Legendary Recording Studios

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Js.Mujica

June 26, 2018 Volume 1, # 1

Top Ten Oldest Lengendary Recording Studios Js.Mujica

Abbey Road

Index Mixing Boards: EMI Redd 17 and 37 MTR: BTR Mono (British Tape Recorders) Location: 3 Abbey Road, St John's Wood, Westminster City, London, England Founded: 1931. Gramophone Company, British Music Company EMI Artists:The Beatles, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd Pictures: The Beatles with the REDD 37; Recorders BTR Mono; Mick Jagger, John and Paul.

Commennts: What it was like to first work with the Beatles? "Incredible. Awe-inspiring.

Boring. The best pick up line any male could ever have. I was 16-years-old and working with the biggest band in the world. There really is no other way to describe those sessions, for me anyway, than amazing." Scott

CBS/Capitol Records ................... 2 Electric Lady/Gold Star................ 3 Motown/Muscle Shoals .............. 4 RCA/Record Plant ....................... 5 Stax Records ............................... 6

Historical Reference  Some mixing boards were changed over time. We tried to

place those ones more iconics and not necessarily the oldest.

Quadrant faders, Siemens V72s, Mixing Board EMI REDD 37

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 First recording studios began with mono recorders , like Ampex 200 or British Tape Recorders. Mostly were later from 3 to 4, 8, 16 and 24.

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Capitol Records

The Capitol custom made Mixing board came with 16 Langevin Preamps a pushpull design, using 12AX7 and 12BH7 tubes with Langevin transformers

Mixing Board: Custom Made 12 inputs, 10 with EQ , Recorders: Ampex 300 Location: 1750 Vine St, Los Angeles, CA 90028, EE. UU. Founded:1956, Capitol Records Artists: Bob Dylan, Frank Sinatra, The Seekers, Carole King, Grand Funk, George Benson,, Ray

Charles, Ringo Starr Pictures: Control Room, Frank Sinatra, Ampex 300 Comments: “The whole secret of Capitol´s, and something that was given a great deal of attention, was the use of acoustic echo chambers", says Palladino.

“American Broadcasting Company (ABC) uses an Ampex Model 200 audio recorder for the first ever U.S. tape delay radio broadcast of The Bing Crosby Show.”

Ampex 350

CBS

Freq Response 50 to 15,000 cycles +/2 db •Signal to Noise 70 db •Speed 7.5 & 15 ips •Motors 3 •Reels 10.5 inch •Timing accuracy 0.1% rms @15ips •Weight approx 60 pounds - tube

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Mixing Board: Home made 16 channel Recorders: Ampex 300 and MM1000 Location: 207 East 30th Street, 49 East 52th Street. Midtown Manhattan, New York City Founded:1949. Columbia Records Artists:Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Paul Simon, Leonard Berstein.

Pictures: Ampex, Bob Dylan, Brian Wilson.

Comments: The phone has now rung 10 times when I finally tapped him on the shoulder and told him the phone is ringing. He looked very surprised and thanked me as he picked up the phone.??? This guy is the recording and mixing engineer and he can't hear the phone ring? Oh my...

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Electric Lady Studios

Js.Mujica Studer 800

Freq Response 30 to 20,000 Hz +/- 2

Mixing Board: Datamix Recorders: Scully 280 y Studer A-800MKII Location: 52 West Eighth Street, Greenwich Village, New York City 10011 Founded:1970, Jimi Hendrix Artists:Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Kiss, David Bowie, AC/DC, Guns N' Roses, U2, Lady Gaga, Stevie Wonder, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones Pictures:Eddie Kramer (Woodstock 69 Recording Engineer), Eddie Kramer with the author at the AES 2017, Robert Plant Comments: Datamix guy conviced them the console was going to be great. When the first one was delivered “It was unbelieve bad made” Kramer relates. “We literally had to rebuild the console. It took us two or three work to gráfico make that thing come back to spec Título que months describeoflaheavy imagen o el

Gold Star Studios

db •Signal to Noise 70 db •Speed 7.5 ; 15 y 30 ips •Motors 3 •Reels 14 inch •Wow&flutter 0.4% @15ips •Weight approx 249Kg-349Kg

Datamix

Good pre but EQ with Problems.

Custom Made Mixing Board

Mixing board: Built by Dave Gold Recorders: Ampex 350 Location: 6252 Santa Monica Boulevard Los Angeles, California, U.S Founded: 1950. David S.Gold and Stan Ross Artists: The Ronettes, Tina Turner, The Righteous Brothers, The Beach Boys, Cher Pictures: Spector, Phill Spector with The Righteous Brothers, Phil Spector with Tina and Ike Turner Comments: Gold Star is where Brian Wilson recorded “Good Vibrations,” “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” and the massive “I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times.” Gold Star is where Sonny Bono learned his craft watching Phil Spector work and where the couple recorded “I3Got You Babe.”

Designed and built by David Gold and loved by Phil Spector

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Scully 280

Js.Mujica

Motown

Mixing Board: Custom made Recorder: 3M and Scully Freq Response 20 to 15,000 cycles +/2 db

Location: Detroit, Michigan, USA Founded: 1959. Berry Gordy

•Signal to Noise 61~70 db •Speed 3 3/4, 7 1/2 & 15 ips •Motors 3 •Reels 11 1/8 inch •Timing accuracy 1.5% rms @15ips



Artists: Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, The Supremes, Four Tops, The Jackson 5 Pictures: Control Room, Stevie Wonder at Motown, Stevie Wonder with the Author at AES 2017, NYC.

