Download the four-page hi-res sales sheet for the Technics RS-1700 1/4″ stereo tape machine.
DOWNLOAD: Technics_RS-1700_Brochure
The RS-1700 was an update of the iconic RS-1500. These are great machines. I had a few in the late 90’s and was forced to sell them in order to buy beer or what have you. Kinda regret it. More will come along eventually I imagine.
Download the four-page 1983 DBX 900-series catalog (plus a period DBX pricelist):
DOWNLOAD: DBX900_series_1983_catalog
The DBX 900 series has been mentioned a few times on this site. These are great little units that can add a lot of processing power to a studio for very little money and space. At a time when the API 500 series has come into serious vogue, with modules selling for $400- $1500, you can still fill out a 8-space DBX frame for a little over a grand. True, they are not transformer I/O units, but I use these things all the time and they do the job. Quiet, clean, and very reliable. Not the most exciting sounds, but if you need an extra 8 compressors… you got ’em.
The 902 De-esser module (at left) is the only piece from this series that has attained ‘classic’ status, and it is an excellent De-esser. I often use the 903 compressors for Tom mics and I’ve been pretty satisfied with them. I’ve had my setup (two gates, five comps, one desser) for about 10 years and it has never hiccuped.
Download the entire circa-1962 Turner Microphone Catalog. Dig the crazy Soviet-esque graphic-design. Printed on that great old eggshell-texture paper, no less.
DOWNLOAD: Turner_Microphones_1962
The Turner Microphone Company was based for many years in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. What and interesting story they had. The Turners were a highly successful family of morticians. Their funeral home was so large and accommodated so many mourners that in the mid-20’s they became interested in installing an early PA system. This lead to DIY manufacture of PA systems, and eventually microphones. By the Mid-60s, Turner had become one of the world’s leading manufacturers of communications and PA (as opposed to recording and broadcast) mics.
Turner did manufacture some high-end mics for professional audio applications, though. I own a model 510, and it’s not terrible. The grey-blue finish is really stunning. When I get around to it… I hope to do a listening test of the 510 next to some period competitors (EG, Shure SM-56 and an EV 666). 510s are hard to find. The example that I own is the only one that I have ever seen in the flesh.
Much more common are the Turner U9s and its several variants. See this link for a listening test I did with a U99 earlier this year. When Turner describes this mic as rugged, they are not kidding. I own three of these; they are around 50-60 years old, and they all work perfectly. And they get used in the studio for ‘certain’ sounds.
Turner 250 series mics are also commonly found today. They made and sold a shit ton of these for use in PA and paging systems. I like the sound of these mics as a close-mic for raw-sounding rock vocals, along with a good condenser mic a few feet off of the performer for some depth. Blend em and voila. Lots of grit without the typical ‘Strokes-mic’ vibe.
You will also see a lot of these little plastic Turners around. I have not found a good use for mine.
I am not sure that this is an effective way to mic up a rock band, but like I said, Turner Microphones were not considered studio-standard.
Around the time that ALTEC introduced their 947X series of solid-state plug-in amplifiers, ALTEC staff engineers Arthur Davis and Don Davis published the following paper in AUDIO magazine (see my previous post on AUDIO mag). ALTEC then reproduced and re-printed the paper as promotional material. I have scanned and uploaded the fill 12-page document.
DOWNLOAD: Altec_Professional_Audio_Controls
Covered in this document: the 9200 modular console, the 9704A transmission measurement set, and the various ALTEC passive equalizer units of the period: graphic, shelving, and pass filters.
Check out the publication. It is a good quick primer on early impedance-matched mixing systems. In the future, I will post more extensive documentation on these ALTEC consoles and filters.
A friend recently asked me if I could digitize a record for him.
T’s mother passed not long ago, and in her possessions he found a small record-album that a suitor had recorded for her while serving in WWII.
