[78-L] Music Survey Recording

[Jeff Sultanof]

I had the Crosby record in question. The sound quality is okay on both
sides, not spectacular like what was coming out of a studio like Radio
Recorders at that time. It actually sounds like it is a dub and not a
master. Of course we don't know whether the reviewer heard a DJ copy or an
actual pressing as found in stores. I've never seen a DJ copy of an ARA
release, so don't know if there was much difference. The early ARA releases
I've heard were pretty good quality-wise, the later ones not so good. That
figures if the label was going downhill, and that one went downhill fast.

If you want to talk about bad sound on post-war 78s, let's bring up some of
the early Mercury pop releases. I had a Starlighters disc of On the
Boardwalk/A Little Kiss Each Morning, and it sounds like it was beautifully
recorded but transferred at a very low level, so there is lotsa surface
noice. The chance of this side being reissued is slim at best, so I may take
my tape of it and run it through some computer software.

Jeff Sultanof

Actually the review on this page that did catch my eye is the one right
> next to it for Bob Crosby record on the short-lived ARA label, 137,
> Cement Mixer/Where Did You Learn To Love?  Considering the question
> Julian asked yesterday about whether critics commented on bad sound
> quality of records, here is a great example!  "Coupling Gordon Polk's
> vocal fling as Slim Gaillard's nutty novelty, 'Cement Mixer,' with the
> maestro's lullabying on the flipover, disk may have much merit.  It's
> hard telling, tho, because faulty reproduction hides it from the needle.
>  If you can't hear it, better pass it up."
>
> How's THAT for a lousy review of sound quality!!!!  There's another one
> later in the column about Raymond Scott's Sonora 3008, "Mr. Basie Goes
> to Washington".  "However, one fault noted is failure of mike to bring
> in Johnny Guarnieri's piano filigree properly.  More attention from the
> sound engineer would have made this side great."  Pickey pickey pickey.
>
> Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bill McClung [mailto:bmcclung78 at gmail.com]
>
> I bought a 78 today that is new to me but probably not to some of you.,
> The label says "This is a Music Survey Recording" "National survey of
> this song expires June 30, '46" Around the edge it reads "This record is
> the property of the broadcast station to which it is sent. For survey
> purposes, to be used by record commentators only. Not to be sold
> commercially." side 1A That's My Home vocal by Stuart Wade Vic Schoen
> and his Orchestra Leeds Music Corp. Publishers, side 1B Monkey, Monkey
> vocal by The Town Criers Jerry Feldman and his Orchestra
> Shapiro-Bernstein Inc. Publishers, What is this and how did it work?
>
>
>
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