By 1929 New Technology Enabled Sound to Be Recorded in Stateoftheart Studios
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Recording Studios and Developments in Recording Technology
Brunswick Records: A Discography of Recordings, 1916-1931, compiled past Ross Laird.
Chicago Studios | Los Angeles Studios | "Road" Recordings | Table of Contents
New York Studios
The exact location of the earliest Brunswick recording studio (which was probably in operation by late 1916) is not known. Information technology is believed to accept been somewhere in New York, but there is no surviving documentation known which gives whatsoever indication of the location of Brunswick's recording studios prior to 1920. In 1920 new recording studios were established on the top flooring of a new edifice at 16 Westward. 36th Street. There was a break in recording activity betwixt March and May of 1920, and this certainly indicates that the location of the studios was changed at this time.
In April 1924 new studios were synthetic on the upper floors of Brunswick's own building at 799 Seventh Avenue in Manhattan. Initially in that location was only one "recording room" (as studios were originally known) at the new building and it was not until July 17, 1924 that an additional studio was brought on line. This was known as Room #2, and at first it was allocated its own main series with a "B" prefix. Later on 108 masters in the "B" series, room #ii but used blocks of masters in the aforementioned chief series as the other studio, but from November 28, 1924 the ledger sheets ordinarily specify whether Room #1 or Room #2 was used.
After the acquisition of the Vocalion label from the Aeolian Co., Brunswick shortly began a specific matrix series for recordings intended for release on that label. This series began at 100 and the outset allocations were made on December eleven, 1924. Some earlier masters were afterwards reallocated numbers in the Vocalion series, and the exercise of re-numbering Brunswick masters into the Vocalion series (and Vocalion masters into the Brunswick series) was very common until the Vocalion matrix series was discontinued at master E7514 in July 1928.
A third studio (Room #3) was inaugurated on April seven, 1925 and was initially used for experimental recordings using the new electrical recording process. At the aforementioned fourth dimension Room #i was reserved for recordings using the old mechanical (acoustic) recording procedure.
There was some other suspension in recording activeness from July 1 to August 3, 1925, but the reason for this is unknown. Possibly some piece of work was being washed to install electrical recording equipment.
Under the heading "Revolutionary Sound Reproducing Method Announced by Brunswick Co." the Talking Machine World published a total-page article in the August 1925 issue, which read:
P. L. Deutsch of Chicago, vice-president of the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Co., announced in New York on Wednesday, August 12, that his company, the General Electrical Co., the Radio Corporation of America, and the Westinghouse Electrical Co. had jointly perfected a new audio-reproducing musical instrument which represents a radical development in audio recording and reproduction. This invention, which has been named the Panatrope to indicate it reproduces all octaves, is a combination of radio and talking film developments with the phonograph.
The recording of sound waves is done, it was said, with infinite delicacy by means of the procedure used by recording sound in the talking picture show, or Pallotrope, invented by Charles A. Hoxie, of the General Electric Co., which differs in item from the Phonofilm of Dr. Lee De Forest.
Later the record has been made in this manner it outwardly resembles the ordinary disc record. Information technology is played with a needle but the vibrations are changed into electrical electric current and then stepped upward by vacuum cells as in radio to the required book, then reproduced past a vibrating deejay, instead of a horn.
The grooves in the ordinary phonograph record are cut at 80 to an inch, and the 12-inch record runs for approximately v minutes. So much greater delicacy is achieved in the Pallotrope records, co-ordinate to Mr. Deutsch, that the grooves take been cut 500 to an inch and 12-inch disc records have been fabricated to reproduce whole symphonies, the record lasting for well-nigh forty minutes.
The xl-minute record is a laboratory article at present and volition not, for commercial reasons, exist introduced for some time to come... The beginning records by the new process will be issued in October. They are designed to be used either on existing phonographs or on the Panatrope, the first examples of which will be [besides] placed on the marketplace in October. On this account the new records are made to run four or five minutes, with grooves of the ordinary width.
"This instrument is the issue of heartiest co-operation between the radio and phonograph interests," said Mr. Deutsch. "Information technology has been largely developed by radio engineers with the aid of radio patents. There is unabridged harmony between the ii interests..." In that location will be a public demonstration of the new musical instrument in perfected course at Carnegie Hall in Oct, when the instrument will be gear up for the market. By the use of vacuum tubes, the book from the instrument may be varied from that suitable to a modest room to that necessary to fill an auditorium.
In spite of the vacuum tube amplification equipment, the cabinet for the Panatrope will be slightly smaller than the ordinary phonograph chiffonier. It tin be run either with batteries or by connection through the electrical socket. The cost of running it is very inexpensive, considerably less than that of running a small electric fan. The vacuum tubes will last from three to five years. The prices of the instruments, which volition be placed on the market in October, will run from $200 to $.500, largely depending on the style of the chiffonier...
