"A special slot in the Wall." I cannot begin to describe the genius behind such a methodology.

@artysanmobile

Жыл бұрын

Probably took the place of a 100’ walk.

@h8GW

11 ай бұрын

I'm presuming one of the rooms is dust controlled.

We are so used to seeing this as an archival format to the point I was amazed that they allowed him to handle the metal masters without white gloves. This is just so cool. I'm currently cataloguing the 78's I inherited from my Dad's family and there is some interesting stuff in there.

@shortsleevesamson1607

2 жыл бұрын

Doing the same thing right with 78’s and 45’s from my dads family as well 👍🏼

@tarstarkusz

2 жыл бұрын

I would like to know if any of these masters still exist. RCA is long gone. Camden is a slum and all the factories of Camden are long gone. RCA is basically a logo and font for rent to the highest bidder.

@mjb784533

2 жыл бұрын

@@tarstarkusz Hundreds of thousands of RCA’s metal masters are in the Iron Mountain archival storage facility in Pennsylvania. The ledgers and file cards are in the Sony archive in lower Manhattan.

@tarstarkusz

2 жыл бұрын

@@mjb784533 How do you know that? Is there publicly available data showing this?

@fromthesidelines

Жыл бұрын

@AustinAspen Network Which Ronnie later performed again on his syndicated "FAVORITE STORY" radio series.

This was absolutely fascinating to watch. Countless scientists and engineers collaborated to make the most faithful reproduction of sound possible with the technology at the time. Shows just how valuable music is to us humans. Those machines though...no doubt many hands were lost.

@althazarr

2 жыл бұрын

I'm glad you enjoyed it.

@markmooch

Жыл бұрын

I hope not.

When "cutting a record" meant exactly that. The pressures to be perfect while recording must have been enormous.

@ralflang5524

2 жыл бұрын

it's a question of routine…

@astrosci8864

2 жыл бұрын

@@ralflang5524 ...and HUGE amounts of practice...

@PassCookie

2 жыл бұрын

Records still get cutted. But the music is recorded on tape first since the late 30s or so and then the master is cutted which is way way better.

@astrosci8864

2 жыл бұрын

@@PassCookie Two points: 1 - Magnetic tape was not good enough to reproduce music until the late 1940s or early 1950s at least. It is possible that the Germans were using magnetic tape as early as the late 30s but nobody else was. Everyone else was using wire recorders. 2 - My original comment was referring to the times when magnetic tape was not widely being used. If you made a musical mistake while cutting the record, there was no choice but to start over and try to play the piece all the way through again.

@PassCookie

2 жыл бұрын

@@astrosci8864 yes of course. You are right. Erwin Bootz from the comedian harmonists once said that they recorded up to 5 takes of a song, then waited for the test pressings to listen to and then they decided which take they will realese because of course you cant play back the wax Master. With tape you could instatly listen to the recording which was a huge advantage.

0:55 You know it was a different time, when just hearing a person's voice without being in the same room as them was an event in of itself.

@jamesslick4790

Жыл бұрын

When the phonograph first came out, It was an "event". By the time this film was made it was not really a big deal. Broadcast radio was 22 years old already and the phonograph was 65! years old at that point.

There was also an expanded version of this short which was re-released in 1949 where it has an alternate ending where it announced the RCA Victor 45 RPM records which was introduced that year with colored vinyls included. “PeriscopeFilm” has posted this and split into 2 parts, and it was made in both black & white and color.

Brilliant! I imagine that this beautiful footage would have pleased our beloved Steve Albini. RIP 🌹

Children's records were still made on 78 until the early 60s. I found one with 2 songs from Mary Poppins (it was a 6 inch record from Golden records).

Its cool to think my 78s were made this way

@dougbrowning82

Жыл бұрын

Until the 1940s, when materials were changed. Wax was replaced by acetate, copper by aluminum, and shellac by Bakelite or Vinylite resins. Resin pressed records were marketed as "unbreakable". In the 1950s, tape recordings replaced the direct disk cutting presented here. Also, PVC and Polystyrene replaced the resins.

Omg this is actually really cool, despite not growing up in this time period

The quality goes in before the label falls off. 😉😎 Have a blessed day!

