Mics used in home studios in the mid/late 70’s?

J

jglasserbell

New member
Hello all, first time posting, but I’ve benefitted from the knowledge in this forum for years, so thanks!

I’ve been recording to tape for years now using my Tascam MS-16, and previously a 388 that has since been passed along. I started missing my 8 track pretty soon after I sold it, and I’m set to pick up a TEAC 80-8 and TEAC 5 mixer with a sidecar this week. I think these products were introduced around 1975.

For my next project I REALLY want to commit to using period correct room treatment (dead!), instruments, drum tunings, mics, compressors, etc. I’ve got a handle on most of this, but I’m struggling to find what home/budget studios had in their mic locker in the 70’s.

I’m familiar with Shure’s Unidyne mics, and I know of some EV mics, but a lot of those seem pretty hit or miss...
 
jglasserbell said:
For my next project I REALLY want to commit to using period correct room treatment (dead!), instruments, drum tunings, mics, compressors, etc. I’ve got a handle on most of this, but I’m struggling to find what home/budget studios had in their mic locker in the 70’s.
Click to expand...

TBH...there wasn't much music released out of home studios back in the '70s for there to be some sort of period-correct signature sound.
Not to mention...there were very, very, very, very few "home studios" back in the '70s compared to the numbers you see today.
Also...of the very few, even less had room treatment or racks of gear.
So not sure what you think you will achieve or why...but bottom line, in the '70s "home recording" was more like half-assed garage band, live recording...and the small number of us that were doing anything more, we were still struggling with the engineering and gear.
At best...you had a 4-track 1/4" tape deck and if you were lucky, a 1/4" stereo deck...or you mixed to cassette.
Toward the end of the '70s, you might have seem an 80-8 in someone's home "studio"...I mean, there just weren't purpose built or even purpose setup home "studios"....you just kinda jury rigged everything.

I was working with a 4-track and 2-track back around '78, and I had a small TEAC Model 3 mixer :-)eek: WOW!!! at the time) ...and of all the musicians I knew, and back then I was in a few bands, so we played out a lot and we knew a lot of other players...I was the only one with a half-assed "home studio" and/or the only one I knew of who was even thinking about the recording thing. Everyone else was just thinking of the band thing...and studios was something you only dreamed of IF you got a record deal. :D
My mics were the same ones we used for our gigs...EVs and maybe some Shure...that's it.
I had a crappy little graphic EQ...and I also had a Multivox tape echo unit, which we also used for gigging. I actually still have that Multivox, and it still works as good as back then, though I don't use it too often. It was one of the vintage pieces of gear that's still in my possession, and I still have the EV mics too. :)

I mean...back then, the very few doing it, were scratching in the dirt for the most part on the home recording front. I remember going into a small-ish commercial studio that had a 16-track deck and decent console, with some basic rack gear...and I was totally in awe.

So really...I'm not sure what "period correct" thing you're trying to formulate...unless you're thinking about what was happening in pro studios at the time.
 
Actually, I think our mics were probably high impedance, or whatever plugged into the 1/4" tape deck. I doubt it was the same mics we had for the PA (which actually were low impedance).

Reflecting on [MENTION=94267]miroslav[/MENTION]'s post, I didn't know anyone who had a home recording setup. Not saying they didn't exist, but it must have been pretty rare. Best case was someone in the band had a tape deck and you could find a mic or two to plug in and record practice or a gig. Real recording gear was pretty expensive, and I would have had to go to the big city to even look at it. Just a home tape deck was a pretty significant outlay for your average joe IMO.

We had some small-ish studios around (smaller city in the Northeast) but they were mostly for jingles and stuff, though you could go in and get a tape for a 45 made, as some of the bands did in the late 60s. By the 70s though, folks would go to the big city.
 
I agree with the above. Those who did have some sort of recording capability might have had Shure Unidyne/Unisphere mics or second hand EV 664s with cable terminated in unbalanced 1/4" plugs. The 664 and many other mics of that era had dual impedance output on four pins (ground, HiZ, +LoZ, -LoZ), You bought or built cables that used the high or low Z and connectors appropriate for your gear.
 