The Pallotrope, which was developed past the General Electric Co. to photograph sound, has been modified considerably for its use in recording sound waves on discs. The sound waves produced past the speaker, singer or musical instrument are made to vibrate a low-cal. The variations of the light are changed by the photographic cell into variations of electrical electric current. These are amplified past tubes until they are powerful enough to operate the engraving tool which cuts the audio wave pattern in the grooves of the phonograph disc...
The records made by this process, which volition be issued in Oct, include the intermezzo and prelude to the "Cavalleria Rusticana" by the Metropolitan Opera House Orchestra, conducted past Papi; Schubert's "Marche Militaire" on the piano, by Godowski; "Irish Complaining" and "Serenade" past Arensky on the violin, by Piastro; a soprano solo by Virginia Rea; Rimsky-Korsakoff's "Hymn to the Sun" by the Brunswick Salon Orchestra; "Ben Bolt" and "Robin Adair," by Elizabeth Lennox; a harpsichord solo by Lewis Richards; "Unclouded Day" by the Criterion Male Quartet; "Forge in the Forest" and "Anvil Chorus," past Walter B. Rogers and his band; a piano duet by Ohman and Arden, and a number of pieces of trip the light fantastic toe music. The series was made equally inclusive equally possible to show the performance of the new instrument over a broad musical range...
The announcement when received past the trade in the East created footling short of a furor, for it was the first tangible information that has been offered regarding those new developments in recording and reproduction which accept been heralded so persistently for months by, but regarding which then few facts are available to the industry.
Particular gratification was found in the fact that although the new instrument is accounted to be little short of sensational, arrangements have been made to protect the public and the merchandise past making the new recordings, to a substantial extent, at least, available for use on phonographs already on the market...
From the foregoing, it seems that the term "Low-cal Ray" recording procedure had not yet been adult equally information technology does non appear anywhere in this quite lengthy article. It is also interesting to note that the announcement mentions a concern to "protect the public and the trade" from a process which had the potential to render all previous recordings and reproduction equipment obsolete overnight. In the upshot the new process recordings released in October were indistinguishable from previous records in that the label design remained exactly the same, there was no mention of the new procedure in the labels, and in that location was no way to tell a new procedure record from a disc made past the old mechanical recording process without actually playing it.
The September 1925 issue of Talking Car Earth independent another commodity which includes a rare description of how an audition responded to a demonstration of the new process:
The declaration made in the World last calendar month of the new audio-reproducing instrument and recording medium perfected for the marketplace by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Co. naturally angry broad interest in trade circles, and this interest was further heightened when soon thereafter the Brunswick Co. gave a demonstration of the new instrument, called the "Panatrope," at the Eastern headquarters of the company in New York City, where in that location was a big gathering of newspapermen and prominent members of the trade.
The demonstration served to convince those privileged to witness it that there was still room for some wonderful development in the phonograph, and that that instrument had not by whatever means run its course every bit a factor for entertainment and education...
In carrying on the sit-in, a number of selected records were played on the standard Brunswick phonograph... and then played on the Panatrope... The difference in tone quality, and particularly in volume, was striking, for it is possible on the latter instrument to step up the volume according to desire, a command being provided which permits of five degrees of amplification. The reproduction of both vocal and instrumental selections on the Panatrope appeared to brand a strong impression on those who witnessed the sit-in. The first record demonstrated, specially when placed on the Panatrope after having been played on the ordinary automobile, proved a 18-carat surprise to the audience and was received with much applause.
At the start of the proceedings, H.A. Beach, Eastern manager of the phonograph division of the Brunswick Co., made a brief accost outlining the purpose of the demonstration and so introducing Ralph H. Townsend, 1 of the engineers of the Brunswick Co., who has been largely responsible for the evolution of the new recording method and the new reproducing instrument, and who explained some of the details of the Panatrope.
Following the demonstration, D. P. Pieri, radio practiced with the Brunswick Co., went into further details regarding the features of the instrument, explaining that it was not designed to compete with or replace radio, simply rather to assistance it. He explained that the outstanding features of the new evolution were: first, electrical recording by a new procedure; secondly, magnetic reproduction; 3rd, the apply of a cone made of paper and operated by electrical impulses in identify of the usual horn, which he declared was at present obsolete; and fourth, the inclusion of a special jack by means of which whatsoever radio may be attached to the Panatrope, the cone of which acts equally an platonic loud speaker...
In reproducing the records made past the electrical recording process, and which in appearance resemble the ordinary type of records, the soundbox is replaced past a special unit in which a needle of the ordinary type is inserted. This needle, it was explained, picks upwardly the mechanical vibrations from the record and through the medium of a reed and suitable magnets in the reproducing unit transforms the mechanical vibrations into electrical impulses. These impulses are amplified through the use of radio tubes, and sent out into the air through the medium of the cone. The instrument is, in a general sense, a combination of the principles of the radio and the phonograph...
