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October 2005
Posts: 5331
Location: Cicero, NY | I was over at a friends house yesterday and he was showing me a wire on a spool that apparently had recordings of his uncles and granfather when they were in a band years ago. He's found a company that can transfer it to disc (not cheap but he's going to be doing it for the history nonetheless). I'm sure if you back far enough, they probably tried to record on rocks too but I knew nothing about this.
Anybody know anything about recording on wire? |
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July 2005
Posts: 83
Location: Norman, OK | I remember wire recorders in garage sales in the 70s, think they were big in the 40s-50s. The working theory is pretty much the same as that of the magnetic tape but instead of inducing a magnetic field (and its subsequent signature) on a metal oxide tape like reel to reel, 8-Track or Cassette, the recorder inducts the field on a magnetically permeable wire. The sound quality was way inferior to cutting LPs on wax or vinyl.
You might run by a Goodwill or Salvation Army resale center and see if you can find a functioning machine to see if the wire reels are still in playable shape. Hopefully they haven't corroded or been exposed to any strong magnetic field.
Cheers,
Mike O |
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October 2005
Posts: 5331
Location: Cicero, NY | The wire itself looked to be in pretty good shape. No corrosion and wrapped nicely on the spool but I have no idea if it was stored by a magnetic field or not. Good question. |
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February 2002
Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | Wire recording was around from the early 30's, though the theory goes back to the late 1800's. Same basic principle as tape, but frequency response wasn't really good enough for music. Wire recorders were primarily dictation machines and were also used for communications during the war. The German companies BASF and Telefunken developed tape recording as we know it in the 40's. However it's Bing Crosby who is really responsible for modern tape (and video) recording. Crosby learned of the German machines through his sound engineer Jack Mullen, who had been involved in the liberation of German Magnetophones at the end of WW2. Crosby financed the development by the Ampex company of improved versions, which with the help of Les Paul (who was Crosby's guitarist at that time) eventually became the first modern multitrack machines as we know them. |
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October 2005
Posts: 5331
Location: Cicero, NY | Very interesting, Paul. Knew that Crosby was a very influential guy back in the day but would never have put him at the forefront of tape recording. Doesn't surprise me at all that Les was involved though. |
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February 2002
Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | Les Paul's contributions to guitar design have been blown out of all proportion, mostly by Les himself. His contribution to recording techniques and technology however is immeasurable. |
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April 2004
Posts: 13303
Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | Originally posted by Paul Templeman:
Les Paul's contribution to guitar design have been blown out of all proportion, mostly by Les himself. His contribution to recording techniques and technology however is immeasurable. I agree with that 110%...especially the part about recording techniques! |
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June 2005
Posts: 231
Location: N.J. | One of Les' favorite multitrack recorders was the Ampex MM1000 16 track 2inch machine.He still had one in his house in 90's and said he would never part with it. I own one of these and they are incredibly warm sounding. You can have your digital hard drive recorders and use software driven virtual tracks :rolleyes: ,but sometimes nuthin' beats an old analog recorder the size of a pizza oven and a board thats 8ft. long and only 24 channels. :D |
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Joined:
February 2002
Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | 16 track 2 inch, running at 30ips is a sound that's hard to beat. Bloody expensive in tape though. |
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Before 8 track...