Tag: vintage microphones

Categories
Microphones

University Microphones circa 1963

Download the eleven-page University modular-microphones catalog circa 1963:

DOWNLOAD: University_Microphones_1963

Models covered, with text, specs, and photos, include University model 401, 402s, 501, 502s, 403L, 404L, Model 70, and Model 71 dynamic mics; and the associated Model SA10, PA10, SSP10, SP10, and CC10 microphone bases. By ‘Bases’ I refer to the lower-half of the microphone itself: the connector, stand-mount, and switch assembly.  Apparently the user could ‘mix-and match’ among the various University capsule/transformer mic bodies and whatever jack/mount/switch assembly the user preferred.  The catalog itself is formatted with a 1/3rd-page insert in order to facilitate comprehension of this ‘feature.’  Here’s an example:

I purchased a well-worn University handheld cardiod dynamic mic recently; it was a model 8100 I believe.  It was the first University microphone I can recall finding.   I picked it up with a nice older desktop stand and a big pile of useless old cabling for a few bucks.  It worked well, and once I constructed a proper cable for it was moved along.    University was a subsidiary of Ling electronics, as was Altec; that being said, there was no way to identify the 8100 as being possibly Altec in origin other than the fact that it used an uncommon XLR4 cable connector, as most 1960s Altec mics also do.  I don’t know if there is any significance to this.  The 8100 was sold to me with possibly the best microphone provenance I have heard in a long time; the junk dealer told me that it had been the announcer mic at the Wallingford Speedway, a (now defunct? Leveled?) Connecticut auto racetrack that I remember vaguely from my early childhood.

A similar model 8100 recently sold on eBay for the terrific  sum of $0.99; new in box, nonetheless; no stories of former racetrack glory accompanied that particular mic.  Dig the fantastic graphic design on the box.  Original eBay listing on-view here.

 

Categories
Microphones Uncategorized

Shure Unisphere Microphone

Mick and Keith on a lone Unisphere

The Shure Unisphere was the predecessor to the ubiquitous SM-58.  It’s basically a dual-impedance SM-58 from what I can gather.  Check out these 40-year old adverts for the Unisphere and consider that despite all we’ve experienced in audio-technology in the past four decades, we’re all still basically using the same vocal mic on stage.  Pretty incredible…

Rod Stewart with the Shure Unisphere

The Fifth Dimension with Shure Unisphere

Categories
Uncategorized

1980 (via Music Emporium)

Download 25pp of excerpts from the 1980 ‘Music Emporium’ mail-order catalog: synthesizers, keyboards; effects pedals; pro audio equipment:

DOWNLOAD SYNTHS:Music_Emp_Keys_1980

DOWNLOAD EFFECTS PEDALS: Music_Emp_FX_1980

DOWNLOAD PRO AUDIO: Music_Emp_audio_1980

Keyboard instruments covered, with photos, text, and (often) pricing, include: ARP Axxe, Odyssey, Quadra, Quartet, Omni II, and 2600 keyboards, Moog Micro Moog, Mini-Moog, Polymoog, and Multi-Moog, Korg MS-10 and MS-20; Oberheim OB-1, two-voice, OB-X, and four and eight-voice systems; Roland RS-09 and RS-505 string machines; Roland MP-600 electronic piano; mechanical keyboards from Hohner (pianet and clavinet) and Wurlitzer (200); Leslie 820, 860, 147, 760, and 815 rotating speaker systems.

Effects pedals include full lines from MXR (many…), Morley (VOL, SVO, PWO, WVO, PWB, PWF, PWA, PFA, and PRL), Mutron (III, Phasor II, Vol-Wah, Octave Divider, and Bi-Phase), and DOD (250, 280, 401, 640); plus interesting oddities like the Gizmotron, eBow, Altair PW-5, and the original Pignose amplifier.

Audio includes a wide range of mics from Shure, Sennheiser, Beyer, Sony, plus some predictable selections from the AKG and Electrovoice lines; Teac tape machines; Technics 1500 and RS-M85; the Tangent 3216 mixing console; time delay effects including Loft 440, Lexicon Prime Time model 93, MXR digital delay and flanger-doubler; Roland space echos, Tapco 4400 and Furman RV-1 reverbs; compressors including MXR mini, Ashly SC55 and SC-50. Biamp Quad Compressor, Ureil LA4, and DBX compressors 163, 160, 162, 165; plus a host of mainly graphic EQs including Biamp EQ210, EQ270A and EQ110R, MXR Dual 15 abd 31, Tapco C-201, Ashly SC-63 and SC-66, and Ureil 537 and 545 parametric filter set.