A further article on the new recording process, titled "Brunswick Electrical Recording," was written past Elmer C. Nelson and published in the October 1925 outcome of The Phonograph Monthly Review. At this time Nelson was Manager of Brunswick's Boston branch. This commodity reads:
The record lover marvels at the difference between the record of today and that of 5 years ago, and is told that the new record is made by an "electrical" process. Electrical recording is an achievement of the highest possible significance to every human being, adult female and child, interested in abode, happiness, fun and progress. It marks a milestone in mankind'south advance through the ages in search of the cute in sound.
More and more we are coming to a realization that ours is an electrical historic period. The tremendous accomplishments fabricated possible by electricity in the past decade lead the states to believe that nearly annihilation conceivable can exist achieved electrically. The adaption of this tremendous force to the art of audio recording—the mere mention of the fact that records are recorded electrically—leads us to await an improved record. Without being technical, let usa then decide how electricity makes possible a meliorate tape. The old method of recording, the mechanical method, consisted essentially in: outset, a horn which received the sound waves to be recorded; 2nd, a diaphragm which was vibrated past audio waves; third, a stylus attached to the diaphragm and vibrating with the diaphragm which actuated; fourth, a cut device. This cutting device made certain indentations in the wax which had been placed on the recording instrument. This, substantially, was the primary [sic] upon which mechanical recording was based. One can hands encounter that at that place was bound to be considerable lost on the record, inasmuch as the sound waves were impeded in their progress, first, past contact with the walls of the recording horn; and second, past contact with the diaphragm. In addition to the loss sustained by the audio waves passed through the recording instrument, there were certain mechanical limitations placed upon those engaged in the work of sound recording.
Scientific discipline tells the states that audible sound extends in vibrations from around 16 per second to 21,000 per second, depending on the pitch and timbre of the sound... We tin can readily appreciate the handicaps nether which both creative person and recorder worked in the days of mechanical recording, for, because of mechanical limitations, zip beneath 128 vibrations per second or above ii,000 vibrations per second could be recorded.
Information technology was necessary to re-arrange all compositions to come within these limitations. The creative person who had studied for years to perfect his art could not perform naturally. His estimation had to be changed to fit the limitations of the mechanical method of recording. In recording an orchestra there were certain instruments which could not be used at all—the drums, tuba, and bass were very hard to record...
The advent of electrical recording fabricated it possible to record in a natural way without the severe limitations of the old method. At that place are two essentially different types of electric recording: I, the lite ray method used exclusively by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company, and the other, the microphonic method used with variations by other tape manufacturers. The microphonic method is very similar to the manner of broadcasting through a microphone in a radio studio, just, of grade, the sound waves are permanently preserved on a record instead of being sent out on the air.
The light ray method is by far the most sensitive and flexible method known to science. It has enabled the recording of 30,000 childrens' [sic] voices singing a Mass at the fourth dimension of the recent Eucharistic Congress in Chicago. Information technology volition record vibrations as low every bit 16 per second, and as high every bit 21,000 per second—whatsoever audible audio. The recording instrument used in making a record under the light ray procedure is called the Palatrope—Palatrope pregnant "dancing axle of light."
The sun at its meridian height sends powerful beams of lite through the window, and y'all marvel at the dust particles which yous can meet dancing through the light rays. Tin you lot imagine photographing those dust particles? It would indeed be a sensitive operation, and nonetheless, the operation of the Palatrope does almost that. A powerful beam of calorie-free is centered on a minute crystal mirror (weighing i two-hundredth office of a milogram [sic]) very much smaller than the head of a pin. This delicate mirror, which is held in place past a magnetic force, is vibrated by sound waves and will respond to the slightest whisper. The mirror reflects the powerful low-cal playing upon it, and as the sound waves vibrate, the mirror of reflected light dances to and fro. This dancing beam of lite acts upon an electric magnetic wire, and a weak electric impulse is set. This electrical impulse is carried over wires to an amplifying unit of measurement, and thence to a cutting device which cuts the wax, although it takes a few moments to describe the procedure—the action is instantaneous. The cut device and the little mirrors are vibrating in positive sympathy, but as the pulse beats in sympathy with the center, and the resultant record is so near the original estimation of the artist that when reproduced with the same measure of perfection, i cannot be sure whether the artist of the record sends the music to the ear.
Only as the telephone—the phonograph—the radio—electricity itself—were in their days astonishing new revelations that advanced by giant strides ahead of previous achievements, and so the new procedure of recording electrically steps far ahead of the erstwhile mechanical method and enables u.s.a. to enjoy the music of our selection without any limitation whatsoever.
Brunswick did not commence electric recording from a specific date, just rather seems to take experimented with electrical recording throughout April and early May 1925. Some sessions during this flow were recorded electrically, while other sessions continued to be fabricated equally acoustic recordings. At some recording sessions the same titles were fabricated past both the acoustic and electric processes.
The first (unreleased) electric recordings made by Brunswick were recorded on April vii, 1925. The primeval released electrical recording was the "Prelude from Cavalleria Rusticana" (Brunswick 50067) recorded on Apr viii, 1925 past the Metropolitan Opera House Orchestra.
