Editors: Fran (The LJETPRO) Allen-Leake

and Danny (The URBAN G) Leake

Volume 25, Number 8 • August, 2010

President – Blaise Barton Vice President – Reid Hyams Secretary – Bob Vodick Treasurer – Eric Roth

AUGUST MEETING

EARS ANNUAL BBQ AT the Music Garage

Tuesday, August 31st • 6:30 P.M. – Until??? 345 North Loomis Ave., Chicago, IL

A Word from the Prez.....

Greetings fellow EARS members! Here's hoping your summer is going really well with time to

slow down and smell those proverbial roses. We have a great BBQ party in store for us with

some extra surprises. This year the EARS BBQ will be hosted by the Music Garage, a state of the

art rehearsal and practice space in West Loop. The folks at Music garage have generously

opened their ample facility to us for the event including their premier showcase room. Now, it's

a well known fact that almost all producers, engineers, studio owners, gear reps, and the like

are musicians at heart so I am encouraging you to bring along your axe and musical chops for a

casual post BBQ EARS JAM SESSION in the showcase room where the back line will be warmed

up and ready to go. Music Garage has two brand new "Producer Suites" they will be showcasing

for us as well.

I am pleased to announce that this year's BBQ is sponsored by Shure, Avid, Gepco

International, Guitar Center and Music Garage. EARS extends thanks and appreciation to our

patrons and welcome these companies and reps as our guests.

If that's not enough, we will have several raffles for give-away prizes from Shure and Gepco.

Some lucky attendees will be going home with (DRUM-ROLL PLEASE!):

A new SM27 condensor microphone, courtesy of Shure;

Two pairs of Shure Professional Studio Headphones, courtesy of Shure;

High quality cable assemblies and other goodies (to be revealed), courtesy of

Gepco Internatonal

If you have been thinking about joining EARS, there's never been a better time! For this next

week only, EARS is rolling back the dues to the regular October-April level. You can join EARS for

a whole year online at the EARS Facebook Fanpage-> Join EARS tab or Store tab. You can also

join at the BBQ itself. Or contact EARS at info@ears-chicago.org.

Please take a moment to R.S.V.P. your attendance by going to

http://www.earschicago.org/EARS-BBQ-RSVP.html or through the official EARS

Facebook invite.

As a reminder, the EARS BBQ is a members only event and your dues must be

up to date to attend. We are inviting members to bring one guest. For those who would like to

attend but don't want to join at this time, EARS is offering a $15 guest pass which can also be

purchased on the Facebook Fanpage Join EARS or Store tab or at the BBQ in person.

We will be grilling fish and vegetarian as well as the standard BBQ faire. Of course, if you would

like to bring your own selection to throw on the grill, you are most welcome. We will not be

grilling any classic vintage microphones … sorry for that ghastly image!

We are looking for 6 more experienced grill experts to cover a 1/2 hour shift on one of 2 grills. If

you are interested in showing us your grill skills – YO -- please contact me at: info@ears-chicago

.org. This is going to be a fun one, I'm really looking forward to seeing you there.

Blaise Barton

President

REWIND: EARS Meeting at CRC with Geoff Daking

(1) CRC welcomed EARS members and fellow sponsors Sweetwater and TransAudio Group for An Evening With Geoff Daking; (2) Geoff Daking addresses a packed house at CRC’s Studio 5; (Photo Credit: Danny Leake and

John Christy)

July 27, 2010 – An Evening with the Legendary Geoff Daking

The Chicago Recording Company studio, on Ohio, in Chicago was THE place to be on July 27. The

premier recording complex graciously opened their

doors to EARS (and sponsors Sweetwater, and

TransAudio Group) for an evening with legendary

musician/recording engineer/recording gear designer,

Geoff Daking!

Studio 5 was set up with a projector for Geoff’s

presentation and featured plenty of food and drink.

Inside the SSL 6000 equipped control room, a demonstration of the new ATC SCM25A monitors was

conducted by TransAudio president Brad Lunde. These are a 3 way smaller version of their Mid Field

ATC SCA50s. It has the same famous ATC mid range driver with a redesigned tweeter and a smaller

woofer in a compact package. When I walked in, EARS own Harry Brotman was putting those monitors

through their paces. They were a delight to hear.

TransAudio Group’s new ATC SCM25A monitor (Photo Credit: John Christy)

To a packed studio of 60 people, Sweetwater representative (and EARS member) Sam Rodgers

introduced Brad Lunde who gave us an overview of how Geoff and TransAudio teamed up to provide

Daking Audio products to the “masses”. Geoff then provided an overview of his career starting from his

stint as the drummer for “Blues Magoos” to being a recording engineer/studio designer to his current

profession as the creator of some of the most sought after analog recording gear.

