Interesting articles

UNITED RECORDING closes..scales down.....near dead....LA's Abbey Road?

www.latimes.com

'We're losing our Abbey Road': Famed L.A. music studio United Recording lays off staff

The real-estate company that owns the studio responsible for landmark albums from Frank Sinatra to Green Day announces mass layoffs and a shift in direction.
www.latimes.com www.latimes.com

unitedrecordingstudios.com

Homepage | United Recording

unitedrecordingstudios.com unitedrecordingstudios.com

variety.com

Los Angeles’ United Recording Studios, Known as ‘the Abbey Road of the West,’ Scales Down Music Operations

Los Angeles' United Recording Studios, where Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles and the Beach Boys recorded, is pivoting away from music.
variety.com variety.com

Are we watching an extinction of another dinosaur great?

clip....motive?
"By that same token, the cultural and historical value of United Recording Studios is of far less importance than the well-appointed land the building sits on.
In fact, Hudson owns the Sunset Gower lot where United Recording is located. In 2017, Hudson applied to move the studio, demolish the remaining structures and build multiple high-rise buildings in their place, the Los Angeles Times reports." clip
 
Sounds a bit like the fate of Sound City, doesn't it. The landscape is littered with studios that have closed. AIR Montserrat, Caribou, Trident, Sound 80, Gold Star, Stax.

Unless you've got a wealthy patron that doesn't worry about money, a facility has to pay it's way. With the way real estate has skyrocketed in SoCal, it makes it tough for a business like that to not only survive, but prosper. Obviously the owners aren't really interested in building a musical empire or legacy. They're a real estate company who make money by building stuff, selling it or renting it. Rinse and Repeat!

Hopefully, something will spring up somewhere, in some out of the way place. Or someone will discover that if you put some rockwool panels in the bedroom, you can record your masterpiece there are make a million bucks!
 
grimtraveller said:
There's a link in the article to a good companion piece on acoustic guitar EQ~ing in a mix.
Click to expand...
There's some good advice in there. I kind of wound up learning most of that after several years of scouring online articles and sifting out the bits I could easily apply with my setup. That and an audio frequency spectrum chart helps me get into the zone.
 
This isnt really an article but I thought it was bizzarre. Someone at Abbey Roads had some little phone video and this was captured.
I took a screen shot to show the "working environment" with such expensive mics.....many might think a Neumann is like a expensive Rolex watch of Microphones...
but in this picture theres just a bucket of 87's , a couple 47/48? and many others tossed in a rubbermain plastic bowl?

alt=
 
next level up ? "an external mic preamp of course"


Is the Outboard Preamp required? Is it truly a step up? is it a tone changer or just a placebo? does a person hear the iron? is the tube sound really warmer? Does a better mic and external preamp take it to the next level.?

Anyone else have their experience after buying the PREAMP OUTBOARD UPGRADE? just curious...
was it a step up or another questionable purchase with buyer skepticism head scratching let down , expectations too high?

Anyway, I agree with the above video article that this is a common path to seek the Outboard Preamp...of course!
I will imagine most newbies with high hopes will be let down as the Outboard Pre is a small upgrade in tone. Even the amazing ISA ONE, it doesnt
sparkle a vocal, it makes it solid, confident and huge gain and cool cool box....but alone, its not sparkly.

I agree the preamp was a tool that helped take it to the next level, but interface preamps have improved over the years too...so hmmm?
My first preamp suggested was from here on this site, I was trying various mics and didnt hear much difference...my portastudio pre's were limiting.
A outboard preamp was suggested here, it did allow the various mics to show more subtle differences. It was a upgrade from the really cheap preamps (but it took a compressor to start getting the "studio sound". The DMP3 and RNC was the standard response back then2004/5.. and it was a wow moment combo upgrade. I soon went for more, JoeMeek Channel Strip "british sound"....then compared high end to it and none were better imo, only different, several LA610, Emperical Labs, Focusrite ISA 430, 220, One and Two and KTA, Lindell 1176 CStrip...and forgotten others.
Today JoeMeek Brick and VC1Q and ISA 430, and APHEX 207 are left...Mics were another LEVEL UP search but I found with EQ and Compression abd Reverb being splattered on every track...the KSM44 could cover about anything I need, or a SM7B...and even a MXL V67G sounds great and is $100.

Todays preamps in interfaces are good, and plugins came to popular what year? 2010? RealTime plugins 2009?

oh well... to the Next Level....
 
2014...but interesting imo.
Acoustics and more gear made in China from Well Known Brands..... quality and cnc machines.

