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Editors:
Mary (ISDN queen) Mazurek
and
Kathy (I wanna record tofog) Dunaj
Volume
17 Number 5
May, 2002
EARS Meets at Sound/Video Impressions, Inc.
110 S. River Road, Des Plaines, IL
847-297-4360
Tuesday May 28th, 7:30 pm
Join us at SVI on Tuesday May 28th at 7:30pm to hear the new Digidesign Pro
Tools HD System. Just off the couch from the season finale of "24",
Sweetwater's "Sweetest Sales Rep", Sam Rodgers is bringin' Digi's new top of
the line system with 192 I/O's, for us to hear. We'll compare it to SVI's
Mix Plus System with 24 bit 888's. To top that, he'll be joined by
Digidesign's Midwest Product Specialist Jeff Komar to answer all our geeky
tech questions. So come and hear for yourself, and in our usual SVI
tradition, there'll be plenty of food and beverages. SVI is located on
River Road between Golf and Rand Road, call for directions if needed.
-Kathy Dunaj-
In the words of our President David Moss, " I hope to see everyone
there, and don't forget it!" PS- Without music, life would be a mistake.
AES MEETING ANNOUNCEMENT
Continuing on in his outreach to AES, past President Gary Khan has
passed this information onto EARS. The final meeting of the season for the
AES Chicago Section will be held on Thursday, May 30th, 7:30 pm. Gene
Radzik of Dolby Laboratories will give a presentation entitled Evolution of
High Resolution Digital Audio in an Era of Multichannel Surround. The
topics that Gene will cover will include: The Origin of DVD-Audio, MLP
(Meridian Lossless Packing), Compatibility (DVD-ROM, DVD-Video, DVD-Audio),
and a Music Industry update. For more information on attending the meeting,
call Treasurer Simone Koo at (815) 884-2133.
EARS APPRECIATION FILE/RECAPS
March's meeting was held at Sam Ash Music in Buffalo Grove. Thanks to
John Holiday and staff at Sam Ash for opening up their audio demo suite for
us and staying beyond their usual close time for our curious minds. John
Larabee of Heartland Marketing was our guest speaker and Tascam's expert.
John gave us a demo of the new Tascam DM-24 digital mixing console and the
MX-2424 hard disk recorder/editor. EARS members questioned him thoroughly
about the recorder, and then due to time constraints, John gave us a quick
look at the mixer. Thanks John for coming out to EARS and giving us a
detailed demo. -KD-
The MX-2424 is built of the same recording engine as the award winning
Tascam MMR8 but without the price, available for around $3600. Some of the
options available are DVD-RAM storage drive, RC-2424 remote and optional
digital and analog cards are available for additional costs. This 24 track
24 bit recorder can be formatted for Mac or PC with time stamped audio files
recorded in either SDII format for Mac or broadcast .wav for PC. In high
resolution mode, the MX-2424 will record 12 tracks of audio at 88.2/96 khz.
Tascam also offers a MX-2424SE version which includes a front loaded data
express hot swap drive for moving projects between other MX-2424s and
computer based DAWs.
Use the front panel or remote for intuitive editing or use the included
MX-View graphic editing
software (Mac and PC) for even more comprehensive waveform editing. The
back panel offers 2 slots for I/O, one for the optional 24 channel IFAN24
analog card ($1699 MSRP) and a slot for the optional digital cards. Digital
cards available are TDIF, ADAT, and AES/EBU all 24 channels. Plus the
MX-2424 has the ability to run both analog and digital I/O at the same time.
Other I/O standard on the MX includes 2 channels of AES/EBU and SPDIF, MIDI
in/out/thru, video in/thru for reference to video sync and word clock
in/out/thru. A SMPTE in/out/thru is also included for chase lock
synchronization to external timecode and output of timecode in any frame
rate.
Using the dedicated TL-bus for sync, up to 32 machines may be hooked up
and will run in tandem. No more waiting for start up, there is zero latency
with sample accurate locking. Some other features of the MX-2424 include:
MIDI machine control and an ethernet port for MX-View and file transfer
between MX and computers. As in typical hard disk based recording systems
the MX-2424 will record in either non-destructive mode or TL-tape mode. TL
tape mode essentially allows the user to record just as if they were
recording to tape using less disk space for punch-ins and over dubs. So
bottom line, let's say you want a system that will record up to 24 tracks
24bit, an RC-2424 remote; 24 channels of analog and digital I/O, with the
DVD-RAM storage drive, it's yours for the price of around $7,000.
-John Larabee-
The DM-24 32 channel, 8 bus, 24 bit 96k compatible digital console is
available for around $2400. Some features include; 16 XLR mic ins, with
Phantom Power in groups of four channels; 16 1/4" TRS inserts; Digital I/O's
24 channels of TDIF, 8 channels of ADAT, 2 channels of AES/EBU, and 2
channels of S/PDIF. By adding extra cards, two consoles can be cascaded
together for easily adding more inputs for 64 channels total. Each channel
has EQ and compression, while channels 1-16 include a Gate/Expander. The
system also features built in effects by TC Works and Antares (Mic Modeler,
not Auto Tune) Automation is either Snapshot or dynamic. Dynamic automation
runs off incoming timecode and is a real time
record/playback process. Mix storage capacity is 128 snapshots and 10
dynamic mixes. EQ, auxes, routing, dynamic settings are all recallable as
well as the moving faders. All these features for a reasonable price, and is
suppose to be easy to use.
