history of recorded sound

The History of Recorded Sound

Preface

I am a fanatic about the history of recorded sound! I think that it’s fascinating, fun and gives huge insights into our industry. You know the adage… “ya gotta know where we came from in order to know where we’re going”. Decades ago, I started on this “picture” book… but before wikipedia, I didn’t have the resources, time or interest to find the pictures and get clearances for each and every one. Wiki took care of that for me, so I’m finally putting it out for free on the web, to you… the industry at large. It will continue to be a work in progress.

If you like it , I only ask two things …

• Please pass the link on to others who you think might benefit from and enjoy this work.

• Please check out my music projects and consider making a purchase.

With thanks,

David Miles Huber
www.davidmileshuber.com
©2013 David Miles Huber – all rights reserved … enjoy!

Forward

In 1977, while studying at the University of Surrey in England, I attended an Association of Professional Recording Studio’s convention in London. To my surprise, the theme of the show was the fact that that year marked the 100th anniversary of recorded sound. Given that there were all sorts of gramophones, older mics, tape machines… you name it, I was really excited. To this day, when I get around folks who are interested in the history of the tools and toys of audio and music recording (not to mention the toys themselves), my innards turn to mush and I get way too excited to be of much use to anybody…

Twenty five years later, in the year 2002, while at a NAMM convention in Anaheim, California… I was talking with a buddy about a bunch of stuff… and something triggered my sore spot. I relayed to him that it was the 125th anniversary of recorded sound… and although we were in a room full of about 12,000 industry professionals – there might be 25 folks who were aware of this fact. I also told him of my age-old interest in writing a book on the history of recorded sound, the following words shocked me… Well, why don’t you do it? … and the rest is (ahem) history!

Truth is, there are a number of unsung heroes in the recording and music biz who have been working tirelessly and selflessly to pass the technical, interpersonal and just plain fun knowledge of past years in recording on to present and future generations. These folks have asserted themselves by creating websites, joining organizations (such as the AES’ Historical Committee) and by building museums, often where the past can actually come alive by putting the equipment into action in hands-on sessions.

In short, this book is for and dedicated to the species within the recording, music and communications industries who live, eat, breath and have fun with what I call “toys”. It book tells the chronological story of toys and the big boys and girls who helped make out production lives possible… They tested, toiled … and breathed the life of music, speech and communication through acoustic tubes, electron streams and the atmosphere.

Oh, yes… The purpose of this book is not to be a definitive and scholarly text. If I made a mistake, I’m sorry! I’ve done my best to cross-check with the powers that be and have checked more sources that I care to mention (actually, by the absence of a bibliography, I won’t mention them). Beyond the concept of fueling the flames of the intellect, what I want most is for you… is to have fun!

The Acoustic Era

► 1877: Before Edison

► Before The Phonograph

Before that magical day in 1877, when Edison recited “Mary had a little lamb” into the first phonograph, there was absolutely no way to capture sound. However, this doesn’t mean that attempts weren’t made. The idea that a contraption could talk dates back centuries earlier, although attempts to build such a machine almost always became impossibly complex. Inventors tried devices that could be placed into dolls and statues to crudely imitate speech, but they never came up with a system that could successfully record and reproduce it.

In actuality, the phonograph could’ve been invented earlier. All of the parts of Edison’s first working model (the rotating drum, screw-thread, vibrating diaphragm, and stylus) existed long before 1877. Quite simply, the combination that would open the genie’s bottle simply didn’t occur to anyone. As a result, formal speech was left to the media of the day and the thirst for music was quenched in the music halls, opera houses, on the streets and especially in the piano parlor.

► Early Digital… or is it MIDI?

At the Paris Exhibition of 1801, a French silk-weaver named Joseph Marie Jacquard was awarded a medal for improving the automatic loom. Soon after, he used punch cards to “record” automated moves that would control the device to create various complex pattern designs. In 1851, at the London Exhibition, a similar punch card system was adapted by Charles Dawson who exhibited his “jacquard organ”… using cardboard strips to control the air bellows.

► Scholarly attempts

As early as 1806, an English physician and naturalist named Thomas Young, used a tuning fork to record its vibrations onto a rotating, wax-covered drum. Alas, his experiments had little to do with the recording of sound. Instead, using an established frequency, he attempted to use the device to measure exceedingly small units of time.

Of course, serious attempts to mechanically record sound were made before Edison. One such machine was created in 1857 by a French librarian and typesetter named Leon Scott (Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville). Scott’s invention (known as the phonautograph) included a small horn/stylus combination that would inscribe sonic vibrations onto a cylinder which was covered with a lampblack powder.

Amazingly, the device recorded sound by etching the traces of a hog’s bristle into the powder… unfortunately, Scott never made the conceptual leap that would’ve allowed the etching to be played back. Unverified historical accounts, stated that Scott had visited the White House during Abraham Lincoln’s term and actually made a Phonautograph recording of his voice. If that lampblack-covered paper had survived, it could have been used to recreate Lincoln’s voice.

Although the device became little more than a novelty, it sold in limited quantities for 500 francs. One of the models was bought by Joseph Henry in 1866 for the Smithsonian Institute, and is still on display.

► Cross’ Paleophone

► Sound Writer

Neither Cross nor Edison were the original author of the word “phonograph” (which literally translates as sound writer). That honor goes to F. B. Fenby, an inventor in Worchester, MA, who was granted a patent in 1863 for an unsuccessful device called the “Electro-Magnetic Phonograph”. His concept detailed a system that would record a sequence of keyboard strokes onto paper tape. Although no model or workable device was ever made, it is often seen as a link to the concept of punched paper for player piano rolls (1880s), as well as Herman Hollerith’s punch card tabulator (used in the 1890 census), a distant precursor to the modern computer.

► An important side-issue

Born in Hanover, Germany, it’s important to note that a budding scientist named Emile Berliner came to Washington in 1870 at the age of 19. He soon began studying part-time physics at the Cooper Institute (now Cooper Union) while assisting in a chemical laboratory.

After learning from a telegraph operator that more current passed through the circuit whenever the key was pressed harder, Berliner theorized that variations in contact pressure between terminals connected to a diaphragm and a carbon element could be used to generate an electrical current. This insight led to the development of the carbon microphone. The then 25 year-old Berliner sold his microphone patent for $50,000 to the fledgling Bell Telephone Company, which made the telephone a practical device and paved the way for Bell to become one of the world’s largest corporations.

1877: Birthplace of Recorded Sound

► “Mary had a Little Lamb”

A device that could successfully record and reproduce sound was finally invented in 1877 by someone who wasn’t looking for it at all. In August of that year, Thomas Alva Edison drew sketches of a cylindrical recording device and had a model built in his Menlo Park Laboratory.

Soon thereafter, he commissioned a man named John Kruesi to study his drawing and built the first working model, for a fee of $18. Edison tested it out by reciting “Mary had a little lamb” into the device and was astounded that it worked. “I was never so taken aback. I was always afraid of things that worked the first time.” The first phonograph wasn’t beautiful but it proved that reproducing sound waves was finally possible.

The invention caused an immediate stir. To the public, the idea seemed to be magic and was deemed impossible. Everyone wanted to see the phonograph in person, and demonstrations were in high demand. It was said that people from the Four Corners of the globe would walk up the hill on Christie Street to watch Edison hold court over his new baby.

On one account, a bishop came to Menlo Park to see if the phonograph was a fraud. Upon his arrival, Edison told the bishop …”I think it would more satisfactory if you talked to the machine yourself”. The Bishop stepped up to the recording tube and began to shout the longest list of proper names from the Bible that he could remember…. “Mahalaleel”…. Hazarmaveth…… Arphaxad…. Mathuselah…. Chedorlaomer,” and a list that Edison said would “Stop a clock.” The little machine didn’t even hesitate as it shot the Biblical “begats” back at the Bishop with such speed and accuracy that it astonished even him.

At one demonstration, a crowd reporters showed up at the Menlo Park laboratories to hear this remarkable gadget. Edison happily obliged them by recording the cornet playing of a Mr. Jules Levy. According to the newspaper account…

Mr. Edison showed the effect of turning the cylinder at different degrees of speed, and then the phonograph proceeded utterly to rout Mr. Levy by playing his tunes in pitches and octaves of astonishing variety. It was interesting to observe the total indifference of the phonograph to the pitch of the note it began upon with regard to the pitch of the note with which it was to end. Gravely singing the tune correctly for half a dozen notes, it would suddenly soar into regions too painfully high for the cornet even by any chance to follow it. Then it delivered the variations on “Yankee Doodle” with a celerity no human fingering of the cornet could rival. . . . The phonograph was equal to any attempts to take unfair advantage of it, and it repeated its songs, and whistles, and speeches, with the cornet music heard so clearly over all, that its victory was unanimously conceded, and amid hilarious crowing from the triumphant cylinder the cornet was ignominiously shut up in its box.

► The Tin Foil Miracle!

Soon after creating the Volta Laboratories in Washington, D.C., Bell hired Chichester Bell (an English relative) and Charles Sumner Tainter to improve upon the phonogragh. Over several years, their research resulted in five patents. One of these replaced Edison’s tin foil cylinder with a wax-coated cardboard tube that could be slipped on and off with relative ease. Another improved upon the hill-and-dale cutting system, producing a gentler motion that resulted in a more pleasing sound. The main drawback to these improvements resulted in a dramatically lower volume, resulting in the addition of “ear tubes” for amplification. This led to the creation of the “graphophone”, a word that was concocted by switching the words “phono” and “graph”. All of this stirred Edison’s fancy once again, and he countered by improving the cylinder’s design to make a batter machine that included a solid-wax cylinder that could be shaved and used repeatedly.

1887: Emile Berliner is granted a patent on a flat-disc gramophone, making the production of multiple copies practical

► Berliner… and now, Something Completely Different!

While the fledgling companies competed for cylinders that would be the latest parlor hit, Emile Berliner (see earlier entry) began to take interest in the future of sound recording and reproduction. He examined both the phonograph and the graphophone in order to learn the advantages and disadvantages of each, and came to the conclusion that although the wax cylinder was a major improvement over the tinfoil cylinder, it was too soft and fragile to make a recording that would last during repeated plays. In addition, the vertical cut (hill-and-dale) grooves often weren’t deep enough to keep the stylus from skidding across the cylinder… requiring the stylus to be attached to a feed screw. Finally, a wax cylinder couldn’t be mass-produced, so if recordings were ever to be widely distributed, a method for mass-producing exact copies would be required.

All of this added up to the need for a whole new type of recording/reproduction system. Bell and Tainter knew about these shortcomings, but it was Emile Berliner who opened the door to a completely new form of record – the disc.

Using the money from his microphone patent sales, Berliner went about the task of creating his own recording device. One of his major sources of inspiration was Leon Scott’s phonautograph, which he had seen at the Smithsonian Institute. Berliner felt that the smoke-blackened surface offered a uniform resistance to the stylus, thereby providing a greater chance for a faithful recording.

He went about constructing a very simple copy of the phonautograph that would laterally etch a trace onto a rotating drum. He completed the reproduction puzzle by coating the trace with shellac and then getting a photo-engraver to translate it into an etched groove on a thin metal plate that could be wrapped around the cylinder. Of course, it worked!

Berliner now set out to “etch the human voice” using a process that eliminated the photographic process. He finally succeeded by applying a beeswax solution onto a polished zinc plate. The recording stylus laterally cut into the rotating disc, exposing the metal beneath. By applying a solution of chromic acid, Berliner was able to etch a groove into the plate that could be successfully played back… with this, the gramophone was born.

► Early Gramophones

By the early 1890s, the world’s first laterally-cut disc records were available not in the United States, but in Germany. After having obtained a patent in both England and Germany, he went to the later to demonstrate his new invention. While visiting his native Hanover, he was approached by a toy manufacturer, who offered make small hand-turned machines for the toy market. Berliner agreed, and as a result, five-inch “Berliner Gramophone” records could be found in elite toy stashes throughout Europe. The whole operation was carried out on a very small scale and today these celluloid discs (later ones were pressed in hard rubber) are extremely rare.

After returning to America, Berliner entered into an agreement with several New York backers and formed the little-known American Gramophone Company, which promptly failed. In 1893, he formed the Washington, DC-based United States Gramophone Company, which began small-scale production of electric and hand-driven models that used 7″ diameter, single-sided, hard rubber discs. Although these machines were very loud, the quality wasn’t as good as the cylinder. Worse, the mechanical model’s drive was extremely awkward, as the turntable was (hopefully) driven at 70 RPM by a small crank which was connected to a belt. The trick was to hold the machine stable, while cranking and lowering the needle on to the record… not to mention that the crank had to be turned throughout the disc’s entire duration. Some people actually compared the machine to using an eggbeater!

The one market edge that the gramophone had going was price. Since it had no spring motor or battery, it was cheap. At a time when the average worker was earning only $6 a week, Edison phonographs were selling their machines about $150. Since businesses and the wealthy were the only ones that could afford an Edison, Berliner marketed the gramophone to the public, for about $10! However, people definitely got what they paid for.

1888: The Record Biz is Born

► The North American Phonograph Company <p >Interestingly enough, the war between the companies was tempered in 1888 by the fact that a millionaire tycoon named Jesse Lippincott succeeded in acquiring distribution rights to both the phonograph and the graphophone. Following Bell’s example, Lippincott decided to rent machines to businesses as dictation machines through 33 franchised companies under the parent name of the North American Phonograph Company. Each of the franchises usually took on names that reflected their local geographical areas. For example, the D.C. franchise appropriately called itself the Columbia Phonograph Company… thus leading to the formation of the longest continually-used trademark in the industry.<p >Almost from the beginning, however, Lippincott’s small empire began to unravel. The devices performed erratically and were unreliable. His greatest obstacle was office stenographers (who were almost always men) were afraid of being replaced by these new-fangled machines. Lippincott was so distraught that it probably contributed to his death due to a stroke. In order to take back full rights to his invention, Edison took on liabilities and lawsuits that prohibited him from phonographs in the US for about three years.

Things kept getting worse, until Louis Glass, one of the industries unsung heroes came onto the scene. Glass, who managed the Pacific Phonograph Company in San Francisco, came up with the idea that people might pay good money to hear this novelty play. He installed a battery-powered Edison in the Palais Royal Saloon. It was specially-equipped with multiple listening-tubes. Depositing a nickel would start the machine and open one set of listening-tubes… all the other tubes could be opened by depositing additional nickels in to the slot… thereby earning from 5 to 20 cents per play! Once word got out, folks were standing in line to hear the new contraption and soon Glass introduced other “entertainment machines” into arcades around the area.

► The Phonograph Parlor

With their steady appetite for new titles, revenue from these machines slowly began to challenge the sale of sheet music, which fed the appetites of parlor-playing beauties in both Europe and the Americas.

Since each phonograph could also record, talented artists easily could make records at home. This created some of the first censorship problems which cropped up when enterprising showmen began to experiment with cylinders that were a bit risqué.

► Magnetic Recording – Oberlin Smith

One of the earliest published works dealing with magnetic recording was written by Oberlin Smith in 1888. In an article that appeared in the British magazine – Electrical World, he suggested (probably for the first time) the use of permanent magnetic impressions for the recording of sound. Smith had fabricated a cotton or silk thread, into which steel dust or short clippings of fine wire would be suspended. These particles were to be magnetized in accordance with the alternating current from a microphone source. Smith also discussed the possibility of using a hard steel wire, but thought it scarcely possible. A working unit was never built.

1895: Times, they are a Changin’

► The Columbia Graphophone Company

When the North American Phonograph Company went out of business in 1894, Bell and Tainter formed a partnership with Edward Easton of the Columbia Phonograph Company, which then became the Columbia Graphophone Company.

