Categories
Connecticut Audio History Microphones

CT AUDIO HISTORY: Syncron and Trod Nossel

(web source)

Many musicians in CT are not aware that this state is host to one of the oldest-running recording studios in America.  Trod Nossel of Wallingford, CT (a suburb of New Haven).

I have never been to Trod Nossel, nor do i know anyone who has; and in this era of modern ‘home-recording’ this is probably not all that surprising. Trod Nossel has a fascinating story.  The story of a dentist getting ‘turned-on’ to the sounds of the sixties, becoming a manager of semi-successful garage rock bands, and taking over a microphone-testing facility and creating a studio which hosted some pretty impressive acts over the years.  Crazy.  Trod Nossel Studio actually has a pretty extensive retrospective website where you can hear about this unlikely institution in their own words.

Anyhow, what is this about a microphone testing facility?  To make matters even stranger, it turns out that our dentist-turned-rock-impresario had been an investor in a failed microphone-manufacturing venture.  The headquarters of this company became Trod Nossel studio.  Ever heard of a Syncron Mic?  They were some of the earliest solid-state condensor mics, and if you can get one working, they are apparently excellent.   There is a very thorough and well-researched article on Syncron mics over at Stan Coutant’s excellent microphone data site.  You can read all the details and see pictures here.

I love Coutant’s site.  It is truly an asset to all of us interested in antique audio.   I don’t want to re-hash any of his work, but i would like to try and add to it, however modestly.  I have dug up the following circa 1966 advertisements for the Syncron mics.    Check ’em out.  The company folded shortly after these ads appeared in AUDIO Magazine.

Anyone ever done any work at Trod Nossel?

Anyone use these Syncron mics?

Categories
Custom Fabrication Guitar Equipment Technical

some recent pieces

Last week was busy in the shop.

This is a 2-watt per-channel stereo power amp built for our friends K&D.  It is tiny (only 10 inches wide).  The form of the amplifier was driven by the styling of these beautiful black-lucite vintage speakers which complete the set.

The speakers were made by Speak-Easy Intercom of Kansas City, likely in the early 50’s.  They are handmade from individual pieces of black lucite.  I found them with the original base-station for the intercom, all in flawless condition.  I replaced the drivers in the speaker cabinets.  This tiny tube-audio system is intended as a casual background-music-listening setup for the home or office.

—   —   —

A couple more ‘Recycled’  Tweed Champ Clones were born last week as well.

I have decided on the name ‘Cassius’ for these and all future small single-ended 5watt guitar amps.  ‘Cassius’ being the name of the most famous Champ of the 20th century.

Like the previous Recycled Champs, these are freshly-built  guitar amplifiers, built with largely new components, into antique cabinets.  In this case, factory/school PA speaker boxes.

I built these with identical circuits, very true to the circa 1955 5E1 schematic.   They use a 6V6 output tube with a 12AX7 preamp tube.  They have choke transformers and a feedback circuit.  The output transformer is mounted directly on the 8″ Alnico speaker in order to conserve space.  I used a 6X5 rectifier tube rather than a 5Y3 so that i could use a slightly smaller-sized power transformer.  The 6X5 is an excellent tube which was used in a great amount of pro-audio equipment in the 50s.  These amps also will also accept 12AY7 preamp tubes for a different breakup.

These amps are very small and lightweight. They sound fantastic.  Extremely dynamic.  The range of sound that you can generate using the volume knob on the guitar is outstanding.  The small Alnico speaker magnet make these amps less efficient than some other 5 watt amps, which makes these ideal for apartment dwellers (or anyone who lives with other people!).

Up next: this week I will be building a similar ‘recycled’ guitar amp, but scaled up: a 12-watt “Tweed Deluxe-type” amplifier with a 12″ field coil speaker.

Categories
History Publications Technical

Service Call

Why do some of us (audio enthusiasts, recording engineers, musicians) choose to use old vacuum tube equipment?  The reasons vary widely, but very few users would cite ‘better reliability’ as a positive factor.   True, much old tube-based audio equipment designed for professional use (EG., Fender guitar amps) is designed so that it CAN be easily serviced.  I haven’t found a tube guitar amp yet that I couldn’t fix. But ‘serviceability’ is different from ‘reliability.’

