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COVID update

Submitted by: Robin
on Sun, 05/23/2021 - 13:47
Vinyl barriers define individual airspaces

Music Man RD50 Head

Music Man RD50 guitar amp

The Music Man RD50 is little seen these days but kind of a ccol amp and a cool story. With a pair of 6L6's and a unique solid state preamp stage it is loud but smooth and takes pedals very well. We have a couple of different cabs that sound nice with it! Read this article linked here to learn more about this interesting tube amp.

https://www.vintageguitar.com/29069/music-mans-hybrid-boogie-amp-the-rd…

We have 1 of them.

Crest XRM 20 channel monitor mixer

Crest XRM mixer

A pair of these XRM's was our main 30 channel monitor desk set up for some time although now most times we have the PM5D in place for monitors. It has a tiny footprint and sounds great and just keeps on working! The passive split, the 12 AUX/program sends, and the insert / direct outs on every channel and the way you can link several of them together make it pretty hard to beat for a small analogue monitor desk!! We have used the inputs on these desks as pre's for our live-off-the-floor recording system as well and get great results in fact!

We have 2 of them.

Soundcraft S1 16 channel mixer

Soundcraft Series 1 16 channel analogue mixer

More ancient history but if you want a photo in front of the console looking like Lee Scratch Perry at the peak of his output and creativity then you need this console! Even if he did end up burying it under 3 feet of sand in his garden when he got a better desk! haha. Some of you were not born in 1971 when this was the coolest portable mixer out there, it came with a 16 channel snake on a reel, and built into a metal shelled road case!! Rock and roll!!

We have 1 of them.

Yamaha PM5D 48 channel digital mixer

Yamaha PM5D

   I know the up-to-date live sound guys and girls have had their fill of the PM5D, that's because every soft-seater and municipal amphitheatre in the world has at least one still working flawlessly, doing it all, what a workhorse. But you know what, it actually sounds pretty darn good! I know there are lots of fancier plug ins now but you can create some beautiful mixes on this old beast! And it is a huge problem solver when it is in our rehearsal/recording work flow. So many ins and outs!! It is our ONLY digital mixer, sorry to be so dated, haha!!!

R

We have 1 of them.

Yamaha PM1000 32 channel analog mixer

Yamaha PM1000

The Japanese Neve!! No op-amps in the signal path, or anywhere.... This desk does not have direct outs, the only way to track is via the 4 subgroups, or the 4 channel matrix, or the 2 fx sends plus the 4 groups out, or a combination of those! But we sure can mix on it. The only inserts are on the groups, this is old school people!! It looks and feels cool!! Just leaning on it is cool guys, come on!!

We have 1 of them.

Cranesong Tracker single channel Class A multi path compressor

Cranesong Tracker soingle channel compressor

TRAKKER is a high quality Single Channel Discrete Class A Compressor-Limiter. It functions either as a musically transparent compressor or as a vintage compressor-limiter with selectable hard or soft knee. It can create distinct new sounds or maximize existing ones. The TRAKKER has adjustable threshold, attack, release, knee shape, and makeup gain controls. In addition to these controls, a function switch allows the selection of transparent operation or vintage operations such as optical, air optical, soft knee, and hard knee - each with four different amplifier/gain control sounds.

We have 1 of them.

TL Audio Classic C1 dual channel valve compressor/preamp.

TL Audio Dual channel valve comp/pre

<p>The C-1 from TL Audio is a dual channel tube compressor that features two solid state preamps followed by two valve stages per channel. The high quality microphone preamps allow direct-to-tape recording of microphone sources while stereo front panel instrument inputs allow a keyboard or guitar to be fed directly into the unit.</p>

We have 1 of them.

Otari MX70 1" 8 channel tape recorder

Otari MX70 1 inch 8track tape recorder

We honeslty have not used it much lately but it works and is maintained. Not a standard format but an amazing fat sounding format! Double wide, 1 inch 8 track. This was a state of the art micro-processor controlled deck in its hey dey and it does not have a lot of hours on it. We can track to it and then dump to digital, or we can mix straight from the tape, 8 channels only, need to have a concise plan!

We have 1 of them.

