Tape In For Transfer

 This 1/4" tape came in for transferring to digital.  It is of live performances by little known fiddle player Ralph Noonan at his home in Perry, Oklahoma - 1970.  Ralph is joined by guitar player Richard Cochran. The recordings were very well done.  48 songs.

Tapes In For Transfer

1968 Gibson SJN Acoustic - Studio Addition

 Just added a very nice 1968 Gibson SJN acoustic.

 

American DR332 Ribbon/Dynamic Microphone 1950's - Studio Addition

Just added to the mic vault is a beautiful American DR332 microphone with the original box.

1/2" 8 Track Reel-to-reel Transfer

I've been getting lots of 1/2" 8-track masters sent in for transferring.  It's amazing how good this format sounds and how well the tapes have held up over the years.

 

Electro-Voice Model 642 Microphone - Studio Addition

Just added a beautiful Electro-Voice 642 microphone from the storage vault.  These are very useful for various chores including an interesting drum room mic.

Just added an American D-22 dynamic microphone to the mic vault.  Fairly mid-rangy and works interestingly well on electric guitar cabinets and snare drum set @ 50Ω.

 

UTC and Triad Microphone Input Transformers

Dug out some microphone/input transformers from the gear vault for a couple of microphone preamp and direct box projects.  Stay tuned!

Ampex 440C or 440B Alignment Problems Trouleshooting

 

If you are having alignment troubles with an Ampex 440C or 440B, here is one thing to do first before all else.  Typically, problems are something simple.  This assumes you have a good alignment tape and have checked all of your input and output connections.  Do you have a channel or two that have “low output” @ 1kHz even after turning up the “repro” level all the way?  The first thing to try is to swap playback head cables and see if the problem transfers to the other channel.  If it does, you may have a bad play head or head connection problems.  If the low output stays on the same channel, here’s the most likely solution.

Pull the “Reproduce Amp” cards on all channels and clean the connectors with denatured alcohol and a Q- tip.  

Also pull the small “Reproduce EQ” assembly cards on all reproduce amplifier cards and clean those contacts with denatured alcohol and a Q- tip.

  It’s also a good time to pull all the other “Bias Amp”, “Record Amp” cards and clean those contacts.  Do the same for the “Record Equalizer” cards on the “Record Amplifier” cards.  This is a good starting point and usually clears up any intermittent alignment troubles.

Gates SA-38 Limiter - Has Landed!

The Gates SA-38 MONSTER limiter has landed and is in the studio rack.

Empirical Labs EL7X Fatso - New Studio Addition

Empirical Labs EL7X Fatso added to the rack.  Great for vocal tracking and stereo drum bus.

GYMusic DB-100 Direct Box

GYMusic DB-100 Direct Box

50k Ω high Z input

250 Ω balanced output 

 

Happy 2019 - Added Tannoy System 1200 DMT II

Added a pair of Tannoy System 1200 DMT II to the client listening room.

 

Moog Minimoog Model D - Original 1979

A very nice Moog, Minimoog Model D from 1979.

 

Balanced Stereo Effects Loop Box

I designed and built a Balanced Stereo Effects Loop Box for a recording engineer friend.  It allows a balanced stereo device to be connected or bypassed in the main stereo bus at the flick of a switch.  No big deal, but no one else has produced or distributed such a device.

 

Welcome to 2018!

2018 brings a few changes to the studios.  Mountain Mastering is taking booking reservations for the summer months of June and July.  A beautiful time at the facility.  Greg Youngman Music will be changing our booking policy from a two hour minimum rate to a half-day minimum.  There is also been a small rate increase.  Some new gear includes an original Gates M-5167 Sta-Level compressor, an early 70's Moog Minimoog and another vintage Neumann TLM-170R microphone.

Have a great 2018! 

Gates Sta-Level - New Studio Addition

Recently acquired for the studio is a Gates Sta-Level in excellent condition.  Faster attack time modifications have been done by me.  There's nothing sweeter sounding than the compression mojo of a 6386 tube.

1/2" Tape Transfers With Ampex 440C-4

Transferring some ½" 4-track client masters from 1969.  They sound fabulous.  I will also be mixing and mastering these for release some time in 2018.

ORTF - Drum Overhead Centering Trick

I've been using the ORTF micing technique for drum overheads for many years.  I recently shared a trick I use to make sure your snare and kick drums end up in the center of the stereo image (if that's what you're wanting).  Take your phone, transistor radio, or any small device that can play audio at a decent level through it's speaker and place it on the center of your snare drum.  While playing some audio (mono) through the device, go into the control room and adjust the gain of your overhead mics to the same level on each of the left/right channels (also flip one mic out of phase and check for mono cancellation).  This time, by placing the device on the top of the kick drum on the beater end, do the same for the kick drum to see/hear if it is centered.  If not, you can move your ORTF pair around a bit until you get snare and kick centered.  After going through this process a couple of times, you'll get the hang of it.  It's fast and great for getting the snare and kick centered before the drummer gets there for the session and for getting the overall overhead microphone levels right.  You will also get the hang of how much acoustic level out of the playing device will get you the correct record level at the board.

