Blondie's "Heart of Glass" Broke New Ground in Studio Craftsmanship

Blondie combined both pop AND art.

I was one of those teenagers that actually had heard of Blondie before the Parallel Lines LP. I had heard X-Offender on the radio, and had read about Debbie Harry, New York's platinum-headed punk bombshell who wore clingy t-shirts and knee-pads. Knowing she had been a Playboy bunny certainly got the attention of this 17-year-old.

Then they hit it big with "Heart of Glass" in '78. A lot of people said, "Blondie has gone disco," "Blondie has sold-out!" Well that may have been true and I may have even said that myself (to nobody there). However, I didn't know anybody who actually didn't like the song. I mean, I loved the song and went out and bought the album. The whole LP was great, with it's other, much more rock/punk/power-pop offerings. I realized that, no matter what genre they dabbled in -- and they dipped their pens in all colors of musical ink -- Blondie was at its core a great rock-band with excellent musicians. Those cats could play the phonebook and it would sound good. Add to that Blondie's hip image and one of the most beautiful singers ever to ever pout with a microphone, and you have a sure-fire formula for success in 1978.

With that said, I found this neat video on YouTube, a short little rockumentary on the making of "Heart of Glass". It's really interesting. I especially like how the narrator mentions how this session was during the peak of analog recording, and I couldn't agree more. As a recording engineer I love learning how they built this million-selling crossover hit. As a music-lover with a rose-tinted rear view mirror, It stirs up a nostalgic affection for the song, the band, and the time.

Big Tones Part 3, the Audio Clip!

Drewcifer Begins Video Blog:

Analog Planet Presents Big Guitar Tones in the Studio

Part 1



Part 2

Les Paul, The Guitar, The Man, The Legend

Here's a good bio/obit of LP from the AP. Les Paul Dies at 94.


Yours-Truly with Vanessa, one of my 3 LPs.

The Big Man of Memphis! 1941-2009

As I watch the Ted Kennedy funeral motorcade on TV, I'm reminded that the world lost another great American this month: Jim Dickinson, the legendary musician/engineer/producer of Muscle Shoals and Ardent Studios fame. He was one of the architects of the American sound, and specifically the Memphis sound. The Big Star Records Jim produced in the early '70s did a lot to change my musical direction, when they re-emerged in the '80s as alternative music prototypes for bands like REM and The Replacements. Those records were way ahead of their time and they sounded really fuckin' cool.

That was just the beginning of the Jim Dickinson legend and legacy. The man cast a big shadow.

Jim Dickinson on AllMusic

A Hot Blog About on a Cool Memphis Cat

The Large (and Very LOUD) Legacy of Bob Heil

"Woo You Weel....Wike We Woo?" The Squakin' Heil Talk Box

Bob Heil is truly a unique dude, and one of the real living legends in the arena of pro sound. And I use the word arena in the quite literal sense, as it was Heil's pioneering designs and high-powered hardware that so many of the classic supergroups trucked around from arena to arena during rock's glory days. His credits are astonishing when you add them up. From taking cast-off theater equipment to build The Grateful Dead's notorious Wall of Sound, to being the engineering mastermind behind sound systems for The Who (can you say Quadraphenia?), Joe Walsh, ZZ Top, Humble Pie and many others. Heil was literally one of the agents of change that took live sound reinforcement from the dark ages of the 100-watt Shure Vocal Master to the fully modular, crossed-over, bi-amped, triamped, multi-channel mega-ton mega-watt monster of the modern day. And lest we not forget that wierd, wonderful device called the Heil Talk-Box, made famous by Joe Walsh, Peter Frampton and Joe Perry. Oooh-wah-oo-wah, baby! And all the while, Mr. Heil has continued to stay active in his first love, amateur "ham" radio.

