Re: [ARSCLIST] Wax vs. lacquer; was: Re: [ARSCLIST] RCA 1958 promo film(s)

["Prentice, Will" <Will.Prentice@xxxxx>]

I'm afraid I didn't take notes at the time (always a mistake) but I recall seeing a wax blank in its original box in the EMI archive, with a printed note on the top stating that it should be kept at a temperature of (I think) 70 degrees F for a period of 8 hours prior to cutting. Presumably the heating through was necessary to avoid cold wax chatter, audible on modern replay eqpt as a resonant pitch (around 10-11kHz?) towards the end of some sides.

Sean Davies once told me that wax blanks were warmed in the field by using a portable cabinet with a parrafin burner at the bottom.

Regards

Will Prentice


-----Original Message-----
From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List on behalf of George Brock-Nannestad
Sent: Wed 7/9/2008 08:24
To: ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [ARSCLIST] Wax vs. lacquer; was: Re: [ARSCLIST] RCA 1958 promo film(s)
 
From: Patent Tactics, George Brock-Nannestad

Hello,

Michael Shoshani wrote:

> 
> To my knowledge, the general practice, at least in England, was to heat 
> the wax to nearly 100 degrees F in a purpose-built oven, rather than 
> heating the stylus. Both HMV and Columbia (and later EMI) were doing 
> this in the studio and in mobile recording trucks, although I have no 
> idea whether this was done by their remote engineering crews traipsing 
> all over Europe, Asia, the Near and Middle East, and Africa.
> 

----- furthermore, an incandescent bulb (lit) was placed inside the recording 
machine to keep it at a reasonable temperature. This would also serve to the 
minimize any temperature shock of placing the warm wax on the machine. An 
inhouse rule, which was early and stemmed from VTMC in the acoustic days was 
that the wax should be at blood temperature. 

The Danish broadcasting used wax in the 1930s, and they heated the wax for 
recording and refrigerated it before replay. This reduced the wear.

Kind regards,

George

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