Wow, that's a great looking (and I'm sure - SOUNDING) piece of gear, Jeremy!

Please do fill us all in how it works for you. The price sure looks right, too - for 8 ch., and the 16 ch version seems a bargain as well.

Hey Joe,

It's funny that you say that. I think the one drawback to the Lynx is that, to me, it looks just aweful! I don't know why, it just looks like a toy to me. Of course, I don't usually care how a piece of gear looks (my wife does - hell, she almost threw a fit at the last Tube Tech preamp I looked at.)

So far, with just simple analog signals going into the digital realm, I've been really impressed with it though. It makes my Ramsa (a unit which I've thoroughly enjoyed for a couple of years) sound like a real toy! Of course, I still dig the RAMSA, I just like the Lynx that much better so far.

J.

my wife does - hell, she almost threw a fit at the last Tube Tech preamp I looked at.

Really?!? What's wrong with the way a Tube Tech looks? Is your wife your studio asthetic advisor or something?

She didn't like the knobs!!!! :evil:

I mean, seriously! She doesn't give two sh*ts about what I do, but when I go to buy a piece of gear, she gets pissed if it doesn't look just right. Wow, talk about a double standard.

Oh well, I usually ignore her anyway.
(At least in regards to studio stuff.)

:D

That's funny Jeremy! Thanks for sharing!

She didn't like the knobs! -- Cucco.

Jeremy, just buy a set of knobs she likes ($1 a piece ?) You'll have
your gear, she'll have the knobs, and everyone is happy.

It will be in my home and the acoustics will be a tad limited -- Cucco.

If you have a small-to-medium "bright" room it'll be more than
good enough for classical guitar. IMO of course.
Cheers,
Costy.

But I really dig the knobs. :cry:

I'll likely put him in my foyer - hardwood floors, 24 foot ceiling.

This is only a prelim session - just to figure out a few things and so that I can evaluate some equipment on his new instrument. Once we actually begin the session, I'll likely record in performance hall at Shenandoah Conservatory.

J.

Just curious - why do you want to record him in a hall ? I've always
thought that gut-strings guitars are not powerful enough to fill a
large space (unless amplified)...

Gut? Is this person a member of the 'Society for Creative Anachronism'?

I know that many serious baroque fiddle players use gut strings but wasn't aware that classical guitarists still mess with such fickle string materials.

Gut is not actually made from real "Cat Gut" or "Goat Gut" as it used to be. It's simply a term referring to a type of nylon or wound string found on classical guitars and violin family instruments.

As for the hall, there's a few reasons -

I find it much easier to record an intimate sound in a large hall than an expansive sound in a confined area. Plus, a few of the pieces involve chamber orchestra and classical guitar, spoken word and classical guitar, et. al. For the sake of maintaining the sonic integrity from one piece to the next, I feel that the room must be part of the control group, not the variables.

I wouldn't be using the standard spread AB with hall mics - more along the lines of a couple close mics and a couple distant mics mixed in for flavor. Then of course, on larger works, mix in the ABs and spots if necessary (though not likely).

The interesting thing about this disc I'm working on is that there will be a few world premiers of some pieces for classical guitar. The artist had the works commissioned not too long ago. The piece for spoken word and guitar is based on an Avante Garde poem set to music (not sung, rather spoken). I'm really excited to be doing the project in general, so much, that I'm kinda doing it Pro Bono for a bit. (At least the recording and engineering aspect of it - as for distro, I'm hoping to recoup any losses).

The main reasons I'm doing it for no charge is because the guitarist is a great player with a good attitude (attitude goes a long way in my book.) Second, I'm excited to be doing the recording for a couple world premier pieces on an instrument that's enjoying a little of a well-deserved resurgance right now.

:D J

Cucco wrote: ... on an instrument that's enjoying a little of a well-deserved resurgance right now. :D J

I sure hope you're right, Jeremy, its a bit of a dead duck down here in Aus. The CG has some problems, low sound power, not much of a repertoire, and the technique is still being sorted, but it is capable of really rendering a great musical experience.

I have been listening to some of my CG discs this week, and loving it. I think composers for this instrument should be encouraged as much as possible.

