Wirebender Blog

Kick Drums and SM58s

For the first time in a while, I “experienced” a live sound-reinforced show last Friday night. At Red Wing’s Sheldon Theater, to be specific. I’d volunteered to monitor one of the Big Turn Music Festival venue’s gate and had occasional moments to wander the theater to hear the three acts from that evening. I’m sure…

February 19, 2023

guitar

The Stuff We Collect

A good friend died near the end of this past August. He had been a hobby guitarist for most of his 76 years, but got “serious” about the collecting part about 20 years ago. When he retired as a waterfowl habitat Project Engineer from the federal Interior Department, he gave himself a couple of options:…

February 5, 2023

Opinion Rant

Tinnitus and Us

Survey’s indicate about 5% of all American adults admit to experiencing tinnitus. I use that qualifier in my first sentence because many people do not admit to having unintentionally damaged their hearing; especially musicians and audio “professionals” (using the term very tightly tied to the monetary definition of “professional”). Using that conservative number, at least…

January 30, 2023

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Me in one of my favorite McNally Smith College studios, Studio II, at my least favorite console, the SSL Duality.

About Me

Wirebender Audio Systems started off in the mid-70s as a business that was intended to front my off-beat ideas about audio equipment for both professional use and a weird offshoot of audiophiles. I designed and manufactured a “Musicians Preamp” that incorporated a low noise, tweakable phone preamplifier, a pair of high gain, low noise microphone preamps (sadly, without a phantom power option), and five switchable line inputs. I sold about 100 of those, got a couple of design awards, and . . . not much else. There were a few other even more poorly selling products and I ended up starting a recording studio, live sound company, and permanent installs business with a friend, Dan Tonjes. After a few years, we wandered off in different directions and I ended up working as a design and manufacturing engineer for a trio of audio equipment companies while keeping my fingers in both live sound and music recording.

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