[78-L] Metropolitan Opera broadcasts in the old house [FWD]

[Michael Biel]

On 12/26/2010 6:02 PM, Royal Pemberton wrote:
> The 44 series first appeared in 1931.  (The Shure 55 series first appeared
> in 1939.)

... and the Shure 55 was never considered by real broadcasters as a 
broadcast or recording studio mic.  It was really only a Public Address 
mic, and most of the time you see it in use is in live concert 
situations.  It is purposefully damn insensitive which makes it less 
prone to feedback.  It really is a piece of crap, but since there are so 
many pictures of Elvis using it in small-town appearances in the 50s, 
some tin-ear jerks think it must be a great mic.

>   Dan Van Landingham<danvanlandingham at yahoo.com>  wrote:
>
>> The only other mic I remember seeing pictures was a Shure 55H.When did RCA
>> come out with the 44?I've seen a few pictures of Tommy Dorsey and he was always in front
>> of a 44.
>>
>> ________________________________
>> From: Mike Harkin<xxm.harkin at yahoo.com
>> FWIW, I can't remember ever seeing this type of mic [Altec] in CBS, NBC
>> or Mutual studios when I lived in LA in the late 40's and early 50's, and
>> used to attend broadcasts in their various Hollywood studios.  They were always
>> RCA 44's.  Same with any stills of radio broadcasts....  Mike in Plovdiv

World Broadcasting System was a Western Electric licensee and in 
addition to recording with their Wide Range Vertical Recording system, 
they used the WE mics.  When Decca bought into World in the early 40s 
you will see some WE 639s in use.  Mutual also used them on the East 
coast, meaning WOR.   Every other engineer with half a brain used RCA 
ribbon mics but Columbia and Mercury Records started experimenting with 
the Neumann/Telefunken condensers when they started to become available 
in the late 40s.

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com