On Thu, Apr 19, 2012 at 10:55 AM, Place, Jeff <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > 4. Most of the early producers such as Fred Gaisberg seem to have > termed themselves “Recorders” is this the most commonly used term and if so > when was it used until > 5. Were there other terms used for what we know call the role of > producer > Gaisberg did use the word this way in his memoirs, but he wrote those years after the fact; I don't think he'd used it back in the day -- for instance in his diaries. In the 1890s and 1900s, "recorder" was used within the business to refer either to the recording instrument or to the membrane and cutter assembly more specifically -- not ordinarily to a person. Terms that actually turn up ca. 1891-92 in reference to the people who presided over commercial recording sessions include "expert record maker" and "phonographic artist," and the first professional recording gramophone operators in Germany (1890) were called "gramophonists" (*Grammophonisten*). > 6. Apart from Frances Densmore were there any other early women > recorders or producers > Plenty of other field recordists -- Alice Fletcher, etc. Depending on how you define a "record producer," Estella Louise Mann might also count for her part in the Lyric Phonograph Company of the late 1890s. Best, Patrick Feaster