Vinyl always sounds better than CD

As described below, despite decades of arguments, there is no technical proof of the sonic superiority of the vinyl medium compared to CD. One vinyl record may sound better than its equivalent CD for extremely specific reasons. That does not mean the medium as a whole is superior.

Many people do prefer listening to music to vinyl rather than on CD or digital formats. Many of those reasons have nothing to do with actual sound quality, and have more to do with the tactile characteristics of vinyl – its “feel” – like larger artwork and its required playback ritual. Others prefer listening to CDs for a different set of reasons. There is nothing wrong with preferring vinyl to CDs, as long as the preference is honestly stated on emotional terms, or is precisely quantified and tied to subjective experience, and not obscured with (fallacious) technical appeals.

Vinyl requires a better-sounding master because it is physically incapable of reproducing the hypercompressed sound mastered to CD

Different masters can substantially improve or reduce sound quality. Some have less background noise. Some alter the dynamic range. There are other mastering techniques that can also affect the sound.

There are documented instances of different masters being used on vinyl releases compared to CD releases. One notable example is The White Stripes’ Icky Thump. However, there are also many documented instances of the same masters being used on vinyl releases compared to CD releases. In fact, if you purchase an album produced in the last two decades on vinyl, it is logical to assume that the master will be no better than on CD unless evidence is found to the contrary. Alternative masters for vinyl cost money, and mastering is a significant cost of producing a record. It is very likely that some producers – believing in the myth that vinyl is an inherently superior medium, as mentioned in other myths described here – will simply use the CD master for the vinyl release, believing that it will automatically yield a superior sound.

The technical details behind this myth are as follows. The cutting heads used for creating the vinyl lacquer (or metal mother) are speaker-like electromechanical devices driven by an extremely powerful amplifier (several hundred watts). At extremely large/fast cutting head excursions, the cutting head coils may physically burn up, much like how a speaker’s voice coils may be destroyed by an excessive current. Also, the diamond cutting head stylus may prematurely wear or break. This places important constraints on the maximum levels that can be recorded to a record.

A very high power output is required to cut grooves with a high acceleration. Acceleration at the same signal amplitude is higher for higher-frequency signals. Heavily clipped and limited CDs in the modern mastering style have more high-frequency content than earlier masters. In general, increasing the perceived volume of a record – whether by increasing the recording level or by limiting/clipping/compression – raises the cutting head average power.

Additionally, during playback, the turntable’s stylus has limits on what grooves it can successfully track. Cartridges can only track grooves of a finite modulation width (measured in microns) that decreases in frequency. For instance, a cartridge may only be able to track a 300 µm-wide groove at 300 Hz, and yet only 50 µm at 20 kHz. This also places limits on the acceleration and velocity limits the record master can take.

The most obvious way to work around these issues is simply to reduce the recording level of the vinyl master. Multiband limiters exist for recording purposes that dynamically reduce the treble content of the master, to limit the cutting head power usage.

The vinyl surface is heated to several hundred degrees on playback, and repeat play of the same track should wait at least several hours until the vinyl has cooled

Professional estimates for the stylus surface temperature during playback are 300-500 °F. Obviously, the temperature of the record is at or close to room temperature except at the stylus contact point – otherwise the record would completely melt. Back-to-back playback will introduce slightly more distortion than a fresh play. This is believed to be a temporary effect and goes away after approx. 10 minutes.

Repeated playback (no matter what the timeframe) carries the risk of permanent damage. Obviously, records are observed to wear out with repeated play. No published evidence exists of back-to-back playback causing any more permanent damage than if repeated plays are separated by any longer period of time.

Proper vinyl playback is click-free

Pops and clicks are often not audible during a song on a well-maintained record and should not distract from the listening experience. No evidence exists of a record that is shown to be played back with absolutely no pops or clicks whatsoever. They are introduced at virtually every stage of production, from cutting the lacquer to the pressing to the playback itself. Some pops and ticks are pressed into the record itself.

Some pops and ticks result from static discharges during playback. However, this may be mitigated by the use of topical treatments on the record.

Because of the lack of evidence for a tick-free record and the engineering factors making such a record extremely rare, it is quite likely that no record exists that is truly free from all pops and ticks.

Vinyl is better than CD because it reproduces higher frequencies than CD and avoids anti-aliasing filter issues at the frequencies CDs can reproduce

The recording/tracking ability of vinyl is easily at least 50 kHz and perhaps as high as 100 kHz. The most notably proof of this is the CD4 quadraphonic system which relied on a 45 kHz bandwidth to be accurately reproduced. That said, the high-frequency response accuracy of vinyl varies tremendously. Frequency deviations of 5-10 dB or greater are not uncommon in the 20 kHz range for many records.

Playback of ultrasound frequencies is still not guaranteed. Many MM cartridges have resonant peaks defined by the preamp loading, or stylus tip resonances defined by the cantilever, that attenuate high-frequency content.

When groove wear does occur, it occurs much faster at high frequencies than at low frequencies. For modern styli this is not as much of a concern, though.

There are rarely, if ever, any ultrasonic frequencies for vinyl to preserve. In audio recordings, such frequencies, when present, are normally low-energy noise imparted by electrical equipment and storage media used during recording, mixing, and mastering. Although some musical instruments can produce low-energy overtones in the ultrasonic range, they could only be on the vinyl if every piece of equipment and storage medium in the recording, mixing, and mastering stages was able to preserve them—which is unlikely even in modern recordings, since the average microphone or mixing console is designed only with audible frequencies in mind. Even if the overtones were preserved all the way to the mastering stage, mono and stereo lacquer cutting equipment typically includes a lowpass filter to avoid overheating the cutting head with ultrasonic frequencies.

Finally, on top of all of these issues, there is simply no scientific evidence that frequencies beyond the 22 kHz limit of CD audio are audible to any known group of people, or that such frequencies affect anyone’s perception of the audible range. There is no evidence that reconstruction and anti-aliasing issues are audible.

Vinyl is better than digital because the analog signal on the vinyl tracks the analog signal exactly, while digital is quantized into steps

PCM encoding (used on CDs and DVD-A) records audio data in a quantized format. Analog formats do not have a measurable time or signal resolution.

PCM is sometimes characterized as producing a jagged, “stair-step” waveform. This is only partially correct; analog-to-digital conversion (ADC) does indeed use a sample-and-hold circuit to measure an approximate, average amplitude across the duration of the sample, and digital-to-analog conversion (DAC) does the same kind of thing, generating a rectangular-ish waveform, but this output is always then subjected to additional filtering to smooth it out. Effectively, the ADC output sample values are interpreted as a series of points intersected by the waveform; the DAC output is a smooth curve, not a stair-step at all. Additionally, modern ADC and DAC chips are engineered to reduce below the threshold of audibility, if not completely eliminate, any other sources of noise in this conversion process, resulting in an extremely high correlation between the input and output signals.

PCM can encode time delays to any arbitrarily small length. Time delays of 1us or less – a tiny fraction of the sample rate – are easily achievable. The theoretical minimum delay is 1ns or less. (Proof here.)

With a correct implementation using dither, signal quantization (ie 16-bit or 24-bit) only adds wideband noise to the signal, not quantization distortion. If this dither noise is well below the already-present noise floor, it is inaudible.

