 |
 |
AUDIO RECORD February, 1948 VOL. 4, NO. 2 Published monthly by Audio Devices, Inc., 444 Madison Avenue, New York City, in the interests of better sound recording. Don Plunkett, Chief Engineer of Mary Howard Recordings, adjusts one of the mikes in the spacious New York studio while an artist sits at the piano waiting patiently for Mary Howard's cue to begin. Inset: Recording's own, Mary Howard. Photos by Murniy Laden and Kdward O'zera The War Gave Mary Howard Her Big Chance to Make Good in Recording; She Did — And How! Before the War, many jobs in American industry were con- sidered "man-sized" positions and therefore . . . for men only. But the War and its tremendous drain on manpower soon gave the female a chance to "strut her scuff." And one such lady, who took full advantage of this op- portunity to prove that it wasn't strictly a man's world after all, was Miss Mary Howard, daughter of a well-to-do New England family. Mary Howard had a flair for good music and records particularly intrigued her. To satisfy her curiosity, she bought a record- ing machine and started on her own trial- and-error course in record cutting. Miss Howard's interest in recording steadily grew — and so did her recording equip- ment. And then . . . Mary Howard came to New York in 1940 and immediately applied for an engi- neer's job at NBC. As girls weren't being hired for that sort of an assignment, Mary Howard had to be content with a secre- tary's position in the engineering depart- ment. Then, her big break came. NBC, los- ing man after man to the armed forces, (Continued on Page 4) War Gave Mary Howard Chance to Make Good in Recording; She Did (Continued from Page 1 ) decided the comely secretary deserved a chance to cut a disc and be paid for doing it. Mary was a big leaguer from thi" start and in no time at all, the trade looi J on her as a master recording engineer. Her work at NBC gave Mary Hc-vard ideas — big ideas of opening her jwn recording studio. And just to prove shc wasn't day dreaming, Mary Hov^ard in- vites you to visit her studio (Mary Howard Recordings) at 37 East 49th Street in New York any day you wish. Since Miss Howard set up her own "shop", a little over two years ago, many of the biggest names in radio have used her facilities. Such outstanding personalities as Alex Templeton, Eddie Duchin, Ethel Waters, Fred 'waring, and many others, have come to Mary Howard Recordings be- cause they knew that this Howard woman, when it came to making recordings, was "perfection on parade." Mary Howard Recordings functions primarily as a recording service and its operations, besides cutting instantaneous masters, includes line and air checks of all descriptions, studio recording and slidefilm work. In the last year Mary Howard Recordings released their own commercial records. The Herman Chittison Trio, Ethel Waters, Lucille Turner and Dale Belmont are a few of the artists who made recordings under the MHR label. And, like the thou- sands of other recording companies, Mary Howard Recordings is waiting patiently for the Petrillo ban to be lifted so they can 'get going' again. Cutting equipment in Mary Howard Recordings, according to Chief Engineer Don Plunkett, Mary Howard's able assis- tant, consists of: 'Van Eps and Allied Cut- ting Lathes, Presto 1-D Heads driven by Langevin 101 -A Amplifiers. "Our mixing equipm.ent," Mr. Plunkett explained, "is interchangeable by means of patching. Our Preamps and Our Program Amps arc Langevin. Re-recording equipment at MHR," Mr. Plunkett said, "consists of Allied Transcription Tables and Picker- ing Reproducing Equipment, which have served us most efficiently of all pickups we have tried. This combination — Allied TT's and Pickering Pickups — we find the most flexible for composite recording." Audio Record asked both Miss Howard and Mr. Plunkett what their particular techniques were — what they did to insure good recordings. To this query. Miss Howard replied: "We are of the opinion that a compact, consolidated recording and control room, combined adjacent to and visible to the studio is the best method of recording. With this setup a recording tech- nician can actually 'ride gain' but what is more important can see what actual level is imposed on the disc. We feel," Miss Howard continued, "that the term 'riding gain' is a poor description of the operation involved. The more dynamics achieved in a fidelity recording, even if the frequency response is limited, the more the sound originating in the studio will be approxi- mated. We feel that too much emphasis can be put on the word 'fidelity' and that some of the pre-emphasized and over em- phasized high frequencies often result in a sound unpleasant to the ear, which after all is the final judge." "Dynamic fidelity of course," Mr. Plun- kett h sti^ned to add, "is closely allied with surface noise and care must be taken with selection of styli and discs so that low level prssag «■ v.'ill not 'ce marred by surface noise. "And then too," the chief engineer went on, "recording quality must be checked constantly and the best check is immediate playback. This is, unfortunately, quite often ignored by many studios, or discour- aged by companies as a waste of time." "Yes, and," Miss Howard, eager to get back into the discussion added, "recording information about cutting characteristics, recording head designs, styli and quality of response equipment is easily obtained. These all enter into the final results. Un- fortunately, the interest and ingenuity of the recordist has often been overlooked. Recording," she continued, "is not a dull craft at all if engaged in all its technical phases. There seems to be a prevalence in large organizations for specialization — cutting technicians, studio technicians, maintenance, etc. — which often results in poor recording because of lack of interest or information in all phases of the record- ing operation. If interest and enthusiasm were carried all the way through the re- cording organization, and management, perhaps time might be found to raise the general recording standards in America. "We have tried," she concluded, "to incorporate these methods (?) in our opera- tion and have had success ... or some such thing." From what Audio Record has been able to learn, that 'some such thing,' Miss Howard refers to, spells success all right . . . and with a capital 'S'. -----Original Message----- From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Steven Smolian Sent: Monday, July 1, 2019 6:47 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Female producers? Probably the first was Mary Howe who also had her own record company and was a composer as well. Her "Stars" was recorded on 78, Kindler, I believe. Steve Smolian -----Original Message----- From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Marie O'Connell Sent: Monday, July 01, 2019 6:32 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Female producers? Tom Fine's mother - Wilma Cozart Fine might be in the list - http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/wilma-cozart-fine-the-muse-of-mercury/ Marie On Tue, Jul 2, 2019 at 10:09 AM Donald Tait < [log in to unmask]> wrote: > Perhaps Jane Friedman (or Friedmann) at Columbia/Epic? She helped > me at Columbia's New York headquarters in 1976 when I was doing some > research about Bruno Walter's Columbia records. But I could be wrong about it. > Don Tait > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Paul Stamler <[log in to unmask]> > To: ARSCLIST <[log in to unmask]> > Sent: Mon, Jul 1, 2019 4:34 pm > Subject: [ARSCLIST] Female producers? > > Hi folks: > > Anyone know who the first female record producers were? I'm not aware > of anyone before classical producer Teresa Sterne at Nonesuch in the > 1960s, but if there was someone else (either in classical or > vernacular), I'd like to know about her. > > Peace, > Paul > > --- > This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. > https://www.avast.com/antivirus >