Editor/Publisher:
Gary Khan

Editor:
Mike Castronovo

Volume 18 Number 5
May, 2003

EARS Meets at Sound/Video Impressions, Inc.

110 S. River Road, Des Plaines, IL
847-297-4360
Tuesday May 27, 2003 7:30pm

EARS veteran and Engineer, Kathy Dunaj invites us back to S.V.I.   Check out their new acquisitions: a Neotek Elan and Protools HD while you're there!

The meeting will be a combination of education & demonstration about CD & DVD duplication systems.   If you've been thinking about increasing your studio income, CD duplication is a service you probably have considered.

Matt Dempler from "Mediaform" will be explaining the latest trends in CD & DVD technology and giving demonstrations using some of the latest hi-tech systems. If you want to experience it first hand BRING A CD YOU'D LIKE A FEW COPIES OF .(nothing copyrighted of course)  and see how fast easy it can be done.  We'll also have some "Door Prizes" sponsored by Sonic Foundry to add to the fun.  If you have questions about the meeting contact Mike C (VP) at (815) 398-4477   Hope to see you there....

Directions

From the North:
Exit 294 South onto Golf Rd and go West approximately 1/2 Mile. Turn South at Des Plaines River Rd. (at the Holy Family Hospital Intersection) Go 2 blocks south and the 110 Building will be on the Right.

From the South:
Exit 294 North at Dempster West. Drive around back under the Interstate and go approximately 50 feet to the light (Rand Rd) Turn right on Rand and go approximately 3/4 of a Mile to Des Plaines River Rd. Turn North (Right) and go 2 blocks (cross tracks). 110 will be on your left.

From the East:
Take Golf or Central to Des Plaines River Rd. Turn South (Left). 110 is 2 blocks South of Golf Rd. Or take Rand or Northwest Highway to Des Plaines River Rd. Turn North (Right). 110 is 1 block North of Rand Rd.(over the tracks) on the left.

From the West:
Take Golf or Central Rds. to Des Plaines River Rd. and turn South (Right). 110 is 2 blocks South of Golf Rd. on the right side of the street.
- M. Castronovo & M. Mazurek

Appreciation File

At our MARCH gathering, many thanks go to Acme Recording engineer, Jeremy Lemos for his many accommodations. Further credo's to Shure's Dan Smith and condensor cartridge designer Jeff Segota  for bringing out their new additions to the KSM line. They were the 109 fixed cardioid (at an amazingly low price point!), 137 cardoid and 141 with its mechanically closeable rear baffle (to it's single diaphragm) to yield both omni and card patterns.

For unbiased comparison, I brought our Focusrite Red-1 [matched 4 ch.] mic pre's andassembled some condensor mic's to compare. These were Pegasus's Earthworks QTC-1 matched pair small diaphragm omni's, AKG C-414bULS matched pair, and 2 Neumann KM-86's (tweaked as a pair by Tracy Korby's Micworks) The 414's and 86's are both larger diaphragm with switchable patterns. WFMT offered their sub-card Schoeps MK 21's and Acme pitched in their SM-81 and AKG 391- both card though the latter with a larger diaphragm. Rax Trax's Rick Barnes let me grab his AKG C-451and Spoiled By Technologies' Mo Paulson happily surprised us with their line of Audix Mic's! With help from our trusty asst.

Tim Rusin, I strove for matched and minimal signal paths in our comparisons. We took the studio tie lines direct to the quad matched pre's, then directly to a pair (4 channels) of Alesis Masterlinks recording 24 bit at 88.2k with it's internal converters. We then listened to the resulting outputs at line level through 4 of the Amek Rembrandt's channels (for mutes,faders,pans) with eq's bypassed and all other sources silenced. This was done to allow more of the many attendees to critically listen to a high resolution recording in the control room's "sweet spot" later that night. I set all comparisons as monophonic to minimize phase variations of multiple, simultaneous stereo placements.

Veteran engineer and past EARS host (at Symphony Center) Chris Willis generously took the helm first though it was a bit of the perennial zoo in the otherwise comfortably large control room. We compared recordings of our talented volunteers: Brett Richardson on Acme's Kimball grand (Piano), David Yonan (violin). EARS members, Charlie Kim (Acoustic guitar) and David Moss (drums) then contributed there talents as well. Although the sonic differences were obvious, specific conclusions varied per instrument over the many engineers present, as usual, but all agreed the new Shure "beast-ettes" compared well with it's often more costly contenders!

