11th February 2003 - Recording - Mixing Art and Science

On Tuesday 11th February, Richard Millard treated a large turnout to a nicely informal trip through a career in audio recording. In an interesting parallel with the author, he began by describing his first experiences with an acoustic gramophone, being as interested in the workings, as in the music it produced. Experiments with carbon microphones placed in the horn mouth sustained his interest until he was able to use his uncle's cast off Wharefedale corner horn and Decca turntable. Richard admitted to being fascinated by 'Nipper' the dog on the record labels, and by the idea of working at EMI. When the opportunity actually arose, he left his training as an articled clerk and joined G.F. Dutton's team as a junior development engineer, based in Hayes. (The Hayes location was chosen because of a plentiful water supply from artesian wells, necessary for the record producing process.)

Richard showed a picture of the laboratory, in which it was his job to compare EMI recording tape with competitors' products. He recalled that modulation noise stood out as the main difference between tapes, and demonstrated, using tapes from 1954 -2000, how this aspect of tape quality had changed. EMI had also developed their own tape recorders, the famous BTR1/2, and were clearly keen to promote stereo recording through 7.5i.p.s. pre-recorded tapes. Richard played an amazing 1933 stereo tape of Blumlein chatting with the engineers whilst walking around the studio. The so-called Stereosonic domestic system was developed using a new tape deck, the TR50/51, designed around 1955/56, along with hybrid moving-coil/electrostatic speakers systems. The system was even demonstrated in the Royal Festival Hall as a follow-up to the famous Gilbert Briggs monophonic demonstration.

Unfortunately, Stereosonic does not appear to have been a success, as the 1957 catalogue of recordings has no mention of pre-recorded tapes. Richard was keen to work at Abbey Road Studios, but was barred from doing this by Dutton. Instead he moved to 'Recorded Sound' studios, and with very little experience to call upon, began recording a number of famous names, as well as jingles, on Ampex 15in decks with a Vortexion mixer. After EMI, the sound was disappointing, so he began work on improving this, first with loudspeaker changes, and later through the purchase of AKG condenser mics and a Grampian cutter head. This was capable of running at 33rpm, so he was also able to begin cutting LP masters.

After 2 years at Recorded Sound, he felt the need to move on, and joined the fledgling Radio Luxembourg. Again he found the sound quality very poor, and set about making improvements. The Vortexion tape deck responded to EQ 'fiddling' to achieve a 28 - 21k response. The Wharfedale Super12 'full range' drivers were replaced by Tannoy dual concentrics. This, of course, showed up the limitations in the rest of the system, in particular the inadequate microphones. 427 ribbon mics were purchased and with a Vortexion 7.5in tape deck and STC mixer, formed the basis of a portable system on which many of the famous names of the day, such as Ted Heath and Joe Loss, were recorded.

Richard then played an example of a Ted Heath track, once again demonstrating a surprisingly fine quality. He showed a picture of a typical session, emphasising that microphones were kept well away from instruments to preserve tonal accuracy.

The Luxembourg studio was mainly used for voice recording, with most material produced on location. The content was moving more towards pop music, and many well-known groups, such as the Rolling Stones etc. were involved.

Jingles were also a regular feature, and Richard was impressed by the quality of one of these from the Recorded Sound studio. On enquiring, he was told that they had changed their mixer to one designed by a chap called Neve, who built them in his garage. So, in 1967, he obtained one of the early mono mixers from Neve, and a few months later this was converted to stereo.

Again, a demonstration of a recording made via this desk showed the quality being achieved at the time.

After 19 years Luxembourg acquired the old Star Sound studio, which was re-built under Richard's supervision, (with a Neve desk of course), and became Audio International.

Another 19 years on, and with many great recordings behind him, Richard met record producer, John Bayden, and left to set up a location recording unit.

Using a DDA desk and B&W Matrix 3/2 loudspeakers, he has been responsible for the full range of recordings, from soloists to chamber groups, bands to full orchestras.

The lecture was rounded off with a demonstration consisting of a section of West Side Story, repeated four times. After asking whether anyone heard differences between the excerpts (quite a few shaking heads), Richard revealed that we had listened to sources beginning with a B62 deck and ending with a cassette. This was followed by a similar pro-tape demo (with everyone now listening intently) from direct digital, digital via DDA desk, B62 Dolby, B62 non-Dolby, and cassette. This again showed remarkable consistency.

Finally, another excerpt via B62 non-Dolby, B62 Dolby, CD and vinyl, elicited similar responses.

With clearly much more to say, but timing out after two hours, the lecture was reluctantly brought to a close.

John Dibb