I've been having a hell of a time trying to find any info on vintage recording gear commonly used. Maybe some knowledgeable folks here can offer some insight....
In particular I'm curious about the equipment used and the engineering behind the rock recordings of the 60's and 70's.
I'm particularly fond of the sound of groups like the Allman Brothers, Hendrix, Neil Young (any album of his from the late 60's to late 70's sounds magnificent to my ears), CSN, etc.
As far as WHAT was used, in those days, there wasnt a lot of specialty console builders....a lot of consoles were custom built using mic pres and parts availble. Bill Putnam, the founder and genius responsible for Universal Audio, was one of these builders of parts. Capricorn Sound Studios in Macon Georgia had a custom built console that had UA 610 modules in it.
The Allman Bros as well as a WHOLE bunch of artists you and the rest of the world have heard a WHOLE lot, recorded there.
This same story will be true for most of the artists of these times. Isnt it funny how these recordings have held up sonically throughout all this time.
Its directly related to real engineering.
Like I said, all the pres were in a custom-built console configuation be it UA, MCI, Helios, Neve...etc. And yes, everyone these days wants to get that sound....
Yeah but that was only part of it.
The Ampex 300-1/-2/-3 utilized metal envelope tubes like 12SJ7's which were relatively noisy Pentodes. The one for the playback head had to be specially hand selected for lowest noise.
After that the much improved Ampex 351 came along with its small glass envelope dual triodes the popular 12AX/T/U/7/ECC83, etc.. This is by far the best sounding most sought after tube Ampex ever made. The predecessor to this one the 350 looked virtually identical on the faceplate. The distinguishing difference was that the 350 had a rounded edge meter and the 351 had squared corner meters. The difference inside the chassis was substantial. The transports for both were identical with manual tape head lifters. They were generally delivered at speeds of 7 1/2 & 15 IPS. 3 3/4 & 30 IPS were available on special order configurations. If you can find a 351 electronic package in good working condition, it makes a fabulous microphone preamp.
A little after that came 3M with their revolutionary iso-loop transport for all of the M series recorders. That included the M24/56/79. Some of those utilized a new type of noise reduction/headroom extension circuit that was called " Dyna-Track". What this did required twice the amount of audio tracks than required. If you're going to make a two track stereo recording, you'd need a four track machine. It would record levels at different reference settings. That would then automatically switch between each track which would in turn both extend headroom and lower noise. It was a novel system that actually worked at everything was tweaked exactly right. It really wasn't popular and wasn't used much.
Another contender was Larry Scully's machine. Scully was already well-known for his record cutting lathes. But then he jumped on the bandwagon of producing magnetic recorders and introduced the model 260. This was his answer to the Ampex AG 350 which unlike its tube brother was an early germanium transistor model.
Scully's machines had a rather unique " Linearizer" circuit. What this novel little circuit did included merely a couple of diodes. One could attain 2 DB better signal-to-noise ratio or headroom utilizing standard scotch 111 recording tape. He accomplished this by realizing that the nonlinear saturation distortion from overload could be reproduced, mildly, with a couple of diodes. With the signal inverted and combined with the actual taped signal could ever so slightly cancel a small amount of distortion.
It was difficult and confusing to adjust and could actually do more harm than good. Later with the higher output tape's, the circuit was no longer needed. After the 260 was introduced, the new and improved 280 with automatic tape lifters were introduced.
This machine like the previous machine utilized germanium transistors and had a wonderful microphone preamp input as well. This particular model of machine was available from the early mid sixties in configurations of from 1 to 16 tracks. Larry retired in the mid-seventies and Dictaphone Corp. purchased Scully and carried on the tradition, substituting silicon transistors in place of the germanium's.
Just not quite as warm sounding. This continued until early 1980, after having recently introduced their "improved" version of another electrical engineers machine the 280B, with different electronics. This new machine also included a digital transport control system.
At that time it was purchased by AMPRO broadcast products of Pennsylvania. They faded from existence in about 1984/5. They never offered more than a 16 track machine, the last being the first low-cost 2 inch 16 track machine. They made it cheaper by not including a playback head! Yup, the model 100-16. It was fine for a studio who utilized a single brand and type of tape as alignment for recording was not really an option. It was a lot of record rewind, playback, adjust, record, rewind, playback, adjust, etc.. Eeewwwww. I never want to see one of those again! Thankfully the B series machines were never offered as anything more than 8 tracks. A 16 and a 24 weren't even considered.
MCI hit the scene in the mid-1970s. A spinoff of a music store called Music Centers Inc. in Fort Lauderdale. He started making imitation clone Ampex 440 transistor recording channel electronics. He went on to clone their 8/16 & 24 track machine as well. Such an exact copy of the electronics that you can swap record, playback & bias cards between Ampex 440AB&C/MM 1000/MM 1100/MM 1200 with the MCI JH 10-8, 16&24 & JH 16-8, 16 & 24. The later MCI machines were original designs starting with the JH 110 & JH 114 series, in the early 1980s.