Under Easton’s direction, Columbia set out to reinforce the idea of the cylinder model as a popular entertainment device. In a bold move, the company began to manufacture the first inexpensive spring wound cylinders machine, which, until then were battery-driven, cumbersome and prohibitively expensive.

Columbia used local Washington talent to make cylinders for the steady demand. As sales grew because of the lower priced playback machine, it soon became obvious that a method of mass-producing cylinders would be needed.

Although, these were Columbia’s glory days, Edison soon introduced his new phonograph in 1897 at the low price of $10.00. Serious competition was in the wind.

► Marconi achieves wireless radio transmission

In 1895, Guglielmo Marchese Marconi carried out some of the first successful wireless experiments. Using a directional antenna, Marconi transmitted a signal over a distance of up to one and a half kilometers from the “Shepherdess Stone” (a popular lookout point near Salvan, Switzerland).

Early in his career, Poulsen was hired as a mechanical workshop apprentice, where he became interested in electricity and the work of the Danish scientist H.C. 0rsted (the discoverer of electro-magnetism). In 1893, at the age of twenty-four, Poulsen was employed by the Copenhagen Telegraph Company as an assistant to the country’s only telephone engineer. In those days, this was an honor, as any boy who was interested in electricity thought of telephone work as the highest aim in life.

In 1894, while working on a very simple experiment, he discovered the basic principles of magnetic recording. However, it wasn’t until he met P. O. Pedersen that any practical result came from any of his ideas. Of these, the most famous are the Telegraphone, the first magnetic recorder; and the arc-generator, which until about 1920, was widely used for generating continuous electro-magnetic waves – the forerunner of wireless radio transmissions.

Poulsen’s Telegraphone, was exhibited at the Paris Science Exposition in 1900, where it had won the Grand Prix and was as much a sensation as Bell’s Telephone had been at the Philadelphia Centennial twenty-four years earlier. People flocked to see it and could hardly pick up a journal of the day without finding reference to it. The only regrettable feature of the original device was its necessity of using earphones, but everyone assumed that this difficulty would soon be overcome. Unfortunately, since the electronic amplifier wouldn’t be invented until 25 years later, magnetic recording soon dropped out of sight.

When amplifiers came into general use in the mid 1920′s, magnetic recording was ripe for rediscovery. Seeing its potential, a German entrepreneur named Kurt Stille came onto the scene with the distinct mission of selling magnetic recording to the public. His powers of persuasion were remarkable and he succeeded in obtaining financial backing from a group of substantial German financiers, thus organizing the Telegraphie Patent Syndikat. This company was the first ever to be set up for the sole purpose of selling licenses for the manufacture magnetic recording equipment.

David Miles Huber
Reprinted by permission of Mix Magazine – www.mixonline.com

1899: The End of Berliner: The Zon-o-phone

► Illegal Competition and the End of the Berliner Company

By the end of the 1890’s the Berliner Gramophone Company was producing product that made earlier machines and records look primitive by comparison. A marketing and sales alliance was formed with a man named Frank Seaman through the drawing up of a fifteen-year contract that specified that Seaman’s National Gramophone Company would be the sole distributor and exclusively handle the advertising campaign.

This worked well for both parties; however, once the profits actually began to rise, Seaman felt that he wasn’t getting his fare share. Being bound by the contract, he soon became bitter and started looking for a way to change his fortunes. Another side-effect of the gramophone’s success was an upsurge in competitors who tried to illegally manufacture gramophones and recorded discs.

One of the first detractors was the Wonder machine, which was manufactured by the Standard Talking Machine Company. According to the Library of Congress catalogs, a Wonder record was an exact copy of a Berliner disc with the number “1″ being added to the disc’s catalog number. Obviously, this infringement was easy to prove and the company was soon put out of business.

A year later, advertisements began to appear for the Vitaphone machine and discs, which were made by a company under rights from the American Graphophone Company. Berliner’s lawyers made the proper defense that graphophone patents covered vertical cuts while the Vitaphone’s lateral cuts were a direct infringement of Berliner’s patent. The Vitaphone was likewise taken off the market, but not after selling a considerable number of gramophones and original recordings.

At the time, competition between Berliner and Columbia Phonograph was fierce, and Columbia’s Edward Easton decided that the time was right to attack. He put Phillip Mauro, their best and most imaginative lawyer on the case. Mauro’s only defense would be Bell/Tainter’s simplified description of the 1886 patent… which specified that a “needle moved by a groove” played the record. Even though the graphophone’s needle movement was hill & dale and rested in a cylinder, and not a rotating record, the prosecutor felt that the patent’s wording was vague enough to hold up in court.

Although Frank Seaman felt that the gramophone didn’t infringe on the graphophone’s patent, he saw this as an excellent opportunity to get a larger share of the burgeoning business. Quietly, he began a startup business called the Zon-o-phone Company. Once production was underway, Seaman tried to persuade Berliner to buy machines from him rather than Johnson. Not surprisingly, Berliner refused as the Zon-o-phone wasn’t a particularly high-quality product, he already had a good working relationship with Johnson… and most importantly, he didn’t trust Seaman.

Francis wasn’t satisfied with the painting, as he thought it was too dark. He then decided to borrow a brass brass horn from the Gramophone Co., Ltd in London, in order to brighten the picture up. As he was already at the company, he asked William Barry Owen of the company might be interested in the painting. They were definitely interested, but asked Barraud to replace the Edison cylinder phonograph with an image of the company’s new disc gramophone.

Upon visiting the Gramophone Co. in 1900, Emile Berliner admired the painting so much that he began using it in the US under the title “Nipper and the Gramophone.” He soon registered it in both the US and Canada and began to use it as the trademark for his new company (which later, under Eldridge, became known as the Victor Talking Machine Company).

Amazingly enough Barraud also made a copy of his original, reproducing it in exactly the same way as the original (meaning that he first placed the cylinder machine into the painting and then went over that with the gramophone). This replica is currently on display at the Capitol Records Building in Hollywood, California.

Nipper-obelia

Over the years, Nipper has shown up in homes in the form of promotional salt & pepper shakers, on glassware, cigarette lighters and neckties. Replicas ranging from 3’ to 8’ nippers can be seen in various museums and stores (I once saw one in a meat market) around the world.

A Star Named Nipper

After General Electric bought RCA in the 1980’s, the home entertainment was sold to Thomson Consumer Electronics of France. Wanting to create a new image of RCA to the public, Nipper was re-introduced to the public with a new, puppy companion (presumably his offspring)… Chipper.

The current Nipper actually travels first class in a limousine to his photo shoot destinations and dines on filet mignon… a big change in his life, as his agency company actually saved him from death row in an animal research lab. To their credit, Nipper’s salary is used to save other animals from becoming experiment subjects. Unlike Nipper, Chipper has to be replaced on a regular basis, because puppies have this nasty habit of growing.

1902: The Music Biz comes into its own

► Early recording sessions

Although the world was entering the era of electricity, a suitable electronic method for recording sound was to prove elusive until the 1920′s. Early phonograph recordings were accomplished literally by brute force – all acoustically: The performers would stand before a funnel-shaped horn attached to a phonograph and belt out their tunes. High volumes of sound were required to force the recording diaphragm (made variously of glass, mica, or copper) to vibrate sufficiently to force the cutting stylus to make a good carving on the blank wax cylinder.

It didn’t take long for Fred to realize that he wanted to be in the recording business, so he quit school and went to work for Bell and Tainter for $10 a week (not a bad wage for the day) recording graphophone cylinders for a coin-in-the-slot venture at the Chicago World’s Fair. This job came with a lot of responsibilities: he recruited new singers from local clubs and theatres, set up the studio, ran the machines, played piano, and had to deliver the finished cylinders to arcade operators.

Over time, Gaisberg became well-known in the DC area, hanging out with entertainers of every type. Billy Golden (a popular singer of the time) introduced him to Emil Berliner in 1894, who took him on as a piano accompanist and talent scout. Fred helped establish the working credo of every record producer since: “Do whatever you have to do to get the music recorded”. In those days, getting the job done meant picking the right style of music or comedy, keeping it short and making it loud.

► Poulsen invents the Arc Radio Transmitter

Valdemar Poulsen (the Danish inventer of magnetic recording), invented an arc converter which was used to continuously generate wave radio signals. Later, Poulsen used the arc to experiment with radio transmission to various receiving sites in Denmark and Great Britain. The Poulsen-arc transmitter was used internationally until it was superseded by the vacuum-tube transmitter.

1906: Lee DeForest invents the triode vacuum tube, the first electronic signal amplifier.

► DeForest invents the “Audion”

Lee DeForest was born in Council Bluffs, Iowa… the son of a Congregational minister who had high hopes that he would follow in his footsteps. After having moved to a prep school in Massachusetts, young DeForest obviously evaded his “calling” by entering a mechanical engineering program at Yale University. Here he wrote a dissertation entitled “Reflection of Hertzian Waves From the Ends of Parallel Wires”, which was one of the first treatises on radio waves and the possibilities of wireless communication. After receiving a PhD from Yale in 1896, he developed an improved wireless telegraph receiver, which led to the founding of the De Forest Wireless Telegraph Company in 1902.

In 1912, DeForest developed a feedback circuit that could increase the output of a radio transmitter and produce alternating current. He didn’t see the worth of his discovery, and by the time he applied for a patent in 1915, it had already been patented by E. Howard Armstrong. De Forest countered with a law suit that went on till 1934. He eventually won, but Armstrong was always credited with the invention

Alas, throughout his tumultuous life DeForest was often involved in patent lawsuits, failed businesses, patent applications and had survived four marriages. He wrote an autobiography entitled “Father of Radio”, but didn’t get the recognition that he so desperately wanted.

1910: Enrico Caruso is heard in the first live broadcast from the Metropolitan Opera, NYC.

► First wireless broadcast to the general public <p >On January 13, 1910, Lee DeForest arranged the first public broadcast featuring Caruso and others directly from Metropolitan Opera to a small group of listeners in New York. The broadcast debut, which made use of two microphones and a 500 Watt transmitter, consisted of a double billing of Cavalleria Rusticana and I Pagliacci.

1912: Major Edwin H. Armstrong is issued a patent for a regenerative circuit, making radio reception practical. Four years later, a patent for the super heterodyne circuit is issued to Armstrong.

► Empire of the Air

Called “The Major” by his friends and “Howard” by his relatives, Edwin Howard Armstrong’s inventions paved the way for much of wireless communications, as we know it today. In 1912, Armstrong invented the regenerative circuit (a key component in AM radio). Before this date, DeForest’s important addition of a wire grid between the filament and plate to Fleming’s tube, would do little more that detect weak signals, when placed in a receiver circuit (often making it extremely difficult to receive a particular radio station. By designing a circuit that would feed part of the current at the tube’s plate back to the grid, the incoming signals were strengthened to the point that distant stations would come in so loudly that they could be heard without earphones. By increasing the feedback, Armstrong also found that the tube would rapidly oscillate and begin to transmit strong electromagnetic waves. This invention is a key to continuous-wave transmission that is still at the heart of all radio operations.

1913: New possibilities

► The talkies

The first “talking Picture” is demonstrated in 1913 by Edison using his Kinetophone process. In this system, an on-stage acoustic phonograph with oversize long-playing cylinders was connected by a drive shaft to the projectors or “Kinetophones” at the rear of the room. The films were short since the cylinders were limited to a running time of 6 minutes.

Edison’s “Talking Pictures” was most likely the source of the popular use of the term “talkies” to refer to the synchronization of sound and film.

► The vacuum tube amplifier is developed

Seeing the potential for Lee DeForest’s audion tube as a way to amplify telephone signals, Harold D. Arnold designed a practical vacuum tube amplifier. Using a German pump, he found that creating a vacuum within the Audion tube greatly increased the flow of electrons across the tube’s grid. The improved amplifier was soon installed in telephone systems by what would soon become Bell Labs, which allowed for improvements in long line transmissions.

The Electrical Era

Technology Takes a Foothold

► Patent for the superheterodyne circuit is issued to Armstrong<p >While serving in the US Signal Corps during World War 1, Edwin Howard Armstrong was assigned to design a system that would detect weak enemy communication signals in Europe. Adapting a technique called heterodyning, he created an 8-tube receiver that amplified weak signals from the top of the Eiffel Tower to levels that were previously unknown. Dubbed the superheterodyne circuit, this selective system for receiving, converting, and amplifying very weak, high-frequency electromagnetic waves is the basis for most of the radio and television receivers used today.

Following this, Armstrong began work on what was one of radio’s final problems – static. He decided that the only solution was to design an entirely new system. This new process would transmit a signal whereby the amplitude would be held constant, but the carrier-wave frequency would be modulated in frequency. The result was that in 1933, he invented FM radio, a wide-band frequency modulation system that could be clearly received in the most violent of storms and offered a much higher fidelity.

In 1920, he sold rights to his two major circuits to Westinghouse for $335,000.00 and later sold a lesser invention (the superregenerative circuit), to the newly formed Radio Corporation of America (RCA) for a large number of stock options.

d between 1922 and 1934, Armstrong was challenged on several of his patents by Lee DeForest. Backed by both Westinghouse and RCA, he won the first round, lost a second, was stalemated in a third, and finally lost to the Supreme Court through a judicial misunderstanding of the technical facts. He became so obsessed with proving that he was right about FM that not only did he loose his marrage and much of his fortune to legal battles… he committed suicide in early 1954.

Although DeForest won the court challenges, in the end, the scientific community refused to acknowledge the courts ruling and later awarded Armstrong the Franklin Medal and the Medal of Honor.

► The Society of Motion Picture Engineers (SMPE) is formed <p >In July 1916, the Society for Motion Picture Engineers (SMPE) was formed created a professional forum and to publish technical findings for its members that were “deemed worthy of permanent record”. The society’s impact soon grew beyond its initial charter and began to set standards for the working professionals in the field. For example, its first undertaking was the ratification of the 35mm format – the standard upon which the motion picture and telefilm industries were built. Later, a mere smattering of the organization’s codifications includes standards for two-color cinematography (November 1918), three-color technicolor (1935), optical sound recording technologies (1930 & 1938), SMPTE time code media stamping for system-wide synchronization (1962)… With the onset of TV, the group formally changed its name in 1950 to SMPTE (Society for Motion Picture and Television Engineers, and continues to be an active industry force to this day.

► The condenser microphone is invented

In 1914, Edward Christopher Wente began working on the design and calibration of a uniformly sensitive transmitter (or microphone) for the Western Electric Engineering Department. The carbon mics of the day had an uneven frequency response and background noise was too high for research tests. Sensing that a new type of device would be needed, Wente began testing a little-known pickup called the electrostatic transmitter. Over the next two years, he crafted this device into the first flat frequency, calibration microphone (which he called the condenser transmitter). A patent was filed December 20, 1916 and granted March 16, 1920

In 1922, Wente improved upon his original design, where he created a pickup that was a hundred times more sensitive than previous “transmitters” and had an extremely high internal impedance that required its direct connection to a vacuum tube preamp (just as modern-day condensers need a pre-amp to reduce its capsule output impedance).

