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Roger Would 1953-54 be about the last that they were used? Roger ________________________________ From: [Richard A Kaplan] <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] Sent: Sunday, October 7, 2012 6:56 PM Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Howard Scott Dies Hi Dennis, How long was it until tape rendered the 16-inch lacquers obsolete? For example, when the Philadelphia Orchestra resumed recording in April, 1949 after the strike, would those recordings have been mastered on tape, or was tape used as a backup for the discs for some time? I believe that was the case in Europe. Rich Kaplan In a message dated 10/7/2012 1:46:54 P.M. Central Daylight Time, [log in to unmask] writes: 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.htm l?_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