Rca Victor records manufacturing process 1942 part 1

[MannycDotCom]

LMAO at "passed through a special slot" LOL... Dude, why don't you just walk over there and hand it to him?

[TheFRiNgEguitars]

These master discs are precious, really they shouldn't be touched by ungloved hands! What an informative video. The process of making the mother master was quite complex!

[whiteeagle1973made]

Fantastic video - thanks for uploading.

now...what could be said about the recording process of that era?

@ 3:14 : the lacquer's ready the mikes are open the sound is set....and go!!!

no possibility for mistake during the recording - musicians had to be precise and accurate - something we forget today - spoiled (including myself) by pc editing, punch-ins etc.

great video!

[yopascualin]

I don´t know. Don´t think....

[albertusj]

Would these metal masters still exist?

[formiga1950]

Thanks, my new friend. I will go e-bay. BTW, look on videos about ELP. I dream on one of these. Jose Claudio

[formiga1950]

I need to buy a GE VR-II to play my mono records (78 RPM included). Where I can find one? Regards from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Jose Claudio Barbedo

[yopascualin]

@formiga1950

The best and fast way to find it, in Ebay EEUU. I have three of these and sounds fine!

Goos luck!

[manidig]

@formiga1950 E-mail me. I have one for you.

[The1NAUTILUSMAN]

Thumbs up, 4 the true masters blasters!!

[Madness832]

If those are master discs, should he be touching the grooves as he pulls them out of the sleeves? I know, I wouldn't!

[RomanceAndReflection]

Thank you so much for this fascinating broadcast, I have a fascination with the old 78s and the music they contain, this has been an insight..

[Airboy15]

How many baths are there before the record is finally done?

[radioman66]

So when they demolished the historic RCA Victor plants fin Camden NJ back in the early 1990's where all those masters destroyed with the demolition? I heard stories that would curl your hair about all the things they didn't bother to remove from those buildings before they tore them down. Things that were left in cubby holes and closets and basements of those buildings. How sad. Historical finds that would be treasured today!

[dimebagdave77]

what a huge and disappointing shame!tell me more please,how do u know about this?

[trav10854]

you must really have to be adept at what you recorded then, as a screw up and the need to record again would be costly wouldn't it? not to mention time consuming

[krimskrams]

it's strange to mention john phillip sousa in this clip, since he hated reproduced music :D

[jaworskij]

Before tape. Before tape editing.

[cobolsaurus]

watch another video here on youtube about records made today and the process, apart from being done by robots, haven't change that much...

[73ccougar]

Wow-totally cool to see how this was done.  Wax sucking up vibrations-the human is amazing!!!

[ttoupal]

atoms - angels that only matter

anti-matter - dark matter they call it today. allows for instantaneous travel from anywhere to anywhere in the universe or is it parallel universe.

[mikeroofsoft]

really?

[rennyminou]

Yeah, watching this makes me cry a bit.

I went to high school and college in the late 70's/early 80's and every student seemed to cart around hundreds, if not thousands, of pounds of vinyl each year-those LP's were a way of defining ourselves.

Now I can throw a dozen live shows on a flash stick-wonderful, but not particularly with the emotional and aesthetic kick that LP's gave to us.

[dumowska]

tłoczenie plyt, zawsze m nie to ciekawiło jak to sie robi

[DonKael]

Since some of the people here fail to read apparently, I'll repeat my last post.

NONE OF THESE RECORDS EXIST ANYMORE. RCA VICTOR DESTROYED THIS FACTORY WITH ALL OF THE MASTERS IN IT.

Only a few survived, those that were given to a few collectors. Major shame, lots of history in there that will never be heard again.

[wilkes85]

Any word on why they did that?

[CoolJack2]

probably to do with money/people didn't really consider them worth saving back when that happened. I heard that Paramount threw all of their masters into a river when they went bust.

[ttoupal]

because little god recorded this and moved the music to special archives

click the following link in burnt orange to get the youtube links (thomasetoupal).

[bixlives]

Nope...you are very wrong !

I worked at the BMG archives for 8 years..this company took over RCA. The vault has over 1 million master discs. I had the job of filing and sorting many of these discs. All of this is now owned by SONY..BMG got out of the "record" business.

