We know it helps the manufacturer to set rigid

standardisation of their equipment formats most do! -

It doesn't help you. The penalty need not be a sharp
increase in cost.
We at Cadac do not expect you to suffer these short
comings. Our fully modularised range of equipment leaves
the flexibility of choice with you -and the cost? Lower
than you would expect on a console for console
comparison basis.
The most versatile recording equipment in the world.

' ixair ¡AM ta

( ((__
i
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11.
1 1 7 f .- __.....-..

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6 '' 3\y
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VOGUE P.I.P STUDIOS- FRANCE

The leaders in music recording consoles
and techniques.

Cadac (London) Ltd.

141, Lower Luton Road Harpenden Herts. AL5 5EL
Harpenden (STD 05827) 64351 Telex 826323
EDITOR RAY CARTER
TECHNICAL EDITOR FR NK OGDEN
EDITORIAL PRODUCTI N
DRUSILLA DALRYMPLE
CONSULTANT HUGH FORD
studio sound AND BROADCAST ENGINEERING
EXECUTIVE ADVERTIS MENT
MANAGER
DOUGLAS G. SHUARD
ADVERTISEMENT MAN GER At first sight it may seem rather single minded to devote the greater part of an issue to one
TONY NEWMAN recording studio, even if it is equipped and staffed to the best international standards. If the
ADVERTISEMENT REP ESENTATIVE complex is called `EMI Studios, Abbey Road' a few thousand people will understand rather
PHYLLIS BIRCH better. Contract the name to a simple `Abbey Road' and the thousand will become a million.
But Abbey Road Studios represent more than an 1p by the same name. They symbolise
the explosive rise and expansion of the recording industry in the sixties, as well as the
ultimate in lift -offs for the young hopefuls who queued to work there. Doubtless, even without
ITHE LINK HOUSE GROUP that 1p, the studios would have been just as successful because in terms of economic
Editorial and Advertising Offices: viability it is primarily down to the efficiency of the people who work there.
LINK HOUSE, DINGWALL AVENUE,
CROYDON CR9 2TA
Contrast suggests the possible speculation of the Beatles recording at a less successful
Telephone: 01- 686 2599 establishment-Command Studios, perhaps.
Telex: 947709, EXCH MART CROYDON Without raising too many skeletons from the dead, that complex probably started out with
Telegrams: Aviculture Croydon as much if not more going for it, in terms of money and personnel, than any other
© Link House Publications Ltd 1976 studio. And then there was the human element which ultimately spelt disaster for everyone
All rights reserved. concerned. Individual reputations and studio potential were no match for the internal
friction and strife generated by the incompatible attitudes of the bankers who supplied the
STUDIO SOUND is published on the 14th of the money and the chiefs who specified the facilities with little regard for those who had to try
preceding month unless that date falls on a Sunday, and make them work. Command failed through lack of consideration which resulted in
when it appears on the Saturday. summary dismissal of the engineer's intuitive feeling and point of view.
With this background, the Beatles' patronage would have probably resulted in rather less
SUBSCRIPTIONS than fame for the recording studio; George Martin would certainly not have tolerated the
All enquiries to: Subscription Dept, Link House, 25 kind of session hassles that occurred at Command. It's_mid -take and looks promising.
West Street, Poole, Dorset BH15 1 LL. Poole (02013)
71171.
The control room door opens and in walks a gentleman who, in front of the client,
proceeds to deliver an instant lecture to the engineer on the compound effects of clock
DISTRIBUTION watching. No amount of superstars could have helped a situation like this.
STUDIO SOUND, published mont ly, enables engin- Abbey Road, and many other studios are an unqualified success. They are because of what
eers and studio management to k ep abreast of new they are, rather than the stature of the names that attend them.
technical and commercial developrPents in electronic To lend the name to an 1p implies the existence of success rather than an attempt at its
communication. It is available Without charge to instigation.
qualified readers; these are directors, managers,
executives and key personnel actively engaged in the
sound recording, broadcasting and cinematograph
industries in any part of the world. Non -qualifying
readers can buy STUDIO SOUND at an annual
subscription of £5.80 (UK) or £6 (Overseas). Express
(air mail) as follows (extra charge over paid or free
subscription): Argentina (B), Angola (B), Australia
(C), Austria (X), Barbados (B), Belgium (X), Bermuda
(B), Botswana (B), Brazil (B), Bulgaria (X), Canada
(B), Chile (B), Colombia (B), Cyprus (X), Denmark
(X), Finland (X), France (X), Ghana (B), Greece (X),
Holland (X), Hong Kong (B), Hungary (X), Iceland
(X), India (B), Indonesia (B), Iran (A), Israel (A),
Italy (X) Jamaica (B), Japan (C), Kenya (B), Lebanon
,
contents
(A), Malawi (B), Malaysia (B), Mexico (B), Monaco
(X), New Zealand (C), Igeria (B), Norway (X), Peru FEATURES
(B), Philippines (C),IPoland (X), Portugal (X),
Rhodesia (B), Ruman (X), Singapore (B), South IN THE BEGINNING ...
Africa (B), Spain (X), Sri Lanka (B), Sweden (X), Gus Cook 18
Switzerland (X), Tanzania (B), Thailand (B), Trinidad FROM MONO TO MULTITRACK
(B), USA (B), Virgin Islands (B), West Germany (X), Ken Townsend 24
Yugoslavia (X), Zambia (B).
STUDIO CONSULTANTS
Zones John Dwyer 34
X Europe goes air mail regardless 2nd class air mail
A £18.78 (12 issues) SURVEY: STUDIO CONSULTANTS 42
£18.84 (12 issues)
£22.56 (12 issues) A DAY IN THE LIFE
Adrian Hope 46
BINDERS APRS 76- REPORT
Loose -leaf binders for annual volumes of STUDIO 54
Frank Ogden
SOUND are available from Modern Bookbinders,
Chadwick Street, Blackburn, Lancashire. Price is
£1.50 (UK and overseas). Please quote the volume
number or date when ordering. COLUMNS
NEWS 14
AGONY 23

REVIEWS
LEADER LFM 37 WOW and FLUTTER METER
Hugh Ford 58

61 OF T. w+
w~o a o-n.,.rbus
AUGUST 1976 VOLUME 18 NUMBER 8
Total average net circulation of 8899 per issue during
1975. UK: 5689, overseas: 3210. Total average net
circulation of 10030 for January 1976. UK: 6003,
overseas: 4027.
 CANADA: CALDWELL AV.,

"Kee &oadeau!ú9
USA: CCA ELECTRONICS
CORPORATION, EQUIPMENT CO. LTD.,
NEW JERSEY. TORONTO.
TELEX 84 -5200 TELEX 06- 963645

AM Series Broadcast
Mixing Consoles for
Radio and Television

Contact:
Chris Walden or
20 channel Custom
Ted Fletcher at:
Sound Console for
Windsor (07535) 51056!7
ULSTER TELEVISION

(Stancoil Ltd), Alexandra Road, Windsor, Berks. Telex 849323 AEGIS G.

WE TRY HARDER CASSETTE

DUPLICATION
on
HIRE RECORDING STUDIO
8 TRACK MUSIC, SPEECH, COMMERCIALS
NEW SALES STEREO SPEECH
MUSIC
MONO SUN RECORDING SERVICES LTD
EXPORT 34 -36 CROWN ST., READING
rE 0 0734 -595647 o O
USED SALES
TRY US SOON WE CARE FOR OUR REVOXES-
WHY NOT LET US CARE FOR YOURS?
Open Monday- Saturday inclusive 10 -5.30. We can do anything you can dream up for the A77 within reason, and without
detriment to the normal performance of the A77, such as:
Red Star & Securicor Express delivery service available. I Any speed from 30 i. p.s. down to ¡$ i. p.s. without any of the usual problems.
2 Improving specifications to the most amazing standards for the professional
user.
3 Pause control.
4 Balanced line mic inputs with or without phantom speed up to 21 volts.
5 Cannon input and output.
AUDIO CENTRE SHEFFIELD 6 RAPID SERVICE.
284GLOSSOP ROAD WE PROVIDE IMMEDIATE SERVICE TO THOSE WHO URGENTLY REQUIRE
THEIR REVOXES.
SHEFFIELD SIO 2HS
Radio Recordings Tel. No. 01- 5860064
Telephone (0742) 730064
ALL MACHINES WE REPAIR OR MODIFY LEAVE US WITH A SPECIFICATION
SHEET

4 STUDIO SOUND, AUGUST 1976

 fessionals have
e n listening
Thnnoy
udep e r
early all a century.
n't it ' e you
oinedthem?
y
udspeaker syste . It was ahead of its time
11 the others that llowed it. So much so that
a few years Tann y had become a virtual
nonym for natur 1 sound reproduction.
like,,
the late 192os Tannoy had designed their first
4
oday many prof sional broadcasting ,
nd recording stud os use Tannoy as a
uality reference. Musicians hear their
ilavbacks through annoy Loudspeakers
nd some of the fine t recordings you buy
re monitored for q lity through Tannoy
,ystems. But this xceptional perform-
nce is not resery d for professionals ai á

one. You can o n a Tannoy Loud-

eaker System you elf. .

_'ou have five new enclosures to choose

handsomely s led by one of Britain's r
ading industrial d signers in ash, teak or , i
fled walnut finish a d brown, blue or sand
-anel grilles. The s eakers are based on the
ual concentric prin iple and feature the unique
annoy integrated loudspeaker system and cross -
ver network.
= he quality of your hi -fi ultimately depends on the M t
eakers. It must m: e sense to do as the professionals do. _{ y
rite to us for the name of your nearest Tannoy dealer.
annoy Products Li ited Canterbury Grove West Norwood
ondon SE27 oPW Telephone 01-670 1131

_49,41-1 0\J sayse nait allme Phonogram Studio London

 SALES and
SERVICE
Al3A. TRAD
Telephone: Cardington 404
Specialists in Service and

photokino
Repair of T.R.D. recorders.
All parts, motors, etc.,
available. Collection and
delivery:London and
Home Counties.

Cologne 1976 FOR SALE

10 to 16 September Studer A80
head block
16 track with 8 track
£8750

World Fair Studer A80

head block
16 track with 8 track
£9500
of Photography 3M 8 track M23 £3200
Helios 18-8-16 desk £5500

THERE'S NO ALTERNATIVE Neve 24-8 desk

Neve 16 -4 desk
£12500
£8000
Amek 10-4 desk £800
photokina Photo Exhibitions Chadacre 10 -4 desk £650

in Cologne's art building Lockwood type cabs with reds £300 per pair
Neumann U67 mics, perfect £125 each
10 to 26 September 1976 Neumann U47 valve £130 each
Neumann U87 from £160 each
800 firms from 29 countries will show a complete range STC 4033 mics £10 each
of products: For dealers, for professional use in indus- All AKG mics in stock
try, trade, administrative departments, service firms, TRD 600 stereo £200
scientific and training centres.
2" Ampex MM 1100 Auto Locate,
as new £400
This unique concentration of cine and photo prod-
is a
I" empty spools £I -50 each
ucts, lenses and optical components, AV, photofinishing
4" empty spools 50p each
and darkroom equipment, products for professional
I" matt back tape, new £6 per reel
photography, cinema and TV equipment.
+" matt back tape, new £4 per reel
There's no _ alternative.
JBL 4502 monitors £750 per pair
PLEASE CUT OUT AND SEND COUPON FOR Cadac monitors £400 per pair
FURTHER INFORMATION New Uher 4200 IC £345

NM MI= I UM= =1. New Uher 4000 IC

Klark Teknik 27 graphic equaliser
£270
£330
To: International Trade Fair Agencies Ltd, Klark Teknik Duel II graphic eq £320
IO Old Bond Street, London WI X 3DB
ALL ABOVE PRICES PLUS VAT
wish to visit Photokina, please send me further
information. WANTED-24 Track Recorder and 16 Track
3M's Track Recorder

Name
DOG HOUSE
Name of Company
COPLE, BEDFORDSHIRE
Address Telephone: Cardington 404
SSBE/7/76

STUDIO SOUND, AUGUST 1976

WHAT'S IN A MICROPHONE STAND?
Into our microphone stands
are built years of listening to
the comments of engineers
and studio technicians and
acting on their advice.
You can benefit from all this
experience by sending for our
new catalogue.
MOBILE STAND
MODEL MSW

Write or Phone
to:-

KEITH MONKS (AUDIO) LTD.

26 READING ROAD SOUTH, FLEET, HANTS.
Telephone: Fleet (02514) 7316 or 3566. Telex 858606

SOLD WORLD -WIDE THROUGH APPOINTED DISTRIBUTORS

7
 12 CHANNEL STEREO MIXING CONSOLE
N

11
PERFORMANCE "
Noise reference to input 123 dBm -
Distortion better than .05% typically .01%
Overhead level at 22 dBm all outputs buffered
£250 Retail

"20 into 4 to be announced shortly'

12Channel Export Model
16Channel MixingConsole
8 Channel Stereo Mixer
For further details contact TONY GIPP
(0223) 66559.
ELECTRONICS
French's Mill, French s Road, Cambridge (02231 66559

EVENTIDE CLOCK WORKS

ANNOUNCE THE TO
INPUT LEVEL FEEDBACK HARMONIZER

MOOEL EVENTIDE
CLOCK WORKS
PITCH RATIO
30 30

-
0400.1. OCLAV OUTPUT 0

+
0®t<V ONO/
111111111111111NE
7.0 in aO PO 1111111E111111111
7.0 10 a0 .IO
111111111111111 I
ON
P®

PITCH CHANGER DIGITAL DELAY SPECIAL EFFECTS

The HARMONIZER employs digital circuitry and The HARMONIZER is a low -cost, very versatile It can be used to speed up and slow down tapes
Random Access Memories to actually digital delay line. The delay is variable in without affecting pitch. It can create some of the
transpose inpLt signals by up to a full octave up 7.5 ms steps up to 112.5 ms a second output is
; wildest effects on record
or down. Unlike the so- called "frequency optionally available that varies up to 82.5 ms.
shifter" which creates dissonances, the
Harmonizer preserves all harmonic ratios and
thus musical values. Any musical interval can be Feldon Audio Ltd Dept SI
achieved by the continuously variable control, ANTI -FEEDBACK 126 Great Portland Street
and an optional monophonic or polyphonic Feedback caused by energy build -up due to London W1
keyboard allows real -time "playing" of the room resonance is decreased by shifting
Harmonizer, so that the musician can successive repetitions of the same signal away Tel: 01 -580 4314
harmonize with himself. from the original frequency. Telex: 28668
8 STUDIO SOUND, AUGUST 1976
 ri MX 73O81Í inch 8 Channel
This an entirely new 8 channel 1 inch recorder
m Japan's bi gest manufacturer of recording and
licating equ pment. Servo tape tension, full logic motion
nsing. Full re ote sync and record modes. 71/2 /15 or
30 ips.
Early delivery
Recor mended Retail Price £4450
Professional User's Price on application

ri DP 4050 assette copier Two Speed Mk 2.

Super quality makes it the only copier
mparable to rge scale loop-bin systems
I .

uestionably the world's finest in- cassette duplicator.

al for 1- 10,000 copies. 8 times speed
nstruction
-modular
servo controlled direct capstan drive.
Immediate delivery

ari MX 5050
Full capability professional machine. Front panel
it mode and cue facilities. Motion sensing. Sync and
rmal replay level identical. 600 ohm XLR + 4dB output.
ditional 1/4 track replay head. Two and four channel
rsions. Test a d cue oscillator. Edital editing block. 7Y2, 15
s. Balanced input and output options.
2channel 4 channel 8 channel
Recommended Retail Prices from £590
Profesional User's Price on application

he reliable answer
'
eName
son MINN:
01Please send details
MX7308
D P4050
MX5050

I Address

Otari, 5 Pratt Street, London NW1 OAE

I Tel: 01 -485 6162 Telex: 21879

i
ITA- Europe's Leading Distributor

Channel

REVOX A -77 TEACA3340 (S) RECORDER

The famous A77 has been consistently improved over the Industrial version upgraded to studio requirements, with
past 8 years and is now available in the latest Mk. 4 version. increased signal to noise performance and improved relia-
The wide choice of specifications includes versions for bility. Four totally independent channels each with sel sync,
duplicating and logging applications. Backed by UK's input mixing, switchable VUs and all the facilities for easy
£340st service. multitracking. This industrial model is in more studios than
£340 +VAT. any other version.
Hire service. Immediate delivery. Available only from ITA. (Semi -pro version also available.)
Immediate delivery

REVOX A -700 TEAC A2340 HIGH SPEED

The new big Revox - ideal for all studio requirements.
Highly sophisticated design features include servo tape
The only budget recorder under £400 with 15 ips! Same
spec. as ubiquitous 3340 but 7 inch spools. Don't accept
tension, full deck logic, crystal controlled servo electronics, less!
3 speeds, tape footage counter. £384 +VAT.
£690 +VAT. Immediate delivery.

Agfa PEM 368 Hire Facilities

Lowest Prices Finance Available
Scotch 207
 row

or Multitrack tquipment
1

III NV,

C hannel

ITAM 805 master recorder I TAM 10 -4

Fully modular electronics using plug -in PCBs throughout. Ten balanced inputs, four output groups, 4 limiters, bass mid
Separate sync and replay amps give identical levels. and treble EQ, modular construction, headphone moni-
Switchable VUs with slow decay: Individual oscillator for toring. Extremely high quality construction only matched by
each channel. Dolby A switching facility. Comprehensive mixers costing around £1000.
facilities include sync on all channels, servo controlled £690 +VAT.
capstan, modular electronics, variable speed (optional), Twenty input version £1190 +VAT.
relay -solenoid operation. Compact console presentation Immediate delivery. Also available fdr hire
for easy portability.
£1 790+VAT. Full console optional extra.

ITAM 10 -8
Expanded version of the famous 10 -4, with 8 output groups
and comprehensive monitoring facilities. Additional 10
inputs optional.
£1 260 +VAT.

rnausiriai I ape Applications 1 T II

5Pratt Street, London NW1 OAE.
Tel: 01 -485 6162 Telex: 21879
 PERFORMANCE RELIABILITY

IT HAS TO BE AMCRON!
Amcron power amplifiers come in three sizes, D60, D150 and DC300A, and all offer superb
quality sound reproduction combined with a well- earned reputation for reliability. Introduced
back in 1967, they are found in all possible applications involving amplification of Audio
Frequency signals. Little wonder that they are chosen by leading studios such as Advision,
De Lane Lea, Island, The Manor, Central Sound, and Kingsway Recorders to name but a few.
ARK INDUSTRIAL ESTATE,
MACINNES LABORATORIES LTD. SAXMUNDHAM, SUFFOLKTP17
TEL: (0728) 2262 2615

-_,_,_,_,_,_,_,_,_,_,_ _, ASV

SI S
1

AT LAST
ee, eí
1

1
A STEREO DISC CUTTING HEAD
made in Britain by British engineers at about half the
1

1
cost of any other stereo cutter head! 1

1
1
For full details call
17'Wee 1
COUNTY RECORDING SERVICE
LONDON ROAD, BIN FIELD, BRACKNELL,
1

British made 1

BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND
1

professional
1 1
Phone BRACKNELL (0344) 54935
,_,_,_,_,_,_._,_,_,_,-----=
cartridge reproducer
=a* Ask for literature
Igi5.®
Get binding!
Etra
POW s 151, .
R nm®
151)
v.:...
v . ...
.
Keep your copies of STUDIO
SOUND in smart black binders
(each holds 12 copies) with title in
golden block letters on the spine.
v v Price: £2.00 each, which includes
inland and overseas postage. Send
Agents for your order with cheque or postal
order to: Modern Book Binders Ltd.,
Fidelipac N.A.B. Cartridges Chadwick Street, Blackburn, Lancs.
(state clearly your name and address
and the relevant magazine title).
SIS Ltd, 57 St Andrews Road, Northampton NN 12PB
Telephone: Northampton (0604) 32965 30559
CD SISI
11 LINK HOUSE GROUP
12 STUDIO SOUND, AUGUST 1976
 Avtc Developments

PORTABLE MIXERS
TRAVEL THE WORLD

AUDIO DEVELOPMENTS are the specialists in portable mixing consoles which offer studio quality
away from studio conditions. We offer a range of ruggedly built battery operated mixers which give
professional results to match the world's best portable recorders, combining excellent specifications
with small size and weight. To emphasise the portable aspect, the illustration shows our MICRO
mixer teamed up with the case, specially built for it by SAMCINE. This elegant weatherproof case
enables the mixer to withstand even the rigours of air travel and provides convenient permanent
storage for the mixer and accessories.
For full details of the whole range, from 6 into 2 to 24 into 4, together with the many available
options which cater for specialist needs, write or telephone to the factory or to our agents listed
below.
M. R. Drott, Laboacustica, Phillips Electronic Industries Ltd.
Johannesgasse 18, Via Muggia 33, 200 Consumers Road, Suite 105,
A -1015 Wien, 00195 Roma, Willowdale, Ontario,
Austria Tel: 3595506/ Canada
386867,
Studio Centre, Italy
3 Rue Du Telegraphe, Sound Techniques, Siv Ing Benum and Co.,
75020 Paris, Postbus 206, Boks 2493,
France. Almaar, Solli, Oslo 2,
Holland Norway
Dr. W. A. Günther,
Ingenieurburo SIA,
8702 Zollikon, Zurich,
Seestrasse 49 -51, Switzerland

AUDIO DEVELOPMENTS
HALL LANE, WALSALL WOOD, WALSALL, W. MIDLANDS, WS9 9AU
Telephone: Brownhills 5351/2/3 (STD Code 05433)
13
 A similar duration applied to when accidentally touched while
in -use switched speed change running. A record can also be quite
between 33k, 45 and 78 rpm. A brutally cleaned during reproduc-
combination of electrical and mag- tion. In down -to -earth language,
netic braking stops the platter dead the tea lady can brush up against
within 0.3s or 30° of rotation at the turntable and the dj can clean
33} rpm. A remote control on/off jam off the record, without a
switch is provided, which can be listener being any the wiser.
ganged to the zero position of a Technics see it as a cheap alterna-
console fader, thereby automatic- tive to the widely used Gates and
ally muting the brief run -up time as EMT turntables, and already some
the fader is raised to full gain. have been bought by Swedish
Japanese cassette system prototype unveiled prematurely, Another alternative is to back -cue Radio. Incidentally, Technics claim
Sony, Matsushita and Teac recently audio quality was poor. Clearly, into silence by just 25° and start at they could easily have produced a
announced agreement on a new however, it is only a question of full gain. In the latter case, how- turntable with even greater torque,
audio tape system, christened the time and development before broad- ever, the power supply to the turn- but refrained quite simply because
Elcaset. Looking like a cross cast quality can be extracted from table must be switched off, to it could have constituted a real risk
between a video and a compact the system and success or failure of release the braking system. Technics SP -10 Mkil
audio cassette, the Elcaset con- the system will depend far more on
tains 6.3 mm wide tape, with a how hard it is sold. Machines are
standardised running speed of promised for later this year, but it
9.5 cm /second. The track pattern is unlikely that the domestic public
resembles that of a Philips audio will voluntarily welcome the Elcaset
3.8 mm compact tape cassette, thus as an alternative to their existing
providing compatibility between Philips compact cassette or open
mono and stereo recordings. But reel tape systems. Moreover the
in addition a narrow cue track is BASF Unisette 6.3 mm tape cas-
provided alongside each audio sette, with which the Elcaset has
track, to provide for automatic much in common, is well known to
stop, play, rewind and fast forward Western professionals, and EMT
searching. The cue track can also be and Studer machines capable of
used to carry film or slide sync handling the Unisette are known
pulses. Unlike the Philips compact to be nearing the production stage.
cassette, but like a videocassette, The Elcaset may be a good idea
the Elcaset has no transport launched too late, and this thought
mechanism other than a take -up is reinforced by an impression that
and take-off spool. A pair of flaps some of those in the East behind the
on the cassette front face hinge launch were unaware of the
back, video -style, to release suffi- Unisette and its capabilities. Most impressive of all is the way to engineers' fingers. 'We hope',
cient tape to wrap round the heads More likely to be of immediate in which the SP -10 platter keeps they said, 'that we haven't started a
of the player machine. So far, an interest to professionals is the running at constant speed even torque race'. Adrian Hope
LC-60 with a total length of 60 Technics SP-10 Midi direct -drive
minutes playing (30 minutes each turntable, with 'instant' start and
side) and an LC -90 (total playing stop. The turntable, which uses a New EMI tape sizes of delay cartridge for use with
time 90 minutes) have been pro- quartz -controlled phase -locked A very amiable booze up at the machines incorporating delay heads.
posed, and both Aiwa and Victor servo circuit to hold its running EMI Studios, Abbey Road, marked Available in 8s and lOs lengths,
of Japan, have agreed on the stand- speed constant to within ±0.002 the launch of the latest generation they differ from normal construc-
ard with the three companies per cent, is remarkable for its of mastering tapes from that com- tion in the pressure pad arrange-
behind the development. extraordinary starting torque of pany. Naturally, the new 830 series ment and reel lubrication. Fideli-
is described as high output, low pac, 109 Gaither Drive, Mount
noise, high headroom, low print - Laurel, New Jersey 08057, USA.
through, etc, etc, with these state- Phone: (609) 235 3511.
ments borne out by some relatively
watertight published specifications
for 38 cm /s tape speed: Analogue delay line
High output: 8.5 dB above 320 nWb/m This unit, from Multi -Track of
reference level generating 3% the at
1 kHz. A similar figure of 10 kHz is
Hollywood, looks like being the
+7 dB. first production unit to be offered
Low noise: noise 73 dB below signal using bucket brigade style charge
using stereo track format, A-weighting coupled device technology.
into a quasi-peak measuring system at This system samples the audio
1 kHz. input signal as an absolute quantity
High headroom : see high output. for a time increment proportional
Low print-through : 56.5 dB measured to the shifting rate. It does not
at +8.5 dB above 320 nWb /m with
kHz tone after 72 hrs storage at 20 °C.
quantify into a digital word thus
1

The 830 series is available in the producing no least significant bit

usual widths in smooth back (831), uncertainty noise. To date, the
matt back (832) and smooth back analogue shift register mostly
long play (833). found use in self scanning imaging
units and anti -clutter circuits for
All dimensions in millimetres radar work.
Manufacturer's quoted spec:
The first demonstrations, given 6 kg /cm. This enables the platter Delay cart Max delay: 98 ms max in two channels
in Japan, showed that the auto - to attain full speed from zero For use in prevention of abuse/ of 49 ms in 1 ms steps.
search facility can work as claimed. within 0.25s, or a platter rotation boredom from phone-in freaks, Frequency response: 10 to 20k Hz
But, probably due to a faulty angle of only 25° for 331 rpm use. Fidelipac now manufacture two ±1 dB. 16 k-
14 STUDIO SOUND, AUGUST 1976
 Model 140 Acoustical Analyser.
27 Octave double -tuned filters on ISO
'is

centres from 40Hz to 16kHz

and broadband indication
of db SPL reading out on a matrix
of 319 LED's. Built in
pink noise generator for
system exitation.

