Category: Uncategorized

What is this plastic oval? What does it mean?

Apparently, we used to buy SO MANY compact-discs that a tool needed to be invented just to facilitate opening the goddamn things. Apparently, no existing household implement was sufficient to accomplish this task, considering the huge bulk volume of CDs that we purchased on a regular basis from Tower, Sam Goody, Trash American Style, etc.

Furthermore, this tool (which could serve absolutely no other purpose than opening a CD) was so crucial to our lifestyle that it included A FKKNG CHAIN to attach it to our keychains.  Cos what does one really need on his/her keychain anyway?  Car key, house key, maybe one of those mini LED flash lights, oh and right a CD OPENER.

I apparently used mine so much that I actually damaged it, chipping of part of the channel-guide.  I wonder: what was the particular album that inspired this frenzied use of the device?  What CD needed to be opened with such speed, such force, that the injection-molded nylon was shattered ?

*Did a corresponing product exist in the LP or compact-cassette era?  How about in the days of sheet music?  Some type of special brown-paper-wrap-cutter?

*Is there a similar modern tool for unpacking ZIP’d folders of bootlegged MP3s?

*Anyone out there have a pile of CD Longboxes saved in their attic, just couldn’t throw the things out?

Alright already: it’s time to get away from the arch-obscuro-mixtapes, the pseudo-clever cultural commentary, and the puff pieces on electronic music ‘mavericks’ and get back to the core values of this website: time-consuming scans of ancient catalogs full of antique sound equipment of interest to 20, maybe 30, cranky retired men somewhere in the U.S.

Download a 25pp excerpt (I’ve omitted the telecommunications equipment) of the 1950 Stromberg Carlson Audio Equipment Catalog:

DOWNLOAD: StrombergCarlson_1950

Products covered, with text, specs, and photos, include: Stromberg-Carlson AU-29, AM-48, AM-49, AR-37, AU-32, AU-42, AU-33, AU-34, AM-43C, AP-25, AU-35, AU-36, AV-44, AV-45 amplifiers; AV-38, AV-39, AV-44, AV-45, and AV-46 preamps; Stromberg Carlson PS-29, PS-32, PS-33, PS-34, PS-37, PS-42 portable sound systems; plus a shit tonne of re-branded dynamic mics, speaker enclosures, drivers, including the RF-71, RC-13, RC-14, RC-15, RC-23, RC-25, RC-55, RC-57; Matching transformers, klaxons, and mic stands.

Above: The Stromberg-Carlson AU-35, the top of their mixing-amp range.  Interesting piece: it has two separate 25-watt 6L6 output stages, each driven by the same mix. Also touts ‘resistor board’ construction, which I imagine indicates a turret-board rather than terminal strips; even the RCA PA amps of this period uses terminal strips so this is certainly a notable feature in PA sound equipment of the period.

The AR-37 ‘record amplifier,’ a ten-watt amp with a variety of frequency-compensation features intended to adapt it to the various record response-curves prior to RIAA standardization.

Above: the only Stromberg-Carlson piece that I have spent a (regrettable) span of time with, the AV-38 pre-amplifier.  Loaded with shielded RCA input transformers and a very nice Triad (IICRC…) output, it worked fine out-of-the-box and it was certainly worth the $200 that I paid for it.  But, despite replacing several of the 6SC7s, recapping, adding a choke, and removing some extraneous crap, I could never get it to be ‘studio-quiet.’  And it probably never was intended to be such.  Anyhow…it’s gone to a better place now.  The AV-39 lacked the input transformers and the meter; otherwise identical.

Above: the RF-71, SC’s top-end driver of the period.  At some point they made some more sophisticated units, including these guys… good god that price!

Stromberg Carlson didn’t manufacture microphones that I am aware of, but you can find a huge variety of SC-branded Shures, EVs, and Turners on eBay to-this-day. 

Good fkkng god.  3,300 original hi-fi catalogs and datasheets scanned (in good quality), cataloged, and uploaded.  Get ready to be 10% less productive for the next two months.  The vintage knob dot org.  Well done sir.

…but try to tell me you didn’t laugh. Courtesy of this eBay auction. New actual PS dot com content coming shortly, i promise.

This is pretty far afield from the general mission of Preservation Sound dot com, but those of you who have been reading my writings for a while might be interested in checking out my advance review of some pretty interesting new audio software.

Regular readers might get the impression that I am a luddite who fetishes any/all things vintage and damaged, and you might be correct.  But I am also a working producer and composer and I actually do give a shit about new audio technology that offers the potential for creating new sounds and new meanings.

My friends at Production Hub, a film/TV industry website, asked me to be one of the first people to review Sony Creative Software’s new product SpectraLayers Pro (disclaimer: I did work for SONYMUSIC for many years, but this had no bearing on the review selection; I don’t think the folks at Production Hub were even aware of my history there).

You can click here to read the review.  If you work with digital audio editing on any kind of regular basis, I think you will find the software to be pretty remarkable, if even from a purely academic perspective.   Elevator-pitch: what if you had a stereo mix of a rock track, and entire production with vocals, lots of parts all going on at once all the time, and there was an out-of-tune vocal note that you wanted to fix? Leaving everything else alone, just retune the vocal?  Well…  now you can.  pretty easily actually.

Anyhow, lest my intentions here by lost: this is not a paid endorsement or sponsorship of any kind; it’s just not that often that I am impressed by something that I feel is truly ‘NEW’ in the world of audio production.  Which might be why I am always digging around thru the past looking for ‘new’ ideas to bring to my work.  I imagine that this sort of technology will show up in all DAWs in a matter of time, but for the moment, prepare to be surprised…