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01/17/2025

We got our first four compressors loaded in the “correction slots” of our B room 8058 console
We fell in love with them right away, and as luck would have it, our larger A room (acquired a few years later) also had four of these amazing diode-bridge compressors along for the ride
Eventually we really wanted some for our , so tracked these down
You might think so many of the same model of compressor would be overkill, but we certainly keep finding ways to use them all!
We also have a couple of 33609s in the mix room, which are very much like a stereo version of the mono 32264

01/04/2025

One thing that’s fascinating about is that, despite being a tech-focused industry, there’s comparatively little obsolescence
The capsule (a version is pictured here) has been in widespread continuous use since its introduction in the 1940s
Crucially, it’s not a “character piece” for stylized vintage sounds—a great M7 in good condition yields a high-fidelity capture that’s on par with mic capsules made today
Recording studios are full of technology, and century-old gear commonly coexists (and interfaces with!) gear designed and made in the 2020s

12/30/2024

The was an important milestone in —the first mass-marketable
Don had been experimenting with FM concepts for decades, and Yamaha themselves made the GS-1… but the DX7 was FM Synthesis’s “Fender Telecaster” moment
In the DX7, a preexisting technology reached maturity in a way that came to dominate the market and shape the sound of music for decades
In FM synthesis, multiple oscillators interact with one another. As long as they have a harmonic relationship with one another, harmonic timbres result. But using oscillators of inharmonic relationships allows new timbres—metallic, percussive aspects that can be layered in
At the time, these were frequently used to make metallophone-like sounds, or in more subtle ways to replicate the inharmonicity of instruments like acoustic pianos
After falling out of favor for a couple of decades (probably just due to ubiquity!) the DX7 is now a bona fide

12/25/2024

A few random large diaphragm condensers from .berlin, and
These three manufacturers employed slightly-different large diaphragm capsule designs
primarily uses center-terminated, dual membrane capsules like the , and
These capsules have their polarization voltage applied directly to the exact center of the conductive membrane via a screw-terminated wire.
They have a membrane on each side, and form different patterns by changing whether the rear membrane is polarized (and in which polarity)
AKG capsules like the have their polarization voltage applied not to the center of the membrane, but to the edge of the capsule, right at the rim of the backplate
Sony capsules (like those used in this C38P and the lurking in the background) are edge-terminated, but achieve their patterns differently
There is no rear membrane, and sealing off the back of the through-holes in the backplate creates a superior approximation of a true pressure-sensing omni

12/20/2024

We’ve become quite fond of our Fairchildren—the pictured here, and a recently-acquired 670 in our
The original 660 (mono) and 670 (stereo) units are, of course, mythical mid-20th-century disc mastering compressors that have become impractically-valuable in the past quarter-century or so
Virtually nobody uses them for lacquer cutting anymore (and not everyone loved them for that application when new!) but they are fantastically-colorful compressors on individual sources, submixes, and across the stereo mix bus
This character owes mostly to the massive number of transformers in the signal path—Including the power transformer, a 670 sports 11 transformers (plus two inductor coils) to go along with its 20 tubes
This is part of why even reproductions are expensive—in addition to being rare, the originals were large, heavy, and complex with a high parts count
We’ve been quite impressed with Heritage’s repros!

12/14/2024

Sometimes, vintage effects that were originally designed to be operated at instrument level are useful in workflows
In order for them to perform their best, we use various devices to help interface their high-impedance (“Hi Z” or “instrument level”) inputs and outputs with our low-impedance (“Lo Z” or “line level”) signals
Impedance is sometimes a tricky concept for creative people to get their minds around—partly because it’s usually explained using arcane technical language
But a pretty useful and straightforward analogy is mechanical gearing
If you’ve ever shifted gears in a bicycle (or a car with a manual transmission), you know that some gears are better at moving from a stop (which requires torque) while others allow higher speed
On a bike, staying in the low “getting started” gear will severely limit how fast you can go, while trying to start in the high “going fast” gear will require inordinate leg strength just to get moving in the first place
By starting in the high-torque gear and then progressively shifting to the high-speed gear, you can optimize for what is needed at any moment
In electronics, “voltage” and “current” (instead of torque and speed) are the two factors being traded-off. “High impedance” effectively means lower current but higher voltage, while “low impedance” means the opposite
So a device (often but not always a transformer) that shifts from one impedance to the other is very much the electronic version of “shifting gears”!

