Leonard Cohen when he had visited the Hellenic island Hydra

 

Some interviews of producer John Simon

https://relix.com/articles/detail/john-simon-the-producer-of-the-band-janis-and-leonard-cohen-vitalizes-his-c/

In the following he can be clearly heard interviewed in the open air:

https://www.analogplanet.com/content/analogplanet-interviews-producerarrangermusician-john-simon-part-1

Το Δικο Μας Σ' Αγαπω - Γιωργος Ουρειλιδης, Lyrics, rough demo

[Verse 1]

Στο 'πα και στο ξαναλεω

Μη μου λες για χωρισμο

Γιατι ποναει η καρδια μου

Μακρυα σου

[Verse 2]

Σ' αγαπαω πιο πολυ

Κ'ο θεος μου εισαι εσυ

Εισαι παθος κ'αμαρτια 

Κ'αδυναμια μου

[Chorus Χορος 1]

Δεν υπαρχουνε ορια

Ετσι ειναι γραμμενο

Στης ζωης μας τα συνορα

Στο δικο μας σ'αγαπω

[Chorus Χορος 2]

Δεν υπαρχουνε ορια

Ουτ'υπαρχουν κανονες

Στης καρδιας τα αισθηματα

Στις μεγαλες μας αγαπες

[Verse 3]

Στο 'πα και στο ξαναλεω

Εισαι ολη μου η ζωη

Μονο εσενα σε λατρευω 

Και σε θελω

[Verse 4]

Μονο παψε πια να κλαις

Πως θα χωρισουμε εμεις

Γιατι αμα θα σε χασω

Να το ξερεις θα χαθω

[Chorus Χορος 1]

Δεν υπαρχουνε ορια

Ετσι ειναι γραμμενο

Στης ζωης μας τα συνορα

Στο δικο μας σ'αγαπω

[Chorus Χορος 2}

Δεν υπαρχουνε ορια

Ουτ'υπαρχουν κανονες

Στης καρδιας τα αισθηματα

Στις μεγαλες μας αγαπες

Chorus 1,2 repeated 3 times 

A very rough demo that Giorgos did:

Ironing shirts, cooking food, operating DC machinery with just solar energy with no batteries, no inverter !

 At your risk. Take all safety precautions. electricity can kill.

This is what my friend Dimcap who is a captain told me.

He had bought a few big (door size) solar panels each having an open circuit voltage at full sunshine of 36V.

He would experiment connecting directly to them things that can operate with DC, for example ironing iron, electric heating stove, electric drill (with carbon brushes).

So far he has destroyed his fridge.

But he could iron his shirts with just 2 solar panels connected in series, and with just 1 solar panel by waiting for about 8 minutes for the ironing iron to warm up.

He boiled water etc.

He operates tools such as a drill with much less than 220 volts DC with the difference of lower turns per minute.

If what he is doing takes off there may be a shift to the old debate AC vs DC.

At your risk. DC can kill in case of accident easier than AC.

P.S.

Cooking food can of course be done with no solar panels by using a Sun Oven.

Water heating for shower etc can be done with no solar panels by using a solar water heater.

 

Testing Pleiades K117 1.3V mic booster preamplifier, Pleiades (74Ω,25mH) filter with low output GR1/L 25/50 Ω ribbon microphone

 At your risk.

Testing while trying to make a piano, vocal demo of the song To Diko Mas S'Agapo - Giorgos Oureilidis.

Signal path:

almost whispering male voice - mic at 24in on stand - Pleiades 8mH:78mH low cut (bass correction) 25ohm to 250ohm autotransformer - Pleiades (74ohm,25mH) low, low mid, mid correction filter - Pleiades K117 1.3V mic booster pre-pre - Sony TC-D5M (preamp with cassette recorder) - TDK SAX type II cassette - Sony TC-D5M used for playback - Pleiades 2N3053 class power amplifier (one channel only) - Celestion Ditton 150 speaker

It sounded impressive with great articulation, no bass heaviness, no hiss

Although high frequency detail is excellent maybe mid is a bit too prominent. Perhaps using a non low cut 1:3 transformer just after the mic and before the filter will solve it.

It would be also great to check this kind of setup on how close it can get to a master vocal recording such as Suzann - Leonard Cohen produced by John Simon.

Frequency response, subjective harmonic distortion, output impedance of Pleiades K117 1.3V JFET 2SK117 microphone booster pre preamplifier

 At your risk.

A n octal base 1:5 Sowter microphone input transformer, and an octal base 7:1 Sowter microphone transformer used as output transformer are currently plugged in 

With driving impedance of about 200 ohms and load terminating impedance of 10 Kohms.

Frequency response is flat at least from 15Hz (+1dB) to 78KHz (-3dB).

When connecting Sennheiser HD580 headphones across the output and listening while playing with the sinewave signal generator frequency and amplitude: As input signal is increased it can be clearly heard by ear that 2nd harmonic (octave) gradually gets into play, then including 3rd, 4th etc all too gradually happening indicating soft (analog) clipping.

Output impedance is about 400 ohms.

Veloudino Tigraki (liitle intrumental lullaby)

 Key is C sharp major.

  -     -     -     #F

#F   -  #F#F  #G

#E   -     #C    -

 -     -      -      -    repeat

 

Lyrics:

Veloudino Tigraki

(and at repeat)

Veloudino Gataki

Meant to be sung, or played on a glockenspiel

From Brandy to Mandy

 

From Chopin to Manilow to Manilow at Davis' Arista label to Moroder, Summer

 

If you are starting out make sure you know that...

At you risk.

This is a humble advice I wish I knew or followed since beginning recording in my teens. Unfortunately or fortunately it took me 25 or so years to realize a simple truth.

Even a few inch microphone distance can play a tremendous role in sound quality. The whole timbre of the subject recorded is changed.

For example even if the mic chain has bass, mid bass correction (to reduce bass, mid bass heaviness to listener's brain) changing the mic distance from 24in to 18in can give a seemingly hotter signal at the expense of change of quality.

 Al Scmitt who has recorded so many masterpieces including Africa byToto, on his book On Vocal and Instrumental Techniques emphasize the importance of mic distance. The great recording engineers were lucky to learn this way as at that time not many equalizers were available although the quality of them was excellent.

So the humble advice is use your ears and brain and make sure the monitoring system sounds correct, amazing, on legendary recordings!

Also you might like to make sure that the sound absorbers are seen by the mic, i.e. are at the back of the singer. 

See for example Amy Winehouse while she was recording Back to Black with producer Mark Ronson.

The microphone is the ribbon microphone RCA 77DX 

P.S.

Why just a few inch or change of angle make a difference?

The frequency response curve of the microphone changes, for example due to proximity effect, due to different angle etc.

Other matters needed to be taken into account:

The frequency response curve of our brain depends of the intensity of the wave displacing out eardrum. See Equal Loudness Curves also known as Fletcher Munson Curves

The frequency spectrum of voice depends on effort (low softly or low loud the singer sings).

The objective is flat frequency response not from production microphone to reproduction loudspeaker but in a much broader sense from producer's brain to listener's brain.

Further Reading:

Elements of Sound Recording - Frayne, Wolfe

Sound Picture Recording and Reproducing Characteristics, D.P. Lowe, K. F. Morgan - Journal of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers

Schematic of Pleiades K117 1.3V 2SK117 JFET microphone booster pre preamplifier

 At you risk.

A protective fuse must be connected in series with battery for safety.

A very high quality Bulgin AA battery holder is used in the prototype  which has almost 0 ohms contact resistance, very useful for noise performance.

