Update

A lot is done in the divide

 - Exile complete
- Taken a life complete
- Vampires complete
- Bodies complete
 - Belly of the night complete but needs some tweaking for the guitar
- Poison pill complete
- Lilith drums and bass complete
- 3 witches scheduled to record at Dave's next week
- Runner I drums/bass complete
- Runner II electronic music started

 Working on Water on the Brain w/ Joel it seems exporting doesn't sound just like I hear it in my speakers. Tried to export the kick with compression and e.q. though outboard gear and it just doesn't sound as good. Here are settings...

 Kick
 1. Pultec 3 @ 100, Bandwidth 5, -5 @ 10
2. Dynamic Compressor Ratio (med) Thres 5, Behavior 5, Attack 5.5, Release 3, Makeup 3.5, Blend 10 (wet)

 Bass
 1. G.R. E.Q Low -1 @ 82 self, -2 @ 330 wide, +3 @ 1K8 wide
2. Stereo compressor Tint (on), Drive 6.5, Grab (on), Blend 5, Attach 5, Release 9 o,clock

Couch and table

Privacy yeah!

Cables done

I was rusty. Took a couple of hours to make these

Exile

Drums done. Bass in progress...

Pultec Working

Its alive. Big blue joins big red on the rack. It sounds pretty great, very quiet too.

Pultec Done

But I realized I need a fuse - even though I already have one! Its built into the power jack. I'll try to find one tomorrow...

Pultec-in

Finished the back panel wiring. Probably a night or too away from being done.

Updates

Vampires - still working on it. Hoping to have the drums done this week.

Studio - Realized I can do external sends which allows me to use the v-verb as an effect, and to mix through the mastering e.q. I'm a bus compressor away from being able to master too bad I'm out of stuff to sell! I did a test with a mix for Dave with the RNC, but it I think it messed up the drums a bit. Some of the toms sounded a little pinched.

When trying to use the RNC I realized it wasn't working correctly so I had to fuss with it for the 3rd time to get it working. I made 4 balanced -> unbalanced cables so now I can patch it with balanced cables (like everything else). That frees up the 2 nice TS cables I use to use to patch for effects.

Pultec - Board is stuffed and most (maybe all) of the chassis drilling is done. The on/off switch in the BOM doesn't fit the case (which is drilled for to work like the real one). Question out for an appropriate part. Tonight I wired the 5 pots.

Pultec Notes

Transformer hookup...

As of August 2010, there are changes to the Hammond 270FX power transformer that make hooking it up different from what is shown in the manual.

The 270FX does not have a center tap (yellow-black) for the 5v winding, so that wire does not have to be isolated (no existe).


Also, there is now an alternate primary winding: you can choose 115v or 125v. Schematic and details here: www.hammondmfg.com/263.htm#263newpri

***
Due to customer suggestions we have added additional windings and a tap to our "200" series primaries. This will affect all production after August 2009.

CHOICE #1

For those customers who need the 115V input - nothing has changed - simply use the White & Gray wires and tape the Black wire (see above schematic).

CHOICE #2

For those customers who are seeing too high a secondary voltage due to higher primary line voltages (roughly 125V input ) - use the White & Black wire and tape the gray wire (see above schematic).

***
I used the 125v primary and it worked great. My line voltage tends to run between 118 and 122.

PCB

* Put a 1K resistor across the FBK CT RES holes
* Hook nothing up to the ratio holes
* 1" low and 1" high must be jumpered
* Do not jump load 'alternate' near the star ground
* Plane lower right corner must be jumped
* That hole in the star ground is the absolute center of the star ground , a huge 20 gauge wire to the center of this to the transformer star ground would be nice
other wise use the audio ground
* the holes above the audio ground and power ground are for soldering 18-20 gauge wire directly to the pcb . This might be best , since the ground has to once again pass through metal of a lesser conductor then copper. Both these go to the transformer star ground.
* 1k before 2k in my opinion , the 1k softens the blow to the 2k,
* It looks like the 1K resistor in the feedback circuit is missing. That could explain it. (FBK CT RES)
* INPUT LOAD ALTERNATE leave it blank
* ISOLATE leave it blank
* The HIGH LOW MUST be jumped
* The ALTERNATE spot is for the loading resistor for the input transformer.
use the 620 spot parked above right of the input transformer .
* Wattages are on the schematic. For the power supply use 2w using the schematic , anything that doesn't have a wattage indicated IS a 1/2 w resistor

Switch Hookup

Don't forget the switch hookup change

http://www.dripelectronics.com/index.php?option=com_kunena&func=view&catid=5&id=345&Itemid=19

Hum

Try getting a real good twist on the power switch wires.I use a portable variable speed drill to get them even and tightly twisted

I initially had the input ground connected to a ground near the XLRs. When I moved the input ground wire over to main star ground I had a huge -5.0db improvement in noise. I have 0.6 millivolts between the two ground points! (I think the case is the culprit.)

2. A -2.0db improvement from disconnecting the power switch wire that crosses the front panel. The 20Khz noise went away, too. I got most of this back by carefully draping the AC switch wire away from other wires and assuring that all the pots and switches were grounded.

3. I reversed the "polarity" of the 6.3 volt heater supply wires from the transformer. I read about this somewhere -- It worked! A solid -1.0db difference, though I had it the right way already. Go figure. (I got a -2.0db improvement on the LA2A).