12/07/2024

A few pieces of gear that do harmonic saturation, dynamics processing, or both at once!
The .audio units at the top left are in that “both at once” category
The tape emulators (there are actually a couple of magnetic heads inside!), the and the saturator add harmonic saturation in various ways
The dynamics processors call back to the days when we kept a beloved series desk in this room, and the is a novel technology that shapes transient envelope in a unique way (not a conventional compressor nor expander)

12/03/2024

There have been lots of great made over the last century, and they can’t all be the most sought-after
Often the best values are the ones that are overshadowed by a more-famous older sibling
Though it’s not exactly a cheap mic anymore, the AKG C12a comes to mind—as does the pictured here
The Sony C37a is a fantastic tube mic that’s become very valuable, and has certainly overshadowed its FET successors
But the humble C38P is fantastic in some situations (we quite like it on guitar amp, for example)—its solid-state impedance conversion is just fine, and its grille design is arguably superior to its famous older relative

11/27/2024

.berlin , and RCA 44BX on bass duty!
The U67 is hiding on the Ampeg B15 in the background
One of the great things about having built an extensive is that we rarely have to choose or prioritize which instruments get the “good” mics
When we started as a basement project studio over twenty years ago, we didn’t have much gear
Once we really got rolling we had a couple of U87s, two CMV563s (which didn’t make a very good pair), and a select few other good mics
Over time we’ve gradually added to that, reinvesting in our studio infrastructure, which makes things much easier
We’re grateful, though, that we didn’t wait for gear—we set about recording music with what we had. The gear matters, but it’s not as important as a commitment to excellence, a passion for the work, and (in our case) musical background and training as performers.

11/20/2024

Alan Blumlein wrote the first academic paper on his invention sound in 1931
It took a few years, but eventually companies started producing stereo —essentially two complete microphones in a single housing, forming a near-perfect coincident pair
Two of our all-time favorites are pictured here: the .berlin FET and the
The SM69 FET is very much like two U87s in a single housing, albeit with different headbasket acoustics and some very tiny circuit adjustments
the is likewise very much like a pair of –same capsule, tube, transformer, and circuit
Just because two complete mics exist in the housing doesn’t mean both have to be used—half a C24 makes a great stand-in for a single C12 on vocal or other sources!

11/15/2024

While exotic, rare, esoteric microphones tend to grab headlines, we’d never overlook the timeless .berlin
Ubiquity does not equal blandness—the U87 is an incredible, singular-sounding mic that’s often the very best choice for a particular source
They’re great on piano (as seen here), vocal, and so much more—pretty much anywhere a microphone is called for, the U87 will likely do an excellent job
We also have quite a few of its tube predecessor the U67, and the U87 is related but a bit different in character (due to the FET impedance conversion amp)
Sometimes the obvious choice is the obvious choice for a reason—it’s distinguished itself as being among the best. The U87 combines great performance, consistency, and reliability
It’s universal status is also an advantage—if a freelancer is making an input list at our studio or nearly any other, they’ll know exactly what to expect if they spec the

11/10/2024

The AKG is a very well-known mic—but we might still argue that the very first version is a bit underrated
The original C414 (sometimes called the “414-comb” due to a misleading old catalog) looks a lot like its predecessors the C412 and C12a—it shares their distinctive stand mount
Importantly, it also shares their capsule—the later deep-dish brass-ring CK12 (arguably the best-sounding large-diaphragm condenser capsule ever made… or at least in the top three!)
This capsule is also present in several other classics—most notably the C12, C24 and Ela M251
The next revision—the —is probably the most famous among gear enthusiasts (it’s also silver in color and retains the brass-ring CK12)
Later versions of the C414 (like the 414-P48, 414-B-ULS, and XL and TL versions) use a different capsule with a nylon outer ring (sometimes mistakenly called “teflon”)
Those are fine mics (we use a lot of the B-ULS!) but are quite a different matter from these early 414s, which are really more in the C12 family

11/02/2024

You may have used the Sie-Q, and we have too! It’s a great plugin
But we also favor the genuine article in which it was modeled—the W295b
We’ve got a rack containing several of them in our , as well as a couple of BFE mk5b units that have the same power supply requirements
These may not be the most famous vintage outboard SQs (yet), but they’re some of our favorites, and we use them constantly

10/27/2024

Studio A set up for vocal overdubs
While the acoustic character in here is fairly controlled given the size (and all the exposed wood), our large gobos (originally from Allaire by way of Water Music) help calm down the immediate area even further
Building out these acoustic spaces was probably the most-impactful thing we’ve ever done in pursuit of excellence in recording
This room has been in continuous operation as a recording studio for nearly fourteen years now!

