Recording In A 1950s Style Recording Studio
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- Опубліковано 15 тра 2024
- Inspired by Norman Petty and Sam Phillips, studio owner Dean Amos has lovingly built a perfect recreation of a 1950s recording studio - right down to the dimensions of the pegboard! We eavesdrop on a session at Sugar Ray’s Vintage Recording Studio to find out why it’s still valid to record an entire band to tape, with one microphone. Sound Engineer Lincoln Grounds and the band reveal the challenges they faced when recording this way.
In this experiment rockabilly band Race With The Devil record in a variety of vintage styles. Starting with only a single microphone in the live room, more microphones are added throughout the session. Compared to modern multitrack recordings, we see the differences and challenges faced in recording music the way they did back in the 1950s.
See the interviews and session in the video above and download the recordings at www.soundonsound.com/techniqu...
00:00 - Intro
01:32 - Initial Thoughts On The Studio Space
02:25 - Single Microphone Set-up
03:45 - Dean Amos: Sugar Ray’s Studio
05:36 - Single Microphone Recording
09:12 - Recording With 2 Microphones
10:48 - Vintage Studio Hardware
17:17 - Using 3 Microphones
18:14 - Vintage Microphones
21:38 - Recording With 4 Microphones
24:29 - Importance Of Performance Ability
28:33 - Artist’s Thoughts On The Studio Environment
29:39 - Lincoln Grounds’ Final Thoughts
34:24 - Future Of Vintage-Style Recording
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#musicproduction #recording #music #vintage #50s #microphones
![Recording Drums With Steve Albini [Third Circle Recordings]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/kmP9z-xTRz0/mqdefault.jpg)
So we've got Americans trying to emulate Brit pop and Brits trying to capture American rock and roll. The world is a beautiful place!
I thought that Music has no boundaries, but... still waiting for an Hindi Elvis to believe that! FOR REAL!
..or, as Marmalade sang: "the world is a terrible place to live..but I don't want to die"!
Lets be honest, we're all recalling simpler times.
@@softdorothy The grass is always greener on the other side.
As long as a computer or autotune is not present I don't care who's trying to copy who ! Real Musicians, Real Music....it's been done before so why not now ?
The engineer here is really good at explaining what he's doing and how things work. He'd make a great teacher.
Mr. Albright he needs a hair cut though.
captial studio where they recorded gene vincent and thousands of others video is on youtube and all there equipment still work
Talk to Musicians like a dick tho. 'Off you go' knob. He can turn all machines on and set it up the mics perfectly and then what record his annoying voice pratterling on. Lol no respect for the skill the musicians hold. Most engineers I have met are like that.
@@danmillward8595 .. thats because all producers are failed musicians that cant write songs apart from steve albini
@@danmillward8595 Maybe it's cultural differences being that y'all are British. As an American, he didn't come across as rude at all. He was rather respectful as far as I could see, explained to the singer and guitarist what to do and why they were doing it as well.
It would be awesome to hear a modern song (rock or a ballad) recorded in that studio
It would sound so fat!
Mother Maria by Slash ft Beth Hart was done on tape and using old equipment. It's probably the closest you'll get to hearing something like this.
I might actually listen to modern rock if it were this honest and real.
Foo Fighters' recent stuff has been recorded on old stuff and on tape. They even made documentaries about it!
Cowboy Junkies' first two albums were recorded live with a single stereo mike, the first one in a garage and the second in a church. Very atmospheric recordings. Gillian Welch and David Rawlings record this way too.
the fact that the machines still work says a lot to me, they are so well made
simpler things tend to last longer, that is probably why
They still work because people still repair them
And it's easier to repair them, unlike the smd electronics we mostly have today.
All those old consoles were hand-built and hand-wired. They'll work as long as there's people alive that know how to use them.
It's not through-hole parts or hand-wiring that makes them reliable and/or repairable. It's the fact that everything is discrete. If a cap fails, you replace the cap. If a transistor fails, ... OK, you have to go and find something suitable, but then you just replace it.
Today's electronics are complicated because of integration. When you have an IC with a million transistors in it, and one dies ... you have a broken box. There will never be a substitute part for some custom piece of silicon. Well, maybe eventually, when it becomes trivial to clone something with massive FPGAs.. but not today.
