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I toured the original Motown Studio Museum today that Rockstarnot (Scott) has mentioned a couple times.
Seeing what these amazing artists had to work with and comparing to what I own today truly humbled me.
They were using a garage for the main studio room.
They were using attic space for reverb/echo.
Two tracks to work with originally, expanded to eight later (wow! 8 tracks!)
We are so spoiled.
Just thought I'd share this. The tour is well worth taking for any musician/artist. I learned a lot.
The pictures, feel and history were a great treasure I enjoyed seeing.
Make your sound your own!
.. I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
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At one time, the floor of that now famous Motown studio had a dirt floor, too. My only experience ever with packed dirt floor was in an old hunting cabin as a youth. Man, the feet get cold and stay cold, even colder than a concrete floor can do, it seemed. Imagine layin' down those great tracks in that environment.
And that 8-track situation was the first successful one in the world, designed and built inhouse, at a time when none other than the engineers at Ampex had declared that an 8 track single head was an impossibility.
Three channel monitoring.
--Mac
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rharv, I regret I never took my family there. Next visit to MI it's gonna happen.
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They did have many Ampex machines there. I think every one I saw was Ampex.
Noticed multiple old Fairlight pieces in the rack stuff too.
Regarding the floors, they did mention they intentionally left the old lino floor in the control room, as so many great producers had wore it out stamping the beat. Kept some of the older furniture.
Not sure if it happened before or after Scott went, but the Steinway grand is back. Paul McCartney had a private tour one night and offered to cover the cost of having it restored by Steinway. They said it just got put back in the studio after being gone a while for restoration.
It was fun and I'm still thinking about it off/on today. Amazing way for so many great artists to get a start.
Make your sound your own!
.. I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
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They did have many Ampex machines there. I think every one I saw was Ampex. The Ampex machines were later installs, after Ampex got their you know what together. The original setup was done by sel-syncing two or more three trackers. Noticed multiple old Fairlight pieces in the rack stuff too. The Fairlight mic preamps that were the first viable solid state mic preamps, which everyone else in the industry loathed. Stevie Wonder LOVED them for his voice work. I think that they were modified by inhouse engineer. There is scuttlebutt to that end, anyway. Regarding the floors, they did mention they intentionally left the old lino floor in the control room, as so many great producers had wore it out stamping the beat. Kept some of the older furniture. Another bit of lore, the engineers had to redo EQs and such after the linoleum was installed over the original dirt floor. Seems that changed the sound of things and maybe not for the better until they did their engineering magic. Not sure if it happened before or after Scott went, but the Steinway grand is back. Paul McCartney had a private tour one night and offered to cover the cost of having it restored by Steinway. They said it just got put back in the studio after being gone a while for restoration. Cool. It has amazed me from time to time what Steinway can do for their older pianos. I used to play a rosewood cabinet Steiny in a church down here that had that treatment and, wow. It was fun and I'm still thinking about it off/on today. Amazing way for so many great artists to get a start.
Yes, indeed, amazing. Just be aware that working for B Gordy Jr. also had a dark downside to it as well. --Mac
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Regarding the floor; this was in the control room, not the garage studio which started as dirt. There was a large window between the control room (in the house) and the garage 'Studio A'.
Regarding the downside, I gathered that by the 'training' house across the street which served to teach young artists how to 'behave'. Nothing was taken lightly. It was a very interesting afternoon. Recommended here, even if there is a trip involved.
I found it fascinating that MJ donated 125K (and Motown helped him a lot) while Paul donated 70K+ and with no real association with the studio prior to his tour. He must have just hated seeing that piano in that condition. Afterwards he and Barry G. did a video of them both playing it together .. haven't found that yet. Might be fun to watch.
I'm thankful for all who helped keep it alive as a museum. It was actually quite crowded (every tour booked) so it is appreciated by many.
Make your sound your own!
.. I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
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When I went there, it was a private tour for the Detroit chapter of the AES, in the evening, after normal hours.
Two lectures were given, one by Dave Clark (not of the 5), who engineered there and also, according to my neighbor who worked for Dave after he left Motown, did pioneering work on flown arrays - one of the first installs at Pine Knob amphitheater. The technical side of Dave and Tony's talk was about some of the EQs that were unique to Motown.
The second lecturer was Tony Bongiovi - Jon Bon Jovi's uncle, and the guy who started the Power Station studios in NYC after he left Motown.
Tony's story was pretty fascinating. He started at Motown after cold-calling the Motown chief engineer and telling him that he had duplicated some of the reverb magic of Motown in his parent's garage - he supposedly started there in the summer when he was the ripe old age of 16 years old. From New Jersey.
That guy actually offered Tony a job in the basement mixing down tapes. Tony eventually worked his way up and became one of the regular engineers there. He
I just looked it up and it was May of 2008 when they gave those lectures. On the AES page it only list's Tony as the speaker, but David's contribution was just as important as Tony's in the discussion of the EQs and some of the unique recording practices (like no guitar amps in the studio) at Motown.
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The tour guide was awesome also. It was fun, and thanks for bringing it up previously and putting the bug in my ear.
Make your sound your own!
.. I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
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Thanks for teasing me you guys. Now I know I just have to get there personally at some stage. They sure knocked out some sensational sounds from such a basic setup.
Regards
Video Track
BIAB & RB2024 Win.(Audiophile), Sonar Platinum, Cakewalk by Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M Monitors, Pioneer Active Monitors, AKG K271 Studio H'phones
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...They sure knocked out some sensational sounds from such a basic setup.
For the era, that wasn't so "basic" as it seems looking back from today's tools. But rest assured that Motown was using pretty much the same techniques and available equipments as everybody else in the game at that time. Equipment costs back then were stiff. On top of thst, equipment maintenance was darn near continual. --Mac
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