President/Editor/Publisher: Kerry J Haps
Vice-President: Michael Kolar
Secretary: Chris Cwiak
Treasurer: Eric Roth

Volume 22 Number 5
May, 2007

EARS meets at Experimental Sound Studio
5925 N. Ravenswood, Chicago, IL
Tuesday, May 29th 7:30pm

Hey Hey!

EARS meets this month at Experimental Sound Studio. This should be an interesting one. I'm always up for checking out unique approaches to both our craft and the business side of it. You never know what you're going to glean from another colleague's approach. Lou Mallozzi will show us his facility and tell us all about the many interesting things that happen there. 

Experimental Sound Studio (ESS) is a non-profit sonic arts organization founded in 1986 for the production, promotion, presentation, and preservation of diverse and innovative approaches to the sonic arts, and to the integration of these art forms into the community at large.  ESS provides audio production facilities, workshops, artist development programs, public presentation, internships, and other cultural opportunities to a diverse community of artists, individuals, and organizations that have a strong cultural commitment but limited means.  Current ongoing programs include the annual Outer Ear Festival of Sound, the Florasonic sound installation series at the Lincoln Park Conservatory, the Artists Residency Program, the Crosscut partnership with Links Hall for new collaborations, the web-based Your Favorite Chicago Sounds, and the Creative Audio Archive.  ESS is a unique organization in the Midwest: we are the only sound-oriented media arts production, presentation, and preservation center in this region, and one of only four such organizations in the US (the others are in New York, Seattle, and Miami). 

Check out their website for more info.

Refreshments will be provided. See ya there.

- KJH


Recap/Appreciation File:


EARS MEETING with Danny Leake at Urban Guerilla Engineers 4-24-07:

Last month Danny Leake opened up his impressive mastering room, his notable generosity, and his deep memory banks to share with us the wonderfully interesting story that is his in this crazy audio biz. I'm not the best note-taker and our secretary was unable to attend so I regret that I can't detail the whole story here for you. I guess you had to be there but I'll try to give an impression. (My apologies to Danny if I botch this.) The story ran quickly from humble beginnings as a young musician with a taste for recording to lugging a Les Paul through the jungle in Vietnam. Next stop, Germany and into a band that took him across the channel to Abbey Rd. Back in Chicago he found himself working as a studio musician and inevitably got sucked into this craft we all love. Paul Serano gave him the keys to the studio and things really took off from there. He did a stint at Streeterville and then at Universal.

...Addendum... (Danny sent me this correction. I vaguely remembered him telling this story but wasn't sure enough of it to "print it" at the time of writing. It was even in my completely unreadable notes! I really cannot do this without Chris, Eric, and Michael - KJH)

Only one thing: I never worked for Streeterville. The owner wouldn't hire me because he thought his clients wouldn't work with me because I was Black. After I was hired by Universal I made a point of stealing his main Million dollar client, Klaff & Weinstein. I sent him a letter thanking him for the "clients" and said maybe he won't say that to the next Black man looking for a position at his joint:-) - Danny Leake

At some point the classic scenario of the work becoming more and more commercial drove him to freelance and he soon found himself enlisted to lend his skills and talents to live sound on a big scale: The Tokyo Dome with 65000 fans and a blimp. His experience with orchestras led to working live with Stevie Wonder and Dennis DeYoung. Danny's proud to have his work with Ramsey Lewis on Bob Katz' list of 100 best recordings. He also showed us his Soundfield Mic system and talked a bit about how he'd used that to great effect. 

A favorite story of the night was of Danny acquiring his Massenburg EQ during the Northridge earthquake in 1994. He was there when the quake hit and immediately took the first flight back to Chicago. Upon arrival he got a message that someone out there in L.A. was selling a Massenburg EQ for a good deal. Without hesitation he got on the phone with the guy and told him he'd be on the next flight out. Soon after the phone lines went down. When Danny arrived on this gentlemen's doorstep so did another prospective buyer. Well, let's just say that Danny made no bones about the fact that he'd just flown INTO an earthquake and leaving without the EQ was NOT an option! 

All in all it was a great night. Danny's stories were great. His setup is sweet. He laid out quite a spread for us and it was all well appreciated by quite a crowd, actually. Thanks so much, Danny. You're a class act. 