Showing posts with label 1960s. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1960s. Show all posts
Friday, 9 December 2016
Sunday, 4 September 2016
The Mid 1960s And Abbey Road
We didn't always use Cubase and GarageBand for recording our sounds, and studios weren't always equipped with Pro Tools HD and banks of expensive processing gear. Graeme takes a look at how things worked back in the sixties…
In the mid 1960s a four-track tape machine would typically be used for recording. This meant many parts had to occupy one track, and when it came to the stereo mix they could not be separated, resulting in multiple parts being panned to the same place.
No rules had yet been defined for mixing in stereo, so what would seem like odd decisions today were made in the name of experimentation. For example, in The Beatles song Taxman from 1966 the drums are panned entirely to the left. Such techniques, although unconventional today, were a defining feature of mid-1960s recordings and of the birth of stereo.
1960s Recording Equipment
As the first digitally recorded commercial record was not released until 1977, all the recording equipment in the mid 1960s would have been analogue. Abbey Road made use of a four-track tape recorder during this period - the Studer J37.
Studer J37 four track tape recorder
George Martin , producer for The Beatles, actually believed that the limitations of the four-track stimulated creativity and that the 1967 album Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club band would not have been as good if recorded on a 24-track. The J37 is somewhat of a legendary machine these days.
The four-track did not however limit the record to four different parts. By using a multi-channel mixer several parts could be recorded to one channel. This however meant that any processing such as equalisation and compression would have to be applied during recording, as the tracks could not be separated once recorded. This yielded a far narrower margin for error than is available with modern digital recording. The desired sound and volume level would have to be achieved before the track was recorded, meaning a very thorough sound check was required. The main console in place at Abbey Road in the first half of the 1960s was designed and built by EMI, and is shown below.
1960s EMI console, Abbey Road
It essentially contained two 5-channel mixers, a valve equalisation section and effects sends. This allowed for multiple channels to be sent to one track of the Studer, with equalisation and other effects added on the way in.
Microphones were predominantly large diaphragm condensers. Valve powered condensers such as Neumann U47s and U67s were commonly used for vocals by the engineers at Abbey Road. Indeed there are still 15 U67s at the studio in use today. Ribbon microphones such as the STC4038 (now manufactured by Coles) were often used on drums, along with AKG 56 and 54 condenser microphones.
Both the Studer four-track and the console, and in fact all amplifying equipment of the time, made use of valves rather than transistors in their amplifying circuits. This was a major factor in the final sound of the recordings. Valves could handle higher signal levels than transistors, and when they distorted it was across their entire frequency range, unlike the hissy, undesirable distortion that occurs when transistors are overdriven. They are generally associated with a ‘warm' tone.
Guitar amplifiers of the time relied on valves for their clean tones and warm distortion. The Beatles, and in fact most artists of the time, favoured the Vox AC30 as their guitar amplifier. One feature of the AC30 was its built in valve-driven tremolo effect. This became a feature of a huge range of records at the time, and is an effect highly associated with 1950s and 60s guitar recordings.
Techniques
In the early to mid-1960s the predominant drum recording technique was the Glyn Johns technique. This involved three microphones: one overhead, one to the side and one on the kick. The overhead would be approximately a metre above the snare and the side microphone would be the same distance away from snare to the side near the floor tom, level with the snare. The kick microphone would be approximately a foot away from the kick drum. The microphones themselves were most often condenser microphones, with the occasional use of a dynamic microphone on the kick. Drums were also often dampened. The Beatles tended to attach tea towels to the snare drum and toms, giving their distinctly sharp, none-resonant sound.
Guitar microphone positioning techniques were relatively basic while four-track machines were still in use. As can be seen in the picture below, during a 1964 Beatles recording session at Abbey Road a condenser microphone is placed about half a foot away from the speaker, facing directly toward the cone.
Beatles session, Abbey Road
Piano techniques depended on the type of piano that was being used. Geoff Emerick (The Beatles' engineer) used two AKG D19 dynamic microphones for recording an upright piano.
Condenser microphones tended to be used with grand pianos in order to capture more ambience of the instrument. This was because the powered condenser microphones had wider frequency responses and could record larger sound fields, thus producing a more detailed recording.
Strings were almost exclusively recorded using ambient condenser microphones. Close microphone techniques were experimented with in the Beatles' Sgt Pepper's recording sessions but this was unconventional.
Effects processing included equalisation and compression. The Fairchild compressor was used frequently at Abbey Road throughout the 1960s. Its applications ranged from basic compression to limit the dynamic range of a track to highly driven heavy compression to add an entirely new sound to a track. The Fairchild was almost used as an instrument in its own right, and is a highly revelled and sought after piece of equipment today. Equalisation usually came from the mixing consoles, and most commonly made use of three band valve circuits with a mid-range boost switch. They would have been used on most tracks. One method of creating reverb was to use an EMT plate. This device consisted of a metal plate with a small transducer attached to the surface. Reflections in the plate were picked up by microphone-like transducers attached at different positions on the plate.
The reverb time was controlled by the amount of dampening upon the plate. Another method of recording reverb was to use an echo chamber. This simply involved putting a speaker in a room with a microphone at the other end, playing the material through the speaker and recording the reflections in the room. This was the technique favoured by the Abbey Road engineers, who made use of the several echo chambers in the studio for reverberation effects.