The 1st stage of any system is the most important as any artifact, noise,... will be multiplied thousand of times by subsequent stages.

For circuit description please see a previous post.

 

It is very interesting how many Hellenic words are on the book of Clive Davis, (the great music industry player) titled The Soundtrack of My Life

for example:

Arista (the label Clive Davis founded)

cynical page 173

monolithic page 174

stigma page 179

onerous p. 182

Electra 183

Atlantic 183

aristocracy 189

talent 189,280

aphorisms 189

meteorically 190

Elektra/Asylum 191

Ecstatic 197

Catharsis 202

pantheon 205

anathema 211

thematic 214

barbarity 22

anthology 229

philosophy 231

diatribe 239

autonomy 242

methodically 243

autonomous 243

didactic 252

Pleiades K117 1.3V JFET 2SK117 microphone booster (pre) preamplifier

 At your risk.

Even a Pleiades (R,L) microphone inline microphone filter can reduce the signal substantially since it is a subtractive equalizer.

So this is an option, boosting the mic with a very low noise single stage pre preamplifier.

It operates with just 1.3V (in series with a protective fuse). Current consumption is about 23 microamperes! so theoretically a good AA battery should last for say a decade. Current consumption may be even less than a good quality SONY ECM series battery powered electret condenser microphone.

This mic pre preamplifier is designed to be used with a low output, high quality  moving coil or ribbon microphone but other types may much fine too. It is an amplifier operating in class A  i.e. (electrons flowing all the time), so distortion tends to 0 as signal tends to 0. At high levels it may gradual distort which may prove to be a good thing (Tubes vs Transistors, is there an audible difference? - Russel O. Hamm). The operating point Vd (quiescent drain potential) should not really be at mid point, so that clipping when it occurs is asymmetric giving even order harmonic distortion too which is euphonic. The very low power supply Vb=1.3V matches the very delicate and low output of a microphone and perhaps aids in getting the most of analog amplification character when input levels start getting hotter. Inspired by Neumann U47, low device current has almost always given impressive low noise results, see for example the Pleiades EF183 pre preamplifier. It was decided to built this preamplifier before building the Pleiades DK96 battery electron tube one stage pre preamplifier operating with 1.3V for heater and say 9V for anode (grid 2 and above, see previous post).

As it turns out after finishing yesterday building the Pleiades K117 1.3V in an diecast aluminum box, it is so low noise that it can read the thermal resistance (electron thermal agitation) of a 200ohm resistor placed at the input, as earlier versions of Pleiades battery powered electron tube or JFET preamplifiers can. When the input is short circuited even less (almost absent hiss is produced) even when the next stage for example  SONY TC-D5Pro preamplifier is at a relatively high recording level.

So here is the circuit description:

Neutrik XLR input pin 1 is connected to its next chassis pin. Pins 2,3 (live, return) are connected to input transformer primary. Input transformer is a studio quality Sowter 1:5 in octal base. Secondary pin 8 is connected to ground, pin 6 trough a 82nF capacitor to JfET gate. A metal film 1Mohm resistor is between gate and ground. For bias, a 12Kohm resistor is between source and ground. A good quality ELNA magenta color 10uF electrolytic capacitor is in parallel with said bias resistor to keep gain high (negate negative feedback). A load resistor Rd=24Kohms is used to convert output music signal current to output music signal voltage. 24Kohm was chosen so that if the amplifier output impedance is about 24Kohms then a say 10:1 output transformer will bring this down by (10x10) i.e. to 240 ohms. Coupling capacitor from 24Kohm drain resistor to output transformer primary is 680nF. Output transformer is a Sowter 1;7 octal base transformer connected as 7:1. So pin 6 is connected to ground, pin 8 to said capacitor, and pins 1,3 to Neutrik XLR pins 2,3. XLR pin 1 is connected to the next to it chassis pin.  The positive pole of the 1.3V battery is connected to the upper side of Rd and the negative pole to ground. Start grounding pattern is used, so all ground are connected to one point. From this point another thin cable goes off to input XLR chassis connection.

All resistors are good quality metal film, made in Germany. capacitors are blue MKT Philips.

For a preliminary test the following signal path was used:

Soft, male singing voice mic 24in from singer, mic above head, 30 degrees towards nose - Shure SM58 - Pleiades (74ohm,25mH0 gentle slope bass, mid bass correction (subtractive) filter - Pleiades K117 1.3V mic pre preamp - SONY TC-D5 Pro tape recorder used are mic preamp - Sennheiser HD-580 monitoring headphones

Without the Pleiades filter the usually bass, mid heaviness was observed giving an indication that the preamp is flat frequency response down to low frequencies. Sensitivity is tremendous and voices could be heard taking place outside of the building. When the filter is connected the singing voice clears up from bass, mid bass heaviness, and sounds with flat frequency response to listener's brain. Average signal drops but by making up gain by increasing the recording level full modulation could be achieved as should by the VU meter. Without the Pleiades K117 pre preamp, the VU meter needle barely moves although the singing voice can still be clearly heard. 

Dear Clive Davis,

Your book "The Soundtrack Of My Life" is a source of encouragement, inspiration and knowledge.

Many warm thanks!

Thank you Vicky for revealing to me so much interesting things in music making

On using a Capacitor, Resistor simple circuit as analog computer in order to reduce cigarette or other addition dosage

At your risk.

Keep voltages below say 30 volts for safety.

When a charged capacitor is discharged by a resistor the voltage reduction is inverse exponetial with half time (the time taken for a quantity to become half, here voltage)  equal to R times C.

So if the right values of C and R are found to give dosage for every second representing say each day and the capacitor is initially charged with so many volts representing current number of cigarettes...

Then with a high impedance voltmeter we can read voltage every each second representing every subsequent day's cigarette dosage for a smooth reduction. Highest dosage decrease is the first day. 

In this context here half time means the time needed for cigarette dosage to become half. Say 20 days for daily cigarettes to become from 100 to 50, another 20 days for number of daily cigarettes to become from 50 to 25 etc.

Further reading RC circuits, time constant, electromagnetism books etc.

Pleiades (74 ohm,25mH) bass, mid correction microphone filter is ready

 At your risk.

This is just an inductor in series with resistance and the total connected across a microphone's output i.e. pins 2,3.

Since there is also the output impedance of the mic, usually about 350 ohms in SM58 case, there are 2 time constants together with the inductor, one dictating the frequency below which the filter starts to attenuate and the other dictating the frequency where bass drop starts to shelve.

Objective is to create flat frequency response from producer's to listener's brain in a very simple and effective way, small size, no added noise, no power consumption, no hum pickup etc.

This is one of the first attempts to make a compact filter that sounds as good as the Cinema Engineering 4031B at -12db 100Hz, +4dB 10kHz settings.

Serial number, date time code: 25031714

Format: inexpensive XLR female to male cylindrical adaptor

Lettering color: Magenta to signify high pass in analogy with visible frequency spectrum

Core used: Small Siemens Epcos ferrite toroid

Date time code of making ferrite inductor: 25030508

Diameter of enameled wire used: 0.16mm

Number of turns: 100 (using a wooden thin stick)

Inductance: 25 mH

Series resistors used: 2 each 36 ohms (possibly metal film, good quality made in Germany), each resistor on either side of inductor wire terminals for balanced symmetry

Frequency response test: Source impedance approx.  200 ohms, terminating impedance 10kOms:

10KHz: +3dB

1.5KHz: 0dB

550Hz: -4dB

200Hz: -6.5dB

!00Hz: -7dB

0dB is -60dBV

Subjective test: Signal path: male voice singing beginning of Bridge over Troubled Water - Simon & Garfunkel verse -Shure SM58 at 24in above head - Pleiades (74Ω,25mH) - SONY TC-D5M - TDK SAX - Sennheiser HD580 or Pleiades 2N3053 driving Celestion Ditton 150

It sounded fairly close to Cinema Engineering EQ but without insertion loss which is an added advantage.

