Tube Mic Blog 4 - Tubes and iPods / Tube Stereo Systems / Summing Boxes My internet forays have led me a bit off topic this time, so forgive me if you just want tube mic stuff, I’ll try to bring it back around… The thing that ties it all together is still the tube. Researching capacitors, I read an article by Giorgio Pozzoli. (see Tube Mic Blog 3). That led me to his home page and another article about putting together a nice tube home stereo system. I took his advice and found some old tube components on ebay, and I now am listening to cds thru a tube preamp and a tube power amp. (The turntable needs some tlc, but that won’t be long). Looking for the preamp on ebay, I noticed one creative seller had it listed, “Tube Up Your Ipod”. Yeah baby, that sounded like me. I was one of the first on the block to have an ipod, but I didn’t fully grasp it’s potential. Entire music collections held in your hand. Transponder to beam signal to any radio tuned to the same frequency. So now I can hear my tunes thru my family’s vintage tube radio, or in the car, wireless!! That kind of thing, combining new technology with tried and true technology like the vacuum tube, really interests me, especially given the fact that most tube types are out of production. And the thought of the world’s tube supply drying up, and us losing the sound forever, is the kind of thing that drives me to carry the torch. Another buddy of mine mentioned recently that he had seen some new ipod stereo systems with tubes in them. A quick google showed he was right. I guess I’m not the only one thinking about marrying the convenience of digital audio with tube amplification. There are a bunch of neat new consumer systems featuring tube amplifiers, compact modular modern speaker systems, and some type of cradle and interconnect for your ipod. Here’s a few of the systems I found: http://www.gadgetreview.com/2005/12/studio-quality-triode-tube-ipod.html http://news.softpedia.com/news/The-Tube-iPod-48689.shtml http://www.boingboing.net/2006/06/29/ipod-tube-amp.html So maybe all this tube talk is not so silly. Turns out there’s a burgeoning market in Europe and Asia for this kind of system. Perhaps it’ll catch on in the US. And perhaps one day, we will once again produce quality vacuum tubes in this country. No reason tubes can’t stage a comeback. Technology moves backwards and forwards in time…devices that were once hard wired (telephones) are now largely wireless, while devices that were once wireless (televisions/antennas) are now hardwired (cable). There’s also plenty of examples of old inventions being married to fresh ideas to create wholly new inventions. My new/old tube components are making me smile. I’ve even put them into my monitoring chain in the studio, driving my NS-10-s with a tube amp, and I even inserted a tube pre-amp between my Pro Tools output and the tube power amp. Silly? Maybe so, maybe not. I’ve been thinking about mixing consoles these days, wondering if there are tube consoles. I have discovered that the earliest consoles (think Frank Sinatra, Elvis) were in fact tube. And there are companies making modern consoles with tubes with impressive rosters of clients, such as British TL Audio (http://www.tlaudio.co.uk/). A quick look thru their testimonials showed Coldplay, Sting, Tori Amos and others using TL consoles. I’m sure solid state Neve’s and API’s sound great too, and offer a classic sound, but I’ve been wondering if I can’t get as good if not better results using my computer and a few specific tools. Indeed there are a lot of people with DAW’s (Digital Audio Workstations), which are capable of handling any and all recording/mixing tasks, investigating “jobbing out” certain tasks which are simply done better in the analog world. The “console”, such as we have known it, is being deconstructed in this process. Because when we look at sonic variables one at a time, something we simply could not do when we depended on the console for everything, we see that things can often be done better “outboard”. Hence we bypass the pre-amps, or the eq. The best classic consoles in the world are prohibitively expensive to purchase, and frustratingly difficult to maintain. They also take up a lot of space. When you look at what is actually happening to your audio in a console, it actually seems a bit risky to mix thru them. There are many ways in which your sound can be degraded, bad pre-amps, noisy pots and switches, phasing anomalies etc etc. I believe also that your audio is “unbalanced” when it is in the console, requiring transformers both at input and output, but vulnerable to all sorts of noise while being bussed and eq’d. Keeping everything optimized in a vintage console is a fulltime job, and even so there is a noise floor introduced that does not necessarily need to be there. One of the main tasks a console does is “summing”, the process of funneling a multitrack recording down to 2 track stereo. Once you’ve jobbed out the pre-amps and eq’s, the console is doing not much else. A quick flip thru Tape Op will show you that just as people are building their own pre-amps and compressors, they are also building summing boxes. It turns out it is very easy to build a passive summing box, and having done it myself, I know it will make you think twice about ever using a console for summing. You can keep everything in the balanced world, greatly reducing your noise floor and requiring no transformers, and then you can choose how to “color” your mix by choosing the type of pre-amp you use to make up gain. Want that classic API sound, use an API pre-amp…want a tube sound, use a tube pre-amp. Don’t have the bucks for a console? You might not need one. You may in fact be better off without. There are a lot of people starting to see that they can afford an awesome front end signal path, and that their tracks will sound as good as any on the planet. Build yourself a tube mic, match it up with a great pre-amp of your choice, add some compression and eq if desired, all before hitting your computer. But you can also address the back end, drive your monitors with a tube amp for example, and take the same sensibilities to your mixing. Soon you will see, and hear, the benefits of jobbing out those tasks as well.
