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

David Lennick dlennick at sympatico.ca
Sat Apr 21 14:05:17 PDT 2012


Lousy barely begins to describe it..I think the all time champs from this 
period are the Boston Pops "Salute to Our Fighting Forces" and the John Charles 
Thomas sides from the "Highlights from Oklahoma" album, both of which are so 
full of dubbed-in wow as to be unlistenable. How they were ever passed is 
beyond me.

dl

On 4/21/2012 1:20 PM, Michael Biel wrote:
> The Victor ledgers state what the recordings were made on, wax, lacquer,
> film, etc.  Cutting a Glenn Miller side directly on 78 lacquer as shown
> in the film was probably the established procedure long before then.  I
> gave Jack Myrtle a set of photocopies of the Spike Jone artist file of
> Victor ledgers and I think that most of the discs were 78 lacquers, not
> dubs from 33 safeties.  He might have misinterpreted the sheets.  There
> are several dubbing sessions in the ledger sheets where new 78 lacquers
> are cut from 78 lacquers to reduce the level of a gunshot or some other
> problem.  It is quite true that Victors of that era are lousy.
>
> Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com
>
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> From: David Lennick<dlennick at sympatico.ca>
>
> As I understand it, Columbia began recording 33RPM safeties alongside
> the 78RPM
> masters in 1939, and then decided to use the 33RPMs as source material
> soon
> thereafter. Decca bought World during the AFM ban and when it ended in
> the fall
> of 1943, everything was being cut first at 33. There were definitely
> other
> labels dubbing 78 masters from 33s..Varsity for one (check out the two
> very
> different issues of "She Had To Go and Lose it at the Astor", which when
>
> adjusted for speed differences are the same take, and a 45RPM issue of
> Jan
> Peerce's "Vesti la Giubba" which is full of 33RPM surface noise).
>
> As for Victor, Jack Mirtle in his Spike Jones book says that original
> sessions
> began to be cut on 33RPM lacquers in 1944, but from the ghastly quality
> of the
> issued records from this time, it sounds as if dubs were made and then
> re-dubbed and the original lacquers tossed or scrapped or recycled. I
> think
> there's a note in a Koussevitzky discography (ARSC Journal) that refers
> to
> 33rpm safety copies in the late 40s. Anyone know for sure?
>
> dl
>
> On 4/21/2012 9:10 AM, Milan P Milovanovic wrote:
>> And may I ask one further question: were master 78 rpm discs (that went
>> later on electroplating) cut directly from the console output or these were
>> dubs from 16" master/safety discs used for recording everything in studio
>> during session?
>>
>> It is interesting that in "Orchestra Wives" (1942) Miller's band is
>> portrayed while doing recording session on 78 rpm lacqer discs.
>>
>> Thank you.
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Randy Watts"<rew1014 at yahoo.com>
>> To: "78-L Mail List"<78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
>> Sent: Saturday, April 21, 2012 3:24 AM
>> Subject: [78-L] recording sessions on lacquers began . . . ?
>>
>>
>> When did Victor and Columbia begin recording sessions onto 16-inch lacquers?
>>
>> Randy
>
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