It remains a mystery why Pleiades filters tend to very gently boost 10KHz which may be another surprise advantage.

Comparing microphones AKG C12A, Shure SM58, Beyer-Dynamic M260.80 on vocals at not favorable acoustics with gentle cut, mid low cut ir not

 At your risk.

A rough comparison of a condenser, moving coil, moving ribbon.

All mics used at 24in default, above head, mic axis 30 degrees from horizontal. towards nose.

Signal path:

mic - (Cinema Engineering 4031-B EQ or Pleiades (130 Ohm, 20mH) - SONY TC-D5 PRO - Sennheiser HD-580

SM58, C12A without a gentle slope low, mid low cut sounded very bass, mid bass heavy . M260.80 had not been tried yet.

With Cinema Eng. 4031-B at -12dB at 100Hz (it starts rolling of at around 1 or more KHz), +4dB at 10KHz, sound was very nice, like a produced great vocal recording.

With Pleiades (130 ohms,20mH), very nice too but a bit more bass heavy than with 4031-B. (Frequency response measurement was made, plus further listening tests, with both headphones and Celestion Ditton 150 speaker plus resistor, inductor boxes in order to make the Pleiades filter sound as good as the Cinema Eng. EQ, see recent posts including Pleiades (74 ohm, 25mH)).

In general the dynamic mic sounded more focused, the condenser maybe more polished but maybe a bit artificial.

The ribbon sounded great with true detail but it is very hard to further comment as the signal was too low, since all mics were directly driving the Cinema Eng. Program Equalizer, without a pre or mic booster between the two.

Stella (instrumental) quick demo

 Key is D major.

It is to be played slower than this.

Bass code is:

D

D7

Db7

D46

B6

bB6

D

The 3 first chords are from Kiss Me - Sixpence None the Richer, but on the D major instead on the E major key.

Song with working title No Comments original

 1st verse played on Casio MT-100 recorded outdoors (balcony):

In Gminor.

bass code                  melody

                                  - - D -

                                 F - bE -

G246                        A - - - -

                                - - - -

#F6                           - - C -

                                 bE- D -

Gm                           bB - - -

                                - - D -

                               F - - bE

G246                     A - - -

                              - - - -

#F6                       - A A -

                             - G - A 

Gm                       A - - bB

                             bB - - -

Chorus

                             - - - bB

                             bB A - bB

bE7                      D - - C

                            - - - -

F                          - - - C

                            C  bB - C

bB7                     bE - - D

                            - - - -

Gm                       - - - A

                            bB A - bB

Cm9                     D - - C

                            - - bB -

F                         bB - A - 

D                         G - #F -

Gm                      G - - -

An instrumental titled SNFCC

 These are the 1st 2 bars:

Conceived while playing on the public Hellenic Library YAMAHA grand piano of the SNFCC.

In D minor.

Time signature 6/8.

bass code                      melody

D                                   F A - - - -

                                      B A - - - -

C6                                 E A - - - -

                                      E A - - - -

B7                                 F A - - - -

                                     B A - - - -

A7                                 E A - - - -

                                     E A - - - -

G7                                F A - - - -

                                     B A - - - - 

F7                                 E A - - - -

                                     E A - - - -

E7                                 F A - - - -

                                     D A - - - -

bE7                               D G - - - -

                                     D #F - - - -

modulates to G minor

G

F6

E6

etc 

then modulates to E minor

Enjoying so much reading The Soundtrack of my Life - Clive Davis

 A very nice extract:

"...I was beginning to become known both within the CBS corporate structure and the larger music business...

If you're lucky, there are moments in your life when you step into the outline of the person you might always have wanted to become, perhaps without even knowing it. You then feel truly comfortable for the first time. That process began for me at Monterey." (pop festival)

Janis Joplin - Ball &Chain - Monterey Pop

How to improve the sound quality of Hellenic cinema?

At your risk.

Dimitra was met yesterday by chance.

Discussing about older and new Hellenic movies she expressed her worry on the much to be desired recorded sound quality or intelligibility of actors.

It was attempted to express to her that a flat frequency response will lead to severe bass heaviness so that the cure is for example a gentle low cut from 1KHz and downwards. The great work of the hollywood sound engineers a century or so ago gives light, see further reading. 

These discoveries and principles apply to singing voice  recording as well in music industry, 

Further reading:

Elements of Sound Recording - Frayne, Wolfe

No Comments (song) rough demo

   

verse

chords only

chorus

rough demo recorded outdoors (balcony) with mum Rena as sound engineer on her mobile phone.

Little keyboard is vintage Casio MT-100.

This song was dreamed a few days ago fully produced with Marina beautifully singing. Tempo should be a bit slower and rhythm more atmospheric. 

Pleiades XLR MIC INLINE FILTER GENTLE SLOPE HI- PASS Schematic

 At your risk:

This is what is currently used at the Pleiades lab for correct bass, mid bass, mid emphasis due to Fletcher Munson, voice effort curves, room bass resonance etc.

Everything is inside an XLR to XLR barrel made from Neutrik modules. See previous posts.

PIEIADES 2N3053 AMPLIFIER SCHEMATIC

 At your risk.

Currently the Pleiades reference monitoring system is with 2 of these power amplifiers made with one 2N3053 instead of 2N3055 per channel. They drive Celestion Ditton 150 loudspeakers to a comfortable level in a small room.

Amazing sound quality making cds sounding like good vinyl records.

Vb is 24V.

Any battery circuit should be connected to a safety fuse for safety.

Pleiades DL94 Amplifier schematic

At your risk.

Lethal voltage inside.

This is in fact almost identical to Arnold's patent, a hundred years ago.

And it sounds aaaammmaaazzzinggg.

The electron tube DL94 was chosen for its very low power consumption especially in the heater circuit.

And for the sound.

Deep, jaw dropping bass, fluid midrange, extended non harsh but sweet high frequency content.

Much of the sound ie frequency response etc  is dictated by the input or output transformer. In fact with a transformer in the signal path the sound can be better, see previous posts.

Batteries are used throughout for simplicity and sound, lack of noise, hiss, smoothness etc.

A fuse should be in series with any battery for safety.

Please take all precautions are there is lethal voltage in this amplifier.

To the Moon and Back - Savage Garden (song) - verse only piano score from The Melody Book

 

The Melody Book is about some great song subsets arranged for piano in the simplest possible way without losing the beauty of the composition. So for example nothing is simplified to just a minor or major chord. The full code is used for example on this verse extract, if you look and hear closely the code is C, B6, G7, A7. And it can be clearly seen that in this great song by Savage Garden, this is how J. S. Bach would have written it too. So no C E G, B D F, G B D, A C E. But exactly as it can be seen on Back's manual on composition for his students: Bach General Bass Rules pdf:

https://normanschmidt.net/scores/bachjs-general_bass_rules.pdf

Bach and his great Italian contemporaries for example were really advanced at that time.

They did not even need to write whether a chord is minor or major since this was automatically derived from the scale used by choosing the right note 3 or 5 or 7 or 9 or 11 or 13 or 15 steps above bass. Om music everything we reference everything to the white keys of the piano keyboard.

So in our Moon and Back Example:

The key is C minor, meaning that all B, E, A are flat ie bB, bE, bA.

