Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Brian Kehew]

>>the best recordings to me from a hi-fi point of view were the early ones.<<

Agreed, in fact, most of the PRE-Beatles Abbey Road music is superior, sonically speaking.  Try to find and hear "Goodness Gracious Me" with Peter Sellars and Sophia Lauren: absolutely amazing sonic quality.

[Sarusan]

I think the same is true for the pre-rock recordings done in Hollywood as well:  RCA, United and Western, Columbia, etc..  I heard a bunch of my father's records from that era over the holidays (Bobby Darin, Sinatra, Mancini, etc..)and was simultaneously amazed and bummed out.  None of us will ever get the chance to do records that will sound that great.

Steven

Brian Kehew wrote on Tue, 16 January 2007 04:16

Agreed, in fact, most of the PRE-Beatles Abbey Road music is superior, sonically speaking.

[Sarusan]

I was told that there was a green(!) Helios at Seville Road but maybe that was after Terry's visit.  Would that have been when they were still borrowing consoles from EMI?

[vernier]

Quote:

None of us will ever get the chance to do records that will sound that great.

All you need is a good room -and the equipment they used back then, which is still around.

[maxdimario]

AND THE MOST IMPORTANT THING OF ALL:

REPLACEMENT OF ALL WORN OUT COMPONENTS!

vintage gear today will NOT sound the same as it did 50 years ago EVEN IF IT'S NEVER BEEN USED..unless restored.

no ifs and buts..

[Tdstotler]

 
What I am always suprised is when someone gets a piece
of 'vintage' gear, and hooks it into new high end digital
convertors and proceeds to hear every little sonic blemish.
I belive back in the day all of this stuff was well
masked with all the other 'vintage gear'.
Case in point, in the Recording Beatles book, they talk
about hearing distortions on the new transitor desk
that was in the expirmental room circa 66 from the mix tapes
that were recorded on the Redd.
But when played back on the Redd they couldn't hear any distortion.
I think this is somewhat relavent to today when you try
to interface something vintage to modern.

Todd

www.echoesrecordingstudio.com
www.myspace.com/echoesrecordingstudio

[vernier]

I was so disappointed  when the white album came out ..solid-state was the mistake.

[Marlowe]

The solid-state console wasn't used until Abbey Road.  The White Album was recorded using the same tube console they'd been using since 1964.

vernier wrote on Fri, 23 February 2007 19:06

I was so disappointed  when the white album came out ..solid-state was the mistake.

[Andy Simpson]

Solid-state tape machine.....

[Brian Kehew]

Actually, all Beatles records were mixed on valve (tube) machines, and the White Album was partially tracked on valve machines and partially on solid state, but I challenge anyone to spot the differences in the tracks just by listening.

In other words - a chunk of the White Album was done on the same gear as Revolver, Pepper and MMTour. Yet they ALL sound different - because the Beatles wanted them to...

[Oliver Archut]

Hello Brian,

I agree with you about the tape sound, but if you check the same record from the different record pressing plant you do hear a big different. I check a couple of years back the german, dutch, italian as well as two different US versions and all of them had differences... It would be quite an interesting venture to outline the different record pressing/mastering set ups for the historic vinyl pressing plants.

Best regards,

[compasspnt]

Brian Kehew wrote on Tue, 16 January 2007 04:16

Agreed, in fact, most of the PRE-Beatles Abbey Road music is superior, sonically speaking.

Sarusan wrote on Tue, 16 January 2007 12:58

I think the same is true for the pre-rock recordings done in Hollywood as well:  RCA, United and Western, Columbia, etc..  I heard a bunch of my father's records from that era over the holidays (Bobby Darin, Sinatra, Mancini, etc..) and was simultaneously amazed and bummed out.  None of us will ever get the chance to do records that will sound that great.

Steven,

Yes, all of those records you mentioned were great, BUT there was still a BIG difference between the Sinatra recordings (at least those LA recorded Capitol ones, Arranged by Nelson Riddle and Produced by Voyle Gilmore, best case in point being "Wee Small Hours") and the Bobby Darin New York recordings (Produced by Ahmet and Neshui, Engineered by Tom Dowd).

The Sinatra recordings mentioned were amazingly full and warm, and beautiful.  The Bobby Darin ones, whilst awesome, and amongst my very favourites, were in comparison more strident, and showed a few engineering flaws.  I spoke to Tom Dowd about this very thing in 1968, and he lamented about several vocal rides he had "missed," and spoke with huge admiration for the warmth of those Sinatra recordings.

Even then, all things were never equal.



As for The Beatles' vinyl, I always thought that that by far the best were the original UK mono pressings on Parlophone.

[Glenn (Jakeandthephatman)]

Well.... I can't say I was not warned about this.. BUT... Damm you Brian for writing  that RECORDING THE BEATLES BOOK. lol..I wanted a RS124 Soooo bad that I went ahead and gave Jim my money and compressor.. What a mistake. Just as Brian had stated in a prior post, Jim was great in the beginning. Sending me PDF's etc. Now nothing for over 3  months.. Various emails, calls, voice-mails. I refuse to be ripped off by a guy who attends Namm and AES w/o fear of repercussions. I don't know about you guys but for me, this is too much. JIM if you read this. Call me, its better to face this head-on than to run into me. (Sorry for taking the time to let Jim Have it) Also for those of you that do have 636c's and would like them to have the modifications done, you can call Tom Herzer here in LA. He does his own set of mods to the 636 which are beyond fantastic. Aside from recapping etc. he adds variable attack, the ability to balance the tubes + adding knobs to release and threshold. I do have to say that his modded 636c is my favorite compressor right now....