The title of this post is the best way to describe how records were balanced in pre-1910. Balancing these old recording sessions had become an art and skill by the late 1890's. Clearly from those old pictures of the recording studios, it was not a very spacious place to be in its earliest years. The 1890's was especially the hardest era to make records in. It took making records by the round to create the supply needed to sell of a certain record. This would call for an entire week of full recording sessions dedicated to a single song. This was documented in The Phonoscope here:
Amazing Mr. Spencer! That couldn't have been easy. Three hundred rounds a week! That's near ludicrous! To think that this was still going on the next year(1898) is amazing. Whenever I think about how much they had to work, all I could say is:
"Poor Hylands..."
It would be not only a whole lot of work for the singers but the bands and the pianists! It was easy to be on staff at any of the old record companies and accidentally utter complaints about working there, but doing that was a mistake. Such as this one the we should all have heard of by now:
Heh, he yelled this from the back of the room I bet.
The ones who heard him say this must have been laughing and saying things similar to,
"Ha! That's all the boy does, he groans about too much work! He's too spoiled!"
He was still reasonably new there, so he didn't know that bitching about working too much wouldn't do him any good, and not a single change would be made.The rooms were in the 1890's were surprisingly big and open compared to the studio rooms that we often see in picture from after 1905. Here's a few from the 1890's:
(I still kind of see Hylands at that damn piano in the right corner!!)
Of course, I have to use this picture. Now I know who that guy right next to Harry Spencer is! Take a guess...
Hmm... those ears...
Back to recording studios:
This picture was taken around 1902, but this was one of Edison's main studios in the late-1890's. So most of the recording studios of the 1890's were spacious rooms, with quite a lot of breathing room, but as the business matured, the need for space diminished, and the more decorative tradition of the recording rooms had gone away(by spacious and decorative, I mean look back at Columbia's room!).
Columbia's room was really something in 1898. Very tall and wide, with tall columns, perfectly intricate ceilings, lots of space for exhibition crowds(hence the picture above), tables for food(special thing they had at exhibitions), and of course fitted with dozens and dozens of electric lights!
Edison's studios on the other hand were much more industrial and less progressive. As they can often be seen as very big spacious rooms, but wooden and rugged with things scattered all over, and records lying around.
Now onto the third thing in this post, the booze. The artists were allowed to drink in the recording studios, as much as they wanted, as long as they got work done. So as can be assumed, some of these surviving brown wax cylinders and early discs have the artists at their craft either a little tipsy, or completely wasted. It was really a mixed bag. Many records were probably not issued due to things related to the artists being too drunk to talk, not being able to stand straight, mixing up lyrics, etc. Columbia was the worst. They sometimes might have even kicked out artists for the rest of the recording day for being so drunk.(this might have happened to Len Spencer or Fred Hylands at least once!) The amount of surviving cylinders with these drunken recording artists is somewhat surprising sometimes(I even have a few myself!). My own brown wax cylinder with George P. Watson singing "Emmett's Lullaby" from 1898 is quite something. Watson is definitely drunk on the one I have, and Hylands probably is too, but it makes the record more "real" in thinking of how these old records were made, that oftentimes the company was so desperate for more money and demands from consumers, they issued as many tales as they could, even if the take almost blew to bits due to a tipsy pianist or wasted singer. It's one of the many things that makes these old records so interesting really.
"Poor Hylands..."
It would be not only a whole lot of work for the singers but the bands and the pianists! It was easy to be on staff at any of the old record companies and accidentally utter complaints about working there, but doing that was a mistake. Such as this one the we should all have heard of by now:
Heh, he yelled this from the back of the room I bet.
The ones who heard him say this must have been laughing and saying things similar to,
"Ha! That's all the boy does, he groans about too much work! He's too spoiled!"
He was still reasonably new there, so he didn't know that bitching about working too much wouldn't do him any good, and not a single change would be made.The rooms were in the 1890's were surprisingly big and open compared to the studio rooms that we often see in picture from after 1905. Here's a few from the 1890's:
Back to recording studios:
Columbia's room was really something in 1898. Very tall and wide, with tall columns, perfectly intricate ceilings, lots of space for exhibition crowds(hence the picture above), tables for food(special thing they had at exhibitions), and of course fitted with dozens and dozens of electric lights!
Edison's studios on the other hand were much more industrial and less progressive. As they can often be seen as very big spacious rooms, but wooden and rugged with things scattered all over, and records lying around.
Now onto the third thing in this post, the booze. The artists were allowed to drink in the recording studios, as much as they wanted, as long as they got work done. So as can be assumed, some of these surviving brown wax cylinders and early discs have the artists at their craft either a little tipsy, or completely wasted. It was really a mixed bag. Many records were probably not issued due to things related to the artists being too drunk to talk, not being able to stand straight, mixing up lyrics, etc. Columbia was the worst. They sometimes might have even kicked out artists for the rest of the recording day for being so drunk.(this might have happened to Len Spencer or Fred Hylands at least once!) The amount of surviving cylinders with these drunken recording artists is somewhat surprising sometimes(I even have a few myself!). My own brown wax cylinder with George P. Watson singing "Emmett's Lullaby" from 1898 is quite something. Watson is definitely drunk on the one I have, and Hylands probably is too, but it makes the record more "real" in thinking of how these old records were made, that oftentimes the company was so desperate for more money and demands from consumers, they issued as many tales as they could, even if the take almost blew to bits due to a tipsy pianist or wasted singer. It's one of the many things that makes these old records so interesting really.
I hope you enjoyed this!
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