Wednesday, May 23, 2018

Some comments of Columbia studios engineer Stelios Giannakopoulos for composer Mimos Plessas


Stelios Giannakopoulos one of the main engineers of EMI Columbia Athens studios after 1962 says about composers songwriter Mimis Plessas that he was:


A master of orchestration, very skilled in the art of leaving frequency spectrum space so that the vocal can be perceived by its pristine glory.


Plessas would also write double parts for example for bouzouki not in the ordinary way of 3rds but also inverted 3rds or 6ths. For example instead of E,G he would write G,Eoct.


An example recording at Columbia studios is the following clearly depicting the importance of leaving space for the voice as well as the 6ths trick.


The song is recorded by Stelios Giannakopoulos in one of the newer Columbia studios, either studio 1 or 2 which started operation after 1964.


The song is written in B minor. The rhythm is 9/8. (Notice how each bar cycle completes after every 9 beats, close to heart beats).


The recording is direct to stereo analog tape with usually a Neumann U47 for each instrument. Everything, possibly the vocal too is being played live and mixed live to stereo on 2 track magnetic tape).


The echo room (reverberation or echo chamber) in the basement can be clearly heard. The power amplifier driving the speaker was a Leak electron tube according the decision with Columbia studios technician Giannis Dimitriou. The speaker possibly a Goodmans full range. And the microphone picking up the reverberation in the echo room possibly a Neumann U47.



Πρωτη Φορά - Plessas, Papadopoulos, Koumioti
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=k7ZciKttjww








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