A valuable documentary

It's sad that all those metal masters were destroyed when they were melted down for the metal drive for WWII. Many were saved to shellac records but many are gone forever. If the saved shellac discs weren't damaged over time, they were worn out.

@cryptidproductions3160

Жыл бұрын

Wax is such a fragile medium I doubt they would've been usable by the time the ability to transfer them to tape came around

@automatedelectronics6062

Жыл бұрын

@@cryptidproductions3160 Records were not cut on wax but the original masters were cut on lacquer-coated metal discs. Then metal mothers, fathers and stampers were made, starting from those original stampers. For the WWII metal drive, all the metal-core lacquers, and all the metal masters were destroyed. Before that, they pressed multiple shellac records for archives. For those records which still survived, when magnetic tape came around, the remaining records were recorded to magnetic tape. Fortunately, well before WWII, movie sound was optically recorded to film stock. Many of these film sound recordings were recorded multi-track(2 or 3 channels). This is why we have true stereo versions of movies like "The Wizard of Oz".

@AlbertBenajam-ww1db

21 күн бұрын

The wax disc destroyed in early stages.

@automatedelectronics6062

21 күн бұрын

@@AlbertBenajam-ww1db The wax or lacquer discs were destroyed when they were plated, as with any wax or lacquer discs. They were always discarded or recycled as they could only be plated once. They were never meant for archiving. Anyway, the lacquers to be plated were dubbed from the session acetate. Those were also quickly worn and discarded. They have a short playing life.

Thanks for posting this video of the vintage process for producing shellac recordings from the 1940's!

Great video, thanks! I will never look at my shellac record collection the same way again. I wonder how many films this guy narrated; seems I've heard him a lot on these old films. His voice and that music remind me of old cartoons when I was a kid.

2:53 the most popular selection ever caught on wax......... Atom Heart Mother !

@timsundell9820

4 жыл бұрын

The beutifull blue banube wals

Fascinating !! Quite a process. How technology has advanced. Thanks a million for sharing.

Incredible how the excretion (shellac) made from the female lac bug was an important constituent of musical recordings.

Am I the only one whose hearing that extremely high pitch tone in the background of this video??? It's hurting my brain!!!

@barndancer6149

3 жыл бұрын

No, not just you. Some of us perceive high pitch sounds... It almost cuts through your head, doesn't it?

@zephyr332

3 жыл бұрын

@@barndancer6149 Like my electric knife cuts through the Thanksgiving turkey!!

This was golden Fran, thank you! 👏👏👏👏👏👍

Brilliant upload, thanks!

RCA was one of our greatest American companies! They put Camden, NJ, on the map!

@CZghost

2 жыл бұрын

They even pressed in Czechoslovakia, more specifically in Northern Bohemia, in a city called Ústí nad Labem (Aussig an der Elbe). The record pressing factory was later uzurpied by the state when communists won the elections in 1948. From then, the pressing moved to Loděnice and the old record factory in Ústí began to fall apart.

@Modeltnick

2 жыл бұрын

@@CZghost Thanks for your reply! Interesting information!

@Musicradio77Network

Жыл бұрын

Originally it was the Victor Talking Machine Co. before RCA bought it in 1929.

well, that was a pleasant diversion

Thank you !

Man I'm so glad we have tape now.

I have always wanted to know how the 78s were made back then, this is really interesting.

very educational

very interesting..thanks

It was an enormous challenge to capture the maximum possible dynamic range without relying too heavily on the limiter.

Fascinating

Direct to Disc recording. best format

Direct to disc! I'm sure it was a relief to musicians everywhere when tape came along! You'd HATE to be "that guy" in the band who hit the wrong note and everyone had to start over with a NEW wax master!

@spencercox2684

Жыл бұрын

direct to disc that was done in 1977 @ 33 1/3

@jamesslick4790

Жыл бұрын

@@spencercox2684 Some direct to disc recording is done TODAY, but most records made since the late 1940s were made from tape masters. Some tunes would have been impossible without tape, A lot of Beatles songs come to mind. Double tracked vocals, sound effects and a whole host of multitrack magic going on in the studios. Even when me and my buddies "jam" (Hobbyists, not pro musicians at any level, LOL) we record to separate tracks and then mix down to a final stereo track. Being able to edit and correct any flubs is more vital to an actual record label than a few yahoos in a garage in Pittsburgh.

Stunning

By the fall of 1958, all record companies had virtually ceased making commercial "78" records.

@althazarr

10 жыл бұрын

Barry I. Grauman Yes, for the most part that's true in the U.S., but I have some later ones from 1959 and 1960. Also, in quite a few other countries around the world they were still being made through the early 1970's.

@22013

5 жыл бұрын

theres a couple company that still make 78, expensive though.

@CPorter

4 жыл бұрын

@tin pan alley 1619 Broadway a lot of them were just pressed by smaller the labels here in America...

@Dante-sx3pc

4 жыл бұрын

@@CPorter Dont forget India, they used 78s and wind up players for many years

@CPorter

4 жыл бұрын

@@Dante-sx3pc you never really hear much about India. And we're talking about newer recordings. As in not the same order recordings

I wonder how many times someone dropped or damaged the original wax disc & the studio had to call the entire band back in for a re-do.

@hogspigsmusic4416

3 жыл бұрын

probably multiple times.

@skylarkylo4962

2 жыл бұрын

You prolly dont care but does any of you know a way to get back into an Instagram account?? I somehow forgot the password. I would appreciate any help you can offer me!

@keenanmiles843

2 жыл бұрын

@Skylar Kylo instablaster :)

@skylarkylo4962

2 жыл бұрын

@Keenan Miles Thanks for your reply. I got to the site thru google and Im waiting for the hacking stuff atm. Looks like it's gonna take a while so I will reply here later when my account password hopefully is recovered.

@skylarkylo4962

2 жыл бұрын

@Keenan Miles It did the trick and I now got access to my account again. I am so happy! Thank you so much, you really help me out!

A popular phrase in the 1950's was "bake a biscuit". This was slang for making a record.

So many baths!!

MILTON CROSS >> Narrater

que lindo nunca tinha visto!

At the time, Milton Cross was the well-known commentator for NBC Blue's "METROPOLITAN OPERA" broadcasts, as well as the announcer for "INFORMATION PLEASE".....and several other radio shows.

My favorite RCA Victor record is Tokyo Shoe Shine Boy.

I can't believe the number of different coats of metal which were plated onto the master disc, mother disc, and stampers. I guess later on, they wouldn't have bothered with keeping the master disc, they would have kept tapes instead.

Amazing video. 1- All these people had jobs that were lost to automation. 2- Now that this technology is obsolete, what are the so called six "six secret ingredients" for the resin?

@zacotb

4 жыл бұрын

Shellac is made from a secretion from bugs.

@SakutoNoSAI

4 жыл бұрын

Also, it wont be obsolete until we have consumer recording that can beat analog sound.

@abdallahhigazy3203

4 жыл бұрын

@@zacotb Thank you. I know. My question was what are the "six secret ingredients"? Shellac is only one of the six.

@TranceCore3

3 жыл бұрын

@hawkturkey that dude is stuck in the past, Digital recording has been shitting all over analog for a long time. Vinyl still sounds good yeah, but digital doesn't degrade.

@davidreuters8509

3 жыл бұрын

@@TranceCore3 the 7 year old Kanye CD I own sounds like shit now. My over 40 year old Bob marley vinyl still sounds like a new record.

Just found your channel and subscribed.

@althazarr

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for subscribing. I hope you enjoy my channel.

Has anyone noticed how he pronounced the word temperature differently than as you would today? Amazing

@ChristopherSobieniak

10 ай бұрын

Back when we had Mid-Atlantic class.

@ARCtheCartoonMaster

4 ай бұрын

Back when people knew how to read. Like… am I the only one who pronounces the first ‘r’ in February?

@GodzillaKaijuGK

Ай бұрын

@@ARCtheCartoonMaster no

Within six years, CBS/Columbia would introduce the 33 1/3rpm "Long Play" disc- which forced RCA to introduce the "45rpm" record in early 1949. Both companies eventually had to adapt the other's technology [RCA issued their first "LP's" in January 1950, and Columbia released their initial "45's" in late 1951].

