Mellotronists

On Thu, 4 Mar 2004, Andy Thompson wrote:

> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Jeff Coulter" <jeffc@...>
> To: <Mellotronists@yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, March 03, 2004 4:58 PM
> Subject: Re: [Mellotronists] 10cc
> 
> > i used to think it was all done via a fairlight, as it has the
> > same sort of odd quality that fairlight "voices" had... but my
> > ears were not so sophisticated, and i attributed anything that
> > i could not easily explain to one of those $100k+ tools...
> > it's really amazing what people can accomplish just with imagination
> > and by pushing current technology to the extremes... aaah, innovation!
> 
> This was at least five years *before* the Fairlight, though!


DOH!
as previously stated - lots of chemicals back then.

i had a chance to buy a fairlight from a studio here in philly.
$2500 for the whole system [don't recall exact model]
i just didn't have the $$ at the time... a few weeks later i
missed out on a ppg waveterm also...


> > there were likely a few cutting-edge studios with 2 24-track
> > machines locked together via tach-pulses and little black
> > boxes - i don't think smpte was even that common back then.
> > a 48-channel desk was certainly available some places.
> > a couple years later the 3M 32 track digital was born, and
> > the digital fomat wars following shortly thereafter.
> 
> Again - that sounds like the mid-'80s to me.


IIRC, the 3M 32 track digital was available ~1977.


> > [we have dual studer 24-track machines and a 56 input ssl 9000j
> > here at our studio, but protools has been the recording format
> > of choice for a couple years now. acts bring a couple firewire
> > drives instead of 2-inch tape stock... and the half-inch 2-track
> > has been collecting dust for as long as i can remember...]
> 
> My brother's studio still use theirs fairly regularly, sometimes to 'warm
> up' drums and vocals before putting them into ProTools.
> 
> Andy T.


that's about the only use here too.
sometimes people bring their old 2" reels in and do
transfers for remixing or archival purposes.

i produced a record a couple years ago at studio 4 a few
miles away, and i insisted on using tape [it was a band
featuring all "real" instruments: guitar, vox, bass, drums
and cello]. the old neve console combined with tape worked
exactly as well as i thought it would [with the help of
some VERY nice outboard gear, including a fairchild].
everyone was pleased with the final result.
[and having it mixed by phil nicolo helped!]