Editors:
Mary (Tone Mistress) Mazurek
and
Kathy (Splice Girl) Dunaj

Volume 18 Number 1
January, 2003

EARS MEETS AT THE WFMT STUDIOS

5400 N. St. Louis, Chicago, IL.
773-279-2000
Tuesday January 28, 2003 at 7:30pm

To get there: Lake Shore Drive to Foster. Go west on Foster to Kimball. Make a right (north) onto Kimball. Make a left onto Balmoral and drive into the parking lot. Feel free to park in the lot. or Edens to Foster. Go east down Foster. You'll pass Northeastern IL U. St. Louis is one way southbound , so you'll have to pass it and make a left on the next street (Bernard) to reach Balmoral. Turn left at Balmoral and drive straight into the parking lot. After checking in with the receptionist at the front door, we'll meet in the Fay & Daniel Levin Performance Studio. I'd like to kick off the meeting by hearing your ideas and suggestions for the upcoming year. If you can't make it, please feel free to e-mail me any thoughts at pegasusrecording@ameritech.net We'll follow with a brief stereo miking demonstration, then tour the facility. I hope you'll be able to make it to share your ideas and see this truly innovative multi-studio and broadcast facility.

See you there.
-Da Prez. Mary Mazurek-

EARS Appreciation Files/Recaps:

In December, we gathered at The Underground Wonderbar for the annual Jeff Hamilton Memorial Holiday Party. We ate; we drank and exuberantly toasted the memory of our good friend, Jeff. Timothy Powell even led toasts for all of our fallen comrades: Jeff Hamilton, Larry Williams, George Minol and our founder Mike Rasfeld. We then concluded with the official EARS cheer: "Can I have more reverb in the head phones?" And the traditional response...."F*ck you!"

It was great seeing all of you that made it to the party. Attendees commented on the "intimate" feel and "excellent" food! This, in spite of a significantly smaller expenditure than in recent years. I couldn't have done it alone, so I'd like to take a moment to thank those who lent a hand. First I'd like to thank the Underground Wonderbar for opening their doors to us and EARS member Fran Allen-Leake for setting that up; thanks to Lynn Hilton pianist/singer extraordinaire (not to mention EARS musical guinea pig for our ribbon mike shoot out 11/30/99) for the wonderful entertainment; Treasurer Gary Khan for keeping track of EARS business that night; and finally, you the members. We all made it a success! -MM- Check out the party pictures at www.ears-chicago.org

Special Thanks:

I'd like to extend sincere thanks to those of you who have contributed so much to the organization. Thank you to EMTECH Pro Media's JeanTardibuono for your continued support and to member Don Morris for his special efforts with this. Special thanks to Jack Kontney and Shure for your very generous contribution to our cause and thanks to EARS Treasurer Gary Khan for facilitating their donations. Thanks to Timothy Powell who has again not only contributed monetarily but has also served in various capacities: Steering Committee Member, EARDRUM editor, meeting host, etc. He recently took time out of his busy schedule to make up really cool certificates for EARS members in good standing. You'll be receiving yours shortly. Please take a moment to thank them. -MM-

At our November meeting, outgoing Prez, David Moss and current President Mary Mazurek verbalized their platforms as I checked in paid members and dolled out prepared ballots, thoughtfully "backed" up by ailing Kathy Dunaj who forwarded mailed votes in thoughtful care of "Mic'in" Mike Konopka. The votes were then tallied by past Presidents, Hudson (very) Fair and Harry " recount" Brotman. We can all gratefully acknowledge all their efforts to keep this election process efficient, accurate and "legit". Winner Mary then thanked all the members present and promised to honor the work of all who preceded her.

During that process, host "Jammin" Jack Le Tourneau set up an objective listening system of cool gear provided by Bill Curtis, the Rockford-based designer extraordinaire and Moe Paulsen of Spoiled By Technologies. He brought an Alesis HD-2, 24 track / 24 bit hard disk multitrack recorder (HDMTR!) and Curtis Technologies provided an AL-2 stereo microphone system and their 2 and 8 channel "Opre" Mic preamp unit. Both proved to be serious quality tools for our craft. Drummin' David Moss provided an excellent sound source. Credos to Moe and Bill for courageously letting US evaluate them and not tampering with Jack's setup or clobberin' us with sales hype. The true professional sales rep still lives as we continue to check out new tools of the trade in the no-nonsense EARS tradition!