The earliest electric recording in the popular series was Brunswick 2881 by the Brunswick Hour Orchestra (recorded April 15, 1925). The next electrical recording in this series (in itemize number sequence) is Brunswick 2900 past Vernon Dalhart. There were nevertheless some acoustic recordings later in the numerical sequence, the final being Brunswick 2934 by Abe Lyman's Orchestra (recorded in Los Angeles where audio-visual equipment was still in utilize).
Most of the later acoustic releases were Los Angeles recordings. This was considering before a permanent studio was prepare in Los Angeles all Westward Coast recordings were made by portable equipment on various field trips. The final such field trip (nonetheless using acoustic equipment) was in May 1927 which produced only Spanish linguistic communication recordings (issued on Vocalion 8088 and 8089). When a Los Angeles studio was established in December 1927 (with electric equipment) the LAE mx. serial was introduced. The earliest issued Los Angeles studio recordings were on Vocalion 15641 by Sonny Clay's Orchestra. The "Eastward" in the LAE Los Angeles master serial was finally dropped in December 1930 and it became the LA master serial.
The number of acoustic recordings made in the New York studio for Brunswick release gradually decreased during May 1925 (with the last acoustic session intended for Brunswick release being recorded on June 1, 1925 in Room #1). Notwithstanding, the same studios were still making acoustic recordings for release on Vocalion. The commencement electrical recordings issued on Vocalion were fabricated on May 2, 1925 but the final acoustic session recorded for release on Vocalion was made in Room #1 in Oct 1925 afterward which Room #1 was equipped for electrical recording.
Room #2 seems to have been the largest of the iii studios, and was used mainly for acoustic Vocalion recordings between Apr ten, 1925 and October 23, 1925. From October 1925 it appears that Room #2 was not used and it was non re-equipped with electric recording equipment until early 1927. From Feb 1927 all iii studios were in regular apply and apart from a few sessions recorded by land-line from locations such at Leiderkranz Hall, Steinway Hall, the Lexington Theatre, or the Skinner Organ Company, all of Brunswick'south New York City recordings were made at 799 Seventh Avenue until the finish of 1931.
There were meaning periods with no recording activeness between August 6 and Baronial 25, 1926, and between July 22 and July 28, 1927. The reasons for these breaks in continuity are unknown, but these dates coincide with a recording expedition to Los Angeles in August 1926 and to Chicago in July 1927 so there is the possibility there was some connexion between these events. Similar breaks in recording action are not evident during other field trips so this theory is only speculation.
After A.R.C. acquired the Brunswick label at the end of 1931, new recordings made for release on Brunswick were recorded at A.R.C's existing studios at 1776 Broadway, in New York Urban center. The old studios at 799 Seventh Avenue continued to be used by Brunswick Laboratories for the production of 16" transcription discs. Apparently this part of the operation was retained by the Brunswick Radio Corporation after the Brunswick label had been sold off to A.R.C. It is not known exactly how long the post-Brunswick employ of 799 Seventh Avenue continued equally no ledgers from this period seem to have survived. A 1930 newspaper article states that Raymond Soat, founder of the National Radio Advertizing, Inc., which had for some years beingness using Brunswick to record and printing its radio transcriptions, had sold the business to Brunswick (and then owned past Warner Brothers) but was to stay on as president. A Brunswick Radio Corporation inventory of piece of furniture and sundry equipment withal located at 799 7th Ave., dated 1934 in relation to the auction of the premises to Decca Records lists several items nether the heading "Mr. Soat's Office." So these few clues practise seem to advise that Soat was active at 799 Seventh Avenue in the menstruum 1931-1934. Other documents requite the date of sale of the studios to Decca as Baronial fourteen, 1934.
The last master recorded by pre-A.R.C. Brunswick at 799 Seventh Avenue was E37525 on December 21, 1931. The block of masters from E37475 to E37524 were allocated to another studio, and were non used until early on 1932. The few items known from this block are xvi" transcriptions. This series connected to exist used during 1932-34, and was continued by Decca later they took over the studios in 1934 (without the "E" prefix). The earliest number in the Decca ledgers is 38273—and this is also a custom recording non intended for commercial release. The series ran until 39999 which is part of Jimmie Lunceford's September 23, 1935 session, and the final two selections made at this session are allocated the commencement two masters in a new 60000 series.
Chicago Studios
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Despite Chicago existence the headquarters of the Brunswick-Balke Callender Co. the record segmentation does not seem to have had any permanent studios in that city until early 1928. It is not known what studios were used between Baronial 1923 (when the get-go Brunswick recordings were made in Chicago) and early on 1928 (from which time fairly continuous recording action took place). Certainly, the earliest recordings were made with portable equipment, and so it is likely that a hotel ballroom or some similar location was utilized. The recording ledgers practice not specify any location.
From April 1926 recording activity in Chicago increased in terms of the number of masters existence cut, but in that location were still long periods of a month, or even several months, during which no recording activity took place. This suggests that no permanent studios had yet been established.
