morrobay said:
Summer Night City is one of my absolute ABBA favorites (besides Eagle, which is not disco but rather progressive rock/art rock according to Wikipedia, a bit unusual for the band).pinball1970 said:
.I really like that song too!Hornbein said:
Yeah, I don't like the flabby boomy sound of those tube subwoofers in particular. Gimme the Acoustic 360.rcgldr said:
Most of the early discos were using 800 watt Altec power amps. I don't recall which pre-amps were popular. Although Cerwin Vega made mediocre home speakers, they made some high end disco speakers. They made 8 or so custom disco speakers, 4 of which went to a club in Florida, another 4 to Destiny II (which later became the first Chippendales) in California. The speakers were tri-amped with custom cross-overs at the pre-amp to power-amp stage. The speakers were 3 way, with 15 inch acoustic suspension woofers (very tight bass), and over 3 inch throw (1.5 inch either way), with cross-over at 500 hz. To keep the sound clean and isolated, the speakers cabinets were internally damped, covered in padded Naugahyde, and suspended by chains from the ceiling, with rubber cushioned support for the chains at the sides of the speakers. Each side had two support points to control vertical speaker angle. While waiting outside to go in after-hours, you could feel the outdoor brick walls thumping to the bass, but since loud low frequencies can be tolerated, despite feeling the thump in your chest, you didn't leave with your ears ringing. Another club, Bahama Mamas had a neon palm tree hooked up to a power amp with low band pass filter feeding the power amp, which would change brightness instantly with the sound. Crescendo had 10,000 watts total power, but used theater speakers which were boomy, not a tight bass. They had a 10 watt green laser aimed at a prism and mirrors to form a huge laser beam star across ceiling, which would vibrate like a string since the sound vibrated everything in the room. The New York Hustle couples dance was dominant at some clubs, and later became a ballroom competition dance. Unrelated to discos, some companies used Altec power amps to drive small shake tables (solid metal plates), one channel per dimension.Hornbein said:
It's Rose Royce ;)rcgldr said:
Manhattan transfer were simply brilliant. Punk, Disco, new wave, pop? Forget that, how about some close harmony jazz?rcgldr said:
pinball1970 said:
I listened to a mix of music back then. Went to some clubs that had switched to DJ's, but it wasn't until 1975 that the clubs with really good sounds systems opened up. Tavares is one of those bands that needed the high end disco sound systems to appreciate the sound quality. In addition to the funk style disco music, you also had what I called New York Hustle music, like Cerrone - Je Suis Music, Voyage (entire albums), Patrice Rushen - Forget Me Nots, ... . Disco had a grip on the music scene back then except for Fleetwood Mac with Rumours. If it wasn't for Risky Business, probably few would have remembered Old Time Rock and Roll.pinball1970 said:
Do you hate it now though?gmax137 said:
I never once heard any song by ABBA at the disco's I went to (Los Angles + Orange County California). Maybe they were played in other cities. I do recall some obscure songs played at the discos (sort of a competition between DJ's to find little known songs).pinball1970 said:
Initially I wasn't sure, but the first time I went to a disco with a high end sound system is what did it for me. Another issue is much of the music played at discos in 1975 and early 1976 were promo 12 inch singles that never got any radio time.gmax137 said:
pinball1970 said:
I know what you mean, it was certainly impressive. But at the time I thought that snappy sound was kind of fake (or say, overproduced), in the sense that it is not what live music sounded like.rcgldr said:
Depends on what equipment a band used. Around that same time (1975), some pop | rock | r&b bands, including cover bands I heard, were using high quality components (mixers, compression (mostly for vocals), effects (like reverb), pre-amp, power amp), feeding everything into a soundboard for mixing and output to power amps to high quality speakers, instead of using high powered but noisy guitar amp speakers and PA type systems. Guitar amps and drums were mic'ed in order to feed them into soundboards. Jazz and swing bands had been doing this since the 1940s.gmax137 said:
Follow up on feeding everything into a sound board dating back to the 1940's, often done in order to be able to directly record a live performance.gmax137 said:
They're terrific. That's smooth jazz? Sounds more like fusion. Not whiff of Kenny G.rcgldr said:
I updated that post.Hornbein said:
Arrangement of what? No link, just an image.morrobay said:
rcgldr said:
That link works, showing the DJ's. I thought "arrangement" meant a reference to one of the songs posted earlier in this thread. I couldn't find those DJ's on youtube. There are a few nightclubs with DJ's in my area, but they're very crowded. One of the venues, Skyloft in Laguna Beach, has bands on some nights, DJs on other nights, but it is always crowded. BIG (Brothers Igniting A Groove) at Skyloft, keyboard player (on the left) using DigiTech Talker vocoder box. Recorded with a Note 8, good enough to get an idea (other than it is also very loud there).morrobay said:
I missed that. I started discos in the LA area in 1975, then later Orange county 1976 and on. I already mentioned Bamaha Mamas (Santa Monica), Destiny II (Culver City), and Crescendo (Anaheim). There was also the Starwood (Hollywood), and Circus (Hollywood). I never went to Circus, but the DJ for Circus worked at a stereo shop called the Ear Drum in Santa Monica, and sold extra copies of those disco 12" promo singles, which I bought a few of. For Orange County, it was Tin Lizzies (?), City Lights (on the top floor of a building near Knott's Berry Farm), McConahays (Costa Mesa), FoxHunter (Costa Mesa). Other venues included places like Bobby McGees, California Sun, Red Onion, ..., and some hotels. The last two were the Arium (Irvine); its dance floor is now a second bar, and St Regis (Dana Point), which became Monarch Beach Hotel, and now Waldorf Astoria. In LA, Hacienda Hotel near LAX had New York Hustle nights 2 to 4 times a month before the hotel was taken over about 10 years ago. The music changed and the dancers aged:morrobay said:
Wikipedia said:
I wouldn't change one single thing in this song. DennisN said:
