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Classical Court From Perotin to Prokofiev (and beyond), performed by Caruso to Khatia, it's all here. |
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Classical Court From Perotin to Prokofiev (and beyond), performed by Caruso to Khatia, it's all here. |
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In Reply to: I was told Decca kept their valve equipment while rivals went ss. posted by andy evans on September 7, 2020 at 05:44:15:
Back in the early 1980s I was talking to a mastering engineer at what was then Decca Recording Services and he said that " we thought we were doing the right thing when we broke up our valve equipment", the manner in which he said it implying to me some sort of regret gained with the benefit of hindsight.Of course Decca productions sounded better than anyone else's even when everybody was using valve equipment. So the mere existence of that technology does not provide an answer.
I think that the real answer is the people. Decca inherited a whole team of technically and musically very sophisticated recording engineers when they took over the Crystalate Gramophone Record Manufacturing Company before WWII. It included Arthur Haddy and Kenneth Wilkinson. These were engineers whose talents extended beyond sound recording and who ,during the war, were involved in the development of radar and ,importantly from our perspective, submarine location systems. The latter involved finding ways of significantly extending the frequency response otherwise available. Postwar this led to the first FFRR records (Full Frequency Range Recordings). So they had technological expertise which was unavailable to competitors. Decca always custom built much of their equipment. Regrettably one engineer who no doubt would have provided them with true competition from EMI , Alan Blumlein, perished in the war.
As is also well known and is mentioned in one of the other postings, they also developed the "T" shaped arrangement of three microphones which provided a superior and more stable stereo image - the famous Decca Tree. Other companies have adopted it over the years but none have applied it so rigorously as Wilkinson who would make orchestral players sit and hold themselves in a more or less rigid position to preserve the precision of the stereo.
Unfortunately those pathfinders have now long passed and there are few left to follow in their footsteps.
"We need less, but better" - Dieter Rams
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Follow Ups
- RE: I was told Decca kept their valve equipment while rivals went ss. - PAR 09/7/2006:45:23 09/7/20 (1)
- Good insight - jimbill 10:33:48 09/7/20 (0)
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