@hmmmmmmmmm2

6 жыл бұрын

CBS/Columbia usually doesn't like to admit this, but the 33 1/3 RPM speed was originally developed in the 1920's by Bell Labs. Prior to "microgroove," using the then-standard groove width, and an 18 inch disc, 33 1/3 was the speed that could accommodate approximately 10 minutes of recording time -- to match the running time of a single reel of motion picture film. The speed was selected to enable one disc of "sound" per reel for the earliest commercially successful sound movies (in a process called Vitaphone). Given 1920's technology, it was decided to start the disc playback from the inside and slowly work outward to the edge -- this was done to compensate for stylus needle wear. The needle would always be a brand-new one for each showing and be very sharp at the beginning of the film reel. The "inches per second" of tracking is far less near the hub of a spinning record -- and this slower speed tested the technology of the 1920's -- but a very sharp needle could handle it with reasonable results. As the needle wore down, it was encountering increasing and increasing "inches per second" passing beneath it and therefore the "less good" results of a poor needle were compensated by the increase in tracking. Once the reel of film ended, a second projector and turntable picked up where that one left off, the needle was replaced with a new one, and the third reel and third disc of the movie was readied for the performance. Of course, within just a very few years, this cumbersome process was replaced in motion pictures with the sound track being placed right on the film itself... BUT... the 33 1/3 speed was picked up by radio broadcasters to record, or pre-record for later playback, radio shows or commercials or other segments. Once the size of the record groove could be made smaller as vinyl was made available in the 1940's to replace the old shellac base material, the 33 1/3 speed enabled "long-play" records at 12 inches in diameter, able to hold 20-25 minutes of material on each side. CBS/Columbia brought 33 1/3 into homes, but the speed had been around for over 20 years already.

@hyzercreek

4 жыл бұрын

@@hmmmmmmmmm2 Vitaphone discs were made of shellac only briefly, the breakage was the reason RCA Victor developed victrolac in the early 30's. Victrolac was PVC with plasticizers, and became known as vinylite in the late 30's and then just vinyl. But vinyl records have been around since the early 30s

@mr.grumpygrumpy2035

3 жыл бұрын

@@hmmmmmmmmm2 In fact RCA tried to sell 33 1/3 "program transcription" records in the early 1930s, but those required expensive players for the time, and combined with the recession, the effort was a commercial failure.

@fromthesidelines

2 жыл бұрын

Dr. Peter Goldmark perfected the "microgroove" process that enabled Columbia to offer up to 25 minutes of music on each side of a 12 inch "33" LP. Until then, radio transcriptions could only feature about 15 minutes of music- or program- on each side of a 16 inch "33" disc.

@dougbrowning82

Жыл бұрын

@@hyzercreek Vinylite was a vinyl chloride resin, similar to Bakelite. The vinyl used for LPs is the polymer form, poly vinyl chloride. The reason for the move from shellac was a shellac shortage after WWII.

Unfortunately, many old records are being destroyed now for the shellac.

@Wolfganger

8 ай бұрын

Really? How awful!

@17:48 I Wonder how many 78s that model of record player unceremoniously shattered?

@JohnCran

3 жыл бұрын

I want to know how it worked it looks really interesting. My total experience with 78's has been on a gramaphone (furniture type), mums little portable circa 1955 and our old radiogram which had a stack changer circa 65.

@lizkrinsky5209

2 жыл бұрын

Not many unless there was a malfunction in the changing mechanism. When the record drops from the mechanism, an air cushion is created.

@dougbrowning82

Жыл бұрын

That's a Victor V-225, Magic Brain changer. The 78rpm Channel has a video on it. Apparently, it's actually quite gentle on the records, unless they are warped. Then you might see some breakage as the record drops into the rejection chute. Certain vintage records may also get their edges chewed up by the separator blades.

10:56 "protected with a chemically neutral blanket" thats quite a fancy way to say asbestos

I had no idea that electroplating was used to make the masters. Cool!

