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...

Been having great fun this week exploring the world of sonic vibration having finally gotten around to investing in a 1971 Brüel & Kjaer 2626 charge condition amplifier and a laboratory grade accelerometer.  The two together essentially form a bullet proof contact microphone with a 20KHz bandwidth with bandwidth limiting controls.

I’ve been having great fun playing around capturing the vibrations from all manner of random things with fascinating results.
 
Even a twanged rubber band can produce some really cool results not least because the sensor is almost immune to ambient sound so unwanted noise from a sound source is much easier to isolate.
 
Just threw this together for fun courtesy of a desk bell, a ruler, a tin can, an old computer keyboard, a wobbly bird thingy, and a cordless drill! :)
 
A lot to learn on how to get the best from it but its really interesting to explore another slant on capturing found sounds.

Composition & Recording Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio 2021

Fun With Old Accelerometers: Desk Bell & Friends... (Found Sound)

Oh heck do I love the old Brüel & Kjaer lab gear...  a type 1405 Noise Generator feeding Pink Noise into two hand cranked 1621 swept bandpass filters.  The recording was made with two overdubs - one with the filters set to a 23% slope and one to 3% slope.   Each filter was hard panned resulting in pure analog generated eeriness!

Recording Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio 2021.

Brüel & Kjaer: Twin 1621 Winds... (SFX With Lab Gear)

Made with several overdubs of various signal sources fed through a gorgeous 1968 Brüel & Kjær type 2107 all-tube regenerative swept band pass filter during final testing following the resurrection/restoration of yet another of these unique and wonderful units with modifications for creative use in the studio. 

The 2107 pass frequency is hand cranked to reveal harmonic content at up to a 50dB per octave crest.  At this sort of resonance little that comes out of the beast sounds even remotely similar to what goes in so its to fun to catch the harmonics on way whilst cranking the huge tuning dial.

Composition & Recording Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio, 2022.

1968 Brüel & Kjaer type 2107: Down to Band Pass Creek

Oh heck do I love the old Brüel & Kjær 1/3 octave fixed L/C band-pass resonator banks such as the type 2112, 2113 and 1615...

Every time I use these units in the studio I find myself bathing in the hauntingly serene sonic aesthetic their inductive resonators produce especially when thrown into a delay or two of them are used in stereo.

In this case a gorgeous type 1615 "Band Pass Filter Set" stepped 1/3rd Octave band pass filter set is simply being fed with a single sustained cluster chord from a Korg Wavestation A/D producing a series of quite haunting harmonically related resonances as the frequency control is moved between the different settings. Each of the 30 precision inductive/capacitive resonator tanks has around 60dB per octave crests resulting in an almost mesmerising natural movement caused by the filter coming in and out of resonance on the edges of its pass band as it responds to the source material. 

First layered with the source material and then hear it on its own driven hard to the point everything starts to saturate :)

Recording Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio, 2023.

1973 Brüel & Kjaer type 1615 in Action - Clustered Resonance..

A gorgeous 1967 Brüel & Kjær type 2107 all tube regenerative swept band pass filter in action.  A quick test recording following the resurrection/restoration of over 30 examples of these wonderful units with modifications for creative use in the studio at Hideaway Studio.  Here demonstrating the beautiful effects of sweeping the filter over a sustained chord to reveal its harmonic content at 50dB per octave.

Recording Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio, 2014.

1967 Brüel & Kjaer type 2107: Harmonic Rider

A gorgeous 1960s Brüel & Kjær type 2112 all tube stepped 1/3rd Octave band pass filter in action shortly after being returned to life at Hideaway Studio and modified for creative studio use.  The filter is simply being fed with a single sustained Solina like string pad and a series of quite haunting harmonically related pads result as the frequency control is moved between 5 different settings.  The filter has around 60dB per octave slopes. The resulting audio sounds very different to the original source material!

Recording Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio.

1960s Brüel & Kjaer type 2112 in Action - Harmonic Pads

Two late 1960s Brüel & Kjær type 2112 all tube Band Pass Filter sets with >80dB/oct slopes at the crest modified for studio use being tested as a stereo pair for the first time shortly after restoration at Hideaway Studio.

Recording Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio.

Two 1960s All Tube Brüel & Kjaer type 2112 BPF Run As Stereo Pair

A single loop fed into a pair of late 1960s Brüel & Kjær type 2112 all tube band pass filters following restoration and modification for creative studio use at Hideaway Studio each manually tuned in 1/3rd octave steps to produce a shifting harmonic effect...  the content of the loop is never changed - the perceived note changes are only due to their harmonic content being shaped by the highly selective nature of the filters.

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

Two 1968 Brüel & Kjaer type 2112: Natural Resonance

A quick test recording made from a series of samples taken from a gorgeous late 1960s Brüel & Kjær type 1024 "Sine-Random Generator" - an all tube based design that found its way into some of the most prestigious acoustics labs around the world and turns out to be a wonderful source of really quite haunting wobbly and warbly sine tones.

Recording Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio.

1960s Brüel & Kjaer type 1024: Random Sines

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

The first of a pair of gorgeous 1968 Brüel & Kjær type 2107 all tube swept band pass filters originally built for laboratory use awakening for the first time during resurrection, major overhaul 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.

Part 1:  2107 fed with a raw sawtooth with a vibrato
Part 2: 2107 fed with a bright, harmonically rich, analog string pad

The sheer build quality of these units is remarkable - the enamel painted front panel consists of a giant aluminum casting on which those chunky Bakelite controls are mounted and have a wonderfully solid and reassuring feel to them. Definitely a fine example of classic industrial design!

Recording Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio.

1968 Brüel &  Kjaer type 2107: All Tube Swept BPF Awakens

The second of a pair of gorgeous 1968 Brüel & Kjær type 2107 all tube swept band pass filters originally built for laboratory use awakening for the first time during resurrection, major overhaul and modification for creative studio use by Dan 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.

Part 1: The unfiltered source sound from an Alesis Micron
Part 2: The 2107 harmonically disassembling the sound at 40db/octave as the huge tuning control is hand cranked through three frequency bands nicely exposing the harmonic content of the source.

The sheer build quality of these units is remarkable - the enamel painted front panel consists of a giant aluminum casting on which those chunky Bakelite controls are mounted and have a wonderfully solid and reassuring feel to them. Definitely a fine example of classic industrial design!

Recording Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio.

1968 Brüel & Kjaer type 2107: All Tube Swept BPF Awakens II

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

Testing All Tube Phasers 01, 02 & 03 after a bit of a tricky birth...

Designed and Built by Hideaway Studio into the chassis of classic Brüel & Kjær analysers these units are based on largly forgotten 50 year old phase-shift technology.  These highly unusual prototype phasers have genuinely 100% tube based signal paths with only their LFOs being solid-state in order to permit a number of modern features such as clockable modulation with complex waveshapes.

By pushing the regen into self-resonance the phasers can also be used as bizarre SFX generators creating everything from water drops to mad lab sounds to water effects thanks to the array of LFO shapes available.

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

Prototype All Tube Phasers: Awakenings

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...

A gorgeous late 1960s all tube Bruel & Kjaer type 1024 Sine-Random Generator in action....  originally designed for acoustics analysis it is an eerie sounding beast to say the least!..

Recording Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio.

Brüel & Kjaer type 1024: Sine-Random Generator in Action

A gorgeous 1960s all tube 24dB|/Oct band pass filter awakens on the bench during initial inspection and wakeup....

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

1960s Krohn-Hite 310AB Tube Band Pass Filter Awakens..

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 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