Man, do I ever have a pile of used old 2" tape. I still have the 16 channel board for the first 2" machine at a studio I invested in...the first 16 track one in Lexington.
That's back when an engineer did all settings manually during mixing...in fact, we'd hire an engineers specifically for the sound he develped on a particular kind of equipment. That's when mixing was an art form that separated the "men from the boys". Everything was manual. The rythem section was always the same, to minimize set-up (and costs). The typical project took one hour for the basic rythem track (piano, guitar, drums, bass), an additional hour for the "sweetening""-horns, vocal, etc. and an hour for the mix-down and voice-over (for a basic commercial package). Selling price was $3-4000.00 range. It was critical that the rythem track be completed in an hour...not 65 minutes, because time and payment to players was per hour. If the rythem track took more than an hour, we broke even, at best. Studio guys got to be very close and worked together for years. We could read each other's minds. Studio instruments stayed in place. The studio drums, bass and piano were in permanent positions, with direct boxes, baffles and mikes in place. The studio bass I used never left the studio. Settings were marked with duct tape near the controls. A grand piano was tuned once a week, and again if there was a particularly big project. The piano tuner was always on call.
Different than today, but a real thrill when it all came together. My big projects are still done in a similar way...no sequences...rythem track first, with real players. that's whenever it's within budget. Of course, with newer technology, there are those out there selling the equivalent of a $3-4000.00 project for $500-750.00. that's why I made the transition to film score music
for international corporations. with a budget in the six figures, scores at "full mark" are a relatively small portion of the budget, and great productions become affordable.
Ah, "Memory lane",
Russ