I shouldnt be surprised everyone in the biz has some gear being built for such low labor prices and Chinas , Koreas, Mexico...
Everyones been making acoustics for thousand years or something...
Spain, Mexico, ... probably making fine guitars before the US existed. (I think the US invented Electrics though right? Fender, Rickenbacker, Gibson?)

acousticguitar.com

American Companies are Producing Higher-quality Affordable Acoustics in China

For many American consumers, the words “made in China” elicit feelings ranging from skepticism to outright disdain. Given the rash of headlines in recent years documenting the darker side of Chinese manufacturing—from lead paint used on Chinese-made toys, to a…
acousticguitar.com acousticguitar.com


Google/Wiki-
Where did the acoustic guitar originated from?

Spain
The guitar likely originated in Spain in the early 16th century, deriving from the guitarra latina. Gitterns, (small, plucked guitars) were the first small, guitar-like instruments created during the Spanish Middle Ages with a round back, like that of the lute.

YAMAHA Website-
Although steel-stringed acoustic guitars are now used all over the world, the person who is thought to have created the first of these guitars was a German immigrant to the United States named Christian Frederick Martin (1796-1867). Guitars at the time used so-called catgut strings created from the intestines of sheep. Martin, however, decided to create a guitar that used steel strings so that banjo players playing the then-popular style of country music could switch over and play without any discomfort. He is said to have created a brand new type of guitar by cleverly designing the inner structure to withstand the tension of the steel strings.
Reference: "The Fun Guitar Encyclopedia" (Yamaha Music Media)
 
CoolCat said:
UNITED RECORDING closes..scales down.....near dead....LA's Abbey Road?

www.latimes.com

'We're losing our Abbey Road': Famed L.A. music studio United Recording lays off staff

The real-estate company that owns the studio responsible for landmark albums from Frank Sinatra to Green Day announces mass layoffs and a shift in direction.
www.latimes.com www.latimes.com

unitedrecordingstudios.com

Homepage | United Recording

unitedrecordingstudios.com unitedrecordingstudios.com

variety.com

Los Angeles’ United Recording Studios, Known as ‘the Abbey Road of the West,’ Scales Down Music Operations

Los Angeles' United Recording Studios, where Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles and the Beach Boys recorded, is pivoting away from music.
variety.com variety.com

Are we watching an extinction of another dinosaur great?

clip....motive?
"By that same token, the cultural and historical value of United Recording Studios is of far less importance than the well-appointed land the building sits on.
In fact, Hudson owns the Sunset Gower lot where United Recording is located. In 2017, Hudson applied to move the studio, demolish the remaining structures and build multiple high-rise buildings in their place, the Los Angeles Times reports." clip
Click to expand...
So? At some point all these studios have unrealistic expectations - they either adjust of collapse - add to that the recording environment (and money behind it) is changing radically - we won't get back to it either.
 
Yeah, the move to movie $$$ and all on a massive computer, the trend feeds itself....remote workers.

like less hardware= less tech staff needed to work on it= less people around who know how to fix things= broken equipment = more computers and plugins and less old hardware= less techs to repair it = more computer....no repair tech staff....then the rental space value and cost....

like watching Dinosaurs die.

"never let a accountant run the business because they'll shut it down to save money"- Dilbert
 
Heres one from AIR Studios ....independent producers hitting it big and interesting albums they pumped out

www.airstudios.com

History - AIR Studios

The story of AIR begins long before we made our home in a congregational church in north London.
www.airstudios.com www.airstudios.com
 

Broadcast Audio Limiting/Compression​


Not an article, really. I was snooping around for info on what's involved in making home recorded songs sound like those on the radio. You know. . . that "it" sound. I found this message board Forum with some interesting info on the subject. Could any of this be useful in a home recording setup without the expensive processors (Orban, etc.)?

 
Limiter seemed to be STOP WALL.....so I never read as much about that. Compression and Bass and Vocals seemed to lead me to Opto comps for smooth, warm, pump...

I dont recall using a limiter for RMS loudness? or I did without knowing, but isnt that the Loudness Wars mastering guys talk about? SMASHING it, Flat Lining, ruining the Dynamics for a Louder obnoxious sound?

QUOTE-
Limiters are usually used to prevent a sound from going over a certain point, and they’re very good at doing that. They can also be used to increase the overall RMS loudness of a sound source, which can be quite useful on vocals in an extremely dense mix.
 
I guess Shure is now mainly a Mexico company with 100% manufacturing gone from US.
A new plant in Mexico ? and I was slow to learn they had moved their last line of microphones to Mexico....the KSM32, 44, etc..
How to tell is the USA made decal on the mic is gone, now the Mexico plant only shows Patent number and no Made In....

I compared a KSM44 US to a Mexico version one last night and didnt hear a difference. I took them apart and didnt see any changes.

www.musicincmag.com

Shure Opens 2nd Manufacturing Facility in Mexico

Shure opened its first manufacturing facility in Juarez, Mexico, in 1984 and has expanded many times before recently opening a second location.
www.musicincmag.com www.musicincmag.com
 

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