I worked in a mid level studio back in the late 70's in St. Louis that was definately old school with the reverb room, etc. It was even kinda out of date back then. We had one C12 and a Nueman KM184 (?), AKG 451 with a couple capsules, some of the old EV666 mics and some other goofy stuff.... MD 421 and a pile of 57s. One LA2A and a one inch 8 track. Custom built board with no pan and about 20 channels.
We had one other weird mic...look like a skinny lava lamp in black... don't remember but it had its own power supply too like the C12. We obviously were clueless about what we had, except we knew the 451 and the Nueman, because we paid $350 for them back then...or more. The C12 was ALWAYS the first mic put on whatever and the guy that built the studio and board came up with this mic somewhere. We just thought it was expensive (maybe $750 back then?) because the power supply had these monster cables on it and it was just for the mic! Basically the only vocal mic we ever used as well. ..and always thru the LA2A. We knew they were "pro" stuff because the "big boy" studios used the too...but we weren't hearing the big difference....cause we were just in another league from the guys in the million dollar studios.
However...I listen to some of the old Revox 1/2 track mixes we did, and they are quite different from my computer home studio. Thicker...punchier...but the quality is much worse too.
That said, I bought a desk before then, that came out of Atlanta and had a history...Glen Cambell's first hits, etc... Langevin EQ, built in Fairchild comps and complete with the mono McIntosh amps for the mains. HUGE patchbay...couple of fridgerators in size... I did make some money off that stuff, but nothing like I would today.