The Secret Society of Lathe Trolls

grooveguy · Joined: 22 Jun 2006 Posts: 40

I'd like to heartily recommend this book. It explores the history of electrical disc recording up to stereo records. Sections include Equipment, Techniques and Recollections. There is a lot of good information contained here, including numerous vintage photos and reprints of manufacturers' data sheets. A broad range of equipment is discussed in good detail, from mastering-quality lathes through 'semi-pro' gear to home recorders. Lathe mechanisms, heads, recording blanks and playback gear all get good coverage.

The book was written by the late Bob Morrison, who grew up with disc recording, and who later organized and ran the test-tape lab at Ampex. Bob also founded Standard Tape Laboratories following the demise of Ampex as a leader in audio recorders. This book was Bob's last effort before cancer took him in 2003.

A lot of Bob's own experiences and knowledge are in these pages, which include information that I never came across in other source material. Some of his anecdotal recollections tie in nicely with the technology of the times.

The book is available from Highland Laboratories in San Francisco. Go to their website: www.highlandlab.com and take a look at the book's front cover. It's $20 plus shipping and worth every penny.

cuttercollector · Joined: 11 Jun 2006 Posts: 268 Location: San Jose, CA

I have this and it is great. I think it is mentioned somewhere else on this site, perhaps in the resources section. It is available from various places but Higland Labs is THE source. Being in the SF bay area, I had the pleasure of meeting Barry Brose, who IS Highland Labs. I got mine from him and history lesson also! These were guys (Barry and Bob) who grew up in the days when it was still common to use lathes in radio stations for everything from commercials to delayed broadcast. This is not as strainge as it might seem as turnables were the mainstay of radio stations for playback long before tape. In fact still for music, up through the time CDs were introduced some 20 years ago. So before things like tape carts (and WAY before PC hard drives) it was natural to record commercials and whatnot on discs for playback on air.
Another resource of interest to some of us from the Highland is a couple of videotapes (or perhaps DVDs by now) that Bob and Barry produced, showing and demonstrating classic microphones used in braodcast and the film and recording industry.