During the imposed COVID-19 lock-downs, I decided to take advantage of the time that was suddenly available, to focus on projects that I had either not started or that were on pause. One of those projects was connecting a 16-channel analog audio diffusion system in my studio. How that came about was the result of taking advantage of a few fortunate circumstances as well as finally executing a plan that had been germinating for some years.
The diffusion system would be my way to realize ideas that sprang up during my research and experiments working with The New GENDYN Program (Peter Hoffmann, 1997). I had been working with this application since 1997-98, when I was first introduced to it by its creator, Peter Hoffmann, and more recently – since 2013 – I had been very focused on many of its possibilities as a composition tool. The application, explained here, permits the real-time multi-channel synthesis as well as playback of dynamic stochastic sound as envisioned by Iannis Xenakis, first demonstrated in his seminal work Gendy 3 (1991), where his algorithm generated 16 channels of digital sound simultaneously. In the case of The New GENDYN Program it is possible to generate 50 channels of sound, of which I had been experimenting with, and which was the method I applied in the work on this CD release. I chose 16 channels for my studio diffusion system since I had already in my equipment arsenal, 16 Studer 2706 studio monitor loudspeaker cabinets, that I had saved from certain destruction as they were destined for the dumpster, when the radio station I was employed at decided to convert their entire facility from an analog to a digital operation. Sixteen Studer 2706 loudspeakers were to be destroyed. One radio station’s garbage is another computer music researcher’s alchemic gold. So, back in 2007, I shlepped the 16 Studer 2706 loudspeakers from the radio station to my apartment and held them for a future project that I was determined to one day realize.
That day came thirteen years later during COVID-19 lock-downs when the technocrats who are so much smarter
than the rest of us determined that the general population should be sequestered in their homes and isolated from their families and friends (at least in the United States). Among the 16 Studer 2706 loudspeakers, eight of them still had woofers (these are 12-inch speakers), with eight loudspeakers missing them. My search for eight Studer part number 1.085.580 continues to this day (I managed to find one of these woofers from Rüegsegger Acoustics, a speaker repair house and seller in Uster, Switzerland), as these speakers are hard to come by, and replacement parts are few and far between, since they were taken off the market sometime in the 1990s. All eight woofers that I did have in my possession required re-foaming, and so I found a highly respected and talented speaker repairman, and who happened to also be local to where I lived (Miller Sound), who, during the Christmas holidays in 2020, repaired all eight of them. And what an excellent job he did! Once I had installed the newly repaired woofers in the cabinets, they were all connected to a 12-channel NAD CI9120 power amplifier (purchased second-hand at an extreme discount, and soon the be replaced by a 16-channel amplifier). They were then exposed to continual loop playback from an old iPod (which acted very much like a time capsule), that contained multiple playlists that were all, to my pleasant surprise, in tack and readily playable and that I enjoyed for some weeks to come, as I became further acquainted with my evolving studio diffusion system.
That explains half of the loudspeakers in the accompanying photo. The other half are made up of four loudspeakers that were also destined for the dumpster when I saved them from certain destruction (alliteration unintentional). The JBL loudspeakers are also classic studio monitors that one would often find in professional studios. Two of these woofers also needed refoaming, and Miller Sound again did an excellent job bringing them back to life. The pair of Advents, and Yamaha studio monitors, are the only two pair of speakers that were purchased (Advents second-hand in the 1980s, and the Yamahas were bought new in 1995). The NAD power amplifier was replaced by a Crestron CNAMPX-16x60 power amplifier. The amplifier is fed by a 16-channel Toft analog mixer, which in turn is fed by a pair of MOTU Ultralite interface devices that are controlled by a Windows computer running multi-channel audio editing DAW software (Samplitude ProX or Reaper). This studio setup serves very well for realizing the massively parallel multi-track playback that originates from The New GENDYN Program.
While this studio was being assembled, and reflecting on the components and their origin, I realized that we truly live in a surplus society now more than ever. Anyone who visits eBay, Craigslist, etc., will discover this. Technologies and equipment that were once ubiquitous may only be ubiquitous on eBay, and not in the homes where they once rested. “Vintage” audio gear is rediscovered and reworked and restored by a subset of the listening public, while most music consumers might use their earbuds or sound bar that is connected to their flat-screen TV, or maybe just a miniature Bluetooth loudspeaker sitting in the corner of their kitchen counter. Meanwhile, hi-fi gear is aggregated on eBay, Facebook Marketplace, or Craigslist. The equipment glut is certainly not limited to hi-fi gear, but of course computer hardware is extremely inexpensive compared to its cost just 5 or 10 years ago when it was originally purchased. However, the processing power needed to perform most tasks has plateaued years ago, and so the requirements haven’t changed, permitting this now newly dubbed “vintage equipment” to be an amazing deal (and yes, “vintage” is certainly overused in the second-hand marketplace!). Most of the Lenovo and Dell computer hardware that I purchased on eBay is still running fine, 5-10 years after it was purchased used.
And so, the throw-away mindset that accompanies capitalism facilitated this surplus of equipment that I am taking full advantage of. That’s fine – I’ll let it feed my studio (more about how the surplus economy contributes to what I would call a responsible purchasing philosophy in another post). The equipment built in the 1970s, 80s and 90s continues to float around the surplus economy, it remains relevant, and enables obsessed people like myself to realize a plan. And that’s good.
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