Oct

High Monty THE

MAGAZINE

FOR

MUSIC LISTENERS

OCT(

Tape or Disc? by

C. J. LeBel

The Operator keen look at Harbert von Karajan A

by Paul Moor

www.americanradiohistory.com

The FIRST and FINEST low -print tape... Cuts "magnetic echo" by 8 db

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COMPAR SON OF PRINT -THROUGH FOR MASTER AUDIOTAPE AND CONVENTIONAL TAPE

What Is Print -Through? Print -Through is the magnetic "echo" eflect induced in adjacent layers of tape by any recorded signal It continually increases with time while the recorded tape is in storage. To keep print -through from being too objectionable, conscientious recordists have heretofore had to lower recording levels as much as 6 to 8 db,

How Is It Eliminated?

20

In Master Low Print-Through Audiotape, print -through lias been reduced 8 db, by the use of specially developed magnetic oxides and special processing techniques without changing any other performancecheracteristics.The curves at the left show the remark-

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Conventional Tape

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Since print -through of Master Low Print-Through Audiotape remains well below thc machine noise, it is "eliminated" for even the most critical ear.

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Thoroughly PROVED in service, and now available in AMPLE QUANTITY! Master Low Print -Through Audiotape has proved itself in over a year of actual service. Thousands of reels have been used by manufacturers of phonograph records and pre- recorded tapes and other top professional users. It has been in regular production since May, 1957, and is now available in ample quantity through dealers everywhere. Laboratory studies indicate that stored Master Audiotape will take more than. 100 years to reach the same print -through level that mars ordinary tape in one week! With an 8 db reduction in print- through, you can use higher recording levels, get better signal to -noise ratio, and still have decades of freedom from harmful print- through effects. For a new high in hi -fi and new permanence for your priceless recordings, ask your dealer for Master Low Print- Through Audiotape. Available in 1200 and 2500 foot lengths in two types on 11/2 -mil acetate and on 11/4-mil Mylare.

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The cover engraving furnished by the Baumann Archive, illustrates Nathan Broder's discography of Bach keyboard music.

ARTICLES The Operator

52

Paul Moor

56

C. J. LeBel

59

John Pfeiffer

62

Jacques de Menasce

The Durable Diskery of Podbielskistrasse Tbc Oldest record company still in business almost went out of busing'., as INor/d War // ended. Ina not quite.

64

Otto Mayer -Serra

A Hi -Fi Primer

169

In which

is analyzed the career of a condrrctor

who bat become

John M. Cooly Editor

An executive of a company which makes boil, tapes and discs weighs their comparative merits.

Roy F. Allison

Manhattan Holiday

Audio Editor Miriam O. Manning Managing Editor

Where can

famous pianist disappear ro when he decides to lake lime out from concertizing?

Joan Griffiths Associate Editor

a

Sour Notes on

a

Basset Horn

-

Jots bow good, as a music critic. was the young man ON> signed himself Corno di ßacsetto bot whose real initials were (.13..C?

J. Gordon Holt Technical Editor

Roy Lindstrom

Art Director Martha Jane Brewer Editorial Assistant Frances A. Newbury Manager, Book Division R. D.

legend in his own time.

Tape or Disc?

Roland Gelant Music Editor

C. G.

a

Part

Burke

II of

Darrell

James Hinton, Jr. Robert Charles Marsh

Contributing Editors

R

Charles Fowler

Publish, Warren B. Syar Associate Publisher

J.

E

P

O

R

T S

Books in Review

43

Music Makers

81

Record Section

85

Roland Gelait

Records in Review; Bach- the Keyboard Music, a Discography by Nathan Broder

Claire N. Eddings Advertising Sales Manager

Arthur

John H. Newitt

a basic study of bonze audio.

Griffin

The Tape Deck

137

Tested in the Home

153

Circulation tA,anager

R.

D.

Darrell

ESL /BJ Super 90 pickup arm; Acoustic Research AR -2 speaker system;

A D V

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N G

Main Office Claire N. Eddings, The Publishing House Great Barrington, Mass. Telephone 1300.

New York Bernard Cavil, 280 Madison Ave. Telephone: MUrrey Hill 3.4449 or 3.4450. Chicago John R. Rutherford & Associates, Inc., 230 East Ohio St. Telephone:

Whitehall 46715 Los Angeles

Brand & Hrand, Inc., 6314 San Vicente Blvd. Telephone: Webster 83971.

High Fidelity Service Center transistorised preamp; Stephens E -3 speaker system; Berlont BRX tape recorder; Grado pickup cartridge; Heath W -6M power amplifier kit; GE woofer, tweeter, and crossover network

AUTHORitatively Speaking Notes from Abroad 9 As the Editors See It 51

On the Counter 6

4

Noted with Interest 16

Audio Forum

Trader's Marketplace 204

181

Professional Directory 200

Advertising Index 205

High Fidelity Mayaaine is published monthly by Audiocom, Inc., at Great Barrington, Mass. Telephone: Great Barrington 1300. Editorial, publication, and circulation offices el: The Publishing House, Great Barrington, Mass. Subscriptions: $6.00 per year in the United States and Canada. Single copies: 60 cents each. Editorial contributions will be welcomed by the editor. Payment tor articles accepted will be arranged prior to publication. Unsolicited manuscripts should be accompanied by return postage. Entered as secondclass matter April 27, 1951 at the post office at Great Barrington, Mass., under the act of March 3, 1879. Additional entry at the post office, Pittsfield, Mass. Member Audit Bureau of Circulation. Printed 1957 by Audiocom, Inc. The cover design in the U. S. A. by the Ben Franklin Press, Pittsfield, Mass. Copyright and contents of High Fidelity Mactarine are fully protected by copyrights and must not be reproduced in any manner.

)

Letters 34

OCTOBER 1957

AUTHORitatively Speaking Paul Moor, whose analysis of the Karajan career begins on page 52. is a thirty- three-

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year -old, Texas -barn musician, photographer. and writer. He began violin and piano lessons at nine, continued musical studies at the Juilliard School. the University of Mexico, and the University of Texas. Having secured his Bachelor of Music degree, however, he decided to become a writer. He began in the script department at RKO- Pathé, then free- lanced, placing articles with most leading magazines. He thinks he may be the only man who has been published both as a writer by the Neu. Yorker and as a photographer by Li /c and Look. His photography began with tourist pictures he shot on a trip to Europe in 1949: by 1953 he was a member of Magnum Photos, the co- operative founded by Robert Capa and Henri Cartier- Bresson. He once read Afoby Dick while aboard a whaler in the Norwegian Arctic. C. J. LeBel, who balances tape against disc on page 56, is a man obviously well suited to this task. since he is vice- presidenr of Audio Devices, lac., a company which produces both rapes and discs. He holds S.B. and S.M. degrees in electrical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After research jobs with two tube companies, Raytheon and Sylvania. he became a consultant in audio in the late 192os, specializing in wax and film recording. He joined Audio Devices as chief engineer at its founding in 1938, and when the Audio Engineering Society was organized he becarne its first president (he's been its secretary ever since). Although he was reared on classical music, and studied rrumpet

under Edwin Franko Goldman, he has vacationed in the Massachusetts Berkshires every summer for twenty years without going once ro Tanglewood.

John Pfeiffer, chronicler of Vladimir Horowitz's Manhattan holiday (page 59), is musical director of RCA Victor's Red Seal division. He was born and mostly educated in Arizona, receiving from the University of Arizona his musical training and a degree in electrical engineering, a combination which naturally landed him with RCA Victor in 1949. To begin with he was design engineer, but within a year he was transferred to the Artists and Repertoire department, where he has lived happily ever after. Jacques de Menasce, the not uncritical Shavian of pages 62 -63, is an Austrian born American composer and pianist (he can be heard as both on Vanguard 442). He studied composition under Berg. among others, but his music rather resembles lare Bar(ok. He has been active in the League of Composers and ocher groups devoted to the advancement of modern music.

Otto Mayer -Serra. who cased the Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft for us while touring Germany last spring. didn't send in his biographical data early enough for this column. We know he is editor of Mexico City's record magazine 330, and there our Mayer -Serra lore comes to an Incl. For DGG see page 64.

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Il OCTOBER 1957

5


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