On the other hand, those old electronics aren't made of entirely ubiquitous parts either. Try finding an IC of 5 matched NPN transistors on one substrate today. Or the electrolumenescent panel from an optical compressor. You can get close, but today's stuff is different. In most respects, better. But not when the circuit around said part is tuned for the real deal.
This recording studio is an AAW = Analog Audio Workstation. Amazing.
its def aww inspiring lol
Thomas Ueber
Clever!
Haha, yeah! I've been trying to create the same thing in my home studio. Not anywhere near this of course. I track into a Fostex Model 80 through a Audio Technica RMX64 4-track's mixer (pres and EQ were made by Neotek) and then run it all into Logic for mixing and editing. After mastering I print to a Tascam 22-2 1/4" half track running at 15ips. It works for me and sounds great. Tons of character and tape compression.
and those musicians are in an ASS! (analogue studio situation)
or an ARSE (analogue recording studio environment)
This is excellent. They are using the equipment for its positive qualities, not for nostalgia's sake.
Wrong. Its for the nostalgic sound of course.
hahaha u old man
It’s definitely nostalgia. If you’re going for 50’s style quality, all you have to do is record it digitally, and then purposefully remove all the important frequencies.
I'm pretty sure they're genuine about what they said about this song. Without all the heavy compression or modern trickery and effects, the only way to get the song right is the music and the performance itself. Like stated in the video, it's the honesty of it. There's no super fancy big fat sound here, literally just the song. I wasn't even born in the 90's but when I listen to music, be it Death Metal or classic Rockabilly and basically everything in between I tend to love the natural distortion and unfiltered noises in such recordings because it's just what occurs when you're playing a more chaotic and louder genre like Rock. It isn't mean to be so clean and artificial, this music is meant to be real and genuine, dirty and wild. That's what it's about. I'd rather listen to cheap, under-produced, half-baked garbage audio production from the mid-80's than any modern and polished recording, I find that sound underwhelming and bland.
@@dumpydoctor7670 hahaha u brain dead
U2 recorded tracks for "Rattle and Hum" in the original Sun Studio in 1987. My brother and I road tripped across the US and stopped in for the public tour at Sun Studio in Memphis, Tennessee. The guide played back some Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis in the room where they were recorded. I've heard those tracks a hundred times. But in the room, I actually heard "the room". I may not be able to visit this fantastic studio in the UK. But If you're ever in Memphis, try the BBQ and visit Sun.
John Quimby and try not to get robbed ;-)
We weren't in any real danger. But yeah we did stay in a motel/brothel/drug dealership that had a national motel chain name on the front of it. If the desk clerk has to unlock the front door and asks for cash for your room, you might want to go somewhere else. Makes a good story though.
If you think Memphis is bad, try a motel in Oklahoma City some time. You'll learn to sleep with your shoes on real quick.
was there in 1999 .. Sun Studios & Gracelands great but Beale St ! just a tourist 'Disneyland' with crack heads behind the facade where you parked in wasteland.. maybe it's changed now..?
I was in memphis sun studio in 1999 I have a friend who lives there born & bred she wants outta of Memphis its a dangerous crime ridden city... last weekend 5 murders. nothing is what it seems Nothing.
In 1975 my father and I opened a recording studio in my home town of Mattoon Illinois it was called ( Applause ) we started off with a military war surplus suitcase Tube AMPEX Recorder, a echoplex Tape Delay, a plate reverb that I built out of a 10 x 4‘ sheet of thin metal stretched tight inside a frame Box using turn buckles....! A speaker was mounted on the metal at one end , and other end was a old microphone pick up...! You would reduce the amount and reverb or add reverb by moving a board back-and-forth with a small pillow on it that would let the metal resonate more or less....! That’s how we increased or decreased the reverb sound...! We had no compression or no limiting....! Our first mixer board was a 12 channel mono Peavey mixer board...! We did build a small separate drum booth and used two microphones to record the drums one Mic , was for the kick , the other Mic was a overhead....! We had a Old up right Piano with One Mic inside of it...! Our first five albums we made for customers , and I don’t know how many 45 records , we also offered cassette tapes we’re all done with( One shot recordings ) ....! We did not get a four track multi track tape deck till 1977....! I have a UA-cam channel....!!!