DOD effects pedals circa 1980

The Gizmotron, which is sort of the mechanical equivalent of an e-Bow; it was invented by Lol Creme and Kevin Godley of band 10CC; I have never come across one of these but wow would I love this for studio work.  Check out some amazing sound clips here.

The Korg MS-20.  This is our house monosynth at Gold Coast Recorders and lord do these things sound great.  Pitch to CV conversion built in!

Loft 440 Time Delay effects.  Loft was a Connecticut maker of Pro Audio kit in the 70s/80s.  Much previous Loft coverage on PS dot com; maybe start here…

I just got a new MacBook Pro and guess what.  My Protools LE 8 does not work on it.  Big surprise.  Everytime this happens (which means everytime a new Mac comes into my life…) I inch closer to replacing the PT LE system that I use for demos at home with one of these 70s four-track reel systems.  Of course, an Mbox and Laptop weigh about 100lbs less and take up 1/10th the desk space.   Is anyone out there making demos (or album masters) on a Teac/Tascam 1/4″ reel system? Drop us a line and let us know…

Technics RS-M85 cassette deck.  Beautiful looking machine.  Working example on eBay right now for $138…

The Urei LA4 was the compressor that I learned on at school.  The studio had a pair and they sounded great. Simple and effective… 

I don’t know how accurate it was to have ever called the Beyer M69 a popular microphone, but they do have a good sound.  We have a pair at GCR and they are a good alternative to the SM58 as a handheld dynamic.  To my ears they sound less boxy; seem to have less proximity effect. 

For previous Music Emporium coverage on PS dot com (incredible as it may sound….), visit here…

Categories
Guitar Equipment

Circa ’75

Download a twenty-three-page excerpt of the 1975 catalog from Music Emporium of Bethesda, Maryland (h.f. ‘ME’):

DOWNLOAD: Music_Emporium_1975_Catalog

Products covered, with vague text, no specs (or prices), and moody photography/impressionistic illustration, include: 1975 Martin D-18, D-28, D-35, etc; Gibson Les Paul bass, Triumph, Signature, ES-335TD-SV, ES-345TD, among others; Gibson J-200, Blue Ridge 12, and J-55; Dobro 60D, 33, 90, and 35 resonator guitars; Guild F-50, F-40, D-50, F-212XL, among others; Fender Telecaster, Telecaster Deluxe, Thinline, Precision, Jazz, and Telecaster Basses; the Bradley line of directly-imported MIJ ‘Lawsuit’ guitars, including the Doubleneck, FV-60, ES-775, TE350, JB60-W, ST50-N, LP65-N, and LP54; Amplifiers and PA from Acoustic, Ampeg, DB Sound (look similar to Heil, which is also represented), Gollehon PA from Grand Rapids, MI, including their 8218/M, 8218/A, MR-90 Horn, 8220/M and /A models; AKG, Shure, and Maruni Mics; ARP and Moog synthesizers; and a pile of guitar effects pedals that no one can afford anymore.

ME was the catalog division of the family-owned Veneman instrument retail-store business.  Veneman was purchased by Guitar Center in 2004.  Check out these sepia-tinted photos for a second.  Veneman could easily have opted to re-print the images that manufacturers supply through their distributors, but they really went the extra mile; the mood of these images, combined with the glaring lack of any sort of pricing or specifications, seems impossible today as a sales strategy for guitars: ME was selling you an attitude and a vibe first; the particular instruments were secondary.  Consider another interesting fact about the images in the catalog: apart from the High Priestess on the cover, there are no almost no photographic image of people in the catalog.   Instead we get some beautiful line-illustration work.  While this could have been a talent compensation/rights issue, I feel like it’s more of a deliberate move that allows the musician/customer to more easily insert themselves into these instrument-scenarios.  I mean, who wants to buy a Les Paul that you see slung around the neck of some bro in a (insert yr least favorite sartorial signifier) shirt?

