[78-L] recording sessions on lacquers began . . . ?

[Harold Aherne]

I read on a message board (whose archives are not available at present) that Decca cut 
simultaneously on 33 and 78 lacquers from 1943-46, with the 78 used for mastering and
pressing; at some point in 1946 they began cutting at 33 only and used dubbing for all
final releases. Don't know how correct that is, but it's one tidbit of information.
 
Victor was still using wax (both cast and flowed) at the time of Billy Murray's Bluebird
sessions in 1940-41:
http://www.denvernightingale.com/discography/part2.html
 
It looks like they chose the "flowed" master in the majority of cases for these sessions,
anyway, so one wonders why they kept making cast wax blanks. Did the different 
compositions produce different results, either in sound quality or pressing?
 
This is one reason why I'm looking forward to the EDVR reaching the 40s--not only has
a lot of post-1936 Victor data never been published, but we'll probably learn a lot more 
about which recording techniques were used when.
 
-HA