Browner Sound

Less than 2 weeks away from this kickass show!!! Come support your local, female-fronted punk bands at Churchills Pub on March 20th. 18+ and $10 at the door. See you there!

How a 12AX7 works. The vacuum tube is a brilliant and simple device that not only ushered in the era of modern electronics but continues to stand on its own, regarded as one of the finest (and most sonically pleasing) amplification stages ever designed.

Take a brisk tech walk through the Avalon VT-737sp - get a rare inner look at signal flow and componentry

MY BIG TRANSFORMER DISCOVERY - my favorite output and line-input transformer is the vintage Reichenbach-manufactured Jensen JE-123-S. This no-longer-available steel-lamination transformer was used in so many fat 70’s vintage consoles: API, Quad-Eight, Trident 80B, Auditronics 110, ADM as well as in vintage DBX compressors and UREI gear. I wanted 16 of these for my Trident Trimix console but couldn’t afford $120+ each. I contacted Cinemag and discovered they actually ARE Reichenbach Engineering and continue to manufacture this exact transformer using the original steel supplier and manufacturing methods of the 70’s. How much? $34.28 each 🤯 If you want that vintage 70’s sound that only comes from a Reichenbach/Jensen steel-lamination output (or line-input) transformer, get the real thing at a fraction of the price. Call Cinemag and tell them Omar sent ya.

Ever wondered how an LA-2A compressor works? It’s a light panel that gets brighter as you turn up the peak reduction pot. That light panel is right in front of a pair of photo resistors…like the ones in your daylight-sensing outdoor bulbs. When the panel gets brighter, the resistance in the photo resistor decreases which sends more of the audio to ground (quiet). When music is sent through the T4B cell, the light panel brightens to the amplitude of the track reducing the signal. The attack and release are a function of the speed at which the light panel is able to brighten and dim, which is just the material the panel is made of.