@robertpettus1436

9 ай бұрын

That was the major development of Emile Berliner of the company that became Victor Records. Edison's cylinders couldn't be easily duplicated (real engineers will note it was eventually done). By making the record a flat disk, they could use a process already well known for printing called "Electrotyping", which press the set type into a wax bed, then made it conductive (then with graphite), electroplate that, then use that sheet in the printing press. It was a small matter to modify the process to make records. The secret was a flat record.

That’s quite the process, a lot of electro plating and building up layers. I had thought that music would be recorded to tape by this point but clearly not, or at least not in all cases.

@andriealinsangao613

28 күн бұрын

Tape wasn't a thing, or at least a widespread one, back in '42, when this video was made.

@danpetitpas

5 күн бұрын

Only Germany had tape machines at the time. The Army brought back the Nazi tape recorders after the war and Bing Crosby (yes, that Bing Crosby) funded the manufacturing of reel-to-reel tape recorders with the AMPEX corporation in 1947.

6:22 that pretty metal my dude...

Do they still have this archive?

cool

So who possesses all of these metal master copies now?

@KC9UDX

6 жыл бұрын

CMLounsbury Sony Music, presumably

@austiethomas

6 жыл бұрын

Thats a very good question, I would like to know this as well.

@FromTartu

5 жыл бұрын

They are mostly owned by collectors, every now and then they appear on E-Bay and go for thousands of dollars

@1987VCRProductions

5 жыл бұрын

Many of them have been destroyed. When RCA was going to tear down the warehouse that stored these metal masters, they saved the most historically significant ones (at least to RCA), let some private collectors take out as much as they could carry, and the rest that couldn’t be saved were demolished with the building.

@roadmaster720

4 жыл бұрын

@@1987VCRProductions oh well, shit happens. most music then as now sucked so why save those kind of master's ?

This video gave me severe tinnitus.

I wish Victor would re-press some more popular songs, people with phonographs would buy the hell out of them, myself included What a sad end to many of their master discs "In the early 1960s, RCA Victor demolished its Camden warehouse.[76] This warehouse reportedly held four floors' worth of Victor's catalog dating back to 1902 and vault masters (most of them were pre-tape wax and metal discs), test pressings, lacquer discs, matrix ledgers, and rehearsal recordings. The company retained some of the more important masters (such as those by Enrico Caruso, Arturo Toscanini, George Gershwin and Jimmie Rodgers; why the masters of Sergei Rachmaninoff apparently weren't saved is a mystery), but it is uncertain just how many others were saved or lost. A few days before the demolition took place, some collectors from the US and Europe were allowed to go through the warehouse and salvage whatever they could carry with them for their personal collections. Soon afterward, record collectors and RCA Victor officials watched from a nearby bridge as the warehouse was dynamited, with many studio masters still intact in the building. The remnants were bulldozed into the Delaware River and a pier was built on top of them. In 1973, to celebrate the centenary of Rachmaninoff's birth, RCA decided to reissue his complete recordings on LP; RCA was forced to go to collectors for copies of certain records because their archives were incomplete, as documented in a Time magazine article."

Back in the 60s theres a lot of counterfeid vinyl record in taiwan.my relative will buy it by thr bundle.

Where is this collection now? BTW that opera guy was so enclave radio from fallout 3. 1:23 There is a really high pitch sound in this recording.

They had to increase the tempo of many performances in order to get the music to fit within the time allotted on a 78. So if you run across one and it sounds a little fast, it's on purpose.

@robfriedrich2822

Жыл бұрын

The most popular size 10" couldn't hold more than 3 ½ minutes, the larger size for classical music 4 ½ minutes only. Variable grades didn't exist yet and required the use of magnetic tape, but on 78 rpm it could put up to 9 minutes to a 12"

@apathyinc.7534

Жыл бұрын

@@robfriedrich2822 I did see that somewhere. I know popular music of the time wasn't really a problem, but some classical music pieces had to increase tempo in order to fit onto a 78. I don't have the patience or stamina to delve into 78rpm records. They are pretty fragile and I wouldn't have the heart to throw away most of what I run across. And most of what I have run across (almost all) NEEDED to be thrown out. It's just too sad.

There’s a lot of ingredients in a shellac record isn’t there, 28 I think was the number mentioned?