Daking Audio produces mic pres, channel strips and other gear based on the Trident A Range circuits

that Geoff was able to get exclusive rights to. Geoff explained in his presentation how and why he

makes the products he does, explaining that he always wanted equipment that you plugged in and they

just worked.

After the presentation, Geoff had several of his products setup in CRC’s control room and played the

other surprise of the night…. the original eight track multi track master of the Rolling Stones “Brown

Sugar”. He demonstrated on Keith Richards’s acoustic guitar track how one turn of a knob on his

preamp “cleaned” the track of all hum and noisy overtones but left the quality of the recording intact.

(1) Geoff Daking playing the original multi-track master of Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time,” (2) Inside the Studio 5 control room, Daking’s rack of gear took pride of place. (Photo Credit: Fran Allen-Leake)

Those tracks, through his equipment, and heard on the ATC’s made this recording enthusiast wish the

bank account wasn’t so malnourished. Oh well… (Editor’s note: He also had the original multi track

masters for Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time” and “Shebop”. The story of how he came about these

masters is an adventure in itself. You had to be there.)

After the meeting officially ended, several of the diehard EARS members made their way to a nearby

“hidden” locale and continued the evening’s conversation. Again, another great event and thanks to all

who attended and those who helped make this event go off without a hitch.

-- Bob Vodick, EARS Secretary

EARS Members “In The News” ………

For Immediate Release: 8/23/10

Jack LeTourneau Productions & Beau Geste Productions LLC WI., Announce Release of

Bamfest Volume II.

(L-R) Jack LeTourneau and Jeremy Spencer

This 'Live" Rockin' blues compilation recorded in Wisconsin at Bamfest (Belleville

American Music Festival) in 2008 and 2009.

Volume II features legendary slide guitarist, vocalist and founding member of the

original Fleetwood Mac, Jeremy Spencer. "We were lucky to capture his first live blues

recording since the Chess Sessions from 1969." [Jack LeTourneau].

Other featured artists Sonny Landreth, The Chris Duarte Group, Robben Ford, Bobby

Messano, Larry McCray, Wayne Baker Brooks and Eric Sardinas & Big Motor all

donated their tracks for Gulf Relief. “Proceeds will be going to Habitat For Humanities

Musicians Village in the 9th Ward of New Orleans and The Gulf Relief Foundation to help

the good people of the gulf recover from 2 hurricanes and and oil spill.” [Geoff

Wilbourn]

The first volume Bamfest 2007 (2008 Grammy Nominee for Best Traditional Blues

Album Vocal or Instrumental release) featured Johnny Winter, Honey Boy Edwards.

Anna Popovic and many more....

Produced by Jack LeTourneau and Geoff Wilbourn, Recorded & mixed by Jack

LeTourneau at Elabs Remote, House Arrest & Tear-Ass Studios, Mastering by Harry

Brotman at Sonic Bistro.

Geoff Wilbourn

Beau Geste Productions LLC

Producer Belleville American Music Festival

www.bamfest.net

Jeremy Spencer

Food For Thought…….An Editor’s Opinion

I had a situation where I was trying to “emulate” a Cranesong STC8 with a generic Digital

compressor/limiter. I was using the inboard processing on a console and couldn’t get it to act right. The

Digital compressor when it clamped on just killed the sound. I could feel the singer disappearing into the

track as he sung harder. There was either too much threshold or “squeeze” or not enough so there I was

getting ready to go outboard when I asked myself, “What exactly is it that you like about the

Cranesong?” The fact is that I liked that I could “Squeeze” something really hard and not have it shred

the sound. But why was that? Part of the reason was it’s an analog piece but what was more important

was that it had a much slower attack than the Digital one. In fact, my STC8 was modified by Bob Katz of

Digital Domain to have an even SLOWER attack time. It let the consonants go through before clamping

down. I tried similar settings on the Digital compressor but it didn’t work. “D**n Digital!!” But then I

thought, “Why are you looking at these numbers? Do it like you used to: Just set a ratio, close your eyes

and spin the attack time and thresholds until it sounds right to you.” I did and I got the response I

wanted, however, the settings were not ANYTHING I would have set if I had been looking at the monitor.

What does that mean other than a Digital processor is a LOT faster than an Analog one? It brings me to

the final Truth: The consumer is not looking at waveforms, he or she is not looking at the settings on an

equalizer or compressor……they are hearing the Music and reacting to how it makes them feel. I hate to

say this but I’ll say it anyway, “Back in the Day” (There I’ve said it) I never thought about “a db here” or

“a decibel and a half there” as I’ve heard young engineers today say while staring into glowing monitors

for hours at a time. I usually just set a frequency and turned the knob until it made the hairs on my neck

rise. Today recording has become such a visual experience that sometimes we need to remember that

very thing starts with air pressure….a sound……then a feeling.