I'll have to look at the notes for the Howell and Ferdinando albums (Agincourt, Ithaca etc). The first ones were done using a single G36 and L/R bouncing. For Ithaca they had an A77 as well and were able to do stereo bounces. The quality is astonishing given what they were doing. Peter Howell would be the one to ask since he did all the engineering.
 
RFR said:
57s and 58s have been around forever :)
Click to expand...

Giving it some thought, I have no idea when 57s and 58s actually came out.
In the 70s, I was doing 'home recording' with a portable cassette player/recorder and a Lafayette mic. The ones with the on /off switch.
:D
I didn't know of anyone who had 'real' multitrack home recording gear that was semi- affordable till the 80s. :)
 
Have found a Studio Sound* 1977. Bang on trend! Lists the 80-8 and other Tascam recorders and mixer. Brenell Mini 8 (anyone ever have one?). The mics in ads, as they come up....

Beyer M201
Eagle(!) Pro M 70,80,90
AKG D120E, D202
Shure, SM7, SM58,82,53,56 (no 57!)
Also around I know but not in that issue.
Calrec, Audix, Philips,Sony,Reslo, Sennheiser, Grampian.

S.S is of course a UK based magazine but a look through an AES journal only found Electrovoice as an additional maker.

*The mag is beginning to fall apart so I might complete the job then scan and .pdf it. I don't like posting copyrighted material "en masse" on the web so I shall probably just post the contents page and respond to any requests? There is a big lab test of 1977 pro tapes in the issue.

Dave.
 
Reading this, I keep thinking of The Band's first album, Big Pink which I believe they did themselves, oddly enough in a big pink house. Unfortunately, I don't know whether info is available regarding the gear used.

:cool:
 
Yea--Shure sm 57's & 58's DBX 160 Compressors
JBL 4311 monitors ----Egg cartons or carpets on walls
Towels on Drums and somtimes Tom's were miked from underneath.
Tascam Model 5 & 80-8.

I was there

Jack :)
 
gecko zzed said:
I had a pair of Toshiba EM-220 mikes that I used for just about everything.
Click to expand...

LOL, I have 3 Toshiba mics that look like a 220, but the top slides off so you can have a pencil end or a wind reducing screen, the model number has long worn off.

Alan.
 
Dave's list is pretty accurate - In 74, I was 16 and my dad let me bring home mics from where he worked. I had a Ferrograph 722HD reel to reel and my 1974 collection was pretty small. A Shure 545, a 656, two Reslo RBT ribbons (Dad's work) and an Eagle Pro M20. (I also had a Grampian DP4, and it really sucked, and I still have it in the box!) Two years later I was working in a small studio and had my first bedroom studio that was OK - I bought two SM57s, new at the time from a UK company called Ludkins - who were electrical wholesalers my boss used. I also had an AKG D190, and have a few of these still today.

I think the project is interesting, but the recordings I made back then were absolutely of the period, and don't stand up today at all. Those AKG D190s are really not much cop for music, nor the Eagle from memory, and I'm very much now of the opinion that much of the equipment back then really wasn't very good and we just apply sympathy to it. I would NOT ever want to recreate that sound. Home recording in the 70s was a new thing being done with quite limited kit and rose tinted glasses make it sound more wonderful that it was.

I found one of our 1976 recordings - using the mics above. I was 18. This is what the Ferrograph and the Tascam 3340, plus those mics did. Three of us still work together regularly which is nice.


nr32band.jpg
 
I'd go along with the people saying that there were no home studios (as we know them today) in the mid 70's. Keen home recordists would probably have something like a Revox or Teac reel to reel but they would be bouncing tracks using sound on sound rather than multitracking. They would probably be using a very limited selection of mics. The Shure 545 (forerunner of the SM57) or 565 might be used if the recordist also worked with live PA but the AKG D190 was a popular general purpose mic as were things like the Sennheiser MD421. In the UK there were companies like Eagle International or TTC-Foster who sold a range of budget Japanese mics which often found their way into home recording setups. At the higher end of the market there were companies like Calrec selling capacitor mics to both professionals and home recordists.

It was only when people started to repurpose the Teac quadraphonic recorders to turn them into multitrack recorders that multitrack recording came to the home. In the second half of the 70's Teac capitalised on this market by introducing a range of mixers designed to work with their 4 track recorders.

