[78-L] Pathe recording process

[Steven C. Barr]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bryan Wright" <bryan at claxtonola.com>
> Forgive me if this has been discussed before (I couldn't find an easy  
> way to search the 78-L archives), but I've been wondering again about  
> Pathe's acoustic recording process of creating a large cylinder master  
> which was then dubbed to disc format. My question is, why do it? Given  
> the crude dubbing techniques of the day, what advantages did this  
> extra step have over traditional direct-to-disc recording techniques?  
> Was it done for legal purposes? (Perhaps a means of evading some  
> patent -- though I thought that issue was resolved by the  
> early-1920s.) Was it a way to have a safety back-up in case of  
> problems when processing the disc master?
> I understand from Sutton and Nauck's "American Record Labels"  
> encyclopedia that Pathe originally developed the cylinder-to-disc  
> dubbing process around 1906 to convert their large catalogue of  
> cylinder recordings to the newly-adopted disc format, and that the  
> process afforded some flexibility (the ability to convert a single  
> cylinder master to a variety of cylinder and disc formats), but what  
> would have been the benefit in the early 1920s when lateral-cut discs  
> had become universally standard? Were the folks at Pathe considering  
> re-entering the cylinder or vertical-disc markets kept alive by  
> Edison? Or were they trying to remain "future-proof"? If the latter,  
> they must have surely stored the cylinder masters long-term. Does  
> anyone know what became of them?
> 
As it turned out (and it is highly unlikely Pathe expected this...?!), the
process of making a single master recording in a non-customer-
playable format allowed them major flexibility in how the recordings
were to be issued to the public! In these early days, cylinder records
could NOT be easily/en masse duplicated...so there was NO need
to create "masters" in a consumer-friendly format.

C.1916, Pathe began dubbing its odd-sized cylinder "masters" in a
selection of formats...including lateral disc records. This probably
proved very profitable for them...?! I suspect they believed that
their sapphire-cut-vertical discs were the best possible format...
and chose to continue those well into the 1920's...?! By using
their own matrix format, they were in a position to sit back and
wait to see what would emerge as a standard format...?!

Steven C. Barr