Analog encoding still has many measurable and audible faults, potentially including harmonic distortion, noise and intermodulation distortion. These distortions have invariably measured higher than for digital formats, including CD.

The term “analog”, by definition, means that the signal is not and cannot be a perfect reproduction of the original – it is merely an “analogue” of the existing signal, corrupted in the process of encoding.

In short, by any numerical basis, vinyl is not as accurate as competing digital formats.

Vinyl has greater resolution than CD because its dynamic range is higher than for CD at the most audible frequencies

The dynamic range of vinyl, when evaluated as the ratio of a peak sinusoidal amplitude to the peak noise density at that sine wave frequency, is somewhere around 80 dB. Under theoretically ideal conditions, this could perhaps improve to 120 dB. The dynamic range of CDs, when evaluated on a frequency-dependent basis and performed with proper dithering and oversampling, is somewhere around 150 dB. Under no legitimate circumstances will the dynamic range of vinyl ever exceed the dynamic range of CD, under any frequency, given the wide performance gap and the physical limitations of vinyl playback.

Adding a penny to the headshell improves tracking/sound

The trackability of a cartridge is related to the mechanical parameters of the tonearm and stylus assembly. Adding weight to the headshell (and adjusting the counterweight to compensate) increases the effective mass of the tonearm and reduces its resonant frequency. If the resonant frequency is excessively high – 15-20 Hz as measured by a test record – the weight may improve trackability by moving the resonance out of the audible range. Otherwise, it will generally only reduce trackability.

A cartridge is permanently damaged and should be replaced if the stylus appears even slightly bent

Bent styli cause azimuth and alignment errors which may be audible. In extreme cases they can cause record damage. Cartridges are hand-built and always have some finite tolerance in their construction. No stylus is perfectly straight. That said, if a brand-new cartridge arrives visibly bent, it is probably a good idea to return it.

Belt-driven turntables are better than direct-drive turntables

Belt drives are far easier to implement than direct drives, easier to improve, and arguably easier to repair. Well built direct drives have speed and rumble tolerances as good or better than well built belt drives.

Subjective claims to the improved musicality and audio quality of belt drives are disputed and not well agreed upon by all listeners.

Belt drives hold their value just as poorly in the used market as direct drives.

Direct drive motors tend to last a very long time (some original-model SL1200s may still run without any maintenance). Belt drives need new belts on a semi-regular basis and tend to have noisier motors at the same price ranges as direct drives.

There is a common myth that a direct drive will “hunt” for the correct speed and cause audible speed variations. This has no basis in reality.

It is believed that direct drives are better at handling dynamic stylus friction than belt drives, except in cases of very poor direct drives or very good belt drives.

Some examples do exist of direct drives of inferior quality.

Stock tonearms on direct drives tend to be much less expensive than the tonearms that come with belt drives at similar price points.

via: Hydrogenaudio

On this day in 1964, the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show for the first time, as teenage girls screamed hysterically in the audience and 73 million people watched from home — a record for American television at the time. Their appearance on the show is considered the beginning of the “British Invasion” of music in the United States. The Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show the following two Sundays in a row, as well. On this first time, exactly 47 years ago today, they sang “All My Loving,” “Till There Was You,” “She Loves You,” “I Saw Her Standing There,” and finally “I Want to Hold Your Hand” — which had just hit No. 1 on the charts.

Lindisfarne were a British folk/rock group from Newcastle upon Tyne established in 1970 (originally called Brethren and fronted by singer/songwriter Alan Hull. Their music combined a strong sense of yearning with an even stronger sense of fun. The original line-up comprised Alan Hull (vocals, guitar, piano), Ray Jackson (vocals, mandolin, harmonica), Simon Cowe (guitar, mandolin, banjo), Rod Clements (bass guitar, violin) and Ray Laidlaw (drums).

They are best known for the albums Nicely Out of Tune (1970), Fog on the Tyne (1971) and Back and Fourth (1978), also for the success of songs such as “Meet Me On The Corner”, “Lady Eleanor”, “Run For Home” and “We Can Swing Together”.

The group began as The Downtown Faction, led by Rod Clements, but soon changed their name to Brethren. In 1968, they were joined by Alan Hull and became Lindisfarne after the island of that name off the coast of Northumberland. In 1970 Tony Stratton-Smith signed them to Charisma Records and their debut album Nicely Out of Tune was released in 1970. This album defined their mixture of bright harmony and up tempo folk rock. Both singles released from the album “Clear White Light” and “Lady Eleanor” failed to chart, as did the album itself at first, however the band obtained a strong following from its popular live concerts.

Their second album Fog on the Tyne (1971), produced by Bob Johnston, began their commercial success. This album reached #1 in the UK charts the following year. The single “Meet me on the Corner” and a re-release of “Lady Eleanor” followed in 1972. The album Nicely Out Of Tune belatedly made the UK album chart Top 10 and the band began to attract a huge media following, with some calling Hull the greatest songwriter since Bob Dylan. The band were even referred to as the “1970s Beatles”.

in 1972 they recorded their third album, Dingly Dell. The band were unhappy with the initial production and remixed it themselves. It was released in September 1972. Though it entered the Top 10 in the first week of release, it received lukewarm reviews. The ecologically themed single “All Fall Down” was a UK Singles Chart #34 hit but the second single “Court in the Act” failed completely.

Internal tensions surfaced during a disappointing tour of Australia in early 1973. Hull initially considered leaving the band, but was persuaded to reconsider. It was agreed that he and Jackson would keep the group name while Cowe, Clements and Laidlaw left to form their own outfit Jack The Lad. They were replaced by Tommy Duffy (bass guitar), Kenny Craddock (keyboards), Charlie Harcourt (guitar) and Paul Nicholl (drums). The new line-up lacked the appeal of the original and with Hull also pursuing a solo career, the band’s next two albums Roll On Ruby and Happy Daze and the subsequent singles failed to chart. They disbanded in 1975.

The original band reformed in 1976 to perform a one-off gig in Newcastle City Hall, but the revival ultimately became permanent. They gained a new record deal with Mercury returned to the charts in 1978 with the UK chart top 10 hit “Run For Home”, an autobiographical song about the rigours of touring and relief at returning home. The song also gave them a US singles chart hit and the album Back and Fourth moved into the UK album chart top 30. Subsequent singles “Juke Box Gypsy” and “Warm Feeling” failed to sustain their newfound success. The next album The News (1979) failed to impress and the band lost their record deal.

The next decade witnessed various lineup changes and the band continued to release albums. They formed their own company Lindisfarne Musical Productions and recorded singles such as “I Must Stop Going To Parties” in the mid-1980s, as well as the album Sleepless Nights. In 1984 they supported Bob Dylan and Santana at St James’ Park. Saxophone player and vocalist Marty Craggs joined the group shortly afterwards. Throughout this period they played annual Christmas tours and released Dance Your Life Away(1986) and C’mon Everybody(1987) – the latter made up of covers of old rock’n’roll standards.

Another album, Amigos, was released in 1989. In 1990 Lindisfarne introduced themselves to a younger generation with the duet “Fog on the Tyne Revisited” accompanied by footballer Paul Gascoigne, which reached #2 in the UK singles chart. Soon afterwards Jackson left the band. Cowe left in 1993, shortly after the recording of the album Elvis Lives On The Moon. Hull died on 17 November 1995, but the surviving members continued to use the name.

