Direct to tape mono recording c 1950 1963

Direct to tape mono recording (c. 1950 – 1963). Musical Styles Instruments Recording Equipment and the recording process Micing Techniques Effects Consumer formats

Where did it all begin? https: //www. youtube. com/ watch? v=_mm. ZFox 4 Rkg E. g. Skip James 1931, ‘Devil Got My Woman’ • Development of the Blues – style in America evolved as combination of European Music and Music from African Slaves. • Developed in R ‘n’ B • Fused with Gospel Listening Lounge: • Ambient Recording • Low signal to noise Ratio

Electric Blues https: //www. youtube. com /watch? v=wta. WVKi. Yt 5 w BB King, ‘You upset me Baby’ 1954 Listening Lounge: Instrumentation: • Electric Guitar • Horns (trumpets, trombones, Sax) • Bass • Piano • Vocals • Drums (with brushes)

Where did it all begin Originated in southern states of USA in 1950 s • Post war – more people in education and for the first time there were 1516 that had: a) Money b) No responsibility • = (yes, you) https: //www. youtube. com/ watch? v=OKZj UORj. Ps. I TEENAGERS

Musical Styles: Rock ‘n’ Roll

Rock ‘n’ Roll https: //www. youtube. co m/watch? v=IPm. UQX 44 d qc Bill Hailey and His Comets, Rock Around the Clock (1955) Listening Lounge: Instrumentation: • Electric Guitar • Horns (trumpets, trombones, Sax) • Upright Bass • Piano • Vocals • Drums

Jazz – Cool Jazz to Bebop Listening Lounge: Instrumentation: • Tenor Sax • Trumpet ‘Rhythm Section’: • Upright bass • Piano • Drums https: //www. youtube. co m/watch? v=dn. K 6 OHPQZb A

Big Band 1950 s https: //www. youtube. co m/watch? v=x. J-ohqw. Tz 24 Count Basie Big Band ft Ella Fitzgerald & Joe Williams, ‘Party Blues’ Listening Lounge: Instrumentation: • Vocals • Horns (trumpets, trombones, Saxes) • Upright Bass • Piano • Vocals • Drums What instruments are there?

Direct to tape mono recording (c. 1950 – 1963). Musical Styles Instruments Recording Equipment and the recording process Micing Techniques Effects Consumer formats

Direct to tape mono recording (c. 1950 – 1963). Musical Styles Guitar/Amp Instruments Vocals Horns Bass Drums Piano

Rock ’n’ Roll set up

Jazz – Cool Jazz to Bebop

Electric Guitar - Brief History • The need for an amplified guitar became apparent during the big band era, as jazz orchestras of the 1930’s and 1940’s increased in size, they needed a louder sound for the guitar to be heard above the horns.

Diagram Of An Electric Guitar

Q: What happens when you get a magnet and you pass it through a copper coil? Electromagnetic Induction….

How does an Electric Guitar Work? • Uses pickups to convert the vibration of steel strings into an electric current, which is then made louder by an amplifier or speaker… • But how?

Don’t believe me…? https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=J 9 b 0 J 29 Oz. AU

Electromagnetic Induction! Pick ups: These are transducers meaning they convert sound energy into electrical energy. When a metal string vibrates, the magnetic field of the magnet is disrupted an electrical current is induced which is equivalent to the pitch of the string. How the whole electric guitar works? • http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=l. BAZep. M 5 F_0#t=38

Pickups

History – 1936: • First Gibson ES-150 (Electric Spanish—$150) made famous by jazz virtuoso Charlie Christian. - (electro-acoustic) • Lots of unwanted feedback. https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=Ce 9 Jtl 9 D 6 FQ

History – 1946: • Les Paul credited with first hand-built solid-body to reduce feedback: ‘The Log’. • because it consisted of a simple 4 x 4 wood post with a neck attached to it and homemade pickups and hardware, with two detachable hollow body halves attached to the sides.

History – 1946: • Leo Fender designed the first commercially successful solid-body electric guitar with a single magnetic pickup, which was named the Esquire.

History – 1951: • Fender develops Broadcaster—renamed Tele-caster • First commercially available solid-body electric • Jazz musicians don’t like the bright twangy sound so stick with the Gibson ES. • Tele still popular with county Rock ‘n’ Roll and blues.

History – 1954: • Fender responds with wider tonal range of Stratocaster. This became the guitar of rock https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=9 irsg 1 v. Bmq 0

1951: It’s all about the Bass… Fender develops Precision Bass to meet need of bass players to be heard over drums and amplified guitar

History – 1952: • Gibson respond to Fender’s success with Les Paul with warm P 90 pickup. • 1957: Introduce the Humbucking pickup. Solves the feedback problem and has a less twangy tone, making it more suited to 1960 s rock guitar. E. g. Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin)

The Humbucker

*The Humbucker* • ‘Humbucking’ pickups literally designed to buck (Stop) the hum. . . They consist of: • two coils (instead of a single coil) • wired in series and with opposite polarity • enabling them to cancel out extraneous noise • through phase cancellation (in the same way as a balanced cables like XLRs work).

The Guitar Amp (And how it works)

How an amp works: Notice – the Amp is separate from the speaker!

How an amp works: Notice – the Amp is separate from the speaker!

