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The studio was dark except for the glowof a small table lamp showing throughthe double -glazed window from theoffice in the loft above. The blonde couldbe seen in silhouette from the studio floor. As theengineers and musicians filed in for their lateevening session, the usual banter about Stan'sgood luck and sexual prowess began again. Up inthe loft, the blonde was teasing Stan. A newgirlfriend, she enjoyed his ownership of a majorstudio in an industry that made the music sheloved. "So, you like your new friend ?"Stan could only gargle, "Yes."The blonde continued her tease, "Well, you havequite a package here. I'm wearing a leather skirtand a silk blouse."She picked up Stan's pliant hand and moved itacross her blouse and down her skirt. Stan wasreduced to virtual speechlessness."Now, feel the nylon of my slip and the nylontaffeta lining of my skirt." She guided Stan'shand there, as well. "Feel my nylon stockings,too."Stan complied."My skin is smoother and softer than all of mypretty clothes. Wouldn't you like to feel that,sooner than later ?" The syllables dripped likehoney.Stan felt that there was a time and place foreverything and this surely was not it. Not with asession setting up downstairs. "Would you like tosee the set up for the session down below," heasked."Is the Pope Polish ?"Her response made Stan flinch. "This womanwill kill me but what a way to go," he thought.They drifted downstairs.In the control room, she was irrepressible. Sheslithered across the deep carpet from console torecorder to signal processing rack. "She is reallysomething," thought Stan: just the sound of herwalking around made him nervous. "She has tosee everything and touch everything," Stanthought. She was especially attracted to thelighted switches on the console output panel andthe sampling rate cards with the blinking LEDson their extenders in the front of the brand new24 -track digital recorder. She nearly tripped inher 3 inch heels and as Stan caught her, herealised he had to get her to dinner and then tohis apartment. He really had to!Several hours later Stan was reflecting on theevening. The phone rang. It was Jack Edgerton,his chief engineer. Stan was alarmed since at thistime of night, Jack would have been called infrom his home on City Island. Jack was indeed nolonger home. Stan was already pulling on his coatas Jack perfunctorily explained the call. Stanhung the phone up after digesting Jack's direexplanation of the woes that had befallen thesession in progress. He motioned to the supineform of the blonde, now fully dressed on thecouch. The evening was over. He dropped her offat her house and sped to the studio, his driving ofthe black Porsche calling for all of Dr FeriPorsche's tricks that were built into the car."Look, Stan," said Jack Edgerton. "It'spositively spooky. They had console output lockedto the digital recorder. The logic lamps in theswitches leave no room for miscomprehension. Yetthe recorder was getting no signal. They sat down94 Studio Sound, June 1989Martin PolonESD is not a newdrug or anunpleasant diseasebut it can causedamage to yourmemories.Comment from ourUS columnistat the console and flicked the switches over andover until they finally got output. The consoleseems to be OK now. But the recorder sounds likea 10 bit digital `truth box' used in AES lectureson sampling rates. It's really awful."Stan thought for a minute. "We should begetting in the rest of this shipment tomorrow bytruck. There will be spares on all the recordercards. Ship the sampling cards back to themanufacturer."ittle did Stan realise that every card inthe recorder would have to go back tothe manufacturer. The recorder makerrefused to accept responsibility for suchcomplete damage. The large insurance companythat Stan relied upon finally decided to send outan electronic damage consultant. Immediatelyupon arrival, the consultant took one look at thethick carpet in the control suite and muttered theword, "Synthetic." The card extenders were alsoeyed suspiciously. "Anyone around here wearinga lot of nylon and/or leather? High heels ?" Theconsultant stopped to ponder the answers to hisquestions.Stan cupped his head into his hands. Thedamage would cost many thousands of dollars torepair. All he could do was to repeat the nameover and over again. "Gladys, Oh Gladys."Well, boys and girls, here we are again withanother of Mother Polon's famous fairy tales.What was it this time. Was Gladys a witch?Perhaps an East German agent on the run fromMI5 with a secret weapon to destroy electronics?No, it would appear that Gladys was simply anextremely healthy young woman in fashionableattire who really wanted to be current. So currentthat she generated perhaps 25 amperes flowworth of 10,000 volts into all of the exposed cardson the new recorder being set up. What Gladysdid was to rupture insulating oxide layers andvaporise deposited metal stripes of the IC chipsused in the digital recorder. What Gladys also didwas to change the logic states on certain consolecomponents: Electro Static