It seems that Pepsi-Co provided these machines for the use of GI’s. There is small print on the disc itself that reads ‘Recordisc,’ which was a popular pro-sumer disc recording unit of the era. I have not been able to determine exactly what the recording apparatus for these Pepsi-branded discs were, but I imagine it was not dissimilar to these:
When T first asked me to do this transfer for him, he was very concerned with the recording deteriorating due to the playback. For this reason, I captured the material on the first-pass.
I used my shitty little VESTAX ‘porta-trax’ or whatever player, as it is my only deck that does 78 RPM. Why did I assume 78 RPM? Well, the 33.3 LP or the 45rpm 7″ were not in common use during WWII, so 78b RPM was a safe guess.
The recording was actually quite good, aside from the surface noise. Since the VESTAX applies an RIAA equalization curve (which was NOT used in 194X), I had to re-EQ the audio in Pro Tools. I attempted to research the Recordisc machines in order to determine which pre-RIAA pre-emphasis EQ curve they used, but I could not find any information on this. So I use my best judgment. I used my ears. I applied a 24db/oct lo-cut at about 200hz, a 12db/oct hi-cut at around 5k hz, and then boosted a bit at around 2200 to help the intelligibility. Two stages of compression were then applied.
Here’s the result.
LISTEN: AudioLetter_WWII_serviceman_to_ladyfriend
This is powerful for a few reasons. Generally, when we hear voices like this, it is in the context of a film or radio news program of the period. Although this GI is reading from a piece of paper (it sounds like), he is not an actor, and he is not acting; this is intended for an audience of one.
In case you were wondering: the woman in the photographs is in fact the addressee of this recorded message. This man did come home after the war. He did not marry the woman that he is addressing, although they did remain in touch; and he is not T’s father.
Download the entire 32-page Fender ‘album of stars’ promotional magazine, circa 1968:
DOWNLOAD PART 1: FenderAlbumofStars1
DOWNLOAD PART 2: FenderAlbumOfStars2
Apologies for the weird alias-ing. I’ll get better at scanning eventually.
A special PreservationSound nod to Merry-Go-Round frontman Emitt Rhodes (standing), aka the father of home recording. IF you are not familiar with Rhodes and his outstanding work, check him out…Also be sure to scope this amazing early music video for one of his best tracks. “Hey how do we let people know that he plays EVERYTHING on these recordings?”
Some of the images in this 32-page ‘album’ have been reproduced often; for instance, the highly-dubious Dylan-with-Jazz Bass. Many, though, have never been seen by those who do not possess the actual document. This is a fairly rare item these days, as it was created with the intention of being cut-up and pinned to one’s wall. There are actually cut-lines printed in the margin of each page. So dig in….
Artists include: Union Gap, Mike Bloomfield and the Electric Flag, Brenda Lee and the Casuals, The Fifth Dimension, Sebastiao Neto with Sergio Mendes and Brasil 66, Oscar Mesa and Mike Saluzzi with Roger Williams, The Merry-Go-Round, Vic Gaskin with Cannonball Adderley, Oscar Brown Jr., Herman’s Hermits, Chad and Jeremy, Bob Dylan, Wayne Newton, Sonny and Cher, Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, Lee Michaels, Noel Harrison, Edgar Willis and Barry Rillera with Ray Charles, Ian and Sylvia, The James Cotton Blues Band, Duke Ellington and Mercer Ellington, The Beach Boys, Don Ellis (check the prototype echo ((?)) unit), The Baja Marimba Band, The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, The First Edition (feat. Kenny Rogers on a Coronado Bass II), Rick Nelson and James Nelson, The Chambers Brothers, The Byrds, and a dude who apparently played a Stratocaster guitar named Jimi Hendrix.
Download the entire 12-page 1968 Yamaha Guitar/Amp Catalog (USA region):
DOWNLOAD: Yamaha_guitars_amps_1968_catalog
Models covered in this publication: Model 150, 120, 100, 80, and 60 Classical guitars. Model FG-110, FG-150, FG-180, FG-230 steel-string acoustic guitars. Model SA-50, SA-30, SA-70, SA-20, and AE-11 electric hollowbody guitars; and the TA-60 and TA-30 guitar amplifiers.