Past nigh March 1928, recording action in Chicago had get more or less continuous, and the studios were apparently located at the Brunswick headquarters building. It is possible that there were studios at this location since 1926 or even before, but that they were just used for short periods as new masters were required.
The National Radio Ad Co., Inc. of Chicago pioneered the production of pre-recorded radio programs, and used Brunswick'due south studios extensively from the late 1920s to record these masters. It was in Brunswick'southward Chicago studios (in whatever grade they existed at that time) that the first known syndicated recorded program series was produced past this company in December 1928.
In the May and June 1929 issues of Talking Auto Globe in that location are reports concerning the relocation of the studios from the Brunswick Building to the 21st floor of the Article of furniture Mart at 666 Lake Shore Drive. Eventually at that place were two studios in performance—Studio A and Studio 8—but is not known exactly when the 2d studio was established. The recording ledgers do not make any reference to a specific studio before October 1929—so the 2nd studio was probably established around that time.
The new studios operated under the direction of Jack Kapp, and were equipped with land-of-the-fine art lathes which could record x", 12", sixteen", 17'' and 18" masters at at 33-one/3 rpm. From early on 1930 the Chicago studios were pioneering these formats, while the New York studios produced no 16" or larger masters until 1931.
The Chicago studios were also the outset to use 16" and 17" masters, which began to exist recorded from April 1930.
Los Angeles Studios
Superlative
The earliest Los Angeles recordings (July 1923 to May 1927) were all made using portable equipment. At that place were no permanent studios on the West Declension until December 1927. Los Angeles telephone books of the period prove 2481 Porter Street as the address of Brunswick Recording Lab., and the same accost is shown prior to 1929 as a Brunswick Warehouse.
Information technology is worth noting that Westward Coast pressings (hands identifiable by use of a different type-face to that on other Brunswick pressings) were the only Brunswick records to really refer to the light-ray recording procedure on the labels. For a menstruation of almost one yr from late 1926 to tardily 1927
Brunswick's Due west Coast pressings carry the legend "Lite-Ray Elec. Rec." (and the same applies to Due west Declension pressings of Vocalion records besides).
Even after the practice of crediting the calorie-free-ray process on Westward Declension pressings was discontinued, there are numerous examples where characterization credits varied betwixt W Coast and other pressings. For example, East Declension pressings of Harry Richman's Brunswick 4678 credit the accompanying orchestra every bit "Earl Burtnett and His Los Angeles Biltmore Hotel Orchestra" and add the legend that the vocal performed ("Singing a vagabond song") is "From the move picture Puttin' On The Ritz." By comparison, Westward Coast pressing[s] credit the orchestra equally "Earl Burtnett's Biltmore Orchestra" and the legend reads "From the United Artists Moving-picture show Puttin' On The Ritz."
"Road" Recordings
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Earlier 1923, all Brunswick recordings were made in New York. and any artists not resident in New York were brought in that location for recording purposes. The starting time attempt Brunswick fabricated to record outside New York was a field trip to Los Angeles during July and August of that year. Contemporary press reports mention that West. One thousand. Haenschen, Director of Pop Music, fabricated this trip with a group of technicians from the Brunswick laboratories. The recording engineers were obviously drawn from the regular staff of the New York studios as no recording activity took place in New York betwixt mid-July and early September 1923. On the return trip from Los Angeles farther recordings were taken in San Francisco, Seattle and Chicago. An article in the September edition of Talking Auto Globe which was patently written in Baronial 1923 likewise mentions Portland, Oregon as beingness on the itinerary, but no masters were allocated to recordings from this location, then either any recordings fabricated there were non selected for mastering (or possibly plans were changed).
Following this offset pregnant field trip, the principal centres of on-location recording were Chicago and (to a lesser extent) Los Angeles. It is not known where Brunswick's recording activity in Chicago took place before pem1anent studios where established in that city during 1928. It is very likely that recording engineers were sent to Chicago from the New York laboratories as required, and the logic of this scenario is reinforced by the fact that from October 1924 onward other locations (mainly St. Louis and Cleveland) were normally visited at the same time equally each batch of Chicago recordings were made.
The recordings fabricated in or en road to Chicago establish the bulk of Brunswick's recording activity exterior New York from early 1924 until early 1928. The only exceptions were several field trips to Los Angeles (ane each in 1924 and 1925, three in 1926, and i more in 1927).
Brunswick began what was to go an all-encompassing programme of field trips to a wide range of less well-visited locations in Feb-March 1928 when a team visited Ashland, Kentucky and Atlanta, Georgia. An insight into how these field recordings were organized is given by a surviving letter of the alphabet from James O'Keefe of Brunswick Recording Laboratories to William Sievers, ane of the musicians recorded in Ashland, which is dated Jan 25, 1928. It reads:
Dearest Mr. Sievers,
We wired y'all on January 19th, equally follows:
Offer you ane hundred dollars a tape for twelve selections 6 double faced records and travelling expenses for Tennessee Ramblers stop if this suggestion acceptable wire immediately and will specify which selections you are to prepare for early recording at Ashland Kentucky and will send contract.
