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Re: [ARSCLIST] Fwd: Peter Copeland on RCA Victor recordings (1941)
I would say that's exactly what it is, at least for some of the fuzz, but some of it comes from
inappropriate gain-staging. Basically, 1950's U.S. broadcasting consoles were not meant to have
near-line-level devices plugged into their mic preamps. A U-47 or AKG or other European condenser
mic of that era could put out nearly line level when it was placed close-in on a drum or piano.
Another thing my father discovered was that a muted trumpet played into a U-47 put out very high
level because the mute concentrates the note-attack into a percussive air burst, like the mic is
close-in on a snare drum.
-- Tom Fine
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark Durenberger" <Mark4@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, October 03, 2008 9:42 AM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Fwd: Peter Copeland on RCA Victor recordings (1941)
I wonder how much of that might have been a result of near-saturation of the mike-pre input
transformer?
Regards,
Mark Durenberger
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tom Fine" <tflists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
When high-output European condenser mics came along in the 50's, one of the key mistakes engineers
made -- and this is especially audible in jazz recordings of the era -- was to put something like
a U-47 close in on a piano or drum and feed it into a mic preamp designed to expect ribbon output
levels. Distortion from the get-go results....