Model 141 Micplexer (shown in lid

of 140). Multiplexes three microphones
and presents single output signal to a Model 140
for analysis of sound field.

Model 142 Sound Analyser.

Peak -reading instrument
for octave analysis of programme material.
27 Single tuned filters 40Hz to 16kHz. Built in pink noise generator
and two CMOS memories for instant programme
energy distribution comparisons.

Model 4001 Active Equaliser.

Intended for monitor
system equalisation.
This unit has 27 ISO centred
controls from 40Hz to 16kHz
and provides ± 10 db range on each
control plus low end roll -off.
Two isolated output stages with provision
for insertion of an octal-based crossover network.

Filters. A complete range of high -pass, low -pass,

band -pass, band reject and low -level loudspeaker crossover

White Instruments Inc. Austin, Texas.

Analysers, Equalisers and Filters for Audio Applications.
For complete information or a demonstration of any White Instruments Products
contact the sole UK Agent:

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In France: 3M France S.A. Mincom Div. 135 Blvd. Serurier 75019 Paris
Tel: 1202 8080

15
 NEWS marred last year's exhibition. 1350
Avenue of the Americas, New
Sampling frequency: 102.4 kHz York, NY 10019, USA. Phone:
(externally modulated for phasing etc). (212) 489 9245. UK contact:
Signal -to-noise ratio: better than 85 Jimmy Parsons, 6 Boreham Holt,
dB at 49 ms delay (20 to 20k Hz).
Distortion: typically less than 0.2% at Allum Lane, Elstree, Herts WD6
49 ms. 30F. Phone: 01 -953 7260/836 8211.
Interface: line level.
Delay control: by thumbwheel switch.
Power requirements: ±15V dc.
Environmental: 10 -50 °C. New amplifier
It is hoped that production units Nairn Audio are to produce a
will be available shortly. smaller version of the established
Multi -Track, PO Box 3187, 160 and 250. Rated at 40W/channel
Hollywood, Ca 90028, USA. Phone: into 8 ohms (60W /channel into
(213) 462 1351. UK: Mellotronics 4 ohms) the company says that the
Ltd, 35 Portland Place, London new model will drive 'any loud-
WIN 3AG. Phone: 01 -637 0692. speaker with a music signal without
loss of information'. Extract from
manufacturer's spec:
Above: QA 3000 Quantum Audio Labs Transient power: more than 150W.
New console Total harmonic distortion: less than
Quantum Audio Labs' QA -3000 Below: Grandson III from Auditronics Inc 0.04% at any audio frequency up to
uses modular construction to give 30W.
the flexibility of specification asso- Signal -to- noise: -85 dB ref 18V
ciated with that method of con- output.
struction. The system can be Sensitivity: 700 mV for 18V.
Stability: unconditional.
supplied with as few as eight Naim Audio Ltd, 11 Salt Lane,
inputs eight outputs or as many as Salisbury, Wiltshire SPI 1DT.
40 in by 16 out. All variations are Phone: 0722-3746.
kitted out with quad mixdown
facilities.
Standard equipment includes
four echo busses, quad panning, Agencies for MicMix
full monitor mix, four knob eight I he company has appointed the
frequency eq, cue solo and talk following agencies for its range of
back, hi and lo pass filters, front Waster Room reverberation cham-
end pads, vu meters, conductive bers: Chicago area, Irving Rose
plastic faders and phantom power- Associates; East Central States,
ing. The usual jackfield facilities Sphere Associates of Washington
are present. DC. Sphere has installed a New
Quantum Audio Labs Inc, 1905 York City telephone line (212/246
Riverside Drive, Glendale, Ca 0176) for direct contact with the
91201, USA. Phone: (213) 841 Washington office. Internationally,
0970. Eltron Ltd, of Johannesburg, was
recently appointed as the distri-
butor for South Africa.
MicMix Audio Products Inc,
Great grandson out. Other channel facilities socket for distortion signal out- 9990 Monroe Drive, Suite 222,
Actually, Auditronics, the manu- include three knob six centre eq put. The unit is distributed in the Dallas, Texas 75220, USA. Phone:
facturers, call it Grandson III but plus the usual hi and lo pass UK by Telonic Altair, 2 Castle (214) 352 3811.
it looks as though it might be very networks. There are three sends Hill Terrace, Maidenhead, Berks
useful for applications in what the per channel officially designated as SL6 4JR. Phone: 0628 -28057.
manufacturers describe as `the live two effects and one foldback
performing arts'. That means circuit. Eight way routing is 2 mil low print tape
sound re- inforcement, public ad- standard. Auditronics states an Musexpo 76 One of the characteristics claimed
dress or whatever. output drive capability of +24 This year's show, the direct for the new Q15 tape from Capitol
This new mixing console is dBm. American equivalent to the Cannes Magnetics is that of low print
oriented very much towards theatre Auditronics Inc, 207 Summit Street, MIDEM, will be held at the Fair- through -the new product has
situations. For instance, in Memphis, Tenn 38104, USA. mont Hotel, New Orleans from been designed specifically for appli-
addition to and separate from the Phone: (901) 276 6338. September 8 to 11. Organised by cations in broadcast and recording
16 inputs and eight outputs, there the International Record & Music studios. Although the two mil
are two talkback /paging circuits Industry Market, exhibitors will base thickness is standard, the
as well as the normal talkback Distortion meter include a strong British contingent product, marketed under the
arrangements to either the monitor The VP7701A distortion meter following the intervention of the Audiotape brand name, will also
or output circuits. Four subgroups manufactured by National of Japan British Overseas Trade Board with be available in 1 and 1.5 mil bases
on the output side allow sectional features an automatic level control hard cash aid for UK participants. in the usual widths from 6.25 to
fades with single fader operation. for use over the input range 100 mV In addition to the usual gathering 50 mm. When supplied on a
Measuring 97 x 82 cm, the desk to 100V without manual adjust- of the clans, two talent showcases 26.5 cm NAB spool, tape length is
uses modular construction to allow ment, an autoranging capability will operate under the same roof as 710m. Capitol Magnetic Products,
for system expansion at a later giving measurements down to the main exhibition. Special atten- 1750 North Vine, Los Angeles, Ca
date. Individual mie channels 0.03 % total harmonic distortion tion will be paid to the organisation 90028, USA. Phone: (213) 462
feature phantom powering on the and a frequency range from 10 to of this year's event following the 6252.
inputs and an input giving sensi- 200k Hz. The unit can also be used various complaints about noise, Capitol Magnetics, EMI, Elstree
tivities between -70 to +20 dB at as a millivoltmeter with manual or communications, showcase loca- Studios, Borehamwood, Herts.
the input relative to 0 dB on line autoranging. There is an external tions and exhibitor squabbles that Phone: 01 -953 1600.
16 STUDIO SOUND, AUGUST 1976
 o
v Ilt
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priced, with UREI quality, of course. to 12.5kHz for stereo application, 10dB boost
Model 527 features and attenuation.
10dB boost and attenuation from 40H: to Model 532 - the monoversion of the 530.
16kHz in 27 x §rd octave steps.
Model 529 offers from
40Hz to 16kHz in 27 steps with up to 15dB of F.W.O. Bauch Limited
attenuation; with additional high -pass and
low -pass filters. 49 Theobald Street, Boreham Wood,
Hertfordshire ,WD6 4RZ
Tel: 01953 0091 Telex :27502
 In the begînnin90..

employ much larger groups of artists and musicians, and this

necessitated the use of bigger studios and halls such as Queens
GUS COOK* and Kingsway. Even at this early date, due to the increasing numbers
of concerts taking place, difficulties were being encountered in using
the halls for recording sessions. The renewed interest in concert
performances was due to the stimulus of broadcasting on the new
Abbey Road recording state networks and to the increasing availability of gramophone
studios officially opened records. It therefore became necessary to consider the building of a
for business permanent recording complex in the centre of London (the Hayes
on November 12, 1931 site being some 12 miles away in Middlesex) in which all the
activities of the company could be co- ordinated.
A parallel development was taking place at the Columbia
Graphophone Company under its founder Louis Sterling later to
become the first managing director of EMI. This organisation was
by now well established with a record factory at Earlsfield and a
complex in Westminster consisting of two studios, a research
laboratory and equipment workshops in Petty France on the site
now occupied by the Passport Office. For the recording of large
scale works the Columbia Company also had the use of the
*General Manager (1969 -74) Central Hall, Westminster and the Portman Rooms at Baker Street.
EMI Studios, Abbey Road Due to the foresight of Osmund Williams, who was head of the
international artists department at that time, a site was chosen
for the Gramophone Company's new studios to the north west of
RECORDING for the gramophone was first started in the UK Piccadilly at St John's Wood.
by the Gramophone Company (His Masters Voice) in 1898. The Abbey Road location proved to be ideal for the purpose,
The rather primitive method used consisted of collecting the sound St John's Wood being considered, even today, one of the best
by means of a large horn, the performers being suitably grouped areas of London with its tree lined streets of spacious houses and
around its flare, and the generated waves made to vibrate a flats surrounded by gardens. The house at No 3 Abbey Road,
glass diaphragm connected to a floating arm at the narrow end. close to Lords cricket ground, was purchased in 1930 and
A sapphire cutting stylus was attached to the diaphragm and the converted into offices. The facade was repaired but otherwise
resulting mechanical vibrations were recorded or inscribed on the unchanged, remaining so to this day in order to maintain the
surface of a soft wax blank which was then processed to produce residential character of the neighbourhood. A connecting block was
the record. To accommodate the limited ensembles used for this built in the large garden of the house consisting of three studios,
acoustic system of recording a small studio was built in the office transfer or mastering rooms, workshops, listening rooms etc,
block at Blyth Road, Hayes. and a garage for what was to be the first mobile gramophone
In 1925 the Western Electric Company of America introduced recording unit. No 2 Studio was placed at right angles to the
the first electrical system of recording using microphones to pick main construction and utilised part of the gardens purchased from
up the sound. The resultant increase in flexibility made it possible to No 5 Abbey Road and adjacent houses in Hill Road. It is interesting

ST. JOHNS WOOD.

Particular* and Cond4iau aJ S...

oP not

VALUABLE UNRESTRICTED

Freehold Building Site

No. 3, ABBEY ROAD
ST. JOHNS WOOD SS

For Salt by A.N.. by o-...,..

GEO. HEAD Co.

As fie Laden A.ai,, Mar*. ISS, (lusty Vittoria S,. L.C.

On Tuesday, 3rd December, 1929,

A, 2.30 ..A. taa<,. we.maar e;.,aw a msn+ar).

18 STUDIO SOUND, AUGUST 1976

to note that when in 1960 the basement portion of the old house The resonance of this arrangement occurred at 500 Hz and was
was undergoing alteration to provide an additional echo chamber, removed by the use of an equaliser, situated in the microphone
it still contained an enormous kitchen range with several ovens, amplifier. As well as being used by EMI for many years this type
and harness hooks for the coach horse accoutrements were still of microphone was also used by the BBC at Alexandra Palace in the
in site around the kitchen walls. The floors of the rooms above television broadcasts from that station.
were found to be made of long planks of solid elm more than an The moving coil recorder or cutterhead was also of a unique
inch thick and secured by nails which were undoubtedly hand design (BP 350954 and 350998). It was driven by a quarter
forged. It was the first time that a complex of such dimensions kilowatt Marconi transmitting triode, DEM 3, but arranged for this
was purpose built for gramophone recording and its No 1 purpose as a low frequency amplifier using 1000 volts on its anode.
Studio, recently internally rebuilt and modernised, is considered This was followed by a flexible wide range equaliser which enabled
to be the best in Europe, perhaps the world, used solely for this considerable adjustment to be made to cutter head response. The
type of work. equipment was constructed and calibrated in the labs and
The opening ceremony was on November 12, 1931 with a workshops at the Petty France Studios.
recording by the LSO directed by Sir Edward Elgar of his After the merger forming EMI the new recording system was
symphonic poem Falstaff Among the many notables attending the installed at Abbey Road and the WE apparatus returned to the
inaugural session were George Bernard Shaw and Sir Landon States. The Blumlein system remained in full use throughout
Ronald, two old friends of the maestro. Earlier in that year a merger World War II and was not replaced until about 1948.
had taken place between the Gramophone Company and the During 1932 Alan Blumlein produced a portable version of the
Columbia Graphophone Company forming Electric and Musical MC System for use on remote or location recording sessions and
Industries, now the EMI Group of Companies. The Petty France also to equip some of the smaller companies abroad, the main
studios were closed down in 1932. European centres such as Berlin, Paris and Milan having already
The studios at Abbey Road were initially equipped with the been equipped with the standard studio MC System. For this
WE system of recording which was protected by numerous patents lightweight equipment he utilised a MC microphone with a
both in America and the UK covering the condenser microphone and permanent magnetic field, together with a modified cutter with
also the moving iron cutter head (BP 262389). The cutter had synthetic rubber pivots for the coil. The rubber for this was
a linear response from 200 to 4500 Hz falling away at its lower end specially developed by the Dunlop Company and became known
to 50 Hz at a rate of 6 dB /octave. The cutter resonances were as Neoprene. Due to this development the new recorder required
damped out by the ingenious use of a rubber transmission line. This much less power to drive it and this was provided by two small
equipment could not be purchased outright but was hired to power valves in push -pull. The circuitry was also arranged to extend
licensees under a rental system which included the payment of a the upper frequency limit to 10 kHz if required. This equipment
royalty on each record sold. was manufactured and calibrated at the EMI workshops,
The head of r & d at the Columbia studios at that time was a located at Hayes, Middlesex.
shrewd radio engineer Isaac Shoenberg (originally from the Marconi Complementing the studios was the mobile recording unit which,
Company) who was later to become responsible for the development being built in the late twenties, was undoubtedly the first of its kind.
of the EMI broadcast system adopted by British Television. It It consisted of a purpose built body on a Lancia two-ton chassis and
was requested by Louis Sterling that research should develop a new was equipped with a complete recording system including two
electrical recording system avoiding the use of the WE patents and weight driven lathes. A jacking system was arranged to support
thus the large royalties being paid to America. This resulted in each corner of the van during recording to level the machines
Isaac Shoenberg engaging a young scientist, Alan Dower Blumlein, with their 55Ib lead weights for the gravity motors. The power
to work on the project. for the amplifiers, suction and heating of waxes was derived from
ADB already had a number of interesting patents to his credit batteries which were recharged in situ during rest periods. This
and by 1929 with two able assistants, R E Holman and enabled the unit to work in town or country and many hours were
H A M Clark, was busy working out the details of the moving spent, for example, by Albert Deering and Leonard Page working
coil system, the first of its kind, which was to be used by the with Ludwig Koch on his well -known series on British Birds.
EMI Group of Companies for the next two decades. The microphone Another event recorded annually was the Aldershot Military
used was of an entirely new design having a stretched metal Tattoo. The waxes, which were cut during rehearsal and the first
diaphragm attached to a moving coil wound on a balsa wood former. performance, were rushed to the factory for processing, and 20

No 3 control room -1932 The DEM 3 amp system with Gus Cook and George Deakin

19
IN THE BEGINNING ... before or indeed since, and that this little interlude was an
experience never to be forgotten.
selected items were then lifted by pickup from the resulting records Unfortunately with the coming of stereo and the necessity for
in the transfer room at Abbey Road by a team of specialists. The greater floor space the organ and console had to be dismantled. It
pair of composite records made by this operation were able to had been little used except as a fill -in device for some years due to
be put on sale at Aldershot before the final stages of the Tattoo. the decline of interest in cinema organs. However, I am happy to
This was a highly technical operation for those days since unlike report that it is still in existence and now resides in a Cornish
the use of tape, the minutest error would necessitate the re- transfer tithe barn somewhere in the Liskeard area.
of a complete side. The period 1939 -1945 saw about one -third of the Abbey Road

The Lancia mobile at Alexandra Palace for an organ recording of Glenn Miller with the AEF Band
Reginald Goss -Custard in 1930. L to R: Jim Mays, Edward Bulkley, recording in No 1 Studio.
Arthur Clark and George Dillnutt. Photo by Harry Hands. September 16, 1944

Due to enemy action at Manchester during the latter part of the technical staff either on radio work in the armed forces or on
last war the Lancia Van, as it was called, was destroyed by fire. A government work at Hayes. The studios were manned by a skeleton
replacement was built and travelled many thousands of miles all staff which was engaged principally on ENSA work for the forces
over the British Isles recording organs and dance bands of the period entertainment, the programmes for which were either recorded in
together with classical sessions of every kind. Tribute must be paid the studios or by land line from the BBC networks via the
at this point to Harry Hands the driver of these vehicles who for Broadcasting House Control Room at Portland Place. The Glenn
more than 30 years ensured that they arrived on site at the right Miller Orchestra was actually recording at Abbey Road shortly
time, and for the cheerful assistance he gave to many a young before the ill -fated plane trip from which its leader did not return.
recording engineer of the period including myself. During 1945 -46 recording companies both in this country and in
Mention must also be made of the Compton organ which for America began experiments to extend the recording range in the
many years was a feature of No 1 Studio. This organ had a upper frequencies and much was made of this in their advertising.
four manual movable console connected by cable to the main The range of the moving coil system was extended (as had been
structure which was located in the centre of a side wall and envisaged by the canny Blumlein) by Barry Waite and Harold
projected into the studio supported on two wooden pillars. It was Davidson two senior engineers at Abbey Road, but the changes
equipped with an electronic section with a drum driven system of were not published by EMI it being considered by the company
oscillators for the use of special effects. to be a normal development in recording techniques. In the same
Its prime purpose was to cater for records by prominent organists year (1946) a team of audio engineers from England and America,
when it was not possible to record them at the cinema or theatre including Berth Jones from Abbey Road, went to Germany to
where they normally played. I recall passing through London study the developments in magnetic recording. Military equipment
during the early days of the last war: at the time I was a very green captured towards the end of the war indicated that a system of
corporal or sergeant in the RAF and when possible I would call monitoring was being used by the German command in which
at the studios to see old colleagues. I was told I should see another Allied high speed signals were being recorded on a system using
RAF type who was recording in No 1 Studio. This turned out magnetic tape. The signals were then played back at a reduced
to be a very smart corporal rejoicing in the name of Reginald speed in an attempt to break the codes in use. As a result of the
Dixon with whom I had been working for some years at the data gained from this system EMI were able to embark on the
Blackpool Tower. I recall that we used to work from midnight manufacture of tape and tape recorders which resulted in the
to 4 am fortified with numerous bottles of Bass, which was production of the well -known BTR series. Various forms of this
Reggie's favourite beverage. The supervisor of the programmes which type of recorder, from the original BTR 1 to the BTR 3, were
were recorded for Radio Luxembourg was Howard Thomas, now a installed at Abbey Road from 1947 onwards, and remained in use
famous name in the television world. for the next 25 years.
To return to the Compton, in 1938 Fats Waller made some The introduction of magnetic tape now provided a medium
piano and organ records at Abbey Road in No 1 Studio. The whereby high quality programmes could be recorded, edited and
organ tracks were made on a Möller, which at that time was the replayed without any processing and it was these facilities which
property of Reginald Föort, and brought to the studio for the allowed the exploitation of the newly developed long playing
session -the new ip Fats Waller in London has just been issued. As microgroove record introduced by Professor Goldmark of CBS. A
Fats was always fascinated with pipe organs he insisted on having considerable amount of experiment was necessary before a library
a go on the Compton after hours when the normal work was done. of tapes was available and this work was undertaken by Bill Livy
I was abroad at this time but I was told by those fortunate enough and Albert Deering. The programme material was obtained by
to be present that with the aid of a bottle of whisky as lubrication laboriously lifting suitable tracks from existing records (using a
he extracted sounds from the rather staid Compton never heard 22
20 STUDIO SOUND, AUGUST 1976
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IN THE BEGINNING ... mono cutters at Abbey Road in 1954. To digress into the past a
little, 1931 saw Blumlein already working on a stereo system of
recording using a wax master running at 78 rpm. The system was
covered by a number of patents which included BP 394325 of world
special GEC pickup) and re- recording on to tape. These programmes
fame. The channel separation even at that time was of the order of
were edited and then re-transferred to microgroove lacquer masters
20 dB and the upper frequency range began to fall off at about
for processing.
4000 Hz. The new development was originated with the film industry
Until 1948 masters were cut either on a thick wax blank which
in mind but proved to be in advance of its time as the principle
could be re-surfaced (or shaved) a number of times after the
was not exploited until the mid fifties.
galvanic process or on a wax coated, optically -flat glass plate known
in the industry as a 'flow coat'. Due to the technical difficulties of In 1955 EMI introduced the first commercial pre- recorded tapes
processing a wax for microgroove records it became necessary to using the Stereosonic trademark and these were produced on open
reels at 74 ips, most of the programme originating from Abbey
change to a lacquer disc for mastering. This type of disc was
under intensive development, the difficulty being, as it still is, to Road recordings.
New moving coil cutters were introduced in 1956 and by 1958
obtain a really flat aluminium core. Thus the old type of wax the Westrex 3A type was in use at Abbey Road for stereo mastering.
and flow coats which had served the industry for so long were
finally phased out. A steady stream of high grade condenser microphones was now also
This change, as is so often the case, brought certain advantages. available. These were mainly of German origin and (due to
The lacquer could be played back with minimal degradation, allowing component miniaturisation) becoming progressively smaller, thus
an accurate judgement to be made of quality and performance. The having the advantage of offering less opposition to the sound field.
wax was rendered unusable after one playing with the primitive Credit must be given here to the Neumann Company of Berlin
lightweight pickups of the period, whereas the lacquer assisted the for the vast amount of development work undertaken by them in
calibration of the transfer channel since it was now possible to this area of the audio field. The first postwar microphones of this
type were the M49, two of which were acquired by Abbey Road
measure signal -to -noise and quality on test cuts. Due to the
increase in load on the cutter head for lacquer as opposed to soft from FWO Bauch early in 1952. The switchable polar characteristics
wax it now became necessary to dispense with the old gravity were found to be of great use in the miking of the groups
weight driven lathes and these were replaced with electric drive. beginning to appear on the pop scene at that time.
This development now made it possible to consider a form of Also about that time studios in the US and some in the UK
automatic groove spacing. began using a three track half-inch system of multitrack recording
About this time the Blumlein cutter heads were replaced by the with the object of filling the so- called 'hole in the middle' of the
stereo spread. The method did not find acceptance at Abbey Road
EMI RS 1 series in order to further extend the frequency range; and
continuing the process these were again superseded by the Westrex since EMI consoles of the period had adequate control facilities
(panning) not usually encountered on other mixers. The r & d
section produced a four track experimental BTR machine which
Yehudi Menuhin and
gave good results but due to the necessity of a rack of separate
Sir Edward Elgar at amplifiers it proved a little cumbersome to move around the studios.
Abbey Road In 1931 for the recording There was also available a special four track one inch recorder
of Elgar's Violin Concerto. which had been supplied to EMI r & d to use as a programme
source for the development of a stereo broadcast system. This
machine was a modified version of the Siemens Telefunken T9U.
Monitoring sync circuits were added by the Abbey Road engineers
and the system was found to have considerable advantages over the
three track arrangement since there was no degradation in signal -
to -noise using the one inch format.
Thus four track recording was brought into use at Abbey Road
at a very early stage, first for pop working and then for certain
classical work since it was possible to make two stereo pictures
simultaneously, the levels of which could be varied with respect to
each other during the remixing stage. This increase in flexibility
whereby orchestral and vocal levels could be varied was a very
useful balance facility and the first operatic recording employing
the new technique was the Don Giovanni sessions in Abbey Road's
No 1 Studio in 1959. March 1960 saw the introduction of the
new Neumann ZS 90/45 cutter head which replaced the rather
cumbersome Westrex version. The use of this cutter together with a
small degree of automation in groove spacing freed the transfer
engineer from the concentration required by hand control, allowing
more attention to be paid to the other aspects of mastering.
Over the next fifteen years the use of multitrack techniques
brought a period of great activity and change to Abbey Road. The
shift from four to eight, eight to 16 and finally in 1975 to 24 track
brought with it additional complications. It now became necessary
to employ a system of noise reduction to keep tape background to
an acceptable figure. Each new tape configuration implied
modification to or a change of the mixer console and these measures
involved the studios in a large capital expenditure each year. A vast
quantity of electronic aids were devised to assist the balance
engineer with his ever more complicated equipment. Organs, pianos,
harpsichords, synthesisers and electric instruments of all kinds were
increasingly used in the pop field, while limiters, compressors,
reverberation units and sound re- inforcement systems also became
available.
It also became necessary to reconsider the working conditions of
both artists and engineers. Extensive alterations were made to the
studio and control room decor providing comfortable and relaxed
conditions-the quasi factory or clinical atmosphere was
eliminated. To illustrate the point, until 1949 all studio staff
22 STUDIO SOUND, AUGUST 1976
were required to wear white coats which in the words of the Cotton, Lew Stone, Sid Phillips, the list is endless.
manager at that time 'were to distinguish between artists and But before I close, special mention must also be made of two of
engineers'. On the occasion of a visit by Sir Winston Churchill just these celebrities who have remained loyal to EMI over the last
prior to the last war l was awaiting his arrival near the talks studio. 45 years. I refer firstly to Yehudi Menuhin who recorded the Elgar
As he reached the top of the stairs and paused for breath, he took Violin Concerto with the composer in Abbey Road's No 1
one look and said: 'My God, I thought I'd come to the wrong place Studio in 1931 and who is still making magnificent music in the
it looks like a hospital.' And so it did. same place. The other musician is of course Joe Loss who was
The changes included lighting systems with dimmer control so recording in No 2 Studio about the same time and who happily
that the atmosphere could be varied to suit the music being recorded. is still doing just this today.
Carpeting and comfortable furnishings were introduced, not only One aspect of Abbey Road which has not yet been touched upon
in the studio and control room areas but also in the transfer suites is its role as a training ground for engineers and technicians for the
and listening rooms where engineers and artists apply the finishing industry. The high engineering standards which have always been
touches to the technical and artistic performance which emerges as a maintained over the years have made it a much sought after centre
gramophone record. of employment, and applications are received daily from engineers
It would be impossible to list here all the artists who have worldwide wishing to undertake a period of training, often asking
recorded at Abbey Road so I have picked a few at random without to work without pay.
any classification, and I think you will agree that it reads like a page Thus Abbey Road has become almost a recording Mecca since
from Debretts: Bert Ambrose, Jack Hylton, Gracie Fields, Tommy it is impossible to work in this industry without encountering in
Handley, George Formby, Jessie Matthews, Sir Lawrence Olivier, either film making, television, radio broadcasting or gramophone
David Oistrakh, Sir Thomas Beecham, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, recording an engineer who at some point in his career has been asso-
Maria Callas, Igor Stravinsky, Aaron Copland, Ray Noble, Bill ciated with what is probably the best known studio in the world.

the money, for the monitors weren't cheap. In the event, things just

agony about got underway again with the producer demanding an

attentive audience for his 9.5 cm /s demo to give everyone an idea
of 'what I want you guys to do'.
'Oh no,' cried the man scratching his head with caution. 'That
The producer, one of the new intuitive breed, wandered into the sound won't do. Gimme another four dB at 40k.'
recently re- equipped control room to find the engineer lining up for The engineer simply gave the man a look of unbridled
the session. Pleasantries were exchanged in the course of which astonishment.
the new monitors were pointed out to the client. 'Hey, I don't like 'I said gimme another four dB at 40 kilohertz.'
those,' said the man in a transatlantic accent deemed by his buddies Not even good pr could save the session now.
to be as phony as the hairpiece. 'I used them at the Plant and 'Cor blimey, mate, you'd better do it, 'cause I can't bleeding
I couldn't get on.' well hear that.'
Perhaps not the best way to start a session but everyone needed From then on, things went down hill.