The Great Wall of China Cat Sunflower

One thing Heil had not done until recently, was to design and build microphones. over the last decade or so, Heil, along with lifelong friend Joe Walsh, began to revamp the dynamic microphone. For 40 years the industry has been using the same tired old dynamics, so Heil set out to create a newer better transducer for broadcast, stage and studio. The result is the startlingly good line of Heil microphones, quickly becoming embraced by the professional music and sound industry, as well as broadcast, podcast, VO and ham radio. The Heil dynamics' sonic purity, detail and quietness not only beat the usual crowd of dynamics, they rival much more expensive condensers. Analog Planet proudly offers the PR Series, among others. In addition to all being excellent vocal mics, the PR20 and PR40 are our new go-to mics for snare and kick, respectively, and the PR30 may be the best electric guitar dynamic since the Sennheiser MD421. I personally own a couple of these, including a Classic Pro (a PR20 element inside a replica body of the 1950's RCA 74 ribbon) which I use as my personal voice mic. Check out the PR series here.

Heil's Fantastic 40: The PR40 rocks for numerous applications

In four decades in the business, Bob Heil's still as excited about his endeavors as ever. He's easy to get on the phone, and when you do, it's like a pep-talk. His contagious enthusiasm is like that of a 20 year old!

Bob Heil when he WAS 20!

Much has been written about Heil and his accomplishments, as a quick Google search will show. Here are more resources to explore about the iconic Bob Heil:

Heil Mics on Analog Planet
Heil Sound Homepage
Blog 2006
Blog 2007

Bye Bye API -- Hello Pacific-AAAAH!!!

The vaunted A-Designs Pacifica Dual Solid-State Mic Preamp. As Rachel Ray would say, "Yummo!"

I know it's been forever since I blogged. You know how it is -- you get busy, then the stock market tanks, then comes the holiday season, then your toddler starts projectile vomiting, yada yada yada. Sheesh!

Anyhoo, in this first blog of '09 we're singing the praises of the A-Designs Pacifica, the discrete transistor preamp based on the legendary Quad-8 Pacifica console of the 1970s. Over the years, API has been widely heralded by engineers -- myself included -- as being the ultimate "American" sounding mic-pre circuit. Well, maybe not. Read this letter I wrote to A-Designs last week:

For 20 years the API 512 was my go-to mic-pre for pretty much anything and everything in the studio. Lately, I’ve been finding that I go to the A-Designs Pacifica instead. Why? Because it has everything I like about API and then some. It’s midrange character reminds me of the API but the Pacifica is less mid-forward and in general rounder, bigger and more open than the API. It has more high and low frequency response, sort of like a 512 with the “loudness” button on. As a result, the A-Designs is more detailed and airy, while having the fast dynamics that I always liked about the API.

I noticed this when I had a 512 and an A-Designs P-1 Pacifica module side by side in a 500-rack. On a male vocal, using a Mojave MA-200, the P-1 gave a bigger, more present sound. Don’t get me wrong, I also enjoy the sound of British iron (Neve,Trident, Daking) as much as the next guy, but ultimately I guess I lean more on the versatility of that clean, fast “American” sound. The Pacifica, with its Quad Eight heritage, may be the ultimate American preamp. Move over API!

A-Designs Homepage

Pacifica on Analog Planet


The Heritage Desk! A real Quad Eight Pacifica console, circa '79, rocking on in Austin.

Now this is exciting!

New Audio Toys to Land on Analog Planet!
Among the many new audio goodies shown at this years AES, there is one which will be of special interest to Analog Planeteers. Pendulum Audio is introducing a new OCL Opto-Compressor for the API 500 format. Appropriately, it's called the Pendulum OCL-500. Based on the same proprietary opto-cell circuitry found in Pendulum's hugely popular OCL-2 stereo tube comp, the OCL-500 provides smooth transparent compression in a single-wide mono "Lunchbox" module. The OCL-500 uses clean solid-state make-up gain, avoiding the inherent problems encountered when trying to run tube amplifiers on 500-format power. Pendulum's OCL-500 is slated to ship in January of '09 at a projected price of $1295.00 These will immediately be on back-order, so Analog Planet will be happy to get your name in the queue for the first run. Place your pre-order now!



The New Pen OCL-500: Sweet!

Pan 60

Here's a cool web-site I recently became aware of: Pan60

Pan 60 is a frequent poster on my favorite forum, GearSlutz, and he's quite an officionado of the Gear-o. Check it!

