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AM must have been something very different back then. I can't imagine ANY music, much less symphonic music over the typical AM radio station today. My cellphone has better fidelity than the nearly non-understandable palaver broadcast by the talk-radio stations in NYC these days. WCBS, Newsradio 88 is often so crunched and distorted, and confined to about 1000 hz of frequency bandwidth, that I can't understand it in my car unless I am parked on a quiet street and listen very carefully. I've transferred oral history tapes made by a recorder placed across an echo-y kitchen that sound clearer. Their webcast signal is actually slightly more audible than what goes over-air, but notice how everything is distorted and super-compressed, and full of digital artifacts, yuk!. http://player.radio.com/listen/station/wcbs-newsradio-880 -- Tom Fine ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mark Durenberger" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Monday, September 28, 2015 9:28 PM Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] a piece of Minneapolis Symphony and Mercury Records history > WCCO was an AM station, so, single-mike mono. I recall a pretty nice fight when I asked Master > Control to disable the CBS (tube-type) Audimax during the concert. WCCO's 50 kilowatt big stick > allowed for a good deal of quieting so we got away with it <g>. > > > Regards, > > Mark Durenberger > > -----Original Message----- > From: Tom Fine > Sent: Monday, September 28, 2015 4:47 PM > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] a piece of Minneapolis Symphony and Mercury Records history > > 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 >> > >