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Thanks Roger. I'm pretty sure those were done at Fine Recording Bayside. I will confirm that with Cameo veterans I know. -- Tom Fine ----- Original Message ----- From: "Roger and Allison Kulp" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Thursday, July 12, 2007 11:52 AM Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] The 35mm fad > Cameo/Parkway used 35 mm briefly http://www.bsnpubs.com/philadelphia/cameo4000.html > > They are decent.Not great,but decent.I have two of them. > > Roger > > Tom Fine <[log in to unmask]> wrote: I am trying to gather facts for what might be a web > page maybe an article about the short but > exciting fad of using 35mm mag-film as the original recording/mastering medium for music records > back in the late 50's and early 60's. I have a bunch of good information on Everest, Mercury > Living > Presence and Command but would like to know more details about the few other studios that deployed > 35mm and also if there were any record companies beyond Everest, Mercury, Command and later > Project > 3 that used this technology as a featured part of their marketing. > > This guy in Japan did a pretty good job collecting references to most of the Mercury Perfect > Presence Sound series: > http://microgroove.jp/mercury/PPS.shtml > [BTW, the PPS series was different from the Living Presence use of 35mm in that these were > multi-mic > studio production albums probably set up to compete against stuff like Command's > hifi-extravaganzas. > Living Presence 35mm records were made like all the rest -- 3 mics to 3 tracks, editing on session > tapes and mastering to LP with a live 3-2 mixdown so the LP master was one generation away from > the > session recording. The three Fennell albums were the only time Mercury classical-marketed albums > were done with many mics in a studio-production type atmosphere. The Victor Herbert and George > Gershwin albums were done on tape at Fine Recording in Manhattan. The Cole Porter album was done > at > Fine Recording Bayside (former Everest studio) on 35mm.] > > Note that not all PPS series albums were done on 35mm, but from this discography (which is > basically > lifted from Ruppli), it appears that 35mm albums were done at Fine Recording, United Recording > (Bill > Putnam) in Hollywood, Radio Recorders in Hollywood and maybe -- but it's not clear -- Universal > Recording in Chicago. > > Later, in the mid and late 60's, Enoch Light's Project 3 made 35mm-master recordings at Fine > Recording and later at A&R Studios in NY. > > I don't know if this fad was ever wider-spread -- that's what I'm hoping other listmembers might > know. > > I'd also love to know details about the 35mm recording equipment and techniques at the Hollywood > recording studios mentioned, Universal Recording and A&R. For instance, at Fine Recording the > Westrex recording and playback EQ curves were tweaked to produce flatter extended treble response > for music recording. I don't know if Hollywood in the early 60's operated on a standard EQ curve > for > 35mm recording or if Westrex machines had one curve, RCA had another, etc. Did other music-album > recording studios tweak their film machines to have an extended/flatter top end? > > Finally, in case I do a web page, discography info about any Mercury albums not detailed on the > page > above and anything that was not on Mercury, Command, Everest or Project 3 that is a confirmed case > of 35mm original recording/master. > > Thanks in advance. This fad ended up pretty short-lived among the record companies due to the high > cost 35mm and the limited number of studios using it. But, the sensation definitely raised the > quality bar on regular magnetic tape. Several Ampex veterans have told me that Ampex's extensive > re-thinking and science research of magnetic recording that led to the MR-70 was because corporate > and marketing people panic'd about 35mm's perceived superiority. The MR-70 was by all accounts an > amazing piece of engineering and capable of superior sound to all other tape machines of the time, > but was priced too high for the market and thus was a monetary/business failure. Once solid-state > technology matured a bit, Ampex was able to produce the same superior electric specs and nearly as > good mechanical specs at market-bearable prices with the AG-440. Research for the MR-70 led to > numerous AES papers which expanded the knowledge and science of magnetic recording and tape > recorder > design. I'd be curious to know if there were other similar indirect fall-outs from the 35mm fad. > > -- Tom Fine > > PS -- for those interested, John Frayne of Westrex wrote an article for the AES Journal in 1960 > that > gives a lot of detail about the original Everest setup. And there was a 1967 Popular Science > article > detailing step-by-step a Project 3 session recorded to 35mm at Fine Recording, then taking the > album > thru the editing, mastering and manufacturing process. > > > > --------------------------------- > Moody friends. Drama queens. Your life? Nope! - their life, your story. > Play Sims Stories at Yahoo! Games. >