Called ( The Jeff Galey Channel ) I have a school of music in on Wednesday night there are between six and nine students who come over and play together ...! I have recorded these students several times the recordings came out extremely good I thought so I posted five or six of them on my UA-cam channel....! I will Arrange the musicians around One Apex 210B ribbon Mic and recorded ( everybody in the room with One Mic ) ...! These recordings are easy to Find on my UA-cam channel because, all there is , is ( a picture showing several of my guitars on the video ) the audio is all one shot recording going into a Tascam Tape recorder using ( two tracks nevertheless it is still a mono recording ) ...! 🎶❤️❤️🎶 Of course over the years I have purchased many extremely sophisticated Digital Recording systems they are so complicated to run I finally just gave up on digital....! So about eight years ago I got rid of everything Digital , and all I use is tape.....! i live in Trussville Alabama about an hour and 40 minutes from muscle Shoals....! There are great musicians down south....! After Dad and I finally got a old Sony four track recorder we purchased from the band ( REO Speed wagon ) in Champagne Urbanna Illinois...., We were flying high at Applause studio..!!! Because .,I myself play 13 instruments ...., my dad used to wear me out in that old recording studio back in Illinois ...🎶❤️🙏 Applause... ( There’s nothing better than the sound of Applause ) Watching your video brought back a bunch of Great memories...🎶🙏🎶 it’s hard to believe we would send off a master tape of so many Singers and musicians albums made with one shot recordings that I assume are still floating around out there somewhere....!
The Stray Cats are recording a new album in 2019. I wish they would record it at Sugar Ray's.
Love this. As an amateur music lover I've noticed that modern Bluegrass recordings sound "over-processed" and don't have that natural sound that characterizes the old-time favorites. Listen to old recordings of the Stanley or Louvin Brothers or Jim and Jesse. Nowadays the instruments sound flat and the vocals sound auto-tuned, bleccch!
I live a block away from a bluegrass studio and the reality is most bands can’t pull off the magic take all at once. There’s no point shaming any one member (cause they are slowing things down)you just have to multitrack it till the band is happy. For every Luvin, Carter , Monroe and Stanley there are a thousand terrible recordings. I LOVE minimal and live recordings but I won’t demoralize an artist to satisfy my own standard.
@@Partybob1 You say you live close to a studio, but...do you work in one? Are you a musician who's been demoralized because someone pointed out that you're not up to snuff? It's curious, the things you say here.
If a musician can't keep up, should they really be there? Autotune has not been a boon to the recording artist...it allows poor performance to be hidden behind a gimmick. Worse, it's being used with performers who have the talent and don't need it...but it gets used anyway, making them sound as bad as those who can't live without it.
Steve Earle done a lot of his albums on analogue the old style, check out his album Train a coming from 1997 great old time country blues type sound.
My buddies todd grebe and cold country have a good sound
TheEudaemonicPlague
I don’t disagree with you my friend. Also
I do work in studios,
a lot.
I have for 20 years. I don’t need extra takes
and haven’t been “demoralized” as you inquired. My joke about autotune is
Imagine how good the Beatles would have been if they were autotuned! Of course they are wonderfully human and that’s enough. I was siding with the clients(the bands). They usually have small budgets and
want to get music to their fans so I only meant that it’s okay to
give someone an extra take. They payed for it and it keeps morale up.
The older I get the more I just want people to enjoy themselves.
The great players always rise to the top
and there’s no shortage
of great live acoustic music on UA-cam.
Be well my friend.
I work at a recording studio called Sound City back in the early 70s and although they had multiple microphones and recorded onto a 16 track mm1000 tape machine everything went into an analog console and then into the tape machine. They had a couple of tektronix limiters and a couple of outboard equalizers which I believe we're passive. And that was the signal path. They recorded everything from Rock to classical music in those two rooms and those recordd sounded beautiful . The hallways of that studio were lined with Gold Records. Keeping it simple can be a wonderful thing.
Thank you for the video! It was awesome.
A trip down memory lane! In the early 1970’s I worked part time for WLAC and WLAC-FM in Nashville. Their studios were full of this old equipment. The on-air mike for FM was an RCA 77, and the one for AM was an ancient 44. The mixer boards were RCA as well, including the
stereo board on FM. The AM station still had a large (but no longer used) live performance studio. The board there was just used for commercial spot production.
