State of the Hardware

There were many audiophonic goodies of interest to small (and growing) studios at the recent AES Convention and Exhibition, held at the Brussels Sheraton Hotel from March 16 to 19. Which is something of a surprise, perhaps, considering the increasingly high level of technology to be found in most of the larger commercial studios. While 32 and 46-track working, microprocessor-controlled sound benders and effects units, plus spectacularly sophisticated console automation are becoming very much de rigeur in the upper end of the hardware market, an increasing number of established and — far more interestingly — new companies are coming up with low-cost gear designed especially for the rapidly expanding 8- and 16-track scene. Obviously, such developments in technology would be impossible without the extensive research and development carried out by companies aiming at the more complex, high-flying end of the studio spectrum. However, once their costs have been covered — or, more usually, the technology becomes freely available to other companies as well — then we will see the fruits of their endeavours beginning to percolate down into the 'budget' end of the market.

A prime instance of this 'technological fallout' can be seen in a new 8- and 16-track console developed recently by the British company, Raindirk. We all know what a pain it can be to have to reset dozens of input selection, routing and monitoring switches and controls each time you want to either record a couple of tracks, overdub some others and then finally mix down the finished multitrack tape. On the new Concord S2000 mixer a set of three master pushbuttons labelled 'Record', 'Tape' and 'Mix' change the whole status of the console at the mere press of a switch.

Changes of input, output and monitor routing are achieved by means of solid-state FET switches (so no troublesome relays to worry about) controlled — and here's the really clever part — by a programmable read-only memory integrated circuit (or PROM for short) fitted to each module. The PROMs are connected to a a series of DC control busses that let it interrogate the status of the master and local switching. If you attempt to set up a bizarre input/output configuration — such as trying to route the tape machine output back to line input while in the record mode — an error lamp automatically comes on to indicate that you need to look again at the switches you have pressed. Just to make sure that you don't persevere with the situation, the monitoring output of that particular channel is automatically muted to prevent noisy howl-rounds.

Of an in-line construction, each input/output/monitor module features full 16-track routing facilities; four-band EQ with two very useful sweepable mid-frequencies; two auxiliary sends, switchable pre- or post-fader for foldback or echo send; separate pre-fader cue/foldback send; monitor level and pan; and the channel fader. (This latter is one of Richard Hussey's very smooth Audiofad conductive plastic units.) A small bank of pushbuttons allow the master status controls to be overridden individually, so that a channel can be muted, used for subgrouping during mixdown, or for recording on a chosen track during overdubs. No master group faders are fitted, and to save even more needless duplication of components, the stereo monitor buss doubles as the main mixdown buss. Eight or 16 VU meters (depending on the console size) monitor the group output levels, while another pair follow levels on the monitor/mixdown buss.

The Concord S2000 can be supplied in three mainframe sizes — 12/8, 20/16 and 24/16 — blank panels also being available to allow the user to grow into a larger format at a later date. Price of a 20/16 format desk is a very reasonable £5.5k. (K = 1000.)

MCI seem also to be bidding for a share of the growing small studio market with their newly introduced JH-600 series desk, which is supplied complete with the company's very comprehensive JH-50 automation package. Prices may seem a touch high — $36k for an 18 input/output/monitor configuration with 24-track routing, or $40k for 36-module format — but remember that the desk is fully automated as standard; it's not an optional extra. Changes in fader position, plus channel mutes, are recorded by the automation system on to any track of your multitrack. It is usual to leave at least two tracks for recording automation data, since this allows a mix attempt to be gradually updated by bouncing information from one track to another.

Basic automation modes include 'Write', during which the system scans the fader positions sequentially and records the second-to-second changes on tape; 'Read', which simply means that the previously recorded fader 'positions' are translated back into level changes via the voltage-controlled amplifiers (VCAs) on each channel so you can listen back to a mix attempt; and 'Update' which, as the name suggests, allows changes to be made in the position of certain faders as the dynamics of a mix attempt is altered. Considering the very obvious operational advantages offered by MCI's automation package — it should be remembered, perhaps, that most early automation systems were pretty cumbersome to use and often designed by electronic engineers, not recording engineers — the asking price, particularly for fledgeling 16-track studios, looks to be most attractive.

