Members and guests of the AES Melbourne Section connected via Zoom to hear Ross Cockle recount his days at the Bill Armstrong and Armstrong AAV Studios in the seventies and eighties.
Following an introduction by Section Chair, Graeme Huon, Ross started by recounting how he had started at Armstrong Studios in Albert Road, South Melbourne in 1973 as part of the workforce needed for the transition to the new Armstrongs Studios in Bank Street.
This was just after they had taken delivery of the first Australian-built Optro 16-Track recorder. Ross joined as Armstrongs was bolstering staff numbers to handle the move into the “old butter factory” premises that Bill Armstrong had just purchased in Bank Street. He told of how he started as a “gofer” fetching cigarettes and “recording fluid” (alcohol) for the producers and engineers – not an issue at all in those days, despite being only 15-16 years old. We then got a rundown of the microphones being used at that time, lots of EV RE20s, Neumann U67s and some FET U47s, as well as a classic valve U47 that was kept for special sessions. He went on to tell us how he graduated to dubbing duties, where he had to make multiple copies of radio commercials for distribution to stations, and how recording radio commercials and jingles was the money-making enterprise that subsidised the music recording operation, and how jingles were being recorded during the day, and bands being recorded at night at a lower studio rate. He described the Ampex 351 and Rola 77 tape recorders used for dubbing.
Ross also described his first foray outside the dubbing booth, doing a field recording at Luna Park of sound effects on the Captain Matchbox Smoke Dreams album using an X-Y pair of Neumann KM84s and a Nagra ¼” portable recorder, and then more effects recording of Graham’s In Melbourne Tonight audience applause at the Channel Nine studios for the Graham Kennedy album cut Applause. He then described moving up to assisting on remote recordings using a Yamaha mixer and Scully 8-Track recorder.
Ross then described the move to Bank Street, with the main Optronics desk and 16-Track making the move. He went on to describe the Optro recorders and mixing desks, Graham Thirkell’s designs, and the good and bad things about this “bleeding edge” equipment.
Ross described his first orchestral session with Brian Rangoon using session musicians from the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, an album for the Beautiful Music radio station 3AK. He described the use of EMT plate reverb and AKG large spring reverb on that session.
Ross then mentioned the purchase of the business by the David Syme organisation, which triggered an influx of capital that permitted an equipment upgrade – 24-Track Optro recorders, and a new Optro desk, the Digipatch 9600 which had enhanced features (parametric Eq on all channels, cue sends with fx etc) and used digital patching to eliminate patchbays. One unfortunate issue with the Digipatch desk was that a power loss could cause a loss of all patching data.
Ross then told how worked as an assistant engineer, working alongside legendary engineer Roger Savage, recording artists like Brian Cadd and The Bootleg Family, ultimately moving up to become a recording engineer in his own right. He told how his first session was recording a new band that Glenn Wheatley had assembled, called The Little River Band (LRB). It was a single titled Curiosity Killed the Cat. He told how it was recorded in a day, and mixed the next day. It charted, peaking at No.15, and LRB (and Ross) were on their way.
He then described recording the LRB albums, and the technical transition from the Optro desk to an imported Auditronics “Son of 36 Grand” console. He spoke about the difficulty in keeping everyone fed during late-night sessions with few food places open in South Melbourne overnight, and how they came to rely on the neighbourhood’s Silvertop Taxis all-night cafeteria.
He covered other recordings he had done in general terms and played short excerpts from various artists’s songs that he had recorded.
He then described the upgrade to a Westlake Design control room in 1979, with classic Westlake architecture, acoustics and monitors. With David Syme’s access to capital, they were able to upgrade to a Harrison console, and Apex MM1200 24-Track and ATR-100 quarter-inch machines. It was the end of the Optro dominance at Armstrongs/AAV.
In commenting on the small Auratone loudspeakers on the desk meter bridge, Ross said that he used the Auratones almost exclusively for mixing in preference to the large Westlake monitors.
He moved on to highlight some sessions he was doing in 1981 like the Andrew Durant memorial album, Russell Morris, Birtles & Gobles (LRB members), and Wendy and the Rockets. He recounted how he was recording advertising jingles during the day and recording bands at night, many times working late into the night, and coming back at 8 the next morning to work on jingles with specialist composer/producers like Peter Best. Campaigns like Slip, Slop, Slap and Razamatazz (“Uh Oh, Razamatazz”) were mentioned. He spoke next of his experiences recording The Police live at Festival Hall in February 1981, which was clearly a highlight for him.
The next experiences he told us about were of mixing soundtracks for television series and movies, citing a long list of popular titles. Then there was a track with Leo Sayer, The Angels live album Never So Live and work with Mondo Rock and Ross Wilson. Then we heard about Stevie Wonder booking out the studio, bringing his own digital PCM machine, and editing a track for backing playback on a television appearance. He also recorded several tracks for an upcoming album Wonderlust (?), but Ross told us that he had heard that the multitrack tapes were lost in transit to Perth, and were never released.
We then heard about Ross being sent to the US on a fact-finding mission, and the famous studios he visited (Sunset Sound, Record Plant Mobile, Electric Lady, Glen Glenn Sound, Paramount’s Studio M, Power Station, A&R Studios, and George Massenberg), and the people he met. The tour continued to London where again he visited more famous studios (Olympic, Air, Townhouse) and met their people.
