I'd recently purchased a set of Sony APM X360 speakers for cheap at a thrift store; there are bottom-mounted downward-firing woofers, paper, with completely disintegrated foam surrounds.
For about the price of re-surrounding them, I found (via thefind.com and biznet.com) a pair of Pyramid car woofers of exactly the same frame diameter, ordered them up, installed them, and whoomp, now have fairly powerful deep bass. Yes, the port overloads and "speaks", and as with all such thick, hard cones, are more puffy-sounding than rock-solid. They aren't really expensive so they will blow if pushed too hard, but what I'm getting out of a pair of 8" woofers (delivered for around $35.00) is perfectly acceptable.
I've also found next to nothing on the net about these Sonys. They have the square, honeycombed midrange (but obviously not the square woofer of more expensive models). There is only one very small sheet of damping material inside, and the cabinets are not very well reinforced (tap the area between the mid and tweeter with the tip of a screwdriver and you'll hear resonances). Worst, they have cone tweeters...
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Saturday, November 14, 2009
My measure of a truly fine loudspeaker / monitor
is that you excitedly dig up recordings you have not heard for decades, to see what is revealed, for the joy that hearing your favorite music on such a system provides. That you experience goosebumps.
The same goes for coupling a truly fine turntable/cartridge or amplifier to a truly fine speaker / monitor. Items such as the justifiably legendary Linn Sondek turntable are to be sought out and enjoyed! The same for the classic "r2d2" digital reverb, the Fairchild 670, the LA2a, the Moog oscillators combined with the Moog Filter, etc.
The same goes for coupling a truly fine turntable/cartridge or amplifier to a truly fine speaker / monitor. Items such as the justifiably legendary Linn Sondek turntable are to be sought out and enjoyed! The same for the classic "r2d2" digital reverb, the Fairchild 670, the LA2a, the Moog oscillators combined with the Moog Filter, etc.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Simpsons reference in WALL*E?
The other night, the "Flaming Moe" Simpsons episode re-ran. I noted, during Homer's hallucination sequence, that he repeated "mmmMoe" over and over, two syllables.
In WALL*E, there is a character M-0. Who pronounced it with two syllables.
I note Brad Bird's involvement in both.
Yes, in Wall*E I've already noted the two Alien references (Sigourney Weaver as the computer voice, nice irony, and the alternating flute tones referring to the soundtrack) and of course the 2001 references...interesting to possibly have a Simpsons reference!
If I only had the video ability to set the two clips side-by-side for comparison...
In WALL*E, there is a character M-0. Who pronounced it with two syllables.
I note Brad Bird's involvement in both.
Yes, in Wall*E I've already noted the two Alien references (Sigourney Weaver as the computer voice, nice irony, and the alternating flute tones referring to the soundtrack) and of course the 2001 references...interesting to possibly have a Simpsons reference!
If I only had the video ability to set the two clips side-by-side for comparison...
Saturday, September 26, 2009
On the flame wars.
I refuse to engage in old games and am working on changing my behavoirs and tendencies of dominating and stealing attention, and to attempt to pump up a non-existent sense of self-worth. I am not a saint, I am merely a work in progress, and will not claim to have transcended my capability for anger, merely to have decided and worked to never again, if I can help it, give in to it. I have no tools with which to make amends; even attempting to do so causes the same trouble I am attempting to overcome. (Ever attempt to fix something and merely break it further?)
I am not attempting to fight. I refuse to fight anymore. I am not attempting to force my perspective down anyone's throat. I am merely attempting to champion something I believe to be overlooked, and hope for like minds with whom to discuss it. I don't have to make anyone wrong, or to put down anyone's efforts. I'm over here, they're over there. I'm not going to hurt anyone. I even attempted to offer up my main new sonic interest in order to begin amends. I just want to continue exploring music and sound. Ignore me if you need to, I don't mind, especially if it would make the community a better place.
To those I have frightened, I am sorry. As a highly damaged individual (abandonment, abuse, dual diagnosis), it has taken a lot of work to even gain the perspective that my behaviour is not what I should engage in, much less receive. I am neither seeking pity nor forgiveness; I'm simply stating facts for consideration. Being me can be extremely difficult. Give me a break. I could well use it.
To those who take my suffering as opportunity to cause further suffering, I hope that you find something else upon which to transfer your own suffering, or even better, to heal that which drives you into behaviour you know to be below your own sense of value. I have hurt, and caused hurt in others, attempting to be "heard" and aided. Now I have gained ground into healing and recommend it. Know that to continue negativity is only to hurt yourself as it creates a negative heirarchy, a trend of a group damaging whatever it can. A positive heirarchy is to reach out and give aid to the damaged. Guess which feels better. Guess which one is a better place in which to live.
I am not attempting to fight. I refuse to fight anymore. I am not attempting to force my perspective down anyone's throat. I am merely attempting to champion something I believe to be overlooked, and hope for like minds with whom to discuss it. I don't have to make anyone wrong, or to put down anyone's efforts. I'm over here, they're over there. I'm not going to hurt anyone. I even attempted to offer up my main new sonic interest in order to begin amends. I just want to continue exploring music and sound. Ignore me if you need to, I don't mind, especially if it would make the community a better place.
To those I have frightened, I am sorry. As a highly damaged individual (abandonment, abuse, dual diagnosis), it has taken a lot of work to even gain the perspective that my behaviour is not what I should engage in, much less receive. I am neither seeking pity nor forgiveness; I'm simply stating facts for consideration. Being me can be extremely difficult. Give me a break. I could well use it.
To those who take my suffering as opportunity to cause further suffering, I hope that you find something else upon which to transfer your own suffering, or even better, to heal that which drives you into behaviour you know to be below your own sense of value. I have hurt, and caused hurt in others, attempting to be "heard" and aided. Now I have gained ground into healing and recommend it. Know that to continue negativity is only to hurt yourself as it creates a negative heirarchy, a trend of a group damaging whatever it can. A positive heirarchy is to reach out and give aid to the damaged. Guess which feels better. Guess which one is a better place in which to live.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Unstable Oscillators and Musical Passion.
Highly unfinished: will be finished at a later date.
Mr. Haible wrote in his Living VCO web page:
http://www.jhaible.de/living_vcos/jh_living_vcos.html
"Every few years there seems to be a heated debate how 'stable' a good-sounding VCO should be, or shouldn't be. I never quite understood how one can make an almost religious question out of this."
I wished to address this in a stable environment, no pun intended.
Music IS a religious (or more importantly, spiritual) experience. Why do you imagine that massive pipe organs were built into acoustically-designed cathedrals? To move the individual (leaving the purity and motives of mass religion out of the issue). To awe. To bring up goosebumps and provide a sense of something greater than the individual. Tibetan Buddhist instrumentation includes specific choices to effect specific energy centers in our makeup.
Inspiration: arousal of the mind to special unusual activity or creativity.
Muse: the source of an artist's inspiration.
Inspire: Spirit.
"But that's the task of art," Lotze said. "To advance the spirituality of man, over the sensual."
-The Man in the High Tower, Phillip K. Dick.
Occult meaning aside, music and sound directly effects the individual and their momentary demeanor. A joyous group song will lift the mood of the individual. A funeral dirge will serve as catharsis and an appropriate context. Beautiful sound lifts our moods/spirits. Ugly sound supresses it. Indifferent sound merely wastes time for those seeking the beautiful, seeking goosebumps...
We always seek in music that which pleases us, be it beauty or ugliness. It must be -effective- beauty or ugliness. It must move us, it must make us respond, it must please us, provide us with something we did not have before that moment. Some folks need music merely as wallpaper, as a seeming companion not taken note of but missed if removed; I need music to change my environment, my mood, to take me on journeys, to transport me...to make me tap my toes, to sway about... Is that too much to ask for? No, for I have found it many times, and those sources still provide after all these years.
That last being from Larry Fast regarding his amazing Synergy album "Cords".. "If the listener is transported, I know that I have succeeded", if I may paraphrase. I was lucky enough to find that recording around 1978, when I was a stereo fanatic and it was recommended in a magazine as an excellent listening test...
http://synergy-emusic.com/cords.html
Music such as this gives me goosebumps. Major goosebumps. Up the back of my neck, on the top of my head, up and down my arms...why would I settle for anything less, at any place in the audio chain?
I just don't hear that much discussion regarding >>compelling<<, inspirational audio equipment, at least in the modular field. It certainly appears among tube amplifier fanatics, both in the stereo field and in the guitar field...but not in the modular world. For me, the combination of a set of 901 series into The Filter produces a combination of beehive and growl that I could listen to all day (and likely have). To be musically compelling, for the gear to demand to be used, is the goal for me. When a sound appears which is a joy to play, that is the sign that something is right. It is being compelled through a positive experience. It is happiness. My favorite gear provides me with happiness. It is a pleasure to use, not only to listen to. This is imperative. Much falls away against these criteria.
-I've rarely backed away from a piece of music/sound gear, but the old Event 20/20BAS did it. An early version, when swept professionally, revealed something like a 4dB midrange boost prior to a 4dB dip. I couldn't listen any longer. Also, hard dome tweeters have never been friends of mine. An early Mackie 800 series, swept in the same tests, demonstrated extreme accuracy, but a huge bump just out of the high audible range:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11165691@N03/1338604693/
Tests are beginning to show that we perceive sound with more than the ears. The bones, the cartilage, even the liquid inside us and our very skin vibrate along and transduce sound, to an extent. This may or may not add to the experience some audio engineers had a while back when a newly-delivered board showed oddities on a few channels. When the tech came out, the engineers insisted that certain channels sounded different. The tech eventually found that on these channels, the input transformer ground was left floating, or some similar foible. There was a resulting oscillation far, far above human hearing, which resulted in an audible artifact, every time. It was at 60KHz or 160KHz; you'll have to Google it up to confirm.
Engineers in Nashville are said to be able to hear the difference between API EQs with transformers wound with nickel and (whatever the regular material is). And they choose between them for their resulting character. The differences between Minimoogs are far more audible than this, and it can easily be determined that some are more desirable than others, and not always due to oscillator stability. David Kean has the first Minimoog prototype in Minimoog form, and it sounds like it's about to burst into flames. It's that good. Amazing synth. I wish that its character could be quantified and marketed.
Anyone who knows me, knows that I'm no fan of the earliest Curtis ElectroMusic ICs. The late, great Tim Smith confirmed my aversion, stating that they had low-level odd harmonic distortion, among other things. Sounding "pinched". Shrug...
Most certainly, the differences in oscillator waveforms fall easily into these categories and capacities for differentiation. Those with waveforms not true to their names, such as the triangle on the early Moogs and the Curtis 3340, are easily selected for against that which is technically correct and pure. Sometimes these differences and genuine impurities produce a more pleasing result than their pure cousins. I for one go only for the more pleasing result...and find in there, in the early Moogs, etc.
Also, while at a listening comparison of Aspen Pittman's then new (magnificent) VIPre tube preamp, I mentioned that one of the other brands was producing inharmonics, quite like when the ear distorts from a loud, pure tone. Aspen brightened, saying that the unit in question had amplitude-dependent distortion of some sort, and that I -was- hearing something as I'd described.
-The pro audio I most crave includes these: Fairchild 670, Teletronix LA2a, Pultec EQP1A, Groove Tubes VIPre, Manley Vari-mu, API 550 series, etc. Note the preponderance of tubes, transformers, and discrete circuitry including discrete opamps. I offer that some synthesizers provide similar inspirational results. When I had the ADAM S4c monitors, I spent a lot of time listening to my music collection, to hear recordings I had not pulled out in years. Decades, in places. That's when you know you're on to something. When you have a musical instrument in front of you that causes you to forget what time it is, to forget that you haven't eaten in ours, when you look up and it's 3AM, and you don't know where the time went...that is the sort of experience I crave. Why would I settle for anything less, at any place in the audio chain?
This is my passion, my joy. This post is intended to be explanatory and nothing else. I must follow my joy, and perhaps learn not to make others wrong when their joy differs from my own.
I also note that mastering EQ can have 0.5dB increments. Mastering engineers know what small changes to make, where to make them, and when. This extremely subtle engineering can make all the difference in the world to your recording. After time, you can begin to hear changes so subtle, as you explore them. Then go back to for example, my current home stereo amplifier, an otherwise fine Sherwood with 2.0dB steps in bass and treble level. WOW. Like being hit with bricks! (Well, fine except for the digital component; you can hear the amp come out of muting when changing to and from zero volume to the first increment.)
-An extremely odd aside: Once at the Hollywood Sapphire Group dinner, an A/B/X test had been set up, and we were to write down our perceptions of the selections. It turns out that one or two of them were merely the metal in the selection switch itself. However, a highly-regarded microphone manufacturer and I compared notes and we agreed upon audible differences between the two switch-only settings!
Mr. Haible wrote in his Living VCO web page:
http://www.jhaible.de/living_vcos/jh_living_vcos.html
"Every few years there seems to be a heated debate how 'stable' a good-sounding VCO should be, or shouldn't be. I never quite understood how one can make an almost religious question out of this."
I wished to address this in a stable environment, no pun intended.
