December 7, 1977
SUSQUEHANNA TIMES - Page 5
...David Kalmbach and the Marietta Theater (continued)
[continued from page 1]
David was doing just
what he wanted to. ‘60%
of the people in this
country are dissatisfied
with their jobs,”’ he says,
‘‘because they haven't
taken the time to find out
what they're good at.”
‘‘I had a good business
going great guns,’”’ he
says, ‘‘but unfortunately, I
wasn’t as good a business
man as an engineer — and
I wasn’t very good on
security. One night a
couple of professionals
broke in and took every-
thing.’’ Everything in a
professional studio amounts
to approximately $250,000.
He didn’t have insurance.
It would have taken four
months to rebuild. David
sold the real estate and
remaining electronic gear,
and took a job with a studio
in Toronto. He turned
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down a more attractive
offer in California because
of the difficulties of taking
the organ that far.
‘“There were many top
groups coming to us,’”’ he
recalls. ‘‘For two reasons.
First, we ran one of the
best studios; and second,
the Canadian government
had passed a law requiring
that one third of all broad-
cast material had to be
written or performed by a
Canadian, or recorded in
Canada. To get air time on
the border stations, whose
listeners were mostly in
America, the American
groups came to Toronto.”
David liked Toronto, but
was itching to set up the
organ. He scanned papers
~ for theater properties, and
one day saw one offered in
Marietta, PA, for the right
price (i.e.,; cheap). He
came down to look it over.
Sticky
carpets
‘‘It was a mess,’’ he
says. ‘‘Filthy. My shoes
stuck on the carpet.”
But the building had excel-
lent acoustics. After think-
ing it over, he bought the
Marietta Theater.
The organ, so long
homeless, had one final
journey to make. More
customs officers snickered,
and the trip was laborious:
12 trips in the biggest
U-Haul David could rent
(a 22-footer)
The instrument’s console
is impressive enough, but
the pipes, hidden behind
the screen, are something
else. The smallest are a
few inches long and a
fraction of an inch in
diameter; the largest are 32
foot high wooden boxes
several feet across, which
produce notes so low in
pitch (16 cycles) that they
are inaudible. They are
very loud, though, and can
be felt.
The Marietta Theater
isn’t as profitable as his old
recording studio in Grand
Rapids, and David free
-lances as an engineer
these days in Baltimore,
Toronto, and Harrisburg.
“Working in different
studios keeps me from
getting stale,’’ he adds,
‘and they don’t work you
to death. Good engineers
under hire work seven day
weeks.”’
Besides trying to make
the theater a success,
David is getting ready to
set up another studio of his
own, in a year of two. The
theater has just the right
““liveness,”’ or reverbera-
tion characteristics, for that
purpose. He sees his main
problem in getting a top
group to record there.
“They know me, but they
don’t know the building,”
he explains. ‘‘But if I get
just one big group, it’s all
downhill.”” David says
“‘downhill”” for ‘‘success-
ful.”
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David can clap his hands
once and tell you from the
sound what the acoustics
are good for, if anything.
He knows enough about
acoustics and electronics to
have taught courses at a
recording school in Boston.
Based on his extensive
knowledge of recording
gear, he gave the Times
some advice for the audio
consumer, which sounded
sound to us.
David likes to go into
audio equipment stores and
play dumb. Usually, he
says, the salespeople don’t
know what they're talking
about, but throw around
lots of figures and specifi-
cations. ‘‘Naturally, the
salesman wants to sell you
the most expensive thing
he has,’”’ David says. ‘‘But
[continued on page 11]
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