It's like a Crane Song Christmas - In May!
May.06.2010 00:00
In my never-ending question to be
completely satisfied with a stock piece of
gear, I’ll be happy to bore you with a
couple of the latest modifications to the
existing gear...
Don’t get me wrong here - My Crane Song pieces are some of the greatest hunks of glorious mastering hardware ever designed by a human being. Heck, I’m not even all that convinced that Dave Hill is actually completely human sometimes... It takes someone ‘superhuman’ to design gear of this caliber.
But sometimes even super-gear needs a tweak or two to be ‘more suitable’ for the task at hand. People who race cars adjust the timing or use special spark plugs, chefs import spices that give a little extra ‘something’ than the plastic-bottles mass-produced stuff on the shelves at the store.
Mastering guys mess with the side-chains...
To that end, Sean at Crane Song whipped me up some “plug ’n play” side chain mods --
On the STC-8M compressor, a high-pass filter. This was the second or third design... Wasn’t happy with the previous. This one is just what I wanted. The unit is far less sensitive to low end -- It’s what I always wanted on this unit and I don’t need to use an external EQ.
On the Ibis EQ, a... Well, it’s a... I honestly don’t know what to call it. I think they call it a 6dB pad at the shop, but that’s not entirely accurate... It’s sort of a “half-sensitivity” mod -- The swing on the stock unit is +/- 12dB. With the pad, the swing is reduced to +/- 6dB. “Fine tuning” is now FINE tuning.
I’m sure you’re wondering why you bothered reading this. Heck, I’m beginning to wonder why I bothered typing it. But let’s say that I’m eternally grateful to the Crane Song guys for allowing me to make some of the greatest gear ever even more -- greatesterer. Read More...
Don’t get me wrong here - My Crane Song pieces are some of the greatest hunks of glorious mastering hardware ever designed by a human being. Heck, I’m not even all that convinced that Dave Hill is actually completely human sometimes... It takes someone ‘superhuman’ to design gear of this caliber.
But sometimes even super-gear needs a tweak or two to be ‘more suitable’ for the task at hand. People who race cars adjust the timing or use special spark plugs, chefs import spices that give a little extra ‘something’ than the plastic-bottles mass-produced stuff on the shelves at the store.
Mastering guys mess with the side-chains...
To that end, Sean at Crane Song whipped me up some “plug ’n play” side chain mods --
On the STC-8M compressor, a high-pass filter. This was the second or third design... Wasn’t happy with the previous. This one is just what I wanted. The unit is far less sensitive to low end -- It’s what I always wanted on this unit and I don’t need to use an external EQ.
On the Ibis EQ, a... Well, it’s a... I honestly don’t know what to call it. I think they call it a 6dB pad at the shop, but that’s not entirely accurate... It’s sort of a “half-sensitivity” mod -- The swing on the stock unit is +/- 12dB. With the pad, the swing is reduced to +/- 6dB. “Fine tuning” is now FINE tuning.
I’m sure you’re wondering why you bothered reading this. Heck, I’m beginning to wonder why I bothered typing it. But let’s say that I’m eternally grateful to the Crane Song guys for allowing me to make some of the greatest gear ever even more -- greatesterer. Read More...