We then heard more of his discography, Karen Knowles, Vince Jones, and recording Simon & Garfunkel live at AFL Park, Real Life, and Australian Crawl, for whose Between a Rock and a Hard Place was the last album he did on staff at AAV.
Ross briefly mentioned the introduction of multi-track digital with the introduction of Sony DASH machines. He commented that this was shortly after they had started recording using Dolby SR analog noise reduction, and he indicated that he preferred the sound of the analog SR compared to the DASH digital. However, he said what he didn’t prefer was the constant alignment need with analog tape.
He also told us about the commercial imperative to upgrade to the latest must-have technology, with the addition of a Solid State Logic SSL6000 series console which artists and producers were clamouring to use.
Ross’ description of his experiences at Armstrong Studios as it morphed into AAV through the seventies and eighties mirrored the soundtrack of those years as heard by us all on the FM radio, our record/CD players, and on Countdown on our TVs. To hear from somebody who was responsible for so much of it was a rare privilege, and we thank Ross for the time and effort he put into his presentation.
We look forward to hearing about the next chapter in his life, because his contribution did not stop at the eighties, and continues even to this day.
We thank Ross for the time and effort he put into preparing and presenting this most interesting series of recollections of an important time in Australian music.
Here’s an edited video of the Zoom session:
The video can be viewed directly on YouTube at:
https://youtu.be/JMNLAp_4TMY
An early draft of Ross’ presentation gave some background to the early days of Bill Armstrong Studios, before Ross joined – and Ross’ pre-Armstrongs work. This was deleted from the presentation due to time constraints, however a video of this still exists, and can be viewed as bonus content at: https://youtu.be/i6LjQBaXgBw
Ross’ slide set – all 120 – can be viewed/downloaded as a PDF at:
https://aesmelb2.s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/RossCockle-Presentation1.pdf
Author: Peter Smerdon (Secretary)
Related Links:
Recordings described in Ross’ presentation
The list is long – prepare for a walk down memory lane.
1971 (24)
Eagle Rock Daddy Cool
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQfAZVsz6KM
1972 (24)
Ginger Man Brian Cadd
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWwRmmQCi18
1973 (28)
Capt. Matchbox (My first recording credit)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Apc4mfAXPSE&list=PLZk9_URFc3iGAYZrWPMAkD4FPY84mWSQk
1973 (28)
Graham Kennedy (Applause)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iMI6ia_eqU&t=828s
https://youtu.be/6iMI6ia_eqU?si=tXkNbHgFAPgjrvrl&t=678
1973 (31)
Let Go
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zgo1Y8c9gmg
1974 (37)
seven little australians music
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvzudjtzb0E
1974 (38/39/40)
The Aust Pops Orch 3AK Beautiful Music
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjMLe9MWghU&list=PLAnCmUEkejQeXq1wx0M29kqMzxPTIa_pY&index=86
1973 (46)
Shoop Shoop
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpb3idXxFWU
1973 (47)
My Girl Bill
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_hTeTdCXwk
1974 (50/51) (All Optro Dgi-Patch. Ampex 2track Dolby)
Another Saturday Night
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ja1mAFiHUis
1975 LRB (53/54)
Curiosity (Killed the Cat)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57AeVVi48xw
It’s A Long Way There (57/58/59) Wrong Line Up Right Audio
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzMaL15Yozo
1976 (66)
Every Littler Bit Hurts
https://youtu.be/PVyJ6mLaSxg?si=1_J1W7f5OcmO9ek1
Quick On The Draw (66)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WBERHWXXpk
1976 LRB (67/68)
Every Day Of My Life
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1SIQ3-y2fQ
1977 LRB (70/71/72/73)
Help Is On It’s Way
https://youtu.be/7tcutmdnFvk?si=T_Dpk9Wara3WIwRq
1978 Stars (76)
You Better look After Yourself
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0Ngy7jGhH8
1979 Two Man Band (82)
Up There Cazaly
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxM8XB61ZvU
1979 (84)
SSM Avalanche
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgh79dxZtsA
1980 Aus Crawl (85)
Beautiful People
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWw_Q2-7gRU
1980 Midnight Oil (86)
Bird Noises
https://youtu.be/97quMpcUeyo?si=faXaWQ_DzFvPqM2W
1981 (87)
Andrew Durant
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wA0ZiMImV1w&t=92s
Wendy Rockets
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVWspq7JcY0
1981 (89/90)
The Police Live (Soft But Pre_FM)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-SgoBvJVqI&t=4024s
1981 The Angels Live (94)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMUl33x6SzY
1981 Mondo Rock Cool World (95)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WRozCdiR6U
1982 Joe Jackson (102/103)
Is She Really Going Out With Him
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5t68oGOJHg&list=PLWMkbQ4-QHpUUOI5_WGnfIhq-uJtTzUD-&index=10
1983 Jokers & Queens (108)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ywf9uGgbMdo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoiRmW0ioNI
1983 Real Life (110/111)
Send Me. An Angel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwfErYUoqx8
1984 Vanessa Venning (114) SONY DASH 24TRK
Midnight Blue
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOnu9f_ADGI
1985 I’m Talking (118)
Love Don’t Live Here Anymore
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTcqcwFJjQw
Other resources:
AES Melbourne’s Audio History recordings with Bill Armstrong
Bill’s pre-studio days and recording at venues:
Bill talks about the expansion at Albert Road, and the ultimate move to Bank Street:
Here Bill recounts the equipment he used, right from the early days right through to Graham Thirkell’s Optronics consoles and 16/24-Track recorders:
