Date:         Fri, 3 Oct 2008 12:21:18 -0400
Reply-To:     Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
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From:         David Lennick <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:      Re: Fwd: Peter Copeland on RCA Victor recordings (1941)
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Dumb question again..were a lot of late 40s Victors compressed and EQd beyond 
all belief because of something opposite in the players they were manufacturing 
at the time? I once heard Freddy Martin's Managua, Nicaragua played on a 1947 
Victor machine and it sounded fabulous. Most Victors made from December 1944, 
including Toscanini and Henri Rene and Spike and Tommy Dorsey, are impossible 
to EQ (and they get even worse in Canada because they sent up production 
masters which were re-dubbed in Montreal, complete with wow, clipped first 
notes, chopped last notes, and more wow). This seems to end around 1950-51.

dl

Michael Biel wrote:
> Tom Fine wrote:
>> You can hear that Victor was doing compression/limiting for sure by 
>> the 40s. Listen to Spike Jones "Popcorn Sack" for instance, or other 
>> material if you prefer less corny. 
> Spike Jones might not be a good example to use because a lot of his 
> masters were dubbed.  The ledger sheets note some specific examples 
> where it was done because a gunshot or something overloaded the 
> recording, but I have a feeling that a lot of the release masters were 
> routinely dubs.
> Actually I think the question is not whether Victor was doing it, but if 
> it was done simultaneously on each mic individually.  It could be that 
> they were doing it selectively on a particular mic, or, of course, on 
> the composite mix.  And considering your father's technique of 
> simplicity and single-mic recording, I would love to have found out what 
> his opinion would be of having all these electronics compressing a half 
> dozen mics separately!
> Mike Biel  [log in to unmask]
> 
>