American Band movie--a question about it

[DonnyL]

Sorry to resurrect this old thread, but I was researching some info on 3M M23 recorders, and this thread popped up !

In any case, did we ever come to any conclusions here?  Western had an 8-track Scully 280 in '66, so did we agree Brian probably rented it from Heider?  And was Pet Sounds mixed at Columbia in one session?  Maybe there is no way to know the answers

Incidentally, I recently acquired a Scully 280 4-track myself (doing my best to imitate Brian circa '66):

[Andrew G. Doe]

Sorry to resurrect this old thread, but I was researching some info on 3M M23 recorders, and this thread popped up !

In any case, did we ever come to any conclusions here?  Columbia had an 8-track Scully 280 in '66, so did we agree Brian probably rented it from Heider? 

According to Bruce (a Columbia staff producer), Columbia's 8-tracks were cobbled together by the company's engineers from spare Ampex parts.

[DonnyL]

Sorry to resurrect this old thread, but I was researching some info on 3M M23 recorders, and this thread popped up !

In any case, did we ever come to any conclusions here?  Columbia had an 8-track Scully 280 in '66, so did we agree Brian probably rented it from Heider?  

According to Bruce (a Columbia staff producer), Columbia's 8-tracks were cobbled together by the company's engineers from spare Ampex parts.

Yeh, I think that's more or less true; they were 354 electronics with (I think) 300 transports.

Sorry, I meant Western, not Columbia! (the Scully 280).  I corrected the post.

I think we raised a lot of great questions in this thread ... but few real explanations !

[DonnyL]

Oh, and I looked at the photo of Brian w/ the Scully at home in '66, and it looks like it's was a playback deck (no sync), but I can't tell for sure.  Which would fit with Carl's "playback room" quote.  Which essentially means most likely nothing was recorded there.  It also appears that he's playing just 2 tracks in the photo, not 4.

[Iron Horse-Apples]

Fantastic machine Donny I'd be very interested to hear about recording with this.

What sort of tape are you using?

What is the sound quality like?

Did you need to work on it, what condition was it in?

And anything else you can tell us.

I would also love to hear recordings when you have completed some.

Congratulations on your new baby!

[Aegir]

how much did that cost??

[DonnyL]

Fantastic machine Donny I'd be very interested to hear about recording with this.

What sort of tape are you using?

What is the sound quality like?

Did you need to work on it, what condition was it in?

And anything else you can tell us.

I would also love to hear recordings when you have completed some.

Congratulations on your new baby!

thank you ...

I don't have any recordings from this machine finished up yet.  I have about 5 songs in the can for a new project.

My site for my music is http://trounrecords.bigcartel.com.  You can google 'magic hero vs. rock people' to find some sound clips as I've deleted all the normal Facebook/Myspace/Bandcamp things as an 'anti-promotion' thing.  but there are some sound clips online here and there.  These recordings were made with similar equipment ... no computers.

But this Scully 4-track sounds much better than the 8-track Teac 80-8 I had been using!  All was mixed to an Ampex 440 (mono) as well.

I used primarily old tape, the formula I mix to is Scotch 203 from the '60s.  For the Scully, I use NOS Scotch 206 or 207.  I'm still experimenting with different tape types.  The new stuff is good but doesn't quite have the same vibe as the old stuff.  206 has had more dropouts than I'm used to with repeated passes on the same tape, so we'll see how the 207 holds up.

I was very lucky with this machine.  I bought it from a studio closeout sale in San Francisco.  The guy didn't really think it was working, but I bought it anyway.  After testing it out, everything works fairly well.  Of course, these old decks have their quirks and little 'ghosts' that pop up here and there.

I would describe the sound as warm, thick & punchy.  This model has mike preamps built in as well, which sound very good.  I like this a little better than the Ampex 440, but they are similar in sound and make a good match.  The Ampex transport seems slightly gentler on the tape.

My technique for recording thus far has been to fill the initial 4-tracks, mix those to the Ampex while adding a 5th part live, then dub that back to one track on the Scully.  Then overdub on the remaining 3-tracks, bouncing as needed.  Final mix to the Ampex.

I believe this is the same model deck they played back the SMiLE masters to for the box set (I saw it in one of the promo videos at Linett's place).

[DonnyL]

how much did that cost??

$800 plus about $75 to hire some help to move it.