Check out Sony studio in NYC

[Ben]

I am not sure, but I bet it has a GOOD spin cycle. :-)
Still that reminds me, @ 15 IPS you still have the best sound
for that machines era.

[Brian C.]

Ah, the old tub is definitely not for domestic use Ki Choi ;o)

With direct feed from a C12.....WOW!

[audio salvage]

Hi folks,

Bruce B. -
The room shown in the NYT article is not a mastering room. It is a transfer facility for the archive department.

Ki Choi -
The ATR in the picture is not normally used in this room, just happened to be parked there that day.
Matt Cavaluzzo, the transfer engineer, like his Studers.

Normal compliment of machines in the room (the Studers have names) is:
Studer A820 "Trudi"1/4" full track mono, 1/2 track stereo or 1/4 track stereo
Studer A820 "Ursula" 1/2" 2 track stereo (no 4 track A820's made to my knowledge)
Studer A807 "the Three Track" 1/2" 3 track
Studer A807 "The Four Track" 1/2" 4 track
Studer A827 "Louise" 24 channel set up for 1" 8 track
Studer A827 "Gwen" 24 channel 2" 24 track, 16 track or 8 track
Sony PCM-R500 DAT
Sony CDP-D500 CD

When needed we can roll in..
Sony PCM 3348 HR 48 channel digital
Sony PCM 1630 / DMR 4000 2 channel digital
Sony K1183 2 channel digital
Mitsubishi X850 32 channel digital
Mitsubishi X86-HS 2 channel digital
Mitsubishi X80 2 channel digital

besides tape machines you can see in the photo
Rockport Technologies turntable w/ Cello preamp for vinyl & acetate discs
BC 16-C turntable for 78's and metal parts.

2 channel A-D conversion - dCS 904
Multi channel A-D conversion - emmLabs ADC8-MkIV
D-A conversion dCS 954

We have 4 mastering rooms and another transfer room in addition to this room.

Dominick Costanzo
Battery Studios / Sony Music Entertainment

[ironbut]

Thanks for the clarification Dominick, and welcome to the forum.

If you get a moment, I'd love to get a little technical info about your transfer facility.
Do you guys restore your tapes and older media like metal/lacquers in house? If so, how do the different labels differ in condition in general? I guess I'm wondering how carefully these items were stored and which particular labels are more at immediate risk of being lost?

Also, since Columbia is in Sony's stables, there seems to be some debate over the equalization of their 78's. I'm hoping you could share the eq curve your facility uses?


Thanks again for sharing!

[docb]

Normal compliment of machines in the room (the Studers have names) is:

I just realized that the Studers at the studio don't have names - but the ATRs do - Moe, Larry, Curly, Shemp and the Big Inch. My recently sold RS1500 was Big Red. Guess I need to come up with a name for the Nagra T, too.

Speaking of Romo's studio, check out the cover of December MIX magazine.

[ironbut]

Thanks for heads up on that Doc.
There's a great video regarding the cover story starring,... Romo! Real cool stuff. ( Do I see a guest spot in Michael's future in " Desperate Housewives"? )
Check it out;

http://mixonline.com/

[audio salvage]

Thanks for the clarification Dominick, and welcome to the forum.

If you get a moment, I'd love to get a little technical info about your transfer facility.
Do you guys restore your tapes and older media like metal/lacquers in house? If so, how do the different labels differ in condition in general? I guess I'm wondering how carefully these items were stored and which particular labels are more at immediate risk of being lost?

Also, since Columbia is in Sony's stables, there seems to be some debate over the equalization of their 78's. I'm hoping you could share the eq curve your facility uses?


Thanks again for sharing!

Restore the original media? Not sure what you mean by that.
Preservation more than restoration.
We will bake tape that needs to be (a temporary restoration at best)
We clean discs only when absolutely necessary. No disc cleaning machine.

Most of of the Columbia & RCA Victor stuff has been well kept.
Even under optimum storage conditions some stuff is breaking down
Priority for digitizing is determined by media most at risk and commercial value of the program.

Matt Cavaluzzo is our transfer engineer. I'm a tech.
I'll ask him about the Columbia 78 eq but IIRC, disc transfers are done with only turnover eq, no HF roll off.
HF roll off is applied during the mastering.