In a paper from The Physical Review, Wente wrote: “A sectional drawing of the transmitter is shown in Fig. 1. The transmitter differs from the instrument previously described in several essential respects. The diaphragm, A, is made of 0.002 inch (0.0051 cm.) steel and is stretched so that its natural frequency in free air is 7,000 cycles per second. Annular grooves are cut into the face of the back plate, B, to give the diaphragm the desired natural frequency and damping. The length of the air-gap is 0.001 inch (0.0025 cm.). To keep out moisture, the space surrounding the back-plate is sealed off completely from the outside air. A thin rubber diaphragm, C, is provided to keep the pressure on the two sides of the steel diaphragm substantially equal under all conditions of temperature and atmospheric pressure.” In 1923, more design improvements were made: “By a change in the dimensions of the film of air and by the substitution of a duralumin for a steel diaphragm in 1923 a condenser microphone was produced which had a sensitivity 100 times as great as that of previous models. This microphone was sufficiently sensitive to permit the pickup of ordinary sounds at a distance without interference from noise voltages generated in the amplifier, whereas the use of the older models under such circumstances would have been impractical.”…. In 1926, this design had a flat frequency response upwards to 15,000 Hz and became the Western Electric 394-W microphone, a new workhorse for sound motion picture sound production.

► The Scully disk recording lathe is introduced

1919: The Radio Corporation of America (RCA) is founded – It is owned in part by United Fruit. You might want to check out the relationship between United Fruit and Castro.

► RCA is formed

During World War 1, in an effort to consolidate the patents of major companies that were involved with radio, the US federal government took over the wireless industry. This was done to sort out the spread of patent infringements that were wreaking havoc with the industry and to focus on improving the technology of the day. As a result, the assets of the Italian-owned American Marconi company were seized and a new publicly-held partnership between General Electric, United Fruit and Westinghouse Electric was formed under the name of the Radio Corporation of America. Shortly after, AT&T joined in the fray and in a complicated set of manufacturing, legal and assets agreements allowed GE and Westinghouse to manufacture radio-related products.

From its outset in 1919, David Sarnoff was appointed as General Manager to the empire, a position that he held until his retirement in 1970. Sarnoff swore to make radio “a ‘household utility’ in the same sense as the piano or phonograph.”

1920: First commercial AM radio broadcast

► The first commercial AM radio broadcast is made by KDKA, Pittsburgh PA.

“Will anyone hearing this broadcast please communicate with us, as we are anxious to know how far the broadcast is reaching and how it is being received.”

In 1920, Westinghouse felt that its best way to sell radios was to offer programming. Radio’s first DJ was Dr. Frank Conrad, a Pittsburgh area ham operator who loved to records over the airwaves for his friends. Westinghouse thought that he would be perfect and asked him to help with regular transmissions. Using a shed, which was atop the K Building of the Westinghouse East Pittsburgh works, KDKA became the nation’s first commercial broadcast (a term Conrad coined himself). The station went on-the-air November 2, 1920, so that listeners could hear the election results of the Harding-Cox presidential race before they read about it in the newspaper.

1921: First PA system ► First major demonstration of an electric public address system

An amplifier, microphone and loudspeaker were innovatively combined to create the first PA system on Armistice Day for the national broadcast of the burial of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington Cemetery. Heard over 80 loudspeakers that were linked by telephone lines to New York, San Francisco, and Arlington, VA – the “AT&T electric public address system” demonstration was a great success.

On March 4, 1921, 125,000 people were able to hear President Harding’s inauguration address as he spoke into an amplified system at the Capitol in Washington D. C. which made use of a newly-developed condenser microphone.

1923: Advances in film sound

► Method for optically encoding sound onto film developed

Edward Christopher Wente filed for “translating device” that could optically encode sound as a modulated film track. His invention worked by passing an alternating current through two stretched elements which were bathed in a strong magnetic field. The soundtrack’s alternating fields caused the elements to form a corresponding slit of varying widths that could be photographically recorded onto a film track. Using a simple light and photo-sensitive pickup, the sound could be modulated in complete sync which eliminated the need for complicated mechanical links to a playback system.

1925: First steps into a new era

► Bell Labs develops the Orthophonic system for electrical recording on disk.

A landmark merger of AT&T with Western Electric in 1925 allowed the pooling of technical recourses that led to developments of the first fully-electronic, Hi-Fi recording system. Due, in part, to a matched-impedance recording system that improved a record’s frequency range from a narrow 250-2,500 cycles (Hz) to a much wider range of 50-6,000 cycles. Developed by Henry C. Harrison at Bell Labs, this new electro-actoustic system made use of a condenser mic, tube amp, balanced-armature speaker, and a rubber-line acoustic recorder with a long tapered horn. This new method, which was licensed by AT&T to major record companies was dubbed “Orthophonic”.

► First electrically recorded 78 rpm disks appear

In 1925, Victor’s released its last phonograph record that was made by the original acoustic process. Using the Orthophonic system, the major labels of the day began releasing their first electrically recorded discs. Although who was released using the new system is often in dispute, it’s generally accepted that some of the first 1925 releases were:<p >• Victor – recordings by the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski

• Columbia – Art Gillham (The Whispering Pianist) “You May Be Lonesome”

• HMV (English Victor) – Jack Hylton and his Orchestra “Feelin’ Kind O’ Blue”

► Victor introduces the all-acoustic Orthophonic Victrola, “Credenza” player

On “Victor Day” Nov 2, 1925, the Orthophonic phonograph was introduced, which was capable of playing back acoustically- and electrically-produced records. Like its ancestors, the basic model was completely mechanical, being powered by a hand crank, however, the design was modified to play back both acoustic and electrically-recorded records. This new machine was able to failthfully reproduce the full dynamic range of the new records through such improvements as:

Replacing the standard mica diaphragm with a pleated, aluminum one

• Mounting the stylus on a ball bearing assembly

• Designing a folded exponential acoustic horn

The theremin originally known as the ætherphone/etherphone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox is an early electronic musical instrument controlled without physical contact by the thereminist (performer). It is named after the westernized name of its Russian inventor, Léon Theremin, who patented the device in 1928.

The instrument’s controlling section usually consists of two metal antennas which sense the relative position of the thereminist’s hands and control oscillators for frequency with one hand, and amplitude (volume) with the other. The electric signals from the theremin are amplified and sent to a loudspeaker.

The theremin was used in movie soundtracks such as Miklós Rózsa’s for Spellbound and The Lost Weekend and Bernard Herrmann’s for The Day the Earth Stood Still and as the theme tune for the ITV drama Midsomer Murders. This has led to its association with a very eerie sound. Theremins are also used in concert music (especially avant-garde and 20th- and 21st-century new music) and in popular music genres such as rock. Psychedelic rock bands in particular, such as Hawkwind, have often used the theremin in their work.

► Dr. Georg Neumann begin manufacture condenser microphones

Early in his career, Georg Neumann began his career by working for Eugen Reisz, who had designed a carbon microphone that was commonly known as the ‘Reisz Mic’. Set in a block of marble, this transverse current carbon microphone was used to modulate a 12V DC voltage. Despite it’s classy look, its diaphragm was basically identical to those used in the telephones of the time. They were noisy, of very poor quality and had a large resonant peak at 1kHz. The microphone was indeed a breakthrough, yet despite their achievement he and Reisz soon parted ways.

In a quest to built a higher-quality pickup, Neumann established his own company in Berlin in 1928 with the intention of mass producing condenser microphones. Since “capacitive transducers” had only been made under laboratory conditions, this wasn’t considered to be the wisest of business propositions.

His first manufactured mic was the CMV3 nicknamed the ‘Neumann Bottle’ and was the first ever mass produced condenser micro­phone. It was far superior to the Reisz Mic and quickly became established as the standard by the German radio and recording industry in the 1930′s, and was used to broadcast the speeches of Nazi leaders and the Olympic games from Berlin in 1936.

Soon after the company was established, Neumann began to diversify into other aspects of studio engineering, such as the making of records. It was this interest in record technology that originally led to his split with Reisz. Now, Neumann was able to further branch out by manufacturing disc cutting machines. The earliest models were belt driven, however, by 1930 the Neumann lathe had already made the transition to direct drive with the motor acting as a direct extension of the turntable’s spindle. Throughout the 30s and early 40s the company continued to diversify by manufacturing devices that included electro-acoustic measurement devices, cinema gongs, mixing consoles and standard linear microphones.

In 1947, Neumann made what is generally viewed as his most important contribution to modern electrical engineering, the development of a nickel-cadmium (NiCad) battery. He developed a process that allowed a gas-tight battery to be made without oxygen excessive formation. These rechargeable power sources are often directly linked to a wide range of electronic gadgets and have become a critical element for space travel.

In addition to the NiCad battery, ’47 marked the year that Neumann introduced a mic that had (and continues to have) a huge influence over the development of modern studio microphone technology – the U47. The influence of this double-diaphragm, switchable pattern condenser microphone (the first of its type) had a huge impact on European recording… and even eclipsed the dominance of the RCA ribbon microphone as a studio standard in the United States.

During the 1950′s Neumann microphones were also sold and marketed by Telefunken and carried the Telefunken logo… giving them their “Telly” nickname. It was reported that Ol’ blue eyes – Frank Sinatra, actually wouldn’t record without his U 47 “Telly”. To this day, Neumann GMBH continues as an iconic symbol for quality within the pro audio community.

1929: Building bridges to the future

► RCA becomes the Victor <p >In 1929, RCA purchased the Victor Talking Machine Company, then the world’s largest manufacturer of phonographs and phonograph records to become RCA-Victor. RCA acquired use of “Nipper” listening to “His Master’s Voice”, although HMV (Victor’s independent British partner) was able to retain rights to the logo.

► Edison goes out of business

Edison tried his hand at electrical recording in 1928 but his phonograph company went out of business in 1929 and most of these laterally cut records were never released to the public.

► Harry Nyquist publishes the mathematical foundation for the sampling theorem basic to all digital audio processing, the “Nyquist Theorem.”

During his 37 years of service with AT&T in the Department of Development and Research Transmission, the Swedish-born Harry Nyquist received 138 US patents. Although his work let to developments in the first quantitative explanation of thermal noise, important studies in television broadcast transmission, as well as a quantitative system for determining the stability of feedback systems… the audio community is most familiar with his work known as “The Nyquist Theorem”.

This important development, which provided the groundwork for the sampling of a continuous audio signal into the digital domain, states: in order to digitally encode the desired frequency bandwidth, the sample rate must be at least twice as high as the highest frequency to be recorded (sample rate [equal to or greater than sign] 2 X highest frequency). For example, since human hearing ranges from 20Hz to 20KHz the signal must be sampled at a rate of at least 40KHz. Increasing the sample rate slightly beyond this point can help make up for imprecision in filters and other components of the conversion process – i.e. the standard CD sample rate is 44.1 kHz.

Before his death in 1976 Nyquist received many honors for his outstanding work in communications, including the National Academy of Engineer’s Founder’s Medal and the IRE Medal of Honor.

► The “Blattnerphone” is developed for use as a magnetic recorder using steel tape.

In 1929, a substantial German financiers known as the Telegraphie Patent Syndikat sold a rights for the use and manufacture of a steel wire recording device to Louis Blattner (a German settled in England since the turn of the century). With this, Blatner (a promoter of motion pictures) developed the “Blattnerphone” as a device for recording sound for talking pictures.<p >The Blattnerphone made use of a steel tape that was 6 mm wide and traveled vertically through the heads at 5 feet per second, a spool contained a bit more than a mile of tape and weighed nearly 21 pounds! The device, which had a total playing time of 20 minutes, was cumbersome and was often plagued by uneven tape speeds. The machine was initially found to be unsuitable for music recording, however due to the advantage of immediate playback, was often useful for rehearsal purposes.

Over it’s short life, the Blattnerphone was actually used to produce several synchronized movie sound tracks and radio broadcasts, including a restored BBC broadcast of the events of King George V’s 1935 Silver Jubilee and an interview with Amelia Earhart.

Following Blatner’s bankruptcy in 1931, the Marconi’s Wireless Telegraph Co. Ltd. Purchased the rights to Kurt Stille’s patents and developed the Marconi-Stille wire recorder. This new machine used a reduced 3mm tape width, with a thickness to only 0.08 of a millimetre. In order to secure the reproduction of the higher audio frequencies it was found necessary to run the tape at a rate of 5ft/sec (1.5m/sec) past the recording and reproducing heads. This meant that the length of a full 32 minute tape was nearly 3 kilometers!

Due to the fact that these recorders could capture a half hour program onto a single tape (vs. a phonograph disc’s 4½ minute length), these steel tape machines were often used by the BBC for the recording of national and sporting events for later transmission during evening hours.

1931: Let there be ((((( Stereo )))))

► Alan Dower Blumlein, working for Electrical and Musical Industries (EMI) in London, in effect patents stereo.

On June 7th, 1942, British electronics suffered a cruel blow. During WW II, a small party of engineers perished in a light airplane crash, but those men enshrined some of the finest engineering talent in the world. They were doing in-flight testing of airborne radar, when their aircraft crashed on landing – there were no survivors. Amongst those killed were: G. S. Hensby, Sqdn. Ldr. R. J. Swanson, Pilot Officer C. E. Vincent, C. O. Brown, F. Blythen and one of the top inventors of his time: Alan Dower Blumlein.

Of course, the crash was kept quiet. British radar techniques, far more advanced than that of the axis powers, had been one of the biggest factors in saving Britain during the dark days of 1940. Therefore, any suggestion of a setback was squelched, so as not to reach enemy intelligence… only the bare fact of Blumlein’s death was announced with no detail at all.

1936:

► BASF makes the first tape recording of a symphony concert

As a way to show off the new Magnetophon and recording tape, BASF arranged the world’s first concert recording on November 19,1936, during a visit by the touring London Philharmonic Orchestra. In this recording, Sir Thomas Beecham conducted works by Mozart, Rimsky-Korsakov, Dvorak and others in the BASF concert hall in Ludwigshaven, Germany. These recordings are still playable today – a fitting testimony to the durability of these early tapes.

► Von Braunmühl and Weber apply for a patent on the cardioid condenser microphone

By utilizing time delay network on sounds arriving at a dual-diaphragm capsule (whereby the front diaphragm is active and the rear acts as an acoustically-passive element) Von Braunmühl and Weber were able to achieve controlled cancellation and produce a cardioid pattern.

► Reeves invents PCM

You might be surprised to learn that the origins of digital audio can be traced as far back as 1937, when Alec H. Reeves, a scientist at the International Telephone and Telegraph Co. in France, invented pulse-code modulation. He was granted a French patent in 1938, a British patent in 1939, and U.S. patent No. 2,272,070 in 1942, according to Steve Schoenherr, a history professor at the University of San Diego.

Born in San Francisco in 1913, Jack Mullin graduated from Santa Clara University in what is now Silicon Valley with a major in electrical engineering. In 1941, Mullin entered the U.S. Army as a private, emerging at the end of the war as a major in the Signal Corps.

Stationed in England from 1943 to ‘44, then-Lt. Mullin was assigned to help improve the performance of Allied radar and other electronics. Spending nights alone in his lab at the Royal Air Force facility in Farnborough, England, he liked to listen to good music. The BBC went off the air at midnight, and he tuned to the only classical music he could find, which was broadcast by the Germans from powerful AM transmitters inside the Reich. The performances of the Berlin Philharmonic and other groups sounded “live,” with none of the telltale ticks and pops of transcription discs-16-inch diameter 33 11/43 and 78 rpm records-that were the norm in American broadcasting. Mullin reasoned that even Hitler could not compel musicians to perform continuously 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The Germans, he reasoned, had to have some kind of outstanding recorder that no one knew about.

After the liberation of Paris in the summer of 1944, Mullin went to the French capital to set up an electronics lab for examining captured German electronic equipment, submitting reports to the Signal Corps and to Allied Intelligence. GIs brought in all kinds of gear, including DC-bias AEG Tonschreiber and Magnetophon tape recorders, which used 6.5mm (slightly more than 11/44th-inch wide) acetate and PVC tape moving at 77 cm/s (30.3 ips), with high distortion and a frequency response barely better than a telephone.

