New Monday #102
Happy Monday!
I'm sitting in an AirBnB in Anaheim, California, writing this on a Sunday night. I'm slowly dying from "NAMMthrax," the cold/flu thing almost everyone gets after three days of constant work and no sleep. The East Coast is socked in with snow; all our flights are cancelled and we're here for a few more days. 'We' is the Korneff crew, or what remains of us as everyone finds their way home.
We. We we we we we. The music business. The music instrument business. The pro recording business. 75,000+ people, from 120 countries, all together for three days. And they all stopped by our booth.
Kidding! They didn't all stop by our booth, which was a little food truck we designed. We called it "Korneff Bytes" and we wore soda jerk hats and aprons. But a lot of people did stop by.
It was lovely seeing a bunch of you. Thank you so so much for coming over and talking to us. You're all so warm and... I don't know what to call it without sounding like my grandma—Loving? Appreciative? Welcoming? We hope you felt welcome at the Korneff Bytes Truck.
Sound Techniques and Sunset Sound
Last year we unveiled our Shure Level-Loc, which we made with Shure and Tchad Blake. This year, we had the SITRAL EQ, and we were pre-viewing a new plug-in, a reverb we made with Sunset Sound and a company called Sound Techniques.
Sunset Sound: this is a studio with a legacy and legend like Abbey Road. Going to it is like stepping back to the 60s, with its big live rooms and kind of bland, workman-like vibe. Sunset isn't fancy, and it doesn't have to be. It's designed to record impressive music, not impress musicians and engineers.
In the late 60s and into the 70s, Studio Two at Sunset was an absolute destination. Led Zeppelin, the Doors, The Rolling Stones, and on and on... some of the most iconic records of the era were cut in Studio Two on a Sound Techniques A-Range console. Probably most of you haven't heard the name Sound Techniques.
They were an English company. Their designs were very ahead of the times. The modules were hot swappable—meaning you could pull a faulty one out of the console and replace it without turning the whole console off. This was a first in studios. Sound Techniques had all sorts of impedance matching options to get the most out of a microphone, and had an EQ that was similar to a Pultec—inductor based, with boost and cut overlap for some interesting curves. Ken Scott thought it was the best sounding desk he ever worked on. There was a Sound Techniques A-Range console at Trident in London. Many of those records that everyone thinks were cut on a Trident A-Range, were actually cut on a Sound Techniques. Records like Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. Hey Jude. Some REALLY big records. Here's a list of records done on a Sound Techniques.
We're in beta testing right now for the first and only Sound Techniques channel strip plug-in, modeled on a vintage A-Range module. I'll keep you all posted. We think a release around March? But in the meantime...
At Sunset Sound in the 70s, the engineers preferred the reverb chamber in Studio One to the chamber in Studio Two, where the Sound Techniques console was. So they'd run cables out the door and across the courtyard, and through the meat locker door (it is a door off an old industrial refrigerator) into the Altec speaker in Chamber One, and then back to the console via the pair of RCA D44 mics. We've captured that entire setup—the chamber and the console, using the only original Sound Techniques A-Range channel strip in existence, to recreate the sound of Sunset Sound, circa 1970. Of course, the plug-in has a whole bunch of other features to it, because Dan Korneff. We're really happy with it. It too is in beta testing and we think it will be out mid to late February. Some of you saw it at NAMM. It's a killer.
Sound Techniques is now American owned. They have hardware products, including fabulous sounding consoles. I'll be telling more of their story in the next few weeks.
NAMMthrax is killing me. I have to finish this before I pass out.
The Mystery of NAMMPISS
There were about eight of us on Team Korneff NAMM this year: Dan, me, Justin from StudioVault (online storage solutions for recording studios), Colin (good lord, is this guy funny), Christoph (our social media guy), Mike (our email guy), Fluff Harley (he engineers records for KORN and Prince and pretends to have Tourettes), and Connor, our general purpose assistant.
SO... we wake up after our first night in the AirBnB, and Justin is upset because there's a huge puddle of water on the bed and on the floor. Huge. Like someone peed.
It wasn't yellow nor did it smell like urine. But there was also no sign of a leak on the ceiling or anywhere. The Mystery begins. Justin was sure it was pee. Dan and I were pretty positive it wasn't.
Justin was also freaked out. Did someone come in off the street and pee in his bed? Did one of us sneak into his room and pee in his bed? Did someone dump water?
Someone did something.
Working Theory One: Justin peed his own bed
After looking at his health app on his phone, Justin decided that he sleepwalked and peed in his own bed, even though he never sleepwalked before and is in his mid-forties. To his credit, he owned his behavior, perhaps a little too much so: he basically told everyone he met at NAMM he peed his own bed. It wasn't like he stood outside of our food cart booth and said to strangers, "Have you heard of Korneff Audio? We make plug-ins. I sleepwalked and peed the bed."
Actually, it was kinda close to that. But whatever. Dan was firm that it wasn't pee. I was ambivalent and also I'm forgetful. Pee? What pee?
Working Theory Two: Ectoplasm
A ghost peed on Justin's bed. This theory, found on REDDIT, didn't gain much traction with us. We're audio guys, we're practical. The puddle of water was water, not ghost drool, or whatever ectoplasm is. And what is the tortured soul of some long lost NAMM attendee doing in our AirBnB peeing on the bed? And why Justin's bed? Why not into Colin's mouth? Colin snores so loud it wakes the dead. "Who dares disturb my sleep??" moans the vengeful poltergeist as it pees all over Anaheim...
Working Theory Three: Condensation
Justin put forth this theory after consulting with ChatGPT. The puddle was caused by condensation. Droplets of condensate ran down the walls, built up into a pool on the floor, the corner of the sheet on the bed touched the puddle, the water climbed the sheet via capillary action.
We've come to the conclusion this is what happened. The AirBnB is hot, there's a water header outside right by the bathroom next to Justin's room. One morning we woke up and the walls felt damp—the whole little house we're in feels wet in general.
I think this is what happened. Dan is sure of it. Justin regrets telling strangers that he peed the bed. For those of you that met Justin at NAMM, and who left our booth thinking they had a little too much information about a stranger's nighttime habits, Justin would like me to tell you he didn't pee the bed.
This is overall a strange account of NAMM. Barely any mention of the show, a bit on Sound Techniques and a ton on peeing. I'm disappointed in myself.
But truly, my feelings on NAMM are that it is all about people and meeting them. I think everyone is there to meet other people in the tribe. We spend too much time on computers alone. I hope AI doesn't make that even more common—I have no doubt it will. But at NAMM, for a few days it feels like you're in the studio, hanging with musicians, talking about equipment and music. I could wax on poetically about this, the human need to connect and how that is the essential purpose of music, but I think the NAMMthrax has won. I'm going to pass out.
Thanks for reading, thanks for stopping by the booth. Forgive this lame email. Next week will be better. There will be some new things for you—videos that are instructional, more on electronics, some things on acoustics and mic'ing—stuff to help you in the studio.
Warm regards,
Luke