I recently heard
William Shatner interviewed, the Leonard Lopate Show, I think it was, and
he spoke about his tinnitus. I found this Youtube video of him talking
about it.
Here's a short clip: Pete Townshend of The Who stating the obvious.
And following that, The Who playing “We Won’t Get Fooled
Again.” When I watch this, I always think about Keith Moon, the drummer, who
passed away shortly after this shoot, and how deaf he would be today if he
survived. He’s wearing headphones so he can stay in sync with the sequenced organ track
which defines the song’s tempo.
He’s flanked by tremendously loud bass and guitar amplifiers, stage left
and right.
My "favorite" part of this film (The Kids Are Alright) is
seeing Pete Townsend continually crank up his volume pots throughout the song.
He’s running 3 (!!!) Hiwatt amps driving 3 double 4x12 cabinets. All those are
in use and running. Today, bands put up dummy cabinets for the look, but only
use maybe one. That’s smart actually.
One of Jane Lee Hooker’s guitarists used a Hiwatt head. Pete
Townesend, IIRC, ironically owned some part of Hiwatt.This would be a good point to read this Wikipedia article about Townshend's hearing loss.
This last video shows The Who in the studio, doing a basic
and some overdubs.
FYI: Jim Marshall of Marshall Amplifiers passed away today:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17625335
FYI, Jim Marshall of Marshall Amplifiers passed away:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17625335
I saw that news today..crazy how u forget there's a whole life behind the name on these products.
ReplyDeleteGood read. I've been reading up on Tinnitus recently. A friend has been having trouble sleeping because of a ringing/buzzing in his ear.
ReplyDeleteOT: Are Shinybox microphones modeled after another mic? What microphones were they using for vox in the studio? Looks like Shinybox but that's not possible.
To me is funny to see artists talking about ear problems. Why since the beginning of their careers,they are not careful when being exposed to high levels of audio?.Also, I know there is also a lot of people who have delicate ears, like me. My left one can not take very loud levels of audio as the right one does. But I do not have any buzzy sound all the time, fortunately.
DeleteThe Shinybox is basically the cheap Chinese ribbon motor used in the Nady. It is "tweaked" by Shinybox for best tension. The model John bought has a Cinemag (US) transformer in it. Cinemag made transformers for RCA ribbons back in the day. I modified my Nady by installing a Cinemag. They are essentially the same mic.
ReplyDeleteI did a side by side comparo last year (this year the class could not get equivalent mic positions...very frustrating,) and they sound almost the same, except mine has extended low frequencies. That says that the ribbon in mime might be strung more loosely.
As for the mics in the "Who Are You" video, the one you think looks like a Shineybox is actually a Neumann U67. That is a high end tube condenser mic:
http://www.coutant.org/u67/02.jpg
http://www.neumann.com/?lang=en&id=hist_microphones&cid=u67_publications
The U67 is obsolete though very popular.
Compare to the U47:
http://www.coutant.org/u47/u472.jpg
The U47 is obsolete and very popular. The Lawson L-47 is a copy of that.
Additionally you will notice Pete Townshend behind a Shure SM-7 in the basic shots; when he plays the guitar. I assume that is for scratch vox.
FYI, this was not the recording eventually used on the album. The final version was recorded in a different studio. Clearly this take could have been used. There is one bad drumming error which probably could have been fixed.
I have to amend that. I just watched the video again. On the Daltrey vox and b-u/handclap mics, I now see XLR cables connected to the mic. That would make it a U87, a NON tube condenser.
Deletehttp://mixonline.com/TECnology-Hall-of-Fame/1967-neumann-u87-090106/
It's very hard to tell any difference from pics unless you see the mic cable. The U-67 needs a multi-pin Tuchel cable; which I THOUGHT I saw earlier. But it appears to be plain old XLR connectors. Therefore, a U87.
Ahhhhhh. I googled what Tuchel cables look like. Good catch! Thanks, Vin!
DeleteAlso, I felt proud of myself when I recognized the SM-7! Haha! :D