The band continued to play with a fluid line up, releasing two studio albums, Here Comes The Neighbourhood (1997) and Promenade (2002). A number of live albums were also released.

Lindisfarne finally broke up in late 2003, performing a final concert on 1 November 2003 at the Newcastle Opera House. The final line up as a band included Dave Hull-Denholm, Billy Mitchell, Rod Clements, Ian Thomson and Ray Laidlaw. Three members continued to tour under the name Lindisfarne Acoustic until May 2004.

On 19 November 2005 the friends and colleagues of Alan Hull held a memorial concert at Newcastle City Hall in honour of Hull and included musicians such as Alan Clark, Simon Cowe, Marty Craggs, Steve Cunningham, Steve Daggett, Tommy Duffy, Mike Elliot, Frankie Gibbon, Charlie Harcourt, Brendan Healy, Tim Healy, Ray Jackson, Ray Laidlaw, Finn McArdle, Ian McCallum, Billy Mitchell, Terry Morgan, The Motorettes, Jimmy Nail, Paul Nichols, Tom Pickard, Prelude, Bob Smeaton, Paul Smith and Kathryn Tickell. Proceeds from the concert were donated to The North East Young Musicians Fund. The Alan Hull Award for young musicians in the North East was set up a year later in response to the success of the concert.

Deconstructing Dad is a documentary dedicated to Raymond Scott, one of the true geniuses of the past century. As (hopefully) most of you will know, he was an accomplished musician, a very original composer and the inventor of some revolutionary electronic musical instruments.

A detailed description of Raymond Scott’s work would take too much space here. I’d recommend having a look at the Wikipedia page and at the lovelyofficial site.

Deconstructing Dad, now available on dvd, is directed and produced by Stan Warnow, Raymond’s son from his first marriage. It’s a an act of love, a virtual reconciliation with someone who’s never been a perfect father. The documentary, while not extremely focused on musical or technical details, is a very interesting journey into Raymond Scott’s life and carreer.

It’s cool to see the few rare clips of Raymond Scott’s bands in action, and to hear some phone conversations (yes, he used to record private conversations, that was part of his technology addiction). Also, the interviews with people like Jeff Winner (co-producer and founder of the official Raymond Scott Archives), Hal Willner, Don Byron, Williams, Herb Deutsch (Moog co-inventor) etc. help understanding Scott’s personality and approach to music.

There’s a passage in the movie which tells a lot about Scott’s approach and evolution: with his bands he was playing jazz, but it was not actually jazz. I mean, the instrumentation and the language could be defined as such, but the approach was completely different.
Control is the keyword here. He wanted to be in control. No improvisation, almost a sacrilege for jazz purists!
This clearly explains why later he fell in love with creating and using electronic instruments. In his lab (which looked incredible, by the way) he finally had complete control over the whole musical process. And, as far as we know, the tools he created were really unique and ahead of his time. In the fifties he had created a synthesizer, the Clavivox, and a polyphonic sequencer, before these words even existed.

But he wanted more, he was dreaming of an intelligent machine, able to automatically generate music. And he created one, the Electronium, which was also bought by Barry Gordy, Motown’s godfather (which hired Scott at Motown too, as researcher). Raymond Scott was definitely not interested in marketing his creatures. For him they were all a huge “work in progress”, he was constantly working to improve them, and that explains why years later he was fired by Gordy, tired of investing so much money on machines that were not ready to be shown to potential customers yet.
Raymond Scott to me is a sort of modern Leonardo Da Vinci: a perfect, rare, visionary mix of art and craft skills.

As said, this documentary is more about the man than about his music or his creations. While this leaves space to other, more specialized analysis of his work as composer and inventor, I’d definitely recommend watching Deconstructing Dad. It’s an excellent, intimate and original introduction to Raymond Scott’s genius.

Via:  Audio News Room

I had a chance to see the documentary “The Wrecking Crew” a few weeks ago. This documentary is a is a journey back to an era in the music industry that will never come again.  I hope that you have a chance to view the movie or visit the website http://wreckingcrew.tv/

The Wrecking Crew was a nickname coined by the drummer Hal Blaine after the fact for a group of session musicians in Los Angeles, California, who earned wide acclaim in the 1960s. They backed dozens of popular singers, and were one of the most successful “groups” of studio musicians in music history. The Wrecking Crew were inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame on November 26, 2007.

The Wrecking Crew’s members typically had backgrounds in jazz or classical music, but were highly versatile. The talents of this group of ‘first call’ players were used on almost every style of recording, including television theme songs, film scores, advertising jingles and almost every genre of American popular music, from The Monkees to Bing Crosby. Notable artists employing the Wrecking Crew’s talents included Nancy Sinatra, Bobby Vee, The Partridge Family, The Mamas & the Papas, The Carpenters, The 5th Dimension, John Denver, The Beach Boys, Simon & Garfunkel, and Nat King Cole.

The figures most often associated with the Wrecking Crew are producer Phil Spector (who used the Crew to create his trademark “Wall of Sound”), and Beach Boys leader Brian Wilson, who used the Crew’s talents on many of his mid-1960s productions including the songs “Good Vibrations”, “California Girls”, the acclaimed album Pet Sounds, and the original recordings for Smile. Members of the Wrecking Crew played on the first Byrds single recording, “Mr. Tambourine Man”, because Columbia Records did not trust the skills of Byrd musicians except for Roger McGuinn. Further recordings of the Byrds were conditional on the success of the single. All of the Byrds played on their subsequent recordings. Spector used the Wrecking Crew on Leonard Cohen’s fifth album, Death of a Ladies’ Man.

According to Blaine, the name “The Wrecking Crew” was derived from the impression that he and the younger studio musicians made on the business’s older generation, who felt that they were going to wreck the music industry.

Members

Members of ‘The Wrecking Crew’ included:

▪   guitar: Glen Campbell, Barney Kessel, Tommy Tedesco, Al Casey, Carol Kaye, Billy Strange, Don Peake, Howard Roberts, James Burton, Jerry Cole, Bill Aken, Mike Deasy, Doug Bartenfeld, Ray Pohlman, Bill Pitman, Irv Rubins

▪   saxophone: Steve Douglas, Jay Migliori, Jim Horn, Plas Johnson, Nino Tempo, Gene Cipriano

▪   trumpet: Roy Caton (contractor), Tony Terran, Ollie Mitchell

▪   trombone: Lou Blackburn, Richard “Slyde” Hyde, Lew McCreary

▪   keyboards: Leon Russell, Mac Rebennack (aka Dr. John), Mike Melvoin, Don Randi, Larry Knechtel, Al Delory, Mike (Michel) Rubini

▪   bass: Carol Kaye, Joe Osborn, Max Bennett, Chuck Berghofer, Ray Pohlman, Larry Knechtel, Lyle Ritz, Jimmy Bond (007), Bill Pitman

▪   drums: Hal Blaine, Earl Palmer, Jim Gordon

▪   percussion: Julius Wechter, Gary L. Coleman, Frank Capp (contractor)

▪   conductor/arranger: Jack Nitzsche

▪   harmonica: Tommy Morgan

▪   The Ron Hicklin Singers often performed backup vocals on many of the same songs on which The Wrecking Crew had played instrumental tracks.