VideoProc

VideoProc image

We don't do a lot of video but we do have ways to solve various problems and VideoProc, like Myriad is to audio, is a Swiss Army knife. It gives you access to every parameter of the video encoding and audio sync standards and the meta and header information. We don't claim to know much about video but there is some stuff we can figure out and fix if we must!

We have 1 of them.

Myriad Batch Audio Processor

Myriad Audio

Myriad is the best audio batch processor for macOS. It looks beautiful, delivers incredible performance, and remains in a class all by itself. Why doesn't everybody know about this? And all of the programming was done by one Canadia I understand, drawing on open source resources of course! At the end of a 5 year licensing nightmare at the hands of a hostile buyout Myriad is back, my version never stopped working, and never goes out of date. Zynaptiq apparently realized what an amazing bit of coding this huge program is and got it out of jail! I don;t know the whole story, Google it.

We have 1 of them.

Otari MTR-12 half inch, 4 channel tape recorder.

Otari MTR12

From the original Otari promo' material:

The MTR-12 Mastering Production Recorder is designed to be the most advanced available for the audio professional. Whether you consider yourself an artist, an engineer- or both, these superlative machines will deliver the performance necessary for your most challenging audio requirements today, and tomorrow You'll discover that the MTR-12 makes sense for the way you work with audio - that these are truly "intelligent" machines that will quickly become a dependable and powerful extension of your expertise.

We have 1 of them.

Tascam x-48 Hard Disk Recorder

tascam x-48

Our main digital recording platform is the Tascam X-48. Our is recently refurbished with new drives, rebuilt power supply and recapped motherboard, operating at factory specs.

We have 1 of them.

Beyer-Dynamic M201N (C)

BD M201 N

Hypercardioid dynamic mic, can handle very high SPL. Useful for snare drum, freak high-SPL situations where you still need good midrange clarity. If the SM57 were a microphone, it would sound like this.

Read more: http://recordinghacks.com/microphones/beyerdynamic/M-201-TG#ixzz74DUhFWDc

We have 1 of them.

AKG C535 EB

AKG C535 EB microphone

A forgotten classic handheld vocal mic!! These are so great, all of the bass proximity effect that SM58 users come to expect and use with more clarity and more dynamic highs and mids for a singer who has great mic technique. It also is a great versatile studio mic with 4 different high pass / pad settings! Why was this Frank Sinatra's favourite vocal mic?? Again vocalists come and book yourself a session where you get to try out 10 different vocal mics to see what you like! We have at least that many.... 

We have 1 of them.

Singer's Masks

Submitted by: Robin
on Fri, 08/20/2021 - 14:42
Singer's masks

DPA 4060 series (40601?) high fidelity omni micro lavalier

DPA 40601 micro lav

I can't remember whether these ones are the higher or regular spl rated ones. They are tiny and they sound amazing, and they work live or as a body vocal in a recording session, yes there is such a thing, but maybe we are the only people who do it?.. Body worn mics are always an intimate lens. These DPA's are beautiful sounding.

We have 2 of them.

Traynor Dynabass 800

Traynor Dynabass 800 bass amp.

800 watts (at 4 Ohms) Hybrid Tube
Solid-State Preamp Design
5-band EQ w/ Sweep Mid, Scoop
Resonance Controls
Footswitchable Overdrive with Wet (drive) / Dry (Clean) Blend
Onboard Compression and Limiting
Tuner Output with System Mute
Active and Passive Instrument Level Inputs
XLR Balanced Pre or Post D.I Output
Professionals are satisfied and happy when they play it we find. Its cool.

We have 1 of them.

Marshall 1960A speaker cab

Marshal 1960A 4 x 12" speaker cab

Stock speakers, stereo/mono standard issue.

We have 1 of them.

1954 Gibson Les Paul GA-5

 1955 Gibson Les Paul Junior GA-5

This is the oldest guitar amp we have. It is a survivor, some caps changed (all for the best!!) and a couple of resistors replaced somewhere along the way (not sure why) but it is still going strong. The outer Tolex or Leatherette is long gone, and someone polished it up and varnished it but this is the original speaker, tranny, pots, maybe even the original preamp tube! This is a 5 watt practice amp, basically exactly the same as the more famous Fender SC-1 tweed champ (Clapton:Layla) practice amp. You don't often play through a one-sided tube amp these days!