I own a copy of this song on 78rpm record! Wow!

Cant imagine what the cost would be today to make records that way. Good thing we have digital recordings now.

@writerpatrick

2 жыл бұрын

New vinyl records sell for about $35 and up, so it would probably cost somewhere around $10-$20 a record.

Just curious if there are still archives with these original stampers or do they just get destroyed over time?

@chembaliszt484

Жыл бұрын

Many were destroyed during WW2

"Mother matrix". Is that Keanu Reeves' mother's nick-name?

They should have shown how the conductor pauses the orchestra after three minutes, so the engineer can put another wax disc on the cutter.

Dang!

I have a bunch of old shellac records like this that I inherited! Does anyone have any advice on how to clean them?

is the "Shellac Records" still exists ? running?

"Mother Matrix" is a good name for a band.

Where are all of those master discs today?

Where are all this records now?

imagine being a listening tester, not for these albums, but for like something soul-crushingly annoying like cardi b?

@vrtrunky552

2 ай бұрын

Don’t make me think of the horrors

Victor Salon Orchestra

Why is it that the ending grove (closest to the record label) wobbles back and forth?

@01chippe

2 жыл бұрын

The runout groove was done that way because early record changers detected the end of the record when the tone arm moved back and forth.

@markwest5674

2 жыл бұрын

@@01chippe Thank you.

Was vinyl made in the same way for later records?

@andriealinsangao613

28 күн бұрын

Sort of.

Milton really pronounces his "R's" hard....

So that's why they call it "pressing" records!

Where are these Master discs today? And can new, "perfect" discs be pressed from them today? If so, a real treasury

@jazzman578

Жыл бұрын

RCA trashed all the pre tape masters in the early 1960's

I had the idea to try to find documentation of that version of 'Blue Danube Waltz' only to find no evidence of any recording of that song made in 1942 by the 'Victor Symphony Orchestra'(I think that's what the record says)

@andriandrason1318

3 жыл бұрын

Johann Strauss Eugene Ormandy, Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra - The Music Of Johann Strauss.

@joechisten7176

2 жыл бұрын

I think it was a special test record not released to the public. It doesn't have a catalog number on the label, and the title on the label looks like it's printed with a different typeface than standard releases.

I wonder how different the process is today. I bet fewer workers and much more automation.

@danpetitpas

5 күн бұрын

It's still sort of the same process but using vinyl instead of shellac. Also they use lacquer instead of wax to cut the record and silver nitrate and nickel to plate the disk instead of gold, copper and chromium layers. A Japanese company pre-makes the lacquer disks and the vinyl is made by outside companies instead of from scratch. But even modern record making requires people standing at the press working the machines and other people inspecting the disks and inserting them into sleeves and then into covers. There really isn't really much more automation than they had in the 1940s.

From the past comes the future 😀

Those are heavy metal records.

Just Victor?

shellac is prone to breaking easily

Who buys these old records my dad left behind a collection of them to me, but dont want to throw them out some are at least a 80 to 90 years old ...

Like finding a Leprechaun 🌈☘🙂

1942, most of the men were in the war, I guess that's why all women on the production line.

16:11 surely the the numbers were like 3/100 ,4/100 lol

any musician who made a mistake they had to start all over again with a new disk as no tape recorders back in 1942.

I see that hyperbole was in full force in this decade. Always Perfect Instant Infinite Endless Pure Highest Smartest Strongest Fastest. Though talking about how your going to make thousands of these things sounds very dated because of its smallness compared to just a couple decades later.

That archive has been destroyed since and none of it exists

*******

Just one of the trillions of mysteries of The VAST Knowledge Of GOD, revealed to us. Truly amazing, Is HE NOT ??!!

Yes and no for the latin market 78 rpm records where still being pressed on high quality vynul until the early 1970's

THe commercials ruin this post

@althazarr

2 жыл бұрын

I have no control over any commercials that youtube puts on their website. Just install an ad blocker. It's very easy.

What? No Aerosmith? lol

Not so different from making normal 33 rpm records

OMG Fingers all over the masters.......

They should be wearing gloves to keep their fingerprints off the records. I wish there was a video on how styrene records are made.