Early BB recording equipment

[Andrew G. Doe]

If you ever wondered - and I'm sure you have - exactly what the tape recorder in Hite Morgan's living room looked like, well, wonder no more. 

http://analogrules.com/Gallery/Ampex-200

Sometimes the internet just blows my fucking mind...

[yrplace]

Andrew ,

Are you sure Hite Morgan had an Ampex 200 in his home? That was a very large and seriously expensive deck back then and while it might have been in the studio that Morgan used to record the Beach Boys I would be surprised if he had one at home.

Now an Ampex 600 would be more like it. A pro deck of lesser quality that was portable but still used for quite a few early rock and other recordings. Bob Keane once told me how that was the deck he used to record Richie Valens at Bob's home before taking the tapes to Goldstar and doing overdubs.

Let me know where you got the info. about the 200.

Mark

[Andrew G. Doe]

Mark, Tim White mentions it was an Ampex 200 in his book, and yes, once I saw how big it was, I began to wonder - I was expecting something the size of Brian's legendary Wollensak, and to be honest, the sound quality of the 'living room' songs on the  Lost & Found compilation are more like a domestic machine than what the 200 obviously is (as a sidenote, Bruce Botnick recorded The Doors on a modified Ampex 200 !).

'Course, as it was a 1948 model, is it possible Hite got it second hand ? In 1961 it would have been over 12 years old.

I'm thinking a guy we really need to track down and interview is Bruce Morgan.

[yrplace]

I would be suspect of anyone but the actual engineer writing about recording equipment. For example in the recent "Studio Stories" book even tho the author interviewed me about the BB's recordings and used a few quotes, he showed several pictures of Brian at CBS and said they were from Western St 3. The studios were so totaly difft. and the author could have easily checked but he didn't. Likewise in the new Spector bio "Tearing Down the Wall of Sound" the author makes numerous mistakes about the studio including saying that "River Deep Mt. High" was  cut at Goldstar when in fact it was A&M which imo is significant because it certainly hurt the sound of that recording doing the record there instaed of at Goldstar.

I doubt that Bruce Morgan would have the answer about the Ampex 200 and btw I'm not certian that Botnick recorded the Doors on a 200 either.
The Doors first album was recorded on 1/2" - 4 track most likely a Scully 280, but that's one I can actually check. Unless they modified a 200 for stereo which is unlikely (and they most certainly didn't modify one for 4 track) , I doubt that machine was in use at Sunset Sound for any of the doors albums. Starting with Strange Days the albums were at least 8 track btw.

Mark

[Andrew G. Doe]

I doubt that Bruce Morgan would have the answer about the Ampex 200 and btw I'm not certian that Botnick recorded the Doors on a 200 either.
The Doors first album was recorded on 1/2" - 4 track most likely a Scully 280, but that's one I can actually check. Unless they modified a 200 for stereo which is unlikely (and they most certainly didn't modify one for 4 track) , I doubt that machine was in use at Sunset Sound for any of the doors albums. Starting with Strange Days the albums were at least 8 track btw.
Mark

That's what i thought (having written a book on said band last century), but on a website I wound up at yesterday, it was stated that Bruce recorded The Doors on a modified 200... um, actually, I misread it slightly - he used the 200 for echo. Here's the site -

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/dec03/articles/classictracks.htm?print=yes

[yrplace]

Ahh used for reverb delay....sure that would make sense.

[Andrew G. Doe]

It's stuff like that that makes me realise exactly how little I know about the actual mechanics of recording. Thanks for taking the time to put us straight, Mark.

[absinthe_boy]

I notice in that brochure they attempt to give the story of how Bing Crosby started to record his radio show on tape...and they completely miss the bit about how Ampex basically copied a German machine shipped over by a US soldier!

You can find that on the internet too.

Always interested in recording technology.....

[Andrew G. Doe]

I recall a bit in a book that related how the Allies were going potty trying to work out how the various German orchestras could apparently be in two places at the same time.

[absinthe_boy]

There are a few web pages out there, one of which contains much information written by the American soldier who dismantled and shipped a Magnetophon piece by piece back home...it was his machine that Bing Crosby first viewed.

As I understand it the main technology used for recorded radio shows at the time was 78RPM shellacs, which had a run time of around 15 mins maximum and of course limited frequency response and dynamic range. The allies were amazed at the quality of the German broadcasts at odd hours like 2am, and at first figured that if Hitler wanted the Berlin Symphony Orchestra to play live at 2AM then of course the orchestra would....but then the same performance would be heard an hour later...a day later...week later...so it had to be recorded...

What they were hearing were the first tape recorded broadcasts, and when they finally got into the Berlin radio station and found two Magnetaphons they finally understood...at least the engineers among the soldiers understood.

Great as Ampex's achievement was in making their version and arranging with 3M to produce tape (up to then only IG-Farben / BASF could)....they didn't invent the thing. I believe it was Telefunken who did most of the work with the aforementioned chemical company.

Bing Crosby had two early tape recorders, for editing purposes. The radio people didn't trust tape at first so he had to dump his final edit onto two 78's for broadcast...but even then the sound was much better than if he'd edited with the 78RPM discs...the generational degredation of shellac discs is pretty grim...