By the summer of 1945 the war was over. Soon after, Mullin set out with some fellow officers on a fact-finding tour of Germany, which included an unforgettable visit to the subterranean radio and closed-circuit television studios in Hitler’s bunker at his Bavarian mountaintop retreat at Berchtesgaden.

Mullin also investigated the remains of a radio transmitter on Feldberg Mountain near Frankfurt. He found little there except a bare antenna tower and a large generator, but at the site Mullin met a British officer who shared his love of good music. The officer told him about the high-fidelity version of the German AEG Magnetophon audio tape recorder, a machine with unbelievable reproduction quality: It had low distortion and a frequency response almost matching human hearing. He told Mullin he could find some Magnetophons at Radio Frankfurt’s satellite studio in Bad Nauheim, a small resort town north of Frankfurt.

At the studios, Mullin and his assistant were astonished by the fidelity of the studio Magnetophons. A look at the schematic drawings showed Mullin why the machines performed so well: AC bias in the record circuit. Mullin realized that those poor-sounding Magnetophons back in his lab in Paris could be modified simply by adding AC bias, using the same tape, transports, heads, power supplies, and most of the same record and reproduce electronics.

Mullin obtained permission from the Army to send home, for his own use, two AEG Magnetophon K-4 decks, some spare heads-the one component he knew he could never duplicate in his garage-and 50 reels of blank BASF and AGFA PVC Luvitherm Type-L tape. He only sent home the transports, as he could design and build his own electronics, using plentiful American parts.

Excerpted from John T. Mullin: The Man Who Put Bing Crosby On Tape
By Peter Hammar
Mix, Oct 1, 1999
Reprinted by permission of Mix Magazine – www.mixonline.com

1945: Hi-Fi Tape in America

► Jack Mullin demonstrates “hi-fi” tape recording with his reconstructed Magnetophon in San Francisco

Returning to civilian life in San Francisco in January 1946, the electrical engineer entered into a business partnership with filmmaker/16mm film sound pioneer W.A. (Bill) Palmer, who provided financial and mechanical engineering assistance. Mullin built two sets of record and reproduce electronics with a passive switching bridge between them, similar to the studio setups he’d seen at Bad Nauheim. The 11/44th-inch tape reels-identical to today’s IEC European-spec flangeless pancakes-held 22 minutes of music at their 77cm/s tape speed. For a half-hour show, he knew he’d have to be able to switch the input and output signals between the two decks.

Mullin’s redesign of the Magnetophon electronics resulted in a sonically superior tape recorder, and he and Palmer demonstrated their prototype hi-fi tape machines in May 1946, at the NBC Studios in San Francisco (now KBHK-TV) to members of the Institute of Radio Engineers (now the IEEE). The technology stunned the engineers and technicians, some of whom said they literally could not believe they were hearing a recording and not a live performance.

The audience included several people who would go on to make magnetic recording history, including Harold Lindsay, Walter Selsted, Frank Lennert and Charlie Ginsburg, all later of Ampex. Ginsburg would eventually lead the team that built the world’s first commercially successful videotape recorder. The others worked on the groundbreaking Ampex Model 200, America’s first professional audiotape deck.

Working with Palmer Films, Mullin designed methods for producing high-quality audio for the pre-production of 16mm films. The engineers built a third tape deck using one of the spare head stacks Mullin brought from Paris, along with their own transport and electronics. The homemade tape deck allowed them to do a final mixdown on 11/44th-inch tape, synched to the film for layback to an optical track-a first in the country. Meanwhile, the two modified Magnetophons were used to produce the first U.S. commercial entertainment disc professionally mastered on tape, Songs by Merv Griffin, in 1946.

Excerpted from John T. Mullin: The Man Who Put Bing Crosby On Tape
By Peter Hammar
Mix, Oct 1, 1999
Reprinted by permission of Mix Magazine – www.mixonline.com

1946:

► Bill Putnam Sr. opens Universal Recording

A pioneer in recording studio acoustics and equipment design, M.T. “Bill” Putnam is acknowledged to be the first person to use artificial reverberation for commercial recordings. He also developed the first multi-band equalizers, and with his company Universal Audio, was responsible for the development of classic equipment like the 1176LN and UREI® Time Align monitors.

The vinyl microgroove 33 1/3 RPM ‘LP’ record was developed and first marketed by Peter Goldmark and his engineers of Columbia records in 1948. Prior to the retail release of the first 33 1/3 ‘LP’ record, Peter Goldmark invited David Sarnoff, the head of RCA, and his engineers to tour the Columbia record labs and view the new 33 1/3 RPM disc and record playing system. David Sarnoff accepted the invitation, and he and his cheif engineers were ushered through the Columbia labs by Peter Goldmark, shown the entire new microgroove record cutting lathe and record pressing system, and treated to a sound quality demonstration of the new ‘LP’ disc. The new vinyl disc was a light years leap ahead in sound quality compared to the only other disc recording medium of the day, the 78 RPM shellac record. The new 33 1/3 RPM ‘LP’ records provided greatly extended frequency response of 50 to 12,000 cps (cycles per second), compared to the average 8,000 cps top frequency limit for current production 78 RPM discs – plus, the new microgroove records made of vinyl provided very low surface noise, and for the first time quiet music passages were not drowned out by the hiss and scratch surface noise inherent in shellac 78 discs. In addition, the new vinyl records were not breakable, unlike brittle shellac 78 discs – and, a 12 inch vinyl disc weighed a fraction of the weight of a comparable old fashioned 78 disc — saving the record producer, record shipper and retail record store the hassle and monetary loss from broken 78 discs and a great savings in lowered shipping costs.

David Sarnoff and his engineers politely expressed their approval and admiration for the ‘new’ recording medium developed by Columbia, but following the tour and demonstration, David Sarnoff ordered his engineers in marketing and research to bring into productiion the previously developed RCA Victor 45 RPM system (which had been kept a carefully guarded industrial secret for nearly 10 years).

Excerpted from an “Article about the RCA Victor 45 RPM Phonograph”
By Steve Kelsay

Reprinted by permission of Downstairs Records, Lindenhurst, NY – www.downstairsrecords.com

1949: 78rpm – 33rpm = 45rpm

► RCA introduces the microgroove 45 rpm, large-hole, 7-inch record and record changer/adaptor.

► Ampex introduces its Model 300 professional studio recorder

In 1947, when one of her background singers failed to show up at a recording session, singer Patti Page decided to experiment with the idea of recording additional vocal parts onto her version of Confess (She also used this technique on “With My Eyes Open” and “I’m Dreaming” to create four part harmony). Instead of using tape to create this effect, the engineer had to use two acetate disc cutters. Being a successful, technically-minded artist for Capital Records, Les also had two disc cutting machines to “double” his tracks. Basically, he’d have to record an initial track onto disc and then play along with the recording onto a second disc, then use that composite to add other tracks back onto the first… and so on!

In 1949, Les had heard about tape recorders, but never used one. One day, Bing Crosby came over to his house and said that he had a present for him. He thought that it was a box of cheese, cause the sponsor for their radio show was Kraft. Instead, Crosby gave him one of the first Ampex 300 series tape machines.

It didn’t take long for Les’ tinkering skills to come into play. Soon, he thought of modifying the machine with an extra preview head. He called Ampex and said he burned out the recording head and could they send another. After having it installed by a machinist named Mr. Goodspeed, it worked on first try, thus inventing the sound-on-sound process that lets you add multiple parts to a musical piece… using one tape machine, with a huge increase in quality. A new way of producing music was in the wind.

The first recording that fully exploited sound-on-sound was “How High The Moon”. It quickly worked its way to #1 on the charts and stayed there for 9 weeks in 1951.

► Ampex introduces the first professional-quality video tape recorder

In 1949, as television exploded onto the American entertainment scene, engineers and producers recognized the need for high-quality video recording for delayed broadcast and program editing. At the time, video was captured on poor-quality kinescope recorders, a relatively low-tech, 16mm and 35mm film-based TV recording method. A kine (pronounced “kinnie”) was essentially a film camera with a “3-2 pull-down” shutter aimed at the screen of a 30-frames-per-second video monitor, all in a closed box.

Mullin’s Crosby Video prototypes established engineering principles that became the basis for many professional and consumer audio and data recorders, including the closed-loop capstan that later appeared with great success on 3M’s Mincom line of data and professional audio machines, on Ampex data recorders and in many consumer decks. Mullin’s Crosby Video machine also spurred Ampex, RCA and the BBC to begin their video development work. Ampex won that race in April 1956 with the world’s first practical VTR, the Ampex VR-1000 (the secret was the use of spinning heads past slow-moving 2-inch-wide tape), as well as vestigial-sideband FM recording.

Excerpted from John T. Mullin: The Man Who Put Bing Crosby On Tape
By Peter Hammar
Mix, Oct 1, 1999
Reprinted by permission of Mix Magazine – www.mixonline.com

1951: A new wave in electronics

► An “Ultra-Linear” tube amplifier circuit is proposed by Hafler and Keroes

Devised in 1951 by David Hafler and Herbert Keroes, the ultra-linear mode was created to cure the ills of both triode and pentode amplifiers. Each amplifier type had its adherents. The triode tube amplifier boasted a smooth, low distortion sound and a low output impedance, but yielded only limited watts. The pentode amplifier produced many more watts and a more aggressive, exciting sound, but at the cost of greater distortion and much higher output impedance. A middle ground was sought by Hafler and Keroes. Their solution was to feed a low impedance transformer tap back into the screen grids of the tubes, causing the screens to be driven with part of the output signal. This cicuit reduces the amplifier’s output impedance, increases its output and reduces distortion down to acceptable levels.

► Pultec introduces the first active program equalizer, the EQP-1

1952: Acoustic Suspension

 first Acoustic Suspension Speaker-The AR-1

While a student at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Henry Kloss worked with several friends to designed the first acoustic-suspension speaker. Up to that time, all speaker enclosures were based upon the open- and tuned-port design, which were often large and heavy. Using a sealed-enclosure design, Kloss was able to greatly increase a speaker’s bass efficiency, thereby allowing it to be much smaller in size. The result was an audio breakthrough that popularized high fidelity sound and (over time) ushered in the concept of near-field monitoring.

Following this success, Kloss soon dropped out of school to start his own manufacturing company, Acoustic Research and began making the first Acoustic Suspension Speaker-The AR-1. In 1957, working with partners, he later formed a second business, KLH… makers of the Model 11 the world’s first compact and portable stereo system.

While president of KLH Research and Development in 1968, Kloss urged Ray Dolby to introduce a B-Type consumer noise reduction system for consumer use. To get his “if I could do it, somebody could bootleg something like it” point across, Kloss instructed one of his engineers make his own noise reduction unit. With that, Dolby developed its own consumer version, which was first designed into a KLH reel-to-reel deck, then into a cassette deck that was made by Advent.

1953:

► Ampex engineers a 4-track, 35 mm magnetic film system for 20th-Century Fox’s Christmas release of “The Robe” in CinemaScope with surround sound.

In 1953, the first CinemaScope film “The Robe” was released in “4-track stereo sound”. It was full of directional sound, including footsteps of Roman Legions that marched from right to left, as well as thunder, wind and rain that surrounded the viewer during the crucifixion scene. For the first time, off-screen voices were actually heard off-screen. During this time, only Fox and Todd-AO would record dialogue with directional sound. All the other studios would record music in stereo, but recorded the voices and effects in mono.

Thirty-three films were released in stereo that year, however, it didn’t really catch on. Most of these soundtracks were re-released in mono and didn’t reappear until 1975 with Dolby optical stereo sound.

1954:

► Sony produces the first pocket transistor radios

Well, not really! That honor went to I.D.E.A., an American company in Indianapolis, Indiana… when, on October 18, 1954 they announced the production of the Regency TR-1 – “the world’s first shirt-pocket portable radio-with transistors”. Although the Regency was first, it failed to earn a profit and disappeared after a few years.

► Decca Tree – A classic three-omni mic system

Attributed originally to Decca engineers Roy Wallace and Arthur Haddy, the Decca Tree is a three-omni or cardioid mic arrangement that is still favored by many in orchestral situations as the main pickup pair. Most commonly placed up above and behind the conductor, the “Tree” consists of left and right mics that are placed three feet apart, with the third being placed 1.5 feet out towards the front and panned in the center of the stereo field.<p >The Decca Tree grew out of Decca’s research and development into stereo in 1954 as a compromise between a minimal pair and the use of a multi-miking technique, in order to get the best clarity and depth during opera and orchestral recordings.

The actual “tree” and its original stereo mixer was designed by Roy Wallace. His setup included a triangle of mics that were roughly placed ten to twelve feet above the stage, just behind the conductor. Often, two L/R microphones were placed at the stage’s outer flank (placed at the edge of the orchestra – to a third the way in). According to lore, when Haddy first saw the array, he remarked: “It looks like a bloody Christmas Tree!… The name stuck.

Stereo test sessions were conducted in 1953, using three Neumann M49 cardiod mics on a single frame. The first serious recording was made in May, 1954 when Ernest Ansermet conducted Rimsky-Korsakov’s Symphony No. 2 in the Victoria Hall, Geneva. This hallmark technique of classical recording is still in use today throughout the world.

► RCA sold the first pre-recorded, open reel stereo tapes for $12.95

► Rock-n-Roll recording takes root

On April 12, 1954 at the Pythian Temple studio in NYC. Bill Haley And His Comets recorded the B-side, #1 hit, one-take wonder – “Rock Around The Clock”. After working all day in the studio, and with 10 minutes to spare, Haley suggested that they lay down a quick version of the song in one quick take… At their request for a rougher, dirtier sound from Haley, the session went down at levels that were peaking well into the red… with that Rock-n-Roll’s new sound was born. <p >► Westrex introduces their Model 2B motional feedback lateral-cut disk recording head.

1955:

► Ampex develops “Sel-Sync” (Selective Synchronous Recording), making overdubs practical

In the early 1950s, Les Paul made several hit records with his wife, Colleen Summers (known to the public as Mary Ford). These recordings were known for their extensive use of Sound-on-Sound, which allowed the musicians to record onto one track, then play it back while recording along with it onto another track.

In 1954, Paul continued to build on this idea by conceiving of a recorder that could record and blend eight separate tracks together. After consulting with Ampex, they agreed to build and sell him a prototype machine. This revolutionary recorder incorporated Paul’s invention (which would later be called “Sel-Sync”), that allowed any track to be played back from the unit’s record head, while simultaneously allowing another track combination (using the same multitrack head) to be in the record mode.

The Ampex Model 300 8-track recorder was delivered in 1955, allowing the dynamic duo to go on to making a string of songs that often made it to the top 10 of the charts. Unfortunately, others in the industry were largely unaware of this machine and multitrack would be used by only a few for another decade… until the flood gates opened with Sergeant Pepper.

Dave Sarser, a violinist in Arturo Tuscannini’s NBC Symphony Orchestra in the ‘50′s, is also an audio engineer and electronics designer. Around that time there was a studio called Audio/Video on 57th Street and 5th Avenue in New York, owned and run by Dave Sarser’s friends, Ollie Summerland and Gene Shank. They were the East Coast distributors of Ampex, the major U.S. manufacturer of broadcast quality reel to reel tape transports and electronics. They also happened to be the designers of the internationally used Pultec Equalizer series, now a coveted “vintage” audio electronics treasure. Dave Sarser was the original east coast Ampex rep. He sold the first 3 track Ampex to RCA for Yasha Heifitz for his work at Republic Studios.