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 From mono to multitrack
equipment, and thirdly the right environmental atmosphere in
which artists, engineers and producers can work harmoniously.
Having the right equipment necessitates in the first instance
KEN TOWNSEND the technical knowledge to either design or else select wisely from
the various manufacturers, secondly the requisite skill to install not
only ergonomically but also to very high technical standards;
and thirdly and very important the technical back up staff to ensure
Abbey Road has pioneered
many recording techniques
this article discusses the
- that the equipment is constantly maintained and aligned correctly.
One major difference between Abbey Road and the majority of
other studios is the fact that a very wide range of recordings are
period from mono BTR undertaken from operatic to solo piano in the classical field and
to 24 track A80. from shows, sing-a- longs, big bands to pop groups on the
other side. Throw in a wide range of mobile recordings both
at home and abroad and it will be instantly appreciated that
the balance staff need to be highly specialised, and the engineer who
can successfully cover the entire range is very rare. It has taken
many years to build up the operational team as now exists.
The third point, that of atmosphere, can only be achieved with
'General Manager (since 1974) good staff relations and the realisation that everyone in the
EMI Studios, Abbey Road
building plays an important role in the overall production. Every
person must adopt a positive approach towards the ultimate aim,
the production of a successful gramophone record. It is the
combination of the first two ingredients, the equipment and the
engineers, in association with producers and artists that has been
responsible for the rapidly changing recording techniques, which
ABBEY ROAD today forms an intrinsic part of the production unit
of EMI Records, and Roy Matthews as Director of Production
is responsible for the record factory at Uxbridge Road and the
studios. Its prime function is to act as a service area for the group
and as such is a self-contained unit capable of any operation
in the complex chain from the initial recording, through the remix
and editing stages to the subsequent master tape; thence the
cutting of the master lacquer and the supply of copy master tapes
not only for the cassette duplication plant but also to the many
EMI overseas factories. Contrary to popular misconception
Abbey Road has to be financially viable, and the valuable custom
work enables the utilisation to be kept constantly high, thereby
holding charges down to a level compatible with the independent
competition.
One fundamental difference between Abbey Road and the
majority of its rivals is that it forms the centre of a worldwide
recording organisation. Wally Rand, based at Duke Street, in his
capacity as Director of Overseas Technical Liaison co- ordinates the
technical activities of studios and factories worldwide (Australia,
New Zealand, United States, India, Pakistan, Hong Kong, Singapore,
Nigeria, Argentine, Brazil, Mexico, West Germany, Sweden,
South Africa, Japan, Spain, Italy, France, Holland and Greece).
In the past these areas tended to follow their own technical
policies and in many instances were years behind the major centres
in both equipment and techniques, with the nett result that
discarded Abbey Road equipment could normally find a resting
place overseas. Those days are now over as standards throughout
the world have improved, and only a few outposts remain where the
old equipment is acceptable, and this is invariably caused by
crippling importation duty.
Anyone visiting Abbey Road will inevitably find at least one
engineer at the studio from overseas, either on a training course or
for technical discussions. The EmiNeve console is a direct result of
very close liaison between Abbey Road, some of the major
overseas studios and Rupert Neve & Co. Consoles of the same basic
design but of sizes tailored for the location, are now installed in
many areas of the world.
Provided one has a recording studio of suitable physical
dimensions there are in my opinion three main ingredients essential
in running a successful operation. First and foremost one must The EmiNeve console, Olivia Newton -John and John Farrar
have the right equipment, secondly the right staff to operate that in Control Room Three.
24 STUDIO SOUND, AUGUST 1976
in turn have resulted in the constant upgrading of equipment. them difficult to use in close proximity to dance bands, and their
I joined EMI on a five year apprenticeship in 1950 direct from extremely low sensitivity also caused problems.
school, culminating in Abbey Road taking me on to their Significant changes took place in this era. Previously the balance
permanent staff. The days of wax were already over, and the BTR engineers of the day, although possessing musical knowledge,
tape machine, a superb piece of engineering skill for its era, reigned had been trained primarily as toolmakers due to the skills required
supreme. My longest memory of Abbey Road is the question I to maintain the 78 rpm wax cutting machines. The majority of
was asked by George Corran, then chief engineer, at my these engineers were approaching retirement age, and with the rapidly
interview: `Now tell me, if you were being paid ten pounds a week, changing technology from wax to tape, many were unable to adjust
and you were offered an increase, which would be the greater, their techniques to the new medium. As a result two young
two pounds or 2 dB.' The first session I can recall was Peter engineers were promoted to pop balance, namely Stuart Eltham and
Dawson's last session before moving to Australia, the recording of Peter Bown. The injection of new blood had an almost immediate
On the Road to Mandalay in Studio One. effect. They realised the necessity of new techniques and requested
In the early fifties the transfer of two major American labels to the manufacture of an eight input mono mixer, with echo sends
rival British Companies caused EMI immediate problems. The from each channel, plus two echo returns, eq on each microphone
loss of artists, such as Guy Mitchell and Johnny Ray, meant that channel, and plug in points for a limiter or compressor.
British talent had to be found to compete with their American The studio in those days had its own manufacturing department
counterparts, and also of great importance to Abbey Road, an on the top floor and this area was later to be extended and
attempt had to be made to match the definitely superior sound of the further cutting rooms built. Berth Jones designed the new equipment
American records. and it was to be built in 19 inch racks with each individual unit
The equipment available at Abbey Road was very primitive being given an RS number standing for Recording Studio. Thus the
compared with present standards and consisted basically of a four microphone amplifier became the RS 61 known as X amp, the
input mixing console known as the RS 39, normally fed by four power amplifier for the loudspeaker the RS 63 called the
EMI moving coil microphones, type HB1C, with an external field Z amp, the PLI unit the RS 68 and so on. This equipment was built
supply. These microphones were considered to be omni- directional to exceptionally high standards, and the X amp had a gain of
apart from an internal rise of about 4 dB at 6 kHz in the forward 40 dB +0.1 dB from 30 to 15k Hz, and a remarkably good
direction of the diaphragm. I vividly recall one such set of stability due to very heavy negative feedback. The console type
equipment installed on the van, driven and cared for by the RS 70 was the first equipment to be fitted with slider faders, all
meticulous Harry Hands, being used at the SSAFA tattoo at the previously having had the rotary type. This console was unique at
White City, where we used four ball and biscuit microphones, the time, and was truly the forerunner of the present day models.
and also the annual expedition to Blackpool Tower to record Jack points were provided by Ericsson plugs and sockets, not
Reginald Dixon at the Wurlitzer Organ. Harry would take two only for the insertion of ancillary apparatus but also for regular
complete days to drive to Blackpool with an overnight stay at calibration. The pressure on studio time was far less than now,
Lichfield. Although ribbon microphones were available at the and so one period was booked in each studio and cutting room each
studios, in particular the RCA 44BX (which incidentally later week when regular gain runs were taken on every integral piece of
proved to be the best vocal microphone for Adam Faith), and also equipment. Meanwhile Mike Batchelor, now the Chief Engineer at
the EMI types RM1B and RM1C, they were used almost Abbey Road, was designing a limiter to be called the RS 114.
exclusively by the classical engineers. The pop boys found The vast majority of the recording undertaken at that time however
was classical, due to the fact that not only was Studio Three used
almost entirely for solo piano with many world -famous pianists,
but Kingsway Hall was virtually in constant use, with EMI
having a larger share than Decca; and also regular trips were made
with mobile equipment to venues such as `La Scala' Milan, Paris,
Vienna, Holland and Spain. It would be foolish to attempt to list
the world -famous classical artists who performed in Studios One
and Three during this period but easier to list those who didn't.
As a result Abbey Road had a predominance of classical engineers.
`Chick' Fowler was about to become Studio Manager upon the
retirement of W S Barrell; Bob Beckett was nearing the end of a
distinguished career, and was soon to take over supervisory duties 26*

The sole remaining BTR at Abbey Road, now re legated to banding in the tape Some Abbey Road oldies.
library.
25
 FROM MONO TO MULTITRACK trumpet player called Eddie Calvert. The new RS 114 limiter was
used on Ruby's voice and Eddie's trumpet with remarkable effect, as
neither the voice nor the trumpet were restricted by dynamic peaks.
from Teddy Holmes, who well past retirement age would spend The result was an apparently louder record, permitting the backing to
most of his time reminiscing about the Grand Old Days, when be brought further forward. These new mixing consoles were installed
he had taken recording equipment to Russian Palaces. Duggie in all three studios at Abbey Road and in Kingsway Hall thus
Larter was turning out exceptionally fine products every time he sat permitting multi-microphone techniques to become a reality.
at the desk, particularly at Kingsway, and Harold Davidson was A steady stream of No 1 hits came from Studio Two during
to do a few more years of recording before going on to transfer work. this period and these were the days of well planned sessions, with
Thus the way had been made clear for Chris Parker, Bob Gooch frequently four titles being completed in the allocated three hour
and then Neville Boyling to join Francis Dillnutt and spearhead new session -and no mixing necessary afterwards. Peter and Stuart
ideas and techniques in the classical field also. Strange how in also endeavoured to reduce the bathroom effect of Echo Chamber
those days the classical musicians were referred to as the `long Two by placing a conglomeration of drain pipes and concrete slabs
haired brigade'. inside with such startling effect that the echo chamber became one
Walter Legge, who needs no introduction, had his office at of the studio's prize possessions.
Abbey Road where Playback Room 41 stands now, while the pop Meanwhile in the `Amp Room' Gwyn Stock, a young West
a & r with Leonard Smith, Norman Newell and Wally Ridley Country engineer, was to start the `gimmick box' craze with two
had recently moved from the studios to Great Castle Street. Three delayed echo systems, using BTR 2 tape machines, called STEED
more names were soon to be added, when Norrie Paramor and (Single Tape Echo and Echo Delay) and FITE (Fader Isolated
Ray Martin were taken on initially as conductor/arrangers and then Tape Echo). Years after they had been in almost constant use,
George Martin recruited as assistant to Oscar Preuss. It seems Bill Livy, then Chief Engineer, discovered that they introduced
ridiculous looking back to visualise George Martin turning up for impedance mis-matches in the echo send racks, but it was too late
sessions on a three-wheeler motor cycle and side car complete to change as they had become an established part of the system.
with all the gear. All three were soon to be Artist Managers, referred Overdubbing was achieved in the mid fifties by using two mono
to now as producers, Norrie and Ray with Columbia and George tape machines. People also enjoyed a good practical joke. One
with Parlophone, Wally Ridley of course being with HMV. evening Ray Martin had recorded a number with his orchestra
The jigsaw was slowly piecing together, and with Gus Cook and asked to add the sound of water lapping against the seashore.
having purchased in 1952 from FWO Bauch the very first The obvious method was to send the output from one machine
Neumann condenser microphones to enter the country a new era through the mixer, add the sound effects and record the combined
of recording was just round the corner. The classical staff were the signal on the other, but without the use of headphones. Ray was to
first to acknowledge the infinitely superior characteristics of these paddle around in a big metal bath himself and since he insisted on
new microphones. The unbelievable cardioid polar diaphragms warm water we decided to get our own back. After the track had
of the M49 and U47 enabled for the first time real separation finished we removed the tape, switched off the gear, and left him
to be obtained between different sections of the orchestra, with paddling for what seemed hours. Eventually he appeared cursing
immediate benefits on sessions such as Cortot and Gieseking. The all and swearing from the studio to find the place deserted. He was
round M50 too was to be used by Laurie Bamber on the Sid last seen towing a metal bucket tied to the rear bumper of his
Phillips band, but with the musicians providing their own internal brand new Jag.
balance clustered round one microphone; a method soon to vanish. The first experimental stereo sessions began in 1954 with Chris
The trend of the 78 days on pop, had tended to favour the voice Parker, and Philip Vanderlyn from Research using two crossed
balanced well forward with the backing taking second place. Norrie ribbons (at £12 each) and then two M49 matched pairs built into a
Paramor had discovered a sweet young Irish singer called Ruby special case with an insulating piece to prevent hum loops. Using
Murray, whose mother perhaps not trusting the engineers always simple equipment the Glyndebourne Marriage of Figaro was
came along with her; and Ray Martin had unearthed a fantastic recorded using an M49 crossed pair. By 1955 the first stereo sessions
took place in Berlin with Stokowski, and by 1956 two sets of
REDD 1 stereo equipment became available, one for Abbey Road and
Echo Chamber Two. one for Kingsway Hall, each having six inputs, for two crossed pairs
and two mono injections. At Kingsway, Karajan recorded Falstaff
and Rosenkavalier, recordings which have recently been re- issued.
In 1958 a new mixing console arrived, the REDD 17, the combined
efforts of Len Page and Peter Burkowitz in Cologne. This consisted
basically of 10 inputs, two pairs of inputs being available for stereo
microphones complete with sum and difference, spreaders and
shufers. This gear was flown to Paris to record the famous version
of Carmen with Sir Thomas Beecham and then to Vienna for the
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir Malcolm
Sargent.
The pattern of techniques for classical recording had already been
established, and only slight variations have been made up to the
present time. When Alan Stagg became manager in 1967 for two
years he also continued to balance some classical sessions. His method
was simpler but nevertheless very effective using fewer microphones,
although he was not in favour of the use of stereo pairs. The
main objective is to reproduce as accurately as possible the sound in
the concert hall or studio, whereas pop in many cases is a very
contrived sound; therefore the two require entirely different acoustics
-classical needs a fairly long reverberation time, and pop very short.
Over the years Studio One has seen a great deal of adjustment to
the acoustic treatment. The maximum reverberation time is
dependent on the volume, but the problem has always been to offset
the effect of having large numbers of human beings in the studio,
such as an orchestra of 100 and choir of 150, when the absorption
dries up the reverb time at the mid and top end, leaving a `knee'
in the lower frequencies.
Dr Dutton of Research suggested a scheme of ambiophony in 1958,
Dave Browning designed a series of magnetic delay drums, and
28
26 STUDIO SOUND, AUGUST 1976
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FROM MONO TO MULTITRACK periods were extremely hectic. Victor Sylvester's Ballroom Dance
Orchestra was one of the first to get the double treatment. One
crossed 49 pair was used on the two pianos with centre injection for
Peter Dix, now the acoustic and loudspeaker authority at CRL, bass, drums and accordion, and a second stereo pair in cross
fitted a total of 100 loudspeakers symmetrically to the four walls. figure-of-eight on front melody line with sax and clarinet at rear
The idea was that the acoustics could be artificially tailored to of microphone, and solo muted violin on the front. Due to the low
any individual situation, by feeding different banks of speakers with volume of the violin it was necessary for Oscar Grasso to play
signals delayed at differing intervals. within 15 cm of the stereo microphone and as he always swayed
The system had only limited success, although one recording slightly when concentrating on playing, the results in the control
where it was used to good advantage was Hansel and Gretel with room were quite startling with rapid movements of the violin in
the Sadlers Wells Company. A notable feature of this the stereo picture.
recording was that it used the first noise reduction system, The next sessions were with the Joe Loss Band. One stereo pair on
developed by Ted Trendell at Research, and known as Compansion. brass with another on saxophones, and centre injection on piano,
Unfortunately the system was premature, since the `golden ears' bass, drums and guitar gave immediate problems with the violent
detected on occasions slight degradation of the programme quality, level differences of open and muted brass, and the one microphone
due almost entirely to an over complicated alignment procedure. used for the rhythm section proving inadequate. It became
Also with a four track 25 min tape format, tape noise was immediately obvious that stereo pairs for pop work were
insignificant; this not being the case later on when Dolby's simpler impracticable, although for classical they were a very useful tool. The.
system became virtually essential for multitrack. Various next stage was to provide additional four way pre-mix boxes on
combinations of stereo microphones, all with very accurately matched each of left, right and centre injections, with very satisfactory results.
elements, were, and still are, used on classical work. However The volume of pop work continued to increase, eventually ousting
it proved almost impossible to use stereo microphones and achieve classical from Studio Three. With only two pop engineers the burden
an acceptable balance without the addition of spaced and spot was eased with the acquisition of Malcolm Addey, in 1958, who
microphones. introduced new techniques, most notably the close miking of
Although each classical engineer has developed his own individual drums, including a 4038 ribbon only 15 cm from the snare_
technique, they differ only slightly from each other by virtue of Malcolm was the originator of the expression-`if you can't make it
preference of particular microphone types, by variation of good -make it loud'. His technique was very professional, and
microphone placing and their proximity to the orchestra, and by by careful planning, accurate placing of microphones, and setting
the use of ambience microphones. This latter point has become of the attenuators and tone controls to pre-determined positions he
more essential as EMI now issue the majority of new classical achieved an excellent balance on the very first take.
records in stereo /quadraphonic format. This has meant that we On an audience live session in Studio Two, Norrie Paramor was
have now standardised on eight track for classical recording, to introduce a new artist, and his words still echo in my memory,
although 16 track and 24 track are available, with two tracks `and now I would like to introduce a young man whom I feel
normally allocated to ambience and placed on the rear channels of sure you will hear a lot of in the future -Cliff Richard'. Two of his
the SQ product. This is not always the case, as occasionally on original group called the Drifters, are still part of the Shadows
recordings such as the Berlioz Requiem by Louis Fremaux with the as they were renamed, Hank B. Marvin and Bruce Welch. Cliff and
CBSO, the trumpets can be heard from the rear right loudspeaker. the Shadows were to make many great hits, always at Abbey Road,
Abbey Road was the first studio to employ tape editors solely and Bruce recently produced Cliff's latest album I'm Nearly Famous.
for that function. David Bell now edits the eight track to produce the
master tape prior to remixing. The four editing rooms and the This article would be incomplete without reference to Norman
listening rooms are thus equipped with eight track Studer A80 replay Newell. The list of artists with whom he has been associated at
machines together with quadraphonic monitoring facilities. Abbey Road, nearly always using the very experienced Peter Bown
In order not to affect the `bread and butter' mono product the as engineer, makes incredible reading. To name just a few, consider:
early days of experimental pop stereo had complete duplication Paul Anka, Moira Anderson, Julie Andrews, Dirk Bogarde,
of microphones and were balanced in a remote stereo control room. Shirley Bassey, Beverley Sisters, Sean Connery, Russ Conway,
Valuable experience was thus gained, although session changeover Billy Cotton, Noel Coward, Marlene Dietrich, Ken Dodd, Gerry
Dorsey (later known as Englebert Humperdinck), Bette Davis,
Yvonne de Carlo, Gracie Fields, Bruce Forsyth, Bud Flanagan,
Dolores Gray, Frankie Howerd, Laurence Harvey, Stanley Holloway,
A view of Studio One that indicates the size, layout and ambiophony speaker Sid James, Van Johnson, Howard Keel, Eartha Kitt, Vanessa Lee,
arrangement. The session is 'Don Giovanni' with Otto Klemperer. Vera Lynn, Geoff Love, Cleo Laine, Danny la Rue, Bob Monkhouse,
Johnny Mathis, Mrs Mills, Nina and Frederick, Des O'Connor,
Donald Peers, Beryl Reid, Paul Robeson, Dorothy Squires,
Tommy Steele, Mel Torme, Barbara Windsor, Danny Williams,
Norman Wisdom and Jimmy Young.
Wally Ridley also has been responsible over the years for
producing a great number of very commercial recordings at Abbey
Road in his own inimitable way. For example: The Black and
White Minstrels, Joe Loss, George Melachrino, Alma Cogan,
Ronnie Hilton, Morecambe and Wise and Andy Stewart. In recent
years Wally has worked almost exclusively with that very fine
engineer Peter Vince and together they regularly confound the
critics by getting something very different to the No 1 spot in
the charts -remember Benny Hill with Ernie and more recently
Don Estelle and Windsor Davies with Whispering Grass.
Despite the thousands of recordings that have been made at
Abbey Road during the past 45 years it has been made famous by
the activities of one particular group, and they in turn made
producer George Martin a household name all over the world.
George, prior to the Beatles had not really indulged in the world
of pop groups, specialising in a very wide variety of recordings.
Apart from the fine orchestra of Ron Goodwin, the jazz of
Johnny Dankworth and Humphrey Lyttelton, and the voice of
Matt Munro, George was very keen on unusual recordings. A big
hit, with Peter Sellers and Sophia Loren, was Goodness Gracious Me
3o
28 STUDIO SOUND AUGUST 1976
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FROM MONO TO MULTITRACK and the young bass guitar player in particular produced a
sound not very congenial to good recording. George asked if I
and recordings with Spike Milligan, Bernard Cribbins and location could do something to improve the bass otherwise he would have
recordings of At the Drop of a Hat and At the Drop of Another to call the session off. Fortunately that night, there was no demand
Hat with that wonderful duo of Michael Flanders and Donald Swann for Echo Chamber One, right down in the basement of the old house.
were more in his style. Norman and myself carried the very large Tannoy from the
Stuart Eltham and myself were working with George in Cambridge, chamber through to Studio Two, and then I soldered a jack socket
recording Alan Bennett, Peter Cook, Dudley Moore and Jonathan on to the input stage of a Leak TL12 amplifier. Paul tried it and we
Miller in Beyond the Fringe when news reached George of his very were back in business. Two numbers were recorded for the test
first number one hit -The Temperance Seven with You're Driving Me that night-Love Me Do and Ask Me Why and at the end of the
Crazy. EMI already had one pop group on their label, Cliff session, which incidentally finished early, George explained over the
Richard and the Shadows, and the general consensus of opinion talkback the differences between performing live and recording in a
was that one pop group was enough, but nevertheless scores of studio. Back in the `box' George pointed out the advantage of
hopefuls turned up at Abbey Road each week for artists' tests. The singing on the front and back of the U48 microphone, with the polar
standard was abysmal, and the quality of their equipment even worse. set to figure-of-eight, and asked if anyone had any questions.
Nobody, therefore, was very keen to work on a commercial test `Yes,' replied Paul McCartney, `where did you get that tie ?' The
for George Martin from seven to nine pm on a nice summer's Beatles had arrived !
evening on June 6, 1962. Norman Smith had agreed to balance It was nearly three months later, September 4, 1962, to be precise,
the test, and the team was made up of 'button pusher' Chris Neal that they returned to make their first actual recordings of
and myself. Although we always used a two man team on mobiles, How Do You Do and Love Me Do. Incidentally drummer Ringo
back at base there was rather more rigid demarcation, with the Starr had not featured on the test recording, Pete Best being their
tape operator doing nothing else but press the buttons and write original drummer.
down details on the tape box; a system that we have now abolished. The Beatles more than anyone were to change the art of pop
There was something obviously very different about the four recording. Although their initial recordings were very simple,
young lads from Liverpool who turned up for the test that using two track techniques with voices on one track and
night. But there was the usual problem with lousy equipment, backing on the other, they soon got into the four track scene and
The Beatles with tape-op, Richard Langham on the 'Please Please Me' album. with their fantastic success already assured, they began to
revolutionise recording by arriving at the studios relatively
unrehearsed, and using the studio as a workshop, with an
open-ended time scale. With time being of no object this enabled
every conceivable type of technical innovation to be dreamt up,
as they continually strove for something different. They started,
too, a new technique -double tracking vocals. Driving home down
the Western Avenue, at five thirty one morning, I felt that double
tracking had been quite time consuming that night. The idea came
to me of using the sync head of the four track machine, with a
suitable time delay, to add to the replay head signal on remix;
after all the signal coming from the replay head had already
traversed the sync head about 100 ms earlier in the case of a J37,
and 200 ms in the case of an M10. We had already wired out the
synchronous motor of some BTR tape machines for variable
speed operation, and had built a rather cumbersome trolley
with power amplifiers to drive it for previous Beatles' `effects'.
I was back at the studio by lunchtime, and experimented on a
'Cilla Black' tape. The effect was startling and by use of a crystal
oscillator on the BTR 2 tape machine, the second voice could be
spaced at any required time interval either side of the original.
Every gimmick at Abbey Road had to be given a name so I called
this one ADT, standing for Artificial Double Tracking and not
Automatic Double Tracking as it is now frequently called. The
Beatles were immediately impressed with this new toy, and for
ages it was used on all sorts of instruments, as well as voice,
The Beatles in Studio Two with George Martin and the unfortunate Mal Evans.
John Lennon always referring to it as Ken's Flanger.
Norman Smith moved on to Manchester Square as a producer,
and later as the renowned Hurricane Smith, so the young Geoff
Emerick took his place as Beatles balance man. Geoff had amazing
hearing and could pick out minor blemishes even when the
monitoring was approaching the threshold of pain, and he was soon
to engineer what I consider to be one the greatest pop recordings
of all time, Sergeant Pepper.
This recording was achieved by using only four track machines
and remixing from four to two, not by bump tracking, but by using
two J37s. Although strictly speaking this was still four track, it was
not really, and for the very last track on the album, A day in the life,
George Martin asked me if I could link two four track machines
together in sync. This I did by recording a 50 Hz tone on one
track of the first machine and, using this suitably amplified, to drive
the second machine.
Although the method worked, one problem was to get the second
machine to start at the right time at the remix stage. Thus it
offered a minimum of seven tracks, and the need for more was
already obvious; so eight, then 16 and then 24 track followed in quick
succession.
Geoff Emerick moved on to `Apple', and so Ken Scott was
engineer on the latter Beatles' sessions before they unfortunately
32
30 STUDIO SOUND, AUGUST 1976
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FROM MONO TO MULTITRACK besides Abbey Road. The Hollies too, once on EMI with
producer Ron Richards but now with 'Polydor', have remained
loyal to Abbey Road; while recently John Kurlander apart from
split up. Although eight track was the maximum ever used on a engineering for several well known EMI artists such as the Kings
Beatles' session, each Beatle used 16 track at Abbey Road Singers and Ken Dodd has also recorded both Renaissance and
subsequently. For example, George Harrison used 16 track in Henry Mancini for RCA in Studio One.
Studio Three for that great classic My Sweet Lord with Phillip Tony Clark, who balances all Cliff Richard's and the Shadows'
McDonald as engineer. records, works a lot with producer John Farrar, with in
The eight Studer J37 machines proved to be exceptionally particular Olivia Newton-John, whose recordings made at Abbey
reliable, but when in 1967 an eight track machine was required the Road met with amazing success in the States. Peter Vince, too, fills
A80 was not as yet available. Frances Thompson, a leading authority the dual role of engineer /producer with the Spinners, and John
on tape machines, put various makes through his analysis in the Leckie with Bebop De Luxe.
workshop next to the tape library. Eventually the 3M was chosen
Bob Barratt meanwhile has remained together with Wally Ridley,
but various modifications were necessary before it was put into
as a house producer and recently gained a No I album success
operational use to enable the existing facilities to be maintained. with Max Boyce, recorded live with the Abbey Road mobile at
The output from the sync head combined with the output from the
Pontardulais and titled We All Had Doctors Papers, only a few
replay head had long been used for ADT and later on for `phasing',
weeks after Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here recorded on 24
but the 3M only had an alternative output position. There was track in Studio Three had reached the same elevated position.
also no sync mixing on the machine, no facility for running the
Bob's latest No 1 hit, with Tony Clark as engineer, was I've Got a
capstan motor from frequency control, and no timing clock. Brand New Combine Harvester with the Wurzels. This gave me
The modifications were completed and it was installed together
great personal satisfaction as I shall always remember the day spent
with the first EMI 24 input eight track console type TG12345 in
touring the pubs of Somerset with Adge Cutler to find a suitable
May 1968. Many hours of good service were given by three such
tape machines before they were eventually superseded by the location for the Wurzel's first recording -performed live at
the Royal Oak, Nailsea.
Studer A80s which then became the backbone at Abbey Road for
16 track, and now 24 track. The international classical division (ICD) based at Blandford
The success of the Beatles really opened the floodgates for others Street also have an excellent production team and under the
to follow and ride the bandwagon. As a result the demand for expert eye of manager Peter Andry, senior producer Christopher
studio time exceeded that available so new independent studios Bishop, Suvi Raj Grubb, John Mardler, David Mottley and
began to mushroom in London, and in order to attract custom John Willan the continued involvement of Abbey Road with the
began offering facilities in excess of the `majors' who had been world's finest classical artists is assured.
slow to reinvest their profits back at source, namely the studio. Where do we go from here? Only time will tell. One thing is
The days of the `house producer' also became numbered, as certain, the days of studios making vast profits are over, and there
producers sought fame and fortune independently. This in turn led to will almost certainly be a standardisation of 24 track as the
another breed, the engineer /producer, who has the advantage of `norm' for pop recording which for modern techniques is essential.
fully understanding the engineering complexities of multitrack. Allied to this is the potential of computerised mixdown, and I am
Alan Parsons, an Abbey Road thoroughbred is a prime pinning great faith on Necam, to be installed in Studio Three
example. Having engineered Dark Side of the Moon with Pink later this year.
Floyd, and been nominated for a Grammy award, he turned his Provided 24 tracks are sensibly used the necessity for 32 is
undoubted talents to production, gaining immediate success with dubious and I hope that the first studio to go 32 track also goes
two consecutive No 1 records last year: January with Pilot and broke. I am all for progress, provided the end product is superior. It
Make Me Smile with Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel. Recently must be remembered that the software is issued on two track, and
he engineered and produced the successful recording Music by that the intermediate stages purely act as a catalyst. Sometimes
John Miles. This highlights the present state of the studio world it pays to look backwards and learn from the past, so if we
when one considers that not only was it recorded and remixed in listen to some of Duggie Larter's marvellous recordings of the late
Studio Three on 24 track, but was also cut by Chris Blair in fifties recorded straight stereo, and also listen to the Beatles'
Room 24, and yet appears on the ` Decca' label. The opposite, Sergeant Pepper recorded four track, one is left with a big
of course, also applies with EMI artists recording at other studios question mark.

