Interesting how they made a master back then! Recording tape didn't come into use in the U.S. until 1948, and the first company to use it here was Capitol Records...which label was started because Johnny Mercer and Glen Wallichs and Buddy DeSylva didn't have the capital to take over a company like Columbia or RCA. Columbia belonged to EMI until the U.S. Government made them sell it off. EMI maintained release arrangements with Columbia until 1951, and with RCA until 1957. EMI acquired Capitol Records in 1956. You may or may not know that Capitol originally rejected releasing Beatles recordings twice in 1962.
The process of sound recordings had been perfected by the 1920's yet movie films were still silent! Thanks for posting this good quality video of the sound recording process from the 1920's!
That last bit... *"Francesca, darling! I've just got the latest hit from the Savoy Orpheans: do let's put it on and Charleston ourselves into oblivion!"*🤣
Wow! The way that a song is released is totally different from how it's done now. Then, It was Labor intensive, and took a lot of time and effort. Now, anyone could record a song on their phone, and release it to Spotify. Man, I'd love to live in the 20's and work at Columbia!
People weren't lazy fucks like they are now! They perfected it in the late 50s with microgroove stereo hi-fi! Then they ruined it with digital in the late 70's early 80s! Now thankfully they made digital with much higher resolution than CD, but people don't want it, they want mp3! People rather have the horrible quality of mp3 (which isn't even redbook "CD" quality) , to have lazy convenience!
How staggeringly labour-intensive it all was - and working with that fine powder with no breathing protection! No wonder they sold at a significant fraction of the average worker's weekly pay. The recording studios are at 73/75 Petty France, a narrow street near St James' Park underground station. The site is now Clive House one of the buildings of the (Orwellian-sounding) Ministry of Justice. Columbia left there for HMV's Abbey Road studios in 1932, having merged with HMV in 1931 to create EMI. It's a wonderful film. The dance band conductor has a look akin to Debroy Somers; and he's wearing sunglasses because of the glare of the film (arc) lights. Though, I doubt that the conductor really stood in the way of the Westrex carbon-button microphone atop its amplifier and power supply!
14:05 I wish they had use fireproof vaults in the universal fire in 2008 that destroyed hundreds of thousands of Master tapes! 24:55 , Take note modern record pressers , they use GLOVES to handle the record's!
It was the same principle as done till the 1990's. Only differences were, that they record the performance on tape first (this began in the 1940's in Germany) that they changed the material of the cutted disc to lacquer coated steel platters and later to copper discs (DMM process), that they enhanced the way to coat the recorded disc with a silver layer, the use of smaller grooves and the pressing in vinyl, what was possible, when customers stopped to want discs, that can be played without any electricity.
They were usign digital tapes since 1890s. This video they used a Studer 8 track recorder with DCA converters. Not muc han chanes in 140 yeas is naytbng the sound recoridign has gotten worses.
This looks like the English Columbia. If so, the studio was on Petty France in Westminster, London W1. The film seems crude for 1928. And there is evidence of the acoustical recording. However Stravinsky's first recording were Petrushka and Firebird at Petty France in 1928 which authenticates this.
As I hold a mint copy of a Columbia 12" 78 titled; ROBERT BURNS--A Man Amongst Men. By the Prime Minister The Rt. Hon. J. RAMSAY MacDONALD, M.P. (Burns Anniversary, January 25th) The year not mentioned but guess about 1928. These Columbia records were of extremely high quality totally smooth surface without surface noise perfected. This film should have been a education to E.M.I. Considering the emphasis placed to quality involved here Columbia laminated all their 78rpm records until the 1931 E.M.I. takeover. Thereafter surface quality dipped a bit due to E.M.I. & also Decca not laminating their new releases.
Fantastic! I wonder if that was Percival Mackey's Band? Looks to be about 1925-27.. The old Columbia factory in Wandsworth I suppose. I wonder how many of these people got jobs at the Hayes plant after Wandsworth closed?
@ 5:40 - Based on his compositions, I always figured they had men in white coats standing by whenever Igor Stravinksky was let out of the asylum for a concert or session... and here is documentary evidence of same!!!! ;-)
Just a guess but I think one third of the workers you see have been through Ellis Island, one third are children of parents who have been through Ellis Island and one third have pre Civil War ancestors. Discuss and comment.
If you dropped a shellac record on the floor, they would shatter. They were very brittle. The grooves were wider and a record usually only had 3 minutes of sound on a 10" platter.
@@ralflang5524 Columbia used laminated pressings from the time of the introduction of "Double-Disc" records in 1908 up to the end of the 78 era. The core of the record was made of fairly coarse, strong material, and the playing surfaces of very fine composition. The "New Process" Columbia discs of the 1920s and 1930s tend to have exceptionally quiet surfaces. They also stand up well to wear. Far superior to the general run of pressings offered by Victor or the Gramophone Company. Unfortunately, lamination cracks can be a problem on Columbia discs, but they are a minor inconvenience compared to a crack in a solid Victor pressing.
108 million sold in US per year when this film was made. Providing lots of employment! Ten years later, radio had taken over with better sound and free to listen. Only 5 million 78's sold. Source wikipedia. Disaster for employment in the depression and a reminder that the public and progress are fickle -iPhones and Tesla's beware. The 78 rpm limped on until 1960's, now people are cutting apocalypse busting vinyl using old CD's. It seems that the process shown here is to make lots of mould copies. So only copper is being used to electroplate. And it looks way thicker than is used on vinyl process now. In the other 78 rpm factory videos on youtube from a later period maybe 1940's, a nickel plating is added to the mould for hardness.
People these days would drop dead from complaining if they had to do that level of work! Society has gotten so nauseatingly lazy! Technology makes you weak!
No, technology is just a tool, it doesn’t make you lazy, you make yourself lazy. People nowadays don’t seem to get that you can’t get unless you put something out!! So get up off your lazy butt and do something-anything.
Je suis d'accord avec vinyl City les gens de notre époque ne seraient pas faire ce que l'on voit dans la vidéo et ils jugeraient les conditions de travail trop horrible, insalubre et j'en passe et des meilleurs.
