The Bunker Studio

The Bunker Studio Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from The Bunker Studio, Music production studio, New York, NY.
(1)

.berlin have been making the most important part of the uninterrupted for many decades—the capsuleFor this reissue, ...
04/16/2025

.berlin have been making the most important part of the uninterrupted for many decades—the capsule
For this reissue, they had to reproduce some of the parts, and find a suitable replacement for the extinct vacuum tube
Despite their reputation, vacuum tubes are actually quite linear devices on their own—as long as operated within their normal parameters
Much of the “sound” associated with tubes is actually down to the transformers that are usually needed to transform their impedances, but we digress…
Suffice to say, the substitute tube was very intelligently-chosen and doesn’t actually make a whole lot of difference (or any difference, to our ears) to the sound of the reissue
If they didn’t sound like M49s, we wouldn’t have bought five of them. really did a fantastic job on these!

When was making their famed desks half a century ago, nobody expected they’d still be the gold standard of large-for...
04/12/2025

When was making their famed desks half a century ago, nobody expected they’d still be the gold standard of large-format analog recording consoles in 2025
The reason isn’t functionality, flexibility or reliability—the only reason is the sound
The most important part is the input modules—31102s in the case of our desk (though the earlier 1081, 1073, 1066 and 1084—in no particular order—were equally-great)

two very similar old government-issue limitersthe Federal is a descendant of the old Signal Corps limiter on the botto...
04/07/2025

two very similar old government-issue limiters
the Federal is a descendant of the old Signal Corps limiter on the bottom
The Signal Corps unit has very large steel-core transformers for full-bandwidth, and sounds really good—we’ve had it for nearly twenty years!

when recording acoustic instruments, the sound of the room is secondary in importance only to the player and the instrum...
03/30/2025

when recording acoustic instruments, the sound of the room is secondary in importance only to the player and the instrument
we have several distinct-sounding rooms (large, medium and small) and can further tailor h to our environments with and positioning

Our vintage was refurbished by the late Oliver Archut, who optimized it for use with a special vacuum tube that differ...
03/18/2025

Our vintage was refurbished by the late Oliver Archut, who optimized it for use with a special vacuum tube that differs from its stock configuration
As any microphone enthusiast already knows, the U47 was designed around a very rare vacuum tube called the VF14. Old-stock VF14s have, for all practical purposes, all been used up
Compounding matters further, the U47 actually used a specially-selected “microphone grade” VF14 dubbed the VF14M
The “M” spec tubes where the lowest-noise examples, and as rare as a VF14 is, the “M” specification is even rarer
Even twenty years ago, single examples were retailing in the four figures… when you could find them! Now the situation is even more dire
The discontinuation of the VF14 is why .berlin stopped making the U47 in the first place—and we suspect why there has been no reissue as of yet (their reissues tend to be very faithful to the genuine article)
Neumann service bulletins detailed the substitution of the 13CW4 Nuvistor, a different type of tube that worked okay (but wasn’t a perfect match for the BV08 transformer in the U47). Still, many of the Nuvistor-equipped mics sound just fine
Ours came to us in this state; Oliver swapped in a different tube that he insisted was a better substitute; a bit more like the VF14 in performance
We love the sound of the mic and never questioned it!

Not all the mics we use here are original vintage raritiesThis reproduction is fantastic—and most importantly, it’s r...
03/02/2025

Not all the mics we use here are original vintage rarities
This reproduction is fantastic—and most importantly, it’s reliable and consistent!
We’ve also been enjoying a really nice reissue pair of Ela M251s, and of course we have quite a stable of reissue .berlin U67s and M49Vs (as well as a reissue Telefunken U47)
When vintage tube condenser microphones first began to rise in value, they were maybe twenty or thirty years old
Now that most are approaching 60-75, they require different levels of maintenance and care—and they all become different levels of “original” (not to mention different levels of “working!”)
We do still lean on (and care for) authentic vintage microphones rather heavily, but in day-to-day use these reproductions are often just as good if not better. We’ve come a long way since the first “U47 clones” that started to appear in the 1990s!
Down to the component level, things are so much better than ever before. We may be rounding into a new classic era of tube mic manufacture (the hardest part is often the tubes themselves! We suspect this is why Neumann have not yet given us a proper U47 reissue)

A pair of vintage Revision F have been added to our racks!We’ve had (and have!) various reissues, interpretations an...
02/25/2025

