[78-L] Acoustic-era monitoring

[Michael Biel]

The engineers eventually all learned to judge the balance by looking at
the grooves.  They could see the low and high frequencies and how strong
they were.  In fact, when electrical recording came in they were at a
loss.  They couldn't read the grooves like the used to, and they didn't
understand at first the sound balance when listening to a loudspeaker
coming from the sound source.  This was discussed in one of the
phonograph histories.

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com  

-------- Original Message --------
 Subject: Re: [78-L] Acoustic-era monitoring
 From: Royal Pemberton <ampex354 at gmail.com>
 Date: Sat, August 08, 2009 1:03 am
 To: 78-L Mail List <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
 
 On Fri, Aug 7, 2009 at 11:52 PM, Sammy Jones <sjones69 at bellsouth.net>
wrote:
 
 > This one's been bugging me for a while...
 >
 > Did engineers in the acoustic days have any way to directly monitor
the
 > sounds coming from the recording horn? Were there perhaps listening
tubes
 > tapped into the line (or pipe)? Was there any way to visually monitor
 > volume other than watching the cutter head etch the grooves with a
 > microscope?
 >
 > I wonder how they mixed sounds coming from different horns, or if
they even
 > did! Maybe they just moved performers closer to or farther away from
the
 > horns...
 
 
 No monitors. All trial and error. Record something, take notes of what
the
 set-up was, make a test pressing, listen to it, take notes as to what
needed
 to be done differently....lather, rinse, repeat. Mixing was by
balancing
 via manipulating distances from the horn(s). Singers did their own
volume
 limiting and gain reduction (as it were) on the fly, leaning away from
the
 horn for the loud bits, leaning in for the softer ones. Some of them
were
 assisted in this by the engineer who had to move them gently back and
forth
 while they were singing.
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