So the figured bass code C, B6, G7, A7 is really:

C with bE with G

bB with D with G (not F)

G with bB with D with F

bA with C with bE with G

which is "modern" notation is

Cm

bB6

Gm7

Amaj7

The problem with the modern notation is that chords appear to come out of thin air, with nobody really knowing how they came from. 

Where as on Bach's great teaching all you need to know is that you step bass down the scale, avoid parallel 5ths ie C and G, B and F, and using the principle of least change in music, which may come from the fact that we prepare 7ths, 9ths, for the listener's brain.

So instead of 

C bE G

bB D F (wrong as it sounds really bad)

G  bB D

bA C bE

we have

C bE G

bB D G (note how G is kept)

G bB D F

G A C bE (which is really bA C bE G in a different order).

So to recap, we can only write or play

C

B6

G7

A7

and have a masterpiece created or recreated.

You are welcome to try the correct version on the above score on any keyboard and hear the magic of just 3 or 4 part harmony correctly or rather beautifully implemented.

 

Song with working title "No comments"

This part of the song dreamed, Marina was beautifully singing

 In D minor (i.e. all B are B flat).. Rhythm is rumba.

Verse:

G A - B

E - - -          (Gm7)

- - - - 

- - - -            (A)

E F - E

 A - - -          (Dm)

- - - - 

- - - -

repeat 

Chorus:

D E - F

G - - -         (Gm7)

- - - -

 - - - -          (A)

G A - B

B - - A         (Dm)

- - - -

- - - -           (Dm)

D E - F

A - - G        (Gm7)

- - -F -

F - E -          (A)

D - #C -

D - - -          (Dm)

- - - - 

Winding 110 turns on Siemens Epcos small toroid

At your risk! It is the largest from the very small sizes that can fit inside an XLR female to male adaptor. Enameled wire used is of diameter 0.16mm. 100 turns give inductance of 20mH, 110 turns give inductance of 25mH. It is to be used for a Pleiades (58ohm,25mH) inline microphone EQ (bass, mid correction filter). It reduces bass, mid frequency content in a gentle slope so that a singing voice sounds without bass, mid exageration. So tghe high frequency sparcle is retained and not masked. It is supposed to simulate in an analog but perhaps simpler way the Cinema Eng. 4031-B program ewqualizer at setting:-12dB at 100Hz, +2dB or 4dB at 10KHz. It is to be used connected directly to microphone as there is no insertion loss. 58ohms will be split in 2 ie 2 resistors of 29ohm or 28 ohm will be connected in series to inductor on each side of it for balanced symetry. The total is connected in parallel with microphone ie at pins 2,3 of XLR input. XLR input pins 2,3 are connected with XLR out pins 2,3 so that the EQed mic signal passes. Neutrik XLR modules are to be used, mid module strip color may be orange.

Analog modeling of an analog filter or EQ in analog domain

At your risk. For example creating an analog filter that may be simpler, portable and be close in freuquency respone to a preffered setting of the Cinema Engineering 4031-B program Equalizer. For example a resistor in series with an inductor and the total connected across the mic output. See next post. Usefdul reference: A Brief History of Early Motion Picture Recording and Reproducing Practices - John K. Hilliard

The Pleiades (130ohm,20mH) bass, mid correcting microphone shelving filter is gentle slope

At your risk. Frequency response measurment with a driving signal generator impedance of 190ohms, referenced to 10KHz: -3dB at 2KHz, -8dB at 300Hz then shelving to flat. So there is also a very gentle boost at 10KHz. The low and mid cut is gentle too due to the 2 time constants. So in order to further improve it and making it closer to a say prefared sewtting of the Cineme Eng. 4031-B equalizer of -12dB at 100Hz and +4dB at 10KHz, series resistance was decreased until -12dB was achived at 100Hz. Using Danbridge decade inductor and resistance boxes the new values found are (54ohms,25mH). A new inductor of 25mH was wound on a small Siemens Epcos toroid that can fit inside an XLR to XLR Neutrik Module tube adaptor. So it would be nice to add 27ohms resistors in series with said inductor on either side and connecting the total to pins 2,3 of input XLR and connecting cables from pin 2 to pin 2 and from pin 3 to pin 3 from input XLR to output XLR. Would this create a portable, no insirtion loss fantastically sounding microphone filter? A plug in microphone filter able to give flat frequency response from record producer's brain to listene's brain. Something that sounds at least as good in frequency response as Something Stupid - Sinatra? Usefdul reference: A brief History of Early Motion Picture Recording and Reproducing Practices - John K. Hilliard

What are the best 5 Hellenic songs to send over to Clive Davis?

Should for example: M' Anasthses Kardia Mou - Plessas (Voskopoulos singing), To Megalo Mustiko Mou - Kapnisis, (Xomata singing), Agkistri - Xatzinasios, Annabel - Xarhakos (Dimitriadi singing)

interview of producer Creed Taylor on the Making of Girl From Ipanema - Jobim

https://www.jazzwax.com/2008/11/interview-cre-1.html

Dreaming today the song with working title No Comment

Suddenly while dreaming of Marina singing a song and while trying to rememer it, she sung another one which sounded very nice while I was flying quite high above ground. There were lyrics but they could be any lyrics. Trying to remember the verse and chorus, waking up, rushing to record on a small portable cassette recorder, could remember some of it. It is bossa nova in Dminor. Similar temo to The Girl from Ipanema - Jobim. Intro:F-EB/----/F-EB/----/G--FD/etc. Verse goes in melody (Dminor)--D-/F-E-/B---(Gminor7)/----,--E-(A7)/G-F-/D---(Dminor),repeat with improvisation,Chorus:--D-/E-F-/G---(Gminor7)/---/--GG(A7)/GAAB/B--A(Dminor)/----/--F-/E-D-/F---(Gmin7)/----/--E-(A7)/D-C-/D---(Dminor)

God may be a great record producer

How are gentle slope passive EQ (equalizers) created?

At your risk. Using patent US3624298? ie bridged T constant K with varying resistors on each of the inverse circuits, one being inductor, the other capacitor? For example by using equations from Elements on Sound recording - frayne, Wolfe... for a Shure SM58 microphone impedance of 314 ohms, left and right resistor of the T network, 314 Ohms each, lower shunt inductor 100mH, upper series capacitor approx. 1uF. Equations are L/C=R times R, l=R/(PIxfc), C=1/(PIxfcxR). For Fc=1KHz. Or using a simpler passive EQ described in Audio Cyclopedia - Tremain, where inductor circuit is connected to tap of variable resistor, capacitor circuit connected to tap of other variable resistor, each potentiometer for LF, HF bass, treble (attenuate or boost) respectively. If memory is correct potentiometers are in parallel with signal out. Or using just an inductor in series with variable resistor and total in parallel with mic, ie Pleiades (R,L) filter but with component valkues recalculated for a lower cutoff like the Cinema Eng EQ? By the way what is the variable filter, EQ inside the so nice Sennheiser MD421 microphone? By the way the AKG D 330 microphone used by ABBA at live shows? has 2 very nice EQs: bass correct, high increase. The Shure SM7 has a nice bass correction or low cut? filter and a broad band? reject, apparently to make the high frequency peak flat, schematic can be found on www.coutant.org. The AKG D1000 microphone has a nice bass correction passive filter too. Other non insertion loss way could be an inductor with core magnetic permeability that varies with frequency. This would create an inductance that varies in frequency in a different way to 6dB per octave. Some audio transformers (with silicon steel? mumetal?) such as Hammond transformers seem to have this property by measuring the primary inductance. If a low primary inductace transformer is choosen or the mic impedance is steped up by another transformer then the cutoff frequency could be moved to 1KHz which is close to a frequency in the Cinema Enguineering low frequency correcting side of the 4031-B program equalizer. Such inductance is to be connected in parallel with the microphone output.