We have 1 of them.

Peavey Centurion Bass (or keyboard or pedal steel) Amp

Peavey Centruion Mark III

This is a war horse. A 130 watt solid state head and big 2 x 15" cab. The fondly remembered Peavey Black Widow speakers that were stock on these had a problem with the type of rubber in the surround and eventually started to disintegrate. We still have the originals and intend to recone them at some point in the future. But in the meantime the two 15" speakers have been replaced with a decent quality Chinese made PA 15"'s that sound great. Its a two channel bass amp with compression and parametric EQ, and channel switching!

We have 1 of them.

Jazz Kit

jazzy kit

We can put together a nice mix and match jazz kit with some advance notice ideally. We have a nice Gretsch 18 inch kick with cool Dunnett Gull Wing spurs and a variety of toms we can assemble, 10", 8", several 12 and 13" options, Pearl, Tama, Leedy, etc.. We keep coated heads on most of the smaller toms and we can swap in a jazzier kit for no extra charge. 

We have 1 of them.

Sonor 5 piece drum kit.

Sonor 5 piece drum kit

This is the day to day house kit. Kick 22", 16"fl, 13", 12", matching wood snare. People like this kick drum. It is a nice sounding kit, we keep clear heads on it, and there are dampening rings available for all tom sizes in the premises. There is another kick drum that people like with this kit as well, a 22" 1980's Yamaha which is heavier and has a darker, lower sound to it. 

We have 1 of them.

Doyle 1 x 12" guitar cab

Doyle 1 x 12" speaker cabinet.

Made in Toronto or I guess Pickering. Doyle Audio Engineering are still going strong apparently. This one comes from the 1980's! A 1 x 12" cab is kind of a cool thing!

http://www.doyleaudio.ca/products.html

We have 1 of them.

Marshall Mode Four MF350

Marshall MF350 head

This is the highest wattage Marshall ever made I think. 350 watts, haha. It has a tube preamp stage, solid state rectifier, solid state power. It is like two amps in one (only one input) with switching between two totally separate preamp stages. Its true that it does not really do its thing until you are good and loud but we are experimenting with a power soak to make it work in the space better. The metal people liked these. Alex Skolnick from Testament notably owns several of these and knows how to dial the 4 channel selects in with no pedals for his sound. We have two of these.  Why?

We have 2 of them.

Fender Hot Rod Deville 4x 10"

Fedner Hot Rod Deville 410

This is the amp the Fender guys grab, plays well with pedals, predictable, loud enough, recently re-capped power supply made a big difference, didn't realize it was fading away until we did them! It is 60 watts, 2 x 6L6's give you some bass headroom, two inputs, 4 10' speakers like an old Bassman or a Super. Its a work horse around here.

We have 1 of them.

Rock Petros 1

Rock Petros 1

This is an odd one, made by Rock Amplifier Co. in Pomona, CA in the 1970's. Its a solid state transistor amp with a fuzz box type transistor overdrive /distortion circuit. It won't supply the warmth and dynamics for most electric players but it is kind of cool as a second amp for maybe lapsteel on a gig with a mic in front of it, if that's your second instrument?? Or as the delay channel on a two amp set up its cool. There are not a ton of them out there and people collect them. This one used to belong to a member of Tangerine Dream...

We have 1 of them.

Traynor Mark 3 Combo

Traynor Mark 3

Its a 2 x 12", two channel 80 watt Traynor classic. One of the first adopters of master volume, with trem and reverb, 4 x EL34's, lots and lots of clean head room to run pedals on. It has a steel chassis and huge transfromers, good thing it has wheels on it.

We have 1 of them.

Eden D410XLT 4 x 10" bass cabinets

Eden bass cab

These are standard house work horse cabinets, a stacked pair.

We have 3 of them.

Cordovox 30 watt 2 x 12" accordion amp

Cordovox accordion amp.

This is a two cabinet combination tube amp and tube organ. Built by the Lowery Organ factory in Chicago in the 1960's for Cordovox it has the organ "tone generator" in one cabinet and the power supply and speaker and amp in the other. There is only a volume control and an unbalanced 1/4" mic input to plug into but it sounds great! Its a 35 watt push pull 7591 pair and a 12AU7 input circuit.

We have 1 of them.

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