Automated PA mixing was seen to be alive and well on the Harrison stand, where a very compact Alive (appropriate name, that) 32-input/8-subgroup/four-stereo output pair desk was attracting a lot of admiring looks. Price though, including flightcase, is a fairly hefty $50k. Full fader automation is available with Harrison's optional Autoset device. This allows up to 630 'snap-shot' or static routing and level combinations to be recorded on a special tape cartridge. Or dynamic mixes — possibly less useful in live performance — may be committed to a multitrack tape in a similar fashion to the MCI system.

In its basic configuration, without Autoset, the level of any input can be controlled by its own fader, or by one of the eight subgroups. During subgroup control the audio signals, in fact, never leave the channel module; overall adjustment of the subgroup level is achieved by means of a DC control voltage generated by the subgroup fader. This alters the gain of a VCA in the module itself. By reducing the number of buffer and mixing amplifiers through which the audio signal passes, distortion and noise can be kept to the absolute minimum.

Output from each subgroup, which can be used to control the overall level of lead vocals, stereo drum kit etc, plus direct connections from each channel if that's the way the input signal is routed, pass to four pairs of stereo outputs. A wide variety of routing possibilities is thus available, for different groups of house monitor loudspeakers, on-stage monitoring and side-fills. Comprehensive talkback to any of the four main stereo outputs or the eight auxiliary send busses is featured, and can be easily interfaced with either David Clark or Clear-Com communications systems. Level monitoring is by means of eight LED columns, one for each of the four stereo outputs, and which can also be set to read the send level of the various auxiliary busses (a useful feature if you quickly need to check the level of a signal being sent to an external echo unit, delay line or special effects gizmo).

And on the subject of special effects, several companies were showing some very interesting devices. DeltaLab, renowned for their very useful, low-cost dual-output digital delay line, recently introduced a stereo programmable reverb and effects unit, which costs the staggeringly low sum of £995 in the UK. Reverb patterns are obtained by means of a set of 16 special 'programs', which select the delay of the multiple output signals between short (for a 'small' room) and long duration (a 'large' room). By adjusting the amount of regeneration or feedback from the output to input, various reverb times can be set up on the front-panel.

In possibly more 'conventional' modes of operation, the Acousticomputer, as the device is known, will provide positive and negative flanging (short delays down to 0.25ms); longer delays up to 240ms; plus other effects such as stereo imaging, echo, doubling, vibrato, sustain and the rest. The unit boasts a most impressive technical spec (similar, in fact, to the original DeltaLab DDL from which the Acousticomputer is obviously derived); frequency response 20Hz to 15kHz, +1dB, -3dB in the straight delay mode; dynamic range 90dB A-weighted; and total harmonic distortion less than 0.2% at 1kHz. A unit definitely worth checking out by budget-conscious — and other — studios.

Also of a more than reasonable price is a new reverb unit manufactured by the Swedish company Stocktronics, and which will be available in the UK very soon through that importer (and maker) of sonic goodies, Industrial Tape Applications (or ITA for short). Known as the model RX4000 stereo reverb, the new device utilises the familiar suspended steel plate construction, with a single driver transducer connected near the centre of the plate and a pair of pickups mounted closer to its edges. Reverberation time is fixed at approximately 3.5 seconds, corresponding to an 'average' size of hall. Weighing in at only 661bs, the RX4000 measures a very compact 61 x 35 x 11in deep, making it ideal for portable use on stage or in a mobile. It costs around £1000; a snip if ever I saw one.

On the tape machine front, AES visitors were bemused by the sight of the new Otari MTR-90, which must surely represent the company's leap into the big league. Offering a choice of either 16 or 24-track format on 2-inch tape, the new machine will set you back a mere £13k for the latter. (At those prices I can see a lot of smaller studios very definitely interesting themselves in moving up quite rapidly to 16-track working.) The revolutionary tape transport design incorporates a pinch-wheel-free, direct-drive capstan. Two operating speeds of 15 and 30in/s are offered, plus 20% varispeed with digital percentage readout of the selected setting. Other features include full DC servo on supply and take-up motors for constant tape tension (pretty essential without a capstan/pinch-wheel); a five-digit tape timer showing minutes, seconds and tenths of seconds; and automatic switching between sync and input during clickfree drop-ins and drop-outs. Safe/ready switching per track and selection of input/sync/replay modes is achieved by means of a useful remote control unit, which comes complete with a small trolley for mounting close to your console (a device not dissimilar in appearance to the Lyrec unit that serves the same purpose). Wow and flutter is quoted as 0.04% DIN-weighted at 15in/s, overall frequency response 30Hz to 18kHz, +2dB at the same speed, and signal-to-noise ratio greater than 64dB (unweighted) for a 16-track machine. A machine definitely worth checking out.

