September 2006 Meeting

Date: Sunday, September 17, 2006
Time: 6:00 PM
Place: The home of Bill Wolk
Featured Activities: A Tribute to Ira Leonard, Greetings from William Wolk, & BAS Recording Engineers Present Their Ryles Recordings Results

Ira Leonard, a founding BAS member, passed away on August 23. A funeral service was held on August 28 in Canton, MA. At our meeting, volunteers will be asked to say a few words about Ira, a friend to all of us. Following the tribute, refreshments will be served.

Dr. Bill Wolk is hosting our meeting at his home. The choice to have our meeting at Bill's was rather easy because he has, in my opinion [Al Foster's], one of the best sounding electrostatic loudspeakers made, the Sound Lab A-1. His playback system includes a tube preamplifier and a Boulder amplifier, and a listening room designed by Bob Alach. The system is ideal for presenting our Ryles Jazz Club recordings. Bill will describe the system and play some selections from his award winning recordings.

The third part of the meeting will concentrate on the recordings made by some BAS members at the Ryles Jazz Club, Inman Sq, Cambridge. Each recording engineer used his own equipment and microphone setup. To enhance our recording experience, the almost all acoustic jazz group presented several pre-recording sessions or 'live-takes' before we started our recording devices. Some of the microphones used by the engineers - SoundField 250; Neumann USM 69i; 4 hand-made, custom ribbons; and Brüel & Kjaer microphones. Each engineer will display photos of their microphone setup, explain why they chose it and what they would do 'better' next time. Excerpts from each engineer's 'take' will be played. The playbacks you hear on Sunday will be using the 'purist' approach - no equalization was done on the recordings. At our next presentation in November, engineers will add to their recorded sound whatever equalization and sound modifications they choose. Their sound alterations will be designed to enhance the playback listening experience in the home environment.