Creation Audio Labs

If you’ve been reading this blog for awhile, you know that I’ve been setting up a small studio. The heart of the studio will be my analog mixer, my 1981 Soundcraft 800, which I found in Atlanta for $500. The heart of this mixer is the master module, and the master module didn’t work. There were a number of baffling problems with it… no tone osc, no headphone signal, left side meter read off the scale while the right side read nothing… so I was a little afraid to try to tackle these repairs myself. And a cursory inspection showed no obvious problems that I could see… no burn marks, bulging caps, or exploded bits. I needed professional help.

I had no idea that Creation Audio Labs existed until I read a recent article in Pro Audio Review, where someone had their Soundcraft Ghost extensively rebuilt and upgraded by these folks. That they are only 100 miles away in Nashville, Tennessee, was a bonus. I exchanged some emails with Alex Welti and found out that yes, they could help me. He gave me a rough estimate and I sent the module off to have the work done.

It took them awhile to get to it, but I just got the word yesterday that my module was repaired and on the way back. Reading over the work order reveals that this was the smartest move I’ve made in some time. Apparently, someone else had tried to fix the module and thoroughly f^$&ed it up. They had to repair many broken traces on the PC boards (there are two main boards stacked on top of one another, and another small board for the meter… another reason I didn’t want to tackle it) and found a number of bad transistors, replaced and socketed several ICs… three and a half hours of bench work. While this is a lot of time, it’s also amazing that they were able to get it all done in just three and a half hours. It would have taken me three and a half days, and I’m sure they found problems I’d have missed.

I’m really grateful that these guys are in business, I’d have been in big trouble otherwise. The work was fairly priced… I feel I got a REALLY good deal, since without them I’d have nowhere to turn. I recommend them highly.

Record Store Day

I always manage to hear about this after the fact, but this year I got lucky. You can too… Saturday, April 21 2012 is Record Store Day, celebrating independent music stores everywhere. They’re becoming harder and harder to find. The record store day website has a handy participating store finder that helps locate a vinyl store near you, but it isn’t perfect… my local favorite in Chattanooga, Chad’s Records on Vine Street, isn’t included. It also doesn’t show up on my handy vinyl finder app, The Vinyl District, which locates vinyl stores based on your location.

The Sony LX300USB, available online for $88

Don’t let the lack of a turntable stop you, either. Sony has a LX300USB turntable for $88 available online, and if you’re really strapped for cash, Ion has one (the QuickPlay)for $30. And you can always try to find a deal on eBay, but competition for a good turntable is usually pretty stiff, and they are fragile… easily damaged in shipping unless the seller is extra careful with their packing job.

And while you’re at the record store, ask if they have a copy of Goldmine’s Record Album Price Guide. I have the 6th edition, which lists most records fro late ’50′s until 2009. The prices in the price guide may seem high at first glance (most average from $10-20), but these prices are for records in near mint condition. This condition is truly rare in most record stores. Near Mint means, basically, opened and played one time, then put away. No cut-out notches, scuffs or wear marks of any kind allowed Most of the records you’ll find are VG or VG+, and some will be lower. A VG grade record lists for 25% of the NM price. (More on grading here) But once you’re in the store, you’ll find that the popular bands sell for the most money, and the common stuff is in the dollar bin… with some exceptions. I’ve always managed to find some good music there.

The Ion Quickplay, a budget turntable for $30

Some of my other favorite vinyl stores… Disk Exchange in Knoxville, and Grimey’s Records in Nashville. I’ve gotten some great stuff at each of those places, though Grimey’s and Chad’s has a much larger vinyl inventory. I haven’t managed to find a store in NYC that I could afford, though they did have some really hard-to-find titles.

UPDATE: I made a trip to Chad’s Records on the 21st and scored the following: Steeley Dan’s Cant Buy A Thrill for five bucks, Santana Abraxis for three bucks, Wings Venus and Mars for a buck, Kornog On Seven Winds for six bucks, and from the discount rack, Tannahill Weavers,, Third World, and The Call for a buck each. A whole lot of music for not much cash. It’s a little more work than the iTunes Store, but WAY more fun… and I can always resell them later if it turns out I don’t dig ‘em… try THAT with a download!

Great American Manhunt Airdates

After months of wondering , I’ve finally discovered when my show is going to air.

OK, it isn’t really “my show,” but I was their main location sound mixer for the entire first season. That’s a big deal for me, since most of my work involves someone coming into town, working for a day or two, and flying out, never to be seen again. I do have a handful of clients who come back repeatedly, and that’s always nice. But this block of work for Wide-Eyed Productions in London was different, since they shot over an eight-week period last summer. A studio was built here in Chattanooga in a medical office park off Amnicola Highway… ten minutes away from my house. It’s the closest thing to a “regular job” that I’ve seen in years.

My "office" on the set of Great American Manhunt, appx June of 2011

My hopes are high for the show… if it does well, they could come back for a second season The talent did complain about the difficulty of getting flights out of Chattanooga, though, and their hotel bill was astronomical.

Here are the airdates:

SPRING 2012, National Geographic Channel
Series Title: The Great American Manhunt
Episodes: California Hot Shot – April 19
Miracle Man – April 26
Captain Courage – May 3
Enigma Man – May 10
Adrenaline Junkie – May 17
The Daredevil – May 31
Big Dog – June 7
Superwoman – June 14

Be sure to check it out… and if you like it, don’t keep it a secret! Interview with the series producer here, and IMDB info is here. Local news article is here.

A New Shotgun

Thanks to some series work that I’ve landed in Knoxville, I’ve recently made an upgrade to my mic locker. My workhorse mic, a Sennheiser ME66/k6 combo, is a very good mic… for the price. They can be bought new for around $500. But it’s long been on my list of things that I’d like to improve, if ever I could afford it.