An EARS cheer to Paragon honchos: Jack, charter EARS vet Marty Feldman and " Naughty" Ned Engelhart for the generous eats, drink, huge space and endurance. They enthusiastically let us hang past 1:30am as we were regaled by their legendary Trident that actually tracked the (In) famous Kathy Lee Gifford! Now I know yer all goin' "oo-aa", right? Seriously, it seems clear Jack has sniffed a lot of solder getting that beasty beautiful installed. You can witness its effects by callin' Paragon at their long standing 312-942-0075 number or www.paragonrecordingstudio.com. Curtis Technologies can be found at 815-399-8453 or www.Curtis-Technology.com and Spoiled by Technologies at www.sbtreps.com or 630-357-7742. 'Nuf said -Gary Khan-

EARS Officers:

Mary Mazurek, as mentioned above, has been elected our new President. This makes Mary the first female elected in EARS' 18 year history! She joins in the ranks of past Presidents: Mike Rasfeld, Tom Haban, Malcolm Chisholm, Hudson Fair, Harry Brotman, Danny Leake, Ken Paul, Craig Harding, Gary Khan, and David Moss. Mary is the Co-owner of Pegasus Recording, an educator, an engineer for WFMT, serves on the Board of Governors for Naras and special Committees for the P&E Wing and Engineering Craft Committee. Plus she has dutifully served as Co-Editor of the Eardrum for the past few years. She's a busy engineer, but not too busy to serve EARS. If you haven't congratulated her yet, please do so. Congratulations Mary!

Michael Castronovo has been appointed Vice President. He is the owner and founder of Studio "B" Digital Recording in Rockford, Ill. With a background as a keyboard musician, Mike began his recording career in 1981, and has also written articles for trade magazines and newsletters. Mike has won numerous local RAMI (Rockford Area Music Industry) awards. A member of EARS for about 15 years, he is now looking forward to working with the new President (Mary Mazurek) and board to serve the Chicago area EARS organization in 2003. If you need to reach him, his email address is mcrecorder@netzero.net and his studio website is www.studiob3984477.com

Gary Khan will still dutifully serve as our Treasurer. We thank Gary who has found time in his really busy schedule, as engineer/educator/Steering Committee member, to help EARS out. This is a serious job, for a not so serious guy, but he's serious about EARS and our money. Thanks Gary!

Extra special thanks to outgoing President David Moss and VP Jack LeTourneau for all their hard work in 2002. -Kathy Dunaj-

EARS Member News!

Congratulations to Timothy Powell and Metro Mobile for Two!!! Grammy® nominations. Best Traditional Soul Gospel Album: Bishop T.D. Jakes Presents Woman Thou Art Loosed - Worship 2002 Best Contemporary Soul Gospel Album: The Commissioned Reunion "Live": Commissioned.

Gary Khan also gave a very well received presentation on "Conflicts in Approach to Classic and Modern Audio Recording, and A.T.C. Tour." by invitation of our local AES Chicago Chapter on 1/16. Be sure to ask him about it if you missed it.

Congratulations to Mary Mazurek for winning The Communicator Crystal Award of Excellence in the category of live broadcast for her engineering and production on "Live From WFMT" with the Glenn Ellen Children's Chorus. Way to go Prez! -KD-

From The Archives:

[Originally printed in the Eardrum,August 1990 Volume 5, Number 8]
Cub Tech Tips
by Mike Konopka

What, use a direct box on a guitar amp? As strange as it may seem, a direct box can be a great addition to any guitar amp recording and miking scheme. First, by adding a direct box to your existing mic set-up, you increase the safety factor for the guitarist by incorporating his rig into the ground scheme of the console itself. And as an added plus, many tube amps run cleaner and quieter when grounded in this fashion. (Editor's note:[Mike and Timothy] We consulted with that famous Chicago engineering institution, Malcolm Chisholm, about guitar recording with direct boxes. Malcolm isn't sure who originally came up with the idea, but he thinks that it started sometime in the 1930's. When he started working at Universal in 1955, there were already well-worn direct boxes in use. Blues fans will be surprised to learn that most of the great guitar sounds from Chess Studios in the 50's were actually recorded direct! According to Malcolm, they used a UTC microphone transformer wired in reverse...the secondary was clip-leaded to the speaker wires and the primary side was sent to the console input. Malcolm states, "Little transformers don't work for directs. The bigger and fatter the transformer, the bigger and fatter the guitar sound.") Make your connections as follows: hook up the direct box to either the pre-amp out or the speaker output before even plugging in the power cord. Double check to see that you have selected the proper position on the speaker-instrument switch on the direct box! When powering up the amp, be sure to float the ground pin on the AC cord because the amp will now ground through the direct box connection to the console. If you are mixing the direct signal with a microphone, don't forget to check phasing. Many cool guitar effects can be gotten by mixing out-of-phase mic and direct signals together. Happy tweaking!! -Mike Konopka-

An appending note of safety from Gary Khan;

If the "D.I." (direct box)'s source is a speaker level signal and, assuming you're using a modern design with (2) 1/4" jacks, be SURE to continue the signal path from the amplifier's output, through the D.I. to a speaker or energy dissipating load! This usually means connect another patch cable from the remaining 1/4" jack to a speaker. If you don't, the full power of the amplifier can try to dissipate (terminate) though the D.I. or worse, your expensive little Mic preamp!

