Anyone Talk to Billy Stull recently?

[dillweed]

Trying not to create any controversy, but...

Maybe it's just me but sent a couple emails before Christmas with no response.

Just called and there is no answering machine message at his studio.

[DSD_Mastering]

The same here... I emailed/called a couple months ago and he said the hurricane knocked out all his power... and nothing since!


Regards,

[Billy Stull]

Hi Guys,

I am alive and well at South Padre Island, Texas.

All systems are go!

My email is billy@legendaryaudio.com
The Mastering studio number is 956-233-5326.

I am either in the Mastering studio, at the beach, coaching my son's basketball team, teaching the Mastering courses, or...

Please give me an email or call!

Billy Stull

Masterpiece Mastering home
Masterpiece Analog Mastering System

[24-96 Mastering]

Hi Billy,

I've just spent a good deal of time looking at and drooling over the Masterpiece... But there are a couple of things I stumbled over that really make me scratch my head (the pots only partly detented... why no switches in the first place? unusable HPF&LPF frequencies... very high boost/cut ranges instead of pot accuracy... Sorry if this comes across as a rant, I just find it frustrating to get so exited looking at a product to find many little things that, to me, kinda spoil it a bit. Why no switches? Cost? Space?

I'm sure it sounds great though. Are any units around in europe?

Originally Posted by Billy Stull

Hi Guys,

I am alive and well at South Padre Island, Texas.

All systems are go!

My email is billy@legendaryaudio.com
The Mastering studio number is 956-233-5326.

I am either in the Mastering studio, at the beach, coaching my son's basketball team, teaching the Mastering courses, or...

Please give me an email or call!

Billy Stull

Masterpiece Mastering home
Masterpiece Analog Mastering System

[Billy Stull]

Hi Robin,
Your questions are some logical ones we have had since the introduction of the Masterpiece in 2004. I'll provide some information to you that can be viewed through this forum for others that may have the same thoughts.
The Masterpiece was originally called "Billy's Box" as it began with some ideas and techniques I wanted to incorporate into my Mastering work to provide solutions to problems that presented themselves in recordings I was hired to Master.
These ideas were innovative and challenging to Mr. Neve and his fab design team. With their talent, experience, and expertise it evolved into a product that accomplished what we were trying to do and these tools could be shared with other Mastering engineers by manufacturing clones of my audio "dream box".
All of the circuits are new designs representing "the best we can do at this point in time". As this was my personal project, and not a corporate venture, I encouraged "performance" with no compromise due to cost of components.Therefore, in regard to the circuit controls, the "detented pots" are not detented nor are they pots. The are in fact encoders which are digital controls of analog components which are more accurate than potentiometers. All critical EQ controls on the Masterpiece use encoders. With the zoom control they can be adjusted in .25 dBm increments. Extreme accuracy and finite control!
The gain controls are finely adjustable potentiometers. With the unique "plus or minus" switch it has approximately 20 DEGREES OF ROTATION for ONE dBm of change. A wide range that can easily be documented with the templates provided and replicated if needed. The fine adjustment is more useful than arbitrary steps and more finite than even 1/4 dBm adjustments. No user has had any problem driving this audio sports car!
In regard to switches, there are 142 ILLUMINATED custom-designed push button switches which vividly indicate the operational status.
As to the Low and High Pass Filter section, as I had other conventional filters in my existing analog and digital equipment and did not want to just duplicate what I had, I requested some unconventional steps on the Masterpiece. As is, they are useful for forensic work (making a secret recording more intelligible for legal purposes), and special effects such as the tiny telephone/yellow submarine setting which can be easily engaged and disengaged in song intros for instance. I personally don't filter music until the last digital rendering to mitigate removing something I wished I hadn't. There is a valid objection with the standard filter setup in that there is only one switch which engages both the Low and High filter simultaneously. Individual switching was on the preliminary drawings, but changed and I didn't notice it until it was too late. It isn't feasible to redesign and remanufacture the circuits and components, so Legendary Audio has offered some options pertaining to the Filter section. First the Filter section is now an option, so it isn't required to purchase it with the unit. Secondly, an optional modification can be done which changes the low section to 1/2 the standard frequencies making fine Hi Pass choices available. The Low Pass section remains the same except the 12k setting is changed to 120k which is out of range.
There are 6 or 7 Masterpiece units in Europe. We are a small company in Texas and only sell direct, but there is a form on the www.legendaryaudio.com website that you can request a 32 minute demonstration video that will go into detail about the unique features and has some sound samples as well as instruction.We now can send it to you via the internet.
You are right in saying it sounds great. Without my Masterpiece, I would probably give up Mastering as it would be too frustrating.
If you would like to contact me personally my email is billy@legendaryaudio.com.
I checked out your studio...very nice! Thanx for the interest and questions.
Billy Stull
www.legendaryaudio.com
www.masterpiecemastering.com