[seatboi]

@bixlives Now THAT just makes me SICK! Now the Japs own all our AMERICAN record masters? They pretty much own ALL our great old American masters now, including Columbia along with all our movies (Sony pictures) ! What the hell is the matter with this country selling all our vitally historic movies & music to friggin Japan???? Really makes me sick! :(

[manidig]

Not all of the masters were destroyed. Many have survived. There were several "purges" at Victor. Columbia, ARC and Decca have "lost" things over the years too.

[wilkes85]

Wow, fuck the lake, this is where I wanna spend my weekends!

[Fakanga]

fake

[BDWong]

Pt 2: pre-1925 acoustic era was as coplex as this? Anyway, thanks for posting. Boy, wouldn't you like to dwell in that room with all those master matrixes?

[BDWong]

As a record collector, I find this fasinating, sort of a forerunner of the current Discovery Channel show How It's Made. I wonder if the process in the pre-1925

[Trance88]

Man! They sure went through a lot more steps to make master discs than they do now.

[AMG93]

I wonder, does that room full of master recordings exist?

[Barndancer61]

Yes, RCA has an archive of each and every "master" they ever recorded. All re-issues are made using the original master discs and then usually re-mastered for digital where required.

[CJAnonymous]

Wow. I can't imagine how many DJs would kill to get in there for a while.

[markyoloup]

Beautiful documentary :-)

[LHUPA]

Very stunning document in perfect shape and sound! Imagine 1942... a film in a near mint state! What a technology!: the good 100 and more years old record (vinyl is the same process in fact) remains a stunning thing despite the audio-numeric CD quality. The mechanical recording is a marvel because it was invented by the genius of an human and built by hands and mechanical tools!

[peugteobike]

I would rather stick to records than cds

[1947Desoto]

Me too.

[queenbee345622]

That is how I feel, I like the new technology, but still love to watch records turn, the tonearm slowly inching toward the center of the center of the record.

[bingcrosby1903]

ha, when he referenced the master of sousa, he was a little wrong, sousa refused to conduct for records! I wish there was a way to get ahold of some of those old masters though! anyone know how? great vid.

[DonKael]

The RCA Victor plant was torn down with much of the masters inside. A very small amount of private collectors were allowed inside to take some of them, but most of them were destroyed with the plant.

Unfortunate, really. A lot of great music was lost forever.

[darksound1973]

Reel to reel tape was not used untill 1948 to make masters. Notice that the master is a wax disc. This today is known as Dirct-to-Disc recording, and the quality is astounding. In the mid 1940s wax was replaced by laquer masters, this was an aluminum disc coated with a laquer coating. Prior to 1900 Gramophone records were recorded on Zinc discs coated with wax and acid etched the grooves. E.J. Who formed VTM Co. in 1901 used the first wax disc masters made from melted Edison blanks.

[yopascualin]

Thanks a lot for your information!

[wmbrown6]

Compared with Columbia's setup as of 1942 - recording their "masters" onto 16" 33-1/3 lacquers (which set them in good stead when the LP was unleashed in 1948) - RCA Victor's seemed a might primitive in comparison. This particular Scully lathe used to cut the record looked like a model 501 series, with a gear box to determine a pre-set lines per inch (lpi).

[kjq45]

I appreciate seeing this film. New technologhy has its place, but I can't remove myself from the good old ways. I have over 50,000 records and several turntables. It's only a hobby, but a great one.

[yopascualin]

Oh my God!! 50.000 records? I would like to see it...!

[ToastmachineIdiot]

Ahhhhhh records.

Y'know, I just got a new cartridge and needle and I just learned how to play records (i'm only a 15-year-old! HA!) MMM! lovely sound!

[yopascualin]

Ha ha, welcome to the record community!

[chrigel1234]

Yes, records are very popular again... welcome in the club. It's more fun to look at it playing than a CD :-)

And its a so amazingly simple priciple.

[eltocacd]

wao! ilove the music i love rca victor

[maximmmm]

GREAT document. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!

[nedsparks]

Thanks for posting this. I have looked forward to viewing a nice print of this film. I hope it has been issued commercially. It proves that record companies made significant investments in time and money to issue an artist's performance.

[HomeoftheGoodGuys]

Is that before they don't have reel-to-reel tape recorders in the studio back then when the master tape was made? This is a step-by-step demostration of how records are made.

[yopascualin]

The unique master was the wax disk. The reel-to-reel tape was used later.

[jnclewis]

I think it's amazing, that much work for one piece of vinyl!

[yopascualin]

Yes. I think the same but they won a lot of money with those copies.

[AUDlOPHILE]

Wow - Caruso sounds amazing there!