Speaking of the predecessor of RCA, it can be traced back to the Victor Talking Machine Company established in 1901. Because the disc records they used were more convenient than the cylindrical recording used in Edison's phonograph, , surpassed it in practicality, and therefore became a pioneer in today's recording industry. The founders of Victory Records were Johnson and Emilie Bellina, known as the "Father of Records." Belliner, the inventor of the disc record, established the Gramophone Record Company (the predecessor of EMI Records) in London in 1898, and located the gramophone factory in Hamburg, Germany (later developed into DG Records). His Victory Phonograph Company in the United States was established to compete with Edison for business. At first, it focused on hardware products, and later began to issue records. The first Victor's small 10cm record was a military band performance of "Connecticut March No. 2" recorded at the end of 1901. Starting in 1902, Victor's records began to bear the "dog listening horn" trademark that was used by both EMI and DG. With the gradual popularity of radio broadcasting, the demand for records began to surge, and Victor officially began to develop into the record recording industry. In 1929, RCA Broadcasting Company, a subsidiary of General Electric Company, the giant wireless broadcast network, acquired Victor's record department, starting the legendary and glorious record history of RCA-Victor.
It was not all smooth sailing at the beginning of RCA's founding. The first thing it encountered was the stock crash on Wall Street in New York in 1929. At this time, the United States fell into an unprecedented economic crisis, and Edison's phonograph company collapsed. RCA Records was also on its last legs and almost died. Fortunately, the radios manufactured by RCA became very popular, with a market share of as high as 25%, which allowed them to support the development of the recording project. During this period, RCA recorded wonderful performances by cello masters Casals and Piatigorski; pianists Rubinstein and Rachmaninov; violin master Heifetz and others. In terms of conductors, the Boston Symphony Orchestra led by Stokovsky and Kousevsky, as well as Toscanini and others, made RCA’s red trademark once synonymous with classical music.
After 1934, electrical recording became popular, and the recording frequency increased from 100Hz-5KHz in the mechanical era to 30Hz-8KHz, which was a qualitative leap. RCA took advantage of the opportunity, and its scale and output increased rapidly. This gratifying situation reached its peak in 1941. As the United States entered World War II, production of shellac, the raw material needed for records, was reduced by more than 70%. The phonograph factory and recording industry were requisitioned by the military, and the record industry entered its second bleak stage. However, RCA, which had already established a firm foothold, remained standing despite the hardships of the war, relying on the strength it had accumulated previously to operate with difficulty. After the war, Columbia developed the 33.3 rpm LP record, which brought hope to the record industry for another revival. RCA then joined the LP camp and performed very well. Their "New orthophonic" tableting technology received rave reviews at the time. After entering the 1950s, RCA actively invested in the research and experiment of stereo recording in order to compete with Mercury's "Living Presence" record, another audiophile label in the United States.
In 1953, Mondo led members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra to experimentally record a selection of Delibau's ballet "Coppelia" at the Manhattan Center in New York City, with surprisingly good results. In October of the same year, RCA engineers demonstrated the two-channel and three-channel experimental tapes they produced at the Sound Wars in New York. Peter Reed, the editor of the American Gramophone Guide magazine, described them as "the most shocking 'Living' tape today that shocks the ears and soul." Stereo' design..." RCA was inspired by this, and the word "Living Stereo" in the excerpted comments was used as the subtitle for a series of its subsequent records.
In February 1954, RCA used mono and two-track recorders to simultaneously operate for the first time at the Boston Concert Hall, recording Berlioz's "Faust" conducted by Monsch. Then, they recorded Richard Strauss's "The Heroic Life" and "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" performed by Reiner at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the Chicago Concert Hall. This recording accompanied the 1958 "Living Stereo" "The release of the LP series became the first album in the series.
At this point, the "Living Stereo" series of LP records were released until about 1964, with a total of about 600 types. After the "Living Stereo" series became famous all over the world, RCA re-launched the "Soria" and "Dynagroove" series in the 1960s with a stronger fever concept. The effect was even better, almost pushing stereo recording to the extreme. However, after entering the 1970s, as global music culture became increasingly "popular" and "vegetarian", the market share of classical records was greatly reduced. Coupled with strong challenges from European brands, the quality of RCA classical records was no longer what it used to be. " The "golden recording age" came to an end. But looking back today, we still find that the glory that RCA brought to the record industry in the 1950s and 1960s was so brilliant. The large number of precious recordings they left behind at that time are priceless treasures in terms of artistic value and quality, and today's audiophiles are constantly searching for them.
In summary, RCA's ordinary records are divided into red, gold and silver seal series according to different standards: red seal, indicating the highest standard of master's performance and first-class recording level; gold seal, indicating historical documents Immortal recordings of sex; silver stamps, indicating cheap records or reissues.
The reason why RCA achieved brilliant results in the early days of stereophony has its own special background. For example, the classical music market was booming at that time, and record companies were willing to invest huge sums of money in production. What cannot be ignored is that the war caused a large number of top European musicians, especially artists of Jewish origin, to immigrate to the United States. The musicians recruited by RCA at that time included Rubinstein, Heifetz, Horowitz, Reiner, Mensch, and Felipe. Dele, Van Clibon and others are at the peak of their art, so their records are precious and will always be remembered.
On the other hand, early stereo was still a new technology, so recording engineers could not use advanced equipment to be lazy and could only rely on their own artistic accomplishment and technical skills to produce. RCA recorders often only use 2 to 3 microphones for on-site recording, without any processing in between, to record the tone desired by the command post. This kind of "do not use things" production attitude is reflected in today's new generation of recorders. It's hard to see anymore. Furthermore, the equipment they used at that time were all tube products, and the sound was quite warm and natural. In addition, RCA's recording venues are all very beautiful, such as Boston Symphony Hall, Chicago Orchestra Hall, New York Carnegie Hall, etc., all have extremely good architectural acoustic characteristics, and the reverberation time and reflection time are very appropriate. Recording here The music below naturally has first-class balance and sense of space.
According to records, the equipment used in RCA's early stereo recordings included RCA's patented RT-21 quarter-inch two-track recorder. Each track used a mono mix controller, respectively. Controlling Neumann U-47 cardioid and M-49/50 non-directional microphones, the monitor speakers are two-way speakers developed by RCA (the bass unit has a 15-inch). Starting in 1956, RCA switched to three-track recorders, using the Ampex 300 1/2-inch tape recording socket. Of course, all amplifiers and electronic equipment were tube products. RCA's stereo recording is mainly based on the microphone placement method studied by Bell Labs (the laboratory has been studying stereo recording since the 1930s, and conductor Stokovsky was also the subject of the experiment), depending on the needs of different music. Instead use 2 or 3 microphones. At that time, RCA's recording engineers believed that using two microphones could simulate the three-dimensional sense of space heard by the human ear, and the third microphone was used to capture the details of the scene and instruments. On the other hand, today's classical recordings use more and more microphones, sometimes as many as dozens. After mixing, the sense of presence is greatly reduced. This is the big secret why RCA's old recordings don't have the "canned smell" and sound fresh and charming.
Compared with Mrecury's "Living Presence" and RCA's "Living Stereo": it is said that the former's sound is relatively forward, based on the front row of the audience as the standard; the woodwind timbre is distinctive, and the brass and percussion are dynamic It has a strong impact; transparency and sound field performance are both excellent; only the texture of the strings is outstanding, lacking a little warmth and softness.
The latter's record sound is said to be based on the middle of the concert hall seats, and the sense of depth is quite good; the texture of the instruments is less direct and violent than the former, but the timbre of the strings is extremely sweet and lustrous; the timbre of the woodwinds is also very rich , very likeable; the brass and percussion are less stable, with some records being extremely dynamic and others a little undercooked.
Due to the close partnership between RCA and the British Decca record company at that time, RCA's recording in Europe was mostly entrusted to Decca's ace recording engineer Wilkinson. The excellent results can be imagined And know. In the United States, the earliest producer Richard Mohr and recording engineer Lewis Layton were divided into one group, responsible for recording mono records; while producer Jack Preiffer and recording engineer Leslie Chase were assigned to another group, responsible for recording stereo records. . Later, Richard Mohr, Lewis Layton and Jack Preiffer became the soul behind RCA. This group of "Three Musketeers" witnessed almost all of RCA's glorious history in the "Golden Age". In particular, Jack Preiffer is the biggest contributor to the creation of RCA's "Living Stereo" historical record. We must mention him in particular here.
After graduating from college with a double degree in music and electronic engineering, Jack Preiffer joined RCA in 1949. Soon, his talent attracted attention and he was transferred to the Artist & Peppertoire department to start dealing with those difficult artists. The first female pianist Landowska he met caused a lot of trouble for the others. At that time, the old man who was recording Bach's piano concerto collection was already 70 years old. She was unwilling to travel to New York and back, leaving the record company at a loss. After Jack Preiffer took over, he quickly gained the old lady's trust and simply asked the technical team to go to her home in Connecticut for recording. Later, until the old man passed away, he regarded Jack as his confidant. Artists Jack Preiffer has been responsible for include conductors Toscanini, Federer, Mensch, Robert Shaw, Stokovsky, and Reiner; violinists Heifetz, Szigeti, and Milstein; Pianists Rubinstein, Hollow, Van Cliburn; singers Price; and Guarneri, Tokyo Quartet, etc.
In his more than 30 years of production career, Jack Preiffer has won many recording awards, including the 1990 Lifetime Achievement Award for Best Producer from the International Association of Recording Arts and Sciences. The Highest Achievement Award for "The Complete Works of Toscanini" in 1994; the Grammy Award for "The Complete Works of Heifetz" in 1996, etc. In 1992, RCA's "Living Stereo" record was re-released on CD, with Jack Preiffer once again serving as producer. In 1996, he was monitoring a CD master version of "Living Stereo" that was about to be released in the recording studio. Unfortunately, he suffered a heart attack and passed away. He was a true example of devoting his life to his life.
In addition to Jack Preiffer, the most famous among audiophiles should be RCA's gold medal recording engineer Lewis Layton. He has the most works in the reissued "Living Stereo" series of CDs. Most of the recordings performed by Lewis Layton retain ferocious dynamics, deep soundstage, and excellent transparency. The most rare thing is that the orchestral works he recorded are steely and soft, with a thick and sweet light bulb flavor.
As a large record company with a long history, RCA is also home to stars in jazz, blues music and pop music, and has countless treasures, such as a "Blue Rain Tower" (film number: RCA258418 ) has been recognized by the audio industry as a must-have record for testing the human voice. In 1987, after joining the BMG Record Group, RCA's recording business developed further. In addition to continuing to maintain its leading position in the American recording industry, it also cooperated with the former Soviet Union's "Melody" record company and organized many Russian recordings. Rare historical recording materials. Recently, the company published the Beijing version of "Turandot" performed in the Imperial Ancestral Temple of the Forbidden City in September 1998 on CD (film number: BMG RCA 74321 606172), LD and 4-directional multi-view DVD.
In addition, RCA music production is becoming increasingly international, and some musicians, including those from my country, have signed contracts with it, greatly enriching the brand's artistic resources.