Gut is not actually made from real "Cat Gut" or "Goat Gut" as it used to be. It's simply a term referring to a type of nylon or wound string found on classical guitars and violin family instruments.

I knew a few violinists a number of years ago who played on genuine gut strings. I think that there are likely still a few makers of strings from real gut, tempermental and unreliable as they might be - one half temper and the other half mental, as my wife says.

I realize that nylon or other improved synthetics such as perlon are the order of the day. I'm not sure whether Pirastro still offers a line of strings from real gut. Up until recently almost all quality synthetic string companies would compare the sound of their top of the line strings to that of 'true gut'.

Tennis anyone? :)

Any time you want an emotional boost regarding the CG, give a listen to the Romero's performance (reissued on Mercury CD #434-369-2, probably out of print now?) of Rodrigo's Concierto De Aranjuez and Concierto Andaluz, with the San Antonio Symphony & Victo Alessandro, Cond.

Just gorgeous stuff, from 1967, originally done on 3-track 1/2" tape, with three Telefunken 201's, plus a fourth for a little detail. Harold Lawrence was the recording director, Robert Eberenz was the RE and TD.

I had the honor & priviledge to record the next-generation of these four wonderful musicians two years ago, performing the same work here... I forget the lineage now, but I seem to recall all are sons or cousins of the last surviving member (Pepe?), and they dedicated the evening to their grandfather Celedinio.

This seems to be the time of year, however, for "Labors of Love". I'm deeply involved in a rather large Vivaldi choral/orchestral project that we recorded two weeks ago (Details to come as we complete it - plans are for a CD, DVD-A, and DVD-Video in surround.) It involved a week of rehearsals, concert, and even a 2nd performance WITHOUT an audience present, so we could get the best shots (video closeups, etc) as well. It's a long complicated story, but I'm not being paid for it per se; the profits (if there are any) will be split from the sales of the CDs and DVDs.

Sometimes it's nice to do something for the sheer artistic merit than just the $$$. Plus, no one says you can't do this or that...it comes down to how much we want to put into it ourselves. Fortuantely, we had no limits placed on us, so this is hopefully going to be a 'no-excuse" kind of release...it will be as good as it gets for us, and I really don't mind working on it "for free", not when the quality level is as high as we can make it on both sides of the microphone.

It's funny you mention the Concierto De Aranjuez as this is the piece that I've recorded for this guitarist a few times now. A part of it is on my website at:

(Dead Link Removed)

The orchestra is decent but definitely not first string. The other problem was that, I had 2 mics on him, another recordist had a large mic (TLM 103) on him and the house had a Senn MD421 on him, so jockeying for the correct position was tough. Ultimately, I got pretty close to a preferred location since I was actually hired by the guitarist for this purpose.

This piece will not likely be on the disc (copyright issues), but some of the other stuff should be quite good.

J.

I've posted the demos here:
(Dead Link Removed)#231895

Unfortunately, the cable for the Aurora has not shown yet. ( :x )

I ordered from Lynx 10 days ago and despite the fact that their website says "If you purchase cables online right now they will be delivered anywhere in the United States within 3 days business days." I still haven't seen them!!!! (I'm UBER pissed!)

They won't be here until the 12th!

Oh well, these are going through the RAMSAs which are damn fine converters in their own rights.

Comments, etc.?? It's still a work in progress - what I was going for was a good direct vs. reflected sound - well centered (not too wide) with good surrounding ambience. I think the guitar sounds nice, full and mellow but bright enough to project. His instrument is a custom job that is apparently somewhat of a prototype from a Gent's shop here in the states. It's quite a nice instrument.

J.

They use Tascam pinnings for the D25's on the Aurora... It is easy enough to find those cables anywhere.

--Ben

Except for the AES Pinout - for that, they use Yamaha pin-outs. I bought the Tascam cable (digital DB25 to AES breakout) 2 months ago in anticipation, but it turns out, I dropped $200 on the wrong cable.

BTW - the Yamaha pin-outs are VERY hard to find. GC, Sam Ash and all the other local guys don't carry them. Even the HUGE local dealer (Washington Professional Systems - a division of Chuck Levin's Washington Music) didn't carry them. As a matter of fact, I had to argue with the guy b/c he didn't believe that there was a difference between the Yamaha pinout and the Tascam/Digi Pinout.

