From: bill@bilver.uucp (Bill Vermillion)
Newsgroups: rec.audio.pro
Subject: Re: Review of Sony PCM-3324S in August '92 MIX
Date: 12 Sep 92 16:04:41 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: W. J. Vermillion - Winter Park, FL

In article <1992Sep11.205144.19373@cbnews.cb.att.com> ewm@cbnews.cb.att.com (edward.w.mcfarland) writes:
>In article <1992Sep11.170031.14934@bilver.uucp> bill@bilver.uucp (Bill Vermillion) writes:

>>the first Ampex 8 track, and the serial number on it was #13.
>>That's right THIRTEEN!  (That is their 1st true production
>>8-track - Les Paul had a custom 300 8-track).

>>So I guess that puts me far enought back :-)

>I took a workshop course in recording technology in 1976.  It was at a 
>Boston recording studio which at the time was one of the best in town.
>They had the first 16 track production Ampex serial # 1.  I think they
>had bought it from its original owner.

If this was the first unit, then it was an MM-1000.  This was
an audio machine based on the 2" quad VCR transport that Ampex
made.  Gawd were they big.   No real remote.  Manual switch to
record out of sync.  Used the same electronis as the Ag-440.

One thing I will give MCI credit for, is that they build a
machine with the first decent remote control and auto-locator.
Other than that the machines were pretty bad - in construction
and sound.   Electronics were an Ampex rip-off.  Boards
weren't copyrighted in those days.

>This course was made available by a group called the Recording Institute of
>America.  Are they still around?  They were as good as whatever studio and 
>teacher that they could hire in the local area and they were nation wide.
>I was lucky in that Intermedia studio was (and is, under a different name)
>very good and the teacher was Bob Runstein, author of "Modern Recording
>Techniques", a very good text.

Yes, I fondly remember RIA.

I taught 2 classes of 9 students each in our 2nd studio.  You were
lucky to have a teacher that great.

The original concept was 30 hours of studio instruction.  Ten days of 3
hours each night for 10 weeks.   We seemed to ramble on and the 7pm to
10pm classes sometimes wound up at 1 in the morning.   Hell, you can
hardly begin to scratch the surface at 30 hours.

In my first class, Davey (forgot the last name) was really driven to
get into the business, but he hardly new which end of the microphone to
plug the wire in.  But he worked hard, and finally wound up at a little
studio in Nashville.

In the second class, Andy was the star.  (This goes back to 1975 or so,
and he is still one of my best friends).  He had good ears, and a
decent electronics background.   I scrounged up a circuit, our studio
manager laid it out and built circuit boards, and Andy wired and
installed them to take our 12x4 console to a 16x16.  What with the
bending of aluminum, 16 more meters, 32 more cannon connectrs, etc, we
still did the job for about $1000.  He did part-time work and tech
stuff in our 2nd studio, and became full time when we did our
state-of-the-art studio.

If you look carefully at lines notes you can find his name on the
Krokus "Headhunter", One of the early "Y n T" albums, several Blackfoot
albums. Those were in our 3rd and last studio. He has some of the best ears
of any engineer I have met.

-- 
Bill Vermillion - bill@bilver.oau.org  bill.vermillion@oau.org
                - bill@bilver.uucp 
                - ..!{peora|ge-dab|tous|tarpit}!bilver!bill