Music IS a religious (or more importantly, spiritual) experience. Why do you imagine that massive pipe organs were built into acoustically-designed cathedrals? To move the individual (leaving the purity and motives of mass religion out of the issue). To awe. To bring up goosebumps and provide a sense of something greater than the individual. Tibetan Buddhist instrumentation includes specific choices to effect specific energy centers in our makeup.
Inspiration: arousal of the mind to special unusual activity or creativity.
Muse: the source of an artist's inspiration.
Inspire: Spirit.
"But that's the task of art," Lotze said. "To advance the spirituality of man, over the sensual."
-The Man in the High Tower, Phillip K. Dick.
Occult meaning aside, music and sound directly effects the individual and their momentary demeanor. A joyous group song will lift the mood of the individual. A funeral dirge will serve as catharsis and an appropriate context. Beautiful sound lifts our moods/spirits. Ugly sound supresses it. Indifferent sound merely wastes time for those seeking the beautiful, seeking goosebumps...
We always seek in music that which pleases us, be it beauty or ugliness. It must be -effective- beauty or ugliness. It must move us, it must make us respond, it must please us, provide us with something we did not have before that moment. Some folks need music merely as wallpaper, as a seeming companion not taken note of but missed if removed; I need music to change my environment, my mood, to take me on journeys, to transport me...to make me tap my toes, to sway about... Is that too much to ask for? No, for I have found it many times, and those sources still provide after all these years.
That last being from Larry Fast regarding his amazing Synergy album "Cords".. "If the listener is transported, I know that I have succeeded", if I may paraphrase. I was lucky enough to find that recording around 1978, when I was a stereo fanatic and it was recommended in a magazine as an excellent listening test...
http://synergy-emusic.com/cords.html
Music such as this gives me goosebumps. Major goosebumps. Up the back of my neck, on the top of my head, up and down my arms...why would I settle for anything less, at any place in the audio chain?
I just don't hear that much discussion regarding >>compelling<<, inspirational audio equipment, at least in the modular field. It certainly appears among tube amplifier fanatics, both in the stereo field and in the guitar field...but not in the modular world. For me, the combination of a set of 901 series into The Filter produces a combination of beehive and growl that I could listen to all day (and likely have). To be musically compelling, for the gear to demand to be used, is the goal for me. When a sound appears which is a joy to play, that is the sign that something is right. It is being compelled through a positive experience. It is happiness. My favorite gear provides me with happiness. It is a pleasure to use, not only to listen to. This is imperative. Much falls away against these criteria.
-I've rarely backed away from a piece of music/sound gear, but the old Event 20/20BAS did it. An early version, when swept professionally, revealed something like a 4dB midrange boost prior to a 4dB dip. I couldn't listen any longer. Also, hard dome tweeters have never been friends of mine. An early Mackie 800 series, swept in the same tests, demonstrated extreme accuracy, but a huge bump just out of the high audible range:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11165691@N03/1338604693/
Tests are beginning to show that we perceive sound with more than the ears. The bones, the cartilage, even the liquid inside us and our very skin vibrate along and transduce sound, to an extent. This may or may not add to the experience some audio engineers had a while back when a newly-delivered board showed oddities on a few channels. When the tech came out, the engineers insisted that certain channels sounded different. The tech eventually found that on these channels, the input transformer ground was left floating, or some similar foible. There was a resulting oscillation far, far above human hearing, which resulted in an audible artifact, every time. It was at 60KHz or 160KHz; you'll have to Google it up to confirm.
Engineers in Nashville are said to be able to hear the difference between API EQs with transformers wound with nickel and (whatever the regular material is). And they choose between them for their resulting character. The differences between Minimoogs are far more audible than this, and it can easily be determined that some are more desirable than others, and not always due to oscillator stability. David Kean has the first Minimoog prototype in Minimoog form, and it sounds like it's about to burst into flames. It's that good. Amazing synth. I wish that its character could be quantified and marketed.
Anyone who knows me, knows that I'm no fan of the earliest Curtis ElectroMusic ICs. The late, great Tim Smith confirmed my aversion, stating that they had low-level odd harmonic distortion, among other things. Sounding "pinched". Shrug...
Most certainly, the differences in oscillator waveforms fall easily into these categories and capacities for differentiation. Those with waveforms not true to their names, such as the triangle on the early Moogs and the Curtis 3340, are easily selected for against that which is technically correct and pure. Sometimes these differences and genuine impurities produce a more pleasing result than their pure cousins. I for one go only for the more pleasing result...and find in there, in the early Moogs, etc.
