Many musicians in CT are not aware that this state is host to one of the oldest-running recording studios in America. Trod Nossel of Wallingford, CT (a suburb of New Haven).
I have never been to Trod Nossel, nor do i know anyone who has; and in this era of modern ‘home-recording’ this is probably not all that surprising. Trod Nossel has a fascinating story. The story of a dentist getting ‘turned-on’ to the sounds of the sixties, becoming a manager of semi-successful garage rock bands, and taking over a microphone-testing facility and creating a studio which hosted some pretty impressive acts over the years. Crazy. Trod Nossel Studio actually has a pretty extensive retrospective website where you can hear about this unlikely institution in their own words.
Anyhow, what is this about a microphone testing facility? To make matters even stranger, it turns out that our dentist-turned-rock-impresario had been an investor in a failed microphone-manufacturing venture. The headquarters of this company became Trod Nossel studio. Ever heard of a Syncron Mic? They were some of the earliest solid-state condensor mics, and if you can get one working, they are apparently excellent. There is a very thorough and well-researched article on Syncron mics over at Stan Coutant’s excellent microphone data site. You can read all the details and see pictures here.
I love Coutant’s site. It is truly an asset to all of us interested in antique audio. I don’t want to re-hash any of his work, but i would like to try and add to it, however modestly. I have dug up the following circa 1966 advertisements for the Syncron mics. Check ’em out. The company folded shortly after these ads appeared in AUDIO Magazine.
Anyone use these Syncron mics?
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My band "The Moderns " was a mid sixties Beatlesque quartet
based out of Rockville act. We recorded a single at Synchron back shortly after they opened. I cannot remember the engineer's name but 'Mama Says' was produced by WDRC radio personality Long John Wade, he was also our mentor and manager. We pressed a limited run of 45's,to merch at our live shows. I'm not sure if any still exist, that was better than 50 years ago and things are a little sketchy , after all it was the 60's.
I have since lost touch with the other members of the band but I still perform in and around the Southeast with my Blues Band
THE NIGHTMASTERS based out of Nashville Tn. Also still do session work as a studio guitarist.
The engineer's name was probably Danny, that 's the guy in the picture up above, with Doc Cavalier standing over his shoulder.
They actually had an acetate 45 burner out back in the barn (which inherited the 4 track stuff after the 8 track purchases) Tom Duffy made a few recordings out back, he called his hand-me-down studio "Rack-a-Track". Duffy left for the bright lights of NY shortly after :)
I helped with some 10 or so not quite live broadcasts for the local FM station, WPLR, where we recorded the bands in front of 50 lucky listeners. Those bands included Foghat, The Rasbarries, Chick Corea and Return to Forever and Fleetwood Mac!
Great little studio
Sycron was distributed by Boynton studio in New York they were $125 these microphones are one of the hottest microphones I've ever worked with my whole life I had one brought it new unbelievable I think they blew away Newman
The Shags recorded there; they were (mis)managed by Doc; from what I remember my brother telling me (Tom Violante of The Shags), they were paid very little money for gigs as Doc pocketed it and/or bought Vox amps which he locked away in the studio after The Shags broke up.
Kevin, is there a Raspberries tape around from Trod or Syncron?
Sorry Pat, I have an mp3 of Play On that was recorded off a radio....
It claims to be and seems to be from the WPLR broadcasts. I'll FB it to you
:)
The Detroit Soul recorded there after the Wild Weeds and we had a local hit in CT. Doc was there, but Ed Read produced the tune "All of my life" written by Peter Valano & Sal Lanares; I managed the group.
As bass player in Detroit Soul who played on “All of my life” recorded at Syncron, we really owe Ed Read for helping us create a sound that has reverberated worldwide. Our record became a fan favorite in the British dance halls in the mid 70’s and today it’s listed among the top 500 all time Northern Soul Hits! If we had proper guidance there’s no telling how far this talented band would’ve gone.