LISTSERV mailing list manager LISTSERV 16.0

Help for ARSCLIST Archives


ARSCLIST Archives

ARSCLIST Archives


[email protected]


View:

Message:

[

First

|

Previous

|

Next

|

Last

]

By Topic:

[

First

|

Previous

|

Next

|

Last

]

By Author:

[

First

|

Previous

|

Next

|

Last

]

Font:

Proportional Font

LISTSERV Archives

LISTSERV Archives

ARSCLIST Home

ARSCLIST Home

ARSCLIST  October 2012

ARSCLIST October 2012

Subject:

Re: Howard Scott Dies

From:

Tom Fine <[log in to unmask]>

Reply-To:

Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>

Date:

Sun, 7 Oct 2012 15:18:11 -0400

Content-Type:

text/plain

Parts/Attachments:

Parts/Attachments

text/plain (149 lines)

Hi Dennis:

I respectfully disagree with your assertion about s/n performance. Mono full-track tape, even early 
formulations, ran very quietly, with a lower noise floor than any early LP masters. Also, the 
inherent noise floor of the old disk masters being remastered was much higher. Net-net, I doubt any 
effects of using tape was audible in 1948, especially on home playback systems or over-air 
broadcasts. Plus, using tape would have produced archival masters much easier to access for future 
pressings or future albums of different contents. This was a case where hidebound conservatism 
netted no better results with more work and no "future-proofing".

-- Tom Fine

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dennis Rooney" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, October 07, 2012 2:43 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Howard Scott Dies


> Dear Tom,
>
> Of course Columbia and CBS engineers knew of developments in magnetic tape;
> however, in keeping with their general conservative attitude about
> innovations, they were not convinced that tape offered comparable audio
> quality to disc, as well as mechanical reliability. Dub-editing was well
> understood in broadcasting and the Columbia engineers were experienced in
> it. Tape waited until 1949 to begin to be used as a mastering medium at
> Columbia. That decision may seem perplexing to you but there it is. In
> 1947-48 when Howard's team made the first 100 Lp masters disc-to-disc,
> their technique produced superior results, particularly respecting s/n, to
> what would have been achieved disc-to-tape.
>
> DDR
>
>
>
> On Sun, Oct 7, 2012 at 1:18 PM, Tom Fine <[log in to unmask]>wrote:
>
>> I don't understand something about the obit and the story of the LP dawn
>> that it told.
>>
>> Jack Mullin was out west in 1947 holding demonstrations and using his
>> Magnetophones with the Bing Crosby radio program. The concept of magnetic
>> tape was well known in the broadcast world. In fact, the Edward R. Murrow
>> album "I Can Hear It Now" was produced using tape editing and the 78RPM
>> album includes a lengthy production note describing this newfangled (at CBS
>> News) editing technique.
>>
>> So none of this trickled over to Bridgeport CT? They really were doing
>> disk-to-disk dubs in 1948? Why??? The Ampex 200 came out that year, the
>> 200A soon afterward. Surely Bill Paley's empire could afford a few tape
>> machines. Closer to Bridgeport, Fairchild was making tape machines by 1948
>> and perhaps earlier (I don't have a clear timeframe as to when Fairchild
>> first produced magnetic recorders, but a 1948 article about Reeves Studios
>> in NYC shows Fairchild's "new" tape machines in service and one is pictured
>> on the magazine cover).
>>
>> So again, why the complex machinations of disk-to-disk dubbing? BTW, RIP
>> Howard Scott and he did indeed come up with an ingenius if hardest way
>> possible to solve the problem of matching up the 78RPM sides.
>>
>> Ironically, the man who INVENTED the magnetic tape splicing block, at
>> least the US iteration of the concept, was CBS News producer/editor Joel
>> Tall (EdiTall).
>>
>> -- Tom Fine
>>
>> PS -- Mullin wasn't the only guy to bring a working Magnetophone home. The
>> BBC captured some of them and did detailed dissections, and Col. Ranger
>> brought home at least one. My bet is Fairchild's engineers got their hands
>> on one very soon after the war or else how could their development keep a
>> similar pace to Mullin/Ampex? There were at least dozens of Magetophones
>> made during WWII, if not hundreds, perhaps more. The whole story of
>> disk-dubbing for the new LP medium would make more sense if Columbia had
>> been a little company not connected to a broadcast network and not located
>> in what was then the East Coast industrial corridor. I'm not doubting the
>> disk-dubbing happened, I just have trouble believing no one at Columbia
>> knew about tape or had access to tape machines before the dawn of the LP.
>> And if they knew and had access, why would they do a complex disk-to-disk
>> dubbing method?
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dennis Rooney" <
>> [log in to unmask]>
>> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>> Sent: Sunday, October 07, 2012 11:43 AM
>> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Howard Scott Dies
>>
>>
>>  Howard's death is no surprise. He was failing for some time. Nevertheless,
>>> his contribution to the birth of the Lp makes him one of the important
>>> players in the success of Columbia Masterworks and worthy of remembrance.
>>> He liked to tell the story of moving a cot into a studio where he could
>>> nap
>>> in between supervising dub editing lacquer cuts into Lp masters, and it
>>> was
>>> all true, including having to re-make a majority of what had been produced
>>> after technical problems in manufacturing caused them all to be scrapped.
>>> Despite that setback, he and his engineering team began again and met
>>> their
>>> deadline in time for the spring 1948 launch of the new format.
>>>
>>> In the decade before 1961 he supervised many of the Masterworks recordings
>>> that allowed Columbia to lead the U.S. market. I have a photo of Howard
>>> auditioning a test pressing sometime in the early fifties. He is young,
>>> balding and clean shaven, attired in a dress shirt and tie. Like his
>>> mentor, Goddard Lieberson, he set great store by dressing well. I worked
>>> on
>>> many recordings that he supervised when they were reissued on CD, and
>>> admired his preparation and disciplined approach.
>>>
>>> What isn't mentioned in that NY TIMES obit is that he was born Shapiro
>>> but,
>>> according to the assimilationist impulse of his day, changed it to Scott
>>> in
>>> the late forties. It was a privilege to have known him. *Requiescat in
>>> pace*
>>> .
>>>
>>> DDR
>>>
>>> On Sun, Oct 7, 2012 at 11:03 AM, David Lewis <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>> http://www.nytimes.com/2012/**10/07/arts/music/howard-h-**
>>>> scott-a-developer-of-the-lp-**dies-at-92.html?_r=1<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/07/arts/music/howard-h-scott-a-developer-of-the-lp-dies-at-92.html?_r=1>
>>>>
>>>> Funny, he was mentioned here not long ago.
>>>>
>>>> Uncle Dave Lewis
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Dennis D. Rooney
>>> 303 W. 66th Street, 9HE
>>> New York, NY 10023
>>> 212.874.9626
>>>
>>>
>
>
> -- 
> Dennis D. Rooney
> 303 W. 66th Street, 9HE
> New York, NY 10023
> 212.874.9626
> 