Most 8 track (and higher) machines were sold to people running commercial studios in the 70's. 8 track only really came into the home after Fostex introduced the A-8 although many A-8's were used by people charging for studio time.

If you want to know more then take a look at the Studio Sound Archive at STUDIO SOUND - Professional Studio and Audio magazine
There are also a few other period magazines on that site so it is worth exploring it for a while.
 
jamesperrett said:
I'd go along with the people saying that there were no home studios (as we know them today) in the mid 70's. Keen home recordists would probably have something like a Revox or Teac reel to reel but they would be bouncing tracks using sound on sound rather than multitracking. They would probably be using a very limited selection of mics. The Shure 545 (forerunner of the SM57) or 565 might be used if the recordist also worked with live PA but the AKG D190 was a popular general purpose mic as were things like the Sennheiser MD421. In the UK there were companies like Eagle International or TTC-Foster who sold a range of budget Japanese mics which often found their way into home recording setups. At the higher end of the market there were companies like Calrec selling capacitor mics to both professionals and home recordists.

It was only when people started to repurpose the Teac quadraphonic recorders to turn them into multitrack recorders that multitrack recording came to the home. In the second half of the 70's Teac capitalised on this market by introducing a range of mixers designed to work with their 4 track recorders.

Most 8 track (and higher) machines were sold to people running commercial studios in the 70's. 8 track only really came into the home after Fostex introduced the A-8 although many A-8's were used by people charging for studio time.

If you want to know more then take a look at the Studio Sound Archive at STUDIO SOUND - Professional Studio and Audio magazine
There are also a few other period magazines on that site so it is worth exploring it for a while.
Click to expand...

The first studio I recorded in was the closest to a home studio. The guy used a TEAC 3340 4-track, and mixed down onto a Revox. And yes, he also used AKG D190 mikes.
 
The first recording setup of any quality, after the Toshiba portable mono cassette recorder (I was the only person in my school with a cassette recorder, showing my age) was 2 x SHURE PE585 and a TEAC A360. I ended up a bit later with a TEAC 3340S for tracking and the A360 to mix too. I still have some of the recordings and they do sound pretty good.

Edit: I still own the Mics and the 3340S, I stupidly gave the A360 away many years ago.

SHURE-PE585-Unisphere-A-Hi-Z-Dynamic-Microphone-with.jpg
Unknown-2.jpeg
68b5d6767a5ef4a9b9a8ebdc1ab87e09.jpg
 
My late brother cut a few LPs in the early 70's using a Tandberg 3000x and Unidyne III and later in in stereo using two 3000xs and Unidynes and tranferring the backing track(s) from one recorder to the other together with the live recording. I've lately been remastering some of the recordings for CD release and am amazed at how good they sound. I'm still using one of the Unidyne IIIs for my own recordings - it still sounds great after I repaired it with help from Steen on the forum.
 
I'm guessing it was @ 1973 when I first laid down my first stereo recording track....I'm thinking for the vocal it was an sm57 into a univox echo chamber ...I think..I still have the reel but it hasn't been played since I sold the Teac in 75...need to get it out and see WTF I recorded back then....just a few song ideas as I remember...
 
Wow.. surprised at all of the attention this thread received, hah. Thanks y’all, all the input is really appreciated!

I picked up a Teac 80-8 with the pitch control mod/DC motor upgrade, a Teac model 5, Teac 5 “sidecar”, a few tapes (probably suffering from SSS but at least I got a cool red GP9 reel!), a Teac test tape, and lots of extras for.... $230. Very acceptable condition, though I may hit up JRF to do a relap, as I noticed a slight uneven wear path on the repro head. They did my MS-16 heads and did a great job. I love servicing and calibrating these machine so I’m gonna have a lot of fun with this guy.

Also sold in this “package” was a lot of literature, including something published by TEAC called “The Multitrack Primer”.
I’d love to upload this as a PDF and share at some point. So many outdated, archaic and just plain WEIRD suggestions as far as room treatment and mic placement go. It takes a very scientific approach in some cases, which I can’t imagine would translate well in practice. There are lots of really cool/interesting illustrations showing copious use of carpet as bass traps and isolation “tents”. Very cool, and I really want to at least experiment with some of these techniques, because they’re so strange!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top