From: Patent Tactics, George Brock-Nannestad
Don Cox asked:
On 27/05/07, George Brock-Nannestad wrote:
I would guess that in most cases, if not all, the original room was
not designed at all, apart from such things as putting the piano up
on a platform.
The Gramophone Company
in their recording rooms in Hayes (post 1912) had ceilings that
could be raised or lowered by rack and pinion according to the task.
Interesting. Do you have a reference for that?
----- I have seen it with my own eyes, both from below and from the
loft. It would have been in the early 1980s, when I spent quite some
time in the archives, before their move. The "studio" had been
restored some time prior to that, and in itself it was a hard room,
with pine panelling. I would be surprised if there were no
contemporary reports of the restoration.
----- Edison also performed experiments with performers placed on
squares drawn on the floor (Harvith & Harvith).
Distance from the horn is obviously critical, but that isn't the same
as the design of the studio. Nowadays, everyone is aware of things
like live and dead ends, etc.
----- now, we cannot draw a direct line from amateur recording on
cylinder machines to record companies, but in the manuals for amateurs
they already then described how to use screens and cubicles for some
instruments.