Also, while at a listening comparison of Aspen Pittman's then new (magnificent) VIPre tube preamp, I mentioned that one of the other brands was producing inharmonics, quite like when the ear distorts from a loud, pure tone. Aspen brightened, saying that the unit in question had amplitude-dependent distortion of some sort, and that I -was- hearing something as I'd described.
-The pro audio I most crave includes these: Fairchild 670, Teletronix LA2a, Pultec EQP1A, Groove Tubes VIPre, Manley Vari-mu, API 550 series, etc. Note the preponderance of tubes, transformers, and discrete circuitry including discrete opamps. I offer that some synthesizers provide similar inspirational results. When I had the ADAM S4c monitors, I spent a lot of time listening to my music collection, to hear recordings I had not pulled out in years. Decades, in places. That's when you know you're on to something. When you have a musical instrument in front of you that causes you to forget what time it is, to forget that you haven't eaten in ours, when you look up and it's 3AM, and you don't know where the time went...that is the sort of experience I crave. Why would I settle for anything less, at any place in the audio chain?
This is my passion, my joy. This post is intended to be explanatory and nothing else. I must follow my joy, and perhaps learn not to make others wrong when their joy differs from my own.
I also note that mastering EQ can have 0.5dB increments. Mastering engineers know what small changes to make, where to make them, and when. This extremely subtle engineering can make all the difference in the world to your recording. After time, you can begin to hear changes so subtle, as you explore them. Then go back to for example, my current home stereo amplifier, an otherwise fine Sherwood with 2.0dB steps in bass and treble level. WOW. Like being hit with bricks! (Well, fine except for the digital component; you can hear the amp come out of muting when changing to and from zero volume to the first increment.)
-An extremely odd aside: Once at the Hollywood Sapphire Group dinner, an A/B/X test had been set up, and we were to write down our perceptions of the selections. It turns out that one or two of them were merely the metal in the selection switch itself. However, a highly-regarded microphone manufacturer and I compared notes and we agreed upon audible differences between the two switch-only settings!
Transporting / Shipping Loudspeakers
An audio rental company I used to work for had a trick: When transporting loudspeakers, use a short wire from the ground to the positive terminal on each. It causes the drivers to be held in place instead of flopping about during transport.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Tip for dusting/cleaning gear.
A medium-soft toothbrush is a vital tool in cleaning synths and music gear. It can remove dust from grooves in amplifier vents, in faceplate corners and inner edges, and if you get an old piece with dirty knobs, is perfect for lightly scrubbing them off (after removing them from said gear). It can also remove dust and dirt from under knobs (with a bit of water, just slightly damp) and all edges of gear and stereo equipment. Makes things look a lot newer.
Some use them to scrub PCBs after defluxing.
Some use them to scrub PCBs after defluxing.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Look more deeply.
To begin with a hint about looking deeper...In the last year, I have found two discarded CD changers. Both suffered from jammed tray mechanisms. You're probably already there; zip zip with a screwdriver reveals multiple CDs jamming up the works. Remove, and presto, both work perfectly. And it turns out that the Denon changer I fixed sounds better than the DVD player I'd been using for my CDs. You always learn something new.
The same happened years ago with a turntable spotted at a yard sale. "It doesn't turn." Grab, pedal the bike home, and yes, you've got it, lift the dustcover/mat and the belt had come off of the motor. Plink, and it worked for years.
If you do not yet solder, you are missing the same sort of "More" discussed above. I encourage you to learn how to read schematics, find and purchase vintage music integrated circuits if there are any you remember from your favorite synths, and go about building up what little support circuitry is required, to add such character to your modular synth setup. It's of course easier to begin with many of the PCB projects that are always cropping up; you can add to your setup at a fraction of the cost of many finished modules. The DIY forums at electro-music.com are an excellent place to begin! Cheers!
The same happened years ago with a turntable spotted at a yard sale. "It doesn't turn." Grab, pedal the bike home, and yes, you've got it, lift the dustcover/mat and the belt had come off of the motor. Plink, and it worked for years.
If you do not yet solder, you are missing the same sort of "More" discussed above. I encourage you to learn how to read schematics, find and purchase vintage music integrated circuits if there are any you remember from your favorite synths, and go about building up what little support circuitry is required, to add such character to your modular synth setup. It's of course easier to begin with many of the PCB projects that are always cropping up; you can add to your setup at a fraction of the cost of many finished modules. The DIY forums at electro-music.com are an excellent place to begin! Cheers!
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