Recording 50's Style

[Ray Gianelli]

In that era, musicians had to know how to play, singers needed to know how to sing. Engineers had to know how to work live with simpler equipment, and know how to home brew or modify that equipment. No fix it in the mix, after the fact. Tape editing but not much else could be done.

Yeah, and tape editing was done with a razor blade.

 

[twiiii]

Reminds me of my early days at the Radio station in the recording studio and doing remotes. We did have more advanced condenser mics in addition to a couple of 44's and 77's. We had our own custom recording mixer in the studio using Altec mic modules, Altec pan pots and Switchcraft components. We used 4 graphic passive tone control modules, etc. We had Ampex 300 mono machines with the old under console electronics. 351's and 354's. We had a home built 300-4 using a belt drive 300 14 inch reel size deck brought down from 30 60 ips to 15 30 ips . For remotes I had a 300-4 using two 354 electronics. For remotes I used Ampex MX 35 mixers which were better than the Altecs shown, but they didn't have tone controls, so I always carried a broader selection of mics. Sony C-37, Altec M-30 and 20, Neumann U-67, Telefinken M 250 , RCA 77, AKG C-12, Neumann K-m 86. I always wanted either a Neumann or AKG stereo mic, but they were just too expensive. We tried alsorts of mics in addition, what ever the distributors would loan us. Except for the Ampex and older Magnecords we bought directly distributors. There was a local Ampex dealer who treated us right and I went to work for later on, that would bend over backwards to help us out. He would loan us what ever he had if we had an issue and there would be problems with part deliveries.

Its great to see this video bring back memories of how we recorded things in the studio and in the field. No gimmicks just honest recording of honest musicians. That why I so love Sheffield, Telarc, Mercury, Reference Recordings, and others where keep it simple and honest is the rule and not something cooked up in a studio.

Remember the shots showing the professional VU meters. The ballistics of those meters mean they lie or don't reveal short higher peaks of 18 db higher. So that means when the meter hits the peg the tape is receiving any where between + 20 and + 24 db levels to the tape. Whats amazing is over 95% of that level came back off the tape, too. When high output/low noise tape from Scotch and Ampex came along and then UD from Maxell and TDK's better tape we gained another 6 to 8 db of dynamic range. But by the time it got to the Lp with compression and multi channel mixing a lot of the advantage was lost. It was a fun time experimenting with different mics and different pick up patterns. I used omni and cardioid for most remote recordings. Like the man. said a bi-direction figure 8 pattern was very valuable in a studio.

The local sound shop sold a ton of 1567's mixers, which were Ok. But I preferred the later 1592 with with SS input modules rather than the 4722 module the 1567 used. We modified our MX 35 Ampex mixers later on to provide phantom power for our C 451 and other AKG condenser mics. Like the man said there was an art and a honesty to recordings made in the 50's and 60's that just isn't there today and is why I am not a pop music fan. What I hear on pop recordings todays is just not honest!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Kosinki]

Reminds me of my early days at the Radio station in the recording studio and doing remotes. We did have more advanced condenser mics in addition to a couple of 44's and 77's. We had our own custom recording mixer in the studio using Altec mic modules, Altec pan pots and Switchcraft components. We used 4 graphic passive tone control modules, etc. We had Ampex 300 mono machines with the old under console electronics. 351's and 354's. We had a home built 300-4 using a belt drive 300 14 inch reel size deck brought down from 30 60 ips to 15 30 ips . For remotes I had a 300-4 using two 354 electronics. For remotes I used Ampex MX 35 mixers which were better than the Altecs shown, but they didn't have tone controls, so I always carried a broader selection of mics. Sony C-37, Altec M-30 and 20, Neumann U-67, Telefinken M 250 , RCA 77, AKG C-12, Neumann K-m 86. I always wanted either a Neumann or AKG stereo mic, but they were just too expensive. We tried alsorts of mics in addition, what ever the distributors would loan us. Except for the Ampex and older Magnecords we bought directly distributors. There was a local Ampex dealer who treated us right and I went to work for later on, that would bend over backwards to help us out. He would loan us what ever he had if we had an issue and there would be problems with part deliveries.

Its great to see this video bring back memories of how we recorded things in the studio and in the field. No gimmicks just honest recording of honest musicians. That why I so love Sheffield, Telarc, Mercury, Reference Recordings, and others where keep it simple and honest is the rule and not something cooked up in a studio.

Remember the shots showing the professional VU meters. The ballistics of those meters mean they lie or don't reveal short higher peaks of 18 db higher. So that means when the meter hits the peg the tape is receiving any where between + 20 and + 24 db levels to the tape. Whats amazing is over 95% of that level came back off the tape, too. When high output/low noise tape from Scotch and Ampex came along and then UD from Maxell and TDK's better tape we gained another 6 to 8 db of dynamic range. But by the time it got to the Lp with compression and multi channel mixing a lot of the advantage was lost. It was a fun time experimenting with different mics and different pick up patterns. I used omni and cardioid for most remote recordings. Like the man. said a bi-direction figure 8 pattern was very valuable in a studio.

The local sound shop sold a ton of 1567's mixers, which were Ok. But I preferred the later 1592 with with SS input modules rather than the 4722 module the 1567 used. We modified our MX 35 Ampex mixers later on to provide phantom power for our C 451 and other AKG condenser mics. Like the man said there was an art and a honesty to recordings made in the 50's and 60's that just isn't there today and is why I am not a pop music fan. What I hear on pop recordings todays is just not honest!!!!!!!!!!!

very cool, thanks for sharing

 

[Quadman2]

WOW! This video of the live recording with vint gear blew me away!

Had to view it twice in order to comprehend that the movement/complexity of players vs the different multiple mikes produced a more real life experience with the former, and the intrinsic effects of the period time recording equipment.

In the forum of "Musical Instruments" there is some really detailed info/input shared, wherein vintage vs modern recording techniques were discussed and bantered about. This particular thread dovetails so well with that aforementioned thread.

Judas Priest also shared a thread in the "General Audio Discussion" music forum in the way of assessing modern music that analyses this music in a video. This ties in as well.

Q

 

[restorer-john]

A cool video. Thanks for posting.

 

[arts]

Brilliant,absolutely bloody brilliant.