Attack of the Expanding Blog! We are going Live on the radio and podcast! "Sound Experience with Tim Dolbear"

By Tim Dolbear
www.timdolbear.com

Today we are signing papers to bring an expanded version of my blog to EnterTalk Radio

http://entertalkradio.com/

We will be starting next month the new show "Sound Experience with Tim Dolbear."  This is a live show, hosted by me with special guest every week form the world of recording; Famous Producers, Musicians, Audio Gurus, Equipment Designers... And during the live show, you can call in and ask questions, or email them in prior to the show. 

The show will be live and then available on the station's site as a Pod Cast and download. 

I am very excited to be doing this adventure and can't wait to start!  More info coming soon!

Pt2. All this Machinery...Guest response from Marc DeGeorge from Solid State Logic

By Tim Dolbear
www.timdolbear.com

In response and addition to my blog: All this machinery making modern music...

Special Guest Blogger, Marc DeGeorge
Solid State Logic
US Sales & Marketing Manager


Always good to see you (Tim) at the show (and elsewhere!). I think you are correct in thinking that there is a "gear hoarding syndrome" going on. I don't think it's a new problem though. G.A.S. (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) as it's referred to is an issue of the human condition. That is, we as humans look for the easiest solution to a problem. In many ways, that's a good thing. It's helped us survive and (sort of) evolve over thousands of years. However, there is the dark side of it, and that is the idea that (as you mentioned) a tool solves problems. If you have all the tools, then you can solve all the problems. The problem with that, as you know, is that that's only half the truth. A tool, applied correctly and skillfully solves the problem. It doesn’t solve the problem to just simply apply a preset, unless that preset just so happens to be exactly the right thing that is needed at that moment. Not likely.

Now, full confession here, as I work for SSL, a manufacturer, It’s part of my job to sell stuff, to hit goals and make money for the company I work for. We are in business not only to make great stuff, but to make a profit for our shareholder. While we don’t try to achieve this by giving out misleading information or by selling things to people that don’t need them, there are companies in the industry that unfortunately do. Telling myths makes your and my job more difficult, because now we have to dispel that misinformation as well as try to properly inform and educate with the correct info. I’d much rather prefer a world where everyone knows how to properly achieve great sounds and spends their time in pursuit of honing their skills. Perhaps one day!

On the other side of things, you mentioned songwriting (or lack thereof these days). This is really the result of many factors. A few of those being; the changes in the music industry, the huge supply of options really creating less choices, and the internet creating extremes. Popular artists are hyper-popular, and those who don't become multi-platinum getting washed out by the noise on top.

At the NAMM show, I was walking by a stand being built. Their boom box was playing a song from a semi-famous band, Zebra; "Tell Me What You Want." Zebra was never a huge success in their time during the 80s, but they were a great regional success. I’m sure they still have a large fan base here in the Northeast, and probably elsewhere, but they never went platinum, possibly not even gold. It’s difficult if not impossible to be a band like that these days, as it's either boom or bust, and very little in-between. While that's not entirely different that before, it's the extremes of which things happen. We are all so hyper-connected, and so flooded with information all of the time, that if an artist is not the biggest and the loudest right now and all the time, then they will struggle to be heard. Finally, it's not so cool to be in a band anymore. Shows like American Idol or The Voice are an effect of this individual ideal. The guitar heroes of today are DJs, or R&B and Hip Hop singers. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but that type of music is perfect for the now era. When it comes out, it either hits, or it doesn't. There's no time for artist development, and no money.

We are still in flux in our business. I do see some good and positive things out there. Change is happening, maybe not as fast as we'd like, but I do know that there are plenty of those still in the industry today that will not go quietly into the night. They will take a stand and fight for what they believe in: great music, preformed and produced with care and skill. I think we should seek these people out, and join them.

Eclectica Studios Update...what's new?

By Tim Dolbear
www.timdolbear.com

So its mid February, 2016 and things are moving along well. We have some cool things we are planning to add to the studio this year. Its all still in the works... so stay tuned...

I am also looking for ways to expand operations and possibly bring in a partner with complimenting set of skills. It has to be the right fit. I fully believe that 2 people can make happen 3x what a single person can. So hit me up if you want to talk about this. but remember, this is business.

Coming up next week I go to The Backbird Academy to teach as I do every 3 months, all about working with Samplitude and Sequoia for recording/mixing/ mastering and audio restoration.