How an amp works: ‘Crossover’

Instrument Amps Guitar Higher frequencies (Smaller speaker cones) More controls More effects Bass Amp Play lower frequency range Bigger speaker cones. Fewer controls Keyboard/general amp Multi purpose XLR inputs Wide frequency range

Instrument Amps Also include compression, a bit of EQ and spring reverb (smaller) Active /Passive – for active/passive basses

Instrument Amps Guitar Amp Higher frequencies (Smaller speaker cones) More controls More effects

1940 s. As soon as electric guitars are invented, amps are designed to boost the signal FENDER’s first amp: Woodies! Because they were in a wooden box… Valve Distortion

1950 s. Fender Bassman

Direct to tape mono recording (c. 1950 – 1963). Musical Styles Guitar/Amp Instruments Vocals Horns Bass Drums Piano

Acoustic Instruments:

Direct to tape mono recording (c. 1950 – 1963). Musical Styles Instruments Recording Equipment and the recording process Micing Techniques Effects Consumer formats

Recording studio of 1950 s (Control Room). What do you see?

Live room 1950 s – and here? Qs: • How many mics can you see? • As there are separate mics, why not record them in separate rooms?

1950 s Signal Flow: Music Mic(s) Mixer EQ Compression ‘Outboard’ effects Tape Delay Reverb Tape Machine

Mixer or Mixing Console (Altec 1567 A Mixer) • ‘On the Fly’ mixing meant all the levels recorded could not be changed and were ‘summed’ to create one electrical signal • Sound had to be amplified too (through pre amps) as it was very small.

1950 s Signal Flow: Music Mic(s) Mixer EQ Compression ‘Outboard’ effects Tape Delay Reverb Tape Machine

How does a Tape Machine work? • • Magnetic Tape coated with Iron Oxide Coil around the magnetic ring carries a current which replicates the sound waves This produces a magnetic field in the ring proportional to the audio signal The tape then becomes magnetised and the Iron oxide powder orders to replicate the sound waves on the tape.

How does a Tape Machine work?

Development of Multi-track Recording in 1950 s. Monophonic Recording (or full-track) 1948: Ampex release first commercially available tape machine A lot of professional recordings until early 1960 s as equipment was expensive and the industry was slow to catch on ‘Half-track Recording’, also known as 2 -track (confusingly), or stereophonic. Led to 3 -track. Early 1950 s: 2/3 track recording developed. Multi-channel recording NOT multi-track as tracks had to be recorded simultaneously.

From multi-channel to multi-track During 1950 s, Les Paul worked out how to overdub directly onto the same tape whilst listening to a previous recording on that tape (so you could be in time – that was the hard bit). This was known as Sound on Sound and heralded the beginning of multi-track recording. The final step was recording new track whilst preserving other the other track(s) This was finally real multi-track as we know it today. Elvis first recorded in 1957 in RCA’s studios. • This technology was developed by Ampex who went on to develop the first ever 8(!) track recorder in 1957. • It was very expensive ($10 K) so mono/2/3 track was the norm in professional studios. • Atlantic purchased the second 8 -track in 1958.

Early 1950’s ‘reel-to-reel’ tape machine Early AMPEX 300 mono tape recorder

Direct to tape mono recording (c. 1950 – 1963). Musical Styles Instruments Recording Equipment and the recording process Micing Techniques Effects Consumer formats

1950 s Signal Flow: Music Mic(s) Mixer EQ Compression ‘Outboard’ effects Tape Delay Reverb Tape Machine

RCA 40 Ribbon Mic Proximity effect often caused problems too (clipping). • All the band have to be together so they can hear each other (no headphone monitoring yet) • Acoustic baffles help deaden some of the sound • Musician position and volume were the best ways to change balance • Microphone polar patterns were important – e. g. put drums in the dead spot.

1950 s Signal Flow: Music Mic(s) *Three track recorders* were used in some studios by end of 1950 s/early 1960 s. This enabled: • Record backing instruments in stereo. • Overdub vocals separately afterwards. • Atlantic studios were the first to install an 8(!) track recorder in 1960 but that was super rare and the UK was years behind. Mixer EQ Compression ‘Outboard’ effects Tape Delay Reverb Tape Machine

Direct to tape mono recording (c. 1950 – 1963). Musical Styles Instruments Recording Equipment and the recording process Micing Techniques Effects Consumer formats

PULTEC EQ CARTEC EQ

435 C Compressor

Tape saturation: When an audio signal exceeds the point where the tape’s magnetic particles can accurately track the converted voltage swings, then this results in gradual clipping of the positive and negative peaks of the wave that’s being imprinted on the tape. This is tape saturation – Sounds like: • very slight compression • ‘harmonic distortion' • unique warmth and edge https: //www. youtube. com/watch? time_contin ue=11&v=OJMLz. S 6 v. PPc

Slap-back echo: Mixer takes 50 -80 miliseconds Spare tape machine Only one feedback! ‘Outboard’ effects Tape Machine

Echo Chambers

Direct to tape mono recording (c. 1950 – 1963). Musical Styles Instruments Recording Equipment and the recording process Micing Techniques Effects Consumer formats

Vinyl Disc The history of Vinyl: https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=be. MV 5 wcf 0 js Slow-mo Vinyl: https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=Gu. Cdsy. CWmt 8 Have you every wondered why all pop songs are 3 minutes? Why are albums about 50 minutes? • • 12 inch records = 20/25 mins per side…! Sound stored in a groove waveform is in the groove A wave each side for stereo Vibrations are converted into an electrical signal Size comes in at 7/10/12 inches with RPMs of 33/45/78. Frequency response of 30 HZ-30 k. Hz