Tube Mic Blog 3 - Only Tubes Will Tell The Holidays always bring helpings of food we don't necessarily eat the rest of the year. Our plates quickly overflow, both with unexpected taste treats, but then usually a few dishes we have to choke down to "represent." My weekend brought some funky veggies, and a lot of the turkey, mash potatoes and stuffing, was pushed to the side of the plate. I still plan to do the Auricap upgrade to any and all McCormick Mics but I have yet to set it fully in motion. I believe fully in this upgrade, based on everything I've read about Auricaps, plus my limited listening tests. It's made a great thing better, that's the best way to say it. Meanwhile I have a few mics already upgraded and sounding great, but I haven't yet found time to really use them. However, Thanksgiving behind us, my friend Jonny came over and helped with a simple but necessary mod I felt I could do to the PSU's for the big mics. One minor detail I never solved satisfactorily is the issue of where the power cord enters the box. The cord goes thru a drilled hole and looks unprofessional. I have come up with a cheap solution, a rubber grommet or plastic strain relief specifically made for the job. So we went through all the PSU's in house and re-wired them. Along the way, we cleaned up wiring that in some cases was much cruder than the way I have been doing things lately. We even found the first 2 boxes I made, very awkwardly wired!! Each box was then checked out with a mic, and all work perfectly. Keep in mind these boxes are quite simple compared to the PSU's for the cathode follower mod. Those have the audio transformer in them, and the coupling capacitor that I plan to switch out for the Auricap. For the big mics, both tranny and coupling cap are physically located in the microphone, and therefore the box is much simpler. Yawn. Then an unexpected twist and turn…all this tube business has had me looking into other tubes I knew I had, but hadn't fully appreciated, much less changed, maintained, or stockpiled. My guitar amps are a somewhat obvious need, but I do have some rare ones with odd tube requirements. Beyond that, the Hammond C3 also has tubes, both in the organ and in the Leslie speaker, which has an amp in it after all. I had already changed a 20 yr old 12ax7 in my overdrive pedal with astonishing results…point is, tubes are everywhere in my studio. The more I looked, the more I saw. But then I also noticed places where they were NOT, but COULD BE!! For example, I could drive my NS 10's with a tube amp if I wanted to, so why exactly wasn't I? One night a couple weeks ago I was reading a review of Auricaps by Giorgio Pozzoli, a respected audiophile (http://www.tnt-audio.com/accessories/auricap_e.html). Probing further I went to his home page and found another article about assembling a tube home stereo system. I decided to take his advice and buy some old Dynaco tube components, an amp and a pre-amp, and see what they sounded like. The power amp arrived first, and although it sounded amazing with my home stereo speakers, it is now installed as the main amp for my studio monitors, because what it did for my NS 10's is nothing short of a miracle. Now I need another tube amp to drive the glory home stereo system. Luckily for that part of the equation I found a Dynaco tube pre-amp, and now that has arrived. This one has been modified and upgraded with none other than our Auricaps!! What can I say? Give thanks. You can build your own tube mic, and your own tube mic pre-amp, and "tube up" your front end…and then, if you're open to it, you can tube up your monitoring situation too…and how do you think that sounds…? Only tubes will tell!! Next Time: Tube Amps for Ipods and Why This Tube Talk is Not So Silly
Tube Mic Blog 2 - Auricaps Hey All, What's new? Well, I sold my Neumann TLM 103's on ebay. I'm thrilled to report I got more than I paid for them brand new 6 years ago, proving the adage that buying good quality recording gear is never a bad investment. Those of you who have worked with me know those 2 mics, and my Focusrite Red Mic Pre, were the sound of my studio for years. Now the Neumanns are gone, and the Focusrite may be following, as I have now replaced them with tube mics and a stereo tube mic pre which I also built. I got some audiophile capacitors, Auricaps, to try instead of the polyprop ones I have been using. It was easy to switch out the 2.2uF cap in the power supplies for the Number 2 mod, so I did that today. The difference, though slight, does indeed seem to be an improvement, The Number 1 "Big Mic Mod" will be trickier to re-cap. Those caps are actually in the mic instead of the power supply, and there are two that I can change out. Stay tuned on that...I'm reluctant to mess with working mics, and the soldering is trickier, involving solder joints The Peter Fox/Irina Bjrokland project is coming along really well and is one of the first to have a bunch of tube tracks heaped upon it. Yesterday we recorded violin and trumpet using the small mic mod, with very nice results. Both instruments are tricky to record...the violin had nice warmth and shimmering high end, without sounding screechy, we slapped the omni capsule on for the trumpet and got a really nice roomy sound, without too much transient attack.