For critical applications, I have a MKH415T that I love. It’s a beautiful old mic, once used by the ORTF (the French equivalent of PBS). But there are some considerations that prevent me using this mic as much as I’d like. Mainly, it’s the fact that 415′s don’t like humidity, and begin to develop self-noise in damp air. Once things dry out, they return to normal, but the unpredictable nature of the mic means that it stays in the box 95% of the time. (According to Sennheiser, the 416 was a later development and uses improved circuitry to eliminate fluctuations in performance from humidity.)

The other soundperson on the series, Raleigh mixer Neal Gettinger, loaned me his 416T to use for the shoot, and it sounds markedly better than the mic I normally use. Thanks to some sales of used gear at Trew, I had a balance that I applied to a brand-new Sennheiser MKH416p48.

It doesn’t seem like much until you plug it in. Physically, it’s a bit smaller and slightly heavier than the 66, so I had to get new mounting clips for my Rycote suspension. Soundwise, though, there’s a big difference in the two. It’s hard to describe in words, but the 416 has a smoother overall quality… the top end is more defined, and the low end seems extended. These differences really show up when you compare the mics side-by-side and switch between them. But almost as important is the familiarity factor… most people know the 416, and it’s been a common player in movie production…. so much so that years ago, when the 416 was discontinued for a model with improved specs, the resulting uproar from the location sound community caused them to put it back into production.

I hate to do it, but I’ll probably sell my 415T to help pay for the new mic. I’ll most likely need to sell the ME66 as well, but I haven’t quite decided yet. The fact that the 66 can be battery powered gives it a slight advantage, since this mic can be plugged directly into any camera without the need of a mixer. The 416 needs  48 volts to operate properly, and some  cameras (and even mixers… older Shures are reported to deliver only 18 volts) can’t provide enough voltage.

Simple Broadband Absorbers

Here’s how I built a pair of simple broadband absorbers to cut down the room sound in my studio. These work as good as specialized acoustic treatments, but cost far less, and their absorption is good down to the 500Hz region. Note that absorbers don’t stop outside sounds from getting into the studio… they do shorten the reverb time of instruments as they are played in the room.

The absorber starts with a simple 1x3 wooden frame.

It’s really nothing more than a simple wooden frame with fiberglass fill, covered with cloth. Mine measured about 5’6″ by 30″. I used cheap 1×3 lumber (which is really about 5/8″ x 2 1/2″), but a true 1×4 would be better. If you use cheap wood, count on spending more time building them… I had to pre-drill all the nail holes to prevent the weak wood from splitting. I also used construction adhesive on all the joints.

The frame gets filled with plain R13 fiberglass. A few staples helps hold the fiberglass in place.

Once the frame is built and the fiberglass positioned, all you have to do is attach the cloth. I used a staple gun. They are fairly light, so they can hang on the wall with a simple screw. There may be times when I’ll want more room sound… then it’s a simple matter to move these somewhere else. Or stack them around a guitar amp, for example… they’re very handy to have around.

I turned the absorber over and stapled cloth to the backside, and it's finished.

The finished absorber in place

A Mixer Table and Gear Racks

Here’s a look at my mixer table that I just completed. Since the Soundcraft 800 didn’t come with any kind of stand, I had to build something. This table is built entirely from two sheets of 3/4″ birch plywood and cost about a hundred bucks. It had a pair of slope-front gear racks and a removable “bridge” for the speakers and computer monitors. Thanks to the panel saw at Home Depot, I was able to put this together fairly quickly… less than two days.

I still need to order rails to mount the gear. And of course, I need to get the master section of the mixer rebuilt by Creation Audio Labs in Nashville before I’ll be functional. But it’s been a good bit of progress… hopefully we’ll be mixing in a matter of weeks.

Studio Construction is Finished

I’m happy to report that the heavy construction work on my studio is complete. All the drywall has been hung, sanded and painted (except for a section near the service panel… if I drywall there, then I can’t add other electrical lines, so that part will be left bare for awhile). I laid the last of the flooring a few days ago. The maintenance and engineering dept, aka my workbench, has been built and is ready to work. Now I’ve got to figure out the best place to put all my stuff.

Almost as soon as I got my bench finished, I turned my attention to the mixer. I’ve discovered much more than the “few issues” that I was told about when I bought it. The good news is that nearly all the input channels are functional… one channel wasn’t connected, so that was easily corrected, and number 26 has a bad HPF switch and only works when the filter is active. And the power supply does have new capacitors in it.

The bad news is the master section has got a number of very mysterious problems, with no obvious or easily traceable causes. I think the best course of action here is to send it off to Creation Audio Labs in Nashville to see if they can sort it out. I expect to be sending them a lot of work over the next few months, but I plan to break it up into installments and have them do the work as I can afford it.

The next job on my work list will be to build a cabinet to house the mixer and equipment racks for the outboard gear. I’ve designed a desk that I can build for about $150 or so, it’s just a matter of getting the plywood and slicing it up.

Lots of other finish work remains… installing double glass in the window & trimming that out, treating the door for sound isolation, etc. I expect that to take awhile yet. And I’ll need to buy an air conditioner before the heat of the summer starts up in earnest. But it’s very nearly a useable space right now, which is an enjoyable feeling.

Update: By replacing a voltage regulator in the power supply, I was able to correct a mysterious problem with the LED meters where it would only illuminate in segments of five LEDs… as the signal increased, the lower five LEDs would go dark while the next segment lit up. Very odd. Channel 26 was repaired with a copious squirt of contact cleaner. Next on the list is a rather large order for capacitors from Mouser… there’s room on the boards to increase the voltage and temperature rating.