Muscle Shoals, Alabama, David Geffen, Harry Nilsson...

[Shooshie]

On a parallel historical note, it's a shame that American Sound did not receive the same treatment. It, too, produced hundreds of hits using the "Memphis Boys" with Chips Moman at the helm. During one Billboard reporting period 25% of the Top 100 were recorded at American!

That building is now long gone. I think the land now is home to a Dollar store.

AAAAACCCKKKK!!!

I've got a thing about dollar stores. And it's not a good thing. I won't set foot in them, and I won't take my wife to one. So, she goes without me. I've donated to Salvation Army stuff that she brings home from the dollar store. I don't want it. Just my idiosyncrasies; I don't have a platform of protest. But that's the last straw! NOW I have a platform of protest!

Shoosh

[Shooshie]

Pretty sure the studio and the front office look today just like they did back then including the hot spot marked on the floor for the lead vocal mic.

When I was growing up, we had a front porch with a wood ceiling and concrete floor, with two sides of clapboard and windows. The other two sides were open. There were places you could stand and clap or whistle and get an amazing slap-back effect. The first time I heard a Sun Record (and every other time afterward), I was always reminded of that spot on our porch. I thought even back then that it sounded like they had plaster walls or smoothed out cinder block walls and hard floor. Then when I saw a picture... hehehe... well, I figure my porch wouldn't have been the greatest place for a studio, but it all made sense that the two places had a lot in common. And that X... I understood that real well.

That was Sun's signature sound! And it was my front porch's signature sound, too. To this day, when I go into any place to record, I walk around clapping and whistling until I find that spot. Not necessarily for a slap-back effect like Sun's, but for the sweet spot. And it's amazing how obvious it is when you find it. I see people just stick a mic up there and go with whatever they get. Uh-uh. When you find those spots in studios, concert halls, church sanctuaries, ballrooms, wherever... it makes all the difference in the world, even for close-micced stuff. I figure half my job is done when I find the place for the mics.

Shooshie

[buzzsmith]

Pretty sure the studio and the front office look today just like they did back then including the hot spot marked on the floor for the lead vocal mic.

When I was growing up, we had a front porch with a wood ceiling and concrete floor, with two sides of clapboard and windows. The other two sides were open. There were places you could stand and clap or whistle and get an amazing slap-back effect. The first time I heard a Sun Record (and every other time afterward), I was always reminded of that spot on our porch. I thought even back then that it sounded like they had plaster walls or smoothed out cinder block walls and hard floor. Then when I saw a picture... hehehe... well, I figure my porch wouldn't have been the greatest place for a studio, but it all made sense that the two places had a lot in common. And that X... I understood that real well.

That was Sun's signature sound! And it was my front porch's signature sound, too. To this day, when I go into any place to record, I walk around clapping and whistling until I find that spot. Not necessarily for a slap-back effect like Sun's, but for the sweet spot. And it's amazing how obvious it is when you find it. I see people just stick a mic up there and go with whatever they get. Uh-uh. When you find those spots in studios, concert halls, church sanctuaries, ballrooms, wherever... it makes all the difference in the world, even for close-micced stuff. I figure half my job is done when I find the place for the mics.

Shooshie

At the old Nashville Quonset Hut the vocal mic sweet spot was "Tile 13".

(Yes, I'm addicted to early pop recording studios and history!)

[buzzsmith]

Quonset Hut layout even though "Tile Thirteen" is not labeled.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... =3&theater

Reset to "Public".

[Shooshie]

I got to thinking that there was no way that slapback effect was acoustic (even though I could reproduce it at a certain spot on my porch), so I found this:

Phillips used technical expertise from his radio engineering background to design and build a unique recording studio, and to develop recording techniques that augmented the music actually played on the studio floor. According to Roland Janes, whose many accomplishments include being Jerry Lee Lewis' guitar player and a key member of Sun Records' ''house band'', ''Sam was the only guy in the world to have the nerve enough to go in and cut hit records with a threepiece band. Phillips' slapback echo, a technique that gave the music actually played a bigger sound on the recording, was a character-defining feature of recordings made at 706 Union. He obtained the echo by sending the signal recorded on a console recorder to another recorder mounted on the wall behind his head, with a split-second lag in between. Phillips' primary goal was to record the music actually played in his studio, to capture the feeling in the music, because “if the feeling wasn’t there on the floor right then, there wasn’t any point in doctoring it up later''.

Link

My sentiments eggzzzack-ackly!

Shoosh

[kshrieve]

Candi Staton, "I'm Just a Prisoner"
Muscle Shoals, 1969
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHI88EVBZzc

For me it was love at first listen.

[Shooshie]

If you want to take a trip into Studio History 101, Buzzy Smith has a gallery on his Facebook page that is amazing. I think it's open to the public.

https://www.facebook.com/buzzy.smith/me ... 613&type=3

I just spent an evening looking at Buzzy's galleries, and my arm is sore from clicking. That's a lot of pictures! Great stuff, though.

Shooshie