And if you can't yet run to a 16- or 24-track machine, but could really do with the extra space on tape, one possible solution is to sync up a pair of eight-tracks, or even a four-track and an eight-track. A low-cost device that allows you to do just that was being shown by the German company Peter Strüven, under their Stramp logo. Costing the equivalent of around £1000, the synchroniser records a low-level 23kHz tone on top of the audio being laid on any track. This means that you do not lose a track on either the 'master' or 'slave' machine. With suitable filtering, the 23kHz tone is easily removed from the off-tape signal during replay, and hence doesn't affect or upset the contents of the track you are interested in.

Conventional synchronisation systems usually record a specially-generated series of pulses on an outside track, which are monitored during playback and used to keep the slave in perfect sync with the master. The Stramp unit modulates the 23kHz superimposed signal with a 1Hz envelope. By comparing the phase angle between the slave and master 1Hz envelopes, and then using the DC capstan motor on the slave machine to alter its running speed, sync between the two machines is achieved. Because a complete cycle of 1Hz tone recorded at a speed 15in/s will occupy 30ins of tape, it is not essential that both machines be parked at exactly the same starting position. As long as the master and slave are started within the matching 30-inch segments of tape, it is possible to lock the two machines together. Phone numbers for further information can be obtained by calling SI editorial.

Synthalongadrum

Two new developments in synthesised drums were announced recently. Syndrums are now available in singles and doubles: Syndrum 1 consists of one pad plus a small controller — exactly the same as one unit of the four separate controllers which made up the original Syndrums — while Syndrum 2 has two controllers in the same unit and two pads. These are all fitted with a new head called the Duraline Super Head which is made of a new material with a woven texture. The makers say it holds perfect tension and cannot shrink or expand, and that sticks and brushes can be used equally well with it. It should, therefore, be a godsend to session drummers as the sound is bright and responsive but has no ring or overtones, which will cut out the excessive use of tape and tissues in the studio. Syndrum 1 retails at around £285 in the UK, while 2 goes for about £550.

Star Instruments, who manufacture the Synare range of percussion synthesisers, have introduced a sequencer which can be linked with the Synare 3 drum synths. The Synare 3 sequencer is capable of 'memorising' between one and four 32-note sequences of up to ten seconds duration each. The sequence can be played directly into the sequencer by hand, stick or mallet; the sequencer will memorise the intervals between notes, sequences can be combined and a variable tempo selected on playback. Peter Randall

Young Adolf in Frankfurt

February 1979, and Adolf Toegel stands outside the huge twin halls — Halle 5 and 5a — in which rests most all the musical merchandise known to modern man; from triangles to polyphonic synthesisers, violin strings to tape machines, stainless steel plectrums to see-through pianos. Adolf has come from Vienna to see for the first time this enormous parade of product — and not without reason.

For Adolf is a musician and engineer. He works as an engineer at Schmetter Sound, a 16-track studio in the Austrian capital, and has ½-track equipment of his own to mess around with at home. He's also a bass player — an instrument he has played for nearly ten years now. His best gigs with his present bass/drums/piano trio were at a psychiatric hospital in Vienna where 'even the usually introverted were dancing'. And so it is that Schmetter sent Adolf to the Frankfurt Fair to have a look at what is about — he's here to look mainly for basses and PA equipment, but has also been asked to keep his eyes open for a number of items for various musician friends.

An obvious place for him to call is the Sound International stand — the magazine's reputation continues to grow throughout Europe, and the Frankfurt show is a good opportunity to meet readers. During Adolf's treks around the cavernous halls he's been looking at some fretless basses, and he finds time between endless questions on the Prophet 5 synth (which he's unhappy to find is one of the few instruments not exhibited at the show), to speak of a few he's already tried. 'There's the Framus upright electric bass,' he recalls, 'but the top G sounded like nothing, just badly set up. Eberhard Weber plays it and gets a really good sound, but that's probably that one. A Dutch company called Van Zalingen, I think, have a good one here which plays like a double bass, the best sound I've heard from a double-bass pickup.' I suggest a look at Wal's Electric Wood fretless electric, and we scurry off to investigate that.