Though not an official member, Sonny Bono did hang out and contribute to sessions recorded by the Crew.

Glen Campbell later achieved solo fame as a singer-guitarist in the 1960s and 1970s, and Leon Russell and Mac Rebennack (as Dr. John) both went on to be successful songwriters and had hit singles and albums. Also, Nino Tempo with his sister Carol (under her stage name April Stevens) had a U.S. #1 hit song in 1963, “Deep Purple”. Otherwise, the best-known ‘members’ of this unofficial group are bassist/guitarist Carol Kaye, one of the few female instrumentalists to achieve success in the recording industry at the time; and drummer Hal Blaine, who has played on tens of thousands of recording sessions, including Sinatra’s, and is believed by some to be the most recorded drummer in history. Among his vast list of recordings, Blaine is credited with having played on at least forty U.S. #1 hits and more than 150 Top Ten records.

Al Casey worked for many years as a session musician. Jim Gordon also drummed on many well known recording sessions and was the drummer in the groups Derek and the Dominos, and Traffic. Ray Pohlman doubled on both bass and guitar, and started heading sessions in the 1950s with a regular group of musicians including, Mel Pollen, Earl Palmer, Bill Aken (aka Zane Ashton), Al Casey, and others. Pohlman would also become the musical director for the TV show Shindig, while Aken became musical director on “Shock Theatre,” both shows being nationally televised. Aken was also musical director on the critically acclaimed syndicated radio show “The Country Call Line” in the mid 1980s. Aken also conceived, arranged, and produced the music for the very first ‘Farm-Aid’ radio special in collaboration with Willie Nelson and LeRoy Van Dyke.

The Wrecking Crew worked long hours and 15-hour days were not unusual, although the rewards were great — Carol Kaye has commented that during her peak as a session musician, she earned more per year than the President.

The Wrecking Crew were featured in the 95-minute 2008 film The Wrecking Crew directed by Tommy Tedesco’s son, Denny Tedesco. The film has screened at several festivals and was featured on National Public Radio, but it has not yet been commercially released.

The Wrecking Crew, or at least part of it, was the house band for 1964′s The T.A.M.I. Show.

Via Wikipedia

One March morning in 2008, Carlene Stephens, curator of the National Museum of American History’s division of work and industry, was reading the New York Times when a drawing caught her eye. She recognized it as a phonautograph, a device held in the museum’s collections. Credited to a Frenchman named Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville in 1857, the phonautograph recorded sound waves as squiggles on soot-covered paper, but could not play those sounds back.

The article reported that scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California, had managed the seemingly impossible. They played back the sounds. Using equipment housed at the Library of Congress, Carl Haber, a senior scientist in the lab’s physics division, took high resolution digital images of a phonautogram found in a Paris archive. Using computer software, Haber analyzed the images and extracted from the recording a 10-second clip of the French folk song “Au Clair de la Lune.” Made on April 9, 1860, the sound snippet predates the oldest known playable sound recording— Handel’s oratorio, made by Thomas Edison and his associates in 1888.

“When I read the article, I thought, oh my gosh,” says Stephens. The American History Museum has about 400 of the earliest audio recordings ever made. Pioneers (and competitors) Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell and Emile Berliner donated the recordings and other documentation to the Smithsonian in the late 19th century. The inventors conducted experiments from 1878 to 1898, and stashed their research notes and materials at the Smithsonian, in part to establish a body of evidence should their patents ever be disputed.

There are a few cryptic inscriptions on the wax discs and cylinders and some notes from past curators. But historians did not have the means to play them. Stephens realized that a breakthrough was at hand.

“I have been taking care of these silent recordings for decades. Maybe finally we could get some sound out,” says Stephens.

So she contacted Haber and Peter Alyea, a digital conversion specialist at the Library of Congress. Stephens called their attention to a group of recordings made in the 1880s by Alexander Graham Bell, his cousin Chichester Bell and another associate Charles Sumner Tainter. The team had created an early R&D facility at Washington, D.C.’s Dupont Circle, called Volta Laboratory. (Today, the site is home to Julia’s Empanadas at 1221 Connecticut Avenue.)

“From 1881 to 1885, they were recording sound mechanically. They recorded sound magnetically. They recorded sound optically, with light. They tried to reproduce sound with mechanical tools, also with jets of air and liquid. It was an explosion of ideas that they tried,” says Haber. “There are periods of time when a certain group of people end up in a certain place and a lot of music gets created, or art—Paris in the 1920s and ’30s. There are these magic moments, and I think that historians and scholars of technology and invention are viewing Washington in the 1880s as being one of those moments.”

Eager to hear the content, Haber and Alyea selected six recordings—some wax discs with cardboard backing, others wax on metal and glass discs with photographically recorded sound—for a pilot project.

“We tried to choose examples that highlighted the diversity of the collection,” says Haber. In the last year, they have put the recordings through their sound recovery process, and on Tuesday, at the Library of Congress, the pair shared a first listen with a small audience of researchers and journalists.

The snippets are crude and somewhat garbled, but with a little help from Haber, who has spent hours and hours studying them, those of us in the room could make out what was being said. “To be or not to be, that is the question,” declared a speaker, who proceeded to deliver a portion of Hamlet’s famous soliloquy on one disc. A male voice repeated a trill sound as a sound check of sorts and counted to six on another. From one recorded in 1884, a man enunciated the word “barometer” five times. And on yet another, a voice states the date—”It’s the 11th day of March 1885″—and repeats some verses of “Mary had a little lamb.”

In fact, during one recitation of the nursery rhyme, the recorders experience some sort of technical difficulty, made obvious by a somewhat indiscernible exclamation of frustration. “It is probably the first recorded example of someone being disappointed,” jokes Haber.

The National Museum of American History hopes to continue this partnership with Lawrence Berkeley and the Library of Congress so that more of the sound experiments captured on early recordings can be made audible. At this point, the voices on the newly revealed recordings are unknown. But Stephens thinks that as researchers listen to more, they may be able to identify the speakers. In its collection, the museum has a transcript of a recording made by Alexander Graham Bell himself. Could the inventor’s voice be on one of the 200 Volta recordings?

“It is possible,” says Stephens.

via From the Collections, Sound Recordings Heard for the First Time.

With compact discs going the way of cassettes, it’s unlikely that anyone under the age of, say, 40 even knows what an eight-track tape is. But those who remember–or are just plain curious–will have a place to gather on Valentine’s Day when the Eight Track Museum opens in Dallas’s Deep Ellum arts district.

On display in the museum’s inaugural Conceived In Cars/Birth Of The Eight Track 1965 exhibition will be hundreds of eight-track cartridges, including all Beatles albums released in the format. Also featured is the extremely rare folding eight-track–a variation introduced in response to the audiocassette and marketed for only a few months in 1970.

The museum’s Deep Ellum Foundation building location on East Commerce Street will also house the Cloud 8 Gift Shop, which will offer museum t-shirts, vintage LPs and CDs, and of course, eight-tracks.

Cloud 8 is the name of colorful museum founder Bucks Burnett’s “dead format” eight-track only label. He has now renamed his three-year-old Earotica Music retail store, located in the Dolly Python complex on Haskell Avenue, Cloud 8–”in solidarity” with the museum’s retail division.

