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!
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.
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!"*🤣
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.
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!
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.
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?
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.
@ 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.
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.
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.
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!
They did have vitaphone, since the teens..
The only brand in recorded music to have survived from cylinder records to downloads.
Even though Columbia passed through other hands including CBS and now Sony.
I like that little dance at the end! 👍👍
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.
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!"*🤣
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.
@@ilovecops6255 I think you're being sarcastic here.
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!
?ten cents an hour and silicosis or worse. Wouldn't have lasted too long as a career move since the depression and radio closed these big plants down.
And some hits, still sold millions of records..imagine all that labor !
@@marklimbrickright, at least now we can pretend it was all fine and dandy then 😂
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!
At least the first part is silent. The sound track was recorded separately. It's just piano playing. It would be helpful if it were made in color.
THE TRITE ADDED MUSIC IS AN UTTER DISTRACTION
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!
THANK YOU for posting this!
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.
Incredible the amount of man hours that go into making a record
Without mentioning the sourcing of ingredients and building such factories
I love those old 78s.
Too bad this video doesn't attempt to sync Stravinsky's actual electrical recording to this footage instead of the solo piano.
It would match up the clips are too brief
A silent film about making records. There's gotta be some irony in that!
This is the English Columbia company,not the American Columbia company.
American Columbia used a similar three-layer manufacturing process for most of its discs from the 1900s to the 1950s.
@@barrethansen2158 Do you know where one can find more information about that process? thx
I downloaded an mp3 this morning. I understand it was manufactured in exactly the same way!
Lol... of course!
It's in cylinders and DVDs have the same RPM
It’s amazing how they handled all those chemicals with bare hands, and breathing in all the fumes. They must have died horrible deaths.
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?
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.
23:40 this man has probably broken the record for most records broken in a single day...
I have made my own recording lathe and now I am perfecting wax and acetate substrates to record on.
The girl at 2:50 has a very grrrroovy little haircut. This has come back into style hasn't it?
why did you put that RUclips creator music over the video?
I wish this video were made a year later.
Not the meme opening music 😭 XDDD
@ 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!!!! ;-)
If I may ask, where is the source for this film?
Wonderful!
Ehhh....Back in my day sonny, we made records like......
Who plays hat piano ? It sounds so good. .. I hope you tell me I would love to know.
Now they can run an acoustic or electric recording through a digital process and make it like the record was just recorded yesterday!
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.
This was filmed at their South London plant, in Earlsfield, so no one's from via Elllis Island.... Bit of a long commute to the UK otherwise.
Columbia Records have a Cricket Club......! What?
Probably only in England.
Preserve old time....culture record store this way....gorgeous time then...
Silent movies were often accompanied by such music, usually a piano player next to the screen.
How was shellac records like from vinyl?
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.
😊
Ever wonder why all those guys in old pictures has eye patches ? 😊
A long drawn-out process it's a wonder they ever made a recording lol
The most surviving shellacs have massive shellac, no layers.
What are the layers made from and why did they make it like that, where can one find some technical information about that?
@@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.
Piano music is so irritating. Had to mute it.
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.
Do something with your life instead of projecting your laziness and insecurities on a RUclips comments section.
Have you ever been on a farm? Or to a construction site?
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.
very medievil mmmm and shellac lungs too mmmm
Petty much like Santa's work shop andOSHA approved no doubt.
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.
Records is a crap Versus Reel to Reel technology,