Categories
Recording Studio History

Studio Report (c. 1949) : WMGM NYC (later FINE SOUND INC) (UPDATED 1)

Download a 7pp article from AUDIO ENGINEERING magazine March 1949 on the subject of WMGM NYC.  Author is one M. E. Gunn.

DOWNLOAD: Audio_Engineering-4903-WMGM_(later_Fine_Sound)-2018_scan

Thanks to Tom Fine for the scan, and for this context:

Here’s a look at WMGM, at 711 Fifth Avenue NYC (now the Coca-Cola building). My father’s first company was called Fine Sound, located in Tomkins Cove NY (Rockland County). He and George Piros started the company after they both left Reeves Studios, around 1951. It was there that the recording truck was conceived and built (*see here for our extensive prior coverage of that endeavor*), and also where my father invented a process we’d today call pseudo-stereo sound for film, PerspectaSound (more at  widescreenmuseum.com).
Fine Sound INC circa 1954
Loews/MGM bought 51% of PerspectaSound and moved my father’s studio business to most of the WMGM space described in this article. Studios A and B, which were 2-story floating rooms within the building, were the original NBC Network studios, before Rockefeller Center. After NBC moved out, World Broadcasting occupied the space during WWII. Loews/MGM bought the building in 1948 and set up their main radio station there. By the time Loews/MGM bought 51% of Fine Sound, WMGM wasn’t doing large-audience live radio very much, so Studios A and B weren’t needed for day to day radio work. So it was a good business move to convert most of the space into a recording and mastering facility. Columbia Pictures bought the building in 1956 and wanted to take over Studio A as a large screening room. My father’s business wasn’t viable without both big studios, so he got into a lawsuit against Loews/MGM to block the sale. He lost and ended up without a business. He ended up back on his feet a couple years later with Fine Recording (*see here for our extensive coverage of Fine Recording*)
The ground-breaking Miles Davis/Gil Evans/Gerry Mulligan “Birth of the Cool” sessions were done at WMGM. As Fine Sound, the studios were host to numerous jazz sessions for Norman Granz (Norgran/Verve) and Mercury/Emarcy, by the likes of Count Basie, Billie Holiday, Johnny Hodges, Gerry Mulligan, Max Roach, Clifford Brown, Clark Terry, Roy Eldridge, Sarah Vaughn, Dinah Washington, Patti Page, etc.
Fine Sound studio B during Raymond Scott “Your Hit Parade Session.” Photo by Bob Eberenz, courtesy T. Fine
The studios were also used by Raymond Scott to pre-record music for “Your Hit Parade,” and also to pre-record music for Patti Page’s TV program. There were also early stereo recordings made for Grand Award (Enoch Light’s company which ABC-Paramount bought and it then became Command Records).
Raymond Scott (R) and assistant during”Your Hit Parade Session.” Photo by Bob Eberenz, courtesy T. Fine
The studio was also used to produce PerspectaSound soundtrack masters for MGM movies and cartoons. Fine Sound also had a unique mono LP cutting system, using the Miller cutterhead. This system had zero electrical feedback, instead the cutterhead was mechanically damped with rubber blocks. The cutterhead could be driven with more power and was capable of greater dynamic range than Westrex mono system. Fine Sound was the largest independent (ie not Columbia, RCA or American Decca) LP-cutting facility in the USA in the mid-50s.
As Prior

During its time at Fine Sound, one of the 12-channel RCA consoles was converted to three-channel (in reality, it ended up being three 4×3 mixers). That console later ended up in Studio B of Fine Recording from 1958 to 1967. In the film-mixing studio (Studio C), MGM installed a custom Western Electric console designed and built specifically for MGM (and described in a SMPE [pre-SMPTE] Journal article). This console also ended up at Fine Recording, in Studio C, and was then at Walter Sear’s studio in NYC, and later it was briefly used at the now-defunct Museum of Sound Recording. It’s now privately owned and under restoration.
Categories
Manufacturers Pro Audio Archive