Is vacuum tube audio equipment inherently less reliable than solid-state equipment?  I am not certain that this is the case.  But there are a few basic conditions of tube equipment that would seem to make it more prone to breakdown.

*High Voltage.  Due to the optimum operating points of many vacuum tubes, most tube equipment will have DC voltages upwards of 300 or even 500 volts present inside the chassis, flowing through the capacitors, resistors, pots, and transformers.  This voltage is often near the stated working limit of these components.  Compare this to solid-state, where 24volts is the most you will likely find.

*Filaments (tube heaters).  Man look at those tubes glow.  They look great, right?  Yes they do.  But remember that the glow is created by heaters.  Their function is to make the tube hot.  Very very hot.  And they make everything else in the area hot.  Drying out wires and insulation, causing potting wax to flow out, and generally contributing to the decline of the physical condition of all the components.  Consider the amount of heat in, say, a Fender Twin amp.  Each 6L6 tube is drawing (6.3Vx .9A)= 6 watts x 4 tubes.  That’s 24 watts of pure HEAT present whenever the device is turned on.  Solid-state equipment does not need heaters to operate.

*Layout. In order to conserve space in a chassis, and simplify the construction, tube equipment was often wired point-to-point, with lots of little hand-made solder joints.  Compare this to solid-state equipment, where the smaller (due to lower voltage requirements) components can all be assembled on a board.  Just take a look at the two devices here.  Which one do you think is more likely to develop a problem due to mechanical shock?

(web source)

(web source)

Anyhow, vacuum tube equipment tended to require more servicing than later solid-state equipment designed for the same purpose.  A natural consequence of this was…  more servicemen!  Radio/Television repair shops used to be a common sight in America.  Now, not so much.  Even beyond the greater need for servicing in the tube-era, there is secondary reason: cost.  Since so much modern ‘surface-mount’ equipment can be built by robotic automation, and produced offshore, modern equipment costs less.  It’s often just not worth repairing.  You simply throw it out.  This was not the case in the 1950s.

Consider the cost of a basic 17″ television in 1951.  $139.50.  This is today’s equivalent of $1170.  That’s a lot of money. If your $1170 TV breaks, you would likely get it fixed.   Whereas in 2010, a 17″ TV will only cost you $168. Would you spend time and money to have a $168 TV serviced?  Not likely.

A large range of publications once existed to cater to these legions of TV/Radio serviceman.  We will look at several of these titles in the future on this site.  For today, let’s consider Radio & Television News, which was the 1948-1959 title of the magazine that Ziff-Davis published for the professional readership market.   Wiki has a good article about the long and complex history of this publication.  Anyhow, the R&TN ran articles on electronic theory, service practice, general small-business professionalism, etc.  They also had several articles in each issue which offered circuit descriptions and schematics for various devices.   R&TN published several ‘Audio Feature’ issues that have some interesting projects outlined.  Today we will look at some of these projects which have potential use in the recording studio.

FOLLOW THE LINK FOR MANY INTERESTING C.1950 DIY AUDIO PROJECTS.,..

Continue reading “Service Call”

Categories
Manufacturers

The Sound of ’51

In the process of preparing tomorrow’s post, I came across these circa 1951 microphone ads.  Check em out.  Some icons here, some forgotten specimens.

I have never used these BRUSH mics.  Seem like communications, rather than recording microphones.

These particular EVs were primarily intended as HAM/PA mics.  I have a few 630s and 636s and I’ve never been inclined to use them in the studio.

Ah.  the ‘ELVIS’ mic.  Perhaps the most iconic vintage microphone in the world. 

The Turner 99 is a great mic.  I own a few of these, and I do use them in the studio from time to time.  They are very clean, with a reduced (midrange-y) frequency response. I have had good results using a 99 as a ‘close’ vocal mic, along with a good AKG or Neumann condenser mic as a ‘room’ mic, 6′- 10′ feet off the same performer.  

