The 2 Phantastrons were used to perform the piece “Nikola Tesla, Cosmic Engineer” by Pauline Oliveros.

An article in the New York Times reviews the event and describes the performance of “Nikola Tesla, Cosmic Engineer” as “Trippy”:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/22/arts/music/music-for-merce-at-roulette-review.html

The performers signed one of the Phantastrons and sent me a photo. What an honor!

Special thanks to Jesse Stiles and everyone at the event!

The Phantastron Signed by the Performers

a vinyl test pressing

Just got a new test pressing, “hot off the presses”. It’s the forthcoming Tendorizor album I mastered. They’re an Albuquerque band with a unique style in metal — modern “thrash” meets classic metal.

It’s a challenge to make a good master for Vinyl when the band demands “LOUD!!!” and some tracks seem to have about 20 guitars. I’m happy with this one, though, real happy. The grooves are nice and deep & loud. But, there’s also that old-school classic metal on vinyl sound. It’s great fun to hear the transformation from digital master to vinyl. Things change subtly, in unique ways. I’ve learned from experience what to anticipate from the vinyl and make my master aim for that goal.

This time the bass came out really warm and punchy. Guitar solos always seem well suited to Vinyl too.

What doesn’t improve? In this case, with loud, thick metal, high frequencies don’t have the clarity they do on the digital master. That’s the unique nature of vinyl, though, and why we do things like de-ess and eq high frequencies to match the vinyl “spectrum”.

So, what do I do with a test pressing to test it? Well, I make sure it sounds like the master. I also look out for asymmetry in the disk, make sure the lead in and lead out grooves work, that the locked groove at the end of sides work. I recently heard of a test pressing coming back with the locked groove in the last second of audio – so it looped the last notes of music over and over again rather than sending the arm to the center and having it stay in place.

I check for any big pops due to problems with the die (ticks), or volume changes. Sometimes an imperfection in a die can make a tick — you know it’s not dust by checking the same spot on multiple test presses. I make sure the tone arm isn’t wobbling due to an asymetry or the hole being misplaced.

Finally, though, I enjoy. If I can sit back and be happy listening, that’s great. I had that experience this time and just listened to the album an additional time for enjoyment.

What sort of turntable to use? What sort of cartridge? People often ask this… My answer is that there are MANY turntables out there and audiophile turntables with special cartridges are less common than average turntables. The goal in mastering is to make sure the record sounds good on ALL systems, not just a high grade setup. So, even though I can check on a fancy turntable, I really trust a plain vanilla turntable and a good neutral cartridge (I tend to prefer elliptical audiotechnicas for this), as they add minimal color and definitely allow you to hear any pops or ticks that occur. I also like to use a real light tone arm pressure, so if there’s a skipping or skating problem, it will be obvious.

The visible cable and plug aren’t pretty, but don’t look quite as bad:

Regardless, if either exposed metal wire (seen in the photo on top-right) touched the metal chassis (even slightly), there may be some serious electrical shock or damage to the electronics.

Don’t chance it, replace power cables when they look like this, or seem to be stiff or brittle. If you know how to do this yourself, a good replacement is a “power tool” replacement cable from a hardware store — they’re very tough and can handle plenty of electricity — they cost about $7 at true value hardware here.

If you don’t know the nuances of working with AC mains wiring, get a competent repair person (like me) to do it for you. I can even do cool cloth covered cables for you if you like (modern made cloth jacketed cords that exceed electrical code requirements).

Be careful out there,

Lorin

P.S. Pretty much EVERY Hammond organ will need a replacement cord. It’s one of the few things that *always* ages poorly on a Hammond instrument. So if you own a Hammond, just replace that old cable.

Solovoxes are strange little keyboard instruments, similar to the Ondioline or Clavioline in concept and fundamental circuitry. All three have small keyboards, vacuum tube oscillators, a knee bar controlling volume (ever played a pump organ?), and some electronic similarities under the hood. All three instruments are unique, though, and the Ondioline, Clavioline and Solovox often do not sound similar.

