which mics were popular with prosumer studios in the 70's?
- Thread starter zorf
- Start date
miroslav
Cosmic Cowboy
I used mostly our stage mics from band gigs to record back in the late '70s.
Honestly, there was very little in the way of "home studio" gear, it was just starting to take shape, so besides the 4-tracks and small recording mixers...I don't recall much else in the way of focused prosumer/home rec gear.
Honestly, there was very little in the way of "home studio" gear, it was just starting to take shape, so besides the 4-tracks and small recording mixers...I don't recall much else in the way of focused prosumer/home rec gear.
witzendoz
Senior Member
In 1970? They were very expensive back then compared to wages. I had a couple of Shure Unidyne's which were a bit cheaper but still sounded great.
Alan.
Blue Jinn
Rider of the ARPocalypse
I suppose someone could ask Tascam (I think someone here knows someone who used to be an engineer back in the day...)
I don't know if hte lack of phantom power on e.g. the Teac 3 or 5 was a cost saving measure or a design decision, that would suggest though the lack of phantom powered condensers in the 'prosumer' market in favor of dynamics. (again, I'm ignorant here, but I'd assume that 48v condensers were cheaper than e.g. a tube mic w/ dedicated power supply...)
I don't know if hte lack of phantom power on e.g. the Teac 3 or 5 was a cost saving measure or a design decision, that would suggest though the lack of phantom powered condensers in the 'prosumer' market in favor of dynamics. (again, I'm ignorant here, but I'd assume that 48v condensers were cheaper than e.g. a tube mic w/ dedicated power supply...)
lonewhitefly
Active member
I'd say they were designed for the basic relatively inexpensive dynamics of the day. Electro-Voice mics like the 635a, RE-10, RE-11 ... Shure 545, etc. Sony battery-powered condensers like the ECM-22.
We were a Tascam dealer right from the start. I'd pair up model 3s and Model 5s with a range of stuff we were also a (new)dealer for...RE20s, 441s, 421s, c452s etc.
As a percentage of the population of planet earth, all the customers were newbies coming from bands, so a lot of them initially used their existing pa mics... especially if they were blowing their entire budget to buy an 80-8 and model 5... which represented a $6000 trip to the local music store. Not like going in to buy guitar strings.
By the way, those two (80-8 + model 5) were blowing out the door faster than krispy kreme doughnuts in its heyday. We almost could've had a drive through for those two.
From Tascam's position, they weren't initially recommending any particular combination of anything outside of their own products... they really wanted to be hands off ... they were already chewing nails about putting all this new, complicated equipment into the hands of ....arghh... day to day musicians.
They didn't want the phone calls with questions... and had some very adament paperwork and screening before opening us up as a dealer. I had to sit there for about an hour, explaining that I knew what we were getting into with this new Tascam stuff......remember these were the days of the "dealer" doing EVERYTHING. Figuring out EVERYTHING. We had to figure out everything short of servicing the machines themselves.
In fact, everything was so in the dark ages at those first moments, our Tascam distributor's other big lineup was... car stereos! The regional distributor rep didn't even know anything about this new Tascam stuff or what the world of recording was all about. It was a hoot in those days.
It was cool for me at the time . We started bringing in every peripheral I could think of to match up with the Tascam stuff.
Track Rat
Just Your Average Sized Member
My first mics were the ones that came with my Dad"s Sony tape recorder but the first ones I got for gigging and then recording were Shure 545 and later a 57 and an AKG D707E. I also had an EV PL80. First SDC's were Tascam PE80's. They took a AA battery and no phantom power. That was all pre '85.
several local people told me they started with the mics that came with their parents tape recorders.
i guess reels were a cool status item in middle class homes of the late sixties.
the 545 comes up a lot and radio shack mics.
What were the popular options if you wanted to upgrade in those days but couldnt afford a neuman?
senny 421? battery powered pencil condensors?
keeping in mind that phantom was not common.
And would this have been pretty much the same all the way through the eighties and early ninties until the
explosion of cheap import mics?
when did phantom start being standard on budget mixers?
i guess reels were a cool status item in middle class homes of the late sixties.
the 545 comes up a lot and radio shack mics.
What were the popular options if you wanted to upgrade in those days but couldnt afford a neuman?
senny 421? battery powered pencil condensors?
keeping in mind that phantom was not common.
And would this have been pretty much the same all the way through the eighties and early ninties until the
explosion of cheap import mics?
when did phantom start being standard on budget mixers?
Phantom was common. We sold a rack mount 48v phantom interface by AKG for those who were buying model 5s/80-8s and who may also have been buying/using 414s, c452s etc. Other companies were making those too in 1976 etc. The akg box simply mounted in between the Tascam mixers and the phantom powered mics.