Gearlust

I want three of these Lindell 6X-500 preamps.

Most of the time I'm recording I'm doing it "blind". More accurately it would be called "deaf" as I can't hear what I'm recording -- I'm just looking at levels and microphone placement and imagining that it must sound okay.
So what I typically want is a high-end preamp that doesn't have a lot of controls on it. This is why the Neve 1272's work so well for me. You can be really, really stupid and record something with a 1272 and it'll sound great.
This Lindell preamps are very inexpensive (when you can find them in stock). They do require a 500 series power supply and housing. And on the Internet they sound great. What am I going to do with the EQ on them? Probably like I do with all Pultecs -- turn some knobs and trust it'll sound awesome.
You know what's also very cool? These Ear Trumpet Labs microphones. At $500 they're well-reviewed on the Internetz and the Josephene will be perfect on The Imaginary Opera.

Recording in the City

Last night was another City Samana rehearsal. I recorded with the M-Audio 2626. The mic setup was a pair of spaced Shure SM 58's in the room to pick up guitars, an AKG C12A as the side mic and an Oktava 012 as the mid mic in an M/S pair over the drums, and a Rode NT1A on the bass amp. The input routing changed a bit over the session.
I only brought one pair of BAE Neve 1272 preamps. I was sort of kicking myself over that decision, I may as well bring both pairs I have.
My other brilliant move was that I didn't have headphones with me. To which I say derp.
The Neve's were routed directly into the M-Audio. And I'm watching the meters and there's this very clear spike punching ever second or so into the meters. I have no idea what that's all about so I pull the Neves out for the first couple hours.
Then I had an epiphany that the Neves maybe hate to see phantom power. I was, due to the fact that I hadn't bothered to bring any XLR to 1/4" cables, running directly into the M-Audio's mic preamps. Yes, I do realize that's not best practice. So on the last thing we recorded (above) Neve's were on the "room" mics.
I do like the space on the room mics. That part is nice. Guitar amps are usually recorded with a mic shoved right up in the grill but I kind of like having a few feet on them.
One issue for me is that the drums don't really have enough isolation to make them sounds like the monsters they should sound like. We don't have any baffles or anything (of course). But I'm thinking that maybe a trio of mics for the drums is what's in order. And maybe pointing guitar amps in another direction?
And, of course, asking Dave to hit the toms harder than the cymbals... ;-)
Here I boosted the drum M/S pair leaving the room mics a bit lower but smashing the drums a tad more. This song was brought about by Dave saying "What are we going to do?" and me saying "Something funky" and him replying "Like what?"

I may have overcompensated for my percussive loudness desired by making the drums too loud in this.  They're too loud and too compressed. I fought to make them too loud and too compressed. And I won.

Recording directly to Samplitude on my old PC I reported a lot of ASIO lost buffers. Like hundreds and hundreds of instances of lost buffers. I can't hear any clicking most of the time. But this is a thing which has must needs be fixed. I have no idea.
As a musical caveat: we're making these things up as we go along. I, certainly, have no idea what we're doing before we actually do it.

Sound Check Day

Do you like microphone preamp shootouts?

Yeah, the Brent Averil API 312 doesn't seem to blow away the others like you think it would. But that's the thing. One at a time these sorts of things don't make such a big deal. But when you start to build up tracks it starts to make a difference. Like Alan Douches says, it's an "accumulation of subtleties."
You know what seems cool though? The Little Labs Lmno preamp.
I'm also somewhat curious about the Lindell preamp.
The A Designs 500 HR is a relatively inexpensive 500 rack with power supply (at $300).
Radial makes a 3-slot 500 rack (also in a 1U space) for only $350.

Clock Test

So I did a test of the internal clocks of both the MOTU UltraLite (the original one) and the M-Audio 2626. Using the internal microphone preamps we're looking at stock versions of each device.
The difference is that I flipped back and forth between the internal clocks on each of those interfaces and the S/Pdif clock from an Apogee Mini-Me.
The recording was made at 96kHz.

The EQ I used on the tracks. Just a little scoop at 277 seemed to do the trick.