Top of Message | Previous Page | Permalink

Advanced Options


Options

Log In

Log In

Get Password

Get Password


Search Archives

Search Archives


Subscribe or Unsubscribe

Subscribe or Unsubscribe


Archives

March 2024
February 2024
January 2024
December 2023
November 2023
October 2023
September 2023
August 2023
July 2023
June 2023
May 2023
April 2023
March 2023
February 2023
January 2023
December 2022
November 2022
October 2022
September 2022
August 2022
July 2022
June 2022
May 2022
April 2022
March 2022
February 2022
January 2022
December 2021
November 2021
October 2021
September 2021
August 2021
July 2021
June 2021
May 2021
April 2021
March 2021
February 2021
January 2021
December 2020
November 2020
October 2020
September 2020
August 2020
July 2020
June 2020
May 2020
April 2020
March 2020
February 2020
January 2020
December 2019
November 2019
October 2019
September 2019
August 2019
July 2019
June 2019
May 2019
April 2019
March 2019
February 2019
January 2019
December 2018
November 2018
October 2018
September 2018
August 2018
July 2018
June 2018
May 2018
April 2018
March 2018
February 2018
January 2018
December 2017
November 2017
October 2017
September 2017
August 2017
July 2017
June 2017
May 2017
April 2017
March 2017
February 2017
January 2017
December 2016
November 2016
October 2016
September 2016
August 2016
July 2016
June 2016
May 2016
April 2016
March 2016
February 2016
January 2016
December 2015
November 2015
October 2015
September 2015
August 2015
July 2015
June 2015
May 2015
April 2015
March 2015
February 2015
January 2015
December 2014
November 2014
October 2014
September 2014
August 2014
July 2014
June 2014
May 2014
April 2014
March 2014
February 2014
January 2014
December 2013
November 2013
October 2013
September 2013
August 2013
July 2013
June 2013
May 2013
April 2013
March 2013
February 2013
January 2013
December 2012
November 2012
October 2012
September 2012
August 2012
July 2012
June 2012
May 2012
April 2012
March 2012
February 2012
January 2012
December 2011
November 2011
October 2011
September 2011
August 2011
July 2011
June 2011
May 2011
April 2011
March 2011
February 2011
January 2011
December 2010
November 2010
October 2010
September 2010
August 2010
July 2010
June 2010
May 2010
April 2010
March 2010
February 2010
January 2010
December 2009
November 2009
October 2009
September 2009
August 2009
July 2009
June 2009
May 2009
April 2009
March 2009
February 2009
January 2009
December 2008
November 2008
October 2008
September 2008
August 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
August 2007
July 2007
June 2007
May 2007
April 2007
March 2007
February 2007
January 2007
December 2006
November 2006
October 2006
September 2006
August 2006
July 2006
June 2006
May 2006
April 2006
March 2006
February 2006
January 2006
December 2005
November 2005
October 2005
September 2005
August 2005
July 2005
June 2005
May 2005
April 2005
March 2005
February 2005
January 2005
December 2004
November 2004
October 2004
September 2004
August 2004
July 2004
June 2004
May 2004
April 2004
March 2004
February 2004
January 2004
December 2003
November 2003
October 2003
September 2003
August 2003
July 2003
June 2003
May 2003
April 2003
March 2003
February 2003
January 2003

ATOM RSS1 RSS2



LISTSERV.LOC.GOV

CataList Email List Search Powered by the LISTSERV Email List Manager