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32 STUDIO SOUND, AUGUST 1976

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31
 Studio Consultants
know what `sound' you want in the studio and in the mixing room,
but is clearly quite
equally another *h 'g to be able to supply the

JOHN DWYER fabric in and on which these items have to be hung, stood or heard.
This article started as a study of those who were prepared to
take on the whole job from start to finish. It has ended rather
Building or altering a studio has become a
different from that. The reasons are that so few are prepared to take
on the work, and that those who are seemed unwilling to
very expensive business where success answer our questions. One studio builder thought this was because
can be the responsibility of the client as many of those I had listed were not independent consultants at all,
much as the designer. but tied in with hardware manufacturers, something I was
particularly interested in. Another reason is that although there are
many difficulties that the putative studio occupant has to face,
most of them come back to acoustics, and acoustic consultants
are plentiful. We compromised by contacting some of the best
known consultants in and around the studio design field, and
another half dozen of their victims.
I say `victims' because there are some disillusioned people around
the recording world. One old acquaintance said: `You're on to a
winner here; it's about time someone wrote something about this.'
Others, however, expressed a different view. John Iles of Chappell
Studios said he had no complaints at all about the way Sandy
Brown and Associates had done their Studio Two. `It was done at
very short notice ...
and it was finished ahead of schedule. It
MOST of you will at one time or another have been involved took about two weeks. They were doing it at night as well. We
in building a studio, and if you haven't there's no doubt said they could work from 11 pm onwards but inevitably
one day you will. The problems are endless, because you some sessions in the other studio overran even then. I would
have to deal most of the time with disciplines and trades you know certainly recommend Sandy Brown.' He thought consultants were as
nothing about. It is clearly one thing to know what speakers effective as the amount of money you were willing to pay.
you would want in your ideal studio, what desk, amps, tape A major complaint when things go less well than they seem to
machines and noise reduction systems and so on; you may even have done at Chappell is the amount of time the work seems
to take. One studio told me: `There's been a lot of messing about,
Eddie Veale and we've spent two months re -doing the work. That's six
months altogether -itseems to be stretching out.'
Even then the result may not be what is wanted: `I walked into
the room and it wasn't right. It wasn't a matter of measuring the
room-you can feel when a room isn't right as soon as you
walk into it -it's a matter of experience. We took a measurement
and the measurements confirmed what I thought ... We've
got a reduction in fees for the fact that it was wrong but that
doesn't allow for the time the studio isn't working.'
One studio in London's West End has been building a second
studio now for a year, and the work will take another two
months at least, according to the studio manager. `The shell took
about three months and we had a lot of trouble with planning
permission. Everything since then has been a proving period.
There were various tests, then the sound treatment went up and
then there were more tests, and then the decorative finishes on
top of that. The electronics have to be put in yet ... It's the
planning of the thing that seems to take the time.'
Acoustics is a special subject which I will deal with in a moment,
but why is it that building a studio can take as long as a year when
Westlake studios, for example, seem to go up in a matter of a
couple or so months? One reason must be money. Ken Shearer
told me that he thought the average amount of money needed to
build the average studio, `too big for a group, too small for an
orchestra', a control room and a small vocal and overdub booth
would be about £100 000. That covered lighting and air
conditioning but no electronics. Many studios don't have that kind
of money and so corners have to be cut, the planning takes that
much longer, and getting the final sound right is lengthened too.
Equally important is that studio engineers think in terms of
acoustic treatment, monitoring and electronics. There are a lot
more things to do than that.
Just how many more was explained by Piers Ford Crush of
Eden Studios. Eden had been forced to move by a compulsory
34 STUDIO SOUND. AUGUST 1976
21, Avenue Nestlé - 1820 MONTREUX (Switzerland) - Tél.: (021) 62 19 44 - Telex: eastlake 25546
7/ z/
/ /of( (.) (// .
2 r
of.)7%
"The control room sounds good here but not over WE GUARANTEE THAT
there. Stand up and you've lost your mix. Lean back in
your chair and all the bass is gone. The monitor has YOUR CONTROL ROOM WILL
to be loud to hear it. Turn your head and big changes Allow you to stand... sit... lean forward or back...
occur. The stereo image moves." move left or right and subjectively not change your mix.
"The drum leakage in this studio is terrible. The Let you accurately pinpoint any musical instrument
strings sound great but the bass is loose and muddy. within a 360° quad listening environment.
This room is dead. The sound isn't clearly defined."
Permit monitoring loud or soft while retaining a tight
These are subjective observations which producers and musical sound.
and engineers have made, and lived with for years
in many studios. We at EASTLAKE AUDIO are With a center like
prepared to talk to you about a guarantee against those
things happening in your studio, and more. you have never heard before.

*Track your monitors free air curve within + 1 d.b.

when built in. with no E.Q.
* Response: + dB upon speaker installation, 31 Hz -16
1

KHz measured with B & K 1/3 octave pink noise

source. Between speakers, + 1/2 dB.
*Dispersion: + 2 dB it 10 KHz across a minimum 10
foot horizontal plane at the console (from left of
the engineer to the right of the producer or vice versa)
from any one of the four monitors, measured with
pink noise source.
+ 2 dB -i 10 KHz across a minimum 10 foot
horizontal plane front to back in the mixing area from
any one of the four monitors, measured with pink
noise source.
+ dB fI 10 KHz from 6" above console vertically
1

to 6" down from ceiling.

*Power: 116 dB SPL minimum, linear scale, with
broadband pink noise source from one
monitor measured at the mixer's ear. The control room
potential with four monitors is a minimum of
130 dB SPL. (50 Hz -
10 KHz.)

*Source location: Within 2 dB of total sum from any

two sources in the 360° quad circle environment.
*Stereo pair: 5 -6 dB center image power additive
condition 31 Hz -
16,5 KHz.

And that's a room!

Indicated performance improvements from

 .//77(0e?OfÌ/(
WE GUARANTEE
THAT YOUR STUDIO WILL
Have a tight rhythm sound under all recording
conditions, yet allow the producer and engineer the
option of changing the midrange character anywhere
This guarantee is financially and
from "dead" to "very live" in less than sixty legally binding when a full scale
seconds at any location in the room.
EASTLAKE AUDIO Design and
Provide drum cages which are live inside, allowing
the drummer to get a bright drum sound from construction project is undertaken.
an open drum cage.
Let you obtain a natural piano sound with excellent
And that's what an acoustical
isolation from loud electronic instruments. With - guarantee is all about!
the piano in the room, lid open, and not caged in. -
Provide an echo chamber with low end "mud"
removed by trapping in the chamber, resulting in a
chamber that "sings ".
Provide a glass, 5 second echo chamber on your studio
floor, that can double as a great isolation room for
20 strings. Room change over takes 3 minutes.

Room Character: The characteristic "room sound"

which results from recording in a three dimensional
area is eliminated by the utilization of an active
ceiling. From 40 Hz up, this produces an infinite third
dimension such as would be present in an - "
amphitheater.
Separation: Active traps are built into the studio walls
which allows "in- studic" vocals, eliminating the
need for the usual vocal booth. 30 dB of isolation can
be provided between the band and a vocalist only
10 feet away, resulting in 30 dB of isolation a 40 Hz
or tuned frequencies.
Traps: Drum cages, bass traps, and broad band
attenuators will provide in excess of 24 dB
isolation 40 Hz. The piano can be recorded in the
studio while still providing over 20 dB broadband
rejection of unwanted sound to the piano mikes with
lid open!

And that's a studio!

previously published acoustical performance guarantees.

 "When we decided to rebuild, we wanted the
Manor Studios to be simply the best and most
up to date facility of its kind.
Tom Hidley said he could design it, provide materials
and supervisory labour, so that complete
re- construction would be finished within 30 days of
demolition of our old studio and control room ".
/i
) (7/
Richard Branson, Managing Director, Virgin Records Ltd.

EASTLAKE AUDIO DEALER/REPRESENTATIVES

Scenic Sounds David Hawkins I. Bleiberg Emil Bar Sierra Audio Kent Duncan
London (01) 935 01 41 Tel -Aviv (23) 26 32 98 Burbank (213) 843 8115
3M - France Serge Lobbe Studer International E. Spörri Audio Products Int.Roberto Beppato
Paris (01) 202 80 80 Wettingen (056) 26 87 35 Milan (02) 27 38 96

Eastlake Audio S.A. Home Office: Tom Hidley 21, ave. Nestlé, 1820 Montreux, Switzerland
Telephone: (021) 62 19 44 -
Telex: Eastlake 25 546
purchase order and had to find new premises in which they could
start again from scratch: 'There were an awful lot of people
involved, not just the acoustics. There's the architect, the builder,
who also does some of the plumbing and so on, the electrical people,
the finishes have to be done and there are electronics and air
conditioning that have to be put in.' Ken Shearer, who did the
acoustics, recommended an architect to them, as well as a
quantity surveyor and air conditioning contractors, 'but it was our
decision to appoint them'.
Eden held a site meeting with all those involved: We told them
how much we could spend, and they all laughed.' Ford Crush says
that they saved themselves an awful lot of money by being on
site and watching over all the work themselves. We were in
complete control over all those people; we were responsible if they
had been on the fiddle. Any extra expenses would be our problem.
It was up to us, and we would carry the can.' He said he had
found the prospect rather daunting. 'It's not easy. Anyone who says
it is is fooling somebody.' He thought that the idea of putting the
the whole project into the hands of someone who is used to
building studios and tying all the loose ends together was a very
good one.
Such a man is likely to be expensive, but various consultants,
basically acousticians, will take on the work if asked. 'You
mean a project engineer?' said Ken Shearer. 'Preferably you need an
air conditioning, mechanical and electrical consultant all in one
piece who's done at least two studios before and worked with
the architect before at least once. You also need a building
contractor who's done a studio before. I have a consortium of such
people but don't think of it as such. I can suggest a nominated
1

contractor and a quantity surveyor who is there to see that the

builder does what he's there to do, to see fair play.'
But if Eden can manage without a project engineer surely others
can. I asked consultant Eddie Veale why people should go to him
rather than do the job themselves: 'Using a consultant will cost
them more money at the front end but it relieves them of the
responsibilities of problems that may be encountered. The benefits
of using somebody such as ourselves or one of our contemporaries
is that they trade off the responsibilities and problems in exchange
for money. They are employing somebody that should have the
expertise in knowing the piece of machinery, console or whatever,
know about its peculiarities, know how it behaves when it's
connected to other equipment, what sort of noise problems, hum
problems and other things can be encountered, and how to cure
them.' In addition there were, he said, differences in expertise David Binns
between designing equipment and using it, just as the man who himself. He doesn't, or shouldn't, have anything to sell. David Binns
drove a car wouldn't be expected to know how to build one. of Sandy Brown Associates told me that many of the professional
Tom Hidley, now heading the European Eastlake operation, said organisations to which the members of his consultancy belonged
he thought it was perhaps a high initial outlay to have a were forbidden to sell anything to the client: 'He may specify to the
studio built throughout by the same people 'but it's cheaper in the client what is needed but the client must get it himself. We are
end to build it once and finish with it'. Hidley claims his Westlake not allowed to make a profit from the sale of goods to a client. We
company was the first to design and build studios from building must in all cases act as management consultants and give advice only.'
to electronics. 'Now there are about a dozen of them.' Hidley Sandy Brown operate mostly as an architectural and mechanical
supplies a construction foreman who engages and supervises engineering facility: 'We have provided equipment but clients
local crews of builders. Eastlake even put up curtains and lay carpets, usually have a good idea of what they want. We tend to distrust
as well as install electrical fittings, lighting, audio wiring and someone who wants a package because the engineer is the
monitoring. key factor in the whole thing and usually a good engineer tends to
The Westlake monitor was one of the things which Hidley know already what he wants because he's had experience and
claims was an important part of Westlake's success, but if the client he knows what kind of equipment he's used to. Even someone who
requires he will install some other form of monitoring. Also 'We wants to build a studio without knowing much about it will have
can supply desks or tape machines if asked to do more than design, enough sense to hire a good engineer first.' Overseas work,
construction and monitoring. Some may ask for more than those he admitted, tended to be more packaged because there was less
things and I feel free to suggest what I would do if I were in locally available expertise. In common with Eddie Veale, Pye TVT
that position'. He explained that the 100 studios he had built and others, SBA will recruit and train staff.
contained desks, tape machines and monitors of all kinds, and he Although an independent consultant shouldn't have anything
always supplied what the client wanted. 'In Milan we put in a to sell it is sometimes possible to obtain great help from people who
Cadac, in Finland an API, in Montreux a Neve console.' In do. A firm which supplies custom built equipment, for example,
addition, he said, his agents in the various countries were not may have a wealth of experience they can share. Pye TVT
hardware dealers in the sense that they handled tape machines or recently launched a range of packaged radio stations varying from
consoles. This wasn't necessarily true of the Westlake operation small mobile studios to large network broadcasting headquarters.
in the States. Although they are selling a range of different packages each
One of the most important things about a consultant is that one can be varied to suit the needs of each customer, Pye said,
he should be what he seems. Advice can be obtained free from a lot and advice can be given on what each customer might need and
of sources that is just as good as the paid for kind you get could afford for given sums.
from the consultant, but the reason he's getting his fee is because he Pye have chosen the packaged approach because they want to
is telling you what is best for you and not what is best for move into the expanding foreign, third world radio and tv 36
35
STUDIO CONSULTANTS when he did arrive, might be horrified by what had been specified
and a curious and unpleasant triangle develops between client,
origination market. They feel, in any case, that the UK broadcast consultant and engineer.
market is unlikely to provide much business for them. The Another idea sometimes used by companies and organisations
equipment Pye use in their studios is that which they make and much smaller than Pye TVT is that of the consortium. Here a
supply to client's requirements, and no -one could be under any group of manufacturers, suppliers or consultants, or a mixture of all
contrary impression when they call Pye in. What they are three, co-operate in giving their clients a range of advice and
offering is supply plus advice, and this should be available no services that they could not provide individually.
matter from whom the equipment is bought. Cranbourne Associates (Electronics) Ltd, for example, is less a
Richard Swettenham Associates is a consultancy run by the consultancy service than a consortium of five suppliers of
founder of Helios Electronics. Swettenham, one of the most respected different kinds of skills and equipment.
figures in professional sound engineering, began his career at EMI They emphasise that what the customer eventually gets is the
studios, then became the chief engineer for Argo Records result of long and detailed discussions about the systems design and
before going to Olympic. He left in 1969 to found Helios. In his the money the customer can afford: 'You can say to them "You
view, it was best for a consultant to be independent: When I could cut corners here and here " ', Richard Harris told me,
came out of working in studios consultancy was the thing that I 'and you can supply them either with all the facilities at a slightly
really wanted to do, but unfortunately not having a year's salary lower quality or with fewer facilities at slightly better quality.'
in hand I thought we'd better build some hardware to give He also emphasised that Cranbourne would not feel bound to supply
us our bread and butter at the same time.' Helios took in so much equipment made, for example, by Mike Beville of Audio & Design.
business, he said, that it took up all his time: 'It's only recently Beville is one of the five members of Cranbourne Associates. In
that I'm really able to get back to doing what I always wanted any case, Beville said, 'We prefer to have a pure consultancy job
to do, which is having a hand in getting studios together for rather than putting together expensive pieces of equipment'.
people. Cranbourne has only been running since September last year
'Now the ethical side of it as between having a hardware so it's early to judge how successful the venture is. Their work so
company and being a consultant on the face of it appears to have far has included the design and building of a training studio
certain difficulties, but I think if one is absolutely straight with for International Computers Ltd, which was a turnkey operation
clients from the outset they needn't have any worries in their involving construction, acoustics, air conditioning, electrics and
minds.' He made it clear, he said, that he was also part of Helios furniture. Harris volunteered the information that here they did, in
and that they needn't buy Helios equipment if they didn't want to. fact, use Audio & Design limiters.
He added, though, that his normal basis of charging when Cranbourne say clients would be told all about the company
he was asked to advise on equipment was a flat percentage of the to start with, about who the members of the company were and
value of the equipment bought, but that equipment bought what other interests they had, although Cranbourne's brochure
from Helios is omitted in the reckoning up of that fee. Clients mentions nothing about these interests. Other consortia might be less
could also take advantage of Helios's ability to obtain discounts scrupulous and it's important to find out the backgrounds of
from some suppliers. prospective advisers before you commit them to spending your
As to the kind of client he preferred, Dick Swettenham made a money. If the company is a limited company you can find out
comment echoed by most of the consultants: From the their other directorships from Companies House, but if it's a
equipment planning point of view what I want him to say is what partnership the information will be more difficult to find. I'll
kind of work he hopes to get into his studio. People who say say more about weighing up the reliability of consultants later on.
"We want the best, no short cuts" -this is not a very helpful
thing to say because you then write out a budget and they fall flat 'the learning curve'
on their backs. One then has to say "How much have you got ?"
and start again, with another sheet of paper. It's much better But no matter how well- intentioned the consultant may be,
that they set limits, that they declare what they would like to do however free from the inclination to plug someone's product,
and they set limits to what money there is and then you know sometimes things do go wrong. There are several reasons for this.
what frame of reference you're in.' Most difficulties arose, One of the most important is what the architects, builders and
he said, when one was dealing with a lay client who hadn't yet other cognoscenti call 'the learning curve'. Ken Shearer gave it
hired an engineer. If the work went ahead the new engineer, the same name as you and I would: the balls -up. It's unfortunately
as true of building a studio as it is of anything else that the less
experience a chap has in a particular job the more likely he is to
Dick Swettenham make mistakes. Tom Hidley was refreshingly honest about this:
'At the beginning I had a seat-of- the -pants practical approach',
he said. 'I started at a very very low level with low education and
what I had to learn has been learnt the hard way, trial and error,
and this has been the story of my life, really.'
Hidley is being a little modest. To begin with he was a
professional musician at 16 years old; 'Music was all I knew and all
I cared about', he said, and added that only poor health made
him give it up. Then he spent six years with a firm that made tape
machines, three years with JBL, during which time he also did
some mobile recording, then he was head of maintenance at
MGM's recording studios after which he did remixing for TTG in
California. It was after this that he worked for Kellgrun and
Stone's Record Plant, building their first studio in LA, the
second in New York, and studios for MGM and Warner Brothers
before founding Westlake Audio.
Hidley told me that the development of the control rooms,
like that of the drum cages, had been a long hard task. 'There've
been a lot of mistakes on the way. You can go up for two or
three rooms that have been complete successes and then you fall
backwards on the next room because you've tried something you
shouldn't have. Then it's time to pick up where you left off
and try something else and that's the way it has developed. We
have had some good rooms and some fair ones, and some people
would say we've had some lousy rooms. They have all been
measured, they have all been charted. We have seen their 38 O.
36 STUDIO SOUND, AUGUST 1976
If by some odd thing going wrong you make fools of yourselves, been putting on walls, why not put in massive motion attenuators
whether in front of the press or in front of your first client, it to these long powerful wavelengths ?' Hence the ceiling traps.
takes the devil of a time to live that down, whereas if you play it What his philosophy broadened out to was creating so much bass
softly- softly and let the word get around -especially among absorption in the roof of the room that effectively the ceiling
the session men -then a good deal of your PR work is already done was removed and so was the troublesome bass spread. `Granted the
for you at no cost at all.' mid range and high end will still bounce and ricochet around
He understood why people got into such a jam. Usually it was that circle, but the mid range and high end can be handled by
because, with the terms on which they had borrowed their finished materials that are, let's say, very absorbent, medium
money, they had to get the cash coming in by a certain date. `The absorbent and lightweight absorbent ... but the low frequency
prudent person doesn't borrow the maximum on terms that he can standing wave curse has gone away because it has the infinite
only just meet if everything goes right. There are some people relief of the sky.' He refers to his own studios as `trap -relieved'
that I'm dealing with at the moment abroad who say, "Yes, rooms, as opposed to `compression' rooms.
everything is fine but we will not start until we have got Hidley explained his ideas at length in an article in the
underwritten 20 per cent more than the budget figure ", and I think December 1975 issue. I asked Ken Shearer if removing the ceiling
that's a very wise move.' from a room, by whatever means, would produce the result.
Tom Hidley had a comparable view to Swettenham's about Hidley said: `Yes. By doing that there's less need for bass absorption
agreeing terms before the work started and offered this advice to on the walls, and there's a big crosstalk loss, so separation is
someone thinking of taking on a consultant: `Have him put improved.' He cautioned, however, that some rooms were too small
what he's going to do in writing and make it a legally binding to allow trap relief. Providing so much bass absorption was a
document. If he won't sign it he's not sure of himself and if he's difficult task. For various reasons you would need three or four
not sure of himself he has no right to the client's money.' feet of rockwool of varying thicknesses to achieve it, and one way
Hidley, of course, shows what in some quarters is regarded as was to hang up these spaced, sound absorbent blankets.
sufficient lack of taste to supply a written guarantee of his work. Bass trapping is only one aspect of the Westlake /Eastlake approach.
The terms of the guarantee are familiar to those who have Other criticism has been levelled at the fact that whatever else
read the colour adverts but other consultants were sceptical about may be said of Hidley's studios they look much the same. Hidley
its value. David Binns, for example, thought many of its clauses says this criticism is groundless: `If you went out to look at the
had no real bearing on the performance of a studio: `Some first room, Record Plant in Los Angeles, 1969, you would see
of the parameters in the guarantee are irrelevant; for example, he similarities, visual similarities, to what we were doing today, and
quotes separation at a particular frequency.' This told you nothing you will also see, if you look two minutes at it, some pretty
about what was happening at other frequencies, he said. In enormous differences. But you probably would recognise the
addition, he said that Hidley was merely doing a skilful marketing finger of the same person in it.'
exercise with already established techniques: 'We can do a drum That first room, he said, had been a compression room, but the
trap, for instance, that takes up far less space than his. It uses present rooms were so designed that you could put up a money
18 inches of material as opposed to his three feet or so of guarantee on their performance. He admitted however that
blankets.' The approach, he said, was conventional. Shearer agreed 'We do fall heir to some similarity in visual appearances. People
that much of Hidley's approach was conventional. 'I think the come up and say "I want a blue room like so and so's room" and
guarantee means something but it's very difficult to prove or you say, "wouldn't you rather have a brown room or an orange
disprove. How do you measure it? Steady tone is very different from room ?" and they say "no, it's got to be so and so ". But it isn't true
a transient of the kind you're likely to get from a rim shot or a that all the rooms look the same. The principles are the
bass drum.' same but geometrically there are five different control room
Swettenham said: `This guarantee works within his precisely configurations to choose from. They vary enormously, that is the
defined limits. He guarantees certain things, that the sound level thing, but they all meet the performance guarantee.'
and perceived frequency response will not vary over a certain Eddie Veale saw two distinct approaches to acoustic design,
area and things like this, but this isn't a guarantee that it's going to and Westlake and Sandy Brown represented basically the same
sound nice in the view of the studio owner or the producers approach: `Sandy created a design which was fairly repeatable.
that get in there.' One could take a space, apply the design and come out 95 per cent
of the time with a successful animal. When one achieves that
situation it's very nice to stick with it. It makes life a little bit
' ... approaches to acoustic design ... ' easy and it also produces quick results. Clients usually want
There do seem to be certain respects in which Tom Hidley has two things: a good job and they want it done yesterday.' The
changed the approach to room design. He does not believe difficulty was when the client was short of money.
that diaphragmatic absorbers provide adequate acoustic treatment. Veale thought Hidley was a latter parallel to Sandy Brown's
There can be little doubt that sound levels have increased many early work: `Through his employment with Record Plant,
times over in the past few years and that the increased use of Tom created an environment that was an improvement on the stuff
multitrack in the same period has changed the criteria by which that was operating in the States about six years ago. Subsequently ...
the success of studios must be judged. Better isolation and he came up with a fairly good solution and there's been little
separation are needed, and engineers are a lot more critical of deviation from that design concept through the remainder of his
studio acoustics than they used to be. Hidley was in on the changes projects. There again one gets this pattern where the rooms have a
at the start: 'We at TTG had a 16 track two inch machine particular trade mark associated with them; the sheer shape,
running a year before they became commercially available', he said. the type of treatments, the perspective and the visual effect that's
He and others at the studio had built it themselves. In created. This has significant benefits and advantages for clients
addition, he says, he learned a lot from working on Frank Zappa's because the design is fairly concise, can readily be applied to most
first album. The levels used were very high. 'It opened up a lot of because the design is fairly concise and can readily be applied to most
thinking. I wondered why I wasn't hearing it the way it was rooms. All Tom really needs to apply one of his rooms is a
when I used to sit in the section as a horn player.' suitable space in which to construct it. It has been proven on
His conclusions were that instead of trying to absorb sounds several occasions now that given a suitable space, a new control
when they hit the walls of a studio, the sound had to be room can be constructed in a very short span of time. This is not
prevented from going into the studio at all, particularly the bass difficult to do if one is using a proven design and people one
frequencies: `These sources that are noisy have got to be is used to working with.'
contained before they get into the room. A low frequency sound Veale added that he, on the other hand, had never repeated a
wave is a long wave. It's powerful, we know that from design. 'We like to, for want of a better word, `customise' each of
loudspeaker development. All right, it's going down this long wall. ...
our projects but if one wants to take it to its ultimate degree,
What stops it? What hinders it, makes it weaker?' so far as design is concerned, one needs a fairly long time for
One method, he concluded, was to use geometric projections in the design exercise and a healthy fee in order to be able to cover
the wall which would smash the wave, but there were other ways. the costs that are involved.'
`Why, instead of these small little resonators that people have 40
39
 STUDIO CONSULTANTS David Binns' view was that one of the greatest difficulties in
studio building was putting the studio in an existing structure sited
in a residential area. Apart from the planning difficulties with the
David Binns presented a different picture of the Sandy Brown local authorities, 'the biggest problem is the isolation from the
operation: 'The requirements of studios vary a great deal. A outside. The insulation between the studio and the control room
radio studio is different from a speech studio, a music, drama or is somewhat independent; unless you're monitoring off the replay
orchestral studio.' He didn't adopt a particular set of rules or a head and there's a delay between what's happening in the studio
single approach for every job: 'We tend to treat each job on its and what's heard in the control room, the studio to control room
own merits.' isola ion is less important'. If the client were short of money this
Tom Hidley too maintains that the process is more complicated might be an area where you could cut costs. 'The most difficult
than it looks: 'You see, all those traps are tunable. They are thing is matching speakers to the room. Designing the speakers is all
set up for different frequencies; they have got different Qs; they are right, and so is designing the room, but matching the one to the
all different. They are all doing a different job and unless you other is very difficult.'
know what that formula is and pattern, there is no way that you are This was the one subject in a very relaxed conversation about
going to approximate the performance of that guarantee.' which Ken Shearer grew mysterious: 'The monitors are crucial', he
said. 'I would tell the client where to put the monitors and how
'A trade secret ?' to mount them .. but that is something am not going to talk
. 1