It seems the Cinema Engineering Program Equalizer low cut is a shelving filter?

At your risk. Basic, quick frequency responce tests at bass -12dB showed (towards low frequency) slow decrease below say 5KHz, then more abrupt below 2KHz, finally shelving at about 150Hz. At a setting of -4dB, simmilar but gentler slope, shelvibg at around 300Hz. The Pleiades (130Ohm,20mH) gave a somehow similar responce but starting dropping at a much higher frequency. (signal generator by by Lode output impedance, aprox. 400 Ohms, readings taken on Rohde & Schwarz Psophometer).

Many thanks to Mikes Psalidas for giving me so much information on Cinema equalizers

Mikes Psalidas was an electronic Engineer. He designed the mixing cosole used by Finos Films, and gave the same mixing console for electronic music composer and producer Vangelis (Vangelis Papathanasiou). I admired the sound quality of the Finos Films songs by Aliki Vougouklaki et Al, made very very insisting phonecalls to the late Finos Films headquarters, after Finos death and they inventually let on the name of the man who designed them, Mikes psalidas at that later time engineering director at Pitsos factory. A phonecall to the factory made me speak to the man. asking, "are you the man responsible for the fantastic Finos Film sound?" He laughingly said "yes" and immediately invited me to his place later on, same day. The first thing he did was handing me a full pack of Altec original schematics, including engineering notes. From a paper by John Eargle - Altec, on monitoring equalisation, the US patent 3624298 was found on passive equalizers used by Altec, see today's posts. Mikes Psalidas generously immediately said that flat electronic frequency responce leads to non flat listeners's brain frequency response (not in his words), because flat electronically in simple terms sounds very bass heavy (not in his words). And he proceeded to donate me one of the gretest books, by Hollywood engineers, Elements of Sound Recording - Frayne, Wolfe. Saying i know, i also have this book. (First time seeing it was at the great Warwick University library). After thanking him again and taking the book we continued the interesting conversation. We hit off very well with Mikes Psalidas, and his wife was very kind too. I miss him. P.S. He could not find the schematic of the mixing desks, neither did he know what had happened to the mixing desks themselves. The coils for the inductors were wound by his friend Fousekis (both were at some time at Hellenic Radio and television) in the basement of an international Airline offices at Syntagma square. His daugther later, generous as him donated most of his books.

Understanding how the Motown, Altec9062A attenuation part of Equalizer operates with possible schematic, on patent US3624298, assignee LTV Ling Altec, Inc. Anaheim, Calif.

At your risk. The patent explains in detail 1/3 octave band attenuation equalizers, ie an EQ with greater resolution, but the principle and components used seem to be the same. A very recent light giving paper is Graphic Equalizers Based on Limited Action Networks, by Kurt James Werner. Inside the paper are actual measurments, equations given too.

Design equations, schematic link for the Motown graphic EQ, Altec 9062A graphic EQ

At your risk. This very informative and very recent paper was found with great bibliographic and journal references: Graphic Equalizers Based on Limited Action Netqworks - Kurt James Werner - Proc. 27th International Conference on Digital Audio Effects. If i am not mistaken by reading this paper, the Altec 9062A, Motown EQ are not constant B (constant bandwidth designs), and they are based on simpler constant K, bridged T networks where the varying 2 resistors are part of the LCR (inductor, capacitor, resistor) upper and lower inverse circuits. Also the paper Professional Audio Controls - Artur C. Davis, Don Davis was found by web search and it was realised that Davis are the inventors. Then in the Pleiades lab schematic library a printed patent was found by inventors Artur C. Davis, Donald B. Davis, James J. Noble, (Altec). It is US3624298, Sound Improving Means and Method. It shows in fig. 3 a bridged T constant K network with 2 varying resistors each in the LCR top and bottom inverse circuit. This EQ is an only attenuation version as it is meant for room sound system EQ correction. The inventors describe in detail how it works and the varying Resistors are linear and decrease in oposite directions. Left and right arm resistors are said each to be equal to system impedance. A simpler circuit on this patent, fig 2, is just a variable resistor in parallel with (an inductor in series with a resistor), in parallel with a capacitor. Signal is fed in series with such network. This is very similar to the recently described on euroelectron, fullrange speaker correction crossover network. The inductor in series reduces mid high heaviness, the varying resistor puts back some high frequencies, the capacitor passes higher frequencies if the speaker cannot go very high by itself. Back to the patent, the varying resistor controls increase attenuation bandwidth.

Where is the Cinema Engineering EQ 4031-B schematic?

So far it could not be found but information was for the Motwon graphic EQ, Altec graphic EQ, Langevin EQ 151'A which i do not undestand yet.

Still don't know

At your risk. But here is some light. It was decided to try Cinema Engineering EQ 4031-B. If memory is correct it can be seen on a documentary of Motown in the recording studio? Anyway, a Shure SM58 was connected directly to it. Then the output of the EQ directly to the Sony TC-D5M mic preamp in mono mode. Male singer to mic distance was the usual 24in, mic axis 30 degrees above head, towards nose. Surprisingly it worked although there is attenuation in the EQ. Of cource there was some hiss as the Sony recording level control had to be cranked up to maximum sensitivity. At EQ setting out, or both bass and treble controls to 0 the vocal sound was the usual muddy bass due to room acoustics, equal loudness curves, voice effort curves etc. As soon as the bass attenuate control reached -12db (at 100Hz?, bearing in mind that according to Audio Cyclopedia-Tremain, frequency response, attenuation starts at around 1KHz). (Monitoring was in real time trough Sennheiser HD-580 reference headphones while singing.) At -12dB the male voice quality was crispy clear and amazing, reminding of any greatly produced song. Say for exaple Could this be Magic - Manilow. Then a Pleiades one stage K117 JFET mic booster preamplifier was connected just after the mic, before the EQ, using a Canford input transformer and a Neutrik red jack with transformer inside as output transformer. There was no hiss as the cinema Eng EQ was more appropriately driven. Amazing sound again at -12dB low attenuation. The sound really sparkled when boosting also 2 to 4dB at 10kHz on both previous setupss. Then everything was disconnected and the SM57 was tried feeding directly the Sony TC-D5PRO. Again muddy, unclear, prominant mi8d bass, giving the impresion that someone is singing indide a very small space. Then a Pleiades (175mH:175mH) inline bass correcting transformer was insirted between mic and pre. Bass was much better but the mid bass still muddy. Then insited of this transformer a Pleiades (130Ohms,20mH) high pass filter was connected between the mic and pre. Now the vocal sound was much better with definition in mid and high frequencies but still not as good as using the Cinema Eng EQ in the bass register. When cascading both inline filters still the sound was not as good and worse in the mid. So winner is Cinema Eng EQ 4031-B, second best Pleiades (130Ohm,20mH) bass correcting high pass filter. At this point it was realised that the Pleiades (130Ohm,20mH) is a shelving filter of a different frequency than the Cinema Eng. Could a Cinema Eng equivqlent EQ or filter, possibly same schematic too be built inside an XLR to XLR adaptor? WHere is the Cinema Eng schematic?