Tube Mic Blog 1 - Welcome to My Tube Mic World Hey All, This past year has been an interesting one at Steve McCormick Productions. A random comment about my Hamptone Tube Mic Pre-Amp which I had built from a kit ( www.hamptone.com)...."what else have you done?"....led to a burst of enthusiasm for tube microphones. I set off to learn how to modify inexpensive mics, using knowledge that has been generously posted on the internet by ribbon mic guru David Royer. We endeavor in this way because audio going thru tubes sounds better than audio which does not. You can debate this, but then maybe you won't go and build yourself a tube mic and know the glory. It's really up to you. However, in my basic quest to make music well and affordably, I am here to let you know what is possible in the golden age of internet and ebay. By now it's well known that one can have a powerful recording studio in the comfort of home with a computer and some software, and most of us have made our peace with the sound degradation presented when compared to analog tape...the editing, total recall, zero rewind time and infinite take/comping potential etc. far outweigh the drawbacks. Not so well known is that we can compete with worldclass studios, at least one track at a time, by getting into high quality front end gear (mics, pre-amps, compressors, eq's etc), and that this step up is not necessarily prohibitively expensive. So now that everybody has their computer chops, and they have figured out how they can record, mix and even master their own record, the obvious "what next" is to improve the sound coming into "the box". That means looking into better mics and better mic pre-amps (for the purposes of this paragragh, the "volume knob" on your input). If you are not using a good pre-amp, then you are using a bad one by default, the average quality focusrite built into your mbox for example, or the noisy trim pot on your Mackie mixer. Bypass these with any of the awesome boutique pre-amps being offered today, or a classic one like an API or Neve channel, and you will hear an immediate improvement in sound. When and if you overdub, using your bad mic-pres over and over again, it follows that you add your compromised sound multiplicatively, in layers. Same is true of your mic. Upgrading your signal path by improving your mic and pre-amp has the effect of removing these layers. If you research high end audio, you will read things like "your sound is only as good as the weakest link in your signal path". This is because you will hear that weak link again and again, and if you are stacking tracks, it will accumulate and erode the potential quality of your recording. I like to think of good quality audio in this way; it's not that good gear "adds" anything so much as it is that bad gear is robbing you of it. What follows in this blog will be the story of my ongoing efforts to improve the sound in my own studio, both to record my own music, and in my role as a studio owner and producer. The quantum leaps in my sound are well known to me, and I put them on the table for all to see. There was a day when I recorded onto a Tascam DA 88 using a Shure SM57 and a Sennheiser 421 (both still serviceable mics) and the preamps in my Mackie 1604 mixer. OK, I admit, I still have this board and route everything in my studio from Protools to my TV thru it...but I no longer use the pre-amps, and indeed I am even considering modifying the inputs using information available on the Jensen Transformer website ( www.jensen-transformers.com/), but that is for another time. Then one day I took the plunge, I bought a computer, got Digital Performer and a MOTU interface. Things got interesting quick as I could now save my mixes, and edit to my hearts content. Not long afterwards I got a stereo Focusrite Red Pre-Amp, a fine piece of gear not to be confused with the Focusrites in an mbox, and a pair of Neumann TLM 103 condenser mics. The TLM's are well built and decent sounding mics, though they are not to be confused with vintage Neumann tube mics like the U47. My sound improved drastically, in ways hard to put into words at the time, though now I would describe it as more open and natural. For several years I had nothing else, and needed not much more, because in a real sense I was enjoying an improvement so great that it felt close to total satisfaction. But alas, over time, I began to have issues, I struggled to eq vocals in dense mixes, I struggled to record drums, I struggled getting my mixes to sound as good as fully mastered full production records...I felt I could get 90% of the way there, but the last part was slow going, and involved seemingly endless tweaking. Enter the vaccuum tube, or re-enter I should say. I have a nice collection of tube guitar amps, so I never really forgot about tubes. I couple years ago I made really the first major upgrade to my studio since the focusrite and the tlm 103's by building the Hamptone. Building it myself was mostly a matter of economics, but also curiosity. The feeling I experienced when I plugged it in and it worked was intoxicating. But the sound was also a nice change-up to the focusrite. Little by little the tube sound crept into my recordings. And little by little strange and magical things began to happen; the squeak of a string that I may once have edited out now became musical, occasional overdriven moments compressed in a natural way and were usable as well, whereas obnoxious clipped spots were not in the past. And suddenly my music became a lot easier to mix. I was once again experiencing a more open and natural and musical sound. I had rediscovered the tube, and I bought a bunch of old stock vintage valves to make sure I had good ones for all my amps and my new pre-amp. Building my own tube mic was inevitable I guess, just wonder why it took so long. It has been an odyssey. In this case there was no kit available, and I had to research and procure every component. But it has been incredibly rewarding and valuable work. My music and the music of everyone coming thru my studio is better off because of it. So welcome to my tubemic blog. I have been writing this as a newsletter for the past 6 months, but it is time to post it. Since I am going public, let me give the appropriate disclaimors. I claim no credit for any of this knowledge, it is there on the internet for all to see and I credit folks like David Royer of Royer Ribbon Mics and Mojave Audio, Scott Hampton of Hamptone and Larry Crane of Tape Op for being on the cutting edge of gorilla audio, debunking myths, shining light, and making it all affordable. I also credit the folks on my mailing list, my friends and cohorts who have lent their expertise and problem solving abilities along the way. Happy reading |