Tape Project Forum
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: ironbut on January 26, 2014, 01:34:44 AM
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I know there was a thread a while back asking about the earliest stereo tape releases. Couldn't find it so here's the earliest ones that I've heard of.
Fine Arts Quartet of Chicago on Concertapes , mono or binaural 7.5 or 15 ips was reviewed in Tape Recording magazine in 1953.
I have a few early Concertapes but I sure would like to get a listen to one of the high speed versions of this one.
Tape Recording magazine along with many other excellent audio related publications have been scanned and uploaded to the American Radio History site.
Some publications (such as db) are not yet complete but filling in the missing pieces is underway.
http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Tape-Recording-Magazine.htm
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Wow ! I had no idea these archives or old publications even existed. Thanks !
I clicked my way to the one mentioned, but unfortunately that one particular page with the info. you were talking about was poorly scanned and just barely readable. Unfortunate because it also has an ad for Magnecord, showing early models. (pg. 9)
http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Tape-Recording/50s/Tape-Recording-1953-11-12.pdf
If you ever do find one of those early 15 ips. binaural releases I would love to hear it.
It is interesting that there is a Shure ad a few pages earlier (pg. 4) that is essentially the same photograph of the Fine Arts Quartet, promoting the use of their Sonodyne 51 microphone to record it. I really hope not, with at least that mic, as it was not very good even for the mid 50s microphone state of the art. My catalogs list the frequency response spec. as 60-10,000 with no further qualification. It was not their best mic even at the time, with the now so called "Elvis mic" having a wider stated response. Ironically it is also the microphone The 78 Project is using with their traveling Presto lathe for nostalgia, to record their discs on location. It is probably just a bit wider response than the Presto disc cutting head.
Ah, just read the Shure ad again. They stated they were using it to record their own _rehearsals_. :-)
One more mod. Apparently not all PDF readers do a good job with their files, particularly one used in Firefox.
They suggest not using that one, which I was. Certain fonts below a particular size are not clear.
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The only stereo 15 ips two track from the 1950s that I've ever heard or seen is a Klipsch organ tape with John Eargle(who I studied with at Aspen). It is a great tape and quite rare. I've owned thousands of two track pre-records over the last 30 years and the Klipsch is the only one I've seen. My tape collecting friends have not seen any others.
Rich
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See "2 track era" in the pre-recorded tapes thread, starting Nov 30,2011
Charles
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If any of you guys are having trouble with the files, you might want to check out their FAQ's page.
http://www.americanradiohistory.com/American-Radio-History-FAQ.htm
Or, if you're on a Mac, you should try opening the files with Adobe Reader. It's a free download.
BTW, the magazines are scanned at 300dpi.