Dave Sarser’s close relationship with Les Paul made him a great part of the legend of recording. Les Paul, known in part for his involvement in the development of the solid body electric guitar, was an extraordinary guitarist and electronics gadget innovator. Les’s home studio was in Teaneck, N J. Dave helped Les Paul with the design and acquisition of the first 8 track recording deck in history. It was an Ampex deck, custom made for Les, about ten years before anyone even thought of stereo, let alone multi-track recording.

► The first electronic music synthesizer

In 1955, Harry Olson and Herbert Belar, both working for RCA, unveiled the first electronic music synthesizer. Named the Electronic Music Synthesizer Mark I (also known as the Olson-Belar Sound Synthesizer), used preprogrammed punched tape to generate sawtooth waves using 12, equal temperment tuning-fork-based oscillators that were filtered for other types of timbres.

Rumored to have been built for the artificial creation of human speech, the RCA synthesizer took up seven, tall 19″ racks and reportedly incorporated digitally controlled filters, control over attack and decay envelopes, digitally controlled pitch and waveshapes, random noise generators and amplitude/frequency modulation.<p >1955 – Sam Phillips on Nov. 10 sold his recording contract with Elvis to RCA and Colonel Tom Parker for $35,000.

The Multitrack Era – The Early Years

1956:

► Les Paul makes the first 8-track recordings using the “Sel-Sync” method

► IBM develops first commercial magnetic drum memory

► The Capitol Tower Recording Studios opens

In February of 1956, Capitol Records finally realized a long planned goal when it’s West Coast operations were consolidated into a newly constructed Hollywood office building and recording complex. LA’s Capitol Recording Studios was, and still is, unique in a number of ways. At the time of it’s completion, it had already become a California landmark, as it was the only office building to be constructed in the form of a round tower that looks like a stack of records… an audacious monument to a budding industry.

Widely known as the “Capitol Tower”, the building was designed by noted architect Welton Becket as a modern, earthquake-resistant, concrete structure. It was built thirteen stories high and 150 feet tall and had the maximum building height that was permitted in LA at the time, with an interior decor that was designed in keeping with the building’s outward appearance The ground floor (the only rectangular part of the building) is actually a separate structure which surrounds the tower and was joined to it after it’s completion. The ground floor originally housed the recording department offices, disc cutting facilities and the three recording studios which were designed to be as modern and striking as the building itself.

The physical plant consisted of three studios, two large (A & B) and one small (C). The original control “booths” were placed in the corner of each studio, allowing for maximum visibility, while taking up a minimum of floor space. Wood paneling (a material that wasn’t often used at the time) was used extensively because of its visual appeal, as well as for its lack of pronounced resonant frequencies. Fluorescent lighting in flush-mounted fixtures were used for high level, uniform lighting. Ballast hum (a potential noise problem that’s often associated with this type of lighting) was solved by mounting the ballasts remotely in an area outside the studios. The Hollywood and Vine location also required that extensive measures be taken to isolate the studios from air- and ground-borne noises. In order to achieve this, the outer studio walls were constructed of 10″ thick concrete, into which another isolated room was built, with a 1″ air gap that separated the outer and inner studio walls (making these one of the first floating designs).

The tower represented a milestone in the transition from the monophonic to the multitrack studio era in the US. An important part of this process was the design of several “acoustic” echo chambers. Built under the existing parking lot surface, these chambers (one of the first ever built) were constructed using four identical, trapezoid enclosures (each with sloping ceilings), without the existence of any parallel surfaces. Constructed of reinforced concrete, the chamber’s inner walls were finished off using two, 3/4″ thick layers of metal lathe and plaster, giving them highly reflective surfaces.

Late in 1959, Studio A was modified for the production of stereophonic recording. The mixing console accommodated up to fourteen microphone inputs and made it possible for mono, stereo and three-track formats to be simultaneously recorded. In the transition to stereo, the chambers were also converted to produce stereophonic reverb. This was done by installing a dividing wall inside each chamber, which allowed separate channels to be fed to loudspeakers that were located on each side (with the reverb being picked up by a pair of microphones, originally RCA 77′s). The best results were obtained by dividing each chamber with a barrier that allowed natural leakage to travel between two sides through a 12”gap.

Today, these chambers are still considered to be some of the finest natural chambers ever built and are not only in demand by Capitol Studios, but are rented out to other studios via equalized telephone lines.

Excerpted from the Capitol Tower Recording StudiosBy David Miles HuberReprinted by permission of Mix Magazine – www.mixonline.com

► The first all-electronically scored film (Forbidden Planet) is released

In 1956, MGM released a monumental project that was destined to set a new standard for science fiction and fantasy films. The script to Forbidden Planet (it was originally named Fatal Planet) was loosely inspired by Shakespeare’s – The Tempest. It combined the goofy-gaudy look and feel of a 1950s pulp magazine with a surprisingly intelligent, even cerebral story that’s an absolute must for any sci-fi enthusiast. Lavishly expending a great deal of time, money and effort, the filmmakers boldly set out to create a super-production using beautiful sets, intricate miniatures, startling effects and a stellar cast.

The music in Forbidden Planet was equally as innovative, being the first all-electronic score ever created for a motion picture. In fact, the score wasn’t credited as being music at all, but as “electronic tonalities”. The larger-than-life music of Louis and BeBe Barron (for which they received credit for “sonic artistry”) is definitely out of the ordinary. Originally, the soundtrack was supposed to be accompanied by a more traditional orchestral score, however the harmonically modulated sine-wave clusters fit so well with the film that it was extended into the whole picture. The Barrons conceived, designed and built a series of cybernetic circuits for this project that concocted a series of ethereal electronic beeps and whistles that have an almost living quality that most either love or hate.

Finally, the critics and public recognized its true musical qualities, when it was honored with an Academy Award nomination. Today, Forbidden Planet remains as surprisingly fresh and inventive as when it first burst upon the screen, still carrying us through the wonder, charm and otherworldly terrors of Altair 4.

1957:

► Westrex demonstrates the first commercial “45/45″ stereo cutter head

Westrex privately demonstrated their new 45-45 disc recording system for cutting stereo records in September , 1957 and gave a public showing at the Audio Engineering Society in New York later that year. The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) adopted this system and the “full stereo record” (which wasn’t compatible with the lateral, mono home record pickup of previous years) became the industry standard.

► RCA’s Studio B constructed in Nashville

RCA’s Studio B in Nashville where Bill Porter recorded Elvis Presley in the 1950′s, today has the unique distinction of being one of the only studios anywhere operating as a full-time museum. When the historic facility closed its doors in 1977, it was acquired by the Country Music Foundation Hall of Fame and Museum, which now conducts guided tours of the studio for aficionados of country music. In 1981, more than 80,000 visitors toured Studio B, which can justly claim to be one of the birthplaces of the modern country sound.

► FM stereo broadcasting begins<p >Probably, the biggest spark that made FM come alive was stereo. In 1959, the National Stereophonic Radio Committee was established to test the feasibility of transmitting FM stereo and to submit a final recommendation to the FCC. Systems that were proposed by General Electric and Zenith were finally adopted and FM stereo broadcasting was authorized to begin on June 1, 1961 over WEFM Chicago (owned by Zenith) and WGFM Schenectady, NY (owned by General Electric).

► 8-track cartridge tapes come on the scene

William Powell Lear, the man behind LearJet, also invented a device that revolutionized the concept of personalized music in the comfort of your own car – the 8-track tape cartridge system. This system used a continuous-loop cartridge that contained 8 pre-recorded tracks (4 stereo programs) over its length. Although Lear’s system wasn’t the first of its type, (the earlier 4-track tape player was able to play back 2 stereo programs) it soon found it’s way into the coups and convertibles that frequented the streets and drive-ins throughout the ‘60s and early 70’s.<p >Although the 8-track cartridge had a fairly long playing time, it had a distinct problem that most who are familiar with the format will remember. Since the player relied upon a stereo head mechanism to vertically move from one set of tracks to the next to switch between programs, it was almost inevitable that the critical head alignment would be jarred out of adjustment by over zealous kids or jolts from bumpy roads. This resulted in intr-track crosstalk that could border on hilarious jibberish.

Amazingly, 8-tracks were the dominant portable and car audio format for over a decade, even Madonna’s early album’s and Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” were released in the ?” x ?” self-contained boxes. With the introduction of the Compact Cassette Tape in ’63, the 8-track slowly faded into obscurity as a symbol of kitsch and the era of Frankie Avalon, sock-hops and hoop skirts.

1962:

► SMPTE sets the standard for the time code format <p >A basic form of SMPTE (sim-tee) time code was originally developed by the U.S. military to synchronize missile test firings in the early 1950s. The frame-based code was transmitted in the form of a modulated tone (which sounded like a modern-day modem) to devices that could interpret the incoming data and trigger simultaneous launches.

In 1962, SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers) adopted a system for encoding a frame-based time code in the form of a digital word that contains 80 bits of data for storing and recalling information such as media location (using an hours, minutes, seconds, frames HH:MM:SS:FF format), reel number, and session dates.

Previous to this time code standard, synchronization within the visual media relied upon sprockets (a row of evenly-spaced holes) in the film and on special sprocketed recording “mag” film to interlock the timing elements between transports. With the advent of video tape, the lack of sprockets became a big problem and an electronic equivalent was needed to take the place of mechanical sync. With the adoption of SMPTE time code (in all its frame-rate incarnations), a wide range of media related devices can be used to synchronize various film, television, and audio elements within a production system.

1963:

► Philips introduces the Compact Cassette tape format, and offers licenses worldwide

 In 1963, Philips demonstrated its first compact audio cassette using a high-quality BASF polyester 1/8” (3.175 mm) tape that ran at a speed of 1 7/8 ips (47.625 mm/s). Their cassette was a quarter the size of the Fidelipac broadcast or Lear 8-track cartridge, making it possible for small, battery-powered players to be built that could be carried anywhere (Walkman anyone?).

The following year, Norelco unveiled the Carry-Corder 150. This “revolutionary tape recorder features reusable snap-in cartridges, one button control to start, stop, wind/rewind tape. Separate volume controls for record and playback. It weighs only 3 lbs with 5 flashlight batteries. 1-7/8 ips constant speed capstan drive and has dynamic microphone with detachable remote switch. The superior sound quality offers a frequency response of 100 to 7000 cps.”

Offered as a dictation machine, Philips had no idea that there would be a huge demand for blank tape for recording music. However, it wasn’t until Wisse Dekker, manager of the Philips Electronics Far East Division and L.F. Ottens, a technical expert met with Norio Ohga, section manager of Sony’s Tape Recorder Division – that the cassette began to pick up steam.

After contract agreements where Philips suggested that it receive 25 yen for each unit sold, Sony offered to go with another competitor unless they waived the royalties altogether. Finally, Philips agreed to waive royalties, but didn’t give Sony exclusive rights to the technology. In 1965, based on a patent that guaranteed compatibility, Philips made the technology available free of charge to manufacturers all over the world.

Thereafter, the newly standardized compact cassette format became hugely popular. Before long, pre-recorded albums were being offered, with Mercury being one of the first record companies to offer a selection of 26 albums on cassette at a price of $5.95 each.

The “Compact Cassette’s” tape length was usually measured by its total playing time, with the C60 (30 minutes per side) and C90 being the most popular. C120s were also common, but the thinner tape often led to tape jams and unhappy incidents… especially in cars).

Blank cassette sales far outstripped the pre-recorded market, for obvious reasons. The practice of copying music to cassette heralded the music industry’s first cries of “home taping is killing music”. Many defended at least their right to copy their own records onto tape and took the age-old stance that home taping was ideal for spreading new music and most likely increased sales.

► Studer tape machines make their mark

In 1963, the first fully-transistorized professional tape recorder, the Studer A62 was introduced and in 1964 the prototype version of the 4-channel studio tape recorder J37 based on the C37 transport was presented (two Studer J37s were used to “Sgt. Pepper”). This tube-equipped machine was the most complex machine ever and paved the way for the acceptance of Studer products by recording studios all over the world.

► AG-350, Ampex’s first all-transistorized audio recorder is developed

► Robert Moog begins to develop his early music “synthesizers”

Quick! Think of a name that’s inseparably linked to the world of synthesizers… Chances are the name you came up with is Bob Moog.

Robert A. Moog (by the way “Moog” is pronounced with a long “o” sound like phone or Vogue, not like the Moo a cow makes) began his career in music by making Theremins to make ends meet while earning his doctorate in physics at Cornell University.

Multitrack Grows up

1967:

► The Beatles begin recording work on “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”

Although it was definitely more than 20 year ago today… over the years, Sergeant Pepper has proven itself to be a landmark project in the history of recorded sound.

By the time 1960 rolled around, vinyl had finally reached its golden age. The format wars were over… affordable turntables, amps, speakers and even stereo was working its way into the marketplace and a budding youth market who tapped their feet to Elvis and Buddy Holly were becoming bored with the likes of Pat Boone and Ricky Nelson. The time was ripe for a “revolution”.

► Revox A77 audio recorders are manufactured article

► First operational amplifiers are used in pro audio equipment<p >Although the basic design for the operational amplifier (op amp) most likely came from a young Columbia University engineer named Loebe Julie, the first commercial operational amplifier was introduced to the market by George A. Philbrick Researches in 1952. This integrated, tube amp had a gain of about 20,000, a bandwidth of about 1 MHz, dissipated about 4.5 Watts and cost $24. Throughout its early history, applications included a compact device for locating machine-gun and mortar targets, as well as a mechanical and optical system for simulating target accuracy during bomb raids.

Note: The first operational amplifiers are used in professional audio equipment, notably as summing devices for multichannel consoles.

1968:

► CBS releases “Switched-On Bach,” Wendy Carlos’s polyphonic Moog masterpiece

In 1968, Wendy Carlos’ Grammy-winning Switched-On Bach (CBS Records) introduced a whole new generation to the pleasures of the classics using the relatively new medium of electronic music. This album (which was the first classical album ever to go Platinum) single-handedly propelled the Moog synthesizer into the public consciousness.

Bob Moog gives his personal accounts of SOB’s release:

I found myself giving a paper at the 1968 AES convention in NYC, on different ways of organizing electronic music studios. By that time we knew about sequencers, we knew about computer control, multi-track tape recording, etc. At the end of the talk I said to this fairly big audience, “As an example of multi-track electronic music studio composition technique, I would like to play an excerpt of a record that’s about to be released of some mu- sic by Bach.” It was the last movement of Wendy’s Brandenburg No. 3. I walked off the stage and went to the back of the auditorium while people were listening, and I could feel it in the air. They were jumping out of their skins. These technical people were involved in so much flim-flam, so much shoddy, opportunistic stuff, and here was something that was just impeccably done and had obvious musical content and was totally innovative. The tape got a standing ovation.

“CBS had no idea what they had in Switched-On Bach. When it came out, they lumped it in at a studio press party for Terry Riley’s In C and an abysmal record called Rock and Other Four Letter Words. Carlos was so pissed off, she refused to come. So CBS, frantic to have some representa- tion, asked me to demonstrate the synthesizer. I remember there was a nice big bowl of joints on top of the mixing console, and Terry Riley was there in his white Jesus suit, up on a pedestal, playing live on a Farfisa organ against a backup of tape delays. Rock and Other Four Letter Words went on to sell a few thousand records. In C sold a few tens of thousands. Switched-On Bach sold over a million, and just keeps going on and on.

Written by Bob Moog with Connor Freff Cochran
Excerpted from Mark Vail’s book – Vintage Synthesizers
Reprinted by permission of Backbeat Books. – www.backbeatbooks.com

► Record Plant opens its doors

In 1968, Chris Stone was national sales manager for Revlon. Armed with his trusty MBA from UCLA, he had become quite a marketing sharpshooter for folks like Mattel and General Electric. When his wife, Gloria, was pregnant with their first child, Stone was introduced to another expectant father, Gary Kellgren, a recording engineer who had become a favorite of musicians such as Hendrix and Zappa. The idea was that the nervous parents to be could chat about the challenge of having babies.