about for publication.' A trade secret? 'Yes, a trade secret if you

Talk of formulae raises another question: just how scientific like. The point is that what I'm selling to people is the result of
is acoustics? When I talked to Piers Ford Crush we had hardly sat 25 or 30 years experience.'
down before he said: 'Acoustics is a totally inexact science.' He was more expansive about his responsibilities where sound
Shearer seemed to confirm this view: 'It's no more an exact insulation was concerned: 'If you build a studio in Bloggins Street
science than bridge building.' He quoted a couple of bridge and it's all right, but a year later a printing press works moves in
disasters to prove his point, and added that the designs had probably next door and a new underground line arrives underneath them,
been sound enough but had not taken account of extraordinary well it's still your responsibility. It's no good saying, "There's no
conditions. 'There was probably some young lad in the office who structure -borne noise at the moment ".' It was the same with
said "What happens if the wind reaches 120 mph ?" and they aircraft flight paths, and even helicopters: 'I usually allow for a
told him "It won't ".' It's like a lot of things, some people forget the chopper at 100 feet.'
basic principles that they learned years ago and a young chap Dick Swettenham wasn't sure the consultant need be so
just out of college can see things that they can't. assiduous in every case. 'Sound insulation as distinct from the
'Acoustics isn't a matter of science exactly. It's being able to see acoustic treatments for a good sound inside the stu'io is rather more
a three dimensional picture of what's going on. I can't put it any scientific and has rather more precisely defined solutions. It is for
clearer than that. I have to explain it to clients by analogy. For the client to say how far he wishes the consultant to go in
example, mathematicians tend to know what's happening in a specifying. I know of a case recently where a consultant gave
room but they can't describe it.' warnings. He said: "This will be so good but it will not be perfect;
But Hidley said: `You bet it's a science. It is not a black art, it is for you to decide whether you want stronger measures to be
but it's a different science. There's more to it than luck if you can taken in order to guarantee certain values of isolation." The use
produce a track record like we have.' Veale had a similar view: of the adjoining premises at this time was unknown and the client
'Acoustics is as exact a science as one can afford it to be. One can said: "No we don't want to spend more than a certain amount
design and model a room or other area for acoussic qualities and so we will take our chances on that." Then in the adjacent premises
come out 98 per cent correct, the other two per cent being designed something did start to happen, there was general panic and
tolerances to allow the thing to be trimmed once it's operaional. everybody tried to belabour the wretched acoustician for not having
Thus one can come out with 100 per cent success.' provided 100 per cent against this. Fortunately I'd been at a
How often did that happen? 'Rarely. It's usually, when one looks meeting where this was argued out, and I said "I will defend the
back on these things with hindsight, one of two problems. Either man on the grounds that he did make the necessary warnings
lack of time or lack of funds. With computers and current and was told to go ahead, because in the particular case to take
technology it is possible to do virtually anything one wants to do absolute precautions would not only have been very expensive
in order to predict an environment situation, but running all the but would have reduced the size of the studio below what was
computer time and doing all the research that's necessary absorbs etf,c ively a working minimum already ".'
time and funds. It's very difficult to justify, for example, research
and design fees of say £5000 on a project when a competitor, for
want of a better word, offers a client the same service for 1000: 'The electronics sometimes caused headaches ... '
Later he enlarged on the way such a success could be achieved. 'Another problem is air conditioning', said David Binns. 'We
'There are so ma ly different pieces of equipment that one can have set up a separate company, Sandy Brown (Mechanical
select to put into a room that the only way one can achieve anything Services Unit), which specialises in low noise systems.' Shearer's
near to a guaranteed performance is to use a geometry that one view was that 'if you don't keep an eye on them, architects and other
has proven, a monitoring system placed within that geometry that is people do unfortunate things like placing the air conditioners so
proven and thirdly a particular layout of equipment -you that a stream of air is blowing over the microphones.' Swettenham
wouldn't place constraints on the type of equipment but its thought the difficulty was that 'Some architects are rather unwilling
positioning within that room. By that technique one can give to admit that a studio is something of a specialised nature, to
satisfaction to about 90 per cent, and at least another eight per cent admit that they don't in fact know all about it. They like giving the
satisfaction gained by adjustment once the room has been crowd the impression that they know everything about everything.'
constructed.' He said the only way to get round it was to be diplomatic.
David Binns of Sandy Brown Associates seemed to agree: 'If we Eddie Veale noted that in many cases other equipment supplied
do our job right there should be little room for error.' But he to the studio had to be repackaged because of spurious resonances
added that one of the greatest hazards was that the clients tended or vibrations in the casing. The electronics sometimes caused
to want to cut corners and save money. `The determining factor is heac:aches: 'In this day and age with the various goodies that are
the amount of money the client has to spend.' available, the way manufacturers hang the bits together can cause all
The kind of specific difficulties that arise tend to be those sorts of problems. The most encountered problem is one of hf or
involving egress and ingress of noise. As Hidley explained: 'It's not rf interference that causes spurious clicks and pops and bangs and
just the room itself, it's the relationship with a neighbour. There other peculiar rasping noises, and they can be right bitches to find
are isolation problems, isolation and control between the studio and and cure. Often it's a case of sitting down and going right through
the outside and between studio and studio. You have to deal with the system and deciding in what areas the system doesn't follow
leakage of one kind or another. Many people building studios are recognised practice. It usually ends up as an earthing problem. An
concerned with what goes on musically within the environment acid test on equipment is to divorce it of earth and see if it still
and not with anything else.' 44
40 STUDIO SOUND, AUGUST 1976
23 countries now have Hill

Can you afford to ignore Hill?

Above new Hill 'D' series console. The 'D' series can accomadate up to 16 track routing.
is a
Each input module has gain (mic and line), 4 band switchable Eq., hi and low pass filters, two foldback send
:

(pre or post Eq.), two effects sends, pan, mute /PFL, routing, and 100mm low noise fader.
Each foldback master module has gain, 4 band switchable Eq., mute /PFL, and 100mm low noise fader.
:

Each effects master module has gain, 4 band switchable Eq., two foldback sends, stereo pan, mute /PF L,
:

routing, and 100mm low noise fader.

Each output module has summing amp gain, 4 band switchable Eq., mute /PFL, and 100mm low noise fader.
:

Additionally fitted as standard channel level meters, output V.U.'s, talkback, and XLR connectors fitted
:

throughout.
Optional extras to clients specific requirements.

Malcolm Hill Associates

3 MAIDSTONE ROAD, MARDEN,
TONBRIDGE, KENT.
Aea
Tel. Maidstone (0622) 831545.
41
 Survey: studio consultants

In the UK there are offices in London and South UK: Scenic Sounds Equipment, 27 -31 Bryanston
Queensferry outside Edinburgh. In addition to Street, London WIH 7AB. Phone: 01 -935 0141.
Sandy Brown Associates Architects and Acousti- President: Tom Hidley.
Entries to the UK and European survey cians there is a separate partnership, Sandy Brown On the first of January, 1976, Hidley resigned from
listings have been presented with Associates Mechanical Services Unit which special- Westlake Audio. He had formed Westlake in 1971
business interests (if any) declared as far as ises in mechanical services in buildings and, in par- since when he and his team have completed about
possible. Generally, the services on ticular, low noise air conditioning systems for all 100 studios. He is now providing designs for Paul
offer are discussed in the accompanying studio types. The total strength of the partnership Ford of Westlake and he also has a dealer in Los
article Studio Consultants. Because in the UK is 30 people. Offices in Berlin, Berryville, Angeles, Sierra Audio, which is part of Kendun
of communications and distance, USA Virginia, USA and Tehran, Iran. Recorders.
listings are not so comprehensive. Eastlake offers a complete service from concep-
While attempts have been made to filter out tual planning to completion. Tom Hidley was the
or declare the interests of listed first consultant to offer an 'acoustical guarantee'.
consultants, the magazine accepts no
responsibility for the results of
any errors contained within the survey
caveat emptor.
- COLORADO NASHVILLE
Colorado Nashville Inc, 322 Prairie Road, Color-
ado Springs, Colorado 80909, USA. Phone: EVERYTHING AUDIO
(303) 473 1272. Everything Audio, 14045 Sherman Way, Van
President: John Indermuehle. Nuys, Ca 91405, USA. Phone (213) 873 4447.
:

Vice President: Carol Martin. President: Brian Cornfield.

No of employees: 6 The company provides consultation services that
Founded : two years ago. coordinate performance with construction, equip-
The company handles all phases of construction, ment and installation. The design service claims to
with assistance from outside contractors. offer 'isolation of recording areas and the most
accurate monitoring of programme material for
AIRO Guarantee: two years on all installations. recording and mixdown yet offered'. Control room
Commercial links: sells some hardware for instal- design places the listener in the speaker's direct
Acoustical Investigation & Research Organisa-
tion Ltd (AIRO), 26/28 Bedford Row, London lation by the company. 'If a client wants a pair of field and 'dissipates the audio energy once it has
JBL loudspeakers, we try to convince him that the passed'. All hard surfaces are arranged to direct
WCIR 4HS. Phone: 01- 242 0391.
Electro -Voice Sentry Ill is a better speaker. If he buys reflections away from the listening area.
The AIRO Laboratory is at Duxon's Turn, Maylands
the Sentry Ill's he has 60 days to familiarise himself Everything Audio works in league with Rudolph
Avenue, Hemel Hempstead, Herts. Phone: 0442
with them and, if for any reason they are not satis- A Breuer Construction, builder of more then 50
54884.
factory, we will take them back and furnish the JBL facilities.
US Office: PO Box 905, 14428 Big Basin Way,
Saratoga, California 95070. speakers that he wants. We will not, however, guar-
Phone: (408) 867 7467 antee the JBL speakers.'
Directors: Back up: yes, but there is little indication as to
D K Fraser C Eng, M Mech E, M I Mar E
I

(chmn), G Berry C Eng, M Mech E, K W Jones FCA.

Staff: 15, full time.
I
charges apart from 'shop service in warranty work
no charge'.
- LASALLE AUDIO
Lasalle Audio, 740 Rush Street, Suite 100,
Formed : 1958. Charges: installation of audio equipment -$11 an Chicago, Illinois 60611, USA. Phone: (312) 266
Fees: Based on an hourly rate of £10.50. hour. Location charge -$150 a day plus expenses. 7500. Telex: 255268.
AIRO Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hall - Design work, preliminary drawings -$7 an hour. Owner: Bill Wilson.
Thermotank Ltd. Working plans -$100 flat fee. Construction co -ordi- Sales manager: John Houman.
'In respect of studios, AIRO Ltd is able to offer a nation -$100 a day plus expenses. This organisation is not strictly a studio consultancy
but, by virtue of the large number and variety of
consultancy service for the acoustic design of
product lines marketed, the organisation can offer
studios covering the achievement of acceptable
background noise levels, room acoustics and design and advice concerning most facets of studio
and broadcast operation including custom acoustic
acoustic separation of adjacent spaces.'
design and construction.
CRANBOURNE ASSOCIATES
Cranbourne Associates (Electronics) Ltd, Cran-
SANDY BROWN ASSOCIATES bourne House, Shinfield Road, Shinfield Green,
Sandy Brown Associates, Architects and Reading, Berkshire. Phone: Reading (0734)
PYE TVT
Acousticians, 12 Conway Street, London WIP Pye TVT Ltd, PO Box 41, Coldhams Lane,
861088.
5HP. Phone: 01 -388 2571. Directors: Colin Broad, Richard Harris, Michael Cambridge CBI 3JU. Phone: 0223 -45115.
Partners: David Binns AA Dipl, RIBA, ARIAS Dick Beville.
This company is primarily a hardware manufactur-
Bowdler BSc, M Inst P, Neil Spring BS, ARCS, ing and marketing firm which provides consultancy
Associates: Peter Keeley, Len Lewis.
M Inst P, C Eng, MIEE, Alex Burd, BSC, F Inst P, advice in terms of the goods which it markets. Being
The company has been operating since September
C Eng, MIEE, David Lamberty BArch, RIBA, ARIAS. a subsidiary of Philips, the resources are great and
last year, but those involved have been working in
Associates: Frank Ward BSc, F Inst P, C Eng, it would appear that there is little in studio building
the field for much longer than that individually.
FIEE, M Cor, Richard Galbraith MSc, BSc (Eng), that they couldn't help with.
There are no employees as such but they have
DIC. recourse to a large number of sub -contractors. They
The company provided much help in the prepara-
Links with other bodies: Sandy Brown Associates tion of the accompanying consultancy article.
have a laboratory and a small anechoic chamber
are associated with McLaren Ward and Partners, available.
consulting acoustic engineers and two partners of
SBA are directors of E Audio Ltd, a company
I

specialising In sound systems. Neither partnership KENNETH SHEARER

has any links with suppliers. Kenneth Shearer and Associates, Acorn House,
1 Bartel Close, Leverstock Green, Hemel Hemp-
Guarantee: Both partnerships have unlimited lia- EASTLAKE stead, Herts HP3 8LX. Phone: Hemel Hemp-
bility and this is the client's protection against any Eastlake Audio, 21 Avenue Nestle, 1820 Mon- stead 54821.
default in service. treux, Switzerland. Phone: (021) 6219 44. 44 k-
42 STUDIO SOUND, AUGUST 1976
 Sweet sixteen
The Quad 405 is only the sixteenth and manufactured with the concern
product to carry the Quad name, for reliability which have been
each of which, has made a the hallmarks of Quad equipment
significant contribution to the for twenty -five years.
development of sound reproduction For further details on current
and acquired a following of loyal dumping and other Quad products
and satisfied customers write to Dept. SS
The Quad 405 current dumping The Acoustical Manufacturing Co.
amplifier represents another step Ltd., HUNTINGDON, Cambs.,
forward in amplifier technology, PE18 7DB Telephone (0480) 52561
executed with the attention to
engineering and aesthetic detail,

QUAD Design Council

Award 1976

for the closest approach to the original sound for twenty-five years
QUAD is a Registered Trade Mark
 SURVEY: STUDIO Services: Recording studio and related support Swettenham Associates (RSA) is not a limited
facility planning and design -architectural and company.
CONSULTANTS acoustical design of control rooms, studios, edit Swettenham's contribution to the studio equip-
rooms, cutting rooms, instrument and vocal isola- ment scene, especially in mobile recording, is well
tion booths, multipurpose master studio planning. known. He says he intends to do a great deal more
Employees: two. Electrical and signal layout and design. Interior consultancy now that he has built up a team that
Practice commenced: December 1, 1969.
finishes, furniture and layout. will take a good deal of the running of Helios off his
'Design consultants only. Not contractors, there- The company also offers room monitor system hands.
fore no subcontracts to other companies or agencies. analysis and equalisation using 3 octave frequency
Guarantee: 'Since we are not directly involved in plotting with pink noise sources; also specialist
the supply of equipment it is not our practice to EDWARD VEALE
design and supply of isolators, door seals, vibration Edward J. Veale & Associates Limited, Far -
offer a guarantee.' control, speaker mounting, portable screens, and ringdon House, St. Albans Road East, Hatfield,
booths.
Herts AL10 OET. Phone: Hatfield 65251, telex
Regarding equipment recommendation, the com- 28332.
pany acts as an independent source of information Associated companies: Acoustic Consultants
for hardware purchase, installation and interface.
SUGARLOAF VIEW Limited, Audiotek.
Sugarloaf View Inc, 75 East 55th Street, New Directors: E. J. Veale, D. Veale, L. Veale, J. D.
York, NY 10022, USA. Phone: (212) 759 7588. Forbes, S. Dahlstedt.
President: John Storyk. RICHARD SWETTENHAM The company handles acoustic planning, architec-
Founded: 1974. Richard Swettenham Associates, Browells ture, design, equipment choosing, ordering and
Sugarloaf View Inc was formalised in 1974 as a com- Lane, Feltham, Middlesex TW13 7ER. Phone: installation and sub-contracts construction work to
pany specialising on architectural and acoustical 01- 890 0087. its specifications. Site management and overseeing
design and construction. Prior to that, its principals, The firm is run solely by Richard Swettenham, of sub-contractors is undertaken.'
John Storyk and Robert Wolsh, had designed, and though he has call on freelances and those who Guarantee: The company does not give a written
been involved with, installations of over a dozen work for Helios. Usually calls in an acoustics expert guarantee. Our guarantee is professional respon-
recording studio complexes since 1968. unless the client cannot afford to do so. Richard sibility-we value our good name.'

