Categories
Recording Studio History

Dig this c. 1972 Toronto studio ‘Manta Sound’

MantA_2SOOooo it’s been almost a month since I’ve written anything here.  Things have gotten quite busy around PS HQ, what with custom fabrication work for clients, sessions and equipment upgrades at Gold Coast Recorders and other assignments of which I will spare you the details.   Thanks to a few helpful contributors, I still have dozens of issues of the old DB mag and hundreds of pieces of obscure 70s/80s pro-audio and high-end consumer hifi literature to dig thru+upload for y’alls edification.  In the meantime, if you ever need a jolt of weird old audio flotsam, bookmark my Instagram and have a look.  I keep pretty active on there,,,

For you today: a profile of Manta Sound Toronro from DB mag way back in ’72.  According to this source,

“In the early 1970s, the audio shop was a Canadian recording pioneer thanks to its famous Studio 2 that could accommodate up to 70-piece orchestras. Studio 2 made it possible to do more complex recordings than had been done in Canada before, Potma says.  Studio 2′s rich history also includes providing the facilities in 1985 as the Canadian music industry gathered to record Tears Are Not Enough for famine relief in Ethiopia. Artists involved included Young, Bryan Adams, Anne Murray, Gordon Lightfoot and Platinum Blonde.   ‘It seems like a century or two ago,’ Potma says. ‘That was huge. That was probably the biggest thing that we ever did – our little part of that.’    More recently, Manta completed a James Brown recording for the Jackie Chan actioner The Tuxedo, filming around Toronto. *

Manta_3 Manta_4 Mant_Sound_1
Categories
Pro Audio Archive

Highlights from the 1971 AES Convention

AES_1971,,,and today, perhaps unsurprisingly: some of the new kit unveiled in 1971 at the NYC AES show, also via DB mag.  Of note: Auto-Tec, Scully, Ampex and 3M intro’d new 16-track machines, Neve made a push for a new console (would this have been the series 80?), AKG introduced the BX-20 reverb, Melcor showed its model 5001 electronic reverb (anyone???), and a new company called Eventide introduced a digital pitch-shift device!  The Neumann U47-fet and Sennheiser MHK-815 mics were introduced, as were the Marantz 500 and Crown M2000 power amplifiers.

Click here to DL a pdf of the proceedings: AES_1971_DBmag

AES_1971_1AES_1971_2AES_1971_3AES_1971_4

There is just a shit-tonne more of this stuff, so click the link below to READ ON;;;;;

Categories
Pro Audio Archive Uncategorized

Tweed Consoles Of The Seventies

Tweed_CoverDownload the original 20pp TWEED AUDIO catalog circa 197*:

DOWNLOAD: Tweed_Audio_Consoles

The_Lady_With_The_Tweed_MixerProducts covered, with text, specs, and photos, include: Tweed M124 console, 12/2-4 mixer, BC82 portable mixer, C513 input module, C515 input module, C507 input, (Tweed calls the ‘Channel Amplifiers’), CL603 limiter, CL604 compressor, CL606 noise gate, SPH-2B stereo phono preamp, Tweed 6-2T and 10-4eb distribution amps.

At left: The Lady With The Tweed Mixer (not a Syd Barrett song). 

Sitting here on a beautiful summer day, spacing out to Syd Barrett and Jake Holmes LPs after a long week on the road…no concept of what day it is.  This will not be a particularly detailed post.  TWEED is a name i’ve seen around, never come across the kit…  here’s a thread from Group DIY that will fill you in.   L-S-S: Scottish-made, broadcast-aimed boards and modules built by former Neve manager.

Tweed_M124_MixerTweed_Custom_film_console Tweed_Custom_Console Tweed_CL604_Compressor Tweed_BC82_mixer Tweed_B164_mixer Tweed_12:2-4_Mixer

Categories
Uncategorized

Neve Consoles of the 1970s

Neve_1975Neve_8014_1973 RCA_Neve_1972 Neve_Custom_Console_1971 Neve_Console_Lineup_1974 Neve_BCM_10_1970Above: Neve 8014, 8036, BCM 10, et al circa the early to mid 1970s.  Neve’s US operation  was based in Bethel CT for many years; I grew up in Bethel, but I can’t recall them sponsoring any little-league teams.