Getting creative in the lab with a bunch of gorgeous classic 1960s Brüel & Kjær lab gear I have restored and modified over the years for creative use in the recording studio at Hideaway Studio...

I discovered and fell in love with the 1960s Brüel & Kjær lab gear around 10 years ago and ended up accumulating over 70 of these gorgeous beasts and, during my exploration of them, it seems a few of my friends and clients have since caught the obsession too!

All Recordings Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio, 2014 - 2022.

Brüel & Kjær - Le laboratoire Créatif...

Command Override

Track 4 of my new ep ‘6tr4x’ 

Buy here: https://jonny3snares.bandcamp.com/album/6trax

4. R350

collabo with mindcolormusic for a dedicated series.

tysk raider logo stamped and numbering stamp numbered (x/85)
light gray vinyl with printed insert, designed by tysk raider
housed in a pvc bag, limited edition of 85 copies:
https://mindcolormusic.bandcamp.com/album/tysk003

digital version available here:
tyskraider.bandcamp.com/album/tysk003

2024 all music, artwork & logo by tysk raider



b3. tysk003 - utazás

falling

Superlative Whispers

Watch a live tracker video of this track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji_J39QI664

Track made entirely with the Korg Volca Drum, sequenced externally with Renoise, no overdubs (all sounds coming live from the Volca).

Remastered by Greystar.
Included on COLORSQUAD17 compilation for Color Squad Records! 

Check out the full comp here: https://colorsquadrecords.bandcamp.com/album/c-o-l-o-r-s-q-u-a-d-0-1-7

C O L O R S Q U A D 0 1 7

Volca Drum Trk2 (take3, Mstrd)

volca drum trk2 (take3, mstrd)

multiberry take3

New album - ƒαtherhood - https://midievil-records.bandcamp.com/album/therhood

Fatherhood

bug (zeezee mix)

First track from my new collection of tracks released on Diffuse Reality. 

CLAW BACK TIME

11 Sleeping Under The Stars m3 (2013)

Testing out a gorgeous 1964 all tube/valve Brüel & Kjær type 1013 Beat Frequency Oscillator just after being returned to life for the first time in decades at Hideaway Studio.  The Type 1013 is a close relative to the infamous "Wobbulator" at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop put to good effect by Daphne Oram, Delia Derbyshire et al during the 1960s.

Recording Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio, 2018.

1964 Brüel & Kjaer type 1013 Tube BFO "Wobbulator" Test

A pair of gorgeous 1968 Brüel & Kjær type 2107 all tube swept band pass filters originally built for laboratory use in action following restoration and modification for creative studio use by Dani Wilson at Hideaway Studio. Originally designed for frequency analysis, these majestic hand cranked beasts can achieve selective audio filtering up to 50dB/octave in tube regenerative circuits covering the full audio spectrum split over 6 frequency bands with mechanical auto-selection between them.

This test recording was made simply by firing a narrow pulse wave of approx 400Hz to one 2107 and approx 800Hz to the other recording from them as a stereo pair whilst hand cranking the tuning controls with the filters set to over 45dB/oct.  Both units were recorded directly dry with no added effects - just pure vintage tube goodness in action!

Recording Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio.

1968 Brüel & Kjaer type 2107: Pulse Sweepers

Made by firing a slow evolving patch from a Yamaha TX802 into a Brüel & Kjær type 1621 band pass filter set to 3% selectivity mode and several hand cranked filter sweeps recorded and overdubbed.

Composition & Recording Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio.

Brüel & Kjaer type 1621: Spectral Rising

Made by feeding a single sustained chord played from a Studio Electronics Omega 8 into a classic Brüel & Kjaer type 2113 L/C band-pass resonator bank, sampled through 21 different filter settings, and then randomly sequenced live into a 1969 Dolby A301 for some multi-band compressed magic!...

Composition & Recording Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio

Brüel & Kjaer type 2113: Random Resonations...

100% synthesized water effects made by feeding some randomised FM bell like sounds from an Orla DSE24 and pink noise from a Bruel & Kjaer type 1405 fed hot via a tube mixer into a gorgeous 1965 Bruel & Kjaer type 1612 Band Pass Filter Set.   Around 60 samples were captured with the filter set to each of the 3rd Octave frequency settings and then loaded across the keyboard and auditioned live in various combinations....

The classic Bruel & Kjaer Band Pass Filter Sets such as the type 1615, 1612, 2112 and 2113 are made up of banks of very high quality passive L/C resonators and are extremely selective with very high Q factors and have a sound all of their own!  There are few studio filters that could come close to achieving the same effect.
 
Sound Design & Recording Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio, 2020.

1965 Brüel & Kjaer type 1612: Waterwerks (SFX With Lab Gear)

Awakening yet another late 1960s Brüel & Kjaer type 2107 Frequency Analyser from a decades long slumber for full assessment.  These amazing all tube swept regenerative band pass filters are now very elderly and really do need very careful inspection prior to being recapped and modified for studio use. 

In this case the unit has been slowly powered up to 50% mains voltage in stages on an isolated, current limited, Variac to determine overall condition including the state of the custom main ganged tuning pot assembly which is sadly prone to contact noise in the upper quadrant.   They can sometimes be removed, cleaned and rebuilt but thankfully in this case it passed with flying colours so another unit now awaiting full restoration and hopefully an interesting future.

As you can hear in the recording, these units will run at 50% but its resulted in some rather nice tube saturation in the process :)  In this case the unit is filtering a noise source with the regen control turned in the high position.

I have overhauled so many of this era of B&K by now that I can safely say that the chances of sometimes spectacular HT cap failure in these units is just too high to be taking chances and simply plugging them in and hoping for the best.  For the tube era units, even if they fire up, it won't ultimately turn out nicely - these remarkable beasts are too precious to be treating that way!

Recording Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio, 2020.

1967 Brüel & Kjaer type 2107: Tube Saturated Noise Sweeper

D.A.Wilson is an Electronic Engineer, Sound Designer & Vintage Synth Specialist with a particular interest in combining vintage tube, classic analog and modern digital technologies working as a synth engineer looking after a very considerable amount of vintage studio equipment for Will Gregory (Goldfrapp / Moog Ensemble) and a number of other internationally celebrated electronic musicians and producers.  Having undertaken several major restorations and produced custom electronic designs for a number of major artists including Jean-Michel Jarre, Dani is also known for fully restoring two out of the world's four remaining 1979 Crumar GDS and partially restoring 1938 Novachord 346 (the only known operational Novachord in the UK) to playable order along with developing and producing the new Elfin family of 8-bit polysynths and the popular MIDI Front Panel Animator (FPA), Filter Defeat Module (FDM) and XD-280 Drive Emulator upgrades for the AKAI S612 sampler.

Demos of the S612 Upgrades in Action: 

https://soundcloud.com/hideaway-studio/sets/hideaway-studios-s612-front


Hideaway Studio Kontakt Sound libraries may be purchased directly from: 
https://www.lootaudio.com/category/kontakt-instruments/hideaway-studios
 

..and a nice introduction by Cory Pelizzari to the Hideaway Studio Kontakt Libraries:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-C7a3ChC9U&feature=emb_title


For more on releases from Hideaway Studio for Kontakt please visit the blog at:  www.hideawaystudio.net

1967 Brüel & Kjaer type 2107: Tube Saturated Noise Sweeper

Hideaway Studio

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