10/22/2024

We love here, and accomplish it many ways
Sometimes we’ll use an actual professional recorder (for awhile, a spare Otari MX5050 often stepped in for tape echo duties)
But more often we use one of the myriad funky devices that were purpose-built for this at various times in the 20th century
We of course have the requisite Roland Space Echoes and tube tape units from Maestro (EP-2 ) and Fulltone (TTE)
One of the more interesting was brought to us by — this Sireko
Electronically, the is much like an EP-3 solid-state e echoplex
In terms of transport, it’s a bit more like a Space echo—instead of a tape cartridge with two small reels (echoplex-style), it just has a loop of tape thrown into a box (you can see the random jumble of tape in the picture above)

10/17/2024

Studio B monitoring upgrade!
We’ve loved our SCM25s for a few years now, but have decided to upgrade Studio B’s monitors to SCM45s
This adds a bit more continuity with Studio A, and also ’s in-house (both of which feature 45s)
This keeps with the tradition of having ATCs as the main monitors in all of our rooms—It’ll be the same, only bigger and better!
Our well-cared-for SCM25A Pro pair will (very) soon be for sale… stay tuned (inquire w/ booking at thebunkerstudio dot com to beat the rush!)

10/12/2024

Small, medium, large!
Our main monitors are a pair of SCM110ASL Pro, flush-mounted and suspended in-wall
These are incredibly well-integrated into the room design and provide incredible imaging and detailed rendering
In the middle are some old AE-1s
These really let you know when you’ve got the lower midrange/upper bass right or wrong!
Finally, the little 5Cs are single-driver sealed boxes that are very revealing of balances and midrange
Since there’s no crossover point (there’s nothing to cross over!) the midrange is very straightforward to parse
We use all three of these, as well as the occasional Yamaha NS-10M

10/05/2024

The .berlin is part of two families of vintage Neumanns at once: the series and the series
FET80 was the term Neumann used to designate microphones that used field effect transistors (FETs) instead of vacuum tubes for impedance conversion
FETs are now extremely-common devices… the phone you’re holding in your hand contains billions of them! But at the time, this was cutting-edge tech. Although orders of magnitude larger than the tiny MOSFETs used in your phone, discrete FETs were tiny in comparison to the large, energy-hungry vacuum tubes they (largely) replaced
Other mics in the FET80 series include the U87, KM86, KM83, and many others
The “KM” series of mics is a few decades older, beginning with the vacuum tube KM53, KM54, and KM56. KM stands for “kleine mikrofon” (“small microphone”), and is plenty-descriptive of the design objective. To accomplish this in the vacuum tube era, specially subminiature tubes were needed (the three mics listed employed the AC701k)
Once the transition to FETs occurred, mics like this KM84 became much easier to make in small form factors

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New York, NY
11211

Telephone

+19292348534

Website

http://www.thebunkerstudio.com/

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Videos

Old #schematics are beautiful—especially when they’re #diazo whiteprints illustrating a vintage #Neve console . We have two binders full of these—one each for our Studio A #Neve8088 and Studio B #Neve8058 . The blue ink on a white background reveals that these to be #whiteprints, a photo-sensitive printing technique that replaced the old #cyanotype blueprints . It’s good that we keep them in the binders, because the blue printing will fade over time. It was probably never considered that we’d be needing to read these schematics forty-two years after they were printed! . Around the turn of the millennium, this method of printing largely disappeared, being replaced by the large xerographic printers that appeared in conjunction with computer-aided drafting techniques . This particular print appears to illustrate part of the console’s output routing, including tape outs and monitor outputs . . . . . . #diazotype #diazoprinting #whiteprint #whiteprints #diazowhiteprint #bluelineprocess #schematic #engineeringdrawing #vintageindustry #vintageindustrial #neveconsole #analogrecording #vintageneveconsole #neveconsoleschematics #consoleschematics #analogconsole #vintageanalog #studiogear #recordinggear #servicedocumentation #righttorepair #80seriesneve