Comments: “Unable at first to get the vocal performance he desired from Diana Ross, Johnny Bristol decided to try something different: he would harmonize with Ross, helping her to get into the mood needed for the record. On the first take, the engineer accidentally recorded both Ross's vocal and Bristol's adlibs. Bristol and arranger Wade Marcus liked the results, and Bristol had his vocal recorded alongside Ross' for the final version of the song. “

Weight: 57Kg the 4 channels

Inside a Universal Audio Mixing

Muscle Shoals

Mixing Board: Universal Audio-10, Flickering and MCI 400 Recorders: Scully Location: 3614 Jackson Highway in Sheffield, Alabama, Usa Founded:1969. The Muscle Shoals Rythm Sessions (The Swampers).

Artists: Rolling Stones, Cher, Canned Heat, Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel Bob Dylan, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Aretha Franklin, Joe Cocker Pictures: Audiotronics, The Rolling Stones, Wilson Pickett and Duane Allman

Board. First UA consoles were built using 610 and 610a modules. Later were built using 1006, 1016 and 508

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Comments: Equally remarkable was the fact that the recording session would end in an explosion of racial tension that would lead to Franklin leaving Muscle Shoals the next day, never to return.

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Ampex 440

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RCA Mixing Board: RCA 12 channel 3 busses Recorder: Ampex 350 and MM1000

Location: 1611 Roy Acuff Pl. Nashville Tennessee. USA. Founded: 1957. Chet Atkins, Steve Sholes Artists: Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton Pictures: Elvis Presley, MTR Ampex 440 and 1000, RCA B-12

Track system: 4-track, 2-channel, stereo/ monaural system Reel size: up to 10.5 inch reel Tape speeds: 3 3⁄4 7 1⁄2 15 ips Wow and flutter: 0.08% (15 ips) Frequency response: 30Hz to 18kHz (15 ips) Signal to Noise Ratio: 64dB

Comments: During an all night session at RCA’s Studio B in Nashville, Elvis recorded “It’s Now or Never” and “Are You Lonesome Tonight?”

“The Beatles choose the Studer J37 4-track for their album Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Introduction of the famous Revox A77 “

CLASSICS

Record Plant

RCA 44 and 77

Mixing Board: API Recorder: Scully 8 channels Location: 321 W 44th St, Nueva York 10036 Founded:1968. Gary Kellgren and Chris Stone Artists: Sly and the familiy Stone, John Lennon, Don McLean, Alice Cooper, New York Dolls, Lou Reed, Eric Clapton, Aerosmith, Kiss, Patti Smith, Bruce Springsteen, Fleetwood Mac, Blondie, Prince, David Bowie, Neil Young, Simon&Garfunkel, Queen, The Rolling Stones, Journey, 5

U2.

Pictures:Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon with Elton John, Control room Comments: Steve Marcantonio thought: “Holy #$&%¡ That’s a member of The Beatles sitting 10 ft from me”. John Lennon and Yoko Ono have been recording 8 days at Record Plant with him until the night he left and was shot.

Neumann/Telefunken U47

Altec Lansing 612 monitor

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Stax Records

Audiotronics

The first Audiotronics used Spectrasonics modules

Mixing Board: Ampex Mixers 3761 and Audiotronics 20x4 canales Recorders: Ampex 350 and Scully Location: Memphis, Tennessee, USA Founded: 1957. Jim Stewart and later Estelle Axton Artists:Otis Redding, Booker T and The MG's, Sam&Dave, Wilson Pickett, Isaac Hayes Pictures:Audiotronics Mixing Board, Ampex 440 and MM1000; Sam and David, Isaac Hayes and the MGS with Altec Lansing loudspeaker.

Comments:

Books Brian Wilson and Ben Greenman, I Am Brian Wilson, Da Carpo Press, 2016 Charles L. Granata, Sessions with Sinatra.

Chicago Review Press, 2003.

Rick Shelfchik, about the bird, University of Minnesota Press, 2015.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Tim Sampson Communications Director Soulsville Foundation Justin L. Croft Studio Manager, Historic RCA Studio B John Rumble Senior Historian

Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum Ron Meersand Technical Engineer (87-90) Electric Lady Studios

SITES Siemens /Telefunken V72 Preamplifier Universal Audio 610 Preamplifier Scotty More about RCA Studio API Consoles Datamix preamplifier RCA Studio B Mixing board.

Mixonline Sylvia Massy age of the customs Mixonline Eddie Kramer The early days of Electric Lady Analogue Pante Climbing “The Wall of Sound” with Stan Ross The Telegraph , Mick Brown, Deep Soul How Muscle Shoals became the most unlike hit factory.

Steve Marcantonio John Lennon at Record Plant Ampex Studer Noiseyvice Ken Scott takes us trough the history of Abbey Road History of Recording CBS Recording Studios

PICTURES. STAX STAX MUSSEUM ELECTRIC LADY STUDIO CAPITOL RECORDS MOTOWN THE BEATLES

Brian Wilson Rolling Stone The House that Jimi Hendrix built : Inside the birth of Record Plant The Swampers Rock&Roll Maps Gold Stars Recording Studios & The Wall

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of Sound Popular Mechanics REDD