Everest Records 35mm Magnetic Tape-->LP

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

did you guys get the "classic records" email today? the subject of the email read:

THE WHO, STRAVINSKY, AND LEE MORGAN

or sometihin to that sort anyways this 35mm magnetic tape-->LP process they brag about on those everest lps, now there remastering them from the orig. tapes, etc--- whats the deal with this format. does it store the sound on the whole width of tape, or just a part of it. is it like movie film. etc?

[Kalo]

Didn't get the e-mail, but I always wondered about that myself. I seem to remember that the graphics on the album covers depicted what looked like film.

[Fer Urbina]

Can't check right now and probably won't help much, but IIRC Mercury and at least one other label also used 35 mm starting c. 1960. I have the impression that this happened as part of the Hi-Fi and stereo craze, when labels like Audio Fidelity, Time and Command came about ("ping pong music").

Anyway, this is from the Space Age Pop site:

[Enoch Light] continued to experiment with techniques, becoming one of the first to use 35mm film to record instead of magnetic tape. One big advantage of film over tape was that distortions due to the drag of the original tape across the recording head ("wow" and "flutter") were reduced dramatically.

F

Edited to add that Raymond Scott was involved with Everest (at least in its early days). Wouldn't surprise me if it was him who introduced the 35-mm film for Everest recordings.

Edited September 10, 2006 by Fer Urbina

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

is that so

[Kalo]

Anyway, this is from the Space Age Pop site:

[Enoch Light] continued to experiment with techniques, becoming one of the first to use 35mm film to record instead of magnetic tape. One big advantage of film over tape was that distortions due to the drag of the original tape across the recording head ("wow" and "flutter") were reduced dramatically.

F

Yeah, but what about "flicker"?

Seriously, thanks for looking that up, Fer Urbina.

I'll have to check out that space age pop site.

[Dave Garrett]

This is what's known as "fullcoat mag" - 35mm film that has had magnetic oxide applied to it across the entire width of the film, as opposed to "mag-striped", where thin stripes of magnetic oxide are applied on the outside edges of film prints for a multichannel soundtrack. Mag-striped 35mm film was what was used for films boasting 4-track stereo in the 1950s; later on, 6-track 70mm film prints became commonplace for big-budget roadshow presentations. A good mag-striped multichannel audio track flat stomps all over any digital film sound system I've ever heard; unfortunately, the number of venues that can still run mag-striped film is fairly small, and new mag-striped prints are rarely struck now, as mag-striping has essentially been banned due to environmental concerns regarding the process used to apply it.

Anyway, getting back onto the topic of fullcoat mag for audio recording, this site has the following brief comments:

The big, ultra-wide-screen, Technicolor roadshows of the 50s were on synchronized magnetic film. 35mm fullcoat mag is incredibly expensive, but probably the best analog recording medium ever developed. It runs at a speed approaching 30 ips, (27 to be exact), has at least a 63 dB s/n, allows wider tracks than 1/4 inch magnetic tape, and is sprocketed so it just does not slip. Mag film became popular for hi-fi audiophile demo records, until replaced by direct disk recordings, right onto the cutter. (Analog generation loss is not a problem if there are no generations.) Meanwhile, 70mm magnetic prints were no slouches either, with two wide stripes outside the perfs and two narrow ones inside, allowing at least 6 channels without multiplexing. Something like 50 dB s/n was possible on these tiny tracks, though of course projectionists had to be extremely careful handling prints.

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

WOW

but ithought 'roadshow' only meant 2nd rate films of a tadwdry nature

[DMP]

I think "Road Show" refers to those big budget prodeuctions (often with an overture and an intermission) that used to play in the 50's and '60's, like "Lawrence of Arabia" or "Ben Hur." They were big deals, not the usual features - anything to make a movie a big event and get you away from the television. Often you had to buy a reserved seat (which I remember doing as late as "Oliver" and "2001").

As for the 35mm tape business, the Brahms symphonies by the Pittsburgh Symphony (on "Command") were hard to beat.

[vanbeat]

I've got a lot of Enoch Light/Command stuff, and the 35mm does indeed sound the best - gimmick or not.

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

full coat mag- that is so cool