While I am there I will get to hang out with Marc Rubel and Joe Palmaccio, which I greatly look forward too. Then friday I go to McAllen Texas to record the Circus Harmonos Vasquez, the world famous Circus.

Every year I do the mix for the Circus' DVD release for the year's performance, you know,,, as you leave the arena after watching the circus, you can purchase it on DVD and take the memories home! Well I am the guy who mixes the audio for the DVD each year. This year I will also be handling the recording for it, specifically the room mics that are so important for this. I plan to post a blog all about it with tons of pics so stay tuned.

That's all for now!

All this machinery making modern music...

By Tim Dolbear
www.timdolbear.com

Can it still be open hearted?

I am just back from the NAMM 2016 show is So California, a 4 day event filled with every Musical Instrument and Pro Audio manufacturer, all showing their newest gear for recording, performing and making music to the million or so visitors that attend.

I came back with a few thoughts to ponder, things that I have had on my mind for a while but seem to be brought to the forefront once again while at this show. I have no real answers, and I too fall into most of the traps I will bring up. Feel free to comment or reply...

Since when is it more desired to be the guy in the studio (engineer) or a "producer", than a actual musician with talent?

People collect recording gear and build home studios like car fans did back in the 60/70s; They build these awesome hot rods and mussel cars or huge 4x4 trucks, and never even drive them over 55mph or off road...

Nowadays, People collect audio plugins like Pokemon cards, and 500 series units like Tupperware. It seems to be a trap people are falling into... "If I just own this piece of gear with its magic button, I will succeed and be admired".

"Just because you have a nice kitchen, don't mean you know how to cook"- Tim Dolbear

It seems like the only people profiting from all this is Manufactures. Sure good gear is needed, but things have gotten out of hand.

Over the last 20+ years, struggling musicians that could not afford to record their music in a real studio, bought gear to record themselves. As these people realized they could not "Make it" as an musician and become a Rock Star, they decided to offer recording services with the gear they had and then bought more gear to bulk up the equipment list.

Then while learning about working in the studio, either from the forums, magazines and youtube, they learn about audio engineers who have worked on high profile albums. Some of these guys have even moved into Rock Star status.

Now...over the years, with so many people doing just this, suddenly we find everyone wanting to be a audio engineers and/or producers and be that next "Rock Star". Audio Manufactures come in and speak into our minds that if we just have this piece of gear or that plugin, we can "make it" and be the Rock Star we have always strived to be, feeding the dream, or disease.

A side affect is that with less and less people striving to be good songwriters, or good musicians, there is less and less work for these struggling studio engineers.

Paul McCartney recorded his McCartney II Album by plugging his tube mic directly into the Studer 16 track tape machine, no preamp even...  Ponder that for a minute. 

Does anyone else get the sense that making music nowadays is simply a form of  "playing a video game"? Search back to what made you want to become a musician, what gave you a desire to make music. No one cares what frame the Mona Lisa has around it, or what font a poem uses. Its about the song, not the gear. Everyone Agrees that a great song recorded badly is so much better than a bad song recorded beautifully.

Crimson Audio's new HPA100 Headphone amp - Tim's Review

By Tim Dolbear
www.timdolbear.com

As I have written about before ( "What are you listening on?"), I like to check my mixes on headphones and earbuds. Of course I monitor while mixing through a Neumann K&H series monitoring setup but then switch over to check the over all EQ and how the mix translates using devices other than speakers in a room. I usually plug my headphones and earbuds into my Mytek Stereo192-DSD D/A converter, which of course has a very nice headphone amp built in.

Last year, Dan Hembree, who just happens to be my brother-in-law, left Rupert Neve Designs where he had worked designing many of their well know product to strike out on his own. His new company Crimson Audio LLC was soon established.

Dan quickly got busy designing up a soon to be released studio monitoring controller and other products, He also does design and engineering work for many other high end recording studio equipment manufacturers such as BAE, Nashville based Sphere Recording Consoles and Teagarden Audio.

The first product Dan has released under Crimson Audio is the headphone amp section from his monitor controller design; The HPA100. Last summer Dan asked me to beta test it so lets dive in...


I received the HPA100 and connected it to the outputs on the back of my Mytek Stereo192DSD and ran a wonderfully recorded classical recording out from my Sequoia workstation. I set up the volumes to match on both the Mytek's headphone output and the HPA100's output. This first test I simply came out the -10 outs on the back of the Mytek to feed the HPA100 thus leaving my studio monitoring unchanged. The HPA100 can accept a -10 or +4 input and you can select the RCA unbalanced inputs or the Balanced XLR-1/4" combination jacks by way of a selector on the front of the unit.