To which you replied as follows:
Accept your offer in your wire appointment for twelve selections six double faced records and travelling expenses.
We once again wired you on Jan 21st as follows:
Setting aside February seventeenth and eighteenth for you to practice half-dozen double faced records twelve selections at Carter's Phonograph Shop 217 Sixteenth Street Ashland Kentucky suggest immediately you accept these dates and volition be on hand letter follows.
To which you replied as follows:
Will be in Ashland Kentucky February seventeenth and eighteenth for recording.
We shall expect to record you as we have previously stated in Ashland, Kentucky, at Carter's Phonograph and Music Shop...You begin your work for united states of america on Feb 17th at nine-thirty a.chiliad. Kindly have your arrangement thoroughly prepared on diverse selections nosotros specified in recent advice to you so that nosotros may execute this job with a maximum of efficiency in a minimum corporeality of time.
Keep an itemized listing of expenditures and railroad fares, etc. on your trip from Clinton to Ashland and we will reimburse you immediately on inflow at Ashland when yous nowadays your bill for your expenses.
Very truly yours, James O'Keefe
This letter is very interesting every bit it clearly shows that the field recordings were organized well in advance and that these arrangements extended and then far as to the specific selections to be recorded.
At effectually the same time as the Ashland/Atlanta field trip a recording expedition from the Los Angeles studios spent a calendar week or so in Hawaii. An excellent business relationship of this event was published in the Honolulu Advertiser, and information technology provides the first detailed report of how Brunswick remote recordings were undertaken. The commodity is headlined "Brunswick Sends Men to Honolulu to Make New Hawaiian Records," and reads every bit follows:
Twenty-five double records of Hawaiian music interpreted by Hawaiian artists are to be made by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender company, and placed in every music market throughout the world.
The recording apparatus, consisting of a "mike," many hundred anxiety of wires, the "cut machine," and other technical instruments, has been at work night and twenty-four hours in the Golden Room at the Young Hotel carrying out this program.
Mainly old-time standard Hawaiian numbers were recorded. Artists from all over the isle group were assembled by Johnny Noble, director of the Moana Orchestra, who supervised the rehearsals. Charles Eastward. King, author of many popular Hawaiian songs, was the musical manager.
F. H. Winters and E. Avery, straight from the Brunswick plants on the mainland were in charge of the technical features of the work. They came to Honolulu last week, and they sailed yesterday on the City of Los Angeles.
The business details of the Brunswick pilgrimage to Hawaii were arranged by James W. Bergstrom, treasurer and manager of the Honolulu Music Visitor.
It is the first time in the history of the territory, information technology is appear, that an electrical recording apparatus has come up to Hawaii to make phonograph records. It is the outset time that any appliance of any kind has been here within the last 18 years, it is further stated.
Seclusion was the keynote of [the] recording process. Merely artists, and others direct interested, were permitted in the room. It was the aim of Winters and Avery to obtain the very last word in Hawaiian interpretation, and for that reason no element was immune to enter the room that would distract the artists, or suggest something different from the program agreed upon.
A canvas room was constructed to eliminate echoes and extraneous noises. The artists grouped inside this enclosure and played into a microphone. Electric impulses carried the music to a recording car, equipped with "cutting needles," or something to that effect.
These made indentations in a wax disc and this is then employed from which "negatives" are produced.
Many rehearsals were required before recording was begun. "Timing" was an important element. A record ordinarily runs about iii minutes.
Stringed instruments, solos and chorus were featured. "We want this music recorded exactly equally it is played here in Hawaii, and non as the theatrical director back in New York would probably suggest," said Avery, before sailing. "Nosotros are also selecting one-time-fourth dimension standard numbers, because they have proven their popularity, and they will be indelible."
One-time ago Johnny Noble suggested to the Brunswick people the making of records in Hawaii. Shortly thereafter Avery came through Honolulu enroute to the Orient, and while in Honolulu he conferred with Noble and Bergstrom. Then came a visit from the Pacific Declension representative of Brunswick, who signed Noble to a contract to supervise all Brunswick records to be fabricated in Hawaii over a three year period. When this contract became effective, Avery and Winters arrived to make the beginning quota of the iii-years' output.
The records, when released, volition bear Noble's proper name as having supervised their production. "Hawaiian music is in tremendous demand everywhere in the United states, besides as the remainder of the world," Avery continued. "It will be hard to say just how many copies of each number volition be made from the twenty-v negatives recorded here, merely they will probably run across the millions. One man, operating a finishing car, can in an eight-60 minutes solar day make nigh 900 records. Several machines will exist at work on this assignment, and the first releases will probably be out in April or May. The Brunswick people are erecting a manufactory in Los Angeles that volition cost $300,000, and that is one of the reasons I must hurry back to the Coast." They require xx-iii big trunks in which to facilitate the transportation of the recording outfit...