I watch a band play a song 4 times while a straight back chair was moved around with what looked like one of grandma’s homemade quilt draped over it. They finally hit a sweet spot and it was great.
I will never forget seeing a tiny hard wall room with 60’s era cardboard egg crate on the walls.
Amazing the secrets of old style recording that get lost every year. Someone should have written all this stuff down.
This studio is downright amazing. The owner said that he doesn't think many hip-hop artists will come to his studio and I think that's a shame. The hybrid beats and reampings you can do there today are astonishing. I wish someone would actually experiment and produce a hip hop track or anything else for that matter there.
"Yo, where's the Autotune?" Blank stares.
Nae Dolor I'm working on sort of a hybrid studio now for hip hop, with some of the best of old analog and a little digital by way of a tascam MX2424 for capture. Editing will still be done in the box, but capture will be very different and atypical.
+Filming in Portland - That sounds amazing. When can we hear some demos? :)
I think it's a shame Rock is hardly being recorded almost anywhere.
Anderson.Paak would sound crazy in here
Recording this way is a reality check for us home studio engineers, but also liberating to some extent because less is more.
LESS IS MORE!
I WILL TATOO THAT ON MY FORHEAD!
CAUSE I always tend to put a loooooooot of stuff on stuff :).
If less is more then I must have ∞ of whatever you're specifically referring to. 100% of my music is recorded on a Tascam DP-008EX 😂😂
Go ahead kids, use your VST toys and let the real men do the REAL job ;)
Kids = me included, as well...
(Can not afford a studio like that - WOULD love to... if I had the possibility!)
S.A. The “real men” doing the “real jobs” ARE the ones using the VST’s you pretentious numbskull. Nobody uses this shit any more for a good reason: it’s extremely limiting and outdated.
@@blib3786 They're all (soft/hard-ware) just tools, and tools with limits can stimulate creativity, not to mention the fact that a lot of old hardware have different, distinguishable flavours of distortion, which are often a desirable addition.
Saying "the real blah, doing the real bleh" is mostly pointless, besides it's also just a straight up lie. This ignorant generalizing of "what the pro's do" is totally abolishing the fact, that every producer has their own set of chosen tools.
My god! That sound is so much more pleasing that what we hear on the radio today. The instrument all harmonize. It's magic.
tuning is more accurate today though.
I've always been amazed how much effort and cooperation goes into each and every step of single mic recording, and how much patience such bands have. A lot of sessions now are in and out, fix it in post
I love music from the 50’s. Do Wop, R&B, Country, Rockabilly and Pop. So cool to see a studio that really puts the effort in getting it right.
I was a radio broadcaster all my life and used to use a lot of that gear.
Compressors were supposed to be for radio broadcasts till 1937 if you know that.
2/4 TRACK MONO THROUGH TO 1959 THEN RCA RECORDED ELVIS WHEN HE LEFT THE ARMY IN 4 TRACK STEREO ❗👍😉😁🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 FABULOUS VIDEO, WELL DONE
Is imagining how warm that studio is with all that valve equipment running. I'd love to record some swing or ska music on that equipment.
No idea why this was recommended to me, but I'm glad it was. I'm not even a 50's music fan!
Me too and my kind of music is 80s-90s music
Ooooooooooooohhhhhhhhh...... As someone who is an exclusively digital engineer I can assure that it is not as a result of choice, but convenience. This equipment is so warm
Would love to see videos like this on more decades, especially 80’s 😉
80s recording wasn't much different from today. in fact people often argue that 80s is when digitization start happening where everything got that modern, slick, overly produced sound to it to signify era where it only went downhill from there
A facility like this would have been incredible for recording 50's-influenced trios like the Stray Cats and Violent Femmes...
Or more favorably, ME.
I wanna hear Tiger Army in here stripped down to basics
lee mavers should try this place out
There's a depth to these kinds of recordings that most modern tracks lack. I love the ethos behind it too!
noisesoundtonevibe what is modern recordings lacking? Oh yea talent
So you've heard every single modern recording across every single genre and sub-genre? That kind of generalisation is ignorant and pretty disgusting, and you should be ashamed to cal yourself a music lover if you can't get the concept of subjectivity. "Depth" to you may be "shit" to someone else and vice versa.
