Djembe wrote on Sat, 01 December 2007 19:49 |
But is that PR spin or did Frank Sinatra really use it? All the photos I've seen show him using a U47. Am I to assume that most vocals recorded at Capitol in the late 50's/early 60's used a C-37A?
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Regarding his Capitol career; the majority of photos and descriptions suggest Sinatra used a U47 for his Capitol recordings - the only exception I know of is "Sinatra's Swingin' Session!!!" which he used a Telefunken ELA M251.
The book "Sessions with Sinatra" shows session photos from "Close To You"(1957), "Where Are You?" (1957), "In The Wee Small Hours" (1955) and several shots from 1953 and 1954, all using a U47. There is no mention of the Sony C37 in the book (which covers his entire recording career). Of course, they don't mention every mic for every album - but only the RCA 44 and U47 are highlighted.
During his Reprise years, he seemed to use a wide variety of mics, including an M49 (Great Songs From Great Britain), Sennheiser 405 (Strangers In The Night), a U67 (or 87?) (Ol Blue Eyes Is Back). He used several small diaphragm mics in those years, which, in my opinion, don't do his voice justice.
The cover photo of Sinatra & Strings (engineered by Bill Putnam in 1961) shows a Sony C37, but it's impossible to tell where the photo is from. It looks like it might be a stage shot.
As a curiosity, he used an AKG "The Tube" on 1984's "LA is my Lady" produced by Quincy Jones.