Burnett came up with the idea for the museum 20 years ago.

“I had a used record store called 14 Records and sold eight-tracks initially as a novelty,” recalls Burnett, whose other timeless endeavors include the launch of the Mister Ed Fan Club in 1975 (the members of Monty Python were its first members, with Andy Warhol and Alice Cooper joining later) and organizing the Edstock Festival in 1984 (Alan Young, who played Wilbur, was there, and Joe Ely, T Bone Burnett [no relation] and Tiny Tim–whom Bucks produced and managed–performed).

“But they started selling–and actually quite well,” he continues. “I set up a whole eight-track display area because I was the only game in town. This was pre-eBay–the early ’90s–and when I closed the store in ’95, I jokingly said I’d start an eight-track museum.”

By then, of course, the eight-track audiotape configuration was long extinct. The approximately 5 1/4 x 4 x 4/5-in. format became wildly popular in cars after their 1965 debut, but had long since fallen out of favor by its demise in 1989–thanks to the audiocassette tape’s smaller size and easier portability.

“It was sort of a joke, but I kind of meant it when I said it–and 20 years later I’m finally doing it!” Burnett says of his museum concept. “When I first bought the eight-track Beatles White Album in 1988 at a garage sale, I fell in love with it as an outdated but cool relic–and an official Beatles product even if it was an eight-track. Five years later I had a complete Beatles eight-track collection! I had to actually go painstakingly to thrift stores and flea markets back then to be an eight-track collector, whereas now it’s a few clicks on eBay–though even on eBay some stuff doesn’t turn up, or it’s very expensive because eight-tracks have risen in value over the past 15 years.”

Burnett partly blames himself for the increase in respect and corresponding price of eight-track tapes as collectible artifacts–some selling for $100 and up at auction.

“I got a lot of publicity 20 years ago just for selling them as collectibles, and raised prices on classic Led Zeppelin or Pink Floyd eight-tracks from $5 to $20,” he acknowledges. “Pink Floyd’s The Wall CD is $20, but the eight-track should be $25. I sold a Sex Pistols eight-track in ’92 for $100 and it went out as a wire story and got picked up nationally and in Goldmine Magazine, and I actually got hate mail from eight-track collectors saying, ‘Thanks! My eight-track days are over.’ But I figure it was good for the Sex Pistols’ career.”

Burnett eventually got an astonished Johnny Rotten to autograph a Sex Pistols eight-track. After closing 14 Records (named, he says, because the number 14 “sounded like a lot of records–more than you can count on two hands”), he found he missed being “an important member of the eight-track community.”

He staged a first exhibit of eight-tracks from his private collection in October, 2009, at the prestigious Barry Whistler Gallery, and drew 300 people opening night–with another 50 to 100 showing up for each of the event’s following three days. A second exhibit was held last March near the town square in Denton, Texas, and featured a special celebration of the 35th anniversary of Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music.

“Eight-tracks are still considered a joke–and I’m having a good laugh myself–but at the same time, with the success of the art gallery exhibit I knew I’d get phone calls,” he tells a reporter. “You’re one of them!”

Burnett held a one-day “soft” opening for the museum on Christmas as a test, and says that 150 people showed in six hours.

“We sold a ton of t-shirts,” he says, noting that the Cloud 8 Gift Shop also sells all formats of music, books and “rock junk of any kind.” The museum itself displays all audio formats from wax cylinders to iPods, in addition to over 2,000 eight-tracks.

The Valentine’s Day grand opening will be highlighted by performances by Dallas band The O’s, whose new album Between The Two will be released in a Cloud 8 limited edition eight-track version, and Dallas songwriter Stu Dicious. Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz, the nucleus of Talking Heads offshoot Tom Tom Club, will be present to sign Cloud 8′s version of their latest album Genius Of Live, being released in a special 30-piece eight-track edition in commemoration of the legendary band’s 30th anniversary.

“We feel inspired and astonished that in our thirtieth year, Genius of Live will be available through a technology platform that is clearly on the rebound from obscurity to its rightful place as the transcendent format of the 21st century,” states Weymouth and Frantz.

Burnett has made a “video guided tour” of the museum to let people know that the Eight Track Museum is for real, and is wrapping up a documentary about eight-tracks, Spinal Tape, that he began filming in 1992 and will include commentary from Jimmy Page, Tiny Tim, Talking Heads, the Velvet Underground’s Sterling Morrison and Black Oak Arkansas’ frontman Jim “Dandy” Mangrum. He’s also writing a book about the tape format.

“We want to introduce the concept of the eight-track as a limited-edition collector’s item format with the goal of having release parties for artists, who sign and number them and sell them out literally overnight,” says Burnett. “It creates a buzz for the bands and the museum.”

Although “you can buy really great working players on eBay any day of the week,” Burnett is not starting Cloud 8 for people to play eight-tracks so much as collect them.

“I don’t even play eight-tracks,” he says. “I just collect. I think they’re cool artistic relics. Think of how great Led Zeppelin album covers are, and imagine lining up all 10 eight-tracks side-by-side, with all the different-color plastics backing up that great cover art. They look cooler than LPs, and they’re harder to get!”

By Jim Bessman Baby Boomer Entertainment Examine February 3, 2011

Continue reading on Examiner.com

Creative Audio Works recently acquired 2 channels of Ampex 350 electronics for use in our new mix/mastering suite, which is expected to come online in March.  The Ampex 350 electronics came with the original estimate addressed to Milton Yakus of Ace Recording Studio, Boston, MA.  Milton Yakus was best known for co-writing the song “Old Cape Cod” along with writers Claire Rothrock, and Allan Jeffrey, made famous by Patti Page peaking at number 3 on the Billboard 100 list in 1957.

Milton Yakus’s son Shelly is considered one of the best engineers and mixers in the music industry. Formerly chief engineer and vice president of A&M Records. Yakus’ engineering work has help sell in excess of one hundred million records, equaling over one billion dollars in sales. He was nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999.

Shelly Yakus has engineered recordings for many performers, including John Lennon, The Ramones, U2, Tom Petty, Van Morrison, Alice Cooper, The Band, Blue Öyster Cult, Dire Straits, Don Henley, Madonna, Stevie Nicks, The Pointer Sisters, Lou Reed, Bob Seger, Patti Smith, Suzanne Vega, and Warren Zevon. He acted as Assistant Engineer (1967–1969) for recordings by Dionne Warwick, Peter, Paul & Mary, Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons, Count Basie & His Orchestra, and Frank Sinatra.

Every audiophile including myself has sometimes fantasized about the components he’d or she would get if unlimited funds where available, the most knowledgeable design engineers to serve him, and a couple of highly qualified technicians for construction and installation. But that’s where it ends for most of us–as an occasional fantasy.

Please check out the Dick Burwen home audio system from 1976

Ramsey Lewis was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Ramsey Lewis, Sr. and Pauline Lewis. Lewis began taking piano lessons at the age of four. At 15 he joined his first jazz band, The Cleffs. The seven-piece group provided Lewis his first involvement with jazz; he would later join Cleffs drummer Isaac “Redd” Holt and bassist Eldee Young to form the Ramsey Lewis Trio. Lewis is a graduate of DePaul University.

The trio started as primarily a jazz unit and released their first album, Ramsey Lewis And The Gentlemen of Swing, in 1956. Following their 1965 hit “The In Crowd” (the single reached #5 on the pop charts, and the album #2) they concentrated more on pop material. Young and Holt left in 1966 to form Young-Holt Unlimited and were replaced by Cleveland Eaton and Maurice White. White left to form Earth, Wind & Fire was replaced by Maurice Jennings in 1970. Later, Frankie Donaldson and Bill Dickens replaced Jennings and Eaton; Felton Crews also appeared on many 1980′s releases.

“The ‘In’ Crowd” is a 1965 song, written by Billy Page, arranged by his brother Gene. Dobie Gray originally performed it on his album Dobie Gray Sings for ‘In’ Crowders That ‘Go Go. His Motown-like version reached #13 in the US Billboard charts.

The Ramsey Lewis Trio recorded an instrumental version of the tune later that same year at the suggestion of a coffee shop waitress. Their jazzy take, recorded live in a Washington, D.C. nightclub, reached # 5. The Ramsey Lewis Trio also recorded a smooth jazz version of the song for the 2004 album Time Flies, 39 years after recording their original instrumental version.

The tools of the musical trade have their own special mystique, never more so than in the case of the Rolling Stones, whose lifespan and legacy with technology stretches back deep into the warm and fuzzy world of analogue.

The band’s first recording session,for example, took place in a back room on Denmark Street, London, where the ‘deck’ was nothing more than a two-track tape recorder, nailed to the wall rather than sitting on the table to provide the ‘studio’ with some semblance of professionalism.

This an exclusive collection shot recently for rollingstones.com at one of the many secret archive warehouses dotted around the world, an Aladdin’s cave of arcane instrumental and amplification technology that saw active service on the frontline with The Rolling Stones at the height of the fighting.

Look, learn and enjoy…

Earth, Wind & Fire is an American R&B and funk band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1969 by Verdine and Maurice White. Also known as EWF, the band has won six Grammy Awards and four American Music Awards. They have been inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame. Rolling Stone has described them as “innovative, precise yet sensual, calculated yet galvanizing” and has also declared that the band “changed the sound of black pop”. In 1998, they were ranked at number 60 on VH1′s list of the 100 Greatest Artists of Rock N’ Roll.

The band’s music contains elements of African, Latin American, funk, soul, pop and rock music, jazz and other genres. The band is known for the dynamic sound of their horn section, and the interplay between the contrasting vocals of Philip Bailey’s falsetto and Maurice White’s tenor.  The kalimba (African thumb piano) is played on all of the band’s albums.

“That’s the Way of the World” is a song by the R&B band Earth, Wind & Fire and is also the title track of their album That’s the Way of the World. Written by Charles Stepney, Maurice White and Verdine White for Columbia Records, “That’s the Way of the World” was released as a single in many countries and reached number 12 and number 5 on the US Pop and Black Singles charts. It ranks #329 on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list.

Various kinds of thumb pianos have existed in Africa for thousands of years. The keys were originally made of bamboo but over the years metal keys have been developed. The instrument is known by different names in different regions of Africa, including Mbira, Mbila, Mbira Huru, Mbira Njari, Mbira Nyunga, Marimba, Karimba, Kalimba, Likembe, Okeme, as well as marímbula (also called kalimba) in the Caribbean Islands.

The kalimba appears to have been invented twice in Africa: a wood or bamboo-tined instrument appeared on the west coast of Africa about 3000 years ago, and metal-tined lamellophones appeared in the Zambezi River valley around 1,300 years ago (Kubik, 1998). These metal-tined instruments traveled all across the continent and differentiated in their physical form and social uses as they spread. Kalimba-like instruments came to exist from the northern reaches of North Africa to the southern extent of the Kalahari desert, and from the east coast to the west coast, though many or most groups of people in Africa did not possess kalimbas. There were thousands of different tunings, different note layouts, and different instrument designs, but there is a compelling case from Andrew Tracey about a hypothetical tuning and note layout of the original metal-tined instrument from 1,300 years ago.

The Thumb Piano

The thumb piano was typically played while walking by traveling Griots, African poet bards who keep the history of the tribe or village, and to entertain people with songs, stories, poems, dances, etc. It was thought in ancient times that the thumb piano was able to project its sound into the heavens and could draw down spirits to the earth. Some of them were evil spirits so the people would stop playing the music until the spirits had departed from the area.

Many players and griot clans have their own idiosyncratic tunings. Most of the time the instrument is played solo and tuning is not as critical as when playing with other musicians. But the tuning can be changed by adjusting the length of the metal tines inward or outward. It is also often an important instrument to be played at religious ceremonies, weddings, and other social gatherings. It is a particularly common musical instrument of the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Shona people of Zimbabwe.

In the mid 1900’s the instrument was the basis for the development of the Kalimba, a westernized thumb piano designed and marketed by the ethnomusicologist Hugh Tracey. This has become very important in popularizing the instrument outside of Africa. While the arrangement of notes on a thumb piano is considerably different from those on a piano or guitar, their arrangement is fairly intuitive, and it is considered to be an instrument easily learned. This quality is exploited in many elementary schools who use the thumb piano as an entry-level instrument. One of its indigenous names for this instrument can be translated as “The thing that makes walking easier” and as such it could be considered “the first walkman.”

Via Wikipedia

Here is a tool used to teach listening techniques. Version 2.04 of Harman How to Listen is now available for download here. Also an updated the user’s manual to help navigate around some installation issues some users have reported.

Imagine never having listened to Abbey Road. No, imagine never having listened to Abbey Road but being featured right on the cover. Paul Cole was accidentally included in the album as he watched the foursome one by one cross the street while on vacation in London. He thought they were just 4 “kooks.” Yes, just 4 world renowned kooks!

Manhatta documents the look of early-20th-century Manhattan. With the city as subject, the film consists of 65 shots sequenced in a loose non-narrative structure, beginning with a ferry approaching Manhattan and ending with a sunset view from a skyscraper. The primary objective of the film is to explore the relationship between photography and film; camera movement is kept to a minimum, as is incidental motion within each shot. Each frame provides a view of the city that has been carefully arranged into abstract compositions.

The film was an attempt to show the filmmakers’ love for the city of New York. Manhattawas a collaboration between painter Charles Sheeler and photographer Paul Strand. The intertitles include excerpts from the writings of Walt Whitman.

The music score is provided by The Cinematic Orchestra.  In both live and studio contexts, employs a live band which improvises along with a turntablist and electronic elements such as samples provided by Swinscoe. In their studio releases Swinscoe will often remix the live source material to produce a combination of live jazz improvisation with electronica, such that it is difficult to tell where the improvisation ends and the production begins.

Simon Gibson one of Abbey Road Studios’ most experienced mastering engineers, talks us through the process of restoration and remastering of the works of  Wilhelm Furtwängler.

Wilhelm Furtwängler (January 25, 1886 – November 30, 1954) was a German conductor and composer. He is widely considered to have been one of the greatest symphonic and operatic conductors of the 20th century. By the 1930s he had built a reputation as one of the leading conductors in Europe.  Even today, many musicians, critics and record collectors still revere him for his very subjective conducting style, which is often compared and contrasted to the more objective style of Arturo Toscanini, who was probably the most famous conductor at the time. Like Toscanini, Furtwängler was a major influence on many later conductors, and his name is often mentioned when discussing their interpretive style.