@YEAA BOIII Found the boomer
Yes, some of the modern recordings lack depth. I call it 2 dimensional Vs this sounding 3 dimensional. The bass is so much more vibrant with older recordings.
@@Syklonus What are you pissing in your pants about?
I love the way he learned from the experience of the people who used the studio through the years from photographs
Thanks for the step back in time! Enjoyed this
Brilliant video Sound on Sound. Thank you
Hands down. This is my favorite video on UA-cam. Love it!!!
12:50 Bing Crosby was an investor in Ampex recording equipment and he put LOTS of money into their refinement and development!
Thanks Bing!
Can't wait to watch this! Love Sound On Sound uploads
truly amazing - I love that this set up "forces" you to rediscover a whole new approach to mixing, which starts in the way musicians are placed in a room and in the dynamics of their performance...A dying art in the "fix it later" age unfortunately!
I agree. This is one reason why a lot of new bands sound really different live. They were able to make their recordings so perfect and add such a level of false skill to their performances that they can't come close to recreating it when they try to play them live. I do think there's some incredible records being made today but I also think that certain type of music (rock, country, blues, jazz) benefit from at least partly tracking the old fashioned way. Get in the studio, play together in a nice room into a big analog board and take it from there. Afterwards, mix down to tape and put it out! Digital is a blessing to music making, but it's not a replacement for analog!
Which is why I find myself recording onto a Tascsam Portastudio a lot of the time when I'm at home. You can't really fix stuff later when recording to cassette, so you have to capture the sound perfectly at the recording stage. Say what you want about the format I use, but it's actually helping me out a lot.
Right on! I do the same thing. I started in 4-track and that sense of urgency when recording a take straight to tape cannot be replaced. I've got a Tascam 244, and a 246, along with an Audio Technica RMX64 which is an incredible machine. The EQ and pres on it sound amazing. I also like to use 8-track on 1/4" tape (Fostex Model 80). I have no interest in elitist gear head bullshit and feel that it's the end result that really matters. A Studer 24 track is an amazing machine but it's not going to get you an interesting song. Some of my favorite songs were recorded onto cheap equipment. I did this on a 8-track cassette machine soundcloud.com/free-country/under-fluorescents
I tell 'kids' that go on and on about digital recording...I love (and miss) recording on my Tascam 4 track. I tell them that recording with such 'antique' methods forces you to actually think about what sound you want - you have to make a decision what sounds best - and hit 'record'. If you mess up, you rewind and do it again. I have never played as well as I did when I was recording on 4 track. Of course, in a nod to modern technology, since I've saved many multi-track tapes from the days when I recorded in my bedroom, I can put all those multi-tracks into my computer and clean up any excess tape nose or whatnot. I'm able to remove any problems with mouth pops or whatever, but essentially, it still sounds like tape. When I'm listening to these old tapes I've put into my computer, I'm often surprised by how I was able to record without a lot of 'room noise' or ground buzz...much of the tapes sound so nice and clean...and analog. I love it!
Before I saw it was a Model 80, I was dreading that you meant the Fostex A-8 with it's specialized little mixer. A hell-spawn piece of gear if ever there was one. I did however make it survive until the end of my recording and then ceremoniously take it back to the evil cretin that sold it to me. Good times!
That engineer was making so much sense!
Fantastic insight, thank you guys for sharing!
Excellent content. Thank you for all the work!
Dear Sugar Rays! In my opinion you created a place which is just paradise. You should get money from some foundation or the state just for being there, doing what you do. A very lively museum. Thank you very much and please keep it going that way. I also thank SoS for doing this remarkably good and informative video.
Awesome. Thanks so much for uploading this.
Would love to record there some day.
Fantastic concept...awesome!
Awesome documentary! Well done.
It would be so much cooler sitting behind all that cool old gear instead of a laptop.
Burt Reynolds Yup..same as why Flintstones and 60's Spiderman cartoons are better than ultra-realistic animation of today!
feels like flying a space ship
Sure. But you don't really want to deal with it...
+PeterPug007 what
Yeah, until you had to actually do something.