First, I must put one thing to rest for those who find these or consider buying or selling them:

• There are 3 models, J, K and L.The models’ major components can not be interchanged and are quite different.
• Any preference for a given model is personal.
• Solovoxes do not work when the keyboard is separated from the cabinet.
• Serious modification is needed to make a solovox cabinet work with anything other than the same model keyboard. Think about it, THE ON SWITCH FOR THE CABINET IS IN THE KEYBOARD!. So, THINK TWICE ABOUT GETTING A CABINET WITHOUT THE RIGHT KEYBOARD.
• The Keyboard contains only passive components, filters, swicthes, etc.. It is a controller and makes no sound without a cabinet.
• Even if you get the cabinet turned on, it still requires “note on” messages from the keyboard to amplify anything. Again, turning the cabinet into an amp requires knowledge and modification.
• These instruments usually don’t work too well without restoration.
• Solovoxes are not very valuable. Working models often sell for $100 to $200. This is probably because restoration is usually needed and, most often, the keyboards and cabinets are mismatched or separated (a situation in which you end up with a “boat anchor” or two).

When I bought one on Ebay, indeed I got an L cabinet and a K keyboard. Won’t work a lick that way. The keyboards are so different model to model that you cannot simply make an adaptor for the cables — the components are VASTLY different in each model keyboard.

I’m fond of the Solovox for a few reasons:

It’s an American instrument (and part of american musical history). I don’t have a bias against non-American instruments at all, but do feel it’s important to preserve our our musical history (Americans tend to be a little behind on this front).

The design really is interesting and important. I’ll break down the design later, but it’s quite practical and clever. It bears a lot of resemblance to the Hammond Novachord (1938) which preceded it, but also influenced countless other instruments which followed. The practice of creating an oscillator for the top octave and dividing the frequency down in stages to create lower octaves is found in countless organs and keyboards which followed (both tube and solid state). The envelope control (an AR envelope) controlls volume by biasing two remote cutoff pentodes — rather similar to the envelope portions of vari-mu audio compressors (like the RCA BA-6A).

It sounds different and cool. All solovoxes (models JK and L) sound a bit different, but they all sound interesting, and they all sound like solovoxes. They don’t sound like 70s analog synthesizers, and they don’t sound like organs. Look around for Sun Ra’s “Deep Purple” recorded in 1953 for an example of the tone. The Solovox does not change timbre much, unlike the Ondioline or the Electronic Sackbut or the analog synthesizers of the 1970s — however it does the Solovox sound real well.

Here’s my opinion on the Solovox and electronic instruments of the 1920s through 1960s: They are generally designed as unique (and often experimental) INSTRUMENTS. Despite being the ancestors of the analog synthesizers, the solovox, ondioline, Novachord are quite different from analog synthesizers and should be treated uniquely. They are not modular, they do not “patch” into countless tonal and controllable variations, and they were made for players of a completely different era. This may disappoint the insatiable someone looking for a keyboard with the versatility of a Moog but constructed of vacuum tubes and tone wheels (sorry that doesn’t exist). However, these oddball electronic instruments of the early and mid 20th century are often wonderfully crafted, well though out, and unique instruments with as much soul as any acoustic or electro-acoustic instrument. I believe they should be treated as instruments, not “synths” or “gear”, and loved for their unique voices and the thoughtfulness of their designers and inventors.

Just because an instrument is all electronic and has a keyboard should not make us immediately compare it to a mini Moog or an Arp Odyssey! Do we compare a ford Model T to a 70s Mustang? Or even more apropos, do we blame Harold Rhode’s electric piano for having too few sound patches?

So, lets just enjoy a Solovox for being a Solovox.

Oh, and if you have an extra Model L keyboard around, please send me an email…

P.S. I will be writing more about the Solovox in detail later, including how they work, how to make an alternative controller, etc, but for now I’d just like to thank Laurens Hammond and Alan Young and all their associates for making such ingenious and unique musical instruments.

Check this out:

That’s the back of the VU meter. Someone must have kicked this thing a couple times. Look closely, that coil armature inside the off-white plastic is  the galvanometer (the actual motor that makes the needle move). Notice the needle sticking off the armature?