The guitar is a Martin D28 going into an AKG 460 with a CK1 capsule. I put a tiny amount of EQ on the tracks just to cut out some of that low-frequency stuff and the 70Hz cut was switched on at the microphone itself. I'm recording in my relatively noisy control room but I used no noise reduction.
I then offer a version which is "mixed" with some nice reverb and compression. This is just so you (I) don't get tired of listening to dry guitar.
Remember, all of this is at 96kHz. I did not A/B anything against 48kHz or the like.
Also, I did not use fancy-pants mic preamps. No Neve, no API. So you're listening for clock differences. But you're also hearing preamp differences.
Note that you won't see the above link if you got this post as an email or in an RSS reader. You must come to the blog.
The numbers in the file are from Freesound contributor Corsica S.
Now ostensibly you should listen to the above track (embedded in Bandcamp) without my prejudicing you regarding which track is which. So I won't. Just listen.
S
P
O
I
L
E
R

W
A
R
N
I
N
G

It goes like this:
1. 2626 internal clock
2. 2626 Apogee clock
3. 2626 internal clock mixed with some reverb and compression more the way I'd probably actually do it
4. 2626 Apogee clock with reverb
1.1 UltraLite Apogee clock
2.2 UltraLite internal clock
3.3 UltraLite Apogee clock reverb
4.4 UltraLite internal clock reverb

My conclusion? Wow, at 96k there certainly is no difference that's particularly shocking between the internal and external clock. Knowing this will save me some money in external clocks, that's for sure.
Now I also did a couple quick tests with playback. At 48kHz the MOTU converter sounds much better with an external clock. I knew that before I did this test. With the external clock the high end is much less cloudy. I did not hear those differences when I was listening at 96kHz.

Metacorder

So I own a very expensive piece of software called Metacorder. It cost nigh on $1700 when I bought it in 2006. It has a USB dongle and only works on a Mac.
The Mac I had it installed on is now dead.
In order to put Metacorder on a new Mac I need to upgrade it. This will cost $295. Note that this is a piece of software which isn't even being updated anymore. 
The irony here is that the competing software is only $256 to buy. It's called Boom Recorder. It's actually only $250 in the iTunes store.
There's also a freeware program called Traverso which very well may work. I don't know yet if it can handle more than a stereo pair for recording. It looks like it will but I'll have to see. The difference with Boom Recorder and Metacorder and regular music applications is primarily the ability to read and time-stamp with incoming timecode. I don't care about timecode when I'm making movies, much less recording music. So there.

AKG C12A power supply 2618

 Taking pictures of my AKG C12A (power supply 2618) and microphone (2129).

Inside the box...

AKG C12A no 2129

The back of the microphone.

A little bit closer.

Drums and Microphone

From this thread, the measured dB SPL of drummers:

At drummer's ears
21" ride = 102 db
21" ride (bell) = 112 db
Bass drum = 105 db
Toms = 110 db
Snare 5x14 single roll all rimshot 120 db
Snare (maximum rimshot) 125 db
16" crash = 111 db
14" hats (maximum/open) = 117 db
18" china (maximum) 118 db

Quiet groove: drummer ears 105 db - 5 feet 100 db - 25 feet 96 db
medium groove: drummer ears 110 db - 5 feet 105 db - 25 feet 102 db
Solid groove: drummer ears 115 db - 5 feet 110 db - 25 feet 108 db
Maximum (snare): drummer ears 125 db - 5 feet 120 db - 25 feet 116 db

And some specs on the AKG C12A

• Frequency Response 10Hz - 20kHz
• Output Sensitivity 4mV/Pa
• Max SPL 118dB for 0.5%THD
• Self Noise (CCIR)
• Self Noise (DIN/IEC) 20dB-A
• Output Impedance 200Ω
• Recommended Load 0.5kΩ
• Powering Proprietary unit

Clocks and Neve Shalom

I normally don't agree with Bob Katz. He's a mastering engineer who put himself in the fray of the "loudness wars" of the 90's.
He is, apparently, also in the fray of the "external clocks are always worse" arguments. Those arguments are weird. I first got wind of them on the Black Lion Audio site. External clocking is "controversial". The whole notion that it's controversial is absurd to me.
Ah. Well as it turns out I have to agree with Bob Katz on this. Why? Because he's not talking about clocking a MOTU interface with an Apogee clock. He's talking about clocking a Lavry A/D with a Big Ben.
Yeah, that doesn't really matter. With the high-end converters the built-in clocks are pretty good so you don't need an external clock.
But with cheapo converters you'll get a HUGE increase in quality when you externally clock. Listening to the output of my MOTU UltraLite on its own clock and then with the clock from the Apogee Mini-me reveals a vast difference in audio quality. I mean it's eminently obvious, you don't need to do a blind A/B. Just flip the switch and see.
UPDATE: I'm completely wrong about this. I cannot replicate that experiment I undertook once upon a time wherein I determined that the MOTU plugged into an Apogee clock started sounding a lot better. So Bob Katz is right about clocks all sounding about the same, as far as I can tell.
+++++

If a bear snuggles a log in the woods, will you hear it?

I've grown weary of the sound of Neve preamps on drums. Don't dig the sound on snare. Not on kick. Room? I dunno. I'm thinking something else like D.W. Fern. Or maybe API all around. Yeah. API all around.
Now that's not to say I don't prefer Neves on electric guitars. Because I do. Just... drums. They're too... I dunno... pillow-y?

