President/Editor/Publisher: Kerry J Haps
Vice-President: Michael Kolar
Secretary: Chris Cwiak
Treasurer: Eric Roth
Volume 22 Number 8
August, 2007
EARS meets for our annual BBQ
at Experimental Sound Studio
5925 N. Ravenswood, Chicago, IL
Tuesday, August 28th 7:00pm
Hey Hey!
Well, here it is, what you've all been waiting for. Our annual BBQ will be hosted by Experimental Sound Studio. There's no need to bring anything but your appetite and (if not current) your dues. Take a break from that crazy schedule and relax for an evening. If you haven't paid your $25.00 since before last October, you'll need to pay up. While I strongly prefer to think along the lines of "Ask not what your EARS can do for you, but what you can do for EARS!", in this case, we're talking about a great spread and what promises to be a fun night of just kicking back with no agenda, just conversation, food, and drink. Of course, EARS citizenship also gives the the right to vote and a seat at the holiday party in December. (Always a great time!)
We usually formally appreciate after the fact but I'd like to go ahead and give a big EARS Cheer to Lou Mallozi, Jacob Ross, and crew for opening their doors for us again this year. I'm really glad to give those of you who couldn't make it last time a chance to check out their fine facility. You can check out their website for more info on ESS and you can also check the EARdrum Volume 22, numbers 5 and 6 for more info on our last meeting there.
I'd also like to thank in advance Harry Brotman for obtaining the food and drink and lending his BBQ talents.
As I said, you don't need to bring anything, but if there's some special treat you'd like to share, bring it!
Parking is plentiful, both right in front of ESS and next door in front of Weber Furniture.
I know this is late notice, but it would help to have some idea who's coming. So please RSVP to me at this email address so I can get an idea of the numbers. Also... if you have a cooler or a good ol' Weber grill that you could easily bring along (and show up a little earlier - around 6 or 6:30 ish) let me know ASAP.
Come on out and let EARS treat you to a great BBQ.
- KJH
Recap/Appreciation File:
Big thanks to Jim McGranahan for hosting us in his wonderful room and laying out quite a spread for dinner, and also to Scott Helmke for showing us his very cool mics last month. I enjoyed it so much and it looked like a lot of you did too. Here's a little recap from our secretary...
- KJH
EARS meeting at Clava Studios / 4 Deuces Recording 7-31-07
For last month’s meeting, we were invited to Clava Studios / 4 Deuces Recording at 222 W. 33rd, just a Jim Thome home run away from Comiskey Park. They’ve been at this location since the summer of 1999 and our host for the evening, Jim McGranahan, has owned it since late 2000. The studio was modeled after the former Wicker Park studio Idful and was built inside of a 6-8 car garage for the primary use of local band Califone. Jim makes his living with a day job as Clava is booked about 12-14 days per month, just enough to defray the everyday costs of operating and renting out the space. The live room and control rooms are actually mechanically separated spaces; you can walk in the space between the two panes of glass used to look between the control and live rooms. There are residences in the building and a balcony immediately above the studio but the great isolation (and keeping it quiet after 1 am) has allowed the studio to operate without any complaint from the neighbors. There is also what could be called a very big iso booth or a small drum room immediately off the main live room.
The night was also a showcase of the Do It Yourself ethos that many studio owners must adhere to in order to help defray costs and keep overhead down. Jim made the entire mic cabinet (not the mics, of course!), several baffles and a plethora of modular absorption panels that can be moved all over the studio to the engineer’s tastes. Not only were all of his pieces functional, but they looked good, too! There was also a multitude of homemade gear including: compressors, a 450-pound EMT reverb plate (not exactly homemade but heavily modified) and mic pre’s.
In keeping with the DIY attitude, Scott Helmke presented us with a line-up of his homemade microphones. He explained how he started out by making and selling one to a guy at TapeOp who wound up favorably reviewing it. From there, things took off a little bit. Now he’s expanded his lineup of mics to include an omni measurement mic, a PZM and a stereo coincident mic, among others. He makes the signature look of his mics by using copper plumbing pipe. Scott shared with us a story of how he solved a problem with his larger-grilled mic where he had an issue above 10k where there was phase cancellation occurring when the wave would reflect off the grille. He found the solution to be a simple one; add foam padding to the interior of the grille to cut down on those reflections and the resulting phase cancellations. The catchiest looking mic of his collection would be the Mid-Side Altoid’s Tin mic. All of the electronics are stashed away in the body of the Altoid’s hinged tin that makes the circuitry easy to access. The capsules are at the tip of a stem that protrudes out.
Some of the more notable gear at Clava:
-Sony MCI JH-600 Series console with patchable phase meter
-Scully 4-track & 2-track tape machines
-Hewlitt Packard 200 CDR Oscillator
-Joe Meek SC2 compressor
-MCI 24 track tape machine
-Mattel ‘72 Optigan (That’s right, the little toy-looking piano you remember from your childhood! It’s back & making some interesting sounds.)
-Dynaudio monitors
-Mackie HR824 monitors
A very special thank you to Jim McGranahan and the chief engineer at Clava, Graham Gibson, as well as the principal players at Clava, Califone. A cheer is also in order for Scott Helmke. Thanks also for the exceptional food Jim ordered from Gio’s.
-Chris Cwiak
Secretary, EARS
September at Chicago Mastering Service
September's meeting is already lined up for Chicago Mastering Service on the last Tuesday, September 25th. Bob Weston and Jason Ward are excited to show off their new facility, their Shea Ako custom-built mastering transfer console, and especially their Neumann VMS70 lathe. You want old school? You got it.
- KJH
Suggestions Welcome!
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
Dues!
Thanks to all who support EARS through paying their dues. Just as a reminder, they're 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 sent to the following address:
Engineering and Recording Society of Chicago
C/O Eric Roth, Treasurer
PO Box 98
Highland Park, IL 60035-0098
A (few) (more) word(s) from the Prez...
Wow, what a busy time I'm in the middle of. I took two weeks off to head out to one of my favorite places in the world, Yellowstone National Park. It was absolutely amazing and I could talk your ear off about it and show you plenty of photos, videos, and audio recordings (it's been a long time dream to do some field recording there).
Still, it always seems like a mistake when I get back in the office and find how behind I am. This time I went away with only a tentative plan for the BBQ (I can't even tell you how many waves of tentative plans we went through) and found out only upon my return that it wasn't going to work. I can't tell you how grateful I am to Lou and crew for coming to our rescue. Other little surprises upon return included a dead Mac G5 (I'm writing this on a borrowed laptop) and storms, tornados, power outages and floods right at the start of Orientation Weekend at my day gig, Wheaton College. Then just to top it all off, our yearly window of opportunity for maintenance in our main 2300 seat auditorium was cancelled due to maintenance on the power transformers.
This also meant that a new install of a Toft ATB32 console had to be delayed until just a day before the first soundcheck for our Orientation events. Now, I'm not going to pass judgement too quickly on Toft, but I have to report that we've found a number of quality control issues and I'm just praying that they're resolved quickly so I can give you a full report on what promises to be a great desk for our little broadcast/record mix.
Needless to say then... I haven't really progressed any further on my Seventh Circle Audio preamp kits.
BTW, has anyone else tried the Massey "Listen" plugin? I'm really shocked I haven't gotten more feedback on that one. Massey Tools
At your service,
Kerry J Haps
