Norman Petty Studio (Buddy Holly)

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NewYorkDave

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Joined
Jun 4, 2004
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Location
New York (Hudson Valley)
I've been a Buddy Holly fan for many years. Besides the fact that the songwriting and performance are brilliant, I consider his records to be among the best-sounding rock records made in the '50s.

We wire-heads tend to fetishize equipment too much. Still, I couldn't help but wonder about the gear used in Norman Petty's studio in New Mexico, where the bulk of the Crickets' records were made. Here's a photo that appeared recently in a guitar magazine. It conveys quite a lot of info about Petty's set-up circa 1957:
156kB JPG

The equipment in Petty's console should be pretty familiar to most of us: three Altec 1567s, a Pultec EQ, an Altec limiter--and, of course, a trusty Simpson 260 standing by for troubleshooting duties! :wink: Also, dig the reels of Scotch 111 on the counter, and the mysterious jug underneath. (Cleaning solvent? Moonshine? :wink: ).

The article that accompanied the photo can be found here. (Scroll halfway down).

Some fairly detailed info about mics and technique is here. (Again, scroll halfway down).

Lastly, the "official" page of Norman Petty Studios (which still stands, although records are no longer made there) can be found here. Be sure to click on the "tour" link to see some cool photos.

I strongly suspect that the stereo console shown on the "official" site was installed after the Holly era. It seems more likely, to me, that the custom Altec-based setup is what was used to record the Crickets.

I figured this would be of interest since it shows what you can achieve with only a few pieces of good equipment (and, of course, a well-designed room, a real acoustic echo chamber, and much skill and talent!).
 
[quote author="NewYorkDave"]I've been a Buddy Holly fan for many years.
...
We wire-heads tend to fetishize equipment too much. [/quote]

same here :thumb:
... and yes we do

sometimes it is easier to find a simple method and just press record.


[quote author="from one of the web sites above"]Norman Petty?s studio in Clovis, New Mexico, was located next to a noisy machine shop and a major highway. As such, most recording was done late at night, with the group sleeping in an adjoining guest room during the day.[/quote]

:shock:
that sounds like my place !
except now that people have home theatre systems ... I can't get any piece and quite at night either.
 
Well,

I always loved the pictures of that studio from one of the Buddy Holly and the Crickets books my Dad had- in fact, it's probably one of the inspirations for my interest in audio. His setup seemed really simple- to my untrained 12-year-old eye all I could see was a few mics, boxes with knobs on, and a reel-to-reel recorder, and I thought- "hey, I can have a studio!

Nearly 20 years later and...how little did I know!!

:wink:

Mark
 
The first record I ever bought was Peggy Sue, on a 78 of course, and it still sends shivers down my spine when I hear it - not the 78 though because my deck only plays 33 & 45. Oh for a time machine! Just to see Buddy Holly, Gene Vincent & Johnny Burnette !
Stephen
 
My dad saw many of the greats of '50 rock 'n roll and doo-wop in-person at Allan Freed's Brooklyn Paramount shows. Funny thing is, he never even mentioned that to me until this year. It just happened to come up in a conversation about a related subject. My dad's funny that way...

freedparamount.jpg
 
Being born i 74 makes me too young for all that jazz. I'm spending a lot of time listeing through the early/mid seventies back to the late sixties. There's just SOOOOOO much, that I doubt I'll get through those thousands of records. Then it's the early sixties and fifties...

It's not that I don't like BH. I just don't know him :oops:
 
My dad never talked about his early days, neither did my mum, but my mother in law does! She was brought up in Buenos Aires and at 93 remembers things from 70 years ago in detail, but can't remember what pills she has taken tat day. We take her on holiday for a week each year and I always record meal time conversations. I have hours of the stuff to sift through one day. My dad took a very dim view of rock n roll - didn't stop me though!
 
[quote author="sismofyt"]Yes. You're old guys :wink:[/quote]

perhaps ...

but c'mon
Buddy H ... Richie V ... and many of the others then ...
pick up an electric guitar and a simple little amp and belt out a simple rock song ... power pop at it's best.

no ticks ... just play :thumb:
 
[quote author="NewYorkDave"]the mysterious jug underneath. (Cleaning solvent? Moonshine? :wink: ).[/quote]
Perhaps one in the same? :green:

Funny that I looked at the pic before reading any further and spotted the same things. I think its probably denatured alcohol for head cleaning...

Thanks for sharing...nice stuff!
Charlie
 
Not so long ago, (a few years back), the Crickets toured New Zealand where I live. It was not high profile stuff, more generic gigs like the big day at the races etc. I found myself playing in a support band to the Crickets at one gig in Auckland and was amazed at their humble approach.

They just got up and played (with a new member of the band being "Buddy") and I wondered at the time if half the audience realised just who these people were. This didn''t seem to bother them, they just rocked on. Got my old Buddy Holly album signed too.

Larry
 
I wouldn't trust all the information in that one article. He talks about there being 2 mics in the chamber(stereo?) which would have been after Buddy died. He also talks about an Ampex 327(??). I know Norman had 350's. You can see them here:

http://www.angelfire.com/mn/pdp/pettytour2.html

I've heard that he did the remote recordings of Buddy Holly at the air force base to an Ampex 600. I've also heard that he didn't send the original master tapes to the label, but rather a copy. That means most of what we've heard is second or third generation!

Almost all the southern studios( Norman's, Cosmo's in New Orleans, Bradley's in Nashville, Sun in Memphis) had basically the same equipment-
U47, M11, 77, 44, 639, Ampex 350, etc. They all sound different because of their rooms and how they approached things.

I still think the Gene Vincent stuff with Cliff Gallup is the best 50's "rock" sound.

Billy
 
[quote author="NewYorkDave"]Spent half an hour downloading that file, and Media Player won't play it. Grrr![/quote]

Hello,
Don't bother , it's just a "commercial" , a movie made by RCA to explain how LP are/were made in theses good old days, btw there are some nice shots made in a studio, funny movie.

Fly
 
Thanks for the tip. In the past, Media Player has recognized DIVX and told me where to download a suitable codec. It didn't do that this time. Weird...

I was just forced to "upgrade" my work PC to XP, which I can't stand. I guess the version of Media Player that comes with it is somehow "enhanced." ("Enhanced" in software terms is shorthand for "does not work as well as the version you were using before"). :mad:

Anyway, a Google search quickly turned up a DIVX-compatible version of Media Player which plays the file just fine.
 
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