A pair of vintage Revision F have been added to our racks!
We’ve had (and have!) various reissues, interpretations and clones over the years, and most have been great!
But sometimes there’s nothing like the real thing
The revision history of the 1176 is long and winding
Rev C was the first black-panel version; revisions D and E were functionally equivalent (only minor changes to board layout, logo branding and the addition of international line voltage selection)
Rev F was the first substantial change after C—it swapped the output transformer to the same unit used in the LA-3A and modified the output amp in tandem for more drive capability
It was the last fully transformer-coupled revision until the reissues… the later Rev G and H replaced the input transformer with an active-balanced stage

Three fairly different mics—a Sony C38P, an original , and an old One of these ought to work!It can sometimes be surpr...
02/21/2025

Three fairly different mics—a Sony C38P, an original , and an old
One of these ought to work!
It can sometimes be surprising just how much the right mic can do to make a source sound it’s best—and it’s not always the most-expensive or sought-after! Sometimes a 99-dollar moving coil dynamic beats the 15k vintage tube condenser
it’s all down to application

some of the smallest ribbon mics in common use are those made by The (pictured) has been in production since the 1950s...
02/11/2025

some of the smallest ribbon mics in common use are those made by
The (pictured) has been in production since the 1950s, substantially unchanged in its design
It gets an impressive level of output by using two very small ribbons with a special corrugation pattern
With folds in two different directions, the ribbons move more like pistons (as opposed to swinging from anchored ends), which generates a very efficient movement in the magnetic field
The ribbons are also made of an alloy called Duralumin, which includes a little bit of copper (this makes the ribbons a bit more durable than pure aluminum)

We love our summing amp from !Just a fantastic, high-headroom solution spec’d to our needsIt’s a fairly transparent devi...
02/07/2025

We love our summing amp from !
Just a fantastic, high-headroom solution spec’d to our needs
It’s a fairly transparent device—but is perfect for our hybrid analog/digital multibus setup

A century ago, when recording was still in its infancy, professional recording engineers were expected to be able to rea...
01/27/2025

A century ago, when recording was still in its infancy, professional recording engineers were expected to be able to read standard music notation and follow a score
That need isn’t quite as universal anymore, but whenever the music being recorded is notated, it’s still massively helpful—and it comes up for us constantly (you can see charts scattered on our in this candid shot)
As the session progresses, we can put markers in our session that correspond to rehearsal letters and other big signposts in the form
That way, when the conductor or bandleader says “let’s take it from letter D,” we’re ready to go without any explaining or translating
In addition—if we’re mentally “playing the chart,” we can see and hear when mistakes are made, and mark/anticipate spots to edit or punch in
Finally, it’s always hugely appreciated by performers, producers and artists when we can speak their language—they can say “we want to punch in bars 21-33” without further explanation
We are always trying to anticipate the next move—that’s how we make the recording process as seamless and effortless as possible. On sessions where the material is notated, the ability to read dots-and-stems is an underrated skill.

We got our first four compressors loaded in the “correction slots” of our B room 8058 consoleWe fell in love with them...
01/17/2025

We got our first four compressors loaded in the “correction slots” of our B room 8058 console
We fell in love with them right away, and as luck would have it, our larger A room (acquired a few years later) also had four of these amazing diode-bridge compressors along for the ride
Eventually we really wanted some for our , so tracked these down
You might think so many of the same model of compressor would be overkill, but we certainly keep finding ways to use them all!
We also have a couple of 33609s in the mix room, which are very much like a stereo version of the mono 32264

One thing that’s fascinating about is that, despite being a tech-focused industry, there’s comparatively little obsole...
01/04/2025

One thing that’s fascinating about is that, despite being a tech-focused industry, there’s comparatively little obsolescence
The capsule (a version is pictured here) has been in widespread continuous use since its introduction in the 1940s
Crucially, it’s not a “character piece” for stylized vintage sounds—a great M7 in good condition yields a high-fidelity capture that’s on par with mic capsules made today
Recording studios are full of technology, and century-old gear commonly coexists (and interfaces with!) gear designed and made in the 2020s

The was an important milestone in —the first mass-marketable Don had been experimenting with FM concepts for dec...
12/30/2024

