[78-L] Glass based recordings

[David Lennick]

Michael Biel wrote:
> Al Haug wrote:
>>  I have read that at least some of the pre-Atlantic Ray Charles
>> sides were cut in the studio on 16" glass transcriptions.
>> Does anyone know if they used glass discs in the mastering process?
> The Europeans had used glass base for early gelatin and lacquer discs 
> around 1933 and 34, and Presto was experimenting with glass in 1940.  
> Both Presto and AudioDevices announced their glass discs at the May 1941 
> National Association of Broadcasters convention and shipped their first 
> glass around June 1, 1941.  

Could glass based Prestos have been made available in Canada much earlier? The 
CBC was definitely recording on heavy glass discs in 1940. Many are still in 
the archives and I've seen and transferred a few of them when I still had 
access there.

dl

> Although war was already on in Europe, the 
> excuse for testing glass in 1940 was not shortages or the prospect for 
> shortages, but that glass does not flex and would be a better base for 
> mastering for plating.  Especially since long term storage was not a 
> problem when plating, this seemed logical, but it soon became evident 
> that shortages would make aluminum for discs scarce.  Using the NAB as 
> the place to introduce the discs makes the latter situation more 
> evident, but they still were good for mastering.  And, of course the 
> steel discs that ALCO started shipping May 15, 1941 were lousy for 
> mastering since they flexed quite a bit!  I recall reading that they 
> stopped making glass discs in the spring of 45 even before the end of 
> the war, but I don't see this in my dissertation -- I thought I had 
> mentioned it there.  The other info is included there.  So the glass 
> that shows up after the war is old stock, either leftover at the 
> recording facility, or perhaps discounted by the distributors and 
> dealers.  Mastering studios do not like using discs over two years old, 
> so that might be the end of when they were used for quality purposes.  
> But heck, all my blanks are over 40 years old but I'm not a "quality" 
> studio!!
> 
> Mike Biel   mbiel at mbiel.com