In fact, 1928 saw a rapid expansion in the number and diversity of Brunswick field trips. Following the Ashland/Atlanta and Honolulu expeditions, various other destinations (including many never visited by Brunswick before) were the scene of "road" recording sessions on an nearly monthly footing until mid-1930. Cities visited past mobile recording teams during this period included Plattsburg, Indianapolis, Due west Point, Dallas, New Orleans, Birmingham, Memphis, San Antonio, El Paso, Detroit, Minneapolis, Knoxville, and Kansas City. From the Los Angeles studios the offset of several visits to San Francisco occurred in September 1928 (followed by v further visits betwixt October 1928 and September 1929).
The Knoxville sessions were very fortunately documented in several newspaper articles published in the local News-Sentinel during 1929 and 1930. These and other related documents were reprinted in an interested article by Charles Wolfe published in Former Fourth dimension Music. The starting time article was printed on August 27, 1929 and is titled "Local Artists Make Records: first phonograph recording is started hither." The text reads as follows:
Phonograph records are to be made in Knoxville for the starting time time, and by local talent. Recording of a number of Vocalion records will showtime today at Sterchi Brothers dissemination studio in the St. James Hotel and will continue all week. The records will be made by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender company. The records made by Knoxville and E Tennessee artists will be distributed nationally, and those artists proving to be the most popular volition probably be put under contract by a phonograph recording firm.
Sterchi Brothers is a jobber for Vocalion records. R. F. Lyons, of Chicago, has come to Knoxville to accept charge of the making of the records by the following well known artists: Academy of Tennessee Trio; Maynard Baird and His Southern Serenaders; Tennessee Ramblers; Euclid Quartet; Will Bennett, negro, of Loudon; Hugh Ballard Cross; Oliver Springs; Haskel Wolfenbarger; Cal Davenport and His Gang; Ridgel'due south Fountain Citians; Wise Cord Orchestra; Southern Moonlight Entertainers; Frank Murphy; Harry Van Gilder; Ruth Pippin; Thelma Davenport; Senior Chapel Quartet (negro); and others.
Since the above story was published on the day the 1929 Knoxville sessions began, information technology is apparent that almost of the talent had been lined upwards in advance (presumably by Brunswick field scouts, or perhaps by the local Vocalion jobbers, Sterchi Brothers).
The next mean solar day, another story appeared in the Knoxville News-Sentinel, and this item was headlined "Mountain Melodies Are Preserved On Machine." The text of this article runs:
Southern mountain tunes handed down from fiddler to fiddler since the days of the early on settlers were the first sounds to be recorded yesterday on the records beingness made past Sterchi Brothers at their St. James Hotel broadcasting station of WNOX.
The Tennessee Ramblers, old time orchestra, faced the microphone outset. Someone walked into the audio proof room while they were performing and the creak of the door ruined the record. Information technology was taken over.
Records of people, voices, children'due south prattle, speeches, anything, will be made, Richard Voynow of Chicago, who is in accuse of the record [sic], announced. But thus far only musicians have made engagements.
Maynard Baird's orchestra were to record today. The U-T trio, Misses Frances Elmore, Muriel Parrette and Mrs. Mildred Martin Patterson will make records tomorrow. The Southern Moonlight Entertainers came to boondocks from Coal Creek to record some of their old time music.
To brand the records the musicians go into the soundless broadcasting room and face the microphone. Voynow sits but outside the room, looks thru a glass window and directs them by ways of lights.
The music is carried outside the room to the recording musical instrument where it is picked up on a soft wax record. It is too broadcast thru [sic] a speaker past the managing director's side so that he may know only what is being recorded.
At the point of a red low-cal the musicians get gear up. The yellow calorie-free means all placidity and the green light ways begin...
This commodity provides detail[ed] testify that these "road" recordings were non always conducted in the back rooms of music stores, or in hotel ballrooms, just could also brand utilise of studio facilities not dissimilar those in the major centers.
The first expedition dispatched from the U.South. to locations in foreign countries took place in May 1928 when recordings were made in Havana and United mexican states City. Further trips to Havana took place in September 1929 and June 1930. In November 1929 another expedition went as far as County in China and Manila in the Philippines (while a second visit to Manila in February 1931 too went as far as Hong Kong and Amoy in China).
The 1929 sessions in Knoxville seem to have been successful in both commercial and artistic terms every bit a return visit to that location was made in March/Apr of 1930 (at the end of an expedition which took in Memphis, San Antonio, and Atlanta). A week after the Knoxville session a most detailed business relationship known of a field recording session was published in the local newspaper under the title "Perpetuating Our 'Colina-Billy' Harmonies: Process of recording described." This and several substories occupied the entire front end page of the Knoxville News-Sentry on Dominicus, April 13, 1930. The main story read:
Records were made—and broken—in Knoxville last week. No gridiron battles were fought, no pugilistic champions were born, no race track sprang to the front page, no airplanes reached new heights or fabricated new distance records. The records made here were wax, and in a few weeks will be in Knoxville homes.