Harrison Recording/ Mixing Consoles Circa 1980 : complete catalog scan

THIS IS AN OUTRAGE

IM A HIGHER BEING

if you get that reference

we’re probably in the same karass

and if you get that second reference as well

one of us might be a clone

Download the complete 21 page Harrison Systems, INC catalog of audio mixing desks circa 1980:

DOWNLOAD: Harrison_Consoles_circa_1980

This document contains images and text describing the following units: Harrison 32C and Series 24 recording / mixing consoles and Harrison “Autoset” automation.  The product photography and GDSN of this publication are second to none.  Unlike virtually every large-format console-manufacturer of the 1970s, Harrison is still in business; I saw their recent 950MX mixer at AES a few years ago and it looks killer.  Anyone using an older, or newer, Harrison, for their day-to-day?  Let u know in the comments.

Categories
Uncategorized

ULA RUTH : THIS IS A DRUM : First Single From Forthcoming U/R Full-Length album

Very excited for the world to hear the new full-length from ULA RUTH.  Recorded and produced by your truly at our studio Gold Coast Recorders and mixed by Greg Giorgio at Tarquin Studios, the first single THIS IS A DRUM is available to hear now on the usual channels:

Click here to listen on Soundcloud
Click here to listen on Spotify
Enjoy – much more to come from these gentlemen in 2-0-1-8
Categories
Gold Coast Recorders Uncategorized

Gold Coast Recorders Now Offering Old -School Analog Multitrack Recording

When M/T and I started recording music together in the mid 90s, we used a Tascam 1/2″ analog 8-track machine.  We still have that machine, although it was sidelined sometime in the very early 2000s when ProTools became affordable.  18 years and 1000000 unnecessary drum edits later we are 100% sure that the time is right to fully embrace the awesome sound and liberating minimalism of the 8-track analog format again. To that end, we have ‘upgraded’ from the TSR-8 to both a Tascam 48 and a Tascam 58: serious, pro versions of the classic 1/2″ 15ips format responsible for so much of the great underground and indie music of the 70s and 80s.

The combination of this tape format, but in our enormous, fully equipped modern studio with every possible mic, instrument, and audio gadget is simply an unbeatable combination if you are looking for true grit and soul.  We’ve recently completed our fifth project on this format and the results are simply awesome.  Drop us a line if you are interested in learning more. Oh, and btw, we still have 256 tracks of Pro Tools HD3 and we’re happy to use that too,,,

Categories
Film Scores

MINDING THE GAP with score by Halpern & Ruggiero debuts, wins award at 2018 Sundance film festival

Nathan Halpern and I just recently completed the score to Bing Lui’s debut feature doc MINDING THE GAP, and the reception as Sundance 2018 has been phenomenal;  by the end of the festival the film was enjoying prominence as the best reviewed film of Sundance 2018.

“Less than a week after its sold-out world premiere at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, Minding the Gap by Bing Liu won the US Documentary Competition Jury Award for Breakthrough Filmmaking last night at the fest’s official award ceremonies in Park City.  US Documentary Competition Juror Barbara Chai presented the award, saying:

“We are so exited to celebrate this extraordinary documentary for its vivacity and freshness of spirit, its unexpected revelation of personal detail, and dazzling, un-choreographed sequences that possess the athleticism and grace of ballet.”

The emotional world premiere of Minding the Gap was attended by film subjects Keire Johnson, Zack Mulligan, Kent Abernathy and Mengyue Bolen. Earning an uproarious standing ovation inside the theater, immediate reactions from social media and from critics were very strong…” (SOURCE).

Categories
Film Scores

I AM ANOTHER YOU with score by Halpern & Ruggiero debuts on PBS Television

Nanfu Wang’s award-winning 2017 film I AM ANOTHER YOU, with score by Nathan Halpern and myself,  debuted nationally on PBS earlier this week and is now available to stream at PBS.org through February 12.   Nanfu won massive accolades for her debut feature HOOLIGAN SPARROW (also scored by Halpern and myself) and this new work demonstrates that she has immense range in addition to an intense and probing intellect.  As regards the score, I was able to utilize a great deal of very novel and experimental vocal techniques on the project and it is some of my favorite work to date.