 

A possible overall explanation?  It’s the Whole Earth Catalog Effect.  If yr not familiar with the Whole Earth Catalog (h.f. WEC), and you have any interest whatsoever in American culture of the 1970s, get a copy of an early edition and check it out.  It is one of the most seminal documents of the era, as well as being an early precursor of the peer-to-peer information exchange style that we now experience in the form of….yup…  the internet.  There were about a billion (or googleplex…) copies printed and you can find if for a few bucks at most community book sales or used book shops.  Anyhow,  WEC was such a powerful and ubiquitous presence among the more liberal and artistic elements of American Society in the 70s that we start to see its editorial and visual style reflected in actual catalogs of the era that were directed at a similar demographic.  For another example of this phenomenon, check this…

**************

*******

***

The only really interesting bit as far as the equipment offered is the BRADLEY line of guitars.  Bradley was apparently the house-brand of directly-imported Japanese-made guitars which ME exclusively sold.

These sure look like Ibanez to me.  Anyone own a 70’s Bradley?  Tell us your thoughts.  Read some discussion online here.

Categories
Microphones

Broadcast Microphones of the early 1920s

Download a four-page article from the Summer 1987 issue of “The Antique Radio Gazette” which details the development of early broadcast microphones as made by the Westinghouse corporation for use in their own radio broadcast studios.  The article is written by microphone collector/expert Bob Paquette.

DOWNLOAD: Paquette_Microphones_of_the_1920s

In this early post on PS dot com, we looked at the early double-button carbon mic, so popular as a prop in music videos and other fashion-representation.   As primeval as the double-button carbon mic is, it was of course the offspring of even older technology.   Dig into Paquette’s article and go even deeper into the well; we are looking backwards, running through time into the past,  taking retro to its logical conclusion…

Categories
Microphones

Bob Paquette’s Microphone Museum

From the Summer 1981 issue of “The Antique Radio Gazette” (TARG):  an early shout-out to Robert Paquette, microphone collector extraordinaire.  Anyone who has spent/wasted much time searching the web for information about old audio equipment has come across Paquette’s website.   Good lord what a collection.  I’ve never visited the museum, but finding these pics in TARG has reminded me that I should probably order a copy of Paquette’s book.

Follow down this page for the rest of the circa ’81 photos of Paquette’s collection from TARG.

 

Categories
Uncategorized

Shure Adverts circa 1956

Categories
Microphones

The American R331 Ribbon Microphone of 1950

A corollary to the theory that “an infinite number of monkeys typing at an infinite number of typewriters will eventually produce the complete works of Shakespeare” is my belief that you can eventually find any LP record you’d want to buy for $1.  (OK maybe $2).  So far this has worked in my favor, although it does require a lot of discipline to keep it in practice.

It’s kinda similar with microphones.  Based on the large numbers that they were produced in, the wide range of industries that they are used in, and coupled with the relative durability of these objects and the relative degree of respect that people treat them with,  if you keep digging long enough you can find pretty much any old mic for a song.  This has proven true for me for everything up to and including vintage Neumanns.  I have not found a $100 C12 yet, but I will.   NEways…  found the above-depicted American R331 for a few bucks yesterday in the last minutes of a yard-sale.  I didn’t know anything about it, and I was not optimistic that it would work.  Turns out that with a slight adjustment it worked fine, and it actually sounds pretty good IMO.  You can make your own assessment based on the recording that I’ve posted at the end of this piece.

The R331 dates from 1950.  It is a ribbon mic.  It was the cheapest of 3 identical-looking ribbon mics that American produced.   I feel like it’s survival can be at largely attributed to the fact that it shipped in the compact, attractive box seen above.  The physical design of this mic in general is really spectacular; the whole thing is machined from solid metal and it is very classy + timeless.  American was a division of the Elgin Watch Company so perhaps this has something to do with the very strong design presence of these mics.

The text on the outside of the box promises ‘Full-Vision.’  I was excited when I saw this, as I imagined that this indicated ‘full frequency response’ or some other relevant sonic characteristic.  As it turns out, this marketing-speak concerns the small physical size of the microphone.  As one commentator writes, “ It is a compact microphone, only about 6 inches long and 2 inches in diameter.  On this basis, American called it a “full vision” microphone, an allusion to the face-blocking size of some of their competitors’ products, such as the RCA 77 and the Altec 639.” (Source).

Above you can see the mounting-base of the mic (attached to the body of the mic by a solid-rubber grommet; no need for a shock mount!) and the unusual mic-clip that the R331 requires.  My yard-sale mic did not come with the clip; only through some miracle did I have one of these clips in a box of parts that I had around.  Weird.

When I plugged the mic in, it worked fine, but the output level was very low, even for a Ribbon.  I wrote S. Sank to inquire if he services these microphones; Sank has done an great job fixing some other 50s ribbons that I have.  His reply: “(American Ribbons) are generally pretty high output…. so you should try one thing ….which is to remove the label plate and change the jumper to a different impedance setting.  The plate should have a paper label on the back of it to show what’s what.  The only weakness of these mics is that sometimes an impedance tap will go bad.”