API

There's a number of options for API clones out there. Including:
The Warm Audio half-rack 312 for $450.
The Black Lion half-rack 312 for $350.
Five Fish Studios make some fun kits. But I don't know if I'm really that into soldering together a whole preamp.

I thought I'd dig the Akai SynthStation 25 more than I do. First of all, the keys are smaller than standard size. They're bigger than accordion though. The app that's made for it sounds more like a Roland from 1985 than anything else. I haven't fooled around with the Fairlight app that much. I think the ARP might be better served by Android.

Ergo

I went and ordered an M-Audio ProFire 2626. B&H was blowing them out at $309 but I missed that sale by one day and so I ordered it at $399.

The joke is, of course, that my entire plan is to blow an astonishing $575 for a modification plus an additional $315 for the clock. But uh, those will come later. Maybe much later.
+++++
Why? Why do we (I) need multitrack recording capability? Three reasons:
1. I have many albums I need to make. I need to create the a.) Imaginary Opera. I have a mythical band called b.) Pleasure for the Empire which needs to be fed. Plus, I bet we could do things with c.) Tyrannosaurus Mouse if only we had a decent drumkit.
2. In order to prevent a certain level of screaming on set it would be nice to be able to throw wireless lavs on all actors, recording all of the talent as isos, and mixing later. It's maybe not so much "screaming" on set that's the problem as perhaps a general level of irritation because we nominally do not have a professional boom op on set.
3. There are occasions when tracking a musical group like the Russian Chamber Chorus of New York that a stereo pair of microphones is not adequate for. Such a multichannel solution would be very welcome.

So

The funny thing is that just as I was finishing up my last post I was offered to borrow a MOTU 2402 Mark II.
Funny peculiar. Not funny ha-ha.
The problem with that particular unit is that it doesn't use Firewire -- it uses its own proprietary interface on a PCi card. This means it needs a full-sized computer to work. Also, it only does a 48k sampling frequency.

That being said, Black Lion Audio will do a modification/upgrade for $345.
But what if one had desires for a more portable system?
I see three options.
1. Just use the un-modifyable MOTU UltraLite that I already have (free). It'll work at high sample rates and connects to most any computer but doesn't sound as awesome as I'd like (although when it's clocked by the Apogee sounds worlds better than when it uses its own clock.
2. Get a MOTU 828 Mk II (used) and get Black Lion to upgrade it for $340. As a Firewire device it'll use small computers, plus it'll record up to 96kHz.
3. Get a Behringer ADA8000 (about $200) and upgrade it with a Black Lion mod. For $450 they claim they can bring the quality of the 8000 into the realm of Apogee Rosetta converters. Now, this system can only do 48kHz and requires ADAT optical inputs on a recording device. It's possible I could just take my silver-faced ADAT and record to (egads!) tape but I'd still have to find a way to get that signal into a computer (using either the borrowed 2408 or perhaps a [Editor's note: apparently I just stopped writing this post here when I realized how absurd it would be to get a MOTU 828 Mk II in order to transfer.]

Converting

So I only have one good converter. It's a stereo Apogee. And it'll convert to AES or S/Pdif but also has a USB output.
But my monitors are all through a first-generation MOTU UltraLite. Thing is I clock the UltraLite with the Apogee's S/Pdif output and it makes a gianormous difference in the sound quality.*
So here's the thing: to record a band it would be nice to be able to do more than two channels of high-end quality at a time.
I was looking at the Apogee Ensemble but the darn thing is 1. almost two thousand bucks and 2. only works on a Mac.

Then I started looking around at other converters. Black Lion, which is a company that's no slouch when it comes to modding and upgrading stuff, claims that their modification to the Behringer ADA8000 makes it sound at least as good as the Apogee Ensemble.
Note that brand - new the Behringer is only about $200. The mod, at $255 actually costs more than the unit new. And the "premiere" mod is $450!
So that's a total of $455 (plus shipping) or $650 (plus shipping) for a pretty hopped-up A/D converter with 8 channels.
But here's the thing -- the ADA8000 only gets you as far as ADAT lightpipe conversion. There's still no way for me to get the signal into a computer.
And you can probably get an Apogee Rosetta 800 used for about $800 (well, that would be a pretty good deal actually). But still, that's without the card to get the signal into the computer. So adding the X-FireWire card brings you up to $1300 or $1400.
OK, so if you think in terms of the $455 version of the Behringer ADA8000 you still need to figure a way to get that signal into your computer.
So one needs a cheap ADAT optical-to-Firewire interface.
If one happened to have one of those lying around then the $455 (plus shipping) is likely money well-spent.
+++++
Hmm... A funny thing happened at the end of me writing this post. I'll tell you about it in the next post.

*It turns out the clock does not make that much difference in sound quality.