The Seeburg 1000 background music system was introduced in 1963 in which to provide background music or “elevator music” as we know it today for shoppers in stores, or factory workers etc. The video incorrectly states that it is a 1959 model. These units played a special record designed by Seeburg 2″ diameter center hole 16-2/3 RPM disk. The machine was designed to provide continuous play of up to 25 disks, 20 songs per side, hence the name “1000″. At the end of the last record, the changer would lift the stack up to the top of the changer spindle for another round of playing. This would continue indefinitely until the machine would be switched off manually. This video shows the mechanical operation. Notice that there are two needles on both sides of the tone arm. The machine plays either side of the record without manually turning it over. Records were issued by Seeburg throughout the year so the same songs would not be heard over and over. When a new set of records were issued, the previous set was to be returned to Seeburg due to copyright laws. The songs are always instrumental arrangements, often by orchestras never heard of before. Unfortunately, there is no reference as to the name and orchestra of the individual songs. Some songs heard are instrumental arrangements of popular tunes with lyrics from that time the record was introduced. Records were dated as to when they were to be put in service. The record in this demo is dated for use on 12-26-64 and is an unknown “1950′s” sounding instrumental. Due to an apparent eccentric idler wheels, these units produce a lot of wow and flutter, which seems to be common for these at this age. These units were 100% solid state when introduced. You might see the PA microphone inside the storage compartment in this video. Obviously they played over speaker systems throughout the building and the unit itself has its own built-in monitor speaker.

Bob Ludwig is an American mastering engineer.

He is a well-known and respected figure within the music industry.  His name is credited on the covers of albums released across the world, and he has won numerous awards.

Throughout his career, he has mastered recordings on all the major recording formats for all the major record labels, and on projects for many artists such as AC/DC, Rush, Jimi Hendrix, Paul McCartney, Madonna, Eric Clapton, David Bowie, Rolling Stones, Foo Fighters, Nirvana, Green Day, and The Who as well as for more than 1300 other artists .

As an 8-year-old child in South Salem, New York, Ludwig was so fascinated with his first tape recorder he used to make recordings of whatever was on the radio. Ludwig is a classical musician by training, having obtained his Bachelor’s and Master’s degree from the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester, New York, where he was also involved in the sound department and played Principal Trumpet with the Utica Symphony Orchestra. Inspired by Phil Ramone when he came to the school to teach a summer recording workshop, he ended up working as his assistant. Afterward, he was contacted again and offered work with Ramone at A&R Recording. Together, they did sessions on projects with The Band, Peter, Paul & Mary, Neil Diamond, and Frank Sinatra.

After a few years at A&R, Ludwig received an offer from Sterling Sound, where he eventually rose to become a Vice-President. After seven years at Sterling, he moved to its larger direct competitor, Masterdisk, where he was Vice President and Chief Engineer. In 1993, Ludwig decided to take control over his career by starting his own record-mastering facility in Portland, Maine named Gateway Mastering.

His mastering credits are extensive, and include albums for many major classical artists, such as the Kronos Quartet, and rock acts, including Jimi Hendrix, Megadeth, Metallica, Gloria Estefan, Nirvana, The Strokes, Queen, U2, Guns N’ Roses, Richie Sambora, Simple Minds, Bryan Ferry, Tori Amos, Bonnie Raitt, Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, the Bee Gees, Madonna, Will Ackerman, Pet Shop Boys and Radiohead.

He has occasionally undertaken long projects, such as remastering the entire back catalogues of Rush, Dire Straits, Creedence Clearwater Revival and The Rolling Stones, Ludwig cites his most musically satisfying projects as: the CD reissue of Music From Big Pink (The Band), There’s a Riot Goin’ On (Sly and the Family Stone) and Led Zeppelin II.

Via Wikepedia

George Harrison: Living in the Material World Slated To Open October 11, 2011

LOS ANGELES (September 8, 2011) — The GRAMMY Museum, in cooperation with Estate of George Harrison, will debut a major new exhibition, George Harrison: Living in the Material Worldopening on October 11, 2011. The exhibition will open the week following the broadcast premiere of Martin Scorsese’s documentary of the same name, showing on HBO in two parts on October 5 and 6, and will be the first major museum exhibition to explore the extraordinary life and career of 12-time GRAMMY Award® winner George Harrison.

“I’m honored that Olivia Harrison has chosen to work with us to createGeorge Harrison: Living in the Material World,” said Bob Santelli, Executive Director of The GRAMMY Museum. “We are particularly excited to celebrate Harrison’s extraordinary musical legacy with the legions of fans who admire him, as well as to introduce him to a new generation of music lovers.”

During a career spanning four decades, George Harrison earned a reputation as one of rock’s most talented and innovative musicians and songwriters. As a Beatle, Harrison was responsible for writing some of the group’s most beloved songs, including “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” “Here Comes the Sun,” and “Something.” In addition, Harrison’s spiritual quest led him to India where he studied the sitar, and began a lifelong friendship with Indian sitar master, Ravi Shankar; their collaborations profoundly influenced the introduction of Indian classical music to the West.

After the dissolution of The Beatles in 1970, Harrison embarked on a highly successful solo career, resulting in several critically acclaimed albums, including his ground-breaking debut triple-album, All Things Must Pass. In 1971 Harrison staged the now legendary Concert for Bangladesh, raising both money and awareness for the country and ushering in an era of other important benefit rock concerts. Harrison was also a member of the supergroup, the Traveling Wilburys, which had its share of successful recordings as well. George Harrison passed away at age 58 in 2001.

“As a Beatles fan, working on this exhibit has been a fascinating journey for me personally,” said Santelli, who assumed the role of co-curator with GRAMMY Museum curator Tory Millimaki and GRAMMY-Award winning designer Masaki Koike. “I came to realize George Harrison was a more deeply complex musician than I previously knew, and a beautifully spiritual man whose interests touched not only songwriting and music, but also included photography, filmmaking and book publishing. Hopefully, the exhibit will bear this out, enabling other fans of George Harrison to see him and hear his music in a brand new light.”

Living in the Material World will provide an in-depth look at all aspects of Harrison’s creative life. Bringing together a collection of diverse artifacts, rare photographs and footage, the exhibit features dozens of items from the private collection of the Harrison Estate, including:

• Several guitars used by George Harrison during his years with The Beatles and in his solo career;

• Handwritten lyrics;

• Personal journals and sketches;

• Stage outfits; and

• Personal photographs shot by Harrison.

“We are very pleased with the results of our collaboration with The Grammy Museum, said Olivia Harrison, George’s widow. “Bob and his team have brought a great deal of passion and commitment to the project; their collective efforts have resulted in a wonderful exhibit. We look forward to sharing our memories of George with his fans through this first major exhibition about his life.”

George Harrison: Living in the Material World will be on display in The GRAMMY Museum’s Special Exhibits Gallery through February 12, 2012.