I tried this, and it turns out the only issue was that one of the jumpers was not secured.  Tightened one screw and done.  Thanks again S!

As far as specs, original paper material, etc: the always-helpful microphone database of Stan Coutant has a very detailed page on these microphones, so no need to re-tread those waters.  Let’s get on to the sound…

LISTEN: American_R331_amazing_grace

For an unrestored 60-year old ribbon mic with a stated response of only 50-8000 hz, I think the sound is pretty remarkable.  It’s a little hiss-y, but that’s somewhat due to the shitty mic preamps in the mBox.  I am confident that this mic could yield a good result with a proper studio mic pre.    BTW, you are hearing a solo finger-picked guitar performance; no EQ; the only processing is the digidesign ‘Maxim” taking off about 2dbs on the peaks.

Anyone out there using the American ribbon mics in their work?

Anyone have any experience with their high-end DR330 variant?

 

Categories
Microphones

Studio Microphones of 1955

The Altec 639, 633, 670A, 660, 671A, 632C, M-20, and M-11 microphones

From the pages of AUDIO magazine in 1954/55: new and new-ish studio microphones at the dawn of the transistor age.  Check em out…

The Shure 530.  This was Shure’s mid-range ‘pencil’ mic in the 1950s.  At the top end was the 525; lower in the line was the 535.  See this link for some audio tests including the 535.

Reslo and Bang & Olufsen ribbon microphones were marketed and distributed in the USA under the ‘Fentone’ banner in the 1950s.  Fentone continued as a brand-name for microphone marketing into the 1960s, but later Fentone product was not of this quality.

*********************

Above is the two-page advertising spread that introduced the Electrovoice 666 to the world.  The 666 is the grandfather of the much-beloved Electrovoice Re20, which has been a favorite of recording and live-sound engineers for decades.  Like the Sennhesier 421, the RE-20 is somewhat proof that dynamic microphone technology hasn’t really advanced much in the past three decades.

 

 

 

********************

Above, a 1955 advert for the 666 along with a review of the 666 from AUDIO magazine.

Above is a 1955 ad for the Electrovoice 664.  The 664 was the ‘public address’ aka ‘cheaper’ version of the 666; the 664 was immensely popular and thousands remain today.  If you come across one of these, there is a good chance it will still work fine.  In terms of visual recognition,  I would argue the 664 has an iconic appeal exceeded only by the Shure 55 series and the RCA 77 and 44 series.  The 664 is not a terrible sounding microphone, although i don’t recommend actually using it in a modern high-decibel PA system.

Wrapping up, here’s an ad for all the microphones that Electrovoice considered its ‘professional quality’ in 1955: the 666, lesser-variant 665, 655, its lesser variant 654, 646 lavalier, 650 and 535.    Hear my pair of ancient 655s in-action here…

Categories
Microphones Pro Audio Archive

Studio Microphones of 1954

AKG D36 advert from 1954

Continuing our survey of AUDIO magazine’s early years: over the next couple of weeks we will look at some of the more relevant content from the first two years that this venerable publication ran under the title ‘Audio,’ the prior title having been ‘Audio Engineering.’ (full backstory here and here).  We’ll start today with the crop of studio microphones on the market in 1954.  One thing becomes pretty clear: the Austrians were really ahead of their time.AKG C-12 advert 1954

*****************

Telefunken U-47 and 201-M adverts 1954

Capps CM 2001, 2030, 2250, and DM 2050 microphones c. 1954.

Anyone have any experience with these mics?  Look interesting.  Let us know…

The Reeves S-T Condenser Microphone; another early American Condenser mic. Very rare.

The Shure 333 ribbon mic.  This was their cardiod ribbon.  I’ve never used one of these, but i would love to get my hands on one.  Stephen Sank recently re-ribboned my circa 1954 Shure 300 (the 300 was Shure’s high-end figure-8 ribbon of the same period) and wow did he do a great job.  It sounds incredible now.    I had thought it was a P.O.S. until he re-did it.  If you own a vintage Shure ribbon mic and you are underwhelmed by it. give Sank a call and see what he can do for you.

…and here is some period analysis of the then-new Shure 333.

Follow the link below to READ-ON….  more studio mics of ’54 follow….

Continue reading “Studio Microphones of 1954”