AES British Section newsletters
December 2004
Technical Visit - Tuesday 11 January
Alchemy Soho Studios
Alchemy Soho is a combination of audiophile mastering and advanced voice-over facilities that were recently combined at the 29th floor of London's Centre Point building. Although not part of the acoustic environment the spectacular view impresses all clients and visitors. Directors Barry Grint and Rowan Laxton had the idea that it would be better to put a new facility somewhere else than 'another basement in Soho' and the reaction of the industry has borne out their ideas.
The acoustic challenge was considerable, having to isolate between the high level mastering and voice-over rooms, within one floor. In addition, building restrictions added to the complications of the construction. A new acoustic treatment technique has been employed in the mastering rooms to avoid the 'padded crash helmet' feeling whilst not creating flutter echoes that would otherwise be a danger given the restricted ceiling height.
During the visit, the mastering rooms will be demonstrated together with the voice-over suites with their computerised editing facilities. As usual with a technical visit, numbers are limited, so please email/phone if you wish to go on this visit ASAP.
Meeting Report
Technique, Style and Fashion in Recording - Sean Davies, S.W. Davies Ltd
The subject of the December lecture to the members of the British Section tracing the development of recording techniques from the earliest acoustic recordings to the present day, was given by Sean Davies.
The first example Sean played was an 1899 recording of a vocalist with piano accompaniment, made in Milan by Fred Gaisberg of the Gramophone Company of London, on a zinc disc, coated with Vaseline, sulphuric acid being used to etch the zinc disc where the Vaseline had been removed. He followed this with a 1901 recording of the same artist, cut using a chisel-shaped cutter and wax in place of zinc, with a noticeable improvement in quality. In 1908 a twin recording horn system was developed and an example of two vocalists using this method was played. A reduction in level was observed as a result of the coupling being less efficient between the two horns and the diaphragm driving the cutter. In Berlin in 1909, the 'Triple Tone System' had been developed to produce recordings '3 times as loud as an ordinary record...!'; the example Sean played did show a marked improvement in clarity over its predecessors. One of the first demonstration recordings issued in 1913 by the Columbia Graphophone Company was quite remarkable for the audio quality of an acoustic recording. In 1923 the Victor Company of New York developed a twin diaphragm sound box system to reduce pressure loss when working with multiple horns. Samples were played of a string quartet using both single and twin box systems with noticeable improvement in clarity from the latter system. A further example of a recording of the Philadelphia Orchestra using the twin box confirmed the benefit of this development.
Sean then played an electrical recording from 1929 made by Duke Ellington and his Cotton Club Orchestra using a single microphone. You could clearly hear the effects of soloists adjusting their position relative to the microphone as well as the recording engineer compensating for changes in level.
He then went on to talk about Abbey Road Studio One and played a 1934 recording of Artur Schnabel playing Beethoven's 'Emperor' Concerto using a single microphone in a parabolic reflector; considering this acted as a high pass filter with quite a sharp cut off, the resulting coloration wasn't as pronounced as expected; the balance between piano and orchestra being very natural. A 1935 E.M.I. recording of Elisabeth Schumann singing a duet with herself must have been one of the first examples of double tracking using discs. A Decca recording of 1939 was played using the same technique, overdubbing a vocalist on to a previously recorded disc of the Jay Wilbur band. Both the original disc of the band and the overdubbed version were played and there was a marked loss of quality noted with the band in the mixed version.
Sean then described an early limiter designed by RCA using a variable µ valve, demonstrating the results with a recording of the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No 1 made in the NBC Studio 8H in New York. The sound was muddled with continuous changes in the balance caused by excessive compression. Sean has found that it is sometimes possible to restore the dynamic range through judicious use of an expander.
He then turned to the subject of the frequency response of cutter heads; up until 1940 this was limited to about 6kHz but Decca introduced their 'full frequency range recordings' (ffrr) in 1943 with extended frequency response to about 14kHz. E.M.I. were also working at their laboratories in Hayes on developing a cutting head with an extended response: one of the first recordings using this cutter was Holst's 'Planets' Suite played by the B.B.C. Symphony Orchestra in 1947. E.M.I. received a letter from a dissatisfied purchaser of a 1945 recording of Purcell's 'Dido & Aeneas' who thought the record of Coleridge Taylor's 'Hiawatha' recorded in 1931 was better. We had the opportunity of auditioning both; the older recording considered being definitely superior. A recording made in 1931 of Elgar's 'Dream of Gerontius' was played; this had been performed in Liverpool and transmitted by overhead telephone lines to Abbey Road where it was cut; the quality was surprisingly good. Sean commented that with underground cables this would have curtailed the high frequency response.
He then talked about the E.M.T. 140-reverberation plate, designed by Dr Kühl in the 1950's. Capitol made recordings of Frank Sinatra using a plate and echo chamber and both of these were played; although a subjective test, it was an interesting comparison. Also in the 1950's Capitol was experimenting with an 8 track Ampex multitrack recorder and a recording of Les Paul was played.
We then heard a disc from Mercury Records. About this time they were taking a purist approach and recording the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra using a single microphone suspended above the conductor. Around 1955 E.M.I. and Decca started experimenting with recording in stereo, the former using a pair of Neumann M49s while the latter was using the Decca Tree. Sean played recordings of each system.
Prior to 1971, Abbey Road had rather a dry acoustic and so E.M.I. designed their 'Ambiophony' system for improving the acoustics for both the players and the recording. It consisted of a magnetic drum with two record heads and six playback heads fed from the auxiliary send of the studio mixing console, the output of the device being fed to a large number of speakers placed around the walls of the studio. We heard an example of an operatic recording using this system which produced a rather unsatisfactory effect.
Sean then went on to talk about multimicrophone techniques, instancing this with an orchestral recording from 1975 of Herbert Von Karajan using up to 40 microphones. He compared this with a 1944 orchestral stereo recording made in Berlin using three microphones; the earlier recording seemed far superior.
He then played recordings of Phil Spector's 'wall of sound' using substantial amounts of reverberation and compression on individual tracks and then compressing the overall mix. Sean then let us hear his recording of the band Yes, recorded in 1971 at Wembley Stadium using DI feeds, ambient stereo pairs at various distances to produce focused and unfocused sounds appropriate to the music and a Soundfield microphone.
The final musical extract was of the Jamaican 'Dub' expert using backing tracks faded in and out, cut and spliced together to form this unique style of music; this included the effect of physically knocking a Grampian spring reverberation unit.
Dominic Boucher & Richard Millard
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