The Bunker Studio

Old #schematics are beautiful—especially when they’re #diazo whiteprints illustrating a vintage #Neve console . We have two binders full of these—one each for our Studio A #Neve8088 and Studio B #Neve8058 . The blue ink on a white background reveals that these to be #whiteprints, a photo-sensitive printing technique that replaced the old #cyanotype blueprints . It’s good that we keep them in the binders, because the blue printing will fade over time. It was probably never considered that we’d be needing to read these schematics forty-two years after they were printed! . Around the turn of the millennium, this method of printing largely disappeared, being replaced by the large xerographic printers that appeared in conjunction with computer-aided drafting techniques . This particular print appears to illustrate part of the console’s output routing, including tape outs and monitor outputs . . . . . . #diazotype #diazoprinting #whiteprint #whiteprints #diazowhiteprint #bluelineprocess #schematic #engineeringdrawing #vintageindustry #vintageindustrial #neveconsole #analogrecording #vintageneveconsole #neveconsoleschematics #consoleschematics #analogconsole #vintageanalog #studiogear #recordinggear #servicedocumentation #righttorepair #80seriesneve

The history of #recording is full of technologies that did their imperfect best to accomplish a task, and whose shortcomings became prized sounds in their own right . Early electric pianos didn’t sound much like pianos, but they sounded interesting. Magnetic guitar pickups were pretty poor at amplifying an archtop guitar’s actual sound, but inadvertently created a whole new category of instrument . Similarly, most 20th century #reverb technologies were highly-imperfect approximations of actual halls and acoustic spaces. This includes algorithmic digital reverbs like the highly-prized #Lexicon #480L (whose remote control is pictured here) . Algorithmic reverbs make use of tons of very short delays. One challenge with this approach is that copious short repeats from highly-precise delay lines create periodic artifacts that sound highly unnatural (or, at best, like the flutter echoes of a small empty bedroom) . The way these earlier Lexicon (and especially EMT) digital reverbs solved this was to introduce modulation into the algorithm. Theoretically, a small amount of modulation occurs in natural acoustic spaces due to tiny variations in the speed of sound (due to thermal currents, pockets of differing air pressure, etc) . However, the amount of modulation in most old digital #reverbs was far more than you’d expect to find in any kind of natural acoustic space (and was generally periodic in nature, unlike chaotic natural phenomena). Compared to later refinements like the Bricasti M7, you could say it sounded slightly exaggerated . Nevertheless, it sounded good—really good, in fact! The hyper-real lushness of the best old, high-end algorithmic reverbs (like the #Lexicon224, #EMT240 and #Lexicon480L) became so desirable that they’re still highly prized on the vintage market today . In other words, although in hindsight this tech fell slightly short of replicating the natural reverb of a good concert hall, it became a sought-after sound in its own right, like ma

The #SSLconsole expander/gates are underrated . When the #SSL desks were introduced, they were revolutionary in that they had a compressor and expander/gate built into each channel strip . The included VCA compressor is solid and useable, and most mixes in our SSL room make use of at least one or two . But the expander/gates are arguably even more consistently-useful . They can of course do normal expander/gate things—we often use them to manage noise floor on effect returns, for instance . With enough old #analog and early digital gear all wide open at once, noise floor can tend to accumulate. This is particularly true if using, say, a Level-Loc to crush drums in parallel . With some gentle expansion (or even hard gating!), the various returns can be managed to keep the aggregate noise floor very low . We also often use the expander/gate to massage things like droning sympathetic resonances from a floor tom, or bad cymbal bleed . But these SSL expanders also seem to do something particularly good on hand percussion like shakers and tambourines. If you set them just right, they can seem to make the groove feel better . . . . . . #sslexpander #expandergate #recordinggear #mixgear #mixtechniques #mixengineer #mixingengineer #musicproducer #producerlife #nycmixroom #ssl4000 #ssl4000g #ssl4000e #mixing #mixingconsole #mixingdesk #creativemixing #nycstudio #recording #studiogear #studiolife #sslconsoletour

If your primary experience with #analogtape is through plug-in emulations, you may not know what a library wind is, or why it’s used . A #librarywind is a medium-speed, medium-tension spooling of tape from one reel to the other. It’s not quite as slow as playback/record, but not quite as fast as fast-forward/rewind shuttling . The video above is an example of a library wind on our #Ampex #ATR102 half-inch machine. When would we use a library wind, and why? . If you look at the edge of the tape on the reel, you can notice two things: First, there are bits of plain white leader tape (which is spliced in between finished mixes). Secondly, the edges of the tape look smooth/even in height . The uniformity with which tape lays against itself on the reel is called the “pack,” and for long-term storage, a smooth, even pack is important for a few reasons . If some layers of tape are standing proud of others (sometimes called a “stepped pack”), damage can occur. The tape edge itself can become deformed, which will compromise playback quality . Many machines use the edge to help determine tape’s lateral position, and a deformed edge can also create inconsistent spacing between the tape and the head . Since tape should always be stored tails-out, a full reel must sometimes be spooled off. A library wind is, essentially, a way to ensure a pretty good pack (while avoiding taking half an hour to move an entire reel at playback speed) . Fast-wind modes don’t generally result in a good pack (particularly on Ampex machines, which shuttle tape very quickly and at high tension). Studers are a bit less erratic, but a library wind is still best practice . The fast-moving numbers on the counter here are seconds, and you can see that they’re moving about four times as fast as they would in real time. This means a complete reel can be spooled off in about seven minutes . . . . #ampexatr102 #archiving #archivist #analog #analogtapemachine #analogtaperecorder #openreeltape #

Jacob taking a ride on the fun wheel. Harder than it looks!

Gang Vox

Recording backing vocals for BLACK TAXI at the Bunker Studio