(These opinions are my own and not necessarily that of EARS)

Danny Leake

EARDRUM Co-Editor

On another note, I am totally underwhelmed by the response to my question about the “Intellectual

Property” of a Mix. Come on guys, let’s hear something. This issue affects EVERY Engineer/Producer.

Let’s start a dialogue here. Here is the only comment I got:

Reid Hyams said:

“I firmly believe the master or end product is owned by the party buying it (whether it's the listening audience to a

live performance or a media product for sale and so on), but as far as how you got there - that is yours, not theirs.

This is your trademark and the intellectual property and how you got there belongs to you, the creator. I do not

believe you need to share your settings and all with anyone, unless you wish to do so. The client is buying the

finished product, not the person doing it and how they did it. Cheers! Reid”

Come on Folks! Be heard! Make a difference! Send your views to eardrum.editor@ears-chicago.com.

Looking Forward to Hearing From You.

“D”

EARS BOOK CLUB—

(If Oprah can have one, I don’t see why we can’t!)

Four years ago I was hanging out at the New York City AES convention with Bruce Swedien swapping

Universal Studio A stories. (We both talk about that room like it was a lost love that “got away”) He

showed me a book he had just written, “Make Mine Music”. It was essentially the story of his life in

Music, his views on audio, and his techniques for making some of the great recordings he has made over

the years. Yes, I got an autographed copy which I “devoured” over a day and a half “Power Read”. It

went into great detail about how he captured those sounds, how he approached his mixes, the Musical

impact he was trying to achieve, the tools he used, etc. He talked about a lot of different artists and

producers he worked with: Quincy Jones, Duke Ellington, Lesley Gore, The Johnson Brothers, ……..and of

course, Michael Jackson. Michael died last year and a new Swedien book, “In The Studio With Michael

Jackson”, Hal Leonard Publishing (2009) was released. I grabbed it right up. This book is a Bruce

Swedien/Michael Jackson version of “Recording The Beatles”, another excellent book reviewed in

April’s EARDRUM (admittedly a shorter condensed version.) From the foreword by Quincy Jones and the

preface by Rod Temperton to the Honors and Awards section you know you’re in for something special.

Chapter 1 – Recording Michael Jackson, Album by Album is just that. After some quick paragraphs on

meeting Quincy and Michael it goes into a point for point dissertation of how each and every album was

recorded and mixed; the studios, the techniques, the gear. It also includes full credits on anyone who

worked on the albums; assistants, arrangers, copyists, musicians. There are some really cool pictures

(B&W) of consoles used, assistant engineers (hey, Ed Cherney, another Chicago engineer, worked on

“Thriller”) and a full description of the racks, EVERY piece of gear, and how they were used. There are

some cool stories of Christmas with Michael and playbacks for Label Bigwigs. In Chapter 2 – The Future

of Music Is In Good Hands Bruce pays lip service to some of the young engineers he has mentored

recently. Chapter 4 – More About The Recording Process is an audio geek’s “wet dream.” Just check out

some of titles; “Room light levels During the Recording and Mixing Process”, “The Acusonic Recording

Process”, “Tape Machines and Multitracking”, “Large Scale Mixers”, “Recording and Mixing Drum,

Vocals, and Other Sound Sources”, “Speakers, Amplifiers, and Volume Levels in the Control

Room”……and “A Beautiful Nymph Named Echo Appears in Greek Mythology.” (No I’m not kidding and

it’s based in science) You could get a little suspicious of the release schedule but I enjoyed this book

immensely. There’s a LOT of good stuff in this book and I would recommend it for anyone wanting to

perfect their audio craft.

On another note some people have asked, “Have you ever read a book you didn’t like?” Actually yes,

next month I will review a book that is so technically inept, so historically incorrect, so badly written that

I could feel my brain cells dying as I looked at the cover.

See ya next month.

Danny Leake

EARDRUM Co-Editor

We Want to Know…

What have you been working on lately (and with whom?!) Do you have an idea for an article in

an upcoming EARDrum? Do you have a tech tip? How about an idea for an EARS event? Don’t

be shy… contact us:

Fran Allen-Leake, LJet Productons – 312.405.4335 or e-mail eardrum.editor@ears-chicago.org

Danny Leake, Urban Guerrilla Engineers –312.310.0475 or e-mail eardrum.editor@ears-

chicago.org

Check out our FACEBOOK page(s)

http://www.facebook.com/pages/EARS-Engineering-And-Recording-

Society-of-Chicago/434458785530?ref=ts

Look for the New EARS Website!! – COMING SOON!!

Log on to: http://www.ears-chicago.org