May 2011 – Page 3 – Preservation Sound

Pro Audio in the 1940s: Audio Engineering Magazine, pt 1.

Over the next few days, we’ll be taking a look at the latest-and-greatest in pro audio circa 194_, courtesy Audio Engineering magazine. In a previous post, we looked at Audio magazine, the venerable publication which advised legions of hi-fi enthusiasts between 1954 and 2000. As we discussed then, Audio was published as Audio Engineering for the 7 years prior, 1947 though 1953. It was only the introduction of The Journal of the Audio Engineering Society that precipitated the name change.

The changes went well beyond the name, though. With the AES Journal in-play, Audio shifted its focus towards hi-fi and consumer audio. Audio Engineering had sort of split the difference between home-fi and pro audio.

I’ve selected what I felt were the most interesting and relevant bits from the first 24 issues of Audio Engineering and I will present them here as follows: a survey of covers; professional microphones of the 1940s; interesting pro audio equipment; schematics of worthy DIY audio projects; and Western Electric ads of the era.

BTW, pictured at the top of this page: CBS radio KNX broadcast control center; an Electrovoice INC microphone test chamber; and the dubbing/rebroadcast room of WENR Chicago. Deco-mania.

Ham Radio, Vernacular Graphics, and Silent Keys

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Have you ever been driving around and noticed one of these huge metal antennae towers erected beside a home?

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These are Ham Radio towers. ‘Ham Radio’ is non-commercial, amateur radio-broadcasting activity which has carried on for nearly a century all over the planet. Although by definition both amateur and non-commercial, Ham Radio is regulated by the governments of the world (including the US) and a license is required in order to participate. The plus side of the this regulation is that, unlike, say, C.B. radios, Ham Radios can be incredibly powerful and experienced operators can (with the right equipment) directly contact other like-minded enthusiasts all over the world. This actually sounds a lot like something else we’re familiar with… oh right the internet.

So much can be said about this venerable institution, and I am not person to do the explaining. So why discuss it here? Well… most common of the signals sent with Ham Radio has always been the human voice; many Hams have, and still do, carry on the tradition of designing and building their own audio equipment; and the innovations sprung from this field have played an important role in the development of audio technologies that we all use today. The importance of the technical aspects of signal transmission/reception in the Ham community cannot be overstated; in fact, most of he conversations that go on using this technology are in fact concerning the signal quality itself. A direct consequence of this importance of signal integrity is that Radio Hams would often send physical postcards, in the actual mail, to those individuals with whom they had chatted with on-air. These postcards confirmed the technical operating parameters of the radio equipment in-place when the successful conversation took place. These are called QSL cards, and they are one of the most fascinating and exciting examples of vernacular graphic design that I am aware of. E. purchased a crate of several hundred at the flea market yesterday; they all date from around 1980-1987 and they are really idiosyncratic and beautiful. Here I will present some of my favorites:

Follow the link below to continue…