Nice one Zeb. Yeah, does make me wonder what they used for Cosmos now you mention it.
I hear Soundtracs are good desks. I still remember a guy from college who had a pretty awesome home setup and he had a Soundtracs desk. I forget what it was, but the pics of his setup were impressive. Puts my current home setup to shame! But it's the output that counts, eh?! :) In fact, I may have some stage output sometime soon...
scallyuk · Member since
Have you tried contacting tiffany murray who's father parents owned Rockfield during the Nato sessions. She's on Facebook and I'm sure she'd be able to contribute to "serious questions.
Her book Diamond star Halo is really good.
Adam Baboolal · Member since
Tbh Scally, I was really looking for general info. No need for me to chase people up, etc. In fact, it's related to my Queen covers as the 'desk thing' is possibly going to fit in with mixing ideas. So, that was my main motive for this thread. But damn, there's some really nice info being brought out of people on the subject and well, I'm glad I asked now. :) Especially when I recognise the stuff the Queen lot used back in the day.
scallyuk · Member since
no worries Adam (Damn I need to stop speaking australian and revert to my native scouse)
I will mention it in passing next time I speak to her and see what she might have anyway. It woudl be good to add to the history
Neil
Adam Baboolal · Member since
Sounds good!
Sebastian · Member since
Hey Neil, any chance you can get her to grant me an interview for my website?
"Yeah, does make me wonder what they used for Cosmos now you mention it"
Yeah - I vaguely recall there being a couple of studio pics out there (but not many, knowing how Brian likes his privacy and all) but that could be me misremembering something. For instance, they did it at Roger's even though for some reason I thought it might've been at Brian's.
"I hear Soundtracs are good desks."
The Quartz desk that I've been using for a couple of years at my college (was 48 channel, had a bunch of strips removed so that a computer monitor could sit between the master section and the patchbay) is a pretty solid thing, but is soon on the way out. The problem lies in the master section where the MIDI circuit is located. The thing is just going crazy - back in the day it supplied some pretty eye-opening automation (so the lecturers keep telling me) but nowadays with the ProTools setup, it's just not necessary. Nowadays it just sends bogus instructions and makes the desk (occasionally) impossible to use. We can't bypass the MIDI section either, so either some genius coughs up a new master section, or the desk is going bye-bye.
scallyuk · Member since
slightly OT but Tiffany Murray has already had this http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/jan/30/tiffany-murray-rockfield-queen published
zodiac · Member since
Don't know if this is of interest, but I have some information about The Works and Musicland Studios in Munich. A neighbour of mine was working in a studio which bought the mixing desk of Musicland in around 1992. So the mixing desk for It's A Hard Life and Hammer To Fall was most probably this one:
Harrison 4832, 48 Channels Inline, 32 Busses, 4-Band full parametric Eqs, High/Lowpass Filter, special meter bridge, RTW sum meter
Information including a small picture of the mixing desk here (in German): http://www.baderstudios.de/index.php?main=regiea
More information could be given by the guys at baderstudios (there is a contact button in the above link).
Sebastian · Member since
That's really wonderful. Thank you.
Adam Baboolal · Member since
Nice work guys. Nice article too, Scally :)
I'm enjoying this thread!
Adam.
Sebastian · Member since
I wish I could speak German...
zodiac · Member since
Hi Sebastian,
is there anything in particular you are interested in? I could try and ask the guys or try to translate things you did not understand.
leto · Member since
A few years ago, because I was building my own studio, I emailed David Richards to know some information about the microphones he used to record Freddie.
He kindly replied this :
Hi Sebastien, Thanks for your kind e-mail. I used various microphones over the years, sometimes depending on the needs of the song, Also some singers sound better on a microphone than doesn't sound good on another singer.With Freddie in the earlier days I often used the AKG C414 or C12. Later on I tried the Schoeps CK1 in omni which sounded really good. Also the Shure SM85 was used for the last recordings because we did vocals in the control room with no headphones. Freddie was too sick to walk to the studio, The SM 85 is a condenser mic with the same back rejection characteristics as the famous SM58 stage mic. It never became really fashionable but I still love it and use it often. Another mic that's great for rock is the RE 20 by Electrovoice. Often used for Kick Drum, it is also good for Horn sections. I think it's a good idea to make a website for these kind of questions. I'm happy to share my knowledge and experience with anyone who's interested.. I'll put this on the studio website and see if anyone else asks some questions... Best regards
