yhz SOUND CO-OP Studio/ Private Lessons / Electronics Repairs

Join the yhzSOUNDCOOP and make waves now.

Purchase affordable Co-op Time or Services and get your Film or Music project moving forward.

No membership fee
Complete sound services for aspiring film and music makers.
Picture editing services on Final Cut Studio 2 on MacPro (2 x 2.66 GHz 6-Core). $6/hour member rate for qualified operators – depends on availability.
Sound & Music Studio from $12.50 hourly – qualified operators. Surplus co-op funds will be returned to members.
Further savings with Mentored Student sound engineer/technician solution.
Volunteer opportunities to learn and earn co-op time.

PRESENTLY

It is now February 2016 and many of my Film friends have already relocated to other places in Canada or abroad in response to government cuts to the Nova Scotia Film Tax Incentive program. I’m sad to see them go for all their effort having built a solid industry where they lived, making roots and making tight knit and supportive relationships. Wisdom will see the Industry’s return.

I will continue to investest in the local community, keeping this Halifax studio’s doors open as my roots run deep in Nova Scotia, it’s artists and residents. In response to the blow to our local moving picture industry I have started the yhzSOUNDCOOP – reducing the costs of services and studio time for Performing Artists and New or Student Filmmakers to Co-op Pricing for 2016 and 2017 for any and all Music Projects, Student or Short Independent Films or Short Animation Projects. Producer/Engineer? Join the yhzSOUNDCOOP! Please call (902)423-4653 for pricing.

Artists can earn a place at Halifax Motion Picture Sound Studio through Co-operation. Join the yhzSOUNDCOOP and gain real experience while making your art. Call and ask about yhzSOUNDCOOP details for 2016/17.

Do you have a film or music project that’s on hold? Why not learn as you go? Purchase affordable Co-Op Studio Time and be waltzed through the process and get your project moving forward by your own hands.

My love for sound, music and electronics is abundant, insightful and available to anyone and all who would join me. Join the yhzSOUNDCOOP and make waves now.

PRIVATE LESSONS (Film Sound, Music Recording & Mixing, Audio Equipment Troubleshooting & Repair)

Learn a blend of current and traditional production techniques for stellar sound and successful work flow.

I will be happy to share the skills I’ve acquired over the last thirty years within the music and film industries with anyone willing to learn during the 2016, 2017 season by opening a schedule for Private Lessons/Sessions in the areas of Sound & Music Production as well as the skill and valuable pastime, Electronics Repair. Call me at (902) 423-4653 to book.

These skills have kept me working full-time in the sound business for 30 years and gained me a sensitivity for the Arts to deliver the right mix or design for discerning artists like yourself, on time and budget – despite the fact you weren’t provided any notes from the Director. Getting things wrong now and again, is simply a path to getting it right from that point onward.

If you have a music project that you need to rehearse only to relocate to a studio to record, why not rehearse where you will record? With Co-Op pricing, I can make it easy for you and you will be in your comfort zone by the time the red light is on.

Learn how to be a Film & TV Sound Service Provider (sound recordist / editor / designer / mixer), or Music (recording engineer / editor or mixer), or add to your Professional Studio Assistant skills. Music or Film Sound Students or Graduates can benefit from my extensive industry experience. Learn were old meets new for fluid workflow and sellable sound.

Repair your piece of vintage audio step-by-step and walk away with skills for a lifetime – why just pay for servicing. Test equipment and tools made available to qualified Co-Op memebers – Join the yhzSOUNDCOOP. In 1986 I received Factory Training in soldering to Military Standards at Hermes Electronics (now Ultra Electronics Maritime Systems – Dartmouth – http://www.ultra-ms.com I do recommend highly qualified local technicians Labritton Fader, and Hamblen’s Audio Video and as well recommend purchasing extended warrantees on new audio equipment.

Dual DI input capacitors

HISTORY – WHERE WE START & FROM WHAT WE LEARN

I confess I took my first job in life as a paper-boy, long enough ago we probably call them paper deliver persons now – well, there is some progress, but I digress from my point that the job was the means to buying my own stereo for my bedroom – I see only now, was my first studio. I did so in 1976, buying a stereo with new technology – cassette tapes. This Lloydes model from Sears was big , had dual cassette decks and big speakers with big tone that made listening to the family record collection a new experience all over again. With two cassette decks and a turntable I discovered how to “bounce”. Fourty years later, and much bouncing later, with the advent of digital work stations, we simply started to “keep” a multitude of performances as files. I was stunned when the time came one could play back over 100 tracks of audio – instantly and without a hiccup no less, though I do get the spinney wheel now and again to this day – the computer trying to keep up with me.

