By kim culhan (68.42.41.167) on Sunday, November 24, 2002 - 05:46 pm:

Mike-

Would you describe the live chamber at Motown?

Was the block building attached to the west end of Studio B a chamber?

An overhead door was on the side facing Davison as I drove by there recently.

-kim

By Ed Wolfrum (165.247.228.73) on Sunday, November 24, 2002 - 06:08 pm:

Kim, the live chamber was in the building, which was a loading and storage area at Golden World later (Motown Studio B) and was built by Bob DeOrleans, Russ, myself and a friend of Mr. Wingate's. I have a slide of it (inside and out) when we finished it if I can find it and if we get together I show it to you.

Motown had live chambers and numerous EMTs. The live chambers were in the upper levels of the houses with tie lines running to them.

I'll let Mike tell you about those as he built them.

Ed Wolfrum

By kim culhan (68.42.41.167) on Sunday, November 24, 2002 - 06:23 pm:

Ed-

I'd like to see that slide, hope you can locate it.

Do you recall what speakers and mics you used?

How about the wall surfaces and about what size?

-kim

By M.McLeanTech (66.218.41.27) on Sunday, November 24, 2002 - 06:33 pm:

Kim,

Thanks to you, I now have finally learned how to use Microsoft Photo Editor to resize a JPG file until it meets the file size requirements of the forum.

I just had to post this picture, which was much too large before I fixed it up.



This picture of me and Peter Berkawitz (SP?) was taken inside the chamber at the DAF (Davison Avenue Facillity.) Peter was the Director of Group Recording Managment at Deutsche Grammophone Gesellschaft (now known as DGG) and was my guest for the day.

The chamber was located in the main building against the West wall, about half way between the South (front) and North (rear) walls.

Those NEUMANN KM-86 microphones were taken out of the box, brand new, and immediatly set up in the chamber in the coincident pair (intensity stereo) mode that was used to record the Graystone acetate that has been discussed on another thread. These microphones were set for velocity mode (figure 8 pattern) at a 90 degree angle to each other.

We really tried hard to make the chamber as idealistic as we possibly could, when we rebuilt Golden World after it was purchased by Motown.

Mike McLean

By larry (12.141.160.25) on Sunday, November 24, 2002 - 06:53 pm:

Cool shot Mike.

By Ralph (209.240.198.62) on Sunday, November 24, 2002 - 07:26 pm:

Mike,
How I love that picture. It is exactly how I knew you for so long....until that day I passed you in the hallway, not recognizing your now shaved head and beard. It still makes me laugh Mike.

By M.McLeanTech (66.218.41.27) on Sunday, November 24, 2002 - 07:49 pm:

Ralph,

After I left Motown, I worked for a while at Gotham Audio Corporation, in Manhattan. They sent me to NEUMANN in Berlin for training in the servicing of microphones.

Here I am learning from the NEUMANN technican how to clean the capsule of a U-87.



While I was at Neumann, I had dinner with Dr. Bore, who wrote the classic paper on MS Stereophony that was first published in the U.S. in 1958, in a translation by Stephen F. Temmer. This paper can be viewed at the Neumann websight:

http://www.neumann.com/infopool/mics/produkte.php?ProdID=usm69

Select and download:

Gerhart Boré, 1956:
"Principles and Problems
of Stereophonic Transmission",
English, 6 pages

Mike McLean

By Ralph (209.240.198.62) on Sunday, November 24, 2002 - 08:14 pm:

Another great picture Mike. You sent me this, or one similar, some time ago.

By Ed Wolfrum (165.247.228.73) on Sunday, November 24, 2002 - 08:16 pm:

Mike,

We alway had troubles with condensors mikes with the humidity and temperature changes in that chamber. They got noisy quickly.

That is a wonderful use for a Blumlein pair.

Now I will have to find the slides of the outside and inside of the chamber in the Golden World days to go along with your shot.

Ed

By M.McLeanTech (66.218.41.27) on Sunday, November 24, 2002 - 08:33 pm:

Ed,

My experience repairing microphones at Gotham indicated, clearly, that a perfectly clean microphone will stand up very will to humidity.

I started the DAF off with two brand new microphones, as shown in the picture. Some jerk must have switched them with some dirty ones, if you were having troubles later.

Thanks all for your kind words.

Mike McLean

By Ed Wolfrum (165.247.228.73) on Sunday, November 24, 2002 - 08:50 pm:

The chamber return microphone noise problems were before Berry purchased Golden World, back when Bob DeOrleans, Russ and I were there. We had a KM series omni in the room. I can't remember the model any more. It was the tube omni. Bob finally had me pulled it out and put in a EV635 i think. It always worked. It was quiet and rugged...thats about all. A typical Buchanan hammer.

I never worked again at Golden World after the last outside session with Ollie McLauglin. The next day it was a possession of Motown. I did do some work for Motown with Marvin at United though.

Thanks for the tip about dirty mike elements.

Ed

By mhc (172.132.172.109) on Sunday, November 24, 2002 - 09:09 pm:

I hope that someone is going to take the time to describe the Hitsville chambers...

By M.McLeanTech (12.141.160.25) on Sunday, November 24, 2002 - 10:30 pm:

Dear Marshall,

I'm over at Larry's. Here is a quick response to your posting:

I already have several postings that are in the Archives with a lot of detail about the chambers.

If you use the new SEARCH SIGHT function, you should be able to find them. That's what SEARCH SIGHT is for.

Good luck.

Mike McLean

By Bob Olhsson (68.32.96.67) on Monday, November 25, 2002 - 12:07 am:

Mike, we never had any problems with the KM-86s in the Davidson Ave. chamber.

By kim culhan (68.42.41.167) on Monday, November 25, 2002 - 07:40 pm:

Thanks for posting those pics Mike and also the word on previous chamber posts.

I'm going to see if the Searcher will find some posts..

-kim

By M.McLeanTech (66.218.59.133) on Sunday, December 01, 2002 - 12:43 pm:

Dear Kim,

I finally found the post that contains a lot of information about the chambers.

Click on ARCHIVES PAST

Notice that the threads are listed, in order, by date. Move to about May 11, 2002 until you see MIKE MCLEAN 4. Click on it.

Again, the postings are in order, by date. Find the posting by M.McLeanTech on Saturday, May 11, 2002, at 5:46 PM. This is the one!

I have been making some real progress in the matter of dealing with searching the archives. Soon I will post the results of this work. I promise that this posting will be of great assistance to those who want to search the forum.

Enjoy!

Mike McLean

By M.McLeanTech (66.218.59.133) on Sunday, December 01, 2002 - 12:49 pm:

CORRECTION:

START PASTE IN

Notice that the threads are listed, in order, by date. Move to about May 11, 2002 until you see MIKE MCLEAN 4. Click on it.

END PASTE IN

The date should be May 16, 2002, not May 11.

May 11 is the correct date for the actual posting.