This is all fixable – in fact, I fixed all these issues, and the unit is now GREAT. However, repairing these delicate meters and components takes a lot of patience and some tricks. Here’s how I repair a broken Galvanometer:

1. The galvanometer needs to be tested – in the case of a VU meter, put a little AC through it from a headphone amp or a similar low watt amplifier (<5 Watts). Make sure it swings all the way from left to right, doesn’t rub or hit. Gently bend back any points that are obviously bent or rub — there should be no rubbing of the armature against other parts.
2. NOTE: If you don’t straighten this out properly and glue it up perfectly,it will not work AT ALL. So, maybe practice on a cheap one first. Making a replacement VU meter of this quality involves buying an expensive meter ($40+ or so) and even making reproduction graphics to place inside so it says “Spectrosonics” or whatever… Don’t be afraid, but do realize that diligence and patience is key.
3. Straighten out the needle (gently). It’s probably bent from rubbing on the VU scale (inside that white housing), and bent further when it popped out of the display housing.
4. Lightly sand the edges with fine sandpaper (>#400) or steel wool to remove any loose chips and to encourage a good fit with the glue. Plastics glue better if you roughen them up a bit.
5. Use the right glue. Many glues don’t glue plastic well, including most epoxies (unless they state that they are for plastic). Different types of plastic require different glue, too. For example, the galvanometer housing looks like a polystyrene plastic (same sort as CD jewel cases), and the front meter housing is acrylic (plexiglass). So, my experience says plastic epoxy, super glue, or silicone glue (try GE Silicone II) will work well — or Best ever, Gorilla Glue! Gorilla glue is strong, expands into gaps and sets up in 2 hours or so, which is right. A slower glue is better than fast glue like super glue or fast epoxies, as you can adjust things while it is setting… Keep in mind that Gorilla glue dries a sort of amber color, so it’s good this won’t be seen. For a clear joint, choose a different glue.
6. Follow the instructions on the glue, okay. I’m not going to teach you that…
7. Carefully insert the galvanometer back into the meter window assembly, needle first.
8. Clip some signal on again and make sure everything moves well — if it’s misaligned, the needle will hit parts of the scale or the window.
9. THE REAL TRICK: As the assembly is glueing, keep signal going through (remember a headphone amp signal). Keep the needle moving as the glue is curing — if anything shifts or moves, the needle will not move right. If the needle keeps moving correctly during glueing, you know it’s going to work. Check the needle often and verify that it’s doing it’s job during the glue-up.
10. Don’t forget to clamp it. Gentle pressure is fine for Gorilla Glue, since it expands. Don’t use too much pressure, as you may break the plastic further. Don’t mess with it unless the moving needle starts showing distress.
11. Voilla, you’ve refurbished a vintage VU meter. This technique can be applied to lots of electromechanical things with moving parts that need glueing, not just meters.

Above, I positioned the galvanometer into the window housing, gently clamped it with my panavise board holder & applied gorilla glue to the edges (a little bit is enough). Notice that the Red and Yellow clip leads are constantly sending signal through the meter — if anything goes wrong or shifts, I can see it by watching how well the meter is working. In this case, I used headphone output from a pre-sonus firebox I have on my PC, playing my itunes library (Portishead, Muse and some Neil Diamond, I think).

More notes about the Spectrasonics 610:

• Spectrasonics is cool, but they don’t help you repair stuff or provide schematics. Some companies are this way, and I can’t blame them.
• Don’t attempt electrical repairs on this beast unless you are a real pro. The circuits are quite precise, and nothing is labeled. Part numbers are often not standard. If the compressor circuit itself isn’t working bring it to me, or send it to Spectrasonics (if you get a hold of them).
• This unit really does need to “warm up”. Seriously.
• Yes, it does filter high frequencies – I verified this with a scope. It’s not drastic, though, and makes the compressor “pumping” much less audible.
• Yes, it reacts in 100 nanoseconds to 2 milliseconds. I verified this with a scope too. In most settings I played with, the attack was around 1 microsecond when hit with a hard pulse from the function generator. That’s impressively fast, as I was really slamming it with a sharp, loud (2V) square wave pulse.

Feel free to contact me if you need insights about these units or something similar — this is what I do!

Lorin

What you’re seeing is a spectrogram showing four beats from a drum kit. I recorded it into ProTools, and then carefully put the mono recording through the 1936 Warmifier Prototype ensuring that the signal coming out was the same overall level as the signal going in (unity gain).

