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

[Royal Pemberton]

Wasn't a lot of that dynamic range reduction (the heavy-handed limiting on
so many RCA records in the 1940s) a way of making the records last longer
by eliminating the high peak levels that otherwise got chewed up quickly by
inferior reproducers back then?  It's a shame, there was a lot of good
music poorly represented from a sonic standpoint.  Symphony orchestras
emerge a congested mess on some passages (and that bad sound carried over
to early 45 and LPs of the same recordings).

On Sat, Apr 21, 2012 at 10:05 PM, David Lennick <dlennick at sympatico.ca>wrote:

> 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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