I've heard versions of the same thing but I wonder if it's true. Look at the dates for the Western Electric patents on electronic recording, it's the late 20's. Patents run longer than 20 years, don't they, or were they shorter then? You'd think WECO could have figured some twist to extend or renew the patents but maybe the law was much different then? As late as the mid-50's, Ampex tape recorders still cited WECO patents being used with permission, for things like feedback circuits in their tape deck preamps and the like.
On the other hand, evidence is that many independent recording services and studios sprang up after the end of WWII, so something was going on.
-- Tom Fine
----- Original Message ----- From: "Parker Dinkins" <parker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, April 30, 2008 3:56 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] question about remote recordings from the 20-30s
on 4/30/08 2:16 PM US/Central, Bob Olhsson at olh@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
According to a conversation I had with Tom Dowd the reason for this rise of
independent studios and labels was that during the mid '40s the fundamental
electrical recording patents began expiring.
This was also told to me by Cosimo Matassa.
-- Parker Dinkins http://internetmastering.net CD Mastering - MasterDigital Corp.