Microphonium

Analog Planet is not a dealer for Crowley and Tripp Ribbon mics, which is too bad because I like them. They're not taking on any more dealers at the moment. When and if they do, I hope Analog Planet will be on-board. In the meantime, Bob Crowley has a wonderful blog called Microphonium, dedicated to the art and culture of the microphone.

Bob clearly has far more time to blog than I do, no small feat considering how busy he must be. It's admirable that he's such a prolific blogger. He even blogged about the Analog planet logo a few posts ago.

So enjoy Crowley's "Microphonium".

Spellbinding!

Playing the new Mobile Fidelity Soundlab remaster of Santana's legendary Abraxas conjures up a lot of teenage memories for me; 1970's summer nights with the FM radio piping from the car as we lounged by the lake, stargazing. Or wearing those big clunky headphones in my room in the wee hours of the night, spacing out to Carlos' crying guitar, Rolie's swirling B3, and that hypnotic, stereophonic percussion. The future was endless and anything was possible.

Half-speed re-cut from the original studio masters by MoFi --yes the company still exists and is going strong after 30 years-- the vinyl is quieter than the tape-hiss! Stereo width and depth-of field are better than on any CD I've heard.

Abraxas was one of the sountracks to our dreams.

Dream again with this sonically beautiful reissue.

The Mysterious Track 16

While doing Anastasia Scream's "Moontime" LP at Nashville's at Sound Emporium Studios, we encountered some bizarre happenings. I'm not jivin' you. Some really crazy wierd shit happened. In one anomalous event, we recorded a loud thunderstorm that was happening outside the studio. This was a real boomer. I quickly threw on a blank 2" 24-track reel, popped track 16 in to record, and put a mic in front of an open doorway. This was a $3,000 Neumann U47fet that happened to be handy, and the studio assistant was none too happy later when she saw it placed inches from the torrent outside.

We recorded about six minutes of big rain and thunder. It's not like we had any plans for "the storm track", but thought it might be cool to have. (And besides, we were like, wicked baked, y'know?)


Eventually, we needed that reel to record songs, so we put track 16 in safe and recorded around it. Pretty much forgot about it.

Days later, when we were mixing this finished song called "Blues", I remembered track 16. About two minutes in to the song I eased fader 16 up. At one point right before the song, which is raging full-on, breaks down in to a quiet part, Chick Graning sings, "there's a hole in my head where the rain gets in," and, BOOOOOOMMM! A huge rolling thunderclap follows his phrase right on beat, and rolls and rumbles for about 20 seconds right through the breakdown! (The low-frequency of it vibrated the whole control-room)

Yes, for real.

Of course anybody listening would assume we very carefully placed a thunder sound-effect right there in the song. But no! It was there before the song was even tracked.

The breakdown is followed by this manic sax solo, so we left the magical track 16 in behind there...with the rain and thunder and sax wailing, it sounds like total madness!

The Wonderful Sony C37A

A while back, I had a Sony C37A mic. It sounded great, especially on my voice. Along around 2000, I sold it for like, $1200. This is one of my biggest gear regrets (of many). In the last few years they have become increasingly rare, sought-after, and pricey. A good one goes for three grand now.



Investigating the mic in recent months, I'm seeing that it really became an industry standard in the early and mid 1960's, especially in LA studios. In my recent interview with legendary LA producer Bones Howe (to be published in Tape Op at some time in the future), he mentions the C37A a couple of times. When micing drums, he used one or two for overheads, and a Telefunken U47 out front of the kick. It was a favorite vocal condenser in studios like United Western, Radio Recorders, Wally Heider, and others. Apparently even Frank Sinatra preferred it to the U47.

I'm convinced the reason the C37A is now so scarce and desirable is Daniel Lanois' religious dedication to the mic. He uses it on every singer he works with .. Dylan, Emmylou Harris, Bono, Willie Nelson...I have a video of him producing Emmylou, and that mic is everywhere. She has guest singers coming in like Neil Young and Steve Earl and yep, same mic goes up on eveybody; the Sony C37A.

