DIFFICULT AND TIRESOME

Evening Star, Issue 19583, 15 June 1927, Page 13

DIFFICULT AND TIRESOME

MAKING A RECORD There are not many people who know the process a gramophone record through before being released. The taking of a record, both from a musical and technical point of view, is a very difficult and a very tiresome work. It requires the greatest care Me room in which the records are taken is divided into two parts by a partition wall. In one part the records are taken, and the other is the so-called workroom. In the middle of the partition a funnel is fixed, tho broad opening of which faces the recording room. The other end contains a diaphram and needle, which move on a wax plate. Recently the records have been made by an electrical process, a microphone being used in place of tho funnel. This method possesses numerous advantages. Tho sound waves produced in the recording room are taken up by the microphone, and are all moved on the wax plate, no sound whatever being lost. This increased power of taking up tho sounds enables each instrument to be reproduced in its natural tones, and tho transmission of these sounds on to the wax disc is done so correctly that the resulting record is absolutely true, the exact strength of intensity and the softness of delicacy of the piece being all faultlessly reproduced. _ The recording room is fitted up in a special manner with certain equipment which enables the sounds to bo taken naturally as they come from the vocalist nr instrument. The walls and ceiling

j are all draped with curtains. Tho , musician or vocalist must sit in such a j position that the sound moves to the funnel in the straightes* and shortest way possible. In taking a record n number of factors have to be taken into consideration. For instance, in the | case of string instruments the moistness of the air. as well as the changes of j temperature, must be carefully noted, j Tho manner in which the musical in- j struments are placed before the funnel also requires great care. It is only after long practice and an exact know-' ledge of the phonetic effects that the 1 I correct position can be obtained. The! vibrations of the piccolo are from eight I to ten times more numerous than those of the bass trumpet, and consequently I j the piccolo must ho placed nearer the I ! microphone than the trumpet. _ The ' taking of a record from a single instru- ; mont is natunllv much easier than the recording of an entire orchestra. Tho most difficult of all are the soug records. Before Wiese can be taken a rehearsal takes place in order to find if the piece to be recorded suits the length of the

) record. If not, tho song has to be I curtailed. The preparation of the wax disc is carried out with very special care and attention. The wax is soft and easily mdontablo by the needle. Before the record is taken it is “ graphited ” —that is. covered with an electric graphite coating. It is then framed and hung in a galvanic copper bath. By means of an electric current a pure copper coating comparatively thick is produced over tho graphite coating. This coating is called “ father,” a matrix, which, after being lifted off tho disc, is found to contain all the fine markings of the wax disc itself. The matrix,_ however, is not used directly for making copies of the reford •it is preserved. But before being put away a copy of it is obtained in exactly the same manner as it was made itself. This copy is tho “ mother.” As the impressions on tho “mother” are exactly the same as on tho wax disc, it cannot bo used for making copies. So a third matrix, tho “child,” is made, and it is from this that the final records, are made. _ In tho meantime the composition of which the records are made is being prepared. Many different kinds of materia! aroused—shellac, resin fruhin copal, coloring matter, and filling. These < are all mixed thoroughly in largo machines, and tho rough mass is rolled, cooled, and broken into uniform strips. _ Two heated moulding presses, each with a matrix and label, receive tho prepared material. They are pressed together, and, after cooling, opened and die record removed. The record is then fully finished, hack and front, and is ready for immediate use on the gramophone.