In the course of their prenatal meetings, Chris and Gary became friends and talked shop. Kellgren wasn’t too interested in cosmetics, but Stone became fascinated with the music biz. He visited Gary at New York’s Mayfair Studios and entered a new world peopled with strange characters who were making music and millions of dollars. Poor Gary: the engineering artist at the console and under the console soldering inventive connections that we make with the flick of a switch today was pulling down $200 dollars a week.

Chris thought that this was a little odd. He asked Gary if he could take a look at the books. The studio was billing five grand a week. Chris suggested a little meeting with the boss, and the next thing you know Gary is making a grand a week. They became better friends.

Stone, getting bored with life at Revlon, though that there was a good future in recording. Kellgren, displeased with the austere, industrial atmosphere common to recording studios of the day, had a dream a studio that felt like a home. They became partners and borrowed $100,000 dollars to launch the New York Record Plant in March 1968.

The only studio in New York with 12-track recording, the Plant set the pace for the competition and was immediately booked for three months in advance. The first session was with Jimi Hendrix for his historic Electric Ladyland LP. The first big mix session was Woodstock, and their fist remote job was The Concert for Bangladesh.

Business was booming with clients like Buddy Miles, Velvet Underground, Traffic and Vanilla Fudge. The partners decided it was time to open another studio on the West Coast. To raise the necessary capital, they merged with a new cable company, Television Communications Corporation.

Invitations, in the form of personalized bricks that created a few headaches for the post office, were sent out to announce the opening of the new facility. Stone discovered an enterprising young designer, Tom Hidley, who was invited to handle the acoustics in the new facility. Hidley would go on to design more than 400 studios worldwide, but would always supervise new Record Plant rooms and facilities. On December 4, 1969, the new LA studio on Third Street opened its doors, and a bricklayer built an autographed lobby wall that would stand for 15 years. The tracks increased from 12 to 16, and next, the studio boasted the first 24-track in the world.

During the Record business’ heyday in the ‘70s, Record Plant fueled its expansions with revenues supplied by such artists as the Bee Gees, Harry Nilsson, Jimmy Webb, Sly Stone, Quincy Jones, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Diana Ross, the Blues Brothers and the solo Beatles… Stevie Wonder booked Studio B for a few years and cut Talking Book, Innervisions, Songs in the Key of Life and Fulfillingness’ First Finale… just about every major star made a point of spending time at the Record Plant.

In short, the Record Plant became legendary for its non-stop hit recording and wild home life, as well as for technical leaps including the first digital 32-track, the late 3M M81 Digital Mastering System.

Excerpted from The Record Plant at 20
by David Goggin
Reprinted by permission of Mix Magazine – www.mixonline.com

1969:

► Dr. Thomas Stockham begins to experiment with digital tape recording

It’s a basic fact that the recording and music industries would have been very different without Thomas Greenway Stockham, Jr. It’s also a fact that if you’re not an audio history buff or classical record collector… you’re probably unaware that he was almost assuredly the man who introduced digital recording and tapeless editing to the world

Stockham developed the first homomorphic compander to digitally filter noise from recorded sound, in a manner that’s analogous to the noise reduction devices of DBX and Dolby. Upon leaving Soundstream after its merger with the Digital Recording Corporation, Stockham was named chairman of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Utah. He was named a Fellow of the IEEE and received various awards, including the SMPTE Poniatoff Gold Medal, a Gold Medal from the AES… as well as an Emmy and Grammy for his “visionary role in pioneering and advancing the era of digital recording” Although the title is sometimes overused, Thomas Stockham is widely accepted as being the father of digital audio recording.

1970:

► Hendrix’ Electric Lady opens its doors

In 1968 at the peak of his career, Jimi Hendrix was in the market for property. His eye was caught by the Generation Club on West 8th Street in the heart of Greenwich Village. Originally the site of the Village Barn, a big band dance venue that had once been owned by Rudy Valee. After shelling out the $50,000 asking price, Hendrix fully intended to turn it into another nightclub. However, when Jimi learned that his habit of block-booking recording studios for impromptu jam sessions was costing him upwards of $300,000 a year, an abrupt change of plan was made, and work began to transform it into a recording facility.

Construction started in early 1970, beginning with studios A and B. The second floor was offices and the third floor was an apartment that Jimi used regularly, even though he had his own place around the corner. Jimi spent a considerable amount of time in the studio before it officially opened, recording countless hours of material that has never been commercially released.

Electric Lady today

Upon the completion of Electric Lady Studios, Hendrix became the first major artist to own and operate his own recording studio. Its opening on August 27, 1970 was a pivotal event during an era of record-company owned studios, which were often incapable of meeting rock musicians’ demands, and the independents, with their inadequate equipment and lack of facilities. Electric Lady placed an emphasis on comfort, fostering a creative environment for a new generation of musicians. Sadly, Jimi died within a month after the studio opened.

In June ’97, the original curved-brick entrance to Electric Lady Studios was demolished. The New York Landmark Society unsuccessfully attempted to halt the renovation of the building, which would have been eligible for landmark status in just three years. Despite the protests of Hendrix fans and studio management, the building’s landlord opted for a more modern, glass front.

Excerpted from A rich rock ‘n roll heritage
Reprinted by permission of Electric Lady Studios – www.electricladystudios.com

► Quadraphonic sound hits the market

Quadraphonic sound or “Quad” was the first wave for bringing surround sound to the consumer. Since there was no center channel, this 4-channel system (L, R, LS, RS) required that the listener sit in the center of the surround field or “sweet spot.” Although it failed due to a complete lack of standardization amongst competing encode/decode systems its technology had a lasting effect, in that it paved the way for surround nearly 2 decades later and extended the bandwidth of vinyl to 50 kHz (thereby improving disc cutting and pressing technology, as well as allowing for better pickups with wider bandwidth and reduced tracking distortion.

► The first mass-produced synthesizers begin to appear on the market

With the dawning of a new decade, came innovations in LSI (Large Scale Integrated Circuit) design that allowed for complicated electronic circuitry to be miniaturized and mass-produced at an affordable price. If there ever was a dawning of the electronic and digital revolution… this was it. From this new technology came music instruments and recording devices that were not only more powerful and flexable… even more importantly, they were affordable!

One result of this revolution on music technology was the introduction of such commercially-affordable synthesizers for personal and studio use as: Moog, Sequential Circuits and E-mu.

► The Birth of E-mu Systems

► Console Automation – The Early Years

During the period of the early 70′s, in a transition from a standard format of eight to sixteen or more tracks, consoles began to expand in size and flexibility to accomodate the newfound technology of multi-track sound.

With each tape track having it’s own volume, panning, equalization, echo/effects sends, and returns, it became obvious to the console designers of the time that the potential existed for the mixdown process to be more than one engineer could efficiently handle. This is especially true when these functions are multiplied by sixteen, twenty-four, or more tracks. As a result, complicated mixes needed to be rehearsed repeatedly, so that the engineer could learn which controls must be operated, how much they should be varied, and at what point any of these changes should come. Under these conditions, it is not uncommon for a complicated mixing session to last six or more hours before an acceptable mix can be obtained.

The solution to this delema was to devise a system that would remember and recreate any console setting changes made by the engineer, while allowing him later to improve upon these settings one by one, until the desired final mix has been achieved.

Thus, consoles which were equipped for “automation” hit the marketplace.

This system works by sampling a dc voltage, which is provided at the output of each volume fader and is a function of it’s attenuation level. This “control voltage” determines the gain of each track through the use of voltage controlled amplifiers or VCA’s. A central processor is employed to sample each dc fader setting, in rapid succession, and to encode these settings into a digitally or semi-digitally encoded form. These automation tracks may then be recorded onto the master tape along with the musical program or onto another synch­ronized storage medium. The “memory mix” is then restored when the processor reads the automated signal and recreated the original stored dc levels back to the associated track VCA.

Simple automation diagram<p >One such early system of automation was the Compumix from Quad/Eight Electronics. The Compumix was designed for use with existing non-automated consoles of the day, and consisted of a separate controller and processor unit (fig 2). The controller, whose function COMPUMIX automated only volume levels and specific events, varied the dc voltages supplied to the VCA’s, and very much resembled a “mini-board” in itself, often being placed on top of the existing console. The heart of the system, the processor, was connected into the audio chain between the audio line line outputs of the multi-track tape machine and the line inputs of the existing console. The faders on the main console had to have their faders set for unity gain, in order for the compumix to provide accurate mixing levels. This was to be a short lived system, due to it’s duplication of controls and cumbersome layout; clearly it was an interrum solution.

Soon console manufacturers began to develope their own methods of automation and to produce consoles which were “automation ready”. This allowed studios to purchase consoles which were either equipped with automation or were pre-wired for the future installation of this feature. One such early system, created in a joint effort by Allison Research and automated Processes, was the Model 256 Programmer. This system was designed for use in Automated Processes (API) consoles but could easily be fitted into many of the existing production consoles of the day.

1971:

► The first digital delay line, the Lexicon Delta-T 101, is introduced

In the late ‘60s, MIT Professor Dr Francis and engineer Chuck Bagnashi founded American Data Sciences which developed and manufactured a digital delay device for monitoring patients with heart problems. When it looked like digital audio would have a future in the language instruction field, the small company (which had offices over the Lexington Savings Bank in Lexington, MA) changed its name to Lexicon in 1971.<p >When it was suggested that audio might be passed through the delay device, they were presented with the first digital delay line that could introduce delays up to 100 milliseconds. With that, the first digital effects device was born.

The device caught the attention of Steven Temmer at Gotham Audio in New York, who commissioned 50 units as pre-daeyals for EMT plates and other reverb units, as well as for overcoming propagation delays in live sound installations. Having a bandwidth of 10 kHz and an S/N ratio of 60 dB, the Lexicon Delta T-101 went on the market in ’71 with the Gotham Audio nameplate on the front and Lexicon’s on the back.

In 1972, the company pushed the noise down to –90 dB when they released the Delta T-102 under their own name. That same year, they realized their initial goal by introducing the “Varispeech” – the first digital time-compression system, however market research showed that the company needed to keep their foot in the pro audio door to survive.

Over the next few years the company refined and developed both their product and marketing strategies, which culminated in the release of the Lexicon 224 – one of the first commercially viable digital reverb systems. Due to its extreme popularity, Lexicon’s prestige grew by leaps and bounds that continues into the 21st century as a maker of quality, high-end digital signal processors for sound and recording studio installations.

► IBM introduces the “memory disk”

► The “Sound Sucker” era!

Now that instruments could be isolated on its own track, the actual acoustics of the studio became a problem. Since rock instruments were louder, a dilemma was always on the engineer’s and producer’s minds: what could be done about the acoustic “bleed” between microphones? All of the sudden, the natural acoustic space between the instruments was now considered detrimental to this new recording procedure. Simply stated, the studio’s acoustic properties began to change in favor of an acoustically absorptive or “dead” environment that would suck up the sound. This greatly reduce reflections… which in turn, reduced leakage.

1973:

On April 3, 1973 — Motorola employee Marty Cooper made the first mobile phone call.

Marty used a Motorola DynaTAC to call Bell Labs (then a division of AT&T), reportedly saying “I’m ringing you just to see if my call sounds good at your end.”

1975:

► EMT produces the first digital reverberation unit as its Model 250

If the EMT 250 looks to be a little on the large side, keep in mind that it was the most micro of processing methods for reverberation upon its introduction in 1976. Before that, dropping artificial reverb onto a recording was a decidedly awkward science that called for everything from locating large chambers to hauling around huge steel plates. <p >In 1975, the US engineering contract firm Dynatron completed the R&D for the 250, an entirely electronic unit that re-revolutionized reverberation. Karl O. Baeder and Dr. Barry Blesser determined the algorithms, and Ralph Zaorski (most recently a co-developer of the Dynatron 255) created the hardware for the EMT 250, which continues to set the standard for that effect with its classic sound 25 years after its introduction. A mere 250 of the 250’s were produced, and the surviving systems have the distinction of being one of the most sought-after “vintage” digital effects units.

Reprinted by permission of G Prime & the Dynatron Corporation- www.gprime.com

1976:

► Dr. Stockham of Soundstream makes the first 16-bit digital recordings

Thomas Stockham and Malcolm Low (the L in KLH) developed a few 16 bit A/D-D/A systems and put together a machine that could record and playback audio. It was based on an instrumentation tape recorder with a large box of electronics that was used for technical experiments.

Although Denon had been experimenting with digital recording since 1971, Soundstream actually made the first digital recording that was ever commercially released (a 1978 Telarc recording of Frederick Fennell and the Cleveland Symphonic Winds). By 1980, Soundstream sold about 16 of its fully-computerized recording/editing systems at a going price of $160,000 apiece. They were based on a Honeywell transport that encoded data over 16 tracks (plus two side channels for SMPTE) at a sample rate of 50kHz.

With at least 500 digital masters in their master vaults, special digital restoration of Enrico Caruso recordings and a special commission to to recover the 18-minute tape gap made by Rosemary Woods on President Richard Nixon’s White House tape… people started to take notice in the possibilities that digital audio had to offer. In short, Telarc and Soundstream brought digital audio to the world.

► Steve Wozniak demonstrates the Apple I personal computer

Few took it seriously when Steve Wozniak demonstrated his first contribution to the personal computer field (the Apple I) at the Hombrew Computer Club in Palo Alto, California. Designed over a period of years, the prototype was only built in printed circuit-board form, but it was enough to convince Steve Jobs that the personal computer could be sold. Based on the MOStek 6502 chip (most other “kit” computers of the time used the Intel 8080), required that you build your own case and buy a separate tape memory interface, At an initial cost of $666.66, only a few were sold.

1979:

► Tascam kicks off the home/project studio revolution by unveiling the PortaStudio

The Tascam Creative Series unveiled the TEAC 144 PortaStudio, the world’s first 4 track, cassette tape recorder. The 144 brought unprecedented quality, economy and portability within the reach of every serious musician at a price of $1,100 suggested retail. The 144 PortaStudio was a revolutionary creative tool. It allowed musicians the ability to record any number of instrumental and vocal parts on different tracks of the built-in 4 track recorder and later blend all the parts together while transferring them to another standard 2-channel stereo tape deck (remix and mixdown) to form a stereo recording. TEAC-UK product planner Andy Brezza and Dr. Abe had a unique understanding for the way musicians thought, performed and orchestrated their music. Members of Dr. Abe’s core engineering team in Japan were often referred to as “The Black Gang”. It was often said that Dr. Abe had a unique knack for motivating not only his core team, but also all those who worked with him in Japan and America. Another individual who made a valuable contribution to the development of the PortaStudio was an outside consultant by the name of Dick Rossmini.

Digital Gets its Wings

1980:

► 3M, Mitsubishi, Sony and Studer each introduce a multitrack digital recorder

First shown in 1978, 3M’s $115,000 32-track digital multitrack recorded 16-bit, 50kHz audio on 45 ips 1-inch tape and was used on releases such as “The BBs” and Donald Fagen’s “The Nightfly”. At AES 1980, Mitsubishi previewed its X-800, which stored 32 tracks of digital audio on 30 ips 1-inch tape. The format eventually became the PD (ProDigi) standard also used by Otari. In 1981, Sony countered with its $150,000 PCM-3324 digital 24-track, and a year later, Sony, Matsushita, MCI and Studer announced the DASH (Digital Audio Stationary Head) standard, which called for 2/4/8/16/24/48-track formats. By 1988, Sony made good on its promise to deliver a 48-track machine with the 1989 PCM-3348. It was $240,000, but sales took off like a rocket.

