A nice song

From the soundtrack Midnight Cowboy


A Famous Myth - The Groop, Sherman


Starts at 6:20


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1jjI0-qtFKU


The key is D so all C, F are sharp. The 1st chord is derived by expanding from bass A. Using 1,3,5,7,9,11 ie A C E G B D, the A C# E are omitted and we are left with A bass and G, B, D. The next chord is D7 ie D bass F A C (remember F, C are sharp). So it is a Dmaj7 or D major seventh. The C is played by a wind instrument.


Phil Ramone discuses in his AES interview how he got to do the Midnight Cowboy soundtrack as John Barry liked his work:


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KuoNnQQmfqk


More on how harmony works or bass code on Bach Bass Rules:
http://normanschmidt.net/scores/bachjs-general_bass_rules.pdf

Ένας απλός ενισχυτής σε τάξη Α με ενα μονο τρανζίστορ και εξαιρετική ποιοτητα ήχου

Ειναι ο Pleiades 2N3053 οπως περιγράφεται στο παρακατω euroelectron post. Εχει μικρη κατανάλωση.


http://euroelectron.blogspot.gr/2018/03/madonnas-voice-coming-from-point-source.html

Ένας απλός ενισχυτής για να Ηχογραφουμε αφαλτσα

Στο διπλανό euroelectron post:
http://euroelectron.blogspot.gr/2018/04/monitoring-setup-for-recording-vocals.html


Η χαμηλή ένταση και υψηλή ποιοτητα βοηθούν αφάνταστα αφου η αντιληψη τονικοτητας εξαρτάται απο την ακουστική ένταση που διεγείρει τα αυτιά (Στηβενς).


Αναφορά:


Ήχος και Ακοη - Stevens, Warshofsky - Life Εγκυκλοπαιδια

Monitoring setup for recording vocals in tune

This is continued from the previous post on using only one 2N3053 transistor to drive a sensitive speaker at great sound quality.


When the battery supply is reduced to 1.5V the operation is still in class A (electrons flowing all the time through the transistor and through the speaker too since it is a DC amplifier).


At 1.5V the sound intensity is low and the quality exceptional high. This is aided by the point source mono speaker with no tweeter needed. And by the great sensitivity of the ear. All instruments can be heard with pristine clarity.


But the point is that the low intensity should greatly aid a singer to sing in tune since pitch perceptions depends not only on frequency but on intensity too (Stevens).


In older times low acoustic intensity was automatically given to the singer since everything was live. Musicians cared not to play too loud. The engineer cared that there should not be much leakage to the singer's mic etc. and great engineers and producers such as Phil Ramone immediately knew that if the singer had a problem singing in tune the monitoring (level?) should be corrected.


The proposed simple class A battery operated amplifier signal path is:


Backing track - Pleiades 2N3053 amplifier - PHILPS AD 5046N or equivalent


If a great quality hi Z full range speaker is not available then a great quality 8Ω full range speaker can be used and it's impedance stepped up to 800Ω by a transformer.


References:


Sound and Hearing - Stevens, Warshofsky - Time Life science series


Making Records - Phil Ramone


http://euroelectron.blogspot.gr/2018/03/madonnas-voice-coming-from-point-source.html


http://euroelectron.blogspot.gr/2018/04/pleiades-2n3053-operating-with-6v-3v-15v.html

Pleiades 2N3053 operating with 6V, 3V, 1.5V

Signal path, setup:


(From Russia with Love - John Barry, The Best of, CD) - Sony CD Walkman line out - Pleiades 2N3053 (the usual 4K7 from bridged mono line out to base, and 100K variable resistor from collector to base) - PHILPS AD5046N directly connected to collector or Beyer DT 770 at low battery supply


What a transistor!


It operates in class A (electrons flowing all the time) with great sound at even 1.5V. All that is needed to do is changing the value of the biasing resistor for max sound or quality by rotating the rheostat pot, reducing the bias resistor.


Firstly the usual 12V battery was changed to a 6V. Sound was less and distorted. By reducing the bias resistor the sound was again clear and of course of less volume that the 12V case.


Then 2x AAA batteries (Sanyo eneloop) were connected ie 2.6V. Again the bias resistor had to be reduced for optimum performance. At that point Ic was about 1mA.


Then just 1 AAA battery was connected ie 1.3 V. Again the bias resistor was reduced and the sound was quieter but great. (Ic=0.5, Rcb=8KΩ). As of writing this the phenomenal PHILIPS AD 5046N still can be heard in a room and outside of it. This is of course the remarkable property of our ear brain mechanism.


It was then decided (still with 1 AAA battery) to connect hi Z headphones instead of the 800Ω speaker. The 2 600Ω Beyer drivers were connected in parallel (mono) for simulating the 300Ω of Sennheiser HD580.


The sound was amazing with unbelievable bass (due to the (limit of) 0Hz direct coupled response). It was loud.


This hints to have means of variably reducing Vb when we wish to reduce the volume. This has the following advantages. 1. Very low class A power consumption. 2. The sound is always good as the transistor is generously driven. So the sound is full and loud but without disturbing neighbours for example.


A Pleiades 2N3053 in stereo is certainly possible for driving Sennheiser HD580 headphones and operating for plenty of hours with just 1 AA battery. (Caution: All precautions should be exercised for keeping the input signal down to protect hearing and fuses for the protection or safety of batteries, the experimenter and the headphones).


This setup especially with a speaker should be great for recording vocals in tune since pitch perception depends on acoustic intensity and not only frequency (Stevens). See next euroelectron post.


The Pleiades 2N3053 schematic can be seen in the reference and is open source as everything else Pleiades.


Reference:


http://euroelectron.blogspot.gr/2018/03/madonnas-voice-coming-from-point-source.html


Sound and Hearing - Stevens, Warshofsky - Time Life Science Series

Bank selling time?

Is this what a bank does, selling time?


By Michalis

There is nothing wrong with transistor amplifiers

If 1 RF transistor is used per stage they sound very similar to electron tubes.


A one transistor single ended non feedback stage will have progressively gentle increase of second harmonic and then higher order ones when the input signal gets higher. Just like nature. So trumpets will sound like trumpets and smooth strings will sound smooth strings.


An example is the one only transistor power amplifier in class A. The Pleiades 2N3053. It can directly drive a PHILIPS AD5046N 800ohm speaker to beautiful sound.


Power consumption is very low. A few milliamperes. Although output power is low, loudness is high due to linearity at small levels and progressive non linearity at higher levels.


Signal path, setup:


(Goldfinger - John Barry) from CD - Sony D-EJ58CK CD player - Pleiades 23053, 12V - PHILIPS AD5046N


References:


Tubes vs Transistors (vs op amps), Is there an Audible Difference? - Russel O. Hamm - JAES


http://euroelectron.blogspot.gr/2018/03/madonnas-voice-coming-from-point-source.html