However, I do have the analog cables already - I got a great deal on some Monster Cable DB25 to XLR cables so that's ready to go.

The cable that I'm actually waiting on is the one that goes directly from the AES 16 to the Aurora (High Density DB26 to DB25).

I'll order the other digital cable (DB25 to AES - 4 XLRF, 4XLRM) from Lynx today and expect to get it sometime in February.

J.

Contact these folks for custom cables:

Pacific Radio- No Shorts Division- http://www.pacrad.com/html/noshorts.shtml They made some fantastic cables for me. For my analog ones, they used Mogami cable, Neutrik XLR's and 1/4" plugs, tecflex, the Panasonic Connectors. I beat the heck out of these in the field and they still keep on working. I also made them 20 feet long so they'd work in any environment. They also have premade ones from Pacific Radio, but the D25 isn't quite the same quality.

--Ben

Thanks for the link - I'll definitely be checking these guys out!

*Bump* :lol:

There's a lengthy discussion about the actual recording on this one, but it's only between me and David French. I would definitely like others' opinions thoughts too. Not that there's anything wrong with David's... :)

(Dead Link Removed)#231895

J.

People are gone lately it seems. Only John has responded to my recent submission.

Jeremy,

Thanks for the post(the other one where you and David discuss the 3 recordings). This kind of detail on exactly how things were done is the kind of thing that I personally would love to see a lot more. This is the stuff that leads to actual learning.

Tres cool

Very nice tone to my ears too, even if they are virgin ears...I'd imagine that when you have a high end custom made instrument and a good player it makes your job a hundred times easier, no?

Anyway, what did you do to address potential issues with sound changes as the guitarist moves, or those slight variations in mic distances which can throw a great deal of yuk into the sound in mono?

Other tidbits:

A 24 foot ceiling on your foyer? Can I come over to your house to play??? yoiks!:shock:

As for the look of your pre...

Ultimately I think the lesson in all this is that significant others who are not particularly interested in recording should not be allowed to be present while major gear purchases are taking place. Marital bliss would be maintained by this rule:wink:

Cheers
Keith

Thanks Keith!

Yeah, the 24 foot ceilings in the foyer is a cool thing except for when I need to change a light bulb or heaven forbid paint it.

I'll spoil the surprise about the setup though -

The mics -
Audix SCX25 (2 - one over the fret board, one over the sound hole)
M Gefell M296 coincident with the Audix over the soundhole

Preamps -
Summit 2BA-221 on the Audix mics with the tube gain at about the halfway point and the input gain only up a little. (These are VERY sensitive mics.)
True Systems on the Gefell.

I'll post some pictures here soon.

J. (y)

Cucco, post: 156861 wrote: Except for the AES Pinout - for that, they use Yamaha pin-outs. I bought the Tascam cable (digital DB25 to AES breakout) 2 months ago in anticipation, but it turns out, I dropped $200 on the wrong cable.

BTW - the Yamaha pin-outs are VERY hard to find. GC, Sam Ash and all the other local guys don't carry them. Even the HUGE local dealer (Washington Professional Systems - a division of Chuck Levin's Washington Music) didn't carry them. As a matter of fact, I had to argue with the guy b/c he didn't believe that there was a difference between the Yamaha pinout and the Tascam/Digi Pinout.

However, I do have the analog cables already - I got a great deal on some Monster Cable DB25 to XLR cables so that's ready to go.

The cable that I'm actually waiting on is the one that goes directly from the AES 16 to the Aurora (High Density DB26 to DB25).

I'll order the other digital cable (DB25 to AES - 4 XLRF, 4XLRM) from Lynx today and expect to get it sometime in February.

J.

Old thread but researching brought me here to learn about the Lynx odd cable that could become a dated issue. Are they still using the Yamaha pin-outs with the standard Tascam 25pin DSUB? seems goofy. Is this still the case?

I believe so. The Tascam pinout is standard for analog but the Yamaha is the standard for digital db25. Or so I've found.

got it!