I have never used an ‘aristocrat,’ but Turner did make a few decent hand-held dynamics back then… I have a model 510, which was their top-of-the-line, and it is a good mic; definately worth checking out if you want something ‘different’ but still useful.

Categories
Publications

en busca del sonido de edad

We went to Buenos Aires  (BA) a few years back to visit a friend who was working on a project there.  It is a very beautiful yet decayed city.  If you like faded glamor, I got a place for you.

The history of Argentina is long and sometimes dark, filled with tales of cannibalism,  secret police forces, athletic games involving live ducks, and on up to recent obsessions with cosmetic surgery and psychology.  It also has some of the finest architecture, food, and wine on the planet.   100 years ago, Argentina was one of the most prosperous and wealthy nations on Earth.  Its fates have shifted.  Visiting BA in the midst of the most recent Economic Calamity, I could not help but imagine Argentina as a vision of the United States in 50 years.  Proud and beautiful and vast, but with many starving, huge dependency on foreign industry, and very low standards of conduct for elected officials.

We stayed in an old part of the city by the docks.  There are many flea markets in this part of town, and I managed to find a few things of interest.

This circa 1960 Soviet microphone sadly did not work.

Purchased this very cleverly named chorus pedal from modern Argentine maker CLUSTER. This pedal is a clone of the EHX Small Clone, an effect which looms largest in our collective subconscious due to Kurt Cobain’s use of the device for the clean (IE, the verses) guitar parts in ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit.’ 1992 was the year that this track broke worldwide.  Hence “Spirit (of) (19)92.”

It’s a great sounding pedal with a very charming hand-finished quality to the enclosure.  I don’t think these are available outside of Argentina.

Most exciting were the ancient audio-tech magazines that turned up in some of the numerous stores and stalls dedicated to old books.  Here are some images and projects from:  ‘Radio e Televisao,’ Sau Paulo, 1950; ‘Radio Chassis Television,’ BA., 1960; and ‘Radio Tecnica,’ BA., 1976.

Many more great images and schematics from a bygone world after the link….

Continue reading “en busca del sonido de edad”
Categories
Guitar Equipment Publications Synthesizers

I just wanna get up here and cook, man.

Downbeat is one of the oldest music magazines in the world.  They have been publishing since 1934. This is incredible.  Downbeat primarily covers jazz music.  Much of jazz was (and is) performed on acoustic instruments, or electric instruments where ‘fidelity’ and ‘natural-ness’ of tone is the desired effect.  If you have been following this website you will probably guess that this is not of great interest to me.  The late 60’s/early 70’s were an inclusive, experimental time for instrumental music though – consider Miles’ Bitches Brew period, Melvin Jackson, and even our friend Steve Douglas – and equipment manufacturers were beginning to create devices that our scale-ripping friends could use up on the bandstand.  For evidence, let’s turn to some Psych-era issues of Downbeat and see what was on offer…

Selmer was not the only firm to offer an ‘electric saxophone’ kit.  I have owned a few that VOX marketed as well.  Basically these devices offer combinations of various primitive sound effects, from distortion, filtering and reverb, up to actual monophonic pitch-tracking.  Some of the effects that you can get with these things are pretty radical (literally).  Check out the earlier Steve Douglas post for an example.

Along the same lines, here’s a slightly later offering from Maestro, the effects division of Gibson Musical Instruments.

In an earlier post, I briefly covered the Gibson GA100, a late-50s guitar amplifier which was intended for use with classical guitar and acoustic bass.  Baldwin marketed a similar product in the late 60’s.  Willie Nelson has used one of these for decades with his lil buddy Trigger.

And while we’re on the subject, how about an amplifier that REALLY sells to the jazz guys?

I have used one of these (with the similarly humongous 2×12″ extension cab) and they are pretty funny…

Alright so if you’ve made it this far, I am guessing that you are prepared to follow the link below and see more of this fun stuff.

SEE MORE CIRCA 1968 DOWNBEAT ADs FOR OFFBEAT EQUIPMENT…

Continue reading “I just wanna get up here and cook, man.”
Categories
Concert Sound Icons

Mobile Personal Space

Finally got my act together. Moving to California.

