Recording on 100-year-old equipment

[midwayfair]

This popped up in my YouTube feed. It's a few months old at this point, but he has some other cool videos as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1n2b0NdL6_E

 

[scott2000]

Woah! Very cool......

 

[JohnRoberts]

While not quite 100 years ago my father worked at WE in the 20s-30's doing sound recording, and even worked at Vitaphone (the joint venture between Warner Bros and WE) making talking pictures.

By then they had already stopped using Edison cylinders for commercial work, but used more modern appearing flat transcription discs for theater distribution.  They did some work with sound on film recording. I think newsreels were done that way. My dad went over to england in 1937 to record the coronation of King George for WE.

JR

PS: He died before I was old enough to ask him good questions.

 

[ruffrecords]

I thought the next video in the series (recording on a 1970s tape machine) was equally interesting. Makes it clear that in those days you really needed to be able to play.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oI7S5bwxX8w

Cheers

Ian

 

[madswitcher]

I had a chap in about 4 months ago to do some sessions and I told him we were going to do all onto 4 track tape with no editing, so he has got to do it in a complete take.  It took about 10/11 tries to get it, but the sense of satisfaction he got at the end was great.

Also, a small mistake on that video: editing is not "difficult or impossible", which I suppose show the unfamiliarity with the medium.

Ahh, the smell of a new reel of BASF tape first thing  in the morning.

Cheers

Mike

 

[midwayfair]

Also, a small mistake on that video: editing is not "difficult or impossible", which I suppose show the unfamiliarity with the medium.

What's the method of editing a wax cylinder? I was under the impression that it was similar to recording directly to vinyl: You melt it and start over.

 

[JohnRoberts]

What's the method of editing a wax cylinder? I was under the impression that it was similar to recording directly to vinyl: You melt it and start over.

He may have been talking about the 70's technology video Ian referenced. 

Wax cylinders are one and done. Only mixing is moving closer too or further away from the microphone (horn).

Yup cutting lacquers were one and done too.

JR

 

[madswitcher]

What's the method of editing a wax cylinder? I was under the impression that it was similar to recording directly to vinyl: You melt it and start over.

I was referring to the video where they used tape on the MCI machine.  I thought he said that, but I can't find it now 

Also did anyone spot the 'passive mixing' on the wax cylinder video.  The two horns seem to be joined when they were playing

Cheers

Mike

 

[Brian Roth]

Having been involved with a few "direct to disc" (IE, using a Neumann lathe and cutting on to a  lacquer), I can relate to the tension in a session cuz "there ain't no undo"!

The second video, recording onto the MCI 16 track, was closer to home for me.  I began working in a studio (circa 1973) with an Ampex MM-1100 16 track and an MCI JH-416 console.  Later years it was a MCI 24 track, then an Otari MTR-90.  It was all second nature, doing things like punching in for a word or two on a vocal track.  The later MCI and Otari machines made those things possible

Those guys in the video have no idea what efforts we went through to make a song.  Wanna hear what IS possible....go back and listen to Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody which was cut on a 24 track.

ProFools.....it's child's play in comparison.

Bri

 

[Brian Roth]

Someone needs to reveal all the tricks that were used prior to the digital era.

A

We are a dying breed, with no one behind us to learn.

Bri

 

[Tubetec]

Its a pity they didnt figure out a way of driving more level to wax so to speak ,they might have been better off boothing the two musicians and using a monitor to drive the horn and wax cutter . They could have eliminated the compromise of the dual horn input and simply mixed the signals at the desk ,before sending out to the monitor .

 

[JohnRoberts]

Someone needs to reveal all the tricks that were used prior to the digital era.

A

Not everything old is good or magical, sometimes it is just old.

I suspect most "tricks" that offered some sonic benefit have survived in plug-ins and features in modern recording environments.

Les Paul (the guitar guy) was a pioneer in overdubbing more than a decade before I was born (and I'm old).  :

Recording is often about sounding "different" so there is always room for experimentation, but this is not exactly a new concept. Many things have already been tried, and rejected or used.

JR

PS: Some effects are made richer by imperfect audio paths. Reel flanging doesn't sound as good using pristine delay paths.

PPS: I guess I should apologize for my lack of enthusiasm. Multitrack tape, was the bee's knees back in the day, now a historical footnote. I recall a friend who owned a 2" 24T recorder watching it's value disappear right before his eyes.

 

[ruffrecords]

Not everything old is good or magical, sometimes it is just old.

I suspect most "tricks" that offered some sonic benefit have survived in plug-ins and features in modern recording environments.

The best trick is, of course, talent. Not sure how much of that exists today.

Cheers

Ian

 

[midwayfair]

Gee, what's it like to have such a depressing view of the world?

 

[s2udio]

This is worth a watch ....., brilliant song writer and, one of my favorite musicians of the last 10 years
Steven Wilson Ask Me Nicely The Making of To The Bone Documentary.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goN2Yvv7x6Y
Enjoy