How Do You Tune Your Kick Drum?

I've been asked how I tune my kick drum, especially on the song "Starin' At The Wall" by Sonny Koozeman.  I like a pretty low "splat" sound with some decay.  A sound that kicks you in the chest if you turn the studio monitors up, yet it still has some content up a ways in frequency that plays well on a smaller speaker system.  Both batter and resonant sides are really loose, just at the point of getting rid of the wrinkles.  I use an Evans EQ4 batter head.  I have even checked the frequency after tuning and it turns out to be a low D1 or 36.71 Hz.  On the resonant head I cut an off-center 5" hole and still use my old Electro-Voice RE-20 about half way in the hole and at an angle toward the center.  If it's a slow ballad I might use a Neumann TLM-170 (cardioid) out 18' from the hole.

AKG C-414 B-ULS TL-II Re-cap, Repair, Cleaning

A slight low frequency crackle developed with one of my AKG C-414 B-ULS TL-ll.  Time for a re-cap and cleaning.  Luckily, it was not a capsule problem.

Facebook Being Censored And Edited

My Facebook page is being censored and edited.  Not by me.  It has NOT been hacked.  This is happening from within Facebook.

"The Trump Train" Song

I finished "The Trump Train" song a couple of days ago.  The idea came rather fast and since we're close to November 8, I figured I'd better get it done and released.

It's posted on YouTube and available as a download on Bandcamp. 

TEAC A-4010GSL Rebuild Repair

Rebuilt this beautiful Teac A-4010GSL reel-to-reel tape machine with low hours.  The GSL is the best model of the 4010 series.

I put in a new main drive and counter belt.  Loosened up the seized capstan mechanism.  Adjusted the brakes and aligned the reel platters.  Demagnetized, cleaned the heads and checked azimuth/height.  Checked play and record levels.  Checked wow and flutter @ 3.15kHz for a measurement of .035% @ 7½ IPS, which is very low.

    

Rudy Van Gelder - R.I.P.

Rudy Van Gelder - "The biggest distorter is the LP itself. I've made thousands of LP masters. I used to make 17 a day, with two lathes going simultaneously, and I'm glad to see the LP go. As far as I'm concerned, good riddance. It was a constant battle to try to make that music sound the way it should. It was never any good. And if people don't like what they hear in digital, they should blame the engineer who did it. Blame the mastering house. Blame the mixing engineer. That's why some digital recordings sound terrible, and I'm not denying that they do, but don't blame the medium."

I couldn't agree more.

What's Happening

I feel fortunate to say that I've been real busy with analog tape transfers at Mountain Mastering and trying to finish some 40 new original songs for new music/CD releases.

I have moved away from Facebook do to their deleting my posts and content.  I do believe that it is their site and if I don't like the way they run it I can leave, so that's what I've done.  If you REALLY need to contact me, email me at gymusic@gmail.com.

"Chronological Order" - Update

"Chronological Order" is available at these locations.

Amazon

Apple iTunes
Google Play


You can also buy the physical CD below.

 

Webster Wire Recorder 80-1 Rebuild Repair

Just refurbished this Webster Wire Recorder model 80-1.  I plan on doing a signal-to-noise and frequency response test on it soon.  These units sound remarkably well.

Linn Drum LM-2 Rebuild Repair

If the Linn Drum sits unused for a few years, the Ni-Cad memory backup batteries can start to leak.  Catch the problem early enough, and damage is negligible.  I won't bore you with what to do.  Battery replacement is pretty straight forward.  I chose to use a plug-in battery holder for easier replacement in the future.

Fender Pro Junior - Excessive Hum Modifications - Rebuild Repair

The Fender Pro Junior is a great little amp with plenty of volume, plenty of tone and usually plenty off excessive hum with the input volume down (nothing plugged in).  It helps to get rid of the stock tubes and replace them with some NOS ones.  The 12AX7s can be rolled to hear which ones sound best to you.  I happen to use NOS Sylvania 6BQ5s and Tung Sol 12AX7s.  Here are my mods.  Use at your own risk. 

Start by clipping the wire ties that hold the transformer secondary wires together. Unsolder the two green filament leads from the tube circuit board, carefully twisting them and resoldering them.  Keep them away from the other wires as pictured.

Add a 10 mfd @ 25 VDC electrolytic cathode bypass capacitor across resistor R4.
Add a 10 mfd @ 25 VDC electrolytic cathode bypass capacitor across resistor R11.

The back chassis cover is held on by six screws.  The top center one is too long and makes a connection to a potentiometer shield, causing hum.  You can either cut the screw shorter so it makes no contact with that shield or leave it out.

   

No more hum!