[78-L] Speaking of cuing transcriptions..wuz Re: Edward VIII Abdication on records

[David Lennick]

Hijacking the thread, thank you.

On 7/2/2012 7:01 PM, Michael Biel wrote:
>
> That (arrow) is what you find on soundtrack
> discs so that they can be cued up without backspinning them.  It doesn't
> point to the beginning of the groove, but to the point in the disc where
> the sound begins.

When Columbia began cutting 33rpm microgroove masters for the new Lp format, 
they dubbed from 16-inch lacquers that had previously been used as source 
material for 78s. Classical works consisted of movements in 4 minute chunks 
spread over several 16-inch sides (contrary to what people have written, they 
did NOT record the works non-stop). The dubbing team had to be right on the 
note to make the side joins, and they usually got it right, but how did they 
cue to music without back-cuing and ruining the original? Did they work from 
safeties? Did they carefully note the number of turns and cross their fingers? 
Remember, this was all before tape. I've heard one 78 issue (not on Columbia, 
but on Mercury) where the music is preceded by an entire rev of cue scratch.

dl