"Never Expected Glow"

Ooh! I almost forgot... quick update on the Busstop18 track I was working on last week.

It's finished! And it's oh, so chill.

Swedish Producer jTa (Busstop 18 on Soundcloud) approached me a few weeks ago about this - and I knew immediately that I could write something appropriate to the melody and feel. I'm often inspired by titles and moods as they come to me, and this one was already titled "Never Expected Glow" (which I found charming in it's slightly not-traditional English semantics). So, I kept it, and wrote the rest of my lyric around it.

The only thing I knew about this song was that it "was inspired by a child".  OK.  I can do that.  I know that feeling. I have children. No problem. Wrote my lyric, recorded it, sent it off, he mixed it we critiqued it, he mixed it again...

And after he released it, he told me the story. This wasn't just about a child. This was about a little girl born with a hole in her heart. And somehow, what I'd written made sense.

But the beauty, here, is that it didn't surprise me in the slightest.

You see, my own son is a heart patient with Hypoplastic Left-Heart Syndrome. By the time he was two and half years old he'd had three open-heart surgeries. I KNOW what it's like to to worry over the hospital bed and wonder what the future will bring. I know the heartache when things look bleak, and I know the joy when all goes well.

I also how it feels to have 12 years distance between then and now. After all this time, I sometimes stop in my tracks and just look at my son in complete and utter wonder.  He's an amazing kid, even when you remove the medical miracles that brought us here.

So, it was Kismet that jTa asked me to do this. And Kismet that I did.




Never Expected Glow
jTa/McDuffie

Where did you come from?
Where do we go from here?
When all is said and done
Will you still be there?

I wasn't expecting
Where this would go
I wasn't looking for
This unexpected glow

How much longer
How much farther
How many days
How many years?

Where did you come from?
Where do we go from here?
When all is said and done
Will you still be there?

Ribbon Mic/Condenser Mic Comparisons

Earlier this week, I posted about my DIY Ribbon Microphone that I made while attending a workshop conducted by Austin Microphones.

Of course, the best way to know how it sounds is to compare it to a known microphone... in this case, my constantly-in-use Audio Technica 2050 Switchable Patterned Condenser.

For the test, I recorded both the Austin Model 1 Ribbon and the AT2050 Condenser simultaneously, with the mics positioned side by side, as close as possible. I made sure to switch the AT2050 from my normal cardiod pattern to the figure 8 setting, in effort to more closely mimic the physics of the Ribbon mic (which picks up sound from the front and rear).  I then positioned my pop filter evenly between the two.  It looked something like this:

L: Austin Model 1 Ribbon Microphone
R: Audio Technica AT2050

As I do not have a treated studio room (or a vocal booth), and my go-to reflection filter or Kaotica Eyeball will fit on only one mic stand at a time, I decided to embrace the natural ambiance of my house, which I've never tried before.  I will be doing so again.

The samples below are clearly noted as being recorded in either my front room (Cathedral Ceilings) or in my downstairs bathroom (Untreated Small Room).  I was surprised at how manageable and even-toned the bathroom sounded.  Don't knock 'til you've tried it, I guess.

I was planning to just use my normal recording space, but the neighbors were having some landscaping done, and there were power saws.... So, I tried the bathroom.  You may hear the landscaping crew in the background of the Cathedral Ceilings recordings. These are not pristine, but they do show the differences quite well.

It was not at all surprising to find that the ribbon (fitted with a .8 micron ribbon) was a little quieter overall, or that the tone it delivers is a bit more rounded, more full in the low-mid range, a little muted, and sensitive to sibilance and popping.  I expected all of those things.  In contrast, the AT2050 is a more sensitive to higher frequencies, and has a tendency to feel a little brittle or "tinny" on the high end.

The condenser is also "louder" and it took some time to get the levels nicely balanced between the two mics for the purposes of this comparison. In truth, I had the ribbon cranked to 10 on my audio interface... I think I'll be looking for a Cloudlifter at some point, but it's not at all a deal-breaker.

However, I am quite pleased with the effect, and will find many uses for it.  It has a nice, warm tone, and it is reminiscent of vintage technology (which of course, it is).

The following samples are dry, have no fx, no eq, no leveling and no compression.  They were sung a cappella and without the benefit of backing tracks.

I would love to know what you think! Please leave comments below!

DIY Ribbon Microphone Badassery

Austin Microphones Model 1 AUSTIN OTA-1

Yesterday I had opportunity to do something I never in a million years thought that I would do. I made my very own microphone.  With my very own hands.

And. It. Was. Awesome.

I have been wanting a Ribbon microphone for a while now.  In my mind, a Ribbon mic always brings a warm, vintage feel... but it's just the sort of thing that ends up on the "later/maybe/if" list when software demands to be upgraded, or the studio needs a new desk because the old one fell down around my ears...  So, I'd mostly ignored my Ribbon mic wishes, and only occasionally threw wistful glances their way.

I have a nice mic. I actually really LIKE my mic (for the record, my go-to mic is a pattern-switchable AT2050 condenser).  I'd love to try out a Neumann or a higher end Blue, and I really like the looks of the Violet Atomic, but I can't afford a Neumann/Blue and the Violet doesn't seem to be available in the US (also, I've never actually HEARD it)... and, really, I'd rather try a Ribbon, anyway.

