Victor Talking Machine Company - Acoustical Recording Era

Acoustical Recording Era

Before 1925, recording was done by the same purely mechanical, non-electronic "acoustical" method used since the invention of the phonograph nearly fifty years earlier. No microphone was involved and there was no means of amplification. The recording machine was essentially an exposed-horn acoustical record player functioning in reverse. One or more funnel-like metal horns was used to concentrate the energy of the airborne sound waves onto a recording diaphragm, which was a thin glass disc about two inches in diameter held in place by rubber gaskets at its perimeter. The sound-vibrated center of the diaphragm was linked to a cutting stylus that was guided across the surface of a very thick wax disc, engraving a sound-modulated groove into its surface. The wax was too soft to be played back even once without seriously damaging it, although test recordings were sometimes made and sacrificed by playing them back immediately. The wax master disc was sent to a processing plant where it was electroplated to create a negative metal "stamper" used to mold or "press" durable replicas of the recording from heated "biscuits" of a shellac-based compound. Although sound quality was gradually improved by a series of small refinements, the process was inherently insensitive. It could only record sources of sound that were very close to the recording horn or very loud—preferably both—and even then the high-frequency overtones and sibilants necessary for clear, detailed sound reproduction were too feeble to register above the background noise. Resonances in the recording horns and associated components resulted in a characteristic "horn sound" that immediately identifies an "acoustical" recording to an experienced modern listener and seemed inseparable from "phonograph music" to contemporary listeners.

From the start, Victor pioneered manufacturing processes and soon rose to preeminence by recording famous performers. In 1901 Victor made a three-track puzzle record (single-sided A-821) and in 1903, a three-step mother-stamper process to produce more stampers and records than previously possible. After increasing the quality of disc records and phonographs, Johnson began an ambitious project to have the most prestigious singers and musicians of the day record for Victor Records, with exclusive agreements where possible. Often these artists demanded fees which the company could not hope to make up from sale of their records. Johnson shrewdly knew that he would get his money's worth in the long run in promotion of the Victor brand name. These new "celebrity" recordings bore red labels, and were marketed as "Red Seal" records. For many years these recordings were single-sided; only in 1923 did Victor begin making double-sided "Red Seal" records. Many advertisements were printed mentioning by name the greatest names of music in the era, with the statement that they recorded only for Victor Records. As Johnson intended, much of the public assumed from this that Victor Records must be superior to cylinder records.

Popular vaudeville performer Cal Stewart's "Uncle Josh" comic monologues were enormously successful for Victor.

The Victor recordings by Enrico Caruso between 1904–1920 were particularly successful, with those recorded until mid-1916 usually conducted by Walter B. Rogers and the remainder conducted by Josef Pasternack and Rosario Bourdon. They were often used by retailers to demonstrate Victor phonographs; Caruso's rich powerful low tenor voice highlighted the best range of audio fidelity of the early audio technology while being minimally affected by its defects. Even people who otherwise never listened to opera often owned a record or two of the great voice of Caruso. Caruso and Victor Records did much to boost each other's commercial popularity. He made his final recordings in September 1920, only three months before his final appearances at the Metropolitan Opera.

Victor recorded numerous classical musicians, including Jascha Heifetz, Fritz Kreisler, Victor Herbert, and Sergei Rachmaninoff in a series of recordings at its Camden, New Jersey studios. Rachmaninoff, in particular, became one of the first composer-performers to record extensively; he first made several recordings for Thomas Edison in 1919, then became an exclusive Victor artist from 1920 to 1942.

Orchestras were at a disadvantage in acoustical recordings, due to the limited frequency and dynamic range of the recording equipment. Musicians had to gather as closely as possible around the recording horn. Percussion instruments, in particular, were used sparingly since many of them could not be heard on the recordings. However, Victor made numerous recordings with bandmaster Arthur Pryor conducting his own "Pryor's Orchestra" in 1904-06, and Victor staff conductor Walter B. Rogers directing Victor's own "house" orchestras, the Victor Orchestra (for popular works) beginning in 1904 and the Victor Concert Orchestra (for more "classical" literature) beginning in 1907. (A very few 1903-04 14-inch issues are credited to the "Victor Symphony Orchestra"; these may have been conducted by either Pryor or Rogers.) The concert orchestra of Victor Herbert made several recordings for the company in 1903; these early discs may not have been conducted by Herbert himself, but Victor signed Herbert and his orchestra to a long-term contract in 1911, engaging them to record symphonic and theatre music under Herbert's direction (most of the labels credit "Victor Herbert's Orchestra/Personally directed by Victor Herbert"). Victor also imported early orchestral recordings made by its European affiliates, notably performances by the La Scala Orchestra under Carlo Sabajno and the New Symphony Orchestra of London under Landon Ronald. Victor expanded its American orchestral recording program by making recordings of the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Karl Muck and the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski in 1917; Victor's relationship with Stokowski and Philadelphia remained firm for decades. In 1920–21, Arturo Toscanini made his first recordings, conducting the La Scala Orchestra, which was then on an American tour. Victor went on to record the New York Philharmonic Orchestra with Willem Mengelberg and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra with Rudolph Ganz from 1922, and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra under Alfred Hertz from 1925; Hertz's earliest discs, made at Victor's new Oakland studios (opened in 1924), were the company's last acoustical orchestral sessions.

The origins of country music as we know it today can be traced to two seminal influences and a remarkable coincidence. Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family are considered the founders of country music and their songs were first captured at an historic recording session in Bristol, Tennessee on August 1, 1927, where Ralph Peer was the talent scout and sound recordist for Victor Records.

During the 1920s Victor also released "race records" (that is, records recorded by and marketed to African Americans). These records were scattered in Victor's regular popular music series until July, 1928 when they started the V-38000 series (which lasted until V-38146 in 1930). They then started a new "hot dance" series 23000-23041, which ran 1930-31 followed by a new race series 23250-23432 running through 1933.

Emile Berliner emigrated to Montreal, Quebec, Canada in 1900, probably to escape the legal chaos created by his erstwhile "sales manager," Frank Seaman, in the United States, since he still owned his Canadian patents for his lateral disc records. He set up the Berliner Gram-O-Phone Company to merchandise his machines and disc records. The company was eventually controlled by Emile's son, Herbert Berliner. Note that Herbert established his own, essentially competing, record company, the Compo Company, also in Montreal. In fact, in 1919 the Compo Company pressed records credited only to "Famous Tenor," which used Victor sides cut by John McCormack; these were quickly withdrawn, to be replaced by the same titles cut by Ernest Hare doing a creditable McCormack impression.

Herbert Berliner left Berliner Gramophone of Canada in 1921 and developed Compo into a full-fledged record company.

A few years later, Victor acquired its Canadian counterpart, Berliner Gramophone of Canada, in 1924. Interestingly enough, when Victor introduced electric records in 1925, the Canadian firm immediately announced "the new V.E. Process" records; this was probably because the Compo Company had begun issuing electric recordings, promoted as such, in late January 1925. As a result, a special record, "You and I" by Jack Shilkret, promoting "the new V.E. Process" was issued; this was Victor 19571, with the Canadian promo version pairing acoustic (as issued in the U.S.) and electric (apparently recorded in Montreal) versions of 19571-A.