[78-L] Dubbed contemporary matrix questions (Columbia related).

[Royal Pemberton]

I'm not asking here about instances where Columbia (whether or not in
the ARC period) dubbed an items either from a foreign source (such as
in the case of 3114-D I asked about recently; they may have not
received metal parts and had to dub from pressings) or when a dub made
in, say, 1937, is of an item recorded in 1928, where the motives can
include giving the record lead in grooves, or an eccentric stop
groove, or perhaps just preservation of the metal originals.

It looks to me, beginning around mid-1929, that Columbia occasionally
began dubbing from one contemporary master to another, giving the dubs
either 'control numbers' (those 100XXX series etc.) or those 'dubbed
series' 194XXX numbers.  This practice seemed to be indulged in much
more frequently with the Diva/Harmony/Velvet Tone/Clarion items, and
began to be much more frequent after the start of 1930.

Do the master files give the reasons for this practice, where done?

Here's a case in point, that sparked me to ask about this.  I just got
a copy of the 1968 LP PAUL WHITEMAN AND HIS ORCHESTRA FEATURING BING
CROSBY [Columbia CL 2830] and the title 'A bunch of old love letters'
is shown as being recorded 18 October 1929, matrix W 149158-3 but
'remastered and released as W 194379-3' on 2047-D.   (Why this was
done at the time is not explained.)

The sound quality of this track is definitely poorer than any other
track (much more wow), leading me to believe they used a disc pressed
from 194379-3 rather than 149158-3 as their source.  I can appreciate
the use of 194379-3 in the LP for historical accuracy, but I have to
wonder why was 149158-3 both not used originally for the 78, nor used
as the dubbing source for the LP.

I would think, if 149158-3 still existed in 1968 in such a condition
that a good vinyl pressing could have been made from it, they should
have used it instead, with an explanation of this being the take, but
not strictly speaking the actual originally issued master, being at
last made available on this album,  particularly since they did have
some blurb on the LP regarding use of a 'unique piece of filtering
equipment developed in the Columbia laboratories' to make the old
recordings sound better than they ever could have before.