More on Magnecord

So, I started cracking open these boxes with these old tape-machine elctroncs heads in them. It's like opening a time-capsule. I just opened a box dated Oct 1957. Do the math. That's exactly 50 years ago. This freakin' thing has been in the sealed factory box since 1957. Ike was president and Elvis was all the rage. I started doing some web-searching and (after I got the spelling right) I found some cool stuff about the company. Magnecord and it's "Magnecorder" began in Chicago right after WWII. These GIs came back, and if I read the archives correctly, their start-up funding came from Armour. Yeah, the meat-packing company. They started making wire recorders, but by '49 they had switched over to tape. Seems like they did really well, really fast, grabbing a big market share right off the bat. Like, $90,000/month. In 1949! That's a decent month for me NOW in 2007.

Here's a link to one of the many broadcst history sites which has the story of Magnecord.

Cool, eh?

Selling my gear

If you're interested in the list of audio gear I have for sale, go here.

Magnitude...Magnacord!

OK this is a weird one. We have a bunch of NEW OLD STOCK Magnacord mono tape electronics heads. Yeah.

What is a Magnacord, you ask? Well, here's a pic:



These all-tube tape-machine electronics chassis' were put in a box at the factory in April of 1960 (My mom was seven months pregnant with you-know-who), and have been waiting all these years to come to life. Seriously. 47 Years ago. It was like they were buried in a time capsule. They look absolutely mint! Brand new!

So why is this so great? Well, inside these boxes are all-tube mic preamps. You can plug a microphone right in the back, and there's a line-out, a tape-head out, and an on-board speaker (which makes the thing a stand-alone amplifier!).

Plugged in first an SM57, then an RCA 77dx. Both sounded really tubey and euphonic through the M-Cord. Fluffy! I joked that it made the 57 sound like a 67! And you can easily overdrive this baby in to really cool sounding tube distortion. We turned up the speaker and it sounded like a bad overloaded PA. Awesome! You could put a mic on that! Or maybe play a harmonica through it.

Hell, the NOS RCA tubes that are in it are worth hundreds!

We're sellin' em for $1100 each.

I want one!

Wowza!

This is one of the most exciting things to come down the pro-audio pike in years! I'm so excited I might wet myself. API, who makes my favorite recording gear, is introducing (or should I say RE-introducing) the 1608 16-channel all-discrete analog mixing desk. In the 70's API made the popular 1604 broadcast console. We have a vintage one here at Sonic Circus that is pristine. (I admire it on a daily basis). Modern recordists love having these as control-room side-cars. Well, after years of super-secret development, API is unveiling the new 1608 console, based on the 1604 but with bouble the bussing (obviously) and a host of modern features. Here's a sneek-peek at the gorgeous 1608. Ain't she sexy? I'm in analog heaven right now.



Um, so who can loan me $50 grand?

Ribbon Candy: The Royer Mic and Great Guitar Tone

Over the last decade, Royer Lab's R121 Velocity Ribbon microphone has changed the lives of guitar-recordists like me. I've always quested for great guitar tone, both live and in the studio. Even in the '80's people asked how I was getting my studio guitar sounds, and my secret weapon then was the Beyer M500 large ribbon. So, I had already discovered ribbons at a time when I literally knew of NO other engineer that was using them for electric guitar. For my lead solos I was using typically a Fender 1966 Super Reverb or a Mesa Boogie MKII through a 2 X 12 Fender Bassman cab (old cream colored one), with an M500 on each 12", through API 512B mic pre-amps, through Urei LA-3A compressors direct to tape. This was usually with my '61 Strat, so as you can imagine, the tone was pretty freakin' good.

The problem with ribbons is they can't handle loud levels, so of course, I ended up blowing out the ribbons in the Beyers. Then in 1998, along comes David Royer with the R121 mic, and bang! A ribbon mic that can handle high SPL. I bought one immediately. Mine is from the first 150 ever made, and I still have it. Changed my life and everyone else's because by then people had started talking about using ribbons for guitar. Producer Steve Albini, who was working with the biggest bands in alternative and Grunge was a vocal proponent of ribbons. The Beyer M160 and the Coles 4038 (both of which I had) were old designs that were getting popular again. The Royer gave me a tone that was dark, velvety and downright chocolatey. I got a Bogner Shiva amp in Y2K that was already really "brown" sounding, so that coupled with the Royer was as thick and syrupy as it gets! I had also started a resurgent love-affair with Gibson guitars, and was revelling in the fat humbucker tone that I had loved as a kid. Woman-tone ala early Clapton, Peter Green, The Allmans and Santana. Oh and lest I forget Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top, was my Numero Uno Guitar-God (or should I say Diablo?) when I was a kid. Needless to say, my guitar tones of the past half-decade, using a couple different LPs and a screamin' SG have been, um, high-calorie. Greasy. Buttery. Cream-filled. Gumbo-esque.