Wow I watched the first 10 minutes of this and figured it must have been the whole half hour, but nope, it's just jam packed with fascinating content, 3 times as much as what I'd normally hope for.
Thanks for much for this video, it's fantastically presented. Big congrats to the folks who put that studio together as well, it looks better than a dream!
Fascinating video. Just wonderful.
Truly amazing studio... Thanks to the uploader!
WOW! A pure recording place. I didn't think this existed anymore on a professional level. This is amazing.
i can defs appreciate the 50's. cheers for the upload
Wonderful setup, and wonderful equipment!!!
awesome studio dean, great video & keep up the very good work!!!
Fantastic - one of the best interviews I've seen in a long while.
But we'm not to be trusted
Dean is a proper legend, really fun to record there and fascinating to just see it. Great prices as well, highly recommend!
Brilliant - love it! Great video.
Wow! This is Outstanding.
Absolutely brilliant! the interview talking about the total unpredictability of things speaks to the risks that must be made. The constant takes, take after take, the medium of this entire studio will demand exhaustion most times and that is where the magic happens. And wait until these guys record some old Doo-Wop & Harmony Soul where the lead singer lays way back ... And the session players dropping random twists? All the rare & obscure Sweet Soul used this stuff because it was hand me downs back then by the late 1960's, that's ironic because it produced records that collectors will pay hundreds of dollars for. Rock on Sugar ray studios & SOS
All of this very much resonates with me, an engineer focusing primarily on live classical and jazz recording. And like you, I absolutely love a well-placed ribbon (4038 for me especially) on bass, it’s my go-to in my setups!
That was well inspiring. Thank you!
This has really made me smile ! Inspired.
That was lovely
Really, really interesting. I wish Mr. Amos loads of luck!
Well made and inspiring film!
Fascinating exercise! This was great.
Oh yeah, this is the way to record. Would love to lay down some tracks somewhere like this.
Great video! I love it!
Incredible! Thanks SOS for such an amazing video.
Wonderful! Thanks for taking the time to make this video, very interesting indeed.
What an amazing interview/doc. Dean has demystified why we are so connected to the authentic sound of nostalgia. Good grief, after watching him shape sound with mic placement, I'd love to see him work with today's tech.
Love the sound, love the band, love the studio.
Kirk Monteux do you know the name of the band?... if yes could you tell me
Kirk Monteux racewiththedevil.co.uk
We need more of this today! Refreshing!
Beautiful. Amazing.
OMG just watched this video, then went to Wikipedia to see if my recollections had any merit or not. A modern British technician, trying to recreate early pop music in a British studio seems surreal. I think he knows his technical stuff, but its like when I was in Japan, and a Japanese guy asked my opinion on how authentic his 1965 Mustang was, I had to tell him he had created a modern construct of what a Mustang would have looked like, if it had been made in Japan for Japanese consumers. I think before they spend another dime on genuine vintage gear they ought to speak to someone that was there, like Willie Nelson or an old studio musician. I was, but am not knowledgeable enough to be of value, but here it is any way. When we got to studio, usually a high roofed carpeted floor warehouse like building, we set up, were able to fool around with our fellow musicians, a technician came out set up a mike, then asked for a sound check and then asked us to adjust our kit, then after playing a few bars sometimes alone and then together, he would come out adjust the mike and move our stuff where he wanted it, we would sound check again, and again. Then without warning he would say "tape is in motion Count it down please" and we would play our prearranged song. If everything was ok, he would ask us to do it again, then thanked us for a job well done, and we would leave. We never got to go into his booth or heard the tape we had just made. About two weeks later we got a copy of the record. While we were wrapping up, the next band was moving in. Kinda like a kid in line for a hair cut. Clearly, studios were a business, and we were just a piece on the production line. But it was fun.
God bless you guys for what you're doing and have a passion for...in this overly saturated world of digital, this pure analog project is so refreshing...absolutely love it! Thanks for posting.
That was unbelievable, really really incredible job Sound on Sound guys!
So much valuable information here! Love it!!!