Got the van hooked up.   Custom Curtains.

Chose the perfect window-shape to tell what I’m about…

But most importantly- got the sound going.

Found this company that made the sound system for the Dead.   Now they make lil’ mini-cabinets for cars (and vans).

It’s gonna be a great trip.

**************************************************************************************

‘Hard Truckers’ is a company that makes speaker cabinets and supplies touring equipment for rock bands.  Specifically, it seems, bands in the ‘jam band’ scene.    From their website, it appears that they have been at-work in their current incarnation since 2006.

The roots of this company go much deeper, though.  According to Blair Jackson’s ‘Grateful Dead Gear’, ‘Hard Truckers’ was formed in 1975/1976 after the Dead went on ‘hiatus’ and their roadies were put out-of-work.  But these were no ordinary rocknroll roadies – these were the men responsible for this great icon of the concert industry:  the Wall Of Sound.

(images scanned from Mr. Jackson’s book.  See photos for attribution).

I am not a Grateful Dead fan, but I have always been fascinated by images of the Wall Of Sound.  Jackson’s book tells the story of this bold and bizarre experiment in live-sound-reinforcement.  It’s a long and involved and technical tale, but suffice to say this:  this was a band that was willing to go all-out, no expense spared, in order to try and solve what was essentially a new problem: how do you get ‘good’ sound for a loud band in a space that holds up to 20,000 people?  And the space was different every night?  Stanley Owsley, the Dead’s chief sound engineer, explored this issue, and the solution that he chose to pursue was  to build ‘An integrated system where every instrument (PS: and the vocals) has its own amplification, all set up behind the band without any separate onstage monitors” (Jackson, p. 132).   Ironically, this is the same logic that informs the “latest and greatest” “innovation” in sound-reinforcement, the very un-rocknroll Bose L1 system.

The Wall Of Sound did not last long, and the expense and operational-intensity (aka HASSLE) involved with moving and running this system is one of the factors that Jackson cites in the band’s decision to take a long mid-seventies hiatus…  which is what lead the out-of-work Dead roadies to create the Hard Truckers company.

The little 5″ Hard Truckers that my pal Sundancer put into the Hermosa Beach Express (btw- FWIW – that watercolor and that original Hard Truckers product sheet came from the same lot) were essentially little micro versions of the PA cabs that the HT dudes had been making for Dead.

What a strange story.  Check out Jackson’s book if you want all the details.  It’s worth a read.  These guys were really pushing the limits back then.

No one has ever published a book that tells the history of rocknroll sound reinforcement.  This book will come someday.  It’s a too-often overlooked part of the audio world.  I heard a rumor that someone was working on a book about the PA system used at Woodstock, and this would be a good start.  In a future post, I plan to dig a little bit into vacuum-tube PA heads.  There is a lot to explore there.

Has anyone tried the Bose L1 system?

Anyone ever come across any of the original 1970s Hard Truckers cabinets?

Categories
History Synthesizers

Prepare The Piano! With a synthesizer?

‘Prepared Piano’ is a time-honored technique of altering a Piano’s sound “by placing objects (preparations) between or on the strings or on the hammers or dampers.” Wiki tells us that John Cage is the most noted proponent of this form, and the great Erik Satie was an earlier practitioner.  Sounds like good company to be in.

But why stop with the strings, hammers and dampers?  Why not put something on the keys?

Dubreq was a British instrument manufacturer in the 60s/70s.  Dubreq is most famous for its Stylofone, the little toy synthesizer instrument that had its star-moment in the bridge of Bowie’s “Space Oddity.” It’s called the Stylofone because you play the ‘keys’ with a stylus (pen) rather than by direct contact.   You can still buy a Stylofone.  I have one, and it’s the best musical instrument you can buy for $14.99.  Potentially useful for certain types of tracks.

So once Dubreq conquered the world with a keyboard-that-you-play-with-a-pen, they dropped this bomb.  The Piano-mate.  I picked up this lil weirdo at the Flea market the other day for a few bucks.  I had thought i was buying some obscure guitar amp.  I was so, so wrong.