Later in the day Adolf is back on the ever-crowded SI stand talking again of the Prophet; the conversation slides naturally on to other synths. 'I didn't take time to sit down with each one,' he apologises, 'there's so many people... ' No exaggeration necessary, no apology needed. Even a five year old would tell you that playing each synth in the place would keep your fingers banging for months. Adolf ceases conversation just long enough for a five year old Frankfurter to tell us how long he's been playing synths, and then continues to tell me how he got on with the EMS Polysynthi which lurks in a small booth over in Halle 5a. 'I wouldn't have one,' he says, 'it looks like a toy. I couldn't get much out of it — I prefer labels which are technical, a logical layout. But if it's not your own and you don't have days to sit down with it and nobody to explain how to do it...' Again we discover the hard facts about trade shows — good instruments can seem bad because of the environment in which they're presented. But what about the Wasp synth? That can't take long to get to grips with? 'No... but it doesn't look good,' protests our Viennese correspondent. In Austria nobody would buy it because of the keyboard — they like to feel where they are.' We agree, however, that at the Wasp's price this is no great drawback.

Adolf is also, as I explained, looking for PA equipment, and takes an immediate fancy to the Canary mixers on show, except he rather suspects that two foldback/echo lines would come in useful. He also thinks RSD's big studio mixer nice, although, 'I've been told that they're not really professional... but that was mostly by other manufacturers!' he laughs. 'But it looked a good mixer for people with their own studio.' Other desks he's looked at include the Allen and Heath 12/2 which found favour, though he thought the VUs 'terrible', and the Frunt 12/2 which he considered 'outstanding'. As for PA speakers, a trade show is perhaps the worst place to go shopping for such things as you rarely get good demoing facilities; his searches in this department are, therefore, fairly non-existent.

As quickly as he appears, Adolf Toegel merges once more with the crowd of Frankfurt Fair-goers, an amazing mixture that includes, and attracts, such diverse elements as Adolf and ex-Prime Minister Edward Heath. The difference is I didn't talk to Edward Heath. Tony Bacon

Get yer Prizes 'ere

At last it can be told. Now where's that sheet of paper... oh yes (clears throat): First, the Turnkey competition. Choosing a winner was very difficult indeed because the entries were of such a high standard. But finally, after several all-night stints of reading and worrying, it is done. So, on guard Mr Steve Hill, of Reigate Surrey, for you have won Turnkey's Teac package. Steve's entry will be published in full next month. And the runners up? They are Richard M Povall of Tomes, Devon and Piers Heavy Manners (that's what it says here) of Hatfield, Herts. Again, these lucky chaps' epistles will soon be transfixed in type. Lots of others will be published because they're so good, too. Their prize will be our normal (good) publication rates.

Second, the great Aria guitar competition. This presented slightly less of a problem in actually Choosing The Winners, and our blindfolded Ed stands as I write these very words, hand poised sweetly over a bucket of all entrants. So... the winner of the Aria PE460 six-string electric guitar is — thank you maestro — Adrian Teesdale of Sevenoaks in Kent! And the winner of the Aria PB500 bass guitar is... Stephen Worsfold from Great Missenden, Bucks. Next month will see the correct answers printed, along with names and addresses of them what were right.

Confusa-person

There's many a slip 'twixt what? and where? Who knows? All we know is that we misinterpreted a rather ambiguous press release from AKG about their dealings with Rose-Morris, eliciting a rapid telegram from David Jefferys at AKG (hi Dave). His telegram went something like this: '... AKG Acoustics used to use Rose-Morris as their wholesaler to the music trade. This situation has now changed and AKG Acoustics will in future be marketing their range of microphones directly to music trade retailers. AKG Acoustics have enjoyed a very satisfactory relationship with Rose Morris; however it has been mutually agreed between the two companies that the change in marketing agreements would be of benefit to both parties.'

Oh, well, you can't always get things right. Apologies to all concerned.