[78-L] First LP

[David Lennick]

> From: mbiel at mbiel.com
> To: 78-l at klickitat.78online.com
> Date: Wed, 23 Jun 2010 22:54:00 -0700
> Subject: Re: [78-L] First LP
> 
> From: DAVID BURNHAM <burnhamd at rogers.com>
> > I thought the process actually went in the other direction - that throughout
> > the '40s, Columbia, in anticipation of their forthcoming Lp, was recording
> > their classical materials to large lacquers on which they could record
> > entire movements without stopping, then dubbing these with the necessary
> > cuts to produce the 78 releases. When the Lp was finally introduced,
> > they could be dubbed in their entirety onto the Lp master. db
> 
> They never thought to record a long piece straight through because the
> only thing they were selling were the 78s and there was no assurance
> there ever would be an LP. The 16-inch masters were recorded in chunks
> the length of the 78 sides for easy dubbing onto the 78 masters. 

 

And don't forget, you'd hear fades on the 78s if they HAD recorded continuous performances. I'm aware of very few 78s where the master is faded: a Busch Quartet recording (one of the Beethovens, I think) where someone hits the music stand right after the last note on one side, and later pressings fade away quickly to avoid the clunk, and Weinberger's "Under the Spreading Chestnut Tree" (Rodzinski/Cleveland) where one of the sides was too long and had to be faded up in the transfer to 78.
> > 
> The first recording to be mastered on tape, along side of disc,
> supposedly, is South Pacific in 1949. And they used the disc masters. mb

 

Don't forget "I Can Hear It Now", which DID use tape and acknowledged it in the liner notes, crediting Joel Tall with the editing. As for South Pacific, the lacquers were still in use in 1950 when Columbia issued it on 45s..you can hear a clunk at the start of several sides. And it's the best sounding transfer.

 

dl