Tuesday, January 23, 2018

A great direct to stereo recording from EMI Athens Columbia studios in the 60's


From the great Columbia studio made by the British EMI in Athens.


This example was recorded a little after 1960. The equipment used would have been similar to the ones used by Beatles in Abbey Road studios in London.


Neumann U47 electron tube mics, Telefunken V72 or EMI mod V72s electron tube preamps, EMI BTR2 valve (electron tube) tape recorder, Leak electron tube power amp to drive the Goodmans full range speaker (possibly a Goodman on closed cabinet as the technician Dimitriou cannot recall exactly) inside the echo (reverberation) room and a U47 to pick up the reverb.


This song is written by composer and arranger Mimis Plessas, university graduate in chemistry. He is considered one of the best Hellenic song writers with the ability to arrange in such a brilliant way leaving frequency spectrum space for the voice to shine through. Listen how almost nothing interferes in frequency band with the female vocal.


The key of the song is B minor.


It is written on 9/8. This means each measure contains 9 beats.


The recording was done direct to stereo, (mixing of mics in real time by the sound engineer) in either studio 2 or 3 by EMI Columbia Athens sound engineer Stelios Gianakopoulos. The vocal may had been an overdub.


Rena Koumioti is the singer.


Lyrisist is Lefteris Papadopoulos.


The title of the song is Πρωτη Φορά, meaning First Time.

Proti Fora - Rena Koumioti
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=k7ZciKttjww


References:


Conversations with Stelios Giannakopoulos, technician Giannis Dimitriou and Mimis Plessas.










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