Mike Gray wrote:
> The wax shown uses the Victor 'Flowed' process, which shows up on 
> countless Victor recording sheets.  The conductor is Charles 
> O'Connell, Victor's Red Seal Music Director; the players - at least 
> the ones I can identify - are members of the old NBC Symphony (Frank 
> Miller on 'cello, Mischa Mischakoff on violin); the engineer is most 
> likely Fred Maisch.
> Mike Gray
>

What Victor ledgers show as "Flowed" is Western Electric's "Flow Coat" 
system where a wedge of wax is melted onto a heated metal base shortly 
before recording.  WE developed this originally for their Wide Range 
Vertical Recording system because they found problems with shaving thick 
wax planks.  This exposed mechanical stresses in the wax that resulted 
in slight lateral displacement in the grooves that were concealed in 
lateral recording but were noticeable in vertical grooving. 

Victor did continue to use other forms of recording including lacquer, 
thick wax cakes, and even optical film. 

> Marie O'Connell wrote:
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xwe-Mt99Dw
>>

This Ellington recording session for the Variety label owned by his 
manager Irving Mills shows recording on a lacquer.  The bare center of 
the discs shows that these discs were manufactured in the dipping 
method, where the disc is dipped in the lacquer with a rubber spacer in 
the center. 

>>> Lomax / Leadbelly March of Time

http://www.time.com/time/video/player/0,32068,30862122001_1918195,00.html

>>> recording shots at :17 & :34. looks like an aluminum disc.  -Franz


The film editor did not understand what that shot was showing, he used it because it was interesting.  Although an amplifier is shown being adjusted, the machine next to it is an acoustical PLAYER, playing an already recorded uncoated aluminum disc.  I suppose the recording turntable was on the other side of the amplifier, but any film of it didn't look "cool".  The scene in the hotel that follows is quite embarrassing.

Several different recording surfaces area shown here including a thick wax cake near the end of part i, and  flow coat in the middle of part 2. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khio359hthM&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ci8-Bsrf_wY&NR=1

Mike Biel [log in to unmask]   







>> There are more, just search through.
>>
>> Cheers
>> Marie
>>
>> On Thu, Mar 25, 2010 at 5:19 AM, Jim Sam <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>>  
>>> All,
>>>
>>> Every now and then someone on this list links to a youtube, et al., 
>>> video
>>> of
>>> a vintage documentary describing recording processes and disc 
>>> pressings.
>>> Does any one know of a video available online that shows someone 
>>> cutting a
>>> (preferably 16-inch) disc from the pre-tape days?  Any _video_ from
>>> super-cheesy to seriously-right-on would be helpful.
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> Jim
>>>
>>>     
>
>