the cold war wasn't all bad...

[yeti]

....after all those commies gave us this.....

https://youtu.be/z_i0oAFB6Kg


Just came across this feature done by sound-on-sound, brings back memories from when an old friend of mine had his studio in those rooms in the early 2000's. The place is truly unbelievable but what's more unbelievable and not mentioned in this video is the fact that the entire areal , valued at 30,000,000.00 Euros was sold to a dubious "investor" for 350,000.00 Euros in 2006.
I'm glad to see that it is still being used for it's intended purpose despite it's checkered recent history.

 

[Stinky Kitty]

East German precision. No ****ting around.

Impressive.

 

[martin H]

Ahh but if you lived in the UK they also gave us Russian stereo equipment, in exchange for shoes , or something like that. When I was a kid working weekends at the local electrical store, they used to sell "Rigonda" radiograms and stereo systems. I still have my "Rigonda Selena" short wave radio.

Nice wooden cabinets, but no so great on the sound. The alignment on the radios had also been "peaked" on the broadcast frequencies of Radio Moscow.

 

[yeti]

^^^
a lot of HiFi gear sold mailorder in West Germany was actually manufactured in East germany (#7 worrld economy during the 70's)

 

[Zentar]

And you couldn't go to W Germany or you'd be shot by your own government.

 

[Freddy G]

^^^
a lot of HiFi gear sold mailorder in West Germany was actually manufactured in East germany (#7 worrld economy during the 70's)

I had a 60's Grundig console stereo when I was a kid. It wasn't until I "upgraded" to a new Sony solid state component stereo system that I realized how great that Grundig sounded. Compared to that Grundig the Sony sounded small, tinny and 2 dimensional... man was I ever disappointed! Don't know if the Grundig was East or West but it was German.


Edit- WOW! Just watched the video....that truly is impressive.

 

[jay1williams]

you don't see open room recordings like that much anymore - very cool!

 

[foxtrot]

This is very awesome, thanks for sharing!

 

[yeti]

I had a 60's Grundig console stereo when I was a kid. It wasn't until I "upgraded" to a new Sony solid state component stereo system that I realized how great that Grundig sounded. Compared to that Grundig the Sony sounded small, tinny and 2 dimensional... man was I ever disappointed! Don't know if the Grundig was East or West but it was German.


Edit- WOW! Just watched the video....that truly is impressive.

Grundig was West German and state-of-the-art. My dad bought my mom a Grundig system in 1963, it was the first commercially available solid state system and the sound of those speakers driven by that amp still haunts me.

The east german stuff was sold under names like "Universum" distributed by "Quelle" (mail-order). It was cheaper and not nearly as good as West german HiFi stalwarts like Grundig, Braun and Dual turntables, but it was decent, certainly better than the stuff the east germans sold to their own customers. Hard currency customers came first, even in the "workers and peasants' state"

As far as the video goes, my favorite video of that place is a german national news segment featuring a very good friend of mine (that scruffy chain-smoking dude) explaining the louver system. As producer/ studio owner he brought Sting, Aha, Blackeyed Peas, Joe Jackson and others to the facility.

sorry, german only

https://youtu.be/u2IJgcLXCWM

 

[duaneflowers]

The cold war also gave us Russian K40Y9 tone caps... so you're right... it wasn't all bad!

 

[dmoss74]

that's a great facility. i was wondering if somewhere along the line, they'd mention the techniques they used to record the old sinatra records, at columbia studios. it went almost to the very end, but they did.

i liked how the second guy was going on and on about how he likes to use the room for all the sound treatment, then has a lexicon reverb unit sitting right on his desk.

it's all good. i'd love to see that place, or record something in it...fat chance, but it would be fantastic.

 

[martin H]

Thinking back, we also could get some rather nice little 5" monitors from Hungary marketed under the name "Videoton MiniMax "

This was before the mainstream advent of small speakers that actually sounded good, and my friends would look right past them trying to see where the speakers were. The tweeters were a bit of a weak point, so the distributor stated sending British Howland-West tweeters to Hungary for installation in the export models.

They were excellent little speakers for the money

 

[alekssorokoletov]

Rigonda was not "Russian" equipment. This radios was created in Russian-occupied Riga (Latvia) on the Radiotehnika Plant. I had created at this plant radio Festival and stereo Symphony, which was for sale in Europe under the name Rigonda Bolshoi. It was the most high-quality audio products, which can be bought in the USSR.

Funkhaus Berlin was created by survivors of the Second World War specialists Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda, who agreed to work for the Communists and Russian. These professionals have built a studio like this almost in all the capitals of the Soviet republics. Right now we are struggling with the new owner of the studio building in Kiev (Ukraine), which is going to destroy it and build a shopping center.

 

[yeti]

Funkhaus Berlin was created by survivors of the Second World War specialists Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda, who agreed to work for the Communists and Russian. These professionals have built a studio like this almost in all the capitals of the Soviet republics. Right now we are struggling with the new owner of the studio building in Kiev (Ukraine), which is going to destroy it and build a shopping center.

Wow, this is very interesting. Do you have any links/ photos/ etc. of the Kiev Broadcast facility? That would be great to see.
Regarding Funkhaus nalepastrasse I thought that it was designed by architect Franz Ehrlich. A communist, he was jailed and spent time in german concentration camps during the 30's.

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Ehrlich

Can you give more details as to who the acousticians and other specialists from the Nazi era were? I always thought that ex-Nazi's looking for work had to go to west Germany or the US.

BTW, here are some nice pics of the facility showing a different view.
Radio Complex - Funkhaus Nalepastraße (Oberschöneweide) ~ Elephant in Berlin

 

[alekssorokoletov]

Former nazis were actively used in communist Russia after war. Experience and knowledges of technical specialists and employees of the special services was used Russian the same way, as Nazi death camps used by the Stalinist NKVD.

Unfortunately, information about participating of the German experts in creation of the Republican house of the audio recording I got only during socializing with the specialists of this organization, which created my first studio in 1985.

The republican house of the audio recording in Kiev was built in 1952 and thoroughly reconstructed in 1965 and 1988.

Now studios look so: