[BC]

Hi

Back in the summer I posted a message about a
YouTube video I had just posted of a 1953 TV show
featuring Les Paul & Mary Ford doing a multitracking
demo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezw_4YTIa8M

I just came across a copy of a 1953 Ampex ad that
appears to show the exact same "portable" recorder
shown in the video:
http://recordist.com/ampex/docs/apxads/300/300400ad.jpg

FYI for one or two of you who might be perchance be
interested. Have a good Two Oh Oh Eight.

-BC

[Mike Rivers]

On Jan 1, 3:52 pm, BC wrote:

I just came across a copy of a 1953 Ampex ad that
appears to show the exact same "portable" recorder
shown in the video

And you might be interested in this article about the invention of the
8-track recorder with sel-sync:

http://www.aes.org/aeshc/docs/sel-sy...r_sel-sync.pdf

[BC]

On Jan 1, 4:16 pm, Mike Rivers wrote:
On Jan 1, 3:52 pm, BC wrote:

I just came across a copy of a 1953 Ampex ad that
appears to show the exact same "portable" recorder
shown in the video

And you might be interested in this article about the invention of the
8-track recorder with sel-sync:

http://www.aes.org/aeshc/docs/sel-sy...r_sel-sync.pdf

Thanks for that -- that was fascinating. So in the YouTube
video, one of the Ampex recorders already had a copy of
"How High the Moon" made with 24 prior dubs and that was
being fed live with two more dubs of Les playing and Mary
singing into the 2nd Ampex we see. So they weren't really
talking about "tracks" the way we now think of tracks.

Not much room for error in those days, eh? And it speaks
a lot about the quality of the equipment and microphones
back then.

I also liked the bit about how Ampex's patent attorney
thought a true multitrack recorder was "obvious art and
probably not patentable" -- nowadays patent trolls would
try to claim intellectual property rights down to the point
of which way the knob turns and the shape of the on/off
switch.

Also interesting is how this version of who thought of
what varies from what's more generally believed:
http://mixonline.com/mag/audio_ampex_selsync/
http://mixonline.com/TECnology-Hall-...l-sync-090106/

Here's a good picture of an operational Sel-Sync/
Octopus machine:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y27...me/octopus.jpg

Now that's a chunk of hardware -- we don't need no
steenkin' Pro Tools....

-BC

[Paul Stamler]

"BC" wrote in message
...

Also interesting is how this version of who thought of
what varies from what's more generally believed:
http://mixonline.com/mag/audio_ampex_selsync/
http://mixonline.com/TECnology-Hall-...l-sync-090106/

The credibility of this story may be judged by the photo caption:

"Les Paul (holding a Fostex cassette multitrack) poses with his original
Ampex 8-track, which was given the name "Octopus" by comedian W.C. Fields."

The 8-track recorder was delivered in 1955. W. C. Fields died in 1946.

Peace,
Paul

[philicorda[_5_]]

On Wed, 02 Jan 2008 15:55:25 +0000, Paul Stamler wrote:

"BC" wrote in message
...

Also interesting is how this version of who thought of what varies from
what's more generally believed:
http://mixonline.com/mag/audio_ampex_selsync/
http://mixonline.com/TECnology-Hall-...l-sync-090106/

The credibility of this story may be judged by the photo caption:

"Les Paul (holding a Fostex cassette multitrack) poses with his original
Ampex 8-track, which was given the name "Octopus" by comedian W.C.
Fields."

The 8-track recorder was delivered in 1955. W. C. Fields died in 1946.

It would appear to be a misreading of what W.C. Fields said to Les Paul
about 'sound on sound' type multitracking:

"When I interviewed Les Paul recently, he told me that the first person
he played his multi-tracked guitar experiments for back in the late '40s
was the legendary comedian W.C. Fields.

"He came to my garage to make a little record," Les recalled. "I played
him the acetate of 'Lover' that I'd done. When he heard it, he said, 'My
boy, you sound like an octopus.'""- Bill DeMain
http://www.puremusic.com/61les.html


Peace,
Paul

[Mike Rivers]

I just heard that Ross Snyder passed away on January 1, just shy of 88
years old. I'm sorry I never had the opportunity to meet him and hear
his stories. Those who knew him say he was a wonderful person.

[BC]

On Jan 2, 11:56 am, philicorda wrote:
On Wed, 02 Jan 2008 15:55:25 +0000, Paul Stamler wrote:
"BC" wrote in message
...

Also interesting is how this version of who thought of what varies from
what's more generally believed:
http://mixonline.com/mag/audio_ampex_selsync/
http://mixonline.com/TECnology-Hall-...l-sync-090106/

The credibility of this story may be judged by the photo caption:

"Les Paul (holding a Fostex cassette multitrack) poses with his original
Ampex 8-track, which was given the name "Octopus" by comedian W.C.
Fields."

The 8-track recorder was delivered in 1955. W. C. Fields died in 1946.

It would appear to be a misreading of what W.C. Fields said to Les Paul
about 'sound on sound' type multitracking:

"When I interviewed Les Paul recently, he told me that the first person
he played his multi-tracked guitar experiments for back in the late '40s
was the legendary comedian W.C. Fields.

"He came to my garage to make a little record," Les recalled. "I played
him the acetate of 'Lover' that I'd done. When he heard it, he said, 'My
boy, you sound like an octopus.'""- Bill DeMainhttp://www.puremusic.com/61les.html



Peace,
Paul


The "common octopus" at least doesn't sound that much
like Les Paul to my ear:
http://animals.nationalgeographic.co...n-octopus.html

-BC

[videochas www.locoworks.com]

On Jan 2, 5:36�am, BC wrote:
On Jan 1, 4:16 pm, Mike Rivers wrote:


I also liked the bit about how Ampex's patent attorney
thought a true multitrack recorder was "obvious art and
probably not patentable" -- nowadays patent trolls would
try to claim intellectual property rights down to the point
of �which way the knob turns and the shape of �the on/off
switch.

-BC

The legal crowd at Ampex was never really aware of what they had.
They declined to trademark the term "videotape" or "videotape
recorder" when they could have. The marketing department, no
shrewder, thought that videotape recorders would only be of use at
network level, to use for live program delays, and confidently
forecast the sale of only a few dozen. The patent rights for rotary
head technology were licensed to Sony and Panasonic because Ampex did
not see any market for home video recording.

[Robert Morein[_2_]]

wrote in message
...
The credibility of this story may be judged by the photo caption:

"Les Paul (holding a Fostex cassette multitrack) poses with his original
Ampex 8-track, which was given the name "Octopus" by comedian W.C. Fields."

W.C. Fields was one of the first Scientologists, and as such cannot be
trusted for anything he said.



Bob Morein
(310) 237-6511
http://www.myspace.com/robertmorein

[pmfan57[_2_]]

On Jan 2, 3:07 pm, "videochas www.locoworks.com"
wrote:
On Jan 2, 5:36�am, BC wrote:

On Jan 1, 4:16 pm, Mike Rivers wrote:

I also liked the bit about how Ampex's patent attorney
thought a true multitrack recorder was "obvious art and
probably not patentable" -- nowadays patent trolls would
try to claim intellectual property rights down to the point
of �which way the knob turns and the shape of �the on/off
switch.

-BC

The legal crowd at Ampex was never really aware of what they had.
They declined to trademark the term "videotape" or "videotape
recorder" when they could have. The marketing department, no
shrewder, thought that videotape recorders would only be of use at
network level, to use for live program delays, and confidently
forecast the sale of only a few dozen. The patent rights for rotary
head technology were licensed to Sony and Panasonic because Ampex did
not see any market for home video recording.

The funny thing is that no one would argue today that the invention of
the multitrack recorder (and certainly its component elements (like
the recording head)) is/was not patentable. It would be the kind of
thing that would be used as an example of what IS patentable, i.e.,
major advances, even by those that argue against the present system.
Talk about undervaluing your IP!

[Mahma P. Sitna]

Robert Morein wrote:


wrote in message
...
The credibility of this story may be judged by the photo caption:

"Les Paul (holding a Fostex cassette multitrack) poses with his original
Ampex 8-track, which was given the name "Octopus" by comedian W.C. Fields."

W.C. Fields was one of the first Scientologists, and as such cannot be
trusted for anything he said.

What does that have to do with classical music, Morein?

[William Sommerwerck]

The patent rights for rotary head technology were licensed
to Sony and Panasonic because Ampex did not see any
market for home video recording.

I'm not sure that's correct. The rotary-head system used in consumer decks
is a Japanese invention (Hitachi, I believe), not Ampex.

[William Sommerwerck]

The funny thing is that no one would argue today that the invention
of the multitrack recorder (and certainly its component elements
(like the recording head)) is/was not patentable.

I would. There's nothing inherently patentable about it. What is non-obvious
about any of it?

[videochas www.locoworks.com]

On Jan 2, 4:16�pm, "William Sommerwerck"
wrote:
The patent rights for rotary head technology were licensed
to Sony and Panasonic because Ampex did not see any
market for home video recording.

I'm not sure that's correct. The rotary-head system used in consumer decks
is a Japanese invention (Hitachi, I believe), not Ampex.

The Japanese had nothing to do with it. The circuitry behind the head
was invented by Alexander M. Poiniatoff, working with Ray Dolby, and
the rotary drum was used by them to increase the write speed. Letting
the consumer market go was the biggest mistake ever made by the
company... and they made a lot of mistakes.

[William Sommerwerck]

"videochas www.locoworks.com" wrote in message
...
On Jan 2, 4:16?pm, "William Sommerwerck"
wrote:

The patent rights for rotary head technology were licensed
to Sony and Panasonic because Ampex did not see any
market for home video recording.

I'm not sure that's correct. The rotary-head system used in consumer
decks is a Japanese invention (Hitachi, I believe), not Ampex.

The Japanese had nothing to do with it. The circuitry behind the head
was invented by Alexander M. Poiniatoff, working with Ray Dolby, and
the rotary drum was used by them to increase the write speed.

The original Ampex video recorder used an altogether different rotary-head
system than the later Japanese machines.

[Mike Rivers]

On Jan 2, 8:15 pm, "William Sommerwerck"
wrote:

The original Ampex video recorder used an altogether different rotary-head
system than the later Japanese machines.

Ampex had a helical scan machine before Sony, and Sony had one (reel-
to-reel) before Beta. It's a pretty old system.

The "quad" transverse rotating head was an Ampex original and that was
the machine that they didn't expect would have a market outside the
broadcast industry - and they were right about that. It took Japanese
engineering to be able to make a helical scan video recorder that
could be priced for the consumer market. Ampex was never very good at
that even though they did make a few consumer machines. That was sort
of a concession to serious audiophiles who wanted the Ampex name but
still had to get it past the wife and into the living room.

[Richard Crowley]

"Mike Rivers" wrote...
"William Sommerwerck" wrote:
The original Ampex video recorder used an altogether different
rotary-head
system than the later Japanese machines.

Ampex had a helical scan machine before Sony, and Sony had one (reel-
to-reel) before Beta. It's a pretty old system.

The "quad" transverse rotating head was an Ampex original and that was
the machine that they didn't expect would have a market outside the
broadcast industry - and they were right about that. It took Japanese
engineering to be able to make a helical scan video recorder that
could be priced for the consumer market. Ampex was never very good at
that even though they did make a few consumer machines. That was sort
of a concession to serious audiophiles who wanted the Ampex name but
still had to get it past the wife and into the living room.

To be fair, the state of the art in tape, heads, processing electronics,
etc. was significantly advanced by the time Sony, JVC, et.al. got
around to making home video recording equipment. Due, in no small
part to the pioneering effect of the Ampex quadruplex video recorder.

[hank alrich]

impostor wrote:

W.C. Fields was one of the first Scientologists, and as such cannot be
trusted for anything he said.

Path:
uni-berlin.de!fu-berlin.de!out04b.usenetserver.com!news.usenetserve r.com
!in04.usenetserver.com!news.usenetserver.com!nx01. iad01.newshosting.com!
newshosting.com!post01.iad01!news.buzzardnews.com! not-for-mail


--
ha
Iraq is Arabic for Vietnam

[D C[_2_]]

hank alrich wrote:

Path:
uni-berlin.de!fu-berlin.de!out04b.usenetserver.com!news.usenetserve r.com
!in04.usenetserver.com!news.usenetserver.com!nx01. iad01.newshosting.com!
newshosting.com!post01.iad01!news.buzzardnews.com! not-for-mail

Never to be heard from again.

[Richard Crowley]

"William Sommerwerck" wrote ...
The funny thing is that no one would argue today that the invention
of the multitrack recorder (and certainly its component elements
(like the recording head)) is/was not patentable.

I would. There's nothing inherently patentable about it. What is
non-obvious
about any of it?

Alas, that kind of sensible logic appears to be absent from the
technically-challenged patent examiners who run the Patent &
Trademark Office these days.

[Paul Stamler]

"videochas www.locoworks.com" wrote in message
...
On Jan 2, 4:16�pm, "William Sommerwerck"
wrote:
The patent rights for rotary head technology were licensed
to Sony and Panasonic because Ampex did not see any
market for home video recording.

I'm not sure that's correct. The rotary-head system used in consumer decks
is a Japanese invention (Hitachi, I believe), not Ampex.

The Japanese had nothing to do with it. The circuitry behind the head
was invented by Alexander M. Poiniatoff, working with Ray Dolby, and
the rotary drum was used by them to increase the write speed. Letting
the consumer market go was the biggest mistake ever made by the
company... and they made a lot of mistakes.

The rotary drum in those early video recorders was transverse -- it spun at
right angles to the tape path. The circuitry used in all the Japanese
recorders, including the 1" pro machines, the 3/4" industrial (later pro)
machines, and the 1/2" home machines, was "omega-wrap". The drum was
near-parallel to the tape patch, and the head traced out a diagonal path on
the tape. I believe Hitachi (or whoever) developed that to get around the
Ampex patent on transverse heads.

Peace,
Paul

[Chris Hornbeck]

On Thu, 03 Jan 2008 00:22:42 -0500, D C wrote:

hank alrich wrote:
Path:
.buzzardnews.com

Never to be heard from again.

Well, yeah. But if the content could only be improved to the
point of being even slightly provocative, or at least to be
considered "edgy", it might have some entertainment value.

As is, I'm afraid it still needs an awful lot of work.

Dunno about originality of concept, but they say that everything
was in either Willy the Shake or The Bible, so the concept is
itself pretty doubtful. Richard III and Job spring unbidden to
mind, but whatever.

Thanks, as always,

Chris Hornbeck

[Paul Stamler]

"Mahma P. Sitna" wrote in message
...
Robert Morein wrote:


wrote in message
...
The credibility of this story may be judged by the photo caption:

"Les Paul (holding a Fostex cassette multitrack) poses with his
original
Ampex 8-track, which was given the name "Octopus" by comedian W.C.
Fields."

W.C. Fields was one of the first Scientologists, and as such cannot be
trusted for anything he said.

What does that have to do with classical music, Morein?

It's probably not Morein, but whatever...the first Church of Scientology was
founded in 1954. The founding documents of what would become the Church of
Scientology ("Dianetics: Evolution of a Science" and "Dianetics: The Modern
Science of Mental Health") were published in 1950. The Hubbard Dianetic
Research Foundation was also established in 1950.

W. C. Fields died in 1946. While it's theoretically possible that he was
acquainted with Scientology's founder L. Ron Hubbard, it was perforce well
before Scientology existed, either as a church or an organized ideology.

Peace,
Paul

[videochas www.locoworks.com]

On Jan 2, 10:15Â*pm, "Paul Stamler" wrote:
"videochaswww.locoworks.com" wrote in message

...
On Jan 2, 4:16�pm, "William Sommerwerck"
wrote:

The patent rights for rotary head technology were licensed
to Sony and Panasonic because Ampex did not see any
market for home video recording.

I'm not sure that's correct. The rotary-head system used in consumer decks
is a Japanese invention (Hitachi, I believe), not Ampex.

The Japanese had nothing to do with it. Â*The circuitry behind the head
was invented by Alexander M. Poiniatoff, working with Ray Dolby, and
the rotary drum was used by them to increase the write speed. Â*Letting
the consumer market go was the biggest mistake ever made by the
company... and they made a lot of mistakes.

The rotary drum in those early video recorders was transverse -- it spun at
right angles to the tape path. The circuitry used in all the Japanese
recorders, including the 1" pro machines, the 3/4" industrial (later pro)
machines, and the 1/2" home machines, was "omega-wrap". The drum was
near-parallel to the tape patch, and the head traced out a diagonal path on
the tape. I believe Hitachi (or whoever) developed that to get around the
Ampex patent on transverse heads.

Peace,
Paul

There was also a short-lived American slant-track recorder which
recorded on 2" tape, from a California company, but the name escapes
me right now. It was widely considered to have quality far superior
to anything else available at the time. But, there really wasn't any
market for another 2" tape format, no matter how good it was, and soon
1" type C took over anyway, making 2" helical just a footnote. But I
really wish I could remember the name of that company.

[D C[_2_]]

Chris Hornbeck wrote:

Well, yeah. But if the content could only be improved to the
point of being even slightly provocative, or at least to be
considered "edgy", it might have some entertainment value.

As is, I'm afraid it still needs an awful lot of work.

Dunno about originality of concept, but they say that everything
was in either Willy the Shake or The Bible, so the concept is
itself pretty doubtful. Richard III and Job spring unbidden to
mind, but whatever.

Thanks, as always,

Chris Hornbeck


I love how some of your posts match up with your sig. Or not.

[Scott Dorsey]

In article ,
Richard Crowley wrote:
"Mike Rivers" wrote...
"William Sommerwerck" wrote:
The original Ampex video recorder used an altogether different
rotary-head
system than the later Japanese machines.

Ampex had a helical scan machine before Sony, and Sony had one (reel-
to-reel) before Beta. It's a pretty old system.

However, the autofeeding mechanism that made videocassettes possible
was a Sony invention. And, in fact, the goofy wrap that the VHS machines
use was in part an attempt at getting around Sony patents.

Ampex invented the transverse scan system originally and did some work on
helical scanning later on with Type A, but the popular Type C tapes and
all those horrible 1/2" open-reel video formats were strictly Japanese.

The "quad" transverse rotating head was an Ampex original and that was
the machine that they didn't expect would have a market outside the
broadcast industry - and they were right about that. It took Japanese
engineering to be able to make a helical scan video recorder that
could be priced for the consumer market. Ampex was never very good at
that even though they did make a few consumer machines. That was sort
of a concession to serious audiophiles who wanted the Ampex name but
still had to get it past the wife and into the living room.

Ampex never made a consumer video recorder, although I think they rebadged
a Hitachi JIS-I deck once. They did own a small operation in Sunnyvale which
was completely seperate from their main operation in Redwood City, which
made some consumer open reel audio machines.

To be fair, the state of the art in tape, heads, processing electronics,
etc. was significantly advanced by the time Sony, JVC, et.al. got
around to making home video recording equipment. Due, in no small
part to the pioneering effect of the Ampex quadruplex video recorder.

Yes, and it's still striking to see how good some of those 2" tapes look
today. A hell of a lot better than kines.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[D C[_2_]]

Allen wrote:

Google "robert morein".

No thanks.

[D C[_2_]]

videochas www.locoworks.com wrote:

There was also a short-lived American slant-track recorder which
recorded on 2" tape, from a California company, but the name escapes
me right now. It was widely considered to have quality far superior
to anything else available at the time. But, there really wasn't any
market for another 2" tape format, no matter how good it was, and soon
1" type C took over anyway, making 2" helical just a footnote. But I
really wish I could remember the name of that company.


Concord?

[Scott Dorsey]

D C wrote:
videochas www.locoworks.com wrote:

There was also a short-lived American slant-track recorder which
recorded on 2" tape, from a California company, but the name escapes
me right now. It was widely considered to have quality far superior
to anything else available at the time. But, there really wasn't any
market for another 2" tape format, no matter how good it was, and soon
1" type C took over anyway, making 2" helical just a footnote. But I
really wish I could remember the name of that company.

Concord?

IVC?
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[Richard Crowley]

"Scott Dorsey" wrote ...
D C wrote:
videochas wrote:

There was also a short-lived American slant-track recorder which
recorded on 2" tape, from a California company, but the name escapes
me right now. It was widely considered to have quality far superior
to anything else available at the time. But, there really wasn't any
market for another 2" tape format, no matter how good it was, and soon
1" type C took over anyway, making 2" helical just a footnote. But I
really wish I could remember the name of that company.

Concord?

IVC?

Yes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interna...eo_Corporation

Ampex also produced a heli-scan VTR which used 2-inch
tape. I remember seeing a pair of them in an article on the
"home entertainment" system at the Playboy mansion (back
in Chicago). Of course few people could afford those for
home use. :-) Mr. Hefner had one of the earliest PVR
systems there, also. He would circle the shows in his TV
Guide magazine, and one of his butlers would roll the tape
at the appropriate time.

The IVC 9000 was the last great 2-inch video mastering
machine, but IVC was apparently not large enough and
strong enough to bear the cost of R&D, and besides, the
1-inch format was displacing 2-inch in much the same way
that digital has pretty nearly completely displaced analog
audio tape recording.

Further advances in tape, head, and electronics made higher-
frequency recording possible at lower tape speeds which
brought equivalent quality to 1-inch video recorders (and
continued to the point of making digital tape recording
mainstream a few years later).

[EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)]

Robert Morein wrote:

wrote in message
...

The credibility of this story may be judged by the photo caption:

"Les Paul (holding a Fostex cassette multitrack) poses with his original
Ampex 8-track, which was given the name "Octopus" by comedian W.C. Fields."


W.C. Fields was one of the first Scientologists, and as such cannot be
trusted for anything he said.

Really? I was under the impression Fields was already dead
when Scientology was invented. (By a science-fiction writer
whose name escapes me, at the moment.)




Bob Morein
(310) 237-6511
http://www.myspace.com/robertmorein

[Richard Crowley]

"EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)" wrote...
Brian McCarty [impersonating Robert Morein] wrote:
wrote ...

The credibility of this story may be judged by the photo caption:

"Les Paul (holding a Fostex cassette multitrack) poses with his original
Ampex 8-track, which was given the name "Octopus" by comedian W.C.
Fields."


W.C. Fields was one of the first Scientologists, and as such cannot be
trusted for anything he said.

Really? I was under the impression Fields was already dead when
Scientology was invented. (By a science-fiction writer whose name escapes
me, at the moment.)

You are correct, but you are replying to a notorious usenet
troll who is impersonating Mr. Morein.

You've never had the amusement of a couple of Scientologists
come to your door and try to sell you a copy of L.Ron.Hubbard's
book?

[EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)]

Richard Crowley wrote:

"EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)" wrote...

Brian McCarty [impersonating Robert Morein] wrote:

wrote ...


The credibility of this story may be judged by the photo caption:

"Les Paul (holding a Fostex cassette multitrack) poses with his original
Ampex 8-track, which was given the name "Octopus" by comedian W.C.
Fields."


W.C. Fields was one of the first Scientologists, and as such cannot be
trusted for anything he said.

Really? I was under the impression Fields was already dead when
Scientology was invented. (By a science-fiction writer whose name escapes
me, at the moment.)


You are correct, but you are replying to a notorious usenet
troll who is impersonating Mr. Morein.

You've never had the amusement of a couple of Scientologists
come to your door and try to sell you a copy of L.Ron.Hubbard's
book?

No, but I once submitted a short story to his "Writers of
the Future" contest. (IIRC, I could have seen it in print -
for a fee.)

[pmfan57[_2_]]

On Jan 2, 7:18*pm, "William Sommerwerck"
wrote:
The funny thing is that no one would argue today that the invention
of the multitrack recorder (and certainly its component elements
(like the recording head)) is/was not patentable.

I would. There's nothing inherently patentable about it. What is non-obvious
about any of it?

There's no concept of "inherent" patentability. You always have to
compare it with the state of the art, level of skill in the art, etc.
This type of invention has "long felt need" and "commercial success"
written all over it, which would be evidence to support its non-
obviousness. Anyway, a claim related to the details of exactly how,
let's say, the recording head was made would certainly have been
patentable, if, as appears to be the case, it had never been done
before. Considering hundreds of patents have probably been issued on
*advancements* in multitrack technology, the pioneering invention
itself would certainly have been entitled to a patent. Ampex appears
to have made many mistakes relating to marketing and developing these
technologies.

[RickH®]

On Jan 2, 10:56*am, philicorda wrote:
On Wed, 02 Jan 2008 15:55:25 +0000, Paul Stamler wrote:
"BC" wrote in message
...

Also interesting is how this version of who thought of what varies from
what's more generally believed:
http://mixonline.com/mag/audio_ampex_selsync/
http://mixonline.com/TECnology-Hall-...l-sync-090106/

The credibility of this story may be judged by the photo caption:

"Les Paul (holding a Fostex cassette multitrack) poses with his original
Ampex 8-track, which was given the name "Octopus" by comedian W.C.
Fields."

The 8-track recorder was delivered in 1955. W. C. Fields died in 1946.

It would appear to be a misreading of what W.C. Fields said to Les Paul
about 'sound on sound' type multitracking:

"When I interviewed Les Paul recently, he told me that the first person
he played his multi-tracked guitar experiments for back in the late '40s
was the legendary comedian W.C. Fields.

"He came to my garage to make a little record," Les recalled. "I played
him the acetate of 'Lover' that I'd done. When he heard it, he said, 'My
boy, you sound like an octopus.'""- Bill DeMainhttp://www.puremusic.com/61les.html





Peace,
Paul- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Unrelated to anything but my old juggling teacher (yes I said juggling
teacher) owns several of WC Fields' walking canes. WC was actually a
pretty good juggler himself and gave them to my teacher who was sort
of a child prodigy juggler.

[William Sommerwerck]

"RickH®" wrote in message
...

Unrelated to anything but my old juggling teacher (yes. I said
juggling teacher) owns several of WC Fields' walking canes.
WC was actually a pretty good juggler himself and gave them
to my teacher who was sort of a child-prodigy juggler.

More than "pretty good" -- he had a vaudeville act built around juggling. He
also had a great billiards trick shot in which the ball bounced off the
cushion and slammed into his forehead.

[Richard Crowley]

"William Sommerwerck" wrote...
"RickH®" wrote ...
Unrelated to anything but my old juggling teacher (yes. I said
juggling teacher) owns several of WC Fields' walking canes.
WC was actually a pretty good juggler himself and gave them
to my teacher who was sort of a child-prodigy juggler.

More than "pretty good" -- he had a vaudeville act built around juggling.
He
also had a great billiards trick shot in which the ball bounced off the
cushion and slammed into his forehead.

Maybe that is why he forgot all those places he stashed his money.

[Paul Stamler]

"William Sommerwerck" wrote in message
. ..
"RickH®" wrote in message
...

Unrelated to anything but my old juggling teacher (yes. I said
juggling teacher) owns several of WC Fields' walking canes.
WC was actually a pretty good juggler himself and gave them
to my teacher who was sort of a child-prodigy juggler.

More than "pretty good" -- he had a vaudeville act built around juggling.
He
also had a great billiards trick shot in which the ball bounced off the
cushion and slammed into his forehead.

One of his juggling stunts, possibly his grand finale, was to begin juggling
an assortment of fragile objects (plates, china cups, etc). He would then
add items until he was keeping something like a dozen in the air, then
suddenly lose interest and walk away yawning while the objects came crashing
to the floor one by one.

Peace,
Paul

[Dec [Cluskey]]

On Jan 1, 9:16*pm, Mike Rivers wrote:
On Jan 1, 3:52 pm, BC wrote:


And you might be interested in this article about the invention of the
8-track recorder with sel-sync:

http://www.aes.org/aeshc/docs/sel-sy...r_sel-sync.pdf

What an absolutely brilliant article in the invention of sel-synch.

In the early 60's I was fortunate enough to use the first machines
bought by Decca and used at West Hampstead Studios in London... Sel -
synch was a much guarded secret and considered to be very much 'black-
magic'. The engineers seemed to be under instruction not to discuss
it's operation. So the artists and co-producers [like myself] never
actually got to know what was going on.

Up till then our dubbing and two tracking was done machine to
machine. We used 4 track to record but used two track to two track
when adding extra voices. We were the first in the UK to two track
vocals. [usually the harmonies]

Dec [Cluskey]