The was an important milestone in —the first mass-marketable
Don had been experimenting with FM concepts for decades, and Yamaha themselves made the GS-1… but the DX7 was FM Synthesis’s “Fender Telecaster” moment
In the DX7, a preexisting technology reached maturity in a way that came to dominate the market and shape the sound of music for decades
In FM synthesis, multiple oscillators interact with one another. As long as they have a harmonic relationship with one another, harmonic timbres result. But using oscillators of inharmonic relationships allows new timbres—metallic, percussive aspects that can be layered in
At the time, these were frequently used to make metallophone-like sounds, or in more subtle ways to replicate the inharmonicity of instruments like acoustic pianos
After falling out of favor for a couple of decades (probably just due to ubiquity!) the DX7 is now a bona fide

A few random large diaphragm condensers from .berlin, and These three manufacturers employed slightly-different large...
12/25/2024

A few random large diaphragm condensers from .berlin, and
These three manufacturers employed slightly-different large diaphragm capsule designs
primarily uses center-terminated, dual membrane capsules like the , and
These capsules have their polarization voltage applied directly to the exact center of the conductive membrane via a screw-terminated wire.
They have a membrane on each side, and form different patterns by changing whether the rear membrane is polarized (and in which polarity)
AKG capsules like the have their polarization voltage applied not to the center of the membrane, but to the edge of the capsule, right at the rim of the backplate
Sony capsules (like those used in this C38P and the lurking in the background) are edge-terminated, but achieve their patterns differently
There is no rear membrane, and sealing off the back of the through-holes in the backplate creates a superior approximation of a true pressure-sensing omni

We’ve become quite fond of our Fairchildren—the pictured here, and a recently-acquired 670 in our The original 660...
12/20/2024

We’ve become quite fond of our Fairchildren—the pictured here, and a recently-acquired 670 in our
The original 660 (mono) and 670 (stereo) units are, of course, mythical mid-20th-century disc mastering compressors that have become impractically-valuable in the past quarter-century or so
Virtually nobody uses them for lacquer cutting anymore (and not everyone loved them for that application when new!) but they are fantastically-colorful compressors on individual sources, submixes, and across the stereo mix bus
This character owes mostly to the massive number of transformers in the signal path—Including the power transformer, a 670 sports 11 transformers (plus two inductor coils) to go along with its 20 tubes
This is part of why even reproductions are expensive—in addition to being rare, the originals were large, heavy, and complex with a high parts count
We’ve been quite impressed with Heritage’s repros!

Sometimes, vintage effects that were originally designed to be operated at instrument level are useful in workflowsIn ...
12/14/2024

Sometimes, vintage effects that were originally designed to be operated at instrument level are useful in workflows
In order for them to perform their best, we use various devices to help interface their high-impedance (“Hi Z” or “instrument level”) inputs and outputs with our low-impedance (“Lo Z” or “line level”) signals
Impedance is sometimes a tricky concept for creative people to get their minds around—partly because it’s usually explained using arcane technical language
But a pretty useful and straightforward analogy is mechanical gearing
If you’ve ever shifted gears in a bicycle (or a car with a manual transmission), you know that some gears are better at moving from a stop (which requires torque) while others allow higher speed
On a bike, staying in the low “getting started” gear will severely limit how fast you can go, while trying to start in the high “going fast” gear will require inordinate leg strength just to get moving in the first place
By starting in the high-torque gear and then progressively shifting to the high-speed gear, you can optimize for what is needed at any moment
In electronics, “voltage” and “current” (instead of torque and speed) are the two factors being traded-off. “High impedance” effectively means lower current but higher voltage, while “low impedance” means the opposite
So a device (often but not always a transformer) that shifts from one impedance to the other is very much the electronic version of “shifting gears”!

A few pieces of gear that do harmonic saturation, dynamics processing, or both at once!The .audio units at the top lef...
12/07/2024

A few pieces of gear that do harmonic saturation, dynamics processing, or both at once!
The .audio units at the top left are in that “both at once” category
The tape emulators (there are actually a couple of magnetic heads inside!), the and the saturator add harmonic saturation in various ways
The dynamics processors call back to the days when we kept a beloved series desk in this room, and the is a novel technology that shapes transient envelope in a unique way (not a conventional compressor nor expander)

Address

New York, NY
11211

Telephone

+19292348534

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when The Bunker Studio posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to The Bunker Studio:

Shortcuts

Share

Category