[78-L] Music Survey Recording

[David Lennick]

I would think that ARA was like most record companies in the 40s, with masters 
being recorded on 16" lacquers and dubbed for 78 issue. This gave the company a 
backup, an extra source, the opportunity to make the material available to AFRS 
in good sound (I have at least one alternate of a Hoagy Carmichael recording on 
an AFRS transcription), source material for other formats (I'm sure they were 
aware that when plastics were available, some form of disc other than the 78 
would be feasible)..even Victor's DJ issues appear in many instances to be 
different cuttings. And I've had a couple of ARA recordings as reissues on REM 
(also known as REX Hollywood), and the cuttings are definitely different, 
likely derived from the 16-inch originals. For that matter I've had Majestics 
reissued on Varsity and Mercury with much better sound than the originals (yes, 
folks, he actually did cite Varsity issues that were superior to the Majestics, 
by Louis Prima). There's even a Mercury reissue of Alfred Newman conducting 
"Street Scene" where you can hear cue scratch from the original lacquer. (You 
were never supposed to back-cue lacquers! I bet they had fun marking the start 
points and trying to do side joins on the fly when they were dubbing the first 
classical LPs over at Columbia. I know they didn't always make it.)

dl

Jeff Sultanof wrote:
> 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?
>>
>>