In that location was bustling activity at the St. James Hotel, equally old-fourth dimension fiddlers, banjo pickers, guitar players, and songsters trekked upwardly the steps, to the WNOX broadcasting studio. The Brunswick-Balke-Collender Co. was there catching the voices and instruments of this part of the South's distinctive musical production—the mountaineer song.
Maynard Baird and his orchestra recorded two dance numbers, an orchestra from Nashville recorded one, there was some negro music, and a Kentucky feud was acted and the dialog spoken, taking up four records. All the rest—over a hundred—were of the blazon known to the trade equally mountaineer songs or one-time-time tunes, and to the recording companies as "hillbilly music."
Cumbersome equipment—$28,000 worth of it weighing 1600 pounds and requiring 11 special trunks and large boxes for its shipment—was brought from Muskegon, Michigan, the Brunswick record factory, and was set in the St. James Hotel studio of WNOX, by arrangement with the owners, Sterchi Brothers, who are distributors for the records.
Permit u.s. see together how the recording is done.
The artists sing or play before a microphone in the draped studio. The audio, changed into electrical impulses in the microphone, travels from the studio to another room, where amplifiers similar in principle to radio amplifiers, increase them to the required power.
They so go to the recorder. This motorcar has a turntable, like a phonograph, on which the warm wax disc turns. An electric needle rests on the soft wax, and as it turns, cuts into it the grooves that will reproduce the sounds.
A tiny room adjoins the studio proper, connected to information technology by a audio-proof glass window. In this room sits Richard Voynow, musical director of the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Co. He watches thru the window, and listens by means of a loud-speaker for any musical error. If he hears one, he immediately stops the slice, and information technology is played over again, while the faulty recording is discarded.
H. C. Bradshaw sits before the amplifier console, listening with head phones. It is his task to see that the right amount of book goes into the record. Too much is as unsatisfactory as too little, when the finished records are played on the ordinary phonograph in the home. Often two or three recordings are necessary to go the perfect record that is needed.
R. Chelf operates the recorder. Taking the warm, soft wax from the oven, he places it upon the turntable, sets the needle down virtually the border, allows the wax to stomach a few times, so examines the "cut" with a microscope. If all is well, he moves the needle to the proper place to brainstorm the x-inch record, starts the automobile, and signals "permit'south get."
West. J. Brown... sits most the artist while the recording is going on, giving suggestions and making changes. It is he who finds the artists, and gets them in a for a endeavour-out.
"Nosotros call the textile of the disk 'wax,' Bradshaw explains, "just at that place is no bees-wax or rosin in it, although it looks like either. Different companies used different kinds; some using a kind of metal soap for the 'wax.' It is very soft, when warm, and very shine of texture. The recording stylus, you see, cuts it very easily. The thread which is cut out is sucked up by a vacuum, so that no piece of it can remain on pinnacle of the wax, or in a groove.
"The wax is, when new, i and one-8th inch thick, and two inches larger in diameter than the size record nosotros are making. The wax is used over and over again, subsequently having been given a new polish on a lathe.
"After they are 'cut' we ship the disks to Muskegon, Mich. At that place they are either dusted with extremely fine graphite, or dipped in a peculiar acid solution [which] will requite them a conducting surface. And so they are placed in an electroplating bath, and a layer of copper deposited on them.
"The wax is cleaved away subsequently the copper has been deposited to the necessary thickness. The copper is called the 'mother,' and information technology is this 'mother' that is kept and guarded carefully in our files."
This "female parent" plate is really a matrix or negative of the record. The wax disc contains grooves similar those of the finished record. The electroplated metallic, however, fills up these grooves so that is has ridges instead of grooves and is the reverse of the original impression. The "stamper," explained after, is only a duplicate of this negative tape so that when it stamps the finished record its ridges produce grooves respective to the original record...
The trek which concluded with the Knoxville sessions described in the above article was the concluding for several months. Autonomously from a further Havana trip in June 1930 there were no other "road" recordings fabricated between early April and mid-November 1930.
Despite the worsening economic conditions, field recording resumed in late 1930, but at that place was a significant reduction in the number and range of recording expeditions sent out over the next twelve months or so. A late 1930 expedition made visits to Atlanta, New Orleans, Dallas and San Antonio. During the whole of 1931 but 4 different expeditions were sent out. 1 to Manila and Cathay (every bit mentioned above), one to Omaha, a third to Montreal and Toronto in Canada, and a final team went to San Antonio and El Paso in August/September of 1931. The Omaha recordings were produced for the National Radio Advertising Co., Inc. in the home town of the visitor's founder, Raymond Soat (and information technology is assumed he arranged for these recordings to exist fabricated as they are not conventional "road" recordings fabricated for commercial release). No "road" recordings were made in the last few months of 1931 (possibly as a consequence of uncertainties resulting from the sale of the characterization to the American Record Corporation, which was being negotiated at that time).
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Brunswick Records: A Discography of Recordings, 1916-1931 (iv vols) . Compiled by Ross Laird. Reprinted past permission.
Source: https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/resources/detail/198
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