Thanks guys for the info. I suspected Wallerstein was off by a couple years.
The earliest Columbia I have, made around that time, is Szell's arraignment
of From My Life, April '49. Clearly from disk. Good sounding disk!
Mullin said he mailed two machines home, along with 50-some tapes. This from
the same sources is his telling:
http://www.musicinthemail.com/audiotape.html Pretty amazing story. The
pressure of doing Bing's show must have been tremendous. While many know all
about these tales, there is a new generation that is discovering the old
mediums. Learning how much we take for granted today.
-----Original Message-----
From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Steven Smolian
Sent: Thursday, July 31, 2014 2:19 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Magnetofonband, was Columbia tape adoption
The time has come to do a survey of the machines brought out from Germany
and what tendrills extended from them.
We know Jack Mullen had one.
Another showed up the hands of Ralph Ranger, according to a son of John
Jacob Niles, who was present at a recording session at his house as a little
boy. He told me he recalls Ranger's machine had a swastika on it. Did that
of Mullen have one also?
Others must have been brought out by the Russians and by others on or near
the continent. Perhaps Canada also. Not to mention any surviving in
Germany and the conquered countries.
Was there a cache of tape found? Were old recordings erased and reused?
Each macine that survived the war has a story to tell. The pre-history of
postwar recording is encapsulated in their histories.
I hope someone (not me, alas) can consider this as a project.
Steve Smolian
-----Original Message-----
From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Richard L. Hess
Sent: Thursday, July 31, 2014 1:11 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Columbia tape adoption
Hi, Carl,
I believe the first Model 200A machines from Ampex were delivered in 1948,
so I'm agreeing with Ted.
Mullin still used his two modified Magnetophon machines (his electronics,
AEG's transport and tape) for the shows in the fall of 1947. The 1947-10-01
season opener was the first show on a U.S. national network which was
recorded to and edited on tape, although it was aired from ETs because the
network did not trust the splices to hold for air.
At some point in this, Crosby gave Ampex $50,000 to build the production
machines, and I think he got the first ten.
Cheers,
Richard
On 2014-07-31 10:18 AM, Ted Kendall wrote:
> Mid-48 sounds much more plausible - the first use of tape at Abbey
> Road was in '48, at Decca mid-'49, for the launch of London LPs.
> According to Pawley (BBC), there were three prototype EMI BTR-1s by
> February '48. The
> 47-48 season of Crosby shows was done on the Magnetophons with the IG
> Farben stock used over and over again, so the story goes.
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