Hi Mark:

First of, kewl story about the broadcast audio. So you set up 1-mic mono pickup, or 3-mic stereo?

Also, you are spot-on about Collins. I found a photo of the one Mercury recording session in
Louisville in 1950. That mixer and those early Ampex 300 machines were used there, too. And there's
a front view of the mixer, showing the Collins insignia. I think that mixer was used in the first
iteration of the recording van, feeding the two Fairchild machines. The Fairchilds, by the way,
theoretically would print less audible scrape-flutter because the tape path was a loop around the
heads with rolling guides on each side of the loop (thus less length of "string" to vibrate between
the roller and heads).

-- Tom Fine

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark Durenberger" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, September 28, 2015 3:53 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] a piece of Minneapolis Symphony and Mercury Records history


> ...And now that I blow up that photo it seems those are the original fader knobs; sorry...
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Mark Durenberger
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mark Durenberger
> Sent: Monday, September 28, 2015 2:50 PM
> To: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] a piece of Minneapolis Symphony and Mercury Records history
>
> Mixer is almost certainly a Collins. But it has RCA fader knobs (known for
> better tactile feedback).
>
> Shortly after Tom's Dad established the miking for that room I was fortunate
> to do one of the first live MSO remote broadcasts for WCCO Radio, using
> CRF's mike technique...and a mixer by RCA (OP-6/OP-7 series).
>
> It was a "thrill" getting up into the catwalk to hang that broadcast mike
> (an Altec IIRC).
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Mark Durenberger
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tom Fine
> Sent: Monday, September 28, 2015 1:14 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [ARSCLIST] a piece of Minneapolis Symphony and Mercury Records
> history
>
> A long-time MLP fan tipped me off to this photo being for sale on eBay. I
> jumped right on it!
> https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/55748706/Minneapolis%20Tribute%20520120%20First%20MLP%20session.jpg
>
> this is from the very first Mercury recording session in Minneapolis,
> January 19-20, 1952. Dorati
> made his first recordings of Borodin's 2nd, Stravinsky's compete "Firebird",
> Berlioz "Roman
> Carnival" and pieces by Ravel and Debussy. The tape machines shown are
> "portable" Ampex 300's (they
> still weighed about 100lbs each, whether or not in portable cases). David
> Hall is using what I think
> is a Gates portable mixer/mic preamp (it might be RCA or Collins). The
> recordings were made with a
> single Neumann U-47, and the
> Gates unit probably was used to provide a gain stage after the mic and to
> distribute the signal to
> both tape recorders. David Hall is probably working with Dorati and the
> assistant conductor to
> gather approved takes he can edit together. The next time Mercury visited
> Minneapolis, fall 1952, my
> father had built his recording truck.
>
> -- Tom Fine
>