What Do Australian's Know About Sound?

Posted: Thu Mar 07, 2002 6:24 pm

G'day folks. To any of you interested enough to drop in - welcome. Hope you find the following interesting. If you already know this, sorry for wasting your time.

We have a great industry magazine here called "Audio Technology". In issue 18, Rick O'Neil of Turtlerock Mastering in Sydney ran his usual column with the moniker "What would an Australian know about sound?". Apparently Rick was slightly miffed about the reception he got when in Ireland.
In fact the first part of his article is a sustained tirade against the Irish. (point taken Rick but it's gonna be a while before anybody shouts you a Guiness man!!!)

Anyway in a fit of patriotic pique Rick ran the following (which as you can see I've quoted at length!). Most people would be aware that companies like Rhode Microphones and Fairlight had/have their origins in Australia. But there were a couple of surprises for me in Rick's article. Maybe some of you would be surprised to find out where some of your of gear originated.
But then again....what would I know right?

"At the end of World War 11, with Europe flattened and the rest of the world's industry scattered to the wind, the world's leaders set up trade agreements which lasted well into the 60's./ Different countries worked in different areas of expertise. The Indians would make the rubber, the Americans made the tyres. Meanwhile, Australians produced whatever they could (usually wool and wheat). But in one very interesting electronic trade agreement between America and Australia, amalgamated wireless A.W.A. and R.C.A. America figured a good use of resources was that America would make one kind of vacuum tube and Australia would make another. Both countries would label the tubes as if RCA made them all. RCA made most of the world's vacuum tube amplifiers (ie the gain stage) and AWA made more complex power and radio types. Some bright spark in AWA Sydney Australia invented a radio tube whose output could be varied depending on a sidechain circuit within it and created the vari-mu tube. This is interesting because when applied to RCA gain circuits (and with a lot of trickery), hey presto you have the makings of the best compressors/limiters ever heard. If you've ever heard a Fairchild limiter or a RCA BA6 that's the sound of an Australian vari-mu tube pumping away, and that was the sound of recorded music - nearly every record ever made and broadcasted prior to end of 1970 was flowing with one of our tubes. Open up any sound magazine and look for the word vari-mu, its still as popular as ever.

In 1970 some clever Australian chaps, Thiele and Small, took on the task of creating formulas for making predictable speaker boxes. Their formulas when applied to vented bass boxes are the primary design rules for low frequency systems. Every time you hear a subwoofer, you are hearing the sound of some Australian shaking your insides out.

Lets not forget the clever Australian Bruce Jackson who figured out in 1985 the digital rules as applied by the Sony Corporation were not right. And when everybody else was marvelling at the wonders of digital recording, Bruce, an Australian, was fixing the sound, getting rid of the harshness. His digital filters were retro fitted into nearly every Sony and Mitsubishi digital recorder and lots and lots of 1630 mastering system. Bruce's gone on to do other things now, but at the time his work established a premier digital audio company. You may have heard of it....Apogee Electronics.

And what about Avalon stuff? Winton Morro figured out way before anybody I ever heard, that outboard preamps were better then running through the console. He came into Festival Studio's (hey I've recorded there!-Stedel) in the late '80's with his beautiful boxes that use class A discrete circuits running on 80 volt rails (that's about the theoretical maximum voltage). His first couple of prototypes used to blow about one day in 10. When I asked him why he used 80 volt rails when they fail one time in 10 he said "because high voltage gives you massive headroom and massive headroom sounds better. I use 80 volt systems which I can nearly get stable most of the time, because 81 volts blows up everytime". The Avalon stuff has been rock solid for over 10 years now and because no one in Australia would support his vision for superlative sound, Avalon moved to America. So now we're in a weird position of lusting after American gear that in fact's really Australian.

Oh yeah...what about Duntech's speakers? Duntech are internationally renowned as being the best hifi speakers on the planet. Guess what? They make 'em in Adelaide."

Course if he's wrong, remember, don't shoot me - Im only the messenger.

Kind regards on top down under
Stedel

Posted: Fri Mar 08, 2002 4:22 am

Hey Stedel!!!!

What Rick says in his rant is very true. Rick has been around the block a few times and is pretty much on top of all things audio...