STUDIO CONSULTANTS time wasn't important in that: 'The most important criterion is
getting it to sound the way you want it to sound ...
The most
works without any funnies. If it does you've got a very tame system.' valuable piece of equipment for tests and acoustic diagnosis is your
Some studios find that although the studio may be fine when ears.'
it has just been finished, after a few months the room characteristics According to Dick Swettenham, 'Uniformity of listening conditions
seem to change. Tony Clarke, Moody Blues' producer, once around the room is quite an important and valuable thing and
jokingly wondered whether the layer of nicotine at Threshold hadn't flatness of response as perceived at the monitoring position likewise,
had some effect. 'The acoustics haven't changed', said Tom but this is not absolutely everything. Of course, there are two things
Hidley, who designed Threshold, 'but the monitoring characteristics here, that what the old style acoustician measures is reverberation
may have. You may get transient surges through the monitor in time versus frequency because his feeling is that this is one of the
shutting off the console. That changes the monitor alignment. Or things that you can measure accurately and repeatably. Other
you may get Fahrenheit and humidity changes. Or the sound people say, "When we sit in this chair we want to hear a flat
pressure levels, the average levels, may be so high that this will alter response from the speaker", but this is not necessarily the same thing
the response curve. Autolifters on the tape machines may not be because standing waves will build up at certain frequencies on
functioning properly during fast wind.' He said that he had once sustained sounds that don't on momentary sounds. So the two
tested the effect of a power surge by taking measurements of a things are not really interrelated. I think there's a lot of thinking
monitor before and after turning the supply off and back on again. and talking to be done on exactly what one should measure in
The curve in each case was different. relation to the control room and the sound you get in it.'
So even if nothing goes wrong in an obvious way it's important David Binns said: 'The success of a job is the success of the
that your studio designer is available some time after the work has studio, independent of anything else.' Hidley's view was the same:
been completed. Ken Shearer, for example, makes clear that he is 'You asked me 20 minutes ago why should Tom Hidley design
always on call if needed. Hidley says he can arrange that either the room, why can't they do it themselves. There is one cloud -free
himself, someone at Eastlake, its representatives or, in the case of a answer for it no matter what the appearances: the consistent
studio with a large maintenance department, the studio themselves number of hits that have turned out of this studio design
can take charge of seeing the studio is looked after. philosophy, and that is what it's all about in building a studio
today. What is the return going to be?' Shearer made the same point
`The most valuable piece of equipment ' ... about the Westlake/Eastlake studios even though he admitted he
I was surprised by how little talk there was of reverberation time. had lost one studio contract to Hidley: 'The basic thing, the most
Normally for those who know a little about acoustics this is important thing is that he's done all these studios and people are
one quantity you have to know about a room, but it didn't crop up happy with them.'
at all in the Hidley conversation and other mentions of it were There are so many variables in studio design; it is such a minefield
merely dismissive. David Binns said their aim was to let the of controversy, argument and rival claims that snap judgements
acoustic offer 'a clean sheet' to the engineer so that he could then and conclusions, even for those competent to draw them, are
add compression, reverberation and so on. To that end they tried inappropriate. What it comes down to is the consultant's track
to keep the reverberation time constant with frequency. record and the amount of money available. Perhaps it's consoling
Ken Shearer didn't think constant reverberation time was a to realise that, even though they now think they could have spent
good idea: 'Reverberation time in itself is only a rather crude more, Eden have built what they and others regard as a satisfactory
measure of the degree of brightness of a room. In a large room studio on limited resources. On the other hand, studios have
I usually aim for 0.5 or 0.6 of a second at the middle and come to grief even though there seemed no shortage of money.
top end and pull it down to about 0.4 at the low end. You need Cockatoo is perhaps a good example.
tight bass to avoid the EMT effect back into the microphone on But perhaps the soundest piece of advice any of the consultants
the percussion. You give more kickback at middle and top so that could give, and they all mentioned it in various ways, was that
the musicians can hear themselves play. It makes them play those who want to build a studio should give clear instructions. As
better -more in unison and with more correct relative pitch. If David Binns put it: 'A good studio needs successful engineers and
they can hear themselves they're more likely to come back next successful management, but particularly successful engineers. The
time. Even with session musicians it may make the difference best kind of client is the one who has a clear understanding of the
between them saying, when you phone them up, "Oh all right, I whole operation and is working with an engineer who knows
suppose I can come ", and "Yes, of course I can ".' Reverberation what he wants.'
44 STUDIO SOUND, AUGUST 1976
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45
 A day in the life

ADRIAN HOPE

There s more to No 3 Abbey Road

than meets the eye,
but did the Beatles give it
too much limelight?

was LATE for my first appointment at Abbey Road with studio in the Beatles (re-cut and re -issue of all their singles, a film
manager Ken Townsend. Ed had this bright idea of festival in New York and some daft talk about a $30 million,
photographing the zebra crossing outside the studio, as featured on 15-minute Please Please Me re- union) will also interest the popular
the cover of the Beatles' album, Abbey Road. But I couldn't media in Abbey Road once again, the studio would doubtless
get a clear run at the shot because a Japanese gentleman with a far rather be thought of as a going concern than as an
necklace of cameras was busy trying to persuade four other Japanese archaeological site. It was with this in mind that I embarked on an
gentlemen to stride in step Beatle- fashion across the crossing for overall look at Abbey Road today.
his benefit. Finally he turned his attention to photographing the The main problem proved to be where to start. Traditionally
Borough of Westminster sign labelling the road, and I got my in an article on a studio, one mentions past artists who have
chance. worked there. But in the little green book that the studio has
Inside EMI, past the new card -lock security system designed to compiled to list past visitors there are enough names to fill an
keep out loonies, I made my excuses about being late. article on their own. Taking the B- for-Beatles pages, I noticed
'Would you believe', I said, 'there was a Japanese chap doing Dirk Bogarde, The Beverley Sisters, Eve Boswell, The Big Ben
exactly as I wanted to do and photographing the zebra crossing ?' Banjo Band, Webster Booth, Jack Buchanan, Owen Brannigan
'You were lucky there was only one'. was told, 'most days
I and Max Beerbohm. Because Abbey Road handles not only
there is a queue of photographers all taking the same picture to recording sessions for EMI artists but also independents and sessions
show the folks back home.' controlled by rival companies (such as CBS), one might as well
I also learned that the Japanese gentleman was lucky to get just say that more or less everyone has at some time or other
a shot of the Abbey Road wall sign. They are prised off and carried recorded at Abbey Road.
back home as souvenirs almost as fast as Westminster Council So what about the equipment, then? Another tradition of
can erect them. And all this, incidentally, took place just before studio reporting is to list the equipment available. But again, that's
the massive upsurge of current interest in the Beatles. an article on its own. Take two EMI 44 in /l6 out consoles; two
Rightly or wrongly, like it or not, Abbey Road and the Beatles EMI 24 in/8 -16 out; a Neve 36 in /24 out; 45 AKG microphones;
are virtually synonymous in the minds of the record -buying 215 Neumanns; 70 Quad monitor amplifiers; 70 JBL and Tannoy
public. Even before the 1p of the same name, everybody knew that monitor speakers; six cutting lathes; two Studer 24 -track machines;
the Beatles and George Martin made their records at Abbey Road. three 16- track; 16 eight-track; and 56 two-track machines-
Although Paul McCartney is the only ex- Beatle currently and there you have just the start. So, obviously, listing the
working at Abbey Road, it is now written as history that the making equipment isn't going to get us anywhere. More important, perhaps,
of Sergeant Pepper at those studios created a watershed in modern to mention that the maintenance team to keep the gear in order
recording. Until then audiences expected their idols to sound on includes six technical operators for lining up and first line service,
stage as they sounded on record. But no one expected even and five second line engineers for repairs and modifications. Perhaps
the Beatles to reproduce Sergeant Pepper live on stage, and a new even more relevant is a remark made by a musician colleague
art form was born-the gramophone record as an entertainment when I said I was writing on Abbey Road.
medium in its own right. 'They're so helpful there', he told me. 'At some sessions spread
Although Abbey Road Studios have worked hard and profitably over two days recently I suggested on the first night that I would
since the Beatles ceased recording and broke up, they have tended to like a telephone rigged through to the harp booth -next morning at
pass from the limelight. This is largely due to EMI's failure nine o'clock it was there.'
to credit the studios on many of its record sleeves and obviously It might also be worthwhile looking at the names of Abbey Road
disappoints the staff who believe the studio's claim to fame and men who have come up through the studios and moved on elsewhere
success is founded on far more than the successful recordings -like Malcolm Davies, Geoff Emerick, Ken Scott, Jerry Boys,
of one pop group. Even though the current re-emergence of interest Malcolm Addey, Bob Goodman, Keith Slaughter, Dave Harries and
46 STUDIO SOUND, AUGUST 1976
so on and so on. studios is clearly decidedly healthy. Apart from a small discount
But what I finally settled for was a `day in the life' of Abbey for EMI artists, it makes no difference to the studio clerical
Road. (It seems that even with the best intentions one just can't system whether the artist is EMI or an outsider. The basic
escape from the Beatles' influence.) rates (plus VAT and tape costs) are gauged to track usage,
When I arrived Ken Townsend was in his first floor manager's 24 or 16 track costing a basic £39 per hour, eight or four track £37,
office, talking to deputy manager Michael Gray about the and two track facility £35 per hour. There is also a reduction
problem of rationalising, reorganising and insuring all the 90000 room available at £30 per hour. A couple of mobile units are
EMI master tapes now in store. Most are kept underground at available at £220 per day for recording or remixing, and at half
Perivale but 10000 are at Abbey Road. A fresh headache was the price for rigging or travelling. After 7.30 in the evening there's a
request by Paul McCartney that all his own tapes be stored at 25 per cent overtime surcharge on studio time. Cancellation between
24 hours' and four days' notice is subject to a 50 per cent
charge, and within 24 hours' notice it's 100 per cent.
Earlier this year, Paul McCartney and Wings solidly booked
24/16 time for 12 hours a day for a month, which can't be bad
for business.
Abbey Road is also heavily into disc cutting, with six cutting
rooms and lathes and a basic rate of £17.50 per 30 cm master side
and £13 per 18 cm master side, plus lacquer costs. One of EMI's
current star cutters is Chris Blair, one of the new breed of
disc cutters who (like George Peckham and Malcolm Davies) is
sought out and asked for by name by independents and EMI
artists alike. Blair, who specialises in cutting singles (but
sometimes cuts albums like the Queen 1p) cut 12 number ones in
1975 alone and in one week had cut one, two and three in the
charts. Like most modern cutters, he likes to see as much level as
possible on a single. He regards Mickie Most as the pioneer
of putting more level on to singles. `He's obsessed with level',
says Blair.
`I try out everything I cut on a cheap gramophone', he explains,
`I want the record to leap out.' Clearly there is now a good deal
of friendly rivalry between top cutters, with one trying to pile on
that bit more level than the other without trading off too much
for distortion. The days of producers regarding their job as done
when the master tape is finished are long gone. Not only
Above: Chris Blair, currently one of the best known producers, but artists as well, now like to be present for the cut.
disc cutters in the pop field. Blair's EMI control desk for the Neumann cutter has 186 000 million
different equalisation combinations in mono, and the square
Abbey Road; a special cupboard now has to be built because of that number in stereo. Modestly, he reckons he hasn't yet tried
there are around 500 to cope with. You can't copy everything, them all out. Like Peckham, who signs his records Pecko or
so some of the masters are irreplaceable. If the stereo master Porky, Blair signs Blair's. I asked him whether, like Peckham, he
of Sergeant Pepper disappeared it would be a problem, but only signed those that he had enjoyed cutting.
not the end of the world-there are pristine disc cuts available as `I sign Blair's if I like them-and Porky or Pecko if I don't',
safeties. But what if the original four track master of Sergeant Pepper he explained.
(yes, only four track) or the eight track master of Abbey Road
were to go missing? Doubtless, with this awful possibility in mind On Chris Blair's cutting console I noticed a mysterious knob
with five switch settings- funky, laid-back, mean, motown and rak.
EMI is currently copying all the Beatles masters. What practical
use are they? Well, two years ago the studio used the Sergeant The knob is, of course, a dummy, and actually held on by
Pepper four track to mock-up a quadraphonic version, and it would chewing gum. But artists and producers new to the game have been
be even easier to produce a quadraphonic release of Abbey Road! known to pounce on it with enthusiasm. Another knob, now
With the current Beatles revival, Ken Townsend is obviously well defunct, had fifty click stops, numbered 1 -50, to help artists and
producers select the preferred hit parade rating for their efforts.
aware of what unreleased Beatle material is still available but
While going round the studios, the idea dawned on me that
he was guarded about the contents of the vaults. I do however
happen to know of a 1964 live recording of `The Beatles at the EMI Abbey Road is the ideal place to produce a home, British
Hollywood Bowl'. It's all there, nearly half an hour of grown, direct -cut record à la Sheffield in California. There are
six cutting rooms at Abbey Road, each with its own lathe
edited stereo labelled as a `rough remix with equalisation,
reverberation and limiting' and with George Martin credited as and each capable of cutting an album. Any of the three studios can
producer. be routed through direct to any one of these six cutting rooms or,
Apart from the matter of insurance, storage and Beatles more to the point, to all six at the same time if necessary. Thus,
re- issues, there was also the problem of Paul McCartney's goldfish. an orchestra in Studio One, Two or Three could, if necessary, make
six direct -cut masters simultaneously, thereby overcoming the
PM was off on tour with Wings, and Linda knew there was an
engineer at Abbey Road who is good with fish. So he went off main problem of direct -cut disc production -the finite life of the
up the road to McCartney's house once a week to feed them lacquer master in terms of total reliable pressing run. Armed with
and do whatever you do with goldfish if you are good with them. what I thought was a novel idea, I sounded out Ken Townsend
While I was there a card from Linda wishing him (the goldfish) on the possibility.
well arrived from sunny Martinique. `It would be no problem technically', he agreed; but other
Despite hard times in general in the industry, Abbey Road is than that he was noncommittal. However, hand on heart, I can
working to reasonable capacity. Last October, for instance, at say that, by coincidence on the very day that I raised the idea,
around the time that one North London studio was refusing to let there was a full range of Sheffield direct -cut discs just arrived
me through the front door (doubtless for fear of what I might see) at his `in' tray from the USA. Your guess is as good as mine as to
Studio Three at Abbey Road was 93.5 per cent fully utilised, whether we shall soon be seeing an EMI direct -cut issue. But
Studio Two 84 per cent and Studio One 57 per cent. The ratio of all the hi -fi enthusiasts who are now paying £6 or £7 a time for
Studio One to Three utilisation is fairly standard. Three is small direct -cut imports would surely make a ready -made market for a
and mainly pop music; Two is medium and middle-of- the -road; disc featuring British musicians.
One is enormous (29m x 18m and 6200 cubic metres) and used The Soft Machine group followed Olivia Newton -John into
mainly for orchestral sessions. Inevitably Studio Three brings Studio Three during my visit but virtually only the name is the
in more revenue than Studio One but the income from all three same as the original `underground' group. During the EMI 48 JO-
47
 A DAY IN THE LIFE when loud, and thus are hard to mie in a small studio. It's
another instance of how an overall producer with a tight grip
sessions, organist Mike Ratledge was missing, coming in only for and liaison between musicians and engineer can make life easier
keyboard overdubs when necessary. A couple of weeks later the for everyone. But by shielding and using a mixture of di and
musical press carried news of his official departure from the live sound Leckie seemed to me to be achieving a good sound.
group. John Leckie was balance engineer for the session, with A producer with an obviously tight grip was working in
Pat Stapley as second engineer. There was no single producer, Studio One. This, the largest studio in Europe, except for the
the whole being jointly responsible for production, and as an Rome Film Studios, is like a concert hall and thus used mainly,
outsider I would say it showed. For example the group if not exclusively, for classical and orchestral work. Henry
recorded one short track some half -dozen times while I was there, Mancini was there recently making film recordings, and a year or so
and after each take filed silently into the control room for a ago I covered an independent session by the Spanish record label
replay. Each time they'd listen, and equally silently file back into
Ensayo. It was, however, rival record company CBS who had
the studio for a re -take, presumably communicating dissatisfaction
booked Studio One on the occasion of my visit. Producer Paul
between themselves by telepathy. An unsettling approach for the Myers was working with EMI engineer Bob Gooch, and Daniel
engineers, I would guess. But as always in the recording business,
Barenboim, the LPO and Mezzo Yvonne Minton, for a release in
the proof of the pudding is in the eating: if the final product the CBS International Masterworks series later this year. In a
sells and makes money for the record company it matters not one jot
way it's odd for EMI (who are currently litigating against CBS for
how that final product was produced. British mis -use of their trademark `Columbia') to hire out their
Leckie has been at Abbey Road seven years now. It was after prize studio to a direct competitor. But on the other hand, of
two years of tape opping and balancing a couple of albums course, it's not so odd: if CBS didn't use Abbey Road they would
with Chris Spedding and Roy Harper that he was thrown in at the use somewhere else, and clearly not even a company the size
deep end as engineer on Wings' Red Rose Speedway. Since then
of EMI could keep the vast Studio One continually busy on its
he has engineered consistently for Roy Harper and co- produced
own orchestral sessions.
artists such as Be Bop de Luxe. On behalf of would -be Bob Gooch has positive ideas on most things, including which
Abbey Roaders, I asked about how to get a job there. instruments should go on the outside tracks. Looking for a
We get about ten applications a day', he told me, 'and take on tactful word, he chose `inessential' to describe instruments like organ
about one a year.' Ken Townsend had already told me that in in the Sea Pictures recording. 'If the worst comes to the worst
the current climate fewer people are leaving Abbey Road -so
and the tape folds, we shan't be losing voice or violins which are
there you have it: vacancies are very few and far between.
safely in the middle. And of course if the tape transport ever does
Studio Three has for several years now been 24 track and all give problems it will affect the outside tracks far more than
concerned seem anything but anxious to move on up to 32 the others.'
or even more. The consensus of opinion was that if necessary, and a Being a rock -and -jazz -liking Philistine, I knew little of Yvonne
paying customer insisted, a pair of Studer 24 tracks could be Minton, but was astonished by her powerful and controlled voice.
ganged together to produce 30 or 40; but, as Townsend says, the Gooch showed on the vu meters the acid scientific test of a good
problems 'are more likely to square than double when you sync two singer. 'The deficiencies show up as they come off a note',
separate machines together'. The Studio Three desk is an he said. 'A singer may produce consistent power as she holds the
EmiNeve which replaced the original EMI console and has 36 note, but as the diaphragm releases a poor singer will peak
channels in, 24 out and 12 groups. The old EMI desks were built briefly in level.' Sure enough, only on one occasion did Yvonne
on a modular basis, with quadrant faders and sophisticated eq, Minton throw the meter up 3 dB into the red when she came off
limiting and compression; but the modules take up rather a note -for the rest of the time each sustained note fell away
too much room to be easily banked in dozens in a control room as smoothly as it ceased. Perhaps one day we shall see vu meters
small as Studio Three, and the Neve has extra facilities anyway. used at vocal auditions.
Incidentally, the installation of the EmiNeve desk in Studio Three Clearly Paul Myers had created a little consternation by his
is the first time that a non -EMI console has found its way instructions for the session (to record Elgar's Sea Pictures). To
into Abbey Road. understand why, it is necessary to recall that EMI classical
Soft Machine were on tneir eleventh session (they concentrate recording policy is fairly steady. The acoustics of Studio One have
heavily on overdubs) and were clearly making the most of the been tinkered with over the years to produce a natural ambient
facilities available in Three. There were ten mies alone on sound, and regular Studio One engineers like Bob Gooch
John Marshall's drum kit (sending to four tracks) and the know that sound well and how to mie it. Townsend, Gray, Gooch
group of four had so far used up nine of the available tracks. One and everyone else I spoke to at Abbey Road dismissed the
problem at the session was the group's use of fairly large, PA possibility of recording an orchestra with a single crossed pair
type guitar and bass amplifiers, which really only sound `right' as a Utopian fantasy ('It's all very well writing articles about it', 501

Left :
Daniel Barenboim
and
Paul Myers.

Right:
Recording
the
Soft Machine.
48 STUDIO SOUND, AUGUST 1976
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modules in constant use at
leading Broadcast and
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 A DAY IN THE LIFE which for the most part had been recorded live, band -plus- vocals.
I was told, but when you come to re- arrange
Apart from a general feeling in some quarters that live
a choir and recording of this type (as opposed to overdubbing on pre- recorded
orchestra to suit the engineers you soon find the difference between
theory and practice'). But it is normal for EMI classical sessions rhythm tracks) makes for a better, spontaneous feel, there is of
to be recorded eight track, with the main orchestra mies in course always the financial consideration that it is only on
sessions of this `live' type that the British Musicians' Union allows
pairs, a few spot mies and at least a stereo pair for ambience. This
was, in fact, the setup in use when I looked in on the Ensayo
any overtime. On any session that involves overdubbing, overtime
is verboten, and a full three -hour session must be paid for to cover
session, and it is doubtless one reason why Ensayo repeatedly
comes over from Spain to record at Abbey Road. Whereas Paul any extra time.
Myers has in the past used a generally similar approach (but Even the ancillary equipment at Abbey Road could take up an
perhaps with rather more spot mics), he was, on this occasion, article on its own. There are seven echo plates, digital echo
recording 16 track with around two dozen mics moved in very close equipment and three chambers. The latter are fascinating old
by classical standards. For obvious reasons (for instance, the cellars out of the back of Studio Two, into which sound from any
customer being always right) there was no question of anyone at source can be piped at high level (provided the fan vents are closed
EMI criticising the approach. But there were certainly some to ward off complaints from local residents whose gardens back on to
interested queries and I detected a general, unspoken feeling that it the EMI property). An odd aggregation of sewer pipes stands in
seemed something of a pity to use a studio like Abbey Road what appears to be random arrangement throughout the chambers,
Number One with its natural ambience, but close-mic the orchestra but actually the layout was arrived at over years of trial and error, to
and record relatively dry, adding artificial ambience at the remix produce the best added reverb. Studio Two, incidentally, has its
stage. I phoned Paul Myers at CBS the following day, and found own natural reverb, controlled by a cladding of seaweed -filled panels,
him only too ready to explain his philosophy about natural and also arrived at over years of trial and error. The digital echo
unnatural acoustics and reverberation. system is one of many `toys' at Abbey Road, many of them produced
For a start, I question your use of the term "natural by the EMI Research Department at Hayes, along with the console
reverberation "', he explained. In recording we are talking about modules. Some of the ancillary equipment is more successful and
controlled distortionjust as any photograph of the Grand Canyon popular than others. There is for instance, a highly successful
has to be a controlled distortion.' automatic panning arrangement which can throw an instrument,
`I am in any case not altogether convinced that EMI Number One such as a tambourine, from left to right track in time with the beat.
has the best acoustics -it's a fine place to work, but when the This was constructed by Abbey Road engineer Neil Aldridge.
sound gets loud it does tend to get somewhat confused. When I From Hayes came a frequency translator that produces a fishy
remix and edit the master tapes at CBS I shall add what sounds sort of noise, and a `Sparkey's Magic Piano' (or Harmony Vocoder
to be the right amount of reverb, using tape, plate and chamber. if you want to be precise) by means of which a voice can
My aim is to produce a pleasant ambience for listeners, and I modulate a keyboard sound. This was used by Wings on their
prefer to keep my options open. Of course, I realise it is a relatively Speed of Sound album.
unsatisfying job for the engineers, and where the situation is right I Currently rather less popular as a toy is a fuzz box which
am happy to record in EMI style. If one uses technology for the Hayes once produced with enthusiasm. It limits, damps, modulates,
sake of it one has failed; but equally, to ignore technology that is vibrates, delays, rises, falls and makes the tea; and probably also
available is a mistake -it's like working in the most elaborate adds fuzz, if anyone can find out exactly how to use it.
film studio, with robot camera control and every facility under the Another busy toy from Hayes is a digital delay which can
sun, and then shooting hand -held.' produce from 0 -600 ms delay in 1 ms steps, with no discernible
I queried whether the album would be released in quadraphonic quality loss and the addition of only a little noise. Also, despite the
form as well as stereo, and whether the rear channel information undoubted popularity of the EmiNeve, the EMI desk modules
would be surround or ambience material. EMI (who share use of are still favourite with many engineers, not so much because
the SQ system with CBS) is currently issuing virtually all its classical of the facilities which they offer, but because of the
material in single inventory SQ, but places only ambience infallibly reliable 2 dB step switching.
information at the rear. `The point about these modules is that they will do exactly what
`Yes, the issue will be quadraphonic,' said Myers, `and it will the knobs say they are doing', said one engineer.
be in surround sound style. This is another reason for using 16 track Incidentally, one reason why equipment like this seldom finds
even though most of the time I was actually only using ten of the its way on to the secondhand market, even when newer equipment
16 tracks. I want to get it all down in detail; I can then paint a takes over at Abbey Road, is that it has usually found its way
surround sound picture- though not, of course, in "mixed doubles ", into EMI studios abroad. There are EMI studios all round the
the modern equivalent of ping -pong stereo!' world, including India, Singapore, Mexico, Cologne, Australia,
As to whether you prefer the EMI `natural' approach to Hong Kong, Paris (Pathe -Marconi), Amsterdam and Lagos
recording or the CBS approach, you pays your money, you buys your (where Paul McCartney recorded some of Band On The Run
record and you makes up your own mind. because at the time he fancied some sunshine). All the Abbey Road
Studio Two at Abbey Road is, in many respects, a hybrid of Studers have Vari -pitch control, and in Studio Three there is an
One and Three. The original studio in the building, it is large, EMI -built remote control which enables just about everything on
curiously shaped, with the control room high up one wall, and can the tape machines to be handled from the EmiNeve desk. `The
cope with most types of music. On the day of my visit the danger is that you forget you're working with tape', said one
Mike Sammes Singers were overdubbing vocals to finish an album engineer. The Vari-pitch remote, incidentally, has a digital readout
Reissuing old 78s. Some of the equipment responsible for squeezing the best which makes it especially useful for phasing with Studers which
possible quality out of old 78s for reissue. have both line and sync outputs. All the remote controls can be
plugged to whatever machine is chosen via a wall box; in fact,
it is safe to say that virtually anything in the building can be
hooked to more or less anything else if the need arises. For
instance, on one Beatles session, Ken Townsend linked all the
EMT plates and echo chambers together
he admits.
-It sounded terrible',

Abbey Road is standardised on Tannoy Lancaster Golds and

JBLs. For instance, in Studio One there are both Golds and
JBLs (plus, while I was there, a pair of B & W DM6 speakers on
test loan); the Golds are used for classical work and the JBLs
for middle-of-the- road-and -there -on-down- the -brow scale. The
Ensayo team used to keep their own pair of AR LST speakers at
Abbey Road for Ensayo use but, in the words of an engineer, have
now learned to live with the Golds. Although the engineers
50 STUDIO SOUND, AUGUST 1976
liked the sounds that the LSTs produced, they couldn't come to is to do as little as possible because excessive'treatment' can easily
terms with the rather diffuse stereo image that they create. worsen the overall effect. Also, although it does not always
Elsewhere it's all JBL, with four in Studio Three and four also in conform to company policy, Bernard Speight's personal preference
the new quadraphonic remix room. is to leave all 78 recordings in original mono.
A playback room, where tapes and pressings are checked for While on the subject of 'new is not necessarily best', it is worth
quality, is equipped with a Thorens TD 125 MkII, SME arm with noting that Abbey Road engineers still use Fairchild valve limiters
Stanton cartridge and Quad 50E amplifier feeding a pair of and Altec valve compressors wherever possible. Pop group
Tannoys. I shall remember this next time a self-styled hi -fi pundit guitarists are now paying over the odds for solid state amplifiers
performs the usual, dogmatic trick of criticising JBLs and custom -built to provide 'a valve sound', and in a recent hi -fi
Tannoys as being 'too warm'. How, I wonder, will they support test survey run blindfold, a cheap valve amplifier scored higher
the 'too warm' argument when faced with the fact that every marks with the technical press than many far more expensive,
recording out of Abbey Road has been monitored and usually transistor models, largely due to its inherently softer clipping sound.
remixed and quality control checked on 'too warm' speakers? It will be interesting to see how long it is before new valve
While on the subject of quality, there is a curious little room equipment or solid state equipment with 'a valve sound' starts
down one of the corridors where secret happenings occur. re-appearing in studios. Certainly I got the impression that it
Bernard Speight has been technically responsible for this transcription wouldn't be unwelcome in some areas of Abbey Road.
room for several years now and is quick to point out that it was the What else for the future? As one engineer at Abbey Road put it,
foresight of Gus Cook, that made it all possible. The purpose of 'this whole business is about good sound'. But of course
the room is to transcribe old 78 rpm discs (or, more accurately, it is also about earning a living and staying viable under inclement
anything from 70 -90 rpm discs, because speeds were not financial conditions. However well the Beatles re- issues sell,
standardised then) on to tape for re- issue. A massive EMT turntable they won't keep the doors of Abbey Road open. My impression,
with a modern tone arm can be fitted with a wide range of modern gained after many days spent there talking to not a few people,
cartridges each with a different stylus radius ranging from is that the whole operation is run as a tight, though friendly
56 to 112 microns. Both lateral and hill- and -dale cut discs have ship. For instance, everyone in the building knows what is going on
to be coped with, the hill- and -dales being tracked by a stereo elsewhere: details from a wall chart in the central office are typed
cartridge wired out of phase and connected as mono. The speed up weekly and circulated round the building. And when I first asked
of the EMT can be continuously varied from 63 to 90 rpm, and Ken Townsend about computer mixing he guardedly expressed
there is a complicated electronic speed control and stroboscopic interest in the new Neve system, but admitted that so far he was
check arrangement. But no amount of electronic control is any use unconvinced.
if you don't know what the original recording speed was -and 'You don't spend thirty, forty or even more thousand pounds just
even if the label gives a speed it may not necessarily be correct. In to modify for the sake of a new fad', he said, 'because sooner
any case, the transcription room is often working from nickel or later someone will always get dissatisfied with it. In many
mothers or fresh vinyl pressings from stampers, rather than respects, EMI at Abbey Road is like an elephant: a kick at the
original labelled shellac discs. The EMI answer is to employ rear takes a long time to get through to the head.' Although that
Mr Gadsby-Toni, an ex -viola player, who quite simply uses a kind of attitude may frustrate some of the staff, it gives the
pitchfork and a fine musical ear to find the right tempo for the studio a far greater chance of long-term survival. And after a
recording. demonstration of the Neve system, Townsend has now ordered
Highly sophisticated equalisation circuitry is available to clean one enthusiastically.
up as much of the 78 rpm noise as possible, but unfortunately It is no secret that some young rock musicians new to Abbey
this is frequently wide band and varies in characteristic across Road and used only to kindergarten, whizz-kid engineers in
the disc. A -B switching is used between filter 'in' and filter flashy new independent studios, are put off by what they regard as
'out' positions, to enable the best possible cut position to be 'too many suits and too much short hair' around during the day.
found at any given part of the disc. But on old discs by far the The Abbey Road atmosphere changes considerably at night, but
worst problem is impulsive noise. It's here that the trade secrets apart from that the message always gets home sooner or later that
take over, ten years of work having produced two different nowadays recording is very much a business. Reliable organisation,
types of dynamic de- clicker which work in ways which I am, on technical competence and overall ability to deliver whatever
my honour, bound not to reveal. goods the artists require are more important in practice than a
In general, however, the avowed aim of the transcription room flash and groovy facade.