The HPA100 is a single headphone stereo channel amp and is meant for high quality listening, My live room headphone amps are made by Fostex (PH-5) and CAD, a 4 headphone channel unit. I also compared with these, though they are fed from my RME setups D/A converters and which are good, but are no Mytek D/A, ya know?

The difference between the Mytek Headphone out and the HPA100's output was not at first a huge difference. It seemed like the HPA100 had a slightly more open sound but at the end of the track, the music became more dynamic and the performance came to the big ending and there it was! I could hear a distortion in the recording, either a mic preamp or something in the recording signal chain clipping. Not digital distortion and not an overload feeding the HPA100, this was clip distortion from an analog piece of gear during tracking. I could hear it through the HPA100 and not through the Mytek.

I could also hear it through my Neumann monitoring system but not as apparent as the HPA100 revealed it. Amazing!  I was sold then and there.

Compared to the Fostex and the CAD, the HPA100 is in a different league. In comparison to the Mytek, it's a nice upgrade and worth it as it reveals noises and issues that were not reviled on other listening systems. If it can reveal such things and save me from missing something as important as this was to the classical recording, it's worth it!

Lastly, I asked Dan to send a unit over to Steven Epstein, a friend and decorated Classical Producer and he simply fell in love with it. Steve said about the HPA100 “The Crimson Audio Headphone Amplifier produces a transparent and natural sound which can be experienced in a variety of listening environments from the exacting demands of a recording studio to enjoying audiophile­-type quality at home”

Many Pro Audio shops will be carrying the HPA100 soon, but you can contact him directly if you want to test it out or buy one. It retails for $349 which is a fantastic deal for such design quality.

https://crimsonaudio.com/

sE Electronics Z5600a II and Voodoo VR1 microphone on review.

By Tim Dolbear
www.timdolbear.com


sE Electronics is the maker of many outstanding microphones, including my all time favorite small diaphragm condensers, The sE5. I fell in love with The sE5 while trying them out for my MIX review and you can read about them here:

MIX magazine review - sE5

Chris Dauray who works with sE and helped me out on the MIX review, setup me up with a few more 'of my choice' mics to try out. This time it was the Z5600a II multi-pattern large diaphragm condenser and a pair of Voodoo ribbon mics.

First up is the Z5600a II.  $1249 list

This is a 9 pattern tube condenser mic with built in -10 db pad and HP filter. It comes in a great flight case with remote power supply that also has the pattern selection on it, a large and of quality shock mount, and cabling.

The sound is upfront, mid-range focused and filled with harmonics, as you'd expect from a tube mic that has a good transformer in the output stage. The polar patterns range from Omni through Cardio to figure 8. I liked the sound of the mic in Omni pattern more than cardio.  Example, when tracking acoustic guitar, Set to cardio, the sound of the strings and left hand came through, but in Omni, the entire instrument came through. Also the added depth of the room came to life in Omni.

It was a very nice feature being able to dial in the polar patterns, if I wanted a Cardio pattern that was slightly more open than normal, simple select the setting that works. Very cool!

This mic would find itself at home tracking vocals for Rock and hardrock. This mic is on my list of wants for future purchases. :-)



Next up is the sE Voodoo Ribbon mic VR1. $499List

These are small passive ribbon mics that have an extended high range and are not a budget ribbon mic. I have try others in the $200-600 range and hated them, terrible. The Royer ribbon mics start at $1000 and I just have not gotten a chance to use them as I figured I would want to buy it if I loved it... So if the VR1 sounds of the quality of the $1000+ ribbons, I am in business. The VR1 comes in at half the price and with so many engineers bragging about their beautiful high end response and rich mids and lows, I could not wait to try them out.

The VR1 do not have a HP filter and of course due to the low output inherent to a ribbon microphone's design, no pad. Also, the VR1 has a transform on it's output so if you hit the mic with 48v phantom power, the mic will not have issue. This is unlike most ribbon mics on the market which will fry an ugly death if you accidentally hit them with phantom power.

I received a pair of mics so I could test them as overheads for drums, but first up was what these are known for and I had waited a long time to get them in here to try out; Electric Guitars.

The VR1 sounded creamy yet tight, smooth frequency response and no "dull high-end" like I have run into in the past with ribbons. It made my SM57 (Transformer-less) sound very upfront and tight but not in a good way. In fact, I could not believe how bad my normal guitar amping mics (SM57 transformer-less and Audix D1) sounded in comparison to the VR1.