He does have nice studio in the milbar complex..
http://www.milkbarstudios.tv

It is a shame that we as Australians can be a bit short sighted when it comes to things related to Audio. What Rick relates to in is Avalon is so damn true. Wyn Morro must be laughing all the way to the bank as there is so much Avalon....especially 737's in studios here in Australia, we must have given him enough $$ to build his own retirement home.. lol

And many of Australia's finest Neve consoles have found there way to LA, NY or somewhere else. After the gear sharks went through Australia there are only a handful (less than 4) of classic neves now left in Australia.

But the coolest is never going to be sold. Its the one where i do a bit of hothouse and it's still rocking after 27 yrs. 8024

Ozzies ROCK!!!

Posted: Fri Mar 08, 2002 4:28 am

Well my folks are Irish and while signed to Japanese run JVC I had UK based Australian management and worked with the adorable and legendary UK based Australian producer Julian Mendelsohn....
It's no news to me that Australia rocks Smile

Renie

Posted: Fri Mar 08, 2002 4:58 am

What were our Irish friends basing their impressions of Australian engineering on? The quality of music recording coming out of Australia? Maybe it 's more a problem of differing tastes. Can anyone turn me on to some great sounding Australian albums to check out?

Posted: Fri Mar 08, 2002 5:57 am

Quote:

Originally posted by chealy:
Can anyone turn me on to some great sounding Australian albums to check out?

Well now you see chealy...How would YOU feel if somebody said "Can somebody turn me on to some great sounding English albums to check out?"

You'd think what?
Nah doesn't matter...look out mate that bus is just about to run over you!!!

Anybody else out there hasn't heard any "great sounding" Australian music in the last 37 years?

Geez, yer bum's that interesting? Smile

Posted: Fri Mar 08, 2002 7:08 am

Speaking of Austrailia and sound, I believe the Rode mics have taken the industry by storm. Great product, very well made and getting great revues.

As to good Austrailian songs, I have the double CD of The Little River Band and those tunes have held up really well over the years.

Of course I'm old so what do I know?

Posted: Fri Mar 08, 2002 7:27 am

Whoa - seemed to have touched a raw nerve with Stedel! Serious question though...

Posted: Fri Mar 08, 2002 10:58 am

Great Australian bands that I love include: "Hunters & Collectors", "The Church" and "ICEHOUSE"

Posted: Fri Mar 08, 2002 12:52 pm

"Tie me kangaroo down, sport / tie me kangaroo down . . ." Wink

Bear

Posted: Fri Mar 08, 2002 2:31 pm

Good waive of your flag there Stedle.

Good on ya!

Smile

Posted: Fri Mar 08, 2002 9:39 pm

As an Aussie muso/producer myself, my view is that Australians over the years have been very good technically however they have lacked good "ears" in many cases. I got very frustrated many times with the "we don't do that here approach" and many other technically hungup rules. I know many other such stories. Many bands here either record o/s or use an o/s producer. Many local productions didn't cut it.

Sure the general sound of our productions has increased but lets not go overboard yet.

Sure we have many technical claims to fame in mnay idustries - do you know that airplane black boxes were invented here - true. The problem was there was no support locally :w: so off to the USA goes the patent.

But lets not gild the lily, we have to be confident that we can produce world class sounds not because we invented some good techo stuff.

Cheers
Bruce
University of Woolloomooloo

Posted: Sun Mar 10, 2002 7:40 am

stedel,

The latest from those great minds "down under" might be a high-end amp by the name of "Halcro." They can be a bit pricey, but when you start to measure distortion by the billions, I guess you'll have to pay for it!

Posted: Sun Mar 10, 2002 1:12 pm

[quote]Originally posted by Bruce Callaway:
[b]

Sure the general sound of our productions has increased but lets not go overboard yet.

Sure we have many technical claims to fame in mnay idustries - do you know that airplane black boxes were invented here - true. The problem was there was no support locally Smile

Kind regards to you in Woolloomooloo - used to live round there me self....well Darlinghurst actually...

Cool

Posted: Sun Mar 10, 2002 1:36 pm

Quote:

Originally posted by chealy:
Whoa - seemed to have touched a raw nerve with Stedel! Serious question though...

G'day chealy..well yeah a little bit of a raw one. Cool

Posted: Sun Mar 10, 2002 1:47 pm

Quote:

Originally posted by Bear's Gone Fission:
"Tie me kangaroo down, sport / tie me kangaroo down . . ." Wink

Bear

"Once a jolly swagman
Camped by a billabong
Under the shade of a coolabah tree..."

(then there was the squatter, the troopers (one,two, three), the jumbug, the tucker bag,
his billy, his mathilda, and of course, waltzing..and his ghost.)

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