Excerpted from Technology Innovations: Products that Forged an Industry
By George Peterson
Reprinted by permission of Mix Magazine – www.mixonline.com

► EMT introduces its Model 450 hard-disk digital recorder

► The birth of Microsoft

► Sony introduces a palm-sized stereo cassette tape player called a “Walkman”

The first model, ‘TPS-L2′, was introduced on July 1st, 1979. For the past 20 years, the Walkman has created a new global culture of “enjoying music any where and any time”. According to Sony’s latest figures, cumulative worldwide shipments of the cassette tape Walkman are 186 million units, 46 million units for the CD Walkman, and 4.6 million units for the MD Walkman (as of the end of the fiscal year 1998).

Headphones are essential to the Walkman concept. While the development of a Walkman personal stereo was proceeding, another research team was coincidentally developing lightweight headphones. Compared to conventional headphones that weighed 300 to 400g, the new headphones weighed less than 50g. As a result, the first Walkman model ‘TPS-L2′ was launched with the headphones model ‘MDR-3L2′, weighing only 45g. Since then, the development of headphones have continued to evolve, including an inner-ear type model known as “N*U*D*E” in 1982, egg-shaped headphones “eggo” in 1992, a behind-the-neck Street Style headphones in 1997. To date, 472 million units of headphones have been shipped (as of the end of the fiscal year 1998, including those bundled with the Walkman personal stereos).

The Walkman was originally introduced as a compact cassette tape player, but with the emergence of new music media, the Walkman has expanded its product lineup. It includes the Sony Discman* portable CD player ‘D-50′ in 1984, DAT Walkman ‘TCD-D3′ in 1990, and MiniDisc Walkman” ‘MZ-1′, ‘MZ-2P’ in 1992. Currently the development of “Memory Stick” Walkman compatible with the new chewing gum-sized IC recording media is in process (now part of the flash memory player explosion – ed).

Excerpted from Sony Celebrates Walkman® 20th Anniversary Press Release, July 1, 1999
www.sony.com

► Sony introduced the 3.5-inch floppy disk, called a “diskette” because its rigid plastic case was no longer flexible.

1981:

► Philips develops the Compact Disc (CD)

The development of the Compact Disc (CD) began in 1969 when Dutch physicists Klaas Compaan and Piet Kramer began searching for a way to optically record video images onto a disc. The initial prototype used a laser to encode pits into a polycarbon medium using a coded FM video signal, however this was soon substituted for a digital PCM code.

► The first compact-disc players hit Japanese retail store shelves in the early ‘80s, but the scientific work leading up to its introduction occurred decades before.

• 1937: Pulse code modulation (PCM) invented, a technology later used in CDs.

• 1950: Information about error detection/correction codes published; it would be impossible for CDs to work without it.

• 1958: Laser invented.

• 1967: NHK demonstrates a 12-bit PCM digital audio recorder with a 30 kHz sampling rate.

• 1969: Dutch physicist Klass Compaan comes up with the idea for the CD.

• 1970: At Philips, Compaan and Pete Kramer complete a glass master prototype and determine that a laser would be needed to read the information.

• 1977; Mitsubishi, Hitachi and Sony show digital audio disc prototypes at the Tokyo Audio Fair.

• 1978: Digital Audio Disc Convention held in Tokyo with 35 manufacturers. Philips propose worldwide standard to be set. In May, Philips announces a 110mm disc with a one-hour play time. PolyGram (a division of Philips) determines polycarbonate would be the best material for the CD. Decision made for data to

• start on the inside of the disc and spiral towards the outer edge.

• 1979: Prototype CD system demonstrated in Europe and Japan. Sony agrees to collaborate. Philips and Sony settle on standard sampling rate of 44.1 kHz and 16-bit audio. Disc diameter decided at 120mm to allow for 74 minutes of music.

• 1980: Philips/Sony propose CD standard.

• 1981; Philips/Sony announce CD prototype. In January PolyGram CD replication plant in Hannover, Germany begins production. Digital Audio Disc Committee accepts CD standard.

• 1982: In June, first broadcast of CD music on WFMT-FM in Chicago. On Oct. 1, Sony launches first CD player commercially in Japan. First title released—Billy Joel’s 52nd Street (CBS). In November, EMI provides its first CDs—Paul McCartney’s Tug of War and a Sibelius symphony.

► Music Videos come of age – “Thiller, Billie Jean and the MTV Years”

THE REAL STORY ON BILLIE JEAN!

Recording and Mixing “Billie Jean”….

The year is 1982. The song is “Billie Jean”. The sonic image of Michael Jacksons’ “Billie Jean” is a perfect example of what happened, when I sat around dreaming awhile, about combining different recording techniques to produce a unique musical canvas with a tremendous ‘sonic personality’.

Of course I was comfortably ensconced in Westlake Audio’s beautiful new Studio ‘A’ on Beverly Boulevard, with my good friends Quincy Jones, Micheal Jackson and Rod Temperton. We were doing our favorite thing… We were making music!!! We had just started recording Michael Jackson’s album “Thriller”…

We were recording Michael’s song “Billie Jean”…..

I recorded the drums,(played by the fantastic drummer, N’Dugu) with as tight, and powerful a drum sound as I could come up with. Of course I put N’Dugus’ drum set on my plywood drum platform. Also at this time, I had a special kick drum cover made that covers the whole front of the kick drum. There’s a slot with a zipper in it that the mike fits through. When the kick drum mike is in place, in the slot in my drum cover, I zip the opening tightly shut around the mike.

I brought in my old pal George Massenburgs’ spectacular sounding, portable, 12 channel recording console and used it to record the rhythm section. With it I recorded the bass, drums and guitars on my analogue 16 track, with no noise reduction equipment in the way of that fantastic sound!

In my estimation, the the result of the song “Billie Jean”, is a perfect example of what I call “Sonic Personality”. I don’t think there are many recordings, where all you need to hear is the first few drums beats, and you instantly know what song it is.

Great albums always start with great songs….

“Billie Jean” is just such a superb song! Of course, Michael wrote “Billie Jean”..

Quincy says that the lyric that Michael wrote is highly personal. I’m sure that’s true. Michael told us… it was about a girl, that climbed over the wall at Michael’s house, and was lounging out there, by the swimming pool…. she was laying out there, near the pool , lounging… hangin’ out… with shades on, her bathing suit on. One morning she just showed up! Kind of like a stalker, almost. She had accused Michael of being the father of ONE of her twins… Is that possible? I don’t think so….

When it came time for me to mix “Billie Jean”, it was business as usual… When I am working with Michael, Quincy, Rod, Jennifer, Sergio and so on….. I am allowed total ceative freedom with the sonics of the music… In other words, I am always left to myself when it is time to mix. My mixes can take hours, days or even weeks…. I firmly believe that a mix is not finished, until it is on a Record for sale at Tower….

So I had been mixing “Billie Jean” for a day or two. I’d do a mix. ….. Say I was up to mix number 2…. (At that time I was mixing onto 1/2” analogue.) I thought it was killer!!!

I called MJ, Quincy and Rod into the control room and played mix 2 for them. They loved it!!! They were all dancing and carrying on like crazy!!! Smiles all around! Then Michael slipped out of the control room, turned around and motioned to me to follow him… Then he whispered to me, “Please Bruce, it’s perfect, but turn the Bass up just a tiny bit, and do one more mix, please….” I said to him…”OK Smelly, no problem”…

(When we were recording “Off The Wall”, Quincy gave Michael the nickname of “Smelly” because when Michael liked a groove, he’d call it “Smelly Jelly.” Also Michael doesn’t curse, and when MJ wants to say a bad word he’ll simply call it “Smelly”… The name has stuck…)

Then I went back into the control room to add Michael’s tiny bit of bass to my mix… Quincy pulled me over into the corner and said “Please Svensk… “(Svensk is Quincy’s nickname for me. It means “Swedish Man” in Swedish… When you have a genuine Quincy Jones nickname like ‘Svensk” – You are truly honored….) Q said to me…. “Add a little garlic salt to the snare and the kick. Just a squirt!!!”) so I went back into the control room and added a little garlic salt to the snare and the kick. Just a squirt!!! Now I was up to mix 20 on “Billie Jean”.

Well, this went on for about a week. Soon I was up to mix 91!!! I had a stack of 1/2 inch tapes almost to the ceiling!!! I would do a few mixes, we’d listen… Then do a few more. We had it PERFECT!!! We thought we had a really ‘HOT’ mix on “Billie Jean”. I played Mix 91 for the boys… Everybody smiled… but Quincy had one of his funny looks on his face…

I thought…. Hmmmm…. Oh, Oh….

Quincy said “You know Svensk, just for the fun of it, can we listen to one of your earlier mixes???” My heart jumped because I knew that my earlier mixes were dynamite!!! Then Quincy said, “Let’s hear mix number 2!!!” Oh WOW!!!! Hallelujah!!! I love mix 2!!!!

We listened to mix 2… IT WAS SLAMMIN’!!! EVERYONE IN THE STUDIO WAS GROOVIN’ AND DANCIN’ and HAPPY, and actin’ IGNORANT!!!!

Well, here’s the deal. When “Thriller” was released to the Whole World by Epic Records, on Tuesday, November 30, 1982, it went to Tower Records with MIX 2 OF “Billie Jean” on it!!! AND, when the single of “Billie Jean” came out it was MIX 2!!!

The REAL Story of “Billie Jean”…
by Bruce Swedien
From Bruce Swedien’s Facebook Page

The CD 20th Anniversary – The History of the CD Timeline

Reprinted by permission of Medialine Magazine – www.medialinenews.com

• 1983: CD commercially launched in U.S. The Compact Disc Group formed in March. First set of CD discs available in U.S.—12 from CBS, 15 from Telarc, 30 from Denon.

• 1984: Sony opens in October first U.S. CD replication plant (Digital Audio Disc Corp.) in Terre Haute, IN. The facility’s first commercially available CD was appropriately enough, Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the U.S.A.. Sony’s first portable CD players are available in November. Warner Bros. Records first label to sell new title simultaneously in LP, cassette and CD formats with Madonna’s Like A Virgin.

• 1985: Philips creates CD-i (interactive CD) technology. Three million CD players sold in U.S. CD-ROM drives hit the computer market.

• 1986: 45 million CD discs produced annually, overtaking records as principal recording format.

• 1988: CD disc annual production reaches 100 million units. More than twice as many CDs (149.7 million) shipped than LPs (72.4 million). CD-Recordable disc/technology introduced.

• 1989: “Ban the Box” movement led by Rykodisc looks to eliminate the 6×12-inch cardboard outer box.

• 1990: CD player U.S. penetration at 28 percent; 9.2 million players sold annually in U.S. Worldwide CD sales hits 288 million discs.

• 1991: Paperboard packaging group forms. Jewel box Advocates and Manufacturers (JAM) coalition formed in April seeks to preserve packaging standard. Philips launches CD-i (interactive CD) format.

• 1992: CD disc annual production reaches 300 million discs. SPARS (AAD, ADD and DDD) codes officially retired. CD-R sales reach 200,000 discs.

• 1997: Mitsui builds first CD-R production plant in U.S.

• 1999: CD shipments hit 939 million units, reports the RIAA.

• 2000: CDs represented 91 percent of all music units shipped in the U.S. in 2001, reports the RIAA.

• 2002:1.63 billion CD audio discs and 1.485 billion CD-ROMs replicated in North America, reports IRMA. 4.35 billion CD audio discs and 3.24 CD-ROMs replicated worldwide, reports IRMA.

► MIDI is standardized as the universal synthesizer interface

► IBM introduces a 16-bit personal computer

The first Personal Computer (PC) from IBM ran on a 4.77 MHz Intel 8088 microprocessor with 16 kB of memory (expandable to 256k), one or two 160k floppy drives and an optional color monitor. With a starting price of $1,565, the PC quickly becomes the industry standard, and was one of the reasons Time magazine chose the “personal computer” as its 1982 Man of the Year.

1982:

► Sony introduces the PCM-F1, the first 14- and 16-bit digital adaptor for VCRs

For those who were recording in the ‘70s, the Sony PCM-F1 was their first digital recorder. Unlike its predecessor, the F1’s A/D-D/A processor was small in size (roughly the size of a hardcover dictionary) and matched Sony’s SL-2000, the first portable consumer Betamax recorder.

The F1 allowed engineers to enter into the digital age for less than $2,000 – in the era when the alternatives could easily cost more than 10 times as much.

► Sony releases the first CD player, the Model CDP-101

The CD’s project leader, Nobuyuki Idei based the model name on the numerals 0101 as a reference to the digital medium. In the binary language, 0101 represents the number five. Idei chose the number five to indicate that the product was of a medium class. The product launch actually took place without Idei, who was lying on a hospital bed suffering from a bout of pneumonia he had caught during the frenzy to commercialize the system. When Idei saw the CDP-101 advertisements in newspapers in the hospital, he said to himself, Ah, it has finally been launched.

Some time later, the sample discs that had been used all over the world for demonstrations found their way back to the engineers. Although the surfaces were covered with scratches, when the discs were put in the player, the sound quality was as if new. In addition, while Sony was launching the CDP-101, CBS/Sony launched the world’s first fifty CD titles, the very first one being 52nd Street by Billy Joel.

Thus, the CD system was introduced worldwide. All divisions at Sony cooperated to commercialize CD hardware. Moreover, both Sony and CBS/Sony jointly developed hardware and software, doing everything possible to make the CD a product of the future. Sony Corp. chairman Norio Ohga later said, “There has never been an example as strong as the CD of how effectively the combined power of the Sony Group can be”.

► Dolby proposes a 5-channel surround-sound scheme for home theater systems.

Recognizing the potential for decoding multichannel sound at home, in 1982 Dolby introduced Dolby Surround, a consumer extension of the Dolby film sound project. The first technology to be licensed to consumer electronics manufacturers was a means of decoding the surround channel in home systems. This was followed by Dolby Surround Pro Logic (1987), a technology that made it possible to decode the center channel as well, and to take advantage of advanced circuitry developed originally for theatrical playback.

Unlike the quadraphonic sound of the 1970s, Dolby Surround quickly gained marketplace acceptance. For one thing, the multiple channel configuration and its ideal utilization it were firmly established within one industry (film) in advance of its introduction to another. Also, it was developed with a clear objective, specifically to enhance the viewing experience. And third, software and hardware standards for both the film and consumer electronics industries are defined by one organization.

As home viewers began to set up more surround systems, the consumer electronics industry realized that a new category of home playback system was being forged. “Home theater,” as it is now called, soon became the fastest-growing consumer electronics segment, bringing new life to a stagnating industry. Like Dolby noise reduction, Dolby Surround is administered by the Dolby Laboratories licensing program with quality standards both for hardware and for recorded and broadcast media.

Dolby Surround programming now includes television broadcasts—not only films with soundtracks encoded with Dolby technology, but also regular TV series, specials, and sports events transmitted in Dolby Surround. Dolby Surround has even spread to video games and other multimedia applications. As with Dolby films, material encoded with Dolby Surround is compatible with two-channel stereo and even mono playback

Excerpted from A History of Dolby Laboratories: Dolby Surround and home theater
Reprinted by permission of Dolby Laboratories – www.dolbylabs.com

► Roger Linn kicks off the first commercial drum machine

The first 35 LM-1′s were “assembled in Roger Linn’s home. Then Bob Easton of 360 Systems took over LM-1 manufacturing. Earliest LM-1′s featured engraved buttons, but lacked front-panel controls for swing-time and quantization functions and weren’t up to the quality standards set by those manufactured by 360 Systems.”

