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Part III Home e

My STUDIO OWNER period

1976 - 1980: Timbre Sound

   For a long time, I had been a home recording enthusiast, although it was mostly doodling.

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About 1961, my dad had given me an early model of a home-style "sound on sound" stereo recorder called, "The Voice of Music." I was smitten with the recording process. American Recording Studio was like finding the "Holy Grail" for me, in many ways. Due to the demise of S.S. Fools, I decided to pursue it to the max and turn it into a business. I converted part of my home into a full-blown QUAD recording studio. About 1972 or '73, when Quadraphonic systems were new, it looked like that was definitely going to be the wave of the future. For some reason, that never happened.

Photo by Bill Webber

The public can be very fickle when it comes to their home electronics, and today, are into surround sound, which has many of the same properties that the quad systems had. I suppose the first thing wrong with the QUAD format is that basically, you can't listen to it with earphones. I heard of two ideas that sounded promising to me. One involved a chair that had a shell around the top and sides that had 4 speakers, with a discreet channel for each. This sounded promising, because it was simple and in a controlled environment. Another idea was a set of quad earphones being developed that involved a huge hat you would wear that had 4 speakers built into it. It sat somewhat away from your head, to allow the quad field of sound to be realistic. The chair was the best of the two. Quad just never took off, for some reason.

   For the audio buffs out there that would like to hear the techno talk about my studio: I had a 3M79 16 track tape recorder that used 2" tape (usually Ampex 456, due to it's high bias and 3db hotter printing capabilities) and an Auditronics 501 - 22 x 16 recording/mixing console. Plus, a 4 track Ampex machine (1/2" tape) and a 2 track machine used for mixing stereo or for tape delay. No live echo chamber, but I had a 7 foot long version of a German EMT 170, that was an early plate reverb. It had amazing sound, as well as remote control muting, which could change the length of the delay, giving it the sound of a small room, if needed. It was installed in a huge crate in my garage. As for monitors, I had 4 Altec 604e's as speakers (2 in front, 2 in back), and an arched, double-glass window between the control room and the studio, with a 9" thick door going to the living quarters with lots of wood in the motif. A Steinway "A" in the studio, C3 Hammond with Leslie, a Rogers drum set, baffles and full bay of quality microphones, including Neuman U87's, Sennheiser 441U's, AKG's and a bunch of Shure's. I was in heaven.

    After working all those years with Three Dog Night at American Recording, I had learned a lot. I decided that, even though I had done my best to absorb all I could from Richie and Bill, it would still behoove me to enroll in an audio engineering course. I wanted to really understood the signal path, starting from the microphone, all the way through the console, using outboard gear such as limiters and noise gates, as well as learning to align and tweak the recorders. I researched it and chose a course called, "Sound Masters," that was being offered in North Hollywood. There was also a section on mastering included. It was a good choice and definitely helped me to meld the performing end, with the technical side of recording music. The recording console is just as much of a musical instrument as any one of the instruments recorded, having multiple means of artistic expression. Besides, I loved the engineering side, another love of mine that I owe directly to Richie and Bill. Of course, the first rule of engineering is to "capture what is being performed and preserve it faithfully to a storage media." Engineers think they can fix anything and do many times, but basically, it is fundamental to remind yourself to "just get it on tape correctly" ... er, hard drive, that is. Not always as easy as it appears.

Studio construction just starting

Me at the console as the studio neared completion.
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Photo by Jamey Dell

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Below: Freeman Batchelor at the mixing console with the 3M79 16 track recorder "looming" in the background.

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