ESSENTIAL

FROM GLENN R. PHOENIX

In response to Kevin K’s question about the unit he came across that pre-
dates the M79; that would be the M23 that was manufactured from around
1966thru about 1971. It was offered in 1/4?mono and stereo,1/2?4track
and 1?8track. It had a separate signal cage for each track that could also
be configured for the special”Dynatrack”version that used two tracks for
each signal channel to create one Super Wide Dynamic Range System. It
sounded great but suffered from channel reduction,which in the face of the
noise reduction system being introduced by Ray Dolby, was a fatal flaw.
There were only about 20or30 machines sold with the “Dyna-track cards
some of which pre-dated the M23 and came out of the St.Paul plant rather
than the Camarillo Ca. plant where I worked from 1966to1972.
I was the project engineer for the M79 along with Clive Ross who did
the signal card and capstan servo design,and John Bristow who did much
of the mechanical package dwg detail including offering up the infamous
“M79 Blue panels”. I was overall system jocky including pushing for 24trk
capability when local sls mngmt was a bit asleep at the wheel. I had been
in field service before Jack Mullin asked me to join the engineering team
and knew first hand from working with people like Wally Heider and Bruce Botnick that more tracks was more desirable and marketable,
especially if you believed in Dolbly”A”. There was supposed to be enough
space in the bottom of the machine below the signal cage to fit 24 Dolby
cat.22cards but this never got completed.
I see another post by Val Garay. For those who don’t know, Val is one
of the industries standout engineers who recorded much of Linda Ronstadt and James Taylors early hits. The M79 was also used by Jim
messina(jimmessina.com)to record Aerosmiths “walk this way”. Neil
Youngs early albums,Jackson Browne,Men at Work and the “Boston album by John Boylan(producer). Of course Michael Jackson’s Off The Wall,Victory and Thriller albums were(as noted elsewhere on this site)
recorded or mixed on the M79's. The list goes on.
Much of Neil Diamond’s early hits were recorded on the M79's predecessor the M56 16trk or previously mentioned M23 1?8trk which
was done by The team of Dale Manquen,Don kahn and of course
recording pioneer John(Jack)T.Mullen(1913-1999?). The M23 had a
pretty good acceptance in the film industry;Universal had quit a few
as I recall. Early on in my Westlake Audio days we placed a lot of M79s
around the world, often with our monitor systems and studio packages
including consoles from Auditronics,API and Harisson. We did a complete
studio for The Moody Blues in London(3M M79&API) and a multi-room
facility for Lagab in Mexico city(M79/Auditronics). I made my first trip
to Japan in 1974 to install several M79s. We opened our Nashville and
Montreux Switzerland offices around the same time. Although Tom Hidley championed the European marketing we were not successful at
selling very many 3Ms.By then Willy Studer had a pretty good hold on the market there. Nashville was a tough sell as well except for a few
machines at RCA which had bought some for L.A and New York as well.
MCI and Ampex were the staple in Nashville along with Scully. We did
Place some M79s down in Macon Georgia for the Alman Brothers studio
we did and at Bill Evan’s Studio-in the-Country in Bogalousa Louisiana
just outside of New Orleans. One Local sale that we did I have fond
memoris of at Ray Charles’ studio. Ray mentioned to me that he particularly liked the layout of the remote on the M79 as he could just
run his fingers down the track selector buttons and feel the ones selected(depressed)for record and sense the status of the machine by
the heat from the light bulbs in each button including the transport con-
trols. Less fond are my memories of service to Ike Turners studio
where he let it be known that no one left his studio without their equip-
ment working (or words to that effect). We had one of those Iso-Loop
tracking problems as I recall.
All in all it was a lucky day when I spotted the help wanted add that
3M had run in “The Valley Green Sheet”. I jumped at the thought of
working for the company that made my favorite possession; a Wolsensak tape recorder. I was only there for a few days when I found
out that the wolensaks were’nt made in Camarillo but in Chicago, my
birth city. But even though I’d spend the first years working on instru-
mentation tape recorders used for the security agencies and research
facilities, I soon met Jack Mullin and my opportunity to pursue my true
passion was presented. Thank you Jack,3m and Bing(Bing Crosby
Electronic Enterprises was purchased by 3M and became The Mincom
Division that I went to work at in 1966).
Well I see I’ve over stayed my welcome. I’m not in the recorder
service business any longer, but if any one has a question I’d be happy
to answer it if I can.
That’s 40!
Glenn Phoenix President, Westlake Audio westlakeaudio.com

“Good Sound…It’s not Rocket Science…But it’s close!”