Having worked with linear destructive systems such as multitrack 2″ tape recorders with no forgiveness for mistakes, the professional studio engineer’s job was exciting to me. As well where time was of the essence, there was presented another enticing challenge; “Art under pressure? Made within a time frame?” As a musician I understood and wanted to be the best assistant engineer possible, to alleviate “issues” within studio sessions. As well, as a musician, I simply found I needed to become an studio engineer for my own purposes, where I know many of us start, though as we learn we want to share the art, correct?

Where you decide to start affects your future. Where will you start? Earn a place at Halifax Motion Picture Sound Studio though Co-operation. Join the yhzSOUNDCOOP. Gain real experience while making your art.

Electronics are not forever; A Note on Electronics & Repairs

I love to bring old and worthy audio devices back to life to look forward to an even older age serving the next generation of artists. If you have an audio tool you’d like repaired, I can help you – if I can’t, I’ll point you in the right direction. Call 902 423-4653 for a consultation. I’ve installed 10’s of thousands of long-life quality capacitors in my own studio equipment. Experienced with Microphones like this delicate 1950 Cadenza ribbon (below), power supplies, consoles, preamps, dynamics processors, and amplifiers. Competitive pricing and parts at cost.

1950 Cadenza _Rebuilt_2011

Through necessity as a studio engineer and owner I learned how to offset studio costs by learning how to service my own equipment. I was lucky to have access to a number of technical mentors, professional service technicians from an era almost gone by. I had formal training & experience with a Canadian based military electronics solutions company – soldering and desoldering circuit boards by hand and in turn testing my own work. In sound studios, replacing devices/chips and transistors used to be common place, whereas modern circuit protection built into the audio equipment of today has all but eliminated this problem, however in many cases the audio quality is sacrificed to some degree. What is regularly replaced as needed or replaced on a maintenance basis are connectors, switches, potentiometers and similar controls and far to often electrolytic capacitors.

AKG Tube MIC repair cable detail copy

Lexicon 224X Power Supply Blows Detail_copy

Replacing capacitors gives us a chance to upgrade a piece of equipment, inserting capacitors with not only longer life but, indeed, better specifications. Accurate and reliable components intended for space or the military cost very little when one is building or repairing a single piece of equipment. I choose capacitors that will probably outlive me as I’d rather not do the job twice. Such capacitors usually have better specs such as low ESR (Equivalent Series Resistance), the resistance across the capacitor. Simply put, the greater the resistance, the greater the heat that will be dissipated across the component, shortening it’s lifespan. A Low-ESR capacitor that actually passes signal or power though it (coupling) will make for a more efficient and provide a clear signal (wide- bandwidth or more potential bandwidth from a power supply) over the lifetime of the component/capacitor (Note: In some circuits Low-ESR is undesirable).

What I call an electronics conspiracy is the insertion of, in particular, electrolytic capacitors that are only expected to last for a very short period of time – they are priced in part by their longevity incremented at about 1000 hours. Of course this information is not readily available when you make a purchase – unless one opens the device and checks the part number on a capacitor one cannot know what they are getting, 1000 hours or 2000 on average, though 5 and 10,000 hour products exist, but at a higher price – so what do you think you are getting? Electronics devices in general are cheaper than ever and often so much so they can be replaced more cheaply than they can be repaired. However, I am not alone in thinking the worthy should endure.

I still have my Great Grandfather’s hand saw – it’s still sharp and cuts in a straight line 😉 and my 1938 Altec 638 Multi-Mic (Combination Dynamic & Ribbon) I could only guess – sounds like new.

Re-makes are wonderful. Wow, I was so surprised when harware remakes of Urei 1176 surfaced and now the Audio Design & Recording Limited FX760S jem is being remade. The signature sound of these compressors throughout Led Zepplin and David Bowie albums – an old-school dynamics hardware plugin for Helios Colsoles. I’m currently recapping an original FX760S (below). A mastering quality device less strong, however sometimes desirable artifacts from the Limiter circuit that is conveniently selectable.