Best I can remember:
The studio was one large room. A wall divider created a small drum booth
with a Plexiglas window. Blankets covered all the walls. It was
such a fire hazard that we often referred to it as "Death Trap Studio's".
Recording and Equipment Notes:
We
usually recorded the bass guitar direct into the mixer. The guitar amp was
mic'd and covered with a blanket using a Shure SM57. About 3-4 mics on the drums. One
on the bass drum and 2-3 overhead. On acoustic guitars I used the Sony
ECM22P or the EV1711. For vocals I used the large dynamic Shure SM7
and sometimes the Shure SM58. I didn't have a real mixing board only
the shure mic mixer and a
simple line level 4 track to stereo (with L/R pan pots on each track). So
there were lots of 4 track to stereo sub mixes or 3 tracks to one and
subsequent overdubs on available tracks. It was a real hat trick
trying to play guitar or sing and operate the equipment. Mixing was
an art in itself. I tried to balance the instruments, eliminate the hums
(a constant battle) and minimize the tape hiss. Another problem was tape
dropouts, even on the best hi bias recording tape available (TDK, Scotch,
BASF). The original TEAC 3340 had mechanical brakes that would unevenly
stop the deck in FF/Rewind, sometimes destroying the tape. Now
everyone wants to go back to the analog tape recording, go figure.
But
the songs were never
really finished. Always a work in progress, searching for a better sound.
When you played the tape for someone you would always comment "this is
just a rough mix".
