Re: [ARSCLIST] Soviet audio tech standards

[Steven Smolian <smolians@xxxxxxxxx>]

About 1961 I worked at Leeds Music in their "serious music" department.  I 
had to frown a lot.

They were the agents for the music publishing segment of MK.  My predecessor 
had been Michael Stillman who seems also to have been operating Monitor 
Records with his wife, Ruth Rubin.  They had used the Leeds operation to 
obtain tapes from the USSR for issue here and one of my jobs was to return 
them.  They had come in throgh some U.S. customs guarantee system which name 
now escapes me.  This was to assure they were loaned and had not entered 
commerce as objects for sale.  They had to be returned the same way.  Oy, 
the paperwork!

These were the European equivilent of 15 ips (I think) on rust-colored 
powder-based tape which left debris all over the deck and lungs, similar 
(and probably a clone of) what Telefunken was using at the time.  This 
implies they were using German or psuedo-German electronics.  I'd look to 
the approprate specs for "red" AGFA and similar products.  Use the technical 
manuals for the German machines from the 1955 period.

I rember using some of these as they were among the museum of tape recorders 
on line at the old Broadcastng Foundation of America.  A friend did their 
midnight shift maintainence.  I used to visit and get tape scraps from there 
and splice together full reels that were tape anthologies.  Who knew?

I did an article on the BFA in one of my "Da Capo" columns in an old 
American Record Guide.

It's amazing how things fit together.

Steve Smolian





----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Prentice, Will" <Will.Prentice@xxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, March 20, 2006 10:39 AM
Subject: [ARSCLIST] Soviet audio tech standards


Colleagues

An acquaintance is undertaking a digitisation project in various parts
of the former Soviet Union, involving digitising many hundreds of hours
of 1/4 inch analogue tape, recorded between 1953 and 1991. Recording
speeds are generally low (1 7/8 & 3 3/4 ips), all are mono, mostly full
track.

What equalisation standards are likely to have been used? My vague
understanding is that much (most? all?) Soviet audio technology came
about through reverse-engineering western products, and thus any
standards would accordingly be western derivatives. Is that overly
simplistic? Would that mean European standards or US? If it's of any
use, the recording/playback equipment which survives carries either a
"Romantika" or "Tembr M3" brand name.

The archivists there could shed no light on the question, and in my own
experience in former Soviet Republics, basic AV technical expertise is
often very thin on the ground today.

In view of the difficulty in obtaining and maintaining quality machines
with such slow playback speeds, they're thinking of ingesting at
double-speed. This obviously throws up questions of appropriate EQ
curves, hence my question.

(A long shot I realise, and while I half expect tumbleweed in response
to this message, I also know not to underestimate the collected
experience of the list ;))

Regards

Will

..............................................
Will Prentice
Technical Services
British Library Sound Archive    Tel: +44 (0)20-7412-7443
96 Euston Road                   Fax: +44 (0)20-7412-7416
London  NW1 2DB                  http://www.bl.uk
UK                               http://cadensa.bl.uk (online catalogue)

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