I have owned and used several of these instruments. The electrics are really very cool, but keep in mind that most examples will need a neck reset and/or plane in order to play like a new guitar. Dig that dark green finish on the bass though. Killer.
It has often been noted that Jimmy Page toured with Yamaha acoustics in the early 70’s, which may be why Japanese Made ‘red-label’ Yamaha acoustics are currently in-demand.
Yamaha has used the term ‘natural sound’ for many decades to market a wide range of different audio gimmicks. The only constant seems to be that ‘natural sound’ represents Yamaha’s willingness to try odd new things in a constant technological struggle to achieve more accurate sound-reproduction. This early iteration of ‘natural sound’ seems to consist of these odd trapezoidal ‘happy-meal’ foam speakers. We had one of these amps in our band back in the 90’s and it was heavy as a bastard and very dull-sounding.
Not sure if this was Yamaha’s own technology or if they licensed it from another firm. In any event, these odd speakers made their way into an obscure Fender combo amp in 1969, the Bantam Bass.
The Bantam Bass is essentially a Bassman 10 with one large foam speaker in place of four 10″ drivers. It was a short-lived product.
Download a 17-page scan of the 1940 Sears Silvertone sound system catalog:
CLICK TO DOWNLOAD (10mb) : SearsSoundSystems1940
The PA, or Public-Address System, was still relatively new technology in 1940.
It’s hard for us to imagine any of the above scenarios without some sort of microphone/amplifier/speaker apparatus in play. The human voice was not designed to clearly address dozens or hundreds of people who may or may not be paying attention. Sure, we can yell pretty well; but the careful inflections of speech require an intimacy that cannot be accomplished on a mass scale. Without some ‘reinforcement.’ Enter the Vacuum Tube.
I have owned quite a few of these antique units. A few notable units have been restored; many more were gutted for parts, their chassis delivered to other uses. 
One tip: beware the input transformers on these early PA units. they are rarely magnetically shielded. The physical orientation of the input transformer unit relative to the power transformer is crucial. You can determine optimum positioning by placing your power transformer in the intended position. Send 120V AC to the primary of the power transformer. Then connect a low-impedance headphone (EG., a SONY 7506) to the primary or the secondary of the input transformer (try both). Now move the input transformer around relative to the power transformer. If the transformer is unshielded, you will clearly hear an optimum (less hum audible) position. This trick also works great for determining optimum output transformer position for hi-fi amps and guitar amps btw.
Polyfusion is an electronics firm in the Buffalo, NY area which began in the mid-1970s. According to their very outdated website, their sole standard product these days is a frequency-shifting device intended as a feedback-reducer in (presumably voice-only) PA systems. I do not know anything about these devices beyond what I have seen online, but I did recently come across a large folio of promo materials from the 1970s. It seems that Polyfusion got their start making modular synths which were used by such folks as “Vince Clarke, Ken Hemsley, Scott Humphrey, Masterworks, Steve Porcaro and Tangerine Dream.”
Anyhow. Here is the 1977 Polyfusion catalog and pricelist. Enjoy. If anyone is interested: I also have another 24 pages of detailed specs on each one of the modules, so drop me a line if you want to see those too.
DOWNLOAD THE 6-PAGE SERIES 2000 CATALOG: Polyfusion_1977_catalog
Click the link below to download the entire circa 1965 RCA microphone catalog.
DOWNLOAD: RCA_Circa1965_Catalog
A lot of interesting pieces here. I personally love the BK5.
The BK5 is an unusually bright and aggresssive ribbon mic. Highly recommended for… pretty much any spot-mic task. Hands-down better than the Royer R121. And about 1/2 the price. Not so reliable tho… mine has broken twice in as many years. but good god what a sound. and the pattern is super-tight.