Not trusting what we see as mic used on studio on a videoclip seems a good idea

At your risk. See for example Where do Broken Hearts go - Whitney Houston video showing a condencer microphone, and compare the Whitney: Inside the Album with Producer Narada Michael Walden video, Narada holding in his hands what looks like A Shure SM7 dynamic (moving coil microphone): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUHKIK4f5AY

A Brief History of Early Motion Sound Recording and Reproducing Practices - John K. Hilliard - Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, Volume 3, Number 4, 1985 April

Very nice paper discribing also the bass, mid bass, mid? heaviness effects created in listener's brain when a microphones is just connected to a preamplifioer with no EQ correction for the Fletcher Munson equal loudness curves, voice effort curves, recording space boominess due to standing waves etc.

Variable Mid frequency correction box or Pleiades vocal microph9one correction box

At your risk. A variable passive filter to correct for bass, mid heaviness due to proximity effect, Fletcher Munson equal loudness curvs, voice effort curves, low frequency small room standing waves etc. It is the usual Pleiades filter but the inductor is a multitap inductor, currently 12 position. Then in series is a 1K military quality potentiometer. Then in series there is provision for 3 swichable capacitors, say 10nF, 100nF, 1uF. capacitors are for creating a Shure SM7 type notch or band reject filter for removing a high frequency peak, or even for attenuating the fundamental of a singing voice. So all L,R,C are in series and the total connected across the microphone output. The toroidal core used is the Magnetec nanocrystaline M-059-03F6. Starting with 2 turns then multiplying by 1.42 to find yhe next number of turns for next tap. 1.42 times 1.42 makes roughly 2 so frequency cutoff is advancing in octaves. So 2 turns 0.6mH, 3 turns 1mH, 6 turns 2.4mH, 8 turns 4.3mH, 11 turns 8mH, 16 turns 17mH, 23 turns 35mH, 33 turns 73mH, 46 turns 141mH, 66 turns 290mH, 94v turns 600mH. Everything with be attempted to be fitted inside an orange color Hammond guitar pedal size aluminum box. Ie the 2 Neutrik male and female XLRs, the inductor under a 12 position 1 pole rotary switch, the 1K potemtiometer, the 4 position 1 pole switch and the 3 or 4 capacitors. Gray-silver colored knobs. Maybe a provision for disconecting the filter by a switch or an unconnected inductor rotary switch terminal for EQ in or out. Further reading for the bass, mid heaviness effects in the listener's brain mentioned in sentence 2: A Brief History of Early Motion Sound Recording and Reproducing Practices - John K. Hilliard - Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, Volume 3, Number 4, 1985 April

Pleiades DK91 9V, 1.2V battery electron tube (electronic valve) microphone booster (pre preamplifier) updates

At your risk. Considering containing everything in an Hammond orange, size of double guitar pedal, aluminium box. Ie the Bulgin 9V and AA 1.2V battery holders, the 2 Neutrik chassis XLRs, 2 octal bases for the input and output transformer, 1 miniature base for the DK91 pentagrid electron tube used in triode mode. (anode is g2 internaly connected to g4). These grids are close to the cathode filament making smooth operation of the electron tube with just Vb=9V. In fact miraculusly anode current is about 30 micramperes when grid is at space potrential, ie unconnected DC wise, only ac signal ie music deriving it through a coupling capacitor. If said control grid is connected to a 8.2 Megohm resistor and other side of resistor is connected to negative terminal of 1.2V filament cathode battery, Ia=90 microamperes, and if at positive terminal, Ia=120 microamperes. So grid 2, grid 4, (and possibly other grids too) is the anode to collect the dancing to the music signal loving electrons. Considering at some later stage making a gift to producer Nerada who was giving all those loving gifts, like talking teddybears to Whitney.

Nerada interview, How to get 57 number ones? (discusion on Clive Davis great input towards the end)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pg1rVxlLXxc

Narada Michael Walden on Whitney Houston - documentary - YouTube

Interview of drummer of Kool and the Gang, George Brown

https://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2015/09/george-brown-interview

Waiting impatiently for the book The Soundtrack of my Life - Clive Davis to arrive

On making small in ear headphones listenable, eg Sennheiser CX80s mod

At your risk. Please play headphones at a low level to protect your precious hearing. This is an atempt to make inexpensive in ear headphones sound close to the amazing reference Sennheiser HD-580. The small in ear headphones sound very treble heavy and bass light compared to the reference HD-580. Using experience on making full range speakers sound listenable by adding an inductor in series (to cut high frequency heaviness, see previous posts), the same was tried on the small headphones. But how to do it simply without really modifying them or using extra cables etc. A very high inductance index nanocrystaline toroidal core was found around Pleiades lab. It is the Magnetec M-059-03F6. It was decided to pass the headphone cable trough it as many times needed, after each time listening and comparing with HD-580. Almost unexpectably everytime after each turn high frequencies were decreasing. 10 turns was the maximum possible because then it is almost imposible to reinsert the mini plug due to space taken up in the hole of the toroid from the cable turns. Now treble seems just a bit higher than HD-580 while bass has become bigger and deeper (due to less high frequency prominance). No chance yet to compare with stock CX80s. It is a joy listening on Sony CD Walkman on public transport, beach, or in the library while writting this to the song Cherish - Kool and the Gang. i Cherish this CD walkman given by my aunt Didi (now a planet Aphrodite, Venus) at some difficult part of life. It immediately made life shine with Sennheiser HD-580.

Update to the Pleiades meal

At your risk. It is not a nutritional or medical advice. Currently it is organic oat flakes with filtered water, fresh lemon juice or skin, peal, royal dates, vanilla, a bit of sea water. Other meals may be fresh cut green clover, mallow, nettle, apple vinegar, freshly cut lemon or sour orange juice, virgin olive oil, wood oven baked whole grain bread with sourdough.

Interview of Producer Narada Michael Walden for Whitney Houston

The SM7 Shure microphone used can be seen at 1:54. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUHKIK4f5AY

A rare view into the music business, What do his colleagues say about Clive Davis (found from www.clivedavis.com)

https://variety.com/2022/music/features/clive-davis-90-man-music-meetings-1235225879/

Is Varispeed used on song Don't Speak - No Doubt

At your risk. By listening to the CD single, the famous track sounds on C minor. Then track 2, the simple kind of demo version sounds on B minor. On Bminor the voice is more like the voice of a normal human being, and it sounds a bit out of tune, ie a bit lower in pitch than needed. So a special Tascam bass player practice CD player was used to Change the not so nice B minor track to C minor and it immediately sounded more ethereal , the singer younger due to time antiexpansion, plus the voice more in tune. Simmilarly the good Cminor master was changed to B minor and it sounded much inferior. Same experiment was done with radiohead, for example Creep. if playback is reduced by 1 semitone the excellent singer sounds still excellent but more like a normal human being. Do these experiments sugest that in some cases when the singer is to sing, the pitch of the backing track is reduced by 1 semitone, then at playback back to normal so effectively only the vocal is increased by 1 semitone with corresponding change in timbre. Listen also to To France, Moonlight Shadow - Mike Oldfield, Christophe, Demis Rousos, Sleeping Satelite - Tasmine Archer, ABBA. So far i have found bibliographic evidence only for ABBA, the book Good Vibrations-Mark Cunningham.

Listenung to some Hellenic song productions by Minos EMI

Had the chance today to listen to a compilation Cd called Ta Soukse Tis Nuxtas (the hits of the night). The sound quality was very nice, sparkling voices, and voices not out of tube, ie nice intonation. Not much bass heaviness to voices. Pehaps the low end of the recording was a bit exagerated. (Immediately afterwards Creep by radiohead was listed too. The voice is amazingly recorded but the low end of the instruments still sounded a bit heavy.) Well done to Mr Makis Matsas and his team.