Fantastic! Thank you Sound on Sound and Sugar Ray's. Although I usually record with more than one mic, I subscribe to the notion that if it doesn't sound good with one mic, it probably won't with more. Similarly to this studio, I like the recordings that Ewing Nunn engineered and produced for Audiophile. Same one mic concept, except he didn't like the microphones of the day - so he built his own! He went so far as to have a specific length of mic cable for the microphone, which was an omni. He mixed each track like Sugar Ray's does - by moving the instruments around the room until it sounded right.
Love the info and the Franklin Tennessee hat. Much love from East Tennessee.
Tylet Kersey No I like this video even more as my father was from Franklin.
Such an instructive video, brilliantly produced. Thanks for making it an in-depth document.
Fascinating... learning lots! Thanx for keeping the history alive.
Awesome...
And this is what inspired me to become a audio engineer as of today 👍😁
That was absolutely brilliant. thank you.
Absolutely brilliant!
I have an Altec 1567A that I got from a camp sale for $5. I wasn't into recording at the time, and didn't even really know what it was. In the late 90's I got an electronics guru to bypass the main mix. It is now a 4 in - 4 out preamp. Definitely a funky sounding unit with lots of characther. Old Phillips step up transformers and 12AX7's.
I also have an almost exact copy of that Telefunken cabinet stereo in the final scene. Mine is from early 50's, and was bought in Germany by a relative in 52 or 53. The only difference to my eyes is that my speaker grills are smaller.
Much in the change in music has been going from one mic and one channel direct to disk to multi-mic live mix and later multi-mic post production mixing. One of the best examples is a live Bluegrass Band performing with just one microphone. They can only get just so many mouths and instruments close to the mic at one time and have to take turns performing. That is what made pre 60's music sound the way it did.
Just perfect. Thanx a Bunch.
Looks as beautiful as it sounds. Great video!
What a joy to hear Alan Dower Blumleins name check pioneer of recording and stereo . He died while perfecting airborne radar the plane crashed killing all on board. Apparently the crash was kept secret for sometime and Bernard Lovell( later of Jodrell Bank radio telescope fame)I believe was sent to recover the top top, ultra secret Cavity Magnetron at the heart of this radar.
Very interesting video! There is another similar studio in London called Toe Rag Studio in London which is owned by Liam Watson. His studio is based on the Abbey Road setup from the 60's. He even has some of the original equipment used at Abbey Road! Perhaps you could make a video of that as well?
I heard about that place when The White Stripes recorded an album there. I think it was the album Elephant. WHat's funny is that I've lived near there for years and realised it was there 😁
Loving this. Thank you!!!
What a treat to record there . Absolutely wonderful
Great documentary! I'd love to experiment with all that vintage gear! 💘 #audioengineer
Man I would love to record a song there
Great video, thanks for getting it to us. For more than a year i spent time replicating RCA BA-2 and Western Electric 141-A preamps with help from people who are specialists for racking original modules, beside people who were affiliated with UTC and other companies providing transformers to W.E., RCA, Altec and others in the 50's. I had original RCA BA-2 for comparison, W.E. 141-A was unfortunately too expensive for tests only. RCA BA-2 got very close to original after some time, 141-A wasn't far either although i couldn't compare it to original. Bigger problem was finding people who could play well enough to get what such gear offers, most local engineers didn't understand 50's or even 60's recording process either. I made small series of both and sold it to UK and Germany. Those people have knowledge to properly use it so results got me very happy despite not all were recording to tape. To those who are technically minded; this circuits look "very bad" when measured and compared to modern solid state or even some late tube gear, but i found this "mistakes" are what they make them sound really good for production as described here. Gates, Collins, Langevin, Fairchild and a few other manufacturers were forgotten although their sound and build quality is often better than any Ampex or Altec. I haven't worked with Ampex tape machines so can't comment them.
Wow, what a great experience to watch this video through.
I'd love to record at that studio.
It's been a long standing dream and goal of mine to record a death metal album on vintage 50s gear and recording equipment.
thoroughly enjoyed that, cheers.
This place looks like my home - fantastic! Love love love all the old gear.
I'm jealous!
Just a thought - a lot of double bass players used laminate basses from the Sears catalog back in the day rather than fine carved instruments. I can really see how these might have recorded better on a ribbon mic.
Budget brands like Kay were pretty much the de-facto, and they were all plywood. They just have "that sound".
thank you for this! inspiring 👌
This is phenomenal...