Read it like this:

• It is read from top to bottom. Time is on the Y axis.
• Frequency is read from left to right. Low frequencies at left, High frequencies at right. This graph shows from 0 to 12kHz.
• Brighter = louder. Dim or Black = quiet.

Now we can see how loud each independent frequency band is. This tells us what the tubes and circuit are doing to the tone and timbre of the recording. I know it seems odd to read these when you don’t have some experience or practice, but bear with me….

So lets compare the recording “dry” and with the 1936 warmifier prototype:

Dry:

Drums recorded "dry" into protools - no effects or tubes.

Through 1936 Warmifier:

4 drum beats through 1936 Warmifier

What does it mean?

Really, it’s most important to me to see that the spectrograms are noticeably different, and do not show glitches, noise or nasty distortion (which would be pretty obvious). Just using my ears, I can often get fatigued or biased and need to use a mathematical, empirical study like this to keep myself honest. It seperates my subjective nature from the physics of what’s really happening.

Beyond that, it shows a couple interesting things:

Frequency changes: Notice that the very low frequencies are a little thinner and dimmer through the warmifier. The bass is being attenuated a bit, but there is still definition to the bass range. The mid frequencies are really being accentuated — notice that the snare hit shows a very bright “smudge” in the left-middle (400Hz or so) with more bright bands going up the spectrum to the right. Also, as the cymbal hits, are now a little brighter and show clear banding patterns.

Some Dynamic Compression: the tails of some of the beats, especially in the mid frequencies ring longer. Notice the bands which go from top to bottom on the second spectrum. Those sounds are there on the first, “dry” recording, but they “ring” or “sustain” longer through the Warmifier.

Harmonic Distortion: A little distortion in the right places can sound good. This tonal harmonic distortion, which is found a lot in vacuum tube circuits, is part of the “tube sound”. I can see that a little bit of harmonic distortion is being added by the Warmifier. Specifically, the 2nd harmonic, which is an octave above the principle frequency and the 3rd harmonic (octave + a perfect 5th). Since harmonics exist in these proportions in nature, it sounds rather natural, not like broadband distortion.

Subjectively, the result in this sample is:

• Less boomy bass
• More “defined” bass
• Accentuated mid range (200-450Hz) and slightly more mid-highs up to 10KHz
• Thus, a really “snap” sounding snare, more “ring” to the cymbals, and slight compression effect.

I’m having trouble uploading the sound file I used for this analysis right now. I’ll upload it, and some other samples a little later on. Honestly, though, the point of this test was to see what’s happening mathematically — there are better examples to use with our ears…

Lorin

And then I spin wool. Yep, I spin wool and I wear my cowboy hat while I do it sometimes.

Things have been rough at the music studio and shop lately — a water leak, needing to find a new, larger space, some snags in the supply chain, plus I’ve been a little under the weather…

So spinning yarn from happy local sheep is a wonderful activity. I’ve even done it for profit from home (the original work from home job — spinster!)

I’m trying a new wheel right now and really like it. I’m still getting used to it, so some of the yarn gets a bit “twisty” in this batch.

Lorin

What it is.
What it does.
When you need it.
Why it sometimes is not there.
How to get it.

The only DIY method shown uses rechargeable batteries. I’ll add some non-battery schematics later. However, as long as I’m talking about mics and batteries and how much I appreciate both…

http://www.electricwestern.com/PhantomPower.html

Will it sound like a million bucks? I honestly don’t know, but FUTURISM IS AWESOME!. I want to play and sing into a space ship, not something that looks like a cheap prostate probe.  This will look REALLY cool in translucent colors! This will look really cool in your collection, this will light up from the inside if you add an LED!

These files, properly prepared in CAD and CAM formats are my gift to you. Just come on down and bless the FabLab with your microphone and 1950s-spaceship-looking-thing loving self!

The mic design doesn’t sound half bad either.

Lorin

That’s upright bass –> Behringer mini-mixer –> Marantz Pro Field Recorder

There’s some TV and some other house noise in there too.

I wanted to try to little Behringer mixer to see what this thing sounds like with budget gear…

Lorin