The history of #recording is full of technologies that did their imperfect best to accomplish a task, and whose shortcomings became prized sounds in their own right . Early electric pianos didn’t sound much like pianos, but they sounded interesting. Magnetic guitar pickups were pretty poor at amplifying an archtop guitar’s actual sound, but inadvertently created a whole new category of instrument . Similarly, most 20th century #reverb technologies were highly-imperfect approximations of actual halls and acoustic spaces. This includes algorithmic digital reverbs like the highly-prized #Lexicon #480L (whose remote control is pictured here) . Algorithmic reverbs make use of tons of very short delays. One challenge with this approach is that copious short repeats from highly-precise delay lines create periodic artifacts that sound highly unnatural (or, at best, like the flutter echoes of a small empty bedroom) . The way these earlier Lexicon (and especially EMT) digital reverbs solved this was to introduce modulation into the algorithm. Theoretically, a small amount of modulation occurs in natural acoustic spaces due to tiny variations in the speed of sound (due to thermal currents, pockets of differing air pressure, etc) . However, the amount of modulation in most old digital #reverbs was far more than you’d expect to find in any kind of natural acoustic space (and was generally periodic in nature, unlike chaotic natural phenomena). Compared to later refinements like the Bricasti M7, you could say it sounded slightly exaggerated . Nevertheless, it sounded good—really good, in fact! The hyper-real lushness of the best old, high-end algorithmic reverbs (like the #Lexicon224, #EMT240 and #Lexicon480L) became so desirable that they’re still highly prized on the vintage market today . In other words, although in hindsight this tech fell slightly short of replicating the natural reverb of a good concert hall, it became a sought-after sound in its own right, like ma

The #SSLconsole expander/gates are underrated . When the #SSL desks were introduced, they were revolutionary in that they had a compressor and expander/gate built into each channel strip . The included VCA compressor is solid and useable, and most mixes in our SSL room make use of at least one or two . But the expander/gates are arguably even more consistently-useful . They can of course do normal expander/gate things—we often use them to manage noise floor on effect returns, for instance . With enough old #analog and early digital gear all wide open at once, noise floor can tend to accumulate. This is particularly true if using, say, a Level-Loc to crush drums in parallel . With some gentle expansion (or even hard gating!), the various returns can be managed to keep the aggregate noise floor very low . We also often use the expander/gate to massage things like droning sympathetic resonances from a floor tom, or bad cymbal bleed . But these SSL expanders also seem to do something particularly good on hand percussion like shakers and tambourines. If you set them just right, they can seem to make the groove feel better . . . . . . #sslexpander #expandergate #recordinggear #mixgear #mixtechniques #mixengineer #mixingengineer #musicproducer #producerlife #nycmixroom #ssl4000 #ssl4000g #ssl4000e #mixing #mixingconsole #mixingdesk #creativemixing #nycstudio #recording #studiogear #studiolife #sslconsoletour

If your primary experience with #analogtape is through plug-in emulations, you may not know what a library wind is, or why it’s used . A #librarywind is a medium-speed, medium-tension spooling of tape from one reel to the other. It’s not quite as slow as playback/record, but not quite as fast as fast-forward/rewind shuttling . The video above is an example of a library wind on our #Ampex #ATR102 half-inch machine. When would we use a library wind, and why? . If you look at the edge of the tape on the reel, you can notice two things: First, there are bits of plain white leader tape (which is spliced in between finished mixes). Secondly, the edges of the tape look smooth/even in height . The uniformity with which tape lays against itself on the reel is called the “pack,” and for long-term storage, a smooth, even pack is important for a few reasons . If some layers of tape are standing proud of others (sometimes called a “stepped pack”), damage can occur. The tape edge itself can become deformed, which will compromise playback quality . Many machines use the edge to help determine tape’s lateral position, and a deformed edge can also create inconsistent spacing between the tape and the head . Since tape should always be stored tails-out, a full reel must sometimes be spooled off. A library wind is, essentially, a way to ensure a pretty good pack (while avoiding taking half an hour to move an entire reel at playback speed) . Fast-wind modes don’t generally result in a good pack (particularly on Ampex machines, which shuttle tape very quickly and at high tension). Studers are a bit less erratic, but a library wind is still best practice . The fast-moving numbers on the counter here are seconds, and you can see that they’re moving about four times as fast as they would in real time. This means a complete reel can be spooled off in about seven minutes . . . . #ampexatr102 #archiving #archivist #analog #analogtapemachine #analogtaperecorder #openreeltape #

Jacob taking a ride on the fun wheel. Harder than it looks!

Gang Vox

Recording backing vocals for BLACK TAXI at the Bunker Studio

The Bunker Studio Promo

Promo for the Bunker Studio by David Mason.