“Even before the LM-1 went into production, Linn was able to drum up (pun intended) buyers. They must have wondered what they were in for, though. ‘I had a prototype that wasn’t actually producible, basically a cardboard box with a bunch of wire-wrap boards mounted inside. But it worked. I would show it to people who had come over to my house, and they would give me 50% deposits on the finished product. On occasion, I would take this cardboard box down to somebody’s session and show it to them. It was pretty hilarious.

“‘Later, when I had a real prototype, I’d keep it in my car. At one party, I showed it to some members of Fleetwood Mac, and I generated some sales from that.’ … ‘I used to play with Leon Russell, so he bought one. Stevie Wonder bought one of the first ones. Boz Scaggs bought one. So did Daryl Dragon (the Captain), Peter Gabriel.’”

Excerpted from Mark Vail’s book – Vintage Synthesizers
Reprinted by permission of Backbeat Books. – www.backbeatbooks.com

1983:

The MIDI standard is born.

1984:

► The Apple Corporation markets the Macintosh computer.

Named for one of the designer’s daughters, the “Lisa” was the first PC to offer a graphic interface. Touted as a computer that would increase productivity by being easier to use, it included a Motorola 68000 Processor running at 5 Mhz, with 1 Mb of RAM, two 5.25″ 871k floppy drives, an external 5 MB hard drive, and a built in monochrome monitor. At $9,995, the price was too steep for most and Apple released the first Macintosh for substantially less money. Later, Apple released the Lisa 2 (which was later renamed the Macintosh XL), which included a single 400k 3.5″ drive, 2 MB of RAM and a 10 Mb hard drive.

1985:

► Droidworks unveils the SoundDroid

Lucasfilm and Convergence Corp. formed The Droid Works and, under the design leadership of Andy Moorer, unveiled the SoundDroid™ workstation at the 1985 NAB show. Offering picture interlock, multitrack recording, sound synthesis, editing, mixing dynamics control, reverb and effects from a slick interface of touch-sensitive graphics screens, soft-keys, assignable knobs, moving faders and shuttle wheel, it was a spellbinding technological achievement. A year later, commercial systems were offered to the public, and won a Mix Magazine TEC Award, but The Droid Works’ true workstation approach to sonic manipulation was years before its time. The company folded a few years later.

Excerpted from Reflections on 20 Years of Audio Technology Innovations
by George Petersen
Reprinted by permission of Mix Magazine – www.mixonline.com

► Digidesign introduces their first digital audio editor

Digidesign introduced Sound Designer, a program that allowed editing and manipulating of E-mu Emulator II samples using a Macintosh. The program also offered FFT analysis, digital EQ/mixing/compression, FM and waveshaping synthesis, and waveform redrawing using a mouse. Years later, Digidesign would bundle Sound Designer software with its hardware for the Mac II family of computers and call it Sound Tools.

Excerpted from Reflections on 20 Years of Audio Technology Innovations
by George Petersen
Reprinted by permission of Mix Magazine – www.mixonline.com

► Sony and Philips produced the standard for Compact Disc Read Only Memory (CD-ROM)

► Sony introduces the D-5 portable compact disc player at the 1985 Japan Audio Fair

After the launch of the first CD player, Tsurushima and his colleagues at the Engineering Development Department of the Audio Business Group decided to develop a more compact CD player that required fewer parts and less power. They worked vigorously to improve the CDP-101, enlisting the help of other divisions, while striving to develop a one-chip LSI circuit and reduce the size and thickness of the optical pickup device. The Audio Division was pushing ahead with a project to reduce the cost of the CD player. They called this project the CD CD Project, or the Compact Disc Cost Down Project. To meet a price target, it was necessary to significantly reduce the costs of the semiconductors and the optical pickup device.

The team approached the relevant people with requests to build these parts at a specific reduced price. At first, they were told it was impossible. However, members of the division overseeing the development of these components did everything they could and eventually found a way to manufacture cheaper and more compact parts. In autumn 1983, Sony had the technology to build a CD player deck that was one-tenth the size of its first player.

1986:

► First digital consoles appear

► R-DAT recorders are introduced in Japan

1988:

► Akai unveils the first cost-effective digital multitrack – the A-DAM

Unveiled in 1988, Akai’s A-DAM (Akai-Digital Audio Multitrack) stored 12 tracks on 8mm videotape in an 80-pound, rackmount chassis and used the modular digital multitrack (MDM) approach, where multiple tape transports could easily be slaved for more tracks. It cost $35,000, but a bargain compared to the $100,000-plus prices on reel-to-reel digital machines

Excerpted from Technology Innovations: Products that Forged an Industry
By George Peterson
Reprinted by permission of Mix Magazine – www.mixonline.com

1989:

► Digidesign markets “Sound Tools,” a Macintosh-based digital workstation using DAT as its source and storage medium.Nobody knew just how significant January 20, 1989 would be, as Digidesign unveiled Sound Tools, a Mac-based (SE or Mac II). 2-track digital recording/editing system. Sound Tools combined outboard converters and DSP with its Sound Designer II software, and at $3,995, was just the ticket for editing tracks on those DAT machines that were showing up in studios everywhere. Eventually the SD II file format became a worldwide standard.

Excerpted from Reflections on 20 Years of Audio Technology Innovations
by George Petersen
Reprinted by permission of Mix Magazine – www.mixonline.com

1990:

► The write-once CD-R becomes a commercial reality

1991:

► Alesis unveils the ADAT, the first “affordable” digital multitrack recorder

Revolutions often occur where you’d least expect them. Who would have guessed that a surprise product unveiling at the annual expo of the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) would forever change the world of professional and semipro recording? The place was the convention center in Anaheim, California. The date was January 18, 1991. The product was the Alesis ADAT, a compact studio recorder that could store eight tracks of digital audio (at better-than-CD quality) on an S-VHS tape and could be interlocked with up to fifteen more ADAT units, to provide up to 128 tracks!

Certainly, the product represented a remarkable technology, but what was most impressive was the original ADAT’s $3,999 price tag. This was far lower than the $35,000 Akai A-DAM (an earlier modular digital recorder that recorded twelve tracks on an 8mm videotape), and the Yamaha DMR8 (a $34,000 digital 8-track/mixer combination that used a proprietary tape format).

Immediately upon its debut, ADAT had the audio industry buzzing. ADAT’s scheduled December 1991 release date came and went, and initial deliveries didn’t begin until February or March of the next year, with large-scale production runs ramping up in the summer of 1992. During the 16-month period between the first ADAT announcement and widespread store deliveries, 1/2-inch analog 8-track sales came to a virtual standstill, and for a while every conversation in the audio and music industry seemed to be centered around this newcomer on the digital multitrack block.

The repercussions of ADAT were far-reaching indeed. Was it mere coincidence that as the first ADATs were delivered to retailers, the Society of Professional Recording Services recommended that record labels drop the ADD, DDD, etc., code designations that graced album releases, indicating whether the product was recorded and/or mixed using analog or digital gear? After years of “educating” consumers to look for that all-important “DDD” tag, was the decision to abandon the code based on affirmation of analog (particularly advanced analog techniques) as a viable medium, or was the availability of low-cost digital a perceived threat to the allure of a DDD sticker?

In October of 1992, Fostex announced an agreement with Alesis to develop ADAT-format recorders under the Fostex name, thus transforming ADAT from a simple model name into an accepted audio format. At the same time, Tascam unveiled its DA-88 family of competing recorders. It was obvious that a generic term was needed to describe this new breed of expandable digital tape recording systems. I came up with the phrase “Modular Digital Multitrack,” or MDM, which is now an accepted term throughout the industry.

The Formats

Eventually the Akai A-DAM and Yamaha DMR-8 formats were discontinued. Three current MDM formats exist today:<p >• ADAT I is a 16-bit format (with 67 minutes maximum record time on a T-180 S-VHS tape); compatible machines include the (original) Alesis ADAT, Alesis XT, Fostex RD-8, Fostex CX-8, and Panasonic MDA-1.

• ADAT-II is a 20-bit S-VHS format (with 67 minutes maximum record time on a T-180 S-VHS tape) used in the Alesis LX20, XT20, M20, and Studer V-Eight recorders.

• DTRS (Digital Tape Recording System)—a 16-bit format that records on Hi-8mm videocassettes used in the Tascam DA-88, DA-38, DA-98, and the Sony PCM-800.

Excerpted from The Alesis ADAT: The Evolution of a Revolution
by George Petersen
Reprinted by permission of artistpro.com – www.artistpro.com

1993:

► Mackie unveils the first “affordable” 8-bus analog console

1994:

1994 – Global Big 6 control $30 billion record industry: Philips (owns Polygram, A&M, Mercury, Island), Sony (owns CBS Records), Matsushita (owns MCA, Geffen), Thorn-EMI (owns Capitol, Virgin), Time Warner, and Bertelsmann (owns RCA Records).

► Flash memory cards introduced

SanDisk in October introduced the Compact Flash memory card to store audio and visual data on cards no larger than a matchbook holding 4-106 MB of data. SanDisk and Siemens AG in 1997 patented the MultiMediaCard no larger than a postage stamp holding 2-16 MB.

► Yamaha unveils the ProMix 01, the first “affordable” digital multitrack console.

1995:

► Sony and Toshiba reach a compromise to develop a single DVD standard by the end of the year rather than continue to develop competing DVD players

► DVD-Video and DVD-ROM format established

In December, 1995 the format for DVD-Video and DVD-ROM was established. “It calls for a CD-sized 5-inch (12cm) disc, 0.05 inch (1.2mm) thick, with an MPEG2-compressed storage capacity of 4.7 gigabytes per side (7.5 times that of CDs) and an average transfer speed of 4.69 megabits per second (three times faster than CDs). DVD-Video, for movies and concerts, will provide LD-like imagery while playing for 133 minutes per side. Its soundtrack will allow eight-language dubbing and 32 sets of subtitles. DVD-ROM, for computer data, will handle huge applications, enable impressive visuals, and manage hybrid software for multiple operating systems.”

1996:

► Experimental digital recordings are made at 24 bits/96 kHz

1997:

► Experimental digital recordings are made at 24 bits/192 kHz

Early in 1997 direct Stream Digital, consulters in designing A/D-D/A converters were approached by the Korean Electronics maker Samsung to produce a 24 bit 192kS/s recording system and a set of recordings. Their objective was to show the WG4 committee (those responsible for deciding which audio formats would be incorporated into the DVD spec) that the 24/192 format would be suitable for DVD.

Three recording sessions were set up for us by Kompas CD Multimedia, one of the leading classical recording companies in Europe and included such artist as:

• The Tois Jazz Trio in Deventer, Holland

• The Orpheus String Quartet in Tubingen, Germany

• The Queens College Choir in Cambridge, England

Two main recording systems were devised, using dCS 24/192 converters and a Genex GX-8000 Magneto Optical recorder. These were compared against several other formats, including 24/96, a 16/44 digital Nagra and 16/44 Panasonic DAT recorder.

The recordings were successfully completed and everyone was very impressed with the results. “The 24/96 had been good, but the 24/192 was a lot better in every respect. Even with the most complex and dynamic passages there was no sense of strain and the level of transparency was one step beyond that achieved with 24/96.” Upon completion, the system delivered to Samsung, who went on to make their demonstrations to the WG4 committee and the rest is history. 24/192 is now one of the formats in the DVD specification.

► DVD videodiscs and players are introduced

Initially, DVD was an abbreviation for “Digital Video Disc”… after many debates, this was changed to “Digital Versatile Disc”, and then finally it was agreed that DVD simply stood for “DVD”.

In December of 1995, the DVD format was ratified to encode video in the MPEG-2 video format, and allowing audio to be encoded in the PCM, DTS, MPEG audio or Dolby Digital (AC-3) formats. Unlike the CD, which encodes audio as CCDA (compact Disc Digital Audio) and data as ISO 9660-compliant files – the DVD is always authored according to the UDF (Universal Disk Format).

► MP3 players for downloaded Internet audio appear

MP3 ( short for MPEG-1 Layer III or MPEG Audio Layer III) was developed by the German company Fraunhofer Gesellschaft as an audio subset of the MPEG industry standard for compressing audio data down to filesizes that can be easily stored onto various data media and communicated over the internet.

MP3 started in 1987 at the Fraunhofer Institut Integrierte Schaltungen in Erlangen, Germany using the code name “EUREKA project EU147 – (DAB) Digital Audio Broadcast” and was accepted by MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group). The algorithm was finalized in 1992 as part of MPEG-1, although further work on MPEG Audio was finalized in 1994 as part of the second phase, MPEG-2, which resulted in a compression scheme for the encoding of audio onto DVD.

Since its beginning, MP3s popularity had increased to such an extent that file sharing has shaken the very foundation of record companies, both large and small and has invited major manufacturers are flooding the market with portable MP3 players of all types and forms.

► MP3.com was founded in November by Michael Robertson with 3,000 songs available for free download. In the next 12 months, it became the #1 music site on the Internet with 3 million hits monthly.

1999:

► Audio DVD Standard 1.0 agreed upon by manufacturers.

DVD-Audio is a new format that allows high-fidelity audio to be delivered onto a DVD disc. Unlike the DVD video standard, DVD-Audio can encode up to 4 hours of 24-bit/192kHz stereo audio or 2 hours of 24/96 surround sound audio onto a disc. The trade-off for the fidelity is that there’s less room for video and other data content.

Not everyone is sold on the format, as the equipment is expensive and the discs can’t be played on a conventional DVD player (which is only able to play DVD-Video, PCM audio and Dolby Digital (AC3)… and of course, there’s the debate as to whether typical human ears can distinguish the difference.

** End of Current Timeline – more to come ***

Creative Commons License

The History of Recorded Sound by https://davidmileshuber.com/hrs/ is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Audio and related History Museums

Web:

History of Recording
www.historyofrecording.com

Synthmuseum.com
28 Grenville Rd
Watertown, MA 02472
USA
Phone: 617-926-2298
Email: info@synthmuseum.com
www.Synthmuseum.com

Tinfoil.com
10787 SE 96th Court
Portland, Oregon 97266
Phone: 503/289-4343
FAX: 503/296-2001
Email: glenn@tinfoil.com
www.tinfoil.com

Books:

360 Sound: The Columbia Records Story

– Haven’t read this one yet, but it looks great … the pics are awesome!

Abbey Road to Ziggy Stardust

– Another must-read book from Geoff Emerick (Beatles engineer” and Howard Massey. I really have to credit Massey for giving this book an amazing richness.

Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles

– Ken Scott and Bobby Owsinski’s book is a must-read that’s practically impossible to put down!

Recording the Beatles

– I found the book to be a fairly dry read, but the pictures and the packaging are first-rate.

The Quincy Jones Legacy Series: Q on Producing

Brick n’ mortar:

Computer History Museum
1401 N Shoreline Blvd.
Mountain View, CA 94043
Tel: +1 650 810 1010
Fax: +1 650 810 1055
info@computerhistory.org
www.computerhistory.org

Experience Music Project (EMP)
325 5th Ave. N.
Seattle, WA 98109
Tel: +1 877 EMPLIVE (877 367 5483)
Fax: +1 206 770 2727
www.emplive.com

Museum of Sound Recording
c/o Brunswick Tape Media
580 8th avenue, 21st floor
New York, NY 10018
Tel: +1 212 997 9279
Fax: +1 212 764 4160
www.lovesphere.org/mosr/

Spark: The Museum of Electrical Invention
1312 Bay Street
Bellingham, WA 98225
tel: +1 360-738-3886
www.sparkmuseum.org