Les Paul(the person) tech talk

[pucho812]

From gene Paul

Dad would say, "You are who you're around." Les's interest in the technical world brought him in contact with people at the edge of technology. This Tech Talk page has Les sharing his thoughts with Jim Lansing of JBL speaker fame and discussing microphones and techniques with RØDE Microphones Peter Freedman. Also, a great story with Benny Goodman and why he chose musicians over audio engineers. Les also tells the story of the first tape machine, the German Magnetophon, and his custom 8 track console built by the great Rein Narma. Finally, Jack Mullins, an American audio pioneer, demonstrates and explains the history of recording and playback machines from Edison to modern times. Visit at www.lespaulremembered.com/tech-talk.html

 

[pucho812]

Thought this would have had more interest.

 

[12afael]

very interesting articles thanks for sharing.

 

[gridcurrent]

enjoyed it immensely.

of interest:
listening to a horn with someone speaking into the throat,
in my experience the acid test of the horn's "naturalness".

Les mentioning the RCA LC-1a.
70 years later the driver has garnered WAY more respect.

and the 604.
Plenty of arguments as to Jim's contribution to the design.

 

[Brian Roth]

Interesting website!  But, it continues to espouse the story that Les Paul conceived the idea of multitrack recording and Sel Sync, which was actually invented by Ross Snyder at Ampex.

http://www.recordist.com/ampex/mp3/index.html

http://www.aes.org/aeshc/jaes.obit/JAES_V56_1_2_PG100.pdf

Of course, there's a bit of "he said...he said" in the saga, but I never saw anyone refute Snyder's statements.

Bri

 

[pucho812]

Interesting website!  But, it continues to espouse the story that Les Paul conceived the idea of multitrack recording and Sel Sync, which was actually invented by Ross Snyder at Ampex.

http://www.recordist.com/ampex/mp3/index.html

http://www.aes.org/aeshc/jaes.obit/JAES_V56_1_2_PG100.pdf

Of course, there's a bit of "he said...he said" in the saga, but I never saw anyone refute Snyder's statements.

Bri

well les Paul does lay that claim, yes.

I also think you may find it to be a similar;ar story of the wah wah pedal and how both Brad Plunkett and del casher have a claim to that.

 

[Brian Roth]

In no way am I dissing Les Paul!  It seems he made claims that were inacuurate.

Les was a genius in many respects and a kick ass guitarist, and indeed invented various ways to "layer" multiple tracks, beginning with bouncing between a pair of lathes.

This video shows what he could do with multiple layers of Mary Ford's vocals , and is one of my faves (but no eight track recorder involved):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkGf1GHAxhE

And other "multitracking":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqZ0Sdz_V40

Sound on sound, not multitracking as we know it today.  But amazingly great sound and performance.

Bri

 

[pucho812]

In no way am I dissing Les Paul!  It seems he made claims that were inacuurate.

Les was a genius in many respects and a kick ass guitarist, and indeed invented various ways to "layer" multiple tracks, beginning with bouncing between a pair of lathes.

This video shows what he could do with multiple layers of Mary Ford's vocals , and is one of my faves (but no eight track recorder involved):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkGf1GHAxhE

And other "multitracking":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqZ0Sdz_V40

Sound on sound, not multitracking as we know it today.  But amazingly great sound and performance.

Bri

I understand and I can dig that.

 

[PRR]

> Les Paul!  It seems he made claims that were inacuurate.

Les was certainly clever enough to invent tape-tricks. A decade later and much less experienced, _I_ was pondering these things. Hindered by only having 1-track heads, I could see that 2-tr heads would open up some possibilities, and could play one track and record the other. Probably half the people in the racket saw this. Ampex gets credit for making the gear. Paul gets credit for doing it for commercial recordings.

 

[JohnRoberts]

The ancients are always stealing our best ideas.

Les Paul and Mary Ford were successful commercially "and" he pioneered a number of recording techniques.

James Lansing is the JBL (James Bullough Lansing) who founded Altec Lansing.

In the early days,  loudspeaker technology was powered by the fast growing movie industry that created huge demand for sound systems. 

My dad (RIP) back then was in the fray working for Western Electric, Vitaphone (first talking movies), Muzak, RCA, and more.

JR

 

[PRR]

> James Lansing is the JBL (James Bullough Lansing) who founded Altec Lansing.
> My dad (RIP) back then was in the fray working for Western Electric

Props for knowing the middle name.

Lansing was a tech on the MGM Shearer  project speakers, and founded Lansing speakers (several times, he was a bad businessman). High-end designs in a Depression was poor money.

Western Electric had a spin-off to maintain their speaker systems, All Technical. Boring but steady money. Threatened by ex-WE inventory running low. (WE had consented to get totally out of film sound in the US.)

Lansing got behind on bills and sold-out to Altec (many of the products were closely related), including the name "Lansing", and no-compete for 5 years. He went back in business as "JBL" and "Jim Lansing", had to go to court about that. He got a narrow right to use those names, but still a bad businessman, and moody. His death's life-insurance is what supported JBL in the early post-Lansing years.

 

[JohnRoberts]

> James Lansing is the JBL (James Bullough Lansing) who founded Altec Lansing.
> My dad (RIP) back then was in the fray working for Western Electric

Props for knowing the middle name.

more like google or bing knows his name.

Lansing was a tech on the MGM Shearer  project speakers, and founded Lansing speakers (several times, he was a bad businessman). High-end designs in a Depression was poor money.

Western Electric had a spin-off to maintain their speaker systems, All Technical. Boring but steady money. Threatened by ex-WE inventory running low. (WE had consented to get totally out of film sound in the US.)

Vitaphone was a joint venture between WE and Warner Brothers

Lansing got behind on bills and sold-out to Altec (many of the products were closely related), including the name "Lansing", and no-compete for 5 years. He went back in business as "JBL" and "Jim Lansing", had to go to court about that. He got a narrow right to use those names, but still a bad businessman, and moody. His death's life-insurance is what supported JBL in the early post-Lansing years.

It was a fairly small club back in those days... I really regret that I never got to pick my fathers brain about his experiences.

Back on topic Les Paul definitely made a mark...

JR

 

[PRR]

Shearer was an interesting guy, beyond getting his name on the MGM sound project. (MGM didn't like WE's products or prices.)
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/douglas-shearer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Shearer
http://www.filmreference.com/Writers-and-Production-Artists-Ro-She/Shearer-Douglas.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJRHmG3bwlo

 

[Winston OBoogie]

Here's Les' original 8 track Ampex machine and the desk built for him by Rein Narma.  An early Fairchildy Narma limiter in the top of the rack too. 

 

[Winston OBoogie]

Under the desk hood and one of the amplifier modules: