[Harp-L] Re: Effects

[BassHarp <bassharp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

In my previous post, I overlooked the theme of the topic of the thread - 
echo or reverb. In the text of the historical writings of Mr Robert 
Campbell, he does describe the new method of capturing "natural reverb" 
on recording.

Robert states:

The launch of the new label was announced in a Billboard story datelined 
March 29, 1947 (it ran on April 5). The headline of the story, "Putnam 
Springs New Waxing Technique With 'Vitacoustic'," focused on reporting 
the new "third-dimensional" recording technique devised by Universal 
Recording Studios. The Billboard scribe said, "Putnam's gimmick, while 
hard to describe, is said to make a band sound as if it were in the 
listener's room, similar to a good wired music system in a restaurant 
with four or five speakers set at the right places."

This article is one of the first to mention the use of echo to bring a 
fuller resonant sound to records--a development that has been generally 
credited to Universal Recording. Putnam might have been shy about 
describing what the studio did to get that more resonant sound. Art 
Sheridan, who was there at the inception of the echo technique, said, 
"Bill Putnam and Bernie Clapper [who founded Universal Recording] 
developed the first echo chamber by running a microphone and a receiver 
into the adjacent ladies' washroom, which was that old-type tile 
thing--it had great resonance--and while we were doing a session we put 
a guard outside the door so that nobody would come in and flush the 
toilet."

The use of echo was part of the company's identity, hence the name 
Vitacoustic, which means "Living Sound." The technique probably brought 
a lot of presence to the harmonica on the company's harmonica 
recordings. Overall, the development of echo in the recording industry 
has proven a mixed blessing. It was valuable for bringing more presence 
to many recordings. It became a bane when used to excess--for instance, 
in some of the tracks that were laid down by Chess 
<http://hubcap.clemson.edu/%7Ecampber/chess1.html> and United 
<http://hubcap.clemson.edu/%7Ecampber/unitedstates.html> in the early 
1950s, either using Universal's facilities or striving to imitate them. 
Overdone echo makes records sound hollow and false.

- Danny

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BassHarp
PO Box 5061
Hudson, FL 34674-5061
http://www.bassharp.com/ace.htm
http://www.bassharp.com/bh_itin.htm