In APRIL, we were welcomed by Chicago Recording's head cheese, Chris Shepard to their ample Studio 4 where Next Generation Marketing's Tom Parnell brought us Scott Esterson, who presented a slideshow- accompanied presentation on surround sound system history, professional setup and mixing techniques. This veteran, fellow engineer is National Sales Manager of Digital Theater Systems ­ the ubiquitous surround mixing format standards company most often heard in theatrical and consumer film releases. Tom and Guitar center Professional brought us the KRK line of speakers which Scott set up in a 5.1 surround configuration in the area just ahead of the studio's Neve VR. We then had isolation from the lecture area where CRC's Chris contributed a projection setup for Scott and every chair he could muster for this sizable crowd!

There were some hitches from the self-contained consumer receiver which served as input selector, controller, decoder and multi-channel amp but the critical listening material he brought was well chosen and included some still unreleased material for which Scott obtained special permission to use for EARS! You can see recommended setup procedures at the AES.org website. Thanks to Mary Mazurek and Scott who assembled the pre-Q & A topics and reference sources. We compared 5.1, 6.1, 7.1 & 10.2 systems including fundamental differences with competitor Dolby Labs standards which, for example, begins Bass management at 100Hz vs. DTS's 80 Hz and has lower digital resolution. We also learned of DTS-ES discrete 6.1 with additional rear center channel and the importance of acoustical and transducer symmetry in a professional mixing and critical listening environment. After proposing that current hardware encoder/decoders are more reliable and faster than software plug-ins, we were offered product literature from DTS including their CAE-4 (encoder) and CAD-4 (decoder) and discussed Kind Of Loud's plug-ins like Woofie and Tweetie. A hearty EARS cheers to all that contributed, assisted and facilitated in the best tradition of this organization! On a side note, we were lucky to have tech guru and EARDRUM contributor, Bruce Breckenfeld in attendance as he was chasing a pesky logic gremlin in the console at that time. Nuff said' ­ Gary Khan

Payin' Their Dues!

Thanks to Bill Curtis of Curtis Technologies, Jeff Jaskowiak of Jasko's High tech Heaven, and the mystery person who gave Mike C. $25.00 at the Acme meeting   (Please let us know who you are, so we can give you proper credit.) for bringing your dues up to date Just a reminder to current members; dues are paid in October per the bylaws.  Start saving your pennies now.

Updating Mailing List

Our Eardrum staff is hard at work updating the mailing list.  Please contact us via e-mail ears@ears-chicago.org or by phone 773-880-5000 to update your info.  Only paid members will receive the hard copy of the EARDRUM.  If you're a dues paying member and would like to save a tree (and the organization some postage), let us know. The EARDRUM is available to all via e-mail or at the web site:  www.ears-chicago.org

By the way, the web site has been seeing a lot of traffic lately. And you should note that the meeting location is posted the second we know. If you haven't been to the site, check it out.

Announcements

Kathy (Splice Girl) Dunaj has stepped down as editor due to time constraints and personal reasons.  I'd like to thank her for all of her hard work.  She was a joy to work with and contributed endless hours and ideas to this newsletter.  When you see her, please thank her for all her efforts! J

Our new victims are the very capable Gary Khan and Mike Castronovo.  Gary has been with the organization since the beginning and has served in various capacities, even quietly helping Kathy and myself with the EARDRUM when we where pressed for time.  Long time EARS member and VP, Mike is one of the most diligent and organized people I know.  He has been documenting the meetings in writing and with pictures (check out the pictures on the web site!) not to mention everything else he does to get the meetings going. The EARDRUM is in very capable hands.

Also, in the future, look for articles by our steering committee members. They've all volunteered to write articles.  What a pool of knowledge!   And, by the way, if YOU would like to contribute an article, please e-mail us at ears@ears-chicago.org

Finally, I am pleased to announce the re-appointment Mike Tanko as EARS secretary. Mike as served the organization in the past, and has volunteered to help out again.  Along with Mike Castronovo, he will be documenting the meetings, and help keep the records up to date. ­M.M.

If you have any ideas for stories, wish to contribute an article, or want to include any upcoming events, please contact:

Gary at ears@ears-chicago.org. Or write to:
Peagasus Recording P.O Box 578903, Chicago, IL 60657.