I'm getting hungry...

Here's a taste: Listen to the song "She's The Devil" which, as I recall, is mostly my SG Standard through either my Bogner or my Top Hat Emplexador. Pretty sure it's the Bogner with it's own 12 double-mic'd. Mics are Royer R121 and Shure SM7 (that's right, SM7, not 57) pres are API 512C (hey, don't fix what ain't broke!) and there was no compression while printing. I'm especially fond of the dual harmony lead guitar solos. Notice how both main guitars go to lead, leaving just the rolling bass and drums beneath (no extra rhythm gtr).



The Wonderful 121

Recording FAQ: J. From PA asks,

I just acquired a near-mint pair of dbx 165's. I have heard they sound a lot like the Urei 1176. How are they similar or different? Also, the Urei comps, 1176, 1178, LA-3, LA-4, etc, all seem like different versions of the same thing. Am I right about that?

Hey J,

Are those 165's or 165A's? The "A" goes for about $150 more typically. The only reason is that the "A" has the peak-stop limiter which nobody uses anyway (ugly clipping). The non-A does not have that, but who cares?

There are many differences between the Urei comps. The LA-types, LA-2A, LA-3A and LA-4 are opto (optical) comps. They have a electro-optical attenuator in there that creates the compression. The 1176, 1176LN and the 1178 are non-opto FET comps. So, they are a completely different circuit principle, and have far more parametric control (attack, release, ratio). For one thing, an 1176 is much faster than any LA. The LA's have a softer knee and a smoother dynamic response, so they are great for tracking things like vocals, but they sort of do one thing really well. The 1176 is far more versatile and controllable, so you can use it on a lot of things. In my opnion, the best REISSUE 1176LN is the Purple Audio MC77, which we sell for $1640, and it sounds more like the original blackface LN from the mid 1960s than the UA reissue. "LN" stands for "Less Noise" BTW. The silver ones are less expensive and less desirable than the black, because the black ones have a UTC output transformer that people love the sound of. When they went to the silver-face later on, they went to (as I recall but I might be wrong) an op-amp for the output, which changed the sound. They still sound good, but most engineers prefer the black ones.

I know and love the dbx's well, and in my whole 24-year career, I've found that any serious studio has both dbx and Urei comps because they are both good for different applications. The only dbx that might get used on a vocal WOULD be the 165, and if set correctly CAN be used on many sources. (The "auto" attack/release on there is your friend!) However, the dbx comp uses a VCA (voltage controlled amplifier) for dynamic control, yet ANOTHER circuit principle. dbx stands for David Blackmer Electronics, and David Blackmer revolutionized audio by inventing the VCA back in 1970(?). So the dbx's are great, but they sound very different than any Urei. They shine on drums and percussion, and are what gives you the famous snare-crack and kick-drum pop or punch. In general, though, a VCA comp tends to be harder-sounding than other types.

You can certainly get away with a lot with those 165's, but a nice pair of optos, LA-4s, or my personal desert-island comp, the LA-3A, is gonna give you a whole 'nother flavor.

Any questions? I can be reached at Sonic, 802-365-9190 or drew@soniccircus.com

More info on VCAs

More info on Urei 1176 and LA-2A

More on opto compression


Photo: THE famous blackface 1176LN, a studio standard for 40 years.

Drewcifer runs away and joins The Circus!

WoooHooo!

Back in the saddle. Drewcifer is now on staff at Sonic Circus, and we have moved the homestead to Vermont. Here's Sonic's site. This place has everything! New used vintage. We got a 40,000 square-foot old furniture factory just jammed full of gear gear gear. Attention gear-slutz!! I will enable your audio addiction and satisfy that jones!

I have joined The Circus!