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Accessories Hellermann Sleeves and Tools Crimp
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Mounting, from one
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51
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WE ARE PLEASED TO INTRODUCE YOU TO OUR NEW MODEL

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This unit has been especially designed to improve on the weaknesses inherent in earlier loop
echo systems. Emphasis has been placed on improvements to improve reliability and to reduce
the frequent maintenance necessary in traditional loop tape echo systems.
The EM -2000 is fitted with an electronic servo motor which greatly improves the versatility of
the unit, enabling it to produce reverberation over a wider scale and variety than previously poss-
ible. The incorporation of a unique new head design and advanced electronic techniques enhances
the ability of the EM -2000 to produce a more nearly natural echo than competitive machines of
this principle.
This machine has been designed to the special quality standards of the IEC Standard for Fine
Machinery and is widely recognized by sound operating Engineers as the most efficient unit avail-
able to meet the highly diverse types of reverberation called for by present day techniques in
recording, broadcasting, television and sound reinforcement.

52 STUDIO SOUND, AUGUST 1976

 CHARACTERS OF EM -2000
I . An electronically controlled servo motor permits continuous variation of delay time.
2. A simpler mechanism and the use of a special magnetic tape has resulted in improved durability
and reduced maintenance requirements.
3. The 1,300 mm of !" wide tape in an endless loop system gives a continuous operational life of
over 1,000 hours.
4. All rotating parts are fitted with ball bearing races.
5. Infinite types of reverberation can be produced, the composite output being an addition of a
separate mixed output from the four heads.
6. The tonal quality can be controlled by the incorporation of bass and treble compensation.
7. The advanced design of the heads and the use of the finest materials available extend life and
reduce wear to a minimum.
8. IEC Standards are fully met in this machine.

r's
NPU
- ?.m INPUT CON ERASING HEAD

IOKO TAdb

RECORDING HEAD
BASS TREBLE

REPEAT

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A
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TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
* Tape Speed: 19 cm sec. to 57 cm sec. continuously variable.
* Delay Time: No. head 37.5 mm 'sec. to 150 mm
I

No. 2 head 94 mm,sec. to 280 mm

sec.
sec.
No. 3 head 132 mm sec. to 397 mm sec.
No. 4 head 168 mm sec. to 502 mm sec.
Heads: I Erase, Record, 4 Reproducing.
I

Wow and Flutter: Within 0.1511,,.

Frequency response: 50 Hz to 12,000 Hz within '_ 3 dB at 38 cm sec.
Signal to Noise Ratio: better than 56 dB at recording level O.V.U.
Distortion: less than 21'11.
Input: 4 dBm balanced, IO K ohm.
Output: ;- 4 dBm balanced, 600 ohm.
Power Requirements: 100, 120, 220 V., A.C. 50 or 60 Hz.
Power Consumption: 40 V.A. (watts).
Dimensions: 420 mm wide, 306 mm deep, 135 mm high.
Weight: approx. I6Kg.
Connectors: Cannon XLR 3 -14 for input (male).
Cannon XLR 3 -13 for output (female).
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53
 APRS 76report
ing up and down between the five levels of compact desk manufactured by Harrison
FRANK OGDEN exhibits; their plight was less than helped by Systems of Nashville, Tennessee. Overhanging
profligate but rather incomprehensible colour - the Scenic Sounds Equipment stand, it drew
coded direction arrows and charts. `Level 1, large crowds throughout the exhibition mostly
2, 4' or whatever would have been much on account of function multiplicity, control
clearer. Right up to the close, one or two layout and inevitably high price- around
desultory- looking characters could still be $74 000 for a 32/32 with equivalent to 32
The tenth exhibition took observed wandering around in circles. There monitor channels. The system organisation
place on June 17 and 18 was a considerable groundswell of opinion that relies on full -scale use of fet switching matrices
at the Connaught Rooms, the opening hours, particularly on the first day, to elect the individual operational status of the
London. should have been extended to 2100h or even input channels from four options correspond-
later with the kick -off put back to about 1100h. ing to the usual mic/machine /monitor etc. It
While some members of the APRS committee becomes a very simple matter to monitor sync
might have a certain amount of spring in their on some channels while going from mic to
step at nine in the morning, the majority of the machine input on others at the push of a single
recording industry, including this one, would button-no patch overdubs. The channel
much rather still be in bed in keeping with panning facilities are extensive with normal
the nocturnal species that we are. A re- odd /even pan for the 32 channel routing;
arrangement of hours would probably be channels also incorporate a full quad position-
welcomed by most of the exhibitors since many ing module with outputs to a quad buss for
were up late the night before trying to put a use in mixdown and monitoring. The vca
signal on group 13 /drinking. Roughly the faders serve three basic requirements for the
same things are going for a later start on the desk. A thumbwheel at the base of each
NCE AGAIN, the amiably parochial nature of last day of the show. channel allows up to nine subgroups using the
the UK recording industry was in evidence In spite of the interest and volume of single voltage buss principle, they fulfil the
at this year's Association of Professional business, the hardware display proved some- normal fader requirements and they offer the
Recording Studios show, the tenth since its thing of a disappointment; there was little that potential for automation organised through a
inception. Business was brisk as was well hadn't been seen last year and what there was central read / write / update / manual control
reflected in the faces of the exhibitors dealing concerned mostly the peripherals. In retro- panel. The channel equaliser section offers
with nearly 2000 visitors (exact figures aren't spect, this might not prove a bad thing as it two band parametric middle plus hi and lo
available at the time of writing). One aspect of indicates a new era of stability and consolida- shelve /pass facilities. An individual solo button
the show that stood out was the obvious over- tion in an industry that has seen much directs the eq -ed output from that channel
seas interest; the chat in the bar, the natural technological development in the past few direct to the monitors for a -b comparison.
focal point of APRS shows, and the occasional years. Perhaps this could form part of the It could be that quite a few people missed
hand waving on the stands was distinctly cos- incentive for studios to lay hard cash on even out on the MCI demonstration staged at the
mopolitan, mostly pertaining to upward busi- more tracks and automated, wide desks which Kenilworth Hotel of the new JH -500 desk
ness trends first noticeable at the Zurich AES form part and parcel, knowing that future destined for installation at Gus Dudgeon's
earlier this year. There seemed to be no special updates will be far away. However, it would studio, Surrey. It featured the big, beautiful
bias but spread right across the board from have been interesting to see operational auto- and comprehensive console lashed up to an
sound re- inforcement to many multitracks. mation systems; although Neve provided a MCI 24 track with the whole put through
Concerning the show modus operandi, the videotape display up the road, it wasn't the Crown amps into JBL monitors. Despite the
revised layout of the exhibition, made necessary same thing as getting to kick the tyres. vc faders, quad mixdown buss and the work
due to fire damage in the main hall, caused One of the exhibits not included in the on the system to the early hours of the morning,
much dark muttering from the visitors tramp- STUDIO SOUND preview (July p42) was a very quite a few snags hit the operation. It was no

Left: Example
from Trident
Fleximix
range

Right: Tweed
1212portable
mixer
54 STUDIO SOUND, AUGUST 1976
reflection on the equipment, however. You
can't expect to set up 24 tracks in rather less
hours without hitches. In any case, Dag
Feiner, the UK MCI supremo, lashed so many
Harvey Wallbangers (one part Galliano, two
parts vodka and three parts orange juice) that
it didn't even matter when some bright spark
decided to play the master the wrong way up
-nobody really noticed.
Still on the topic of new style consoles,
Raindirk introduced their Quantum expandable
mixing system offering 24 channel mix, remix,
jumping and overdub much in the organisa-
tional style of American counterparts -except
in terms of price. The basic premise is to put
Channel plus masters on 56
Harrison console.

Now relax, playfully invite your muse, and transform these trackt.,
adding body, stereo perspective, flanging, and a host of other time -base ef-
fects. Since Lexicon introduced digital delay over six years ago, most studios
have come to depend on it at least for doubling and slap. Now, the stereo
102 -S with the new VCO module* produces many other effects, including
more natural double tracking, flanging, vibrato, time delay panning, extreme
pitch modulation, and signal transformation for special effects. Of course,
you can also use the two channels for completely independent processing.
The Lexicon Delta -T has earned an enviable reputation for its 90
dB dynamic range, impeccable audio quality, high reliability, and functional
modularity. All this is retained in the new 102 -S, while two channel operation,
finer delay steps (3 ms), and the VCO have been added: Aínd the 102 -S is
economical. Its totally modular construction allows you to start with a bare
bones mono system and expand later as needs and budget grow. We'll help
you define the configuration you need to get started. Call or write Lexicon
for further information.
Write on your letterhead for AN -3, Studio
Applications of Time Delay.
F.W.O. Bauch, Ltd. 49 Theobald St., Boreham Wood /Herts
WDG 4R2, Telephone 0I -953 0091. Waltham
*The new VCO module also fits any 102 -B or C Massachusetts 02154 USA
mainframe to enhance its time -base signal processing capability.
 APRS REPORT

as much as possible on the desk at channel

level. This includes individual monitor /mix-
down quad busses, standard routing and push-
buttons to decide the status of the channel-
record, overdub, track jump and remix.
Naturally, this requires the use of separate
quad panning and many ancillary status
controls but it really does help operationally,
particularly in respect of overdub and mix -
down. Apparent simplicity might disguise the
potential of the thoughtfully-designed eq
section. Although incorporating only three
basic sections -high, mid and low -the two
outers can be switched to shelf or bell with
fully-parametric roll /centre frequencies. The
mid range is a straight parametric. All sections K /ark Teknik
feature a variable 'Q' when in the bell mode. DN15
Moreover, the overall desk size is compact; a stereo graphic
basic 40 input model requires only 2.5m. equaliser
Feldon Audio offered effects and sensation incorporates a
seekers a useful line in sound bending -the low level
910 Eventide Harmonizer-first shown at the pre-amp
Los Angeles AES Convention (STuoto SOUND,
July p58). The APRS demonstration featured
an a/b comparison between the input /output
signal sourced from microphone into head-
People
phones. It amply showed the potential of the and
instrument in terms of harmonising an input products
signal without creating dissonances (it keeps on the
fundamental frequency components to the Bauch
original ratio despite upward and downward stand.
key shifts). The input rhythm is maintained in

realtime. Employing the re-circulation feature

enabled an interesting demonstration of decay
There are of input signal accompanied by a rise or fall
in the decay pitch. STUDIO SOUND hopes to
review the Harmonizer in a later issue.
25 Radio Production Companies The other effects unit producing floccillation
among the visitors was the EMT multimode
digital reverb first shown at the Zurich AES
in The Creative Handbook (STUDIO SOUND May, p42). For those who
didn't get it the first time round, the all
electronic £6000 unit offers a digital delay line
which forms the basis for a random reverbera-
tion generator (as in echo plate), repeat and
decay (as in high speed Revox), Haas effect
generator (as in Cooper time cube), and one
shot echo/adt (as in delay line etc). The
various subtleties are achieved by pseudo-
random and straight digital re- circulation back
into the delay line. Naturally with so many
functions, the unit is programmable over a
very wide range of delay and decay times
which can be set in real time, or set up and
punched in to cue from a previous setting
combination.
But then the voice came over the pa `15
minutes to close'. People forgot their heavy
lunches and once more spiralled to the top
floor, anxious not to miss anything. They then
went back to the bar only to find the glasses
washed and the bar staff gone. The visitors
drifted downstairs and got tangled up with
white -coated men grunting and sweating over
immovable multitrack machines trapped in

Useful isn't it! lifts. After extrication, it was once more over
to the pub for the second time that day and the
end of another show, leaving a melee of
For more information telephone 240 0856 removal vans and a bit more hope for next
year.
56 STUDIO SOUND, AUGUST 1976
CALREC MICROPHONES
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Wide range of loudspeaker units and crossovers in stock

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the 201 is something

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SOUND The M 201 Hypercardioid moving coil
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IN
'76
Specifications:
Frequency Response: 40 -18000 Hz.
Output Level at 1 kHz: 0,14 mV/µ bar
!' -56 dbm (0 dbm 1 mW/10
dynes /cm2). EIA Sensitivity Rating:
Excellent performance, ruggedly reliable and economically -149 dbm. Hum Pickup Level:
priced, what could be more sensible these days. A demonstration 5 V/5 l' Tesla (50 Hz). Polar Pattern:
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Connections: M 201 N (C) - Cannon
XLR -3 -50 T or Switchcraft: 2 +3 =
LEEVERS -RICH (Inc Bias) Equipment Limited, 200 2, 1= ground. M 201 N= 3 -pin
DIN plug T 3262: 1 +3 = 200 2 .

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Weight: 8,60 oz.

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01 -346 4469 1Clair Road, Haywards Heath, Sussex.
Tel:Haywards Heath 51003
57
 measurement modules are available for NAB
effective value, JIS (Japanese) effective value or
CCIR peak -to -peak value. The fourth optional
module, as reviewed here, deals with both the

çeuiews CCIR peak-to -peak measurement and also the

NAB weighted rms measurement by switch
selection of the meter function, with a further
switch providing for weighted or unweighted
measurements.
Fortunately, wow and flutter measurements
are one of the few audio measurements which
are subject to standardisation so far as the
measuring instruments are concerned, and the
comments in this review are based upon British
Leader " Standard 4847:1972, German Standard DIN
45507, CCIR Recommendation 409 -I, all of
LFM 37 which agree in general. These are the basis of
the proposed IEC standard for wow and flutter
wow and measurement to the quasi -peak method, and
also on the American NAB Standard 'Tape
flutter S Recording and Reproducing (Reel -to-Reel)'
which, in essence, uses the rms measurement
meter IOW FLUTTER

but the same weighting network as the other

standards above.

Overall construction
It has already been said that the instrument
comprises a main frame and a plug -in wow and
flutter module and the mechanical design of this
facility was excellent, enabling the module to be
changed in a few seconds. The only facilities on
the module supplied were a clearly calibrated
Hugh Ford meter scaled in two ranges of wow and flutter
percentage reading from 0 to I and 0 to 3, a
toggle switch for 'weighted' or 'flat' measure-
ments and a second toggle switch for ' = peak'
MANUFACTURER'S SPECIFICATION or rms metering.
PLUG -IN UNITS
The actual range is controlled by four inter-
37 -UO2 NAB effective value locked press switches on the main frame, which
37 -UO3 JIS effective value For various provide for ranges of 3%, 1%, 0.3% and 0.1%
MAIN FRAME 37 -U04 CCIR peak -to -peak wow and full scale meter deflection. A second clearly
Input characteristics value flutter
Frequency: 3 kHz 10 37 -U05 JIS and CCIR values, Icharacteristics.
calibrated meter on the main frame is used for
Voltage range: 15 mV- 10V rms. switch selection J
drift measurement, and this is a centre zero
Impedance: over 100k ohms; unbalanced. 1) Each plug -in is provided with a switch for meter with ranges 110 and ±3 which operate
Measuring Ranges weighted or flat response operation. in conjunction with a second set of four inter-
Wow and flutter: 0.1 ",,, 0.3 ",,, and 3 ",,. " 2) The weighted characteristic meets with the locked press switches. These give full scale
"
1

Drift: 1 ",,, 3 and 10 referred to 3 kHz at standards of CCIR REC 409 -1, JIS C 5551 and drift ranges of ±10 %, ±3 % and ± % and a
1

0 ",,, and 1 ",, 30 Hz. NAB. 'zero adjust' drift calibration function which
Accuracy : within 5 ",; of end of scale value. 3) Meter Calibration. The meter indication charac-
operates in conjunction with the internal
Wow and Flutter Scope Output teristic depends on the mode in use: rms
Frequency response: -3 dB: 0.2 - 250 Hz. (effective) -Sneed of response is 2.5 _0.5s after oscillator and a front panel 'zero adjust'
Output voltage: 1V at full scale of each range. the application of the input signal to potentiometer.
Output impedance: 1k ohm approximately. reach the 95% value. Signal input is by means of two terminals/
Reference Oscillator Peak -in accordance with CCIR REC 409 -1. banana sockets on the front panel, with an
Frequency: 3 kHz: accuracy within Rms, NAB -effective value of a sine wave. adjacent indicator lamp illuminated when an
Output voltage: 0.5V ±-0.3V rms. Price: main frame £265.20 without plug -in. Plug -ins: adequate signal of the correct frequency is
Output impedance: less than 5k ohms. 37 -UO2 £93.80. 37 -U05 £113.30, 37 -U06 £206.80. applied to the input. The remaining front panel
Distortion: less thin 2 ",;, Manufacturer: Leader Electronics Corporation, facility is the power on /off switch and an
Power supply: 100, 115 or 230V as specified, Tsunashima Higashi, Kohoku -Ku, Yoko-
2-6-33
hama, Japan. adjacent neon power indicator.
50160 Hz; 15 VA including plug -in unit.
On the rear panel, there are two further pairs
Size and weight: 200 (H) x 270 (W) x 200 (D) mm; UK agent: C. Hammond & Co Ltd, Chertsey
5.5 kg approximate.
E. 111 of terminals /banana sockets which, like the
Road, Byfleet, Surrey.
front panel pair, are on the standard 19.1 mm
spacing and in this instance provide the 3 kHz
R SOME reason which have never under- cope with all the generally accepted wow and
1
oscillator output and also a 'scope' output for
stood there has always been a lack of choice flutter measurement standards and, further- examination or analysis of the unweighted wow
of wow and flutter meters, and so far as the more, because it uses plug-in modules the cost and flutter spectrum.
British market is concerned, most engineers of measuring to unwanted standards is not The rear panel also incorporates the fixed
would be hard put to think of more than two involved. two core power lead which can be wound on to
available makes. Outside Europe there are a The instrument comprises a main frame a cable retainer when not in use, and a power
number of rms measuring instruments to be which includes the power supplies and a drift fuse holder which is of the non -metric type and
found, but these do little to help measurements measurement facility in addition to a fixed is not identified with the required fuse rating.
to quasi -peak weighted standards which are frequency 3 kHz oscillator. Five different The cabinet, which is painted grey, has a
common in Europe and are now rapidly modules are available to plug into this main functional appearance and is provided with a
becoming international. frame, four of which cope with wow and flutter good carrying handle and substantial feet.
The Leader instrument under review is the measurement, the fifth offering low frequency However, there is no tilting foot which would
first instrument- to my knowledge. which can analysis for wow and flutter. Individual be a useful addition when the instrument is
58 STUDIO SOUND, AUGUST 1976
operated at bench level. Internal inspection of
the main frame showed that all the electronic
components were, effectively, housed on four
printed circuit boards of reasonable quality and
that the wiring was generally tidy but not to the

ourDo1bg A'
highest standards. No component identifica-
tions were printed on the boards, and the service
manual, while it included circuits, did not
include board layouts which would assist with
servicing. However, the manual was compre-
hensive and well written.
The electrical safety aspects on the main
frame caused particular concern, to the extent
that the review sample was positively danger-
and eliminate
ALL the hiss
ous: this was the result of the clearance between
the end contact on the power fuseholder and
the shell of the power transformer being too
small, to the extent that twisting the fuse holder
cap could short the power supply to the chassis !

Further inspection showed that the following

clearances between the incoming power and the
chassis or parts connected thereto would fail to
comply with British safety standards: (1)
Power switch contacts to body. (2) Power
between pins on the module connector. (3)
Possibly power around the neon power indi-
cator. Clearly the manufacturer must modify
the instrument for improved safety, for samples
similar to the review sample are definitely
dangerous.
While the printed boards in the main frame
were retained by a clamp, the three boards in
the plug-in had no retainer and were found to be
almost out of their sockets upon receipt of the
instrument -this requires attention, but in
other respects there was no cause for complaint
about the construction of the plug -in module.

Oscillator
While none of the measurement standards
specify oscillator performance, it is, of course,
ith the new
dbx 1(9-22 caul
important that it should be free from deficien-
cies which would appear as wow, flutter or
drift. Measurement of oscillator frequency
showed that from turn -on, the drift was less
than 0.01 % which is more than adequate and

noise reduction
furthermore the frequency was completely
unaffected by power line voltage even down to
less than 200V when operated on the 230V
nominal transformer tapping.
However, the nominal oscillator frequency
is 3 kHz (which was exact on switch-on) which
complies with the NAB standard but does not
meet the requirements of the other standards
which call for a carrier frequency of 3.15 kHz.
Really the instrument should include both
frequencies, more will be said of this problem.
changes
Ste It's a direct plug -in replacement for
the Dolby "A" CAT -22 card. It inter-
instantly with no adjustments. It gives you the flexibility to use both
dbx and Dolby "A" formats with your existing Dolby main frame. It provides more
The oscillator output voltage was found to be than 30dB noise reduction and 10dB extra headroom. It eliminates the hiss which
410 mV from a source impedance of 1005 ohms, remains with Dolby "A ". It gives greater than 100dB dynamic range. It requires
both of which will deal with most measurement no level match tones. It's affordable. It costs only $250 per channel. or less than
requirements. While the manufacturer specifies half the cost of a free standing noise reduction system. It can go wherever you go in
oscillator distortion, this is really of little its optional Halliburton travel case. It's the new world standard in noise reduction.
practical significance for wow and flutter
measurement; however, it was noted that the
It's available now from your dbx dealer whose name we'll supply along with com-
manufacturer's specification of less than 2 plete product information when you circle reader service number or contact:
was not met because of the high second Dolby is a trade mark of Dolby taboratora.
harmonic content which was measured as
2.7%.