For more information on these products, contact John Larabee at
708-387-9585, via email at
jlarabee@heartlandmktg.com or visit the Tascam website at
www.tascam.com. -KD-
April's shindig was held at the ultra cool music studio Deaf Dog Music, in
Chicago. Not only did EARS members get to check out some monitors and gear,
but we also learned who can actually shoot pool! After our usual
introductions, President David Moss turned the floor over to Ken Paul of
Kengineering. Ken, no stranger to Deaf Dog (since he wired the place) gave
us tours throughout the evening. Kengineering is now the local rep for Shep
products so we were able to listen for ourselves. The SN8 mic/line
preamp/eq (which is based on the 1073 Neve) was shown off in a BTQ rack.
Ken also brought in the SNDC6 (2) channel compressor/limiter (based on 33609
and 32264 classic Neve compressor circuit). Ken can be reached at
312-543-5975 or at ken@kengineering.com to learn more about these products
and pricing. Joe Stopka from Starin Marketing also stopped by for us to
listen to the F11's and VS-2108 monitors from Quested. Thanks Ken and Joe
for bringing this cool gear to EARS.
Special thanks to John Ovnik, composer extraordinaire and owner of Deaf Dog
Music for supplying us all with plenty of pizza and beverages. Thanks also
to Beau Glazar for hanging out and helping out all night. For more
information on Deaf Dog call 312-944-4870. -KD-
Payin' Their Dues
Legendary Eardrum Editor, awesome engineer, and heck-of a guy- Mike
Konopka has donated a big check to help EARS out. Thanks so much Mike for
your past and present support! Thanks also to the following members who
have recently paid their dues: Tim Swan, Doug McBride, Jeff Jaskowiak,
Michelle Moncada, and Tom Swan. -KD-
Big News for EARS Members
Michael Freeman, Engineer/Producer/Co-Founder of EARS has been elected
President of the
Chicago Chapter of Naras. Michael, we wish you much success in your new
position. I'm sure you'll be hearing from many of us members with
questions, suggestions, and congratulations.
Jeff Jaskowiak of Jasko's High Tech Heaven must be in heaven with his
new baby. Another good thing about being an engineer is you're too familiar
with no sleep, so 3am diaper changes will be a breeze! Congratulations Jeff
to you and your family.
Mike Castronovo of Studio B in Rockford has won the RAMI (Rockford Area
Music Industry) Award again! His studio has won for the 5th time for Best
Recording Studio and because last year he won the Best Engineer award, (for
the 5th time) he has received Hall of Fame recognition. Real Impressive.
Way to go Mike! -KD-
10 Best Reasons For Becoming A Recording Engineer:
By: Mike Castronovo
- your career will have the word "engineer" in it.
- you get to listen to music all day long..
- you get to listen to music all night long...
- you'll end up with the best (loudest) stereo on your block
- no one will ever understand what you do... so they'll think your great at it.
- you don't have to wear a tie to work
- you can spend all your money on neat new gear and deduct it from your taxes
- you can move to the Chicago area and join EARS
- you can get free pop & cookies at EARS meetings without getting poked by a needle..
- you can work with famous people and find out how bad they really sound.... (without pitch-corrrection!)
Author Mike Castronovo, Owner Studio B Digital Recording Rkfd, IL. Mike's
hobbies include
collecting toy Ferraris,, can't yet afford to start collecting the real
ones!!!
EARS On The Web.The Real Story
By Ken Paul
Back in 1996 Danny Leake nominated me for the Presidency of EARS and in
my rant about what I thought the organization should be and have, I declared
that we should have a website. Several members agreed with me and a couple
even offered to help but in the long run no one stepped up and I never
really developed web design chops so my term came to an end and there was
still no EARS website.
In the meantime I had started a nonprofit foundation in my hometown of
Charlevoix Michigan by
donating a recording studio to my high school and the summer of 1998 found
us starting a second
program at a new charter school called Northwest Academy. I pulled up to
the school with a van full of equipment and was greeted by a skinny kid with
a ponytail who introduced himself as Mike Muniak. I told him to set the
stuff where they wanted it and I would be back in a couple of hours to hook
up the patch bays and get it running. Three hours later I came back to find
that nearly everything was hooked up and sounds were coming out of it! It
was at that moment that I realized I had met one very special person.
Over the next year Michael and two of his schoolmates created a CD called
Alternative to Idiocy vol0.9 and Mike created the foundation's website
(www.go-multimedia.net). When he graduated I offered him a job as my
assistant.
I had always been disappointed in myself for not getting EARS on the
web so one of the first jobs I gave Michael was to design the site. Danny
Leake found the logo for us and wrote the brief history that appears on the
"About Page", I paid for the hosting, and Michael did all the rest. Until
last month [February 02] when we turned it over to the organization he has
done all of the updates and monthly postings for nothing even while carrying
a full load at Johns Hopkins University where he is studying brain science,
and experimenting with laptop music production (he was recently the opening
act at a club in Baltimore).
Though I have constantly thanked and praised him over the years I wanted the
membership and all the readers of the Eardrum to know who was really
responsible for the website as it probably wouldn't exist without him. If
any of you would like to send him a note his email is
muniak@psychicduck.com. If you would like to know more about the foundation
and how you can help inspire more amazing students like him visit
www.go-multimedia.net.
Who
have you been working with lately? We want to know! If you have
any ideas for stories, wish to contribute an article, want to
include any upcoming events, or have a tech tip, please contact:
Mary
at pegasusrecording@ameritech.net.
Or write to:
Peagasus
Recording P.O Box 578903, Chicago, IL 60657.
Kathy
can be reached at SVI, or
kathy@soundvideoimpressions.com.
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