Last month, I was wandering through Craigslist when I saw a listing for a "DIY Ribbon Mic Workshop", lead locally by San Diego's own Austin Microphones.  I was immediately and completely smitten by the very idea that I could MAKE one for myself.

In truth, I'm the kind of girl who would rather make things than buy things, and to be perfectly honest, it was the "BUILD" part that pushed me over the edge to Ribbonland. Keeping it 100.

I might have immediately purchased a kit or downloaded plans for the extremely reasonable price of $10... except... oh, wow... it looked pretty involved... and I was a little nervous to do all (read: any) of the electronics soldering on my own. So, a workshop was the *perfect* thing.  I figured that if I screwed up the components, someone could help me more easily at a workshop than at home.

I needn't have worried.

As it turned out, this was a very mechanical build, and Rick Wilkinson from Austin Microphones bent over backwards to not only be certain we were easily able to complete our build, but also to make sure that we were having a good time.

And we were having a great time. There were 11 of us in attendance; most were recording students, with varying levels of experience and expertise, and I was super impressed to NOT be the only female in the room-- in fact, there were FIVE of us (including Betsey, who was helping Rick conduct the workshop), and the girls were possibly even more enthusiastic than the guys.

The workshop was hosted at CSU San Marcos by CSUSM/San Diego City College professor, Bob Kostlan, who kept us entertained with a little Aphex Twin and some of his friends' Bandcamp offerings on the overhead monitors. So we were set.

Kit unboxed.

To begin our build, Rick provided each of us with an Austin Model 1 Ribbon Mic kit, and we started by gluing our magnets to Austin's proprietary truss.  It's worth mentioning that the truss consists of a series of open areas and joining fingers, which allows for more airflow around the ribbon than a conventional truss (see below images).  I really liked the thinking behind the design.

We then separated into groups of three or four, and each group went to a station for soldering the truss, forming and soldering the brass screen, or cutting and crimping the ribbon.  My group started with the soldering station, and we wired up our trusses pretty quickly.  Here's mine, glued and soldered, still with a clear spacer and minus the ribbon:

Magnets glued to truss, electronics soldered, spacer in place. Note
the "fingers" and open spaces between the truss and the magnets.

I surprised myself at how quickly I was able to solder (note to self, that "cold heat" soldering iron you bought is absolute junk, and its no wonder you didn't think you could do it.  Right tools for the job = super important).  Also, I only burned myself once. 

When it was time to build my screen, I challenged myself to do the absolute neatest soldering that I possibly could, knowing that I would be forever annoyed if I knew it was messy-- even though all the seams are cleverly hidden in the tube, every time I stepped up to sing, I would just *know* it was a mess inside... and yes, I know how crazy that sounds. Perfectionism is HARD, y'all.

Clockwise, L-R:  Soldering the electronics to the truss,
forming and soldering the screen,  view of both stations. 

Once the truss was completed, the screen was soldered and the XLR connection to the transformer was wrapped in fiber and inserted into the body tube, it was time to cut, crimp and install the Ribbon.

Included in the kit for this workshop was a 1.8 micron sheet of ribbon material, but I had a little conversation with Rick about my voice and we both concluded that a thinner material would help manage my higher frequencies.  He had brought along a sheet of .8 micron material, but noted that if cutting, crimping and floating the .8 micron ribbon was too difficult-- and it almost was-- then I could go ahead and use the 1.8 sheet included in my kit.

But, I managed.  Somehow.  OH, SO TRICKY. Don't breathe when working with this stuff, or it all just wafts away...

Clockwise, L-R:  Completed XLR connector and connector plate ready for 

soldering to the OTA-1 transformer; All parts ready for final assembly (note 

the straight seams on my brass screen!),  and the nearly impossible task of 
"floating" a .8 micron ribbon into place (ribbon shown is one of several 

practice ribbons... this float lost some crimp, and I had to try again. 

And again, and again. Oh my.

In floating the ribbon onto the truss-- it's so thin, you are quite LITERALLY floating the ribbon into position-- the ribbon is held in place by a sandwich of truss material, and secured in place with tiny screws.  My biggest difficulty in the entire build was managing the teeniest, tiniest nuts I've ever seen... I broke several of my precious ribbons just by knocking the tiny nuts off of the tiny screws as I tried to attach them.  I finally learned to slide the nuts onto a toothpick, place the toothpick tip to the top of the screw, and carefully slide the nut down the toothpick and into position.  

Patience is a virtue, but not one of mine....  And just as I was about to throw in the towel, Rick suggested I tack the connection in place and test it before I tried again.

It worked.

Oh, wow!  It worked!

A little more soldering to complete the connections, tucking the wires into the screen, finessing the screen into place, a final sound check, and Blammo.

I have a new Ribbon mic.

I have already picked up another mic stand, and have ordered a new shock mount.  I'll need to line the  grip of the shock mount with sticky-backed foam, as this mic is an odd diameter (38mm).  But that will work, and I can't WAIT to put it through some testing.

Stay tuned.  Will post some audio samples as soon as I can.