Drift measurement

bx
The necessary input to the instrument to
actuate drift and the wow and flutter sections For complete information, contact
was found to be 14.5 mV over the input fre- Scenic Sounds Equipment,
quency range of 3 kHz ±10 %, under which 27-31 Bryanston Street,
60 )- London W I H 7AB 01-935 -0141.
59
 l FIG. 2 -. - ..--
--_ ::.
-_--
--__.
LEADER LFM 37
WOW AND FLUTTER METER

---_.._-
E_- ..-__::G
--___
mmEEE::
IIrir=JiIflL
_
FREQUENCY RESPONSE

___-__..
--__.MiOM-M---__..
--__...IM
-----^liltlllll `Lr-r2:::-
-_-_-___::--__: --_o
1048
--
---__EEEEEEE_-E.
I-___-
----E_EEEEE--E--_E
--__E::::
--
_-
--MO- ---
--___.
=REVS::
--a_-
-Er-_M-

-:---___::
-N:_---__
--- --__-ti--___
-----__-
==a ---
---_
EEEEEE_---MMEE
-M-:
:
-E-EE____
=-=::::
--M-EE -__:::---_
---__
--_---MMEE
----M--
E-
--_:-s--__-
--___--E-_E:E --_-___-
--------
E-
E-EIMME
---__
EE---E-EMM
E----__
-_--I_:::
E---_E::
E---_E:: E
--_MIME

_I__:: 10 20
11--
E-EEEI_EE
50 00 200
-__::
500 1000
FREBUEHCY IN H

LEADER LFM 37 WOW rms and the ± peak modes of operation at two
AND FLUTTER METER points on each range, the results being excellent,
as is shown in the above table.
Similarly it is quite apparent at the `scope' This accuracy was unaffected by power line
output which has a drive of +1.4V peak for voltage variations down to 200V on the 230V
full scale deflection of the wow and flutter input setting and was also unaffected by signal
meter, from a source impedance of about input voltage variations in the form of pulses
1000 ohms. Loading of this output has no or hum as specified by the wow and flutter
effect upon the meter and the output is always meter standards.
unweighted such that frequency analysis of the As called for by the quasi-peak measurement
output shows the predominant wow and flutter standards the instrument was subjected to
products, but does not necessarily reflect the bursts of frequency variations to check the
products which affect the weighted measure- ballistics and rectifier of the meter with the
ments. following results:
Fig. 2 shows the frequency response of the
wow and flutter meter in both the `flat' and the
Burst length 100 ms 60 ms 30 ms 10 ms
`weighted' modes, the response in the latter
mode being within the limits imposed by the Specified indication 100 4 90_6 62±6 21 ±3
Actual indication 103 86 58 22
appropriate standards.
The accuracy of the meter was checked in the
In the rms mode this characteristic is not of
course required, and in the NAB standard an
instrument having the ballistics of a vu meter
Range Indication Actual rms Actual ± peak
Mir 1111 3% 3.03%
0.996%
2.96%
0.981
is called for. The Leader instrument did not
meet this requirement, as in the rms mode the
OM LIN
1

1.009% 0.981 meter was found to be much slower than a vu

meter, the standard 300 ms burst test giving a
MS LIM 0 3
03
0.3%
0.3%
0.1%
0.303%
0.303%
0101°
0-296%
0.296%
0.986
deflection in the order of 40% in lieu of the
required 100 %. However, the rectifier was
-1-111 01 0.1% 0.101% 0.988% satisfactory.
0.03" 0.033% 0032%

Summary
The Leader wow and flutter meter is an
It aum ambitious instrument which sells at a competi-
tive price for its performance, and is clearly an
excellent instrument for most applications.
However the manufacturer must rectify the
serious deficiencies in its electrical safety.
So far as measurement standards are con-
cerned, with the minor exception of the input
impedance, the quasi -peak standards require-
ments are met with ease and, with the exception
of the meter characteristic in the rms mode not
being to the vu meter ballistics, the instrument
also complies with the NAB standard. The

OM UNBEATABLE
PERFORMANCE
problem of the internal oscillator beating with
the incoming signal and giving, a residual low
level wow and flutter can easily be overcome by
disconnecting the internal oscillator during low
Klark TeknikLtd level measurements, but the manufacturer
should do something about this problem.
Summerfield Kidderminster
Worcestershire DY11 7RE In spite of these minor criticisms the Leader
Tel Kidderminster 64027 instrument is generally all that is required for
normal measurements, and furthermore it is
relatively inexpensive.
62 STUDIO SOUND, AUGUST 1976
 Aee`ISMAT
APOLLO ELECTRONICS FRANCE r RADFORD
PROFESSIONAL
audio plug-in units. NOISE
More than 20 models.
Input channel, amplif. MEASUREMENT
Equalizers, compressor,
Expanders, generators,
Line amplifier, etc ... STANDARDS
PERFORMANCE AND for
RELIABILITY AT A
MODERATE COST . . Consumer Audio Equipment
HYBRID MODULES The signal -to -noise ratio in an audio frequency system is con-
24 PINS DIL 33 x 20 x 15mm ventionally measured by noting the signal output voltage at a
defined reference output level and comparing it with the out-
-HM80: general purpose AC put voltage with no signal input. In practical systems the figures
control module (with 32 obtained without bandwidth restriction may be meaningless.
When it is desired to compare one system with another then
applications free) the bandwidth and rolloff characteristics must be specified.
-HM70: low noise 70dB gain Such a characteristic is defined in the DIN specification 45.500
micro preamplifier. April 1975-High Fidelity Standard as 'Audio Band'. It is a
-HM30: Compressor limiter maximally flat band pass filter with 3 dB points at 22 Hz and
22 kHz. The roll -off specified is 36 dB /octave outside the pass
34dB comp. 0.3% THD band. This filter makes no allowance, however, for the charac-
teristics of the ear at perceived noise levels or the irritation
Application data on request/ APRS std 22 factor of the noise itself. The IEC /DIN curve 'A' (also specified
in DIN 45.500) has a 'weighted' frequency response contour
22 RUE STE AMBROISE -PARIS 7501I-FRANCE to correlate the measured signal -to -noise ratio with the aural
effect. Curve 'A' has been in use for some time. Recently a new
weighting characteristic (CCIR) has been introduced which is
said to have a better correlation between the measured signal -
to-noise ratio and the subjective value. It has been widely
accepted and will probably become a world standard for pro-
WILMSLOW fessional use for audio noise measurement.
Meters which respond to peak, average and r.m.s. values of
the waveform are in use. Dolby Laboratories published a report

AUDIO (see below)* in August, 1972, on noise measurement on con-

sumer equipment. It stresses the advantage of the CCIR filter
and the adequacy of an average sensing meter (ordinary milli -
voltmeter) and recommended its standardisation for published
THE Firm for speakers ! specifications on consumer equipment. For those who wish to
use their own millivoltmeter a CCIR filter is now available in
Tannoy - Gauss - Radford - Kef Goodmans -
- addition to the ANM and ANM2 complete noisemeters.
I

Celestion - Fane - Decca - Peerless - Baker, etc. ANMI High Sensitivity Audio Noisemeter, average
sensing
From stock;
ANM2 High Sensitivity Audio Noisemeter, True
RADFORD ZD22 Zero distortion stereo preamp r.m.s. reading
RADFORD HD250 High Definition Stereo amplifier AN Fl Audio Noisefilter, CCIR weighting
RADFORD Low distortion oscillator
Write or telephone for descriptive leaflet and Dolby Labora-
RADFORD Distortion measuring set tories Bulletin 19/2 Noise Measurements on Consumer Equip-
Expected soon: RADFORD ZDI00 and ZD200, 150 ment.*
watt and 250 watt per channel, zero- distortion power
amplifiers!
Radford Laboratory
(Speakers) Wilmslow Audio, Swan Works, Bank
Square, Wilmslow, Cheshire Instruments Ltd
(P.A. etc.) Wilmslow Audio, IO Swan Street, 2HZ,
Wilmslow, Cheshire Ashton Vale Road, Bristol BS3
(Hi -fi etc.) Swift of Wilmslow, 5 Swan Street, Avon
Wilmslow, Cheshire Tel: 0272 -662301
Tel. Wilmslow 29599 (speakers), 26213 (Hi -fi, PA etc.)

63
 Classified Advertisements OWN A MINI NAGRA SN
Then realise its full potential
?

Advertisements for this section trust be pre -paid. The rate is 14p per word, minimum £2.80. Box Nos. 35p
for the first time with the
extra. Semi -display rates on application. Copy and remittance for advertisements in SEPTEMBER 1976
issue must reach these offices by 17th JULY 1976 addressed to: The Advertisement Manager, Studio DOCUMENT SQN CONTROL UNIT
Sound, Link House, Dingwall Avenue, Croydon CR9 2TA.
Note: Advertisement copy must be clearly printed in block capitals or typewritten. Illustrated brochure available from
Replies to Box Nos. should be addressed to the Advertisement Manager, Studio Sound, Link House, Dingwall
Avenue, Croydon CR9 2TA, and the Box No. quoted on the outside of the envelope. The district after Box
sole manufacturer: -
No. indicates its locality. SEX DISCRIMINATION ACT 1975: No job advertisement which indicates or DOCUMENT GROUP LONDON Ltd.
can reasonably be understood as indicating an intention to discriminate on grounds of sex (e.g. by inviting THIRD FLOOR, 8 -12, BROADWICK ST.,
applications only from males or only from females) may be accepted, unless (1) the lob is for the purpose of LONDON, W1V 1FH.
a private householder or(2) it is in a business employing less than six persons or (3) it is otherwise excepted Telephone: 01 -437 4526/7.
from the requirements of the Sex Discrimination Act. A statement must be made at the time the advertise- Cables: FILMDOC LONDON W1 England.
ment is placed saying which of the exceptions in the Act is considered to apply.

*Audiofact No. 1! You can build 8 Cathedral

Complimiters into your mixer for less than the
STUDIO FACILITIES cost of the one medium price competitor -and
they perform. We also manufacture a range
of high quality audio modules. S.a.e. details.
Cathedral Sound, Fourways, Morris Lane,
Roger Squiic Studios
DJ IMPROVEMENT COURSESRADIO COURSES
Halsall, Lanes L39 8SX. Tel. Halsall (0704)
840328.
*Disc- cutting styli for all types of mono and
X
stereo disc- cutting heads. Heater windings
JINGLES SERVICERADIO AUDITION TAPES fitted, relapping and specials. County Record-
ing Service, London Road, Binfie!d, Bracknell,
55 Charlbert St, London, NW8 6JN. Tel. 01 -722 8111. Berks. Tel. Bracknell 541935. X

WO L L E N S A K 27 7 0A V
*Your Tapes to Disc, Mono or Stereo cutting.
Vinylite pressings, Sleeves /Labels. Top pro-
CASSETTE FAST -COPIER
SCS Appointed Main Dealers fessional quality. S.A.E. for photo leaflet. FOR SALE
Demonstrations Personal Service Maintenance Deroy Records, "Eastwood ", Cove, Dun -
Cassette Fast-Copying-Short or Long Runs bartonshire, Scotland. X
Full Information on Request
Stereo Disc Cutting Lathe and
SOUND CASSETTE SERVICE (SS!)
PO Box 2, Gerrards Cross, Bucks SL9 REG Sl
DIN TEST RECORDS associated equipment
Tel. 02813 84409 Small supplies now in stock
1 DIN 45541 (Frequency) DIN 45542 (Distortion) ilk
s DIN 45543 (Cross Talk) DIN 45544 (Rumble)
*Custom Pressings. High quality pressings and DIN 45545 (Wow and Flutter)
E5 each and VAT S
£3,750
demo's manufactured from your tapes in our LENNARD DEVELOPMENTS LTD 1
own record pressing plant and disc- cutting 1 206 Chase Side, Enfield EN2 OHX
studio, speedy delivery and very competitive Telephone: (01) 363-8238/9 for further details write to Box No
prices. For further details contact Anglia !iilxi.i41wiAmiri.iiiii ...A 740
Pressings, 112 Beach Road, Scratby, Great
Yarmouth. X *J & B Recordings. Tape ta disc. I2in. L.P.
£4.00. 7in. 45 r.p.m. LI .80. E.P. £2.00. Pressings *Tape Ex-recording studios. Type BASF
-stereo /mono. Tape copying. 14 Willows LR56. 7" reel 60p, 5" reel 35p. Also 3" reels of
ALLINGTON AUDIO Avenue, Morden, Surrey. 01 -648 9952. X scotch tape 10p. Remittance with orders to
DEVELOPMENTS *Fanfare Records. Tape - disc pressings, M. D. Foster, Huyton Fold House, Blackrod,
Manufacturers of MIXERS, modular desk and transport- demo's, masters, any quantity. Studio/mobile Bolton, Lancashire. P. &. P. 40p per order.
H
able. Comprehensive facilities available. Write for
quote on your requirements.
MICROPHONE AMPLIFIERS balanced /P. f20 plus
VAT. See June issue or write for details.
I

-
Neumann disc cutter. S.A.E. brochure. 1
Broomfield Close, Rydes Hill, Guildford. Tel.
0483 61684. X
; .m..i 411Iiiii4
Creative Equalisation cannot be accurately yet
794A2 Mansfield Road, Nottingham NG5 3GG. arbitrarily adjusted with a few pre- determined
-
1
switch positions. There are just too many variables
SERVICES to consider area resonance, environmental
1 factors, phasing effects, feed back and many others
FERROGRAPH SALES UHER *R. Beaumont, specialist audio repairs and with differing characteristics.
If you need 3dB of equalisation at 6,510 Hz, for
Philips VCR service, 21 Southway, Ilkley, example, maybe (just maybe), you can switch in
1
We are contractors and suppliers of the above equip- West Yorkshire. Tel. 094-33 2026. X 2 or 4 dB at 5000 Hz since they're preset on your
ment to H.M.G. Depts., Broadcasting and Local *One of Europe's most experienced Mobile present equaliser.
specialists: -
Authorities. For competitive quotation contact the

PHOTO ACOUSTICS LIMITED

Recording Teams is available to consult on your
installation, transport and special recording
1 THE PROBLEM IS-YOU ARE NOT SATISFIED
BECAUSE WHAT YOU HEAR IS JUST NOT
RIGHT.
255a St. Albans Road. (Entrance in Judge Street), problems. Tel. John Jacob and Chris Hollebone 1 The solution ? Full range equalisation giving you
WATFORD, Herts. Tel: 32006 (Ex. Granada Recordings, Bob Auger Associ- the right amount at the right frequency for the
precise sound you require. This is the capability
ates, Manor Mobile) on Turville Heath 503. H of Qu Zan Laboratories new parametric equaliser.
The parametric equaliser lets you vary parameters
*Multitrack Mobile /Studio Recording. Pro by ear -accurately and effectively. It combines the
fessional Demos, high quality, low cost. JBL, spectral response of a } octave graphic equaliser
Revox. Quad, AKG. 01 -520 8363. J FOR SALE-TRADE with the rapid access and economy of a "3 knob"
system. You can continuously vary the frequency
from 45Hz to 18 KHz via 4 range controls, boost
* CASSETTE DUPLICATION SOWTER TRANSFORMERS or cut any amount at any frequency centre up to
14dB; and variation of any one control does not

* 8 TRACK STUDIO
FOR SOUND RECORDING AND REPRODUCING EQUIPMENT
We are suppliers to many well -known companies,
studios and broadcasting authorities and were estab-
affect performance of any other; so you needn't
worry about cross compensation.
If you want more than just "good enough" perfor-

i
FOR MUSIC AND SPEECH lished in 1941. Early deliveries. Competitive prices. mance start playing it by ear. Our new parametric
Large or small quantities. Let us quote. equaliser gives you exactly what you are listening 1

West of England Sound Ltd E. A. SOWTER LTD. for. Costs only E35. Power Supply (will operate
Transformer Manufacturers and Designers 1 4 units) 615. HU ZAN LABORATORIES,
14 Swan St. Torquay 7 Dedham Place, Fora Street, Ipswich IJP 32 Royal Avenue, Chelsea, London S.W.3. 1
Tel 0803 28783
:

Telephone 0473 52794

1P4
0i.1 i.¡Er i iIr i11,
AM' AM'i
64 STUDIO SOUND, AUGUST 1976
s
s

**

NEW
FOR SALE -TRADE

CARDINGTON

*0*s
(Continued)
SOWTER TYPE
MULTITAP MICROPHONE TRANSFORMER
3678

Primary windings for 600 ohm, 200 ohm and 60 ohm

with Secondary loadings from 2K ohm to 10K ohm.
Frequency response plus/minus }dB 20 Hz to 25 kHz.
Contained in well finished Mumetal box. 33mm dia-
meter by 22mm high, with colour coded end leads, low
distortion. DELIVERY (small quantities) EX STOCK.
HIGHLY COMPETITIVE PRICE. FULL DETAILS ON
E. A.
IP4 IJP

TRAD
REQUEST
SOWTER LTD, Dedham Place, Ipswich,
Telephone 0473 52794

All Studio Equipment bought and sold.

Dog
See our advertisement on page
House,

PEAK PROGRAMME METER

Cople,
404

Bedfordshire
6.

A PPM drive circuit with standard performance. Manufac-

tured under licence from the British Broadcasting Cor-
e

poration it is based on the ME I2/9 but with the addition of

FOR SALE
Two custom built record presses.
One 12" and one 7"

£5,000
for further details write to Box No
740

*5in. Spools in plain white boxes. Ten for

£1.90 inclusive, all brand new. Richard Dean,
Bo\ No. 731, c/o STUDIO SOUND.

Professional Miniature
E M. Wireless
Microphone

v,040
WANlouse
H

Size only 14 x 10 x 55mm including built -in button type

battery. Not a toy, completely professional with inte-
grated circuit. Works in conjunction with VHF radio.
Picks up minutest sounds clear and audible up to
1,500 feet. Omni -directional. Made to highest standards
by leading Japanese security equipment manufacturers.
Limited quantity only, so order now.
FOR SALE-PRIVATE
*Tandberg 9000X tape recorder. Just over-
hauled by Tandberg. 13 months old. Immacu-
late condition £200 o.n.o. Tel. 01 -624 2971. H
*100 Way Jackfield (5 x 20) £20. 20 way
Jackstrips £3.50, Red domed SBC Lampholder
£1. Mains filter /suppressor, 2 amp£1.35, 5 amp
£3.95. Details 053 -26 83618.
*Lamb 422 4 into 2 mixer. Cost £236. Accept
£160. Nearly new. Power supply £5. Tel.
05234 79597.
*Tannoy Red 12 inch loudspeaker, 15 ohms,
£40 o.n.o.
evenings.
Ring 01 -427 2563 (Harrow)
*AKG Microphones, D224 Es £50 each,
D202Eis £35. D1200e /cs DI2. D200E £25.
Boom stands £5 -£10 . Mr C. Bentley, 4 Newton
Road, Sudbury, Suffolk CO10 6RS.
*Superlative Revox A700. Professional Nab
H

H
unused.

adapters, discounts at £825, will sell for £700.

Pioneer SA 9100 amp with matching TX 9100
tuner, powerful clean sound £185, £125
respectively or £300 together. Everything in
mint condition. Phone 01 -980 7683 evenings.
Ask for Steve.

WANTED
*TEAC 3340 (S) urgently required. Top
prices paid. The Music Lab, 01- 346 4469. H
*All Revox tape recorders urgently required.
Top prices paid. The Music Lab. 01- 346 4469.

Any condition acceptable. Box No. 738 c/o

STUDIO SOUND.
*All Nagra equipment urgently required for
H
*Grampian or B.B.C. type cutterheads required.
H

L
cash. J. J. Francis (W.G.) Ltd., Manwood
our electronic floating input circuitry which will with- OUR PRICE E39.95 +I2p p & p
stand mains or static voltages on the signal line. House, Matching Green, Harlow, Essex CM 17
Intended for use in the most critical monitoring applica- Not licensable for use in UK ORS. Tel. Matching 476. X
tions it possesses excellent temperature and long term C.W.O., C.O.D., Access or Barclaycard
stability. Meeting BS4297, the proposed revision of BS4297
and the proposed new IEC Type 2 meter specification, it SONOBE (Dept. SS)
also fulfils the requirements of the IBA, EBU and BPO. 36 Rosebury Square, London ECI
The circuit board is designed to mount on the rear of the
meter movement and it accepts balanced or unbalanced
SITUATIONS VACANT
signal inputs at line level. The sensitivity may be increased
by 20dB and the supply requirement is 24V at 30mA, either
polarity or earth free.
ERNEST TURNER 642, 643 and twin meter movements
SALE
stocked with /7 and -22/ +4 scalings.
I CONTENTS OF 16 TRACK STUDIO EXPERIENCED
STEREO DISC AMPLIFIER including: Tape recorders, Mixing con-
Superlative performance for broadcasting, disc monitoring
and transfer. Magnetic cartridge to balanced lines with HF
soles, Microphones, Reverberation de- RECORDING ENGINEER
and LF filtering. Mains powered. Meets IBA specification. vices, Dolbys, Compressor / Limiters,
Reviewed Studio Sound, March 1976. required for busy 16 -track West London
Delay units, Grand piano, Microphone studio. Essential qualifications:
10- OUTLET DISTRIBUTION AMP stands, etc.
A new approach, using one massive transformer with I. Familiarity with commercial pop
separate secondaries for each balanced output, giving both Viewing by appointment with Malcolm music recording techniques.
AC and DC isolation. This makes for a unit which is attrac-
tively priced compared to individual line driver and trans- Jackson,TheStudios, Rickmansworth, 2. Thorough technical understanding of
former arrangements even if only 2 or 3 outlets are
required. The unit is mains powered, has excellent over- Herts, England recording process.
load and distortion figures and meets the IBA 'signal path' Tel. Rickmansworth 09237 -72351 The ability to read music is desirable
requirements. As a complete unit or a set of all parts
excluding the case and XLR connectors. Telex 262284 Ambsdr G but not essential.
Ring or write for leaflet with specifications and photo-
graphs. Phone: 01 -994 3811
SURREY ELECTRONICS
The Forge, Lucks Green, Cranleigh, Surrey RAC MIXERS
GU6 7BG (STD 04866) 5997
Custom -built mixers for groups, P.A., hospital broad-
casting, recording, discos, etc.
__ __. l
PROFESSIONAL REPAIR SERVICES
Repairs, overhauls, etc., to Ferrograph, Revox,
Tandberg, Uher, 8 and 16mm Projectors and other A/V
RAC plug -in audio modules for building your own
mixers.
RAC power amplifiers for P.A. etc.
ENERGETIC YOUNG DOGSBODY ,
equipment. Maintenance and quantity quotations to with some electronics training (or better,
Dealers for a wide range of quality audio equipment.
Educational or Industrial users. experience!) required as assistant in
APRS manufacturing members.
PHOTO ACOUSTICS LIMITED maintenance department in enterprising
255a St. Albans Road, (Entrance in Judge Street), y RUGBY AUTOMATION CONSULTANTS recording studio. An exacting position LI
WATFORD, Herts. Tel: 32006 19 Freemantle Road, Billon, Rugby,
Warwickshire CV22 7 H Z with good prospects for an intelligent
Tel. 0788-810877 (Rugby) and conscientious person. CONTACT
*Revox and Teac Sales and Service. Mos
models from stock. Immediate delivery. The
Coll, write or phone us ROB HAGGAS 01 -586 1271

Music Lab. 01- 346 4469. H U

65
 OPPORTUNITIES SITUATIONS -WANTED *Hard working young man requires position as
trainee sound or lighting engineer in studio,
*Hard working experienced (22) seeks position broadcasting or theatre. Anything considered.
as trainee tape op /ass. engineer. England or Paul Field, "Greygables ", Sutton Road,
Ireland. Box No. 737, c/o STUDIO SOUND. H Somerton, Somerset. H
Record Company spending over £20,000 per
year in studio time, looking for purchase or
participation in 16/24 track recording studio.
INDEX TO ADVERTISERS
Abbey Road Studios .. 37 Leevers -Rich (inc Bias Electronics) 57
REPLY BOX NO. 739 Acoustical Mfg. Co. Ltd.. . 43 Lexicon Inc. 55
Alice (Stancoil) Ltd. 4 Libby's Hi -Fi 33
Allen & Heath Ltd. 23
Apollo Electronics .. 63 Macinnes Labs Ltd. 12
Audio Centre Sheffield .. 4 Magnetic Tapes Ltd. . . 31
Audio Developments Ltd. 13 Mellotronics Ltd. 61
Audix Ltd. .. 32 M.M. Electronics Ltd. 8
Monks, Keith, (Audio) Ltd. 7
THE CITY UNIVERSITY Bauch, F. W. O., Ltd. . 17, 49, 66 Music Lab, The .. . . 57
Beyer Dynamic (GB) Ltd. .. 57 Mustang Communications 61
in association with Bizarre Audio .. .. 57
Photokina .. 6
THE GUILDHALL SCHOOL Cadac (London) Ltd. 2 Plasro Plastics 31
Cinesound Int. 52, 53
Radford Lab. Instruments Ltd. 63
OF MUSIC & DRAMA County Recording Service
Cranbourne Assoc. /Audio Design
.. 12 Radio Recordings .. 4
Applications are invited for the Worshipful Com- Recording . 68 Scenic Sounds Equipment 15
pany of Musicians RESEARCH STUDENTSHIP IN Creative Handbook 56 Sescom Inc. 31
ELECTRONIC MUSIC Shure Electronics Ltd. 27
Applicants, who should have a good honours DBX .. 59 SIS Ltd. .. .. 12
degree in a related subject, will be expected to
register for the degree of Master of Philosophy of Eastlake Audio . between 50 & 51 Soundcraft Electronics 61
the University.
Exposure Electronics 60 Squire's, Roger 45
The subject of the research may be chosen from the Sun Recording Services 4
whole field of electronic music, ranging from Surrey Electronics 60
research into composition to research into the Feldon Audio Ltd. 8
technical aspects of electronic music studios. An Future Film Developments 51
Tannoy .. 5
interest in the digital processing of sounds and the
development of digital studio techniques would be Hill, Malcolm, Associates 41 Trad Sales and Service 6
welcomed.
H.H. Electronic .. 21 Trident Audio Developments Ltd. 29
Further information from the Tweed Audio Electronics 33
Head of Music, The City University, Ind Tape Applications 9, 10, 11
Ward -Beck Systems Ltd. .. 67
St John Street, London ECI V 4PB .. Wilmslow Audio ..
Klark Teknik Ltd. 62 63

Sales En g ineers Later thisproducts

year shall adding to our
one of the worlds best known
by
we be sales
programme a range of Hi -Fi and Semi -Professional
manufacturers of Audio Equipment.
We are therefore presently interviewing sales engineers with experience in the Hi -Fi Market for
both in -house and travelling positions.
Applicants should enclose a brief CV. and indicate the area of occupation in which they are
interested.

ServiceIngineers
Due to the expansion outlined above and the
recent completion of our new extended laboratories, we are seeking service engineers for our
entire range of audio products. A good understanding of tape recorders and audio equipment is
essential.

Applications in writing please to:- F.W.O. Bauch Limited

The Managing Director,
49 Theobald Street, Boreham Wood,
Hertfordshire , WD6 4RZ
Tel 01953 0091 Telex :27502
:

Published by the Proprietors, Link House Publications Limited, 10 -12 South Crescent, Store Street, London W.C.1, and Printed by Arthurs Press Limited, Woodchester,
Stroud, Glos. GL5 5PB.
Ward -Beck at the XXI Olympiad

The XXI Olympiad, a dedication to Ward -Beck is proud to have been

excellence within the framework of chosen by Canadian Broadcasting
competition. A challenge for the ath- Corporation to supply WBS 75046
letes. A challenge for the supporting Mobile Audio Consoles to broadcast
communications equipment. the 1976 Olympic Games to the world.

Tomorrow's Technology Today.

Ward -Beck Systems Ltd., 841 Progress Avenue, Scarborough, Ontario, Canada M1H 2X4
Telephone (416) 438 -6550. Telex 06 -23469
 CONSULTING ELECTRONIC ENGINEERS
Analogue, Digital and Video Equipment Design
Systems Specification, Installation, Commissioning and Maintenance
for
Recording Studios, Theatre, Broadcasting and OEM
Phone Reading (0734) 861088

CRANBOURNE ASSOCIATES (ELECTRONICS) LTD., CRANBOURNE HOUSE, SHINFIELD ROAD, READING, RG2 9BE

/
audio &design recording

SCAM P
REGD. TRADEMARK

You saw it at APRS '76

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now TRY it !
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arSt.Michaels,Shinfield Road, Reading, Berks, U.K

Tel. Reading (0734) 84487