Affinities in /Sound Recording/

Morton, David L. Jr. Sound Recording: The Life Story of a Technology. Baltimore: John Hopkins UP, 2006.

Morton does a great job of chronicling early work in sound recording, specifically mechanical devices and early tube and capacitor systems. I was hoping for a treatment of sound recording as an art—but he delivers the promised life story of the technology. I always liked to record, and I would like to learn more about recording theory and audio engineering, as did my friends who went through the Recording Industry Management program with Middle Tennessee State University. Morton only has time to touch on that aspect of the field. His reserved manner of social commentary, where he nearly always defers comment, makes for objective and quality research.

One aspect of his treatment which I latched onto explains the way that sound engineers learned to manipulate the equipment. He claims (regarding the period from 1900-1930), “Skilled recordists were highly-prized employees who were barraged with offers from competing companies and who changed corporate alliances frequently” (58). My boys from MTSU’s RIM program all have jobs in the field, but they also all have side jobs or day jobs. No one would claim that an audio engineer carries much weight today, unless we count Glenn Ballard or Mutt Lange. Most recording techs enjoy a job security level comparable to working in a record store. Gearheads usually find work in this field, while tone aficionados usually grow desperate in a hurry.

In several passages, Morton alludes to that penchant men have for audio gear. Those who play connoisseur to the gear don’t usually play music in the studio, though they may record it, and a quick survey of the magazine rack at Kroger proves, as it did thirty years ago, that most audiophiles keep their stash of equipment in their own home, and never set foot in a sound room.

Regarding the period from 1910-1930, Morton claims, “The status conferred by having a personal secretary was one of the perquisites of upper management, and this was difficult to dislodge with a machine. Yet some men at all levels were drawn to the machine and used it willingly (even enthusiastically) to record correspondence” (48).

Note that “The Playboy Advisor” has for decades run two basic types of calls-and-responses in their advice column—sex or dating in one slot and audio appreciation on the other. (They also talk about wine and cars, but not nearly as often.) If we men have an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other, one is probably an epicure of audio.

Morton goes on to talk about the post-WWII period: “After the war, these people, most of them young men, often pursued their interests in electronics by assembling their own televisions, receivers, amplifiers, and loudspeaker enclosures” (132).

I am reminded, closer to my own time, of the veterans of Viet Nam, who so often craved recorded reels of family voices or local radio programs from home, and many of whom were intimate with surface-to-surface radios in Southeast Asia; many of them—I venture to say most—stayed deeply acquainted with audio gear for many years after their return.

Many other times he makes clear that gadgetry is one opiate of society. Morton realizes that the cutting edge has been a selling point for the industry more often than it has been a boon to audio quality. He says, “The [Stereo-Pak] system also had a strong emotional appeal to those who craved the latest technical gadgets” (159). He says later of an expensive type of home compact cassette player that it, “struck a chord with fashion-conscious New Yorkers” (170). Going back to 1900, Morton notes that sales of recorders has often gone hand-in-hand with service packages, accessories, furniture, and training. I draw a tacit connection from those points to the end Sound Recording, where he discusses copy protection technology—mostly ignoring the ethics—and predicts that the industry will consider its future role the sale of songs rather than packaged albums or bundled technology. I take solace in this last statement, and I wonder what our recession has brought us, and whether the industry will continue to feed us sympathetic and cathartic art:

The studios found one quite successful Depression product in the form of elaborate musical productions (77).

I found a good set of tutorials on keeping grade books in Excel. There are several in the series which specifically apply to grade-keeping, but I'll share a solid one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX7m_kTbvmE
Title: Excel Magic Trick #194: Grade Book Based on Percentages
(From the Excel Magic Tricks series.)