TP-027, Jerry Garcia / David Grisman wins a Writer's Choice Award from Myles Astor of Positive Feedback Online

Author Topic: Studer B62 in Decca Recordings  (Read 5354 times)

Offline astrotoy

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 377
    • View Profile
Studer B62 in Decca Recordings
« on: July 14, 2013, 11:22:30 PM »
As some of you know I am working with Winston Ma (of First Impression Music in Seattle) on a book on Decca's golden age between 1958 and the early 1980's.  In my recent month long sojourn to London, I was able to have extensive interviews with six of the Decca old timers, including John Dunkerley, who was Kenneth Wilkinson's main protege. We had two long interview, totalling about 11 hours. In the first one, I told John that he had engineered one of my very favorite albums, the Arnold English and Scottish Dances on Lyrita. (Decca did the producing and engineering of all the Lyrita stereo albums.) For our second meeting, John located and gave me a copy of the session sheets he did for the recording. The two sheets show the exact placement of the orchestra members and the mikes, including the classic Decca tree with outriggers, all with M50 mikes plus other spot mikes. It also shows that the session was captured using two 1/4" 2 track Studer B62's (one as a safety) at 15ips, using Scotch 206 tape and NAB EQ. Other machines were used for other sessions over time.

John told me that one of the secrets of the Decca sound is that they set up everything and mixed to two channels in real time, making few adjustments on the mixing board. There was no post production mixing and the balance engineer would do the actual splicing and editing. In contrast, most other companies had lower level people do the actual editing after the engineer would indicate which take to use and where the edit would go.

Larry 
Larry Toy CharterMember-BHReproTechnics1506/Akai747dbx/OtariMX5050B3-ClassicalVinylFreak-15Krecs-VPIHRXRimDrv-LyraSkala-HelikonMono-HerronVTSP3A/BHPhonoPre-PacificMicrosonics Model2 - Pyramix&MykerinosCard-OppoNE-Proceed AVP2+6/CVP2-CJ MET1-Cary 2A3SE-AvantgardeDuos-3Solos-VelodyneDD18Sub

Offline ironbut

  • Global Moderator
  • leader in spreading disinformation
  • *****
  • Posts: 2503
  • rs1500>repro amp#1
    • View Profile
Re: Studer B62 in Decca Recordings
« Reply #1 on: July 15, 2013, 12:33:44 AM »
Wow Larry, exciting news about the Decca book!
Knowing you, you must've been in 7th heaven during those interviews.

BTW, if you haven't heard, when you retire you're supposed to sit on the porch and watch the world go by. Not start a new career!
More power to you and keep us in the loop.
steve koto
 Sony scd 777es(R. Kern mods)> Vpi Aires>Dynavector XX-2mkll>Bent mu>CAT ultimate>CJ premeir 140>Magnepan 1.6qr(Jensen xover)Headphone Eddie Current Zana Deux>AT ad2000,HD800 ,Metric Halo ULN-2 (battery powered),
 HE Audio Jades