[ironbut]

Thanks Dominick,

It's great to hear that RCA and Columbia treated their holding with the respect they deserve.

Regarding the Columbia eq standard, here's a link to a lecture I attended where this was discussed (unfortunately the graphs aren't included but I believe I have hard copies somewhere).

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+Columbia+Lp+equalization+curve.-a0203127625

[Ki Choi]

Hi Dominick:

Welcome again and do appreciate your first hand account of your equipments and what's going on in the studio.  We need more of professionals in this group sharing their insights.

I am a big Studer fan but also so enjoy the Sony APR 5003s.  I see no Sony APRs listed in Sony studio... What's up with that?

Lastly I am happy to see that life of analog recorders are still sustained in the pro world.

Yes, Doc.  We should name our beloved recorders.  I will report the results when I will have plenty of time on airplaines this weekend.

Ki

[audio salvage]

Ki,
We had one lone APR-5003 in our audio post department back at 54th St.
By the time I started at Sony (2002) it wasn't being used very much.
We sold it at the 2007 auction.

We did have a lot of Sony digital recorders.
4  PCM-3348HR, 2  K-1183 (20 bit version of the PCM 3402) over 20 PCM-1630/DMR-4000 systems, about a dozen PCM-7030, another dozen PCM-2800 and countless Sony CDP-2700.

Analog was Studer & Ampex. In 2002 we had;
5  A827, 5  A800 MkIII, a dozen or so A820, 4  A820/Cello 4 track, 2  A807 4 track, 1 A80RC, 1 A80VU-2, 1 ATR-104/Aria, 2 ATR-104, 6 ATR-102. All the ATR's were rebuilt by ATR Services.

[mikel]

Analog was Studer & Ampex. In 2002 we had;
5  A827, 5  A800 MkIII, a dozen or so A820, 4  A820/Cello 4 track, 2  A807 4 track, 1 A80RC, 1 A80VU-2, 1 ATR-104/Aria, 2 ATR-104, 6 ATR-102. All the ATR's were rebuilt by ATR Services.

holy crap!! i have a few questions?

4-A820/Cello 4-track.......where, might i ask, are those beauties now?

are those 1"?

 i wonder if the Cello circuit is both input and output and how the EQ switching is implemented?

what it might take to switch them to 2-track 1/4"?

 is the Cello circuit installed in the overbridge?

any info would be appreciated. i'm just sitting here dreaming.

[ironbut]

IIRC, that auction took place in Sept 07. It was handled by Joseph Finn Co and they did have a somewhat detailed listing with pictures but it doesn't seem to be available as far as I can see. I know one of our members, beefman was going to bid on several machines (820's in particular). He may have bought one of the Sony Classical divisions machines with the Cello electronics.
Hopefully he can chime in here since I'd imagine that he has more of the details on those machines as well.

[audio salvage]

The Studer/Cello A820 machines had the 6 RU 4 channel record play electronics and 2 RU power supply mounted under the deck. We had the following head assemblies - 1/2" 4 track ERP, 1/2" 3 track play, 1/2" 2 track ERP, 1/4" half track stereo ERP and 1/4" mono ERP. No 1".
The original Studer electronics were left intact.
We sold all of the Cellos at the '07 auction. No idea where they are.

[mikel]

The Studer/Cello A820 machines had the 6 RU 4 channel record play electronics and 2 RU power supply mounted under the deck. We had the following head assemblies - 1/2" 4 track ERP, 1/2" 3 track play, 1/2" 2 track ERP, 1/4" half track stereo ERP and 1/4" mono ERP. No 1".
The original Studer electronics were left intact.
We sold all of the Cellos at the '07 auction. No idea where they are.

hi Dominick,

thanks for the details; i own an A820, and am now looking for 'better than stock' output electronics. mounted underneath; huuummmm.

i assume ERP stands for Extended Response Playback?

that Cello circuit might just be the way to go if one could get their hands on it. i wonder how those 1/4" half track stereo ERP heads compare to the stock OEM heads in my Studer......since the Cello circuit was obviously designed for those heads.

it does not cost anything to dream about it.

[High and Outside]

i assume ERP stands for Extended Response Playback?

I assume it stands for Erase-Record-Playback, in other words the standard arrangement for a machine that both records and plays. I notice that he described the 3-track as play only.