Discharge. The bigESD strikes again. The FORCE was with Stanthat night and this is one FORCE that you don'twant with you, ever.Hey, wait a minute. We're in the audiobusiness. We're corn -fed boys who built our firstconsole in the garage behind the folk's house. Weused 12AX7 tubes and Sowter transformers andpower supplies with choke coils. The only thingthat could stop our analogue consoles and taperecorders was a copper -sheathed slug from aColt 45 and then only if you knew where to shoot!Where did all this space -age stuff come from?Welcome to the wonderful world of digital audioand computer electronics. A hearty 'howdy' tologic chips and computer ICs. And most of all, abig audio industry hello to the curse of ESD.Basically, what is happening is that triboelectriceffects, known more commonly as friction,cause your body to become charged when youwalk across an insulated surface or move about inthe insulating seat of your chair. Assuming youare wearing ordinary insulating shoes, yourcapacitance will be somewhere between 100 pF to500 pF. Every action you take will affect theelectrical charge you develop. Your charge willconsist of a stroll to the water cooler on aninsulating rug, a shrug of your shoulders if yourclothing acts to further the charge, a shift on aninsulated seat at your desk, etc. The amount ofionisation of the air in your environment and thehumidity in your environment will impact thedevelopment of the charge. The charge representsa change in your body's electrical potential withreference to ground. Your movements simplyconvert mechanical energy to electrical energy.Your body acts as a capacitor to store thatdeveloped energy.A stored potential consists of small currents inthe range of nanoamperes that flow in a matter ofseconds to charge your body's capacitance. Thevoltage can range from five to 40 kilovolts. The40 kilovolt figure is considered the maximumbecause a corona will develop around your bodyas the electrical field gradients reach a pointlarge enough to conduct through air. That usuallycreates a condition for at least partial discharge.And to be absolutely clear on this point, there isnothing to say that women are any more likely tocause ESD than men. However, female fashiondoes create an environment enhanced for thecollection of electrical potential. Women's shoesare especially significant in giving women ahigher average capacitance than that of men.The trouble comes when you change yourpotential in respect to ground bygrounding yourself or by touching anobject that is at a different potential toground. Your charge stored in your bodycapacitance is changed with little or virtually noresistance or inductance to limit current flow. Thechange in your stored charge takes place ratherrapidly, therefore a relatively large peak currentcan be generated.Research seems to indicate that dischargecurrents develop to a peak in less than100 picoseconds and perhaps as fast as30 picoseconds. In plain language, 'faster than youcan blink an eye'. Peak currents will range fromabout half an ampere to more than 30 amperes.That means that a casual touch of a piece ofequipment can place anywhere from five to 40thousand volts with a current flow of half to30-odd amperes. In effect, small currents chargequite small capacitances to high voltages.Destructively large currents flow when the small
WORLDSERIES"The EQ makes outboard equalisation a thing ofthe past, and the computer with its full sizedkeyboard has transformed our console into themost powerful and flexible music productionsystem currently available."John HudsonMayfair Recording Studios, Londonl 4 ,development/ speedtheforThemixin"C'est la première console à me permettre deréaliser toutes les idées et toutes les enviessonores que j'ai pu avoir sans effort et sansstress. Il n'y a plus aucune limite à la créativité.C'est le seul instrument de musique qui traduiseexactement mes émotions. Faire du mixage estun réel plaisir."Dominique Blanc -Francard"It's great to have been involved in theof the new computer system andits new software features. The huge increase inand flexibility of operation makes it by farmost advanced mixing system available. Asthe sound, I'm delighted with the end result.transparent musicality of the newelectronics is a pleasure to experience, whetherg or recording. g I'd be at a disadvantage g tohave to work with anything else."Bob Clearmountain0 C$Cj-t 45 /-'4.1,1z_ Il. ?Ma) ,I. -5 1:4:44.2tA 6. 41:1.1.,St) I;C: ,t Z < hL. '' L L t,: h -*?) /:: Li 0)1°°- o 6. ''-'4.1,0Dft.l'72.-riC17- tt ,.0,5+-rif Nts. >A : HA= Eiji UchinumaSolid State LogicI3cgbroke, Oxford, England OX5 I RU 10865) tí42300Paris (1) 34 60 46 66 Milan (2) 61217 20 New York (212) 315 11 I I Los Angeles (213) 463 4444 Totyo (R I) 3 320 1101
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June 1989STUDIOAND BROADCAST ENGINE
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REPORTER JOURNALISTPRO -CASSETTE RE
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THE ADVANTAGES of a STUDIOCONDENSER
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