By David Giovannoni

i78s.org

 

This collection contains six Western Electric test recordings from the fall of 1924 that document the emergence of the new recording technology from the laboratory to the commercial recording studio. The engineer’s notations in the dead wax show the system being tested through experimentation and improved through experience. The documentation evolved from the broadest descriptions in October (e.g. “WE Amp & Mic”) to a terse shorthand in December specifying the equipment and settings used in making the recording (e.g. “.2 – 8 – 5¹“).

Although the discs were pressed by the Victor Talking Machine Company, presumably with the knowledge of Victor’s management, they may or may not have been made in consultation with Victor. At this time Western Electric needed recordings to demonstrate the benefits of its electrical system over the existing acoustical (then termed “direct”) process. All three of harpist Francis Lapitino’s selections were available on commercial issues by Victor and could provide ready comparisons.

 

Christmas Hymns  acoustic  electric        

 

Humoresque  acoustic  electric

 

Victor installed Western Electric equipment in its Camden recording laboratory in early February 1925 and made its first electrical test recording on February 9. An electrical recording of “Malagueña” made by the Victor Concert Orchestra on February 23 aurally demonstrates how far the technology, and engineers’ mastery over the technology, had progressed in just a few months.

The earliest Western Electric recordings released by Victor were two experimental recordings made three days later, on February 26, by the company’s Eight Popular Victor Artists. The Western Electric system had proven itself, and Victor contracted for its commercial use on March 18, 1925.

Note that the February 23 recording also bears extensive technical markings, although they are of a different character as they were inscribed by Victor’s engineers and not Western Electric’s.

The engineers’ inscriptions on each disc follow, as do Harry O. Sooy’s recollections of the transition from direct recording to electrical recording.

 

 

© 2024 by David Giovannoni. All rights are reserved.

 

Harry O. Sooy on Victor’s Electrical Conversion

As Victor’s chief recording engineer, Harry Sooy oversaw the company’s conversion to electrical recording. Below are his recollections of that  transitional period, from the Harry and Raymond Sooy Memoirs at the Hagley Library (Wilmington, Delaware):