Seems like there was a real obsession with the physicality of the keyboard over at Dubreq HQ.  Really a very uncanny obsession.

What is the Piano-mate?  Basically, it’s a Synth/Organ which does not have a keyboard of its own.  Instead, it has these 2 bars that you place ON ANOTHER FULL-SIZE KEYBOARD (let’s call it ‘The Host”). The bars have little plunger microswitches that rest on the Host-keyboard.

When you press a key on the Host, the Piano-mate responds with its own little squawk.    The Piano-mate gives the user 3 different sounds (roughly, organ, elec piano, and ‘synth’), and it also has its own vibrato section.  Oh and did i mention that it also has its own amp and speaker built in?  And and that the whole thing nests together into little recesses in its backside?  Really very odd.

The piano mate is interesting to me because it was not intended to be its ‘own sound.’  As the manual tells us,  Dubreq’s concept was for the Piano-mate to augment the acoustic tone of an acoustic piano.  So we are supposed to hear both sounds, acoustic and electronic, together as one experience.  It’s a very strange hybrid.

OK so how does it sound?  I find it a lot of fun to play.  In my assessment, it turns any simple little piano-tune into instant Roxy-Music/ 70s Eno ballad-majesty.   I recorded these 2 examples with my little Tascam DR08 dictaphone, aka the Digital Camera of Sound.

—————————————————————                           What you are about to hear is a single sonic event –  no layering or multitracking.  Give ’em a listen.

PianoMate_sound3

PianoMate_Sound2

This Is The Piano Mate Experience.

Categories
History Microphones

Microphone (hand) signals

Picked up this pair of circa 1951 Electro-voice 655A mics for $25 at the flea market yesterday.  These were the top-of-the line in 1951, retailing for today’s equivalent of $982 each.  Wow.  that’s a lot of money.

They had no cabling.  Just some bare wire.  They also came with this great little RCA MI 91-B mic stand.

Anyhow, a quick check with an ohmmeter gave an encouraging result, so i wired them up. And they sound great!  Not at all like what you would expect from 60-year-old mics that are beat to hell.  Very articulate, good level, pretty high-fi.  I own a ton of mics from the 50s and there are not too many American-made dynamic mics that I would actually want to use in a session.  These have real potential.

Anyhow, how about that circa 1951 price though?  I don’t think anyone was using these at home with their wire recorder.  Audio used to be serious business.

E. picked up this book at a library de-accession sale some years ago.  It was published by Hastings House in 1956, and it seems to have been used an a University of Vermont communications class.

———————————————————————- –  Microphone technique and ‘identification’ is a big part of the instruction on offer here.  Most of it is pretty unsurprising, but i found the extreme rigor of ‘Microphone hand signals’ to be really interesting.  I have worked in broadcast production and recording studios for years and I don’t think I have ever been aware of a truly codified system of ‘hand signals’ for producers to use in the studio.  Anyhow, here’s a quick lesson from the past.  Also -check the ‘turntable hand signals’ at the end.  These all need to end up in a hip hop video.  “Open my mic!”

Follow the link for many more awkward-looking gestures.

Continue reading “Microphone (hand) signals”
Categories
Publications Uncategorized

Getting your moods together

El Cajon, California was probably a pretty mellow place in 1978.

This dude is killing it on stage.

How about these likely lads?

… and her…

I am not sure what happened to “Musician’s Supply, INC” of El Cajon.  Does anyone know?  Were they bought up buy another firm?  Did their offices burn down after some sort of early ‘rager?’

MS, INC., may be gone, but Ibanez is still going strong.  Sadly they don’t make these Gibson copies anymore.

Bob Heil was a major maker/operator of live-sound touring equipment back then.  He was out of commission for a long while but now he’s back with a line of microphones that are getting great reviews.  Here’s some of Heil’s c.1978 offerings, again from MS., INC.

I love the very DIY, shop-y style of this Heil kit.  Seeing this reminded me of what a great story Bob Heil has.  Read all about this fascinating audio pioneer here and here.

Anyone have any thoughts on the new Heil mics?

Anyone still using his c.’78 audio equipment?