Museum admission is $12.95 for adults; $11.95 for senior citizens (65+); and $10.95 for students with I.D. (ages 6 – 22) and members of the military. GRAMMY Museum members and children 5 and under are admitted free. Located at 800 West Olympic Boulevard, Suite A245, Los Angeles, CA 90015, with an entrance off of Figueroa Street, the Museum resides within the L.A. LIVE campus, at the intersection of Olympic Boulevard and Figueroa Street in downtown Los Angeles. For more information, please call 213.765.6800 or visit www.grammymuseum.org. For exclusive content, join the organization’s social networks as a Twitter follower at www.twitter.com/thegrammymuseum, and on Facebook atwww.facebook.com/thegrammymuseum.

About The GRAMMY Museum
Paying tribute to music’s rich cultural history, this one-of-a-kind, 21st-century Museum explores and celebrates the enduring legacies of all forms of music, the creative process, the art and technology of the recording process, and the history of the premier recognition of excellence in recorded music — the GRAMMY Award. The GRAMMY Museum features 30,000 square feet of interactive and multimedia exhibits located within L.A. LIVE, the downtown Los Angeles sports, entertainment and residential district. Through thought-provoking and dynamic public and educational programs and exhibits, guests can experience music from a never-before-seen insider perspective that only The GRAMMY Museum can deliver.

Invented in 1931, the electric guitar became a necessity as jazz musicians sought to amplify their sound. Since then, the electric guitar has undeniably become one of the most important instruments in popular music around the world. It has evolved into a stringed musical instrument that is capable of a multitude of sounds and styles. It served as a major component in the development of rock and roll and countless other genres of music.

Various experiments at electrically amplifying the vibrations of a string instrument date back to the early part of the twentieth century. Patents from the 1910s show telephone transmitters adapted and placed inside violins and banjos to amplify the sound. Hobbyists in the 1920s usedcarbon button microphones attached to the bridge, however these detected vibration from the bridge on top of the instrument, resulting in a weak signal.  With numerous people experimenting with electrical instruments in the 1920s and early 1930s, there are many claimants to have been the first to invent an electric guitar.

Electric guitars were originally designed by guitar makers and instrument manufacturers. Guitar innovator Les Paul experimented with microphones attached to guitars. Some of the earliest electric guitars adapted hollow bodied acoustic instruments and used tungsten pickups. The first electrically amplified guitar was invented by George Beauchamp in 1931. Commercial production began in late summer of 1932 by the Ro-Pat-In Corporation (Electro-Patent-Instrument Company Los Angeles),  a partnership of Beauchamp, Adolph Rickenbacker, and Paul Barth. The wooden body of the prototype was built by Harry Watson, a craftsman who had worked for the National Resophonic Guitar Company (where the men met). By 1934 the company was renamed Rickenbacker Electro Stringed Instrument Company.

The need for the amplified guitar became apparent during the big band era as orchestras increased in size, particularly when guitars had to compete with large brass sections. The first electric guitars used in jazz were hollow archtop acoustic guitar bodies with electromagnetictransducers. By 1932 an electrically amplified guitar was commercially available. Early electric guitar manufacturers include: Rickenbacker (first called Ro-Pat-In) in 1932, Dobro in 1933, National, AudioVox and Volu-tone in 1934,Vega, Epiphone (Electrophone and Electar), and Gibson in 1935 and many others by 1936.

The solid body electric guitar is made of solid wood, without functionally resonating air spaces. Rickenbacher offered a cast aluminum electric steel guitar, nicknamed “The Frying Pan” or “The Pancake Guitar”, developed in 1931 with production beginning in the summer of 1932. This guitar sounds quite modern and aggressive.

The first solid body “Spanish” standard guitar was offered by Vivi-Tone no later than 1934. An example of this model, featuring a guitar-shaped body of a single sheet of plywood affixed to a wood frame. Another early, substantially solid Spanish electric guitar, called Electro Spanish, was marketed by the “Rickenbacker” guitar company in 1935 and made of Bakelite. By 1936, the Slingerland company introduced a wooden solid body electric model.

The earliest documented performance with an electrically amplified guitar was in 1932, by Gage Brewer.  The Wichita, Kansas-based musician had an Electric Hawaiian A-25 (frypan, lap-steel) and a standard Electric Spanish from George Beauchamp of Los Angeles, California. Brewer publicized his new instruments in an article in the Wichita Beacon of October 2, 1932 and through performances that month.

The first recordings using the electric guitar were by Hawaiian style players, in 1933. Bob Dunn of Milton Brown’s Musical Brownies introduced the electric Hawaiian guitar to Western Swing with his January 1935 Decca recordings, departing almost entirely from Hawaiian musical influence and heading towards Jazz and Blues. Alvino Rey was an artist who took this instrument to a wide audience in a large orchestral setting and later developed the pedal steel guitar for Gibson. An early proponent of the electric Spanish guitar was jazz guitarist George Barnes who used the instrument in two songs recorded in Chicago on March 1, 1938, “Sweetheart Land” and “It’s a Low-Down Dirty Shame”. Some incorrectly attribute the first recording to Eddie Durham, but his recording with the Kansas City Five was 15 days later.  Durham introduced the instrument to a young Charlie Christian, who made the instrument famous in his brief life and would be a major influence on jazz guitarists for decades thereafter.

Gibson’s first production electric guitar, marketed in 1936, was the ES-150 model (“ES” for “Electric Spanish”; and “150″ reflecting the $150 price of the instrument, along with a matching amplifier). The ES-150 guitar featured a single-coil, hexagonally shaped “bar” pickup, which was designed by Walt Fuller. It became known as the “Charlie Christian” pickup (named for the great jazz guitarist who was among the first to perform with the ES-150 guitar). The ES-150 achieved some popularity, but was suffered from unequal loudness across the six strings.

At an Engineering Fair in 1940, first prize went to NC State University physics professor Sidney Wilson for his invention of the world’s first fully electric guitar. Wilson’s guitar was also the first to have single-string pick-up, which addressed the unequal loudness problem of the ES-150′s single coil. Professor Wilson also disposed of the acoustical body, reasoning that it was not necessary for a fully electric instrument. He developed the guitar and entered it in the annual engineering fair. Patents from academia were quite unusual in the 1940s, so Professor Wilson did not patent his invention. In 1949 Gibson incorporated both the individual string pick-up and the cut-away body in its model ES-175. The design was attributed to Ted McCarthy of Gibson Corporation, but the features were first conceived and implemented by NC State physicists.

Early proponents of the electric guitar on record include: Jack Miller (Orville Knapp Orchestra), Alvino Rey (Phil Spitalney Orchestra), Les Paul (Fred Waring Orchestra), Danny Stewart (Andy Iona Orchestra), George Barnes (under many aliases), Lonnie Johnson, Floyd Smith, Big Bill Broonzy, T-Bone Walker, George Van Eps, Charlie Christian (Benny Goodman Orchestra) Tampa Red, Memphis Minnie, and Arthur Crudup.

A functionally solid body electric guitar was designed and built by Les Paul from an Epiphone acoustic archtop. His “log guitar” (so called because it consisted of a simple 4×4 wood post with a neck attached to it and homemade pickups and hardware, with two detachable Swedish hollow body halves attached to the sides for appearance only) shares nothing in design or hardware with the solid body “Les Paul” model sold by Gibson. However, the feedback problem associated with hollow-bodied electric guitars was understood long before Paul’s “log” was created in 1940; Gage Brewer’s Ro-Pat-In of 1932 had a top so heavily reinforced that it essentially functioned as a solid-body instrument.

Via Wikipedia