The VR1 just Killed it!

Compared with my Shure KSM27, a condenser mic I often use for electric guitar, it simply had a more creamy smooth sound, the KSM sounded bright and even a tad harsh. Since the VR1 is a figure 8 pattern as most all ribbon mics are, it kept up with the condenser as they both had depth and "room" in their sound. The two complimented each other very well.

The VR1 is now my go to electric guitar mic. Its fantastic!

Many of my friends like ribbon mics as overheads, but for me I am not really a fan. First you need to be in a room with at least a 15ft ceiling as the figure 8 pattern catches reflections off the ceiling and kills the sound. Also the sound of a ribbon on a kit is very dull and not modern sounding to me at all. Even in a throwback vintage sounding recording, its not the sound I would look for. Just not to my personal taste.

Also if you are using a set of ribbons for over heads, I would only use a single as having 2 mics both in figure 8 pattern over a kit can cause all sorts of phase issues not to mention all the reflections being picked up. Just my 2cents.

I do look forward to using them on Horns (Brass) as I know the will be perfect. These have found a new home. I really really like these Ribbons and they deserve the hype they get.

Bravo sE, Bravo!


'till next time!

Monitoring...what are you double checking your work on?

By Tim Dolbear

www.timdolbear.com

Lets first start by stating and hopefully agreeing on this: Your studio control room's design and acoustic layout is the most important factor, If it's off, it does not matter what speaker or monitor setup you have, everything will be off.

Even my professionally designed control room at Eclectica Studios had issues that I dealt with for years and ended up throwing a lot of money at it to correct it.

I talk with many other mixing engineers about how they monitor while mixing. Some use one set of speakers, other have 3 or 4 pair, some studios have studio monitors all staked up on top one other... Some swear by the age old practice of burning the mix to CD or cassette before that and listening to their work in their car. Dave Pensado talks about the small Aurotones he keeps to the side of him, right next to each other simply to hear the song.

We live in a full range world now. 

For me, I have really settled into a setup that consist of a single high end monitor setup but with a few extras.

My Studio monitors are Nuemann KH Series: the KH120 and Sub, fed by the  Mytek Stereo192 DSD D/A. They sound amazing; clean, clear and correct.

Interestingly, for a minute I added a second set of 6.5" studio monitors, and had them sitting right next to the KH120s, But they killed the sound, the stereo field of the KH120s just closed up. Now when I see studio with speakers next to other speakers I wonder if they know what they are loosing by setting a big box next to a speaker they are listening too, or if they even noticed the stereo field disappearing and the sound closing up.

But really, what's the point of having lots of good sounding speakers that really sound basically the same when the consumer will be listening to your music on earbuds which have a completely different presentation or a Bose stereo system that is not setup to spec...

If I mix on speakers, as I do, and then switch to another pair of speakers, it confuses the situation as to my reference point of the tonalities of the mix..."Is there too much 600hz in the mix or is it just these speakers have more low mids than the first set?"

But popping in Earbuds or on a set of headphones will resets your brain and point of view for listening.

Aurotones are an interesting small 4.5" single speaker in a small box, and have for decades been "industry standard" for low-fi mix checking as they represented small boom boxes and TV speakers well. But it's almost 2016 (in a few weeks), people do not listen to music on boomboxes, or to their TVs using the built in speakers anymore. Boomboxes are now earbuds and headphones, TVs plug into Stereo and 5.1 Home systems. Car stereos are basically full range and decent nowadays,  no more single speaker AM radios for automobile entertainment.

While interviewing engineers and artist for the "How We Listen" feature I wrote for Professional sound I spoke with Tony Harnell and him mentioning how he only listens to music on his earbuds nowadays, I realized, outside my studio walls, things really are changing...

So instead of a 2nd and 3rd pair of speakers or my car... I now check my mixes using a set of medium range earbuds and a set of decent headphones that sit between the Bose headphones and crappy Beats headphones that are so popular with fashion conscience. Since checking mixes and masters with earbuds and headphones earlier this year, my work is translating better than ever to all mediums.

So a few things to take away...

You have to work in an acoustically correct room. You need one set of REALLY good monitoring and know how they sound like you know your own soul. You need to know how speakers and the room sound together and there is no better way than to listen to music you know and love on them everyday.

Then, you need to be checking your mixes on what the consumers will be listening to your work on. For the most part, if its not a full range stereo, its earbuds and headphones.