- KJH


Also last month...
The next night, actually, a bunch of EARS members, along with the AES Chicago Chapter, were scheduled to meet at Shure, Inc.'s headquarters in Niles for a presentation by Russ Berger on the design and implementation of the Shure Performance and Listening Center. Bravo to Russ (and his wife) for braving delay after delay to the point where they barely made it in time for a rescheduled meeting the next night. It was a fun, informative, and interesting night, split fairly equally between a presentation by Russ and time to just hang out in the facility and ask questions to our hearts content. 
- KJH

In Memoriam:

John Eargle 

This past May 9th we lost one of our audio greats. John Eargle died peacefully in his home at the age of 76.

He has been an audio designer, author, recording engineer and surround sound pioneer for over 30 years. His books include the Handbook of Recording Engineering, The Loudspeaker Handbook, and The Microphone Book, just to name a few. He worked for JBL before forming his own company JME Consulting. He has engineered over 275 CD’s and was Director of Recording for Delos International. In 2001, he won the Grammy Award for the Best Engineered Classical Recording for Dvorak: Requiem and Symphony No. 9 with the New Jersey Symphony and Westminster Symphonic Choir. Later that year, he received a scientific and technical award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the development of cinema loudspeaker systems.

I had the opportunity to meet John at the 2002 AES Convention in L.A. I told him that I was an admirer of his work and often shared his recordings with my Columbia College students emphasizing that this was the gold standard. We exchanged contacts. Even though he said he was terribly busy and might not be able to respond, he always did.

We had several e-mail conversations about his recordings, some of my recordings and specific stereo techniques and applications. He was very generous with his information and advice. We spoke at length about his work with the Los Angles Guitar Quartet, the Dallas Symphony and Delos and he encouraged me to share the information with my students.

Before the following AES Convention in New York, I had e-mailed him and asked if I brought my Handbook of Recording Engineering, would he sign it, and he responded “Of course.” So, I met him at the convention center café where he was meeting with his publisher. “What’s the next book about?” I asked. “Surround,” he replied. “Can’t wait,” I replied handing him my well-worn, overly highlighted book. He signed it “For Mary with best wishes.” And later again signed in November of 2004 when he visited Chicago.

His wisdom and generosity to the recording and design community will be missed.

He is survived by a brother and a sister. You can leave your condolences and remembrances at www.johnmeargle.com

-Mary Mazurek

Phil Bonanno 
One of our area's premier recording engineers, Phill Bonnano, died of a heart attack last night (April 24). Phil worked at CRC for years and as an independent helped found several studios in the area including Royal Recorders which was built inside a Playboy resort.
 
He worked with a lot of artists and mixed platinum hits like Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger" and Styx's "Show Me The Way".

He'll be missed. 

- Danny Leake


Please watch for more on Phil in next month's EARdrum. - KJH


Suggestions Welcome!

I just got off the phone with John Hardy. I was ordering some of his discrete op-amps for a pair of Jensen Twin Servo pre-amps I'm building.  He's a great guy to talk with, really knows his stuff. He mentioned an article he'd written on pre-amp evaluation methodology and we got to talking a bit about this old EARdrum and my wish to take it to a higher level. Last month at the meeting Mike Konopka, who with Timothy Powell had run the EARdrum for years, had some great things to say about what they had done with the EARdrum back then and what the organization in general had accomplished. He looked at the many new, young faces in the room and took an open moment to speak of some of the original ideas of EARS: that it be accessible, not elitist, a place where young people just starting out could connect with veterans and be mentored. He spoke of the "celebrity roasts" of Paul Serano, the late Malcolm Chisholm, and the late Marty Feldman, for charity. And of course he spoke of the days when the EARdrum led the charge to convince NARAS to recognize engineers with their own Grammys. There are endless good reasons to band together here as EARS. It can be whatever we want it to be. 

If you have any ideas for the EARdrum, our website, or future meetings, please email me. We have a lot of great meetings lining up for the rest of the year, some good website plans, and a lot of good fresh energy and hopes for a more vibrant, participatory EARS, so of course we're very interested in your input on everything EARS. Please. :)
- KJH

An EARS online Forum:

Dues Paying Members will soon be invited to join an online forum that we're working on. Watch your inboxes for info on that. I really hope that will provide an opportunity for more interaction and be a place where we can virtually hang out between meetings. There are a lot of good forums out there, TapeOP, Gearslutz, and numerous others more specific to individual DAWS, and other products. I wouldn't hope to compete with all that, but I think a lot of us would appreciate a forum just for us here at EARS. 
- KJH

Dues!

Thanks for your patience while we transitioned to a new treasurer, no small task indeed! Dues are due yearly at the October meeting, but that doesn't stop us from catching up mid year as a show of support and in order to take advantage of the occasional members-only benefits. Dues checks can be made out to EARS and can now be sent to the following address:

Thanks,

Kerry J Haps, your devoted Pres.