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
>
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