Bingo! An electron tube microphone booster preamplifier operating with a AA 1.2V and a 9V battery

AT your risk. After countless experiments spanning almost 45 years assuming i started at around 7 years old... i used an electron tube for audio no one in their right mind would choose to use... A pentagrid ie heptode electron tube usually used for frequency convertion at rf receivers. Wanting very low energy consumption the D series of battery tubes was chosen. So there it is DK91 found waiting at Pleiades lab. Pentagrid tubes have 5 (pente in Hellenic) grids. So the 1st should be very near the cathode, and the second too. Using Wago connectors 1.25V was supplied at pin 1 and 7, ie the direct heaters or cathode. Then 9V was connected to grid 2 which is also internaly connected to grid 4. The current meter immediatly measured about 30 microamperes which is amazing at such low Vb and grid 1 at space potential (ie connected to nothing). With Vb=18V Ig2 increased to 500 microamperes which is aaamaaazzzinggg! Greatly incouraged, today, a Sowter special quality octal base 1:5 input transformer was connected to grid 1 trough a 0.010 microfatad capacitor. 9 volts through an output transformer. A 8.2 Megohm resistor connected to grid 1 for biasing (unconnected means grid at space potential, then if needed it can be connected to the negative terminal of the 1.2V battery or the positive terminal for even more anode (g2) in this case current. Connecting this resistor to the anode was found to be unecessary. The output transformer was connected to the mic input of Sony TC-D5 PRO. It worked nicely! The sensitivity was such that even touching the mic cable produced whistling sound, before connecting the SM58 mic. Mic was used at very soft voice 24in from mouth which is a nice distance for good quality sound, 30 degrees above head. WIth grid at space potential sound was about right with much high frequency detail. With resistor connected to Vf minus there was more bass heaviness as the output current increases and the tube plate resistance decreases, and with R connected to Vf positive side, even more bass for the same reason. (This effect naturaly comes from interaction of the output impedance of the electron tube with the input inductance of the output transformer dictating the low frequency cutoff. As frequency is decreased said inuctance becomes more of a short circuit so bass is reduced the higher the output impedance of the driving electron tube) Yesterday the same electron tube was used to directly drive the Sennheser Hd580 headphones through said output transformer, electron tube driven by the usual Sony CD walkman kine out. The headphones could be driven even with Vb 9V, more with 18V but the sound was very nice at 9V with R connected to the negative terminal of the 1.2V battery. Song used was To France - Mike Oldfield But back to today's mic expewriment. After disconnecting mic a 0 ohms specialy made male Neutrik XLR was connected. hiss droped to almost zero. Same withy a 200ohms XLR. Difference cannot be heard yet as there was a lot of hum picked up by the non mumetal protected output transformer. It would be nice to have such a pre preamp in a nice box with octal bvases for shielded input and output transformers. Powere consumption is only 1.2V at 50mA, ie the heater power supply plus 9V at say 50 or more microamperes ie the anode power supply. So little more than 60 milliwatts! If more such electron tubes are used in order to be able to drive say HD580 headphones then more power would naturaly be needed as the output electron tube may need more anode current or anode voltage, please protect very carefully your precious ears from high sound presure levels.

The most offen used electronics book at Pleiades lab

At your risk. It is the french Radio Tubes - Aisberg E., Gaudillat L, Deschepper R A schematic of usual application for any electron tube!

The best amplifier is no amplifier

At your risk. Sennheiser HD580 300Ohms headphones can be connected to line out through any good quality say 10KOhms to 300Ohms transformers. If signal is too high please protect your precious ears by using an attenuatos. (in fact on this experiment there is of cource the DAC output amplifier). But what if at the current output pins we connect the headphones directly through only 2 output transformers? This is what we were discussing recently with Panos.

Measuring from 20Hz up to say many MHz with any digital multimeter

At your risk. DMM are nice small, consume little energy but most ofter fail to measure above 3KHz. So here is what to do, the idea and schematic came from a vilntage transistor Philips micrvoltmeter able to measure up to many hundreds of MHz with its simple RF probe. The probe converts AC to DC. What can we use to do this up to a very high frequency? A Germanium diode! Here is the description of the schematic. Signal to be measured passes through a small high voltage capacitor. Then a Germanium diode is connected shunt to ground. Then on top a series resistor of 100Kohms buffers and its other side is connected to the high impedance DC voltage meter! So frequency responce tests can be done easily and lightweightly.

The directional microphone proximity effect does not noly exagerate bass, but mid bass, mid frequencies too

At your risk. Is this why many Hellenic vocal song recordings, both male and female sound so differnt from those made abroad? Are the mics here used too close and uncorrected for bass, mid emphasis? This again became very apparent while listening very early morning, LOVE FM radio station in Athens which plays both types of songs. the difference became very apparent on the Sony ICF-7600A radio with the tiny mid, treble speaker. Curves for bass, mid proximity emphasis can be seen on the Neumann, Microphones book by Bore, Peus. Please see link delow: https://www.indigo-music.com.ua PDF by G Boré · Cited by 15 — Gerhart Borй studied electrical engineering in Munich and Aachen, and specialized in microphone development at Georg Neumann GmbH from ... Peus and 0. Kern ... 79 pages

The Pleiades 2 K117 microphone preamp withh tiny input and output transformers did not record nice

At your risk. Possible reason is thye tiny transformers used which gave a frequency response resembling old telephone speech. This became very apparent after listening to a recording on the Pleiades 2N3053 power amplifier driving the Celestion Ditton 150 speakers. But the 2 JFETs class A preamp concept powered by a 9V battery and using input, output transformers and no negative feedback is promising as it can directly drive the Sennheiser hD-580 reference headphones to a good level direcly from a mic whispering signal. obvious remedy is to use larger studio quality input, output transformers, such as Jensen, Sowter, Aletc, etc. So some thought is given on how to fit all these on a small beautiful looking beige and brown colored Retex cosole box.

χαβουζα + αντιχαβουζα = 0

At your risk. This refers to adding 2 similar mics, one deliberately out of phase. Bass, mid heaviness is canceled. So is part of bad acoustics, noise. See previous posts. (For example 2 Shure SM59 microphones). What is best, this technique or using a Pleiades (175mH:175mH) bass correcting inline transformer followed by a Pleiades (130ohm,29Mh) mid correctking inline filter? Mics were used at 24in, about 30 degrees above head. Difficult to answer at this stage. Both tecniques sounded good and promising. The noise cancelling mic tecnique gave perhaps a more pro result as early reflections seem to be diminised. The mic filters gave nice timbre devoid of bass, mid heaviness ie a nice bright detailed sound too. A usefull experiment to decide would be perhaps better, ie studio acoustics or outdoors.

