Πως φτιάχνονταν ο ήχος του μπουζουκιού στο στουντιο ηχογραφησης της Κολουμπια στον Περισσό Ριζουπολη. Αντιχηση προσθέτονταν στέλνοντας τον ήχο στα echo rooms στο υπόγειο των στουντιο 1 και 2. O απευθείας ήχος του οργάνου χωρις κοντινές ανακλασεις με χιλιάδες καθυστερημένες ανακλασεις. Περισσότερα στοιχεια παρακατω.
Recording as few early sound reflections taking place near the instrument, adding to the dry signal thousands latter (delayed in time) reflections from the echo room (echo, reverberation chamber). Περισσότερα στοιχεια παρακατω:
A microphone changes music vibration of (air) molecules to corresponding electron vibration. A loudspeaker changes electron music vibration to corresponding air molecule vibration. The input and output signals do not have to be the same for psychoacoustic reasons. The objective is not flat frequency response from mic to loudspeaker but from producer's brain to listener's brain. [Lowe and Morgan].
Once in electrical domain we can do a lot of things. [Everitt]. For example sending the sound of a bouzouki using a cable to many meters down into a basement room with tiles so that its sound reverberates there. Then anothe microphone may pickup the reverberant sound and send it back so that it can be added to the dry signal. These rooms are called echo chambers and Columbia studios 2 and 3 had two of them underground.
Most elements below are given by one the main sound engineers at EMI Columbia studio Athens, Stelios Giannakopoulos, Στέλιος Γιαννακοπουλος, who maned the console of either studio 1 or 2 which started operation in 1964.
Some example recordings, some of these by Stelios:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dJi9QpVqubU#fauxfullscreen
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=k7ZciKttjww
Direct to stereo, recorded by Stelios on either studio 2 or 3.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ks25u2UKD4E
Απόψε σε θελω - Πλέσσας, Παπαδόπουλος, Μαρινέλα
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2FOtKmg-4uI#fauxfullscreen
Έπεφτε βαθιά σιωπή
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zGHo8layYic
Αν ειναι η αγάπη αμαρτία
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DLtCffIYN0Y
1974? transistor mixing desk?
I am not sure but the first example should have been recorded at studio 3, which started in 1936. The adding desk had mono out. Basic low and high frequency adjustments. Outboard mic amplifiers were the EMI RS61.
This is possibly a recording at the older studio 3 (studio 1936 as Stelios refers to it):
Ευγενικά παιδιά - Xatzidakis arrangement, recorded by Nikos Kanelopoulos
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HhYvT4vWf_w&index=8&list=PLeYcXETDsjQUvy6gGIeARr0wO2Ro4O_Y2
And now some elements on how the bouzouki sound is created as the listener's brain perceives it:
Great soul of bouzouki players such as George Zabetas, not interested in money. [αφιερωμα Ζαμπέτας ΕΡΤ - YouTube
Great acoustic instruments. Lack of thump so normally a low cut was not needed.
Great composition and orchestration.
Great acoustics by EMI acoustical engineers. Membrane low frequency absorbers etc some distance from walls. [Gilford - BBC]. Usually 2 bouzoukis, voice 1 and voice 2 were used. At the back of both players was the same acoustic screen in shape of \__/.
Great microphones. Usual distance 20-30cm, 8-12in. Usually Neumann U47 or U48. According to Stelios one U47 was used for both musicians or one for each. In the case of 1 microphone a figure of eight polar response was used, U48, each musician facing the other.
(So for example the fist electron tube in the signal path nearest to Georgos Zabetas was the VF14 inside the Neumann U47 microphone designed by Georg Neumann. The first stage of amplification ie VF14 is the most important defining the signal to noise ratio up to the listener's brain. The VF14 is deliberately supplied by Georg Neumann with a lower hester voltage possibly in the grounds of further increasing the signal to noise ratio. (Of course the acoustic noise level of the studio is most important as well as how strong the message is to the mind of the artist, composer, producer, orchestrator etc). The U47 had impressed the BBC by its high sensitivity ie signal to noise ratio is even now a world prefered mic by top singers, producers.[Charles Leonard]
(The U47 was used at cardioid polar response. According to the BBC report the U47 lacks some bass.[U47 BBC report]. This seems to have been a good thing for some compensation of Fletcher Munson curves.)
Great preamplifiers, V72 for example, electron tube or transistor operating in class A (electrons flowing all the time) [T.S. Gray]. Great passive EMI console EQs.
Some low cut might have been done at the mixing desk. Usually when an offending instrument reached the bouzouki mic.
Great sound engineers. Stelios uses the knowledge of the Fletcher-Munson curves to avoid excessive bass perception to the listener's brain.
The EMI consoles had great low cut, presence boost, high boost or cut filters, all passive.
Just 1 or 2 dB were added at HF, possibly 10KHz to sparkle the sound using the great EMI filters. No presence boost was used for bouzouki.
Great echo chambers. The direct sound was sent by cables to the basement to one of the 2 echo rooms (reverberation chambers). This perhaps explain the big sound from just 2 bouzoukis. There is also the natural delay from the (possibly) Goodmans loudspeaker driven by a Leak electron tube power amplifier sending sound to the room with acoustic delay arriving to the U47 mic inside the echo chsmber. (Tye delay is due to the time sound takes to travel from speaker to mic). In some cases asitional analog tape delay must have been used too. There must have been low cut or high cut to or after echo chambers as they like great midrange.
Great EMI BTR 2 (British Tape Recorders), electron tube reel to reel,recorders. The same EMI types used for Beatles records.
Everything was analog.
It was not uncommon for musicians to work all night at bouzouki night clubs. They would come directly from them early morning. Then sleep on carpet, or top of a piano etc until the recording engineer would arrive.
References:
Communication Engineering - Everitt
https://archive.org/details/CommunicationEngineering
Flat frequency response from brain to brain, Sound Picture Recording and Reproducing Characteristics - D. P. Lowe and K. F. Morgan - J.S.M.P.E.
Acoustics for radio and television studios - Gilford - BBC
BBC report on Neumann U47
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/rd/pubs/reports/1954-23.pdf
Applied Electronics - T.S. Gray - MIT
Αφιέρωμα στον Γιωργο Ζαμπέτα - epilogue - εκπομπή αφιερώματα - ΕΡΤ
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TCkWoHqiD_4#fauxfullscreen
Excerpts from No tricks were used in Leonard Cohen’s Popular Problems by Charles Leonard (Mail & Guardian: Sept 24, 2014)
(Record Producer) Patrick Leonard has a thing for the U47
https://cohencentric.com/2015/10/17/photo-leonard-cohen-in-recording-studio-with-neumann-u-47-microphone-used-for-popular-problems/
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