DOWNLOAD: Gotham_Audio_1979

Products mentioned, with text + photos, include: Telefunken M 12A, M 15A, and M15A Multitrack (32 tracks!) tape machines; Telcom C4 noise reduction system, TTM universal noise reduction frame, Neumann microphones including U89, KMR 82, USM 69; Neuman VMS 80 Disc mastering system, SP 79C Disk Cutting Console, MT 80 preview  playback tape deck, SAL 74 Cutter Drive Logic (600 watts per channel!!!!), and SX 74 cutter head; EMT 240, 250, 140, and 244 reverbs; EMT 424 and 422 flutter analyzer, and EMT 950 turntable; K+H 0-92 and Model OY speaker; the EFP Phonograph plating plant (!!!!), NTP console modules 179-120 compressor, 177-520 oscilloscope, and a range of meters; plus a bunch of other related bits+bobs from the end-of-the-line of crazy-hi-end analog studio infrastructure.   Just be glad you didn’t buy a new Swedish-built LP plating plant in 1980, ‘aight?  Re: bits+ bytes are just ’round the corner….

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For our earlier scan of the 1972 Gotham Audio catalog, click here.  Astute commentators are encouraged to reflect on what had changed significantly between ’72 and ’78.  And sage speculation on what might change between today and 2019 is equally encouraged.

DOWNLOAD: Telefunken_Magnetophon_15A

I can’t imagine that many of these things were sold in the US.  If you’ve used one, and have some conception of how it compares to contemporary offerings from Studer, Ampex, and MCI, drop us a line a weigh in…

Pultec equalizers have enjoyed fifty-plus years of popularity among recording professionals.  Much like the first several compressors released by Universal Audio/UREI, they have never really gone out of style.  And if vintage Pultecs seem expensive these days (and they no doubt are…), remember that there is an inflation factor of 11x from 1961 to 2012.  So the value of these pieces has more or less simply risen with inflation.

Download catalog data on the EQP 1, shown above: Pultec_EQP-1

Download catalog data on the EQH 2, shown above: Pultec_EQH

Download catalog data on the HLF, shown above: Pultec_HLF-3

The Pultec MEQ-5 and SP-3 Stereo Panner of 1962.  As unlikely as it might seem, the ‘pan’ knob was, at one time, a new and novel concept. 

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Ok so these are not outboard so much as inboard but you get the connection.  The Langevin EQ-252A, EQ-251-A, and EQ-255 filters of 1961.

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Above: the Universal Audio 175B limiter is announced.  The 175B is quite similar in operational principle to the Altec 436/8 and the Gates Sta-Level but the UA is far more sophisticated.  Just a really smartly designed piece of AFAIK, it was sold like shown, with no top cover.   gear.  Retro Instruments currently makes a reissue of this classic piece (but with a top cover).

Above: an inexpensive studio echo unit of the early 1960s: the Telefunken Echo Mixer. It is a spring-reverb unit.  Click this link for an audio demo.   Apparently used by Klaus Schulze on his “Irrlicht,” which is one of my favorite records.

Continuing our survey of AUDIO magazine’s early years: over the next couple of weeks we will look at some of the more relevant content from the first two years that this venerable publication ran under the title ‘Audio,’ the prior title having been ‘Audio Engineering.’ (full backstory here and here).  We’ll start today with the crop of studio microphones on the market in 1954.  One thing becomes pretty clear: the Austrians were really ahead of their time.AKG C-12 advert 1954

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Telefunken U-47 and 201-M adverts 1954

Capps CM 2001, 2030, 2250, and DM 2050 microphones c. 1954.

Anyone have any experience with these mics?  Look interesting.  Let us know…

The Reeves S-T Condenser Microphone; another early American Condenser mic. Very rare.

The Shure 333 ribbon mic.  This was their cardiod ribbon.  I’ve never used one of these, but i would love to get my hands on one.  Stephen Sank recently re-ribboned my circa 1954 Shure 300 (the 300 was Shure’s high-end figure-8 ribbon of the same period) and wow did he do a great job.  It sounds incredible now.    I had thought it was a P.O.S. until he re-did it.  If you own a vintage Shure ribbon mic and you are underwhelmed by it. give Sank a call and see what he can do for you.

…and here is some period analysis of the then-new Shure 333.

Follow the link below to READ-ON….  more studio mics of ’54 follow….

The Turner 50D broadcast dynamic microphone

The Turner 57  Microphone

The Turner ADA 95D microphone

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