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3/26/2020

LBA COVID-19 Garage Studio presents:  2020

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Despite very cold conditions, poor electrical grounding, dim lightning, and a bare bones recording setup, I managed to get a video done while under stay-home isolation.  

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3/22/2020

COVID-19 Update

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All non-essential businesses are forced to close in New York state as of yesterday.  LBA is essential for my survival, but apparently they mean a different sort of essential.  At the end of the day yesterday, I loaded up my truck with a pile of instruments, 2020's, an amp, a basic recording setup, my camera, and my video/photo computer, and then headed home.  My home office is very small, but is now functioning as a makeshift mini studio until the threat has passed.  I'm extremely limited with the work I can do from home, but I will try to stay productive.  This will be a difficult time for everyone, I'm sure.  I still have business bills to pay during this period, although I was able to get them lowered.  Your support during this time will help me to stay afloat.  You can place an order for a 2020 here, which will ship out as soon as I'm allowed to go back to work... even if the release date is after the date I can return to work.  I will attempt to create demo's of the 2020 in my very makeshift home studio until I can get back into LBA Studios for proper demo work.  Thank you for your support during these trying times.  Please be responsible and stay healthy.  

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3/19/2020

2020 Technical Specs Updated

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I did some extensive lab testing today.  I previously did a lot of audio testing with various instruments and pedals, but today and this blog post is mostly about the test measurements.  Those measurements will surely say a good bit to some, and these results make sense to me based on what I heard through my various amps.  I first started by measuring the impedance of a variety of instruments to establish a general reference point, since instrument impedance can span a range based on pickup style, etc.  

  • Frequency response of the 2020 can vary based on source impedance.  Total response is from 1Hz-70kHz.  Below is a generic list of tested source impedances and the resultant frequency response.  Your actual impedance can deviate a little bit from pickup to pickup, so its sort of generalized here:  
    • Humbucker or Split-coil (P-Bass) pickup [64k Ohms in this test] feeding into the 2020:  Flat from 10Hz-5kHz with a super gentle high frequency roll off of about 1.5dB per octave.  -3dB at 14kHz.  To my ear its a subtle high frequency roll off.   
    • Single Coil pickup feeding into the 2020 [30k ohms in this test]:  Flat from 7Hz-28kHz.  This is probably the least colorful pairing option because technically its the most perfect pairing of impedances.  
    • FX pedal feeding into the 2020 [10k ohms in this test]:  Flat from 2Hz-20kHz   
  • THD+N driven with a source impedance roughly equivalent to that of a generic FX pedal [10.9k Ohms in this test] =
    • 0.09% @1kHz when driven by 500mV sine wave.
    • 0.09% @80Hz when driven by 500mV sine wave.
    • 0.21% @20Hz when driven by 500mV sine wave.

I think there's substantially more THD when the 2020 is driven by humbuckers/split coils, vs. single coils or pedals (at unity gain).  However, pedals, such as my tube pedals, can saturate the 2020 in a very audible and pleasing way.  I haven't used lab equipment to measure this yet, but I heard it and it sounds pleasantly colorful to my ear.  That'll be my next test for sure.    

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3/3/2020

Vacuum tube powered bass?  HIGH VOLTAGE!

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    About the Author

    Mike Congilosi II, Owner/Designer/Electronics Engineer at Lightning Boy Audio and Owner/Audio Engineer/Music Producer at LBA Studios.  

    Mike received a Master of Music Degree in Studio Production from SUNY Purchase in 2007.  He has been engineering and producing music for about 15 years and has been a musician since early childhood.  Mike's electronics background comes from self education fueled by love, necessity, and a insatiable drive to create.  

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  • Home
  • Store
  • Products
    • Dark Storm - Mic Pre
    • Sun Storm - audio compressor
    • Super Storm - 500 Series Preamp
    • Eye of Jupiter - 500 Series Re-Amping DI Box
    • 23Fe+ Instrument Transformer
  • Mike's Blog
  • Reviews & Demos
  • Customer Support
  • LBA History
  • LBA User's Guides
  • LBA Studios