimal rooms we work in these days.

There is a built in limiting circuit also included in the feature set. This is a bit odd to implement (refer to the manual), I don't think I would ever use it myself, it could come in handy though in a guerilla recording set-up.

There is a bit of a learning curve with how all these features are accessed and implemented. They are all done at the PSU and only a few controls do multiple functions. It becomes quickly intuitive though. In short you are going to have to read the manual and keep a copy available for your engineering staff.

This mic would be my answer to the often asked "if I was going to buy one mic for everything what should I get" question (we all know that this mic and unicorns are on the same availability list) I would say look at the Lewitt 940.

Closer and closer.

5/7/2019

Work on the studio space continues again, thank the maker! It is amazing to me how when it is my own task exclusively for myself I will find anyway to procrastinate! Now to be fair life has been busy busy busy, I was warned that these years of life would be the busiest and it has been all that was promised and then some! So all good I guess!

AES NY 2018

11/26/2018

So attended the New York AES/NAB convention at The Javits Convention Center and I have this to say:

IMO it was one of the less engaging AES gatherings I can remember it was Clones Clones Clones and Dante Dante Dante. It also seemed small in size and while I was only there opening day (so some companies may have showed up on subsequent days) I noticed some of the smaller boutique people were missing. The NAB side of things was booming meantime and definitely grew in size compared with the last event held in the same venue! Digital video tech is really booming!!!

The AES was all about streaming and networking and bad demos of gear. Now I am biased I like straight up audio gear and while I am an early adopter and believer in digital audio I have seen too much money get burned up by obsolescence and standard change. I am not a Luddite by any means but as a small DIY'er I can't afford to adopt a new DA/AD every 5 years. Or deal with replacing all my IEEE1394 gear to Thunderbolt etc... Its painful to watch all the variations on a standard that are competing with each other and it coming down once again to the most prolific adoption (DANTE) winning. Yes it's Beta Max vs VHS all over again!

Yes we are still here and chugging along!

9/26/2018

It has been an interesting year so far to say the least! As we enter the last quarter of the year I just wanted to update something here as we have been so busy with assorted business and life craziness I realized I hadn't done any updates. Well studio stuff first. Yeah its stalled again we were moving along and then projects picked-up and we just had to back off again. The good news is 90% of the ceiling is up and taped and even some of the other construction has happened.

Also had to catalogue all the studio gear as we are finally fully insured for full replacement value, while a financial commitment for sure it is definitely a better place to be then relying on multiple insurance policies tied to the spaces were the equipment is. Now it is all under one policy that is tailored to this industry and the needs of this type of investment. Whew!!! I also finally know all the stuff we have acquired over the years, in short we got issues!!!! Ha ha!

Microphone design and building is still on the burners and we are hoping to build and offer some interesting new things in this area in the near future.

ATTENTION ALL STARBIRD MIC STAND OWNERS

2/25/2018

Anyone who has ever used a George A. Starbird (top photo) stand knows they are one of the best mic stands ever designed. When Mr. Starbird sold the rights he did so to David Manley and as I understand it up until the NY AES/NAB Show Manley was the source for parts. Well enter an amazing company Triad-Orbit and a little horse trading (license deal with Manley) and the Triad-Orbit SB-1 is born (bottom photo). They also upgraded this stand to the nexter than next level! I was also told that Triad-Orbit will be offering parts for those of us that have existing versions of the originals. Awesome comes to mind!!!

Triad-Orbit website

Degraw Sound turns Five

12/11/2017

Hey good people Degraw Sound in Gowanus Brooklyn just had their five years in business anniversary and in so doing gave a shout out to you know who.....

Degraw Sound article

What's been up?!

11/9/2017

It has been a while since my last entry. Things are moving forward for sure.

New mic design coming.

I have noticed a trend in the microphone world of putting both the impedance converter and mic to line amps in the microphone body. It is something I have been thinking about for some time and I guess times have caught up! So I am putting together the Idea of a hybrid design that will incorporate a tube front end (impedance converter) and a solidstate line converter (line output amp). Think 6072 to API for instance or even just a balanced JFET stage.

Mics that come to mind that have hit the market lately are:

Requisite Audio L7

Chandler Limited REDD

I'm a Believer...... V72 lives up to expectations!

7/27/2017

So years ago I read an interview with one of my favorite Singer/Songwriter, Musician, Guitarplayer, Activist and Producer Steve Earle, talking about many things among which was the virtues of Telefunken V72 Mic Pre's and acoustic guitar recording. He basically said they are the best for it. I have a problem with the idea of anything being the best always. There is no perfect for all purposes anything! With that endorsement from someone that I respect at that level it did make me want to hear one and that led to me wanting to own one (two). I will say now that I own one they are damn good sounding, with the right mic, for acoustic steel string and nylon string guitar. They also do a great job with the right transformer added as a bass DI!