Michael Masser

A great man, songwriter and record producer. Interview on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8HNg0Ex4rs

Bass correction filter is a better term to low cut filter for microphones. BCF, ΦΔΒ (φιλτρο διορθωσης βασης), φδβ

At your risk. This term was found in the book Microphones by BBC producer Alec Nisbet. In fact the proximity effect of directional microphones does not only emphasize bass but mid bass and mid frequencies too. This can be clearly seen on the Neumann Microphone manual by Bore, Peus. So it could even be caleed a bass, mid correction filter instead of a high pass filter. In fact the Pleiades gentle slope (130ohm,20mH) inline filter does this. It starts at a mid frequency dictated by an inductance of 20mH and gently deemphasizes as frequency is decreased, slope depending on the value of resistance R, for example 130 ohms. L is in series with R (in fact 2 R/2 on each side for balanced symmetry) and the total is connected across the output of the microphone ie in parallel. Yesterday Shure SM58 was recorded for a trial vocal. At 24in distance from head, above head say 30 degrees. Without any filter (due also too equal loudness curves, voice effort curves) sound appeared bass and mid heavy to listener's brain. (Monitoring is with celestion Ditton 150 driven by one transistor Pleiades 2N3053 power amplifier). Adding an inline Pleiades 175mH:175mH transformer decreased bass but mid still appearted emphasized. Adding one after the other the Pleiades (130ohm,20mH) removed mid heaviness but sound was lacking in body. Then leaving just the (130omh,20mH) bass, mid correction filter gave the best result. High frequencies would now come through in a sparkling way like Whitney Houston's 1st album on female and male voice which sounds fantastic, Is it recorded with Shure Sm7? Male voice on this experiment was singing one of the male voices on this album, recording to Sony TC-D5M which has a frequency respone up to 16KHz on type Ii cassette. Anyway, Shure SM59 sounds so far best with both filters cascaded. very nice treble definition, giving a smooth airy airy edge. But according to yesterday's experiments recording with the BeyerDynamic M260.80, at 24in, with both Pleiades filters gave the best result. Amazing detail smooth and sparkling edge to voice. Ribbon mics deserve this as the moving part is of so low mass, the ribbon itself which generates the EMF 9electromotive force), the voice voltage signal itself. From an extra thin conductive aluminum ribbon suspended inside a permenant magnetic field. As it vibrates by singing voice, electrons on it start vibrating too. As electrons now have velocity at every instant in time, each electron creates a magnetic field around it. Which varies at evey instant in time. This magnetic field interacts with the permenent magnetic field and each electron has a force and is pushed along the ribbon. This force varies at every instant in time. It is as if each electron is now dancing along with the acoustic music signal from the singer's voice. Electrons dancing up and down at the edges of the ribbon are the electric signal output which is sent to the voltage step up (impedance matching) transformer inside the mic. There must also be a damping effect on the electrons due to Lenz's law, so the so light electrons follow the singer's voice pretty accurately! Further reading: Feynmann Lectures in Physics Vol.2

Still don't know

On removing bass, mid frequency emphasis from microphones while recording a vocal part without using an external equalizer

At your risk. This could be on recording a sparkling vocal such as The Power of Love - Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Or pehaps lady lady - Georgio Morroder. A trick explained to me by Lefteris long time ago is to use a parametric EQ, increse dbs above 0, tune it to the voice fundamental or where the vocal sounds worse and then reduce a few dB from 0 until it sounds very nice. This may be mentioned in Wadhams book on recording, if memory is correct. But this post is about recording a nice voice without an EQ or even a Pleiades gentle slope low cut filter etc. The Lou Burroughs (ElectroVoice) trick described in his book microphones is used. 2 microphones, one deliberately out of phase, and singing to one of them. Their distance appart can be used as a parametric canceling EQ. It works on omnidirectional microphones, but will it work on cardiods for example too? Yes!, yesterday 2 shure SM59 (they have flat frequency responce) were tried. A special cable of 2 XLR inputs, 1 output (2 mics tonected therefore in parallel) but one of the female input XLRs is connected deliberatyely mistaken, out of phase. The sum was connected to Sony TC-D% PRO in mono mode used as a preamp. Monitoring in real time by Sennheiser HD-580 headphones. Mics were at about 24in, above head, pointing towards head while singing. If one mic is used we have the usual possibly proximity bass boost effect even at 24in, and the voice effort bass heaviness due to singing softly, (not loud), and the equal loudness bass boost effect from amplifying a voice. Plus room bass mode artifacts. If the second mic (the out of phase one) is connected, added) and the 2 mics are saqy 3 feet apart, some bass is reduced but there is still bass and mid exageration to listeners brain. If the distance of the 2 mics is reduced while singing at 24in on the 1st one, bass heaviness gradualy desapears, and then mid heaviness gradually desapears until at about 12in the vocal sound becomes crispy as on those classic recordings of amazing clear voice. There is no coincidence, 12in correspont to a certain wavelength which is turn corresponts to a certain cutoff frequency. You may experiment with mic to mic distance for a particular setup. It is like having a world class parametric EQ without the need of the equipment, just 2 mics and a special deliberatly wrongly made cable. Later addition, experiment retried. So far best sound is when 1 SM59 is pointing towards singer's head, 2nd SM59 pointing at some other direction, eg towards th piano. It is best to experiment.

A speaker secret possibly used on Amazon Alexa too

At your risk. A very helpful tip on building or making loudspeakers is that the box be much larger than the drive unit, or vice versa that the drive unit be much smallermuch than the box. This can give excellent no boomy and deep bass if the drive unit has a low reasonant frequency. For a closed box this reasonant frequency needs to be much lower than needed since when when the drive unit is mounted in the box the frequency will be raised by acoustic suspension. Anyway a 4.5in Fostex FE127E gives amazing bass on a bigger Pioneer box (see previous posts). And this Christmass present from my brother and his wife to our parents is an Alaxa, Amazon. Inside it is a tiny speaker. But the bass is surprisingly deep for Alexa's size. Do they also EQ?

Listening tests on a 1m by 1m 2 ply linoleum baffle.

At your risk. Baffle speaker is hung from ceiling from 2 poits using Picture Hanging Systems. A Grundig paper oval 5in by 10in, 5 ohms speaker is assymetrically mounted. It looks rather ugly. 2 ply linoleum glued by PVA is still soft, compliant. But this is peshaps why it absorbs vibration well. Sound is very clear, real and lively. It has this truthful quality of Hf heard near a record player stulys, although listening tests are done with CD. Speaker gives excess of mid and treble. So an inductor of say 0.7H is connected in series. A resistor (starting as a variable resistor) in parallel to inductor may be needed. Bass is nice. It could have been better as there seems to be a mid bass reasonance, (due to drive unit?). Would bass be more deep if more ply linoleum was used, but it would be very heavy. Perhaps using a say 50cm by 50cm would be more appropreate as on the Zeis Ikon baffle cabiet speaker. Barbara Streisand sounded very nice with speaker driven by the Pleiades single transistor 2N3053 power amplifier. Test is mono, actually only one cD channel is used. Since around New Year it had been desided to have only the Great Celestion Ditton 150 speakers in the small Pleiades control room. All other speaker tests are done on the much greater size living room. Still the Rola Celestion Ditton 150 speakers (in stereo) driven by 2 Pleiades 2N3053 power amplifiers in pure class A are prefared and this is the refference Pleiades reproducing setup. Aknowledgment to Mr. Yiannis for those beautiful souding speakers with so deep bass, fluid mid and extended balanced high frequency content. The amplifiers have small output transformers (see previous posts, after all power of amps is much less than 1 Watt. With the big Sowtewr SK05s output transformers although they are exxcellent and more efficient, bass on this particular setup may be much.

Brushing teeth with sea water

At your risk. This is not a medical advice. Just personal experience. Using now for a few years very good quality toothbrush Curaprox and Jordan. Firstly Curaprox is used, then Jordan which seems to be more helpful for inbetween teeth gaps. Using no toothpaste. Brushing after everymeal. Teeth are in quite good condition. When sea water was replaced by tap or filtered water, it was a disaster. Sea water seems to kill harmful microrganisms. This is possiblyt done by salt dyhydrating microbe cell membranes by ormosis. After brushing teeth, both toothbruses are rinsed in plenty of sea water. At your risk.

Happy New Year

Ευτυχισμενο Νεο Ετος