4. I discovered I could lower the noise by about 1db by moving the input ground wire away from the back panel. So I began to suspect the transformer. I know you can rotate a toroid to improve noise, so... I unbolted the Hammond and turned it 90 degrees. Hum dropped by -7.0db and the 180Hz noise was gone! It is now oriented so the laminations are parallel with the case (the bells are up and down). Mounted on back of the case. Putting the top on now does not increase noise as much.

Vampires Drum Setting

L = Langevin DVC
GR = Great River mastering E.Q.

Snare Top L -> GR +3 220 wide Q
Snare Bottom N72
Kick L -> GR +3 82
Overheads - C84s Limited with RNC

DVC Limiter made the snare sounds worse, didn't try on the kick.

Spent a ton of time on the snare, for the first time though the snare sound actually is good by itself. There was a weird ring in the room and we actually moved the corner trapping behind the drum and I added some foam.

What's been going on

Vampires is taking too long to finish, but most of the parts are at least known if not performed.

Joel got me a dual mic holder thingy that allows me to do x-y very easily. Its really nice, and the initial recordings I made are encouraging.

Gregg and I spent a night over the break working out some percussion parts for Vampires. I had hoped to get the start done though. One of many things I didn't get to. He got a bunch of snares from his uncle to try, and I think the x-y technique will work well for what we are going for.

Nothing to done in one night

Recorded a song with Jeff and Gregg this week, everything in one night 8:30 - 1:30.

Won a decimator listed as mint with glue all over the bottom returned with some help from Ebay

Joel and I compared the 18 watts. It was cool to see/hear them together.

Vampires has acoustic done and some of the outro. Working on some Ebow for the end.

Thanksgiving Weekend

The Second for this blog. Last year at this time there was no room. I had just finished framing/insulating the wall near the steps. It was a big weekend though work-wise. I framed a bunch of the basement.

Put the loops into the vampires project. The transition between parts is funky, have to work on it a bit...

Vampires Guitar Etc.

Spent too much time working on how I want to record the guitar for Vampires. The scratch track was done mid side. I didn't like it, too scratchy and just not the sound in my head. Joel and I tried a Mazzy Star-esq sound with the Vverb. That didn't work either. I messed with the Pitchfactor some last night and got some cool sounds but none of them just right.

I settled on recording the acoustic to the looper to be miced through the Twin. The Reverb is pretty close to what I want. If Joel comes over tomorrow I want to try using the Pitchfactor on the loops.

The Trilos practiced last week. The bass amp was acting up so I took it apart and resoldered the jack joints. They were definitely broken.

Sold a guitar at the Philly guitar show. It was a Prodigy. We never clicked. Settled for $200, $50 less than I bought it for, but no Ebay hassle. Thinking about a Decimator and something from Seventh Circle. Ian wants to build a theremin, have to look into some kits...

Update

Working a song called "Vampires" with Joel. He's been kicking out ideas like crazy on our Tuesday night sessions. I set up some mics to record the final guitar track. I wanted to use the ribbon mic, but there is something wrong with it. Its distorting, and something is rattling inside. I'm going to open it up and see if there is something obvious fixable in there... As a fall back I'm going to try to record dry with my Shure 141/137. Joel and I have been experimenting with Soft Synths Strings etc.

I finally finished the input stage layout for my Kingsnake rebuild. It was a labor of love. My hands were freezing as a drew field side.

Possibility of another tribute gig in December. The studio can use the cash!

L2A2 Working

Its easy to see why the la2a is legendary. Its awesomeness cannot be exaggerated. Did a demo track with acoustic and vocals. Was blown away. Did the same track without the la2a to make sure it wasn't placebo. Its not. Its amazing how much better the track was with the la2a. Even the acoustic on a single mic sounded more "right".

Henceforth I will call it big red.

Erin turned 3 on Friday. We watched a million Diego episodes this weekend. She's making a big transition lately with more sophisticated sentences and ideas. Its so huge its hard to see.

Erin's birthday party at CEC was today. She was very shy. She had stomach issues last night. Not sure if it was that or just shyness. It was nice though, and I think she did feel pretty special. Remembering the "sick" season is not pleasant. Colds have been coming and staying around here for the last 2 weeks.

LA2A

Wired! I have to reread the testing procedure. I can't believe I finally finished.

In other stuidio news. Rob came over on Monday and we recorded another song.

I also bought another v-verb which arrived broken. I took it apart, and I think the only problem was that one of the boards was shorting against the chassis.

I also re-capped a Lexicon Alex that Joel picked out of a dumpster. It can make "interesting" sounds. Its mostly pretty terrible though.

Trilobites etc.

Trilos had a first jam finally last week. I played exile I from the "concept" and we put together an arrangement. Gregg is loud. Its amazing how loud. I set the overheads to 25 db pads. I think its going to be ok. I messed with a recording of the performance. Too bad I can't post here. There is promise in recording together in there and getting a decent recording out of it. The scratch version needs a bunch of work though.

I rearranged the studio tonight. Bass and Guitar amps are on one wall and now I can fit my guitar rack.

We are doing another Zep/Stones gig next month. Need to get the ball rolling on the bar circuit.

Recording Something

Rob came up from the city to record a song. It was a pretty successful night. Berhinger is never coming back. I don't know what to replace it with. The units seem so flaky. Anyway also working on some concepty songs.