In nearly ALL cases, both 1/4" jacks are simply paralleled ("daisy-chained") so signal flow direction through them is irrelevant, even if the two jacks are labeled "in' and "out". Of course, as any good engineer knows, if you're not sure, check it or play it safe. Obviously, if your D.I. hasn't a second jack i.e. the nasty little DOD-260 & 280, DON'T attempt this connection! On D.I.'s of this ilk, the transformer is probably very wimpy anyway, like surplus telephone transformers - no kiddin! That means a rapid "POOF" as it kills itself! The offended amp won't like it either!

Mic level and instrument level signals are many times smaller than speaker level. Besides proper patching and cabling, be sure to insert the mandatory "pad', typically about 20db according to dear departed, local D.I. guru, George Minol (GRM products). This switch (or jack) sometimes is labeled as "speaker"- NOT to be confused with the "Groundlift" switch or jack. This really just lifts the shield of the XLR output from the unbalanced input or source side's negative/ground/shield/sleeve terminal. (more about this topic later)

Additionally, most amplifiers don't like the impedances and reactive loads that your poor mic pre presents to that ragin' "head, before it blows up!" Tube amps, in particular, can be damaged by this offending hook up.

Often, these beasties are exactly the sound you're tryin' to capture, albeit without the benefit of the magic that a sloppy speaker and vibrating speaker cabinet contributes to the sound. None the less, as so eloquently described in the article above, many classic sounds HAVE been the result of a properly tapped direct sound, post amplifier! BTW: There have been some "heavy blocks of metal", actually carefully designed reactive loads that dissipate a beefy amp's wattage as heat, not sound and simulate a speaker's presence to the amplifier. Unless you are fluent with (analog) electronics and reactive, capacitive and resistive loads, DON'T try this at home, kids!

These units are specifically designed to allow this direct hook up to be used without blowin' yer eardrums or apartment lease. A classic example would be Tom Scholtz's (i.e. "Boston" and the ubiquitous "Rockman") product for this purpose he called the "Power Soak". Even with this, a word of caution. With a good, crankin' 100 watt Marshall, you can cook eggs or fingers on it after a while! Another common faux paus: both 1/4' cables should be designed to carry this hefty signal (at very least #18 gauge) and NOT simply a typical "guitar cable" which, though shielded (unnecessary in this case), is typically of far too light a gauge (thickness).

CHECK your cables and be sure, most often by unscrewing the plug's barrel and examining the wire. It should be visibly thicker than simple instrument/line level cable. You can get a visual reference by looking at known patch cables. Speaker line is also typically of the "side-by-side" 2-conductor (wire) variety like common "zip" cord as used on lamp power cords - even if wrapped to externally appear round. You can see/buy that at any hardware store or Radio Shack. This examination can be hampered by the plug's cable strain relief i.e. the "shrink-wrapped" variety and simple continuity tests are inconclusive so you may have to HOPE the cable labeling is clear and correct -not a good idea if you don't know your cable manufacturers! Ahh, techno-paranoia!

-Gary Khan - Chief Engineer, Pegasus Recording Co. © 2003-

For Additional Eardrum archives 1990-1992, check out Timothy Powell's website: http://www.mobilerecording.com/archive.html

Dues Thanks:

Big thanks to the following members who sent in a big check to help EARS out: Marty Feldman, Charles Kim, Mark Bell, Mike Tanko, Chris and Sherri Kirby. The following members have recently sent in dues payments: John McCortney, Wayne Jackson, Dan Stout, Barb Nashold, Chuck Piper, Dianne Peyton, Gordon Rinda, James Johnson, Moe Paulsen, David Moss, Jack Kontney, Jon Benya, Paul Charles Fischer, Paul Cox, Rick Barnes, Michelle Moncada, James Mazurek, Dwayne Barker, Joel Davis, Lin Kraemer, and Josh Lopatin.
Thanks a bunch!

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.