Such a piece of history. Some detailed photos and some videos.
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Enjoy. It's nice to dream.
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Enjoy. It's nice to dream.
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Abbey Road Beatles Recording Console REDD.37 and Studer Recorders
- Thread starter beans-on-toast
- Start date
SirMjac28
Patiently Waiting For The Next British Invasion
That's incredible I'm surprised it's still not sitting in Abbey Road? I also wonder if it was modeled for a future VST? I love this stuff Beans those engineers back then were magicians. The technical complexity of consoles like this one is mind blowing considering how old it is. I think those inventors deserve to as much attention as the musicians.
Believe it or not, Abbey Road sold off a lot of their good stuff. Twits! They had to get hold of a Studer J37 and the REDD console when they were doing digital transfers for remastering. It is all in protools now.
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I owned a J-37 for a while, but it had technical issues beyond my ability. I sold it to a friend, and he had Fred Hill work on it.
Heavy machine: way heavier than my M-56 8-track.
Otto
Heavy machine: way heavier than my M-56 8-track.
Otto
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George Martin and his staff were brilliant at capturing the Beatles, especially in their "studio group" era.
They were truly pushing the envelope on what could be done in the studio in those years, and changed forever the way studios and recording equipment were used
They were truly pushing the envelope on what could be done in the studio in those years, and changed forever the way studios and recording equipment were used
SirMjac28
Patiently Waiting For The Next British Invasion
I wonder if they gave Paul or Ringo the heads up? I think George or John would have been all over that sale. I would think some of those pieces are museum worthy?
A lot of tubes and transformers but those motors were heafty. Built like a work of art and a tank.
There's a nice video on the Studer site showing the hiatory of the company. I sure wish that the A827 was still in production.
Some interesting history on the M56 here: [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
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Paul has a Mellotron. I don't recall if it was the Abbey Road one. At one point John Lennon had a studio sale. He had an EMI RS56 EQ, outboard gear, and a nice selection of mics. They used those a lot, a real prized piece of equipment. A lot of Lennon's equipment has been parted out. People with deep pockets are always standing in line to buy it for more than museums can afford.
At the time, studios were throwing out a lot of old tube equipment. Transistorized desks and recorders were what everyone used. They still are. Tube equipment was high maintenance and downtime in a studio was costly. Even Neumann stopped selling tube mics. Fortunately, things have turned around and they offer some tube products.
Telefunken has reissued the U47 and U48 mics as well as others. They even have a replacement for the hard to find VF14 tube that the mics use. At one time, it was probably the most expensive tube used in audio. Not that the U48 isn't expensive, it sells for about $8500. [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
Dale and I are long time fellow members of the AMPEX list and have discussed much about both history and function of those 3M machines. Actually I think some of our long discussions inspired him to write that up.
I used an M-56 and several M-79s and built an M-23 2-track from a film sync transport, spare channels from JRF's machine and other needed parts. I finally sold off that last M-23 machine (to the same guy who has the J-37) a year ago. The first picture of a 3M on the historyofrecording 3M page is the M-23 I built.
Otto
You've had some fun over the years.
When I listen to old session tapes, I never fail to marvel over the quality of the sound.
SirMjac28
Patiently Waiting For The Next British Invasion
SirMjac28
Patiently Waiting For The Next British Invasion
You've had some fun over the years.
When I listen to old session tapes, I never fail to marvel over the quality of the sound.
+1 There is an unmistakable magic in those recordings today anybody with a decent cell phone can make a recording. I remember when going to a studio any studio was a really big deal.
You've had some fun over the years.
When I listen to old session tapes, I never fail to marvel over the quality of the sound.
If you haven't worked with tape extensively, especially with the best of the pro machines, you don't realize how much you get for free by tracking and mixing to tape.
Otto
My friend who bought the J-37 has several 3M 4-tracks. While most of his clients record to digital, he has large format machines that still get occasioanal use (mainly if there is an issue with the DAW.)
Still, he has at least one client who always likes to record old school, tracking and bouncing between the 4-tracks, as they did at Abbey Road on the earlier part of the Beatles' catalog.
Otto
Still, he has at least one client who always likes to record old school, tracking and bouncing between the 4-tracks, as they did at Abbey Road on the earlier part of the Beatles' catalog.
Otto
SirMjac28
Patiently Waiting For The Next British Invasion
I would love just to see these machines in action and I wish there was a studio around here just to hang out in. I have the Waves Abbey Road Collection and it has the J37 it even has an animation of the tapes spinning.
I like using the J37 plugin as well. It's full of useful tools.
The wow, flutter, noise, and saturation are useful features. I especially like the saturation. A feature of the old recording process was transformers in every step of the process. Tube mics, preamps, the tape deck, the tape itself with compression all acted to smooth harsh transients and as a result, added warmth.
The tape formula selection helps with EQ. Bias helps the EQ by adding bandwidth in the more linear higher end. Worth experimenting with it. At the same time, non-linear is good, it's what tubes do when pushed. EQ is useful to use to condition the signal before the compression that the tape adds. The saturation helps with smoothing harsh digital transients. Wow, flutter, and noise adds some of the depth and complexity that tape brings to the signal.
The wow, flutter, noise, and saturation are useful features. I especially like the saturation. A feature of the old recording process was transformers in every step of the process. Tube mics, preamps, the tape deck, the tape itself with compression all acted to smooth harsh transients and as a result, added warmth.
The tape formula selection helps with EQ. Bias helps the EQ by adding bandwidth in the more linear higher end. Worth experimenting with it. At the same time, non-linear is good, it's what tubes do when pushed. EQ is useful to use to condition the signal before the compression that the tape adds. The saturation helps with smoothing harsh digital transients. Wow, flutter, and noise adds some of the depth and complexity that tape brings to the signal.
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