In the mid 1960s a four-track tape machine would typically be used for recording. This meant many parts had to occupy one track, and when it came to the stereo mix they could not be separated, resulting in multiple parts being panned to the same place.
No rules had yet been defined for mixing in stereo, so what would seem like odd decisions today were made in the name of experimentation. For example, in The Beatles song Taxman from 1966 the drums are panned entirely to the left. Such techniques, although unconventional today, were a defining feature of mid-1960s recordings and of the birth of stereo.
1960s Recording Equipment
As the first digitally recorded commercial record was not released until 1977, all the recording equipment in the mid 1960s would have been analogue. Abbey Road made use of a four-track tape recorder during this period - the Studer J37.
Studer J37 four track tape recorder
George Martin , producer for The Beatles, actually believed that the limitations of the four-track stimulated creativity and that the 1967 album Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club band would not have been as good if recorded on a 24-track. The J37 is somewhat of a legendary machine these days.
The four-track did not however limit the record to four different parts. By using a multi-channel mixer several parts could be recorded to one channel. This however meant that any processing such as equalisation and compression would have to be applied during recording, as the tracks could not be separated once recorded. This yielded a far narrower margin for error than is available with modern digital recording. The desired sound and volume level would have to be achieved before the track was recorded, meaning a very thorough sound check was required. The main console in place at Abbey Road in the first half of the 1960s was designed and built by EMI, and is shown below.
1960s EMI console, Abbey Road
It essentially contained two 5-channel mixers, a valve equalisation section and effects sends. This allowed for multiple channels to be sent to one track of the Studer, with equalisation and other effects added on the way in.
Microphones were predominantly large diaphragm condensers. Valve powered condensers such as Neumann U47s and U67s were commonly used for vocals by the engineers at Abbey Road. Indeed there are still 15 U67s at the studio in use today. Ribbon microphones such as the STC4038 (now manufactured by Coles) were often used on drums, along with AKG 56 and 54 condenser microphones.
Both the Studer four-track and the console, and in fact all amplifying equipment of the time, made use of valves rather than transistors in their amplifying circuits. This was a major factor in the final sound of the recordings. Valves could handle higher signal levels than transistors, and when they distorted it was across their entire frequency range, unlike the hissy, undesirable distortion that occurs when transistors are overdriven. They are generally associated with a ‘warm' tone.
Guitar amplifiers of the time relied on valves for their clean tones and warm distortion. The Beatles, and in fact most artists of the time, favoured the Vox AC30 as their guitar amplifier. One feature of the AC30 was its built in valve-driven tremolo effect. This became a feature of a huge range of records at the time, and is an effect highly associated with 1950s and 60s guitar recordings.
Techniques
In the early to mid-1960s the predominant drum recording technique was the Glyn Johns technique. This involved three microphones: one overhead, one to the side and one on the kick. The overhead would be approximately a metre above the snare and the side microphone would be the same distance away from snare to the side near the floor tom, level with the snare. The kick microphone would be approximately a foot away from the kick drum. The microphones themselves were most often condenser microphones, with the occasional use of a dynamic microphone on the kick. Drums were also often dampened. The Beatles tended to attach tea towels to the snare drum and toms, giving their distinctly sharp, none-resonant sound.
Guitar microphone positioning techniques were relatively basic while four-track machines were still in use. As can be seen in the picture below, during a 1964 Beatles recording session at Abbey Road a condenser microphone is placed about half a foot away from the speaker, facing directly toward the cone.
Beatles session, Abbey Road
Piano techniques depended on the type of piano that was being used. Geoff Emerick (The Beatles' engineer) used two AKG D19 dynamic microphones for recording an upright piano.
Condenser microphones tended to be used with grand pianos in order to capture more ambience of the instrument. This was because the powered condenser microphones had wider frequency responses and could record larger sound fields, thus producing a more detailed recording.
Strings were almost exclusively recorded using ambient condenser microphones. Close microphone techniques were experimented with in the Beatles' Sgt Pepper's recording sessions but this was unconventional.
Effects processing included equalisation and compression. The Fairchild compressor was used frequently at Abbey Road throughout the 1960s. Its applications ranged from basic compression to limit the dynamic range of a track to highly driven heavy compression to add an entirely new sound to a track. The Fairchild was almost used as an instrument in its own right, and is a highly revelled and sought after piece of equipment today. Equalisation usually came from the mixing consoles, and most commonly made use of three band valve circuits with a mid-range boost switch. They would have been used on most tracks. One method of creating reverb was to use an EMT plate. This device consisted of a metal plate with a small transducer attached to the surface. Reflections in the plate were picked up by microphone-like transducers attached at different positions on the plate.
The reverb time was controlled by the amount of dampening upon the plate. Another method of recording reverb was to use an echo chamber. This simply involved putting a speaker in a room with a microphone at the other end, playing the material through the speaker and recording the reflections in the room. This was the technique favoured by the Abbey Road engineers, who made use of the several echo chambers in the studio for reverberation effects.
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